A marriage proposal, strange similes and a stunning panorama marked the public opening of the viewing deck for western Europe’s tallest tower yesterday in London.
The Shard skyscraper was described as an “intergalactic spear” and a “cocktail stick” by charismatic Mayor Boris Johnson, who cut the ribbon for the first public visitors at the top of the 310-metre futuristic tower looming over London bridge.
One visitor chose the moment to propose to his girlfriend of five years (pictured).
“It sounds corny but she makes me feel like I’m on top of the world so I thought the highest place in London has got to be the best place to do it,” a smiling James Episcopou, 22, told reporters.
His fiancée, Laura Taylor, 22, said it had been a complete surprise. She said Yes.
MEP’s ‘elephant’ expenses
An Austrian member of the European Parliament is under investigation over suspect expenses claims totalling €1.3 million, including one item listed as “elephant”.
In a request to the European Parliament to waive Hans-Peter Martin’s immunity, the Vienna prosecutor’s office said it suspected the independent MEP of embezzling public funds and making money “illicitly for himself or a third party by fraudulent means”.
One claim for €2,200 was identified in accounts as being for an “elephant”.
Martin says he in fact meant to claim for books about Auschwitz from an Austrian publisher called “Ephelant”. The publisher does offer such a book, priced at €22.
Judge asleep on the job
A Russian judge has resigned after a video apparently showed him asleep during a trial that ended with him sentencing the defendant to five years in a penal colony, Russian media reported yesterday.
Critics of the Russian justice system, which has a notoriously high conviction rate, were outraged when the video purporting to show judge Yevgeny Makhno sleeping through a defence lawyer’s speech in court was posted online in January.
The film was allegedly shot during a fraud trial last July in the far-eastern town of Blagoveshchensk.
The businessman sentenced to five years hard labour will have a new trial on February 14 after an appeal was lodged over the “unjust” sentence, Russian media said.