Tuesday evening

I went out at 9 pm to take pictures of the sunset - but the sun had already disappeared behind clouds. What a contrast to the solstice, when the sun sets at 10.35pm.

The new suspected foot-and-mouth cases in southern England are deemed to be low risk of being actual new cases, it is said. Apart from the one in Kent, that I highlighted earlier this  evening, a sheep was found with lesions on its mouth at Chessington Zoo just south of London. Vets were called and the zoo closed. Below map shows the location of the current suspected cases; Guildford is the town closest to the confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth; I believe it is referred to as hoof-and-mouth in the USA.



I was horrified to learn just now that the bodies of 50 people had been found floating in the sea in the Straits of Sicily, between Sicily and North Africa. Some of them were still wearing life-vests. They were located in the water near the Italian island of Lampedusa. This year, 7,000 people have landed in Italy after crossing from Africa, which is less than half the number at the same time in 2006. It should be born in mind that this is actually an exercise in people trafficking, where thousands of dollars are paid to traffickers. The boats and engines involved often have sequential serial numbers, indicating that this is a highly organised activity. Those using the traffickers to make it to Europe do so to escape grinding poverty in West and Central Africa, and will have travelled thousands of miles to get to the North African coast. They risk life and limb crossing the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean in boats that are often overcrowded, devoid of any facilities, insufficient water or food. In the month of June, the UN reported 77 deaths and 133 people missing in the abovementioned crossing.