Hi there, Peter here. What a joy to see the sunshine this morning and know that after the Christmas holidays we will be drawing out of winter towards Spring. I have been chatting to Debbie McGee and Paul Daniels on my radio show this morning which is available on bbc.co.uk/Humberside to listen again if you didnt tune in live. Tomorrow, I will be chatting to Esther Rantzen who will be telling us all about her recent trip into the jungle.
Mars Beagle in a Spin If you are in a spin over the pressure of Christmas, then spare a thought for Britain's ill-fated Mars probe, Beagle 2, may have met a fiery end through a miscalculation, New Scientist reports. The spacecraft, built to find signs of life, vanished on Christmas Day 2003. A simulation by Queensland University scientists suggests the probe went out of control during its descent due to a misjudgement of the Martian atmosphere. Until now, experts have assumed that the probe, part of the European Mars Express mission, suffered a major equipment malfunction or encountered unexpected conditions that caused it to burn up or "bounce off" the Martian atmosphere. Parachute failure, loss of radio communication, and high levels of atmospheric dust have all been suggested as possible reasons for the spacecraft's loss. Now a team of Australian engineers have come up with another explanation - "an incorrectly calculated spin rate" and they conclude that the craft was spinning too fast.! "As the Martian air thickened, this would have caused it to tumble out of control and burn up just seconds after dropping into the atmosphere." Dont you just hate it when that happens! Sue you later! Lawyers for Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have filed a lawsuit against a company for selling a bag featuring a nude image of her. They are claiming £104,000 in damages from the firm, Pardon, based in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. Her lawyers said neither Ms Bruni nor the photographer had given permission for use of the image, which was shot for a campaign against Aids in 1993. Ms Bruni's legal team argue that the first lady did not want the image's original goal of raising Aids awareness to be "hijacked" and used for commercial purposes. An original print of the picture - taken by Swiss-born fashion photographer Michel Comte - fetched $91,000 (£59,000) at a New York auction in April. Correspondents say President Sarkozy has used the civil courts more than any other French president in a bid to protect his family. He went to court in October demanding a ban on sales of a voodoo doll representing him. In January, the Sarkozys also sued Irish! budget airline Ryanair over an advert featuring Ms Bruni musing that, thanks to cheap flights, her Italian relatives would be able to attend their wedding. A French court ordered Ryanair to pay symbolic damages of one euro to Sarkozy and 60,000 euros to his wife. Beedle the Bard helping children to have a happy Christmas Harry Potter author JK Rowling has said she is "delighted" her latest book has made £4m for charity. Proceeds from the sale of 'The Tales Of Beedle The Bard' - which went on sale on 4 December - is being donated to the Children's High Level Group (CHLG). "All royalties will be going to help children without families, many of them with disabilities, whose voices have been unheard for many years," she said. The book is on course to become this year's best seller. The collection of fairytales has shifted close to 370,000 copies in its first week on sale. The CHLG is a charity co-founded by Rowling to help vulnerable children across Central and Eastern Europe. CHLG's Richard Alderslade said: "The project will certainly raise a huge amount to fund our work, giving hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children across Central and Eastern Europe a better life. "Each time someone opens a copy of Beedle this Christmas or gives it as a gift, they will be making a difference to the! life of a vulnerable child living not so very many miles away." Thats all for today. Hope the Christmas preparations are under control and I will be on BBC One tonight at 6.30pm with Look North. Hope you will be able to tune in. Bye for now. Take care. Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. Your email address will be held by the BBC and kept confidential, and will only be used in relation to this newsletter. You will be given the option to unsubscribe from this newsletter each time you receive it. Please visit the BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy (www.bbc.co.uk/privacy) for more information.
