Police Divers Searching For Limbs Of Missing Eastenders Actress

Police divers are trailing Regents Canal in Hackney, East London for the head, arms and legs of former Eastenders actress Gemma McCluskie.

It comes after a torso was found floating in the water.

Miss McCluskie’s brother, Tony, is believed to have been arrested on suspicion of murder, just a few days after he was distributing ‘Missing’ posters in an effort to help find her. Gemma had been living with Tony until she went disappeared last week.

A Metropolitan Police Officer spokesperson said: "Police were initially contacted by a member of the public who had noticed something suspicious floating in the water."

McCluskie appeared on the soap opera in 2001 and co-stars Brooke Kinsella and Natalie Cassidy had both appealed on Twitter for help in finding her.

The torso has yet to be formally identified but Miss McCluskie’s have been informed of the discovery and police are working o the assumption that it is her body.

’Unlucky’ Number 13 Banned By Council

Durham County Council has agreed to a decision to ban numbering houses with the supposedly unlucky number 13. The move will apply to new builds and conversions in existing streets.

The agreement will also include not naming streets after living people and those new names should reflect local geography and history.

The council’s strategic highways manager, Dave Wilcox, said: "Our new street naming and numbering policy is based on those used by the county's former district and borough councils, most of which specified that 13 would not be used in numbering schemes.

"This was primarily to reflect the concerns of housing developers who often struggle to sell homes located on plot 13.

"There have also been occasions in the past where the council has been asked to re-number a property as 12a rather than 13 by developers or homeowners."

Fear of the number 13 is an official phobia called triskaidekaphobia. As a result some airlines do not have a row 13 and there are hotels with no room 13. The number however if considered lucky I Tibet and parts of Italy.

Remaining Ruddy Ducks To Be Culled

The government is due to spend £200,000 to kill off the last remaining 100 ruddy ducks.

In a cull that started in 1999 and has already cost £5m it is hoped the chestnut brown American bird will finally be eradicated. It started after Spanish conservationist complained that birds originating in Britain where threatening the survival of its own indigenous white-headed ducks by interbreeding with them. To date some 6,500 ruddy ducks have been culled.

British bird lovers have however questioned the sense in continuing to cull birds whose only crime is to be "American, over-sexed and over here".

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