5 - 11 Sept 2008

THIS orphaned African elephant, named Themba, has a best friend – a sheep called Albert.

Themba was only six months old when his mum sadly died. None of the other elephants in his herd could care for him, so rangers took him to the animal hospital at nearby Shamwari Game reserve in South Africa.
Raising a baby elephant is a tough job, because they are totally dependent on their mothers for the first three years. Since Themba arrived at Shamwari his carers have taken it in turns to bottle-feed him a whopping 28 litres of baby milk a day. They even sleep on a makeshift bed close to him throughout the night.
However, even their constant attention wasn’t enough. Themba needed a playmate, someone he could push around and play with like all baby elephants do. That’s when Themba was introduced to Albert, the foster sheep.
At first Themba chased Albert around his enclosure, but it wasn’t long before they became inseparable. Themba treats Albert just like another baby elephant, playing with him, snuggling up to him and spraying him with dirt to cool him off in the African heat! The duo even go out for a daily walk, along with Melvin, an orphaned giraffe who also lives at the hospital.
Themba is one of the stars of  Shamwari: A Wild Life, a new series starting on Animal Planet at 8pm on 15 September.

ALMOST three years to the day, a hurricane threatened to tear apart New Orleans in America.

As First News went to press, New Orleans has escaped the worst of Hurricane Gustav.
The city’s mayor, Ray Nagin, had told everyone to leave New Orleans because the tropical storm was expected to be so dangerous. It’s thought 1.9 million people jammed roads out of the city in their hurry to escape the hurricane.
New Orleans sits below sea level and in 2005 was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes and 1,800 people lost their lives.
The US government were criticised for not doing enough to protect the people of New Orleans so they were careful not to make the same mistake again.
By the time it reached New Orleans the hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm. The city was battered by wind and rain but the storm defences held.
The storm has already killed around 90 people in the Caribbean and caused a lot of damage in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

Discovered monster turns out to be a practical joke

THE discovery of Bigfoot frozen in a block of ice has turned out to be nothing more than a fancy dress costume.

Two men, a police officer and a former prison officer, said they had found the body of Bigfoot, also known as a Sasquatch, in a wood in the US state of Georgia. They sold the body, frozen in an ice block, to two researchers.
The Bigfoot experts thawed out the ice block so they could take a closer look at the creature. But as the ice melted they realised that it wasn’t Bigfoot at all but simply a
Sasquatch costume!
Legend says that Bigfoot looks like a tall ape and lives in the Pacific Northwest area of America and Canada.
Most scientists think that Bigfoot is made up and people who say they’ve seen it are just mistaking other animals for something scary. However, there are plenty of people that do believe in the Sasquatch and have been searching for years.
Other countries have creatures who people claim to have seen but there’s no proof they exist, such as the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland and the Yeti in Tibet.

THE Government has been criticised for being too quick to take young people to court for minor offences.

A report for King’s College, London by ex-Youth Justice Board chairman Professor Rod Morgan, says that cautions and on-the-spot fines should be used more.
The shadow home secretary for the Conservative party, Dominic Grieve, says that the Government prosecutes young people for petty offences because it’s easier than trying to find and arrest harder criminals.
It’s thought that police officers’ time would be better spent giving young people warnings so that they have more time to track down serious offenders.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice says: “The best way to avoid a criminal record is not to break the law.”

22 - 28 Aug 2008

WHETHER it’s the wet British summer, soaring food and fuel prices or reports that people are getting too fat, Britain hasn’t had much to cheer about lately. Until now!

The stunning British performances at the Olympics have given the whole nation something to smile about. This is the most successful Olympic Games for the British in almost 90 years. As well as winning medals in rowing and cycling, British athletes have also broken lots of world records.
Some have made history in other ways too. Swimmer Rebecca Adlington became the first British woman to win two golds in the pool at one Olympics, after victory in the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle events. She also broke swimming’s oldest world record in the 800m. She knocked more than two seconds off a record that was set when she was just six months old!
Adlington is the youngest British female to win a medal at these Games, at just 19 years old. The youngest male is Louis Smith, also 19, who won bronze in the pommel horse event. He is the first British athlete to win an Olympic gymnastics medal in 80 years.
With all this success, Britain has a reason to be cheerful. Are you feeling inspired to get out and have a go at sport? Perhaps you fancy yourself as the next Rebecca Adlington or Louis Smith! Let us know what you think of Team GB’s performance in the Beijing Olympics and if you’re looking forward to the Games coming to the UK in 2012.
Write to newsdesk@firstnews.co.uk

ENGLAND football stars have joined the Government and police officers in the fight against knife crime in Britain.

On Monday, Rio Ferdinand, David James and David Beckham launched a new anti-knife campaign called It Doesn’t Have to Happen.
The Government and police are aware that many young people don’t listen to them so their message asking people not to carry knives isn’t being heard. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith hopes that children and teenagers will listen to popular football stars like Ferdinand, James and Beckham.
At the campaign launch David Beckham said: “We can help people, we can help youngsters because we’ve got a voice and we’ve got a voice that kids listen to. And it’s so important that we get involved in this, it’s so important that we believe that things can change, because no-one wants to pack their children off to school in the morning and then never see them again.”
Jacqui Smith added: “Some young people may think that carrying a knife makes them safer. In fact the opposite is true, if you carry a knife you risk it being used, and possibly against you. It doesn’t have to happen, families’ grief doesn’t have to happen, and communities shouldn’t have to live in fear.”
Since June, more than 55,000 people have been stopped and searched in ten problem areas of the country. 1,600 knives have been seized and more than 2,500 arrests have been made. 

WORLD'S first roller coaster powered by people

THE first roller coaster to use energy created by people has been unveiled in Gwynedd, Wales.

The Green Dragon roller coaster at GreenWood Forest Park is an environmentally-friendly ride because the people riding it help it work.
First of all, riders get in a cable car, called a funicular, at the top of a hill. The weight of the funicular plus the people inside pulls it down to the bottom of the hill. As the funicular is connected to the empty roller coaster cars at the bottom of the hill, they get pulled up as the cable car travels down.
Riders then get out of the funicular, walk back up the hill and climb into the roller coaster cars and enjoy the ride!
Traditional roller coasters use large amounts of electricity to lift the cars plus passengers from the lowest point (the loading station) to the highest point, after which gravity takes over.
The Green Dragon ride itself is a gravity ride so only needs to use a small amount of electricity to travel through a 360º horizontal loop and at a top speed of 25mph. However, the energy created by the people power is more than the whole ride actually needs. Over a year of use, the ride should actually make more power than it uses.

RUSSIA has been fighting with its neighbouring country of Georgia.

Russian planes bombed parts of Georgia. Our picture shows troops from Georgia after an attack from Russian jets was said to have hit the buildings behind them.
The trouble started on Thursday when Georgian troops launched a surprise attack on a region called South Ossetia. Many people there want independence from Georgia, and support Russia. Then the Russians got involved by sending in tanks.
But other countries said Russia had responded too violently, and that the fighting should stop. Thousands of people have been forced out of their homes by the fighting.
Georgia and Russia used to be part of one massive country called the Soviet Union, but they became separate countries when it broke up in 1991.
Control of South Ossetia has caused trouble between Russia and Georgia for a long time since then.
As First News went to press, Russian President Medvedev had ordered his troops to stop fighting in Georgia. He also warned there could be more military action if Georgia carried out more attacks.

8 - 15 Aug 08

RUNNING backwards and dog relays – whatever next?

A MAN is urging the world’s major cities to host the first silly Olympics.

There would be madcap challenges such as backward running races, the high dive belly flop and events with animals – such as dog and human relay races or long jump.
The crazy idea has come from an Irish lawyer called Colin Carroll. He already has a city in Ireland interested in hosting his silly Olympics, which are nothing to do with the real Olympics. And Colin has sent out bid documents to the mayors of other major cities around the world such as Boston, London, Beijing, Paris and New York to see if they’d like to host the silly sports spectacular instead.

“NONSENSE makes sense,” says Colin. “I take being silly very seriously.”

HE promises the world’s funniest sporting event and is urging athletes from the Beijing Olympics to take part in the silly Olympics to boost their confidence before the London Olympics in 2012.
One of the most competitive events could be the relay with two animals and two humans.
“You could pass the baton to the animal of your choosing,” says Colin. “You could pick a dog, an elephant, whatever.
“I would like to see as many countries as possible up on the podium.”

Can you think of some crazy events for the silly Olympics? Write to newsdesk@firstnews.co.uk with your ideas putting Silly Olympics in the subject box.

There is life in space

says a man who’s been there

A TOP astronaut says he is sure there is life in space but aliens haven’t visited Earth yet.
Mark Kelly, the American commander of the space shuttle Discovery, says he thinks aliens haven’t come here because the journey is too tough.
He said: “We have seen some evidence that there is a possibility of some life on Mars in the past so there is probably life all over the universe.
“From our experience, it is very difficult to travel through space and I, personally, think aliens have not visited our planet.”
Mark’s comments came in the week that NASA announced finally that they had found water on the surface of Mars.
The discovery was made by the Phoenix spacecraft which landed in May and has been digging for three months.
Meanwhile, a crater left by a prehistoric asteroid collision, could give further clues to what Mars was like billions of years ago. Experts are digging up rocks there which they think may give answers about a similar giant crater on the surface of Mars.