The barometer

LONDON, England (CNN) -- It's been a bad week for...

Prince Harry
The British royal was quizzed by police over the shooting of rare birds. British newspapers reported Wednesday that Prince Harry and a friend were shooting on the royal family's Sandringham estate in Norfolk last week when witnesses saw two rare and legally protected hen harriers being shot. Prince Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, is patron of the RSPB. His father, Prince Charles, is an active conservationist and patron of several wildlife charities.

Pierce Brosnan
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department was investigating the former-James Bond actor about an alleged assault. The incident is said to have occurred outside a Mexican restaurant on Friday night.

The French
With high life expectancy, standards of living and education shouldn't the French be happy? Well, they're not according to a new report on national moods in Europe commissioned by Francois Fillon, the French Prime Minister. The study discovered the gloomy side of the French: 86 percent of the population feared poverty could strike at any time, compared with 62 percent across the EU. Only 22 percent of French people said they could trust others most of the time, less than the EU average of 30 percent.

Bacon sandwiches
A report from the World Cancer Research Fund that took five years to produce has urged people to stay slim and stay away from eating too much preserved meats, such as bacon.

It's been a good week for...

J.K. Rowling
Proving there is life after Hogwarts, the author of the Harry Potter series has finished her first book since her blockbusting series. Sadly for fans of the author, only seven copies of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" will be produced. Each one has been handwritten and illustrated by the J.K. Rowling. Six are to be given away as gifts and one, bound in leather and mounted with silver and semi-precious stones, will be auctioned for charity.

UK silver surfers
The older generation may not be renown for being technologically literate, but British travel and insurance company Saga have launched their own social networking site for the over-50's. Figures from Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, suggest the over-50's account for nearly one third of the total time spent on the Internet in Britain. Imitators to the Saga Zone site have already sprung up.

Those who don't like to travel light
Good news for airline passengers who feel they need more than one piece of hand luggage, as British Airways will be dropping it's one bag rule. The security restriction that limited passengers to just one carry-on bag has been blamed for adding delays to busy airports, like Heathrow. E-mail to a friend