The News Matrix: Saturday 8 October 2011

Cannabis farm found at scene of shooting

Detectives investigating the shooting of a suspected burglar have found a “large-scale” cannabis farm during forensic searches. Police in Herefordshire said a 60-year-old man was still being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder and of cultivating controlled drugs. MORE

Teenager faces jail on Bali drugs charge

Authorities are trying to help a 14- year-old Australian boy who is facing up to six years in jail after being arrested for possessing marijuana on the Indonesian island of Bali. The youth, who was on holiday with his parents, has been held in a police cell since Tuesday. MORE

Exam boards to be fined for mistakes

Exam boards will be fined for mistakes in GCSE and A-level papers. The news comes after blunders in this summer’s exams, which hit tens of thousands of teenagers. Exams watchdog Ofqual will get new powers to penalise exam boards that make mistakes.

BAA ‘must sell Scottish airport first’

Airport company BAA must sell one of its Scottish airports before it sells Stansted, competition chiefs ruled yesterday. Earlier this year, the Competition Commission said that Stansted Airport in Essex would be sold first, followed by either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Tomb raises hope of finding Aztec ruler

Archaeologists have found an Aztec ceremonial platform at Mexico’s Templo Mayor ruin, raising hopes they will find an emperor’s tomb. No Aztec ruler’s burial site has ever been discovered.

Romney: America must never surrender

Mitt Romney, the front runner for the 2012 Republican nomination, yesterday laid out his foreign policy vision – calling for an “American century”. He said: “We should embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender”. MORE

Jail population hits fifth consecutive high

The prison population in England and Wales hit a record high for the fifth consecutive week today, figures showed. The number of prisoners being held rose by 172, taking the total to 87,673, 1,014 short of the usable operational capacity, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.

Rare seahorses found in Thames

Evidence of a colony of rare seahorses has been discovered in the Thames, the Environment Agency said today. The short-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus), which grows up to 15cm (6 inches) is more commonly found in the Mediterranean and off the Canary Islands.

Worldconker contest cancelled

The World Conker Championships have been cancelled because setting up the event would “simply be too dangerous”, organisers said. The event in Crawley, West Sussex, will not take place as recent high winds have made it impossible to set up the conker playing area and marquees.

Arnie’s back – as a bronze statue

Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday unveiled a bronze statue of his younger self – complete with rippling muscles and clad in nothing but a pair of skimpy pants – at the inauguration of a museum dedicated to his life in the Austrian village in which he was born.

Bono advert banned over breach of rules

A charity founded by Bono has been stopped from showing an advert about famine in Africa in the UK as it breaches rules covering political advertising. The film, The F Word: Famine is the Real Obscenity, is designed to draw attention to the famine in the Horn of Africa.

Duckling makes an unlikely playmate

A duckling became an unlikely playmate for a western lowland gorilla after it got into the enclosure of Fran, a 15-year-old female, at Bronx Zoo in New York. Photographer Tom Warren, 51, captured this image of Fran looking down at the bird, which he called a “wonderful moment”.