A nine-stone former police dog is poised to be the UK’s latest weapon to be used to sniff out sewer-blocking fat, oil and grease.
Hector the bloodhound has swapped a life of crime for one of grime by being trained to detect blockages on Southern Water’s 25,000-mile network of sewers.
The company, which serves Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, hopes to deploy Hector to sniff out problem areas through air gaps at ground level.
His nose has 1,000 times more scent receptors than a human’s, and it is hoped he can be used to find some of the 17,000 blockages caused each year by fat, oil, grease and wet wipes.
Newlywed stranded on the rocks
A British bride who went body boarding after her wedding had to be rescued by lifeboats when she became stranded on rocks.
Jennifer Grant had been taking a post-ceremony surf in Newquay, Cornwall, when she got into difficulty.
She managed to scrambled on to the rocks at Porth Island but was unable to make her way back to shore. Her husband, who had also been in the water, alerted coastguards and two RNLI lifeboats were launched.
RNLI volunteers recovered the bride on to their D-class lifeboat and she was returned to the beach to be treated by paramedics.
‘Shirtfront’ gets broader definition
The Australian Prime Minister’s threat to “shirtfront” Russia’s President during an international summit this month has prompted a dictionary to broaden its definition of the word beyond an Australian football term for a shoulder charge to an opponent’s chest.
Russian officials ridiculed the threat made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott at a news conference last month, warning that President Vladimir Putin was a judo expert.
Susan Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, the definitive authority on Australian English, said the controversy made her editors realise that the term had taken on a broader meaning in recent decades than an illegal manoeuvre on the football field.
Fined for poaching giant turtles
A Philippine court has convicted nine Chinese fishermen of poaching and taking hundreds of endangered giant sea turtles from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea and fined each nearly £64,000, but imposed no jail term.
The fishermen were arrested in May at Half Moon Shoal and their boat and catch of 555 endangered sea turtles was seized. The arrests sparked another spat between the Asian neighbours in the increasingly volatile South China Sea.
Judge Ambrosio de Luna of the regional trial court in western Palawan province found them guilty of violating the country’s fisheries code, ordering them to pay a fine of £63,846 each for poaching in Philippine waters plus £1,700 each for taking wildlife.
UK’s new dog-fouling campaign
A new dog-fouling campaign is being launched, aimed at owners who are failing to scoop the poop in the UK.
More than 20 councils have joined Keep Britain Tidy in the drive which is particularly targeting dog walkers who allow their pets to foul at night.
The campaign includes “We’re Watching You” posters which are visible after dark and use innovative, cutting-edge materials that charge up during the day to glow at night.
It follows a successful pilot campaign funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which saw an average reduction of 46 per cent in levels of dog fouling.