As the UK crime rate falls, there is one crime that is on the rise. Recent figures show that shoplifting has consistently grown by an annual 6% against a wider backdrop of reduced crime. This statistic is surprising considering the vast amount of time, money and effort that goes into developing anti-shoplifting technology. So why isn’t it working? How does anti-shoplifting technology work? The vast majority of retail stores are equipped with several high tech security measures. CCTV cameras are...

A thug who was caught on camera STAMPING on his pet dog during a drunken rampage, that lasted half an hour. Somehow he has avoided jail, after telling a judge: “I love animals," it is hard to see how he does after watching the video. Evil Richard Cheshire, 34, was captured on CCTV kicking the poor animal, before he gives a thumbs up for the camera, as if he was proud of what he had done. He threw his pet  dog –...

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel Massimo is a man who should have it all. He lives in a world of elegant apartments and swanky parties before heading out to fashion shows, football games, and war zones, the varied diet that comes with his journalism job. Yet for a man living such an interesting life, he’s not actually lived a single minute of it. Sweet Dreams is a surface deep attempt to show how childhood trauma can destabilise everything that follows. Marco...

A traditional ballroom and music hall with an 80-year history fears it will have to close its doors - after the world famous The Ritz Hotel has demanded it changes its name. The Ritz in the unassuming town in Brighouse, near Halifax, West Yorks., is a far cry from the refined elegance of its five-star namesake in London. While the London venue attracts wealthy aristocrats, the Brighouse version is a hub for Northern Soul and rock and roll fans as...

As the conflict in Yemen approaches its third year with no end in sight, wide spread devastation has forced millions from their home, and the worsening nutrition situation is threatening more lives than ever before. Mothers and young children are amongst those most heavily affected. Doaa Kutbi, International Medical Corps’ Health Programme Officer based in Aden, knows the struggle better than anybody. She has recently returned to work mere two months after her youngest son was born. Life has changed...

A farmer has been offered £2,400 for his cow by a cult after it was born with five legs and seven feet. Abhinav Abrol, 24, has been inundated with visitors hoping to see the two-day-old calf which is apparently fit and healthy - despite the extra limb. Worshipers think the cow - a sacred animal in the Hindu religion - is a "lucky charm" and one "cult" has offered him 200,000 rupees for the animal, local sources said. But Mr...

Death metal band, Burning The Dream, have made some t-shirts, that some will find offensive and others might feel are bang on the money. The t-shirt features the slogan “F*** the poor, f*** the disabled, f*** refugees, f*** gays” with Prime Minister Theresa May’s signature at the bottom. And the controversial garment also has “Burn 10 Downing Street” emblazoned on the back, which they say is not an incitement to actually commit arson, but a political statement. Frontman Paul Kelly,...

By Nigel Watson An essay by Sir Winston Churchill considering the possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe has recently been rediscovered at the Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri. In the 11-page essay titled ‘Are We Alone in the Universe?’, written in 1939, he muses: ‘I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilisation here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains...

A worrying story has emerged and one which everyone would do well to take notice of. A man who stubbed his toe in 2009 was told seven years later he had terminal skin cancer, due to the knock. Roland Monger, 36, was walking to work in the snow in 2009 when he slipped and broke his ankle leaving his foot in a plaster cast with his toe exposed. He then stubbed his protruding toe on a step and, despite the...