Five things you might have missed last week
1. Low risk
The Food Standards Agency urged producers to use allergy warnings more sparingly because they now appear on so many products that consumers are confused and ignore them. One FSA official reported finding lettuces on sale with the warning: "May contain nuts."
2. On the spot
A physics graduate who remarked casually to a friend at a London Underground station that a metal detector used to check him was a "piece of shit that wouldn't stop anyone" was detained for 20 minutes by police and given an £80 on-the-spot fine for violating Section 5 of the Public Order Act.
3. Foetus power
As "foetal rights" gain force in the United States, a Utah woman was given 18 months' probation for refusing to undergo a Caesarean section to save her twins, one of whom died. In Wisconsin and South Dakota pregnant women can be arrested for alcohol or drug abuse.
4. Qing's ransom
A vase given to a London cleaning woman as a retirement present turned out to be a 200-year-old treasure of the Qing dynasty. The cleaner's grandson sold it at auction for £92,000, though some estimates said the price could have been £1m if the cleaner had not polished it so much.
5. Not a tiger
A British-Indonesian team of scientists that went to observe tigers in the Indonesian jungle photographed a Sumatran ground cuckoo instead. It was only the third sighting of the bird since 1916.
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