Category Archives: News

news as it is happening-ish

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When the Tokio Express freighter lost 62 containers after being hit by a freak wave 20 miles off Lands End in 1997,  4.8 million pieces of LEGO entered the sea.

Ironically, many of the sets were nautical-themed and bits and pieces have been washing up on the Cornwall coast (and occasionally Ireland and Wales too) for the last 17 years – collected competitively by aficionados and assiduously documented by the Facebook site Lego Lost At Sea.

The Cornish Beaches Where LEGO Keeps Washing Up (BBC News)

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Speaking in the House of Commons today, British Prime Minister David Cameron had this to say about the ongoing Israeli military offensive on Gaza:

“I have been clear throughout this crisis that Israel has the right to defend itself. Those criticising Israel’s response must ask themselves how they would expect their own government to react if hundreds of rockets were raining down on British cities today.

I spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu again about this crisis last night. I repeated our recognition of Israel’s right to take proportionate action to defend itself, and our condemnation of Hamas’ refusal to end their rocket attacks, despite all international efforts to broker a ceasefire.

It is vital that Hamas recognises the need to enter serious negotiations to end this crisis. In particular, we urge Hamas to engage with the ceasefire proposals put forward by the Egyptian government.”

On Friday in Edinburgh the Scottish Minister for External Affairs Humza Yousaf said:

“I have today written to the Home Secretary and told her that Scotland would be willing to accept Palestinian refugees and urged the UK to also play a part in easing the refugee crisis in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

It is essential that the UN should be allowed to independently investigate all civilian deaths to determine whether there has been any violation of international law.

Our offer of medical assistance to help the humanitarian situation still stands and we are currently in dialogue with the appropriate Governments and agencies to assess whether Scotland can give specialist medical help to civilians caught up in the conflict should should this prove possible.

The Scottish Government also believes that the continuation of the blockade in Gaza is exacerbating the suffering experienced by the people there and tantamount to collective punishment. For that reason I recently wrote to the UK Government to exert further pressure on the Israeli Government to bring that blockade to an end.”

Scotland prepared to accept Palestinian refugees (Scotland.gov.uk)

Prime Minister’s statement on Ukraine and Gaza (Gov.uk)

Pic: Flickr

https://vine.co/v/MQ6mtpj3iae

The last moments of Flight MH17, understood to be a Boeing 777.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fjpB5gw3iM&start=70&end=290]

Russia Today presenter Eunan O’Neill reports the Russian envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin said “we didn’t do it”.

Malaysian Airlines Plane Crashes On The Ukraine Russian Border (NewYorkDailyNews)

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Senator Ned O’Sullivan (Fianna Fáil) raised the issue of seagulls this morning in the chamber.

Well I have nothing against pigeons. I can take or leave pigeons but I’m very much against seagulls. And eh I think something needs to be done here to address the seagull problem in this city. People may have been listening to Joe Duffy about it there last week. It seems the seagulls have lost the run of themselves completely. I know the apartment block I live in it’s impossible to get a night’s sleep.

…They’re very raucous. They’re keeping people awake. I saw that they’re getting so cheeky now that they attack young children and dispossess them of their lollipops and stuff like that. It might be funny to many people but it’s a serious issue in the city. They’re not seagulls, they really are vermin. They’re scavenger gulls, dump gulls….

..So I’m saying the Minister for the Environment should look at that in a serious manner. It might be funny but if you listen to the details on the radio show you’ll learn that it’s anything but.

Dry your eyes Senator.

Ná bí ag gol.

Meanwhile…

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Smoking rates in Australia fell at their fastest pace in more than two decades, following the introduction of the world’s first law forcing cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging.

The daily smoking rate fell 15 per cent between 2010 and December 1 2013, when one in eight Australians said they lit up at least once a day, according to the most comprehensive survey undertaken since the new rules came into force.

Australia, which introduced plain packaging in December 2012, is at the centre of a global debate over whether laws removing all corporate branding and adding graphic health warnings can reduce smoking. Tobacco companies claim the rules do not work and say they infringe their intellectual property rights.

Simon Chapman, a professor in public health at the University of Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald that plain packaging was almost “like finding a vaccine that works very well against lung cancer”.

Australia smoking rates tumble after plain packaging shift (Jamie Smyth, Financial Times)

Previously: Lung May He Run

‘Smokey-Doke’

Australia Hates Fags

Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland