Stringent security measures before a Nato summit in Bucharest next week to be attended by George Bush and Gordon Brown, irritated Bogdan Surdu, 29, a web designer, so much that he posted an internet ad offering his terrace with a clear view of the conference hall as a “sniper position” for rent at a price of euro 5,000 a day.
Dozens of people answered, including those claiming to belong to al-Qaeda and the CIA. But Romanian security services failed to see the joke. He has now been put under observation and has been classed as a potential security threat.
– The Times
Detectives have been called into the BBC after the personal files of the 440 staff – including household name presenters – being sent to the Beijing Olympics were stolen.
Two files, containing the accreditation details of presenters such as Sue Barker and Sharron Davies, the Olympic swimming medallist, disappeared from a sport production office.
– The Telegraph
I was enjoying a rare moment of relaxation when my phone rang. It was the head of security at Topshop informing me that my 14-year-old daughter had been caught shoplifting with a friend.
CCTV cameras showed them shoving items into bags containing some goods for which they had already paid. After leaving the shop, they had been stopped on the pavement, told to put their hands above their heads and marched back through the store to be dealt with like the 40 to 50 others who, every month at this branch of the teen Mecca, are caught slipping things into their bags or up their jumpers.
– The Telegraph
Avraham Trahtman was not looking for fame when he solved the “road colouring problem”, a conundrum that has befuddled mathematicians for nearly four decades. Thanks to his age – 63 – as well as his past employment as a security guard and labourer, however, he has captured the imagination of many in his field and is something of a mathematical luminary.
– The Times