News Round Up
by Patrick O'Connor
ISN'T it amazing that something that would once be regarded as coming from the imagination of a sci-fi writer can become reality.
The Sun tells us that a BAE Jetstream executive aircraft has travelled 300 miles from Warton in Lancashire to Inverness in Scotland – without a pilot!
It is the first time that an unmanned plane has flown in British airspace. Apparently two pilots were on board for take-off and landing but the rest of the trip, at 20,000ft, a ground-based pilot manoeuvred the plane using a computer.
Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal, a BAE director said: “Unmanned aircraft are likely to become a part of everyday life in the near future.”
Yet another example of political correctness gone mad – this time in the Daily Express which reports that a two year boy was threatened with an Asbo – for laughing too loudly at Thomas the Tank Engine on TV.
His mother, Jodie Holden, received a letter addressed to Chenlair Bent and accusing him of anti-social behaviour and being a “noise nuisance”.
Housing association officials also warned the boy to be “mindful” of his neighbours in Walsall, West Midlands.
According to Jodie: “The only time he makes any noise is when he is laughing in the back garden or watching Thomas the Tank Engine.”
A spokesman for Walsall Housing Group, said: “We have already apologised for the error and wish to say sorry again.”
So now we know...
The Express reports on a survey which claims that the average teenage girl has 183 rows a year with her mother, slams 164 doors and cries 123 times over boys.
And it gets worse – they spend 274 hours on the phone, have 257 battles with siblings and 127 rows with friends.
But by the age of 23, they start appreciating the sacrifices their mothers made, says the survey by women’s hygiene company Lil-Lets.
If you are into social media, this story in The Independent might produce a chuckle. Apparently when Sky News sent a message to the 902,000 followers of its Twitter feed saying: “Colin was here; it produced a flurry of activity worldwide.
However the tweet was soon deleted with the paper quoting Sky's press office as saying that Colin was a “disaster recovery” test message which accidentally went live, adding that: “no Colin was harmed in the making of this message.”
A big ahh for the story in the Express about eight year old Izzy Duffy who was left heartbroken when burglars swooped on her home in Whitworth, Lancashire and their haul included her 14 week old black and white Shih Tzu puppy Skittles
The burglars also took mobile phones, wallets, game consoles, computers, cameras and the family’s BMW X5 car.
Izzy’s father, Dr Chris Duffy, 51, said: “She just cried and cried. She couldn’t go to school the following day because she was so upset.”
But the story has a happy ending for the puppy was eventually found alive and well in a Tesco Express car park.
You can forget about your Real Madrids, Borussia Dortmund or Manchester United, when it comes to successful football teams you can't beat Brislington Ladies.
The Sun has hailed the team they have nick-named the Invinci-belles for the women’s football side have not lost a league in 10 years!
The paper reports that Brislington Ladies have defied 10,000-1 odds to stay unbeaten in 180 games since the 2003-4 season.
The team, from Bristol, started out as under-10s and are now mostly under 18 and this year they won division one of the Somerset County Women’s League.
Club secretary Sharon Whelan said: “They’ve always been a very good team. They’ve grown up together and just enjoy their football.”
Reference lists:
The Express(www.express.co.uk)
The Independent (www.independent.co.uk)
The Sun (www.thesun.co.uk)