Baby owls Ant and Dec have proved a big hit since making their debut at a safari park.
The owlets at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling in Scotland are burrowing birds native to the United States. Despite being able fliers they spend much of their time running around in search of insects and taking cover in underground burrows.
Neil Davies, head of birds at Blair Drummond, said: “They have been an instant hit. The audience just love them.”
Ant problem leads to house fire
A man has set fire to his house after trying to get rid of an ants nest by dousing it with petrol and lighting it.
The incident in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, follows a similar blaze earlier this week in Bridgend, South Wales, when a man managed to start a fire at his home as he tried to kill a spider with an aerosol spray.
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue were called out to the house in Bramley, Rotherham, where the man had initially set light to his hedge. But this spread to the outside of his house, a brigade spokesman said. “We always tell people never to use petrol or other accelerants to ‘get a fire going’, but using petrol to eliminate an ants nest has to be a first for us.”
Giant sheep herded on to streets
Giant sculptures of Shaun the Sheep were due to arrive in London and Bristol today, ahead of a public arts trail next summer.
The five-foot-tall versions of the Aardman Animations character have been decorated by celebrities, designers and artists to raise money for sick children.
Shaun In The City will showcase 120 giant sheep herded on the streets of the two cities, following the success of last year’s popular Gromit Unleashed trail. Each city will feature its own flock of 60 sheep, with the London trail launching in March and Bristol in July.
Golfer hit partner with three-wood
A golfer has been accused of hitting a playing partner over the head with a three-wood golf club as the pair argued about the rules.
Pennsylvania state police said 63-year-old Roger Lee Harris and Bryan Bandes, 42, were playing with three others at the Springdale Golf Course near Uniontown when they got into a row about rules involving “casual water” – or puddles.
After settling that dispute on the fifth hole, police say they argued again on the seventh, with Harris hitting Bandes with the club and the men then trading punches. Harris is charged with aggravated assault and simple assault, while Bandes is accused of simple assault.
Iowa judge objects to objections
A judge in Iowa got so fed up with a lawyer raising objections that he ordered her to produce a training video that denounces such tactics.
US District Judge Mark Bennett criticised June Ghezzi’s pre-trial conduct in a case in which she successfully defended Abbott Laboratories against an action alleging its infant formula contained dangerous bacteria that caused a baby to suffer brain damage. He wrote that during depositions, Ghezzi “proliferated hundreds of unnecessary objections and interruptions” that coached witnesses and delayed the proceedings. Judge Bennett says the video must be made available to staff at Ghezzi’s law firm Jones Day. The firm plans to appeal.
Nabbed naked but for tennis shoes
An Austrian woman faces a fine of up to €1,000 for repeatedly venturing out in public wearing only a pair of white tennis shoes.
Police spokesman Johann Baumschlager says the young woman, who has not been named, was stopped by police after cycling past officers manning a radar trap in the northeast of the country.
Baumschlager said the woman was identified and told to go home and get dressed, and she was informed she had been charged with disturbing public decency – a crime which carries a maximum €1,000 fine. She had previously been spotted naked out shopping and while filling up her car at a petrol station.