The UK’s Notting Hill Carnival has kicked off with an explosion of colour and music.
After fears that the street festival would be hampered by rain, the skies cleared and the sun shone on performers as they paraded through the streets of west London.
Up to one million people are expected to attend the carnival to experience Caribbean culture, food, music and dance.
Thumping basslines, sizzling meat and tooting whistles filled the air as floats made their way from Westbourne Park Underground station, up Kensal Road, along Ladbroke Grove and down Westbourne Grove. One of the first groups to take to the streets was the Kinetika Bloco, whose members danced to a brass band played songs from The Clash’s Rock the Casbah to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. (PA)
Swimmer snatched by crocodile
A 26-year-old birthday party goer was snatched by a crocodile while swimming in a notorious habitat of the dangerous reptiles, Australian police have said.
The man was celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday on Saturday at the Mary River Wilderness Retreat, an Outback tourist destination, southeast of the Northern Territory capital Darwin, Senior Sergeant Geoff Bahnert said.
The victim and another man were swimming across the river when the crocodile attacked.
“Several of the group in the party witnessed the male being taken in the jaws of the croc for a period of time, and then he was out of sight,” Mr Bahnert said.
Crocodile numbers have exploded across Australia’s tropical north since the species was protected by federal law in 1971. (AP)
Hottest ticket to burlesque act
A burlesque act raised the temperature of the room in Dundee – but not in the way the audience had hoped.
Hundreds of people were forced to flee the city’s tattoo convention after the burlesque dancer Go-Go Amy set off the fire alarms with her flaming tassels.
The large crowd made their way to the exits, disappointed to have seen only half of the exotic dancer’s performance.
Convention organiser Ky Thomasson-Kay said: “They weren’t meant to use fire in the act but I think they just completely forgot.” (PA)
Scientists tag basking sharks
Scientists hope to uncover the secrets of basking sharks by tracking their movement in waters around the UK.
A total of 27 sharks have been tagged in a project to find out more about their seasonal behaviour. A team from Scottish Natural Heritage and Exeter University attached small tags to the fins of sharks swimming around the islands of Tiree and Coll in the Inner Hebrides this summer.
Basking sharks can grow up to 11 metres long and weigh up to seven tons, but feed entirely on plankton. They can live for up to 50 years. For generations they were hunted for the high oil content of their large livers and more recently for their big fins. (PA)
Atheist to get compensation
An atheist parolee who went back to prison after refusing to participate in a religious-tinged inpatient treatment programme is going to get compensation.
Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt ruled yesterday that a jury must award Barry Hazle of Redding, California, compensatory damages. A district court ruled in 2010 that his rights had been violated, but a jury awarded him nothing.
He had served a year in prison on a drug charge.
After being released in 2007, he was ordered to take part in the programme but refused, saying he is an atheist. He was arrested and jailed again. After serving three more months, he sued state corrections officials. (PA)