United Kingdom

Apathy should become the eighth deadly sin of the modern age, taking its place alongside the traditional vices of greed, gluttony, envy, sloth, pride, lust and wrath, a British poll said on Wednesday. Religion itself narrowly missed out on a top 10 place, while less traditional sins also included ”celebrity-ism”.

When Tony Cooper and Lisa Kingscott left their four-seater light plane parked in a field to have lunch with friends nearby, they paid little attention to the cows quietly grazing nearby. When they returned, they were astonished to find that the herd had developed an unlikely taste for its fuselage and were munching their way through a large section.

British scientists have developed the world’s first practical plastic magnet. The breakthrough could lead to new advances in computing and medical applications. The new plastic magnet, developed by the University of Durham’s organic electroactive materials group, is the first in the world to operate at room temperature.

Zimbabwe’s controversial President Robert Mugabe was voted the third-greatest African of all time, topped only by South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and former Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah, in a survey for New African magazine, it was announced on Wednesday.

He might be considered the father of modern science who devised fundamental laws about gravity and motion, but Sir Isaac Newton is not even Britain’s greatest-ever physicist, according to a new ”top 10”. The number-one slot went to Joseph Swan, the 19th-century creator of the first practical light bulb.

British scientists have found a seemingly unlikely way to soothe anxious sheep, a report said on Wednesday — by showing them photographs of other sheep. Much as humans find a picture of loved ones a reassuring item to carry in their wallet, the sight of a friendly face appears to lower stress levels in sheep.

The majority of British people remember Mark Thatcher as one of the only people who ever made his mother, former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, show any personal feelings in public. But now he has been arrested in South Africa over his alleged involvement in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.

The British scientist who masterminded the ill-fated Beagle II probe, which vanished while attempting to land on Mars, said on Tuesday he wants to try again and has asked Nasa for a ride to the Red Planet. He was speaking at a press conference to unveil an investigation into what went wrong with Beagle II.

A British man put a flight from Norway in danger after setting fire to a pornographic magazine under his seat, a court was told on Tuesday. David Mason used a cigarette lighter to ignite torn-out pages from the magazine, which he had bought himself, saying later he had been ”offended” by them.

The last surviving British World War II gunboat in existence could be sold to collectors in Germany due to the lack of a domestic purchaser, its owner said on Friday. Phil Clabburn has spent the past five years and £500 000 (about R5,85-million) restoring the MGB81 boat, which saw action on D-Day in June 1944.

One of a pair of rare Komodo dragon lizards brought to the London Zoo amid great fanfare last month has died after falling off a wall while trying to reach her mate, zoo officials said on Friday. Nina, a 10-year-old female Komodo dragon, died of internal bleeding on Wednesday after somehow scrambling up a 2,4m wall.

Workers were on Thursday beginning to clear thousands of tons of mud and rock from a main road in Scotland, a day after two massive landslides left more than 50 people stranded. Motorists had to be winched to safety by helicopter after the landslides blocked two parts of the A85 motorway in central Scotland.

A British archaeologist is set to reveal what he believes to be the location of John the Baptist’s cave to the west of Jerusalem, the Times reported on Monday. Shimon Gibson (45) has found a cave with a ritual baptism pool, rock carvings and pottery, which he linked to John the Baptist and his followers, the newspaper said.

Killer asteroids will essentially cease to be a threat within the next 30 years, according to a leading expert. Scientists are discovering near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) so fast that the chances of one hitting our planet with no warning is likely to become minute, said Dr Benny Peiser.

A burning rabbit has destroyed a 150-year-old cricket club in Britain after being set on fire accidentally in a bundle of branches by two groundsmen, firemen said on Friday. The men, working at Devizes Cricket Club ground in the west of England, saw the rabbit escape, trailing its burning tail with it.

A leading British group opposed to science involving embryos reacted angrily on Wednesday after the government gave a research team permission to use human cloning for the purposes of medical research. ”It is very worrying indeed,” said Josephine Quintavalle, of the group Comment on Reproductive Ethics.

Stripped-down news anchors posed outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday to launch the latest addition to Britain’s competitive news media — <i>Naked News</i>. The revealing format, in which anchors disrobe while reading a digest of news, sports and entertainment, is due to begin broadcasting on Monday.

Britain on Wednesday granted its first license allowing scientists to clone human embryos, more than three years after becoming the first nation to authorise the technique to produce stem cells for medical research. In January 2001, Britain became the first nation to authorise the cloning of human embryos.

Oil prices resumed their upwards march on Thursday as supply fears persisted despite a lifeline for Russian energy giant Yukos and efforts by Opec to reassure markets it still has spare output capacity. Brent North Sea crude oil for September delivery rose 55 cents to ,25 a barrel in early trading in London.

Big Ben, the famous clock tower on Britain’s Houses of Parliament, could be surrounded by an electric fence as part of new security measures to shield it from terrorists and publicity-seeking protesters, a report said on Monday. Big Ben is considered a trophy target for terrorists, the Times newspaper said.

After having spent 18 years in jail for a murder they never committed, two British men had their compensation payment for wrongful imprisonment cut by a quarter on Thursday on the grounds they did not have to pay for board and lodging during the time they were incarcerated.

Fears about terrorism returned to haunt Britain on Monday after police said they are investigating how secret police plans to prevent Heathrow airport from attack were found abandoned by a roadside. Also, a government minister advised the public to stock up on food and other emergency supplies in case of a terror attack.

A year after the death of government weapons scientist David Kelly and two Iraq inquiries later, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is struggling to convince the public that his decision to oust Saddam Hussein by military means was right. The fallout for Blair from Kelly’s suicide has been immense.

Marks and Spencer shares tumbled on Thursday after the British tycoon Philip Green dropped his proposed takeover offer for the group, ratcheting up the pressure on its new management to deliver results. The billionaire retail magnate abandoned a third informal offer for the century-old British retailer late on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was not responsible for failures of British intelligence about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction ahead of the war to oust Saddam Hussein, an official inquiry reported on Wednesday. Iraq most likely possessed no useable weapons of mass destruction before the conflict, the inquiry concluded.

Iraq’s interim President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar said in an interview published on Monday that the government will within ”a couple of days” offer an amnesty to insurgents who have fought United States-led forces but are ready to lay down their arms. Amnesty will not apply to ”murderers, rapists, and kidnappers”, Yawar said.

The British scientific establishment responded with anger on Monday to an attack by Prince Charles on nanotechnology — applied science involving tiny particles. Over the weekend the prince suggested using the technology in fertility treatment could lead to a disaster of the kind caused by the use of thalidomide.

Britain does not yet want to see its four nationals held at the Guantanamo Bay prison freed because it cannot guarantee they are not a security threat, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday. The ”machinery” is not yet in place to ensure the British men will pose no risk to security if they return home, Blair said.

Robert Burchfield, a daring and innovative lexicographer who was chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionaries from 1971 to 1984, has died at the age of 81, Oxford University Press said on Tuesday. Burchfield once described the English language as ”a monster accordion, stretchable at the whim of the editor, compressible ad lib”.