Items to be sold

QUEEN singer, Freddie Mercury, who passed away in November 1991 will have 1,500 items sold at auction. After his death, his home and contents were left to his best friend, Mary Austin and she has decided to put some of his possessions to auction.

Included in the sale are Freddie’s handwritten lyrics to the song ‘We are the champions’, the nine­page document includes harmonies and chords and it’s expected to sell for between £200,000 and £300,000. Another lyric sheet written in black biro contains the lyrics to ‘Killer Queen’ and this is ex­ pected to sell for between £50,000 and £70,000.

Mary Austin said “the lyrics were particularly difficult to part with, because they show, for me, the most beautiful side (of Freddie).”

The Queen vocalist and Mary Austin met in 1970. They moved in together and got engaged. But then Freddie admitted he was gay. However, this did not end the close friendship and Mary helped to care for Freddie during his illness.

The collection will be sold by Sotheby’s, London in September, with some proceeds going to charity.

The unnamed train passenger fell asleep around 7.21am on Thursday, April 20 while travelling between Polmont, Falkirk and Edinburgh Waverley station, said a news source.

Upon waking, the woman became aware that a man had completely undressed and was sitting beside her. British Transport Police are treating the incident as ‘public indecency’ and have appealed for help to locate him. The horrified woman indicated that the culprit later put on black jogging bottoms, a black t­shirt and black walking boots, before getting off at Edinburgh Waverley.

39%

BIRD fans will be pleased to hear that the Hanuman Plover has been reinstated as a species in its own right, after spending almost a century classed as a subspecies.

Plovers are a family of shorebirds that live all over the world, except for the very poles. They feed on invertebrates, but otherwise have a range of different habitats and lifestyle.

In the 1930s, the ‘diminutive Kentish Plover’, Charadrius Seebohmi, was merged into the Kentish Plover Charadrius Alexandrinus, as both species were considered to be the same.

Now a team of scientists, including co­author of the study and Principal Curator in Charge of Birds at the Natural History Museum, Dr Alex Bond, have