Teen-Repellant Ruled Discriminatory

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/teenrepellent-buzzing-devices-ruled-disciminatory-2010597.html

Summary:

The newly implemented mosquito devices against loitering have been banned. The little device emmits a high-pitched noise which only young people around the teenage years can hear. It was invented in order to disperse groups of teenagers loitering and cause them to move on. The invention was slandered by Europe’s health watchdog today, as it was considered discriminatory to all young people and violates human rights such as the right to private life and freedom of assembly. Furthermore, it is found to be a degrading treatment compairing youngsters to unwanted pests.

Personal Opinion:

I understand that some areas have a law against loitering, but that is what the police on beat are there for. It is very offensive that the inventor assumes it is just young people who could cause harm and need to be dispersed. Besides, most of us are decent, law-abiding citizens and if I happen to meet up with some friends in a corner to catch up, I do not want to be treated as a pest. Why don’t they invent something that targets criminals instead of teenagers?

Child Suicide Link To Bullying Demands More Research

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10302550.stm

Summary:

A child bullying prevention charity called Beatbullying has called for some attention by demanding more research into bullying as a cause to child suicides. There is not enough evidence to clearly state that bullying is the definite cause , though in the majority of cases it was certainly linked. Such as the case of Sam Leeson whose mother claims that he took his own life because he was tormented at school by kids who ridiculed his dark clothes, long hair and emo music. Emma-Jane Cross, chief-executive of Beatbullying is demanding more anti-bullying workshops in school as well as more research.

Personal Opinion:

Well of course bullying at schools in one of the causes! Kids in early puberty are going through lots of hormonal changes and it is very easy for them to overreact when displaying emotions such as violence when feeling angry (bullies) and self-harm when depressed (victims). And since school is one of their main sources for social interaction, it is only natural that they would find problems there in addition to all the benefits it has to offer. I think that instead of wasting time with anti-bullying workshops, they should have some “self-esteem classes”. After all, though most suicides were linked with bullying, I guarantee there are way more kids out there who were bullied and are still alive.

Belfast Man Jailed For Having Child Abuse Images

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/northern_ireland/10418881.stm

Summary:

David John Hughes, aged 36, from Belfast, was arrested after child abuse files were found on his computer. 932 Child abuse images and 51 video files were found. Aside from this, highly disturbing chatlogs in which he fantasized about killing children were found. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison and then 5 in license because the judge decided he posed a threat to children in the future. He will also have to sign the police sex offenders register for the rest of his life and have a Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed. He is not allowed to have any device which can be connected to the internet, any contact with children without approval from social services, or get a job without approval from a risk manager.

Personal Opinion:

I did not even know that the judge could gie that kind of sentence. They can actually forbid you to have internet? I don’t know if that would help though, because the pervert might get so frustrated by not being able to have his fantasies on there that he might actually try to go and commit the real deal. I don’t think it was a harsh enough punishment, someone like that is clearly not mentally healthy, he should not be in society at all. He should have gotten life in prison.

Stowaways Found in Lorry

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/kent/10414394.stm

Summary:

Seventeen men between ages 16 and 35 were discovered stowed away in the back of an articulated lorry at the Port of Dover. After some people heard banging coming from the lorry on board the ferry. The Kent Police were called and paramedics also rushed to the scene when the suspected illegal immigrants were found suffering from exhaustion and badly dehydrated. After being treated by the paramedics, the immigrants were taken away for questioning, and if they have no legal right to be in the country they will be exported. The police has aprehended the 53-year old Polish man who was driving the vehicle.

Personal Opinion:

The article is a bit vague. The reader does not get all the facts necessary to form a proper, educated opinion. For instance: were they there voluntarily or was this human trafficking? I believe that they should be able to stay just because they had to go through all that to get out of their own country in the first place. Then again, if that would be the case with all illegals found in a country I guess it would be incredibly overpopulated, which is probably why I am not in charge of these things. I say “Let Elian stay!”.

Police Quell Ryanair Mutiny With Chocolate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/25/police-quell-ryanair-mutiny-chocolate

Summary:

Passengers on a Ryanair plane were getting increasingly angry when staff refused to offer food and drink during a four-hour delay. Due to an airtraffic controller strike in France, the plane could not take off from Prestwick tarmac and the staff said they were not allowed to open up the refreshment trolleys until the plane was in the air and they could also not let anyone off the plane. The passengers were on the verge of mutiny when the police was called by one of the staffmembers. The Scottish police were greeted by a loud cheer when it was clear that they had stopped to buy water and chocolate for every passenger on board at their own expence.

Personal Opinion:

That was really surprisingly nice of the police, and very thoughtful too. I always thought chocolate would be the best diplomatic solution to any problem and here is a perfect example. Although, I think it should actually have been paid for by Ryanair, as it is their stupid policy to enprison and then starve their paying customers. I’m pretty sure that the Scotts would get angry at Ryanair for making the police waste their tax money on chocolate.

Fan Invades England Team's Dressing Room at 2010 World Cup in South Africa

David Beckham and Prince Harry

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7853456/World-Cup-2010-Fan-in-court-for-invading-England-teams-dressing-room-in-South-Africa.html

Summary:

Pavlos Joseph, an enthusiastic fan of England, claims to have been looking for the loo after the Algeria game, when he accidently ended up in the team’s changing room. He says the security guard sent him in the wrong direction and when he found himself with the team, he expressed his disappointment to them and David Beckham. This happened right after princes William and Harry had left the room. He was led off by security guards and will appear in a special World Cup court for trespassing. Inicially, the plan was to ban him from future games, but since he did not display any violent behaviour, that was dropped. Beckham says the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

Personal Opinion:

I think they shouldn’t pursue it any further, he already had to pay 500 euros in bail money, so that is enough. He did not mean any harm and Beckham himself said that it was no big deal. On another article I read that Prince William jokingly said it must have been his fault for leaving the door open on his way out. They should actually go fire the security guard who let this happen in the first place. Thankfully it was a harmless fan, but what if it wasn’t? We all remember the Munich Massacre in 1972.

Epic Game at Wimbledon

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jun/24/wimbledon-tennis-epic-isner-mahut

Summary:

After an excrutiatingly long match, the American John Isner beat frenchman Nicolas Mahut at the finals in Wimbledon. The match lasted three days and ended in a final set of 70-68. After ten hours on court during the last set, the exhausted players paused the game at 59-59 and resumed it the next day. The press flocked to the courts and even John McEnroe showed up to have two Japanese tourists sent away so that he could be seated to watch the finale of this epic match This beat all previous records of longest match, longest set and most games played.

Personal Opinion:

This was awesome, but really exhausting at the same time. While watching you feel like you are sick of it already and you want to change the channel, but at the same time you want to see how it ends. It was unbelievable how badly both the players struggled through the entire game. I felt phisically and mentally exhausted just by watching them so I can’t even imagine how they must have felt. I wonder if they felt worse after the excrutiating ten hours of play or the next day when they had to come in completely sore from the day before. They proved to be real tennis titans and no one who watched will ever forget that match.

Spiders Kill

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/devon/10404620.stm

Summary:

A woman ended up killing a cyclist when she was dealing with a spider in her car. Georgina Mills says she took her eyes off the road for two seconds to grab the spider that popped up in front of her and throw it out the window of her car. In those two seconds she hit Simon Evons, who was on a charity bike ride from Land’s End to Derby with his brother-in-law. Evons was pronounced dead an hour later at the hospital. Mills, who had no previous convictions and a clean driving record admitted to causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to a two-year driving ban, two-year community order and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Personal Opinion:

I disagree with the judge’s sentence. There is no evidence to prove that her story was false so I guess it’s a matter of “innocent until proven guilty”, but there is no evidence that she is telling the truth either. She could have just come up with that as an excuse for her reckless driving. And since it actually caused someone’s death, she should have a harsher punishment. I understand that jail time might have been too harsh just in case she was telling the truth, but she should have at least had her license permanently removed. It’s like they are saying “Well we understand you were distracted, so let’s just make sure you can’t kill anyone else for the next two years.”

Horse-Boy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/scotland/north_east_orkney_and_shetland/10401345.stm

Summary:

One of the features on Google Maps is that you can opt for “street view” which depicts an image of the street itself as opposed to the map. Apparently, on an image of a street in Hardgate, Aberdeen there is a man standing by the street wearing a horse’s head. “Horse-boy” has now become a popular link on google now and has sparked up responses from people all over Europe. Some say to have seen him at various places throughout the UK, some claim to be him and some are sceptical about whether this is newsworthy enough to have started such a hype.

Personal Opinion:

I think it is just a publicity stunt, either by the man or Google itself, but I absolutely loved finding this on the BBC News website. Regardless of the identity or purpose of the horse-boy, I find it more interesting that this completely random news is considered relevant enough to write about. They even posted up the link to the picture. Well it certainly is considered interesting enough for people all over Europe to be reacting to it. I guess when it’s something this random and absurd, it is guaranteed to attract some attention. And as for whether this is newsworthy or not, well I’d rather hear about this than what Brangelina is wearing to the Oscars.

Smoking Mothers-To-Be

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/24/test-pregnant-women-smoking-nice

Summary:

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) says that every expectant mother should have a carbon monoxide test to see whether they smoke so they can get the appropriate advice for quitting. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) diasgrees because they think it would make the pregnant women who smoke feel guilty. When the representative stated that it is not intended to penalise, but to encourage the women to quit, the midwives granted that it would be better for both the mothers and babies but were sceptical about the use of these test because of costs.

Personal Opinion:

I think it’s a great idea to do this because it seems very selfish for pregnant women to continue smoking regardless of the harm it could do to their baby. Furthermore I think the midwives are hypocritical and cheap. They know it would be good for pregnant women to stop smoking but just don’t want to spend any money so they used some dumb reason not to do it. As far as women feeling guilty for harming their unborn child: why shouldn’t they? Guilt is one of the biggest motivators to do the right thing. When I was preganant I drank one glass of wine and felt so guilty afterwards that I never did it again during my whole pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Britain's Little Angel gets 25 years

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/22/angel-delight-model-murder

Summary:

Last year on 25 July, two boys attacked and robbed a young doctor by the name of Nadim Gulamhuseinwala (32). Former child model Thomas Connor (known for his advertisements for the dessert Angel Delight and nicknamed “Britain’s Little Angel”) and his friend William Paton were convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 and 23 years in jail. After being robbed by a fake prostitute, the boys, who were high on cocaine, jumped Nadim on his way home from a pub and brutally beat him with an iron bar. Nadim was sent to the hospital, but could not recover and died within two weeks of the attack.

Opinion:

This was brutal. According to the article, there was no provocation whatsoever. The boys didn’t say anything to Nadim, didn’t ask him for his money or anything. They just jumped him and showed no mercy. The poor guy (who probably invested years and years of studying like a mad man to make something of himself) was just walking home from a pub on the phone with his girlfriend when he gets ambushed by a couple of high, horny, pissed-off, psychotic junkies with an iron bar. I say they should have gotten more time.

Nick Clegg seizes his moment in historic TV debate

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7099159.ece

Summary:
The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, rose in popularity after ITV’s broadcast of the televised drama of Britain’s first campaign debate between party leaders. The show started out friendly enough with the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Tory and Liberal Democrat parties calling each other by their first names. The debate slowly became more fierce though, as “Gordon” and “David” could not keep from attacking one another. Clegg, however, played it smart by not siding with either party, who, according to him, have been screwing up the country for the past 65 years and presenting himself as a desirable alternative.

Opinion:
The Labour and Conservatory parties have been in charge since forever and this is the first time the leader of any other party is even in the picture, really. Said leader, Nick Clegg, seems to be playing it very smart by not wanting to associate himself with either party. This way everyone can just blame the previous parties for all the problems in the country and since the Liberal Democrats have never been in charge they have nothing to be blamed for. However, this is a dangerous position for Clegg to put himself in because now the people will expect him to be some sort of Holy Saviour here to deliver them from Government Hell.