British racing pigeon Houdini ended up in Panama City. Photo: ALAMY

The 10 month-old bird had been undertaking a six hour race from Guernsey to Dudley, West Midlands more than five weeks ago.

But it failed to arrive and its owner Darren Cubberly, 45, had give up hope the bird would return from the 224 mile trip.

He was surprised to get a phone call this week from Panama City, where the bird had ended up.

He was told the bird was alive and healthy despite making the more than 5200 mile trip. It is thought she landed on a ship travelling to the area.

The bird had been taken in by Gustavo Ortiz after it landed on his roof. Mr Ortiz rang Mr Cubberly after noticing contact numbers on it.

“I was gobsmacked. I didn’t even know where Panama was,” Mr Cubberley told the Daily Mirror.

“I’ve no idea how Houdini got there – I can only assume she hitched a lift on a ship across the Atlantic.”

He speculated she was fed on the boat as she appeared in “perfect shape”.

The pigeon, now learning Spanish, will now live with the family in Panama as it is too expensive to transport her home.

Mr Ortiz told Mr Cubberley his family were more than happy to have the pigeon.

Sid Barkel, secretary of the National Flying Club, said it was a “very unusual” case.

Six retired officers and one former non-commissioned officer claim to have gathered witness testimonies from more than 120 military personnel revealing the infiltration of nuclear sites by aliens as recently as 2003.

In some cases, nuclear missiles supposedly malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object hovered nearby.

Captain Robert Salas, a former Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Launch officer, said he was on duty during one missile disruption incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in 1967.

“An object came over and hovered directly over the site,” he said.

“The missiles shut down – 10 Minuteman missiles. And the same thing happened at another site a week later. There’s a strong interest in our missiles by these objects, wherever they come from.

“I personally think they’re not from planet Earth.”

He said he was ordered to never discuss it: “The US Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can prove it.”

Colonel Charles Halt said he watched Unidentified Flying Objects directing beams of light into RAF Bentwaters airbase near Ipswich and heard on the radio that they landed in the nuclear weapons storage area.

Col Halt said: “I believe that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted – both then and now – to subvert the significance of what occurred at RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practised methods of disinformation.”

The group of officers said they would distribute declassified government documents on Monday that would prove there had been alien interference at nuclear weapons sites stretching back to 1948.

“I couldn’t believe it. I’d never acted in my life – I didn’t even know I could act,” said the teenager, from Woolton, Liverpool.

“Beauty pageants are big over in India so the director saw me on the competition website. He liked that I was white but had an Indian look so he tracked me down.”

Within a month, she was whisked off to film in the teeming Indian cities of Chennai and Hyderabad.

“The cast and crew made me so welcome. I was worried about the language barrier but everyone made such an effort with me I settled in fine,” she said.

“Filming was so nerve-wracking though. I’m used to modelling shoots where there’s about ten people on set, but I had to act in front of hundreds of cast and crew members.

“That’s real pressure when you’ve never acted before. But it was amazing working with A L Vijay because he is so passionate about his work. This film was his dream and I feel honoured that he chose me to help him fulfill it.”

The film is set in the pre-independence India of the 1940s and tells the love story of a Madrasi man, played by Bollywood star Arya, and the British daughter of the governor of Madrasapattinam.

The film topped the Bollywood box office on its release last month, making former Miss Jackson an instant superstar.

She recalled: “At the film premier in Chennai, as soon as my character came on the screen, the audience went wild cheering and clapping.

“We did a promotional tour across India and everywhere we went there were thousands of screaming fans at every venue.

“It’s so crazy, it’s like two different worlds. Everything is calm at home and I’m just Amy, then when I go to India I get mobbed.

“Now I get at least 150 emails from fans every day.”

Having admitted that she would not have considered switching to acting until much later in her career, Miss Jackson is now a Bollywood convert.

She added: “Acting is my job now and I take it very seriously. I’ve been reading through some Bollywood scripts and I’ll definitely do another film.”

With her Bollywood stardom cemented, Amy is now looking ahead to her next challenge – the Miss England final on 1st September.

“It’s my dream to win Miss England so I’m completely focused on that right now,” she said.

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AFP) – Ambassadors from the United States and Britain dived into a swimming pool fully clothed here as payment for a bet struck on the World Cup.

The pair had placed a private wager on the result of the first round match between the USA and England in South Africa with the loser pledging to take a swim wearing his suit.

After the match ended in a 1-1 draw the ambassadors of both countries were consigned to the same watery fate.

The two men paid off their respective part of the bet when they met in the Tajikistan capital last month, with a group if invited guests on hand to act as witnesses.

Unlike their clothes, the ambassadors’ spirits were not dampened.