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Two police officers are under investigation after using anti-terror stop-and-search powers against a man and two young children in a south London street.

The 43-year-old man had his mobile phones, USB sticks and a CD seized by the officers, who were in plain clothes, and was asked to stand in front of a CCTV camera in order to have his photograph taken. The undercover Metropolitan police officers also took the man’s photograph with their own camera and searched the two children he was walking with – his 11-year-old daughter and his neighbour’s daughter, aged six.

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In a statement today, the IPCC said: “The complainant states that, when he asked under what legislation his property was being seized, he was told it was under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He also complained that he was given no information as to when he could retrieve his goods or who to contact in order to do so, and that there was no communication from police despite assurances that he would be told when he could collect his things.”

That used to be called “highway robbery”. These anti-terror laws are mighty convenient…

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A Bolivian religious fanatic hijacked a passenger jet from the Mexican resort city of Cancun after receiving a divine revelation, selecting the date 9-9-09 because it is the satanic number 666 turned upside down, Mexico’s security secretary said Wednesday.

Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna says Jose Mar Flores, 44, used a fake bomb to hijack the plane, then ordered the pilot to circle over Mexico City seven times. He told Mexican officials that he wanted to warn Mexican President Felipe Calderon of an impending earthquake.

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The head of U.S. bank Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday that anger over bankers’ pay was “understandable and appropriate,” and that greater scrutiny of trade in complex instruments was needed to keep banks in check.

But with the banking sector bouncing back from the financial crisis, regulatory overkill could choke off economic growth, Lloyd Blankfein told an industry conference in Germany’s financial hub.

Translation: “yeah, we robbed you – but please don’t pass a law against it”

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Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research says.

The report, Fewer Emitter, Lower Emissions, Less Cost, concludes that family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction. The UN estimates that 40 per cent of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.

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A South African information technology company on Wednesday proved that it was faster for them to transmit data with a carrier pigeon than to send it using Telkom, the country’s leading Internet service provider.

Internet speed and connectivity in Africa’s largest economy are poor because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive.

Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 50 miles from Unlimited IT’s offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to his leg.

Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds — the time it took for only 4% of the data to be transferred using a Telkom line.

SAPA said Unlimited IT performed the stunt after becoming frustrated with slow internet transmission times.