A former royal butler who once took a child he was sexually abusing to a tea party with Queen Elizabeth's mother was yesterday jailed for at least six years after being convicted of paedophilia.
Paul Kidd, 55, who was a senior footman to the Queen Mother between 1979 and 1984 and also worked for the queen, pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault and six counts of sexual activity with a child, the Press Association reported.
Police began investigating Mr Kidd when a victim came forward after seeing the butler quoted in a newspaper article on the 10th anniversary of the death of Diana, princess of Wales.
Other victims, including the child who was taken to tea with the Queen Mother, came forward after Mr Kidd was charged. Among items police found on Mr Kidd's computer were more than 18,000 images of unknown children and a video of him abusing another child as recently as 2006. Mr Kidd, who boasted about his job on the website www.royalbutler.co.uk, began working for the royal family in 1977.
Knut opts for meat over intruder
A 37-year-old man climbed over a fence and into the enclosure of Berlin's celebrity polar bear yesterday, but escaped unharmed when zookeepers distracted Knut the bear with a piece of meat, police said. "The man said that he thought the polar bear was sad and lonely, and that he wanted to keep him company," said Berlin police spokesman Miriam Tauchmann. "He was very lucky that nothing serious happened with such an act of foolishness."
Knut, once a cuddly orphan cub who captivated animal lovers around the world, is now two years old and a strapping 200 kg adolescent predator. He was reared by zookeeper Thomas Doerflein after being rejected by his mother at birth.
Knut has been alone in his enclosure since Mr Doerflein's death of natural causes, in September.
Wealthy woman killed for phone, ring
Police in northern China have arrested a man for killing a woman who boasted of her wealth, but he was only able to steal a mobile phone, a gold ring and less than $100 in cash, state media said.
The official Xinhua news agency said the woman, surnamed Wang, ran a cleaning company in Baotou in Inner Mongolia and her husband was a long-distance bus driver.
During dinner with somebody they thought was a friend, a painter surnamed Yang, Ms Wang boasted that her business was doing well and her husband also earned a lot of money, said the report, carried on Xinhua's website (www.xinhuanet.com).
"The man then came up with the twisted idea of murder in order to get the money," it added.
Mr Yang forced his way into Ms Wang's home early one morning carrying a knife, and stabbed Ms Wang as she was crying out for help.
Shortage of Christmas trees in Denmark
A shortage of Christmas trees in Denmark, Europe's largest exporter, is driving up prices in a trend likely to last until 2012, producers said.
"Our producers got between 10 and 20 per cent more for Nordmann trees this year," said Kaj Ostergaard, the head of the Danish Christmas Tree Growers Association. The Nordmann, one of the most popular species because of the long life of its silvery needles, is selling in Copenhagen this year for 300 Danish crowns (€40) for a two-metre specimen, 20 per cent more than last year. Denmark produced about 10 million Christmas trees this year, about 8.5 million of them earmarked for export. About half go to Germany, with Britain and France the next biggest buyers.
"The total production of Nordmann firs in Europe is about 30 million trees per year while the demand is 33 to 35 million," Mr Ostergaard said. "According to my calculations, demand will increase and supply will decrease until 2012."
Hairdresser cleared of robbery charge
A hairdresser who helped prepare disguises for the robbers in Britain's biggest cash heist was yesterday cleared in court of all charges relating to the raid.
Michael Demetris, 32, admitted helping to make the disguises but said he was unaware they were to be used in the £53 million (€56 million) robbery, the Press Association reported.
Five men were jailed for a total of at least 70 years in January after being convicted of kidnapping and robbery.
The thieves, some dressed as policemen and most wearing disguises created by a make-up artist, snatched the record haul from a security depot in February 2006 after getting past tight security by kidnapping the depot's manager, his wife and his son at gunpoint.
Mr Demetris, of southeast London, told the jury at London's Old Bailey criminal court he thought the disguises were to be used in a video game.
White Christmas doomed
The odds of a "white Christmas" in temperate parts of the northern hemisphere have diminished in the last century due to climate change and will likely decline further by 2100, climate and meteorology experts said.
Even though heavy snow this year will guarantee a white Christmas in many parts of Asia, Europe and North America, an 0.7°C rise in world temperatures since 1900 and projected bigger rises by 2100 suggest an inexorable trend.
"The probability of snow on the ground at Christmas is already lower than it was even 50 years ago but it will become an even greater rarity in many places by the latter half of the century," said Friedrich-Wilhelm Gerstengarber, climate researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.