British baked beans become reality after successful Lincolnshire harvest

British-grown beans on toast is to become a reality after the first commercial crop of haricot beans was successfully harvested in Lincolnshire.

The UK's farmers had previously been unable to grow the variety - used for baked beans - because it was unsuited to the country's climate.

But University of Warwick scientists developed a specially adapted seed that can thrive in British soil.

The country consumes around two million tins of baked beans a day, all of them made from haricot grown in other countries such as the US, Canada, Ethiopia and China.

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian air defences shoot down their own top fighter jet

Russian air defences have shot down one of the country’s most advanced fighter jets in a friendly fire incident, according to reports.

Ukrainian channels claimed that a Russian S-300 missile had brought down the aircraft, which is believed to cost more than £35 million.

Cyprus releases endangered vultures to boost population

Conservationists in Cyprus released griffon vultures into the wild on Friday, in the latest attempt to boost a critically endangered population of the scavenger birds.

Once thriving, the number of vultures on the east Mediterranean island is the smallest in Europe as accidental poisoning or changing farming techniques have left them short of food.

Fourteen vultures from Spain were released into the hills north of the city of Limassol on Friday, bringing the vulture population now to “about” 29.

Half a Ton of Cocaine Labelled with Nazi Swastikas Seized in Greece

585 kilograms of cocaine from Latin America was seized by police in Thessaloniki, Greece and seven people suspected of being members of a criminal gang were arrested.

The alleged ringleader of the gang, which had been under police surveillance, is a 50-year-old Albanian national and the gang included his wife, his two nieces, and three others.

The gang was broken up after police stopped 21-year-old man in the city and found 239 packages of cocaine weighing 280 kg in total.

Ten minutes later, in another part of the city, a 33-year-old man was apprehended after he tried to escape from police. He had tried to ram a police car and crashed into a school fence. A search of his vehicle yielded 238 packages of cocaine, weighing 277 kg in total.