“Actor and director Mel Gibson has pleaded no contest to a “misdemeanour” battery charge after a fight with then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in 2010. Gibson, 55, was placed on probation for 36 months and ordered to attend a year of domestic violence counselling. The complaint accuses Gibson of “wilfully and unlawfully” using force and violence against Ms Grigorieva. A misdemeanour charge is generally considered a lesser criminal act than a felony charge in the US”. – BBC News

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva arrives at the premiere Of Warner Bros. “The Edge Of Darkness” held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on January 26, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Back in England, one of the British soldiers that continue to return in their thousands from Northern France, belies any mood of defeat with some high spirited piping on a train. (Photo by Parker/Fox Photos/Getty Images). 1st June 1940

A boy walks past boats docked at the entrance gate of the fishermen's village in the El Max area of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria September 12, 2014. El Max, where hundreds of boats dart through the canals, has been called the “Venice of Egypt” for its waterways and relaxed atmosphere. Its fishermen, however, worry about how they will make ends meet on meagre earnings they say are being reduced further by polluted waters that are making fishing more difficult. While the government has tried to fix the state's bloated finances by cutting subsidies and reining in spending, some argue the reforms hurt Egypt's most vulnerable who have long relied on a generous system of fuel and food subsidies to supplement low incomes. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Reenactors playing the roll of Kentucky volunteers, fighting for the United States, fire muskets during a reenactment of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, marking its bicentennial in Chalmette, Louisiana, January 10, 2015. The participants, some of whom have travelled thousands of miles to join in the event, recreated the five clashes that comprise the battle, which some historians say was key in making the British honor the terms of a peace treaty signed in late 1814. (Photo by Lee Celano/Reuters)

The sun rises over the north sea as The Couple by artist Sean Henery sits just of the coast at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, England, Wednesday October 8, 2014. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/AP Photo/PA Wire)

The annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney features dozens of sculptures on Bondi and Tamarama beaches and along the coastal path between them. The free outdoor exhibition, now in its 18th year, stretches for 2km along the coastline and includes work by artists from 16 countries. It runs from 23 October to 9 November 2014. Here: “Breaching” by Michael Greve is displayed during the 2014 Sculptures by the Sea exhibition at Marks Park on October 23, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

A man helps another make his way through deep mud at the site of a landslide at the Koslanda tea plantation near Haldummulla October 30, 2014. Hopes of finding survivors under the mud and rubble of a landslide in south-central Sri Lanka had run out by first light on Thursday, though a government minister cut the estimated death toll to more than 100 from 300 the previous night. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)