ABRACADABRA

Lost & found

London: A UK man has been reunited with his stolen wallet after 35 years with all the contents intact  except for the small amount of money it contained.  Richard Lane suspected the wallet was stolen at a leisure centre in his hometown of St Ives, Cambridgeshire in 1978. The wallet was found by the contractors behind a wall on the top floor, near the lift shaft. The battered old wallet complete with everything apart from the money has now been found inside a brick wall cavity by builders refurbishing the leisure centre in St Ives.An appeal to find the owner was launched and Richard was alerted by his mother.  

Queen Elizabeth II gets £5mn pay hike  

London : Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has been given a hefty pay hike of 5 million pounds for the current financial year to carry out her official duties. The 86-year-old Queen received 31 million pounds last year, but that will be increased to 36.1 million pounds in 2013-2014 financial year. Under the new arrangement, the Queen receives a grant equal to 15 per cent of the profits from the Crown Estate, calculated two years in arrears.

Most ancient Romans ate like ‘animals’

Romans are known for their sumptuous feasts, but according to a new study, an incredible 98 per cent commoners ate food that was seen fit only for animals. Romans are known for eating well, with mosaics from the empire portraying sumptuous displays of fruits, vegetables, cakes and, of course, wine. However, common people ate millet, a grain looked down upon by the wealthy as fit only for livestock, according to a new study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

Rail track stolen-that too-2 kms long

Moscow: Unidentified criminals have stolen over two km of railroad track in the Moscow region, transport prosecutors said. The theft has caused damage worth over 1.6 million rubles ($ 52000), they said. The tracks were taken from between the stations of Sazonovo and Pilevo east of Moscow.  The railroad there was formerly used to transport cargos of peat, but has been abandoned for several years.

Mother starved children to death

Tokyo: A 25-year-old mother whose two young children starved to death surrounded by rubbish after she locked them in her apartment, has been sentenced to 30 years in jail in Japan. Single mother Sanae Nakamura regularly left her daughter, 3, and one-year-old son, in the apartment in western Osaka while she spent the night at her boyfriend’s house, reports said. She had begun leaving them alone in March 2010, the Asahi Shimbun said, adding that sometime in early June that year she stopped coming home. But when she did eventually return later that month the two tots were dead, the paper said.