British Tory MP Nadine Dorries (pictured) is facing a barrage of criticism after swapping the political jungle for the Australian bush for up to a month to appear in TV show I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here.
The 55-year-old, who represents Mid Bedfordshire, will face eating bugs and offal as the first serving MP to take part in the programme. But her stint in the jungle caught even her own colleagues off-guard.
Her constituency chairman said he was unaware of her involvement and Home Secretary Theresa May said she believed an MP should be doing their job in their constituency and in Parliament.
Dorries, who earns more than £65,000 as an MP, has flown to Brisbane to prepare. She also stands to pick up a fee for appearing on the show. (PA)
Woman in labour votes
Nothing was going to stop first-time voter Galicia Malone from casting her ballot in yesterday’s US elections – not even the imminent birth of her first child.
The 21-year-old from Dolton, Illinois, a suburb of President Barack Obama’s adopted hometown Chicago, had been in labour since the middle of the night, with contractions five minutes apart.
But she insisted en route to hospital on stopping at her local polling station – the aptly named New Life Celebration Church – to cast her ballot, Cook County clerk David Orr said in a news release.
“I never voted before so this made a major difference in my life,” Malone told Chicago’s WBBM all-news radio station. “And I wanted this to be a stepping stone for my daughter.”
“I was just trying to read (the ballot paper) and breathe, read and breathe,” she added. (AFP)
Shamans choose Obama
Using maracas, coca leaves and a hallucinogenic brew, shamans in Peru got down to business on Monday using pre-Columbian traditional ceremonies to pick a winner in the US presidential race.
“The apus (gods of the hills in indigenous mythology) tell us (Barack) Obama will be re-elected,” predicted Juan Osco, known as the Shaman of the Andes on San Cristobal hill overlooking Lima.
Members of the group placed flower petals on photos of the candidates, which were also swept over with tobacco smoke.
The shamans chewed coca leaves, a traditional ceremonial and medicinal plant used since Inca times that helps fight altitude sickness.
And the crew took some swigs of ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew used widely among indigenous people in the Amazon basin. (AFP)
‘Idiot’ driver to wear sign
A woman caught on camera driving on a pavement to avoid a Cleveland school bus that was unloading children will have to stand at an intersection wearing a sign warning about idiots.
Court records show a Cleveland Municipal Court judge ordered the 32-year-old to stand at an intersection for two days next week. She will have to wear a sign saying: “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.”
The judge ordered her to wear the sign from 7.45am to 8.45am on both days. (PA)
Kitsch throne sale fails
The gold throne that British cyclist Bradley Wiggins sat on after winning gold at the Olympics failed to sell at auction.
The “magnificently kitsch” chair was expected to sell for £10,000 to £15,000 at Sotheby’s in central London. But the maximum bid was for £9,500, and because it did not reach the reserve price, the throne was not sold. It is owned by Graham Budd Auctions, representing a theatrical props company. (PA)