Infozone Breaking World News

The London School of Economy has released a report that shows that cycling generates £2.9bn per year for the UK economy. The report takes into account the manufacturing, bicycle sales and cycle-related sales.

The figures show that £51m was raised by UK manufacturers with over 3.7 million bikes sold in 2010; a 28% rise from the previous year and that £1.5bn was spent on bikes as well as £850 million on cycle related goods.

There are now more than 13 million cyclists in the UK with an estimated million people taking up cycling last year.

Dr Alexander Grous from the London School of Economics said, “The good news is that structural, economic, social and health factors seem finally to have created a true step-change in the UK’s cycling scene”.

A driver had a lucky escape in Leeds after a cow leap a fence and ploughed into his car. The driver, Richard Gould escaped with some minor cuts and bruises, which is more than can be said for his Citroen C5 which was written off with extensive damage to the front and a broken wheel; the cow was pronounced dead at the scene.

It is thought that the cow jumped the fence as it tried to escape from the farmer and landed in the road in front of Mr Gould. He told the press “I was driving along when a cow jumped out and landed on my bonnet. It had hurdled a three-foot high fence and hit the front of my car”. Adding that, “I had no time to brake and my car veered to the other side of the road. I was very lucky that nothing was coming in the opposite direction”.

Mr Gould was given a breath test for alcohol at the scene by police officers; the test came back negative.

Local councils across the country are hoping to banning smoking in public parks and children’s play areas. The Government’s Localism Bill, which aims to give local councils more control, could soon be used to extend the smoking ban.

The smoking ban for indoor public places was introduced in England, Wales and Nothern Ireland on the 1st July 2007 and in Scotland in early 2006.

Stony Stratford, near Milton Keynes is one of the first towns to try to ban smoking altogether. Paul Bartlett’s campaign plans to ban smoking in any open place or public street in the town; it has already had backing by senior councillors but still needs approval from Milton Keynes Council.

Other councils are also considering extensions to the smoking ban including Cumbria Council, with many of them ready to extend the ban to cars carrying children on board.

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 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.”

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.

A man appeared in court yesterday charged with impersonating a police officer after he stole a female officer’s uniform to get into the Isle of Wight Festival.

Daniel Tredinnick didn’t have a ticket for the festival, but wanted to see his favourite band Kasabian headline the prestigious event so he broke into a police car and stole a uniform before sneaking into the festival grounds.

Once Mr Tredinnick was inside he managed to fool both security guards and real police officers and even began keeping the peace by breaking up a fight, helping find a missing person and assisted in treating an injured festival goer.

The facade was up after two and a half hours after an eagle-eyed security guard realised that Mr Tredinnick wasn’t wearing a hat or tie and asked him for some ID.

Mr Tredinnick pleaded guilty to impersonating a police officer and stealing a police uniform, he was given a sixteen week suspended sentence.

A 38 year old man from Doncaster shot off his own finger when he tried to remove a wart with a shotgun. Security guard Sean Murphy had gone to the doctors repeatedly about the problem wart and tried a range of different treatments and cream before hatching the bizarre plan.

Of course instead of the shotgun cleanly blasting his wart into oblivion, it also took half of his middle finger off with it. To make matters worse, Mr Murphy also landed himself in trouble with the police for illegal possession of a firearm.

Mr Murphy, who was given a suspended 16 week prison sentence and 100 hours of community service, claimed that he had found the gun under a bush near his workplace. After hearing the verdict Mr Murphy said, “I know I could have gone to jail for up to 15 years for a firearms offence. My solicitor did a very good job. The best thing is that the wart has gone. It was giving me lot of trouble”.

British man Bruce Masters has made it into the record books as he visits 45,000 pubs on the ultimate pub crawl. The 66 year olds journey started in 1960 and since then he has clocked up an estimated million miles of travel and 25,000 pints.

Mr Masters has kept a log of every pub he has visited and has now collated it on his computer, the watering holes include airport departure bars and cross-country train bars. Mr Masters travels everywhere by train and has no intentions of stopping any time soon, he said, “There are still a great many pubs I have not been to. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing properly.”

He also added that his wife Violet isn’t too happy of his record saying, “But she does not begrudge me doing this, she just prefers to stay at home.”