A guitar played by Beatles pair John Lennon and George Harrison sold for £269,000 (€317,791) at a New York auction yesterday.
The Beatles Vox guitar, a custom prototype made in 1966 and later given to ‘‘Magic Alex’’ Mardas, a friend of the band, was sold by Julien’s Auctions at the Hard Rock Cafe on Times Square.
Harrison can be seen rehearsing with the guitar on I Am The Walrus during the Magical Mystery Tour of September 1967. Lennon also played it in the promotional video for Hello, Goodbye but it is not in the final version of the video. (AP)
Last opportunity to turn green
An Oregon funeral home is offering natural burials where the ride to the person’s final resting place is on the back of a three-wheeled bicycle.
Sunset Hills Cemetery and Funeral Home director Wade Lind said he got the idea from bikers and designed the pedal-powered hearse himself.
It has an electric motor to give him a little help hauling the casket.Mr Lind has cycled five bodies so far and there is a waiting list for the service.
The ride and a bamboo casket that looks like a basket costs about $3,500 (€2,726). (PA)
Venezuela’s latest scarcity problem
First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities – toilet paper.
Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, the embattled socialist government says it will import 50 million rolls.
Economists say Venezuela’s shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and to the government’s controls on foreign currency needed to pay for imports. The government claims anti-government forces including the private sector are causing the shortages to destabilise the country. (PA)
Wild deer becomes uneasy rider
A Pennsylvania bus driver had to remove an unusual passenger - a white-tailed deer which crashed through the windscreen.
The animal hopped around frantically near the driver before jumping on empty seats and running in circles in the aisle, the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat newspaper reported.
The driver stopped the bus, opened the door and the deer got off. County transport spokesman Josh Yoder said it “just walked off the bus”. The bus was carrying one passenger, who was seated in the back far from the deer. No injuries were reported. (PA)
A taste of Africa in the West Midlands
A new off-road safari is bringing visitors face-to-face with a pride of lions in what is thought to be a UK first.
Bosses at the West Midland Safari Park have opened a track cutting through its recently opened lion enclosure in a bid to help immerse their visitors in the full safari experience. Although off-road, the track in the Realm of Lions enclosure is suitable for the average family saloon car as well as 4x4s.
The track will guide visitors in amid the pride of 13 lions, including three cubs born earlier this year.
Director Bob Lawrence said, “It’s a pretty unique off-road experience, that does give you a real taste of Africa and it’s a pretty novel way of seeing the cat’s whiskers. (AP)