TWO opposing sides of the human condition are highlighted by separate stories in today's Evening News.

We wouldn't expect many people to pass them by without a blink, but the contrast is so strong as to cry out for a second thought.

The first is triggered by Niki Griffiths' despair that her pet cat has been used for target-practice by three youths lobbing balloons of boiling water.

Six-year-old Amber has been attacked by the gang - believed to be aged 14 or 15 - every day over a period of two weeks.

The second is prompted by peace campaigner Alice Coy, who watched helplessly as fellow activist Thomas Hurndall was shot in the head and critically wounded by Israeli soldiers, as he helped Palestinian women and children caught in a street shoot-out.

However fool-hardy or however inspiringly committed you believe Alice Coy to be, one thing is certain - instinct or experience has blessed her with an admirable sense of how others should be treated.

The three Warndon youths, on the other hand?

They might simply be involved in a prank which has grown out of hand, a thought which gives them the benefit of the doubt, we know, and possibly without justification.

But it shouldn't mask the fact that, if they're not to expand their repertoire to something even more anti-social, they must be caught and pointed in the right direction.

We'd suggest an hour listening to Miss Coy would be a pertinent place to start. It might provide the jolt they need to become good citizens themselves.