As I write this, there is a crisis in the Horn of Africa that is claiming the lives of thousands of children. Famine has been declared. Millions face starvation. In Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia we are witnessing the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation.
"We've been into the local schools, the children have designed posters which are displayed on all litter bins locally (dog dirt can go in the normal litter bins), we've caught a few people and fined them, but still it goes on" says Fawdon Councillor Brenda Hindmarsh.
Thanks to the extra £4m that Mayor Dave Hodgson has put into this year's road maintenance budget, and campaigning by Cllr Tim Hill and
Following the local Lib Dems four year "Homes for Heroes" campaign, the Liberal Democrats Regional Conference will discuss the maintenance of armed forces accomodation. At the core of the debate will be the suggestion that armed forces accomodation should comply with the "Decent Homes Standard" applied to local authority and housing association homes.
A woman who hit her head on the bottom of a swimming pool during a late-night party in Surrey has lost her claim for £6m damages in the High Court. Kylie Grimes, now 23, of Farnham, was left paralysed from the chest down when she dived into the pool in August 2006. The pool owner David Hawkins, of Compton Way, Farnham, denied liability and said he considered the pool safe. Mrs Justice Thirlwall ruled in favour of Mr Hawkins, describing the pool as "not unsafe for diving". Ms Grimes, of Stephendale Road, broke a vertebra below the base of her neck jumping into the pool.
People with dyslexia struggle to recognise familiar voices, scientists suggest. The finding is the first tentative evidence that small sounds in the human voice that vary between people are difficult for dyslexics to hear. Writing in the journal Science, the scientists say that many people could have some degree of "voice blindness".And by studying it, scientists hope to better understand how the human brain has evolved to recognise speech. Humans rely on small sounds called phonemes to tell one person from another.