Delivery driver sent screaming in fear as dog chases after him
By Leo Black
An Amazon driver was left terrified after a dog chased him through a neighbourhood during a delivery.
The video, captured on a doorbell camera, shows the driver sprinting across the street and then down the block as Nala the dog pursues him.
Nala's owner, of Manchester, Connecticut, USA, rushed out to call Nala back
She can be heard saying: "Come here Nala! Nala come! She's friendly! Come here! Come here!"
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Who's in the wrong? Standoff between lorry driver and cyclist
By Samuel Wightwick
A lorry driver and a cyclist came face-to-face down a country lane with neither unable to go through - and a row breaking out.
The motorist who wished to remain anonymous filmed the footage of her coming to loggerheads with a cyclist in Hampshire.
The video shows the lorry driver asking the cyclist to reverse and "go back to the wide bit" as it would be easier than reversing a 60ft-long lorry.
The cyclist refuses and insists that lorries shouldn't be using country lanes.
The lorry driver can be heard saying: "You think it's easier for me to reverse? I'm 60ft long and the same width as this road.
"As you can see by the fact that I'm in the hedge both sides."
The cyclist responds by asking why should she be the one to go back before adding that the driver "shouldn't be down here anyway."
The lady on the pushbike eventually went back to allow the lorry to drive through.
Since being posted on TikTok, the video has provoked debate with some people saying the lorry is in the wrong.
One comment said: "The cyclist has right of way, sorry I am a class one driver too"
Another read: "You shouldn't be driving down a narrow country road in a 60ft lorry, simple."
However, others believed the cyclist should have simply reversed.
One person wrote: "I'm shocked people are saying the lorry shouldn't be there."
Another said: "People forget, the driver doesn't pick the destination and therefore has no choice in access route."
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Auction house selling handwritten letters from King Charles - to Jimmy Savile
By Josie Adnitt
An auction house is selling handwritten letters and telegrams from King Charles - to Jimmy Savile.
RR Auction, based in the US, has nine items available said to be from the disgraced comedian's collection.
The lot also includes an invitation from Princess Diana, pictures of Diana and Charles together and letters from Margaret Thatcher - all attributed to Savile.
And one telegram - containing a birthday message - is even signed by princes William and Harry.
Savile was of one of Britain's most beloved entertainers in his lifetime. He was outed after his death as a predatory sex offender.
The collection was found by a disgruntled Brit, who said: “It just really freaked me out that someone was selling this in the States.
"A lot of Americans wouldn't have a clue who Jimmy Savile is.
“Most people wouldn’t want any association with him but there might be some really sick people waiting in the wings to buy this stuff.
“It’s been made to look like a royal memorabilia auction, but it says in the notes it’s from the private collection of Jimmy Savile.
“You wouldn’t pass on these items to anyone. Someone close to him must have inherited them or someone who had access to that sort of thing.”
Items include a birthday message to Savile, congratulations on his knighthood and an invitation to Kensington Palace.
An original honeymoon photograph of King Charles and Princess Diana is also up for sale.
Estimates range from $400 to more than $1,000 for the collection of letters between Thatcher and Savile.
Several items have received bids.
The auction ends today (February 14).
Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, said: "Every piece of history holds a story, even those intertwined with controversy like the Jimmy Savile lots up for auction."
Listings: https://www.rrauction.com/search/results/?navsearch=true&str=jimmy+savile.
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Chicken shop boss loses £12k in Tesla trademark row over 'Tesla Chicken & Pizza'
By Douglas Whitbread
A takeaway boss who wanted to call his new shop 'Tesla Chicken & Pizza' has been hit with a £12,000 bill after losing a trademark battle with Elon Musk's car giant.
Amanj Ali, 41, registered the name in homage to inventor Nikola Tesla in May 2020, without objections.
But when lawyers working for Tesla learned he'd registered the trademark in Britain, they launched a bid to protect its trademark for food and drinks services in the UK.
After losing the bitter ‘David and Goliath’ naming battle, Amanj was left with a fine and legal costs topping £12,000.
And Amanj, who currently owns just a single chicken shop in Bury, Gtr Manchester, said he would now not invite Elon Musk to eat at his premises.
He said: “I was so disappointed after all this. All I can say is it is just because a big company [took on] a small company – nothing else.
“When I lost it, I was kind of hurting, but I just tried to keep a secret and not tell it to anybody.
“It was 18 months that I had been fighting them… I couldn’t sometimes sleep properly, and at that time, it was kind of hard for me.
He added about Musk: “If you asked me, 'Will you be inviting him', I would say ‘no’.”
Hard-working Amanj said he had originally applied for his trademark as he hoped to open a new takeaway business in the Greater Manchester area.
He already had a chicken shop called Colorado’s, but felt his new branch would need an alternative name as it would have a different identity.
Amanj claims he struck upon 'Tesla Chicken & Pizza' as the famed inventor had left a mark on him when he was a youngster.
And he planned for his new restaurant to have a mural dedicated to the trailblazer, who pioneered modern alternating current supply systems in electricity.
Amanj said: “In my young age, I read about him… I don’t know whether it is true or not, but some people claim he invented a lot of things.
"For my Colorado’s brand, we do chicken only but with Tesla Chicken & Pizza, I wanted to do pizza as well.
"And we were planning when we open the restaurant, we will have a wall that will have a Nikola Tesla picture."
Amanj’s trademark was successfully registered in 'class 43' for food and drink services, but his plans for a new restaurant later stalled due to the pandemic.
And in November 2021, he got emails from the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO), saying another party had applied for the 'Tesla' trademark in the same section.
Stunned Amanj said he had no idea that electric car manufacturer Tesla was behind the application until he researched them on the internet.
He said: “When we Googled that address, it was the headquarters of Tesla Motors.
“I’m a micro businessman being faced [with] one of the richest man’s companies, [so] I found a solicitor, and I called them."
Working with his lawyer, Amanj said representatives from Tesla offered him £750 to sell the rights to his trademark to them in May 2022.
But he was dismayed by this proposal and claims he then joked with his legal team that only '£750,000' would be enough to let him give it up.
Amanj said his lawyer then relayed this to Tesla’s representatives as a matter of fact, and later they used this to successfully argue he had acted in “bad faith”.
Amanj said: “At that time, they kind of made me laugh and I was angry, I just quickly replied to my solicitor, ‘Tell them my client will accept your offer with a ‘k’ next to it.'
“But my solicitor replied, ‘He won’t accept the £750 but instead, he will accept £750,000’… Tesla's solicitor used that against me.”
Court documents also revealed how Tesla's lawyers argued that a tweet sent by Elon Musk in January 2018 made clear his ambitions to start up a restaurant franchise using the company's name.
It read: “Gonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA.”
They also suggested that Amanj was “familiar with the trade mark system” and was aware of Musk's huge $206bn fortune due to his posts on social media.
But after the case, Amanj said many people were aware of Musk's wealth and questioned whether the tweet was a legitimate business proposal as it hadn't yet materialised.
Amanj fumed: “I said, 'I haven’t opened my restaurant yet, but you haven’t either?'"
As part of the IPO's ruling in late November last year, Amanj was forced to pay Tesla £4,000 while also shelling out £8,000 in fees for his solicitor.
But despite the crushing defeat, he doesn't bear a grudge toward the world’s richest man.
Amanj added: “I’m the type of person that I don’t have any hate against anyone. I am too busy to hate people.”
Tesla has been contacted for comment.
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Oops! Woman forgets to put handbrake on
By Jake Meeus-Jones
A video doorbell captured the hilarious moment a woman was forced to chase after her runaway car after forgetting to put the handbrake on.
Mia Roberts, 24, returned home from work and a trip to the supermarket, and was about to open her front door when she noticed her car slowly rolling away.
Mia's blue Volkswagen Golf smashed into four metal barriers and was on course to hit her neighbour's Mini Cooper before she was able to catch up with it.
Her car avoided any serious damage, but Mia's groceries weren't so lucky - with her eggs bearing the brunt of it when she dropped the bag to catch up with the car.
Watching the video back, Mia whose automatic handbrake failed to engage, has vowed to never park on the road again - opting to use her driveway instead.
Mia, a primary school teacher from Bourne, Lincolnshire, said: "The driveway can fit three cars on but it's a single driveway and I knew my partner needed to get out so I parked on the road.
"My handbrake normally goes on automatically but because it's on a slight slope I should really press it in myself.
"I hadn't put it on and I don't know what made me look to my left but I suddenly see the car rolling away and I don't know why I didn't run across the lawn!
"It was heading for a brand new Mini and I'd accepted my fate that the car was going to hit it.
"But thankfully I managed to unlock it, jump in and put the handbrake on in time.
"When I ran past the parked car, I dropped the shopping bag to run faster to catch up with the car and my eggs split all over the road!
"The few scratches on the car are from the four gates that the car knocked over - luckily I've not got many neighbours so I've gotten away with it quite discreetly!
"I don't know what made me look over my shoulder, it was just gut instinct.
"My first thought was that I'd have to knock on someone's door as it was going to hit a house or a car."
She says her boyfriend wasn't surprised by her handbrake blunder.
She added: "My partner's not got the ring doorbell connected to his phone so when I showed him the video he wasn't surprised at all - he loved showing all his friends in all his group chats.
"If I didn't have a ring doorbell no one would believe it!
"When I'm first walking up the driveway not knowing that it's slowly moving away is so funny."
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Plucky fox forced to swim 300m to dry land after getting cut off by tide
By Laura Elvin
A plucky fox was forced to swim 300m to dry land after it got cut off by the tide on a beach.
The Mull Wildlife Group was on a sightseeing trip when members spotted the "orange head" out on the rocks.
The handsome fox was stranded out at sea after seemingly getting trapped while lying in wait for birds off the beach in Longniddry in East Lothian, Scotland.
Nancy Somerville, 70, and her friends watched as the fox dipped its paws in the water - and recoiled at the freezing temperatures.
But with the waves lapping at the fast-disappearing outcrop, the wild animal was left with no choice but to leap into the water.
They watched as the little creature swam the distance to the shore - stopping on a rock on the way - before scarpering away to dry off, on Thursday (8).
Retired community worker Nancy, from the Isle of Mull, said: "He looked really quite healthy apart from his tail being pretty wet.
"It looked like it wanted to get into the water. It dipped its paw in and decided it was too cold but eventually it took the plunge.
"By this time the tide was coming in more and more. It was getting cut off.
"It was quite something to see."
Nancy said the wildlife group speculated the fox was hunting for birds when it got cut off from the shore and they watched it for around 30 minutes.
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Dad installs 10ft dinosaur on top of garage to "make people smile"
By Lauren Beavis
A dad has installed a giant dinosaur sculpture in his front garden - to 'give people something to smile about'.
Ben Maddocks, 50, has put the 10ft T-Rex on top of a shipping container which he uses as a garage.
The dad, of Bristol, originally bought the metalwork from a garden centre for his son Noah, 6, who is 'into dinos big time'.
Ben said: “When we saw it up for sale, we thought we would buy that for Noah.
“Because of Noah being autistic and into dinosaurs, he’s got boxes, boxes and boxes of dinos.”
The nine-foot-six dinosaur has been living in Ben’s back garden for about three years, but Ben recently decided he wanted to put it on the roof of his house.
The father-of-eight explained: “Ultimately, we wanted to put it on the roof of the house - but it weighs so much, about a quarter of a tonne - so we were worried it might come through the ceiling!
“So I bought myself a shipping container, which is my garage, and thought I’d put it there for my son Noah, given his passion for dinos, but also to give children something to smile about.
"I didn't expect it to do what it's done - but don't get me wrong it does stand out of course!
"Noah didn't know I had put it up as he was at school - so when he came home around the corner, he was like 'Oh my god, my dino is on the roof!'.
"He believes it climbed up there himself..
"It's amazing - the amount of children who stop to look and smile, cars that stop to take pictures.
"It's lovely that it is bringing a sense of smile and positivity to the community.
"Rather than having lots of negativity, it is something that is making people happy.
“There’s not a lot to smile about lately, so it’s making kids' days."
The sculpture is made out of metal, and Ben says he was able to get it on the container with 'great difficulty'.
He said: "I lifted it on with ropes and stuff but got it up there.
"He’s well bolted down as you don’t want that falling on your head!"
Avid biker Ben also voluntarily runs Bikers in Bristol as well as being a full-time carer for his dad.
He said the dinosaur will remain at their home for a long time.
He added: “If I come across something a bit weird, different or unusual, I normally buy it because, as my wife says, that’s the way I am.
“We just get on with things and enjoy it, and if the kids are happy, I’m happy.
"Because its brought such a sense of happiness to lots and lots of people, the dino is not going to be coming down anytime soon."
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"I ditched my PhD to drive from London to Lagos"
By Hannah Van De Peer
A woman quit her PhD for the “road trip of a lifetime” - driving from London to Lagos with 20 stops along the way.
Pelumi Nubi, 29, said people have called her “crazy” - but it gave her all the more motivation to go through with it.
She’s currently on stop five in Morocco after travelling through France and Spain, and plans to be on the road for another two months before she reaches Nigeria.
In order to save money, she’s been sleeping in her £3k Peugeot 107, using hot water bottles for clean drinking water and heat.
Pelumi, from Croydon, London, who was studying for a PhD in biomedical science before she quit, said: “A lot of people called me crazy - I know I’m trying to do the impossible, but it’s the right thing for me.
“Life is short - so why not step out of your comfort zone? It might encourage you to try lots of other impossible things, too.
“I’m a traveller at heart, and I was craving this big adventure.”
Originally from Lagos, Pelumi’s family moved to Croydon when she was 10.
She went back every Christmas, and says she always seemed curious about the other countries she’d fly over on the six-hour flight there.
While studying for her PhD at Coventry University, Pelumi started seeing stories of people travelling to Lagos through unconventional modes of transport, like bikes.
She wondered whether it would be possible to go the distance by car - particularly one which wasn’t designed to drive on all-terrain, like a 4x4.
So in December 2023, she began planning her journey - and set off on January 24 in her five-year-old car.
She said: “I was seeing a lot of men doing these extreme trips - but no women, and no-one who looked like me.
“I wondered if I could change that. The journey is clearly possible and doable - especially if someone could go by bike!
“I wanted to slow-pace it, which is why I’ve dedicated two months to it. I want to take everything in, meet the locals, try all-new experiences.”
Pelumi began her journey driving from London to Paris, via a ferry at Dover.
She spent three days sightseeing, meeting French creatives and camping out of her car.
She went from Paris to Millau, a commune which once had the largest bridge in the world - and she parasailed over it.
From Millau, she drove all the way down to Barcelona, to visit the Sagrada Familia, before moving on to Malaga, to spend two days up the mountains.
Her journey then took her to North Africa, and she visited the markets in Marrakech - before arriving at her current stop in Chefchaouen, where she’ll spend three days before moving on to her next 15 stops.
She said: “One of the highlights for me was seeing one of the largest bridges in the world - I got a last minute booking to parasail over it and they squeezed me in.
“It was amazing being up in the clouds, seeing all the beautiful sights. I camped in my car that night, which was rough, as I couldn't find any hot running water, but I survived it!
“I drove all the way up into the mountains in Malaga - the locals looked at me like I was losing my marbles, in my little car.
“But I don’t think you need the big cars or gadgets - my car’s been good to me, I’ve had it for five years.”
Pelumi started to feel apprehensive after getting to Morocco and noticing the language barrier - as well as the busyness of the markets overwhelming her.
“The language barrier started becoming a thing,” she said. “I got to Morocco and burst into tears, I had so much anxiety and apprehension. It was really hard to find all the info I needed.
“But the good thing about driving is, I could stay as long as I wanted and get my bearings a bit.”
Pelumi plans to get to Lagos on March 24 - and the rest of her stops include Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Ghana and Nigeria.
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Worried cats huddle around owner after she falls into deep sleep
By Leo Black
This is the moment worried pet cats huddled around their owner for hours after noticing her breathing become shallow in her sleep.
Romina Tomaino, 45, suffers from insomnia and gets little to no sleep, sometimes for days.
When Romina went to sleep on December 21, after several days without sleep, her six moggies noticed her breathing and laid on her chest for hours.
Romina, of Melbourne, Queensland, Australia, said: "I go days without sleeping and then crash into really deep sleep which is what happened here.
"It's so bad that if I wake up and do things then go back to sleep I won't remember doing it."
Milo was the first to notice and came over to make sure everything was alright.
The rest of the cats then followed - Bella, Prince, Baby Tiger and Chloe.
They all and stayed around Romina from 4:00am to 6:00am when she woke up.
Romina only noticed what had happened when she woke up to find her cat all around her.
A video shows the cats gathered around her and Milo lying on her chest as she sleeps, checking her breathing, Romina says.
Romina said: "I only noticed when I woke up and checked the video. I thought 'Wow, I'm so blessed to have these amazing cats.
"When I woke up they were still there all sleeping around me. I was confused.
"It's very rare to find them all there when I wake up so I got up, fed them and watched the video with breakfast.
"I thought they had heard a noise but when I realised what it was I cried happy tears."
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Incredible new image shows evidence of flowing rivers on Mars
By Dean Murray
An incredible new image shows evidence of flowing rivers on Mars.
The picture were taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) as it searches for signs of water and ice.
NASA says the image of ridges in Aeolis Planum tells "a story of ancient rivers and a Red Planet very different to that of today".
The MRO typically flies at an altitude of about 250 to 316 kilometres (155 to 196 miles) above the planet's surface, allowing it to capture intricate detail.
The space agency explain: "These ridges show the location of the old river beds in Mars' distant past.
"River beds often get filled with gravel and the surrounding terrain is often built up of fine-grained mud from river overflows. The gravely river bottom and the fine-grained surroundings can lead to a strange phenomenon that geologists call inverted channels.
"After the river disappears, the fine-grained surroundings can be easily eroded away leaving the gravely river bed as a high-standing ridge.
"The angle at which the ridges join together indicate that these rivers flowed from top-right to bottom-left."
The image was captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on MRO, and was catalogued by NASA on 31 January 2024. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE.
The MRO is a spacecraft designed to search for the existence of water on Mars and provide support for missions to Mars, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program.
It was launched from Cape Canaveral in August 2005 and reached Mars in March 2006.
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