International Development Committee wants Britain to accept 3000 Syrian children as refugees

While praising Britain’s efforts to mitigate the suffering of Syrian children, the International Development Committee says much more must be done and it is calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to urge fellow G7 leaders of France, Japan and Italy to match the efforts of UK. It is of the opinion that thousands more Syrian refugee children should be allowed to settle in the UK in order to protect them from exploitation.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 5 January 2016.

It may be recalled that the death of a young refugee boy, who washed up drowned on a Turkish beach, brought into focus the world's attention on the extent of the Syria migrant crisis. Following the exposure, the media tracked the journeys of the hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them Syrians, who were fleeing their homes and, often paying exorbitant sums to traffickers to make the potentially deadly sea crossings to southern Europe from Turkey.
Britain has agreed to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees from the refugee camps in neighboring countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. However, it has not committed on the million plus that have made their own way to Europe. The International Development Committee is now pushing the Government to do more to extend help, and in particular to the unaccompanied children who are vulnerable to exploitation like child labour, prostitution and human trafficking.

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Cameron and Xi let down their hair with fish and chips in a London pub

In the course of his state visit to England, Chinese President Xi Jinping accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron headed for a traditional British pub to indulge in a beer and a portion of traditional fish and chips. The two world leaders wore suits but were tieless and sipped their ales at The Plough. This is close to the residence of the British prime minister located in Chequers northwest of London.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 23 October 2015.

The pub had hunting guns hanging on the bare-brick wall behind them and the landlord of the pub has said that the two leaders had chatted for around three-quarters of an hour and had been "extremely friendly".
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Seagulls of Brighton beach steal lunch from unsuspecting visitors

Necessity is the mother of invention and the same can be said of seagulls that frequent Brighton beach, the birds have become crafty and have dreamt up their own cunning strategy to steal the lunches of unsuspecting visitors to the beach.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 27 July 2015.

The birds have begun to gang up and target women who are carrying food along the seaside – one of the birds peck the girl to make her drop her food, and the other birds hover nearby to swoop down for the feast. Obviously, the seagulls have become smarter and more brazen than ever before.
They go after the girls because they are easily frightened and run for cover once attacked. The population of the seagulls have gone up considerably within the last 15 years ago and new colonies are springing up further from the coast.
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David Cameron, as Prime Minister of Britain, has many problems on hand like the fight against the ISIS, but he is besieged by another problem nearer home and that is all about sea gulls. In a number of attacks in recent times, the seagulls have killed a Yorkshire terrier and a tortoise in Cornwall.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 18 July 2015.

The Prime Minister feels a "big conversation" is needed about how to tackle the aggressive birds who are protected by law.
The death of a family's pet dog in Newquay left a scene resembling a murder scene and, in another incident, a tortoise was pecked to death in Liskeard. Moreover, dive-bombing seagulls been a menace for long for tourists who are holding food in St Ives. The birds have been branded as "flying rats".
Seagull expert Peter Rock has revealed that since they are protected species, their nests cannot be interfered with and a cull would be illegal. The population of these birds have doubled in the past 15 years and there is a need to have a fresh look at the legislation.
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At least 30 Britons were killed in the Tunisia attack

As more information becomes available, it is believed that the number of British people killed in the Tunisia terror attack could double and go up to at least 30. There were 38 victims and the Government had already confirmed 15 of them to be from UK. Three of the dead are Irish.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 29 June 2015.

The killer 24-year-old Seifeddine Rezgui had begun his deadly rampage from inside the hotel grounds and Britons have paid the heaviest price in the atrocity at the beach resort in Sousse but, it cannot be said that the targets were only the Britons. Incidentally, the hotel was one that was housing a majority of British tourists.
The killer was later shot down by the police – he had a bomb on his body.
The hotel director has revealed that there were three gunmen involved in the attack and Scotland Yard has indicated that 16 detectives and forensic experts have been sent to Tunisia to help local officers.
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Britain to put fences and sniffer dogs to tackle the influx of migrants through Calais

Britain is feeling the heat created by the influx of migrants into the country through Calais and Prime Minister David Cameron plans to have more fences and sniffer dogs to tackle the situation. This requirement is all the more important around the port of Calais after truckers, stopped by a strike, had to face hundreds of migrants who were trying to board their vehicles forcibly.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 24 June 2015.

Prime Minister has remarked that the scenes of chaos, which saw migrants breaking into the back of lorries or trying to climb into cabs, were "totally unacceptable". The lorries had been forced to queue around Calais since traffic across the Channel was disrupted by striking French ferry workers.
The installation of fencing would be not just around the port at Calais but also around the entrance to Eurostar and Eurotunnel.
The identification of the immigrants (fingerprinting and documenting) should be done in Italy where the migrants first land after a dangerous journey from North Africa. French authorities have already drafted extra police officers into Calais. Simultaneously, security was also stepped up in Dover to check vehicles as they arrived.
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Obama did not attend historic Paris rally - American attitude towards Paris terror attack raises questions

#ParisRally #CharlieHebdo The attitude of the USA towards the Paris terror attack has raised many questions. There was no sign of Barack Obama, John Kerry or Joe Biden in the historic Paris rally to express solidarity with more than 40 world leaders from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and even Russia who had gathered in Paris to condemn the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
'France is our oldest ally,' Obama had said during a speech Friday in Tennessee. 'I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow.' However, he gave Paris a miss and had, reportedly, spent part of his Sunday afternoon watching a National Football League game on television.
It seems US Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris on the day for a security summit, but he did not appear alongside world leaders when they joined an anti-terrorism march in the afternoon - he went to appear on a number of US morning shows.
Why Obama was not in Paris is a mystery but, the fact remains that he was not there even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas put aside their differences and linked arms.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov made the same unifying gesture in the march down the Place de la Concorde in defiance of the Islamist terror attacks that rocked the city last week. Heads of state from every major European power, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, joined French President Francois Hollande.