A Stranger's London
£8m a year!
Supermarket boss David Sainsbury was paid £7,797,312 in salary and dividends last year, putting him at the top of Britain's earnings league. His nearest rival was Lonrho's Tiny Rowland on more than £5 million. On salary alone the fattest pay packet went to British Oxygen's glass. Richard Giordano, who got £771,600 - a rise of 48 per cent.The figures are given in a survey by the independent Labour Research Department, which also says many boardrooms pay scant attention to government calls for wage restraint.
Jilted hubby's bottle attack
Jilted husband Arthur Thompson took a bottle of champagne to try to woo back his wife and finished up smashing it over her lover's head.But the rival, Arthur Reeves, persuaded a court to drop a grievous bodily harm charge against Thompson.
The pair had settled their differences over a drink a few weeks earlier and Thompson, 54, thought that they could discuss things once more, York magistrates heard. But Mr Reeves, 58, wouldn't let him in to see Mary Thompson, and he lashed out with the bottle. All three agreed to be bound over in the sum of £100.
Slimline Sharon tops the world!
Sharon Harris was jumping for joy recently after she was voted the first-ever world champion slimmer.She had already won the UK title by shedding nearly 13st of her original 23st bulk in less than twelve months.
Her new triumph came in Paris as she in was hailed as the first Worldwide Weight Watchers Member of the Year.
She left with a gold trophy and a big cash prize.
Sharon, 39, a secretary from Swansea, later said coyly: "Although I'm single there are men in my life."
But she added: "It's a great thrill to be able now to wear trousers!"
Ladies better by half
Girls who think that being served beer in a 'lady's glass" is a swizzle can relax. Doing things by halves can pay off.Research has shown that they actually get more drink in these glasses than if they were given it in a standard half pint
"I've got to confess it - we were amazed," said Mr Derek Hopkins, Warwickshire County Council's consumer chief in Rugby. "Our findings are going to shake the landlords.
"We have found a half pint of beer or lager in a 'lady's glass' contains more than a legal half."
The report was compiled by two male researchers who surveyed more than 20 out of 60 pubs in the Rugby area. They had suspected that beer served in glasses ranging from tulip shapes to goblets did not contain the full measure. "Suspicions were unfounded," Mr Hopkins said. "And it caused us some amusement. We get plenty of complaints about bad measures in pubs."
A leading licensee said: "We always feel we give more than value for money - even in a fancy shaped glass."
Grandad down for snip op
A grandfather who has waited a year for a replacement hip was delighted when he was called to hospital. then he found they wanted to give him a vasectomy.John O'Sullivan, 54, of Blundell Road, Burnt Oak, London, said: "In these times of cuts, could this not be described as the unkindest cut of all?"
Edgware General Hospital said the vasectomy appointment was for a younger man with the same name.
'Charity' match ends mayhem
There wasn't much charity around when two soccer teams kicked off to raise cash for local hospitals. The referee ended the game after just 20 minutes with:A player's false teeth rammed down his throat;
Two players sent off for fighting: and
Police called to stop rival fans battering one another. The villains of all this were the Tollcross Park and Overtoun Park teams in the Glasgow Council Parks Department League.
Poppy drug war
A top Home Office Minister has left London on a mission to destroy the deadly poppy fields of Pakistan.Mr David Mellor is ready to spend millions helping Pakistan beat the international drug dealers.
There will be cash for burning the poppy fields, the original source of heroin.
And the British Government will help train Customs officers and enforcement agents. During his eight-day visit Mr Mellor will see Pakistan's wild North West Frontier, reckoned to produce 80 percent of heroin imports to Britain. In talks with the Pakistan government Mr Mellor will offer several million pounds to help win the drugs war. He has already put a similar package to South American countries fighting the cocaine menace.
As he left Mr Mellor was warned by Pakistani lawyer Singbat Kadri: "Don't let the government con you."
Church suicide after a tiff
Teenager Paul Lambert quarrelled with his ex-fiance hours before he shot himself in the church where they had planned to marry.But the girl, Natasha Arthurs, 17, told an inquest at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire: "Our relationship was not a stormy one. Paul had a lot of trouble but he was very gentle."
On the day he died from a shotgun blast to the head, near the altar of Holy Trinity Church, Seer Green, Buckinghamshire, 19-year-old Paul was waiting for her as she left work.
"I told Paul I was going out with friends that night and he said he didn't like it," said Natasha, a secretary from Wynnswide Road, Seer Green.
Later shots were fired at a car in which she was travelling. Coroner John Roberts recorded a verdict of suicide on Paul, of Chalfont St
