2013-05-23T17:13:48-04:00 Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=olivia-williams Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Olivia Williams Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2012-01-06T09:22:53-05:00 2012-01-06T10:35:09-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
According to Syria's state Sana news agency the blast tore through the Midan neighbourhood in the heart of the city.

"The attack took place in a heavily populated working-class neighbourhood near a school" and "killed and wounded dozens of people," said state television, as it broadcasted footage of rescuers gathering body parts and the blood-spattered street.


The news agency also reported both civilian and security force personnel casualties.

Violence in Damascus has been rising over the past two months. In December two car bombs caused carnage outside the heavily guarded compounds of the intelligence agencies, killing at least 44 people and wounding 166.

The authorities blamed it on terrorists. Opposition activists on the other hand accused the government of staging them to damage their standing.

No one has claimed responsibility for the deaths yet.

"We're expecting more of these bombings in the coming days," Colonel Ammar al-Wawi, a Syrian Army defector who works with insurgent group the Free Syrian Army told the New York Times. "This regime is seeking to spread chaos in Syria".

Arab League observers are currently on a tour of Syria country to investigate President Assad's violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his regime that has been destabilising his authoritarian rule since last March. ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2012-01-04T10:45:06-05:00 2012-01-04T11:26:15-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
In the world of politics, Mitt Romney revelled in some early successes in the American presidential nominations.

Further afield, Myanmar looked to Aung San Suu Kyi to bring democracy to their country, while the North Koreans braved the snow to support their authoritarian regime's latest leader, Kim Jong Un.

From camels to cricket, they are all in our pictures of the day:

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Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/ gun battle on one of Tripoli's busiest streets on Tuesday, leaving four fighters dead and at least five injured.

A militia group from the city of Misrata confronted a group of former rebels in Tripoli as they tried to free prisoners held inside the old intelligence building from Libya's ancien regime.

Colonel Walid Shouaib, a member of Tripoli Military Council, said the fatal skirmish was sparked by the arrest of a Misrata fighter on New Year's Eve by Tripoli fighters.

Since Colonel Gaddafi's regime was finally toppled in October, security has been a threat in the country as disperate militias wrestle for power, the BBC's correspondent on the ground explained.

The battle was the first between militias since December, when soldiers from Libya’s new army fought militias for control of the capital’s international airport.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2012-01-03T13:49:45-05:00 2012-01-03T16:52:34-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/ Gary Dobson and David Norris in the trial of Stephen Lawrence's murder on Tuesday.

A year after Lawrence's fatal stabbing, in 1994 police installed a secret surveillance camera at Dobson's flat in Eltham and this is what they saw.

Dobson was heard bragging that he had threatened a black colleague with a knife.

Norris was then filmed acting acting out violent crimes and discussing with relish torturing black people. He boasted at point that he wanted to "skin a black ****" and "blow their two arms and legs off".


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Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
These are minor Christmas annoyances, but there was pay-off, remember? Apart from the warm fuzziness of time with your much-cherished but thankfully rarely-seen relatives, your main reward was a goodie bag full of presents to make off with at the end of your yuletide guest appearance.

Congregations are regularly reminded that it is more blessed to give than to receive. But whatever your sexual proclivities, Christmas is a time when you definitely know you want to be on the receiving end, and it better be good.

Of course, lo and behold, it isn't good. Hope of your family getting it right triumphs over experience and, yet again, you're disappointed. The deeply personal presents you have so thoughtfully chosen are reciprocated with sickly scented candles, nasty bath products that will give you allergies and a book you've already read. Humph. Not happy.

Then what? Well, then comes the eternal Christmas dilemma - return it or stick it in the present drawer?

My present drawer is already heaving. Every year I put in unwanted presents in the hope of offloading them on someone else next year, and every year I open it up and think "no, just too awful".

Returning shoddy presents is far preferable. One disingenuous "thanks so much, it's great" later and you should be making a beeline to the shops for some present upgrades.

Tips for present swapping:

If possible take your mother, or the most formidable matriarchal figure you know. They were born to take things back.

If she inexplicably has something better to do, you'll have to go it alone, so...

Get in there early. Chances are your hideous unwanted item will be in the sale and it'll be worth decreasing amounts as January wears on.

Confidence is key. Make it seem as though you're hanging around until they do something - ergo it will be less hassle for them to just give you what you want so you can get out of their hair.

Give the shop assistant some background. We've all had rubbish presents, so give them the sob story of how disappointed you were when you opened it etc.

If they're still being awkward, insist on swapping it for anything else.

Work a sad puppy dog look, whatever it takes to get rid of the fluffy slippers. You'll only end up throwing them out in your next spring clean or worse still, giving them back to the rubbish present giver whence they came. Now that's awkward.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2011-12-22T08:54:53-05:00 2011-12-22T16:28:02-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
The 'Little Gossip' website allows people to post offensive comments about children, which users can then rate as true or false.

Andre Sohatski said pupils at Priory School in Dorking, Surrey, were suffering homophobic, racist and sexist abuse on the site and has called for it to be shut down. School children often use the website to comment on each others appearance, sex lives and drug habits.

Sohatski was made aware of the problem website by concerned students themselves: "a group of students came to us to say they had seen the website and thought it was offensive".

The posts on littlegossip.com are so often obscene that 10% are reported by users for deletion.

Entries for The Priory C of E school included: "[Girl's name] needs to loose (sic) weight? True or false."

Some of the pupils were repeatedly targeted with dozens voting on rumours.

Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of Beatbullying, said earlier this year: "To take down specific extreme comments is not enough as the site is still left to be abused, leaving further teachers and students victimised."

Fran Davey, youth intervention officer with Surrey Police, who is investigating the complaint from Sohatski, has written to schools asking them to be on alert and to spread the word to parents.

The site has been running since November last year and is based in the United States, making it more difficult for worried parents and teachers to take action.

The site's founders say it was launched "to encourage deep, meaningful conversation".
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Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
The distraught teenager sent her friends a three-page suicide note on Facebook hours before throwing herself in front of a train on Easter Monday this year.

A text had come through cancelling a cinema date, less than two hours later she was dead. She had told a friend over Facebook, "I am going to kill myself tonight".

She died on the tracks at around 9.30pm near her home in Briton Ferry, South Wales.

The A Level student was an aspiring model, who had already worked for the popular label, Hollister.

Her family said after the hearing that they were "devastated by the loss of our precious Gabrielle".

They encouraged people to look for the signs of teenage depression: "We would like to take this opportunity to urge young people to share their problems by talking to someone they trust."

A family member reflected at her funeral that "Gabrielle tried to deal with things on her own".

The jury in Swansea returned a verdict of suicide.

If you are affected by any of these issues, call The Samaritans for help on 08457 90 90 90]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2011-12-19T06:23:58-05:00 2011-12-19T09:52:28-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/ according to the Daily Mail.

A record 27 royal guests are coming to stay in the Norfolk retreat for Christmas, the paper reported, forcing some to sleep in servants' quarters.

The guest overspill will be housed in the 'Bachelor Wing', which is usually home to single male members of staff.

After the resounding success of the Royal Wedding, spirits will be riding high this year as the family welcomes Kate Middleton to her first royal Christmas as the Duchess of Cambridge. Zara Phillips’s England rugby player husband Mike Tindall, will also be spending his first Christmas with the Queen since marrying into the family.

A member of staff grumbled to the Daily Mail that they would be "crammed in like sardines this year".

In the German tradition, presents will be opened on Christmas Eve before a candlelit banquet.

On Christmas morning the family attend the traditional service at St Mary Magdalene on their grounds. On Boxing Day, the Duke of Edinburgh traditionally organises a shoot.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2011-12-19T05:15:47-05:00 2011-12-19T07:11:44-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
The figures emerge at a tense time, as the challenge of increasing the number of black and ethnic minority Oxbridge students continues to prove problematic.

In 2010, fewer than 1% of Oxbridge students were black.

David Cameron caused controversy in April earlier this year when he described Oxford's low intake of black students as "disgraceful".

But Sir Michael Wilshaw, incoming head of Ofsted, told The Sunday Times it was individual institutions' responsibility to encourage more black pupils to apply for places: "The statistics clearly show that schools aren't doing enough to encourage black and ethnic minority students to apply to the top universities."

This year's success rate for black students who applied to Oxford was 14%, a significant improvement on last year when only 8.8% of black candidates were successful in obtaining a place.

An Oxford University spokeswoman said the institution would "work hard to continue improving these numbers". They hinted that, in agreement with the Ofsted head, schools also needed to do more by pointing out that white pupils are twice as likely as black pupils to score three 'A' grades at A-level. ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2011-12-19T04:28:47-05:00 2011-12-19T05:51:48-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows attached to and within trees and shrubs. In Britain its traditional 'heartland' is cider country - Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

But traditional apple orchards have been disappearing since the 1950s, the National Trust says, and they have been taking the festive plant's preferred habitat with them.

Now the Trust is encouraging people to give mistletoe the kiss of life by buying sustainably sourced home-grown mistletoe.

Peter Brash, a National Trust Ecologist, said that losing mistletoe would be a shame for the UK economy:

"We could end up relying on imports of mistletoe from mainland Europe for those festive kisses," Brash said.

The use of mistletoe as a Christmas decoration is thought to date back to pagan times, when evergreens were revered as a symbol of ongoing life during harsh winter months.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2011-12-18T15:29:56-05:00 2011-12-18T17:03:15-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/ alleged that the News of the World was responsible for deleting murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's voicemails.

Caseby, managing editor of The Sun, personally attacked the Guardian's editor Alan Rusbridger in a forceful letter requesting print and online corrections.

Caseby challenged Rusbridger to "clean up his own stable" before "lecturing the rest of the newspaper industry on journalistic ethics".

He went on to accuse Rusbridger of having "a destructive agenda against the entire popular press", demonstrated by the "regularity by which he publishes false stories about the NoW and The Sun".

The allegation of the Dowler messages first appeared in the Guardian and were pivotal in bringing Britain's most popular tabloid to its knees, resulting in its sudden closure this summer.

The Leveson Inquiry heard from a Scotland Yard lawyer last week that it was unlikely that a News of the World journalist was responsible. It was 'most likely' that the messages were in fact deleted automatically.

A Guardian spokeswoman insisted that they were already tackling The Sun's demands: "We have already promptly footnoted a number of articles and are considering a number of others".

She also insisted that Rusbridger "does not hold the views about popular journalism ascribed to him by Mr Caseby".

The Guardian has already had to apologise to The Sun for mis-reporting that the tabloid hacked into the son of Gordon Brown's medical records.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2011-12-18T10:46:37-05:00 2011-12-21T11:25:37-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/ Christmas trees could be to blame for a range of unpleasant ailments from coughs and wheeziness to the traditional winter lethargy.

It could be your Christmas tree, rather than too much mulled wine making you feel groggy, scientists from a branch of the State University of New York are saying.

So-called 'Christmas Tree Syndrome' is caused by the mould growing on the trees, which we are unwittingly breathing in throughout the festive period.

70% of the mould types found in domestic Christmas trees can cause typical allergic symptoms such as itchy noses, watery eyes, sinus congestion and feelings of fatigue.

Dr Lawrence Kurlandsky, who led the research, told the Sunday Telegraph that he had some advice:

"Firstly, hose down your tree in the garden and leave it to dry before bringing it inside. Then, to further reduce your chance, remove it swiftly after Christmas Day, long before the traditional Twelfth Night". ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog// 2011-12-16T09:39:11-05:00 2011-12-16T11:28:17-05:00

Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
From a grumpy pig trying to take a nap to a sloth trying to get some peace and quiet, these creatures aren't beating around the bush when it comes to speaking their minds.

Unable to communicate verbally and finding giving the finger tricky, what could be more direct than waggling a brazen tongue in the right direction?

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Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
The memorial is going to cost &pound7,000 to replace and has still not been found since Coyle and an unknown accomplice stole it in July.

The copper panel, which honours men who died in both World Wars, was taken from Christ Church in Willaston.

Relatives of those honoured on the memorial said that Coyle was a “disgrace”.

The jobless thief was caught on camera trying to sell the 5ft by 3ft bronze memorial.

Scrap metal merchants were suspicious when Coyle brought the plaque in to sell. When they asked how he came to have it, he insisted that an 'old guy' had given it to him.

Cheshire Police Constable Ruth Purdie told the BBC: "The soaring value of metal during the economic downturn has meant that many places of worship have become targets for thieves with no respect for the consequences".

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Olivia Williams http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-williams/
The world's tiniest teenager is proud of her diminutive stature: "I love all the attention. I'm not scared of being small," the Daily Mirror quoted her as saying.

Her form of dwarfism is called achondroplasia, and it meant that she stopped growing after her first birthday.

She was born weighing barely three pounds and was not supposed to survive for more than 10 minutes.

"Even up to a full nine months, the child could not be seen on the scan", Kishanji Amge, Jyoti's father, reminisced.

Amge lives in Nagpor, India, with her parents and four siblings. Her parents watched as she was presented with a certificate in her home town. "It is wonderful to celebrate my 18th birthday with a new world record, it's like an added birthday present," she said.

Amge, who measures 23 and a half inches top to toe, snatched the title from American Bridgette Jordan, who stands 27 inches tall.

The shortest woman ever recorded was Pauline Musters (1876-1895) of the Netherlands, who stood at 61cm.
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