World Briefs

A teenage football fan who ran on to a pitch and floored a Premier league goalkeeper has been banned from games for three years.

Ross Miller, 17, confronted Newcastle United goalkeeper Steve Harper during a Tyne Wear derby at the Stadium of Light in January.

The 17-year-old, who has been a Sunderland AFC season ticket holder for 10 years, invaded the pitch seconds after his team’s striker, Asamoah Gyan, scored a 94th minute equaliser. (PA)

Pub wins reprieve

Villagers fighting to save a historic pub where some of The Few drowned their sorrows during The Battle of Britain are celebrating after winning round one of a planning battle.

Planners have refused to allow developers to turn The Plough in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire – a village in Conservative Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's constituency – into a house.

South Cambridgeshire District Council says The Plough is “economically viable” and turning it into a house would result in the loss of a “village service”. (PA)

Baby beats odds

A couple are celebrating after beating odds of 133,225-1 by having a baby son on the birthday they themselves share.

Paul Thomas and wife Stefanie, from Plymouth, will share their birthday with their first child Oliver after he was born with 58 minutes to spare on September 6, their 28th and 26th birthdays respectively.

Stefanie, who works for Devon and Cornwall Police, described him as “the best birthday present ever” and joked that it would help primary school teacher Paul, who she said was bad at remembering dates. (PA)

Eco-bus trip

An eco-adventurer arrived back in Britain yesterday after driving round the world in a battered old “biotruck” rescued from a junkyard and powered by used cooking oil.

Andy Pag, 36, scavenged oil from fryers to clock up more than 29,000 kilometres travelling through 25 countries in an environmentally-friendly way.

He set off in September 2009 and his adventures included a spell banged up in an Indian jail and falling in love with journalist Christina Ammon, who joined him for the rest of the trip.

Mr Pag, from Croydon in south London, salvaged the 22-year-old school minibus from a scrap yard and used reclaimed materials to transform it into a home on wheels.

The clapped-out vehicle’s diesel engine was converted to run on waste cooking oil, stored in a 1,200-litre tank under the bed. It has a 500-watt solar panel on the roof. (AFP)

Birthday luck

A woman in south California scooped more than £5 million on the lottery thanks to her children and grandchildren.

Audelia Ramirez has six children and eight grandchildren and she used the birthdays of some of them to scoop the prize. (PA)

Pedal-powered gig

The Italian town of Bari is preparing for a pedal-powered concert, billed by organisers as the country’s first entirely eco-friendly gig.

Sound and lighting for the performance by the band Tetes de Bois on September 15 will be provided courtesy of 128 energy-generating cyclists.

“Goodbike” is the brainchild of the Roman group who are fanatical about the environ­mentally-friendly mode of transport.

The concert takes place in the southern town on the eve of European Mobility Week, a campaign to get more people to get about by walking, cycling or taking public transport.

“It’s the first concert in Italy with this dimension of sustainable development,” said regional transport chief Guglielmo Minervini. (AFP)

Dolphins triumph

A former world swimming champion met his match in a pool this week.

Italian Filippo Magnini won gold in the 100-metre freestyle at the 2005 and 2007 world swimming championships but was beaten by a pair of dolphins.

The race in Torvaianica, about 50 kilometres south of Rome, saw the dolphins swim twice as many lengths as Magnini – nicknamed Superpippo – and they managed to overtake him in the last few metres. (PA)

Living with plants

A British geologist has volunteered to spend 48 hours in an airtight chamber relying on the oxygen produced by plants to survive.

Iain Stewart, a professor at the University of Plymouth, will share the 12 metre-square chamber with dozens of specially chosen plants on September 16 and 17, as well as a hammock, a laptop and an exercise bike.

Specialist lights both inside and outside the clear perspex chamber will operate continuously to provide the energy the plants need for photosynthesis.

The levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide produced will be closely monitored and Mr Stewart will be attached to medical sensors which monitor his vital signs. (AFP)

Psychic sheep

A rugby-mad sheep touted as the world’s latest animal pyschic picked the All Blacks to win their opening World Cup match yesterday, in New Zealand’s answer to the late, great Paul the Octopus.

The sheep, named Sonny Wool after All Blacks centre Sonny Bill Williams, chose to munch on hay under a New Zealand flag rather than another container with the flag of Tonga, delighting a small crowd of onlookers in suburban Wellington.

Sonny Wool, who was wearing a custom-made black jersey, hesitated slightly before going for the New Zealand hay.

Now Sonny Wool, who is three years old and was born in Dannevirke, will hope to follow in the multiple footsteps of the world-renowned Paul the Octopus, who correctly tipped the result of eight matches at last year’s football World Cup in South Africa. (AFP)