A GRANDAD has just discovered he has been living with a broken neck for 59 YEARS.

John Richards, 74, did not know he had fractured vertebrae when he fell from a tree while stealing apples as a 16-year-old in 1948.

He was treated at the time for a broken wrist but doctors missed the other life-threatening break.

John, who felt no specific pain in his neck, got on with an active life working on a farm, and playing football and cricket.

He even BOXED for 15 years at a gym with no idea that one “wrong” blow could kill him.

The break was only spotted when John went for a routine check-up with his GP last month.

He complained of pain when the doctor prodded his shoulders and neck — and a scan revealed the amazing truth.

John, of Yatton, Somerset, was rushed to hospital, where surgeons put an inch-long bolt in his neck to finally repair the fracture.

Now he has to put up with mickey-taking pals who call him Frankenstein.

A man was walking down the street and he met a small boy. The man asked what was his name.
The boy replied, "Six and Seven-Eighths."
The man asked him why his parents had given him such a strange name, and he replied, "they just picked it out of a hat."

With this murder trial, I thee wed.

Love blossomed in a trial last year between alternate juror No. 3, Traci Nagy, and juror No. 6, Jonathan Cinkay. They picked up their marriage license last week, and Queens Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis, who presided over the case, is to marry them next month.

The Daily News reported Sunday that the two made goo-goo eyes on the first day of the trial. Fellow jurors encouraged Nagy, a 36-year-old market analyst, to date Cinkay, 33, a physical therapist. The two went out to lunch during one long break.

"From there it just grew," Nagy said. In the jury room they discussed movies, travel - everything but the case, which was banned from discussion. "It was a very good way to get to know someone," she said.

After the trial, Cinkay said he called Nagy "as soon as I got out the door" and proposed by year's end.

"My friends said to me, 'It would take a murder trial for you to meet the right person,'" he said.

Lewis said he knew during the trial there was something unusual about the jury.

"Some juries are serious, some are somber, but this jury seemed like it was full of beaming, happy people," the justice said. "I didn't imagine they were all playing matchmaker."

The warm feelings didn't do the murder defendant much good. He was convicted.

Two little old ladies were walking through the park one Sunday afternoon. The band was playing a catchy sounding tune, and one of the old ladies said, "I wonder what the name of that tune is". The other one noticed a sign posted near the bandstand and said, "It looks like they post the names of their selections. I'll go down and see". A while later she came back and told her companion, "It's the Refrain from Spitting".

Unusually for this summer, it's a beautiful sunny start to the day, and the forecast for the rest of the day is good.

In about an hour's time I'll be able to sit in the garden and listen to the cricket commentary.

Brian May is completing his doctorate in astrophysics, more than 30 years after he abandoned his studies to form the rock group Queen.

The 60-year-old guitarist and songwriter said he plans to submit his thesis, "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud," to supervisors at Imperial College London within the next two weeks.

May was an astrophysics student at Imperial College when Queen, which included Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, was formed in 1970. He dropped his doctorate as the glam rock band became successful.

Queen were one of Britain's biggest music groups in the 1970s, with hits including "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You."

After Mercury's death in 1991, May recorded several solo albums, including 1998's "Another World." But his interest in astronomy continued, and he co-wrote "Bang! The Complete History of the Universe," which was published last year.

He was due to finish carrying out astronomical observations at an observatory on the island of La Palma, in Spain's Canary Islands, on Tuesday, the observatory said.

May told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he had always wanted to complete his degree.

"It was unfinished business," he said. "I didn't want an honorary Ph.D. I wanted the real thing that I worked for."

A Navy man who got mad when someone mocked him as a "nerd" over the Internet climbed into his car and drove 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas to teach the other guy a lesson.

As he made his way toward Texas, Fire Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer Russell Tavares posted photos online showing the welcome signs at several states' borders, as if to prove to his Internet friends that he meant business.

When he finally arrived, Tavares burned the guy's trailer down.

This week, Tavares, 27, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading no contest to arson and admitting he set the blaze.

"I didn't think anybody was stupid enough to try to kill anybody over an Internet fight," said John G. Anderson, 59, who suffered smoke inhalation while trying to put out the 2005 blaze that caused $50,000 in damage to his trailer and computer equipment.

The feud started when Anderson, who runs a haunted house near Waco, joined a picture-sharing Web site and posted his artwork and political views. After he blocked some people from his page because of insults and foul language, they retaliated by making obscene digitally altered pictures of him, he said.

Anderson, who went by the screen name "Johnny Darkness," traded barbs with Tavares, aka "PyroDice."

Investigators say Tavares boiled over when Anderson called him a nerd and posted a digitally altered photo making Tavares look like a skinny boy in high-water pants, holding a gun and a laptop under a "Revenge of the Nerds" sign.

Tavares obtained Anderson's real name and hometown from Anderson's Web page about his Museum of Horrors Haunted House.

Tavares took leave from his post as a weapons systems operator at the AEGIS Training and Readiness Center in Dahlgren, Va., and started driving. Investigators say he told them he planned to point a shotgun at Anderson and shoot his computer.

Instead, when he got to Elm Mott - after posting one last photo of a "Welcome to Texas" sign - Tavares threw a piece of gasoline-soaked plastic foam into the back of Anderson's mobile home and lit a flare, authorities say.

Tavares' attorney, Susan Kelly Johnston, said his trip to the Waco area was a last-minute decision during a cross-country trip to visit his parents in Arizona. She said he never intended to hurt Anderson and did not think he was in the trailer when he set the fire.

James Pack, an investigator with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office, caught up with Tavares after talking to people in several states and Spain who had been involved in the online feud. Tavares' cell phone records showed he was in the Waco area at the time of the fire, Pack said.

Tavares told investigators that Anderson had spread computer viruses and insulted his online friends for too long, Pack said.

"He lost everything - all over an Internet squabble," the investigator said.

Tavares was discharged last year from the Navy, where he earned several medals - including the pistol expert and rifle expert medals - in his nine-year career, said Navy spokesman Mike McLellan.

Tavares would not let the feud go even at his sentencing. According to Pack, Tavares took cell-phone photos of Anderson in the courtroom while the judge was hearing another case. Authorities ordered the photos erased.

Anderson, an ex-Marine who served in Vietnam, said he continues to be harassed online, has been startled by people knocking on his window late at night and found bullet holes in a door to his business.

He said he is convinced the harassment is related to the Internet feud and plans to spend $30,000 on more fencing topped with barbed wire.

"Before this happened, the rule was: Nobody messes with the haunted house guy," Anderson said.

Indonesian maid has been jailed for six days in Hong Kong for serving her boss a cup of water containing urine, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to a charge of "administering poison or other destructive or noxious substance with intent to injure," but insisted she had used the urine to treat a skin condition and its appearance in her employer's cup was a mistake.

Her boss, Szeto Ching-han, smelled the urine after asking for a cup of water, and then asked the maid to drink it -- which she did. Szeto, however, kept the liquid to have it tested in a lab, the South China Morning Post said.

The defense argued that the maid's employer had not drunk the urine and the substance was not poisonous.

"The only contact the former employer had with the so-called poisonous mixture was the smell," her lawyer was quoted as telling the court.

The magistrate who heard the case said there was no evidence that the maid had suffered any harm after drinking from the cup, but still gave the maid a six-day jail sentence, saying the court "must send a message to the public."

Maids from the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka are often the subject of court cases in richer neighbors such as Hong Kong and Singapore, but usually as the victims of rape or other abuse by their employers.

An Italian football fan has started putting up a gravestone every time his team loses a major match.
Inter Milan fan Massimo Pecorino, 52, has so far erected more than twenty on a local mountainside.

He says grave mistakes can only be marked by a grave where he buries his hopes and dreams, near his home town of Cortona.

Pecorino said: "Instead of enjoying a celebration I felt like I was at a funeral, so I spent the day carving out my fury on a stone."

Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell was so nervous about his first sex scene he tried to cover his manhood with a sock.

Jamie, 21, said getting naked in front of a 30-man crew for his new movie Hallam Foe was terrifying, reports The Sun.

He admitted: “I asked the director before filming if I could cover my intimate parts with socks, but he said no.

“For all the people around it was just another movie scene, but I was horribly nervous.”

This woman decides to buy a self-assembly cupboard. Back home she reads the instructions carefully and assembles the cupboard in the bedroom. It looks really neat. Then, a train passes and the whole cupboard collapses. Not daunted by this she re-reads the instructions and reassembles the cupboard. Then, another train passes and the whole cupboard collapses again. Thinking that she must have done *something* wrong she re-re-reads the instructions and re-re-assembles the cupboard. Then, a train passes and the whole cupboard collapses yet again. Now, she's finally fed up with this and calls the customer service department. She is told that this is quite impossible and that they'll send along a technician to have a look. The technician arrives and assembles the cupboard. Then, a train passes and the cupboard collapses. Completely baffled by this unexpected event, the technician decides to reassemble the cupboard and sit inside it to see whether he can find out what causes the cupboard to collapse. At this point, the woman's husband comes home, sees the cupboard and says: "That's a nice looking cupboard", and opens it.
Says the technician: "You won't believe me, but I'm standing here waiting for a train".

This woman decides to buy a self-assembly cupboard. Back home she reads the instructions carefully and assembles the cupboard in the bedroom. It looks really neat. Then, a train passes and the whole cupboard collapses. Not daunted by this she re-reads the instructions and reassembles the cupboard. Then, another train passes and the whole cupboard collapses again. Thinking that she must have done *something* wrong she re-re-reads the instructions and re-re-assembles the cupboard. Then, a train passes and the whole cupboard collapses yet again. Now, she's finally fed up with this and calls the customer service department. She is told that this is quite impossible and that they'll send along a technician to have a look. The technician arrives and assembles the cupboard. Then, a train passes and the cupboard collapses. Completely baffled by this unexpected event, the technician decides to reassemble the cupboard and sit inside it to see whether he can find out what causes the cupboard to collapse. At this point, the woman's husband comes home, sees the cupboard and says: "That's a nice looking cupboard", and opens it.
Says the technician: "You won't believe me, but I'm standing here waiting for a train".

Upset the manageress of a shop that is:

I was in Wilco earlier this morning and the tills were down, so no-one was being served.

Being the helpful person that I am, I suggested to the manageress that she grab a couple of calculators from the shelf and hand them to the young girls on the tills so that they could add up the customers' bills.

Apparently this was a shocking idea; she mentioned stock tracking and till reconciliation.

Fortunately for her, the tills then started working before I got the chance to get sarcastic.

This situation sums up exactly what is wrong with our society; no-one is prepared to take any initiative - they're only concerned about covering their backs. They'd rather not make a mistake than give their absolute best every day [and maybe make the odd mistake.]

Maybe I'm just too radical for Doncaster...I don't know.

Speeding fine riddle

A researcher has been slapped with a speeding ticket in Somerset - despite living 800 miles away in Germany.

Baffled Christopher Reynolds, 30, faces a £60 fine and penalty points unless he can prove he was not at the wheel.

He was notified by letter he had broken the 30mph limit on the A370 in Somerset on May 31, reports the Daily Mirror.

Christopher insists he was at work in Munich at the time and has neither driven for years, nor ever owned the car involved in the alleged offence.

He said: "There must be another Christopher Reynolds. It means their system is flawed."

The DVLA, which holds drivers' details, said: "If a driver says he was out of the country he has to prove he was not driving."

I was granted a real honour this morning; I ended up actually brandishing a sword that was owned by Oliver Cromwell.

Brian, the psychotherapist who runs the group therapy sessions has contacts with the Royal Amouries at Leeds and fetched it along for the day. I was the only person in the group at Doncaster invited to swing it about in the carpark.

It felt good to be actually touching the same metal as the Lord Protector had done three and half centuries earlier. I wanted to know more about its provenance; was it actually used in battle? However, Brian didn't know.

Guides seek safe sex badge

Girl guides say they need to know more about safe sex and assembling flat-pack furniture to prepare for 21st century life.

They also want instruction on how to manage debts and reduce the size of their carbon footprint, reports The Times.

The demands emerged in a survey of more than 1,000 Guides by Girlguiding UK, which is striving to keep itself relevant to the lives of young women.

A spokeswoman said that the movement would act on the findings and make sure that the appeal for more information on sex and money was met.

In the poll, senior Guides, who are aged over 16, said managing money was the most important skill to master as they contemplated leaving the family home.

“Practising safe sex” was placed fourth, with “assembling flat-pack furniture” eighth. Younger Guides, aged from 10 to 15, valued more traditional skills such as “cooking a healthy meal” and “pitching a tent”.

The youngest Guides, aged under 10, said that they wanted to know how to surf the web safely and how to cross the road.

Liz Burnley, the Chief Guide, said that the findings would be used to shape future Guiding programmes.

“As the UK’s largest youth organisation just for girls and young women, we prioritise giving girls the skills, experiences and opportunities they need to reach for new aspirations and succeed in the modern world,” she said.

“But these goalposts don’t stand still, which is why we constantly ask our members what they think, so that we can continue to be truly relevant to tomorrow’s young women.”

Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.

Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

Europe's highest toilet has been built on the snow capped peak of France's Mont Blanc.

More than 30,000 visitors make their way to the peak each year and local mayor Jean-Marc Peillex said: "This move was much needed.

"Our beautiful mountain's white peak was full of yellow and brown spots in summer."

The two toilets were flown up Mont Blanc to a height of 4,260 metres.

A helicopter will also be used to empty the toilets on a daily basis at peak times for visitors.

A grizzled old man was eating in a truck stop when three dangerous looking bikers walked in.
The first walked up to the old man, pushed his cigarette into the old man's pie and then took a seat at the counter.
The second walked up to the old man, spit into the old man's milk and then he took a seat at the counter.
The third walked up to the old man, turned over the old man's plate, and then he took a seat at the counter.
Without a word of protest, the old man quietly left the diner.
Shortly thereafter, one of the bikers said to the waitress, "Humph, not much of a man, was he?"
The waitress replied, "Not much of a truck driver either. He just backed his truck over three motorcycles."

The Hell family says it may tell a Catholic school in Australia where to go after it objected to enrolling their son because of his name.

Officials said the boy had been offered a place at the St. Peter the Apostle school in the southern city of Melbourne after discussions between the principal, the parish priest and the family over his name.

But Alex Hell said he would rather send 5-year-old Max elsewhere because the school balked at taking the boy over his family name.

"We are the victims of our name," Hell said Monday.

Hell said he and his wife approached St. Peter the Apostle school about enrolling Max because the boy was being bullied at his current school because of his name, the Herald Sun newspaper reported on its Web site.

The Catholic school supported a plan to enroll Max using his mother's maiden name, Wembridge, but then withdrew its invitation when the parents changed their minds about the name, Hell said. The school backed down and offered Max a place only when Hell took the issue to the media, he said.

"The school has turned around and said Max can go there, but why would you want to go there after being victimized?" Hell said.

The family was considering moving to his wife's hometown to find a different school, he said.

Director of Catholic Education in Victoria state, Stephen Elder, said using the boy's mother's name was the parents' idea to "assist the child in the transition of schools."

"After discussions between the parish priest and principal, St. Peter the Apostle School has made an offer of enrollment to the student," Elder said in a statement. "The school is working with the family in the best interests of the child."

Hell said he had Austrian heritage and that the name means "bright."

Baseball player not signing enough autographs?

A sports memorabilia company is suing Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz -- claiming the popular slugger does not sign enough autographs.

Steiner Sports Marketing is seeking at least $1 million in damages from the 31-year-old Dominican, in a lawsuit filed on Friday in New York state court.

The lawsuit charged that Ortiz consistently fell short of the autograph quota to which he agreed and that he lent his autograph to competing companies.

Ortiz also failed to appear at signing sessions or at corporate meet-and-greet events, as his contract requires, the lawsuit said.

According to the suit, Ortiz entered into an exclusive contract with Steiner in 2004 to provide 8,000 autographed memorabilia for sale and to participate in up to four two-hour-long autograph sessions.

Representatives for Ortiz and the Red Sox were not immediately available for comment.

Tiny brain OK for civil servant

A man with an unusually tiny brain managed to live an entirely normal life as a civil servant.

Scans of the 44-year-old man's brain showed a huge fluid-filled chamber took up most of his skull.

French researchers say it left room for little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue.

"He was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant," Dr Lionel Feuillet of the Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille wrote in a letter to the Lancet medical journal.

The man went to a hospital after he had mild weakness in his left leg.

When Dr Feuillet's staff took his medical history, they learned he had had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away water on the brain as an infant.

The researchers were astonished when scans showed a "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles - usually tiny chambers that hold the fluid that cushions the brain.

Intelligence tests showed the man had an IQ of 75, below the average score of 100 but not considered mentally retarded or disabled, either.

"What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life," said Dr Max Muenke, a brain specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute.

"If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side."

Would-be PM sings wrong anthem

Belgium's prime minister-in-waiting is in trouble after it emerged he couldn't remember his country's national anthem.

Yves Leterme burst into the opening line of France's anthem La Marseillaise after TV reporters asked if he knew Belgium's La Brabanconne.

His gaffe was quickly posted on YouTube, attracting tens of thousands of viewers, reports the Daily Telegraph.

To make matters worse for Leterne, who has previously irked Belgium's French speakers by saying they were too stupid or unwilling to learn Flemish, he made the gaffe on Belgium's National Day.

He was then caught out by another question, again on television, revealing that he did not know why Belgium has its national day on July 21.

Leterme's response to the ensuing row has only alarmed his critics further.

"I have much more important things to do than this crap. Those who are after me will pay for it sooner or later," he said.

Here's a tip for aspiring college students: Make sure your applications don't warrant a visit from the bomb squad.

Emergency crews evacuated an Eastern Illinois University building Friday, after a campus postal carrier discovered a disheveled-looking package heading for the college's admissions office.

"There was no return address, it was poorly written, poorly addressed to the university, there were misspellings," school spokeswoman Vicki Woodard said Saturday. "There was some tape over it. Just the overall appearance was rather strange."

The stuffed-and-stained envelope was strange enough that police alerted the bomb squad.

Explosives investigators X-rayed the package and blocked off a nearby street before they discovered the envelope contained only an application to the 12,500-student school.

Woodard said the application came from somewhere in northern Illinois, but wouldn't comment on whether the bomb scare would affect the prospective student's chances of admission.

"I'm sure it'll be processed like any other application at this point," she said.

I've just had a bit of a disagreement with someone on the phone. This person phones me up about once every two months [it certainly sounds like the same person each time] and asks about various neighbours on the street. Each time I tell him that I don't have a clue who lives several houses away because all the properties are short-term lets; the tenants never staying for probably more than a year.

I think this person [who speaks with a broad Scottish accent] must work for a debt collection agency and this is why he's so keen to get in touch with these people. Anyhow, a few minutes ago I'd had enough and so I pre-empted what he was going to say and told him that I don't know who lives at number 51 and no, I'm not prepared to push a note through their letterbox with his contact number on.

This is harrassment and I'm not prepared to be polite any more. The previous time he phoned up I told him to remove my details from their database and not contact me any more.

All this hassle I'm getting and I'm registered with the Telephone Preference Service - but, of course, these aren't telemarketing calls are they? So I suppose the legislation doesn't apply.

Armed police went into action in the German city of Wuppertal after a woman reported seeing a masked criminal -- but having rushed to the scene, they were surprised to find not a crook, but a large stuffed toy.

The woman was returning late at night to her car in an indoor car park when she saw the suspected brigand through the window of a parked van, police said Thursday.

Though she later admitted to only catching a glimpse in the darkness, she was sufficiently alarmed to alert the authorities.

Armed officers arrived in three cars and surrounded the van. What they found was a large toy beaver, strapped into the passenger seat.

A police spokesman said he struggled to see how the toy, which has two oversized front teeth, could have been mistaken for a person.

She is a latecomer to the information superhighway, but 75-year-old Sigbritt Lothberg is now cruising the Internet with a dizzying speed. Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said.

In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer - many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit.

Jonsson and Lothberg's son, Peter, worked together to install the connection.

The speed is reached using a new modulation technique that allows the sending of data between two routers placed up to 1,240 miles apart, without any transponders in between, Jonsson said.

"We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed," he said.

Peter Lothberg, who is a networking expert, said he wanted to demonstrate the new technology while providing a computer link for his mother.

"She's a brand-new Internet user," Lothberg said by phone from California, where he lives. "She didn't even have a computer before."

His mother isn't exactly making the most of her high-speed connection. She only uses it to read Web-based newspapers.

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of kissing a painting by American artist Cy Twombly and smudging the bone-white canvas with her lipstick, French judicial officials said Saturday.

Police said they arrested the woman after she kissed the work on Thursday. She is to be tried in a court in the southern city of Avignon on Aug. 16 for "damage to a work of art," judicial officials said.

The painting, which is worth an estimated $2 million, was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon. It is part of an exhibition slated to run at the museum through Sept. 30. Officials did not provide further details on the painting.

Twombly is known for his abstract paintings combining painting and drawing techniques, repetitive lines and the use of graffiti, letters and words.

Born in Lexington, Va., in 1928, Twombly has lived in Italy for nearly a half- century. He won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2001.

COBRA is an acronym used to denote the meeting of the UK government's co-ordinated crisis committee - it's been meeting regularly during the recent flooding crisis.

The name might seem a bit dramatic; but it's not really. The initials stand for 'Cabinet Office Briefing Room A' - not very exciting.

(From the Newseum)
1. 1945: U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki: Japan surrenders to end World War II
2. 1969: American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon
3. 1941: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor: U.S. enters World War II
4. 1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first powered airplane
5. 1920: Women win the vote
6. 1963: President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas
7. 1945: Horrors of Nazi Holocaust, concentration camps exposed
8. 1914: World War I begins in Europe
9. 1954: Brown v. Board of Education ends "separate but equal" school segregation<