A man has beaten his own world record to grow the largest onion for a second year running.

Peter Glazebrook, 78, set a new record for the world’s heaviest onion for the second consecutive year at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show.

The vegetable tipped the scales at 18lbs 1oz at the weigh-in, beating his previous world record of 17lbs 15 and a half ounces, which retired chartered surveyor Mr Glazebrook, from Halam, near Newark, set at last year’s competition.

The previous world record had been held for five years by John Sifford, from the West Midlands.

Underwear leads to mistrial

A lawyer posted a photo of her client’s leopard-print underwear on her Facebook page, prompting a Florida judge to declare a mistrial in a murder case.

According to The Miami Herald newspaper, public defender Anya Stern snapped a photo of the underwear with her mobile phone as officers inspected clothes Fermin Recaide’s family had brought for him to wear to the trial. Officials say the caption suggested the family bel­ieved it was “proper attire for trial”.

But someone saw the photo and reported it to the judge, who declared a mistrial.

Recaide is accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend in 2010.

‘Don’t mess with Mugabe’

A Swiss tourist has been fined £124 (€154) by a Zimbabwe court for insulting President Robert Mugabe.

Thomas Fischer was convicted for criticising him in an argument with border officials at the lake resort town of Kariba. Prosecutors alleged that during a delay in border formalities, Mr Fischer said Mugabe “knew how to screw people, especially foreigners”.

Insulting Mugabe is an offence under sweeping security laws and prosecutions are common. Earlier this year, a Zimbabwean salesman spent two months in jail after being found with satirical cartoons depicting a naked, skeletal Mugabe on his mobile phone.

Grandad’s fit as a fridge

A grandfather took part in his 30th consecutive half-marathon with a fridge strapped to his back at yesterday’s Great North Run in the UK.

For the past 29 days Tony “The Fridge” Phoenix-Morrison has completed the Newcastle to South Shields course weighed down by a 40kg fridge.

‘I had no life besides acting’

Keira Knightley is engaged to marry musician James Righton and stars in the film adaptation of Anna Karenina alongside Jude Law – but the actress says there was a time when she was not in such a good place.

The 27-year-old star recalls a time when the fame from such roles as Bend It Like Beckham and the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise was too intense.

She tells Vogue magazine’s October issue she “literally had no life outside of acting” and desired to “not be ‘on’ all the time”.

Instead of working, Knightley read books, cooked and lived in France.

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