zaterdag 6 juni 2009

Atomic bomb test veterans win right to sue MoD


This article concerned with the nuclear consequences in Britain in the 1950s. In the 1950s there were many nuclear tests and now 1000 servicemen blame the Ministry of Defense for their health problems. All these servicemen now want to open a case against the Ministry of Defense. Britain’s atomic test veterans gave their permission to sue for compensation. In the 1950s there were programmes in Australian Mainland, Monte Bello Islands and Christmas Islands. Since the hearing at London’s High Court in January seven people have died. Evidence shows that the men who took part in these programmes are now very ill and most of them have teminally illnesses such as cancer or skin defects, etcetera.


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I think it is very good of these veterans to open a case against the Ministry of Defense and to sue them. Why did they not gave those men extra protection during these tests. Everybody knows that everything that has got to do with nuclear energy is just too dangerous. Well, and these men are the living proof of it. Now we can hear that all of them have got serious diseases and most of them are terminally ill. They have cancer, skin defects or other bad diseases. I feel sorry for them. So it is good for the government to be sued and to take responsibility. I think they owe that to these people. This is not the way how to treat people. They are people, human beings, they are not guinea pigs.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/06/05/atomic-bomb-test-veterans-win-right-to-sue-mod-115875-21417260/
Iceland to repay £2bn UK savings
Saturday, 6 June 2009 13:09 UK

There is very good news from Reykjavik. Iceland is going to pay the £2.3bn back to the British and Dutch government. There were big tensions and worries between the United Kingdom and Iceland, since last year. This was because the Icelandic banking system was owned by the state and controlled by the government. This caused big problems because de depositors who saved their money on Icesave were affected. But now even Iceland says that they also will pay the plus interest. According to a Treasury spokesman this is not only good news for the taxpayers in the United kingdom but for Iceland as well.

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This certainly is good news for the United Kingdom as for The Netherlands. The bank was a topical subject in the news last year. There were a lot of people who held accounts there. Not only in Britain but also in Holland. The bank collapsed because of the financial crisis. I think this step is positive and it will be a good solution for the tensions between Reykjavik and London. After long waiting the depositors will finally get their money back, but I wonder how long the local authorities and bodies have to wait before they get their money back. A year? Maybe two? Or longer?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8086997.stm
Killer 'may have raped two more'
Saturday, 6 June 2009 11:19 UK

This article concerned with Michelle Samaraweera, a woman at the age of 35 who is raped and strangled on 30 May in a very cruel way. They have found her dead body in Queens Road Park in Walthamstow, East London. She was on her way to her boyfriend after she went to the shop first. Earlier this year two other women were also raped. The ages of the women are 59 and 46. Police thinks the suspect is the same as in the Michelle Samaraweera case. The suspect is described as a man with dark skin. Both victims described the age of the suspect between 30 and 45 years.

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What an awful article. It makes my flesh creep. I cannot understand why people hurt other people so badly. Men are always stronger than women, so attacks like this are just not fair. Reading about it is scary enough, not to mention how it would be if you go through such a thing like this. You would not wish that on your worst enemy. Horrible. If two women have described the suspect as an Asian man, the chance is too big that this indeed is the same suspect as in Michelle’s case. I think it is no coincidence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8086845.stm

vrijdag 22 mei 2009

Schools closed as teachers strike
Tuesday, 19 May 2009 10:47 UK

Two newly-designated academy schools in Essex, Chalvedon and Barstable, are closed because more than 120 teachers have gone on strike. The strike happened in co-operation with the NUT and NASUWT, two teaching unions. There are plans to change the schools into academies on 1 September, when the schools will be taken over by the Basildon Academies trust. The teachers do not want that to happen. The Unions and teachers are afraid that this step will suffer the consequences of increasing working hours of the teachers and shorter holidays. According to the Principal of the Academies Trust this is just a rumor and such a thing will not happen. Members of the teaching unions are angry because they are afraid that the employment conditions will get difficult and unpleasant.

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It is not nice to hear that the school you work for is going to be taken over and that the school will change into an academy. When there are talks like that you, as an employee, will get insecure. You will never know whether the conditions will be the same or worse than before. Fact is that when there is a question of being taken over that the conditions will change in a more negative way. If I were a teacher at one of these schools, than I would go on strike too. I will not like it when they increase my working hours or decrease the holidays because of a taking
over.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8057145.stm

dinsdag 19 mei 2009

DNA test wrecks Alfie Patten's claim he was a dad at 13
Tuesday, 19 May 2009

The article concers very young school kids from Eastbourne, in East Sussex, who are having a very active sex live. Last February there was a news article published in The Sun about a twelve -year -old boy Alfie Patten who, according to his fifteen-year-old girlfriend made her pregnant. After a court judgment DNA tests showed that not Alfie Patten is the father of Chantelle Stedman’s baby but the fifteen-year-old Tayler Barker is. Tyler Banker has admitted having unprotected sex with the girl after spending the night drinking at her home, but he never thought it was going to be such a big problem, because Chantelle said she would take the morning after pill. Even her mother knew the kids were going to have sex. Chantelle told Alfie all the time that he was Maisie’s father and that she had no other lovers, but she slept with six other young boys at around the same time.

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Being Fifteen years old means that you are still a child. Having children at your fifteenth means that children are having children. I am open to correction, but this situation is in my opinion for what it is worth not normal. In fact it is extremely worrying and awful. At that age you are supposed to keep yourself busy with things that children do, so that means everything but sex. Of course it is normal to be curious at that age but not this extremely. I do not believe that this kind of behavior is good for the development of a young child. We can offer young children better sex education but I think this has got to do everything with mentality and upbringing. I even think it has got to do more with the educator, in this case the mother. A mother has got the responsibility to correct her child and not to agree with everything a child is doing or wants to do.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/19/dna-test-wrecks-alfie-patten-s-claim-he-was-a-dad-at-13-115875-21370528/

maandag 18 mei 2009

Jade is best Eurovision Brit in 7 yrs
published: 17 May 2009

21-year-old Londoner, Jade Ewen, was this year’s United Kingdom candidate for the 54th Eurovision contest 2009 in Moscow, the capital of Russia. The title of the song she sang was “It’s My Time.” Britain was the 23rd act out of 25 countries to perform. Ewen’s performance was good for the fifth place. On stage, Jade Ewen was joined by musical giant Lord Lloyd-Webber on the piano, who has written Britain’s song. About Jade he said: “Jade performed brilliantly, as I knew she would. I am delighted with her fifth place finish; the United Kingdom can finally hold its head up high, after seven years of disappointing results.” Although Britain performed very well, there was patently obvious another country winning; Norway with its song ‘Fairytale.”This song was written and performed by 23-year-old Alexander Rybak.
Ewen said she was disappointed not to have won but she was delighted with her own performance and to have Andrew Lloyd Webber on stage with her and supporting her so much throughout the campaign.”

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I think this year’s Eurovision contest was more different that the other years. This year there was made a change in the voting system. Per country people could vote just like the other years, but because of the fact there also was a jury it means that the results of the voting would be more different than just having the inhabitants of different countries voting. But I think that is good, because all those years the Eurovision contest was very political tinted and there was no fair play going on at all. Countries who cooperate well gave each other the twelve points without looking to the singing talent of the performers. I never believed that this was the meaning of the Eurovision song contest. I am very glad to have this voting system now. And I really think that Jade Ewen is the first after seven years who performed well, her song was beautiful, her voice was beautiful and she did it much better than all the other six before. At least she performed much better than last year’s performer... The United Kingdom can certainly hold its head up high.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2433398.ece

maandag 11 mei 2009

Jordan and Peter Andre separating
Monday, 11 May 2009 16:40 UK

After three-and-a half years of marriage, Peter Andre and Katie Price are ending their marriage. They are divorcing. There is no reason given by the couple for the split. In September 2005 the couple married at Highclere Castle in Hampshire and they have three children, Junior and Princess Tiaamii, and Price has also another son Harvey, from an earlier relationship. The couple met each other at the reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here in 2004 on ITV1. They have been an important part of their own fly-on-the-wall TV show. The ITV2 documentary currently shows Peter Andre in California for three months. He went to California to record his latest album.

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Well, what shall I say on this news article. I watched their own fly-on-the wall TV show a couple of times, but I do not like to watch these kinds of programmes so I never continued watching it. Besides, it is full of nonsense and it is certainly not educational. Nowadays it is a fact that a lot of people do not stay married that long. They divorce very easily for the slightest things. This is principally the case with famous people. How many times did the media shows us that famous couples marry and divorce over and over again? Well, I stopped counting. Horrible. It seems like they think that marriage is some kind of game or something.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8044335.stm