Why are British five-year-olds 7cm shorter than western peers?

Five-year-olds in Britain are on average up to seven centimetres shorter than their equivalents in other wealthy nations, The Times reported. The average five-year-old boy in the UK is 112.5cm tall, against 119.6cm in the Netherlands. The average girl is 111.7cm tall, while her Dutch counterpart stands at 118.4cm. Professor Tim Cole, an expert in child growth rates at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, described the data as “pretty startling”. A poor national diet has been blamed.

Locals battle cricket plague with brooms

Blood-red crickets have “invaded” a Nevada town, with residents fighting back with brooms, leaf blowers, and snow ploughs, AP reported. Tens of thousands of Mormon cricket eggs began to hatch in late May and early June and locals said the red critters are now causing chaos. The big red bugs “leave behind a stench so horrible, akin to burning flesh”, that it forces residents to “plug their noses while driving”, said the news agency. A resident in the city of Elko added: “It’s almost like a biblical plague.”

Plopping Brits terrorise Spanish resort

A Spanish holiday resort is being “terrorised by drunken Brits pooing in gardens and causing carnage”, said the Daily Star. Arenal in Majorca sees “chaotic” Brits go on “48-hour benders, fight and pass out in the street and even use locals’ gardens as toilets”, the tabloid added. Miguel Pascual, who lives in the town, told the Majorca Bulletin how one tourist let it all out in his yard. “I yelled at him to get out of the garden and when he turned round, I saw that his pants were full of faeces,” he said.

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