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  1. Blackleaf

    Iron Maiden star flies home stranded passengers after airline goes bust

    Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, a pilot, helped to bring home British passengers who were stranded abroad after the airline XL, Britain's third-largest tour operator, collapsed on Friday as Britain plunges into its first recession since the early 1990s. Up until now, Britain was the only...
  2. Blackleaf

    Charlie Chaplin was a child pauper, website proves

    British comic actor Charlie Chaplin spent his early years growing up in poverty in grim Victorian London. Chaplin was born in London in 1889. Despite being the world's richest country in the 19th Century, many of Britain's citizens experienced unbelievable poverty and hardship. Like many of...
  3. Blackleaf

    Best of friends: Lonely chicken Gladys finds soulmate...with Snowy the farmhouse cat

    Mrs Etheridge, of Middleton, Suffolk, has a white cat named Snowy - whose best friend is a chicken named Gladys. The unlikely friendship started two months ago when a fox killed 13 chickens, leaving Gladys as the only survivor... Best of friends: Lonely chicken Gladys finds soulmate...with...
  4. Blackleaf

    New evidence proves that the British invented baseball

    New evidence shows that that baseball, far from being all-American, was invented invented by the British, A diary entrey written by British lawyer William Bray in 1755 mentions a game of baseball being played in Guildford, Surrey - before the United States existed. So the British can add...
  5. Blackleaf

    World Cup 2010 qualifiers: Wonderful Walcott crushes Croats

    Last year, Croatia beat England 3-2 at Wembley in the Euro2008 qualifiers to prevent England from qualifying for Euro2008. On Wednesday night, in the hostility of the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, England got revenge on Croatia thanks to a scintillating display by the 19-year-old Theo Walcott...
  6. Blackleaf

    William Winstanley: The man who saved Christmas from Cromwell's misery

    It is 350 years since Oliver Cromwell died - he died of malaria (which was a common disease in England at the time) on 3rd September 1658 in Whitehall, London. At the time he was the ruler (Lord Protector) of England, which was a republic for the only time in its history. Upon his death, his...
  7. Blackleaf

    Australian sports minister wears Great Britain shirt after losing bet

    Australia's sports minister Kate Ellis had to wear a Great Britain Olympic team's shirt at the Paralympics after losing a bet with her British counterpart. Ellis said that if Great Britain finishes above Australia in the Olympics medals table then she would wear a Great Britain shirt at a...
  8. Blackleaf

    Paralympics: Five more cycling golds take Great Britain to 2nd in medals table

    Great Britain's cyclists, who were so dominant during the Olympics, are all-conquering again in the paralympics. Great Britain's cyclists won FIVE more gold medals in Beijing today. Great Britain are now second in the medals table, above the United States and below only the hosts China. Great...
  9. Blackleaf

    'Check me out, I'm proper hench': New dictionary helps parents understand 'teen speak

    A new dictionary has been launched to help parents understand "teen speak". The dictionary lists words commonly used by British kids today - such as "butters", "clock", "nang" and "on your jays". The website gotateenager.org.uk hopes that it will bring parents and their children closer...
  10. Blackleaf

    Frail Thatcher is aided by Blair at Northern Ireland commemoration

    Former British Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who is becoming increasingly frail, was aided by former British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair at a commemoration at St Paul's Cathedral in London today to honour British military personnel who served in Northern Ireland. The British Army...
  11. Blackleaf

    Beijing Paralympics: British cyclists win THREE golds

    It's only the first day of the Beijing Paralympics, but Great Britain have already won four gold medals. Three of those came in the cycling events - which Great Britain dominated at the Bejing Olympics Just as at the Olympics, British paralympic cyclists probably have the best training...
  12. Blackleaf

    Meet Evans the Atom, the British scientist who will end the world on Wednesday

    Dr Lyn "The Atom" Evans is the British scientist who, on Wednesday, will switch on Europe's Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle collider. The LHC is based as CERN, in Switzerland, where Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet in 1989. Atoms will spin around a 17-mile-long...
  13. Blackleaf

    'The Grid' will see 80,000 computer network processing data from LHC

    "The Grid" is the biggest development in global communication since Tim Berners-Lee, the British man who invented the World Wide Web, wrote "www" on a blackboard in 1989. A network of 80,000 computers is being geared up to see a deluge of data when Europe's Large Hardron Collider (LHC), the...
  14. Blackleaf

    Mystery of the Saxon 'couple' buried arm in arm not husband and wife, but two MEN

    Archaeologists have disovered the remains of a couple buried side-by-side in Ramsgate, Kent. What is unusual about this find is that the two skeletons are MALE. The skeletons date from the Anglo-Saxon period. The Anglo-Saxons are the ancestors of the modern English, who came to what is now...
  15. Blackleaf

    Oliver Cromwell: The father of our democracy or a war criminal?

    The 3rd September was the 350th anniversary of the death Oliver Cromwell - the closest person that England has ever had to a President. He was the leader of England (and Ireland and Scotland) during the 1650s - the only time ever in history that England was a republic. But he is a confusing...
  16. Blackleaf

    2010 World Cup: Joe Cole double sees England to victory over Andorra

    Two goals within the space of six minutes by Joe Cole gave England an unconvincing win against minnows Andorra in their first 2010 World Cup qualifier. Andorra - a mountaintop nation between Spain and France that is Europe's 5th tiniest - played, in effect, a 10-0-0 formation, with every...
  17. Blackleaf

    As the British Army bamboozles the Taliban: Why the British are masters of deceit

    The British Army has outwitted the Taliban in a huge operation to transport a huge turbine to a dam. The turbine will provide electricity for 1.5 million people. In The Times, Ben Macintyre explains that, throughout history, the British militaryhave been masters of deceiving the enemy...
  18. Blackleaf

    World's most bizarre deaths - a collection of tales

    A new book - 1001Ridiculous Ways To Die - lists some of the most bizarre deaths imaginable. From being killed by an avalanche of peanuts, to hanging yourself at an Edinburgh railway station's "Way Out" sign, here is a selection of some of the world's most bizarre deaths... World's most...
  19. Blackleaf

    Old (Spitfire) met the new (Typhoon) in the skies yesterday

    Old met the new yesterday as an RAF Eurofighter flew alongside a 1940s classic - a Spitfire, which helped defeat the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. The two aircraft were watched by crowds at RAF Coningsby. The RAF operates 232 Eurofighters, more than any other airforce. The RAF is...
  20. Blackleaf

    Government declares IRA redundant after report says its terror campaign is over

    The British Government has today declared the that the terrorist group the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has now disbanded its terrorist structures and no longer has the capabilities to wage war. The IRA are responsible for the deaths of 1757 people during their war against the British and their...