- guardian.co.uk, Sunday March 2 2003 00.09 GMT
- The Observer, Sunday March 2 2003
One of the UK's most popular comics has been taken off the shelves at a leading airport as part of a security crackdown. Copies of the Dandy - made famous by cowboy Desperate Dan - have had to be withdrawn from Birmingham International Airport because a free toy gun was being given away on the cover. The blue-and-yellow plastic toy, which punches out a clenched fist, was attached to hundreds of copies of this week's issue and the airport fears it could be used to hijack a plane. A spokesman for Dundee-based publishers D.C. Thomson said: 'It might be mildly irritating if a kid fired it at your head over and over, but it's hardly a weapon of mass destruction. I don't think a terrorist would get very far if he tried to hijack a plane with a free toy from the Dandy.'
Tribute paid to Lord Jenkins
Friends and colleagues gathered yesterday at University Church of St Mary in Oxford for a memorial service for the former Labour Home Secretary and Oxford University Chancellor Lord Jenkins, who died at his Oxfordshire home in January, aged 82.
Record day
A pair of childhood sweethearts broke a British record yesterday when they celebrated their 79th wedding anniversary. Anne and Bert Ivison, both 96, were married in Toxteth, Liverpool, on 1 March 1924. They outlived their three children but have four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
African leads
Detectives hunting the killer of a young boy whose torso was found floating in the River Thames in September 2001 are in Nigeria this weekend to follow up new leads.
Clash say no
The Clash have ruled out re-forming. The band, whose singer Joe Strummer died in December, had been tipped to perform with a new singer in a few days, but the band's Paul Simonon said it would not happen.
Saatchi plans dazzling launch
The new London art gallery that is to challenge the success of Tate Modern took delivery this weekend of the most famous and controversial contemporary works by British artists in preparation for a mid-April launch.
The Saatchi Gallery is to display the vast collection of millionaire ad-man Charles Saatchi and will open its doors to the public on 17 April. A glittering private party will be held on 15 April to celebrate its arrival on the South Bank of the Thames. The first exhibition is a retrospective of the work of Damien Hirst. The new gallery is expected to attract close to 750,000 visitors yearly. Saatchi has collected about 3,000 works of art, including Tracey Emin's notorious £150,000 soiled bed.
CBI hits at insurance claims
The compensation culture is imposing a growing burden on British industry, a CBI report calling for urgent reform of the business insurance sector said yesterday. UK firms had to absorb a rise in premiums of almost 50 per cent last year.
Witnesses to aid murder hunt
The Metropolitan Police is staging the largest reconstruction in its history in a bid to trace the killer of a 27-year-old US-born artist. Margaret Muller, a student at the Slade School of Fine Art, was discovered stabbed to death in a pool of blood on a path in Victoria Park, Hackney, on 3 February by joggers and cyclists who heard her screams. Detectives are recalling all 100 witnesses in the case, in the hope some will remember vital clues.
