GOLD? OF NORSE!
Metal detectorist finds ancient Viking jewellery stash
A RETIRED cop turned detectorist has unearthed a 1,000-year-old collection of rare Viking jewellery.
Kath Giles came across the buried treasure in a farmer’s field on the Isle of Man.
The hoard includes a gold arm ring, far right, and a “massive” silver brooch dating to 950AD when the island was part of Viking trading zones.
Kath, who found the spoils in December, said: “All of a sudden I got a fabulous signal on my metal detector.
“I dug a hole and out came what I can only describe as a thistle head. It was part of the brooch. It was a fabulous find.
“Then I found parts of the pin, the hoop and the gorgeous gold arm ring. I thought I was going to pass out.
“I’m thrilled to have found artefacts that are not only so important, but so beautiful.” Allison Fox, the curator of archaeology for the island, said: “The arm ring is rare. Gold items were not very common during the Viking age.
“Silver was by far the more common metal for trading and displaying wealth. The arm ring could have been the equivalent of 900 silver coins.”
She said the stash suggests “whoever buried them was extremely wealthy and probably felt acutely threatened”.
The haul, yet to be given a
BRITISH drinkers have reacted with fury after discovering Stella Artois has cut its alcohol percentage.
The “reassuringly expensive” Belgian lager has had the amount of alcohol reduced from 4.8% to 4.6%.
Budweiser Brewing Group announced the change last October – but UK drinkers are only now starting to notice.
Bosses said the alcohol reduction was down to “wellness trends” – but furious Brits have slammed the move. One drinker posted on Tesco’s website: “I cracked open a can of Stella 4.6 per cent and thought I had Covid, since I could not taste anything.”
Another added: “A once great beer of the geezers. Now watered down to 4.6 per cent. ”
When it was first launched in the UK the beer was 5.1%. But it suffered an image problem over claims that “lager louts” became more violent after drinking Stella.
Dorien Nijs, brewmaster at Stella’s brewery in Leuven, Belgium, defended the percentage change.
She said: “We know that taste and quality remain the number one priority for Stella Artois drinkers. We also recognise a health and wellness trend through moderation.
“We are proud that we can now deliver the same Stella Artois taste people love, with an ABV of 4.6 per cent.”
Stella said the change was in line with its commitment to responsible drinking.
The 4.6% ABV bracket is the fastest-growing sector in the UK, more than doubling in size over the last two years.
SCIENTISTS have discovered a brain neuron ‘switch’ that can put people off certain foods for life.
They carried out tests on hungry snails by feeding them sugar – something they normally love.
But when they gently tapped their heads, they refused to eat it after developing a negative link.
They said the effect of the neuron which suppresses this feeding circuit is similar to humans.
It may explain why single bad experiences with foods such as dodgy curries may cause life-long distaste for it.
Prof George Kemenes, of Sussex University, said: “A similar switch could be happening in humans where groups of neurons reverse activity in line with the negative association.”
She might be the biggest superstar on the planet but not even Madonna is allowed to interrupt Michael McIntyre’s holiday.
The BBC comedian confessed he was in Puglia, Italy, on a family break one year, when he got more than a little stroppy that part of their hotel was closed off for a private party.
Instead of accepting it like the other guests, he kicked up a stink, ignored the security guards and decided to gatecrash – only to be shocked when Madonna herself rode in on a horse.
I was like: “Oh my God! It’s Madonna!”
I suspect she was shocked too, Michael. She’d wanted a horse at her party, but not a bit of an ass.
Finally, Heaven really is a place on Earth, because pop star Belinda Carlisle has some health and fitness advice we actually want to hear.
Yep: Running is bad for you. (So those Runaway Horses of hers better watch out). Poor Belinda, 62, has been warning others after being left with serious joint pain from years of pounding pavements.
I’d always said running was stressful for my knees (and the rest of me). So now I just need experts to acknowledge my horizontal meditation with visual stimulation therapy (lying on sofa watching TV) along with my specially-balanced carb, tomato and calcium-rich diet (pizza) – and then I can launch my wellness app.
Hugh are you?! Downton fans raised an eyebrow higher than Carson’s when they saw a strange-looking Hugh Bonneville on The One Show this week.
Some even went as far as to suggest he was using a special Zoom filter to hide his flaws. Personally, I can’t imagine he has anything to cover up.
But strange or not, it could have been worse. At least, as Hugh later joked, he’s not a cat.
FIENDISH FELINE
Lawyer couldn’t turn off cat filter while on Zoom
Ed “net-worth-£200million” Sheeran turned 30 on Wednesday.
I would have given him more space. But, frankly, he gets plenty of attention already.
NADA FARHOUD Environment Editor ENGINEERS have taken more than two weeks to shift a fatberg the size of a small bungalow.
Crews for Thames Water worked in cramped conditions to break up the rock-like mound using highpowered water jets and hand tools.
The heap, under Canary Wharf in East London, was clogging sections of the sewer and could have caused sewage to spill into people’s homes.
Thames Water’s Matt Rimmer said: “We’d ask everyone to help fight the fatberg by only flushing the three Ps – pee, poo and paper – and to dispose of fat and oils in the bin, not the sink.”
Thames Water spends £18million each year clearing 75,000 blockages.
A TEENAGE killer locked away at 15 has been released... aged 83.
Joe Ligon, incarcerated in 1953, stepped into a world unrecognisable from the one he left 68 years ago.
In awe of the skyscrapers built since he was shut away, America’s longestserving juvenile “lifer” said: “I’m looking at all the tall buildings.
“This is all new to me. This never existed at all.”
Ligon has never had his own home, paid a bill, cast a vote, owned a car, earned a wage, lived with a partner or fathered children.
But today, after initially objecting to his release, he is starting to claw back some of his lost years.
He was convicted of first-degree murder after he and a group of teens nicknamed The Headhunters carried out a string of drunken attacks in South Philadelphia that left two dead and six injured.
The gang downed several bottles of wine before attacking their victims. Charles Pitts, 51, and Jackson Hamm, 65, died.
Prosecutors said Ligon was responsible for both murders. But although he admitted taking part in the crime spree and knifing a person who
survived, he said he didn’t kill anyone.
The court was not convinced and Ligon was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of ever getting out.
However, after the Supreme Court ruled that automatic life terms for children were cruel and inhumane, he was re-sentenced four years ago to 35 years behind bars.
Although immediately eligible for parole, Ligon refused to apply, believing he should simply be freed.
“I like to be free,” he said. “With parole you got to see the parole people every so often.
“You can’t leave the city without their permission. That’s part of freedom for me.”
Bradley Bridge, a lawyer with the Defender Association of Philadelphia, refused to give up and demanded he should be freed without parole.
The state of Pennsylvania has long led America in locking away juvenile “lifers”. In 2016 its jails held 525 of them, a quarter of the national total.
Six out of 10 of those were from Philadelphia, the poorest big city in the US. The overwhelming majority were black.
It cost the state an estimated
£2.1million to lock up Ligon for so long – excluding 37 treatments for his prostate cancer which is now in remission.
In November a judge ruled he should be released within 90 days and last week he made his long-dreamedof walk to freedom.
While he was locked up, almost all of his family died – many of the men were murdered.
Before he was released, he begged not to be relocated to the area where his troubles began. He said:
“The night I got in trouble was in South Philadelphia.
“My baby brother was murdered in South Philadelphia.
“My father was murdered in South Philadelphia. Nothing but murder, murder, murder.”
A sister and some nephews and nieces are all he has left now to look out for him as he settles into life with a West Philadelphia couple who agreed to take him in.
Despite arthritis, he continues to undertake the same daily exercise
routine he has for decades. He said: “I feel real good.
“One reason for that is because I’m out. I’m home.
“When you get sentenced to life you have no hope, especially if you give up. You don’t make plans like I made plans.”
His plans, he said, were always to be free. Now he is being helped to adjust to his new life by volunteers at Philadelphia’s Youth Sentencing and Re-entry Project.
Senior adviser Eleanor Myers said:
“He is incredibly cheerful and amazed at the changes in Philadelphia since 1953, in particular the tall buildings.”
“As much as the world has changed since Joe first went to prison, he has also changed.
“His experience in coming back is basically as a new man.
“He has talked about those in his family who are gone and cannot be together for his homecoming. He seems to miss them, especially.”