The widow of famous steeplejack Fred Dibnah said she was "devastated" at a vandal attack on a statue erected in his memory in his home town.

Oil tanker drivers who are contracted to Shell have voted to take strike action over pay. Union Unite said 500 drivers, who deliver to petrol stations across the country, had voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.

Vandals have forced a playground in a Leicestershire town to close, after causing £20,000 of damage in two separate attacks. Last Friday, intruders set fire to part of the Stapleford Park site, off Cropston Avenue in Loughborough.

More than 100 mourners have attended the funeral service of a 12-year-old boy who drowned in a former gravel pit. Carrington Sibanda died earlier this month while playing with his friends at Ashbyville ponds in Scunthorpe.

Stonehenge served as a burial ground for much longer than had previously been believed, new research suggests. The site was used as a cemetery for 500 years, from the point of its inception.

More than 100 stallholders have taken part in a fund-raising car boot sale held in the grounds of a stately home. This year's event was in aid of two of the county's charities - Heart of Kent Hospice and Kent Minds.

A bloodsucking insect is being used to collect blood samples from animals at zoos, London Zoo has said. Kissing bugs crawl onto the animal and release a pain-reducing enzyme as they bite and suck the blood from veins.

Smokers have been banned from using an ashtray outside a pub after it became home to a family of blue tits.