The Friday Round-Up, Week 5... Posted on Saturday

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of The Friday Round-Up.

Firstly, apologies for the fact that it is now Saturday. It was a very hectic Friday! I also apologise because this edition will be rather brief - university life is very busy at the moment!

In the news this week:

World

NATO allies are split over armed intervention in Libya. David Cameron proposed a no-fly zone over the country but met strong opposition from a senior NATO official and Defense Secretary, Robert Gates. President Obama accepted that a no-fly zone was an option, but warned against invasion.

He said: "One of the reasons we did not see any anti-American protests was because they didn't see that we tried to engineer an outcome."

COLONEL Gaddafi spoke out against the West at a conference in Tripoli on Wednesday. His speech threatened that the West would be met with "hell and a bloodbath" if foreign forces invaded Libya. The 68 year-old leader also offered amnesty to rebels who laid down arms. The dictator arrived at the conference in a golf buggy and spoke for almost three hours to a room of 1,000 supporters of Gaddafi's regime.

UK

JOHN GALLIANO was suspended from his position as head designer for Christian Dior after making a series of racist and anti-Semitic slurs in a French bar last week. Although Galliano denied making the alleged remarks, The Sun published a video showing an incident in December in which Galliano declared he loved Hitler. He then proceeded to verbally assault a group of people sitting at the table beside him. The insults carry a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a £19,000 fine.

DIRECTOR of the London School of Economics, Sir Howard Davies, has resigned after the university demanded an independent inquiry into its financial ties with Libya. Earlier this week, Sir Howard apologised for accepting £1.5 million from Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, after he was awarded his PHD. The thesis is currently being investigated for plagiarism.

INSURANCE companies can no longer quote different prices for men and women, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

On A Lighter Note

THE KING'S SPEECH came away with four Oscars at the 83rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday evening, including Best Picture, Best Director for Tom Hooper and Best Actor for Colin Firth.

Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Friday Round-Up on Saturday! Remember to check the blog throughout the week for upcoming updates and next Friday for the (on-time) Round-Up.

IB