An attempt by Top Gear’s James May to break the world’s longest model railway record has failed amid claims that vandals and thieves tampered with the track, the Daily Mail reports.
The long-haired presenter joined 400 enthusiasts to build the miniature railway stretching 10 miles from Barnstaple to Bideford, in North Devon. He was recording the attempt yesterday for his new show James May’s Toy Stories.
The team hoped that a train would run successfully along the length …

Network Rail have proposed a new £34bn high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London, which would serve Birmingham and Manchester, getting passengers from Glasgow to London in just two hours and 16 minutes, the BBC reports.
The government said assessments of the costs and environmental issues involved needed to be carried out before it could approve any plans.
If given the go-ahead, Network Rail said they would take up to five years to decide on the exact route …

Star Trek aftershaves and perfumes designed to appeal to fans of the science fiction series have gone on sale, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The three scents include one, Tiberius, that takes its branding from the middle name of James T Kirk, the captain of the USS Enterprise played by William Shatner. It combines citron, black pepper and cedar top notes with vanilla, white musk, and sandalwood base notes to create a “casual yet commanding” aroma, according to …

Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell concluded discussions lasting several hours Wednesday afternoon in London, without any formal agreement on American demands, Arutz 7 reports.
The Obama administration wants Israel to stop all building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
The London talks apparently paved the way for more talk, next time with Abbas, who said in Ramallah that he is open to a meeting with Netanyahu when they …

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai widened his lead over his top challenger Wednesday after officials released more partial vote results, the AP reports.
Karzai’s new total pushed him closer to the 50 percent threshold that would allow him to avoid a two-man runoff.
The latest returns boost Karzai’s standing to 44.8 percent, Abdullah now has 35.1 percent. The count is based on returns from 17 percent of polling stations nationwide, meaning the results could still change dramatically.

An Israeli activist has filed a $7.5 million lawsuit in a New York court against the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, which charged that the IDF sold organs of Arab terrorists, Arutz 7 reports.
Attorney Guy Ophir said that the tabloid’s allegations were anti-Semitic and in effect were a “racist blood libel” against Jews and Israeli soldiers.
He said that the suit was filed in New York because the writer of the allegations published in Aftonbladet referred to rabbis …

Last Sunday we took a nice day trip to Cambridge. It was a lovely, sunny and hot day, albeit the same weather conditions applied to London as well. But we hadn’t been to Cambridge yet, so we decided to take the trip.
Cambridge is world famous for its university and the numerous colleges, like King’s College, Trinity Hall (where Rachel Weicz and Stephen Hawking studied) etc. The town is situated at river Cam – and I’m …

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been accused of damaging Britain’s international standing after he repeatedly ducked questions over whether he supported the early release of the Lockerbie bomber, The Times reports.
Brown insisted that no deals had been done between Britain and Libya and that he was “angry and repulsed” at the scenes of jubilation in Tripoli. However, he twice refused to give a view on the decision by the Scottish government to release Abdul Baset …

The Yokohama District Court in Japan sentenced a British man to 13 years in prison for killing a woman who lived with him in Yokohama, news agency Kyodo reports.
Paul Jason Shimmin, 36, strangled Shoko Kawanobe, 25, at their apartment on 27th September, 2007, according to today’s ruling.
His defence lawyers argued that Kawanobe had accidentally suffocated with her face buried in her pillow while asleep, but Judge Kenichi Kurita rejected the argument as “an unreasonable claim …

At least five million people of working age have not done a day’s work since Labour came to power, the Daily Mail reports.
The figure, to be highlighted by the Tories tomorrow, will fuel fears that the Government has cultivated a shameless generation dependent on the state.
An analysis of official data shows that three million in England and Wales had no job between 1996 and 2001, while a further two million had never had a job.
The …

Cancer expert, Dr Richard Simpson said that the Lockerbie terrorist could live far longer than predicted by Scottish ministers when they decided to release him, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Simpson said that medical reports show there is “significant doubt” that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi will die within the next three months.
Dr Simpson, a former member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons’ prostate cancer working group, said the minister should have sought a second opinion from …

A Twitter campaign to raise awareness and to demand freedom for the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has boosted the hashtag #GiladShalit to Twitter’s trending topics and it’s currently in the second place, even more popular than yesterday’s death of US Senator Ted Kennedy.
The Jewish Internet Defence Force (JIDF) called on everyone on Twitter to take part in the campaign and use the #GiladShalit hashtag today in their tweets.
JIDF say that on 28th of August, …

When we went to Scotland a couple of weeks ago and also visited the coast of Loch Ness, the supposed monster of the lake, Nessie, didn’t bother to show itself.
Fortunately, it did not know that a satellite has been taking photos of it and an unidentified swimming object has been recorded on Google Earth.
The unidentified swimming object can be found at precisely 57°12′52.13″N 4°34′14.16″W, check for yourself.
Nessie enthusiasts believe the creature is a plesiosaur – …

The Soviet Union plotted to invade Manchester during the height of the Cold War, the Daily Telegraph reports.
A map drawn up by Soviet generals shows that the military had charted an armoured invasion of the city, for distribution to frontline commanders. The plans would be put into action if relations between the UK and the USSR deteriorated further.
The maps ignored one-way streets and rush hour jams, marking the lines of an assault in bold orange. …

Former actor Sir Sean Connery, one of the most generous supporters of the Scottish National Party, says it’s not First Minister Alex Salmond who should carry the can for the freeing of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, but former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Daily Telegraph reports.
“I doubt we will ever know the full story, but it’s clear this saga began with Blair and his meetings when he was still prime minister with Col Gaddafi,” the …

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, a man who knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night at the age of 77 , the New York Times reports.
“Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply …