Interesting News Of The Week - 28/05/2012

It's post time, so here's the news.

Miami's 'growling cannibal' named
Story number one, "Miami's 'growling cannibal' named", first of all, it's a very interesting title, and no its not a trick, this story is about a real cannibal in Miami.
Anyway let's take a look at the story.

A man was shot dead in Miami at the weekend, he was found biting the face off another man who was stripped naked, the cannibal has been identified by police.

His name was Rudy Eugene, aged 31, he was reported to have growled at a police officer after he was warned to back away from the man, so when a police officer stood in front of him with a gun, threatening to shoot him, he continued to eat the man's face off, he must be one, extremely messed up guy.

A witness said he continued to eat the victim, before the officer opened fire several times, killing him, well I suppose if he was warned then it was viable.
After that there was another attack next to a busy road on Saturday afternoon that has been linked to a potent drug known as "bath salts", wait. Bath salts? as in the salts you put in your bath to soften the water up? or are the drug dealers these days just running out of names for their merchandise?

It was said that about 75% of the victim's face was reportedly missing, but seriously I can not understand why he'd want to eat someones face.

Cyclist Larry Vega said there was "blood all over the place" when he came across the horrific scene by MacArthur Causeway.
"I told him get off," Mr Vega told WSVN Fox 7. "The guy just kept eating the other guy away like ripping his skin.".

He said he alerted a police officer, who warned the attacker several times to back away from the victim.

"The guy just stood his head up like that with a piece of flesh in his mouth and growled," Mr Vega said.

The victim, identified as a 65-year-old homeless man, Ronald Poppo, remained in a critical condition in hospital on Tuesday, so he attacked some old homeless guy and said "I'm going to eat your face now", what a weird, weird guy.

A Miami police spokesman said: "We are expecting a report from our detectives to give more details to the media. We are also looking for more witnesses to this crime."
Ives Eugene, Ruby Eugene's (or the cannibals) uncle, described his nephew as a "nice and hard-working" man who washed cars at a local dealership.

Miami police said they still do not know what prompted the bizarre and savage assault, which has been compared to a "zombie" attack.
The zombie apocalypse is starting people.

Here's the news coverage of this story:

London, France's sixth biggest city

Story deux (two in French).

Here's a fact for you more French people live in London than in Bordeaux, Nantes or Strasbourg and it is now thought to be France's sixth biggest city in terms of population.

So what is attracting a new generation of young French professionals to the city? Who knows.

Imagine this (quoted from the BBC):

On a wet Friday night in Hackney, a group of young professional women walk into a pub. Laughing about the British weather, they shake their umbrellas, peel off their raincoats and make their way to the bar.
Like many Londoners at the end of a busy working week, they have come to unwind over a few drinks.
But if you move a bit closer, you realise they are all speaking French.
They are not tourists, exchange or students. They all work in creative industries, have lived in east London quite some time and consider it home.

Thought that was a nice little story for you all.

Believe it or not London has a long-standing French community, but it is no longer confined to the streets, I can't understand why though, you can find French bookshops, patisseries and cafes.
There are between 300,000 and 400,000 French citizens living in the British capital of London most of them in the East End.

The French first came the East End way, way back in the 17th Century. They were named Huguenots, they had endured years of persecution in France because of their Protestant faith, but were offered sanctuary here by our king at the time, King Charles II (the second).

So our French population is being re-noticed as more and more French men and women apply for work, schooling and other things that we as British citizens do, they are considered our equals, which in some ways the fact that we as a country are treating each other equally (as Christianity states we are created in "God's Image"), but at the same time it is also effecting the amount of jobs and school places available for us too.

That's pretty much it for this story, there's a little bit of religion, a story and a little bit of history too, a nice little bit of everything there, sorry it's a bit short as well.

Unfortunately there is no video for this story, so it's even more of a let down, but here's a picture I found appropriate:

  

Summary for this week

So this week we have people turning into cannibals in Miami and we have discovered that we actually have a lot of the French in the UK, maybe it's a secret plan over centuries to take over, who knows.

Interesting News Of The Week - 21/05/2012

Hello Thursday, looks like it's time for another post.

I was debating on whether to post this yesterday, seeing as it was my birthday or leave it until today, but I thought I'd keep the tradition of Thursday's.

Beijing sets 'two flies only' guidelines

The first story this week is a story from the Beijing and is taking place in public toilets.
Yes you did hear me right, Beijing's public toilets.

So basically the authorities in Beijing have set some new standards for their public toilets, including my favourite one, they should contain no more than two flies.
Yeah that's right they are only allowing there to be two flies in their toilets, it sounds ridiculous really, but its the truth.

The main toilets they have applied the rules for is in places such as tourist spots, but it is not clear whether failing washrooms will be punished and if so, how.
I have an idea, why don't they just build a mini security system for them, like at the airport, where they have to check in and out with there own little passports, with little bee guards in case more than two get in, I mean come on, really?

The new rules also cover cleaning, the use of equipment, training for attendants, odour and cleaning litter bins, so there's going to be little fly-ports everywhere, yay!

Funny thing is despite all these new rules there's only a sort of rule covering what the government referred to as "discarded items" (so in our terms, tampons and condoms etc.), and that's that there should be no more than two in any public convenience (two at a time please ladies and gentlemen).

The new standards also require signs in both Chinese and English to be installed in the toilets, well that's nice at least they accounted for us, what about all the other countries in the world though?

The Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment had something to say about all the new rules and that was that the regulations aimed to standardise toilet management at places such as parks, railway stations, hospitals and shopping malls.
Oh brilliant, why don't they just rename themselves "Flies R Us", and they can have "Fly-less Parks", "Fly Rails" and other related fly names.

An unnamed (hidden) official from the commission told local media that the guidelines on flies were meant for easy monitoring, on the flies or on us?

However media reports cast doubt over whether the guidelines could be enforced properly, I really hope they are, could be funny to see how they manage it all.

A commentary published in the Beijing News said one central Beijing district implemented a similar rule in 2008 when the city hosted the Olympic Games, but sanitation and hygiene still varied from toilet to toilet.
Effort should be invested on educating the public to use public toilets in a better manner, said the commentary.
So looks like Beijing are going back to potty training.

Here's the BBC's coverage of the story (please forgive the man's voice in the video):

'Don't win Eurovision' Spain

The second story this week is to do with the Eurovision song contest, at the moment this story is taking place in Spain.
This stories a bit of a short one, sorry.

Spain's Eurovision contestant has admitted the country would struggle to host the event if it were to win the competition.
So directors from broadcasters TVE joked to Pastora Soler, who will represent them on Saturday, "Please, don't win the Eurovision!"
Surely it should be "Please, don't win the Eurovision!", but no, she has been told Not to win. 

She told ABC Punto radio (a radio station, hence radio) "If we won, I think it would be impossible to stage the next edition because it costs so much money,".
So in other words Spain is going to save money by, not winning the Eurovison, sounds like an idea, why didn't we think of it?
I mean its not like we are going to be able to afford it thanks to the Olympics this year, so yeah, lets not win.

Spain last won the competition in 1969, when it shared a four-way tie with the UK, the Netherlands and France, so who actually hosted it, Spain? France? The UK?
None of them, it was the Netherlands, what happened to a tie?

Spain also won the contest the year before (1968), 12 years after it started, with singer Massiel's song La La La (very creative song title).

Soler will sing her ballad Quedate Conmigo (Stay With Me) at the final in the Azerbaijan capital Baku on Saturday.
It is written in the contest rules that the public broadcaster of the nation that wins must host the following year, so in other words, Spain your being told to not win.

"I think it is not the moment, neither for Spain nor for Spanish public, to win Eurovision," Soler was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency, so in other words your going to fail on purpose?

The Spanish government has slashed spending in public television, resulting in the cancellation of several popular programmes, so they are not covering it as much, so there win (loss) will not be shown.

There's no video for this news story, I know it's even more of a let down, but here's the logo for this years Eurovision, Eurovision 2012:

Summary for this week

So the summary for this weeks news stories is Beijing are introducing fly security, Spain have decided not to win the Eurovision song contest this year, and Spain aren't doing too well in the current economic climate.

Interesting News of The Week - 14/05/2012

Well it's Thursday again so that means time for another post and me talking about another two news stories.

So here it is.

Rattlesnake bites customer in Wal-Mart

The first interesting news story this week is a story from the USA, and took place in a Wal-Mart store in the city of Clarkston, a north-western US state of Washington.
From looking at the title of this story to some people may think it could be quite boring, but if you look at some of the things said to do with is news story it could be quite interesting.

So here as normal is a basic summary of what has happened. in my own words. 

A Wal-Mart customer called Mica Craig is recovering after he was bitten by a rattlesnake in a garden department of the store.

He gave a description of the event in which he said the reptile pounced as he was shopping at the store.
So he was casually going around minding his own business, then all of a sudden a rattlesnake popped up to say hello, didn't like him very much, and bit him.

The 47-year-old stamped on the serpent and when he went to hospital they immediately treated him with anti-venom, just in case the snake disliked him that much that it tried to kill him, so in case it hated him really, they treated him because his hand had suffered serious swelling.

Wal-Mart later apologised, and said it was investigating how the snake had entered the store.
Maybe it came in through the door, or through the floor.
Or maybe it was through the window, or it could of dropped from the ceiling on a rope, who knows.

A woman called Kayla Whaling, who was a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said: "At this point, it appears to be an isolated incident."
"We are working with a pest management team, which is conducting a sweep of the property to ensure there is no additional rattlesnake activity."
So they are going to run around with little nets and hunt out his snake friends just in case they go around biting people that they don't like.

Another customer called Maria Geffre, told a local news agency the snake was at least 1ft (30cm) long with four rattles.
Wow, talk about a scary snake I mean, ah, its the size of a long ruler, be careful, it might bite your toes. 

The victim said the serpent attacked as he reached down to brush away what he thought was a stick from a bag of mulch (so it wasn't a stick then, the hissing might have given it away).

But my favourite part of this whole story is not to do with the snake, its actually to do with the mans original intentions when he went to the store.

Originally he'd gone into the store to buy some marijuana plants, which he claimed he was licensed to grow for medical reasons.
Hm, something there says to me the local police have more to worry about than just the rattlesnake, they want to be looking at new drug dealers too.

Here's the video coverage from the BBC:

Children's shows to leave BBC One

The second news story I'm talking about this week is a story from here in the UK, this news story will take place all over the UK really.

Here's what the story's about in my own words.

Children's programmes are no longer going to be shown on BBC One and Two now digital switchover has taken place.

Shows that are award-winning such as Horrible Histories and Blue Peter are now going to be permanently moved by the BBC to their CBBC and CBeebies channels, which means now parents wont be able to get away with letting their kids watch a little bit of their favourite shows when they get home from school until the news comes on, because they will have to put on the children's channels where the fun never ends (well until 7PM that is).

There has been no date set yet for this change, but the final analogue (or non-digital) viewers will have to be switched over by 10-24 of October in Northern Ireland.
This all was confirmed when the report approving the BBC's cost-cutting plans came in.

Despite this "cost-cutting" plan the BBC have said the spending on children's programmes will not be affected, so whats the point of moving them?
Well the move is mostly to do with boosting viewing figures on the BBC's other channels (so its a bit like someone on YouTube who has two channels or more promoting another one).

In recent months, the number of young people watching children's programmes on BBC One and Two has been said to have occasionally dropped as low as 1,000 (so maybe its not so much to do with boosting views after all).

The figures on their digital channels have steadily increased since its introduction of CBBC and CBeebies in way, way back in 2002 (so it might still be to do with boosting views? I'm confused now).

A spokesperson from the BBC said: "Children's programmes are absolutely fundamental to the BBC and that is why we have protected investment in them in the light of cuts elsewhere."
"Only a very small percentage of children still solely watch these programmes on BBC One and BBC Two alone, so moving them to digital channels is merely following current viewing patterns and reflects the fact that CBeebies and CBBC will be universally available on digital TV from the end of this year."

Well there's surprisingly no video for this story so here's a picture of some popular children's shows characters from BBC Children In Need:

Summary for this week

So the summary for this weeks news stories is rattlesnakes have decided to start dropping in and doing their weekly shopping in Wal-Mart's whilst the BBC are becoming YouTuber's by boosting their ratings whilst not helping our economy by spending the same money as usual.

Interesting News Of The Week - 07/05/2012

Before anyone says it, yes I have put the right title on this post.

You may have noticed a gap in my blog posts as there is no post of the week beginning 30/04/2012, this is mostly because I was busy with many things within my personal life and preparation for exams, so I'm sorry, but i am back this week with two more news stories.

So lets get started shall we?

Curry's ability to fight cancer put to the test

Here's the first interesting news story this week, this story is not really a story set for one place it is more of a story based around general help and within that cancer, so this news story hasn't got a specific place were its happened, so lets say the world.

I chose this story basically because its about curry and from my about me page you can see I love curry.
well anyway, here's a basic summary of what has happened. in my own words.

Chemists/Chemical people were researching curry and they discovered a chemical that will soon be tested for its abilities, which believe it or not it is said that the chemical can be used to kill bowel cancer tumours.

The chemical they found was called "Curcumin", which is found in the spice Turmeric, and it has been said to be linked to a range of health related benefits (except for hotter curry's that just burn your throat).
They've done several studies that have shown that it can beat the cancer cells from some that were grown in and tested against.
They're also benefits that have been suggested in stroke and dementia patients as well.

Now they are going to do trial tests at hospitals all around Leicester will be looking at giving Curcumin alongside other drugs.
Here a bit of statistics, there is about 40,000 people that are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK each year and a lot more in the rest of the world.
If the disease spreads around the body, patients are normally given a collection of three different drugs, but about half will not work.

The cancer is seen as usually 'Difficult to treat'.
Prof William Steward, who is the leader of the tests, said animal tests combining the two were "100 times better" than on their own.

Here's some other quotes of things (some important people) said about the story.
"Once bowel cancer has spread it is very difficult to treat, partly because the side effects of chemotherapy can limit how long patients can have treatment".

"The prospect that Curcumin might increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapy is exciting because it could mean giving lower doses, so patients have fewer side effects and can keep having treatment for longer.

"This research is at a very early stage, but investigating the potential of plant chemicals to treat cancer is an intriguing area that we hope could provide clues to developing new drugs in the future."

Joanna Reynolds: "By doing a clinical trial like this, we will find out more about the potential benefits of taking large amounts of Curcumin, as well as any possible side effects this could have for cancer patients."

Now there's no video for this news story so here's a nice picture of curry instead:

 

US 'foils new underwear bomb plot' by al-Qaeda in Yemen

The second interesting news story this week is a United States/Middle Eastern story.

This news story has taken place withing the Middle East just outside Yemen within the past 10 days (of this post).

Here's basically what has happened. in my own words.

Lets start this story with an important quote from US Officials:

"The US has foiled a plot by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to detonate an upgraded version of the failed 2009 "underwear bomb".

So after loosing Osama bin Lardin the al-Qaeda have gone from suicide bombers that hijack planes and other form of transport to strapping deadly weapons and bombs to their underwear?
Sounds like an ultimate plan of mass destruction there.

But anyway the device (bomb) was seized in the Middle East after a CIA operation in Yemen and is now being studied by the FBI (taking a look at some guys dirt underwear, nice).

Reports say no target had been chosen and no plane tickets purchased by the time the plot was ruined for the al-Qaeda.

Officials also say there was never any risk to the public, so there is no need to bring in a law to have to check underwear at airports, fortunately as that would be kind of awkward really.

It is also not clear what has happened to the would-be bomber as he probably ran away as soon as he heard them coming, because he seemed to have some common sense.

Peter King said counter-terrorism officials had told him: "We don't have to worry about him anymore." that's probably because they are now worried about other people trying to strap things to themselves not just the al-Qaeda.

The FBI made a statement saying "As a result of close co-operation with our security and intelligence partners overseas, an improvised explosive device (IED) designed to carry out a terrorist attack has been seized abroad,".

They also said that "Initial exploitation indicates that the device is very similar to IEDs that have been used previously by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in attempted terrorist attacks, including against aircraft and for targeted assassinations," within their statement.

President Barack Obama was said to have been first informed of the plot back in April.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden also said adding the device had not posed a threat to the public.

This news story has two video's attached to it (making up for the curry stories lack of video), the first being the official news coverage:

Here's the second which is a simulation of what would happen if the bomb went off:

Summary for this week

So an overall summary this week shows that curry could be the break through we've all been waiting for to beat cancer meaning anyone who eats enough curry with the spice Turmeric in it could beat cancer and that the al-Qaeda have got to the point of which are using there suicide bombers to carry bombs in there underwear in an attempt to regain their "Fear Factor" (in other words showing no care for their dignities).