WUFOOB … (Oct – Dec 2013)

Worsening sectarian strife in Syria puts the West in a quandary

Al Jazeera, Tuesday 17th December 2013
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that British troops could leave Afghanistan next year with a sense of having accomplished their mission, despite worries about the ongoing Taliban insurgency, drug cultivation and human rights abuses.

Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 18th December 2013
This December has seen the final collapse of British and American policy in Syria. David Cameron’s favourite general, Salim Idris, was meant to unify the rebels, bring down Assad, and vanquish al-Qaeda. Instead his Free Syrian Army has taken to its heels, giving up its equipment to its Islamist rivals, while Idris himself has reportedly gone on the run.

Inspectors find maggots in GP surgery

ITV News, Thursday 12th December 2013
The health regulator, The Care Quality Commission, has uncovered a catalogue of failings at some GP practices with medicines stored in a way that puts children and patients at risk of infection and rooms so dirty they had maggots.

BBC receives complaints about saturation coverage of Mandela’s death

MailOnline, Monday 9th December 2013
By today the corporation had received 1,350 complaints about ‘excessive’ coverage of Mandela’s death across its news services, with some saying the emphasis had reduced the coverage of severe weather across the UK that day.

Warning: the nanny state may seriously run out of control

The Guardian, Wednesday 4th December 2013
Alcohol packaging should carry graphic health warnings, urge doctors. Cigarette-style images would help public understand excessive drinking’s link to diseases and violence, says the UK Faculty of Public Health.

BBC should “look and sound more like its audiences”

BBC, Wednesday 4th December 2013
James Harding, the BBC’s news director, has said its output should “look and sound more like its audiences”.

Referendum White Paper runs to 670 pages

Daily Mail, Tuesday 26th November 2013
The Scottish National Party leader has unveiled a 670-page ‘blueprint’ setting out the case for independence.

Ukip is ‘unpatriotic and betraying Britain’, Nick Clegg says

Telegraph, Monday 18th November 2013
Nick Clegg says Nigel Farage’s drive to take Britain out of Europe is ‘a betrayal of the national interest’.

Cat-and-mouse diplomacy

Guardian, Saturday 16th November 2013
David Cameron has condemned Sri Lanka’s failure to investigate allegations of “chilling and appalling” war crimes as he flew to the Commonwealth summit in Colombo promising a diplomatic showdown with the host country.

Mirror, Thursday 14th November 2013
Princess Anne has suggested that people in Britain should consider eating horsemeat. Brits were outraged earlier this year when dozens of products such as beef lasagne and spaghetti bolognese were revealed to contain horse. However the Queen’s daughter believes the focus of upset was that food was improperly labelled rather than the use of the animal in products.

India launches mission to Mars

TIME, Tuesday 5th November 2013
India launched its first unmanned mission to Mars on Tuesday as it tries to join a select group of countries that have managed to land spacecraft on the Red Planet. Critics have argued against the Mars mission, insisting that India should instead be diverting the millions towards social programs. Jean Drèze, a development economist, told reporters: “I don’t understand the importance of India sending a space mission to Mars when half of its children are undernourished and half of all Indian families have no access to sanitation.”

America finally gets a listening President

NY Daily News, Monday 28th October 2013
It comes out now that the NSA, as part of what it thinks is the cost of doing business in a dangerous world, was listening to the phone conversations of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel as far back as 2002.

Obama approved tapping Merkel’s phone

ITV News, Sunday 27th October 2013
Barack Obama was told three years ago that the National Security Agency was monitoring Angela Merkel’s communications and allowed it to continue.

Researchers create deep-sea internet

BBC News, Wednesday 16th October 2013
Researchers have tested an “underwater wi-fi” network in a lake in an attempt to make a “deep-sea internet”. The team, from the University of Buffalo, New York, said the technology could help detect tsunamis, offering more reliable warning systems. Unlike normal wi-fi, which uses radio waves, the submerged network technology utilises sound waves.

Kuwaiti emir could have more control over Royal Mail than the Queen

Huffington Post, Friday 11th October 2013
Royal Mail’s stock market flotation could leave the Kuwaiti royal family with greater control over the business than the Queen, unions have warned. The Kuwait Investment Office (KIO) is reported to have been allocated around £50 million in Royal Mail shares, which would make it a major shareholder.

IPCC in damage control mode

Forbes, Thursday 26th September 2013
As its global warming narrative unravels, the IPCC is in damage control mode.