Sunday is the loneliest day of the week for older people, with many missing contact with their family, new research in Britain has shown.
A study by the Royal Voluntary Service found that a third of over-65s wished they could sit down to a meal with their family and two out of five did not enjoy eating alone.
The charity said its survey of more than 1,000 adults showed that loneliness experienced by older people was compounded by lack of contact with their family.
David McCullough, Royal Voluntary Service chief executive, said: “It is clear that, for many older people, Sunday can be a day to endure rather than to look forward to.” (PA)
Boy feared taken by crocodile
A crocodile is suspected to have taken a 12-year-old boy after attacking his friend as they swam in a water hole in Australia.
Police believed the missing boy was taken by a crocodile as he and a number of other boys swam at Mudginberri Billabong in World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park in northern Australia.
Acting Police Commander Michael White said: “One other boy, also aged 12, was bitten on the arm by the crocodile and has received medical treatment.”
Police and park rangers are searching for the boy by land and boat, he said.
Crocodile numbers have exploded across Australia’s tropical north since the species was protected by federal law in 1971. (AP)
Thieves leave one chair behind
A restaurant owner was left baffled when thieves stole every item of furniture from his premises – apart from one chair.
David Appleby, 34, was stunned when he arrived to open The Thai Cafe in Saltford, north east Somerset, and found that 13 tables and 25 chairs had vanished.
Police are investigating the “unusual theft”, which is believed to have occurred in the early hours of January 15. It is believed the chairs, which were about 13 years old, and tables could have been stolen “to order”. (PA)
Himmler in family pictures
A German newspaper has published a collection of previously unseen pictures of SS Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler.
The photos, published in Welt am Sonntag, show Himmler in family-friendly scenes and are part of a previously unseen collection of photos, recipe books, letters and notes believed to be written by Himmler, one of the Nazis most responsible for the Holocaust.
Excerpts from the collection appeared in the German paper. They contain parts from his love letters to wife Marga, calling her “my sweet, beloved little woman.”
The paper said two US army soldiers found the trove right at the end of the war in May 1945, inside a safe in Himmler’s home in Bavaria. Picture shows Himmler (right) shaking hands with German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. (AP)
Fugitive complains to police
A sex offender who absconded from court a year ago called the police when he saw the offence he was convicted of being wrongly reported on a local news website.
James Dunham, 33, went on the run from Hove Crown Court on January 9 last year after pleading guilty to intentionally causing or inciting a girl, aged 14, to engage in sexual activity in Heathfield, East Sussex, in January 2012.
However, information which was put out to the media in good faith claimed that Dunham, from Eastbourne, had pleaded guilty to having sex with an under-age girl. The landscape gardener saw the report and made a call to voice his discontent that he had been accused of the wrong offence, a source said. (PA)