This week's UK news: 31 August 2012
j0314269
31 August 2012


UK happy to get its sport back

People in the UK loved the Olympic Games and many felt miserable when it ended two weeks ago. Now the sport is back, with the Paralympic Games opening in the Olympic Park.

The opening ceremony starred Professor Stephen Hawking, the world-famous physicist who is almost completely paralysed, as well as many disabled athletes, dancers and volunteers. Since then there have been some stunning sporting performances. It is the first Paralympic games to have sold out.


Lion in Essex?

In the UK, journalists call August "the silly season". This is because Parliament and schools are on holiday and there are not many important news stories. Instead, we have silly season stories.

It has been a very quiet silly season - until the weekend. Then, people in the English county of Essex told police they had seen a lion near a caravan park. Police started a full search, with a helicopter, zoological experts, and warning people to stay inside. One newspaper even sent a reporter dressed in a hunter's suit, carrying a tin of cat food.

No lion was found.

Want to buy The Iron Lady's suit?

Margaret Thatcher was the UK's first, and only, woman prime minister. This means she became very famous for the way she looked as well as the action she took. She was often called the Iron Lady because she was so tough.

She was a tough politician who did a lot to change things in the UK. She liked to wear skirt suits which were often in bright colours and were sometimes trimmed with a different colour.

Now seven of her suits are to be sold at auction on Monday. Christie's, which is selling the suits, says it has had some interest from people who would like to buy them. The outfits are likely to sell for between GDP 1,000 and 1,500 each.

Wettest summer for 100 years

Weather experts have said that it has been the wettest summer for a century in England and Wales. It has also been one of the dullest and coolest summers on record.

There have been just 399 hours of sunshine this summer, and temperatures have been 14C on average, 0.5C below what is expected. There has been 366mm of rain, just below the 384mm experienced in the summer of 1912.

 

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