A clown known as Roman Stefanyuk performed outside the Houses of Parliament in London prior to a Parliamentary reception on behalf of the Association of Circus Proprietors, yesterday.

The reception was designed to give circus industry professionals the opportunity to meet and lobby politicians, civil servants and others responsible for legislation around this popular art form. (AFP)

Swan released

The only swan to survive the mass slaughter of dozens of the birds on the Somerset Levels, UK, has been released at a secret location.

Solo, a female, was released at a private lake, which came complete with a lonely male swan, by staff from the Secret World sanctuary.

She was the only survivor after eight dead swans, shot in the head with airgun pellets, were found in a field outside Blackford in the Wedmore area of Somerset at the end of January.

Expensive date

People who think they are attractive are less likely to offer to pay for a dinner date, according to a new study.

Researchers found that people who judge themselves good-looking tend to expect their potential love interest to pay for the meal.

Psychologists from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, also found that women preferred men to pay, especially when they were handsome.

Hot stuff

A customer in a San Antonio Mexican restaurant, enraged that the food had gone up in price, fired an air gun at a worker and later fired an assault rifle at police before barricading himself into a hotel room.

Officers used tear gas to force the man out and charged him with three counts of attempted murder.

The manager at the Taco Bell/ KFC said that the man was angry the Beefy Crunch Burrito had gone from 99 cents to $1.49 each.

Overdrawn

A man opened a bank account using two forms of identification, then robbed the branch.

Police in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania said 35-year-old Daniel Rahynes drove off with a small amount of cash.

Meanwhile the bank contacted police, who caught him a few miles away. (PA)

Hidden talent

More than 50 bags of heroin, cash and loose change were found hidden in a woman following a cavity search by police.

Karin Mackaliunas, 27, was found to be carrying three bags of heroin after a car crash in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

On being taken to the station she said she had more hidden in her vagina and a doctor found 54 bags of heroin, 31 empty bags used to package it, prescription pills and $51.22.

Well painful

A man suffered arm and leg injuries and hypothermia after falling 30ft into an unmarked well and getting stuck for four hours.

The man, in his mid 30s, was working in a shed at his home in East Winterslow near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK, when he fell through the floor into the shaft, which he had been unaware was under the building, Great Western Ambulance Service said.

The man was eventually hauled from the well by ambulance staff and firefighters using a rope.

Potter honoured

Transvestite potter Grayson Perry has been made one of just 80 living Royal Academicians at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The 50-year-old, who rose to fame with his urns decorated with images of sex and child abuse, joins the ranks of Academicians such as Tracey Emin and Anish Kapoor. The Turner Prize winner will now be able to put the initials RA after his name and help govern the Academy.

Poster girl

Athena’s famous tennis girl turned the other cheek, 35 years after she posed for the world-famous poster.

Fiona Walker, then Butler, has been reunited with the image to promote what organisers are billing as the first exhibition on lawn tennis as a subject in art. (PA)