Pigeons in the guano

The Telegraph reports that a number of pigeons have been arrested for spying on Iran’s nuclear sites... (and quite right too, the filthy infidel flying rats).

One of the pigeons was caught near a rose water production plant in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province, the Etemad Melli newspaper reported. It said that some metal rings and "invisible" strings were attached to the bird, suggesting that it might have been somehow communicating what it had seen with the equipment it was carrying.

"Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings," a source told the newspaper.

The source gave no further description of the pigeons, nor what their fate might be.

Natanz is home to Iran's heavily-bunkered underground uranium enrichment plant, which is also not far from Kashan.
The activity at Iran's controversial uranium enrichment facility is the focus of Iran's five-year standoff with the West, which fears it aims to develop nuclear weapons. The Tehran government insists its programme is intended to generate power for civilian use only.

Last year, Iran issued a formal protest over the use of espionage by the United States to produce a key intelligence report on the country's controversial nuclear programme.

It is also highly suspicious of Israel, whose extensive intelligence activities are not known to include the use of pigeons.

Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down...

This site is genius...

www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com

Fantastic biscuit reviews. Might I recommend the analysis of how the Club biscuit has changed (and not for the better) and how the Lincoln is now only available in Ireland.

Ah, the Lincoln. That green packet, as I recall – Lincoln green, perhaps? A reference to Robin Hood and his Merry Men? Robbing the rich to give to the poor?

Doesn't seem more than a few months since I saw a packet of Lincoln, but I gather they went West some time ago.

Rickshaw bombers peddle death

What a charming eastern touch to the whole thing. Had the bombs gone off, they'd have been stuck in traffic about 20 metres away.



Two terrorists caught rickshaws to escape the scene after leaving car bombs parked in London's busy West End, a court heard.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Kafeel Ahmed, 28, stationed one of the vehicles outside a packed nightclub and the other in front of a bustling bus stop, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

The cars, packed with gas canisters, petrol and nails, were left in the capital on June 29 last year but failed to explode because the initiation devices did not work properly, the jury heard.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said the two men were captured on CCTV leaving the area in the early hours of that morning.

Ahmed was seen dumping into a bin an umbrella he had apparently been carrying to shield his face from cameras.

At 1.39am he boarded a rickshaw in Piccadilly Circus and Abdulla also adopted the same mode of transport to get away from the area.

The two men met up in Edgware Road at 2.05am, just 30 minutes after they had left the bomb-rigged cars, the court heard.

Ahmed died in hospital after a second attempted terrorist attack, on Glasgow Airport, the following day.

Abdulla is standing trial with Mohammed Asha, 28, accused of conspiring to murder and to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

Abdulla, of Houston, Glasgow, and Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, are both doctors who have worked in NHS hospitals around the country. They both deny the charges.

Story of the day

(Thanks to ITV news)


Police are investigating after a cook was found dead in a freezer at the primary school where she worked.

Officers said the body of Linda Gent, 53, was discovered at South Benfleet Primary School in Benfleet, Essex, late on a Saturday.

She had been reported missing 15 hours earlier.

Sources said detectives are not treating the incident as murder, but a report was being prepared for a coroner.

Police said a post-mortem examination had failed to reveal a cause of death and further tests were being carried out.

A source close to the inquiry added: "Her body was found in a freezer at the school."

Sources said one possibility being considered was that Mrs Gent, who lived in Benfleet, had killed herself.

Mrs Gent had worked at the school since the late 1980s and staff and children were said to be "devastated".

"Everyone connected with South Benfleet Primary School has been devastated by the sudden death of Linda Gent, our school cook," said head Dominic Carver.

"Mrs Gent was a hugely popular and highly-valued member of our catering team. Her positive contribution of about 20 years at the school has been magnificent."

Tumbril for Mr Fuld

If anyone deserves to be chopped up and fed to rabid alligators it is Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld.

In March, this money-grabbing vermin was awarded a $22 million bonus for 2007. His bank duly went under and marked the beginning of the world's current financial woes.

That amount of money is staggering. Whatever happens in the world economy Mr Fuld is going to be fine - as are all those other financial wizards who are responsible for the world economy going into a tailspin.

Set up a guillotine in Canary Wharf and dispatch the lot of them. Mr Fuld could be first.

Great Irishman crops up at Compton Verney

Jack Yeats, brother of the poet William Butler Yeats, was arguably the best-known Irish painter of the 20th century, but exhibitions of his work are rare outside his homeland.

That makes English gallery Compton Verney’s new show, Masquerade and Spectacle: The Circus and the Travelling Fair, all the more welcome – especially as it is paired with a selection of works on a broadly similar theme by Yeats’ friend, the Austrian expressionist Oskar Kokoschka.

Yeats, born in 1871, was fascinated by circuses from an early age, when he would visit them when they came to his hometown of Sligo. Later, his family moved to London’s Earls Court, close to where Buffalo’s Bill Great Realistic Exhibition of Western Novelties was on show.

Yeats’ paintings capture an element of Irish society that was both pivotal but also on the wane – as cinema began to gain sway as a form of entertainment. His paintings show fairground characters such as the Barrel Man – half-in, half-out of a barrel, dodging out of the way of the sticks that are being hurled at him – and the Two Jockeys, hurtling around the ring balanced on a horse’s rump a white-faced clown at their side.

Yeats was also aware of the politics of the time. His 1910 picture An Occupation features a green-clad man carrying a heavy bucket of meat towards a bear’s cage while the animal pokes its nose through the bars in anticipation. The title refers to the man’s unglamorous, backstage job, but is thought also to tip its hat to the fact that Ireland was at the time ‘occupied’ by the British.

Compton Verney is unique among leading English galleries in that it is housed in an imposing stately home that was designed by Robert Adam in the 1760s. In 1993, in an advanced state of decay, it was bought by the Peter Moores Foundation, which spent the next 11 years (and an estimated £64m) transforming the property into a world-class art gallery, finally opening it to the public in 2004.

Compton Verney is seven miles east of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, UK.
Jack B Yeats: Masquerade & Spectacle: The Circus and the Travelling Fair is on show in conjunction with Oskar Kokoschka: Exile and New Home 1938-1980 until 14 December.

Well fancy that...

Harry Enfield has had to axe a Muslim hoodie from his new show. Incredible he ever thought that it would be a good idea for a character, really, funny as it would undoubtedly be. It would probably have ended with Enfield being fatwa’d and his effigy being burnt from Kabul to Kidderminster.

This from The Daily Telegraph.

The 47-year-old sketch show comedian was ordered by executives at production company Tiger Aspect to scrap plans to play the unnamed Muslim because it might “cause trouble”. [No, do you really think so?]

Enfield, who was recently named Loaded Legend at Loaded magazine's annual Lafta comedy awards, said that he was also warned not to play paedophile Catholic priest Father Paddy, another new character, for the same reason.
Enfield said: “I was told, ‘Don't even go there’.”

Tiger Aspect Productions said that the decision not to include the unnamed Muslim Hoodie and Father Paddy had been taken a long time before the series aired and so the ban on the characters had not affected the show's production or launch.

A spokesman said: ‘The characters never made it further than the page. This was a decision taken collectively by key members of the production team at the time of making the series almost two years ago.’

Feed the croc

Good effort by the youngster – breaks into both a zoo and the croc’s enclosure... And manages not to be gobbled up himself.


CANBERRA (Reuters) - The parents of a 7-year-old boy who broke into an Australian outback zoo and fed a string of small animals to its resident crocodile are likely to be sued after police said the boy was too young to be held responsible.

A turtle, four western blue tongue lizards, two bearded dragons, two thorny devil lizards and a 1.8 metre (5.9ft) adult female Spencer's goanna were fed or led into the jaws of a 3 metre, 200kg (440lb) saltwater crocodile named "Terry."

Security camera footage at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre showed the smiling youngster also bludgeoning to death a small blue tongue lizard and two more thorny devils during a half-hour of breakfast-time havoc last Wednesday.

"The fact a 7-year-old can wreak so much havoc in such a short time, it's unbelievable. In my day he'd get a big boot up the backside," centre director Rex Neindorf told Reuters by phone.

"Police found him, but in the Northern Territory here he can't be accountable if he's under 10 years of age."

Neindorf said many of the animals fed to the croc were rare or mature and would be difficult to replace.

The boy was unknown at the centre and had "clammed up" when questioned by police on what sparked the rampage, he said.

Neindorf said he was now looking at suing the parents of the pint-sized terror, who could easily have been taken by Terry himself as he fed the croc from a small landing at his enclosure.

"We'll be looking at suing the parents, who were supposedly in control of him at the time," he said.

Headline of the day

Goes to the Daily Telegraph for the following:

Archbishop Peter Akinola cites sheep sex arrest as proof of Britain’s moral decline

Archbishop Peter Akinola may have a point.