Beckham on banknotes? Only on April Fools' Day

London, Apr 1: David Beckham is to appear on a banknote, while Arsenal are testing a new football for left-footers in April Fools' Day stories doing the rounds in Britain today.

British newspapers annually run silly stories on April 1 to catch out gullible readers- and this year was no exception.

The Sun said music mogul Simon Cowell was to appear on the new 5-pound note, with football icon Beckham tipped for the 20-pound note and actress Helen Mirren set to replace Queen Elizabeth II on the 10-pound note.

Meanwhile Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa is to be turned into a luxury hotel, said The Daily Telegraph, with tourist visits limited to two hours a day.

Local tour guide Mia Falova told the broadsheet: "The queues will be extraordinary. They're taking the Pisa."

A new snore-detecting bookmark will use an alarm to stop sleepy readers from nodding off, while a children's chess match is being organised on the 38th parallel between North and South Korea, the paper also reported.

Arsenal Football Club said they were trying out a new ball specifically created to increase the accuracy and power of left-footed players.

Right-footed defender Hector Bellerin said, "It's a bit tricky to use on your right foot but it instantly improved my left foot."

Meanwhile motoring presenter Jeremy Clarkson, now axed from "Top Gear", the BBC's most popular programme worldwide, has done a U-turn, The Guardian reported.

The petrolhead is apparently to dedicate the rest of his career to sustainable energy, road safety and cultural tolerance.

If Britain's general election on May 7 ends in a hung parliament, then the new Office for Estimation will decide who should run the country using a rough estimate of who people want based on Twitter analysis, the Daily Mirror revealed. The department's director general Adam Lloyd said: "We have to end this over-reliance on 'hard facts'."

The Daily Mail reported that visitors to safari parks can have their cars bubble-wrapped to stop monkeys from scratching the paintwork or stealing the windscreen wipers.

Supermarket chain Tesco is to install trampolines in the aisles to help customers reach the top shelves, said the Daily Express.

And The Independent said the University of Leicester would be renamed after king Richard III after its experts helped find the 15th-century monarch beneath a car park in the city.

AFP