A boy of 10 has been accused of shooting dead his mother at their home in Ohio.
Deborah McVay, 46, was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the head on Sunday.
Police were called to the house after a neighbour called them to say her son Joseph had gone to her home and said he had just shot his mother.
Another son, 21-year-old Josh Mike, said his mother was “a very loving lady” who ran her own home health care business and served the mentally disabled. He would not comment on the allegations against his brother.
Joseph McVay was being held in juvenile custody after appearing in court to plead not guilty to the shooting.
Mind game
A video game has been created allowing the player to enter the subconscious mind of the main character.
University of Portsmouth graduate Jeroen Stout’s Dinner Date allows the player to listen and engage with the character’s fears and self doubts in a plot centred on a man sitting at a dinner table waiting for his date to show up.
Mr Stout said: “My aim is to create games which are quite different and are not about action or major consequences but are instead about creating something that is intellectually fulfilling. Dinner Date is the first work created with this in mind; it is a character portrait in the form of a game. You get to know the main character, Julian, and his internal struggle while waiting for his date.”
Robot builders
A fleet of robots have been hailed as the “unsung heroes” of a major building project.
The remote-controlled mach-ines work in very small spaces and even crawl up stairs – meaning human builders don’t need to enter dangerous buildings. They are being used to demolish a building on one of Edinburgh’s most famous thoroughfares, Princes Street.
Barrie Henderson, the site manager, said: “I think it would come as a surprise to many shoppers in Edinburgh to find out that there is a team of robots behind the scenes that are busy bringing down the building.”
Tribunal costs
The BBC paid out more than £600,000 dealing with employment tribunal claims last year.
A total of £379,125 went in payments to aggrieved staff to settle cases and a further £203,627 plus VAT was spent in external lawyers’ fees in 2009-10, figures released by the corporation in response to a Freedom of Information request show.
The BBC had to pay another £24,386 plus VAT as a contribution towards one claimant’s legal costs. This came to a bill for licence fee payers of £607,138 plus tax of at least £34,201, depending on whether the costs were incurred before or after the VAT rate returned to 17.5 per cent in January 2010.
Gold standard
Supermarket giant Tesco hopes to mine new ground with the launch of a service allowing customers to swap unwanted gold jewellery for cash.
The retailer began trialling its Gold Exchange online and in about 15 stores last November.
Tesco said it developed the service, which is traditionally associated with pawnbrokers and specialists, in the wake of the strong price of gold.
Hands free
If you’ve been wishing you could ditch your clunky mouse and control your PC with gestures – the way you can using Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller for the Xbox 360 – computer makers expect to have a solution this year.
Asustek Computer and PrimeSense, whose 3D camera is a core part of Kinect, say they are working to let users gesture to surf the web, check social networks and control videos on PCs.
Kinect uses a 3D camera, depth sensors and voice-recognition software to recognise faces, voices and gestures. As a result, users can control on-screen characters in games simply by talking or moving.
If Kinect’s success is any indication, Asus could be on to something – Microsoft sold 2.5 million Kinect sensors in the first 25 days.
Package probe
Makers of toys and gadgets in Britain could be ordered to cut back on cumbersome packaging under fresh proposals being considered by the government.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said existing guidelines curbing bulky wrapping around groceries could be extended to cover retail packaging.
It is part of a range of new measures under consideration as the government prepares to publish its Waste Review this spring to lower the amount of waste going to landfill and increase recycling rates.
Mrs Spelman said retailers need to strike a balance between keeping products safe, without resorting to unnecessary “marketing”.
Millionaire rows
There are more than 200 streets in England and Wales where the average home costs more than £1 million, research indicates.
Parkside, in the SW19 area of London, is the country’s most expensive street, with the average property on it costing more than £5 million, Lloyds TSB said. It is followed by Wycombe Square, Blenheim Crescent, Mallord Street and Drayton Gardens, all in Kensington and Chelsea, where average house prices range from just over £4 million to £4.4 million.
More than half of the 20 most expensive streets in England and Wales are in Kensington and Chelsea, and all but two are in Greater London. (PA)