Quriky World: Let them eat cake... MP quizzed over bribe claims

ENGLAND: A Conservative standing for re-election has dismissed as “nonsense” claims that he attempted to sway potential voters with cake.

Jesse Norman, who is standing in the Hereford and South Herefordshire constituency, was photographed with boxes of treats while out campaigning this month.

Police are reportedly investigating after Mr Norman was shown sat at a table in an Asda store with a box of chocolate muffins, what appeared to be a tray of cherry Bakewells and other confections open beside him.

Fashion faux pas

ENGLAND: In the age of social media, the risk of being spotted in an outfit twice has never been higher and now research suggests fashion-conscious Britons are spending millions of pounds to avoid the ultimate faux pas.

More than one in four people (28%) questioned for a poll admitted to buying new clothes just to avoid being “tagged” more than once wearing the same look.

Almost one in five (18%) said they would refuse to wear something for a second time if they knew there was a chance of their sartorial repetition being spotted online.

Urban farm

ENGLAND: A city warehouse is being converted into an innovative urban farm producing thousands of kilogrammes of salad and fish a year.

The scheme’s backers say they will be using hydroponic technology, a method of growing plants in a nutrient solution without soil, and fish farming to create the UK’s first commercial “aquaponic” farm, in Beckton, London.

In the warehouse, waste water from fish tanks will be pumped through hydroponic growing beds lit with specialist horticultural lighting, where the salad plants absorb waste nutrients from the water, cleaning it to be circulated back to the fish.

Nappy stream

USA: Police are searching for the person who has thrown out more than 24 buckets of dirty nappies into the streams of Maine.

More than two-dozen five-gallon buckets containing soiled nappies have been thrown into streams in Wilton and Farmington in the last few months, according to the Maine Warden Service.

Wardens said the nappies also contained chemicals that could be harmful to fish and wildlife.

Pen poke

USA: A passenger aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Manchester, New Hampshire, was removed after allegedly poking a snoring passenger with a pen.

Airline officials said the woman was removed for “causing a disturbance”.

The Chicago fire department was called to evaluate the man. Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said in a statement that the man was not injured and that he continued on the flight to New Hampshire. Ms King said the woman who was removed was accommodated on another flight.

Pretty pansies

USA: An upstate New York woman has taken on the post-winter pothole problem in her hometown by filling in the eyesores with pansies.

After months of severe weather left the streets of Schenectady pocked with pavement craters and city public works crews scrambling to fix them, some residents began filling in the holes themselves.

Elaine Santore decided to take it a step further by dumping dirt and pansies into potholes on two streets. She told The Daily Gazette of Schenectady that she decided to plant the flowers to make a statement about the problem and to make people smile after what she called “a horrible winter.”

Elaine Santore has stopped complaining about potholes and started filling them with pansies to warn motorists. :) pic.twitter.com/c1aJ4dyciv

— kenneth aull 🌋🌋🌋🌋 (@KenAull) April 16, 2015