The RSPCA said its funniest calls last year included being asked to save a trapped bird that turned out to be a plastic chair and to retrieve a snake that was merely a rubber toy. When responding to a report of a “squealing and crying” dog that was tethered to a canal boat in west London, an inspector found it to be a stuffed toy tiger tied to the bow of the boat. The animal welfare charity urged people to “stop, think and check before asking us for help”.
Asteroids could ‘sneak up’ on Earth
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Plastic bag fan hits the record books
A woman with a penchant for old plastic bags has collected a world record 10,000 of them. Angela Clarke, 55, from Wales, has spent 40 years keeping and collecting bags, some of which date as far back as 1954 and are classed as historical artefacts. She said that after she spoke about her passion on TV show Multi-coloured Swap Shop with Noel Edmonds, the BBC was sent hundreds of bags for her, including one from the House of Lords. Her collection is now worth thousands of pounds.
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Nasa’s new dark matter mapUnder the Radar High-resolution images may help scientists understand the ‘gravitational scaffolding into which everything else falls and is built into galaxies’
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Is the US about to lose its measles elimination status?Today's Big Question Cases are skyrocketing
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‘No one is exempt from responsibility, and especially not elite sport circuits’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
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Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
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China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
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Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
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Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
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Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
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US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
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How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
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Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
