Some places are safer than others – and some should be totally avoided! When you’re out and about on holiday, its difficult to know where to go and where to avoid, but generally speaking, follow the locals! If they avoid a route or certain hotel, its generally for a good reason – they live there, and know the area best.

Also, with the abundance of on-line review sites, it is really easy to find reviews for where you are visiting, and from real people, not just the holiday reps!

But whether you get to a paradise or a chamber in hell, be sensible with you belongings, and yourself, and you’ll be fine!

As our on-line usage has changed a lot over the last few years, with more and more people working, shopping, and socialising on-line. And this has obviously led to an increase in on-line crime as people find new ways to exploit people’s honesty and openness. So people warn each other, look out for each other.

But one of the scariest things to follow, is the fake warnings – messages and files that are circulated that actively allow malicious people to access your details, and retain personal information about you.

So how do you help others, and be safe? How do you make sure what you’re saying is to the right people?

Check it out first, don’t just randomly recirculate info.

The police and governing bodies need to have a way of checking up on shops that sell age restricted items; but actually paying young teenagers to go in and purchase alcohol seems a little strange to me.

Surely getting young teens to buy cigarettes and alcohol will simply show them, and their friends, that it can be done and where to go to get it?

I also wonder how these children are picked; are they the sons and daughters of police officers, are they selected at random? How do the police verify if the children they are using in the checks are “honest” enough not to be doing this themselves?

In the run up to Christmas, we will see a lot of warnings on how to be safe with our possessions, homes and selves. Unfortunately, in the world we  live in, there are those that will not be deterred by an alarm or a lock, and will still force their way into your homes and lives and take what they think they can profit from.

This has recently happened to a friend of mine, and the hardest part is not the loss of the expensive TV, but the loss of family jewellery that’s been passed down for generations, and the feeling that your home is no longer safe.

A week following the break-in, they’ve had damaged windows and doors replaced, and have changed all the locks, but they’ve also “detoxed” the house. A thorough clean and sort out, top to bottom, has reassured them that there’s nothing in the house to be worried about, and has also let them arrange belongings to hide the gaps where other things once stood/hung.

Replacing an expensive electrical items and jewellery is easy, getting the memories to leave is not.

The vast majority of the world’s population live honest, law-abiding lives, yet those that don’t are increasingly seen as a source of entertainment and interest to people. Human nature appears to be increasingly drawn to those that live outside of the norms of society, but why?

Those people who hurt and destroy for no other reason than their own twisted gratification are a menace, not only to their victims, but to those they can influence.

However, the need to know about such evils is obvious; to learn how and why these people operate in this way allows us to avoid falling into their traps, but why do we go out of our way to befriend them?

Is it simply a need to know?

If, like me, you have recently got into watching the hit US show ‘Dexter’, which is now into its fifth season in the States and the fourth on FX, then you will know how completely and utterly addictive this programme is. Until a few weeks ago I had resisted the urge to see what all the fuss was about regarding Dexter Morgan and his everyday guy / serial killer split persona, but I have now raced through the DVD collections and am bang up to date with what’s going on in Miami.

I must say the big reveal at the end of the fourth season takes some getting over and this is why I feel the writers have gone for a more low-key opening few episodes to the latest series which still provides excellent drama.

It has been revealed that the Tasers which were used by police during the stand-off with killer Raoul Moat should not have been in operation as they breached the Firearms Act.

The supplier of the X12 Taser Pro-Tect Systems has now had its licence revoked by the government as it broke a number of rules.

Political correspondent for Sky News, Niall Paterson, said:

“This is potentially very, very serious indeed.

“We have now heard that the licence was not in place. Therefore, the distribution of these weapons was in breach of the Firearms Act.

“This gives rise to a number of questions, particularly given the uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of Raoul Moat’s death.”

The investigation into the death of the fugitive back in July is still on-going, with questions to be answered regarding what caused his demise. However, there is no suggestion at present that this weapon had anything to do with it.

Derrick Bird, the man who killed 12 people in Cumbria by going on a shooting spree is thought to have called to the majority of the victims before shooting them. Derek Bird drove around in a grey Citroen Picasso looking for certain people to shoot. When he saw someone that he wanted to shoot he would call out there name to grab their attention, and even call them over to his car, and then aim to shoot them in the face. Many people escaped being killed by seeing the crazed look in Derek Bird’s eyes and were able to moved out of the firing line, however many suffered serious injuries. Some of victims have no known contact with Derek Bird and the reason behind him shooting them is thought to just been down to the crazy state of mind he was in. Two walkers, who were unaware of what had happened over the last few hours, saw Derek leave his crashed car at the end of his killing spree and offered him their help, risking their lives without realising, but Derek walked straight passed them with only one thing in his mind, ‘to kill himself’.

A man who killed his ex girlfriend and their young son had been arrested a week earlier for threatening to kill them. The forty four year old man stabbed his ex girlfriend and son before turning the knife on himself. His ex girlfriend was in a new relationship and was three months pregnant with her new partner. The killer and his ex girlfriend were found dead at the scene but their 23 month child was found alive and was taken to hospital by air ambulance, but unfortunately the toddler died later from his injuries. An investigation may take place into any mistakes made by the police when the arrest took place a week earlier, and why the killer was released enabling him to do what he had set out to do the first time.

Mindless vandalism continually frustrates local residents. Many of us park our cars on the street outside of our houses, but many of do so leaving our vehicles at risk. A friend of mine was relieved not to have parked their car on the street outside her house a few nights ago as all cars parked on the street were vandalised in one evening. All cars had one or more tyres slashed leaving many residents unable to drive to work. The damage is believed to have been caused by teenagers who are on their school half term break, which consistently raises questions over facilities available to teenagers outside of school hours. This and other damage to vehicles happens quite frequently around the country leaving car owners to pay out for vehicle repairs.