IT MUST BE TRUE…

I read it in the tabloids

A Russian MP has proposed a novel solution to his nation’s problem with football hooliganism: turn such clashes into a spectator sport. The Russian fans are known to include a large hooligan element: in Marseilles last summer, they fought England supporters in the streets. Igor Lebedev says that rather than crack down on such fights, they should be formalised: two sides, each with 20 unarmed combatants, could meet in an arena at a set time. The brawls, he said, would channel “fans’ aggression in a peaceful direction” – and provide an example to England’s undisciplined louts. “Russia would be a pioneer in a new sport.” A French artist who spent a week living in a rock was freed last Wednesday. Abraham Poincheval had entombed himself in a bodyshaped cavity carved in a limestone block, inside the Palais de Tokyo museum of contemporary art in Paris. For seven days he lived on stewed fruit and purées, and breathed through an air vent. He emerged saying he felt “dazed”, but happy. “There were very long moments of loss of self… you no longer know where you are, but you are there, and that is what was great [about it].”

An American took out an advertisement in The Times last week to give the Royal Family 30 days’ notice of his intention to claim the British throne. Allan V. Evans of Colorado, says that he is “a direct descendant of an unbroken primogeniture line legally documented since the third century” – but owing to his deep “respect” for Queen Elizabeth II, he won’t assume the throne in her lifetime.