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."
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."
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 picsThe 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.
A student applied for a job at a Welsh tourist attraction using the email address 'atleastimnotwelsh'. James Kettle, 21, also sent his job request to the wrong address, reports The Sun. The horticulture undergraduate sent it to Aberglasney Gardens, Carmarthenshire, instead of the National Botanic Garden of Wales. A manager at Aberglasney replied: "It may be prudent to change your email address. It could have a detrimental effect on any career aspirations of working in Wales." James, a student at Pershore Agricultural College in Warwickshire, said: "I feel a right fool. "I set up the email at school because several Welsh kids were in my year. I forgot it was with my application and didn't mean to be offensive." 
