World Briefs

Rome’s zoo staff yesterday offered animals frozen fruit to refresh them as temperatures reached 40˚C in many Italian cities. Meanwhile, Italians are being urged to stay indoors during daylight hours and avoid strenuous physical activity as authorities braced for extreme summer temperatures. (AP)

Facebook timelord

Doctor Who fans will be able to rent classic episodes of the Time Lord’s adventures on Facebook for the first time.

They will include at least one story that has never been released on DVD as the online rental service is launched by BBC Worldwide.

Users will be able to buy credits to rent nine digitally remastered stories, with nine available when the service launches on the Doctor Who Facebook page. They include Tomb of the Cybermen, dating back to 1967.

Rapid raid

An armed man robbed a post office in the UK within 18 seconds.

The masked man went into the branch in St Johnston, Co Donegal, with a handgun and made off with a small amount of cash. He fled in a blue car being driven by another man.

A spokesman said the man was in and out of the branch in 18 seconds. No shots were fired and nobody was hurt, and investigating officers were examining CCTV.

Alive and suing

A Florida woman is suing her bank after suffering financial problems when it declared her dead last November.

Wrenella Pierre had a mortgage through Chase Bank which notified credit agencies she had died.

Ms Pierre says she told them that she was alive but they failed to correct the mistake.

Born big

A Texas mother has given birth to a 16lb 1oz boy.

Doctors said Janet Johnson’s son was one of the biggest newborns they had ever seen.

Ms Johnson has diabetes, which results in bigger babies for many mothers. Yet doctors had estimated the boy would be around 12lb prior to the caesarean birth.

Grave error

Two sisters are suing a cemetery in New Jersey, claiming their mother was buried in a different grave from the plot they had been visiting for 20 years.

Evelyn Edwards and her sister Hortense learned that their mother was buried elsewhere in Rosehill Cemetery after complaining last summer that the gravesite had fallen into disrepair.

According to the cemetery website, there are seven Beatrice Williams buried at Rosehill.

Cutting comment

A UK slimmer who lost half his body weight decided to take action after his daughter’s friend said: “I don’t want to sit with the big fat man.”

Neil Richardson, 30, was known to all as “Fat Neil” before he shed 12st 10lb to be named as Slimming World’s Man of the Year 2011. Mr Richardson, who was 26-and-a-half stone, was on a family holiday when his then two-year-old daughter, Josie, asked him to play with her and another little boy. He said he was heartbroken when the boy refused to play, saying: “I don’t want to sit with the big fat man.” (PA)