How We See The World

A woman was killed by a train after her Ugg Boot became stuck on a level crossing. The 29-year-old had tried to cross the railway tracks after the barriers came down across the road. But her foot became stuck in the wooden grid which prevents animals from straying on to the line. A man believed to be her boyfriend battled to pull her free. He was helped by Jonathan Smith, a passer-by who had seen them walk on to the track, as the train approached Hythe station, in Colchester, on Thursday. The woman died almost immediately. Her companion was taken to Colchester General Hospital with leg injuries. Yesterday, the woman's father, who declin…

British youth are violent, drunken and out of control, a leading American magazine concludes today. The front cover of renowned publication Time Magazine depicts a young man in a "hoodie" with mugshots of others across a Union Jack. Its headline reads: "Unhappy, Unloved and Out of Control - An epidemic of violence, crime and drunkenness has made Britain scared of its young." It also pours scorn upon the parenting abilities of the British, claiming they do not spend enough time with their children and cannot cope. The magazine criticises our class-riven society, education system and binge-drinking culture. The weekly magazine, which goes on sale acr…

A US judge has ordered Starbucks to repay its California coffee-makers more than $100m (£50m) in tips that were paid to shift supervisors. San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett said the coffee-makers - "baristas" - were entitled to $86m in back tips, plus interest. She issued an injunction banning supervisors from sharing future tips. She said the practice broke a state law barring managers and supervisors from obtaining a share of employee tips. A Starbucks spokeswoman, Valerie O'Neil, said the company planned to appeal against the ruling, which she described as "fundamentally unfair and beyond all common sense and reason". The lawsuit was …

Teachers had to arrange morning-after pills for girls as young as 14 after a class party degenerated into an orgy of binge-drinking, drugtaking and underage sex. The school said yesterday that "a disturbingly high" number of pupils had unprotected sex while drunk as up to 200 teenagers ran riot at a village hall. In stark terms, it warned parents of the risk of pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease, telling them: "Assume the worst." During the unsupervised party the hall was badly damaged and nearby residents were horrified when the revellers spilled out into the street, among them a boy stripped to his boxer shorts and scantily-clad girls. Th…

Towns and cities around the world are turning out the lights for an hour to highlight the threat of climate change. Sydney was the first major city to begin "Earth Hour", when at 2000 (0900 GMT), lights went out on landmarks like the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Bangkok, Toronto, Chicago and Dublin are among 27 other cities officially due to follow suit at 2000 local time. But critics have dismissed the event as a gimmick that will not make any difference, a BBC correspondent notes. The initiative began in Sydney last year when an estimated two million residents took part, cutting energy usage by more than 10% for the hour. Organisers expect hun…

A 14-year-old boy died in west London after his throat was slashed by a friend, police have said. Amro Elbadawi, from West Kilburn, was injured in Dart Street, Queen's Park, on Thursday. He died in hospital. Police said a 16-year-old arrested on suspicion of Amro's murder was a "long-standing" friend of the victim. Det Supt Colin Lee said one line of inquiry was that Amro died after a play fight went wrong. A knife has been recovered from the scene. 'Terrible shock' Amro, a British national with family originating from Egypt, was fatally injured as he walked home from the Paddington Academy school in Queen's Park on Thursday evening. He staggered i…

It is a tour which is guaranteed to show the seamier side of life in Amsterdam. The itinerary includes a trip to a "cannabis college" and the red-light district where prostitutes sit in windows advertising their wares. Hardly the usual sort of trip undertaken by children aged between 14 and 16 - funded by taxpayers' cash. The three-day jaunt to the Dutch city, whose coffee shop customers can smoke cannabis without fear of prosecution, was yesterday condemned as an "appalling abuse" of public money. It involves 20 teenagers, 16 of whom attend the Helena Romanes School, a comprehensive in Great Dunmow, Essex. Three other teenagers work and one …

Police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh say they have arrested 17 villagers over the killing of a woman suspected of being a witch. The 40-year-old woman, Phool Kunwar, was dragged from her home on Monday night, beaten and burned with a hot iron, police say. The accused include three women. If found guilty, they could face the death penalty or life in prison. Social activists say such cases are common in India. Police say Ms Kunwar was beaten with sticks and sharp rods, burned with a hot iron and pushed into a burning pyre in the village of Dhawalpur. Junior police chief Rajeshwar Singh said she died of her injuries and was then buried. …

One of Britain’s favourite butterflies may be being killed by a parasite that behaves like the monster from the movie Alien, experts say. The small tortoiseshell, right, has suffered a dramatic decline in recent years and it is thought that a tiny parasitic fly, Sturmia bella, is the cause. The butterfly caterpillars eat the fly’s eggs, found on nettles, which then hatch, killing the host. The charity Butterfly Conservation and Oxford University’s zoology department are conducting research to find out if the fly is to blame. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3642889.ece

A police worker praised by MPs for protecting thousands of girls from forced marriages is facing dismissal for speaking publicly about their plight. Philip Balmforth has been removed from his duties and faces a disciplinary hearing next week after giving an interview to The Times about Asian children who go missing from schools in Bradford. The former police inspector, regarded as a national authority on “honour-based” violence, stands accused of “damaging the reputation” of West Yorkshire Police by speaking to a newspaper without consent. It is understood that the force, which has investigated 176 cases of forced marriage in the past year alone, took action a…

Cubans are to be allowed unrestricted access to mobile phones for the first time, in the latest reform announced under new President Raul Castro. In a statement in official newspaper Granma, state telecom monopoly ETECSA said it would offer mobile services to the public in the next few days. Some Cubans already own mobile phones, but they have had to acquire them via a third party, often foreigners. Cuba's rate of cell phone usage remains among the lowest in Latin America. Now Cubans will be able to subscribe to pre-paid mobile services under their own names, instead of going through foreigners or in some cases their work places. However, the new service…

A British TV production company has denied allegations that its researchers spread a fatal flu to an isolated indigenous tribe in Peru. Indigenous rights activists, Peruvian government officials and a US scientist say four members of the tribe died after the TV producers visited. A spokesman for the TV company, Cicada Films, said its team did not visit the isolated area in question. Cicada was in Peru last year scouting locations for a new reality TV show. The company makes a series called World's Lost Tribes, which airs on the Disney Channel. 'No evidence' The production company said a producer and his guide had been given official permission …

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on. No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major gl…

The Iraqi constitution appears fundamentally flawed, and I hope the Iraqi people can fix it! But getting a broader perspective, it looks more the case that violence in Iraq is a direct result of the occupation. looking at what Foreign Policy In Focus has to say about this, leaves me with that impression (see www.fpif.org)

Concrete help begins with many things, but a vibrant economy will help matters enormously in Palestine. No Sweat Apparel has a factory on Virgin Mary Street in Bethlehem, where Palestinian garment workers make nice cotton T-shirts from organic cotton! All they need is a chance to keep things going, and if you would like to help, vote for them to get some extra funding they very much need at: http://www.ideablob.com/ideas To see what the business is all about, and take a look at it, visit: www.youtube.com/nosweatapparel. And Nosweat sells these T-shirts, so pick one up, and vote with your cash for a better world!! Sincerely, -Chuck. PS - Please post any other…

How to build a nuclear bomb By GORDON CORERA Why's everyone so paranoid about who is getting the bomb? Because with enough cash and political guile, it's never been easier to make your own. Gordon Corera reports on the technological shopping list fuelling the modern arms race An ageing container ship docks at a port in the Middle East. Paperwork on board the Al Hamed states that its cargo is cement. Over the next two days, convoys of tarpaulin-covered trucks set about transporting the heavy material from the docks at Tartus hundreds of miles away to a point in the Syrian desert on the banks of the Euphrates, 90 miles north of the Iraqi border. Movement…

Mars appears to be covered in salt crystals from ancient dried-up lakes, new evidence suggests. A Nasa probe has found signs that the southern hemisphere is dusted with chloride mineral, perhaps "table salt". US scientists think the mineral formed when water evaporated from salty lakes or soil billions of years ago. The deposits, similar to salt-pans on Earth, are a good place to search for traces of past life preserved in salt, they report in the journal Science. The evidence comes from a camera on Mars Odyssey, which has been mapping the Red Planet since early 2002. The camera images Mars in the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum in order to wo…

Digital signage provides opportunities for highly targeted campaigns and interactive promotions As consumer life gets more digital everyday, so do the stores we shop in. Digital signage is making its way into the world and becoming more sophisticated. In the past year, digital signage has also become more affordable. Improved technology, including the debut of Web-enabled real time streaming, RSS feeds, bluecasting and mobile-enabled barcodes, means that usage of these technologies may grow. Dynamax Technologies Ltd. recently signed a deal with media conglomerate Clear Channel to create an international network of digital billboards across the US and Europe. Over th…

An elderly man has killed himself by programming a robot to shoot him in the head after building the machine from plans downloaded from the internet. Francis Tovey, 81, who lived alone in Burleigh Heads on the Australian Gold Coast, was found dead in his driveway. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, he had been unhappy about the demands of relatives living elsewhere in Australia that he should move out of his home and into care. Notes left by Mr Tovey — who was born in England — revealed that he had scoured the internet for plans before constructing his complex machine, which involved a jigsaw power tool and was connected to a .22 semi-automatic pistol loade…

The Middle East's first women-only hotel has opened in Saudi Arabia. It will cater primarily to businesswomen, who work completely covered from head to toe in public and have to observe strict segregation. The hotel, in Riyadh, has 25 rooms and boasts fine dining and conference facilities, as well as a range of health and beauty treatments. Its executive director said the response to the idea of a hotel just for women had been overwhelming. The Luthan Hotel & Spa is owned by a group of 20 Saudi princesses and businesswomen. It hopes to attract expatriates from the nearby diplomatic quarter as well as local women. Inauguration It is the first …

Is it just me, or is anyone else amazed that a game about bullying is available? I've just seen an advert for it way ahead of the 9pm watershed - surely that's wrong, unless the game isn't actually about a school bully, can someone please enlighten me. Am I missing something here? I can't actually believe such a game would exist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_(video_game)

All I can say about this.... is well done to the BBC to highlighting some of the muppets in the UK goverment, and being brave enough to bring out such a programme after the ill findings of the Hutton Report. I have posted this in the News and Sport Forum as I reckon in this type of programme there will be more intrest here... I am sorry but unless you are using a IP address from the UK or have your proxy server set to one you wont be able to view it... http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b009rcsm.shtml?src=ip_mlt There are other programmes that will be linked after this however they are only 10 minutes long !!

The blanding of Britain: The murder of the English pub By PAUL KINGSNORTH Dr Johnson, the 18th-century English writer, was right when he said that "nothing has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn". Which is why I'm thinking I might pack up and leave soon. A good friend and I went to a pub on the banks of the Thames not long ago - one we've visited a lot over the years to drink, talk and play bar billiards. The landlord has two enormous old English bulldogs that look like they want to eat you but actually want to be scratched under the chin. Mulling things over: Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis enjoy…

Does anybody knows if it is possible that if i have an OS on a pendrive, and so i can get it works from the pendrive on a computer? thanks in advance.

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. The Somerset-born author achieved his greatest fame in 1968 when his short story The Sentinel was turned into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. His visions of space travel and computing sparked the imagination of readers and scientists alike. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse paid tribute, hailing the writer as a "great visionary". Since 1995, the author had been largely confined to a wheelchair by post-polio syndrome. He died at 0130 local time (2000 GMT) of respiratory complications and heart failure, according to his aide, Rohan De Silva…