An unmanned supply rocket bound for the International Space Station has failed to reach its planned orbit.

The brief statement from the Russian Roscosmos space agency did not specify whether the Progress supply ship that was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome had been entirely lost. The statement said the third stage of the rocket firing the ship into space had failed at 325 seconds into the launch.

The ship was carrying more than 2.5 tons of supplies, including oxygen, food and fuel. Since the ending of the US space shuttle programme this summer, Russian spaceships are the only supply link to the space station. (AP)

Gondola capsizes

Four Spanish tourists took an unexpected swim near Venice yesterday after a wave caused by a large motorboat capsized their gondola.

The holidaymakers were quickly rescued by other gondoliers gliding nearby, but the incident has reignited debate over the difficulties gondolas face on the waters surrounding the picturesque Italian city.

The flat-bottomed tourist boats are a Venetian fixture, frequently hired by tourists seeking to explore the city’s canals, but they are vulnerable to the sudden wash from passing motorboats.

“The problem remains the movement of the swell caused by motorboats,” the head of a gondoliers’ association, Aldo Reato, said, adding that he has been complaining about the problem for two years. (AFP)

Rules ‘epidemic’

Kite flying, schoolyard games and sports day sack races have all been hit by an “epidemic” of health and safety excuses, which should be challenged by the public, the UK government has said.

Ministers published a list of the most bizarre bans linked to health and safety rules, which were being wrongly used to curtail people’s personal freedoms.

The “ridiculous” bans uncovered by the Health and Safety Executive had no basis in official regulations, and betrayed an “obsession” with managing minor risks in heavy-handed and bureaucratic ways or complying with stifling restrictions imposed by insurance companies, said the government. (PA)

Hot heads

Wars and civil conflict are more likely to happen when people feel the heat, a study has shown.

A naturally recurring weather system that boosts temperatures in the tropics has doubled the risk of civil war in 90 countries, research suggests.

El Niño, which occurs every three to seven years, may help account for a fifth of worldwide conflicts over the past 50 years, say scientists. (PA)

Odd job

An investigation has been launched after a former British interior minister arranged for two prisoners on day release to paint her home when they should have been doing community work, the prison service said yesterday.

Jacqui Smith, who was home secretary under the former Labour government, arranged for the inmates from a prison in Redditch, England, to decorate a room at her luxury property in the town. It is the latest embarrassment for Ms Smith, who resigned as interior minister in June 2009 after admitting to unwittingly claiming parliamentary expenses for pornographic films ordered by her husband on pay TV.

Ms Smith was one of the high profile casualties of the parliamentary allowances scandal that rocked the British political establishment. As well as the porn claim, Ms Smith was criticised for questionable housing allowances claimed on her family home. (AFP)

Double trouble

A man stealing metal from a disused hospital spent five hours hiding in an air duct from what he thought were police officers coming to arrest him, only to find out later it was another thief coming to do the same thing.Devon and Cornwall Police said both men were arrested after being caught at the former Tiverton District Hospital in Devon, following a 999 call.

The first thief was still hiding when the real police arrived.

The men, one aged 30 and one aged 19, were arrested after police officers and the force helicopter swooped on the building in Bampton Street. (PA)