Sting said yesterday that The Police are to say goodbye to Britain with a farewell concert in London's Hyde Park on June 29.
"England is where we began our career, in London. It has a special place in my heart. I'm English... We've done over 100 dates. But we're still together, still friends," the group's frontman said.
Asked if this really was the end for the group which reunited for a world tour, he said "Yeah, I think it's right. We've been saved from the nostalgia in a bad sense because I think the band sounds fairly contemporary.
"We don't sound like an old tribute band. Considering the songs were written 25 to 30 years ago, they still, to me and most of the audience sound like today."
School girl was 39-year-old man
A Japanese man was arrested for trespassing this week after turning up at a high school dressed in a girl's uniform and a long wig, local police said.
Thirty-nine-year-old Tetsunori Nanpei told police he had bought the uniform over the internet and put it on to take a stroll near the school in Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday.
When students standing outside the gates started to scream at the sight of him, he dashed inside the school grounds, hoping to blend in with the crowds of teenagers.
But the students there also screamed, forcing the man to flee, losing his wig in the process. A school clerk pursued him and stopped him at a nearby riverbank. Police confirmed the arrest of the man in school uniform and wig but declined to give further details.
Hitler cartoons
A Norwegian museum director says he has discovered cartoons which he believes were drawn by Adolf Hitler who tried to make a living as an artist before going into politics.
William Hakvaag, director of a war museum in Norway, said he found the drawings hidden in a painting signed "A.Hitler" that he bought at a German auction for about $300. He found three coloured cartoons of dwarfs from the 1937 Walt Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, signed A.H., and an unsigned sketch of Pinocchio. He said he had done tests on the paintings and suggested they dated from 1940.
Mr Hakvaag said: "I am 100 per cent sure that these are drawings by Hitler... If one wanted to make a forgery, one would never hide it in the back of a picture, where it might never be discovered."
The initials on the sketches, and the signature on the painting, matched other copies of Hitler's handwriting, he said.
Seaside arcades face extinction
Britain's seaside amusement arcades could be wiped out within a year.
Along with "kiss-me-quick" hats and donkey rides on the beach, amusement arcades are a quintessential part of Britain's seaside tradition but over the past 12 months they have been hit by new betting and smoking laws while torrential downpours lashed Britain and left coastal resorts deserted for much of the summer.
Bacta, the body that represents UK arcade and amusement operators, says revenues in the industry, which also includes high street arcades, have dropped 21 per cent over the last year.
"If nothing is done then half of the industry could be out of business this year," said Bacta president Nick Harding in a statement.
Will Smith wins damages
Hollywood actor Will Smith won an apology and undisclosed damages in a London court yesterday over a false claim that he had described World War II Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as a "good person".
The Oscar-nominated star, one of the world's most popular and highly paid actors, was left deeply distressed and acutely embarrassed over the wrong story published by an entertainment newswire service.
Mr Smith's comments, originally published in the Scottish Daily Record newspaper, were then "wholly misrepresented" by the London-based World Entertainment News Network.
VW sex, bribery scandal
A German court sentenced former VW works council head Klaus Volkert to almost three years in prison yesterday.
Mr Volkert was found guilty of inciting and abetting a breach of trust and was handed a two-year and nine-month sentence.
Mr Volkert stepped down when it came to light that he had also pocketed nearly two million euros in illegal bonuses.
The court yesterday also handed down a one year suspended sentence to former VW personnel manager and Hartz aide Klaus-Joachim Gebauer for breach of trust after he organised numerous events at which VW labour were extensively wined and dined, and even took trips to nightclubs and brothels paid for by a corporate slush fund.