7-year-old swearing macaw Barney is apparently teaching other birds how to swear.

According to news reports Barney never stopped swearing despite being taken to a language specialist.
His most shocking outburst was when he told a mayoress, a vicar and two police officers to ‘f*** off’ and called them ‘w******’ when they visited Warwickshire Animal Sanctuary in Nuneaton, central England.

“He’s told a lady mayoress to f..(expletive) off and he told a lady vicar: ‘And you can f… off as well’,” sanctuary worker Stacey Clark said.

“Two policemen came to have a look at the centre. He told them: ‘And you can f… off you two wankers’.”

News archives say that Berney was previously owned by a lorry driver who emigrated to Spain. Berney has been banished from public areas in a British animal sanctuary for swearing.

“He does say ‘Hello, big boy’ and ‘Thank you’ when you give him a biscuit,” she added in her news interview, “But it’s mainly naughty words and always to the wrong people. We’re trying to teach him not to swear. Macaws are very intelligent birds.”

Apparently that didn’t work out so well. Berney has now been spreading his obscene vocabulary to the other parrots, at the centre.
Owner Geoff Grewcock said: “It sounds like a builders’ yard sometimes when we come in here, what with all the abuse flying about.”

“They just sit there swearing at each other now, all kind of foul language - it’s unbelievable.” adding that they even have favorite swearing words: “The terrible trio’s favorite rude words are ‘f*** off’, ‘b*****ks’ and ‘t**s’.”

He added: “These birds can live until they are 70 so there are potentially another 60 years of this to contend with.”

Parrot expert Rob Harvey said birds usually talk to get the attention of their owners, and added that: “This case is unusual because parrots are copying another parrot.”

An unlucky punter missed out on a £118,000 Grand National payout for the sake of £1.

Ken Banks, 35, picked the winners of all six races at Aintree on Saturday, including National winner Comply Or Die.

But his placepot bet meant they only had to be placed, and he won £140, reports The Sun.

If he had invested another £1 on a roll-up on all six winning selections he would have scooped £117,974.

Dad-of-two Ken, from Aberdeen, said: “Hindsight is a great thing and we would all be millionaires if we had it.

“I only ever do the placepots because the chances of finding all six winners always seemed too high. But I do think I’ve missed out on a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Ken wagered £2.40 on 24 10p lines at his local William Hill shop, then sat down at home to watch on TV.

He said: “After the first three won I began to get a feeling of doom. I didn’t want any more to win because I was beginning to realise what a mistake I might have made.

“My last horse was 25-1. It won by 12 lengths.”

William Hill felt so sorry for him it is giving him a free £100 bet on the Derby. Spokeswoman Jennie Prest said: “We wish him the best of luck with it.”

According to Australian Associated Press news agency counter-terrorism agents are investigating terror threat against an Australian through social networking website Facebook.

This is the first investigation of this kind. News reports say that a threat came from an alleged Hezbollah member to a Jewish woman.

After declining his friend request she received numerous death threats from the self-proclaimed terrorist.

The man, who described himself as Ibrahim Dirani, is a member of the Lebanon-based Facebook group.

After police launched the investigation against him this week, Dirani was banned from the site, according to various news reports.

Melbourne woman who is a member of an Israeli-based Facebook group told the police the alleged Hezbollah supporter promised to kill her and her family.

According to police documents, the man wrote: “I am Hezbollah and I am going to kill you and all of your family - promise you.”

“The international nature of the website makes it very hard for agencies to… physically track down those involved,” a security source said.

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