In the Bible story, Noah apparently had no problem pairing up animals for an epic journey, hoof by snout by wing by claw, in the hold of a great big floating menagerie with a view to repopulating the entire world with wildlife once the damn rain stopped. In real life, however, creature couplings can be unpredictable. Take London Zoo's Sumatran tigers. Thrown together in the hope that male, Lumpur, would take a fancy to......

Lembit Opik, professional HAB* to one Cheeky buttock and occasional MP for Montgomeryshire, has staged a protest highlighting the roadworthiness of the seldom seen Segway. Mr Opik and his partners in crime, Tory peers Lord Atlee and the Earl of Liverpool, are riding a Segway up and down the Houses of Parliament, in a flagrant breach of the law which states that the scooter may not be piloted on highways or pavements. The trio......

Plans for a pedestrianised Parliament Square piazza (a tautology, surely?) have been scotched by City Hall. Mayor Boz has decided to review an £18m plan minted by his predecessor to "do a Traf Square" on the area, paving the southern bit beside Westminster Abbey and putting in extra benches in aid of turning it into a nice spot to gather and graze. The reason for this rethink? Concerns over traffic congestion, an issue that......

Our lonely PM's glowering grimace doesn't lend itself easily to sympathy, but it would take a heart as hard as granite (or Granita, even) not to feel for Gordon Brown's plight. Having spent ten years waiting for the top job, in just ten months of Brownism Labour finds itself rudderless, mauled in the local elections and turfed out of City Hall. Yesterday was Brown's first appearance in Parliament since last week's calamities, and he......

Protesters have this morning scaled atop the roof of the Houses of Parliament in protest at the planned expansion of Heathrow Airport. Just days after a similar protest at the airport itself, the five activists, from airline campaign group Plane Stupid, gained access via a fire escape, having got into the building on visitor passes, and unfurled a series of banners, one of which read "No 3rd runway at Heathrow", another "BAA Headquarters". For......