Strange but True Report: Mediums get grant to talk with the dead

Two psychics have been given government funding to teach people how to "communicate with the dead". Paul and Deborah Rees have been awarded £4,500 under the Government's Want2Work job creation scheme, reports the Daily Telegraph. The couple, from Bridgend, south Wales, will use it to instruct people on how to contact friends and relatives "on the other side". Critics are astonished at the award by the Department of Work and Pensions bureaucrats, and the Welsh Assembly has launched an investigation. The mediums insist the "mere £4,500" of public money will be put to good use at their centre, the Accolade Academy of Psychic and Mediumistic Studies. Mr Rees, 40, a former upholsterer, said: "People who have lost mums and dads or a child deserve all the respect in the world in their grieving, and they deserve a medium who can give them respect. "Our job is to provide substantial evidence to bring ease to people's grieving - and that's what I would say to people who query the award." Mr Rees said he had his 37-year-old wife had to negotiate "a lot of red tape" to secure the grant, which is intended to help start-up businesses. "They hadn't invested in psychics before so we really had to prove ourselves," he said. But Tory Welsh Assembly member Jonathan Morgan said: "It is an utter disgrace that taxpayers' money is being wasted and given to an organisation that believes it can teach people how to communicate with the dead."

This is True: Winston Churchill's Breakfast Menu.

Winston Churchill wrote his own breakfast menu - including whisky and a cigar - on his last official flight to the US. The breakfast menu on the 1954 BOAC flight was not to the Prime Minister's liking so he wrote one out himself. He requested a two-course meal to be brought on two trays, reports the Daily Telegraph. In his own hand, Churchill ordered: "1st Tray. Poached egg, Toast, Jam, Butter, Coffee and milk, Jug of cold milk, Cold Chicken or Meat. "2nd Tray. Grapefruit, Sugar Bowl, Glass orange squash (ice), Whisky soda." He then added: "Wash hands, cigar." The menu was kept by the air steward and the item is now being sold along with press cuttings from the trip. The menu is expected to fetch up to £1,500 when it is sold at Mullock's auctioneers in Ludlow, Shropshire, on St George's Day. Auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes said: "This is one of the most remarkable pieces of Churchill memorabilia we have seen. "It shows what a hearty breakfast he ate and it was all washed down with a whisky, after which he smoked a cigar. "It is the type of indulgence we've come to associate with Churchill and it reassuring to know he ate so well in his 80th year."

Big Time Rasta Man: Man, 114, caught with 6.5 tonnes of pot.

Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency confiscated six and a half tonnes of marijuana from the home of a man who claimed to be 114-years-old.

Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency confiscated six and a half tonnes of marijuana from the home of a man who claimed to be 114-years-old.

Packages of marijuana /PA pics

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said it had found 254 sacks of cannabis at the home of Sulaiman Adebayo in Ogun state, north of Lagos.

Mr Adebayo claimed to have attended the inauguration of a famous hall in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, in 1895 as a small boy, and said he was 114 years old.

There was no independent confirmation of his age, reports Metro.

Mr Adebayo, who said he had been a farmer all his life, told police he thought the sacks contained rice.

"The quantity of drugs suggests a large scale involvement. There is more to the case than Pa Sulaiman," said NDLEA chairman Ahmadu Giade.

Painful and Long Term: Needle removed from bum - after 31 years

A Chinese pensioner can finally sit in comfort after doctors removed a broken syringe needle which had been stuck in his bottom for 31 years.
Lao Du, 55, of Zhengzhou, said the needle was left in his rear by an 'amateurish' doctor in 1978, reports the Zhongyuan Network.

"I got a cold and went to see an amateurish doctor in my hometown village, but the needle broke off once it pierced my bum," he said.

"I was sent to a provincial hospital immediately. After being hospitalised for nine days, doctors checked me but failed to find the broken needle."

Lao Du said he always believed the broken needle was still in his bottom and four or five years ago he began to feel sharp pains regularly in his rear.

"Even walking has become a suffering to me," he said.

"I sought help from too many hospitals but none of them dared to do the surgery for me as they are not quite sure if they can find a tiny broken needle from 31 years ago."

Du tried his luck one last time at the Zhengzhou People's Hospital where doctors agreed to try to find the broken needle.

Chief surgeon Fu Konglong, who finally found the needle tip after three hours of surgery, said: "It was very detailed work. We had to look for it in every muscle fibre."