When Andrew Rickards of Gloucester pleaded guilty to serial shoplifting earlier this week, his solicitor - a Mr Jon Holmes - told the world that his client was "neither needy nor greedy. He is an old fashioned kleptomaniac." Mr Rickards subsequently asked for 2,308 other offences to be taken into consideration.

Boots "Shapers" tuna and cucumber

Trying to catch salmon is generally quoted as the quickest way to spend money in fishing. A disgruntled salmon angler, only half in jest, likened it to building a rod with pounds 20 notes, then setting fire to it. But big-game angling is an equally good way to fritter away an inheritance.

Supermarkets apart, sushi is very expensive, and the reason those raw slivers cost so much is that they have to come a long way very, very quickly.

Japanese coastguards are investigating an apparent mutiny on a tuna ship which left 11 people dead.

Engineers from sister ships in the Japanese Atlantic tuna fleet, aided by Irish naval officers, yesterday succeeded in restarting the engines of the stricken vessel Taisei Maru, on which five crew members died in a gas leak on Friday.

Ireland's tiny navy takes on armada of huge Japanese trawlers using factory methods to plunder Atlantic waters of favourite fish

A Japanese trawler detained in Irish waters was last night escorted by a fisheries-protection vessel to Castletown Bere, County Cork, where its captain faces charges of illegal fishing. The Minato Maru, one of a 40- strong Japanese fleet massed off County Galway, is the first non-EU-registered vessel to be held in Irish waters in two years.

264 Brompton Road, London SW3 2AS. Tel: 0171 225 1212. Open Monday to Saturday from noon to 3pm and from 7pm to 11pm. Average price per person, pounds 35. Major credit cards accepted

Sundried tomatoes? Where have you been? Pacific fusion is flavour of the month. Hester Lacey reports on the tyranny of kitchen cred

Food for fashion victims

The Italians have got it dead right. You order a lamb chop, you get a lamb chop. You want something with it, you get a contorno, that is, an accompaniment which, like a well-behaved child, is meant to be discreet

Human rights or dolphins' rights? You can't espouse all of the causes all of the time, says Aminatta Forna; TESTIMONY

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