News Journal: March 2014

Thursday 6 March 2014

School allows kids fag breaks to stop them bunking off school

A school head lets her pupils have cigarette breaks because she says it stops them from bunking off.Children at the school are allowed to light up twice a day under the supervision of teachers.But they only allowed to join the 10-minute sessions with parental permission.

Head Claire George says it is the only way to stop problem children absconding from school.

Tory MP Stewart Jackson has called for the local authority to review the practise.

He said: “Most reasonable people would be quite surprised by this.

“They are not adults able to make reasonable choices. They are children who should follow the rules.”

One relative of a child at the unit, who asked not to be named, added: “I am outraged that this is allowed.

“I thought the school had parental duties when our children are under their care.”

The smoking breaks have been introduced at Honeyhill pupil referral unit in Peterborough, Cambs, which caters for 200 pupils aged between 14 and 16.

Children have to hand in their cigarettes at the start of the school day and are only allowed them back for the off-site breaks.

Ms George explained: “Pupils who attend Honeyhill do so because they have failed, many more than once, in mainstream education.

“They are amongst the most challenged and challenging young people within the city and most have complex issues.

“Therefore our approach has got to be different to give them the best possible chance of getting an education which allows them to progress into employment or further education or training.

“For those pupils who do smoke, we have a clear procedure in place. Pupils and their parents/carers are asked about health related habits when they start at the school.

“Our approach is that pupils who already smoke on admission can, with parental consent, have up to two 10 minute, off-site, fully supervised smoking breaks a day.

“We appreciate some people will not agree with this approach, but we have found it far more effective than simply banning smoking, which our experience shows us leads to pupils not attending school or absconding during the day to smoke.”

An Ofsted visit in December rated Honeyhill ‘good’ with outstanding leadership and management.

Pupils at Elmete Central School in Roundhay, Leeds, were allowed to smoke twice a day on the school premises until the policy was changed in October last year.

The headteacher had said the rule was aimed at stopping pupils leaving the school premises to smoke.

I'm not a superman, Pope Francis says

Pope Francis has played down the notion that he is a "superman" who will bring sweeping reforms to the Roman Catholic Church, stressing that its ban on contraception and opposition to gay marriage will remain in place.

The pope, in an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper published on Wednesday, also said no institution had moved with more "transparency and responsibility" than the Church to protect children in the wake of its sexual abuse scandals.

That prompted a sharp rebuke from victims, with one group calling the assertion "disingenuous".

Since his election nearly a year ago, Francis has promoted the idea of a more humble Church focused on the needs of the poor, winning huge popularity and raising expectations that it would soften its rules on such issues as contraception, cohabitation, sacraments for the divorced who remarry, and gay relationships.

Asked what he felt about his celebrity status, Francis said he disliked the "mythology" of him as a man who could meet all expectations.

"To depict the pope as a sort of superman, a sort of star, seems offensive to me. The pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps tranquilly and has friends like everyone else, a normal person," he said.

Francis made clear he did not envision changing the Church's stance on such issues as the ban on artificial birth control enshrined in Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life).

A synod of bishops to be held in October would discuss ways of applying and explaining it better, he said, calling the encyclical "prophetic and courageous".

"It's not a question of changing the doctrine but going deeper so that pastoral concern takes into account situations and what can be done for people," he said.

Francis restated the Church's position that marriage is between a man and woman. But indicating a small opening, he said

some states wanted to "justify civil unions" of various types in order to regularize economic issues such as property rights and health coverage.

A worldwide survey of Catholics last year showed a deep divide between Church officials and the faithful on issues of sexual morality. Last month Francis urged a gathering of cardinals to be "intelligent, courageous and loving" in a debate on family-related issues.

But his words in the interview appeared to be a warning to liberals not to expect too much.

SINGLED OUT

Asked about the sexual abuse scandal, in which many priests who molested children were moved from parish to parish instead of being dismissed, he said the Church had done much since the scandal first broke some 15 years ago and was being singled out for attack.

He defended the Church's record, including that of his predecessor former Pope Benedict, whom Francis credited with having the courage to start reforms.

"On this path, the Church has done much, perhaps more than all others," he said.

"The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No-one has done more, and yet the Church is the only one that is being attacked," he said.

Victims of sexual abuse by the clergy rejected this.

"His central claim - that no one has 'done more' on abuse than the Catholic Church - is disingenuous," said the U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "It would be far more accurate to say that no one has done more to deny, minimize and hide child sex crimes than the Church."

The pope appeared to be referring to a report by a United Nations committee last month which accused the Vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of sexual abuse of children by priests, and demanded it turn over known or suspected offenders to civil justice.

The Vatican said the report was distorted, unfair and ideologically slanted.

A series of losses overseas for Team India saw skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's popularity taking a hit on internet and Virat Kohli's fan following rising.
A study by search engine Google showed that Dhoni's last minute withdrawal from the Asia Cup and Kohli's century as a captain has impacted the ranking of these two cricketers on Google Search Trends.
While Kohli ended 2013 with more endorsements than Dhoni, a search trend analysis over the past 30 days revealed how online search on Kohli is on the rise leaving the popular Dhoni at second spot.
"A celebrity love-story-in-the-making linking actor Anushka Sharma’s alleged visit to New Zealand last month (in February) to be with Virat Kohli sparked huge speculation about their alleged relationship which has also fuelled search spikes on Google," Google said in a statement.
The study by Google also said that after fetching a record price in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Yuvraj Singh now features in third place on Google Search Trends.
"However these icons pale in comparison when compared with Sachin Tendulkar, who despite having retired from international cricket continues to rule the roost on Google Search Trends as the undisputed number # 1 cricketing icon," the statement said.
Also coming back from the cold, Virendera Sehwag and Suresh Raina are seeing significant traction on Google search placing them at fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Attack on Islamabad court kills 11

A BLOODY attack on a crowded District Court complex in Islamabad has left 11 people dead and about 30 others wounded, shattering hopes of an imminent negotiated end to violence gripping the country.

In a rare assault on the Pakistani capital, between four and six gunmen stormed the building in the city centre just before 9am yesterday, opening fire on court workers and visitors and lobbing grenades into lawyers’ chambers and judges’ offices before two of the attackers detonated suicide bombs inside the central court building.

The remaining gunmen are believed to have escaped in a white Toyota Prado as police surrounded the site and panicked crowds fled the building, dodging bullets, broken glass and human remains as they went.

No arrests had been made as of early evening yesterday, and police said it was too early to speculate on the identity or motives of the attackers, though some reports suggested the gunmen were trying to free a defendant due to appear before the court.

The deadly strike happened less than a day after the government announced it was halting airstrikes on suspected Taliban safe havens in the country’s remote northwest to try and kick-start faltering peace talks with Taliban intermediaries.

Talks initiated last month between government and Taliban delegates had earlier broken down after a series of attacks and retaliatory attacks by insurgents and military forces.

The Taliban were quick to deny responsibility for yesterday’s attack, which capped another weekend of violence in which 13 security force personnel defending polio vaccinators were killed in the northwest Khyber Agency Saturday and another two soldiers were killed in a targeted bombing in the same district on Sunday morning.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid condemned the attack on the Islamabad court, and said his group would not violate its own self-imposed ceasefire.

But the latest strike only emphasises the schismatic nature of the Taliban militancy, and the central command structure’s inability to control an increasingly unruly network of affiliates.

Though the court complex has in the past hosted several anti-terrorism court hearings, The Australian understands there were no terrorism-related cases scheduled to be heard yesterday.

Most of the injured were taken to the Institute of Medical Science Hospital, where a spokesman told media that five of the injured were in critical condition.

Islamabad Police inspector general Sikander Hayat said; “The attackers first lobbed grenades at the policemen on duty. Then they started shooting, and when law enforcement officials tried to counter, they blew themselves up.”

Local reports cited eyewitnesses to the attack describing the gunmen as having the long hair favoured by Taliban terrorists.

The Complete Results List Of Oscars 2014

Best Picture	12 Years a Slave

Best Actor in a Leading Role	Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Leading Role	Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Animated Feature	Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho)

Best Cinematography	Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Best Costume Design	The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)

Best Directing	Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)

Best Documentary Feature	20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen, Caitrin Rogers)

Best Documentary Short	The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed)

Best Film Editing	Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger)

Best Foreign Language Film	The Great Beauty (Italy)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling	Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews)

Best Original Score	Gravity (Steven Price)

Best Original Song	Let It Go - Frozen

Best Production Design	The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn)

Best Animated Short Film	Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares)

Best Live Action Short Film	Helium (Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson)

Best Sound Editing	Gravity (Glenn Freemantle)

Best Sound Mixing	Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro)

Best Visual Effects	Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould)

Best Adapted Screenplay	12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)

Best Original Screenplay	Her (Spike Jonze)

Apple gets patent for solar-powered MacBook

Apple may be moving towards solar for a future line of MacBooks. Apple's MacBook laptops may soon get more environment-friendly after the tech giant was awarded a patent for a solar-powered device by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple would not be the first company to test the waters of solar-powered computing. It’s arch nemesis in the mobile phone industry, Samsung, rushed out of the gates in 2011 releasing the Samsung NC215S netbook.

It was a first of its kind portable computer to run on solar energy. Initially at a cost of $399, the device, once fully charged, could be run on fourteen hours of battery life.

If Apple addresses concerns of high priced PV-based MacBooks, while improving battery efficiency, the company Steve Jobs built thirty years ago may do the same for solar computing as they have done for computers, mobile phones, and tablets.

Sensational Afridi clinches thriller for Pakistan, India lose by a wicket

Pakistan achieved the total of 245 runs at the loss of eight wickets against India. This has been a typical Indo-Pak duel with twists and turns right till the end. Pakistan came out on top courtesy Boom Boom Afridi stealing an emphatic win in the last over.

Both the teams had equal chances in the game but one would feel that Virat Kohli-led India let it slip right at the end after putting up with all the hard work in the game. Pakistan thrived with the solid start provided by Ahmed Shehzad and Sharjeel Khan.

But, Misbah's men lost their way in the middle overs that helped India to bounce back in the game. Mohammad Hafeez anchored the innings for his team beautifully until his demise at the hands of Ravichandran Ashwin.

Pakistan are now on top in the points table just one point above Sri Lanka - who are yet to play their 3rd match. Team India are still at the third spot with four points and will be looking to change their luck against Afghanistan on Wednesday.