News
News stories from around the UK and the world that have caught our eye.
Friday, 22 July 2011 15:38 | and posted in News
You may have heard on the news about the ongoing food crisis in East Africa. It began in 2010 with low rainfall across East Africa and the Horn of Africa, which led to poor harvests in 2011, with some crops failing entirely. After years of similar low yield harvests, it now means that families are left with small stores of food and little, if anything, to keep them going until the next harvest. Some regions are having their lowest rainfall for 60 years. While this has been happening, food prices have been rising – the price of maize in Ethiopia has doubled, in Kenya grain prices have increased by 30-80%.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010 16:51 | and posted in News
The BBC's flagship drama for Christmas is a story you will all know very well. Over four half hour episodes the drama faithfully tells the nativity story from the New Testament. The series has been written by Tony Jordan (Life On Mars, Hustle, Eastenders) for BBC One and so has a very human perspective. It focuses upon the enduring love story of Mary and Joseph - from their initial courtship as Joseph attempts to win Mary's heart to Joseph's emotional turmoil at Mary's unexpected pregnancy.
Monday, 06 September 2010 10:44 | and posted in News
Some say he’s written an autobiography of his life and that the BBC tried to sue him because of it… all we know is, he’s called the Stig.
One of life’s greatest mysteries – the identity of The Stig from BBC’s Top Gear – has finally been put to rest when the BBC decided to sue the man beneath the helmet to prevent the publication of his memoirs. So who is the Stig...?
Friday, 19 March 2010 09:54 | and posted in News
Turn out your lights! At 8.30pm on Saturday 27th March millions of people across the globe will be turning out their lights as a show of solidarity against climate change. From Sydney to Argentina to Bahrain, buildings will be in darkness for an hour.
It’s easy to do - you just pledge to switch off your lights and then on Saturday 27th March at 8.30pm you turn off your lights! And then leave them off for an hour. Simple.
Thursday, 25 February 2010 17:41 | and posted in News
Three weeks before Hannah died of an overdose she wrote a moving letter to Heroin detailing how it had ruined her life and her determination to kick her addiction to it once and for all.
Hannah had tried ecstacy on her 14th birthday and by the time she was 15 was addicted to heroin. Twice Hannah had moved away from her home in Llanelli, Wales, to London to stay with an Aunt in order to kick the habit. Both times she succeeded only to fall in with her old drug-using friendship group when she returned to Llanelli. In October 2009, at 17 years old, just weeks before her 18th birthday, Hannah died of an overdose.
Friday, 12 February 2010 11:08 | and posted in News
Avatar has now become the highest grossing movie of all time and the first movie in history to break the $2 billion mark at the box office.
This is incredible for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is only the 5th film to ever take more than a $1 billion dollars worldwide. Secondly, it has earned more than the third and fourth highest grossing movies combined (LOTR: Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in case you're wondering). And thirdly it took a mere 47 days to beat Titanic's 252 days $1.84 billion cinematic worldwide gross!!
Monday, 30 November 2009 11:11 | and posted in News
Of all the movies that you would remotely anticpate breaking The Dark Knight's opening day take at the Cinema, the Twilight sequel, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, would not have been one of them. Amazingly, however, New Moon did exactly that, raking in an estimated $72.7 million in the US alone breaking The Dark Knight's previous record by over $5 million. New Moon now holds the records for the largest Opening day take, the largest single day take, the fastest movie to $100 million plus the largest grossing midnight opening ever ($26.3 million compared to The Dark Knight's $18.5 million) and the third largest weekend opening.
Tuesday, 03 November 2009 12:37 | and posted in News
A new film has been released by the UK’s police organisation for child protection - the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre - aimed at anyone close to the person who was involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. That person could be a relative, friend, work colleague or neighbour. Whoever they are, they have a secret that could reveal what happened to Madeleine.
Wednesday, 02 September 2009 10:16 | and posted in News
Disney announced this week they have bought Marvel Comics for £2.5 billion in a move that will unite Mickey Mouse, Hannah Montana and Cinderella with the likes of Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men.
This new deal will give Disney control of over 5,000 Marvel characters that will soon start to appear in Disney Theme Parks, toy stores, TV channels, movies and a whole host of Disney merchandising. They will also rake in huge profits from next year’s big money movie sequels Spider-Man 4 and Iron Man 2.
Monday, 08 June 2009 00:00 | and posted in News
What we all knew was true in our spirits has finally been confirmed by judges in the UKs Court of Appeal: Pringles are potato crisps!
Now, for some of you there was probably never any doubt - they feel like crisps, crunch like crisps and taste like crisps - but back in July 2008 a High Court Judge ruled that Pringles were not potatoey-enough to be called crisps and therefore Pringles manufacturers (Proctor & Gamble) were not liable to pay VAT.