The violin reputedly played by the Titanic’s bandmaster as the ill-fated liner sank is to go on public display in Belfast – the city where the ship was built.

Wallace Hartley has become part of the ship’s legend after leading his fellow musicians in playing as the ship went down, most famously the hymn Nearer My God To Thee. Hartley and his seven fellow band members all died in the tragedy in 1912.

His violin, which had been a gift from his fiancée Maria Robinson, was apparently found in a case strapped to his body when it was recovered from the icy Atlantic waters. It re-emerged in 2006, when it was reportedly discovered in an attic in Yorkshire, prompting debate over its authenticity. Now the violin is to go on display in Titanic Belfast, the visitor attraction dedicated to the ship.

Acupuncture for alligator

Weekly acupuncture treatments for Bino, the albino alligator, are helping cure his hunchback and scoliosis, vets at an aquarium in Brazil say.

Using acupuncture on animals is not new. But the sight of vet Daniela Cervaletti oh-so-carefully inserting needles into an alligator’s back is novel. Bino has suffered since birth from his ailments and more conventional treatments and medicines were tried. But nothing seemed to work.

So about a year ago, the vets in Sao Paulo started weekly acupuncture treatments. They showed quick results, with Bino regaining use of his hind legs and tail. The treatments will continue indefinitely as the bright-white alligator keeps improving, to the delight of schoolchildren who squeal when they see him during field trips.

Misses toilet for cliff at night

A camper was airlifted to hospital when she went to the toilet in the dark and plunged 40 feet down a cliff.

The woman was camping with friends at the Cae Du campsite in Rhoslefain in West Wales. She left her tent to go to the toilet but became disorientated without a torch and instead plummeted off the beach cliff. Friends of the woman raised the alarm an hour later, at 2.30am, when she failed to return to the tent.

The woman was discovered at the foot of the cliffs, near Rhoslefain. An RAF search and rescue helicopter was sent to the scene and took the woman to Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital in Bangor.

Suspicious swan detained

Egyptian authorities have detained a swan that a citizen suspected of being a spy.

A man brought the suspected winged infiltrator to a police station on Sunday in the Qena province, some 280 miles southeast of Cairo. Officials say the man suspected the bird was an undercover agent because it carried an electronic device.

Mohammed Kamal, the head of security in Qena, yesterday said officials examined the bird and the device and established it was neither an explosive nor a spying device. It likely could be a wildlife tracker.

The shortest yellow lines in Britain

There may be a move towards smaller cars, but you would have to have a Micra-scopic or a Mini-scule vehicle to park on what must be the shortest double yellow lines in the UK.

Measuring just over nine inches long, the lines are in Caxton Street, Westminster, London, between a taxi rank and some parking bays.

Leith Penny, Westminster City Council’s strategic director for city management, said: “This was a mistake by a contractor.”

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