ABRACADABRA

WHEN SPELLING ERROR TURNED INTO TERROR

London: A spelling mistake landed a 10-year-old boy in the UK in trouble. The boy, who has not been identified, was questioned by the police in North West England for mistakenly writing that he lives in a “terrorist house” instead of “terraced house” during an English lesson in school.

It emerged that it was a spelling error as he meant to write terraced house, in reference to an architectural style in England of rows of identical homes with shared side walls. The boy was interviewed by Lancashire Police at his home in Accrington the following day and the family laptop was examined.

“There were not thought to be any areas for concern and no further action was required by any agency,” a Lancashire Police statement later said. The UK government’s anti-radicalisation strategy and the 2015 Counter Terrorism and Security Act place statutory duty on schools and colleges to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. Teachers have been legally obliged to report any suspected extremist behaviour to police since July.

The boy’s family have said that they were left shocked by the incident, which took place on December 7, and want both the school and the police to apologise, BBC reported.

“You can imagine it happening to a 30-year-old man, but not to a young child. If the teacher had any concerns it should have been about his spelling. They shouldn’t be putting a child through this. He’s now scared of writing, using his imagination,” the boy’s cousin has said.

Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK’s largest umbrella group for Islamic associations, said he was aware of dozens of similar cases taking place in schools around the country. “There are huge concerns that individuals going about their daily life are being seen through the lens of security and are being seen as potential terrorists rather than students,” he said.

Bizzare Mumbai Schools

Mumbai: There are as many as 24,692 teachers working across the state in 12,646 schools where the total enrolment of students is 20 or less than that. There are also 27 schools where no student has been enrolled, state education minister Vinod Tawde revealed during question hour at the state assembly.

While replying a question by Dr Sujit Minchekar (Shiv Sena), during the question hour, Tawade said there are 75 schools with only one student, 214 schools with two students and in all 4,216 schools where there are less than 10 students in each of the class rooms.

“Putting an end to the long-pending issue of non-granted schools, the state government has started providing grant in aid to the schools that were declared as eligible for grants on July 20, 2009, as per its decision,” Tawde told the house.

“Teachers are the backbone of the education system. Hence, to protect the interests of the teachers, the government has taken special efforts,” Tawde said and added, “We shall also ensure that the money is being spent in a more fruitful manner.”

In this context he revealed the figures of the schools with less than 20 students and appealed to the members of the house to ponder over the impact on quality of education in schools where there are only one or two students.

Sunshine delays railways

London: Rail passengers on one of  Britain’s railway networks were left baffled after being told trains were delayed due to “strong sunlight” that affected the vision of drivers. Southeastern railway company took to Twitter in an attempt to explain delays and congestion on services from Lewisham in south-east London. “We had severe congestion through Lewisham due to dispatching issues as a result of strong sunlight. The low winter sun has been hitting the dispatch monitor which prevents the driver from being able to see,” the rail firm tweeted. The firm, which operates passenger services from the capital to Kent and east Sussex, said the Sun prevented drivers from checking CCTV monitors in south east London, leading to 117 cancellations across London and the south east. 

Boeing 747 for free

Kuala Lumpur: Still puzzled by the mystery of missing flight MH370, Malaysian airport authorities now have the opposite problem: three Boeing 747 planes left unclaimed at the country’s main airport, reports AFP.

   The operators of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) have placed a bizarre advertisement in a Malaysian newspaper seeking the owners of three 747-200F aircraft apparently abandoned there.

  “If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft” under Malaysian regulations, said the ad which ran in the daily edition of The Star.  The notice was addressed to the “untraceable owner” of the planes.

  Zainol Mohd Isa, general manager of Malaysia Airports (Sepang), which operates the facility, said the airport had been trying to contact the planes’ last known owners.

He said they were “international” and not Malaysian, but declined to give further details.

 “I don’t know why they are not responding. There could be many reasons. Sometimes it could be because they have no money to continue operations,” Zainol said.

In addition to wanting the planes to be claimed, he said the airport is seeking payment from the owners for landing, parking and other charges.

If no payment is received by December 21, the planes will be auctioned or sold for scrap to recoup the outstanding charges.

The notice gave the planes’ registration numbers as TF-ARM, TF-ARN, and TF-ARH.

Zainol said two are passenger aircraft and one is a cargo plane. It is not the first time this has happened at the airport, Zainol added.

In the past decade a few other planes, mostly smaller aircraft, were abandoned. He said an aircraft that was abandoned in the 1990s was eventually bought and turned into a restaurant in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. KLIA was the origin of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared after taking off on March 8, 2014 with 239 passengers and crew aboard in what remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

Malaysia earlier this year confirmed that a wing part found on the French island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean was from the plane. But no further wreckage has been found despite an intensive Australian-led oceanic search.