There was a large crown embroidered on the mattress where I slept each night. It had been made by Airflex for the visit of the Royal Family to their Dominion, South Africa in 1947. The South African government had ordered the special royal mattresses so they could be installed at the places where the princess […]
By Paul Martin, Exclusive. Constitutional experts are perplexed by a photo supposedly showing the Queen, two days before her death, about to shake hands with Liz Truss as the Queen appointed her the new Prime Minister. If indeed Queen Elizabeth II was too ill to have been standing up and smiling at a rendezvous in […]
Exclusive from Kyiv, Ukraine Amid the images of destruction inflicted by continued Russian attacks on a sovereign nation, Ukrainian television showed far less grim pictures this week. People were smiling again — generally very happy to be allowed to queue up in the streets. Thousands of eager locals stood since the very early hours at post […]
Roman Abramovich has been lavishly praised as a peacemaker between Ukraine and Russia — on a set of postage stamps from Madagascar. When Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his “special military operation” against Ukraine in late February and early March 2022, the British government was issuing orders to strip Abramovich of access to his billions. […]
Chișinău, Moldova
Can you really ‘die of a broken heart’? The answer was: not really….until scientists did a major analysis of one type of apparent heart attack. Now, though, scentists beleive it really does happen. Not in huge numbers, but, nevertheless, very significantly. And it’s rising especially among middle aged and older women. They have found that […]
Simon Forster and Emma Schofield were greeted with a cheerful “bonjour” at passport control. Odd, as they had booked a holiday flight from Manchester to Copenhagen, where the language is, usually, Danish. It was then that the couple realised they were in the French city of Beauvais, near Paris – 750 miles from their intended […]
There’s not much to make one smile about, reporting on this Covid pandemic. Here’s something irrelevant but mildly amusing: The leading health publication (HSJ, or Health Services Journal), has a top writer called James Illman. Getit? See his article. NOTE: For our section Strange as it Seems, we’re interested in other names that are either […]
The Syrian regime has been elected to a leading role in the World Health Organisation (WHO). In May, the war-torn country’s rulers won a seat on the WHO Executive Board. Throughout the course of the Syrian civil war, the Syrian regime has displaced half the country’s population. It has depopulated whole cities and villages by bombing hospitals […]
Scientists have found recordings of their unique song, dating back almost 20 years. Scientists have discovered an entirely new population of pygmy blue whales in the Indian Ocean, which have managed to evade detection for decades despite their enormous size. Researchers uncovered the secretive cetaceans by analyzing acoustic data collected by an underwater nuclear bomb detection array, […]
Fill up that mug: Having one or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day may reduce your risk of heart failure, new research suggests. There was one caveat, however: Decaffeinated coffee doesn’t appear to provide the same protection as caffeine-rich blends. “The association between caffeine and heart failure risk reduction was surprising,” admitted study senior […]
A U.S. Army soldier takes a nap — which the Pentagon now recommends to combat sleep deprivation — while another holds position on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Photo by Spc. Ken Scar/U.S. Army. March 3 (UPI) — A new Defense Department report called sleep deprivation a serious detriment to readiness, adding that most service members lack adequate […]
The world has just seen astonishingly-detailed clear pictures from the surface of Mars, courtesy of an American rover called Perseverance [affectionately abbreviated to Percy]. However when BBC Newsnight proudly showed them [on February 24 2021], as a marvel of human achievement, it also linked up with a scientist in Britain. Except the picture of him […]
As he led Saddam Hussein to the gallows, Dr Mowaffak al Rubaie says he was filled not with hatred but with contempt. “I was not looking for revenge for the three times his security thugs had imprisoned and tortured me,” Dr Rubaie says. “I was hoping to see him show some remorse for the terrible […]
Like Lazarus, he has returned from the grave. Or so said Colonel Ron Black’s friends when they heard he was alive and well.
Originally published in the Sunday Times, Sunday August 31, 1986 WARNING: Holidays can damage your health. Psychologists believe that many of the millions of Britons returning to work this week wouldhave been better off staying at the office instead of taking theirannual break. Increasing evidence that holidays can cause harmful stress ratherthan provide welcome rest and […]
Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., this week tested robotic dogs on a security patrol operation. Photo from U.S. Air Force The US Air Force has unveiled an addition to its war effort: computerized, four-legged robot dogs to be used for security patrols. The Philadelphia-based technology company Ghost Robotics worked with the base’s 325th Security Squadron […]
Analysis from Public Health England shows that the number of deaths in the country from June to late October 2020 was identical to the average death rate of English men and women over the past five years. That is despite Covid’s deadly rampage in 2020.
With even Santa Claus locked down, he is arranging a special series of interatction with the world’s children.