First up, the situation in Syria has got even worse. 60 people are said to have been killed by security forces in the latest spat – the youngest victim being only 11 years old. President Bashar al-Assad warned protesters last week to back down, but his militant behaviour is only serving to encourage more riots. He would do well to look around him and realise this.
A senior US soldier, Adm Mullen, has said that the war in Libya is approaching a stalemate – which means that the two sides are effectively walking into a brick wall. US and Nato airstrikes have destroyed around 40% of Gaddafi’s ground forces, which has given the rebels a sure advantage, but has only really brought them up to the same standard as Gaddafi. Neither side seems able to deliver the fatal blow, so what happens next is anyone’s guess.
Northern Ireland is looking shaky too. After a period of relative calm, it appears that dissident republicans (extremists who are opposed to Northern Ireland still being part of Great Britain) have started getting nasty again. Since the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr 3 weeks ago, a number of arrests have been made and a wealth of worrying information uncovered. Police won’t say what they’ve found, but have warned people to be on “high alert” over the Easter weekend because the threat of further terrorist attacks is “severe”.
Gordon Brown has got himself a shiny new job. Rather ironically – given that he has been widely accused of buggering up our economy – he will soon take on an advisory role at the World Economic Forum. The WEF is an international organisation “committed to improving the state of the world.” To be fair to him, it’s ridiculous to suggest that he was to blame for our grizzly recession. Still, Cameron couldn’t resist taking a pop, and told the BBC that Brown was hardly the best person to be handing out economic advice.
The Pope, if you can believe it, has taken his first steps to modernity. Sort of. He made history this week by becoming the first Pontiff to take part in a televised question-and-answer session. I suppose if he were really modern, he would be tweeting his musings at all hours of the day and would have his own blog and facebook account. I digress. The TV format may be new but the questions and answers certainly weren’t. “Why do we suffer?” asked a 7-year-old victim of the recent Japanese tsunami. “We do not have answers,” replied the Pope, “but we know that Jesus suffered too.” Encouraging.
Finally, a 17-year-old girl from Washington, America has gained worldwide coverage for faking a pregnancy in order to conduct a 6-month social experiment about “stereotypes, rumours and statistics.” Gaby Rodriguez fooled her schoolteachers, friends, relatives and even her boyfriend’s family using a fake bump, and clearly an enormous dose of initiative. She has received a generally positive reaction for the stunt, and you can read more about it here.
Farewell.
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