22 July 2005 PIGEON IS HOME NINE DAYS LATE A RACING pigeon sent on a nine-hour flight home took nine days - and even then needed lifts in a helicopter and courier's van to complete its trip. The bird was released at Chermont in France and should have simply headed straight across the English Channel for its loft in Bridlington, East Yorks. Instead, it flew through Belgium, Holland and Denmark before eventually flopping on to the deck of Lomond North Sea oil rig off Aberdeen. After being stranded on the platform for a week because of fog, it was sent...