Staff at a British wildlife park who are celebrating successfully breeding African spurred tortoises for the first time believe the soaring summer temperatures helped.

The four tiny babies, just five centimetres long, have been named Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo after their Ninja Turtle distant cousins by the Lake District Wildlife Park, near Keswick.

Park manager Richard Robinson said the eggs were successfully incubated for 100 days, and the babies hatched three weeks ago.

He said: “We have had eggs in the past but we never managed to get everything in place. I would like to think the wonderful weather we had helped things along.”

Messages from beyond the grave

A UK family were shocked to receive text messages from their dead grandmother three years after she was buried with her mobile phone.

Since her grandmother Lesley’s death, Sheri Emerson, 22, had been sending messages to her phone to comfort herself.

The family had buried the 59-year-old with her favourite possessions, including the phone, and thought operator O2 ended the number.

But Ms Emerson, from South Shields, South Tyneside, was left in shock when a reply flashed up on her phone, saying: “I’m watching over you and it’s all going to get better. Just push through.”

Her uncle, Graham Emerson, eventually rang the phone and found it was a man who had been reassigned the recycled number.

Kiss protest against homophobia

Students held a “Big Kiss-In” at a branch of Sainsbury’s after a lesbian couple were asked to leave the store for kissing.

Dozens of people, including a woman in a wedding dress, descended on the store in New England Street, Brighton, as customers shopped around them. After the event, the student union at Sussex University tweeted: “Thanks to everyone who took part in the “Big Kiss-In”. Great to see people in Brighton and beyond showing we like kissing and hate homophobia.”

Annabelle Paige, a Sussex University student, was shopping at the store when a customer complained about her kissing her partner. The two women were subsequently asked to leave by a security guard.

Calf ‘Blossoms’ into tallest cow

A 6ft 4in (1.9m) cow owned by a US woman has recently been dubbed the world’s tallest.

Patty Hanson and Blossom the cow smiled for their official Guinness World Records photo shoot after Ms Hanson received an email saying Blossom had been named the world’s tallest cow.

Ms Hanson, of Orangeville, Illinois, sought the record after veterinarians and the cow’s foot trimmer constantly remarked on the 2,000lb (907kg) animal’s size.

‘Aggressive mopper’ arrested after pushing hotel worker

A Connecticut man is facing charges after police said he grabbed a mop out of a hotel employee’s hands and was “mopping aggressively” over the worker’s shoes.

Police say 30-year-old John Thornton, of Southington, was arrested and charged with breach of the peace.

Officers responding to the Bristol hotel were told a man had become “unruly”, grabbed the mop and swept it back and forth over the woman’s shoes. When she asked the man to stop, police said he turned his back and pushed her into a corner.

Police said the woman was shaken and crying.