Athletes hire lawyer for Olympic protest

Olympians competing in Beijing have retained Mishcon de Reya, the firm that represented Diana, Princess of Wales, during her divorce, to ensure that they can criticise China without being expelled from the Games (Ashling O’Connor writes).

Team Darfur, a coalition of athletes concerned about Chinese support for Sudan’s regime, are seeking assurances about the extent of freedom of expression during the 16-day event in August. They are also asking to be allowed to conduct peaceful protests within designated Olympic zones, a move that would be in breach of the IOC charter.

More than 280 athletes from 51 countries have signed up to Team Darfur.

Farmland price soars

The price of farmland is continuing to surge at close to its fastest rate for 30 years, an estate agent says. A report by Knight Frank, to be published this month, shows that prices for prime farmland rose by more than 10 per cent since the new year. The rise is being fuelled by global food prices.

Teenage torment

Shouting and swearing by teenage children accounts for 60 per cent of calls by parents to the helpline Parentline Plus. Its latest figures show that physical aggression was reported in 30 per cent of cases and bad behaviour resulting from taking drugs and alcohol in 9 per cent of cases.

Arms plot arrest

The alleged mastermind of a failed African coup involving Sir Mark Thatcher has been arrested on arms trafficking charges. The rebel leader Severo Moto, 63, was detained in Spain, where he is a political refugee, accused of attempting to smuggle weapons into the oil-rich country of Equatorial Guinea last month.

Parsonage contest

A competition to find England’s finest parsonage is being run by the magazine Country Life. John Goodall, its architectural editor, said that the aim of the competition was to celebrate a “quintessentially English” feature of the countryside. There are thought to be 10,000 parsonages of historical interest in Britain.

Oxford pair’s auction site nets them £2.5m

Two Oxford university graduates have become millionaires after selling their internet company less than a year after its launch.

Cousins Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar sold Auctomatic, an online auction management company, to Live Current Media, a Canadian web company, for £2.5 million. It was developed with Paul Graham of Y Combinator, Patrick Collinson, 19, a computer programmer, Paul Buccheit, the creator of Gmail, and Chris Sacca, formerly of Google. Kulveer, 24, said of Mr Buccheit’s investment: “He said, ‘How about $50,000?’ I replied that $75,000 would be nicer and he just said, ‘OK’. Investors there are more willing to take risks.”

Mastectomy advice

Women who have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, conferring about an 85 per cent risk of breast cancer, should seriously consider a mastectomy, a Dutch surgeon says. Reinie Kaas will tell the European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin that preventive mastectomy reduces cancer risk to about 1 per cent. This figure had been thought to be 5 per cent.

Gap in drama series

ITV angered viewers by dropping the second episode of its hit new US drama import Pushing Daisies. Nearly six million viewers saw the first episode of the show about a man who brings his girlfriend back to life, but ITV has decided to move straight to episode three because of a scheduling mix-up. It blamed the US writers’ strike for producing an odd number of shows.

Asbo for cockerels

A chicken owner has been given an Asbo after his cockerels kept neighbours awake by crowing 400 times an hour. Peter Stoodley, 64, a carpet salesman, has been ordered to evict 80 birds from the back of his shop in Yeovil, Somerset. South Somerset magistrates were told that an independent test had measured 800 crowings between 5am and 7am.

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