Criminals are enjoying such a life of luxury in British jails that they are refusing to try to escape, a prison union official said yesterday.
Dangerous prisoners enjoy satellite TV, free telephone calls and breakfast in bed in the country's "cushy" jails, Prison Officers' Association General Secretary Glyn Travis added.
Cheap drugs are readily available, he said, and some prisoners enjoy visits from prostitutes while in other jails inmates had "control" over staff. The government said Mr Travis's comments did not reflect reality but inmates at an unnamed top security prison recently told Justice Secretary Jack Straw that conditions were like a "holiday camp", the media reports said.
Vikings acquitted of murder
Tests on the bones of two Viking women found in a buried longboat have dispelled 100-year-old suspicions that one was a maid sacrificed to accompany her queen into the afterlife, experts said yesterday.
The bones indicated that a broken collarbone on the younger woman had been healing for several weeks - meaning the break was not part of a ritual execution as suspected since the 22-metre-long Oseberg ship was found in 1904.
The two women died in 834 aged about 80 and 50 and the bones of the older woman showed she had cancer. Studies also indicated both women were of high rank - their diets were largely of meat when most Vikings lived off fish while the teeth of the younger woman showed she used a metal toothpick, a rare ninth century luxury.
Gang leader escapes again
The leader of a notorious gang of armed robbers in the Philippines, re-arrested by police after months on the run, escaped again yesterday in a scene straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Eight men with M16 rifles blocked a police van transporting Pedro Rodica to a Manila jail allowing him to break free of his guards.
Mr Rodica, facing multiple charges of armed robbery and murder, was arrested earlier this week and paraded to the press on Thursday as a major accomplishment against organised crime. He had first escaped from his guards in December when he was being taken to court.
Florida to ban fake genitals
Senate lawmakers in Florida have voted to ban the fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state.
Republican Senator. Cary Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis, Florida, called the adornments offensive and proposed the ban. Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like "Truck Nutz". In a spirited debate laced with double entendre, Senate lawmakers questioned whether the state should curtail freedom of expression in vehicle accessories.
Dinosaurs' family tree
Scraps of protein from the bones of a 68 million-year-old dinosaur and a mastodon carcass confirm their places in the family tree of life on Earth.
The same team that established Tyrannosaurus rex is a distant relative of chickens filled in more gaps, showing that the dinosaur was far more closely related to living birds than to alligators.
And a 500,000-year-old mastodon is clearly a close relative of elephants, John Asara and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston reported.
They said their analysis of the ancient preserved proteins can be used to fill in all sorts of gaps in the tree of evolution. But it also shows that classical methods, based on studying an animal's bones and other physical structures, are accurate.
Anglers' bonanza gets away
Three Hong Kong anglers thought they had hit the big time when they sold their rare and endangered giant fish for $1,640 - but they missed out on a $81,230 bonanza.
The 85-kilo Chinese Bahaba, also known as a giant yellow croaker, is believed to be the largest caught in Hong Kong in 10 years.
One of the anglers, a housewife, was photographed lying beside the 1.68-metre fish after it had been hauled ashore, following a titanic 90-minute struggle. The trio quickly sold the fish to a local fisherman for $1,640 thinking they'd hit the jackpot, but fisherman subsequently sold the rare giant fish to a seafood restaurant for $47,430. The speculation didn't stop there. The fish was resold to a mainland Chinese buyer for over $81,230.
Locusts threaten Tajikistan
Tajikistan needs urgent help to combat a locust infestation that threatens the impoverished country's food supply, the UN said yesterday.
More than 150,000 hectares of the Central Asian country are covered in locust eggs and larvae at various stages of development, said Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The insects threaten Tajikistan's maize and wheat crops and could cause shortages and exacerbate upward prices on food staples in the country.
Locusts have affected the former Soviet republic before but on a smaller scale. The current infestation affects an area 30 per cent larger than seen in 2007, Ms Byrs said.