It’s a bit odd

Europe Poland is on “the velvet road to dictatorship” after the victory of nationalist leader Andrzej Duda in the presidential elections, a respected former anti-communist dissident warned. Duda, a eurosceptic 43-yearold lawyer belonging to the socially conservative Law and Justice Party, defeated President Bronislaw Komorowski with 51.5 per cent of the vote, having campaigned on pledges of greater welfare spending and a reduction in the retirement age. His party has spoken of the need to make wholesale changes to purge Poland of corruption and the legacy of its communist past. Adam Michnik, a Solidarity activist who was imprisoned by Poland’s communist government, said he feared Law and Justice’s success could pose a threat to democracy. Michnik’s warning was echoed by Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, a former Polish PM, who said the victory swaddled the country in “all the prejudices and obsessions of the Fourth Republic”.

A 21-year-old Oxford University groundsman who is believed to have murdered his sister, mother and her partner was found dead. The body of Jed Allen, who photographed himself brandishing knives and an axe, was discovered by a member of the public in a wooded area in central Oxford. Corpse’s one-way fare Puerto Rican taxi driver Victor Perez Cardona’s final fare was highly unusual: a wreath of flowers for his own funeral. Honouring his final request, the body of the 73-year-old, who died of cancer, was propped in the seat of his taxi cab, hands locked on the wheel, as if to drive himself to his funeral. A wreath of flowers was in the back seat of the vehicle parked at the funeral home. Friends and colleagues mourned the man who had driven a taxi for the last 15 years of his life. Since 2008, Puerto Rico has developed a tradition of odd wakes, including a young man mourned seated on his motorcycle, a boxer standing in the ring and an 80-yearold woman sitting in her favourite rocking chair and wearing her old wedding gown. Roller coaster marathon An 82-year-old fan of a historic Pennsylvania roller coaster celebrated his 5000th ride on it — sitting for more than eight hours straight and logging 95 spins around the wooden ride in a single day. Vic Kleman marked the milestone yesterday on the Jack Rabbit at Kennywood in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin. His number of rides honoured the roller coaster’s 95th birthday this season. Kleman, a retired general manager and a local actor, said: “I made sure to move my legs throughout the day to keep from getting stiff after sitting so long.”