Pony express: The man led his four-legged friend onto the platform
Related Stories
A pony which attracted worldwide attention after CCTV showed a man trying to take it on a train has been taken into care.
The animal, believed to be called Ruby, was spotted grazing on council land near Wrexham Maelor Hospital.
Wrexham railway staff had refused to allow it onto the train, and the RSPCA expressed concern for its welfare.
Pictures also emerged of it with the man at other locations, including the the hospital reception area and a pub.
“A number of complaints have been received from the public raising concerns over the welfare of the animal and public safety issues”
Wrexham council
“A Welsh pony was taken to a place of safety on Tuesday, 31 May by council officers assisted by the RSPCA,” said Wrexham council.
“It is thought the pony is linked to the recent reports in the media.
“The pony was found straying on council land over the bank holiday weekend.
“Council officers are investigating reports that the pony had been abandoned on a number of nights at unsuitable locations, including the hospital helipad and the cemetery in Pandy.
“A number of complaints have been received from the public raising concerns over the welfare of the animal and public safety issues.
“On a number of occasions the animal has been left untethered and unaccompanied close to busy roads.
“The pony has been examined by a vet and will be looked after in a secure place.”
A notice has been pinned up at the site asking the owner to get in touch within 14 days to lodge a claim to the pony.
After the man had tried to travel with the pony on the train from Wrexham to Holyhead on Anglesey, the RSPCA said it was neither a safe nor acceptable way of travelling with a horse.
Arriva Trains Wales said transport had been refused because horses were not allowed on safety grounds.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rihanna has been criticised for a recent video
Related Stories
Music videos should have age ratings to protect children from sexual images and lyrics, an inquiry is to say.
The review – into the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood – was commissioned by the Prime Minister David Cameron and is due out on Monday.
It was carried out by Reg Bailey, the head of the Mothers’ Union, who says parents are unhappy about “an increasingly sexualised culture”.
There has been recent controversy about music videos by Rihanna and Lady Gaga.
Mr Bailey is expected to recommend that the retail, advertising and video industries be given 18 months to clean up their acts voluntarily, or face tougher government regulation.
Broadcasters would be expected to pay heed to the age rating when deciding when to broadcast music videos.
Recently, the X Factor faced complaints about performances by Christina Agueilera and Rihanna, but the regulator Ofcom did not uphold them.
A survey carried out for the review suggested that almost nine out of 10 UK parents thought children were having to grow up too early.
About half of the 1,000 parents questioned were unhappy with what was shown on television before the current “watershed” of 2100.
A majority of parents of five to 16-year-olds said music videos and a “celebrity culture” were encouraging children to act older than they were.
The review also looked at concerns about adult-style clothing aimed at young children, as well as toys and games some parents feel are inappropriate.
Padded bras and other adult clothing aimed at young girls is a concern for some parents
Mr Bailey believes sexually explicit videos contribute to a “wallpaper” of sexual images surrounding children.
Speaking last month, he said parents were “struggling against the slow creep of an increasingly commercial and sexualised culture and behaviour, which they say prevents them from parenting the way they want”.
He said parents “had little faith in regulators or businesses taking their concerns seriously”, but also were put off complaining by fears they would be seen as “prudish or out of touch”.
The pop star Rihanna has been defending her latest music video Man Down, saying it is “art with a message”.
On a social networking site she wrote: “I’m a 23 year old rockstar with no kids! What’s up with everybody wantin me to be a parent? I’m just a girl, I can only be your/our voice!”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Ratko Mladic is making his first appearance at The Hague war crimes tribunal
Ex-Bosnian Serb army head Ratko Mladic is due to make his first appearance at The Hague war crimes tribunal.
He was arrested last week in Serbia after 16 years on the run from charges of having committed atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
His lawyer and his family say he is too ill to stand trial but doctors have so far declared him fit to be in court.
He is charged with masterminding the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.
In his first hearing before the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Gen Mladic is to be asked if he understands the charges against him.
The tribunal indictment charges him with genocide, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, terror, deportation and hostage-taking for his alleged part in a plot to achieve the “elimination or permanent removal” of Muslims from large parts of Bosnia in pursuit of a “Greater Serbia”.
As well as Srebrenica, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, Gen Mladic is also charged over the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 people died.
Relatives of some of the victims of the war have been gathering outside the courtroom awaiting Gen Mladic’s arrival.
The BBC’s Matthew Price at The Hague says Gen Mladic has the right, and may choose, to make some kind of statement which could be short or, in the case of some others who have appeared before this court, quite long.
Gen Mladic will also be asked if he wishes to enter a plea. If he does not enter one within 30 days, the judges will enter pleas of not guilty on his behalf.
The ChargesCounts 1/2: Genocide of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina and SrebrenicaCount 3: PersecutionsCounts 4/5/6: Extermination and murderCounts 7/8: Deportation and inhumane actsCounts 9/10: Terror and unlawful attacksCount 11: Taking of UN hostages
Ratko Mladic: The chargesHis lawyer in Serbia before he was extradited on Tuesday, Milos Saljic, said Gen Mladic would not enter any pleas at the hearing.
A spokeswoman for the tribunal, Nerma Jelacic, said Serbian lawyer Aleksandar Aleksic had been appointed to represent Gen Mladic for the hearing.
He may then choose a permanent counsel for the trial, or opt to conduct his own defence.
Gen Mladic has been been examined by doctors in the medical facility of the detention unit at The Hague since his arrival on Tuesday night, but Ms Jelacic said it was “nothing unusual” for tests to be carried out and that Gen Mladic would be appearing in court.
On Thursday, Mr Aleksic said of his client: “He has not had proper health care for years and his condition is not good.”
Also on Thursday, Mr Saljic said Gen Mladic had been treated for cancer two years ago at a Belgrade hospital.
Mr Saljic has previously been quoted as saying by Serbian media that his client had suffered three strokes and two heart attacks, was too ill to be sent to The Hague and would not live to the end of a trial.
One lawyer representing victims, Axel Hageldoorn, told Associated Press there was concern that “he is too sick to follow the trial to its end and there will be no verdict”.
Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic died of a heart attack at The Hague in 2006, four years into his own genocide trial.
War in the former Yugoslavia 1991 – 1999
The former Yugoslavia was a Socialist state created after German occupation in World War II and a bitter civil war. A federation of six republics, it brought together Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Albanians, Slovenes and others under a comparatively relaxed communist regime. Tensions between these groups were successfully suppressed under the leadership of President Tito.
After Tito’s death in 1980, tensions re-emerged. Calls for more autonomy within Yugoslavia by nationalist groups led in 1991 to declarations of independence in Croatia and Slovenia. The Serb-dominated Yugoslav army lashed out, first in Slovenia and then in Croatia. Thousands were killed in the latter conflict which was paused in 1992 under a UN-monitored ceasefire.
Bosnia, with a complex mix of Serbs, Muslims and Croats, was next to try for independence. Bosnia’s Serbs, backed by Serbs elsewhere in Yugoslavia, resisted. Under leader Radovan Karadzic, they threatened bloodshed if Bosnia’s Muslims and Croats – who outnumbered Serbs – broke away. Despite European blessing for the move in a 1992 referendum, war came fast.
Yugoslav army units, withdrawn from Croatia and renamed the Bosnian Serb Army, carved out a huge swathe of Serb-dominated territory. Over a million Bosnian Muslims and Croats were driven from their homes in ethnic cleansing. Serbs suffered too. The capital Sarajevo was besieged and shelled. UN peacekeepers, brought in to quell the fighting, were seen as ineffective.
International peace efforts to stop the war failed, the UN was humiliated and over 100,000 died. The war ended in 1995 after NATO bombed the Bosnian Serbs and Muslim and Croat armies made gains on the ground. A US-brokered peace divided Bosnia into two self-governing entities, a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation lightly bound by a central government.
In August 1995 the Croatian army stormed areas in Croatia under Serb control prompting thousands to flee. Soon Croatia and Bosnia were fully independent. Slovenia and Macedonia had already gone. Montenegro left later. In 1999 Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians fought Serbs in another brutal war to gain independence. Serbia ended the conflict beaten, battered and alone.
BACK {current} of {total} NEXT
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Protests accompanied the 2008 Beijing torch relay in London and other cities 
1966197719882011
Liberace
Tupac Shakur
GinWineBeerCranberry juice
Christopher ColumbusJames CookVasco da Gama
Dry cleaningCoffeePickled vegetablesJet fuel
Monitors heart rateExtra-loud hornEquipped with false teeth-holder
