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  1. Blackleaf

    Entire villages cleared and roads closed as huge WW2 bomb is exploded

    Sixty-four years since it ended, World War II can still put many people's lives at risk. Over 1000 people from the villages of Ebberston and Allerston near Pickering, North Yorkshire were evacuated from their homes yesterday after a huge 500lb World War II bomb was discovered. It was...
  2. Blackleaf

    Jackdaw vandals blamed for plucking £16,000 thatched roof to pieces

    Living in a beautiful 17th Century thatched cottage in a picturesque village is lots of people's idea of a high quality of life. But for one woman, vandals have been causing her misery. Mrs Dillistone spent £16,000 having the roof of her cottage in Uffington, Oxfordshire re-thatched last...
  3. Blackleaf

    155million years old and still inky: The perfectly preserved squid fossil

    Could this be a bit of a blow to Darwinists? Despite being 155 million years old (or so the scientists say) this squid fossil is so perfectly preserved it looks as though it died much more recently (maybe it did). In fact, scientists have even been able to extract the ink from the animal and...
  4. Blackleaf

    A close encounter with Mr Lemon Head: The very down-to-earth truth behind UFOs

    On Monday, Britain's Ministry of Defence released more than 800 reports of UFO sightings that occurred in Britain between 1993 and 1996 which the MoD logged, assessed and filed. They consist of more than 4,000 pages of police reports, witness statements, descriptions of UFOs and official...
  5. Blackleaf

    Record-breaking daredevil, 8, wing-walks at 100mph on grandfather's bi-plane

    Tiger Brewer has become the world's youngest wing-waker - aged just 8 years old. Tiger was strapped top of the wings of his grandfather's Boeing Spearman bi-plane and reached speeds of 100 mph after taking off from RFC Rendcomb Airfield near Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The previous record...
  6. Blackleaf

    Bomber Harris thought the Dambusters' attacks on Germany 'achieved nothing'

    To this day, the British people view the Dambusters (617 Squadron of the RAF) as brave heroes, who took part in one of the most daring (and ingenious) operations of World War II, a lasting symbol of Britain's gallant fight against Nazi tyranny, an example of what might happen when evil regimes...
  7. Blackleaf

    Former Beirut hostage Terry Waite aims to bring down shamed Tory Alan Duncan

    Former Beirut hostage Terry Waite is standing for parliament as an independent. Waite, who is a Quaker, an Anglican, a humanitarian and an author, and who was held hostage in the Lebanese capital between 1987 and 1991, aims to bring down shamed Tory MP Alan Duncan, the Shadow Leader of the...
  8. Blackleaf

    Featherless Ralph the penguin back in the swim of things after getting a new wetsuit

    Spare a thought for this little fellow. Ralph, a Humboldt penguin, has a condition which leaves him almost always featherless. Whereas other Humboldts lose their old feathers to grow new ones, Ralph's new feathers always fall out in just one day. This left him at risk of severe sunburn...
  9. Blackleaf

    Manchester hosts events to commemorate 190th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre

    Exactly 190 years ago today, the 16th August 1819, a crowd of 60,000 - 80,000 gathered at St Peter's Fields in Manchester, Lancashire, to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. Just 2% of people in Britain at the time had the vote, and all of those were (mostly wealthy) men. Hunger...
  10. Blackleaf

    A black milestone: British death toll in Afghanistan reaches 200 mark

    The British miltary death toll in Afghanistan yesterday reached the 200 mark. The unnamed infantryman from The 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh regiment was badly injured by a roadside bomb while on a vehicle patrol in Musa Qa’leh in Helmand province on Thursday morning. He was flown back to...
  11. Blackleaf

    National Health Service bashers make me sick

    The row in the United States about the reform of its health system has spilled over to the United Kingdom. Many American right-wingers and Republicans are attacking Britain's National Health Service (NHS), which was formed by Health Minister Aneurin Bevan in the aftermath of World War II when...
  12. Blackleaf

    Graffiti artist uses light, rather than spray paint, to create images

    British photographer Michael Bosanko doesn't use spray cans to graffiti British landmarks - he uses light. Bosanko uses long exposure shots and different coloured torches to 'draw with light' in the night-time shots. He visited London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle and Edinburgh in one...
  13. Blackleaf

    Modern Lady Godivas: Farm girls turn calendar pin-ups for risqué charity photo shoot

    In about the year 1050, Lady Godiva, the wife of Leofric, the Earl of Mercia, took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering under her husband's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband to remit the tolls, but to no avail. At last, tired of her...
  14. Blackleaf

    Arctic Monkeys: Humbug

    British rockers The Arctic Monkeys release their new album, "Humbug", on 24th August. It is their third album in the space of four years, which isn't a bad rate for releasing new music, following 2006's "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" and 2007's "Favourite Worst Nightmare"...
  15. Blackleaf

    Pictured: The freakish Frankenstein's monster that is the nation's ideal pet

    The British are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers, but even they would think twice about having this weird-looking creature in their homes. It is known as the Equicanigattus, and is made up of the body parts of the nation's favourite pets. A survey of 2,000 British pet lovers revealed...
  16. Blackleaf

    At 9,000 years old, UK's oldest house gives a glimpse of post-Ice Age domesticity

    A 9,000 year old house discovered on the Isle of Man is Britain's oldest. The Isle of Man is a British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between England and Ireland. Queen Elizabeth II is its Head of State though to its people, the Manx, she is known as Lord of Mann (with two n's). The...
  17. Blackleaf

    Physicist Stephen Hawking tells US to stop attacking British health service

    Physicist Stephen Hawking has defended Britain's health service after it came under attack from America's Republican Party who branded it "socialist." Politicians in the US are currently debating whether there should be reforms to the US health service. Hawking suffers from Lou Gehring's...
  18. Blackleaf

    Defoe is Jermaine man as England earn creditable draw against Holland

    The two nations of England and Holland have quite a connection. Dutch is the most closely related MAJOR language to English (though the little language of Frisian, also spoken in Holland, is the most closely-related to English); Holland's Queen Beatrix and England's Queen Elizabeth II are fifth...
  19. Blackleaf

    Little Bo Peep bride marries in stunning dress made of wool from her own sheep

    When pretty Louise Fairburn got married, she decided that just any old wedding dress wouldn't do. Louise, a shepherdess, married her fiance Ian in a dress made from wool, sheared from her own sheep. The couple own a farm in Risby, Lincolnshire, and Louise took wool from her favourite sheep...
  20. Blackleaf

    A fifth of European Union will be Muslim by 2050

    A fifth of the population of the European Union, which currently stands at around 500 million, will be Muslim by 2050, an investigation by The Telegraph has revealed. That's four times greater than the Muslim population of the EU now. At the moment, only around 5 per cent of people in the...