They may not have set the date yet, but Saturday, August 13 is the bookies favourite for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s big day.
Paddy Power is offering bets on the royal wedding, with the August date the current favourite at 3/1.
Saturday, August 6 has odds of 4/1, while Saturday, July 30 – which is just a day after what would have been the 30th wedding anniversary of Prince William’s parents, the Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales – is on offer at 10/1.
Charles and Diana married on July 29, 1981.
Less likely, according to the bookmaker, is a May wedding, with overall odds for the month standing at 12/1. (PA)
‘Psychic’ panda
First there was Paul the octopus, now there’s Bo Si, the “psychic” panda.
Bo Si picked a Chinese athlete to be the first gold medal winner of the Asian Games – and Yuan Xiaochao promptly won the wushu, boosting the popularity of the 12 giant pandas at Xiangjiang Safari Park in Guangzhou. But given China are so dominant, are favourites to finish top of the medals table and have the biggest squad at the Games, critics said it hardly proved Bo Si’s telepathic powers.
And it emerged Bo Si had been given the option to pick a bamboo shoot, which represented a Chinese winner, or an apple for a foreigner. Pandas exist on a bamboo diet.
Octopus Paul died at an aquarium in Germany last month. (AFP)
Pope goes HD
The Pope is going high-definition after the Vatican yesterday unveiled a new £3.8 million mobile broadcast unit to show the Pope’s Masses, audiences and trips.
The upgrade, paid for by the Knights of Columbus and Vatican television and offered at a discount by Sony, will let the Vatican keep up with the rapidly developing technology that is increasingly becoming the norm for broadcasters, documentary makers and others.
The Pope has suffered several communications gaffes during his five-year pontificate, but the Vatican has been taking technological steps to bring his message to YouTube, social networking sites and smartphones. (AP)
Problem pig
A retailer withdrew a toy pig from a children’s farm set to avoid the risk of causing offence on religious grounds.
A mother who bought the Early Learning Centre’s HappyLand Goosefeather Farm for her daughter’s first birthday contacted the store after finding that the pig was missing despite there being a sty and a button which generated an “oink”.
A spokesman for the chain, which has now reinstated the pig in the £25 farm set, said: “Taking on board all the customer feedback, we have taken the decision to reinstate the pig and to no longer sell the set in those international markets where it might create an issue.” (PA)
Relics found
Relics from the tomb of mediaeval English king Richard II and sketches of his skull and bones have been discovered in boxes in the basement of the National Portrait Gallery.
Objects thought to have come from inside the tomb were found inside a cigarette box by archivists cataloguing the papers of the gallery’s first director, Sir George Scharf.
The gallery’s director was invited to see the opening of the royal graves at Westminster Abbey and the date on the cigarette box – August 31, 1871 – matches that of his visit. (PA)
British author jailed for contempt
A British author was sentenced to six weeks in jail and fined €14,848 for contempt by a court in Singapore yesterday over his book deemed critical of the city-state’s judiciary.
Alan Shadrake, 76, had offered to apologise for offending the sensitivities of the judiciary, but said he would never apologise for his book, Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice In The Dock, which triggered Singapore’s ire.
High Court Judge Quentin Loh, who found Mr Shadrake guilty of contempt of court earlier this month, ordered the author to spend six weeks in jail, pay a fine of 20,000 Singapore dollars and court costs of 55,000 Singapore dollars (€30,897). If Mr Shadrake failed to pay the fine, he would be imprisoned for two additional weeks, the judge said. (AP)
Dog hero put down by mistake
A dog rescued from war-torn Afghanistan by US soldiers has been accidentally put down in a US animal shelter.
A worker at the home in Arizona has been suspended after Target the mongrel was put down when she was brought in as a stray.
Target frightened a suicide bomber inside a military base and potentially saved dozens of soldiers’ lives, her owner Sgt Terry Young said.
He said the dog was treated like royalty from then on at the base at Dand Patan, near the Pakistan border.
He brought Target with him when he returned home from his tour of duty.
The dog escaped from the family’s garden last Friday. (AP)
Beatles on iTunes
The Beatles finally arrived on iTunes yesterday after what Apple’s Steve Jobs described as “a long and winding road”.
“The Beatles. Now on iTunes,” Apple.com announced in large black letters above a full screen picture of the “Fab Four” – Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – from their heyday in the 1960s.
The vast catalogue of Beatles hits has been barred for years from internet download sites amid legal squabbles, although their songs have long circulated as unlicensed downloads available from unlicensed peer-to-peer networks. (AFP)