And there are hopes that Mrs T – a female macaroni penguin – will breed in the near future with her partner Mr T.
The penguin, who lives at the Living Coasts zoo in Torquay, Devon, lost the sight in her left eye after failing to respond to treatment for a deep ulcer in the cornea.
A special medical tissue glue was applied, but infection set in and animal experts had to move quickly to save the bird.
Zoo vet Sarah Chapman said: “The eye became infected, the penguin was very subdued due to discomfort so we opted to remove the source of pain. (PA)
Family’s legal bid
The family of an 11-year-old girl has launched a legal bid for compensation from Great Ormond Street Hospital after claiming her brain was inadvertently injected with glue.
Maisha Najeeb has a severe brain injury, uses a wheelchair and requires extensive daily care which, it is claimed, resulted from an operation involving a mix-up of syringes.
The youngster, from Redbridge, north east London, suffered from a congenital condition, arteriovenous malformation, which affected the arteries and veins in her brain. It required treatment but did not prevent her from living a normal life. (AFP)
Easter disruption
Travellers looking to get away before the Easter Bank Holiday break have been facing significant disruption after a fire caused the closure of part of the M1 and delays to rail services.
The motorway, which is closed in both directions in north London, may not reopen until midday today which is likely to cause problems for football fans heading to the FA Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Manchester City.
Traffic volumes are likely to be higher than usual this weekend because of Easter travellers, football fans travelling to Wembley for the semi-final today afternoon and the London Marathon planned for tomorrow. (PA)
‘Nazi’ cake man
An Austrian pastry shop owner who made cakes adorned with Swastikas has baked a traditional Easter bun decorated with Jewish and Christian symbols to try to make amends.
A Holocaust awareness group, the Mauthausen Committee, said baker Manfred Klaschka handed committee member Willi Mernyi the pastry yesterday.
Mr Mernyi in turn gave Mr Klaschka a book describing Nazi crimes in Austria’s Mauthausen concentration camp.
Mr Mernyi says he arranged the meeting because he is convinced Mr Klaschka is “not a right-wing baker” and that he is sorry for making the cakes. (PA)
Aussie heist
Australian thieves have made off with a life-size cut-out of Prince William and his bride Kate Middleton in a midnight heist from a luxury hotel offering special wedding stays, a spokeswoman said yesterday.
The cardboard couple had become something of a drawcard since being erected in the lobby of Melbourne’s Hotel Windsor earlier this year, bringing a steady crowd of guests and locals keen for a happy snap. But the cut-out was plundered on an overnight shift this week and despite pleas to guests and staff, has not been put back, said hotel spokeswoman Prue Fisher. (AFP)
Amnesiac swimmer
Police have uncovered the true identity of a man with amnesia found swimming off a Dubai beach eight months ago and treated in a psychiatric hospital.
Italian Andrea Pecora, 31 and single, believed for months that he was a 25-year-old Greek footballer called Andreas Kostantinidis, The National newspaper reported yesterday. It said that Mr Pecora’s true identity was finally determined after he remembered the hotel where he had been staying.
“The mystery was solved when police found Mr Pecora’s passport copy” in the guest records of a hotel after partial memories finally came back to the patient at Amal (meaning hope in Arabic) psychiatric hospital. (AFP)
Chess-mad Armenia
Armenia is to make chess a compulsory subject in primary schools in an attempt to turn itself into a global force in the game, the Education Ministry said yesterday.
“Teaching chess in schools will create a solid basis for the country to become a chess superpower,” an official at the ministry, Arman Aivazian said. The authorities led by President Serzh Sarkisian, an enthusiastic supporter of the game, have committed around $1.5 million to the scheme – a large sum in the impoverished but chess-mad country. Children from the age of six will learn chess as a separate subject. (AFP)