This week's UK news: 20 June 2014
j0314269
20 June 2014


UK has world's best healthcare system

An international committee of experts has decided that the UK's National Health Service (NHS) is the world's best healthcare system.

The US-based committee compared detailed information from 11 countries. It said healthcare in the US was the worst.

The UK came top overall even though it spent the second-lowest amount of money per patient each year. It spends GBP 2,008 per person, compared with GBP 5,017 in the US.

 

Actor breaks leg on Star Wars film set

The new Star Wars movie is being filmed in the UK at Pinewood Studios. The film includes the stars of the original films, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford, who plays Han Solo, was hurt on the set last week. It has now been announced that Harrison Ford's injuries were worse than the film company first said. He was taken by helicopter to hospital in Oxford and had surgery to repair a broken leg.

Newspapers say his ankle was injured by the door of Han Solo's spaceship, the Millennium Falcon.

 

Someone plays a joke on politicians

The next election is only a year away and political parties are working hard to win votes.

But it was still a bit surprising when the Labour party used Twitter to announce that "Everybody should have his own owl". (Owls are large, night-flying birds - like those in Harry Potter). The party said the Twitter account had been attacked.

There were then lots of jokes about owls on Twitter, including a photograph of the Labour party leader with owls on both arms.

 

15 million people watch England's first World Cup match

Watching football is very popular in England. But watching England play in the World Cup is usually a worrying time. There are lots of good players, but they do not always play well together. England fans always hope their team will do well but worry that they will lose.

Now it looks like England will not go into the next stage of the World Cup, because the team has lost both its matches, to Italy and Uruguay. However, England's star striker, Wayne Rooney, has at last scored in a World Cup match. He has now played in ten World Cup games but had not managed to score a goal until the last match, against Uruguay. This was very odd because he has scored 39 international goals in his career and is England's fifth best goal scorer ever.

 

Students' degree show goes on despite fire

The major fire which damaged a historic building in Glasgow School of Art in May also destroyed most of the work final year students had created for their degree shows.

These shows are very important for art students. They show the work done for the degree and help students to start a career as artists.

So it is fantastic for the students that the School of Art has found a new way to show their work. Each student has been asked to show one photograph of their work, which sums it up. The show has had good reviews.

 

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