Shorts

The Queen broke royal protocol by sending a 100th birthday card to Flook the cat. Owner Chris Evans, 43, of Cumbria, wrote to say her pet was 100 in cat years and was amazed to get a reply.

Bosses of an acclaimed new government building with a grass roof were shocked to find it will cost £5,000 to have it cut. The £13 million Scottish Natural Heritage HQ, praised for its eco-friendly credentials, includes a roof garden, reports the Daily Record. But health and safety regulations mean scaffolding and other safety measures must be installed when people are working above ground.

Berlin: German corpse artist Gunther von Hagens is under fire again — for using corpses to recreate a scene from the new James Bond film. Von Hagens is to prop up dead bodies up to resemble Daniel Craig and others in a poker-playing scene from Casino Royale. The Protestant church in Germany is up in arms after Von Hagens revealed it would form part of his latest project. More than 5,000 people are expected visit the four-storey Guben ‘Plastinarium’ every day when it opens in three weeks. But local priest Michael Domke complained: “Human bodies are being turned into commodities, prepared on a factory line.”

Friends star Jennifer Aniston has made up a "man nursery" - with pool table and TV suite - for boyfriend Vince Vaughn at her LA home. A source said: "He'll be well entertained."

Fat Scots children are to be given help to curb their eating habits by playing a new board game.
The Obesity Game involves rolling a dice to help them make decisions about food. It gives points to players who make the right choices and deducts them from those who don't. Eleanor Coner, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, praised the game but said its name "sent out the wrong message".