We know you’re busy so we’ve condensed some of the bits of news from the last 24 hours that you’ve might have missed into bite size chunks.

Lonely elephant better off here, says Longleat

Almost 400,000 people have signed a petition to rehome Britain’s ‘loneliest’ elephant. Activists, including actress Joanna Lumley, want her moved from Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire to a sanctuary in France, to be with other elephants. But Longleat, which looks after Anne in a £1.2million enclosure, said the sanctuary in Limousin, launched in 2012, was yet to look after any elephants and ‘certainly not one with Anne’s complex care requirements.’ It added: ‘Anne would be their first and only elephant.’

Machete victim’s ‘bad relationship’ warning

A woman maimed by a machete-wielding jealous boyfriend has spoken out to warn others. Chelsey Morris, 21, had moved out of Ryan Abbott’s flat after three-and-a-half years but agreed to go back to talk. He attacked her with the blade, slashing her finger as she defended herself. After smashing up the flat in a drug-fuelled rage he ran outside attacking cars and houses in Runcorn, Cheshire. Abbot, 28, got four years for wounding and affray. Ms Morris said: ‘I have my own flat now and a fresh start. I hope I can help other women get out of a bad relationship before it’s too late.’

Police continue hunt for heist leader’s attacker

Detectives are still probing the attempted assassination of the man who masterminded one of Britain’s biggest-ever heists. Paul Allen, who stole £53million in the 2006 Securitas depot raid, was shot in July 2019. He was hit in the neck when six shots were fired at a £1.2million home rented from comedian Russell Kane. The 43-year-old, who served a third of his 18-year sentence for the raid, survived the attack in Woodford Green, north London. The Metropolitan Police has made eight arrests but no one has been charged. Det Insp Matthew Webb urged anyone with information to get in touch.

Sea & B… Injured seals recover in holiday digs

Two Airbnb owners have swapped their holiday rental’s guests for stranded seal pups. Volunteers Lizzi Larbalestier and husband Julian spend their spare time rescuing lost, ill or injured pups with British Divers Marine Life Rescue. Due to a lack of sanctuary space, the pair offered their home as an overflow facility to house pups before they are ready to go to a seal sanctuary ahead being released. Two seals are able to stay in pens in their Airbnb studio and four in the garage at Perranporth, Cornwall, at any one time — with the couple helping to save more than 100 since September. ‘My husband isn’t sure if it will ever smell the same again,’ said Ms Larbalestier.

Girl, two, taken from violent fantasist dad

A girl of two cannot live with her dad, who has a history of violence towards people and animals, a High Court judge has ordered. Mrs Justice Roberts said she was extremely concerned for the physical safety of the child, who will now be brought up by foster carers instead of her parents. The judge said the dad had a significant history of criminal offending, while reports showed he had graphic fantasies about harming animals and stalking and killing paedophiles. He had made a particularly concerning comment that if he could not care for his child ‘no one else will,’ the court heard. The girl is in temporary council care, where she was placed shortly after birth.

Missing blind cat found after 11 years

A blind cat has been reunited with his owners after going missing for 11 years. Adopted Dexter, then five, vanished over the garden fence in April 2010. Julie Gibbons and her family spent days searching in vain for him in Warrington, Cheshire. But the pet was microchipped and Julie, 56, was called out of the blue by a vet after he was found just a mile away on January 29.

Bebo founder’s village rescue bid slows down

A rundown village’s multi-million-pound rejuvenation by the founder of Bebo has been pushed back due to the pandemic. US-based British entrepreneur Michael Birch, 50, spent summers in Woolsery, Devon, as a child. After selling his social network for $850million, he decided to breathe new life into the village — buying the closed Farmers Arms pub, an empty manor house to make into a hotel, a chip shop and farmland. ‘It was knowing that I could (help),’ he said. But overseer Emily Harmon has announced the rejuvenation plan, due to be finished this year, has been delayed by at least a year. Renovations are continuing — but since the first lockdown, 23 out of 65 project workers were let go due to financial strain.

Major conned MoD of £13,000 to pay school fees

An Army major awarded an MBE for charity work defrauded the military of nearly £13,000. Lloyd Hamilton, 47, could only claim to send his two children to boarding school if his wife left their Hampshire home to join him in Cyprus. But he failed to say they were estranged. A military court that cleared him of a £25,000 fraud will sentence him at a later date.

High blood pressure at night ‘a dementia risk’

People who have higher blood pressure at night than during the day may be at risk of Alzheimer’s. The findings come from a study of 1,000 Swedish men in their early 70s who were followed by researchers for up to 24 years. Under healthy conditions, blood pressure varies and is lowest at night. But for some, the opposite — reverse dipping — is true. Lead author Dr Xiao Tan, of Uppsala University, said: ‘The risk of getting a dementia diagnosis was 1.64 times higher among men with reverse dipping versus those with normal dipping.’

UK’s terror threat level reduced to ‘substantial’

Britain’s terrorism threat level has been reduced from ‘severe’ to ‘substantial’ due to a significant reduction in the momentum of attacks in Europe. Home secretary Priti Patel said the lowered threat level still meant an attack on the UK remained ‘likely’ and the public should remain vigilant. The threat level was raised to severe by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre in November following Islamist attacks in Austria and France but this was reduced on Thursday, Ms Patel told MPs. She said the national threat level was kept under constant review and was subject to change at any time.

Fake news increase for children in lockdown

More than half of children are seeing more fake news and altered images on the web than last year, a study says. While three-quarters of eight to 17-year-olds said they felt being online had helped them during lockdowns, 51 per cent noticed a rise in misleading content, found the poll commissioned ahead of today’s Safer Internet Day today. Will Gardner, of the UK Safer Internet Centre, said: ‘We need to listen to young people and hear the strategies they are already using and we need to work to support them. Managing unreliable content and contact is fundamental to being safe online.’

Deadly mill blast ‘down to negligence by owner’

A mill explosion that killed four workers resulted from negligence by the owners, a court has heard. One firefighter described arriving at ‘a scene like out of the movies’ with devastation everywhere, prosecutors said. The blast at the wood mill in Bosley, Cheshire, on July 17, 2015, killed Dorothy Bailey, 62, Derek William Barks, 51, Derek Moore, 62, and Jason Shingler, 38, whose body was never recovered. A retrial opened yesterday at Chester Nightingale court where Wood Treatment Ltd denies four counts of corporate manslaughter. It has admitted a health and safety offence. Director George Boden, 64, denies four counts of gross negligence manslaughter and a health and safety offence.

TV licence fee to rise £1.50 a year

TV licence fees will go up from £157.50 to £159 a year from April 1. The fee is set by the government, which said it would rise in line with inflation for five years from April 2017. The cost of an annual black and white TV licence will rise 50p to £53.50. More than 6,000 people still have one. BBC director-general Tim Davie said: ‘The vast majority of households think it offers very good value. That’s what the BBC needs to focus on.’

Mum thinks out of the box for son’s birthday

A mum made this Amazon box that’s actually a chocolate birthday cake for her son — taking inspiration from his frequent online orders. Nina Evans Williams, 54, spent two days on the four-layer creation for Kane Evans’s 24th. The professional cake designer, from Anglesey, north Wales, said: ‘I told him there was a parcel on the table. When he got closer he was like “oh my God!”’

WORLD BRIEFS

Rescue joy… but up to 200 missing

A survivor throws his hands in the air in thanks to celebrate his rescue from a Himalayan avalanche. At least 18 were dead and 200 missing yesterday after part of a mountain glacier broke in northern India on Sunday, sending floods of water into two hydro dams. The mud-covered man (pictured) was one of a dozen workers from the Dhauliganga hydro-power plant saved by Indo Tibetan Border Police. Hundreds of emergency workers have been sent to Uttarakhand state and experts are investigating what led the dam to burst.

NEWS BITES

■ Two men suspected of painting graffiti in Larne condemning Irish Sea border checks face charges of criminal damage and possessing paint to harm property. Coleraine magistrates bailed William Donnell, 21, of Larne, and Mitchell Leeburn, 25, of Kilwaughter, until March 25.

■ Climate change has made the hayfever season three weeks longer, prolonging the misery for millions of sufferers. The amount of pollen in the air has also gone up by a fifth since 1990, a study by the University of Utah found.

■ A sex offender who stuffed a courgette in his leggings before ‘parading’ in front of shoppers has been jailed for eight months. Geoffrey Chambers, 66, rubbed the vegetable while making eye contact with women in Hereford.

■ EastEnders actress Maddy Hill will return to Albert Square as Nancy Carter. The star, who quit the soap for Casualty in 2016, said: ‘I’m excited to be coming back. I often wonder what Nancy’s been up to.’ She begins filming later this month.

■ A model railway fan’s £15,000 collection of miniature steam engines has been stolen from his home in Cambridgeshire. Willem Middlemiss, 70, was ‘devastated’ by the loss of the rare items in Godmanchester last Saturday.

WORLD BITES

■ A carpenter who slipped and cut off his left hand with a chainsaw has had it reattached. Ahmet Esen, 59, picked his hand up, put it in a bag and was taken to hospital in Antalya, Turkey. ‘I thank God. I can feel my hand and move my fingers again,’ he said.

■ At least 24 people were killed in a flood at an illegal textile factory in Morocco. Rescuers managed to save ten workers from a basement but it was not immediately clear how many workers were in the building in Tangier when the flood struck.

■ Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court to deny corruption as his trial resumed, weeks before voters return to the polls for the fourth election in two years. Mr Netanyahu, who hopes to extend his 12 years in power, left 20 minutes into the hearing.

■ A ‘gender reveal’ cannon killed a guest when it exploded at a baby shower garden party in the US. Shrapnel from the novelty device hit Evan Thomas Silva, 26, after it was fired in Michigan to celebrate the baby’s pending arrival.

How to get your Metro newspaper fix

Metro newspaper is still available for you to pick up every weekday morning or you can download our app for all your favourite news, features, puzzles… and the exclusive evening edition!

Download the Metro newspaper app here.

Source: Read Full Article