Giant strawberries larger than the average egg have gone on sale in the UK in time for Valentine’s Day.
Marks & Spencer is selling the Spanish-grown King strawberry at a wide range of stores this year after trials last year proved popular. The retailer says the fruit is at least 30 per cent bigger than the average strawberry, and sweeter, making it the “perfect treat for sharing with someone special”.
The introduction of giant strawberries is part of a trend at M&S for unusually sized fruit and follows the success of the tiny Tiddly Pomme apple and the giant Satsumo satsuma.
Zoo’s had enough monkey business
A German zoo says it is sending a monkey Casanova to the Czech Republic because he has produced so many offspring that he might soon start having children with his own relatives.
Halle Zoo monkey keeper Jutta Heuer said her 25 female adult squirrel monkeys had rejected all other males and would only mate with 10-year-old Purus, who arrived in 2009.
He has sired about 50 offspring – some of which went to other zoos, but many are now reaching the age of sexual maturity.
Ms Heuer said that could cause problems such as genetic defects if they were to breed, so he is soon off to the Zlin Zoo in time for mating season.
Warm messages are snow joke
Huge messages left in the snow on the frozen Mississippi River are giving patients at St Cloud Hospital a lift.
At ground level, the patted-down snow does not look like much. But from the hospital windows above, the messages are quite clear.
The latest are the words “love” and “believe”, along with a peace symbol. Each time there is fresh snow, there is a new message.
Nurse Mary Habiger has seen a man and woman in snow shoes stamping out the messages.
She says the mystery man and woman seem well organised and plan their messages in advance.
Ms Habiger told WCCO-TV there are lots of family lounges in the hospital that face the river, so patients can see the messages.
Fuel-ish mistake costs station dear
An error at a northern Illinois petrol station caused pumps to sell fuel for a penny a gallon.
A Shell station in Woodstock, 50 miles northwest of Chicago, wound up mistakenly selling the nearly-free fuel for about two hours, according to the (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald.
Authorities had to use an emergency shut-off to stop the sales before the petrol station closed to reset the pumps to regular prices, Woodstock police said.
But before that, cars were blocking traffic and lining up on the street to reach the cheap fuel.
Police said the station clerk working at the time was not aware of the glitch. It was not clear how much fuel was sold.
Toyota recall is high Prius to pay
Toyota is recalling nearly 31,000 UK-registered cars because of a computer problem that could cause the vehicle to stop.
The recall affects the hybrid ultra-green Prius model and involves 30,970 of the UK-registered cars manufactured between March 2009 and February 2014.
The company, which has had a number of recalls in recent years including some involving the Prius, said there had been 11 incidents in Europe of the computer problem but there had been no accidents or injuries. Toyota added that the issue would not occur in the company’s other hybrid vehicles as these used different systems.