Infozone Breaking World News

HM Revenue & Customs has admitted that thousands of tax payment reminder letters were not sent out after it ran out of paper. The HMRC was due to send out millions of reminder letters to those who owed money by the end of July, but thousands of people still have not received their letters after officials didn’t order enough paper.

Officials have apologised for the mix-up and stated that people who did not receive their reminders will be given an extra 30 days without incurring any charges. A spokesman for the HM Revenue & Customs said; “Due to exceptionally high demand this year we are experiencing delays in sending paper self assessment tax statements to customers”.

He Added, “We very much regret any inconvenience and will send paper statements to everyone who should have one as soon as possible. People who pay late because of our error won’t have to pay interest”.

A South African truck driver who was stopped at a routine checkpoint in Cape Town was found to only have one leg and was using his 11 year old son to operate the clutch. Police found out that the 39 year old man had had his leg amputated in 1996 after he was shot, but continued to keep driving his delivery truck with the help of his son.

Police also said that the man, who has not been named, had an out of date drivers permit that only allowed him to drive automatic vehicles. After investigating the truck, it was found that it had an expired licence, a broken seat belt and a broken parking brake.

Cape Town’s chief traffic inspector Merle Lourens told the press that, “He won’t be allowed to drive, but he shouldn’t have been driving in the first place”.

The driver has been fined 1,000 rand (approximately £90).

A UK ticket holder has won Europe’s biggest every lottery jackpot, winning an estimated £161 million on Tuesdays EuroMillions draw. The yet unidentified ticker holder if it is a single person and not a syndicate will become the 430th richest person in the UK.

The winning numbers for the draw were 17, 19, 38, 42, 45 and the bonus balls were 9 and 10; the odds of winning the jackpot have been estimated at 116 million to 1.

A spokesperson for Camelot said, “This is amazing news – we are absolutely delighted that a UK ticket holder has scooped the entire €185 million jackpot, which at the current exchange rate is a massive £161 million.” Adding that; “We’ve got the champagne on ice and look forward to welcoming the ticket-holder into the National Lottery millionaires’ club.”

The mega £161 million prize will earn over £9,000 per day in interest, around 3.4 million a year. Camelot also said that the series of rollovers generated about £100 million of extra funds for its charitable causes.

Carnival organisers in the town of Ulverston have cancelled the traditional wet sponge throwing contest due to health and safety fears. One of the favourite events for reveller to take part in was cancelled after the organisers decided that the sponges could get dirty and that someone might get grit in their eye.

The event usually consists of volunteers standing in stocks and carnival customers can throw wet sponges at them, but after the ruling the event took place with water pistols instead.

One of the carnivals organisers Ralph Spours said, “We decided that, in the face of health and safety, it would make better sense to use super-soakers instead.”

He added that, “We did note that sometimes when the sponges were landing on the ground, they were landing in dirt and grit, being put back in the water butts and thrown again and there was a danger that people could get grit in their eye.”

Police have released a statement saying that they caught a woman trying to sneak an inmate out of a Mexican prison in a suitcase. The woman tried the daring stunt as she tried to free her common-law husband from jail after a conjugal visit at the prison in Chetumal.

Staff at the prison noticed that something was wrong when the woman looked like she was struggling with her suitcase which seemed and looked a bit bulky. The guards searched the luggage and found inmate Juan Ramirez curled up in side.

Mr Ramirez is serving a 20 year sentence for illegal weapons possession and was taken back to his cell immediately, the woman 19 year old Maria del Mar Arjona was arrested by police pending charges.

The Torness power station in Scotland had to be shutdown last week after high volumes of jellyfish were found on the seawater filters. The station located on the coast near Dunbar shut down both reactors at the facility operated but EDF Energy.

EDF Energy said that the reactors were shutdown for precautionary measures and an operation to remove the jellyfish near the facility was underway. An EDF representative said, “Reduced cooling water flows due to ingress from jellyfish, seaweed and other marine debris are considered as part of the station’s safety case and are not an unknown phenomenon”.

He added; “This was a precautionary action and the shutdown cooling systems performed in a satisfactory manner and both reactors were safely shut down”.

EDF Energy also said that there was no danger to the public, but could not comment on when the facility was likely to be started up again.