Friday Five News 1/4/16

If you're looking for today's A-Z post it can be found here

This is my weekly round up of what caught my eye in the news.

The INTERNATIONAL news I’ve flagged up this week is the road collapse in India.  This dreadful event in Kolkata (Calcutta) has, to date, claimed 24 lives and injured many.  The bypass that was under construction suddenly collapsed onto the roadway below.  Reading about the delays, missed deadlines, and the fact that the construction company had been blacklisted in other states it perhaps shouldn’t be surprising that it was a disaster waiting to happen.  Officials from the company are claiming it is an act of God.  Really? 

I know that we often complain about the Health & Safety Executive in the UK but sometimes you just have to be thankful for it.

In LOCAL news  - people have staged a sit in at Lambeth library as the council prepare to close it.  Although I have some sympathy with the protestors I feel they are not looking at the big picture.  According to the report the closure is a temporary one during which time the centre will be refurbished and reopened as a local neighbourhood centre with facilities for the local community including a library.

Our library is a similar venue.  There is still a library facility but there are also spaces that are available to the community for events, classes etc. and there is also a coffee bar.  I agree that we should not be losing libraries, I have started using mine more now that I have signed up for a couple of book groups and don’t want to be buying new books all the time.  But with the increase in electronic sales libraries have to change and adapt to the times.

In SPORT I found this clip where India captain MS Dhoni turns the tables on a journalist who asks him about his retirement plans after his side's World Twenty20 loss to West Indies.  Just a bit of light relief.

Continuing in that vein the ENTERTAINMENT news I’ve saved is about the great comedian Ronnie Corbett who died this week at the age of 85.  Yes that’s sad but here for light relief is one of his most famous sketches with his long-time partner Ronnie Barker.

Finally under MISCELLANEOUS  I’ve flagged this item about an April Fool joke that didn’t go down too well.  Unfortunately I wasn’t up early enough to spot the button in my Google mail.  I hope you weren’t affected by it or the subject of any other April Fool nonsense.

All links are courtesy of the BBC website. Opinions are my own.

Have a great weekend.