Prince of Wales unable to supply vegetables up to standards

According to Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, Prince Charles has been unable to supply the supermarket with vegetables of the proper quality. That’s why he’s been dropped as a carrot supplier to Sainsbury’s.

Mr Holden, director of the organic food and farming charity, said that the Prince had fallen ‘victim’ to the supermarket’s ‘industrial processes’. According to him, the food started off well but were damaged due to long-distance transport, processing, and other procedures. Well, if the system is that bad, then how come Sainsbury can deal successfully with other small-scale suppliers?

- Nishant

UN court drags feet over Charles Taylor’s trial

This is Charles Taylor, ex-president of Liberia. ‘Hi Charles!’

Charles is a war criminal. He was indicted on the 3rd of March 2003 on 654 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, (since amended to 650 counts). The UN doesn’t seem to be in any real hurry to convict him, considering he was only flown to Hague for the trial on June 20th 2006.

Even when the trial did start, Charles continued to be a pain in the a**. On the first day of his trial, (June 4th 2007 – almost a year after he arrived) Charles decided – since he seems to have the power to decide – not to attend his trial. Instead, he sent a letter with his lawyers complaining about not being able to receive an impartial trial. Well, committing 650 war crimes does tend to reduce your chances of an impartial trial.

Evidently the UN doesn’t agree with me. After failing to attend his trial for the second time, the presiding judge chided the court administrators, for not dealing with the defense issue. This time the ‘issue’ is Charles Taylor complaining over the size of his defense team, and then proceeding to fire his lead lawyer.

Doesn’t the UN recognise delaying tactics?

- Nishant

According to Time Out, thousands of people live in a ‘flaccid penis’

I’m afraid this post is going to be less interesting than the titles implies. The weekly Time Out magazine interestingly described the London borough of Kingston, (shown in Greater London above) as a ‘flaccid penis’. Right.

After forgetting to include Kingston upon Thames in a couple of its London guide books, Time Out hastily compiled a 10-point guide to the borough, and made the following unflattering comment in the introduction regarding the omission; “Time Out did a Bobbitt and cut the flaccid penis that is the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames off the map of the capital.”

Here’s the picture again.

Well, if you turn your head a bit to the right and forget about the bit at the top, then Time Out might actually have a point…

- Nishant

Go Peru! Sex for everyone! Well, everyone above 14 years old.

Peru’s Congress has decided that the legal age of consensual sex should be lowered to 14 from 17. There were only 10 people in Congress who opposed the bill, compared to 70 who supported it. Let’s compare this to the USA, where most states hold the legal age at 16.

This bill was penned by a Centre-Left party-member – well ofcourse, I can’t imagine a right-winger lowering the age of consensual sex.

Raul Castro, a supporter of the bill, argued that this bill would simple mitigate problems that already exist. Said he, “There are young people who get pregnant but they don’t go to health centers, fearing that their partners will be arrested and charged”.

Other leading figures said that this action would only make rape ‘easier’, and allow them to claim that it was a consensual act, thereby avoiding capture. My question is, can’t a 14 year old tell whether it was consensual or not, and testify to that effect? Strange.

- Nishant

Hares disrupt activity at Italian airport

These furry animals have been playing havoc with the radar systems at an Italian airport, as well as disrupting takeoffs and landings. Reports say that about 200 volunteers assisted in rounding up around 57 hares at Linate airport, (and four wild rabbits) in Milan. The humanitarian effort refrained from physically harming the cute creatures, and instead blew whistles and waved arms frantically, causing the hares to run into waiting nets – a video of the roundup is available here. Although I have to commend the volunteers on their respect for wildlife, I also have to wonder how much time this took – Megan says that there were only delays of three hours, and I have to share her surprise. After the hares were caught, they were safely transferred to a wildlife preserve.

Nicoletta Angioni, spokeswoman for the company that runs Milan’s airports, said “There are always hares at the airport, the problem is that lately there were too many” – apparently the hares have been mating like, well, rabbits.

The problem of animals on airports doesn’t seem to be exclusively Italian – Val gives numerous other examples of this in other airports throughout the world. Maybe the animals are attempting to control air traffic in a bid to reduce global warming?

- Nishant