Eccentric X Factor hopeful Shirlena Johnson has been thrown out of this year’s Miss Great Britain contest after organisers discovered her real age when they watched her TV audition.

Millions of viewers saw Johnson, a single mother, get through to the boot camp stage of the X Factor on Saturday night after she performed, in leopard skin leggings, a bizarre rendition of the Duffy track Mercy.

Ms Johnson told the X Factor judges that she was 30, but the age on her online Miss Great Britain form was 28, said a spokesman for the contest, which is for those aged 29 and under. (PA)

Liar liar

Britons tell 657 lies a year – and most blame their dishonesty on bankers and MPs, a survey has revealed.

Four in five of those polled said lies were now a part of day-to-day life – something they attributed to a “modern expectation of scandal” among public figures.

The survey, commissioned by the Chartered Insurance Institute, said modern communication – including social networks and mobile phones – made it easier to lie, with e-mail the favoured medium. (PA)

Vulture triggers airspace alarm

Gandalf the vulture, who triggered an alert in Scottish airspace after flying off during a display at a birds of prey centre, was safely back where she belongs yesterday.

Gandalf, a seven-year-old female Ruppell’s Griffon vulture, was performing at the World of Wings birds of prey centre in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, on August 17 when she flew off. Pilots using Glasgow Airport were warned of the potential danger, as Gandalf can fly at the same altitude as commercial aircraft.

The vulture was spotted hanging around near old brickworks in nearby Falkirk. (AFP)

Historic warship wrecks found

Three British warships sunk off the coast of Estonia in action immediately after World War II have been discovered.

An Estonian naval vessel found the wrecks of HMS Cassandra, HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle near the island of Saaremaa about 90 miles south-west of the capital, Tallinn.

The Estonian navy said the wrecks legally belonged to Britain.

The three vessels were part of a British squadron sent to the Baltic Sea in 1918-19 to deliver arms to Estonia, a newly established state fighting for independence against both Bolsheviks and German troops. All were sunk by mines. (AP)

Inventive drug dealers

French drug dealers have developed a novel way of alerting their accomplices to police surveillance by printing T-shirts with the registration numbers of undercover cop cars, police in Marseille said yesterday.

Crime squad officers in the southern port city found a bag full of such T-shirts on Saturday when they inspected a car whose driver had abandoned his vehicle after being pursued by police, a police source said. Officers also found half a kilogramme of cannabis in the car where the T-shirts were found – emblazoned with the numbers of cars used by crime squad police, the source said.

By distributing the shirts with numbers printed on them, drug dealers apparently aimed to help one another identify and avoid undercover police. (AFP)

Here comes the bride

A bride-to-be heading home from her hen party was arrested for drink driving hours before she was due to get married.

The 33-year-old was driving at more than 90mph and weaving in and out of traffic in Washington state when she was stopped. She was twice the legal limit.

Police arrested the woman, processed her and let her take a cab home in time to make it to her early afternoon wedding. (PA)

Pigged out

A wild pig wrestling competition in Montana had to be cancelled after the organisers failed to round up any animals for the event.

The pigs live free and about 30 are usually captured the day before the event.

But this year only one boar could be found. Organisers said next year they will capture the animals earlier in the week. (PA)