A 33-year-old passed away in hospital following an incident in the Cromwell Road area
A murder investigation has been launched after a man died following an incident in South Belfast.
Advertisement
Officer were called to the Cromwell Road area on Wednesday, February 11, following reports of a concern for safety, with a 33-year-old man later being taken to hospital. Sadly the man later passed away.
A 32-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident and remains in police custody. On Friday, February 13, police announced that the 33-year-old’s death was now being treated as a murder with an investigation being launched.
Detective Inspector Jack Kelly said: “The man, who is aged 33, was taken to hospital by colleagues from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service on Wednesday afternoon, but sadly later passed away. “A 32-year-old man, who was arrested in connection with the investigation, remains in custody at this time. “Our enquiries are continuing, and I am appealing to anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to contact our officers on 101 quoting reference 707 of 11/02/26.” Information can also be provided, with total anonymity, to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org
Amanda Meadowcroft and Bradley Couzins have both been jailed
A mother and son have been sentenced for smuggling 14kg worth of cocaine to Manchester Airport.
Advertisement
Border force stopped Amanda Meadowcroft, 53, and her friend at Manchester Airport on April 22 last year after they returned from a holiday to Punta Canta, in the Dominican Republic.
Meadowcroft’s friend was asked by officers if she packed her two suitcases herself. She said she had packed the blue suitcase but that the black bag was packed by Meadowcroft’s son, Bradley Couzins, 34, who had also paid for her return ticket, Manchester Crown Court heard during a sentencing hearing on Thursday (March 12).
Get MEN Premium now for just £1 HERE – or get involved in our WhatsApp group by clicking HERE. And don’t miss out on our brilliant selection of newsletters HERE.
The black bag was searched, and nine packages of cocaine were found wrapped in brown wrapping. Five other packages were then also found and wrapped in the same way in the blue bag.
Advertisement
Meadowcroft was later found at the airport by officers, and claimed she had been on a one week holiday to the Dominican Republic which she had won through Facebook.
Her luggage was searched but no further drugs found, however officers did seize the defendant’s mobile phone and found text messages between Meadowcroft and Couzins, where they discussed how to smuggle the drugs back into the country. The court heard how Couzins was the mastermind.
In the messages, Couzins discussed with Meadowcroft, of Argyle Street Darwen, Lancashire, where she would go and whether she would be travelling business or standard class. He also organised their tickets, passports, and transport from the airport.
Advertisement
After his mother and friend were arrested, Couzins was arrested at a later date on August 7, where he was also charged with assault of an emergency worker after he attempted to smash his phone out of an National Crime Agency officer’s hand and in doing so caused a “deep cut” on her finger, the court heard.
Prosecutors told the court how after all 14 packages were inspected, they were found to “contain mostly cutting agents”, meaning it was not “pure cocaine” which they believed to have been smuggling into the country. Christopher Green, an expert witness, said that if the drugs were of a high quality, they were worth up to £294,000.
A judge told the pair they had been ‘duped’.
Advertisement
‘This criminal family went to great lengths’
The court heard how Couzins, of Gillibrand Street Darwen, Lancashire, has 25 previous convictions, and Meadowcroft has 49 with one similar offending case in which she smuggled around 30kg of cannabis and received a 10 month suspended sentence.
Kristian Cavanagh, defending Couzins, said the defendant recognised it was a “stupid decision” and believed that he had shown genuine remorse. While in custody, Couzins saw a trauma therapist with Mr Cavanagh adding that he “engaged in all courses”.
He told the court Couzins wanted to live a “law-abiding” life, and that having a son of his own added to this motivation.
Amber Weir, defending Meadowcroft, said how there was a “degree of intimidation” from Couzins, and, in a letter Her Honour Judge Manley received before the sentencing, Meadowcroft said that she was “scared” of Couzins and that he could be “violent”.
Advertisement
Weir added Meadowcroft felt “ashamed” and noted her past issues with “drug dependency” has led her feeling “genuine shame” for contributing to that drug cycle.
At the time she was serving a suspended sentence for a previous smuggling conviction.
Meadowcroft has two other children, 25 and 28, as well as being a grandmother and is “motivated to be a productive member of society”, the court was told. Both pleaded guilty to fraudulent evasion of a prohibition by bringing into or taking out of the UK a controlled drug.
Advertisement
Sentencing, Judge Hilary Mandley said: “The facts are simple, you flew from the Dominican Republic to Manchester with luggage that contained cocaine. It was of low purity, and it appeared you had been duped. The fact that the cocaine was of low purity is neither here nor there. I will temper [your sentence] to a degree to reflect that purity was low.”
A teary Meadowcroft apologised as she was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, whereas Couzins was sentenced to seven years and six months imprisonment.
Charles Lee, NCA Senior Investigation Officer, said: “This criminal family went to great lengths to source and smuggle class A drugs into the UK. The duo planned and executed an operation born out of greed, culminating in a violent assault on an NCA officer. Thankfully the officer made a full recovery.
“Alongside key partners such as Border Force and Lancashire Police, the NCA will continue to disrupt supply chains and bring criminals like Meadowcroft and Couzins to justice.”
Advertisement
The woman arrested alongside Meadowcroft was initially charged but subsequently released with no further action.
The Department for Communities released advice on Friday
Details of payment dates for benefits over the St Patrick’s Day bank holiday have been announced.
Advertisement
Over the March Bank Holiday period, March 17 2026, the Department for Communities has said that benefits recipients in Northern Ireland will still be paid by this date.
All benefits are paid on different dates, however, recipients should not receive payments later than the day it is typically due.
A Department for Communities spokesperson said: “Benefit Payment Dates – March Public Holiday. If your payment is due on 17 March, you will still be paid by that date.
“All benefits operate on different payment systems but you will not receive your payment later than the day it would normally be due.”
Advertisement
For more information, go to the Department for Communities website here.
One certified baddie that’s apparently managed to escape the chopping block, though, is Mal Roper (Tim Treloar), a slimy, insidious stalker, who’s obsession with Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove) is as grotesque as it is unwanted…and is set to get a lot worse.
Metro understands that an upcoming storyline twist will see Mal use his knowledge of Bernie’s son, Kit Green’s (Jacob Roberts) violent attack on him to his advantage.
Advertisement
In order to keep quiet over who put him in hospital, Mal will make it clear that the only way he’ll keep his mouth shut is if Bernie has sex with him, leaving Bernie with a hideous decision to make; spend the night with a man who’s tortured her and cheat on her beloved husband, Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin), or risk Mal destroying Kit’s life.
Mal’s stalking of Bernie so far
While Mal initially appeared friendly, his dark side quickly became apparent (Picture: Danielle Baguley/ITV)
Preying on Bernie when she was at her lowest ebb, following the loss of her son, Paul Foreman’s (Peter Ash) true love, Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), Mal found her in a seriously inebriated state and spent a drug-fuelled night with her. Despite refusing to cheat, Bernie’s relapse left her riddled with guilt and terrified that Dev would find out.
Bernie made it perfectly clear to Mal, she wanted absolutely nothing further to do with him and he was to leave her alone…
…except, he didn’t.
Preying on Roy Cropper (David Neilson) and taking on an ever-lengthening job re-wiring his café, Mal has place himself as close to Bernie as possible, while standing outside of her house in the middle of the night, with things reaching a violent crescendo when he locked himself in the cafe alongside her.
Advertisement
Despite Bernie’s protestations that he leave, Mal was completely undeterred, launching into a desperate monologue about his inability to stop thinking about her, chillingly referring to her as ‘my Bernie’.
When Bernie reminded him that she wasn’t his and was married to Dev, Mal darkened further, accusing her of being a ‘cheap tease’ and gripping her wrist when she tried to escape up to the flat…
Don’t miss a Soaps scoop! Add us as a Preferred Source
As a loyal Metro Soaps reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for stories. We have all the latest soaps news, spoilers, videos, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.
Click the button below and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.
Now you can ensure you never miss a story from the Soaps team
…enter Kit, who only earlier, Bernie had opened up to and informed just how terrifying Mal was becoming. Kit battered Mal, triggering a heart attack and landing him a bed at Weatherfield General. While Bernie was initially arrested for the attack, she was released and headed straight for her dodgy-copper son, who confessed to the assault.
Though Bernie was horrified at Kit’s actions, she understood his reasoning. Fleeing to Tenerife for a holiday with Dev, she pled with Kit to keep out of trouble while she was away. While he agreed, one thing neither of them banked on?
Mal and Kit come face to face (Picture: Danielle Baguley/ITV)
Next week sees Kit become aware that a witness to the attack has come forward, forcing him to think on his feet and attempt to shut the new threat to his secret down, though he’s shaken even further to learn that Mal himself has regained consciousness…
Advertisement
…and judging by what’s to come, it’s clear that he either remembers, or quickly learns who attacked him.
Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be.
Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill.
This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash already hit much of the East. On Wednesday, Washington, D.C. residents walked around in shorts in record-breaking 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30 Celsius). On Thursday, it snowed.
“All of the country, even if you’re not necessarily seeing extremes, are going to see generally changing from cold to warm, or warm to cold to warm,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard of the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.
Advertisement
Former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue said he expects extreme weather in all 50 states.
Triple-digit heat persists in Southwest
A heat dome will form early next week and park over the Southwest, baking temperatures to triple digits that haven’t been seen this early in the year, Maue and Chenard said.
Some forecasts see 98 (almost 37 Celsius) in Phoenix on Tuesday, followed by 103, 105 and two days of 107 (almost 42 C). In 137 years of record-keeping, Phoenix never hit 100 before March 26 and usually hit its first 100-degree day in early May, according to the weather service, which warned people: “Since we are not acclimated to this level of heat this early in the year, it will be more impactful than usual.”
It has already started in Los Angeles with unusual 90-degree March weather that had people in shorts and tank tops seeking shade anywhere they could get it, even if it was as slender as a light post.
Advertisement
Shane Dixon, 40, usually runs about 5 miles near his home in Culver City without much effort, he said, his face glistening with sweat and his T-shirt tucked into his shorts. But Thursday was hard because of the heat, and he had to cut it short.
“The back of my neck was melting,” he said. But he preferred it to the cold and snow that will hit elsewhere.
“I could go literally soak myself and walk out in the sun and I’ll make it home fine. If it was freezing cold I could not do this,” he said.
Single-digit cold invades North
Around the same time as the heat starts blasting Phoenix, the polar vortex — a system that usually keeps frigid air penned up near the North Pole — is forecast to send its chill deep into the Midwest and East, even bordering some of the Southeast, Maue said
Advertisement
Minneapolis will hover around zero for a low, and Chicago will be in the single digits Tuesday. The next day “temperatures in the teens and 20s in the northeast and 20s in the Mid-Atlantic,” Maue said. Even Atlanta could drop to the 20s.
One-two snowstorm punch
Two storm systems in a row — one Friday, then another Sunday into Monday — will chug along the country’s northern tier and Great Lakes and between them could dump 3 to 4 feet of snow in places, Maue said.
That bigger second storm system will see its barometric pressure drop so quickly and sharply — meaning it is intensifying and winds are strengthening — that it will qualify as a bomb cyclone, which is quite unusual to develop over land. Normally bomb cyclones get their energy from warm ocean waters, but this one will draw power from the polar vortex.
Even Alaska and Hawaii aren’t quite right
Maue said Hawaii is getting an atmospheric river that will have such persistent heavy rain that flooding will be a major issue. Oahu is under a flash flood warning.
Advertisement
And Alaska is normally frigid now, but it will be about 30 degrees colder than usual, he said.
It is “the time of year where we can see stuff like this,” Chenard said. “But this does seem even anomalous from what you would typically see. I mean, some of these areas will be setting records. Record-high temperatures for March and maybe multiple times.”
In the past week or so, tornadoes have killed at least eight people in Oklahoma, Michiganand Indiana. The forecast for severe storms doesn’t look as big or widespread for the next week, but dangerous thunderstorms could pop up “anywhere from the Mississippi Valley toward the East Coast” on Sunday or Monday, Chenard said.
The jet stream goes nuts
Underlying this is a jet stream gone wild, Maue and Chenard said.
Advertisement
The jet stream is the river of air that moves weather from west to east on a roller-coaster-like path. Usually the plunges are as mild as a kiddie roller coaster. But now that jet stream is going on near-vertical, scream-inducing drops following by straight-up ascents.
“Which means you get a lot of extremes next to each other,” Maue said. Storm fronts coming from the Pacific hit that high pressure heat dome in the Southwest and are pushed north to climb that mountainous jet stream peak, “grab access to that cold air reservoir up there” and bring it back down south down the other side of the hill, he said.
“The first day of spring is 20th (of March), and then after that we get recovery,” Maue said.
___
Associated Press writer Dorany Pineda contributed from Los Angeles.
___
Advertisement
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Hayes, understandably, is seeking compensation and is suing UBS in the US for $400m. ‘My life was ruined by the bank’s actions – I lost my liberty and my marriage, missed out on my son’s childhood, and my physical and mental health suffered terribly,’ said Hayes. ‘UBS also destroyed my reputation and career.’
BERLIN (AP) — Ali Darwich, a gay Muslim influencer in Berlin, picks up a date from his plate, takes a sip of water, and addresses the 15 friends sitting around the table and breaking the Ramadan fast with him.
The 33-year-old German with Palestinian and Lebanese roots — who goes by @alifragt or “Ali asks” on Instagram — has a quickly growing following on Instagram, where he draws attention to the difficulties of living as a young, queer Muslim and calls for more tolerance and inclusiveness.
“Tonight we want to send a message that no matter where a person comes from, no matter who that person loves, no matter how queer that person is, they cannot be too queer … because they are exactly as they should be,” Darwich says, smiling at the diverse group of Muslims and Christians, Germans and immigrants, gay and straight people sharing this meal with him as the sun sets over Berlin.
Advertisement
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, center left, hosts an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, center left, hosts an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
“I am a believer, I believe in God, and I find Islam beautiful, just like Christianity or Judaism and many other religions,” he says. But he adds that it’s not always easy for homosexuals to be accepted — not just for Muslims but also for queer Christians and believers of many other religions.
Advertisement
Indeed, attacks against LGBTQ+ people and gay-friendly establishments are rising across Germany, including in Berlin, a city that has historically embraced the community.
According to the latest figures from 2024, there was a 40% increase in violence targeting LGBTQ+ people in 12 of Germany’s 16 federal states as compared to 2023, according to the Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-Wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence.
Advertisement
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, right, welcomes friends for an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, right, welcomes friends for an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Darwich calls for inclusion of homosexual Muslims
In one of his Instagram videos, Darwich sits by himself on a table during Ramadan and talks about the loneliness some Muslim homosexuals face when they are shunned by their families. It makes life hard, he says, especially during holidays that are usually a time of togetherness.
He calls on people to open their hearts and doors to queer Muslims so they don’t have to be alone for Iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan.
And for his gay followers he also has a message on Instagram: “You deserve to break your fast surrounded by people who accept you — fully and without conditions.”
Advertisement
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, right, welcomes friends for an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, right, welcomes friends for an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Darwich’s coming out a few years ago wasn’t easy.
Advertisement
When he told his mother about it, she at first didn’t want to believe him, then she cried and they didn’t talk for half a year. Many other members of his extended family also were taken aback.
“From one day to the next, I was no longer invited. Not only to Ramadan, but also to family celebrations, and that was a very difficult time for me,” he told The Associated Press in an interview this week.
Friends stepping up when your family shuns you
While Darwich and his mom are getting along just fine now, he said it helped him tremendously at the time that his friends stepped up and became a kind of family for him, supporting and accepting him.
For this week’s “real life” Iftar in Berlin, his friend Randa Weiser, 40, a German-Palestinian influencer who shares her everyday life with three kids and husband on social media under the handle @randa_and_the_gang, has opened her home for Ali and his and her friends.
Advertisement
She cooked up a feast of freekeh soup, fragrant yellow rice with almonds, raisins and cardamon, grilled chicken drumsticks, and a variety of sweets for desserts.
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, right, and Randa prepare food for an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Gay Muslim influencer Ali Darwich, right, and Randa prepare food for an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
“It’s an absolute colorful mix tonight,” she said referring to the crowd around the Iftar table. While most people are German, many of their families originally come from faraway places like Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco, Turkey, Chechnya and Syria, Iran and Peru.
Weiser said she got “some hate” on Instagram when she posted earlier in the day that she was about to host an inclusive Iftar, but mostly, she says her followers agree that “you can be Muslim and gay or lesbian.”
As the crowd — many of them influencers as well — dug into Weiser’s food, they didn’t miss an opportunity to shoot video of one another and post it quickly on their accounts.
One of them, Darwich’s good friend Haidar Darwish, a belly dancer and artist who came from Syria in 2016, had dressed up for the occasion with a red fez and a white, gold-embroidered gallabiyah.
Advertisement
Haidar Darwish, a belly dancer and artist who came from Syria, attends an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Haidar Darwish, a belly dancer and artist who came from Syria, attends an inclusive Iftar, the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, with friends who are Muslim, Christian, queer and straight, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
“The hate and crimes against women, Muslim people, Jewish people also, and queers and trans siblings of mine have increased,” said Darwish, who goes by @thedarvishofficial on Instagram.
Advertisement
“But no matter how much the others will show us hate, we can show more love only if we are believing in ourselves,” he said, adding that they will be fine as long as they have “the help of our allies and friends and people that have our backs.”
Brunch Time York at 2 Oak Street, Holgate, was visited by City of York Council inspectors on January 23.
The Food Standards Agency website says that for hygienic food handling, the business was rated as ‘improvement necessary’. The same rating was also given for the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and the building.
However, for management of food safety, the rating was ‘major improvement necessary’.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Advertisement
The Press submitted a Freedom of Information Request to City of York Council asking for a copy of the inspector’s report, which we have yet to receive.
Brunch Time York receives good reviews on Google, which gives it 4.5 stars out of five based on 52 reviews.
Brunch Time York is popular for food but hygiene inspectors only gave it one-star. (Image: Street View)
Just Eat awards five stars out of five, based on 105 reviews.
The most recent Google review was seven months ago.
Advertisement
It said: “I ordered a cheese sandwich and a tuna salad along with a vegetarian breakfast.
“The owner was attentive and even cooked my hash browns in new oil as I don’t do pork.
“The shop is bright well-lit with a few stools inside, there are two tables outside.
“The shop is very clean and looks appealing as it hooked me from my driving. I even turned around as I was hungry.
Advertisement
“I paid £16 for the selection and was impressed.
“I would order ahead as it took about 20 mins to cook the breakfast.
“Food was banging and the huge cob roll was like a dinner plate.”
Brunch Time York did not respond to our requests for comment.
Advertisement
Should they do so, we are more than happy to report on what they have to say, along with the results of any future re-inspection.
Historians say this quiet Italian city is 2,200 years old (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Italy conjures visions of Roman holidays à la Audrey Hepburn, and romantic adventures in the cobbled streets of Florence, Milan, and Naples.
It’s safe to say that the world loves channelling La Dolce Vita. In 2025, it welcomed some 104 million international visitors, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
But with several Italian cities taking action against overtourism, including Florence’s ban on Airbnb-style self-check-in keyboxes and Seceda’s €5 turnstile charges, a growing number of travellers are veering off the beaten track.
It will be welcome news, then, that a little-known city in the Emilia-Romagna region has had a direct UK flight reinstated for the first time in 18 years.
Advertisement
Between June and October, Ryanair is reviving its route from London Stansted to Forlì, a quiet city of ancient churches and elegant piazzas that dates back 2,200 years.
The route originally operated between 2001 and 2008, but was pulled when the airline started serving Bologna.
Flights will run twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, providing plenty of time to fit in an Aperol Spritz or two.
Advertisement
Win a city break for two in romantic Rome with our newsletter
Win a dreamy trip to Rome for you and a friend (Picture: Getty Images)
Unlimited pasta, world-class shopping, thousands of years of history on every street corner… who wouldn’t want to be in Rome?
We’ve teamed up with Wowcher to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a city break for two in Rome, including return flights from your chosen UK airport (Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester, London Gatwick or London Stansted) and a stay in a four-star hotel walking distance of iconic spots such as the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain.
Armed with travel tips from our exclusive new newsletter The Getaway Expert, this is your chance to explore the Eternal City like a real Roman. Good luck!
Open to UK (excluding Northern Ireland) residents aged 18 or over.Closes 11:59pm on 29 March 2029. Full T&Cs apply.
And it won’t break the bank. Flights departing on June 6 and returning on June 13, for example, are currently £46 return.
Advertisement
The route’s revival is set to make travel easier for locals. As it stands, the only year-round option from London is to Bologna, which is 36 minutes away on the IC train, not including a ride on the Marconi Express from Bologna Centrale station. It’s pricey, too, at €12.80 (£11.05) for a seven-minute trip.
In the summer, flights also run from London to Rimini, which is around 50 minutes away by car from Forlì.
Ryanair has confirmed that the comeback has been made possible by the removal of the municipal tax at several Italian airports, including Forlì, which sees a fee (ranging from €6.50/£5.61 to €9/£7.77) wrapped into the cost of the plane ticket.
There are flights from London for £46 return (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Alongside Forlì, eight other airports, including Parma, have also scrapped the tax. Ryanair says the changes bring its Italian slate to 20 routes.
It means the airline will serve an extra 660,000 passengers each year and increase traffic by more than 50%.
Advertisement
Top things to do in Forlì and Emilia-Romagna
Looking for a reason to visit? Food should be top of your list.
The Emilia-Romagna region is famous for simple dishes made with local ingredients, thanks to its location close to both mountains and sea.
Some of the most popular things to eat here include mortadella (a type of ham that’s been mimicked as ‘baloney’ elsewhere in the world), Parmesan, and piadina, a type of flatbread best enjoyed with something like squacquerone, a form of soft cheese that’s not hard enough to have a rind, but not mushy enough to be considered cottage cheese.
The route is set to improve connections to the region (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Wine lovers should indulge in a glass of Sangiovese, a red that’s so embedded in the culture of the region that, in Romagnol (the regional dialect), it’s simply called ‘e be,’ which translates to ‘the drink.’
You’ll find a delectable tagliatelle al ragù (that’s right, it’s not called spaghetti bolognese) at Trattoria ‘petito, or a more rustic meal at La Piadineria.
Advertisement
Culture-wise, the Museo Civico San Domenico is also worth a look, as this year, it’s running an exhibition on Baroque art.
For history, the Rocca di Ravaldino, a Medieval fortress dating back to the fourteenth century, which, alongside being an important historical site, hosts a cultural festival in the summer. Expect music and cinema.
The Emilia Romagna region is known for simple but delicious food (Picture: Getty Images)
In nearby Cesena, those with a sweet tooth will be delighted by Babbi Café.
Founded in 1952, it’s a local legend renowned for chocolate spreads, wafers, and ice cream (which is served up all year round, not just during the summer).
Once you’ve filled your belly, Cesena has a rich history to absorb. It was referenced as early as Dante in 1321, who described the city centre as being ‘between the plain and the hills.’
Advertisement
It’s also home to the oldest public library in the world: the Malatestian Library, which holds such a fundamental place in Cesena’s constitution that it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005.
Through a new analysis, The British Heart Foundation [BHF] has revealed that more than half of Brits are unaware of how much salt they consume every day.
A senior dietician is warning this may be because some of our foodie staples contain hidden salt which could be causing havoc to our health.
Salt contains sodium, which plays a role in regulating fluid balance in the body.
Advertisement
The NHS states adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day, which is around one level teaspoon.
This includes the salt that’s already in our food and the salt added during and after cooking.
The BHF revealed working-age adults in England eat an average of 8.4g of salt per day.
A worrying 56% of Brits were also found to be not confident in estimating their daily salt intake, with only 16% being able to correctly identify the national maximum adult guideline.
Advertisement
These statistics were revealed through a new poll commissioned by BHF alongside YouGov on 2,000 adults.
A further 20% of Brits also thought the daily salt intake was more than 6g and a third (32%) said they didn’t know.
When we eat too much salt, extra water is drawn into the bloodstream, which increases blood volume and raises your blood pressure.
This can put a strain on your heart and blood vessels over time, which increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and vascular dementia.
Advertisement
Some foods with high salt content won’t come as a surprise like bacon, ham, olives and gravy granules.
But Lloyds Pharmacy revealed there may be some products that are staple in your weekly shop that may shock you with their high salt content.
Types of bread like crumpets and bagels, pasta sauces, pizzas, breakfast cereals, soups, cheeses and sausages can all contain high levels of salt.
The NHS said it is also worthwhile for Brits to check their pasta sauces, stock cubes, ketchup, soy sauce, mayonnaise and pickles too for their salt contents.
Advertisement
Dell Stanford, BHF senior dietician, said the ‘hidden’ salt in these items could be putting your health at risk.
Dell said: “Most of the salt we eat is hidden in the food we buy such as bread, cereals, pre-made sauces and ready meals, so it’s often hard to know exactly how much salt we’re consuming.
“This is bad news for our heart health, as eating too much salt significantly increases the risk of high blood pressure, a major cause of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious diseases.
Advertisement
“The Government must step in to make the healthy choice much easier for families by giving manufacturers an incentive to take out excessive amounts of salt from our food.”
In light of this, here are some NHS tips to help you reduce your salt intake:
Try adding flavour to your food with herbs and spices, black pepper, garlic, chili, or lemon juice instead of salt.
Limit the amount of salt you add to your cooking and eating – taste your food before deciding to add extra salt.
Choose lower-salt foods by checking the label on the back of packaging.
Buy tinned vegetables, pulses of fish in water instead of brine.
Have healthier snacks such as plain rice cakes, fruit, vegetables sticks or unsalted nuts.
Try low or reduced-salt versions of food and sauces.
The underground facility, dubbed a “concrete bunker watching for Armageddon”, has been found in the grounds of Scarborough Castle.
It was built to protect and house Royal Observer Corps (ROC) volunteers tasked with plotting nuclear bombs falling across Britain.
Experts from English Heritage have opened the entrance and have lowered cameras into the chamber below to assess its condition.
The bunker is one of 1,500 that were built across the country in 1963-64 to detect nuclear explosions and were designed to withstand an attack.
Advertisement
A lost Cold War lookout post has been unearthed in the grounds of Scarborough Castle (Image: Jim Holden/English Heritage/PA Wire)
They included communications facilities and bunkbeds for the occupiers from the ROC – a largely unsung civil defence organisation with more than 20,000 volunteers.
English Heritage said the Scarborough bunker appears to have been sealed and buried in 1968 and its location and condition have remained unknown ever since.
The discovery is part of a project led by the charity to mark 100 years of the ROC, with a search for past members and an event at the York Cold War Bunker.
A lost Cold War lookout post has been unearthed in the grounds of Scarborough Castle (Image: Jim Holden/English Heritage/PA Wire)
Following analysis of existing data and a newly commissioned ground survey, a dig began on March 7.
Advertisement
English Heritage’s head of collections, Kevin Booth, said: “Wherever you lived in Britain, you were probably no more than a few miles from an ROC post – yet few people knew they existed.
“It seems strange to have a Cold War bunker built inside Scarborough Castle, but in many ways it is a perfect location: this headland has been an observation post for thousands of years, from a Bronze Age settlement, a Roman signal station, a medieval castle, a Second World War gun battery and, here, a 1960s concrete bunker watching for Armageddon.”
Read next:
Helen Featherstone, director of England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “It’s really exciting that this lost bunker has been uncovered by the team working on this project, marking 100 years of the Royal Observer Corps.
Advertisement
“This find builds on our understanding of their story and shines a spotlight on their important work protecting the UK.
“The project has been made possible thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, and I’m sure that they will be thrilled to know that they have played a role in this discovery.”