Man saves £6 tourist site entry fee by eating cockroach 

An Irishman has become the first person to eat a live cockroach to get free entry into a New Zealand tourist site.

Niall McCormack from County Tipperaray felt sick after eating the cockroach to get into Hokitika's Eco Centre for free.

He says it was like chewing on a twig - but not as bad as eating sprouts when he was a child. He saved just over £6.

He told The Press: "I felt a bit sick afterwards, like I'd just eaten something bad."

He added: "There wasn't a lot of taste to it to be honest but that might have been the excitement of the moment, but it was definitely worth it - plus we got our $20 back."

A German man clashed with airport officials after they refused to allow him to board a flight to Spain with a supermarket shopping trolley.

The 42-year-old man had packed his luggage into the trolley and tried to check it in at Dusseldorf Airport but staff refused to allow it through.

After a heated discussion, airport officials persuaded the holidaymaker to transfer his luggage into a more suitable holder - plastic carrier bags.

The tourist was eventually allowed to board the plane with his luggage in the bags - but he could face more problems on his return.

The publicity surrounding the case alerted the supermarket which owned the trolley to the fact the man had taken it, and he now faces legal charges for theft when he returns from his holiday.

A Dusseldorf police spokesman confirmed: "We have had all the details passed on to us by airport officials, and will be asking this gentleman to help us with our enquiries when he returns."

The BBC have apologised for filming a gun battle with actors dressed as Arabs near Heathrow Airport.

Police described those behind the idea to film where they did, as "idiots".

The incident caused a delay to a number of flights waiting to take off from the airport, says The Sun.

A dozen armed officers backed by a helicopter responded to reports of machine-gunfire beneath the flight path.

They surrounded a farm near Horton, Berkshire, and saw a number of "Arabs" with machine guns fighting a "running battle".

But as back-up arrived, they spotted several BBC film units - and realised it was a mock battle.

A senior Thames Valley Police source said: "It beggars belief that the BBC can organise a gun battle beneath a flight path without alerting us. It's fair to say our officers were not impressed with these idiots."

A BBC spokesman said: "A battle reconstruction with blank ammunition was being filmed at the farm.

"We were told police permission is not normally needed but with security concerns as they are, we should have asked."

An elderly American tourist had to be rescued in Germany after he got lost while using a 90-year-old guide book.

Hank Edwards, 79, ended up stuck in a German forest for two days after finding his way with a book bought by his father in 1914.

Throughout the years he kept the book, practising the German words and studying the places mentioned in the copy of Beautiful Bayreuth.

When he was finally able to make the trip, he got lost trying to find attractions that had long since disappeared.

The alarm was raised when he failed to return to his hotel and he was eventually found by local rescuers sitting in his car that was stuck in mud on a dirt track.

"He told us he had read it over and over as a boy and had always wanted to visit the places listed in it," said a police spokesman in Bad Berneck.

"But owing to the Great Depression and the war and raising a family and working all his life, he said he never got around to actually travelling abroad until now."

The officer added that unfortunately, two world wars and a massive reforestation programme in the region meant most of the Bayreuth in the book no longer existed.

But he added: "It's still very beautiful here even if it's not what he expected."