Imagine you had £10,000 to spare... you could use it to bid for a rare jacket that once belonged to Beatles star John Lennon.
Dating from the late 1960s, the teal blue jacket, owned and worn by the influential musician, is to be sold at auction. It is estimated to fetch between £8,000 and £12,000 in the sale at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire.
It was once the property of Jo Jo Johns, personal assistant to The Beatles, who worked at the group’s offices at 3 Savile Row in central London from 1968 to 1975. In the early 1970s she gave the jacket to her friend, Anthony Goddard, in Leicestershire. (PA)
Fuss over newscaster’s beard
Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman has laughed off the fuss caused by his beard – saying he may keep it.
The broadcaster’s appearance raised eyebrows when he fronted the BBC2 current affairs show with a crop of noticeable new facial hair.
Paxman, 63, said many at the BBC are pogonophobic – have a fear of beards – but that it was up to him whether he would revert to his usual appearance or not. He said: “I have grown a beard for the last few summers, and suddenly wondered whether I really needed to shave it off to present Newsnight.
“Unless you’re lucky enough to be Uncle Albert on Only Fools And Horses, Demis Roussos or Abu Hamza, the BBC is generally as pogonophobic as the late-lamented Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.” (PA)
Mountaintop on apartments
A Chinese businessman who spent six years building an unauthorised private mountain peak and luxury villa on top of a high-rise apartment block in Beijing has been given 15 days to tear it down.
The complex of rooms, rocks, trees and bushes looming over the 26-storey building looks like something built into a seaside cliff, and has become the latest symbol of disregard for the law among the rich, as well as the rampant practice of building illegal additions.
Angry neighbours say they have complained for years that the 8,600-square-foot mansion and its attached landscaping was damaging the building’s structural integrity and its pipe system, but that local authorities failed to crack down. (PA)
Baby boy born during flight
A 39-year-old airline passenger has given birth to a baby boy in mid-air after the woman went into labour shortly after take-off from Casablanca in Morocco.
The flight, to Bologna in Italy, was diverted to Barcelona in Spain and the baby was born just before landing. Crew members and a midwife, who happened to be on board, helped with the delivery.
Mother and child were taken to hospital in Barcelona and were in good health. (PA)
Botched fresco draws tourists
The botched restoration of a fresco of Christ by an elderly Spanish churchgoer that drew ridicule from around the world has become a major tourists attraction.
The touched-up painting by 81-year-old Cecilia Gimenez has drawn more than 40,000 visitors and raised more than €50,000 for a local charity in Borja, a town of 5,000 in north-eastern Spain.
Gimenez and a local council are to sign a deal sharing profits from merchandise featuring the image. She has also had her own art exhibited.
The fresco depicts Christ with a crown of thorns in a style known as Ecce Homo (Behold the Man).
Amid last year’s mocking, some dubbed it Ecce Mono – Behold the Monkey. Officials say it is not possible to restore the painting’s original look. (AP)