Irwin died doing what he loved
The death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin will have come as a total shock to everyone today. Despite his predilection for taking hair-raising risks with dangerous reptiles Irwin had seemed indestructible. His cheery, bubbly enthusiasm for the wildlife he clearly loved was infectious and he helped introduce the natural world to a new generation of youngsters through his TV programmes.
Like Johnny Morris for a younger generation, this animated Australian brought his own "Animal Magic" to children and their parents.
Sometimes we all watched just to see how he would avoid getting eaten by some grumpy crocodile or bitten by one of Asia's plethora of deadly snakes. He always seemed to be able to stay just this side of danger, avoiding injury by split seconds or millimetres as he leapt to safety with a yell of "Crikey!".
He occasionally sailed too close to the wind, getting into trouble a couple of years ago for holding his baby son in one hand while feeding crocs with the other, or getting too close to penguins and whales while filming in the Antarctic.
But the irrepressible Irwin always bounced back, carrying on his wildlife work in his own individual style.
Perhaps he finally took one risk too many and it was a brush with a normally placid stingray that proved fatal. The only consolation for his family and his legion of fans around the world is that Steve Irwin died doing what he loved best.
Shame on system for boxer's release:
When former boxing champion Naseem Hamed was jailed for 15 months for dangerous driving, who in their right mind would have expected to see his grinning face walk free less than four months later?
His decision to show off his £320,000 Mercedes McLaren left 38-year-old Anthony Burgin in hospital with fractures to almost every bone in his body. Hamed then fled the scene of the crash, fearing an ugly incident might occur.
Almost as ugly as the sight of him walking out of Moorland open prison just 16 weeks later.
Mr Burgin has spoken of his shock at Hamed's early release. He's not the only one asking what happened to the other 50 weeks left unserved on Hamed's sentence.
Any hope that those 16 brief weeks in jail had any impact on "Prince" Naseem evaporated this morning as he told reporters "at least no-one died". Rather than expressing any sorrow or shame, he triumphantly rode away from jail in a Rolls-Royce accompanied by a stretch limousine.
The Prison Service is hiding behind its rules on not commenting on individual prisoners. But that's not good enough; the British public demand to know what possible reason there can be for this man walking free today.
