A gang which beat a fox to death before posting a video of the attack on the internet claimed it was “performing a public service”.
East London-based Urban Foxhunters, which describes itself as “a collective from Victoria Park who hate foxes”, prompted disgust from animal welfare groups after posting the video on websites including Facebook.
The clip has now been removed but is reported to show them chasing the fox in Victoria Park, then beating it to death with a cricket bat.
Neolithic painters
Archaeologists revealed they have discovered the first evidence in the UK of stonework painted with a pattern, suggesting Neolithic people enjoyed decorating.
It comes shortly after the researchers, working at the Brodgar peninsula on Orkney, found plain painted stones thought to be around 5,000 years old at the spot.
The site, described as a possible Neolithic temple precinct, is between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. The latest discovery is a stone with a zigzag chevron pattern in red pigment.
Snake hunt
A six-foot boa constrictor is on the loose after slithering out of a bathroom window, police said.
The pet snake, which is “as thick as a baseball bat”, but not fully grown, escaped from a property in Barnfield, Wickford, Essex, on Friday.
Police described the animal, named Diego, as “potentially dangerous” but stressed it would only feed on small animals.
Dead loss
A former Los Angeles mortuary worker has been convicted of defrauding insurers by staging a fake funeral then attempting to cover it up.
Jean Crump and three accomplices took out bogus death certificates, purchased a burial plot, buried an empty coffin and held a funeral, then billed insurance companies for nearly £1 million.
When the claim was investigated, they exhumed the coffin, filled it with a clothes dummy and cow parts and cremated it.
Beneficial blunder
A British man received an apology after his benefits were stopped by officials who he claims told him he was well enough to return to work just days after having brain surgery.
Bryan Haigh, 50, underwent the major operation to remove a tumour from his brain on July 20. But he said bosses at the Department for Work and Pensions decreed in a letter dated July 22 that he was officially fit to work and withdraw his £65-a-week benefits.
A DWP spokesman said: “We have contacted him to apologise and inform him of his future payments.”
Too little, too late
A robber who held up a fast-food restaurant with a gun was so angry at the amount of money he took that he called back twice to complain.
He walked up to the drive-through window of a Wendy’s in Atlanta, Georgia, wearing a ski mask and holding a gun.
In one call he warned that “next time there better be more than $586.”
Frozen find
A 1lb 15oz hailstone that fell in South Dakota has taken the record for North America.
Scientists plan to cast plaster replicas for researchers, a museum and the ranch worker who found it.
It will then be cut in half to photograph its internal rings.
Perverts’ haven
A campaign has been launched on a social networking site calling for the closure of a nudist beach after claims it has become a “haven for swingers and perverts”.
The group on Facebook was set up after reports that people had witnessed gay sex in sand dunes in the upmarket resort of Holkham Bay, Norfolk.
A Norfolk Police spokesman said officers were investigating reports that people had been acting in an “inappropriate manner”.
Bear necessities
A newly-opened paintball course in Montana had to close after the smell from disintegrated ammunition attracted bears.
Big Sky resort tried to find an environmentally friendly paintball. But it turned out that the one selected contains a vegetable oil which can attract grizzly and black bears.
A wildlife official said some bears were even eating unexploded paintballs.
Donor deal
A Red Cross group is offering people who give a pint of blood the chance to win a car or a horse-drawn buggy.
A spokesman for the service in Cleveland, Ohio, said it did not want to leave its many Amish donors, who spurn mechanical transport, out of the offer.
Donors who prefer a more modern mode of transport can win a Nissan Versa.
Royal revelation
Monty Don got more than he bargained for when he agreed to feature on Who Do You Think You Are? – the TV gardener discovered he is directly related to his wife’s first husband as well as having a royal link.
The former Gardeners’ World presenter, 55, met his future wife Sarah at Cambridge University in 1979. They eloped while she was married to another man, who rowed in the same boat as Don.
The other finding is that Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar, the guardian of James I, who had been King of Scotland for 36 years when he became King of England, was one of Don’s ancestors.