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.