Prime minister gets a special holiday present

The Prime Minister and his wife were photographed on their family holiday in the UK earlier this week. David and Samantha Cameron were on holiday in Cornwall for a week, and Mr Cameron had said he wants to help make the UK a top tourist destination.

Two days later, Mrs Cameron gave birth to the couple's fourth baby, three weeks early. The baby girl was not expected to arrive when the family were on holiday in Cornwall.

The couple said they would have to find a Cornish middle name for the "beautiful" baby, who was born in Cornwall's main hospital in Truro. Now they have announced the girl will be called Florence Rose Endellion Cameron. St Endellion is the name of a Cornish village near where the family were staying.

Until recently it has been unusual for a serving British prime minister to become a father. Now the last three (David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair) have all done so.

Strange cat story

There are a lot of animal-lovers in the UK. And it is August, when silly stories get  into the news. But even so there is a very strange story in the news this week.

This story began as a film on YouTube. A couple in Coventry were puzzled when they found their family cat, called Lola, in their closed dustbin. They had a CCTV camera on the front of their house, and so they checked the film to find out how the cat got into the bin.

The film showed a woman stroking the cat. Surprisingly, she then put the cat in the nearby dustbin and walked off. The couple hoped to identify the woman by putting the film on YouTube. Unfortunately a hate campaign started against the woman and people threatened her on the internet.

She has apologised and says she does not know why she put the cat in the bin.

It's raining here so we're watching the TV

Reality TV is big here at the moment. Big Brother, the programme which puts a group of "ordinary" people into a house filled with TV cameras, has just ended after its 10th year.

When it started it got huge audiences and made stars of its contestants. But then it started getting bad publicity and people got bored of watching it. Channel 4, the television station which was the first in the world to take Big Brother, decided to end it with a big show. After the "ordinary" Big Brother, it put winners and famous contestants from past years into the house to find the overall winner.

And the X Factor talent show has started again. This competition will run till nearly Christmas. There will be many weeks of shows where the judges reject entrants who can't sing. After that a group of finalists will be chosen, who will appear with new songs each week. The audience will vote for who it wants to keep.

The programme is famous for Simon Cowell being rude to contestants. It is already in the news because viewers think the voices of the singers were being made to sound better using special recording equipment.

Lots of babies expected next month

British hospitals are expecting a big rise in the number of babies born in September.

There are two reasons for this: financial problems and the very bad winter weather in this country nine months ago. Bad weather often leads to a higher birthrate. And experts say women who may be having trouble finding a job may decide instead to start their family earlier than they had planned.

In one city, 20 per cent more babies than usual are expected during September.

by Susan Young
susan@englishuk.com