IT MUST BE TRUE… I read it in the tabloids

Doctors in Texas were stunned to discover the cause of a patient’s violent, vomit-inducing headaches. Gerardo Moctezuma went to hospital in Austin after fainting, and scans revealed a mass at the base of his brain. During emergency surgery, a neurosurgeon removed the culprit: a tapeworm about an inch and a half long. It is believed to have been growing in his skull for a full decade, after he ate undercooked pork in Mexico during a holiday there.

A lovelorn Sheffield man has gone to great lengths in his search for romance: he paid £425 for a billboard ad asking for a date. Mark Rofe hopes the sign, on a busy roadside, will help him track down the perfect woman. It features a picture of the 30-year-old along with a link to a website, DatingMark.co.uk. “I’ve had more than 1,000 people get in touch,” he said. “Unfortunately half are men, but I’m still very flattered.” The son of the nanny murdered by Lord Lucan (pictured) has spent the past decade looking for the vanished killer, and believes he has finally tracked him down: the once high-rolling aristocrat, now a Buddhist, lives in a shared house in an Australian suburb. In his 80s and in ill health, the man apparently takes part in daily meditation sessions, and likes to sit on the veranda listening to the sound of trains in the distance. Neil Berriman was adopted, but he learnt 13 years ago that Sandra Rivett, killed in 1974, was his mother – and has since spent £30,000 on his quest. “From my own inquiries he’s had at least six different identities,” he said.