Dog owners in Britain spend 3.7 hours a week chatting to their pet, according to a new survey.
They also take their pets on an average of 433 walks a year, clocking up 548 miles, according to the National Dog Walking Index.
Outdoor wear firm Mountain Warehouse, which asked 2,000 Britons about their relationship with their dog, found 85 per cent believed having their pet had increased their fitness levels and helped them to appreciate the great outdoors. (PA)
Crushed to death at petrol station
A lorry driver from Poland has been killed after a parked truck apparently rolled backwards and crushed him at a service station.
The 35-year-old victim was on foot when the incident happened at the Stop 24 services near junction 11 of the M20 near Folkestone, Kent police said.
It is believed that a Bulgarian-registered HGV that was parked in the overnight parking area somehow rolled back slowly and was in collision with the man. No arrests have been made. (PA)
Former Cream frontman, 71, dies
Jack Bruce, who formed influential British rock band Cream in the 1960s with guitarist Eric Clapton, has died aged 71, his family said on Saturday. Bruce co-wrote some of Cream’s biggest hits including Sunshine of Your Love and I Feel Free before the band broke up after only two years in 1968.
Bruce, who was born in Glasgow, began playing bass as a teenager and dropped out of music school because he was not allowed to play jazz. After spells with British blues bands, he turned down an offer of work with US soul singer Marvin Gaye in order to get married, according to his website.
Roger Waters, the bassist of British rock band Pink Floyd, once paid tribute to Bruce, calling him “probably the most musically gifted bass player who’s ever been.”British media said Bruce had been suffering from liver disease. (Reuters)
Thief warded off with insecticide
A US grocery store worker told a would-be raider to bug off by spraying the suspect with a can of insecticide.
A masked woman entered the CSI Coalfield Mini Market in Berlin, Pennsylvania, police said. That’s when Annabelle Miller took matters – and the can of insect spray – into her own hands.
Miller said she refused to give the woman money and sprayed her in the face as she left the store. Miller said she was glad she confronted the would-be bandit, saying: “I just got mad. I’ve got better things to do with my night than that.” (PA)
‘Unforgiveable’ dictators’ blunder
A leading Swiss supermarket chain has apologised for what it called an “unforgivable blunder” – distributing mini-containers of coffee cream bearing portraits of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Migros, which also sells electronics and household goods, said it is immediately withdrawing boxes containing hundreds of the coffee cream pots and is breaking all ties with Karo-Versand, the small Swiss company that designed the collectible series of 55 different motifs – including likenesses of the German and Italian fascist dictators.
In a statement, Migros described the incident as an internal failure and vowed to “tighten our controls for these products drastically” to ensure no more such mistakes. It said Migros subsidiary Elsa-Mifroma never should have delivered the boxes with the items to restaurants and cafes. (PA)