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Pensioners start to receive up to £600 to help with energy billsMore than 11.6 million pensioners will start to receive up to £600 from Wednesday to help with their energy bills this winter.Winter Fuel Payments, which have been boosted this year by an additional £300 per household Pensioner Cost of Living payment, will land in bank accounts over the next two months.The vast majority of payments will be made automatically, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said.
Idyllic Italian town is offering €30,000 to move therePresicce in Puglia is the latest destination to attempt to lure new residentsAnother picturesque Italian town has announced it will pay people who move there, in an attempt to boost dwindling population numbers.Presicce, in the Puglia region of Italy, is enticing new residents with the promise of up to €30,000 - although, as always, there are strings attached.Those who take up the offer must use the money to buy an empty property and renovate it.Like other towns and villages across Italy, Presicce has numerous abandoned homes in varying states of disrepair.It’s the latest in a long line of rural Italian communities who’ve sought to attract new inhabitants with cash incentives.Many towns have signed up to the €1 homes scheme, whereby outsiders can buy a vacant house for the symbolic price of €1.
British paralympian on course to be Europe’s first disabled astronautBronze medallist sprinter picked to join European Space Agency’s training corpsA British Paralympian could soon be Europe’s first disabled astronaut.John McFall, who took the bronze medal in the Men’s T42 100m sprint at the 2008 Beijing Games, has been selected for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) astronaut training corps.The 41-year-old said the programme was an “inspiring and exhilarating opportunity” and praised the ESA for opening their search to a disabled candidate.
UK’s largest and rarest beetle, once thought to be extinct, discovered on DartmoorThe blue ground beetle, which grows up to 38mm (1.5 inches) in length, was believed to be extinct in the UK until it was first rediscovered in Dartmoor national park in 1994.Now, two new populations have been found in Dartmoor woods by a dedicated project set up to search for them.