Saturday 9 April 2011

The world and a balloon...


The Grand National took place in the UK today and it was a particularly morbid race. Two horses died, and many others couldn’t finish the race because it was so challenging and dangerous – which sent animal rights activists into a frothy fury.

The man who was shot dead yesterday, on the HMS Astute (nuclear submarine) has been identified as Ian Molyneux, 36, father of four. We still don’t know much about who shot him or why, but the perpetrator is still behind bars and being quizzed.

Another bomb, which this time was intercepted and stopped, was planned in Northern Ireland today. A chunky 500lb bomb was apparently deserted in a van on a motorway between Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Dublin (Republic of Ireland). It seems to have been abandoned in a panic, probably due to the presence of so many police patrolling the area in the aftermath of Ronan Kerr’s death earlier this week. Good thing they got it. Bad thing more bombs are on the radar again.

In the Ivory Coast, soldiers loyal to Gbagbo have attacked a hotel that is often used by President Outtara. The struggle between to the two camps continues. Citizens have been fleeing the area due to the level of violence on the streets, with around 1 million temporarily homeless.

A total of 34 countries are now in the battle against Gaddafi. Or to be more politically correct, helping out the rebels. Gaddafi still shows no sign of giving up and has briefly crawled out from under some stone or another to visit a school in Tripoli. It was broadcast on Libyan TV amid a handful of pupils chanting anti-West slogans. And so it continues…

I’ll leave you with a somewhat strange but very heartwarming news story.

On the 1st of Janurary this year, two little girls from Manchester stood in their back garden and released a balloon into the air; with a stamped, addressed message attached to it, hoping that it might make it as far as Wales and that someone might find it there.  To their utter astonishment, the balloon travelled over 6,000 miles across the world and ended up tangled in a tree on the Mekong River of Laos (near Thailand). A man named Mr Chow found the letter, decorated it with sketches of elephants, wrote the girls and message and posted it back to their address in Manchester.

Part of me feels this story is too perfect to be true, but apparently it is.

Until tomorrow…

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