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 London, UK
Announcing pre-tax profits for the first time in eight years, Royal Mail CEO Adam Crozier defended the organisation's decision to increase the cost of second class postage stamps by 30% to 32p. 'It is simply untrue,' Crozier told the Financial Times, 'that we are trying to phase out second class post by prohibitively increasing prices, in fact we are staunch supporters of second class, or economy class, postage as we will be rebranding the service later this year. The reality of the situation is that storing millions of economy class letters, postcard and parcels for up to two months at a time has become more costly than can be supported at current pricing. People don't realise that economy class has always been a service offered by the Royal Mail to keep postage affordable, from a purely economic standpoint sorting post into two different 'piles' and then delivering one as soon as possible whilst keeping the other to one side for a while is costly to us. As we have increasingly achieved our government mandated targets for premium, or first, class post over the past eighteen months the storage timescales on economy class have increased. New storage facilities are yet to come online and are scheduled to do so within a timeframe that will support the maintenance of the 32p rate for years to come, particularly as we have cited the storage depots in areas where land and labour are cheap, such as China, Peru and Afghanistan. In the meantime however we are having to rent existing storage space within the expanded EU and that has driven our costs out.'
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London, UK
Gay rights campaigners have maintained that pressure will eventually be brought to bear on organisations that provide changing facilities to offer an alternative for homosexuals, but that other issues must be dealt with first. The gay rights movement has existed in a variety of forms for over forty years and has had mixed success in securing the equality, de facto and de jure that homosexuals seek. Successes have included recognition of gay marriage in some territories, equal rights in the workplace, legislation against prejeudice and homophobia and, more recently the extension of partner rights for gay couples. However the issue of gay people being able to change clothing, in gymnasiums, swimming pools and clothing shops away from the prying eyes of straight customers has remained on a back-burner. Peter Fletcher, a spokesperson for British gay pressure group 'Out' stressed, 'when the time is right we will call for the opportunity to disrobe and be disrobed in a private space away from the uncomfortable possibility of seeing straight people of the same sex in a state of undress. Make no mistake, this is very much on the agenda, despite the prevailing belief encouraged by a closet mass media, most homosexuals have no desire to gawp at hot-bodied straight men in the Holmes Place in Crouch End...or anywhere else for that matter.'
Feltham, UK
Convicted robber Harris Williams reached the end of a four month sentence last week in the Young Offenders Institute at Feltham. Williams, 17, who was caught by police in the act of robbing 14 year old Richard Robins of a Nokia 220 mobile phone finally expressed his dissatisfaction with his conditions to Prison Officer Pete Lawler. Lawler told the Prison Service magazine, 'Williams has been trying to tell me how much he 'hates this fucking shithole and ain't ever coming back' since he arrived in January but it always takes him so long to get his words out that I either come off shift or have to deal with a disturbance before we can really get into the reasons why. Not as I think they're any different to the rest of the lads grievances, but I'm sure it will give him confidence to have finally expressed himself.' Lawler speculated that perhaps robbery wasn't the best choice of crime for a young man afflicted with a pronounced stutter and that if he hadn't have told Robins to 'hand over the f-f-f-f-fuckin' ph-ph-ph-ph-ph-phone' he might not have still been attempting the robbery five minutes later when police arrived on the scene.
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Washington, US
An alarming paper presented to the 80th AAG conference has suggested that the mainland US has begun to bow alarmingly with both the east and west coast rising by as much as a foot per year whilst the mid-west sinks into the earth's crust at a corresponding rate. AAG President Felix Breitner
Bangkok, Thailand
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