BBC — Two women who force-fed children raw chilli and raw eggs, and stung them with nettles, have been jailed for acts of “sustained cruelty”.

Maria Keable, from Ramsgate, Kent, and Deirdre Carrington, from west London, were sentenced to 19 months in prison at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday.

The two Mormon women have also been banned from working with children.

[…]

They became friends after meeting at a Mormon temple in London in 1997.

The court was told Keable and Carrington had beaten the four girls and two boys with wooden rolling pins and kicked and punched them.

They also force-fed the children with hot chilli powder - a punishment they used on a two-year-old-girl.

Keable saw her actions as Christian and believed in “love with boundaries”, Canterbury Crown Court was told.

Judge Nash said: “You were undoubtedly, Maria, obsessed with punishment. You behaved like a hospital matron of the 19th Century, bullying the children in an unforgivable way.”

Keable, aged 60 and from Macedonia, had told police “in her country, the use of chilli was normal”.

Judge Nash told her: “It’s no good you saying ‘this is what we did in Macedonia’.

“You have been over here for 40 years, you know how we live over here and that’s what makes your part in this so wrong.”

Carrington, 41, of Chiswick, told police she was having “emotional problems” when she made one girl eat chilli powder.

cates: but what type of chilli powder was used? anything below 800,000 on the scoville scale is just a bit of fun.

BBC — About 3,000 people converged on Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire for the annual spring bank holiday cheese-rolling event.

Dozens of competitors chased the 7-8lb Double Gloucester down the steep slope, which is 200m long and has a 1:1 gradient in places.

Jason Crowther, from west Wales, won the first race to complete a hat-trick of victories over the last three years.

The 25-year-old said: “There’s no training you can do for this.”

He added: “It was a bit slippery and I heard something crack, which I think was my knee.

“But there aren’t any tactics involved, as you can probably see.”

Aaron Walden, 20, from Gloucester, also won for the third time - beating a man dressed in a nappy to the bottom of the hill.

cates: i don’t understand why the english have a reputation for being eccentric. i think it’s totally unjustified.

jay: omg, what is the story with your island of eccentrics? how do your personal injury lawyers let events like this continue?

The London Paper — British Airways has banned staff from using microwaves for non-airline food after an exploding curry cost the company £20,000 in damages.

An air hostess caused chaos on a flight from Heathrow to Miami after her ready meal blew up at 35,000ft.

Staff had to use a fire extinguisher to control the flaming high-power microwave, but British Airways insists that the incident did not endanger passenger safety.

However, the explosion caused extensive damage to the Boeing 747 which needed days of repairs.

British Airways has since banned cabin crews from using the ovens to prepare their own food and sent a warning email to its staff.

In a memo headed “microwave incident”, it instructed staff that food must be packaged carefully when using its club-class ovens because they are twice as powerful as regular domestic microwaves.

cates: there go my plans for a weaponless terrorist outrage. i had a backpack full of curries-for-one in my closet ready for some action.

jay: game on, player. they only banned cabin crews from using the microwaves. there was nothing in the memo about civilian non-weaponed terrorists.

AP - WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A grandmother was alarmed to find a condom in a happy meal gift pack bought for her 7-year-old granddaughter at a McDonald’s restaurant in New Zealand, local media reported Thursday.

She [grandma hutch] was aghast when she found the green condom and its packet inside the bag, he [grandpa hutch] said.

“I was pretty horrified really. The fact my granddaughter was going to look in the bag and find this thing. It would be difficult to explain, she’s only seven,” said [grandpa] Hutch.

The outlet quickly swapped the happy meal for a hamburger and pencil case. McDonald’s is investigating the find.

Spokeswoman Joanna Redfern-Hardisty said because of its popularity, the previous happy meal gift had sold out at the outlet and prepackaged sports bags were substituted as children’s gifts.

One was left unsealed for display purposes and “somehow” had ended up with the customer, she said, without explaining why the condom was present.

jay: this is why i practice mcdonald’s abstinence. it’s really the only way to be 100% sure.

rob: awesome explanation, redfern-hardisty. hey, did you notice, by the way that it says she found “the green condom and its packet inside the bag”? yikes.

jay: they anticipated that we would all have exactly one question on our minds. they anticipated correctly. nicely played, associated press.