In the News: Even the Tooth Fairy appears strapped for cash -- or is it another postcode lottery?

Is the Tooth Fairy mean and unfair? That was the question posed by the Daily Mail in response to a survey that revealed some children get as much as £5 from the tooth-worshipping sprite, while others get a measly 5p.

"The capital comes top, with each child getting an average of £5.10, which works out to around £100 for a full set of milk teeth," reported the Mail. "But children in Hull wake up to an average of only 5p." According to the poll of more than 2,000 parents with children aged four to 12, 61 per cent of youngsters have been visited by the Tooth Fairy. Others have stopped believing, while some families said they couldn’t afford the tradition of exchanging teeth for cash, revealed the survey by discount website myvouchers.co.uk.

Cue chairman Mike Pearson with some expert analysis. "It seems even the Tooth Fairy is feeling the pinch when it comes to certain areas and handing over her cash in exchange for teeth," he said. "Perhaps she tends to visit certain towns before others, meaning she has less money left towards the end of her journey." Or is it simply another National Elf Service postcode lottery?

With bonfire night safety warnings still ringing in our ears, here’s a cautionary tale from Australia.

Three young men have become the butt of national media jokes after an ill-fated experi­ment to brand each other’s bottoms while drinking around a bonfire. "Luke Moroney, 21, Blaire Cooper, 21, and Joel Austen, 18, decided to call paramedics after waking up at lunchtime with hangovers and third-degree burns to their bum cheeks," reported local paper The Chronicle.

"The trio had to peel their underwear off their blistered burns and wait for help." Unfortunately, some crossed wires sparked a major turnout of emergency services to "an explosion type incident with multiple casualties" – so it was red cheeks all round. The aptly named Moroney told the paper he didn’t quite know why the group had decided to brand themselves with a red hot poker: "I remember putting it on my bum cheek, then running straight to the dog water dish to cool off. Now I have to go to the doctor tomorrow because it is infected." Struth!

Going to church in Scotland is about to become a lot more fun for children as a new scheme sees church buildings double up as sports courts.

Churches throughout Glasgow’s East End will be hosting Racquet Wall – a new game developed in Scotland – as part of a trial developed by the Scottish Churches Commonwealth Games programme. The game, which is a derivative of squash that uses only one wall, is played with "a large bouncy ball and racket with a large head, making it easy to play", reported The Scotsman.