Monday 25 April 2011

Protests, Prison Breaks and Pensioners



The war in Libya is getting increasingly complicated and, of course, attracting more and more debate about whether getting involved was such a good idea after all. It will apparently cost Britain £1bn over six months to take part, all in, which is an eye watering figure for a country already in debt. On the other hand, some argue that this is a golden opportunity for the Western world to align themselves with one of the strongest emergences of democracy the Arab world has even seen. As commentators chew over the possibilities, Nato ups its attack; today hitting Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound and presumably delivering yet another powerful knock to his position.

In Syria, Bashar al-Assad doesn’t look like he is about to back down to protesters. Far from it. The President has lowered himself onto the slippery slope by sending his troops into the city of Deraa – where anti-government demonstrations have been making the most noise, and where many protesters have already been killed for standing up to him.

Whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks, has published documentation that proves that the US is guilty of detaining 150 innocent prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. You can read more about the controversial prison in Cuba here.

Speaking of such things, a whopping 500 Taleban prisoners have escaped from a prison is Afghanistan – through a tunnel hundreds of metres long. Prison breaks are actually more common than you may think. More than 1,000 escaped from a similar jail in Afghanistan back in 2008.

Berlusconi has almost managed to get a new law passed in Italy - which will shorten and simplify criminal trials - pending some final paperwork. Now if you’ve been following the news, you will notice that Berlusconi himself is currently facing high-profile charges for corruption. And you’ve guessed it – this new law would probably get him out of it. Crafty.

Speaking of new laws, Britain is about to see its University system change again – and I’m not referring to fees. In a bid to give students from bad backgrounds more of a chance, admissions officers will now have to pick candidates with lower grades, who attend schools or live in areas where not many of their peers go onto higher education. It’s essentially designed to find potential amongst less fortunate students. Plenty of straight A* candidates who have either been privately educated or who simply live in a good area, however, are already been rejected from Oxbridge as a result. This sort of thing isn’t particularly new. Governments are always trying to close the gap between social classes using University admissions rules. Still, middle class parents are hopping mad again.

Finally, new figures reveal that we are all getting older. Quite a lot older. A quarter of under-16s are now expected to reach at least 100. Lucky things? You decide…

Until tomorrow


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