Two multi-million-pound Ferraris have been left in a businessman’s will to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The two 1960s cars, valued at £2 million and £6 million, were a bequest from Northamptonshire-based Richard Colton, a prominent member of the Ferrari Owners’ Club.

They will be sold at auction in October to raise funds for the coastal search and rescue charity.

Guy Rose, legacy manager at the RNLI, said the charity was “humbled” to receive the two vehicles – a Ferrari 250 GT SWB and a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 chassis.

Dialing 999 to speak to the Queen

A sandwich-stealing seagull and missing man found in his own bed were among the thousands of calls to a police force in Britain in a 24-hour period.

One caller dialled 999 to speak to the Queen, while a woman rang the police to complain about the airport losing her luggage and delivering it to her neighbours who were out. In another call a woman reported the owner of a guest house where she was staying for refusing to cook breakfast.

The calls were highlighted by Avon and Somerset Police as examples of “inappropriate” use of the 999 emergency service, as part of a 24-hour tweetathon by officers showing what they deal with every day.

They dealt with 3,119 calls, both emergency and non-emergency through the day and had 35 people in their custody cells by the end of the day.

Spartan gimmick in Beijing

Chinese police stepped in to put a stop to an unusual gathering in central Beijing – 40 half-naked Western men dressed as Spartans and holding tubs of salad.

The bare-chested group wore bronze shorts, arm and leg guards and capes as they paraded through the business district and an upmarket shopping area, stopping to pose for photos with delighted onlookers which were then circulated widely on social media.

But police were less amused, dispersing the parade and later saying they had to control some “foreigners in short pants” to restore public order. The parade was a stunt by salad shop Sweetie Salad to celebrate its one-year anniversary.

Marine and space research pool

A university hopes to build the world’s deepest and largest swimming pool – to recreate the conditions of outer space.

The University of Essex has begun initial discussions to build the research, training and development pool in Colchester.

The pool would be 50 metres long and 50 metres deep and would be the UK and Europe’s leading marine and space research facility.

The project, which could cost £40 million, would simulate outer space and deep sea environments which could be used in space-flight programmes.

The university’s registrar, Bryn Morris, said it was a “very exciting proposal”, adding the university had already carried out work with robotic fish and had specialisms, including marine conservation, which could complement the project.

Teenager shoots squirrel in park

A teenager who claimed he was acting in self-defence when he killed a squirrel in a St Petersburg park has been granted amnesty.

Yelisei Vladimirov, 19, was handed a one-year prison term for animal cruelty after he shot the squirrel on Yelagin island in August 2014, but the son of a judge walked free thanks to a widespread amnesty in honour of the allied victory in the Second World War.

The teenager and his friends say they were feeding the animal when it bit Vladimirov and was about to attack him.

Witnesses testified otherwise, and the case caused uproar in St Petersburg where squirrels are not known to attack people.

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