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An undentified man walks away with a child after a stabbing incident at a daycare center in Dendermonde, Belgium, Friday Jan. 23, 2009. It was not immediately known the motive for the incident, when a man bicycled to the day care centre, walked in and began a stabbing spree killing two youngsters, a care giver and sending 10 children to hospital.(AP Photo/Alain Sprimont) Belgium: stab suspect had other day-care addresses BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Belgian authorities say a man accused of a day-care center stabbing spree was carrying a backpack of weapons and the addresses of three other nurseries. Prosecutor Christian Du Four says the suspect wore a bulletproof vest under his clothing and had a knife, an axe and a fake gun. Three judicial officials told The Associated Press Saturday that the man had the addresses of three other nurseries. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not being publicly released. Du Four said he would not comment on whether the suspect planned other attacks. The prosecutor's office in the town of Dendermonde says the man was charged with three counts of murder. Two babies and a nursery worker died of knife wounds Friday. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Judicial authorities said Saturday they were questioning a 20-year-old man suspected of a bloody rampage at a day care center in western Belgium, stabbing two babies and a woman to death and seriously injuring 12 other people. Authorities said they have identified the man, who they believe carried out the attack on Friday in the town of Dendermonde. They have searched his house and seized a computer. The suspect has been formally arrested, but not yet charged, the local prosecutor's office said. He was expected at a court hearing on Tuesday. Prosecutor Christian Du Four told VRT radio that the man was not under the influence of drink or drugs at the time of the attack and that he was not under any sort of psychiatric care. Investigators believe the suspect entered the Fabeltjesland creche at around 10 a.m. on Friday, in the town northwest of Brussels, wielding an eight-inch (20-centimeter) knife. He had painted his face white with black patches around the eyes. Belgian newspapers likened the description to the Joker character from the latest Batman movie. The suspect started slashing the children. One worker tried but failed to disarm him and another, a 54-year-old care giver, was stabbed to death, Du Four said. Two babies — a 9-month old girl and a 6-month old boy — were also killed. The man walked out of the building but was later arrested in a nearby supermarket. Dr. Ignace Demeyer, from Our Lady Hospital in nearby Aalst said six of the 10 injured children could be released from care over the weekend. All of the wounded needed surgery Friday night, but all were in stable condition on Saturday. Belgians were in shock after the brutal attack and many gathered outside the building Saturday to leave flowers and teddy bears and light candles in memory of the victims. "What happened yesterday is really incredible, for all of us. For all the parents, for the neighbors, we feel very much with these people," said Maria Lorero, a local resident. "We thought that things like this only happened in the United States and now we see that in Belgium, in a small village like this ... that such a thing could happen, it is very, very bad," said Serge De Plecker. Some 40,000 people also signed up to a special condolences and support page on popular networking site Facebook. A march and vigil outside the center planned for Sunday were also expected to draw hundreds. Friday's rampage drew comparisons to a similar crime perpetrated by a 19-year-old in Antwerp in 2006. Hans Van Themsche, now serving a life sentence, unleashed a racist-fueled shooting spree in downtown Antwerp, killing a black woman and a white toddler she was baby-sitting. A woman of Turkish descent was also wounded. The shootings unleashed a public outcry against racist violence. ||||| Children lay flowers outside the scene of the bloodbath Man charged in Belgian crèche stabbings DENDERMONDE, Belgium (AFP) — A 20-year-old Belgian man has been charged with killing two infants and a 54-year-old female employee at a child daycare centre and remanded in custody, a prosecutor said on Saturday. The man, who was arrested shortly after the rampage on Friday, was interrogated by police and later appeared before a judge who charged him, said the prosecutor in Dendermonde in western Belgium. The accused, whose identity has not been released, was also charged with attempted murder, the prosecutor said, as local people on Saturday left flowers and lit candles outside the crèche. Ten children and two staff were wounded, some very seriously, in the attack in the town of Dendermonde near Brussels. After staff opened the door, the man barged into The Country of Fables daycare centre with a 30-centimetre (12-inch) long knife and began slashing some of the children lying in beds, none more than three years old, officials said. Staff described him as acting "like a madman" according to authorities. During the police interrogation, the man whose face was painted white with black around his eyes -- making some think of the Joker character in Batman -- gave no indication about his motives for the attack, a prosecution spokesman said. Prosecutors have also denied rumours that the man had escaped from a psychiatric ward or was high on drugs or alcohol. According to the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, the man allegedly admitted to the killings after 10 hours of interrogation during which he laughed several times. The newspaper also claimed that police prevented "a second bloodbath" as the man was allegedly carrying a second knife and the address of another child daycare centre. "The guy just went crazy," Theo Janssens, the Dendermonde deputy mayor for social affairs, told AFP on Friday. "There was blood everywhere, it was unbelievable, real carnage." "He went straight for the babies and attacked them," Janssens said. "The smallest ones were in their beds, they were probably asleep." One of the children and the female employee died at the scene while the second child later died from the wounds. Eighteen children were at the crèche at the time. Of the 12 wounded in the attack, a six-month-old baby and a three-year-old child were in very serious but not life-threatening condition on Saturday, a spokesman at the Ghent university hospital said. Another medical official said many of the wounded had been "mutilated" and would need plastic surgery. "The investigation will continue over the weekend," a prosecutor's office spokesman told AFP without giving further details. The tragedy is one of a number of deadly attacks at schools or child care centres in Europe in recent years. Belgium is still in shock over the case of a woman who cut the throats of her five children and a series of paedophile scandals. ||||| DENDERMONDE, Belgium (CNN) -- Authorities have charged a 20-year-old man with murder and attempted murder in a stabbing rampage at a Belgian nursery school that left two children and a staff member dead and a dozen others wounded. A family pays tribute Friday evening outside the nursery school in Dendermonde, Belgium. The regional prosecutor's office identified the man, who has been in custody since Friday, as Kim D., and would not release his last name. They said he lives alone in Sinaai, a city about 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside of Dendermonde. He has no police record and is unemployed, the office said. Authorities allege the man, whose face was painted white with black rings around his eyes, entered the Fabeltjesland (Fable Land) nursery school midmorning Friday and began stabbing those inside. He entered the building through a side door, typically only used by parents who are late in arriving to pick up their children from the school, authorities said. Once inside, he went through several rooms in the center. The dead included the head of the nursery, a woman in her 60s who was well known in the town, residents said. The other victims were young; the nursery cared for children up to the age of three. Watch report on attack » Authorities caught up with him about an hour-and-a-half later after the attack ended, the ministry said. At the time of his arrest, he had on him a knife, an ax and a fake pistol. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest, authorities said. Don't Miss Children dead in Belgian nursery knife attack Two other knives were found at the nursery school, but it has not been confirmed whether they were used in the attack. Kim D. has said nothing to authorities regarding the attack, the prosecutor's office said. Authorities have searched his home, but they did not release any information from the search. Watch description of what happened » The suspect, who is being held in jail, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning. The judge has assigned three doctors to monitor him, authorities said. Earlier, authorities said he was not registered with any psychiatric institution. Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels, is a tight-knit community of about 40,000 people, residents said. Fabeltjesland lies off a park and is not easy to find from the road. On Saturday, the nursery stood quiet and boarded up, with tributes of flowers, cuddly toys and cards left outside. ||||| Parket lost meer details over dader Kim D., zoals hij er twee jaar geleden uitzag rr Op een persconferentie heeft de procureur des konings Christian Du Four meer details vrijgegeven over de dader van de steekpartij in het kinderdagverblijf Fabeltjesland. Na het drama in Dendermonde konden politieagenten de man overmeesteren in het nabijgelegen Lebbeke. Het gaat om de 20-jarige Kim D. uit Sinaai, een deelgemeente van Sint-Niklaas. De man woont alleen, en is al geruime tijd werkloos.De man droeg bij zijn arrestatie een kogelvrije vest. In zijn rugzak had hij een mes, een bijl en een neppistool. In de omgeving van de feiten werden twee messen teruggevonden. Het parket bevestigde ook dat de man geschminkt was.De man werkt niet mee met het gerechtelijk onderzoek en heeft nog geen bekentenissen afgelegd. De procureur ontkende ook dat de dader de onderzoekers uitlacht, hij gedraagt zich integendeel zeer passief.De speurders tasten nog in het duister over de link tussen de dader en de crèche in Dendermonde. Volgens de VRT zou de man het plan gehad hebben om verschillende crèches aan te vallen, en om in het totaal 67 doden te maken. Maar de procureur kon niet bevestigen of ontkennen dat de dader meerdere adressen op zak had van andere crèches in de buurt, of dat hij van plan was zoveel moorden te plegen.Volgens de laatste vaststellingen ter plaatse zou de dader niet binnengekomen zijn langs de hoofdingang, zoals eerst gedacht. De man zou gebruik gemaakt hebben van een zij-ingang waardoor hij zich onmiddelijk in een ruimte bevond met kinderen. Die ingang zou niet op slot zijn geweest.Kim D. is via foto's formeel herkend door de slachtoffers, zodat er geen twijfel is over het feit dat hij de dader is. Hij heeft geen gerechterlijk verleden. De procureur stelde drie psychiaters aan die de man moeten onderzoeken. 'Er is geen enkel element dat ons doet geloven dat hij een psychiatrisch verleden heeft', voegde procureur Du Four er nog aan toe.De jongeman woonde in op de eerste verdieping van een in huurappartementen onderverdeelde woning in de Elzenstraat. De politie voerde er vrijdagavond een huiszoeking uit en de toegang blijft voorlopig afgesloten met politielint.Volgens omwonenden verbleef Kim D. nog maar drie maanden in het appartement. 'Niemand in de buurt kende hem echt goed', zeggen Tiny De Mulder en Raf Demeyer, die vlak naast de jongeman wonen. 'Hij leefde teruggetrokken en was een zonderling. Hij werkte in een magazijn van Van Remoortel in Belsele, maar verloor daar onlangs zijn job. Hij verplaatste zich altijd met de fiets, net als op de dag van de feiten.'In de buurt wonen veel mensen met jonge kinderen en in de doodlopende straat is er een speelterrein niet ver van de woning van Kim D. De buurtbewoners zijn geschokt dat de dader in hun straat woonde, maar reageren opgelucht dat de dader niet in zijn onmiddellijke omgeving toesloeg. Mark Eeckhaut NIEUWSOVERZICHT ||||| 'Ik heb een vraagje.' Meer zei hij niet DENDERMONDE IN SHOCK NA BLOEDBAD DENDERMONDE - Drie doden, onder wie twee baby's. Nog twaalf gewonden, onder wie nog eens tien baby's. Een twintigjarige dolleman heeft gisteren een bloedbad aangericht in een kinderdagverblijf in Dendermonde. Van onze redacteur'Hij ging tekeer als een dolleman. Eerst in de kamer waar de baby'tjes te slapen lagen. Daarna in de kamer waar andere kinderen speelden. Hij zwaaide met een mes, iedereen neerstekend die hij maar kon. Zelfs opvoedsters die kinderen in hun armen naar buiten probeerden te dragen, viel hij aan.'Theo Janssens (SP.A), schepen van Sociale Zaken van Dendermonde, kan zelf amper geloven wat hij vertelt. Wat gistermorgen gebeurde in het kinderdagverblijf Fabeltjesland, is erger dan de ergste gruwel die hij zich kon voorstellen: een gratuite moordpartij onder baby's.Even over 10 uur gistermorgen was de vreemde jongeman het kinderdagverblijf in de 5-januaristraat in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde binnengewandeld. De deuren waren voor hem opengezwaaid. Zijn gezicht was wit geschminkt, de ogen zwart gemaakt.'Ik heb een vraagje', zei hij tegen het eerste personeelslid dat hij tegen het lijf liep. Maar hij wachtte niet op een antwoord. Hij haalde meteen een lang mes boven en begon aan zijn moordpartij. Van kamer naar kamer liep hij, links en rechts kindjes en opvoedsters neerstekend. Een van de opvoedsters probeerde nog om hem te ontwapenen, in de hoop het moorden te stoppen. Tevergeefs.'Niemand weet echt hoelang het allemaal geduurd heeft', zei de Dendermondse procureur Christian Du Four. Veel meer dan enkele minuten kan het niet geduurd hebben. Maar dat was genoeg om een bloedbad aan te richten.Toen hij wegvluchtte op zijn fiets, liet hij vijftien slachtoffers achter. Drie van hen zouden de moordpartij niet overleven. Korneel, een kindje van negen maanden, Leon, een baby van zes maanden, en Marita Blindeman, een ervaren opvoedster uit Dendermonde.Van de achttien kinderen in het kinderdagverblijf bleven er maar zes ongedeerd. Enkele gewonde kinderen verkeerden een tijdje in levensgevaar. Pas later op de dag zou duidelijk worden dat de andere kinderen en opvoedsters zouden overleven, ondanks de vaak vreselijke snijwonden die ze hadden opgelopen.'Toen we aankwamen, dachten we dat we de dader nog binnen zouden vinden', vertelt een van de agenten die als eersten ter plaatse kwamen. 'Maar we troffen alleen bloed en slachtoffers aan.'De ervaren agent kan zijn tranen niet bedwingen. 'Nooit heb ik zoiets gezien', zucht hij. 'Nooit, nooit, nooit.''Ik heb tal van brandweerlui, politiemensen en ambulanciers in tranen zien uitbarsten', zegt burgemeester Piet Buyse. 'Die mensen zijn allemaal verbijsterd door wat ze gezien hebben.' En de opvoedsters, die het allemaal hebben meegemaakt, zijn in shock. 'Ongeloof. Onbegrip. Die mensen zijn helemaal van de kaart.'Terwijl politiecombi's onmiddellijk na de steekpartij uitwaaierden over de streek op zoek naar de dader, snelden ambulances vanuit alle ziekenhuizen uit de buurt naar het kinderdagverblijf. Ook de ouders stroomden in paniek toe. Ze hadden geen idee of hun kind de moordpartij overleefd had of niet. Dat zouden ze pas later vernemen, toen ze de foto's gemaakt in de verschillende ziekenhuizen onder ogen kregen.Er heerste in en rond Dendermonde een sfeer van paniek, omdat het niet uitgesloten was dat de dader nog andere kinderdagverblijven of scholen zou binnenstormen. Er was sprake van een briefje dat de dader op zich droeg met de naam van nog een andere crèche. Daarom moesten alle scholen de deuren gesloten houden.Rond de middag werd de dader opgepakt. Hij was op de fiets een vijftal kilometer ver geraakt, tot in het naburige Lebbeke. Hij gaf zich probleemloos over. Het mes dat hij op zijn lichaam droeg, gebruikte hij niet. 'Het was trouwens niet het mes waarmee hij de moorden had gepleegd', zei de Dendermondse procureur gisteravond. 'Dat had hij weggegooid in de buurt van het kinderdagverblijf, waar we het ook vonden. Hij had blijkbaar nog een tweede wapen bij zich.'Het gerecht had gisteravond nog geen idee wat de 20-jarige dader had gedreven. 'Hij was niet onder invloed van alcohol of drugs. Hij was ook niet ontsnapt uit een psychiatrische instelling zoals lang werd gedacht. En hij was ook geen bekende van het gerecht', zei Du Four. Wat de jongeman dan wel bezield had, kon hij niet zeggen. 'Hij zegt niets tegen de ondervragers. Hij werkt absoluut niet mee.'De jongeman zou in de loop van de nacht voor de onderzoeksrechter geleid worden wegens meervoudige moord en poging tot moord. Steven De Bock NIEUWSOVERZICHT ||||| Slachtoffertjes aan de betere hand Vijf slachtoffers van de steekpartij in Dendermonde mogen de afdeling intensieve zorgen verlaten. Wellicht mogen enkele van hen dit weekend al naar huis. Vier andere slachtoffers, drie kinderen en één volwassene moet wel nog op intensieve zorg blijven. Hun toestand is wel stabiel.'Het soort van verwondingen was levensbedreigend op het moment zelf', zegt dokter Ignace Demeyer van het Onze-Lieve-Vrouwziekenhuis in Aalst op VRT-radio. 'Maar dankzij geslaagde operaties is nu elk levensgevaar geweken.'De slachtoffers liggen verspreid over verschillende ziekenhuizen in Dendermonde en Gent.Een zestal kinderen zouden het ziekenhuis dit weekend al mogen verlaten. rbo ||||| Fabeltjesland gaat nooit meer open ap DENDERMONDE - Er is intussen beslist dat kinderdagverblijf 'Fabeltjesland' nooit meer opengaat. Er wordt voor opvang gezorgd bij onthaalmoeders en twee andere ocmw-kribbes. In de tuin van Peuterland, een andere kindercrèche in Dendermonde, worden volgende week tijdelijk twee containerklasjes gezet. Op termijn zou het OCMW aan de Kroonveldlaan in Dendermonde een nieuwe kindercampus willen oprichten, waar Peuterland en Fabeltjesland samen zouden zitten. NIEUWSOVERZICHT ||||| 25/01/2009 rr Extra De jongen die nooit opviel Jong, geïsoleerd en erg moordzuchtig Dossier Steekpartij in kinderdagverblijf Dendermonde Duizend vragen, maar dader zwijgt Twee messen, bijl en neppistool in rugzak Berichten over lijstje met nog drie andere crèches Moordscenario voor 75 doden De babymoordenaar van de crèche 'Fabeltjesland' zwijgt en blijft zwijgen. Een motief voor zijn zinloze daad hebben de speurders nog altijd niet ontdekt. Mark Eeckhaut Waarom Kim De Gelder (20) uit Sinaai vrijdag in de crèche 'Fabeltjesland' als een gek tekeer ging met zijn mes en de keel en borst van kleine kinderen viseerde, is en blijft een mysterie. 'Hij lacht ons niet uit, maar hij zwijgt en antwoordt op geen enkele vraag. Hij gedraagt zich heel passief tijdens de ondervraging', zegt procureur Christian Dufour van Dendermonde. De Gelder is op gerechtelijk vlak een onbesproken blad. 'Hij is absoluut niet gekend bij de politie en voor zover wij weten heeft hij geen psychiatrisch verleden.' Zeker is wel dat hij zijn onbegrijpelijke daad bijzonder goed voorbereid had. Allicht zat hij er al lang op te broeden. 'Bij zijn arrestatie vonden we in zijn rugzak een bijl, een mes en een neppistool. Onder zijn T-shirt droeg hij een kogelvrije vest. Vlakbij de plaats van de feiten vonden de politie nog twee messen. Dat wijst toch op een goed voorbereid plan', zegt procureur Christiaan Dufour van het Dendermondse parket. De Gelder had ook zijn gezicht geschminkt in wit en zwart. 'Maar of dat iets met The Joker uit Batman te maken heeft, daar hebben we geen idee van. Zoals ik al zei, hij weigert wat dan ook zeggen.' Allicht kwam De Gelder helemaal met de fiets vanuit zijn appartement Sinaai naar Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde gereden. Dat is een afstand van 18 kilometer. Waarom hij per se de crèche 'Fabeltjesland' viseerde, terwijl er in zijn eigen buurt ook crèches zijn, is niet duidelijk. Maar ook hier lijkt het erop dat De Gelder perfect wist wat hij deed. 'We gaan ervan uit dat hij niet langs de bewaakte hoofdingang is binnengegaan, maar dat hij een zij-ingang heeft genomen. Die staat open om kindjes die te laat komen, binnen te laten', zegt Dufour. Als dat klopt, moet De Gelder het reilen en zeilen in de crèche heel goed gekend hebben. Volgens de geruchtenmolen in Dendermonde was Van Gelder niet van plan te stoppen met moorden na 'Fabeltjesland' en had hij een lijst gemaakt van nog drie andere crèches, telkens met het aantal kindjes dat er verbleven en het aantal personeelsleden dat er werkte. De politie zou die lijst hebben gevonden. 'Dat kan ik niet bevestigen', was het enige dat procureur Dufour daar gisteren over kwijt wilde. De onderzoeksrechter stelde een college van drie psychiaters aan om de Gelder te onderzoeken. Misschien kunnen zij een beetje duidelijkheid brengen over wat hem die dag bezielde. Kim De Gelder werd vrijdagnacht overgebracht naar de gevangenis van Brugge. In Brugge is een zwaar beveiligde afdeling. Voor zijn eigen veiligheid was het beter om De Gelder daar onder te brengen, in plaats van in Dendermonde. Druk dit artikel af Verstuur dit artikel naar een kennis | Prosecutor Christian Du Four has released more details on the fatal stabbing in a day care center in East Flanders, Belgium, yesterday, in which two children (six and nine months old) and one employee were killed. Ten children and two adults were injured. The alleged perpetrator, a 20-year-old man from nearby Sint-Niklaas, was arrested in the neighbouring municipality of Lebbeke shortly after the crime. Belgian news website nieuwsblad.be have named the arrested man as Kim De Gelder. ===The attack=== The attacker wore a bullet-proof vest under his clothes and a backpack containing a knife, an axe and a fake pistol. Two other knives were found near the crime scene. The prosecutor confirmed that the man's face was painted white with blackened eyes as he committed the crime, which led international media to make comparisons to the Joker, the villain from the Batman series. "I have a question," the killer told the first employee he encountered, after which he immediately stabbed her, and started his rampage. One female day care worker attempted to disarm the killer while others locked the doors. The killer stabbed employees trying to carry children to safety. The arrested man is not cooperating with the investigation and has not confessed. The prosecutor described his attitude as "passive". "He says nothing to his questioners. He is absolutely uncooperative," the prosecutor explained. Yesterday, media reported that the killer was laughing at the officers who were questioning him, but the prosecutor today denied these speculations. According to the crime scene investigation, the man entered the building through an unlocked side-entrance which gave immediate access to the room with the babies. He stabbed several of them, then went to another room where he stabbed other children. He then fled on the bicycle on which he had arrived. Location of the stabbing. Panic struck in Dendermonde amidst fears that the man would attack more crèches or schools. There were reports that the killer carried a note with names and addresses of other day care centres or schools nearby, something which the prosecutor could not comment on. The Associated Press says three judicial officials anonymously confirmed that the attacker carried addresses of three other nurseries. Following news of the stabbings, all schools in Dendermonde were ordered to keep all gates shut. Eyewitness Hans Staelens told reporters that he had noticed a suspicious character in the street where the day care centre 'Fable Land' was located. He described him as "not too tall, thin, red hair, dark eyes, like make-up". The alleged killer lived alone and was unemployed, but does not have a criminal record. "There is no element whatsoever that makes us believe he has a psychiatric history," the prosecutor told the press at a conference today. He has commissioned three psychiatrists to examine the man. Kim D. was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. ===Victims=== One child and one woman died in the day care centre itself, with another child dying in hospital. All injured are reported to be in stable condition. Three children and one adult remain in intensive care. Five others also remain hospitalised, although several are expected to be discharged at some point during the weekend. 54-year-old Marita Blindeman, who was killed in the attack, worked in the day care centre, which was sponsored by social services, since she was 18. Since the death of her father, she lived with, and took care of, both her mother and her sister, who has a learning disability. Just two years ago, she started having a relationship with a man, according to her son in a letter to newspapers. Only six of the 18 children in the crèche, all under the age of three, were uninjured. Meanwhile, the decision has been taken not to reopen the day care centre, but to provide day care in other facilities. Six employees were present during the attack. ===Response to the incident=== Friday evening, the Belgian crown prince and his wife visited the crime scene. The couple, who have four children, were moved deeply by the killings. Some hundred people have signed a mourning registry in Dendermonde's city hall, and flowers and teddy bears were left at the day care centre. A silent demonstration is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and a mourning ceremony will be held on Monday evening. Several media outlets have discussed the safety of day care centres. Minister Veerle Heeren said she would consider additional safety measures if the investigation suggests it, but also added that, "a day care centre should be a haven, not a prison." |
Robert A Iger became chief executive of Disney in 2005 The media giant's chief executive Robert A Iger said depictions of smoking in future Disney-branded films would be "non-existent". And smoking will be "discouraged" in films aimed at adults released under its Touchstone and Miramax banners. Mr Iger made the promise in a letter to US congressman Edward Markey. DVDs that show cigarettes will also carry anti-smoking announcements, he added. Mr Markey described the move as "groundbreaking" and commended Mr Iger for "this important commitment". We hope it's the beginning of a domino effect as other studios come into line Martin Dockrell Anti-smoking group Ash "Now it's time for other media companies to similarly kick the habit and follow Disney's lead." Mr Markey, chairman of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, recently held a hearing on the images children see on screen. He used it to call on media companies to join the anti-smoking effort. In his letter, Mr Iger said the Walt Disney Company shared his concern. Martin Dockrell, a spokesman for UK anti-smoking group Ash, called the move "a really important first step". Removing these kinds of incentives is enormously important Ellen Vargya The American Legacy Foundation US anti-tobacco organisation The American Legacy Foundation said the announcement was "a good, solid step". "The research is very clear that images of smoking in the media are a very large recruiter of teen smokers," the organisation's general counsel Ellen Vargya said. "They have a very powerful impact, accounting for close to 400,000 youth smokers a year. So removing these kinds of incentives is enormously important." Smoking has been rarely shown in Disney's family-oriented films in recent years, although the company has not always been so health-conscious. In 1961's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, for example, the villainous Cruella De Vil is rarely seen without a cigarette holder in her mouth. In May, the Motion Picture Association of America, the US film ratings board, pledged to take smoking into account when classifying movies. ||||| Walt Disney, owner of the Disney, Miramax and Touchstone film studios, is to ban cigarette smoking in all of its films. The move will see all Disney-branded films become smoke-free and the company actively "discourage depictions" of cigarette smoking in movies made by the Miramax and Touchstone studios. In addition, Disney intends to place anti-smoking promotional films on DVDs of any future film that does depict smoking. The entertainment company also intends to "work with theatre owners" to encourage the exhibition of an anti-smoking promo before any of its films that do show smoking. "We discourage depictions of cigarette smoking in Disney, Touchstone and Miramax films," said Disney president and chief executive, Robert Iger. "In particular, we expect that depictions of cigarette smoking in future Disney branded films will be non-existent." The company has made the commitment following a suggestion from Edward Markey, chairman of the US house of representatives subcommittee on telecommunications and the internet. "Now it's time for other media companies to similarly kick the habit and follow Disney's lead," he said. Disney's three movie studios have been responsible for films including Russell Crowe's the Insider, which tells the story of a tobacco industry whistleblower and the making of a 60 Minutes expose, The English Patient, The Queen, Con Air, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In August last year Turner Broadcasting moved to edit out scenes where smoking appeared to be condoned from 1,700 episodes of Hanna Barbera cartoons including Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo, the Jetsons and the Flintstones. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | Disney studios have pledged to leave all forms of smoking out of their family films in a bid to discourage the habit. In a letter to US Congressman Edward Markey, Chief Executive Robert A. Iger stated that smoking in Disney brands will be "non-existent" from now on. He also stated that DVD's that show cigarettes will now carry anti-smoking messages. Mr Markey said that he is pleased that "Disney is embracing a policy that is consistent with the long-term public health of the nation", and called the move by the media giant "groundbreaking". "Now it's time for other media companies to similarly kick the habit and follow Disney's lead." Disney films have rarely depicted smoking in recent years, although several instances in the past exist. For example, in the 1953 Disney film Peter Pan, there is a scene depicting smoking at a Native American camp. |
By Jared Keller Members of the digital encyclopedia's cult of knowledge are finding their way into some of America's most celebrated institutions Wikipedia's comprehensive entries have become the default source of collective knowledge on the Web as our attention spans and patience for deep archival research shrink in the digital age. Yet concerns over the encyclopedia's accuracy and consistency remain. That's where Dominic McDevitt-Parks comes in. The Simmons College graduate student recently joined the National Archives and Records Administration as a summer "Wikipedian-in-residence." McDevitt-Parks is tasked with integrating NARA's vast stockpile of primary documents and records -- the bread and butter of history -- with the sprawling ecosystem of collective knowledge and collaborative editorship that has defined Wikipedia. Cultural institutions, especially those with a glut of historical documents, have an interest in utilizing Wikipedia to call attention to their untouched stores. "The National Archives maintains national records and preserve cultural heritage, but they don't do a great job of presenting this information to the public in a searchable, digestible format," says McDevitt-Parks. "This is exactly what Wikipedia does: presenting history and cultural in a way that people use every day. For the Archives specifically, the mission is not just preserving documents, but promoting their use. Through some sort of collaboration, we can make these records available for regular use by the public at large." McDevitt-Park, who's earning a Master's degree in history and archive management, is one of several new Wikipedians-in-residence working within cultural institutions around the world in collaboration with the digital encyclopedia. The initiative, first conceived by Wikimedia Cultural Partnerships fellow Liam Wyatt in 2010, was focused in the disconnect between "significant" collections in public museums and the "notable" entries on Wikipedia. By partnering with Wikipedia, the National Archives is creating unprecedented access to high-resolution prints and scans of primary documents that were originally limited to special-order copies or confined to reproductions available in a pricey catalog. "Part of the idea behind the collaboration is to create projects around donation," says McDevitt-Parks. "With Wikipedia, we want to put up collections of high-res images and get them in articles, where thousands upon thousands of people will see them." By partnering with Wikipedia, the National Archives is creating unprecedented access to high-resolution prints and scans of primary documents. Among his first major projects: tackling an archive of several hundred photographs by Ansel Adams, commissioned by the National Parks Service. "There are 200 to 220 Ansel Adams photographs in the National Archives records, because Adams was commissioned in the 1940s to take photos of national parks, but they were never really fully available to the public," says McDevitt-Parks. "They were available if you wanted to go to College Park [Maryland, home of the National Archives] and dig through old files." McDevitt-Parks, rather than serving purely as an archivist, is organizationally situated in the National Archive's communications and social media team. The institution wants to make as much of its content available to the widest audience, with the hopes that the sudden availability of primary sources will lead to a tidal wave of interest by regular readers. Ideally, the newly opened archives will mean a sudden diffusion of primary documents into Wikipedia's knowledge ecosystem, driven by Wikipedia's devoted pool of editors and relying on the encyclopedia's preexisting system of peer review. McDevitt-Parks is in the process of developing an editing challenge around the Archives' "Today's Documents" feature, which spotlights prints or texts that were previously blocked off from regular readership, to encourage hardcore Wikipedians to pounce on newly available resources. The benefits for such a project are readily apparent: Until last week, a thorough history of desegregation in the U.S. Marines didn't exist in Wikipedia's knowledge ecosystem. The topic wasn't totally ignored, but simply split among related entries; a devoted, focused article never existed solely in its own right. "Someone already took a primary document -- a portrait of the first African-American marine after desegregation -- and wrote a lengthy article about desegregation in the military," says McDevitt-Parks. "That article, within a day or two of its creation, was showcased on Wikipedia's main page in the 'Did You Know?' section, which features little blurbs from newly created, good content. The article was showcased on the main page next to the Archives' image. The document got something like 10 million hits in a single day. That's important for the National Archives. It's a way of making things more discoverable." McDevitt-Parks is just one member of a new class of Wikipedians making their way into cultural institutions. He has colleagues at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, the Indianapolis Children's Museum and the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, among other places. McDevitt-Parks and his colleagues may bridge the gap between the untapped resources of the National Archives and the churning community of Wikipedians who, like themselves, take pleasure in distilling historical archives into an easily accessible form. "I'm drawn to Wikipedia because I enjoy doing research and writing about things and writing for Wikipedia is one of the best mechanisms for self-study that I can imagine," says McDevitt-Parks. "The kinds of people and persons that who are editors on Wikipedia are obsessive ... and I know people like myself who have procrastinated on assignments while writing on Wikipedia. That means doing intense research and writing at a high level in order to not write a paper. Part of the attraction is getting to choose what you want to do. It's something that's enjoyable, and you're creating something that other people can benefit from. It's kinda the ultimate experiment in public knowledge." ||||| He describes himself as a “history buff, a word nerd, a news junkie and an occasional pedant.” His job this summer is to “foster collaboration between the Wikipedia community and the National Archives for their mutual benefit,” as Archivist of the United States David Ferriero put it, making the permanent records of the Archives available to the public through Wikipedia to reach a broader audience than ever before. The Post chatted with McDevitt-Parks about his new job. Q. Do a lot of institutions like the Archives have people like you on staff? A. It is kind of novel. There are half a dozen Wikis in residence at cultural institutions. The first one was at the British Museum; he invented the whole concept. Since then, you’ve got them at Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis and, in the D.C. area, the Archives of American Art. Most of them have been volunteer positions. The National Archives actually put out a real job posting and I applied. Q. How did you get started volunteering for Wikipedia? A. That was more than six years ago. I started over the summer one year [in high school]. It wasn’t much of a big deal back then. I’m the kind of geek that wants to spend my time doing that kind of thing. I grew up in San Francisco, then moved to Phoenix for high school. Everybody contributes what they want to. I studied history as an undergraduate. I was interested in Latin America, in particular Chilean history and politicians. People ask, how does it work if someone can just change [an entry]. It works in practice and not in theory. It’s a meritocracy. I like the term do-ocracy. Q. What is your mission at the Archives? A. I started last Monday. The bigger picture is it’s a collaboration between the Archives and Wikipedia. Both institutions are like-minded and have different approaches. The Archives is trying to enter the 21st century. If their documents can’t be accessed, there’s not really a point in preserving them. If you put something on the National Archives Web site, you might get 1,000 page views. Yesterday the main Wiki page got 12 million hits. The way I look at it, I’m trying to act as a catalyst to help improve the content on Wiki and help improve discoverability for the content. The idea is to bring the holdings outside our four walls and into the digital space. Q.What did you do in your first week? A. The first big thing we did was we brought some of Ansel Adams’s photographs to the public, which was a big deal. He took a series of photos for the National Park Service — he was commissioned. They’re in the public domain. But for the last 70 years they’ve been in an archive. They weren’t visible to the public except for people spending money to buy prints. So the Archives had the photos cataloged digitally. They were online but they were small-resolution photos. So we took these 200 photos and put them up on Wikipedia with the highest-resolution photos. Now millions of people can see them. You don’t even know you’re looking at a National Archives photo. Also, did you know a photo of the first African American recruit for the U.S. Marine Corps is in the National Archives? We uploaded it. It’s brand new. I posted a challenge over the last couple of days on Wiki and someone created the entire article about him. It was totally spontaneous. It happened because the Archives had this great image. Q. How will you choose which images and other documents to feature on Wikipedia? A. The Archives has a daily feature on their Web site; each day the staff collects a document and they have a little blurb about the image. That’s what we want to do, to create challenges on Wikipedia with these. It’s a huge opportunity. Most of the photos the Archives tends to use are scaled down for the Web. But through the principles of public access we want to get the highest quality photos out there. I also have some things I personally think would be a good idea, but it also is about what the community wants. The Archives a while back determined the 100 milestone documents in history — that might be a place to start, too. Q. Do you have other projects you hope to work on? A. Another project is related to Wikisource. This is a sister project to Wikipedia. It deals with primary source material. They transcribe pages and scans of documents. That’s what I’m figuring out right now, which documents to tackle. Q. So how would you describe the job so far? A. It’s been a pretty intense first week and a half! ||||| WASHINGTON—The National Archives has appointed its first "Wikipedian in Residence" to help connect with the Wikipedia community. The Archives announced Wednesday that Dominic McDevitt-Parks was hired to help shape the Internet's leading online encyclopedia. He is a graduate student in history and archives management at Simmons College in Boston. The paid summer intern position is based at the Archives II facility in College Park, Md. The Archives says McDevitt-Parks has more than seven years of Wikipedia editing experience. His job will be to foster collaboration between the Wikipedia community and the National Archives. That could include using some of Wikipedia's tools for ongoing digitization projects at the archives. McDevitt-Parks says Wikipedia as the ultimate public history project, and he describes himself as a history buff, news junkie and "word nerd." © Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ||||| We asked our new Wikipedian in Residence, Dominic McDevitt-Parks, to tell us a little bit about himself and his passion for Wikipedia. Welcome to the National Archives, Dominic! Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? What do you study in school? I am a history buff, a word nerd, a news junkie, and an occasional pedant. Currently, I am a dual-degree master’s student in the History and Archives Management program at Simmons College in Boston. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, but moved to the Phoenix area in high school. I was a history major at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. My area of particular interest is 19th-century Latin American history. Before coming to Simmons, I worked for a year at the Scottsdale Public Library. I am also the (creatively-named) editor “Dominic” on Wikipedia. How has your education related to your Wikipedia interests? My passion is history, and I am now training to be an archivist. So, I do take a particular joy in research, which comes in handy on Wikipedia. My work for Wikipedia and my undergraduate- and graduate-level work have been mutually beneficial, and each helped develop my research and writing skills. More than that, though, Wikipedia is the ultimate public history project, probably the most ambitious and successful one ever created. I, of course, see a strong correlation between the work of Wikipedia and the work of academics and information professionals, and I am glad that this upcoming project signals that the National Archives does as well. Why do you like Wikipedia, and how long have you been active in the Wikipedian community? I have been a Wikipedian since 2004, which was when I was still in high school. I am an administrator on Wikipedia (and the sister project Wiktionary), and have also participated over the years in many other matters of conflict resolution and policy. As I can personally attest, for the sorts of people to whom it appeals, editing Wikipedia is no less addictive than Facebook or Warcraft. The difference is that most highly-involved Wikipedians have an incredible sense of mission, whether it’s about free culture, participatory culture, educating the masses, or just increasing awareness of a topic held dear. These are all important to me, and when I am spending my free time doing serious research and writing about a Chilean revolutionary (or Chilean newspaper, or Chilean politician, or Chilean organization…), it is because I know that I am creating a free and accessible resource on a topic of historical significance and adding it to a collective where others can improve upon it. What are your goals as a Wikipedian in Residence at the National Archives? In essence, I will work to foster collaboration between the Wikipedia community and the National Archives for their mutual benefit—or, in reality, the benefit of the public, which both projects serve. By the same token that engaging with the Wikipedia community can be daunting for outsiders, most Wikipedians do not have strong connections with the cultural institutions that share their same goal of public education. The holdings of the National Archives represent an incredible resource for helping Wikipedians do what they want to do better and I want to put them at Wikipedia’s disposal as much as is possible. As well, I hope to share my experience and understanding of Wikipedia culture with the National Archives staff and bring them into the Wikipedia community. I am excited that the National Archives is seeking out greater cooperation with Wikipedia, and I will do whatever I can to make that a reality. An important part of creating a relationship between the National Archives and Wikipedians will be the hosting of on-site events for local editors, too. What types of projects do you foresee being helpful for both Wikipedia and the National Archives? We will seek to to assist in Wikipedia’s expansion and improvement of the quality of coverage of topics related to the holdings of National Archives. This will mean creating relationships with the existing projects on Wikipedia or making a new one for direct cooperation. As a part of this, we will be taking advantage of Wikisource and Wikimedia Commons as tools in the National Archives’ ongoing digitization efforts. I have a particular interest in that task, since I think the potential for Wikisource to aid in the arrangement and presentation of original documents, especially through collaborative transcription, has yet to be realized so far by the institutions that hold such material. I will also seek to organize events, both on the wikis and on off-line, that will encourage collaboration around topics where the National Archives can be of use. How can crowdsourcing information be useful for both Wikipedians and National Archives researchers? In the case of cultural institutions, and especially the National Archives, it is the crowd itself which is the primary stakeholder. Archives preserve our cultural history; Wikipedia brings it to the people. We preserve documents so that they can be known and used in the future, not just so they can continue their existence inside a folder in a box on a shelf. Digitizing documents makes them more accessible, generates interest for a collection, and helps preserve the originals. Doing so while working with Wikipedia means we will take this practice one step further and also directly help create new works that incorporate such materials. Because of its prominence, large editor base, and devotion to the freedom of knowledge, Wikipedia is uniquely situated to make good use of archival materials. How would you encourage researchers wary of using Wikipedia as a research tool? Generally, this sort of question is answered by Wikipedians by pointing out studies that have shown comparable quality between Wikipedia and traditional encyclopedias or by pointing out that tertiary sources like encyclopedias are best used to be mined for citations, anyway. And it hardly needs saying that at this point Wikipedia is not something that can possibly be ignored; rather, it must be understood by researchers. Wikipedians themselves—already acquainted with Wikipedia’s standards and processes—are actually its most thoughtful readers, typically. We do not discount its content out of hand, but we also know to only trust it as far as it is verified with good referencing. As information consumers, all of us should evaluate our sources of information for reliability. And any researcher worth their salt knows to take a critical approach to sources, especially on the Internet. So, while no Wikipedian will vouch for the whole of Wikipedia, we will point out that avoiding the wealth of good, verifiable information on Wikipedia is actually shirking that responsibility to be thoughtful and critical about one’s research. To take this further, though, we live now in a world in which all people can be, and often are, content creators as well as consumers. And Wikipedia, a project which bears out this fact, has become so wildly successful that it is one of the most dominant sources of knowledge in the public sphere—certainly in the areas of ready-reference and self-study. So, if the ultimate aim of academia is to serve the public interest at all, it is time for its members, especially those who feel the need, as a matter of academic principle, to question its authority, to recognize that they also have just as great a professional responsibility to help improve it. Do you have any other hobbies or activities that you enjoy? If I did not make it clear enough before, the Wikipedia obsession can be quite time-consuming, especially as a full-time student with another internship! I do venture outside occasionally, though, more often than not, it is because I require sustenance. What was the last book you read and loved? I’ll cheat and mention a few. I really enjoyed Judas at the Jockey Club and Other Episodes of Porfirian Mexico a short, deceptively entertaining cultural history about social life that really has some depth to it, too. Also, Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things, a collection of short stories, turns out to have some real gems in it. My current interest is in the Civil Rights Movement in Arizona, and Matthew Whitaker’s Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West is an excellent book on a neglected topic. (Since we’re talking about Wikipedia, you can see the fruits of that particular fascination at “Lincoln Ragsdale.”) ||||| The trek of a future museum professional from art gallery director to museum studies intern and beyond. ||||| I’m a big fan of Wikipedia. It’s often the first place I go for information. According to a recent Pew Internet report, I’m also not alone. Forty-two percent of all Americans also turn to Wikipedia for information online. Every month, almost 80 million people visit Wikipedia and more than 91,000 active contributors have worked on more than 17 million articles in more than 270 languages. Altogether there have been almost 450 million edits! Wikipedia is an impressive, awe-inspiring resource. In my previous role as Director of the New York Public Libraries, I encouraged staff to contribute to and use Wikipedia. For some librarians and a few archivists — Wikipedia is sometimes not readily embraced. I’ve heard the concerns about accuracy and reliability, but there have been comparative studies that show errors do not appear more frequently in Wikipedia than its printed counterparts. By design, errors can be corrected and neutrality contested. The power lies with you to flag or change content you find incorrect or biased. On January 22, the National Archives hosted over 90 Wikipedians at WikiXDC, the Washington, D.C. celebration of Wikipedia’s 10th anniversary. This daylong event featured lightening talks, unconference sessions, and behind-the-scene tours of the stacks of the National Archives. During the event, National Archives staff introduced our records and online resources to Wikipedians, and we learned more about Wikipedia and those who are passionate about the project. I particularly enjoyed WikiXDC, especially the reactions to my support and enthusiasm for Wikipedia. One Wikipedian blogger in attendance, Ed Summers, wrote: “It was just amazing to hear the Archivist of the United States be supportive of Wikipedia as a reference source…especially as stories of schools, colleges, and universities rejecting Wikipedia as a source are still common.” He wrote, “Now we can all say: If Wikipedia is good enough for the Archivist of the United States, maybe it should be good enough for you.” This summer, we hope to strengthen our institutional relationship with the Wikipedian community by hosting a Wikipedian in Residence. We are currently seeking applications for this student position for the 2011 summer. The Wikipedian will gain an insider’s look into the National Archives and develop an appreciation for the records and resources we have available. As an agency, I look forward to our staff learning more about the fabric and culture of Wikipedia and how to get involved. With 42 percent of the American public relying on Wikipedia, it makes sense for the records and resources of the National Archives to be present in this space. By having the permanent records of the federal government available through Wikipedia, we will reach children, genealogists, educators, researchers, and members of the public who may never have come to the National Archives or Archives.gov to view our holdings. For More Information ||||| Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. Don't have an account yet? Create an account » | Dominic McDevitt-Parks speaks during a January 2011 training event. The National Archives at , Maryland, known informally as Archives II, was built due to space constraints at the main building in Washington, D.C.. Dominic McDevitt-Parks, a prolific contributor to Wikipedia and a graduate student in history and archives management, agreed to answer a few questions about his new role as "" at the US . "Wikipedians in Residence" are volunteers placed with institutions, such as museums and libraries, to facilitate use of those institutions' resources on Wikipedia. According to a report, 42 percent of Americans use Wikipedia as an online source of information. The online, collaborative encyclopedia boasts more than 3.5 million articles in English and versions in over 250 languages. Given the website's vast readership, the has proclaimed himself "a big fan of Wikipedia" and emphasizes the need for the National Archives to work with the project. The Archives posted the internship listing in March, expressing its desire for an employee who "will work as a community coordinator and strengthen the relationship between the Archives and the Wikipedian community through a range of activities". McDevitt-Parks, who describes himself as a "history buff, a word nerd, a news junkie and an occasional pedant," is a 24-year-old graduate student at in Boston. On Wikipedia, he has contributed for more than seven years under the username "Dominic", his work focusing mostly on Latin American history. He began his work at the Archives in late May, and since then he has undertaken numerous projects, including uploading onto Wikipedia 200 photos taken by for the . Although those photos have always remained in the public domain, accessing their high-definition versions could be problematic. Researchers who wanted to view the files had to visit the Archives facilities in , Maryland. McDevitt-Parks is also preparing a "" on Wikipedia, where works featured as "Today's Document" on the Archives' website are also the main focus of newly written or expanded encyclopedia articles displayed on Wikipedia's home page. The first — and so far only — winner of the challenge was the Wikipedia article "", which incorporated an Archives-held photo of the first African-American recruit to the . Before the challenge, according to McDevitt-Parks, "a thorough history of desegregation in the U.S. Marines didn't exist in Wikipedia's knowledge ecosystem. The topic wasn't totally ignored, but simply split among related entries; a devoted, focused article never existed solely in its own right." The "Wikipedian in Residence" position falls within the Archives' social media staff within the Open Government division of Information Services, since the institution's goal is to distribute as much content to the widest audience possible. The internship is 40 hours per week from mid-May to late August. |
A trader looks at a monitor at the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchage Russia suspends stock trading to stop market meltdown MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia suspended trading on its two main stock markets for a second day Wednesday as shares nosedived and officials pledged 44 billion dollars to fight collapsing investor confidence. The Federal Service for Financial Markets (FSFM) halted trading on both the RTS and the MICEX after they fell 6.39 percent and 3.09 percent respectively, market officials said. The stock markets remained closed all day. The move came a day after Russian stocks suffered their worst drop since the 1998 financial crisis, with the RTS falling 11.47 percent Tuesday and the MICEX down 17.45 despite a one-hour suspension of trading on both markets. The meltdown prompted Russia's central bank to slash reserve requirements for banks in a bid to restore confidence as central bank head Sergei Ignatyev said he hoped for a "normalisation of the situation" in several days. Moscow-based investment bank Kit Finance, which had been rumoured to be close to collapse, meanwhile announced it was in the final stages of selling out to Leader, a Russian insurance company, RIA Novosti news agency reported. The bank earlier said it had failed to meet some financial obligations. Analysts said government action was needed to prevent a dangerous erosion of confidence in Russia's banking sector, which has grown rapidly but also struggled to achieve stability since the financial crash of 10 years ago. "The state guarantees bank accounts so there's no need to worry. There's no risk of defaults," Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, one of several officials trying to calm worries, said in televised comments. The banking system is facing "a major crisis of confidence," said Vladimir Osakovsky, an economist with the UniCredit Aton investment bank in Moscow. "It's good that they have closed the market. It was panic." Vladimir Milovidov, head of the FSFM, said: "It was a technical measure aimed at calming the market. In this situation, it's good to analyse and look at fundamental factors in the economy." The benchmark RTS has now lost 57 percent since hitting an all-time high in May, a slump analysts put down to falling energy prices, global market turmoil and political issues, including worries over the war in Georgia. The financial sector led Wednesday's falls, with state-controlled retail banking giant Sberbank plummeting 17.33 percent on the RTS. After an hour of trading, the finance ministry announced it would inject 44 billion dollars (31 billion euros) into the market via three state banks. Analysts said the FSFM stopped trading when it became clear the money would not get into the market quick enough. "It took too long for the money to get into the system," said Chris Weafer, an analyst at Moscow investment bank Uralsib. "They were afraid of panic selling so they stopped the market," he said. Analysts said the day's falls were due to turmoil on Wall Street in the wake of the Lehman Brothers investment bank collapse, a massive US government bailout of insurance giant AIG and a fall in the oil price. Seeking to add liquidity to the banking system, the Central Bank said it was slashing a range of reserve requirements for banks by four percent. The move will inject 11.8 billion dollars (8.3 billion euros) into the market, RIA Novosti news agency reported. "Regarding the normalisation of the situation in the banking sector, I hope very much that this will take place in a matter of days ... It's clear that the market will turn around but I don't know when. I hope tomorrow," Ignatyev said. The country's leading banks are not at risk of collapse but the government fears the failure of a smaller bank with some name recognition could spark panic, Weafer said. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia could withstand financial turmoil, the latest in a string of speeches by top officials urging calm in the wake of Russia's war in Georgia. President Dmitry Medvedev last week said that a quarter of the market's losses could be attributed to the conflict, in part reflecting fears that a stand-off with the West would hurt business. The rest, he said was the result of global financial turmoil. Weafer said worries at the prospect of further drops in the price of oil -- the commodity that has fuelled Russia's spectacular economic gains in recent years -- were also taking a toll on markets. ||||| Trading has been suspended on the Russian stock market after another steep slide in early trading. It is the second day running that trading has been halted. With Russian traders still reeling from what was the sharpest one day percentage drop since the country's 1998 financial crisis, the MICEX stock index began the day by climbing before heading south again. Another key index, the RTS, took the same path. For the second day running, banking and energy stocks have suffered heavy losses. By early afternoon, Russia's market regulator had ordered both stock exchanges to halt trading. While the RTS exchange has re-opened to limited trading, the RIA Novosti news agency has quoted a MICEX official as saying he does not know when its exchange will resume business. ||||| Investors are concerned that financial markets will remain volatile. Asian markets have staged a tentative recovery in response to the US government rescue of insurance giant AIG, but investors remain nervous. Stocks in Tokyo, Taipei, and Seoul all rose, although share prices in Hong Kong and Australia lost ground after starting higher. The dollar also rose against major currencies. Investors are concerned that financial markets will remain unstable after the dramatic events of the past few days. AIG's bail-out follows the collapse of US investment giant Lehman Brothers, which caused share prices to plummet across the world's financial markets. Another investment bank, Merrill Lynch, has been sold off to Bank of America. Japan's Nikkei 225 index ended up 1.2% at 11,749.79, after hitting a three-year low on Tuesday. The index had earlier rose as much as 2.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.85% at 17,691.2 points after earlier rising as high 18,699.18. European markets are expected to open slightly higher amid relief that AIG wasn't allowed to go bankrupt. | Trading on Russia's major stock markets has been suspended for a second consecutive day due to the ongoing turmoil in the financial markets around the world. The suspension took place due to an order of the Russian government's Federal Service for the Financial Markets, which demanded the suspension. "It took too long for the money to get into the system," said Uralsib analyst Chris Weafer commenting on this decision. "They were afraid of panic selling so they stopped the market." Before the suspension, the RTS exchange fell by 6.39 percent in just two hours, while the MICEX index started the day with an increase, before falling again. This day was the worst day in Russia's market since the country's 1998 financial crisis Several financial markets have continued to lose value. The primary British index, the FTSE 100, dropped in value by 2.36%, which is 118.40 points, to below the 5000 mark at 4907.20. The Dow Jones, was down 2.62% at 16:08 UTC, a slight increase from earlier today. The Dow Jones currently has a value of 10769.00 points. The NASDAQ index has fallen by -3.16% to 2138.14, while the Dax was 1.75% lower than the start of the day at 16:08 UTC. The Russian Government has also announced the injection of 44 billion dollars into the Russian economy. The cash injection will take place through VTB, Sberbank and Gazprom Bank, which are all state run banks. |
Justice officials from western Canada met in Calgary Saturday to talk about gangs. It's the first time ministers from western provinces have met to identify priorities to combat organized crime and gang violence. Alberta Justice Minister, Alison Redford, says gangs recognize no borders, so provinces need to work together to ensure safety in the community. "We need to cooperate, we need to have a western Canadian approach to ensure that we're sharing information, that police are cooperating, that prosecutors are cooperating so that we can respond to what's happening in our communities as soon as it happens." Redford says they've agreed on a number of priorities to take to the federal government to work towards making changes to Canada's criminal code. "Once the person has demonstrated one time that they're not prepared to respect a court order, the second time they go in for breaching those conditions, there shouldn't be an assumption that they're going to respect the court order the second time and there should be a reverse onus and the presumption should be that they will be held without bail." British Columbia Attorney General, Wally Oppal, wants police to be able to authorize wire taps on phone lines. "We want the police to have the right to wire tap people immediately and to get authorization from judges immediately after the commission of the crime. Our wire tap laws were written in 1974, and there have been no real changes since that time." Ministers say when they see gang violence in one province it doesn't take long before it's happening closer to home. Saskatchewan Justice Minister, Don Morgan, says he's looking west to predict what is going to happen in his province. "If there's a problem in B.C. with armored cars and people wearing bulletproof vests, we suspect it's going to happen in six months in Regina or Saskatoon where I'm from, so we want to preempt. We know that criminals are organized, we want to be better organized." Manitoba Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Dave Chomiak, says the ministers have committed to continue sharing information and strategies surrounding organized crime to combat the growing problem. "It's better for all of us to organize our activities, our resource, to deal with their organized resources." Justice officials will meet again in June to look at cooperation between police, crown prosecutors and court systems. They'll also discuss ways of sharing intelligence and information gathering. ||||| Gang super-jail proposal worth a look, Alberta minister says Alberta's solicitor general, Fred Lindsay, will join ministers responsible for corrections and justice from four western provinces in Calgary this weekend to discuss ways to fight gang violence. (CBC) Alberta's solicitor general, Fred Lindsay, will join ministers responsible for corrections and justice from four western provinces in Calgary this weekend to discuss ways to fight gang violence. (CBC) The idea of a single "super-jail" to hold remanded high-level gang members from across western Canada has merit, Alberta's solicitor general said Friday. "We're certainly willing to look at it," Fred Lindsay told CBC News. Ministers responsible for corrections and justice from the four western provinces meet in Calgary Saturday to discuss ways they can work together to fight gang violence. The gang remand centre is on the agenda. The facility, which was first proposed by officials in Saskatchewan, would hold gang leaders from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba who are in custody and awaiting trial. The idea of a separate facility is that it would keep accused gang members away from the general prison population so they couldn't recruit others. "It just makes sense to be able to control their environment in a manner that we can monitor activities more closely," Lindsay said. Accused gang members often need to be segregated anyway when they are in remand so a single facility could be more economical, he added. However, officials have admitted there is a downside to the idea. Putting gang members in a single facility could give them an opportunity to network with each other, Saskatchewan's corrections minister, Darryl Hickie, said earlier this week. No location has yet been suggested for the facility as the idea is still in its preliminary stages. The province is currently building a new remand centre in Edmonton that's scheduled for completion in late 2011, so the old facility might be one option once it's vacated, Lindsay said. Lindsay will be joined at Saturday's ministers meeting by Alberta Justice Minister and Attorney General Alison Redford. | Western Canadian Justice ministers met Saturday to press for changes to the criminal code in regards to organised crime and crime violence. Said Alberta's Justice Minister, Alison Redford, "We need to cooperate, we need to have a western Canadian approach to ensure that we're sharing information, that police are cooperating, that prosecutors are cooperating so that we can respond to what's happening in our communities as soon as it happens". One proposal was a western Canadian database to identify known gang members from one province to authorities in another province. The database could also have the potential to inform authorities at correctional facilities if an inmate was being visited by a gang member. The Saskatchewan government plans to hire analysts to study gang member networking. The ministers also discussed the existing legislation that was in place regulating how police obtain authority to place wiretaps on phone lines. "We want the police to have the right to wiretap people immediately and get authorization from judges immediately after the commission of the crime," said British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal. Another priority was to change the Criminal Code law with regard to bail laws. Redford says that, "Once the person has demonstrated one time that they're not prepared to respect a court order, the second time they go in for breaching those conditions, there shouldn't be an assumption that they're going to respect the court order the second time and there should be a reverse onus and the presumption should be that they will be held without bail." The idea of a separate gang facility to hold accused gang members was abandoned. "We'd be looking at targeting the hardened adult gang members, the leaders of the gangs who have been in and out of prison for a number of years and who can use a remand centre to go recruit. They could in fact use that as a business networking opportunity ''per se'', which is something we don't want to encourage." said Darryl Hickie, Saskatchewan's minister of corrections, public safety and policing. |
Iraq Insurgents Intercepted Spy Feeds Using Cheap Software Photo: AP Photo/Sgt. Kimberly Snow, US Army U.S. defense officials have acknowledged that insurgents in Iraq had been able to intercept live video feeds from U.S. drone aircraft using widely available software. The Wall Street Journal first published the news Thursday. A U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reacted to the report saying it was an old problem that has been fixed. The Journal says U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered the problem late last year when they seized a Shi'ite militant's laptop containing drone video feeds. Senior defense and intelligence officials say insurgents were able to take advantage of an unprotected communications link in the systems of the remotely-piloted aircraft. The insurgents used software that is available online and costs about $26. While U.S. defense officials say the issue has been fixed, the Journal quoted senior intelligence officials as saying it was not yet clear if the problem had been completely resolved. U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants had been able to take control of the drones. But the intercepted video feeds could show where the planes are operating. The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. drone feeds have also been intercepted in Afghanistan. Officials say the U.S. government has known about a flaw in the drone communication system since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s. At the time, the military assumed local adversaries would not know how to exploit it. The report says fighters in Iraq used software programs such as one called "SkyGrabber" from the Russian company SkySoftware, which is designed to intercept data transmitted by satellite Internet. The Journal quotes one of the program's developers, Andrew Solonikov, as saying it was designed to download legal content - such as music and video - and that it was never intended to intercept military data. Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters. ||||| WASHINGTON -- Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations. Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter. U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights. Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance. The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially serious vulnerability in Washington's growing network of unmanned drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Obama administration has come to rely heavily on the unmanned drones because they allow the U.S. to safely monitor and stalk insurgent targets in areas where sending American troops would be either politically untenable or too risky. The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military technologies. U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered the problem late last year when they apprehended a Shiite militant whose laptop contained files of intercepted drone video feeds. In July, the U.S. military found pirated drone video feeds on other militant laptops, leading some officials to conclude that militant groups trained and funded by Iran were regularly intercepting feeds. In the summer 2009 incident, the military found "days and days and hours and hours of proof" that the feeds were being intercepted and shared with multiple extremist groups, the person said. "It is part of their kit now." A senior defense official said that James Clapper, the Pentagon's intelligence chief, assessed the Iraq intercepts at the direction of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded they represented a shortcoming to the security of the drone network. "There did appear to be a vulnerability," the defense official said. "There's been no harm done to troops or missions compromised as a result of it, but there's an issue that we can take care of and we're doing so." Senior military and intelligence officials said the U.S. was working to encrypt all of its drone video feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but said it wasn't yet clear if the problem had been completely resolved. Some of the most detailed evidence of intercepted feeds has been discovered in Iraq, but adversaries have also intercepted drone video feeds in Afghanistan, according to people briefed on the matter. These intercept techniques could be employed in other locations where the U.S. is using pilotless planes, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, they said. The Pentagon is deploying record numbers of drones to Afghanistan as part of the Obama administration's troop surge there. Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who oversees the Air Force's unmanned aviation program, said some of the drones would employ a sophisticated new camera system called "Gorgon Stare," which allows a single aerial vehicle to transmit back at least 10 separate video feeds simultaneously. View Full Image U.S. Air Force U.S. enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan have used off-the-shelf programs to intercept video feeds from Predator unmanned aircraft. Gen. Deptula, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said there were inherent risks to using drones since they are remotely controlled and need to send and receive video and other data over great distances. "Those kinds of things are subject to listening and exploitation," he said, adding the military was trying to solve the problems by better encrypting the drones' feeds. The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said. Last December, U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered copies of Predator drone feeds on a laptop belonging to a Shiite militant, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter. "There was evidence this was not a one-time deal," this person said. The U.S. accuses Iran of providing weapons, money and training to Shiite fighters in Iraq, a charge that Tehran has long denied. The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company SkySoftware. Andrew Solonikov, one of the software's developers, said he was unaware that his software could be used to intercept drone feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the Internet -- no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," he said by email from Russia. Officials stepped up efforts to prevent insurgents from intercepting video feeds after the July incident. The difficulty, officials said, is that adding encryption to a network that is more than a decade old involves more than placing a new piece of equipment on individual drones. Instead, many components of the network linking the drones to their operators in the U.S., Afghanistan or Pakistan have to be upgraded to handle the changes. Additional concerns remain about the vulnerability of the communications signals to electronic jamming, though there's no evidence that has occurred, said people familiar with reports on the matter. Predator drones are built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. of San Diego. Some of its communications technology is proprietary, so widely used encryption systems aren't readily compatible, said people familiar with the matter. In an email, a spokeswoman said that for security reasons, the company couldn't comment on "specific data link capabilities and limitations." Fixing the security gap would have caused delays, according to current and former military officials. It would have added to the Predator's price. Some officials worried that adding encryption would make it harder to quickly share time-sensitive data within the U.S. military, and with allies. "There's a balance between pragmatics and sophistication," said Mike Wynne, Air Force Secretary from 2005 to 2008. The Air Force has staked its future on unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones account for 36% of the planes in the service's proposed 2010 budget. Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter. A Reaper costs between $10 million and $12 million each and is faster and better armed than the Predator. General Atomics expects the Air Force to buy as many as 375 Reapers. Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com, Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com and August Cole at august.cole@dowjones.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A1 | File photo of MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. United States defense officials acknowledged that Iraqi insurgents successfully intercepted live video feeds from U.S. MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles with widely available software. The story broke on Thursday in the ''Wall Street Journal'' with a defense official, anonymously, informing them it is an old problem, which has already been fixed. The ''Journal'' says U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered the problem late last year when they seized a Shi'ite militant's laptop containing drone video feeds. Senior defense and intelligence officials say insurgents were able to take advantage of an unprotected communications link in the systems of the remotely-piloted aircraft. The insurgents used software that is available online and costs about $26. While U.S. defense officials say the issue has been fixed, the ''Journal'' quoted senior intelligence officials as saying it was not yet clear if the problem had been completely resolved. U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants had been able to take control of the drones. But the intercepted video feeds could show where the planes are operating. The ''Journal'' also reported that U.S. drone feeds have also been intercepted in Afghanistan. Officials say the U.S. government has known about a flaw in the drone communication system since the NATO intervention in Bosnia in the 1990s. At the time, the military assumed local adversaries would not know how to exploit it. The report says fighters in Iraq used software programs such as one called "SkyGrabber" from the Russian company SkySoftware, which is designed to intercept data transmitted by satellite Internet. The ''Journal'' quoted one of the program's developers, Andrew Solonikov, as saying it was designed to download legal content — such as music and video — and that it was never intended to intercept military data. Solonikov said in a email to the paper, "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the Internet — no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content." |
News Corp withdraws bid for BSkyB Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes said that "the sun is now setting on the Murdoch empire" Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has announced that it is dropping its planned bid to take full ownership of satellite broadcaster BSkyB. It follows a scandal over phone hacking at News Corp's UK newspaper group. News Corp deputy chairman Chase Carey said the bid had become "too difficult to progress in this climate". The move came just before MPs debated a motion supported by all major parties calling on Mr Murdoch to scrap the bid. The motion was approved without a vote. The scandal has already led to the closure of the UK's biggest-selling newspaper, the News of the World. On Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron announced details of a public inquiry into phone hacking and media regulation. Market reaction "We believed that the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation would benefit both companies, but it has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate," said News Corp deputy chairman and president Chase Carey in a statement. "News Corporation remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it." BSkyB's share price briefly dropped following the announcement, taking it down 4% for the day, before recovering to close 2% up. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote There could be further damage to the reputation of News Corporation, damage which could alienate advertisers and buyers of its newspapers and entertainment” End Quote The company's share price has fallen some 20% since peaking at 850p earlier this month, and is now trading at a level not seen since News Corp first announced its bid plans in June last year. Following News Corp's announcement, BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "We remain very confident in the broadly based growth opportunity for BSkyB." Shares in News Corp rose 6.5% in New York. 'Huge humiliation' A spokesman for Mr Cameron welcomed the news: "As the prime minister has said, the business should focus on clearing up the mess and getting its own house in order." The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, called it "a victory for people up and down this country who have been appalled by the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the failure of News International to take responsibility". Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes said that "the sun is now setting on the Murdoch empire". British Sky Broadcasting Group *Chart shows local time price change % 705.50 p + +13.50 + +1.95 The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said: "It's a huge humiliation. This was [News Corp's] biggest investment plan of the moment. It was one of the biggest investments they've ever wanted to make. "It is an extraordinary reversal of corporate fortune... And questions will now be asked whether this is the full extent of the damage to the empire." News Corp already owns 39% of BSkyB, but may be compelled to give up even this minority stake if it is deemed not to be "fit and proper" by regulator Ofcom following the conclusion of current police investigations. Robert Peston added there had been "a lot of speculation" that Mr Murdoch might now want to sell his UK newspapers, but the current state of the industry made them less attractive to potential buyers. "The question is, who is going to pay him the price that they are worth? He will not want to sell those papers at a loss." Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Business Secretary Vince Cable said it would be "very difficult" to imagine the BSkyB bid being resurrected at a later date. Mr Cable, who was secretly recorded last year saying he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch, had been in charge of overseeing the bid, but was replaced by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Public inquiry Mr Cameron has asked Lord Justice Leveson to oversee a public inquiry into the News of the World scandal and media regulation. In a statement to the Commons, he said the inquiry would begin as "quickly as possible" and would be in two parts - an investigation of wrongdoing in the press and the police, and a review of regulation in the press. The judge will have powers to call media proprietors, editors and politicians to give evidence under oath, the PM said. Mr Cameron said those who sanctioned wrongdoing should have no further role in running a media company in the UK. Continue reading the main story Scope of hacking inquiry Culture, practices and ethics of the press Their relationship with the police Failure of current regulation Contacts made and discussions between national newspapers and politicians Why previous warnings about press misconduct were not heeded Issue of cross-media ownership He said Lord Justice Leveson, assisted by a panel of senior independent figures, would make recommendations for a better way of regulating the press which "supports their freedom, plurality and independence from government but which also demands the highest ethical and professional standards". He will also make recommendations about the future conduct of relations between politicians and the press. Mr Cameron told MPs he would require all ministers and civil servants to record meetings with senior editors and media executives to help make the UK government "one of the most open in the world". Mr Miliband welcomed the proposal, arguing it must be imposed retrospectively, so that he and Mr Cameron publish all details of meetings with media executives dating back to the last general election. The prime minister was previously criticised for meeting Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corporation, in Downing Street soon after the election, because Mr Murdoch did not walk through the front door. Newspapers which did not support the government ran stories of "secret meetings". Continue reading the main story Who is Lord Justice Leveson? Lord Justice (Sir Brian) Leveson became a barrister in 1970 and a QC 16 years later. The 62-year-old was made a High Court judge in 2000 and appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2006. He was senior presiding judge there from 2006 to 2009 and now, as chairman of the Sentencing Council, is responsible for criminal sentencing policy in England and Wales. Lord Justice Leveson is well known for being the barrister who led the prosecution case against serial killer Rose West, who was jailed in 1995 for the murder of 10 women and girls. He was also the judge during the 2006 trial over the murder of 10-year-old London schoolboy Damilola Taylor. Earlier at prime minister's questions, Mr Cameron said a "firestorm" was engulfing parts of the media and police, and those who had committed offences must be prosecuted. Mr Miliband said it was an insult to the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was allegedly hacked, that Rebekah Brooks was still News International's chief executive. Mr Cameron responded: "She was right to resign, that resignation should have been accepted. There needs to be root and branch change at this entire organisation. "What has happened at this company is disgraceful - it's got to be addressed at every level." In other developments: Meanwhile, Labour's communications chief Tom Baldwin is facing renewed questions over claims he handled private information which was gained illegally during his years at the Times newspaper, another News International publication. The former Conservative deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft makes the allegations in a blog posting on ConservativeHome, which he owns. Mr Baldwin has not responded to the claims. ||||| Rupert Murdoch's media group News Corporation bowed to pressure from the public and parliament on Wednesday and withdrew its bid to take full control of pay-TV company BSkyB. All three main political parties were poised to call on News Corp to abandon its offer in a vote in the House of Commons later on Wednesday. The move leaves News Corp's key strategy for UK corporate growth in tatters. The proposed £8bn deal has been in train for more than a year, with the first offer tabled in June 2010. It is the one of the biggest setbacks the 80-year-old media mogul has ever suffered and follows 10 days of revelations about the true scale of phone hacking at the News of the World, the paper Murdoch shut down last week. The decision to abandon the deal is also a major blow to James Murdoch, who is third in command at the company and has responsibility for News Corp's UK businesses, including its Sky stake and News International. It is likely to lead to criticism from investors over the way the company has handled the phone-hacking affair. James Murdoch initially took charge of the scandal but his father has twice flown in to the UK to oversee matters, most recently at the weekend. News Corp's deputy chairman and chief operating officer, Chase Carey, said it had become clear that the Sky takeover "is too difficult to progress in this climate". Carey, who is also News Corp's president, said: "We believed that the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation would benefit both companies but it has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate. "News Corporation remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it." News Corp will have to pay BSkyB a break fee of around £38.5m after walking away from the deal. But Wall Street welcomed the withdrawal of the bid, sending News Corporation's A shares up by 4.3% to $16 in the first few hours of trading in New York. After falling sharply following the announcement that the deal was off, BSkyB's share price then rallied strongly. The shares closed nearly 2% higher at 705.5p – above the 700p level at which News Corp originally tabled its bid. City traders said there was a sense of relief that the situation had been resolved. BSkyB shares had been changing hands for 850p at the start of last week. Around £2.5bn has been wiped from the value of BSkyB since the Guardian revealed on Monday 4 July that News of the World journalists had hacked into a mobile phone belonging to murdered teenager Milly Dowler. The decision to walk away from the deal was taken earlier on Wednesday before prime minister's questions, which was followed by an announcement by David Cameron about the details of two separate inquiries, one into phone hacking and the other into media standards. BSkyB issued a statement noting the News Corp announcement and saying it believed it had "a compelling investment case and significant growth opportunities, as demonstrated by its excellent operational and financial performance and strong balance sheet which provides both strategic and financial flexibility". "We remain very confident in the broadly based growth opportunity for BSkyB as we continue to add new customers, sell more products, develop our leading position in content and innovation, and expand the contribution from our other businesses," said Jeremy Darroch, the BSkyB chief executive. "I would like to commend all our employees for their unrelenting focus throughout the offer period and thank them for their continuing support." Nicholas Ferguson, Sky deputy chairman and the senior independent non-executive director, added: "Since the start of the offer period, BSkyB's management team has remained fully focused on its strategic and operational priorities, as evidenced in the strong results reported for the first nine months of the financial year. With good momentum and a range of options for continued growth, BSkyB is well positioned to increase earnings and cash flow and deliver higher returns for shareholders." Carey was at News International's Wapping offices on the fringes of the City of London briefly, where the decision is believed to have been finalised. David Cameron, the prime minister, said News Corp should focus on sorting out the wrongdoing at News International. "That must be the priority, not takeovers, so [withdrawing the BSkyB bid is] the right decision, but also the right decision for the country too. We've now got to get on with the work of the police investigation and the public inquiry that I have set up today," he added. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said withdrawing the bid was the "decent and sensible" thing do to. The Liberal Democrat leader briefly threatened to cause a coalition split when he declared Murdoch should abandon the Sky offer earlier this week, before Cameron decided he would also back a Labour motion to call for it to be dropped. The shadow culture secretary, Ivan Lewis, said: "It's a victory for the public of this country, it's a victory for parliament and it's a victory for the tremendous leadership that Ed Miliband has shown." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook | File photograph of . , owned by , has made the decision to abandon a deal to take full control of broadcasting company . The decision came amidst pressure from the British public and politicians, as British parliamentarians from the government and opposition parties prepared to vote in the in London to urge Murdoch to drop the deal. The Murdoch move followed a series of damaging revelations about by journalists at the '''', which published its last edition on July 10. leader said the decision was "a victory for people up and down this country who have been appalled by the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the failure of News International to take responsibility". , the president of News Corporation, said it would be "too difficult to progress in this climate." The corporation "remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB," Carey said in a statement. "We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it." Politicians from around the political spectrum have expressed their disapproval on Murdoch over the allegations of phone hacking and praised his decision to drop the deal, with , the deputy prime minister, saying the decision was "decent and sensible"; while , a senior Labour shadow minister, called the decision "a victory for the public of this country." |
Henson's naked teen shots 'not pornography' Posted Updated Betty Churcher, former director of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), says debate sparked by a Bill Henson exhibition is misguided. Twenty of Henson's photographs, featuring a naked girl under the age of 16, were confiscated during a police raid on Sydney's Roslyn Oxley9 gallery late last week. Police are considering whether to lay criminal charges against those involved with the exhibition, which was condemned by many - including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd But Ms Churcher has defended Henson's shots, saying they are works of art and depict a sense of innocence. "There is absolutely no suggestion of pornography in these photographs," she said. "They are breathtakingly beautiful, they are about the vulnerability of life." ||||| The senior arts figure Michael Gow has accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy over his response to Bill Henson's photographs of naked adolescents and said artists invited to the 2020 Summit were drafting a letter demanding an explanation. Mr Gow, a celebrated playwright and the artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company, said Kevin Rudd's description of Henson's work as revolting and devoid of artistic merit was unacceptable. Only two months ago, he was telling arts delegates to the 2020 Summit that he supported debate and contention. "The Prime Minister who invited us to Canberra has questioned the abilities and credentials of a major Australian artist," he wrote in a letter to The Herald. "I regret attending the 2020 Summit and invite others who attended to join me in protesting the treatment of Bill Henson over the last few days." Mr Gow said Mr Rudd's comments were hypocritical. "A lot of people are disappointed now." Delegates from the Creative Australia forum have been emailing each other, condemning Mr Rudd's response and drafting a letter asking him to outline what he sees as the difference between art and pornography, he said. Police seized the photographs from the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery on Friday and plan to lay charges under state and federal laws over the exhibition, which has sparked a passionate national debate about censorship and the sexualisation of children. The Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin, said yesterday that there was a broader problem of the sexualisation of children at stake. "I don't agree with the photographs, but I also don't agree with the way in which children are being bombarded in many other places, whether it's billboards, whether it's on children's television," she told the Nine Network. "Children ... are just getting bombarded with sexualised images all the time, and it's that sexualisation of children that I think is wrong." Henson and the gallery owner Roslyn Oxley have continued to shun the media, as reports emerge that they have been the objects of violent threats. The threats have not been formally reported to police. Since news of the exhibition broke on Thursday, the gallery's answering machine has been inundated with angry calls, some threatening to burn down the building, said Ms Oxley's husband, Tony Oxley. The threats have been condemned by Hetty Johnston, the child welfare advocate who made the complaints to police over the exhibition. ||||| AUSTRALIA'S artistic community defiantly voiced its support for photographer Bill Henson yesterday as another senior government minister criticised his work and police continued their child pornography investigation. In an act of solidarity with the embattled artist, leading dealer Denis Savill hung a Bill Henson image of two nude young people in the window of his Sydney gallery. "This will give them something to grizzle about," Mr Savill said as he hung one of the works from Henson's 1992-1993 Untitled series. Mr Savill, like many of his art industry colleagues, was appalled when police last week confiscated photographs by Henson - one of Australia's leading contemporary artists - and decided to hang the picture beside an Arthur Boyd nude, "to remind people that nudes have inspired artists for centuries". "I'm saying, 'I'm supporting Bill', I don't see any problem with this work," Mr Savill said. "I think his images can be very thought-provoking, and it certainly raises your awareness about children in a modern society, but it's not offensive." Police raided the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington, in inner-city Sydney, on Friday after a complaint from a member of the public, seizing 20 of Henson's photographs, some of which include naked images of a girl and boy aged 13 and 12. They have said they will seek prosecution under state and commonwealth laws, alleging the photographs depicted "a child under the age of 16 years of age in a sexual context". However, police have not said whether they will prosecute Henson or gallery owner Roslyn Oxley. Comments last Friday by Kevin Rudd, who described the images as "absolutely revolting", have thrown the issue into the political arena. Arts Minister Peter Garrett, a longtime advocate of artists' freedom of expression, told The Australian he did not wish to comment on a case currently under police investigation, "except to say that while artists have a right to challenge and confront audiences, they also have a responsibility to operate within the law." He said "the fact that Bill Henson's work features in a number of the nation's galleries and private collections is an acknowledgement of his success as an artist". The controversy has raised questions about the fate of other Henson photographs which hang in galleries across the country and abroad. The Art Gallery of NSW, which has 48 Henson works and two on display, said it had no intention of removing the images, which depict nudes of indeterminate age. An AGNSW spokeswoman said the works, which attracted a steady audience yesterday, would not be removed in the near future. "We totally respect Bill Henson's work. We've had no complaints," she said. Police said they had no plans to expand their investigation. "We don't have any information to say any other art gallery is being investigated," a spokeswoman said. Families Minister Jenny Macklin said society needed to address the issue of children and media. "I don't agree with the photographs, but I also don't agree with the way in which children are being bombarded in many other places, whether it's billboards, whether it's on children's television," she told the Nine Network's Sunday program. "One of the things we all have to do ... is figure out where the line in the sand is, and I think this sexualisation of children is wrong." News of the raid has made headlines around the world, reaching readers in the US, Canada, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. Sites posting articles on the controversy from newswires yesterday included The Washington Post, The Independent in London and The Gulf Times in the United Arab Emirates. Tony Oxley, husband of gallery owner Robyn, said threats were left on an answering machine at the gallery as they prepared to reopen the exhibition without the controversial works. "There are some crackpots out there," Mr Oxley said. "They have left threats on the phone. We have had threats to burn the building down. It is very worrying." Child Protection Advocate Hetty Johnston, who on Thursday wrote to the NSW Police and asked them to prosecute the gallery and Henson, called for calm yesterday. "Some people are very passionate about it to the extreme, which is unfortunate," she told Macquarie Radio. "But if we can just stay focused on the issue, and the issue is depictions of 12-year-old children within a sexual context, there's no question about that." Additional reporting: James Madden, Angus Hohenboken ||||| THE art world has denounced a "dark day in Australian culture" after police seized up to 21 photos of naked children and said they would lay charges over an exhibition by renowned Australian artist Bill Henson. While Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the works as "revolting" and devoid of artistic merit, the art community has come out strongly on the side of Henson, rejecting the accusation that his works are pornographic. At 3pm yesterday, police announced charges would be laid under the NSW and Commonwealth crimes acts for publishing an indecent article. It was unclear whether Henson or people from Sydney's Rosyln Oxley9 Gallery, which published several of the controversial images on its website and promotional material, would be charged. Both Henson and gallery owner Roslyn Oxley went to ground. Henson is believed to be distressed by the charges. "This morning, police have attended the gallery and executed a search warrant and seized several items depicting a child under the age of 16 years of age in a sexual context," Superintendent Allan Sicard told media gathered outside the gallery. The Age believes that police are also examining previous work by the artist. Police raided the gallery on Thursday night following a complaint that has since been revealed to have come from child sexual assault advocate Hetty Johnson. Early yesterday the gallery released a statement saying it would remove some of the works and reopen the show. "After much consideration, we have decided to withdraw a number of works from the current Bill Henson exhibition that have attracted controversy," the statement says. "The current show, without the said works, will be reopened for viewing in coming days." The gallery has not commented since it was announced charges would be laid. Henson has been a prominent figure since his first show at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1975. His work is found in public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Australia and the Australian High Court. It is also held in several prestigious international galleries, including the Guggenheim in New York and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Over the decades, his subjects have included crowds, landscapes and images of urban decay, but those that excite the most comment and controversy have been of adolescent bodies. In his latest exhibition, seen by Fairfax journalists at an early viewing this week, photographs of naked children comprised about a third of the show. Most of the shots were taken from the waist up, although the genitals of the female model were visible in one image. ||||| PHOTOGRAPHS of naked 12- and 13-year-olds in an exhibition shut down by police have no artistic merit, Kevin Rudd said today. Alarm about images of naked teenagers by acclaimed photographer Bill Henson has forced a Sydney gallery to cancel its exhibition. Police said they were investigating the legality of some of the photographs in the exhibition at Roslyn Oxley Gallery in inner-city Paddington. The opening of the show was cancelled amid complaints about the show's explicit content. Printed invitations to the private viewing featured a single image from the exhibition, depicting a naked 13-year-old girl. Police said they wanted to speak to one of the models before deciding whether the show would go ahead. The Prime Minister this morning weighed into the debate about the merits of the artworks, saying he thought they were "revolting". "I find them absolutely revolting," he told the Nine Network. "Kids deserve to have the innocence of their childhood protected. I have a very deep view of this. For God's sake, let's just allow kids to be kids. "Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any - just allow kids to be kids." Gallery manager Amanda Rowell said there had been no specific threats, but the gallery had received dozens of telephone calls. Some angry callers had "no concept" about the show. She added the gallery was concerned about possible damage to the large-format photographs, which each carry a price tag of $25,000. "It was spiralling out of control," Ms Rowell said. "We have never had this controversy before." Henson is an internationally renowned photographer who was given an important retrospective show at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2005. He declined last night to comment on the cancellation of the show's opening night, but yesterday expressed frustration at the controversy that sometimes attended his shows. The exhibition of 30 photographs includes landscape and architectural studies, shown in juxtaposition with the male and female nudes. Henson said the nudes were taken in his Melbourne studio. The models were about 13 years old and were not professionals. The children and their families had given permission to be photographed. Asked about community concerns over child pornography, Henson said his personal and artistic priorities were not conditioned by an alarmist media. "You can't control the way in which individuals respond to the work," he said. He was interested in exploring notions of intimacy and "something which is absolutely inviolate and unknowable". NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he found the exhibition "offensive and disgusting". "I don't understand why parents would agree to allow their kids to be photographed liked this," he told Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper. NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell also condemned the exhibition. with agencies ||||| POLICE say they expect to lay charges after seizing more than 20 photographs from a controversial exhibition in Sydney that features images of naked 12- and 13-year-old girls. Rose Bay Local Area Commander Allan Sicard said NSW Police expected to prosecute over the images by artist Bill Henson, which were to go on display at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington last night. The exhibition was shut down just before it was due to open. "Police are investigating this matter and it is likely that we will proceed to prosecution on the offence of publish an indecent article under the Crimes Act," he said, but would not specify who was likely to be charged. Last night Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the images "revolting", while Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson said they "violate Australian values". Henson and the gallery have defended the work as art. "Bill Henson is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists and is internationally respected," they said. "His works are held in every leading art institution in Australia and are included in the collections of a number of the world's most prestigious art museums." 'Inviolate' Earlier, Henson defended his work as seeking to explore "something which is absolutely inviolate and unknowable". He told The Australian: "You can't control the way individuals respond to the work." Mr Rudd has said the images have no artistic value. "Kids deserve to have the innocence of their childhood protected," he said on Channel 9. "Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any - just allow kids to be kids." Dr Nelson said: "This photographic exhibition, from what I have seen and what I have been advised, violates the things for which we stand as Australians and indeed as parents." Daily Telegraph video: Police enter the gallery » Bad taste: Pedophiles 'get kicks' from catalogues » Art experts said the critics need to take another look at the works. Judy Annear curated a exhibition of Henson's work at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2005-2005 which was seen by 65,000 people. She said there was not a single complaint. "Bill's work isn't the problem here, it's just a convenient kind of whipping boy. I couldn't work with Bill if I thought he was abusing children," she said. The Roslyn Oxley9 gallery's manager Amanda Rowell called him a "master". "It has never been like this before. This is no different to any other exhibition he's had and he's had many exhibitions here," she said. "He's a master, there's no one in the world like him." - Daily Telegraph, The Australian, AAP Share this article NEWS.com.au is not responsible for the content of external sites. | The Rosley Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, Australia was raided by police over the weekend following complaints of child pornography. The complaints related to an exhibition of works by photographer Bill Henson, which included several photographs of naked pubescent children. Twenty-one of the forty photographs in the exhibition were seized during the raid, and police have announced that charges will be laid under the NSW Commonwealth and Crimes Act for "publishing an indecent article". Digital versions have also been removed from the Gallery's website. Politicians on both sides of the fence spoke out against the exhibition. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, speaking to the Nine Network, said he found the photos to be "absolutely revolting ... Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any - just allow kids to be kids." His Opposition counterpart, Brendan Nelson, believes that the exhibition "violates the things for which we stand as Australians and indeed as parents". Art experts have supported Henson and defended his work, denying claims of child pornography and exploitation. According to Betty Churcher, a former director of the National Gallery of Australia, "there is absolutely no suggestion of pornography in these photographs". Sydney art dealer Denis Savill hung one of Henson's works, featuring two nudes, in his gallery window beside an Arthur Boyd nude, to "give them something to grizzle about". According to Tony Oxley, husband of gallery owner Roslyn, the gallery's answering machine has recorded several threats to burn the building down. The police action also calls into question the fate of similar works by Henson in other galleries in Australia and around the world. |
A French writer who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her nine years ago is to file an official complaint, her lawyer has announced. Tristane Banon previously described the attack, which happened when she was in her early 20s, in a television programme in 2007, when she called Strauss-Kahn, whose name was bleeped out, a "rutting chimpanzee." She says she consulted a lawyer at the time, but was persuaded not to take action by her mother, a regional councillor in the Socialist party and friend of the Strauss-Kahn family. Banon is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn's second wife. Banon's lawyer, David Koubbi, said: "We are planning to make a complaint. I am working with her." Strauss-Kahn was remanded in custody today after appearing in a New York court accused of a sexual attack on a hotel maid. The 62-year-old head of the International Monetary Fund – who was widely tipped to be France's next president – was refused bail by the judge, Melissa Jackson, who ruled he might attempt to flee the US. His offer to post bail of one million dollars was turned down. DSK, as he is known in France, will now stay in prison until his next court hearing on May 20. He faces charges of attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching and could face up to 25 years in prison. Strauss-Kahn denies the charges. Koubbi said Banon, now 31, was "literally blown over" when she heard the claims Strauss-Kahn had attacked a hotel chambermaid in New York. "At the same time, she was certainly not surprised," he said. Across France, after the shock of Strauss-Kahn's arrest, came speculation, self-pity and conspiracy theories. For some, the story of Strauss-Kahn's fall from presidential hopeful to prison cell was a combination of sordid tale and Shakespearean tragedy. For others the story was so extraordinary it smacked of a set-up. Only three weeks ago, Strauss-Kahn evoked such a possibility in an interview with French newspaper Libération when he said he thought he was under surveillance and named the three principal difficulties he foresaw if he was to stand for the presidential elections. "Money, women and the fact I am Jewish." He added: "Yes, I like women ... so what?" He said he could see himself becoming the victim of a honey trap: "a woman raped in a car park and who's been promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent such a story ..." But not in his or his Socialist party's worst nightmares, nor in President Nicolas Sarkozy's wildest dreams, could anyone imagine Strauss-Kahn, nicknamed with almost tacit admiration the 'Great Seducer', being at the epicentre of what was described as a "political earthquake". Jean-Marie Le Guen, a Socialist party MP who has known Strauss-Kahn for 25 years, said the story was "not credible" and inconsistent with what he knew of the politician's character. "Seduction, yes, but no way would he use constraint or violence. A certain number of facts, and certain aspects of the story we are hearing from the press, make this not credible." He said Strauss-Kahn had not fled the scene of the alleged crime as reported but had lunched in New York before catching a flight booked weeks previously. France-Soir reported that when plain-clothed police officers approached the politician in the first-class section of the Air France plane bound for Paris, he looked up at them and asked: "What's the matter?" Le Guen said his friend knew he would be the target of mud-slinging but added: "What they are asking us to believe … it's just hallucinations. I'm a doctor and I know this can happen. We knew there would be hyper-violent attacks on him [Strauss-Kahn]. We could hear the knives being sharpened in preparation." Libération editor Nicolas Demorand suggested France was having its first sex scandal "à l'anglo saxonne" and was "brutally entering a zone of public debate which, up to now whether because of the cultural exception, the 'latin' identity or democratic weakness has been confined to rumours and gossip among a small inner circle". "Politicians … enjoy a particular tolerance on this subject," he wrote. "Part of the shock comes also from the unusual scene, until now unthinkable here: police arresting a top-level politician on a matter of morals." There is sympathy for Strauss-Kahn's third wife, television journalist Anne Sinclair, who Le Guen said was bearing up with "strength and courage". In a spasm of self-flagellation, political commentators spoke of the affair as a disgrace and humiliation for France, referring to the country as "the victim" in the affair. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the ecology minister, did at least mention the 32-year-old chambermaid allegedly attacked by Strauss-Kahn. "As well as the presumed victim, the chambermaid, there is a proven victim … France. We should remember the facts are very serious; in France we tend to treat things like this a little bit lightly," she told news agency AFP. Of the pictures of Strauss-Kahn being led in handcuffs by New York police, criticised by some, including Le Guen as "hyper violent", Kosciusko-Morizet said the French politician was a suspect like any other. "I have confidence in American justice … it's so French to see conspiracies everywhere, it's something I believe that's in our culture." The Socialist party was holding an emergency meeting to decide on how to react to the crisis in its ranks. Two months from the closing date for the party's primary election in October, Strauss-Kahn was the opposition's main hope of unseating Sarkozy. ||||| Strauss-Kahn arrest: IMF head denied sex charges bail Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Continue reading the main story Related Stories A court in New York has remanded IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in custody on charges of sexual assault. The judge said Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, is a flight risk. He was arrested on Saturday after boarding a plane, and accused of trying to rape a hotel maid. Mr Strauss-Kahn, who had been seen as a front-runner in France's presidential election in 2012, denies the charges. His lawyer expressed disappointment at bail being denied, but said his client would be exonerated. "This battle has just begun," defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman told the court. Prosecutors told the court it was not the first time Mr Strauss-Kahn had been involved in such an incident and argued he had been arrested attempting to flee the country. Defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman contested this, saying the defendant had not tried to flee the scene and was actually rushing for a lunch appointment. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote When I hear your client was at JFK airport about to board a flight, that raises some concerns” End Quote Judge Melissa Jackson He added that Mr Strauss-Kahn later called the hotel to say he was at the airport and had left a mobile phone in his room. 'Concerns' However Judge Melissa Jackson denied the defence's offer to post $1m (£617,000) bail and agree to stay with his daughter in New York until the next hearing on Friday. "When I hear your client was at JFK airport about to board a flight, that raises some concerns," Ms Jackson said. The charges relate to an alleged assault at the Times Square Sofitel hotel in New York. According to the New York Police Department, a 32-year-old maid told officers that when she entered his suite on Saturday afternoon, Mr Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her and sexually assaulted her. The woman was able to break free and alert the authorities, a NYPD spokesman added. Continue reading the main story At the scene On a rain-soaked Monday morning, the pavements outside the courthouse were blocked by reporters and cameras all waiting to catch a glimpse of this particularly high-profile defendant. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was brought from a holding cell to the courtroom looking pensive in a black overcoat. Cameramen and photographers jostled to try to capture an image of the IMF head and French presidential hopeful. But instead it was his New York lawyer who spoke to the waiting media after the judge said Mr Strauss-Kahn must remain in jail. Benjamin Brafman is well-known in legal circles in the US. His past clients have included other famous figures such as Michael Jackson and Sean P Diddy. When Mr Brafman emerged he told reporters that the battle had only just begun. Later on Saturday Mr Strauss-Kahn was detained on board an Air France flight at New York's John F Kennedy airport minutes before take-off. The IMF chief underwent medical examinations on Sunday. Police were looking for scratches or any other evidence of his alleged assault. He was later charged with a "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape". Police say the maid formally identified him in a line-up. 'Thunderbolt' Until he was arrested, Mr Strauss-Kahn was considered a favourite to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency next year. Opinion polls gave him a good chance of defeating President Nicolas Sarkozy. Socialist party president Martine Aubry described his arrest as a "thunderbolt" but called for Mr Strauss-Kahn to be presumed innocent. Mr Strauss-Kahn's wife, French TV personality Anne Sinclair, has also protested his innocence. Meanwhile, another allegation against Mr Strauss-Kahn has emerged. A French writer says she may file a complaint for an alleged sexual assault in 2002. Tristane Banon, 31, says Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she went to interview him for a book she was writing. "We're planning to make a complaint," Ms Banon's lawyer told AFP news agency. Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have so far not responded to the allegation. The European Union says the scandal should not affect bail-outs for eurozone countries. The IMF has played a central role in organising rescue packages for the troubled economies of Portugal and Greece, and Mr Strauss-Kahn had been due to attend an EU finance ministers' meeting in Brussels to discuss the bail-outs. The BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says he has gained the trust of countries in Europe which are giving financial assistance, and those which are receiving it. ||||| Reuters IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was denied bail today on attempted rape and other criminal charges, and prosecutors said they are investigating whether he may have engaged in similar conduct once before. Defence lawyers, who sought unsuccessfully for Strauss-Kahn to be released on $1 million bail, denied the charges against their client, once seen as a strong contender for French presidential elections next year. One of the defence attorneys, Ben Brafman, said it was "quite likely he will be exonerated." Strauss Kahn made his first appearance in court to face charges of trying to rape a Manhattan hotel maid in a case that has altered France's political landscape and left the IMF in turmoil. Prosecutors asked that Strauss-Kahn be remanded in custody due to concerns he might flee to France if released. The judge set 20 May as the next date for the case. A defence lawyer said Strauss Kahn did not flee the hotel and the person he was having lunch with on Saturday, the day of the incident, will testify on his behalf. Looking tired and grim-faced, Strauss-Kahn met with his lawyers in a back room of the Manhattan Criminal Court before he entered the courtroom. His hair was disheveled and he appeared to be wearing the same clothes he wore on Sunday. Strauss-Kahn was not handcuffed when he was escorted to the booking station at the court. His lawyers said he would plead not guilty to charges of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment that could bring a humiliating end to his public career and political ambitions. "Our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination ...," said William Taylor, the IMF chief's Washington-based lawyer. "He's tired but he's fine." Any restriction the judge places on Strauss-Kahn's freedom of movement after today's arraignment hearing may determine whether he is able to continue in his globe-trotting role as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. His arrest on Saturday plunged the Washington-based global lender into disarray in the midst of the euro zone's debt crisis and threw France's presidential race wide open. The IMF board postponed an informal meeting pending further information from New York. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom Strauss-Kahn had been due to meet yesterday, said that finding a successor for the Frenchman was "not a question for today," but there were good grounds to have a European candidate ready. European sources said French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde had been picking up support before the Strauss-Kahn news broke. Former Turkish Economy Minister Kemal Dervis is considered a favorite among the non-European possibilities. More allegations involving Strauss-Kahn surfaced in Paris, where a lawyer said a woman writer was considering filing a legal complaint against the IMF chief over an alleged sexual incident dating back to 2002. Strauss-Kahn, the Socialist early favorite in the 2012 presidential race, had his hands manacled behind his back and looked strained on Sunday as detectives led him to a waiting police sedan in front of a battery of television cameras. A police spokesman said the 32-year-old chambermaid at the Times Square Sofitel had identified Strauss-Kahn yesterday from a police lineup that included five other men. The IMF chief, who has retained Michael Jackson's former star defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman to lead his legal team, submitted to the forensic examination with police looking for scratches or evidence of his alleged assault. A charismatic figure, Strauss-Kahn led the IMF through the 2007-09 global financial meltdown, pressing for stimulus measures and interest rate cuts to avoid a depression, and has been central in galvanizing Europe to tackle its debt woes. The IMF, which said Strauss-Kahn had been in New York on private business, moved to fill a leadership vacuum by naming No. 2 official, John Lipsky, as acting managing director. Strauss-Kahn wore a black overcoat, blue dress shirt and black dress slacks yesterday, his hair neatly parted, as he was escorted to a police car in front of the assembled media. He kept his eyes straight ahead, avoiding looking at the cameras. French Socialist party leader Martine Aubry called the pictures, which dominated all news bulletins, "profoundly humiliating" and told reporters: "Fortunately in France we have a law on the presumption of innocence which means that at this stage of proceedings, people cannot be shown like this." Police said the maid had described how the IMF chief, naked, sprang on her from the bathroom of his hotel suite, chased her down a hall, pulled her into a bedroom and assaulted her. She told police she broke free but that he dragged her into the bathroom where he forced himself on her again. The woman, who has not been named, was treated in hospital for minor injuries. She has worked at the hotel for three years and the property's manager said she has been a "completely satisfactory" employee in her work and her behavior. Strauss-Kahn's wife, French television personality Anne Sinclair, jumped to her husband's defence, saying she did not believe the accusations "for a single second," and other supporters in France cautioned against a rush to judgment. Police say Strauss-Kahn left his $3,000-a-day suite in such a rush that he left his mobile phone behind but a French tourist who said she saw him check out told France 2 television he had appeared calm and in no hurry. After he called the hotel from John F. Kennedy airport asking about his phone, police located him in the first-class section of an Air France flight bound for Paris. He was pulled from the flight minutes before takeoff. Police say the IMF chief does not have diplomatic immunity from the charges, which if proven could carry a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years. Defence attorney Brafman is a high-profile criminal lawyer who was part of the team that successfully defended pop singer Michael Jackson against child molestation charges in 2005. Brafman also won an acquittal on weapons and bribery charges for rap mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. In France, Strauss-Kahn had not yet declared his candidacy but was widely expected to seek the Socialist Party nomination. Early opinion polls gave him a big lead over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, who is likely to seek a second term at the election next April. France's government as well as Strauss-Kahn's allies and rivals called for caution and respect for the presumption of innocence. But unless the case against him collapses rapidly, it is hard to see how he could enter the Socialist primary, for which the deadline for candidates to declare is July 13. That leaves former party leader Francois Hollande and 2007 presidential candidate Segolene Royal as the only declared Socialist contenders, but Aubry or former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius might join the race if Strauss-Kahn is out. French voters are famously tolerant of political leaders' extramarital affairs, but the allegations against Strauss-Kahn are entirely different, and much more serious. The charges were a huge embarrassment for an institution that oversees the world economy and has authorised hundreds of billions of dollars of loans to troubled countries. The IMF faces questions of its own, because Strauss-Kahn's character had been questioned before. In 2008, he apologized for "an error of judgment" after an affair with a female IMF economist who was his subordinate. The Fund's board warned him against improper conduct, but cleared him of harassment and abuse of power and kept him in his job. It will now face new scrutiny over whether that response was too weak, especially as there have been persistent rumours about Strauss-Kahn making sexual advances to women. The left-leaning French daily Liberation published comments it said he had made at a private lunch with reporters last month in which he said the three most difficult hurdles for his presidential bid would be "money, women and my Jewishness." ||||| The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has agreed to undergo scientific and forensic tests and intends to "vigorously" defend himself against charges that he sexually assaulted a hotel maid, his lawyers said. Strauss-Kahn's court hearing was delayed and he remained in jail after consenting to a medical examinations at the request of the government. He had been due to be arraigned in a Manhattan court but the hearing has now been put over to Monday. The charges threaten to create a leadership vacuum at the IMF, overseer of the global economy, and throw wide open next year's French presidential election, ending the hopes of the French Socialist who was favourite to beat Nicolas Sarkozy. The euro fell to a seven-week low against the dollar on Monday after the charges, raising uncertainty over the status of aid to Greece. Strauss-Kahn was pulled off an Air France flight on Sunday as he headed for Europe for crunch talks with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and European finance ministers over the debt crisis. He was arrested over the weekend and charged with assaulting a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan. The maid identified Strauss-Kahn at a police lineup at the special victims unit in Harlem, New York, where the 62-year-old French presidential hopeful was being held. She was driven from the station in a police van with a blanket over her head. "He intends to vigorously defend these charges and denies any wrongdoing," lawyer Benjamin Brafman told journalists outside the courthouse. William Taylor, another of the IMF boss's lawyers, said: "Our client willingly consented to scientific and forensic examinations at the request of the government." Taylor said Strauss-Kahn was "tired, but he's fine". Strauss-Kahn is alleged to have left his hotel in a hurry after sexually assaulting the maid, forgetting his mobile phone and other items. The woman has not been named. In a statement, Jorge Tito, the managing director of Sofitel New York, said he could not comment on the case. "However, we want to stress that our employee has been working with Sofitel New York for three years and we have been completely satisfied with the quality of her work and behaviour." The 32-year-old hotel worker told police she entered Strauss-Kahn's room to clean it at around 1pm on Saturday. He allegedly emerged from the bathroom naked, ran after her and dragged her into a bedroom where he began sexually assaulting her on the bed. According to the police account of the "brutal" attack, he locked the door to the suite, then dragged the maid down a hallway into a bathroom where he assaulted her again. The woman escaped from the room and was later treated in hospital for minor injuries. Police found Strauss-Kahn had left his room seemingly "in a hurry", leaving behind personal items including his phone. The allegation is a major embarrassment to the IMF, which has authorised billions of dollars in aid to troubled countries and played a major role in the eurozone debt crisis. The arrest will cast a cloud over the IMF's role in addressing the rescues and is likely to have an impact on stock markets as traders react to yet more uncertainty in Europe. Strauss-Kahn had been due in Europe for talks over how best to tackle Greece's worsening debt crisis and finalise Portugal's €78bn bailout package. A senior Greek government official said the arrest would not change the IMF's policy in Greece but could cause delays in the short term. The IMF-led bailout has become increasingly unpopular with other IMF members amid growing doubts about the Greek government's ability and resolve to meet the commitments of the international aid package. "This adds uncertainty to the prospect of early resolution. The more uncertainty exists in terms of major institutions, the higher the cost for a country like Greece," Louka Katseli, the minister of labour and social security, told the Guardian. "What is needed are firm decisions [to ensure] financing for the next years," she said. The IMF this weekend appointed John Lipsky, first deputy managing director, as interim boss in Strauss-Kahn's place. The board had been due to meet on Sunday in what it described as a "informal" meeting but issued a statement saying the briefing had been postponed "pending further developments in New York". The case threatens to throw the spotlight on Strauss-Kahn's reputation in France for targeting women, something alluded to but hushed up in the press. On Sunday night Anne Mansouret, a Socialist councillor, alleged on French state TV that her daughter, the novelist Tristane Banon, had been the victim of an attempted sex attack by Strauss-Kahn in 2002 but had not gone to police. Mansouret claimed Strauss-Kahn had "a kind of addiction, a difficulty in controlling his impulses, which is a problem". She claimed his "preying" on women was a kind of "violence". Strauss-Kahn's allies said he was a well-known seducer but the allegations of attempted rape seemed far-fetched and unlikely. Strauss-Kahn does not have diplomatic immunity as head of the IMF. After a night in police custody in Harlem, he was expected to appear before a county judge. Under New York state law, a criminal sexual act and attempted rape both carry potential 15- to 20-year prison sentences. Unlawful imprisonment carries a three- to five-year sentence. | File photograph of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has been refused after appearing in court in New York charged with sexually assaulting a chambermaid at a hotel in . The decision by the judge to remand him in custody yesterday will likely disrupt emergency talks over the , demolish hopes that he will challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the , and spell the end of his political career. In court, Strauss-Kahn appeared sombre and tired. The judge agreed with the argument by the that the French politician was a flight risk after he reportedly tried to flee the country on a passenger jet for Paris. The defence said Strauss-Kahn denied the charges against him and offered 1,000,000 bail and said he would reside in Manhattan with an , but the judge refused. Afterwards, defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman said: "This battle has just begun." The politician appeared in court charged with three crimes, including , after a chambermaid told detectives she had been sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn in a luxury hotel near . "The maid described being forcibly attacked, locked in the room and sexually assaulted," a spokesperson for the said. Detectives said the politician was detained in the cabin of the passenger plane which was minutes from leaving for Paris. Strauss-Kahn had reportedly fled the hotel "in a hurry" after the attack, leaving a number of personal effects behind. Prosecutors have last night announced they are investigating claims made by a French author, , that she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn in 2002. At the time, her mother— councillor — persuaded her not to press charges against him, but yesterday she told French television that Strauss-Kahn had an "addiction" to "preying" on women, and had "a difficulty in controlling his impulses." The author's lawyer has announced he is planning to file a complaint with Banon to officials about the alleged attack. Kahn can be convicted and sentenced over the alleged attacks on the chambermaid and on Banon because he does not have . Strauss-Kahn was considered a serious contender and was expected to announce his candidacy against Sarkozy this month, but the allegations are expected to destroy the hopes of his supporters, increase infighting among the French left, and leave his political career in tatters. His arrest comes at a critical moment for the IMF, and will likely plunge efforts to stabilise the financial states of struggling countries into chaos. Strauss-Kahn was meant to discuss the bailouts of Greece and Portugal with European Union financial officials at a meeting in this week. |
Central Media Centre Media Centre are on hand to answer any questions journalistes may have concerning any aspect of Ukrzaliznytsia and rail travel in Ukraine today. Head of Press Service (CEO press secretary): Lizunova Olena Viktorivna (CEO press secretary): Deputy Press Service director: Kozutska Tetyana Olexandrivna Tverska str, 7, Kyiv–150, MPS 03680, tel.: (044) 465-24-28, 465-21-76, 465-21-72, fax (044) 465-24-39, е-mail: ргеsscenter@uz.gov.ua ||||| На кордоні з Росією посилено контроль - Держприкордонслужба України У пунктах пропуску для автомобільного сполучення та місцевих пунктах пропуску з метою недопущення в'їзду в Україну з території Росії організованих груп, окремих осіб, які можуть брати участь у заходах екстремістського характеру на території України, проводиться посилений прикордонний контроль і відповідні заходи. Як повідомили УНІАН у Відділі з питань взаємодії зі ЗМІ Адміністрації Державної прикордонної служби України, під час перевірки документів у всіх громадян РФ прикордонники проводять опитування щодо мети запланованого перебування в Україні. Всі автотранспортні засоби, які в'їжджають в Україну, піддаються поглибленого огляду з залученням службових собак та необхідних технічних засобів прикордонного контролю. Такі ж заходи проводяться в залізничних пунктах пропуску. Здійснюється опитування учасників міжнародного руху та поїзних бригад про категорії осіб, які, можливо, слідують для участі в заходах дестабілізаційного характеру. На перонах залізничних станцій, в межах пунктів пропуску (контролю) встановлюються додаткові режимні заходи, організовано взаємодію з лінійним відділом міліції на транспорті щодо можливості локалізації вірогідних конфліктних ситуацій. До заходів з посилення залучаються патріотично налаштовані члени добровільного громадського формування у порядку, визначеному Законом України «Про участь громадян в охороні громадського порядку і державного кордону». У разі виявлення осіб, які надали неправдиві відомості про мету запланованого перебування в Україні, слідують для участі в різного роду масових заходах, а також причетні до участі у заходах по дестабілізації обстановки в Україні та інших підривних акціях, прикордонники забороняють в'їзд в Україну. 2 березня ввечері прикордонники Донецького загону не пропустили в Україну трьох громадян Росії. Одного росіянина прикордонники перевірили в пункті пропуску «Іловайськ». Чоловік їхав поїздом з Єкатеринбурга в Сімферополь. Прикордонники з'ясували, що він є офіцером запасу морської піхоти Російської Федерації. Ще двох росіян, які їхали в Україну на автомобілі «Тойота», затримали в пункті пропуску «Новоазовськ». Причиною заборони на пропуск стала відсутність коштів для перебування в Україні. Також від жителів Сумської області надійшла інформація, що в суміжному пункті пропуску «Суджа» (РФ) російські прикордонники опитують громадян, які перетинають кордон. Росіян цікавила наявність у українських прикордонників стрілецького і бронетанкового зброї. | 2013 photo of a Ukrainian Railways train departing Kiev for the Crimea Despite the intervention in parts of Crimea, Ukraine by forces connected to Russia in the past few days, the rail border between the countries remains open today. Neither , the Ukrainian national railway, nor have any announcements on their website regarding any changes in service. According to '''', people entering the Ukraine from Russia are receiving extra scrutiny at at the border. At platform checkpoints for passport control, If the guards suspect people are entering for the purpose of destabilizing the country, the police reserve the right to deny them entry to the country. The reports that Russians traveling via train between the two countries have been turned away at the border including a man traveling from to , a . The 2014 Winter Paralympics are scheduled to start Friday in Sochi, Russia and some attendees, including ''Wikinews'' reporters, are scheduled to arrive at the Games via trains between Russia and the Ukraine. |
The report said some IRA members remain involved in crime Monitors' statement He was speaking after the Independent Monitoring Commission said the IRA had changed radically and some of its most important structures were dismantled. The prime minister said politicians now had a "unique opportunity" to reach a "final settlement". The government hopes the report will help its efforts to restore devolution before the 24 November deadline. Out of the IMC's 12 reports so far, it is its most positive report about IRA activities to date. READ THE REPORT Independent Monitoring Commission 12th report [912KB] Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here The report indicates that a number of key parts of the IRA's structure have been dismantled or substantially reduced. Mr Blair said there was "now a consensus across all main players in the politics of Northern Ireland, that change can only come through persuasion and not through violence of any sort". "The IRA has done what we asked it to do, and while issues like policing remain to be solved, the door is now open to a final settlement, which is why the talks next week in Scotland are going to be so important." ANALYSIS This is exactly what the British and Irish governments wanted to hear Vincent Kearney NI home affairs correspondent Report satisfies governments Game on for devolution deal? "That doesn't mean that criminal activity by all members has stopped but the leadership has made public statements and internal directions, investigated incidents of breach of the policy, even expelled some members and has emphasised the importance of ensuring that business affairs are conducted in a legitimate way," he said. The report said there was not enough evidence or intelligence information for it to say who killed Denis Donaldson, the self-confessed British spy and former head of Sinn Fein's office at Stormont, who was shot dead in County Donegal in April. DUP leader Ian Paisley said he was encouraged that his party's pressure was working and if Sinn Fein signed up to policing there could be a deal. "If the police question is settled absolutely on a democratic basis and principle we would have come a long way along the road," he said. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said: "The DUP don't have anything other than very limited options. "They will or will not participate in power-sharing arrangements. If they don't participate they are condemning people here, but particularly their own constituents, to second class public services, run by second class fly-in, fly-out British ministers. "All the DUP can do is to delay, is to attempt to slow down, but they can't stop the process of changing." Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said: "We believe this report does lay the basis for a final settlement of the conflict in Northern Ireland and an end to the political stalemate. "As such we think it presents a unique opportunity for this generation of politicians to reach that final solution, an opportunity the government hopes the parties will now seize and not miss a fantastic window." In a statement, Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern "warmly welcomed" the report's findings. "These positive and clear-cut findings are of the utmost importance and significance," he said. Referring to talks due to take place in Scotland next week aimed at restoring devolution he said: "It is time to make decisions and for Northern Ireland to look to the future." The SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell said: "What's very clear is that the Army Council has moved forward and dismantled the war machine. "I welcome the moves the IRA have made." HAVE YOUR SAY The only thing that will bring N Ireland's problems to an end is the total disarmament of all paramilitaries Martyn Leman, Wigan, UK Send us your comments PUP leader David Ervine said he did not accept that the IMC was independent. "There is a trend that suggests that our war is over," he said. The UUP's Dermot Nesbit said that while "IRA terrorism and paramilitary activity" has ceased the "organisation remained". "The IRA is still an illegal organisation and it is using illegally gained funds for political purposes," he said. The Independent Monitoring Commission was set up by the British and Irish governments in January 2004. Most of its reports have concentrated on activity by paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. However, it also monitors the "normalisation" of security measures in the province. Its four commissioners come from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Britain and the US. ||||| The Real IRA was behind arson attacks in Newry The Independent Monitoring Commission's report accused the Real IRA of being behind firebomb attacks in Newry. It said Real IRA members tried to attack a police vehicle in Ballymena. The IMC said the group was gathering intelligence on current and former members of the security forces and also loyalist paramilitaries for targeting. The commissioners said it was also trying to recruit members; procure and develop weapons and collecting protection money from drug dealers. It also said the Real IRA robbed a public house in Ballymena and had been intimidating Protestant families and foreign workers in the town. "In August we think it likely that RIRA was the dissident group responsible for incendiary devices which caused extensive damage to commercial premises in Newry," the report said. "On the following day there were several hoax alerts and viable devices were found which failed to explode. Active and dangerous "These incidents represent an escalation in RIRA terrorism, which had been at a relatively low level since the end of its campaign of incendiaries in early 2005." The IMC said the Continuity IRA remained an active and dangerous dissident republican group, attacking loyalist bonfires in June, exiling one individual and carrying out a burglary to acquire new weapons. The commission said: "We have no doubt that CIRA remains committed to terrorism, although it continues to be the case that its capabilities do not generally match its aspirations and the police, north and south, have had a number of welcome successes against it." The organisation continues to raise funds through the smuggling and distribution of tobacco and it has demanded protection money from foreign workers IMC on INLA The commission was unable to attribute a number of incidents to specific groups but believed dissidents were behind forcing a delivery van driver at gunpoint to drive his vehicle with a bomb on board to a police station in Londonderry. Dissidents also attacked Protestant schools, gospel and Orange halls in Ballymena and Loughgiel in July. Oglaigh na hEireann, a small dissident group which emerged in 2005, remained active trying to recruit members and obtain weapons. It was also behind a number of bomb hoaxes. As the Provisional IRA pursued its strategy of ending paramilitary activity over the past six months, the report noted the emergence of a maverick faction, the Republican Defence Army, at the graveside of a republican in the north west in June. "We think the RDA is a small local grouping with limited wider appeal," the commission said. The IMC said the Irish National Liberation Army remained committed to its "no first strike policy" and did not appear to be capable of a sustained campaign. "Its level of activity is low," the report said. "Its members have undertaken shootings and assaults against those they believe to be acting anti-socially or to be involved in drug dealing. "In March it told a number of people to leave their homes and in April it was responsible for an arson attack. "The organisation continues to raise funds through the smuggling and distribution of tobacco and it has demanded protection money from foreign workers." ||||| By Julian O'Neill BBC Newsline Loyalist paramilitaries are going through a period of change, but at a much slower pace than the IRA, according to the 12th report of the Independent Monitoring Commission. The report said leadership elements ofboth the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force remain committed to moving both organisations away from paramilitary activity and crime, but believed this was not happening at grassroots level. The most damaging assessment concerned the UVF. The UVF was behind more threats than any other loyalist group The IMC reported that the attempted murder of north Belfast loyalist Mark Haddock was sanctioned by the group's leadership. Haddock, 37, a former UVF member turned informer for the police, was shot six times in Newtownabbey last May. Also, the report implicated UVF members in the murder of 36-year-old Ronald Mackie in Tobermore, County Londonderry, in July. The Scotsman was visiting for a band parade and was attacked outside a social club. However, the IMC said the attack was not sanctioned by the UVF leadership. The report said: "The murder of Ronald Mackie was, we believe the responsibility of a UVF member and associates although we do not think it was sanctioned. "The attempted murder of Mark Haddock we think was sanctioned. "The UVF was responsible for more threats against people than any other loyalist group over the 12 months to August 2006. "Other forms of UVF criminality remain prevalent. "That said, there have been some signs that people within the leadership have continued efforts to tackle criminality within the organisation and reduce its military capacity." Turning to the UDA, the commission softened its tone from its last report when it said criminal activity had reached endemic levels. However, the IMC still acknowledged it remained a problem area for the UDA. Crime is still a problem for the UDA, the report said The report also stated that people associated with the UDA were behind the murder of Mark Christie, 36, in Bangor in August. The alleged drug dealer was hacked to death by a gang armed with weapons which included a machete. "Some indications of more positive leadership which this time have had a useful impact," the IMC said. "At the same time there continues to be violence and a heavy involvement in crime amongst some members. "It is likely that the murder of Mark Christie was committed by people connected with the UDA although we have no information to suggest it was sanctioned by the UDA leadership. "Some individual units still recruit new members. Some have also continued efforts to obtain weapons. "We think there is a genuine desire on the part of some leading members to steer the organisation away from crime. So far they have had mixed success." Both loyalist groups are also blamed for carrying out a number of so-called punishment attacks, but at a much reduced level than previously. ||||| The Associated Press Published: October 4, 2006 DUBLIN, Ireland The Irish Republican Army is committed to nonviolent politics and has shut down key units responsible for weapons-making, arms smuggling and training, an expert panel reported Wednesday, in dramatic findings designed to spur a revival of Catholic-Protestant cooperation in Northern Ireland. The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, embraced the report by the Independent Monitoring Commission. The panel, which includes former chiefs of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the anti-terrorist branch of Scotland Yard, listed statistics and trends that demonstrated the shadowy group's determination to consign its terrorist capability to history. "The IRA has done what we asked it to do," Blair declared at his Downing Street office in London. Unusually, hard-line Protestant leader Ian Paisley also welcomed the report for what he called signs that the IRA "is progressively abandoning its terrorist structures." But he emphasized his Democratic Unionist Party would not share power until Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that represents most Catholics, accepts the authority of Northern Ireland's police force, the last major obstacle in a 13-year-old peace process. The report concluded that the IRA — which killed 1,775 people and maimed thousands more from 1970 to a 1997 cease-fire — no longer believed it could overthrow Northern Ireland by force. Instead, it said, the IRA was committed to supporting Sinn Fein's march into mainstream politics. The U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, said Washington was "particularly heartened by the commission's conclusions that the IRA is now firmly set on a political strategy, eschewing terrorism and other forms of crime." The commission said IRA commanders had sanctioned no killings over the previous 12 months, were cracking down on members involved in criminal rackets, and had cut off members' financial stipends as it trims its rank and file. And crucially, the experts said the IRA had shut down three departments that for decades oversaw the recruitment and training of members, arms smuggling from overseas, and construction of bombs and other weapons systems. Analysts agreed that shutting down such units could presage the gradual death of the IRA, while the experts' use of the word "disband" appeared a deliberate nod to Paisley's core demand for the IRA's total disbandment. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said the IRA's moves removed any excuse for the Democratic Unionists not to form a Cabinet alongside their longtime enemies. "We could do a deal tonight. We could do it tomorrow. It's all up to Ian Paisley," Adams said. Blair and Ahern said they are increasingly optimistic of achieving progress in a negotiating summit Oct. 11-13 in Scotland, during which they hope to get Paisley and Adams into face-to-face negotiations for the first time. The two premiers, whose close cooperation since 1997 has inspired much of the peace process, plan to lead the talks — and bill them as their last effort to revive power-sharing, the central goal of Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace accord of 1998. They have threatened to dissolve the Northern Ireland Assembly, a 108-member legislature with the power to elect a Catholic-Protestant administration, if both sides cannot strike a deal before a Nov. 24 deadline. "While issues like policing remain to be resolved, the door is now open to a final settlement, which is why the talks next week in Scotland are going to be so important," Blair said. Ahern said he and Blair were "serious about the deadline. It is fixed. The time has come to establish whether people want to govern together or not. ... Frankly, and in all honesty, I cannot see any good reason for them not to do so." The IRA's longtime refusal to disarm — a policy at odds with the Good Friday pact — sabotaged Northern Ireland's previous Catholic-Protestant administration. The coalition suffered repeated breakdowns, and collapsed in 2002 over an IRA spying scandal in government circles. But the IRA last year declared its cease-fire permanent and handed over its secretly stockpiled weaponry to disarmament chiefs. Britain responded to that breakthrough by accelerating its military cutbacks. But Sinn Fein's official hostility to the Police Service of Northern Ireland — a force undergoing a mammoth decade-long program of reform as part of the Good Friday deal — looms as the most likely deal-breaker. Moderate Catholics are backing and joining the police, but Sinn Fein has gained votes and maintained internal unity by shunning the force. "If Sinn Fein wish to be treated on the same basis as everyone else, then it is for them to support the police, the courts and the rule of law," Paisley said. "There can and will be no toleration for those who are half in and half out of the democratic club." ___ On the Net: Link to report: The Irish Republican Army is committed to nonviolent politics and has shut down key units responsible for weapons-making, arms smuggling and training, an expert panel reported Wednesday, in dramatic findings designed to spur a revival of Catholic-Protestant cooperation in Northern Ireland.The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, embraced the report by the Independent Monitoring Commission. The panel, which includes former chiefs of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the anti-terrorist branch of Scotland Yard, listed statistics and trends that demonstrated the shadowy group's determination to consign its terrorist capability to history."The IRA has done what we asked it to do," Blair declared at his Downing Street office in London.Unusually, hard-line Protestant leader Ian Paisley also welcomed the report for what he called signs that the IRA "is progressively abandoning its terrorist structures." But he emphasized his Democratic Unionist Party would not share power until Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that represents most Catholics, accepts the authority of Northern Ireland's police force, the last major obstacle in a 13-year-old peace process.The report concluded that the IRA — which killed 1,775 people and maimed thousands more from 1970 to a 1997 cease-fire — no longer believed it could overthrow Northern Ireland by force. Instead, it said, the IRA was committed to supporting Sinn Fein's march into mainstream politics.The U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, said Washington was "particularly heartened by the commission's conclusions that the IRA is now firmly set on a political strategy, eschewing terrorism and other forms of crime."The commission said IRA commanders had sanctioned no killings over the previous 12 months, were cracking down on members involved in criminal rackets, and had cut off members' financial stipends as it trims its rank and file.And crucially, the experts said the IRA had shut down three departments that for decades oversaw the recruitment and training of members, arms smuggling from overseas, and construction of bombs and other weapons systems. Analysts agreed that shutting down such units could presage the gradual death of the IRA, while the experts' use of the word "disband" appeared a deliberate nod to Paisley's core demand for the IRA's total disbandment.Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said the IRA's moves removed any excuse for the Democratic Unionists not to form a Cabinet alongside their longtime enemies."We could do a deal tonight. We could do it tomorrow. It's all up to Ian Paisley," Adams said.Blair and Ahern said they are increasingly optimistic of achieving progress in a negotiating summit Oct. 11-13 in Scotland, during which they hope to get Paisley and Adams into face-to-face negotiations for the first time.The two premiers, whose close cooperation since 1997 has inspired much of the peace process, plan to lead the talks — and bill them as their last effort to revive power-sharing, the central goal of Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace accord of 1998.They have threatened to dissolve the Northern Ireland Assembly, a 108-member legislature with the power to elect a Catholic-Protestant administration, if both sides cannot strike a deal before a Nov. 24 deadline."While issues like policing remain to be resolved, the door is now open to a final settlement, which is why the talks next week in Scotland are going to be so important," Blair said.Ahern said he and Blair were "serious about the deadline. It is fixed. The time has come to establish whether people want to govern together or not. ... Frankly, and in all honesty, I cannot see any good reason for them not to do so."The IRA's longtime refusal to disarm — a policy at odds with the Good Friday pact — sabotaged Northern Ireland's previous Catholic-Protestant administration. The coalition suffered repeated breakdowns, and collapsed in 2002 over an IRA spying scandal in government circles.But the IRA last year declared its cease-fire permanent and handed over its secretly stockpiled weaponry to disarmament chiefs. Britain responded to that breakthrough by accelerating its military cutbacks.But Sinn Fein's official hostility to the Police Service of Northern Ireland — a force undergoing a mammoth decade-long program of reform as part of the Good Friday deal — looms as the most likely deal-breaker. Moderate Catholics are backing and joining the police, but Sinn Fein has gained votes and maintained internal unity by shunning the force."If Sinn Fein wish to be treated on the same basis as everyone else, then it is for them to support the police, the courts and the rule of law," Paisley said. "There can and will be no toleration for those who are half in and half out of the democratic club."___On the Net:Link to report: http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org | Republican mural, Derry 1986, with evidence of vandalism. The Independent Monitoring Commission has reported that the Provisional Irish Republican Army has undergone major changes within their military structure and shows that the IRA Army Council wants to put its military campaign behind it. The Commission consists of John Alderdice, a former Alliance Party leader; Joe Brosnan, former Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Republic of Ireland; John Grieve, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and former head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terror Branch; and Dick Kerr, former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Agency. The report states the IRA no longer has the capacity to mount a military campaign anymore or return to one. The units that have been shut down were responsible for weapons-making, arms smuggling and training. The IRA decommissioned their arms last year. The report also mentions that the IRA has also put its criminality beyond use and is "clamping down" on criminals within the organization, said Lord Alderdice, as he presented the report. He also added, "That doesn't mean that criminal activity by all members has stopped but the leadership has made public statements and internal directions, investigated incidents of breach of the policy, even expelled some members and has emphasised the importance of ensuring that business affairs are conducted in a legitimate way." Finally, the report added that there is not enough evidence or intelligence to identify who killed Denis Donaldson, a British spy who infiltrated the IRA and Sinn Fein, before revealing his status as a spy. However, the report added that splinter groups like the Real IRA (RIRA) and Continuity IRA (CIRA) are still threats and are still continuing their activity. The Real IRA was the group behind the deadly 1998 Omagh bombing. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) "was not capable of undertaking a sustained campaign against the British State, nor does it aspire to" according to the report. It is also noted the creation of two new organizations, Oglaigh na hEireann (Irish Gaelic for "Volunteers of Ireland" and is used by the Irish Defence Forces and the various IRAs.) and the Republican Defence Army. However, the groups are small dissident factions according to the report. The report also added that the two loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) are also beginning to move from violence but at slower pace and not at a grassroots level like the IRA. Another loyalist paramilitary, the Loyalist Volunteer Force The report was received warmly by Irish Toaiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Ahern, said "These positive and clear-cut findings are of the utmost importance and significance. It is time to make decisions and for Northern Ireland to look to the future." "The IRA has done what we asked it to do, and while issues like policing remain to be solved, the door is now open to a final settlement, which is why the talks next week in Scotland are going to be so important." said Tony Blair in a live statement. In a surprising reaction, the notoriously hardline leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Ian Paisley, also welcomed the report. He believes that his party's pressure is working and if Sinn Fein signs up to policing there could be a deal. Paisley said, "If the police question is settled absolutely on a democratic basis and principle we would have come a long way along the road." Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said "The DUP don't have anything other than very limited options. They will or will not participate in power-sharing arrangements. If they don't participate they are condemning people here, but particularly their own constituents, to second class public services, run by second class fly-in, fly-out British ministers. All the DUP can do is to delay, is to attempt to slow down, but they can't stop the process of changing." |
A statement from the ministry on Wednesday said the suspects were plotting attacks on oil and security installations in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has arrested more than 100 people suspected of having links with al-Qaeda, the interior ministry has said. One cell consisted of 101 people, and two smaller cells were made up of six men each, it said. The large cell comprised 47 Saudis and 51 Yemenis, as well as a Somali, a Bangladeshi and an Eritrean, the statement read out on state television said. The two smaller groups were made up of 11 Saudis and a Yemeni, who security officials described as being a prominent member of al-Qaeda. 'Yemen link' The groups had links to an al-Qaeda affiliate based in neighbouring Yemen, Mansour al-Turki, a ministry spokesman said. He said a "network" and two cells working independently of each other had been uncovered. The large cell was discovered as the result of an investigation launched after suspected al-Qaeda fighters - two of them dressed as women - tried to infiltrate the country in October with explosives. The two were killed in a shootout at the border and a third was arrested. Al-Turki said the investigation had so far revealed "correspondence between this organisation and al-Qaeda's organisation in Yemen". He said weapons, cameras, documents and computers were also seized. "The network and the two cells were targeting the oil facilities in the Eastern Province and they had plans that were about to be implemented," al-Turki said. The foreigners in the cell were said to have entered the country under the pretence of seeking work or visiting Muslim holy sites in Mecca and Medina. Suicide attacks There has been no official disclosure on which oil installations were being targeted and whether they were foreign or Saudi-owned. "We seized belts of explosives which they were planning to use in suicide attacks," a security official said. Those arrested included 58 Saudis and 55 foreigners - mainly from Yemen [EPA] Most of the suspects were arrested in the southern province of Jazan, near the border with Yemen. The dates of the arrests were not disclosed. In 2003, suicide bombers suspected of having links with al-Qaeda killed 35 people in the capital Riyadh. But a security crackdown helped curb violence inside the kingdom after 2006. In 2007, officials said 172 terror suspects had been arrested; and in August 2009 44 suspects with alleged links to al-Qaeda were detained. Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for the Asharq Alawsat newspaper, told Al Jazeera Saudi Arabia is winning the battle against al-Qaeda in the kingdom. "By the sheer fact that they have arrested them and exposed their cells before any acts were committed proves that the preventive acts of the Saudi security forces have been effective," he said. "The number of those arrested is alarming indeed and the soft pocket that exists in the southern border of Saudi Arabia with Yemen is an alarming concern." Al-Qaeda resurgence Riyadh is especially concerned about the resurgence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen. In September, Michael Leiter, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC), said the AQAP had gained a dangerous foothold in Yemen. "We have witnessed the re-emergence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, with Yemen as a key battleground" Michael Leiter, Director of NCTC "We have witnessed the re-emergence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, with Yemen as a key battleground and potential regional base of operations from which al-Qaeda can plan attacks, train recruits and facilitate the movement of operatives," Leiter said. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said the kingdom is determined to halt extremism. "In domestic policy, the government continues to expend its efforts to strengthen security," he said in his annual speech to the Shura Council, the country's consultative assembly. "A special effort has been made to confront the thinking of the group of deviants, extremists and terrorists," he said, using language the government usually employs to identify al-Qaeda. "The security services have had repeated successes with preventative actions, and will continue their activities to foil the terrorist plots, eradicate the deviant groups, and dry up the sources of terrorism." ||||| Saudi Arabia arrests more than 100 terror suspects RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia says it has arrested 101 people suspected of planning terrorist attacks on the country's oil installations. An Interior Ministry statement says security forces foiled several such attacks. In the last major attempt, suicide bombers tried but failed to attack an oil facility at the Abqaiq oil complex in eastern Saudi Arabia in February 2006. The complex is the world's largest oil processing facility. Wednesday's ministry statement did not say when the arrests were made. It said the suspects are 47 Saudis, 51 Yemenis, a Somali, an Eritrean and a Bengali. Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | According to the Saudi Arabian interior ministry, over 100 people in the country have been arrested on suspicion of links to the al-Qaeda terrorist group. A statement, which was read read out over television, was released by the government on Wednesday. It said the arrested people were suspected of plotting attacks on security and oil installations. Members from three total cells were seized — 101 from one large cell, and six apiece from two smaller ones. Cameras, computers, and weapons were also confiscated by officials. The statement reported that, out of the large cell, 51 members were Yemenis and 47 members Saudis; a Bangladeshi, an Eritrean, and a Somali were the rest of the group. The other cells consisted of eleven Saudis and a Yemeni. "The network and the two cells were targeting the oil facilities in the Eastern Province and they had plans that were about to be implemented," said ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki, adding that the groups had links to an affiliate for al-Qaeda in Yemen. |
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich, Aziz Sancar Share this: Prize Announcement Announcement of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Professor Göran K. Hansson, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on 7 October 2015. See a Video of the Announcement 33 min. Copyright @ Nobel Media AB 2015 Credits: Ladda Productions AB (production) In order to see the video you need Adobe Flash Player Copyright @ Nobel Media AB 2015Credits: Ladda Productions AB (production) Interview Immediately after the announcement, Professor Claes Gustafsson, Member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, was interviewed by freelance journalist Joanna Rose regarding the 2015 Chemistry Prize. See a Video of the Interview 9 min. Copyright @ Nobel Media AB 2015 Credits: Ladda Productions AB (production) In order to see the video you need Adobe Flash Player Copyright @ Nobel Media AB 2015Credits: Ladda Productions AB (production) Share this: To cite this page MLA style: "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 - Prize Announcement". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 8 Oct 2015. Recommended: ||||| The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 Share this: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has not been awarded yet. It will be announced on Wednesday 7 October, 11:45 a.m. CET at the earliest. Share this: To cite this page MLA style: "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 24 Apr 2015. Recommended: ||||| The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich, Aziz Sancar Share this: Press Release 7 October 2015 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2015 to Tomas Lindahl Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory, Hertfordshire, UK Paul Modrich Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA and Aziz Sancar University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA “for mechanistic studies of DNA repair" The cells’ toolbox for DNA repair The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 is awarded to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for having mapped, at a molecular level, how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information. Their work has provided fundamental knowledge of how a living cell functions and is, for instance, used for the development of new cancer treatments. Each day our DNA is damaged by UV radiation, free radicals and other carcinogenic substances, but even without such external attacks, a DNA molecule is inherently unstable. Thousands of spontaneous changes to a cell’s genome occur on a daily basis. Furthermore, defects can also arise when DNA is copied during cell division, a process that occurs several million times every day in the human body. The reason our genetic material does not disintegrate into complete chemical chaos is that a host of molecular systems continuously monitor and repair DNA. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 awards three pioneering scientists who have mapped how several of these repair systems function at a detailed molecular level. In the early 1970s, scientists believed that DNA was an extremely stable molecule, but Tomas Lindahl demonstrated that DNA decays at a rate that ought to have made the development of life on Earth impossible. This insight led him to discover a molecular machinery, base excision repair, which constantly counteracts the collapse of our DNA. Aziz Sancar has mapped nucleotide excision repair, the mechanism that cells use to repair UV damage to DNA. People born with defects in this repair system will develop skin cancer if they are exposed to sunlight. The cell also utilises nucleotide excision repair to correct defects caused by mutagenic substances, among other things. Paul Modrich has demonstrated how the cell corrects errors that occur when DNA is replicated during cell division. This mechanism, mismatch repair, reduces the error frequency during DNA replication by about a thousandfold. Congenital defects in mismatch repair are known, for example, to cause a hereditary variant of colon cancer. The Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2015 have provided fundamental insights into how cells function, knowledge that can be used, for instance, in the development of new cancer treatments. Read more about this year's prize Popular Information Pdf 482 kB Scientific Background Pdf 522 Kb To read the text you need Acrobat Reader Illustration - DNA Structure (pdf 650 kB) Illustration - Base excision repair (pdf 495 kB) Illustration - Mismatch repair (pdf 1,5 Mb) Illustration - Nucleotide exception repair (pdf 537 kB) Tomas Lindahl, Swedish citizen. Born 1938 in Stockholm, Sweden. Ph.D. 1967 from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Professor of Medical and Physiological Chemistry at University of Gothenburg 1978–82. Emeritus group leader at Francis Crick Institute and Emeritus director of Cancer Research UK at Clare Hall Laboratory, Hertfordshire, UK. http://crick.ac.uk/research/a-z-researchers/emeritus-scientists/tomas-lindahl/ Paul Modrich, U.S. citizen. Born 1946. Ph.D. 1973 from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA. http://www.biochem.duke.edu/paul-l-modrich-primary Aziz Sancar, U.S. and Turkish citizen. Born 1946 in Savur, Turkey. Ph.D. 1977 from University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA. Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. http://www.med.unc.edu/biochem/people/faculty/primary/asancar Prize amount: 8 million Swedish krona, to be shared equally between the laureates. Further information: http://kva.se and http://nobelprize.org Contacts: Hans Reuterskiöld, Press Officer, Phone +46 8 673 95 44, +46 70 673 96 50, hans.reuterskiold@kva.se Claes Gustafsson, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, +46 31 786 38 26, +46 70 858 95 21, claes.gustafsson@medkem.gu.se The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines. Share this: To cite this page MLA style: "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 - Press Release". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 7 Oct 2015. Recommended: ||||| The chemists aren’t going to be happy about this one. Over the last decade, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has often gone to biochemistry, which to chemists is only sort-of real science. And this year’s prize, announced today, is no exception. The winners: three scientists who parsed the molecular mechanisms that drive the repair of damaged DNA. The stuff of genetic code, the long chains of bases that are the chemical blueprints of life, doesn’t just stay filed away in some cellular safe deposit box. Even when cellular machinery isn’t reading it to make proteins—that’s what genes are for—DNA is dynamic, copying itself when cells divide. And living things have so much DNA, getting copied so many times, that the system is bound to mess up a letter here or there. It’s also constantly under assault from environmental mutagens like radiation and free radicals. Those mistakes, sadly, don’t turn you into an X-Man. In fact, one of today’s laureates, Tomas Lindahl, discovered just how big of a problem those built-up errors really are. Genetic information decays, and the mistakes add up fast enough that without built-in repair mechanisms, humans wouldn’t be here. Evolution itself would break. After realizing that, Lindahl figured out one of the repair systems: base excision repair, in which an assembly of proteins slices an erroneous base out of a stretch of DNA and replaces it with the right one. Those single-base errors usually occur spontaneously. But another mechanism of DNA repair, nucleotide excision (discovered by Aziz Sancar), targets more extensive genetic damage caused by UV radiation. (When the system fails, you can end up with skin cancer.) The third recipient of the prize, Paul Modrich, discovered how cells correct errors introduced during DNA copying. When that mismatch repair system goes haywire, people can end up with colon cancer. All of those discoveries are essential biochemical knowledge—they’re happening in your body right now, and if you’re really quiet, you might be able to hear them. (Not really.) But in the end, thanks to their carcinogenic connections, they may have just as much influence in medicine as in chemistry. Time for a new classification scheme, Stockholm? | Artist's rendition of damaged DNA being repaired. Yesterday, , permanent secretary of the , announced this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to three scientists for their work on . , and showed how damaged is repaired and is safeguarded by the cells at the level. Swedish scientist Tomas Lindahl found that DNA molecules decay too quickly for life, or evolution, to be sustainable. This led to the discovery of , a cellular mechanism that repairs damaged DNA by removing erroneous sections and replacing them. Turkish Aziz Sancar mapped , a DNA repair mechanism that targets larger-scale damage caused by and . US professor of Paul Modrich showed how errors caused during are usually rectified. increases the precision of DNA replication when divide. The prize is shared 1/3rd to each scientist. |
A suspected US missile strike in north-west Pakistan, the second drone attack in four days, has killed 13 people. Local officials in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, said the dead included women and children as well as militants - some of them foreigners. But a Taleban spokesman denied this, saying all those killed were civilians. The US military does not routinely confirm drone attacks, but US forces in Afghanistan are believed to be the only ones in the region with the capability. Pakistan is critical of drone use because, it says, civilians are often killed, fuelling support for militants. Retaliation threatened Local administration officials say the missiles destroyed part of a house owned by a school teacher in a village near the region's main town of Miranshah. A number of foreign militants were among those killed in the strike at 0300 local (2200 Friday), security officials said. But a Taleban spokesman said all the dead were civilians. Dozens of suspected drone strikes have killed hundreds in recent months The spokesman said the Taleban held Pakistan responsible for the strike, adding that it should be ready for retaliation. The latest incident comes only three days after a missile fired by a suspected US drone killed at least 14 people in Pakistan's Orakzai tribal area, near the Afghan border. Correspondents say that more than 35 suspected drone strikes have killed more than 340 people since August 2008, shortly before the election of President Asif Ali Zardari. US President Barack Obama has pledged to make the war against the Taleban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan a foreign policy priority. Most missile strikes by drones have targeted foreign fighters in the Waziristan region over the past couple of years. The drone attacks are said to be part of a new US strategy to eliminate the Taleban and al-Qaeda leadership who are reportedly operating from Pakistan's tribal region next to the border with Afghanistan, says the BBC's Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad. ||||| By Alamgir Bitani PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A pilotless U.S. drone aircraft fired a missile in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing 13 people including some foreign militants, security officials and residents said. Hours later, Pakistani Taliban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for a shooting at a U.S. immigration center in New York in which a gunman killed 13 people, saying it was revenge for U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan. U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment about Mehsud's claim, but Pakistani security analysts dismissed it as a publicity stunt. The New York Times quoted representative Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes the town of Binghamton in New York state where the shooting took place, as saying indications were the gunman was an immigrant from Vietnam. With the Afghan insurgency intensifying, the United States began launching more drone strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Pakistani side of the border last year. Since then, about 35 U.S. strikes have killed about 350 people, including mid-level al Qaeda members, according to reports from Pakistani officials, residents and militants. The attack Saturday was in the North Waziristan region, a stronghold of al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan border, about 35 km (20 miles) west of the region's main town of Miranshah at about 3 a.m. (5 p.m. EST on Friday). "The missile hit a house where some guests were staying," one intelligence agency official said, referring to foreign militants. "We have information that 13 people were killed including some guests." Continued... ||||| There has been growing anger in Pakistan against US aerial attacks [EPA] The attack on Saturday occurred in an area 35km west of the region's main town of Miranshah. Up to 13 people have been killed in a suspected US drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan region near the Afghan border, security officials say. The death toll is 13, including some foreigners, but information is very sketchy because it's a town which is very remote," one security official said on condition of anonymity. Pakistani officials use the word "foreigner" to refer to suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, but the precise identities of the dead was not confirmed. A local official said the compound that was hit belonged to Tariq Khan, who was described as a "facilitator of the Taliban". Amir Shah, a resident of Waziristan, said drones were still flying over the area several hours after the attack. 'Safe haven' With violence intensifying in Afghanistan, the US has launched more drone attacks on the Pakistani side of the border to destroy what it describes as "safe havens" for anti-government fighters. The Pakistani government has protested to Washington against the drone strikes, saying they violated its territorial sovereignty. But the US has kept up with its aerial attacks, accusing Islamabad of not doing enough to crack down on fighters who cross the border to attack US and Nato troops in Afghanistan. Hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters sought refuge in Pakistan's northwest tribal region after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001. ||||| Suspected US strike kills 13 in Pakistan MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) — A suspected US missile strike killed 13 people including alleged Al-Qaeda militants in a Pakistan extremist stronghold on the Afghan border Saturday, security officials said. The strike hit Datta Khel, a small town in the semi-autonomous tribal area of North Waziristan, a known hotbed of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, at around 3:00am (2200 GMT Friday). "Two missiles were fired from a US drone at the compound of a local tribesman, killing 13 people," a security official told AFP. Initial information said no high-value targets had been killed. "The death toll is 13, including some foreigners, but information is very sketchy because it's a town which is very remote," another security official said on condition of anonymity. Pakistani officials use the word "foreigner" to refer to suspected Al-Qaeda fighters, but the precise identities of the dead were not confirmed. One security official said that only four of the 13 dead were militants, but another said 10 militants died. The identities of the others were unclear. A local official said the compound that was hit belonged to Tariq Khan, a local Wazir tribesman described as a "facilitator of Taliban". Taliban sealed off the area while they retrieved the bodies from the site, around five kilometres (three miles) from the Afghan border. "We saw some bodies and pieces of human flesh lying near the compound," a local resident told AFP, requesting anonymity. "The Taliban removed most of the bodies when we reached the site," the witness said, adding that the targeted compound was completely destroyed. A security official said the missiles blasted an ammunition store, causing a large explosion and damaging nearby houses. The area is under the control of Gul Bahadur, a Taliban commander believed to also be right-hand man of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head and whose network has been linked to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Last month Bahadur joined a council of mujahedeen, or shura, which Pakistan's top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud said he had established to fight American troops in Afghanistan. Mehsud claimed responsibility for a deadly assault on a police academy in Pakistan last Monday that he said was in retaliation for missile attacks. More than 35 missile strikes have killed over 350 people since August 2008, fanning hostility against the United States and the government in Pakistan, where more than 1,700 people have died in extremist bombings in two years. The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy drones in the region. Saturday's attack was the second since US President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping new strategy to defeat Islamist militants in south Asia, putting Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda. Speaking in London on Thursday, Obama reiterated that he was "very concerned" about extremists in the border regions of nuclear-armed Pakistan. Pakistan has protested that the strikes violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among its 160 million people. The foreign ministry has said it will take up the issue of missile attacks during a visit by Washington's Afghanistan and Pakistan troubleshooter Richard Holbrooke when he visits Islamabad next week. The lawless tribal areas of northwest Pakistan have been beset by violence since hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters sought refuge there after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001. Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| GEO Pakistan 13 killed in US drone attack in Miranshah Updated at: 0858 PST, Saturday, April 04, 2009 MIRANSHAH: Thirteen people were killed in US drone strike in Data Khel in Miranshah. According to sources, US drone fired two missiles at a house of local Tariq Khan in Data Khel killing 13 people. Some foreigners including three women and 4 children were also reportedly killed in the attack. The bodies have been recovered from the rubbles. This is the first drone attack in Data Khel. Back | Send this story to friend Share this story! ||||| 'Pakistan to discuss drone attacks with US' ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan will take up the issue of missile attacks on militants in its northwest tribal belt during a visit by US special envoy Richard Holbrooke next week, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Pakistan says the strikes, the most recent of which killed up to 12 militants in the Orakzai tribal district on Wednesday, violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among its 160 million people. "Mr Holbrooke is scheduled to visit Pakistan next week. And this issue would come up for our discussions," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a weekly press briefing. It will be Holbrooke's first visit since US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda, unveiling a new strategy to commit thousands more troops and billions of dollars to the Afghan war. A spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad was not immediately reachable to comment on Holbrooke's schedule. Asked if Pakistan had lodged a protest with the United States against Wednesday's missile attack from a pilotless aircraft, Basit said: "This is part of our ongoing discussions with the US." In response to another question on whether Pakistan had made a diplomatic protest to the United States, Basit replied: "Not yet, not in my knowledge." "They are violations of our sovereignty and secondly they are counterproductive. They are not helpful in our efforts to win hearts and minds. So we cannot accept drone attacks," he said. He added that Pakistan would work closely with the United States to work out the issue of drone attacks as well as other matters, saying: "We are looking forward to our engagement with the United States in order to formulate fresh approaches." More than 35 missile strikes have killed over 350 people since August 2008, fanning hostility against the United States and the government in Pakistan, where nearly 1,700 people have been killed in extremist bombings in two years. Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has said that Pakistan's border regions pose the toughest challenge in the new US plan to root out extremism, warning the area cast a shadow over efforts in Afghanistan. "We have to deal with the western Pakistan problem," Holbrooke told reporters on Friday after Obama unveiled his new plan to root out extremism. Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| The front gate of the Haqqani-run Manba Ulom madrassa in North Waziristan. Photo by The Asia Times. The US has attacked a safe house in the lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. An unmanned Predator aircraft fired at least one Hellfire missile at a compound in the town of Data Khel just outside of Miramshah. The strike hit the home of a Taliban leader named Tariq Khan. Thirteen people were reported killed, including "foreigners," according to Geo News. The term foreigner is often used to describe Arab and other non-Pakistani al Qaeda members sheltering in Pakistan's northwest. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in the attack. The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani family and Taliban warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadar operate in North Waziristan. The Haqqani Network has a strong presence in the Miramshah region of North Waziristan. Today's attack is the thirteenth inside Pakistan this year and follows a strike against a Taliban safe house and training camp in the Arakzai tribal agency just three days ago. A senior al Qaeda operative and three other Arab fighters are reported to have been among the 12 killed in the first attack in Arakzai since the US began launching airstrikes in northwestern Pakistan since 2004. Targeting the Haqqani Network The US has been heavily targeting the Haqqani Network in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan since early 2008. More than half of the US strikes have hit targets in North Waziristan. "We want the Haqqanis to know we will hit them anywhere," a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal after the Sept. 8 strike on the Haqqani madrassa. The Manba Ulom madrassa was established by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the family patriarch who has close ties with Osama bin Laden. The madrassa was used in the 1980s to train mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Haqqani family used the Manba Ulom madrassa as a training center and meeting place for senior al Qaeda leaders after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The Pakistani government closed the madrassa down in 2002, but it was reopened in 2004. Since then, Taliban fighters and members of al Qaeda's network are known to shelter in the madrassa compound. The madrassa serves as the headquarters for the Haqqani Network, while the forward operating command center in Afghanistan is located in the village of Zambar in the northern Sabari district in Khost province, Afghanistan. The network is active in the Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Logar, Wardak, and Kabul, and provides support to Taliban networks in Kunar, Nangarhar, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces The Haqqanis have extensive links with al Qaeda and Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI. This relationship has allowed the Haqqani network to survive and thrive in North Waziristan. The Haqqanis control large swaths of North Waziristan, and run a parallel administration with courts, recruiting centers, tax offices, and security forces. Siraj Haqqani, a son of Jalaluddin, has risen in prominence over the past two years. He is believed to be the mastermind of the most deadly attacks inside Afghanistan as well as the senior military commander in eastern Afghanistan. The US military has described Siraj as the primary threat to security in eastern Afghanistan. On March 25, the US Department of State put a $5 million bounty out for information leading to the capture or conviction of Siraj. Siraj is believed to be dangerous not only for his connections with the Afghan Taliban, but with al Qaeda's central leadership. His connections extend all the way to Osama bin Laden. Siraj actively recruits foreigners into the network and trains them to conduct suicide attacks in Afghanistan. Suicide attack targets military convoy in North Waziristan The Taliban attempted to strike back at the Pakistani military in revenge for the US strikes in North Waziristan. A suicide bomber targeted a military checkpoint outside a Frontier Corps base in Miramshah. Members of the Frontier Corps fended off the attack by firing on the suicide car bomber. The bomb detonated before it could hit the checkpoint, and killed ten Pakistani civilians, Dawn reported. Geo News reported that 17 civilians, including five children, were killed in the attack. The Taliban have threatened to target Pakistani security forces in retaliation for aiding the US in conducting its Predator campaign. The military and the Taliban currently maintain a truce in North and South Waziristan. This truce allows the Taliban to run the tribal agencies. Baitullah Mehsud claims credit for murder spree in New York Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has also threatened to attack the united States in revenge for the Predator strikes in North and South Waziristan. "Very soon we will take revenge from America, not in Afghanistan but in Washington, which will amaze the entire world," Baitullah threatened last week after taking credit for a series of deadly attacks in Pakistan, including the military assault on a police training center in Lahore. Baitullah claimed credit for yesterday’s deadly shooting spree at an immigration services center in Binghamton, New York. A man entered the facility and killed 13 people before turning his gun on himself. “I accept responsibility,” Baitullah told Reuters. “They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to US drone attacks.” Baitullah claimed a Pakistani man and another man were behind the attacks. But Baitullah’s claim appears to be false. There appears to have been only one attacker, who was a Vietnamese immigrant who recently lost his job. Background on US strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban networks in northwestern Pakistan Click map for full view. Taliban presence, by district and tribal agency, in the Northwest Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies. Information on Taliban presence obtained from open source and derived by The Long War Journal based on the presence of Taliban shadow governments, levels of fighting, and reports from the region. Map created by Bill Raymond for The Long War Journal. US intelligence believes that al Qaeda has reconstituted its external operations network in Pakistan's lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal areas. This network is tasked with hitting targets in the West, India, and elsewhere. The US has struck at these external cells using unmanned Predator aircraft and other means in an effort to disrupt al Qaeda's external network and decapitate the leadership. The US has also targeted al Qaeda-linked Taliban fighters operating in Afghanistan, particularly the notorious Haqqani Network. As of last summer, al Qaeda and the Taliban operated 157 known training camps in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province. Al Qaeda has been training terrorists holding Western passports to conduct attacks, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Some of the camps are devoted to training the Taliban's military arm; some train suicide bombers for attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan; some focus on training the various Kashmiri terror groups; some train al Qaeda operatives for attacks in the West; some train the Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda's Shadow Army; and one serves as a training ground for the Black Guard, the elite bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and other senior al Qaeda leaders. There were 36 recorded cross-border attacks and attempts in Pakistan during 2008, according to numbers compiled by The Long War Journal. Twenty-nine of those attacks took place after Aug. 31. There were only 10 recorded strikes in 2006 and 2007 combined. During 2008, the US strikes inside Pakistan's tribal areas killed five senior al Qaeda leaders. All of the leaders were involved in supporting al Qaeda's external operations directed at the West. Abu Laith al Libi, a senior military commander in Afghanistan, was killed in a strike in North Waziristan in January 2008. Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al Qaeda’s external operations chief, was killed in a strike in Bajaur in March 2008. Abu Khabab al Masri, al Qaeda's weapons of mass destruction chief, and several senior members of his staff were killed in a strike in South Waziristan in July 2008. Khalid Habib, the leader of al Qaeda's paramilitary Shadow Army, was killed in a region controlled by Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan in October 2008. Abu Jihad al Masri, the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and member of al Qaeda's top council, was also killed in North Waziristan in October 2008. In 2009, US strikes have killed two senior, long-time al Qaeda leaders. Osama al Kini and his senior aide, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, were killed in a New Year's Day strike in South Waziristan. Kini was al Qaeda operations chief in Pakistan. Both men were behind the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed 224 civilians and wounded more than 5,000 others. US attacks inside Pakistan during 2009: • US strikes Haqqani Network in North Waziristan April 4, 2009 • US launches first strike in Arakzai tribal agency April 1, 2009 • Latest US strike targets al Qaeda safe house in North Waziristan March 26, 2009 • US airstrike kills 8 in Baitullah Mehsud's hometown March 25, 2009 • US launches second strike outside of Pakistan's tribal areas March 15, 2009 • US missile strike in Kurram agency kills 14 March 12, 2009 • US airstrike kills 8 in South Waziristan March 1, 2009 • US airstrike in Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency kills 30 Feb. 16, 2009 • US Predator strike in South Waziristan kills 25 Feb. 14, 2009 • US strikes al Qaeda in North and South Waziristan Jan. 23, 2009 • US hits South Waziristan in second strike Jan. 2, 2009 • US kills 4 al Qaeda operatives in South Waziristan strike Jan. 1, 2009 For a summary of US strikes inside Pakistan in 2008, see US strikes in 2 villages in South Waziristan. ||||| ISLAMABAD | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Violence rocked Pakistan on Saturday, with a pilotless U.S. drone aircraft killing 13 people including militants in the northwest and a suicide bomber killing eight soldiers in the capital Islamabad. Pakistan is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan and U.S. President Barack Obama said the release of additional U.S. aid to the nuclear-armed country would depend on how it tackled terrorism. With the Afghan insurgency intensifying, the United States began launching more drone strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Pakistani side of the border last year. Since then, more than 30 U.S. strikes have killed about 350 people, including mid-level al Qaeda members, according to reports from Pakistani officials, residents and militants. Pakistan calls the strikes violations of its sovereignty and says the civilian casualties they inevitably cause inflame anti-U.S. sentiment, complicating its effort to fight militancy. The attack on Saturday was in North Waziristan, a stronghold of al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan border about 35 km (20 miles) west of the region's main town of Miranshah. "The missile hit a house where some 'guests' were staying," one intelligence agency official said, referring to foreign militants. "We have information that 13 people were killed including some guests." Hours later, a suicide bomber killed eight paramilitary troops in an attack on their post in central Islamabad. Five were wounded. Pakistani Taliban militants have threatened in recent days to launch attacks in the capital, in Afghanistan and in the United States in retaliation for the drone attacks. Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud claimed on Saturday responsibility for a shooting at a U.S. immigration center in New York state in which a gunman killed 13 people. Mehsud said it was revenge for the drone attacks. U.S. officials ruled out the claim and Pakistani security analysts dismissed it as a publicity stunt. Separately, militants fighting for the independence of gas-rich Baluchistan province released an American U.N. refugee official they kidnapped two months ago. OBAMA DEMANDS ACTION Hours after the drone strike, a suicide bomber was killed as he approached a military convoy near Miranshah. His explosives went off, killing three passersby, witnesses and a hospital official said. Many al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled to North Waziristan and other northwestern Pakistani border regions after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 in response to the September 11 attacks on the United States. From the remote ethnic Pashtun tribal lands that have never been truly ruled by any Pakistani government, militants have orchestrated the Afghan war and plotted violence beyond. U.S. commanders say the militant enclaves have to be eliminated, and Obama has said the United States will tackle them if Pakistan will not or cannot. Pakistani officials say civilian deaths in drone strikes fuel anti-U.S. sentiment, complicating the military's struggle to subdue violence. The concentration of strikes in Waziristan is also pushing militants deeper into Pakistan. Obama, speaking at the end of a NATO summit in France, said Pakistan must have the capacity to tackle al Qaeda. "I informed our allies that despite difficult circumstances we are going to put more money into Pakistan, conditional on action to meet the terrorist threat," he told a news conference. "We want to bring all of our diplomatic and development skills to bear toward strengthening Pakistan, in part because they have to have the capacity to take on al Qaeda within their borders." President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and his year-old civilian government are also struggling to revive a flagging economy. The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, is due in Pakistan in coming days. Last month the United States announced a $5 million reward for information leaded to Pakistani Taliban leader Mehsud's location or arrest. On Tuesday he said his group had carried out a bloody assault on a police training center in Lahore in retaliation for drone attacks. Security analysts say Mehsud does not have the capacity to organize attacks in the United States by himself but is part of an al Qaeda-led network that does have global reach. (Additional reporting by Kamran Haider, Haji Mujtaba and Gul Yousafzai) | Map of Waziristan, PakistanA suspected United States drone missile attack in northwestern Pakistan has left 13 people dead, local security officials say. The strike hit a town in the tribal area of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, an apparent stronghold of Al-Qaeda militants. "Thirteen people were killed. Ten of them are militants and the identity of the other three — whether they are militants or civilians — is not yet confirmed," a local official told AFP, asking to remain anonymous. "The missile hit a house where some guests were staying. We have information that 13 people were killed including some guests," an intelligence official stated. The apparent target was the home of Tariq Khan, a local Wazir tribesman, who has been described as a 'facilitator of the Taliban'. Pakistan has repeatedly condemned the U.S. drone attacks. Just two days prior to this latest attack, foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a press briefing that "they are violations of our sovereignty and secondly they are counterproductive. They are not helpful in our efforts to win hearts and minds. So we cannot accept drone attacks," he said. US special envoy Richard Holbrooke is scheduled to visit Pakistan next week and this issue will be discussed, according to Basit. More than 35 suspected drone attacks have killed over 340 people since August last year. |
Merkel assured Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of Germany's support and pressed for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgian territory. In an apparent change in stance, the chancellor also threw her weight behind Georgia's bid to join the NATO. "Georgia will become a member of NATO if it wants to -- and it does want to," Merkel said before talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi. It was one of the strongest statements yet of support for Georgia's NATO membership bid which is fiercely opposed by Russia. The statement signals a change in Germany's position towards Georgian NATO membership. Earlier this year, Germany led European resistance to plans, pushed by the US, to put Georgia on the track to NATO membership. Later at a joint news conference with Saakashvili, Merkel said that though Georgia was on a clear path to membership in NATO she stood by her decision at a summit in April not to grant Tbilisi a "membership action plan" for joining the alliance. At the last NATO summit in Bucharest in April, leaders agreed that Georgia and Ukraine should join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization eventually, but neither nation was given candidate status and no timetables were set. The United States is strongly in favour of Georgia joining NATO, but misgivings from France and Germany prevented Tbilisi being awarded full candidate status in Bucharest. Medvedev confirms pull-out In a meeting with Medvedev in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday, Merkel had criticized Russian actions during the week-long war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. She demanded that Russia withdraw all its troops from Georgia's core territory. The Georgian government says rebel Abkhaz forces with the support of Russian troops are occupying 13 Georgian villages, effectively pushing the border of Abkhazia westwards into Georgia proper. Medvedev said Sunday that Russian regular forces would start their pullout from Georgia on Monday, the Kremlin said. "From tomorrow, Russia will begin withdrawing its military forces that are supporting Russian peacekeepers," Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin said in a statement. Speaking at a Sunday press conference in Tbilisi, Merkel said that despite Medvedev's commitment "according to the information I have available to me this (Russian withdrawal) has not yet begun." Merkel: Georgia's integrity must be respected Merkel also repeated that Germany's position was that Georgia's territorial integrity was beyond question, and that its borders should be inviolate. In her meeting with Medvedev, Merkel also stressed that Germany's position was that Georgia's territorial integrity was beyond question and that Saakashvili was a democratically elected president. Government sources said ahead of her departure that she intended to push for "a complete cessation of hostilities." "The ceasefire must be verifiable and lasting," they said. Georgian media hald back from predictions of what effect, if any, Merkel's visit would have on Russian troops currently occupying Georgian territory. Rustaveli 2 television described Merkel's presence in Georgia as "part of an international effort to support Georgia." West divided on how to deal with Russia German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned on Sunday against any knee-jerk reaction to the Caucasus conflict in relations with Russia. "I do not advise ... any knee-jerk reaction such as suspending talks on a partnership and cooperation agreement (with the European Union). That would signify that such an agreement is more important to the EU than to Russia," Steinmeier said in an interview with German weekly Welt am Sonntag. "Or Russia joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO): our interest in this is as great as Russia itself. Talks in the NATO-Russian Council are essential too. Because we need open lines of communication -- to Tbilisi and to Moscow," Steinmeier told the paper. Steinmeier's comments were at odds with the views of other EU members as well as the US. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, warned on Sunday that Russian relations with the EU would be seriously damaged if Moscow failed to fully implement the peace deal it signed with Georgia. In a statement, Sarkozy told Medvedev of the "serious consequences that a failure to quickly and fully implement the deal would have on relations between Russia and the European Union." Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Wednesday that the EU should reassess its relations with Russia after its "aggressive" actions in Georgia and decide whether "to proceed with the partnership and cooperation agreement." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday that Moscow's international reputation had taken a beating by its military action in Georgia. "Russia overreached, used disproportionate force against a small neighbour and is now paying the price for that because Russia's reputation as a potential partner in international institutions, diplomatic, political, security, economic, is frankly, in tatters," Rice told NBC's Meet the Press. ||||| Moscow's troops continue to operate deep inside the Caucasus republic The Russian commander of frontline forces in Georgia has told the BBC that a gradual withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia is under way. Maj Gen Vyachislav Borisov said he had given the order for Russian soldiers to be replaced by peacekeepers. A BBC correspondent said he saw Russian forces in position 35km (22 miles) from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on the road to Gori, close to South Ossetia. Russia said it did not have a timetable for a full withdrawal from Gori. Russia still controls almost all of the main arterial highway running east-west through Georgia, and the main towns along the route. See map of the region Russia's claimed redeployment comes a day after Moscow signed a French-brokered peace plan to end the crisis. Conflict between Georgia and Russia erupted on 7 August when Georgia launched an assault to retake its Russian-backed separatist province of South Ossetia. It led to a massive counter-offensive by Russia, with Russia moving deeper into Georgian territory. The US has demanded Russian troops pull out, but Moscow says it will only withdraw from Georgian territory once extra security measures are in place. International attention French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who mediated the peace deal on behalf of the European Union, has warned Moscow that the ceasefire bars its forces from any "major urban area" in Georgia. However, in a letter addressed to his Georgian counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili, Mr Sarkozy said Russian troops did have the right to patrol "a few kilometres" beyond the conflict zone in South Ossetia. But he underlined that clauses in the agreement permitting Russia to implement additional security measures "in no way limit or put in danger the freedom of movement and travel along the road and rail axes of Georgia" and could not be applied in any towns or cities. PEACE PLAN No more use of force Stop all military actions for good Free access to humanitarian aid Georgian troops return to their places of permanent deployment Russian troops to return to pre-conflict positions International talks about future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia Russia in control and on move Georgians rally behind leader Day-by-day: Georgia-Russia crisis "I am particularly thinking of the city of Gori," he said, which is the largest town close to the South Ossetia border. The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, in Gori, says there is a much reduced Russian military presence in the town compared with Saturday - though Russian soldiers still control the town's key entry and exit points. He says that even if Russian peacekeepers replace soldiers, local residents say it will not make much difference. Meanwhile, US President George W Bush has reiterated his staunch support for ally Georgia. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is due to hold talks with Mr Saakashvili in Tbilisi later on Sunday. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has called on the Russian authorities to immediately take steps to end attacks by South Ossetian militias on ethnic Georgians in Gori and to allow vital humanitarian aid to reach vulnerable civilians. "The Russian military has effective control of the Gori region, making it responsible for the security and well-being of all people living there," said Rachel Denber, HRW's Europe deputy director. Russian control The BBC's Richard Galpin, who has spent the past two days travelling from the Black Sea port of Poti to Tbilisi, says Georgian forces seem to be surrendering control of the highway to the Russians. The UN puts the number of those displaced in the conflict at 118,000 In the western town of Senaki, our correspondent saw large numbers of Russian troops moving around on Saturday. Further east in Zestafoni, he witnessed the panic of local residents as the word spread that the Russian army was approaching. Cars sped away from roadblocks set up by the Georgian police, the drivers realising their hopes of reaching Tbilisi had been dashed. When the Russians arrived, they stayed only a few minutes after apparently being told there was no military base to take over. Our correspondent says he then followed the Russian troops as they entered the central town of Khashuri, where they were given an escort by the local police. He spoke to one Russian soldier who said he believed their final destination would be the Georgian capital, although the Kremlin flatly denied this. Another soldier said he expected to be in Georgia for a year. Georgia has meanwhile accused pro-Russian Abkhaz separatist fighters of taking over 13 villages and a hydroelectric power plant. There has so far been no independent confirmation. Security steps Among the six points in the ceasefire deal, both sides agreed to pull back their forces to their positions before hostilities began on 7 August. Diplomats have said that the UN Security Council is expected to vote later on Sunday on a draft resolution formalising the ceasefire agreement. President Bush has said Mr Medvedev's signing of the truce is "hopeful", but that there can be no question that South Ossetia and Abkhazia will remain within Georgian borders, which are internationally recognised. Reports suggest Mr Saakashvili only reluctantly agreed to another of the plan's clauses - international talks about the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Back to story Are you in Georgia or Russia? Have you been affected by the conflict? You can send us your experiences using the form below: Name Your E-mail address Town & Country Phone number (optional): Comments The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide. Terms & Conditions E-mail this to a friend Printable version Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? ||||| TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Though Russia says it will begin pulling back its troops from Georgia on Monday, it's unclear how long the redeployment will take, and a Russian lawmaker has compared the situation to the U.S. presence in Iraq. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says his troops will begin withdrawing from Georgia on Monday. more photos » Russia President Dmitry Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday that Russia would start pulling back its forces from Georgia on Monday, Medvedev's office said. Sarkozy, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, brokered a cease-fire between Russia and Georgia last week. Russian troops will begin withdrawing to a buffer zone and into the breakaway province of South Ossetia as stipulated by the cease-fire, Medvedev's office said. Moscow gave no indication of when the withdrawal would be completed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, visiting Georgia, called on Russia to stick to its agreement to pull its forces out of Georgia within "the next few days." Speaking Sunday at a joint news conference with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, she said a "very prompt withdrawal" was needed so international peacekeepers could be dispatched to Georgia. "President Medvedev agreed, but we cannot postpone and we cannot delay with these tasks," Merkel said in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Watch more on the crisis » However, lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, said Moscow will withdraw only when it is "assured that Georgians will not continue to use military force" in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian troops will leave "sooner or later," Kosachev said, saying the timetable depends "definitely on how Georgians will continue to behave." "If I would ask you in response to the same question how fast the American forces can leave Iraq, for example, the answer would be as soon as we have guarantees for peace and security there," Kosachev said. "The same answer would be toward this situation." The United States has been in Iraq since its 2003 invasion. Medvedev signed the truce deal Saturday, a day after it was signed by Saakashvili. The conflict began more than a week ago when Georgia launched a military incursion into South Ossetia to rout separatist rebels. Russia -- which supports the separatists, many of whom claim Russian citizenship -- has peacekeeping responsibilities for the region and responded by sending tanks into the province for what it said was peace enforcement. From there, the violence spread further into Georgia and Abkhazia. Watch more on the cease-fire » The Georgian troops withdrew, and Russian forces took control of several areas inside the country -- prompting an international outcry. Six-point truce Russia and Georgia agreed to six points in their truce deal completed Saturday: Do not revert to force again. Definitively stop all hostilities. Give free access to humanitarian aid. Georgian forces withdraw from areas of occupation. Russian forces withdraw to positions at start of hostilities. Open international discussions on South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia maintains it is protecting its peacekeepers and citizens from Georgian forces in the breakaway republics, but Saakashvili insists Moscow is trying to assert control over the former Soviet republic. "It is up to Russia now to decide whether it will continue to defy the world ... or accomplish its final goal of regime change in Georgia," Saakashvili said Sunday. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was skeptical that Russia would quickly withdraw its forces. "My own view is that the Russians will probably stall and perhaps take more time than anybody would like," Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday. "I think we just need to keep the pressure and ensure that they abide by the agreement that they've signed, and do so in a timely way." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who just wrapped up a visit to Tbilisi, also expressed skepticism about a prompt Russian withdrawal. "I would think that when the Russian president says that a signed cease-fire accord will mean the withdrawal of Russian forces, that Russian forces would then withdraw. They did not," she told Fox News on Sunday. "However, yet again, the Russian president has given his word, and this time, I hope he'll honor it." Watch President Bush on "why Georgia matters" » It is unclear how many people have been killed in the conflict, but various claims put the figure in the thousands. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Sunday that it estimated the fighting has displaced more than 158,000 people, citing statistics from the Russian and Georgian governments. Almost 99,000 of those displaced were in Georgia, while 30,000 were displaced in South Ossetia and 30,000 have fled to Russia, the UNHCR said. All About South Ossetia • Republic of Georgia • Russia ||||| MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Russian troops would start their pullout from Georgia on August 18. Georgia launched a major ground and air offensive to seize control of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia on August 8, prompting Russia to send in tanks and thousands of troops. Russia concluded its operation to force Georgia to accept peace on August 12. Medvedev signed on Saturday a French-brokered plan on resolving conflicts in Georgia, aggravated following Tbilisi's assault on its breakaway South Ossetia on August 8. The plan contains the main principles to resolve the conflict in South Ossetia, worked out at the August 12 meeting between Medvedev and Sarkozy. These are renouncing the use of force, halting all military action, providing free access to humanitarian aid, the return of Georgian Armed Forces to their bases, the return of Russia's Armed Forces to their positions prior to combat and the start of international discussions on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and on ways to ensure their security. ||||| MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia rejected on Sunday the Georgian authorities' statements that Russian peacekeepers had allegedly occupied the Georgian villages of Khashuri and Akhalgori. Georgia launched a major ground and air offensive to seize control of separatist South Ossetia on August 8, prompting Russia to send in tanks and thousands of troops. On August 12, Russia concluded its operation to force Georgia to accept peace. "Russian peacekeepers have been given no orders to move to these populated areas," a spokesman for Russia's Defense Ministry said. As a result of Georgia's military offensive last Friday, South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, was largely destroyed. According to Russian figures, around 1,600 civilians were killed and over 34,000 fled the region, mostly to the neighboring Russian republic of North Ossetia. The Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman also said he was surprised over Georgia's allegations that Russian helicopters had set fire to forests near the Georgian town of Borzhomi. "It is understandable to us that the Georgian authorities are ready to blame the Russian side for any natural disasters on the territory of Georgia. We have no relation to forest fires in Borzhomi but are ready to provide assistance in extinguishing them if Georgia makes an official request," the ministry's spokesman said. ||||| Photo: REUTERS Trenches have been dug and tanks, camouflaged with tree branches, are scattered through fields and in forests ever closer to the Georgian capital Tbilisi. In the town of Gori, under occupation for a fifth day, residents are cut off from the outside world and running short of food. Orthodox priests handed out a loaf of bread to each of the few remaining residents in the eerily deserted town. "When is it going to stop?" said Rusudan Kardzikidze, a 78-year-old pensioner. "When are they going to leave?" Justified by Russian claims of atrocities committed by Georgia in the provocative advance through breakaway South Ossetia that provoked the conflict, the reprisals in Gori have been swift and brutal. Guja Chumburidze, an unemployed 26-year-old resident, was one of those who fell victim to the wrath of rampaging South Ossetian irregulars, who were able to enter the town as their Russian allies advanced into undisputed Georgian territory. With his two-month-old son and his ageing mother Iamze, Guja cowered in his home on the outskirts of Gori, listening to the sounds of breaking glass and bursts of gunfire as the irregulars embarked on drunken looting sprees. Then everything went quiet. Refusing to listen to the pleas of his mother, Guja ventured outside to see if it was safe to look for food. Within seconds, he was stopped by a gang of looters. They had seen him, they said, on the streets of Tskhinvali, the Ossetian capital. He was a war criminal and a looter and there was only one punishment for looters and war criminals. "They beat him until he fell to the ground," said Iamze, who had rushed onto the street to plead for her son's life. "They shot him in the back of the head." Most of the Ossetians, as well as the Chechen irregulars who joined them, were more interested in pillaging, as evidenced by smashed in windows of Gori's shops, restaurants and banks or robbing motorists of their cars at gunpoint. South Ossetia has long doubled as Georgia's principal stolen car market. But many, according to witnesses whose accounts have yet to be verified, also went house-to-house in Georgian villages, both in South Ossetia and outside the breakaway province, on raping and murdering sprees. Last week, until orders came from Moscow to rein them in, the Russian troops occupying Georgian territory either did little to stop the irregulars from looting or committing atrocities or actively encouraged them. Manning a checkpoint outside the Georgian town of Kaspi, 25 miles southeast of Gori, four young Chechen soldiers admitted that their South Ossetian allies had carried out reprisals against Georgian civilians - but insisted they were justified. "Do you know what the Georgians did in Tskhinvali," demanded one fighter, who identified himself as Sulim. "They killed 2,000 people. Georgians were crushing small children with their tanks." From the beginning of hostilities, officials in Moscow were quick to declare that "genocide" was taking place and that up to 2,000 people had been killed in attacks deliberately aimed at Tskhinvali's civilian population. Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, went on television to claim that Georgian tanks were crushing children and Georgian soldiers were beheading civilians. Yet the first independent human rights activists attempting to calculate the civilian death toll have so far only been able to confirm the deaths of 44 people according to records from Tskhinvali's only hospital. According to Human Rights Watch, the respected New York-based body, the Kremlin's deliberate exaggeration of the civilian death toll was inevitably contributing to the scale of reprisals against Georgians. Asked whether he had personally seen any children crushed by Georgian tanks, Sulim replied: "No, but I heard Putin say it so it must be true." Russian propaganda has been so convincing that not even the few independent media outlets that normally criticise the Kremlin in Russia have spoken out against the Georgia war. Instead, many Russians believe that the West has rushed to support Georgia, despite the fact that President Mikheil Saakashvili is, in their eyes, guilty of genocide. Sulim and his fellow fighters are convinced that Ukrainians, Estonians and even Chinese and westerners were fighting against them in South Ossetia. They claimed that dents in the front of their tank were caused by a bomb dropped from an American jet. Believing that the world is against them but that right is on their side, the Russian people are convinced that, ceasefire or no ceasefire, their army must stay in Georgia for as long as is necessary. | German Chancellor Angela Merkel "Georgia will become a NATO member if it wants to, and it does want to," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an apparent change in Germany's position during her Sunday visit to Tbilisi, Georgia. Merkel's statement of support for Georgia's NATO membership was one of the strongest yet. Tbilisi's bid to join NATO is fiercely opposed by Moscow. During her meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Merkel stated that Georgia's territorial integrity and its independence have to be respected. After the meeting Merkel said she expected a 'very prompt' withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia. In a telephone conversation with French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev declared that Russian troops would start their pullout from Georgia on Monday. Medvedev explained that Russian troops would be withdrawing to a buffer zone and then to the breakaway province of South Ossetia. It remains unclear how long the withdrawal will take. Sarkozy warned Medvedev on Sunday of serious consequences and damage to the Russian relations with the EU, if Russia failed to fully implement the peace plan it signed. Earlier this week, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband stated that the EU should reassess its relations with Russia after its aggressive actions in Georgia. A Russian lawmaker has compared the situation in Georgia to Iraq and the U.S. presence there. Konstantin Kosachev, chair of the Russian parliament's security committee told reporters when asked about the withdrawal plan: "If I would ask you in response to the same question how fast the American forces can leave Iraq, for example, the answer would be as soon as we have guarantees for peace and security there." At the same time, according to Georgian sources, the Russian troops were occupying 13 Georgian villages, pushing the border of Abkhazia into Georgia proper. Russia's Defence Ministry spokesman denied the report, saying that "Russian peacekeepers have been given no orders to move to these populated areas,". There have also been reports of Russian helicopters setting fire to Georgian National Park near Borzhomi. The Russian Defence Ministry's spokesman expressed his surprise and declared that Russian troops were ready to provide assistance in extinguishing the fire if Georgia made an official request. "It is understandable to us that the Georgian authorities are ready to blame the Russian side for any natural disasters on the territory of Georgia," he said. Russian troops are still occupying the key towns of Gori, north of Tbilisi, and Senako in the west of Georgia. Far from pulling out, Russian military units are entrenching themselves in new positions deeper into Georgia, according to Daily Telegraph. They have also blown up a strategic Georgian Kaspi railway bridge on the main line connecting the country to its neighbours, essentially severing the last route for freight and trade after Russian soldiers also took control of the Georgian main east-west highway. |
© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. Three holes in one of the derailed CP Rail tank cars lying in the Thompson River north of Lytton, B.C., have been patched, and water quality tests taken earlier this week have shown the water is free of contamination, says a CP spokesman.CPR spokesman Mike LoVecchio said officials will continue to test the water every day as long as the train cars remain in the river.In all, four tank cars carrying ethylene glycol derailed on Tuesday evening. Two of the cars reached the river, with one fully submerged and the other partially in the water.CPR initially denied that any of the chemical, used in antifreeze, had been released from the cars. However, by late Thursday, the province’s Environment Ministry confirmed that divers had found broken valves and punctures in the metal, from which the chemical was leaking.“How much may have leaked at this stage, no one knows,” spokeswoman Kate Thompson said.She added that, according to CPR engineers, the water in the river would dilute the product to below-toxic levels, even if the entire contents of the tankers were released.LoVecchio, however, said that CPR plans to plug the holes in any case.In concentrated form, ethylene glycol can be hazardous to aquatic life, according to safety data. Local native groups are worried it could threaten the summer salmon run.“My concern is that the spill may worsen, thus threatening the already precarious survival of the early Stuart sockeye run,” said Ernie Crey, fisheries adviser for the Sto:lo Tribal Council.LoVecchio said CPR crews plan to anchor the two derailed train cars to the bed of the river through a combination of river rock and 4,000-kilogram anchors. They will drain and remove the cars once the river levels have dropped and the salmon run has passed.Two other cars, which were knocked off the tracks in a Canada Day mudslide, were removed Thursday. ||||| Derailment leaks toxic chemical into Thompson VANCOUVER -- A toxic chemical is leaking from a derailed Canadian Pacific Railway car into B.C.'s Thompson River, an Environment Ministry spokeswoman said yesterday.A local native leader predicted that the spill could have a "devastating" impact on fisheries if it kills, contaminates or confuses what's left of the river's salmon runs. The full text of this article has 730 words. To continue reading this article, you will need to purchase this article. Already have a member account? Login now ||||| Glycol leaks from rail cars into Thompson Chemicals water soluble, biodegradable and should not harm fish, officials claim Tim Lai, Vancouver Sun; with a files from Canwest News Service Published: Friday, July 04, 2008 LYTTON - Results from water samples taken from the Thompson River at the site of the train derailment near Lytton were expected today, but government officials confirmed Thursday that ethylene glycol had leaked from one of two submerged tank cars. "The divers have determined that some [chemical] was released," said B.C. Ministry of Environment representative Kate Thompson. "The valves were knocked off and there are some punctures in the tank car that is submerged in the river. "We have no idea how much of it has been released." "There's one car that's fully submerged and it's leaking," said Peter Milobar, chairman of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District. "The other car is half submerged and it's not leaking." Until early Thursday, Canadian Pacific Railway representative Mike LoVecchio maintained that there had been no leak and that a potential glycol leak would have very little impact on the water and surrounding area in any case. "It's important to remember that glycol is water-soluble and biodegradable," he said. LoVecchio said Thursday he was awaiting plans on CP's next steps. Officials from the Village of Lytton, Lytton First Nation, as well as government agencies, the railways and environmental consultants met Thursday to develop a strategy to deal with the submerged tanks and the potential of future derailments. "They can't remove the cars -- it's too heavy and the water is too high right now -- so they're going to go in there to drain them and refill them with water so that they can be stable," Milobar said. "When the river drops, they'll try to remove them. "It's a concern throughout the regional district," he added. "When you think of the sheer volume and dangerous goods that comes through on a daily basis, it's quite a concern." The meeting developed a protocol to test fish for contamination, an issue of great concern for the Lytton First Nation. Lytton Mayor Chris O'Connor, who left the meeting early to find someone who would make wooden plugs for the punctured valves, said he was not concerned about the leak. "It's already gone down the river," he said. "All of the background technical information suggests that even if they had a catastrophic failure of two tanks -- I believe it was 90,000 litres each for a total of 180,000 litres -- the volume of water currently in the river and the downstream dilution would be so great that concentration would be below reported toxicity levels of fish." But O'Connor said he was worried about how to deal with the potential of future derailments. "Going forward, how do we prevent this kind of stuff in the future? Should we expect (the railways) to put on more track patrols?" he asked. "This time it's ethylene glycol, which isn't an overly toxic substance, but what if it's sodium hydroxide next time or oil or something that has a much higher level of toxicity?" Four CP Rail cars had jumped off a CN track around 7 p.m. Tuesday when the moving train was hit by a mudslide triggered by a heavy rainstorm. One remained partially on the track, while another, perched on the rock face above the river, was removed Thursday. In July 2006, 12 cars, each carrying up to 100 tonnes of coal, plunged into the Thompson off a railway bridge just outside Lytton, near where it flows into the Fraser River. Environment officials issued a caution to residents eating fish from the river, but stated that there was limited risk due to low toxicity. tlai@png.canwest.com © The Vancouver Sun 2008 ||||| CP train derails along Thompson River Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, July 03, 2008 A Canadian Pacific train carrying a regulated substance has derailed near Lytton, B.C., after being hit by a rock slide. Fourteen cars were involved when the train, which had approximately 100 cars in all, was hit in its middle by the slide just northeast of Lytton, said CP spokesperson Mike LoVecchio. Four cars derailed. Of those, one remained upright on the track Wednesday morning, two were partially submerged in the Thompson River and another remained on the river embankment. The cars were carrying glycol, a component of windshield washer fluid, antifreeze and many other common substances, LoVecchio said. Glycol is both water soluble and biodegradable but, as a regulated commodity, requires special handling. All of the affected cars are "double-hulled" with a "protective jacket" around each car, adding an extra measure of protection, he added. © The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008 | Overview of the Thompson River's path. Lytton is center-bottom-left on the mapChemicals in the Thompson River were said to be found after four Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) cars containing chemicals derailed near Lytton, British Columbia, Canada on Tuesday night. The derailment occurred just northeast of Lytton when a landslide hit in the middle of a freight train with about 100 cars at around 7:00 pm PDT (02:00 UTC) Tuesday evening. One car remained on the tracks, another was on a river bank, and two were submerged in the Thompson, one of them fully submerged and the other partially submerged. CP states that the cars were carrying the chemical ethylene glycol, commonly found in products such as antifreeze and windshield washer fluid. Glycol is water soluble and biodegradable but is causing concern to local fisheries and people dependent on aquatic life survival. Even though there is not enough chemical to be toxic after dilution in the water, there is still expressed concern that it may cause additional stress to aquatic life. CN Rail's path across the North Thompson RiverDespite protective measures, like a protective double hull, investigations found that broken valves and holes are causing the chemical to leak into the river. CP Rail originally denied that any chemical was leaking, but is now driving efforts to plug the leaks. The Thompson River is a tributary of the larger Fraser River. The area is sensitive to harm because migrating salmon pass through and are in already in dwindling numbers in recent years. |
Mary Baker Eddy's pioneering daily is about to break more new ground, reports Matthew Bell Sunday, 2 November 2008 Its readers are a snapshot of a bygone age – retired diplomats, missionaries and maiden aunts – but The Christian Science Monitor has plans that many a forward-looking editor would blanche to think of. In April, the US daily will ditch its paper edition and channel resources into its website, with a daily email bulletin and weekly 44-page magazine for subscribers. Moving from print to online is hardly a novelty: for many struggling publications it's the elephant in the newsroom as circulation dwindles and print costs soar. But the Monitor will be the first nationally circulated daily paper to surrender its print version altogether and, according to its editor, John Yemma, it will not be the last. "We've always been burdened by the unwieldy mechanism of publishing and distributing a daily paper simultaneously across America," he says. "It's somewhat easier in Britain. So in a sense, we have had to wait for the internet to be born." Later this month, The Christian Science Monitor marks its 100th birthday, but you would be forgiven for never having heard of it. Founded in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy (right), the then 87-year-old founder of the Christian Science Movement, the paper was a high-minded response to the "yellow", or sensationalist journalism of the day. Since the late 1890s, a circulation war had been raging between the New York World and the New York Journal, both being dragged downmarket by rival proprietors Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Mary Eddy was "aghast" as the quality of journalism, says Yemma, and with the Monitor she tapped into a surge of Puritanism which, with the help of church funds, allowed the paper to flourish. "She wanted really good clear news that was unbiased and impartial. Her mission was not to proselytise, which remains the aim to this day." The irony that The Monitor should go on to win seven Pulitzer prizes would, one imagines, not have been lost on its founder. As a news-gathering organ, the paper is blessed with enviable resources, including an astonishing 95 full-time editorial staff, with correspondents all over America and in seven bureaux worldwide. Inevitably, the move online will mean staff cuts, but as yet there are no plans to close any bureaux. "Next year we are anticipating budget cuts of 11 per cent," says Yemma, "so I anticipate a staff reduction of between 10 to 15 per cent." Although a mainstream national title, the Monitor's circulation of 52,000 is less than many special interest magazines. It owes its existence to the deep pockets of the Christian Science Movement, although the church has no say on editorial policy. "When it was founded, about 90 per cent of our readers were Christian Scientists. Now they make up only 20 per cent," says Yemma. "In all our 100-year history, we've only made money or broken even for one or two of those," he adds cheerfully. Perhaps changing the name would help? "We pretty much put that question to rest 100 years ago. The argument is that it is better to be transparent about our funding than to hide it. We do not preach and we are not just for Christians: the Monitor is just honest. There have never been plans to alter the name." The new model planned for the Monitor will rely on subscribers and web advertising. Correspondents will file to the website daily, but the weekly magazine will carry separate original content. Yemma is particularly enthusiastic about the daily email service that will present subscribers with 300-word resumes of the day's major stories. "There is so much out there that I think you need a snapshot of the day. That's what we will be doing. It's what editors are paid for – to edit the news." He claims this news digest will appeal particularly to the Monitor's older readers, who, he believes, may not be familiar with the internet but are able to read emails. When speaking of the changes, Yemma has the evangelism of a Christian. "It is the future for many papers, but because we are not-for-profit we are not exactly a model for for-profit publications." He also reveals that another major US news magazine is to follow the Monitor's lead, "in the next couple of weeks", but refuses to say which as he is involved in the project. You don't have to be a Christian to work for the Monitor: Ned Temko, former editor of the Jewish Chronicle, was once the its Middle East correspondent. But you do have to worship the web."It's like the early days of television," says Yemma. "When it first started, people just read their scripts on air. I feel we're at that stage with the internet. We now have to work out how to organise a newsroom where the web comes first." Interesting? Click here to explore further ||||| In the first of what could be a series of print newspaper closings, the Christian Science Monitor has announced the end of its daily print format and its switch to a Web-based publication. Starting April 2009, the 100-year-old news organization will no longer publish daily physical newspapers and will focus its content on the Internet. It will, however, publish a weekly print magazine. The new daily edition of the Monitor will be available by paid subscription and delivered as a PDF file via e-mail Monday through Friday. The weekly print edition will cost $3.50 per copy or $89 for a year's subscription. The print edition will feature more in-depth content on high quality 10-by-12-inch paper. The majority of the decision is based on money. The Monitor is a nonprofit financed by a church and delivered through the mail, and has seen a steady decline in readership over the past 40 years. For it to be the first print newspaper to close makes sense in these circumstances, and may not herald the immediate foreclosure of other, wealthier news organizations. For years, the newspaper industry has declined in profit and subscriptions, as newsmongers more often than not log onto the Internet to get their daily fix. In the era of RSS feeds and constantly updating blogs, physical newspapers are hard pressed to compete against the sheer volume of material and wide range of sources. By mid-afternoon, most print dailies are old news. With its decision to go online-only, the Monitor not only stabilizes its finances -- allowing better funding for journalism abroad -- but it also enters its second century at the forefront of the digital revolution. This move may be seen to some as the Internet "killing" a venerable, century-old publication. To me, it's the evolution of modern journalism; a logical and progressive step in the direction many more will approach in the years to come. | ''The Christian Science Monitor'' has announced plans to cease daily print publication. The newspaper employs 95 correspondents and 8 foreign bureaus and has won 7 Pulitzer Prizes, making it the most prominent newspaper to transition to online publication. It is due to celebrate its one hundredth anniversary later this month. The move has other major newspapers wondering whether this is the future of mainstream journalism. Editor John Yemma stated "It is the future for many papers, but because we are not-for-profit we are not exactly a model for for-profit publications." The ''Monitor'' receives its funding from the Christian Science Church, but is nonsectarian and does not proselytize, and the Church has no say in its editorial policy. The newspaper was founded in 1908 by Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy as a reaction against partisan journalism. The new publication format will be a website updated daily, with subscribers receiving e-mail briefs of major stories and a 44 page weekly magazine. According to a report in ''The Independent'', the weekly magazine "will carry separate original content." The ''Monitor'' has made this announcement as a response to rising print publication costs and falling subscriptions. The actual changeover from a Monday through Friday publication five days a week to a single weekly magazine will occur in April 2009. Yemma predicts that within the next five years, economic constraints will force most other newspapers to make similar changes. A small number of local newspapers made similar changes before the ''Monitor'' announced its plans. Two examples are ''The Capital Times'' and ''The Daily Telegram'' respectively of Madison, Wisconsin and Superior, Wisconsin. Ken Doctor of Outsell Inc. assessed the economic situation for ''The New York Times''. 92 percent of a typical newspaper's revenue comes from its print edition, so the cost of ceasing print publication exceeds the benefit in savings for most newspapers. The ''Monitor'' has an unusual funding profile, with significant resources coming from an endowment and donations. Most of its print revenue comes from subscriptions rather than from advertising. Nonetheless, industry trends led Brennon Slattery of ''PC World'' to predict this may be the first of a series of major print newspaper closings. |
‘We did not implicate Aust & NZ’: PM ‘We did not implicate Aust & NZ’: PM Tuesday November 06, 2007 Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama says that at no time did his regime directly implicate Australia and New Zealand in the assassination plot against him and his Cabinet ministers. Bainimarama told journalists at a press conference that the report was distorted and sensationalised. “Any evidence was aware of the planned assassination, we would first have communicated to the appropriate authorities in that country,” he said. “I therefore very much regret the distorted and sensational reporting on this matter over the past few days”. Bainimarama urged the two countries to bear with the interim regime as they seek to adhere to key principles in good governance in dealing with the situation. “Fiji’s security forces are acting in the same way as the security forces in Australia or New Zealand would have acted, should similar situation of planned or actual terrorism had risen in those countries,” he said. Meanwhile Bainimarama pleaded with the neighbouring countries to respect Fiji’s sovereignty as Fiji respects that of theirs. ||||| Alleged plotters front court Alleged plotters front court Tuesday November 06, 2007 A Fiji high chief, two retired army colonels, a politician and a businessman appeared in the Suva court today with six others over the alleged assassination plot. Police had charged the group with instigating invasion, misprison of treason, inciting to mutiny and conspiracy to murder interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, members of his Government and senior military officers. The charges were not read in court by lawyers from the Director of Public Prosecutions who wanted the charges amended. ||||| Two jurors dismissed in trial on Floyd's death after $27 million settlement, two new ones seated Two jurors seated in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer facing murder charges over his arrest of George Floyd, were dismissed on Wednesday after they said news of a $27 million settlement with Floyd's family meant they could no longer be impartial. ||||| For a one-stop snapshot of the latest legal news that matters, with breaking documents, new legal videos, live law-related webcasts, commentary by expert law professors and more - all updated through the day in real time, with no ads and no registration barriers - visit JURIST's homepage and check back often... ||||| Fiji saw its most recent coup less than a year ago Businessmen, politicians and former soldiers were among those detained, and will be charged, police say, on Monday. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said one of those arrested, a New Zealander, had been badly beaten. Mr Bainimarama came to power after a bloodless coup in December 2006, but has promised elections in early 2009. He has pledged to abide by the results. Fiji has seen four coups in the past two decades. Military help No concrete details have been given about the alleged plot, but Fiji Police Commissioner Esala Teleni said "several suspects and others are believed to be armed". He said more arrests were possible, adding that the police has requested the assistance of the military. He added that cabinet ministers and military officers were also being targeted by the plotters. A New Zealand businessman, Ballu Khan, who is based in the Fijian capital, Suva, was among those arrested. He was allegedly so badly beaten that he was unable to talk, and a hospital source quoted by Reuters news agency said he had a broken jaw and ribs. New Zealand diplomats had difficulty in obtaining access to Mr Khan. "They held this man back from proper health care in a hospital for far too long and they beat him when he was in custody. That is disgraceful," said the New Zealand prime minister. | Six men were charged Monday with the attempted assassination of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the commanding officer of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces and the interim Prime Minister of Fiji since January 5, 2007. Police Commissioner Commodore Esala Teleni said Monday that sixteen people were being detained in connection to a plot to assassinate the Bainimarama and several Cabinet Ministers. Bainimarama said, in a statement Monday, "There are obviously disgruntled groups out there who are feeling the full impact of the interim government's 'Clean Up Campaign', such people have the potential to go to extremes in undermining the work which the interim government has been mandated to undertake". The men are charged with treason, inciting mutiny and conspiracy to murder. They appeared in a Suva court Tuesday. The case was adjourned for bail hearing Wednesday morning after the prosecutor requested time to amend the charges. A New Zealand businessman, Ballu Khanwas among the men arrested. Teleni states he had "minor injuries" as a result of resisting arrest. Others have reported that he was hospitalized for a broken jaw and ribs as a result of a police beating. New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark said the way Khanwas has been dealt with is "disgraceful". Fiji news media initially reported that police suspected the plot could be linked to foreign aid groups and neighboring countries. Clark denied that allegations stating that "of course the New Zealand government hasn't been involved in any such thing," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called the allegation absurd, stating "It is completely false to suggest that the Australian government would consider assassinating Commodore Bainimarama and coup leaders in Fiji or that we would in any way wish to see any death occur in Fiji". Bainimarama later told journalists at a press conference that the police never suspected foreign involvement and the “report was distorted and sensationalized”. Frank Bainimarama became prime minister in a bloodless 2006 coup, replacing the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Bainimarama accused the Qarase government of corruption and being too soft on those involved in the 2000 coup. |
Records show 85 per cent of the ice covering the 5,892m (15,092ft) mountain in 1912 had been lost by 2000. Since 2000, 26 per cent of the ice that was left has now gone. Although changes in cloudiness and rainfall play a part in the retreat of the ice, their roles are less important in recent decades, scientists claim. Prof Lonnie Thompson, of Ohio University, said: 'The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause.' The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ||||| BLEAK FUTURE No snow on Kilimanjaro in 20 yrs Washington: The snow capping Mount Kilimanjaro,Africas tallest peak,is shrinking rapidly and could vanish altogether in 20 years,most likely due to global warming,a US study published on Monday said. The ice sheet that capped Kilimanjaro in 1912 was 85% smaller by 2007,and since 2000 the existing ice sheet has shrunk by 26%,the paleoclimatologists said. The findings point to the rise in global temperatures as the most likely cause of the ice loss.Changes in cloudiness and precipitation may have also played a smaller,less important role,especially in recent decades,they added. This is the first time researchers have calculated the volume of ice lost from the mountains ice fields, said study co-author Lonnie Thompson,professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University.If you look at the percentage of volume lost since 2000 versus the percentage of area lost as the ice fields shrink,the numbers are very close, he said in the study. While the yearly loss of the mountain glaciers is most apparent from the retreat of their margins,Thompson said an equally troubling effect is the thinning of the ice fields from the surface. The summits of both the Northern and Southern Ice Fields atop Kilimanjaro have thinned by 1.9m and 5.1m respectively.The smaller Furtwangler Glacier,which was melting and water-saturated in 2000 when it was drilled,has thinned as much as 50% between 2000 and 2009,the study said. It has lost half of its thickness, Thompson said.In the future,there will be a year when Furtwangler is present and by the next year,it will have disappeared.The whole thing will be gone. They said their findings show that current climate conditions over Mount Kilimanjaro are unique over the last 11 millennia.AFP | Kibo summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Scientists at the Ohio University predicted that the ice sheets of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain peak, will melt in the next twenty years due to global warming. The ice that was present in 1912 gradually decreased by 85% by 2000, and by 2007 another 26% of the amount in 2000. This was the first time that the volume of the ice in Kilimanjaro was measured. The tests were conducted by Lonnie Thompson, a professor at Ohio University. "The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause," Thompson said. Change in cloudiness and weather could have also been factors in the retreat of the ice, especially in recent decades, scientists said. These findings were first published in the journal proceedings of United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on Monday. |
By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley Office 2010 will enhance video and picture capabilities in PowerPoint Microsoft has fired its latest salvo at Google, announcing a free web-based version of its Office software. Office 2010 will include lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote when it ships next year. The new web offering will compete with Google's free online Docs suite launched three years ago. Last week Google took aim at Windows with news of a free operating system while in June Microsoft introduced a new search engine called Bing. "We believe the web has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity," Microsoft's group product manager for Office told the BBC. "We have over a half a billion customers worldwide and what we hear from them is that they really want the power of the web without compromise. They want collaboration without compromise. "And what they tell us today is that going to the web often means they sacrifice fidelity, functionality and the quality of the content they care about. We knew that if and when we were ever going to bring applications into a web environment, we needed to do the hard work first because we hold such a high bar," said Mr Bryant. Microsoft said that 400 million customers who were Windows Live consumers would have access to the Office web applications at no cost. At a conference for business partners in New Orleans, Microsoft announced an early release of web apps to thousands of testers later this year. At the end of the year the company expects to release a proper public beta for the software and ship a final version off to PC makers in the first half of 2010. 'Conversion' Analysts have mostly given the thumbs-up to Microsoft for moving some of its applications to the web, even if it might cost them dearly. Excel spreadsheets can now run in the browser The Wall Street Journal has estimated that offering free online software could "put at risk as much at $4bn (£2.46bn) in revenue". One analyst told the paper that despite such losses, it could be a canny move. "Making sure people are still using Microsoft products is more important" in the short term than risking revenue, explained Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. "They need to keep people using Office," he said. "Microsoft is finally making the conversion through the web-based world. First, we saw that through Bing. Now we are seeing that through Office, " said Jeffries & Co analyst Katherine Egbert. "The software giant has woken up," wrote Emil Protalinksi of online blog Ars Technica. "It is promising to know that such a traditional software company is responding to the 'threat of the cloud' to its core business by embracing it." Investors appeared to like Microsoft's move and boosted shares by almost 3.8% higher to close at $23.23 (£14.33). Rivalry Microsoft's announcement is being seen as the latest move in a tit-for-tat rivalry between two tech giants as it and Google increasingly make efforts to encroach on one another's turf. When Google announced its Chrome operating system last week, the blogosphere watched and waited for Microsoft to react. Chrome OS is seen as a direct challenge to market leader Windows Mr Bryant stuck to the company line when he spoke to BBC News. "I haven't seen the product. I think it's not a trivial engineering investment to go and build an operating system," he said. "Of course it is interesting and there is a lot of talk but until we see the product, it's hard to say what kind of impact it will have. "We can't afford to get wrapped up in hype or buzz or noise because really our customers depend on us every single day." Microsoft's business software division, which includes Office, made $9.3 bn (£5.74bn) in profit from $14.3 bn(£8.82bn) in sales during the first three-quarters of its 2009 fiscal year. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version ||||| Microsoft started to publicise details of Microsoft Office 2010, aka Office 14*, at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans today. The main news is that Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 "have reached the technical preview engineering milestone". These are pre-beta versions, not suitable for production use. There should be a public beta later this year, with the final release "in the first half of 2010". For the first time, there will be separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions, which should encourage people planning to move to 64-bit computing with Windows 7. For consumers, Microsoft says it will make versions of some programs free online in web-based versions, probably as part of Windows Live. Office Web Applications are not the full applications, but they feature the ribbon user interface, and look leagues ahead of Google Docs. The catch is that the Office Web apps use Microsoft's SharePoint server (which is used today for the Office Live site). However, Microsoft has been demonstrating them running in Firefox and Safari, not just in IE. Companies that subscribe to Office -- Microsoft says it has 90 million "Office annuity customers" -- will be able to host it on their own servers. Another option is Microsoft Online Services, sold on a subscription basis as part of a hosted offering. Office 2007 made a dramatic leap forward with the introduction of the ribbon user interface but the transition was far from complete. The new versions of Outlook, OneNote, Publisher and SharePoint now have ribbons, too. In addition, users can customise what now seems to be called the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface. Microsoft has reduced the number of Office packages from eight to five, and the new low-end options give users an extra application. The cheap Office Home and Student edition now includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, Office Home and Business edition adds Outlook, and the Standard version now includes Publisher. There are some new features, too, but the preview versions are not all feature-complete. However, "paste preview" looks like being one of the most popular. There are video demonstrations on the Office 2010 site. All round, Office 2010 does little more than complete the job of transitioning to Office 2007's innovative system, while adding a bit of polish. The new stuff is in the Office Web Applications online suite, and it's too soon to say how that will turn out. However, Microsoft was probably the first company to do this sort of thing with Outlook Web Access (OWA) for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and, later, Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) for Exchange 2003. It shows a spectacular amount of foot-dragging that more office apps are only following a decade later. Finally, why announce Office 2010 at a Worldwide Partner Conference? The answer is that -- unlike, say, Apple or Google -- Microsoft gets more than 95% of its revenues via its 640,000 or so business partners. These form the rich and varied ecosystem whereby millions of people earn their living by selling, installing, customising, migrating, supporting and building applications on top of Microsoft products. The accessory applications and the customisation features of Office enable it to be integrated into business processes… and hard to remove without a lot of expensive programming and retraining and, perhaps, a reduction in functionality. The Microsoft Business Division, which includes Office, generated $19bn in revenues in fiscal 2008, while the Server and Tools division generated another $13bn. Together these represented more than half of Microsoft's revenues, and $17bn in operating profits. It's not all from Office, of course, but there's still a lot riding on Office 2010. * Office 13 went strangely missing, but they still unveiled Office 14 on the 13th. | Microsoft has announced they will launch web versions of their popular Office software in 2010. It will be included in all versions of Office 2010 when it ships next year. All Windows Live customers will also reportedly have access. Testers will be given access at the end of this year. Microsoft Office 2007 logo The service will go into direct competition with Google Docs, launched three years ago. Last week Google announced they were going to launch a new operating system, called Google Chrome OS. Like Google Docs, Microsoft Office will be compatible with Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. Microsoft's group product manager for Office stated, "We believe the web has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity. We have over a half a billion customers world-wide and what we hear from them is that they really want the power of the web without compromise. They want collaboration without compromise. And what they tell us today is that going to the web often means they sacrifice fidelity, functionality and the quality of the content they care about. We knew that if and when we were ever going to bring applications into a web environment, we needed to do the hard work first because we hold such a high bar." Microsoft's business software division, which includes Office, made USD 9.3 billion in profit during the first three-quarters of its 2009 fiscal year. Analysts from ''The Wall Street Journal'' have predicted that the move "could put at risk as much as $4 billion (£2.46 billion) in revenue." |
By Chris Buckley BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - China began three days of national mourning on Monday for more than 30,000 victims of an earthquake that struck a week ago. Public entertainment will be suspended, flags kept at half-mast and a three-minute silence observed to mark exactly a week since the quake, the government said. The national flag in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing flew at half mast after a ceremony at dawn. The Olympic torch relay, currently on its domestic leg ahead of the August 8 opening in Beijing, will likewise be suspended for three days. "I have come today with a heavy heart," said Liu Xianzeng, watching the ceremony in Tiananmen Square. "I feel for the victims of the earthquake and soldiers who are helping there." Around the country air raid sirens and car, train and ship horns will also sound to "wail in grief" at 2:28 pm ET, the time the quake hit a week ago, the official Xinhua news agency said. On the eve of the official mourning period, a fresh tremor in southwestern China killed three people, injured 1,000 and sent thousands fleeing their homes into the streets. The tremor, one of the strongest aftershocks since the May 12 earthquake, hit Jiangyou city in Sichuan, Xinhua said. It was 5.7 in magnitude and brought down a large number of houses, damaged 377 km (235 miles) of roads and six bridges, rescue authorities said late on Sunday. Continued... ||||| BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China on Monday began three days of national mourning as the death toll from last week's devastating earthquake mounted and rescue workers continued to search for survivors among the rubble. A woman grieves for her lost mother in Beichuan, in China's southwest Sichuan province. more photos » The national flag was lowered to half staff at 4:58 a.m. at Beijing's Tiananmen Square as 2,600 people watched the ceremony, state-run media reported. By Sunday evening, the official death toll rose to 32,477, according to state-run media Sunday. Another 220,109 were wounded in the major quake, the Xinhua news agency said. Few hopeful relatives were seen in Beichuan, near the quake's epicenter, with soldiers finding many more bodies among the ruins of buildings, The Associated Press reported. Aid teams sprinkled lime on the bodies and disinfected the area. One bit of bright news came Monday: Two women were rescued after being trapped for nearly one week, Xinhua reported. The two were found in the rubble of a collapsed building at a coal mine in Sichuan province, Xinhua reported. Wu Hai, a rescue team leader from neighboring Yunnan province, said bodies were decomposing and "many of the limbs are broken off." "There are definitely many more here. Locals here said several thousands have been buried here," he told The Associated Press. But there were a few tales of rescues even six days after the disaster: at least 64 people have been pulled alive from debris. A 53-year-old man was rescued in Yingxiu town in Wenchuan county near the epicenter 148 hours after the quake, Xinhua said Sunday. The effort took eight hours, the news agency said. Several others were rescued Saturday by Chinese soldiers, their hands stained with blood from days of digging. More than 4,000 troops were sent to the disaster areas in Wenchuan. Chinese officials said the three-day period of mourning will begin at 2:28 p.m on Monday, exactly one week after the quake struck the southwestern Sichuan province. During that mourning period, the Olympic torch relay will be suspended, China's state-run television announced. The torch was going to be in the eastern cities of Ningbo and Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province on Monday, then in Shanghai on Tuesday and Wednesday. China's state-run news agency Sunday announced that it increased the magnitude of the quake from 7.8 to 8.0. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the temblor at 7.9, which CNN has been reporting. The USGS figure remains unchanged as of Sunday. The World Health Organization says it fears outbreaks of disease and urged quick action to supply clean water and proper hygiene facilities. "Ensuring supply of food and safe drinking water and trying to restore good sanitation are critical because these are basic transmission routes for communicable diseases," Hans Troedsson, WHO's representative to China, told AP. Chinese health officials have not reported any disaster-related outbreaks so far. So far, almost 60 aid organizations from 13 countries were assisting in the aftermath of the quake. Among the countries are India, France, Singapore, the Philippines and the United States. Two U.S. military planes landed in Chengdu Sunday with blankets, water and other relief supplies. The first plane -- a C-17 cargo jet -- flew from a U.S. base in Hawaii, while the second flight came from Alaska, officials said. Watch as U.S. aid arrives in China » Early Sunday, a strong aftershock rattled areas, while fears of flash flooding and landslides hindered rescue efforts. Sunday's 5.7-magnitude aftershock shook the region near the border of Sichuan and Gansu provinces just after 1 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. Just hours earlier, concerns over a damaged dam and rising water levels at two lakes triggered the mass evacuation of 30,000 people -- including rescuers and journalists -- in at least 10 villages and townships, Chinese officials said. People down-river from the quake-damaged Kuzhu dam in Beichuan county were ordered to leave the area Saturday afternoon over fears it might burst, according to Xinhua. The two lakes were created when Monday's quake caused landslides that blocked the Qingjiang River in Qingchuan county. Both bodies of water have fast-rising water levels, prompting concerns of flooding, an official at the Guangyuan disaster relief center said. Monday's quake was the worst tremor to strike China in three decades; a 1976 earthquake killed more than 250,000 people. Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. All About U.S. National Earthquake Information Center • China • Sichuan Province • Wen Jiabao All About China • Earthquakes • Sichuan Province | The government of China announced it would begin three days of mourning on Monday, as the death toll from the 7.9 magnitude earthquake centered in the Sichuan province has been raised to nearly 32,500, with 220,000 injured. At 2:28 p.m local time, flags will be moved to half mast for three days, there will be three minutes of silence, and entertainment in public will be suspended for the mourning period. A woman being rescued after being trapped for more than 50 hours Authorities have continued to pull victims out of the rubble resulting from the quake, 65 since the original quake, with two pulled out alive more than six days after the earthquake. Rescuers are also trying to pull out two still alive. More than 9,500 people are still trapped under rubble throughout the province. Hu Jintao Chinese authorities are worried as aftershocks continue to affect the region devastated by the initial earthquake, while water builds up in clogged rivers. An 5.8 magnitude aftershock shook buildings and caused people to evacuate in Chengdu, 200 km (125 miles) south of the aftershock's epicenter. The aftershock killed three people and injured 1,000 others. A buildup of water is occurring 3 km (2 miles) upstream of Beichuan, where a man was freed from under a hospital's remains. Chinese President Hu Jintao said to families of victims in Yinghua that "We will make every effort to save our people even if there is only the slightest hope and possibility." They are preventing people from going into the affected region for fear of these conditions. Families of possible victims who tried to enter the affected region were not allowed into the area by police, due to fears of aftershocks and the clogged rivers. 60 aid organizations from 13 countries have assisted so far with the earthquake, including Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States and Singapore, and in addition to aid from inside China there has been 6 billion yuan (858 million United States dollars) of aid. |
Camera retailer Jessops has closed the doors on its 187 stores for the last time and made 1,370 staff redundant after the administrators said the camera shop chain was unable to continue trading. The shock announcement on Friday, which came only days after the firm said it was in financial trouble, left staff stunned. Head office staff in Leicester were told they would keep their jobs for the time being, but are also expected to be made redundant within the next few weeks. The administrators, Edward Williams, Rob Hunt and Matthew Hammond of accountants PwC, said a review of the business had quickly revealed it was no longer viable. They said stores will not open on Saturday and customers will be unable to return any purchases. Hunt said: "We have reviewed the position of the business and held extensive discussions with suppliers around their support for ongoing trading. "It is apparent that we cannot continue to trade and as a result we have had to make the difficult decision to begin the closure of all 187 Jessops stores at the close of business today. "Regrettably, this will result in around 1,370 job losses across the stores with further job losses likely, in due course, at the head office in Leicester. He said stock will be collected from all the shops over the coming days and returned to a central warehouse. "It will be returned to suppliers if they are entitled to it. As a consequence of the closure, Jessops is no longer able to accept returned product from customers," he said. Jessops is one of many high street names to go bust in the last year. It follows electrical retailer Comet and JJB Sports into the shop graveyard, with analysts saying there are likely to be many more victims before the economic recovery takes hold. Figures covering the Christmas period show shoppers were reluctant to spend while wage rises remain constrained and cuts to welfare payments are in the pipeline. Only a handful of upmarket chains, including John Lewis, improved their sales significantly. Estimates by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research on Friday suggested that the economy, which is suffering from a combination of austerity at home and a desperate lack of exports to European markets, may have contracted in the final three months of 2012. A second quarter of contraction at the start of 2013 would signal the onset of a triple-dip recession. x-ref p25 ||||| Jessops camera stores to close with loss of 1,370 jobs Jessops has faced competition from online retailers Continue reading the main story Related Stories High Street camera retailer Jessops is to shut all of its stores, resulting in the loss of about 1,370 jobs. Administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), appointed this week, said all 187 stores in the UK would shut at the end of trading on Friday. More jobs would be lost at the head office in Leicester, it added. Jessops became the first High Street casualty of 2013, after a raft of firms fell into administration in 2012, including Comet and Clinton Cards. PwC was appointed administrator on Wednesday, and at the time said there might be some store closures. It came after talks this week between Jessops and its lender and suppliers broke down after a poor Christmas. The camera chain was founded in Leicester in 1935 by Frank Jessop. In recent years, it has been hit by increasing competition from supermarkets and internet retailers. Rob Hunt, joint administrator at PwC, said it was an "extremely sad day for Jessops and its employees". He added that the decision to shut down the business came after discussions with suppliers "around their support for ongoing trading", which was not forthcoming. "The stock will be collected over the coming days and returned to a central warehouse. It will be returned to suppliers if they are entitled to it. As a consequence of the closure, Jessops is no longer able to accept returned product from customers," Mr Hunt said. "We will continue to ensure that employees are paid as they assist us during the closure." He told the BBC that the closure announcement was "a horrible end to a very intensive couple of days". In 2009, Jessops managed to avoid administration by agreeing a debt for equity swap with its lender, HSBC, that saw it taken off the stock market. | All 187 store locations of camera retailer are closing in the United Kingdom today. The business, which went into earlier this week, is to leave its workforce of approximately 1370 jobless. While staff at the business' top office in , in central England, are not being made redundant with immediate effect, they are in the next few weeks to lose their positions. (PwC), the firm declared administrator of Jessops two days ago, has said an examination of the company indicated it was no longer capable of operating successfully. "It is apparent that we cannot continue to trade", said joint administrator Rob Hunt of PwC, "and as a result we have had to make the difficult decision". PwC say no Jessops branches will open tomorrow and people who have bought items from their businesses will not be able to return them. However, stock "will be returned to suppliers if they are entitled to it", according to Hunt. Hunt said PwC "will continue to ensure that employees are paid as they assist us during the closure" at Jessops. In a comment to the BBC, Hunt described the situation at Jessops as "a horrible end to a very intensive couple of days". == Sources == * * |
Rescue efforts have continued overnight after yesterday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchruch. Christchurch City Council says 220 search and rescue personnel will be deployed throughout Christchurch by midday today (Wednesday). It expects 700 of the rescue specialists could be needed in the coming days. Prime Minister John Key told ONE News last night: "We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day," he said. "It is just a scene of utter devastation," he said. "We have to work as fast as we can to get people out of environments where they are trapped." Key flew to Christchurch yesterday afternoon and after a quick tour of the city described it as "utterly wrecked", adding "this is an absolute tragedy for Christchurch". See aerial pictures . At 2:30am the council said 90 extra St John's staff will be in Christchurch today and seven rescue helicopters are on stand by to transport injured people. The official death toll from the Christchurch earthquake has now been confirmed as to 32. Prime Minister John Key yesterday put the number of dead at 65, but that figure has been almost halved this morning. Hamilton said that is because only 32 deaths have been confirmed by police. Rescue efforts continue Overnight, rescue teams toiled under floodlights in cold, wet conditions. They are working to dig out survivors and the dead from buildings flattened by the earthquake that ripped the city apart. It is believed over 100 people are missing. Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said last night that about 125 people had been pulled alive from the rubble. Police have reported "multiple fatalities" at several locations in the downtown area, including in two buses crushed by falling buildings. Emergency services were focused on high rise buildings in the central business district, many of which were extensively damaged, police said. About 30 people were thought to be trapped in the Pyne Gould building, its several floors pancaked on each other and tilted at a crazy angle. In the ruined CTV television building a number of Japanese students, newly arrived in Japan, were believed to be in the rubble. One injured man rescued from the building was quoted as saying he could hear other people talking. The devastated CBD was cordoned off tonight and police warned people to stay away. Scale of disaster The death toll is already the second highest from a New Zealand earthquake - outranked only by the 256 people killed in the violent 7.9 1931 Hawke's Bay quake, whose 70th anniversary was marked earlier this month. The quake followed the massive 7.1 shake on September 4 last year but its effect were much more severe this time. Buildings that stood up to last year's event tumbled this time, weakened by the earlier shaking. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, who spoke after cabinet's second emergency meeting, said the death toll figure of 65 would almost certainly rise. "The scale of the disaster is becoming apparent," he said at a press conference. "There is a major search and rescue operation under way and our focus is on searching collapsed buildings." Although the damage was heavy in the CBD many other parts of the city suffered too, homes heavily damaged or destroyed, shops and office buildings destroyed. State of emergency Key has taken up the offer of search and rescue personnel from Australia with two of their Royal Australian Airforce C-130 Hercules aircraft heading for the quake zone. Other offers of help have been received from the US, the UN, the European Union and Japan. Approximately 350 local military personnel have been deployed in Christchurch, providing first aid, security and search and rescue services. Police say over 200 staff, including officers skilled in disaster victim identification roles are travelling to Christchurch as part of the emergency response with another 130 expected to travel in the next few days. Parker has declared a state of emergency and Civil Defence HQ in Wellington is on level 3 - its highest level for a domestic incident. South Island hospitals are preparing for hundreds of injured patients. Water, sewer and gas lines were ruptured by the quake and power lines and poles crashed, cutting electricity to one third of the city. The council says 80% of the city is without water supply and it is a "serious concern". Citizens were asked not to flush toilets or take showers and warned to boil all water for drinking. Telephone services were cut as anxious callers overloaded circuits and Vodafone and Telecom are urging customers to use text messaging instead of calling. Emergency services are recommending people stay away from work or school for three days and to keep travel to an absolute minimum. "Absolute agony" Key said: "This is a community that is absolutely in agony. We just need this community, as it has done before and as it will do again, to come together, to check and support one another. "We will get through this. New Zealand will regroup and Christchurch will regroup." Parker said: "The PM has already released the the first list of casualty figures and I'm dreadfully afraid to have to say that that number is going to rise. "I've seen probably 20, 25 buildings of significant size with extraordinary damage, probably total damage to them." In a briefing at 9.00pm, Parker said the situation was "extremely grave". "All of our energy tonight is really focused on the need to rescue people." Earlier tonight a ONE News reporter in Hagley Park spoke to people at the park who say they saw people die. One man said he saw rubble crush a man in Cathedral Square. Another man said he pulled a dead man from a destroyed car. Another TVNZ reporter says a temporary mortuary has been set up in the city. Main points - Widespread destruction - 65 confirmed dead so far - 6.3 quake at shallow depth of 5km at 12.51pm - Aftershocks continue - Level 3 emergency declared - International rescue teams deployed Finance Minister Bill English said he has signed special approval for emergency spending under the Public Finance Act. "This will enable government agencies to spend extra money as necessary that may not be covered by the existing parliamentary arrangements," he said. The shock was at a depth of just 5km, centred 10km south-east of the city. The quake has been felt as far away as Wellington and Invercargill. International response The Queen has sent a message of support to John Key in which she said she was "utterly shocked" by the news of the earthquake. "Please convey my deep sympathy to the families and friends of those who have been killed; my thoughts are with all those who have been affected by this dreadful event," she said. "My thoughts are also with the emergency services and everyone who is assisting in the rescue efforts." Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said the thoughts of Australians were with the victims of the Christchurch earthquake. "We hope that there is good news," he told parliament, referring to reports of multiple casualties and extensive damage to the city's buildings. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said there were deep concerns about the loss of life and serious injuries. "For the people of Christchurch this just isn't fair," he told the National Press Club in Canberra, ahead of his address on foreign policy. "The damage is large, it's the middle of the working day, and the earthquake has not been deep from the surface." Rudd referred to Australia's solidarity for its Kiwi friends at "a horrible time" for the people of Christchurch. The earthquake is receiving a lot of coverage from international media.. Are you in Christchurch? Send us your information and pics to news@tvnz.co.nz Leave your messages on the messageboard below. Quake appeals have been launched - find out more here. Follow TVNZ's continuous live updates online and LIVE on-air and streamed coverage will resume at 5:30am. Latest NZ News Video ||||| 10 km (5 miles) ESE of Christchurch, New Zealand 225 km (140 miles) SSE of Westport, New Zealand 300 km (185 miles) SSW of WELLINGTON, New Zealand 315 km (195 miles) NE of Dunedin, New Zealand ||||| CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) -- The earthquake that struck Christchurch has caused some 30 million tons of ice to break off from New Zealand's biggest glacier. Tour guides at the Tasman Glacier in the Southern Alps say the quake caused the ice to "calve" from the glacier, forming icebergs in the terminal lake. Tourists of Glacier Explorer boats say the icefall caused waves of up to 3.5 meters in height which swept up and down the lake for 30 minutes. The glacier is about 120 miles (200 kilometers) from Christchurch on the west coast. The powerful earthquake struck Christchurch on Tuesday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and killing at least 65 people. ||||| Earthquake Summary Earthquake Summary Poster Tectonic Summary The February 21, 2011 South Island, New Zealand earthquake occurred as part of the aftershock sequence of the M 7.0 September 3, 2010 Darfield, NZ earthquake. The February 21st earthquake involved oblique-thrust faulting at the easternmost limit of previous aftershocks, and like the mainshock itself is broadly associated with regional plate boundary deformation as the Pacific and Australia plates interact in the central South Island, New Zealand. This latest shock is significantly closer to the main population center of Christchurch, NZ, than is the September 2010 mainshock, in the vicinity of several other moderate (M 4 to 5) sized aftershocks located east of the main rupture zone of the 2010 event. There is no specific structure directly linking this event to the main fault of the 2010 mainshock, although there have been numerous aftershocks along generally east-west linear trends extending east from the end of the previous rupture. The north or north-east trends to the possible fault planes and the oblique thrust faulting mechanism as seen in the focal mechanism solution may reflect an association with similarly-trending faults previously mapped in the Port Hills region, just to the south of Christchurch. Since the September 3, 2010 mainshock, there have been approximately 6 M>=5.0 aftershocks in the Christchurch region. The February 21st earthquake represents the largest aftershock to date, more that half a magnitude unit larger than the previous largest aftershock. Earthquake Information for New Zealand ||||| Did you feel the quake? Tell us your story, send us your photos and video. There have been "multiple fatalities" after a shallow 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch this afternoon caused buildings to collapse, police have confirmed. Police said fatalities had been reported at several locations and that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings. Christchurch resident Jane Smith, who works in the central city, told the Herald a work colleague had just returned from helping rescue efforts after a building facade had collapsed on a bus on Colombo St. "There's people dead. He was pulling them out of a bus. Colombo St is completely munted." TV3 reported that a person had died in the Christchurch suburb of Sumner. Police said there were reports of fires in buildings in the central city and of people being trapped. Police said all available staff were helping with the rescue operation and the Defence Force had been called in to assist. Triage centres have been established for the injured at Latimer Square in the central city, Spotlight Mall in Sydenham and Sanitarium in Papanui. A Herald reporter said that emergency services were struggling to enter the central city and were having to manoeuvre slowly around gridlocked traffic. Shallow quake GNS Science said today's quake was centred at Lyttelton at a depth of 5km at 12.51pm. GNS said the earthquake would have caused more damage than the original 7.1 earthquake on September 4 because of its shallow depth. Its data centre manager Kevin Fenaughty said residents said the quake's epicentre was located in the "worst possible location" for the city. "It's a nightmare. A lot of people were just getting back on their feet after the original quake." Another earthquake of 4.5 struck at 1.21pm, 10 km east of Diamond Harbour. Streets flooded Herald reporter Jarrod Booker said the shake lasted approximately one minute and was extremely violent - rocking buildings back and forth. He said people had left buildings and were out on the streets where tarmac had cracked and water mains had burst, causing extensive flooding. Tuam Street had become a river as water poured from ruptures in the road and was impassable in places. The whole central city was in grid lock as people tried to evacuate central businesses to check their homes, Jarrod Booker said. Most traffic lights were out and cars were also having to negotiate around hordes of people on foot. Jarrod Booker said that he could hear sirens but that it would be difficult for emergency services to access the city because of the gridlock. "Even sitting in a car you can feel continual shaking on a smaller scale than the original quake," he said. Some pedestrians were standing on the footpaths and staring into space, apparently in shock. 'Great confusion' Mayor Bob Parker said he was "thrown quite a distance" by the earthquake. "That was, in the city central anyway, as violent as the one that happened on the 4th of September," he told Radio New Zealand. Mr Parker said there were scenes of "great confusion" on the streets, also saying the roads were jammed as vehicles sought to get out of the central city. "I know of injuries in my building and there are unconfirmed reports of serious injuries in the city." Mr Parker did not know the extent of damage to the city's infrastructure, but advised people not to drink the water supply. "We've been through this before this once, we now need to think we did at that time." Buildings collapsed Jarrod Booker said Christchurch's historic cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes Street had half collapsed, with the remaining part of the building filled with cracks. There was huge damage to other older buildings with large amounts of debris falling to the ground, he said. He said the carpark at the Christchurch Star had turned into a river with huge cracks and that the roads had risen in areas. People were comforting people outside amid a general state of shock as they tried to absorb what had happened, he said. Radio New Zealand reported widespread damage to the city centre, with a church on Durham St collapsed and concrete lifted by up to a metre. TV3 reported the Provincial Chambers Building had collapsed and it was believed people were trapped inside. A listener told Newstalk ZB that the Piko Wholefoods building on Kilmore Street near the city centre, which was hit in the September 4 earthquake, was now "practically non-existent". The spire on the Christchurch Cathedral had also collapsed. A Newstalk ZB reporter in Christchurch said liquefaction was spewing out of the ground at St Albans High School. School children had to be removed from the fields with liquefaction also spewing from the tennis courts. Civil Defence response Speaking to media at the Beehive's National Crisis Centre, Director of Civil Defence John Hamilton said a response plan was now being put together using all available national resources. "That includes extra fire people, extra police personnel, assets from the Defence Forces. International offers of assistance are coming through from Australia in particular." Mr Hamilton said the earthquake was a level three crisis - the highest for a localised event. Phone lines are down and calls are not being connected to emergency services. Telecom said it is working to understand which services have been affected by the earthquake and get these restored as soon as possible. Flights into Christchurch have been put on hold while Christchurch Airport checks the state of its runway. So far, four international flights have been diverted to Wellington Airport. Today's quake was shallower and closer to Christchurch than the original Darfield quake, which took place 30km west of the city at a depth of 33kms. Civil Defence advice The Civil Defence has issued the following advisory: Check yourself first for injuries and get first aid if necessary before helping injured or trapped persons. Assess your home or workplace for damage. If the building appears unsafe get everyone out. Use the stairs, not an elevator and when outside, watch out for fallen power lines or broken gas lines. Stay out of damaged areas. Look for and extinguish small fires if it is safe to do so. Fire is a significant hazard following earthquakes. Listen to the radio for updated emergency information and instructions. Do not overload phone lines with non-emergency calls. Help people who require special assistance - infants, elderly people, those without transportation, families who may need additional help, people with disabilities, and the people who care for them. Detailed safety advice will come from local authorities and emergency services in the area. People should act on it promptly. MCDEM, local civil defence authorities and scientific advisors are closely monitoring the situation. ||||| Rescue efforts have continued overnight after yesterday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchruch. Christchurch City Council says 220 search and rescue personnel will be deployed throughout Christchurch by midday today (Wednesday). It expects 700 of the rescue specialists could be needed in the coming days. Prime Minister John Key told ONE News last night: "We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day," he said. "It is just a scene of utter devastation," he said. "We have to work as fast as we can to get people out of environments where they are trapped." Key flew to Christchurch yesterday afternoon and after a quick tour of the city described it as "utterly wrecked", adding "this is an absolute tragedy for Christchurch". See aerial pictures . At 2:30am the council said 90 extra St John's staff will be in Christchurch today and seven rescue helicopters are on stand by to transport injured people. The official death toll from the Christchurch earthquake has now been confirmed as to 32. Prime Minister John Key yesterday put the number of dead at 65, but that figure has been almost halved this morning. Hamilton said that is because only 32 deaths have been confirmed by police. Rescue efforts continue Overnight, rescue teams toiled under floodlights in cold, wet conditions. They are working to dig out survivors and the dead from buildings flattened by the earthquake that ripped the city apart. It is believed over 100 people are missing. Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said last night that about 125 people had been pulled alive from the rubble. Police have reported "multiple fatalities" at several locations in the downtown area, including in two buses crushed by falling buildings. Emergency services were focused on high rise buildings in the central business district, many of which were extensively damaged, police said. About 30 people were thought to be trapped in the Pyne Gould building, its several floors pancaked on each other and tilted at a crazy angle. In the ruined CTV television building a number of Japanese students, newly arrived in Japan, were believed to be in the rubble. One injured man rescued from the building was quoted as saying he could hear other people talking. The devastated CBD was cordoned off tonight and police warned people to stay away. Scale of disaster The death toll is already the second highest from a New Zealand earthquake - outranked only by the 256 people killed in the violent 7.9 1931 Hawke's Bay quake, whose 70th anniversary was marked earlier this month. The quake followed the massive 7.1 shake on September 4 last year but its effect were much more severe this time. Buildings that stood up to last year's event tumbled this time, weakened by the earlier shaking. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, who spoke after cabinet's second emergency meeting, said the death toll figure of 65 would almost certainly rise. "The scale of the disaster is becoming apparent," he said at a press conference. "There is a major search and rescue operation under way and our focus is on searching collapsed buildings." Although the damage was heavy in the CBD many other parts of the city suffered too, homes heavily damaged or destroyed, shops and office buildings destroyed. State of emergency Key has taken up the offer of search and rescue personnel from Australia with two of their Royal Australian Airforce C-130 Hercules aircraft heading for the quake zone. Other offers of help have been received from the US, the UN, the European Union and Japan. Approximately 350 local military personnel have been deployed in Christchurch, providing first aid, security and search and rescue services. Police say over 200 staff, including officers skilled in disaster victim identification roles are travelling to Christchurch as part of the emergency response with another 130 expected to travel in the next few days. Parker has declared a state of emergency and Civil Defence HQ in Wellington is on level 3 - its highest level for a domestic incident. South Island hospitals are preparing for hundreds of injured patients. Water, sewer and gas lines were ruptured by the quake and power lines and poles crashed, cutting electricity to one third of the city. The council says 80% of the city is without water supply and it is a "serious concern". Citizens were asked not to flush toilets or take showers and warned to boil all water for drinking. Telephone services were cut as anxious callers overloaded circuits and Vodafone and Telecom are urging customers to use text messaging instead of calling. Emergency services are recommending people stay away from work or school for three days and to keep travel to an absolute minimum. "Absolute agony" Key said: "This is a community that is absolutely in agony. We just need this community, as it has done before and as it will do again, to come together, to check and support one another. "We will get through this. New Zealand will regroup and Christchurch will regroup." Parker said: "The PM has already released the the first list of casualty figures and I'm dreadfully afraid to have to say that that number is going to rise. "I've seen probably 20, 25 buildings of significant size with extraordinary damage, probably total damage to them." In a briefing at 9.00pm, Parker said the situation was "extremely grave". "All of our energy tonight is really focused on the need to rescue people." Earlier tonight a ONE News reporter in Hagley Park spoke to people at the park who say they saw people die. One man said he saw rubble crush a man in Cathedral Square. Another man said he pulled a dead man from a destroyed car. Another TVNZ reporter says a temporary mortuary has been set up in the city. Main points - Widespread destruction - 65 confirmed dead so far - 6.3 quake at shallow depth of 5km at 12.51pm - Aftershocks continue - Level 3 emergency declared - International rescue teams deployed Finance Minister Bill English said he has signed special approval for emergency spending under the Public Finance Act. "This will enable government agencies to spend extra money as necessary that may not be covered by the existing parliamentary arrangements," he said. The shock was at a depth of just 5km, centred 10km south-east of the city. The quake has been felt as far away as Wellington and Invercargill. International response The Queen has sent a message of support to John Key in which she said she was "utterly shocked" by the news of the earthquake. "Please convey my deep sympathy to the families and friends of those who have been killed; my thoughts are with all those who have been affected by this dreadful event," she said. "My thoughts are also with the emergency services and everyone who is assisting in the rescue efforts." Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said the thoughts of Australians were with the victims of the Christchurch earthquake. "We hope that there is good news," he told parliament, referring to reports of multiple casualties and extensive damage to the city's buildings. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said there were deep concerns about the loss of life and serious injuries. "For the people of Christchurch this just isn't fair," he told the National Press Club in Canberra, ahead of his address on foreign policy. "The damage is large, it's the middle of the working day, and the earthquake has not been deep from the surface." Rudd referred to Australia's solidarity for its Kiwi friends at "a horrible time" for the people of Christchurch. The earthquake is receiving a lot of coverage from international media.. Are you in Christchurch? Send us your information and pics to news@tvnz.co.nz Leave your messages on the messageboard below. Quake appeals have been launched - find out more here. Follow TVNZ's continuous live updates online and LIVE on-air and streamed coverage will resume at 5:30am. Latest NZ News Video ||||| Survivors found, but quake toll expected to rise Updated at 5:45am on 23 February 2011 Survivors were being still being pulled from the rubble of buildings in central Christchurch overnight on Tuesday, in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake that is known to have killed 65 people. Police say the death toll will rise as they are still finding bodies, though they also say people are continuing to be recovered alive. PHOTO: AFP The 6.3-magnitude quake struck at 12.51pm on Tuesday, 10km south-east of the central city at a depth of 5km. Scores of strong aftershocks have been felt and a state of emergency has been declared for at least the next five days. Hundreds of search and rescue personnel, fire service staff, army personnel and volunteers have been working under floodlights through the night to get to those who are still trapped. Superintendent Dave Cliff says the scene is grim, but over 100 people have been freed so far and another 100 are still thought to be trapped. People trapped in buildings have been texting for help. Roads, buildings, homes and core infrastructure have been extensively damaged. Civil Defence says cordons have been set up around the one-way system in the central city. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English says people must leave central Christchurch because it is not safe. Police are urging people to stay at home and check on their neighbours, while schools in the greater area are closed until further notice. Hundreds of people have spent the night at welfare centres for quake victims. Centres have been established at Burnside School and Hagley Park North, and a third, at Addington Raceway could not take any more people on Tuesday night. Christchurch is still recovering from a 7.1-magnitude quake that hit the Canterbury region on 4 September last year, causing widespread damage but no deaths. Earlier in February, survivors gathered for the 80th anniversary of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Napier, in which at least 256 people died. The number for information about emergency centres is 0800 779 997 The Red Cross call centre for people worried about friends and family in Christchurch is 0800 RED CROSS, or 0800 733276. Buildings collapse The Pyne Gould building in Cambridge Terrace has collapsed and fire fighters are trying to free trapped people. 22 people have been rescued alive from the building so far and police were talking to others still trapped inside as they worked to free them overnight. The Canterbury Television Building has also collapsed and was on fire on Tuesday night, while the spire of the historic Christchurch Cathedral crumbled when the quake struck. Power supplies were cut to 70% of Christchurch. Lines company Orion said about 150,000 households were without power and it was impossible to say when supplies would be restored. Civil Defence says there is no water supply to 80% of the city. Search and rescue teams in city Search and rescue teams have arrived from other parts of the country, and an Australian Hercules with 150 people is expected with an urban rescue team early on Wednesday. About 200 extra police officers have been drafted in from throughout the country. The Defence Force says it has approximately 200 soldiers in Christchurch helping officers maintain cordons around the city. Fire fighters were arriving from Timaru to help overworked fire crews, who said they could not cope with the volume of quake-related callouts. Army medical teams are working at four different locations, while Defence Force fire fighters are also working with local fire brigades. An Air Force plane carrying 20 St John Ambulance officers and sniffer dogs was due to arrive in Christchuch late on Tuesday night. PHOTO: LAYTON DUNCAN via Twitter Two Iroquois helicopters have arrived to help with rescue efforts, while an Orion is taking aerial photographs of affected areas. Three Navy vessels, including the Canterbury and Resolution are in Lyttelton Harbour and sailors are assisting rescue efforts. A fourth navy vessel is on its way from Oamaru. State of emergency declared Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker says a state of emergency has been declared. The damage in the city is "immense" and the city will need help from other parts of New Zealand. Mr Parker says the central city has been cordoned off and it was not safe for people to go into the area. Search and rescue personnel would be visiting "dozens" of buildings overnight on Tuesday. Many buildings have also collapsed in Lyttelton. Chief fire officer Mark Barclay says 60% of the buildings in the main road, London Street, have fallen. Listen to Bob Parker media conference held at 9pm Tuesday Hospital functioning Christchurch Hospital remains open and large numbers of seriously injured people are being treated in the emergency department. Triage centres have been set up at Latimer Square, the Sanitarium Factory in Papanui, the Beasley Avenue 24-hour Medical Centre, Princess Margaret Hospital and Christchurch Hospital. Some 70 army medical staff have been deployed and will be based at the central police headquarters. Wellington Regional Hospital and hospitals throughout the South Island are discharging patients and cancelling non-urgent surgery to free up beds for quake victims. City roads damaged Local roads have sustained major damage and there are reports of liquefaction and surface flooding. However, main roads to Christchurch are open. The New Zealand Transport Agency said the Lyttleton Tunnel had been reopened on Tuesday for emergency vehicle use only. The Ferrymead bridge is reported to be impassable because of rising water. However, the Rakaia Bridge on SH1 south of Christchurch and the Waimakariri Bridge on SH1 north of the city are open, the Transport Agency says. Christchurch Airport is closed to all but emergency flights. Use cellphones for emergencies only Police say the emergency 111 service is working, although callers are having problems getting through due to network damage, congestion and overloaded lines. Trapped or injured people should keep trying 111, police said. Civil Defence and Telecom are asking people to make only emergency calls so that injured or trapped people can get through to emergency services. Copyright © 2011, Radio New Zealand ||||| Nearly 450 Australians attending a medical conference have been caught up in the Christchurch earthquake. Doctors and nurses from across the country were at the annual meeting of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand when Christchurch was rocked. There were 600 delegates registered for the meeting; 430 were Australians of which 160 were Victorians. Advertisement: Story continues below Event Planners' human resources director Suzanne Best said the convention centre had been evacuated and all the delegates were believed to be safe. The convention began yesterday and was due to finish on Thursday. The centre is located in the heart of the CBD, a few streets from Christchurch Cathedral. A doctor from St Vincent's Hospital, Marni Basto, was filmed by the ABC in front of Christchurch Cathedral. She was on hand to help any survivors who might have been in the cathedral, which partly crumbled in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake. "We're just waiting for them to clear ... any structural damage that would put us at harm and, once we get that OK, we'll head in and try and help some people," Dr Basto was reported on radio 3AW as saying. "We're just trying to accumulate any supplies that we can; we've taken some from the stores around and everyone's been very helpful giving medical supplies, everything that they've got so far." Nathan, a Melbourne surgeon at the convention, said he had seen major destruction around the city following the quake, which was followed five to 10 minutes later by a strong aftershock. He feared there would be fatalities, including at the cathedral in the main square where the steeple had been destroyed. "I'm over here at a convention in Christchurch and just in the middle of a session, you know, the speaker was speaking and suddenly the ground shook, and glass was breaking and it was really quite frightening," Nathan told radio 3AW. "Fortunately nobody from our convention appears to be severely hurt but there's a lot of major destruction here in Christchurch. "I don't know if you know the church in the centre of town, the steeple has fallen over. I'm certainly fearful that there will be some fatalities among that, and a lot of the buildings just adjacent to the city square, the awnings of buildings have all fallen down and a lot of buildings around here, it looks pretty shaken up. All the water mains have burst. There's water seeping up through the roads. It's a fairly scary place to be right now. "The road has been buckled up, just like looking at bits of liquorice sort of burst up on the seam. It really is quite incredible." He said buildings had fallen on to cars, while "lots of second storeys have fallen on to first storeys". "I guess a lot of us now don't know what to do. Some of us were thinking to go down the hospital to help out but we were told not to leave the area because it's not safe," Nathan said. Among the Victorian delegates were members of the Victorian Urological Nurses Society. Australia's women's cricket team, the Southern Stars, were training indoors in the township of Lincoln, about 25km from Christchurch, when the quake hit. Head coach Richard McInnes said the team's 14 players and five staff were safe. "(We) just heard the noise like two massive big roller doors opening and then the floor started to move, which is a big concrete slab ... and the whole floor moved like a surfboard," he said. The team have been unable to return to Christchurch were they were due to play a match on Thursday and are staying in residential halls at Lincoln University. - with Alana Rosenbaum ||||| New Zealand earthquake leaves 65 dead Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Continue reading the main story Related Stories New Zealand's prime minister says at least 65 people have died after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch. John Key said the toll was expected to rise further, adding: "We may be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day." The tremor struck at 1251 (2351 GMT on Monday), only 10km (6.2 miles) south-east of the city and at a depth of 5km (3.1 miles), causing widespread damage. Mr Key said the emergency services were working as fast as they could to find people trapped under the rubble. The damage is said to be far worse than after the 7.1-magnitude quake on 4 September, which left two people seriously injured but no fatalities. Its epicentre was further away from the city and deeper underground, but still caused an estimated $3bn (¬£1.9bn) in damage. Community 'in agony' TV pictures of the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake showed scores of collapsed buildings in Christchurch, on South Island. People could be seen wandering the rubble-filled streets in distress. The Pyne Gould Guinness building in central Christchurch suffered severe damage Local police said there were reports of multiple fatalities, including people on two buses which had been crushed by falling buildings. There were also reports of fires and of numerous people being trapped in collapsed buildings, they added. Officials said up to 30 people were feared still trapped inside the Pyne Gould Guinness building. Local television showed bodies being pulled out of rubble strewn around the city centre. Christchurch Cathedral, an iconic stone building in the centre of the city, was partly destroyed, its spire toppling into the square below. "I was in the square right outside the cathedral - the whole front has fallen down and there were people running from there - there were people inside as well," John Gurr, a camera technician, told the Reuters news agency. "Colombo Street, the main street, is just a mess." Radio New Zealand reported that its staff had to cling to their desks during the tremor, and that a church near its offices had collapsed. Concrete in Victoria Square had risen at least a metre in some places and there are signs of liquefaction around the Avon river, RNZ added. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote When the shaking had stopped I looked out of the window, which gives a great view onto Christchurch, and there was just dust” End Quote Barry Corbett City councilman Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water. The suburbs of Lyttleton and New Brighton are reportedly "unliveable". Grant Beedie, who was working in a factory in Sydenham, told the BBC that the damage was "massive‚Ķ like a warzone". "The entire building just shook. We all just hit the ground and shut our eyes. There were loads of things flying off the shelves," he said. "There were massive machines moving about - it was scary. I was almost in tears." Christchurch mayor Bob Parker said there was "a lot of devastation". "We're really in a position where we are now just trying to build up a picture of the scale of this and areas of damage and trying to quantify it in some way," he told the BBC. "We're beginning to get a feeling, from what we've got so far, that a significant number of people are injured and a significant number of people are still trapped in buildings," the mayor added. "And as we get further into that rescue operation... clearly we're going to be presented with statistics that are going to be bleak." Just how bleak was soon revealed by the prime minister, who said 65 people were confirmed dead and scores more were injured or missing. "It is just a scene of utter devastation," Mr Key said. "We have to work as fast as we can to get people out of environments where they are trapped." "This is a community that is absolutely in agony. We just need this community, as it has done before and as it will do again, to come together, to check and support one another," he added. "We will get through this. New Zealand will regroup and Christchurch will regroup." The military has been called in to assist the rescue effort, and the government has accepted the offer of specialist help from Australia. Civil Defence Controller David Coetzee said "significant" aftershocks should be expected. Some have been as powerful as magnitude 5. New Zealand lies at the southern end of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, and above an area of the Earth's crust where the Pacific Plate converges with the Indo-Australian Plate. The country experiences more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which only around 20 have a magnitude in excess of 5.0. The last fatal earthquake was in 1968, when a 7.1-magnitude tremor killed three people on the South Island's western coast. Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here. Read the terms and conditions | The Piko Wholefood building in Christchurch was badly damaged by the earthquake. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the of New Zealand at 12:51 PM local time on Tuesday (Monday 23:51 UTC). At least 75 people have been killed by collapsing buildings in central , with more feared. Mayor said 55 bodies had been identified and there were a further 20 unidentified bodies. The spire of the iconic Anglican has fallen and rubble is strewn throughout the central business district. Roads and carparks have cracked and lifted, and two buses are reported to be crushed under the bus exchange. Pools of mud have erupted due to burst water mains and liquefaction. Boulders and falling cliff faces have destroyed buildings on hillside suburbs. Fears for the safety of nearby towns Lyttelton and Akaroa are exacerbated due to communication problems. The earthquake was centred near , at a depth of five kilometres, according to the . Unlike previous quakes in the region that caused no fatalities, Tuesday quake was shallower and closer to the central city and the damage was much worse. Condemned buildings, weakened by last year's widespread earthquakes, were destroyed. Some aftershocks have occurred in the area after the earthquake. The largest so far was a magnitude 5.6 which occurred at 7:04 p.m. February 21 (1:04:18 p.m. local time, February 22). Mayor Bob Parker has stated that as many as 25 major buildings in the city are destroyed. Urban Search and Rescue efforts are focussed on people trapped in the remains of Canterbury Television and Pyne Gould Corporation office buildings. The historic in Christchurch has half collapsed, while the old Canterbury Provincial Chambers building, Piko Wholefoods, and a church on Durham Street have been destroyed. The earthquake also caused an estimated 30 million tons of ice to break off of the Tasman Glacier forming icebergs in a lake near its foot. Tourists on boats at the time of the quake say waves of 3.5 meters swept the lake for at least 30 minutes following the event. The glacier sits on the country's west coast, approximately 120 miles (200km) from Christchurch. No injuries were reported. Many people are trapped in damaged buildings or under rubble, but emergency services have been hampered by gridlock as motorists and pedestrians evacuated the CBD. The main hospital remains operational despite one damaged ward being closed, and three triage centres have been set up to provide medical aid. Several hundred delegates attending a medical conference in the city, the great majority from Australia, have been trapped in the city; some of these are assisting with tending to the injured. Electricity, telephone services, and traffic lights suffered widespread outages. Orion and Telecom are attempting to assess the damage, and generators have been sent down from Auckland to replace the backup generators in the city. Civil Defence is mounting a response with all available national resources, and Cabinet is holding an emergency session. Speaking to , said he was "thrown quite a distance", that there were scenes of "great confusion" on the streets, and that the quake was "as violent as the one that happened on the 4th of September". The emergency telephone code, 111 was not working for the entire region of but is apparently stable as of approx. 4 pm . Christchurch Airport is currently closed to all but emergency flights. Speaking after the earthquake, Bob Parker said at least 200 people are believed trapped under rubble, saying that New Zealand are "going to be presented with statistics that are going to be bleak". |
A police officer, foreground right, looks on, as last minute preparations are made inside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008. The "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters opened Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. (AP Photo/John McConnico) 'Doomsday' Seed Vault Opens in Arctic LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (AP) — Norway opened a frozen "doomsday" vault Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain where millions of seeds will be stored to safeguard against wars or natural disasters wiping out food crops around the globe. Biblical references repeatedly cropped up as guests at the opening ceremony carried the first seed deposits into the vault in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. "This is a frozen Garden of Eden," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, standing in one of the frosty vaults against a backdrop of large discs made of ice. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the vault an "insurance policy" and added his own biblical comparison: "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations." Svalbard Global Seed Vault, just 620 miles from the North Pole, is designed to house as many as 4.5 million crop seeds from all over the world. It is built to withstand global warming, earthquakes and even nuclear strikes. The vault, built by the Norwegian government for $9.1 million, will operate like a bank box. Norway owns the bank, but the countries depositing seeds own them and can used them as needed free of charge. Daily operations will be overseen by NorGen, a gene bank in an old coal mine on Svalbard that is jointly owned by the Nordic countries. The vault will serve as a backup to the other 1,400 seed banks around the world, in case their deposits are lost. War wiped out seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another bank in the Philippines was flooded in the wake of a typhoon in 2006. "It is very important for Africa to store seeds here because anything can happen to our national seed banks," said 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya. She is a board member of Global Crop Diversity Trust board, which collects the seeds for the Svalbard vault. The group was founded by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International, a Rome-based research group. "Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population," said Cary Fowler, head of the trust. Stoltenberg and Maathai made the first deposit in the vault — a box of rice seeds from 104 countries. Guests at the ceremony carried dozens of other boxes through the steel and concrete-lined tunnel leading to the vaults. The seeds are packed in silvery foil containers — as many as 500 in each sample — and placed on blue and orange metal shelves inside three 32-by-88-foot storage chambers. Each vault can hold 1.5 million sample packages of all types of crop seeds, from carrots to wheat. Svalbard is cold, but giant air conditioning units have chilled the vault further to -0.4 degrees, a temperature at which experts say many seeds could last for 1,000 years. After the ceremony, Stoltenberg and Barroso took a three-hour helicopter tour of the remote region. They landed on a vast glacier and stopped at the research stations of Ny-Aalesund, some 60 miles northwest of Longyearbyen, the main settlement on Svalbard. Stoltenberg told reporters that he wanted Barroso to see the effects of climate change in the form of melting ice. Barroso said such melting glaciers show that "we see the need to act ... to avoid real challenges to balance in the life of our planet." ||||| (Adds Stoltenberg, Barroso quotes, details)By John AcherLONGYEARBYEN, Norway, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Norway launched a Noah's ark of the plant kingdom on Tuesday to protect crop seeds, among mankind's most valuable resources, from cataclysm inside an Arctic mountainside.Blasted out of icy rock 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the air-locked vaults would stay frozen for 200 years even in the worst-case scenario of global warming and if mechanical refrigeration were to fail, officials said.Initially 100 million seeds from more than 100 countries have been sent for safekeeping at the $10 million facility which holds 268,000 seed samples, each from a different farm or field."Biological diversity is under threat from the forces of nature ... and from the actions of man," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at the opening ceremony."The seed vault is our insurance policy" against threats such as war, natural disasters or climate change, he said.Dubbed a doomsday vault, the cavern in the Svalbard archipelago off the northern tip of Norway is a backup storage for seeds from gene banks around the globe.The deposits range from major African and Asian staples such as rice, maize, wheat, cowpea and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley and potato. Genetically modified varieties will not be included."We will have a major (seed) collection here, one of the biggest in the world, from the opening day," Cary Fowler, head of the Global Crop Diversity Trust which is funding the operations of the vault, told Reuters.Stoltenberg and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist, put the first box of rice seed in the vault at an inauguration ceremony also attended by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.CLIMATE TREATY"We hope and work for the best but have to plan for the worst," Barroso said.He hoped international cooperation in setting up the vault could be matched by efforts to agree a new U.N. treaty to fight climate change at a meeting in Copenhagen due in late 2009."The conditions down here in the vault are perfect," Fowler said inside the gently sloping steel tube tunnel leading down to the three vault rooms that will be able to house 4.5 million samples, some 2 billion seeds."In the past, when accidents or natural disasters or war intervened and destroyed samples, then that was it -- they were as dead as a dinosaur, extinct," Fowler said."But we are going to put an end to extinction with this vault because we are going to have a safety backup, a Plan B."Seeds deposited in the vault remain the property of the depositors, which include the world's major gene banks in developing countries.During a visit to the site on Monday, whirring freezer equipment added an extra chill to the first vault room to be opened. The seeds will be kept at a storage temperature of minus 18-20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit).Barley can survive 2,000 years, wheat 1,700 and sorghum almost 20,000 years under such conditions, the Trust said.If the freezers failed, the permafrost would keep the cavern at around minus 4 Celsius, allowing time for repairs."I like having a Plan B to our Plan B," Fowler said. (Editing by Robert Woodward) ||||| Vault In Norway Houses Global Seed Samples February 26, 2008 1:15 p.m. EST Vittorio Hernandez - AHN News Writer Longyearbyen, Norway (AHN) - Norway opened on Tuesday a seed vault at an Arctic mountain in the Svalbard archipelago. The vault is a depository of seeds of all food plants from all over the world. It seeks to ensure adequate food supply in the event that climate change, wars and natural disasters destroy vegetation. At the opening ceremony, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said,"The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is our insurance policy... It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations." The vault is located 425 feet deep inside a frozen mountain. It can store up to 4.5 million seed samples and protect it from man-made and natural disasters. The $9.1 million facility was built to withstand an earthquake or a nuclear hit. Its strength against tremors was tested last week when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook Svalbard. Although Norway owns the vault, other countries may deposit seeds without any charge and may withdraw the seed samples anytime they want to. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, one of the guests at the opening ceremony, said, "this is a frozen Garden of Eden". The ensure the seeds will last inside the vault, giant air conditioning units had been installed at a negative 0.4 degree Fahrenheit. According to experts, with this frigid temperature, many of the seeds may last up to 1,000 years. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is in charge of collecting seed samples. Cary Fowler, head of the trust, said, "Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints and for meeting the food needs of a growing population." Up to 500 seeds are packed inside silver foil containers, stored on blue and orange metal shelves inside three 32 by 88 foot storage chambers. Each vault is capable of holding 1.5 million sample packages. According to Ola Westengen, operations manager of the vault, among the seed samples it will house are 30,000 beans and grass species from Colombia, 47,000 wheat samples and 10,000 maize seeds from Mexico, and 70,00 rice varies from 120 different countries collected by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. | Artist's conception of the vault. The entrance to the vault. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a vault containing millions of seeds from all over the world, saw its first deposits on Tuesday. Located 800 kilometers from the North Pole on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the vault has been referred to by European Commission president José Manuel Barroso as a "frozen Garden of Eden". It is intended to preserve crop supplies and secure biological diversity in the event of a worldwide disaster. "The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in safeguarding the world’s crop diversity," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust which is in charge of collecting the seed samples. The Norwegian government, who owns the bank, built it at a cost of $9.1 million. At the opening ceremony, 100 million seeds from 268,000 samples were placed inside the vault, where there is room for over 2 billion seeds. Each of the samples originated from a different farm or field, in order to best ensure biological diversity. These crop seeds included such staples as rice, potatoes, barley, lettuce, maize, sorghum, and wheat. No genetically modified crops were included. (Beyond politics they are generally sterile so of no use.) Constructed deep inside a mountain and protected by concrete walls, the "doomsday vault" is designed to withstand earthquakes, nuclear warfare, and floods resulting from global warming. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called it an "insurance policy" against such threats. With air-conditioned temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius, experts say the seeds could last for an entire millennium. Some crops will be able to last longer, like sorghum, which the Global Crop Diversity Trust says can last almost 20 millenniums. Even if the refrigeration system fails, the vaults are expected to stay frozen for 200 years. The Prime Minister said, "With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization." Stoltenberg, along with Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, made the first deposit of rice to the vault. "It is very important for Africa to store seeds here because anything can happen to our national seed banks," Maathai said. The vault will operate as a bank, allowing countries to use their deposited seeds free of charge. It will also serve as a backup to the thousands of other seed banks around the world. "Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints and for meeting the food needs of a growing population," Cary Fowler said. |
Roller-skating baby advert has been watched over 4 mln times www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-10 08:24:18 Print Scroll down for the video: The video of babies performing skating stunts has been watched over 4 million times on YouTube lone in the last week alone. (Photo: CCTV.com) Photo Gallery>>> Scroll down for the video: The video of babies performing skating stunts has been watched over 4 million times on YouTube lone in the last week alone. (Photo: CCTV.com) Photo Gallery>>> BEIJING, July 10 -- A TV advert which appears to feature roller-skating babies has become an internet sensation. The special effects video of infants in nappies and vests performing skating stunts to hip-hop has been watched over 4 million times on YouTube alone in the past week. (Source: CCTV.com) Editor: Lin Liyu Related Stories Home Odd News Back to Top ||||| You'll Find Yourself Watching This Feel Good Video Commercial Again and Again Evian Babies on Roller Skates Commercial Addictive Evian water has a baby commercial video with stunt-skating babies on roller skates that is so borderline creepy (it's the strange verisimilitude) it is simply awesome. Evian has taken the E-Trade baby out of his high chair and away from the computer, addeda familiar dance track and put him and a couple dozen babies on roller skates for their commercial. By the time the Evian babies on roller skates commercial video is over, one can't help but smile.The Evian video is just plain fun to watch...It doesn't make me want to buy Evian water, however. (How can you buy anything that spells naïvE backwards?) It does make me want to hit replay so I can watch the video of those babies on roller skates again. It's a pretty safe bet that many people are finding themselves following the same urge.So what you have is a video, a commercial, of babies on roller skates, rolling around to "Rapper's Delight," the rap song by the Sugarhill Gang that is given credit to popularizing hip hop/rap music. They jump a fence, jump over each other, and jump into a fence. They skate backwards, solo, and in unison. They do a troupe number on a set of steps. There is even one scene where one baby loses his balance, regains his balance, and skates on, goofy grin and all.Simply put: The Evian water video is just flat-out entertaining.The only thing missing from this captivating commercial is a disclaimer at the end: "No babies were hurt during the making of this commercial."Baby commercials are not always hits but when they are, they seem to go over in a big way. In fact, people really enjoy commercials with children in them. It is why the E-Trade commercial did so well. It is why the Kaiser Permanente commercial (with the kid whose life was "looking up") was so popular. It's why people love the Welch's kids and the Oscar Mayer sing-alongs (admit it -- you sing along with the kids when they sing the "Oscar Mayer Hot Dog Song.")Children in commercials break down our defenses. There is an inherent honesty about children, an innocence that pulls the audience in, hooks them. Put a smiling or laughing child on a product and watch it sell. ||||| Roller-skating baby Evian advert proves an internet sensation with 4 million viewers A TV advert which appears to feature roller-skating babies has become an internet sensation. The special effects video of infants in nappies and vests performing skating stunts to hip-hop has been watched over four million times on YouTube alone in the past week. A child's first steps are a proud moment for any parent but the daredevil 'roller-babies' leap over park fences and railings as well as each other in a city park. After pressing play on a giant ghetto blaster that is bigger than them, they also execute all manner of flips and somersaults. The troupe of 96 special-effects roller-babies groove to a remix of the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight in a city park. The 60-second film was shot at London's Pinewood Studios as part of mineral water brand Evian's 'Live Young' international TV and web video campaign. No date has yet been set for it to be shown on British TV. The Evian babies were last screened 11 years ago performing an underwater ballet. Evian's worldwide director of brand Michael Aidan said that the firm was trying to sell drinkers a 'dream'. He said: 'In the majority of countries in recent years, our communication has been very fact-based. 'But consumers expect more from a big brand emotion, dream. This is what we want to achieve - hence this breakaway and back to roots campaign." One female YouTube viewer said of the ad: 'It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen.' Click here to watch video www.dailymail.co.uk ||||| The video of babies in nappies performing skating stunts to a hip-hop beat has been watched 3.8 million times on YouTube alone in the past week. In the clip daredevil "roller-babies" leap over fences and railings as well as each other in a city park. After pressing play on a giant ghetto blaster that is bigger than them, they execute all manner of flips and somersaults. The troupe of 96 special-effects roller-babies groove to a remix of the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight. The 60-second film was shot at London's Pinewood Studios as part of mineral water brand Evian's Live Young international television and web video campaign. The advert is proving a huge hit online with YouTube viewers alone watching the US version almost 1.8 million times. The international version has been seen over 1.5 million times and the French clip over 500,000 times. The Evian babies were last screened 11 years ago performing an underwater ballet. Evian's worldwide director of brand Michael Aidan said that the firm was trying to sell drinkers a "dream". He said: "In the majority of countries in recent years, our communication has been very fact-based. "But consumers expect more from a big brand – emotion, dream. This is what we want to achieve – hence this breakaway and back to roots campaign." One female YouTube viewer said of the ad: "It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen". The ad was first shown on TV in France, Belgium and Canada over the weekend. An Evian spokesman said that no date has been set yet for showing the ad on TV in the UK. He said: "It's working so well virally that plans for TV in the UK are still under review." ||||| A troupe of rollerskating babies groove to a remix of the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight in Evian's international ad campaign for this summer. The 60-second clip, which breaks tomorrow online in a deal with YouTube across six countries including the UK, features a group of babies performing old school rollerskating tricks to show the rejuvenating effects of mineral water. The campaign, by Paris-based agency BETC Euro RSCG, includes an international TV launch and series of YouTube homepage placements starting tomorrow. It breaks on TV in international markets including France, Canada and Belgium this weekend. The ad is set to a remix of Rapper's Delight by Dan the Automator, who has produced albums for Gorillaz, DJ Shadow and Kasabian. It was shot at Pinewood Studios, and features 96 babies created using special effects. "In the majority of countries in recent years our communication has been very fact-based," said Michael Aidan, worldwide director of brand at Evian. "But consumers expect more from a big brand – emotion, dream. This is what we want to achieve, hence this breakaway and back to roots campaign." The campaign will also include press ads and there will also be promotions at the US Open golf.It uses the strapline "Live Young", and marks the return of Evian's babies after 11 years; they were last seen performing an underwater ballet. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | A baby laughing Registering 5,081,441 views in the past week alone, an international advertisement featuring roller-skating babies has become a YouTube sensation. French and US versions of the advert for Evian mineral water have also seen 500,000 and 1.5 million visitor hits respectively. "It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen," said one YouTube viewer. Reviewer Saul Relative says, "You'll find yourself watching this feel good video commercial again and again." The babies roller-skate to a remix of The Sugarhill Gang's top 40 hip hop single Rapper's Delight. Euro RSCG began the web video campaign on Friday, July 3. The advertisement has been aired on television in France, Belgium, and Canada. "It's working so well virally that plans for TV in the UK are still under review," said an Evian representative. |
CNN name, logo and all associated elements ® and © 2020 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. CNN and the CNN logo are registered marks of Cable News Network, LP LLLP, displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of NEWS18.com does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them. © Copyright Network18 Media and Investments Ltd 2020. All rights reserved. ||||| Sandeep Joshi Atmosphere volatile, says Jaipal Reddy Drive unlikely before November 6 Markets open in Delhi after three-day bandh NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will inform the Supreme Court that it cannot resume sealing operations on Friday in view of the law and order situation in the capital. The decision was taken at an urgent meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Thursday evening after the court turned down the Centre's plea to stay the sealing drive. Earlier in the day, the court-appointed Monitoring Committee asked the MCD to resume the exercise targeting illegal commercial establishments in the south zone from Friday. "Traders agitated" The matter was discussed by the GoM. Municipal Commissioner A.K. Nigam and Delhi Police Commissioner K.K. Paul told the GoM that the traders had become agitated and resorted to violence on Wednesday, and the situation was not conducive to resuming the sealing operations on Friday. Also, in view of the "Guru Purab" celebrations during the weekend, the exercise would not be possible until after the festivities were over. Later, briefing the media, Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said, "Both the MCD and the police are of the opinion that it is difficult to carry out sealing in the volatile atmosphere. And so, the MCD has been asked to approach the court on Friday and apprise it of the difficulties on the ground in carrying out the sealing." He refused to say when the drive would resume. "You can draw your own inference from what I have said." The operations are unlikely to start till November 6, when the court will hear the pleas of the Centre and the MCD to stop sealing and provide relief to traders who filed affidavits promising to end misuse of residential premises. Meanwhile, markets reopened on Thursday after the three-day Delhi bandh. Some private schools remained closed in view of the law and order problem. Though there were no protests, police and paramilitary forces remained on high alert. ||||| This story is from November 3, 2006 NEW DELHI: With traders overplaying their hand by going on the rampage in the Capital, the Centre appeared to be in a fix over the Friday deadline set by the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee for resumption of the sealing drive even as the court itself offered no relief on Thursday. The Group of Ministers (GoM) had the last word when it announced on Thursday that sealings won’t be possible on Friday. However, to keep the momentum of their agitation alive, the traders have organised a big yagna at Ramlila Grounds on Friday and will also hold dharnas at market places. MCD and the Union urban development ministry had approached the apex court, asking it to take up the case on a priority basis. But the court showed no urgency and refused to take it up before Monday. While the Centre had hoped that the 'law and order' issue would give it an alibi to seek a reprieve, the court refused to give in to traders’ strong-arm tactics and refused to relax the deadline, putting the ball squarely back in the government’s court. The response of the apex court, which was followed by an identical direction from the monitoring committee to MCD to resume sealings on Friday, came as a big surprise to the government. The anxiety was evident when the GoM met in the evening to review the situation. While the ministerial panel announced that sealings would not be possible because of the situation in the city, discussions at the meeting reflected the assessment that the brazen recourse to violence by traders may have upset calculations. "We cannot be a party to such blatant attempts to subvert the law," law minister H R Bhardwaj told the meeting. | The Group of Ministers which is overseeing the issue has decided not to resume the sealing of unauthorised commercial establishments until Monday. The decision came after seeing the current tense situation in New Delhi. The Group of Ministers is headed by Home minister Shivraj Patil and comprised of Law minister H R Bhardwaj, Delhi CM Sheila Dikhit, Union Urban Development minister S Jaipal Reddy and his deputy Ajay Makan. S Jaipal Reddy told reporters that it is very difficult to conduct the sealing drive in the city under these circumstances. He made the statement after a meeting of Group of Ministers. The Supreme Court had already sent the notice to Municipal Corporation of Delhi to resume the sealing drive from Thursday. They will approach the apex court on Friday and will apprise the court about the difficulties in carrying out the sealing drive in these circumstances where the traders are going on strike and creating situation of tension in the capital. Supreme Court's Monitoring committee called on the MCD to resume the sealing of unauthorised shops in the city on Friday. |
Human selection is alive and kicking This article is available in full to Premium plus subscribers Premium plus subscription you get full access to news@nature.com, the Existing personal subscribers to Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology or Nature Reviews Drug Discovery now receive news@nature.com Premium Plus access free with their subscription. Simply login with your existing username and password. Get information on With ayou get full access to news@nature.com, the full archive back to 1998, the ability to personalise your own news page, and articles up to 2 weeks before they appear in print.Existing personal subscribers to Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology or Nature Reviews Drug Discovery now receive news@nature.com Premium Plus access free with their subscription. 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If you do NOT currently subscribe to one of these journals, check a journal below and you will be redirected to the appropriate subscription page.Get information on institutional site license access here Nature $159 Nature Biotechnology $178 Nature Medicine $199 Nature Reviews Drug Discovery $199 ||||| Providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving, researchers have detected some 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years. The genes that show this evolutionary change include some responsible for the senses of taste and smell, digestion, bone structure, skin color and brain function. Many of these instances of selection may reflect the pressures that came to bear as people abandoned their hunting and gathering way of life for settlement and agriculture, a transition well under way in Europe and East Asia some 5,000 years ago. Under natural selection, beneficial genes become more common in a population as their owners have more progeny. Three populations were studied, Africans, East Asians and Europeans. In each, a mostly different set of genes had been favored by natural selection. The selected genes, which affect skin color, hair texture and bone structure, may underlie the present-day differences in racial appearance. The study of selected genes may help reconstruct many crucial events in the human past. It may also help physical anthropologists explain why people over the world have such a variety of distinctive appearances, even though their genes are on the whole similar, said Dr. Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society. The finding adds substantially to the evidence that human evolution did not grind to a halt in the distant past, as is tacitly assumed by many social scientists. Even evolutionary psychologists, who interpret human behavior in terms of what the brain evolved to do, hold that the work of natural selection in shaping the human mind was completed in the pre-agricultural past, more than 10,000 years ago. "There is ample evidence that selection has been a major driving point in our evolution during the last 10,000 years, and there is no reason to suppose that it has stopped," said Jonathan Pritchard, a population geneticist at the University of Chicago who headed the study. Dr. Pritchard and his colleagues, Benjamin Voight, Sridhar Kudaravalli and Xiaoquan Wen, report their findings in today's issue of PLOS-Biology. Their data is based on DNA changes in three populations gathered by the HapMap project, which built on the decoding of the human genome in 2003. The data, though collected to help identify variant genes that contribute to disease, also give evidence of evolutionary change. The fingerprints of natural selection in DNA are hard to recognize. Just a handful of recently selected genes have previously been identified, like those that confer resistance to malaria or the ability to digest lactose in adulthood, an adaptation common in Northern Europeans whose ancestors thrived on cattle milk. But the authors of the HapMap study released last October found many other regions where selection seemed to have occurred, as did an analysis published in December by Robert K. Moysis of the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Pritchard's scan of the human genome differs from the previous two because he has developed a statistical test to identify just genes that have started to spread through populations in recent millennia and have not yet become universal, as many advantageous genes eventually do. The selected genes he has detected fall into a handful of functional categories, as might be expected if people were adapting to specific changes in their environment. Some are genes involved in digesting particular foods like the lactose-digesting gene common in Europeans. Some are genes that mediate taste and smell as well as detoxify plant poisons, perhaps signaling a shift in diet from wild foods to domesticated plants and animals. Dr. Pritchard estimates that the average point at which the selected genes started to become more common under the pressure of natural selection is 10,800 years ago in the African population and 6,600 years ago in the Asian and European populations. Dr. Richard G. Klein, a paleoanthropologist at Stanford, said that it was hard to correlate the specific gene changes in the three populations with events in the archaeological record, but that the timing and nature of the changes in the East Asians and Europeans seemed compatible with the shift to agriculture. Rice farming became widespread in China 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, and agriculture reached Europe from the Near East around the same time. Skeletons similar in form to modern Chinese are hard to find before that period, Dr. Klein said, and there are few European skeletons older than 10,000 years that look like modern Europeans. That suggests that a change in bone structure occurred in the two populations, perhaps in connection with the shift to agriculture. Dr. Pritchard's team found that several genes associated with embryonic development of the bones had been under selection in East Asians and Europeans, and these could be another sign of the forager-to-farmer transition, Dr. Klein said. | University of Chicago, Illinois biologists Dr. Benjamin Voight, Dr. Sridhar Kudaravalli, Dr. Xiaoquan Wen and Dr. Jonathan Pritchard have identified regions of human DNA showing the strongest marks of natural selection within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years. They found that many recent genetic changes are related to the development of agriculture. In particular, the genes for digestion of milk into adulthood occurred only after some level of domestication of animals. Most mammals drink milk only in infancy. The work may shed light on the genetic factors involved in various human medical conditions, including high blood pressure and alcoholism. The Chicago finding also contradicts the tacit assumption of much social science that human evolution "ground to a halt" in the distant past. Even evolutionary psychologists have tempered their claims based upon this assumption. The study is based upon DNA changes found in three populations examined by the HapMap project: Africans, East Asians and Europeans. The study has been published in PLOS-Biology. |
JOHANNA PARSONS/Southland Times TIME TO GO: The Dutch royals - Prince of Orange Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima - leaving their hotel after a three-day stay in Queenstown. Related Links Subscribe to Archivestuff • Have your say Media in Queenstown were surprised yesterday when the Crown Prince of the Netherlands said his holiday in the resort was none of their business. He was responding to a question about his holiday in the resort. "It's none of your business, it's private," the Prince of Orange said as he got into a cream Mercedes at Eichardt's Boutique Hotel. Just seconds earlier his Argentina-born princess, who is pregnant with the couple's third child, waved and smiled, saying she had "just loved" Queenstown. Prince Willem-Alexander, heir to the Dutch throne, and Princess Maxima arrived in Queenstown on Saturday in a private jet. Their three-day visit to the resort was not part of their taxpayer-funded official visit. While in Queenstown, the royal pair stayed at the luxury Eichardt's Boutique Hotel on the lakefront. Hotel general manager Victoria Shaw said the couple "loved the hotel and their time in Queenstown, but it was their private time and they requested they have their privacy while they were here". Before leaving the hotel yesterday, Princess Maxima had her hair styled by Crew Haircutters executive hairstylist Tina Fuller. Ms Fuller said the couple had spent time relaxing in the resort before a busy official trip to Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Auckland. "She enjoyed shopping and they went on a helicopter trip," she said. Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima are visiting New Zealand after an official visit to Australia. An official state welcome was held in the grounds of Government House in Wellington yesterday. ||||| Hello Create Profile Creating your profile will enable you to submit photos and stories to get published on News24. Please provide a username for your profile page: This username must be unique, cannot be edited and will be used in the URL to your profile page across the entire 24.com network. ||||| You may have followed a broken link or a search result that is now outdated, or our site may have encountered an error. If you manually typed in the URL that brought you to this message, please ensure that you have typed it in correctly and it is all in lower case. | The heir to the Dutch throne, Prince Willem-Alexander of Orange, left New Zealand onlookers bemused with an apparent snub as he and his wife Princess Máxima started an official visit to New Zealand on Tuesday. Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima are visiting New Zealand after an official visit to Australia. An official state welcome was held in the grounds of Government House in Wellington yesterday. As they left a hotel, in Queenstown, New Zealand's tourism capital, ending a three-day private holiday before embarking on their official tour of New Zealand, a radio reporter asked the prince about his impressions of New Zealand. "Mind your own business, it's private," was the curt reply, which drew gasps from onlookers, as the Prince of Orange got into a cream-coloured Mercedes. Just seconds earlier, Princess Máxima who is pregnant with the couple's third child, waved and smiled, saying she had "just loved" Queenstown. Hotel general manager Victoria Shaw said the couple "loved the hotel and their time in Queenstown, but it was their private time and they requested they have their privacy while they were here." One upset onlooker yelled "And don't come back" after the departing motorcade. They left Queenstown in a bright orange private jet and will host their first reception in Wellington on Wednesday. The couple are due to fly out for Singapore Saturday afternoon. |
MYSTERY surrounds the death of an Australian soldier found shot in a barracks in East Timor. Military sources told The Age initial indications were that the soldier's death was an accident, but Australian Defence Force officers would not say yesterday whether a firearm was found with the body. It is understood the soldier suffered a head wound. The shooting occurred at a time of considerable tension in East Timor and antagonism towards Australian troops after an Australian soldier shot and wounded a man from a displaced persons' camp during an altercation on October 31. The Australians are frequently called on to confront gang members armed with potentially lethal steel darts and machetes. The soldier's name has not yet been released and last night the ADF would not say why he had a loaded firearm in a barracks. It is normal practice for soldiers to unload their weapons and check them by dry-firing them into a tube full of sand before entering their quarters. Whatever its cause, the fatal shooting has hit the ADF hard following the deaths of two soldiers in Afghanistan over the past three weeks and the serious wounding of a third. Trooper David Pearce was killed by a roadside bomb on October 8, SAS Sergeant Matthew Locke was shot dead by the Taliban on October 25 and on November 3, Sergeant Michael Lyddiard was injured by a bomb he was trying to defuse. Last night the ADF was trying to avoid a repeat of the controversy surrounding the death in Iraq of Private Jake Kovco, who shot himself while skylarking with his service pistol in the room he shared with two others in Baghdad. There are about 850 ADF personnel in East Timor as part of the International Stabilisation Force. ADF chief Angus Houston said the soldier's body was found in a barracks in the capital, Dili, on Monday afternoon and death was caused by a gunshot wound. Hours after the soldier died, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued new travel advice warning Australians to reconsider their need to go to East Timor because of the fragile security situation and the risk of violent civil unrest. The department said the situation could deteriorate without warning and said Australians and Australian interests might be specifically targeted. On October 4, 2007 an explosive device detonated outside the Australian Defence Co-operation House, adjacent to the Australian embassy. No one was injured. ||||| AN Australian soldier serving in East Timor has been found dead in his Dili barracks with a gunshot wound. Defence Force chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said the solder was found dead yesterday afternoon. "The soldier has died of a gunshot wound while in a barracks area,'' he said. The circumstances of the incident were still uncertain. Air Chief Marshal Houston said the death would be investigated and commission of inquiry would also be held. "Any death of an ADF member is a tragic and sad loss for the entire ADF community," Air Chief Marshal Houston said. "The soldier's next of kin have been informed and our priority is to ensure the family is receiving the support and care they need." The soldier was part of the International Stabilisation Force in East Timor. There are about 850 ADF deployed in East Timor as part of the ISF, according to the defence website. The defence force chief said arrangements for the soldier's repatriation were being made. The soldier is the third Australian serviceman to die on active service in recent weeks. On October 8, Trooper David Pearce was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, while late last month Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment Sergeant Matthew Locke was shot dead by the Taliban, also in Afghanistan. Share this article (What is this?) NEWS.com.au is not responsible for the content for external internet sites ||||| AN Australian Digger serving in East Timor has died from a gunshot wound, the department of defence has just reported. An investigation has been launched into the incident, which occurred yesterday in a barracks in the capital Dili. Australian Defence Force chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said the solder was found dead yesterday afternoon. "The soldier has died of a gunshot wound while in a barracks area," he said in a statement. "The circumstances of the incident are still uncertain and will be formally investigated." The exact circumstances of the soldier's death remain unclear. A defence spokeswoman was unable to provide any further information. Air Chief Marshal Houston said a full investigation would be conducted by staff of the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service. A formal chief of defence force commission of inquiry will also be conducted. "Any death of an ADF member is a tragic and sad loss for the entire ADF community," Air Chief Marshal Houston said. "The soldier's next of kin have been informed and our priority is to ensure the family is receiving the support and care they need." The soldier was part of the International Stabilisation Force in East Timor. There are about 850 ADF deployed in East Timor as part of the ISF, according to the defence website. The defence force chief said arrangements for the soldier's repatriation were currently being considered. The soldier is the third Australian serviceman to die on active service in recent weeks. On October 8, Trooper David Pearce was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, while late last month Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment Sergeant Matthew Locke was shot dead by the Taliban, also in Afghanistan. | C-17 Globemaster III in May 2006. An Australian soldier has been found dead with a gunshot wound in a barracks area in Dili in East Timor. The soldier, working with the International Stabilisation Force in the turbulent country was found dead on the afternoon of November 5. The exact details of his death are still unknown but Air Chief Angus Houston said an inquiry will be launched as part of the investigation. "The soldier's next of kin have been informed and our priority is to ensure the family is receiving the support and care they need," Houston said. About 850 Australian Defence Force soldiers have been deployed to East Timor as part of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), the military component of United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste. The country was recognised as independent from Indonesia in 2002. Three Australian servicemen have died on active service in one month. |
David Beckham and Jonathan Ross. Photograph: Brian J. Ritchie/Hotsauce/Rex Features Jonathan Ross called time last night on what has been nearly a decade of almost solid chatting on the BBC. His guests were the quiet David Beckham, the grizzled Mickey Rourke, and the unforthcoming Jackie Chan. Of course, any event in which David Beckham takes part, and speaks for a period of time, and appears to be enjoying himself, or at the very least, not in hell, that's news, right? And Chan: "I don't want to be an actor who can fight. I want to be a fighter who can act." You can't beat a sentiment like that. Later, Rourke sat there, looking like a dissected neck muscle, trying to say "disturbing". But the mix was far more potent than any of its curious ingredients. Tears hung in the air – who would succumb? Ross himself? Roxy Music? The studio audience, the gruff crew? There was a peculiar charge that not even those crappy opening graphics could disarm. Of course, Ross will revive his strange magic next year on ITV. But a year is a long time and, having bitched and moaned about him for ages, his departure suddenly feels very sudden. Disaffection has its own momentum, and even the people who weren't bored by Jonathan Ross in an elemental way were nevertheless bored with seeing him on the telly. The Brand/Sachs affair was a flash of madness (I never thought it was Ross's fault; I always thought he had been led astray by Brand. But it was still madness; no animals were harmed in the making of that radio moment). However, the show had an end-of-the-affair feeling to it. People at the crest can get away with almost anything and people past the crest can get away with almost nothing. And yet nobody sensible ever said Ross wasn't at the top of his game, and nothing showed that better than his interview with Beckham. Who else would have the nuts to ask whether Fabio Capello's real problem was the fact that his English wasn't good enough? A lovely moment – but the question remained: how good's the game? (interviewing I mean, not football). The problem with celebrity interviews is that these buggers have, since the days of Laurence Olivier, been thinking of ever more outrageous ways to say absolutely nothing. What do you do with that? Either put those people with someone so funny that the event will be funny however mute they are; or put them with someone so fawning that they will keep on talking, however little they're actually saying. Nobody has ever been as good as Jonathan Ross at straddling this funny-fawning axis, because it is nearly impossible (flattery has to be sincere; jokes have to be not sincere. You could watch all 273 hours of Ross and still not know how he does it). However, you know, he was great but he wasn't God. His whole schtick with women was to pretend he wanted to have sex with them. Fine, probably he meant it. But it gave no momentum at all to interviews in which the woman had something to say (I'm picturing, at random, his interview with Sarah Silverman. He leched at her; she looked at him, as if to say "why is he leching at me? Doesn't he know I'm a comedian? Am I supposed to make a joke, or just take it?") Sometimes when he interviewed male comedians, there'd be the odd two-stags-rutting moment. And yet, tinged with the romance of severance, last night's show distilled the best of Jonathan Ross: giving Beckham his Yasser Arafat hug. Smiling with real joy at Jackie Chan. Some people, sports stars, actors sometimes need a bit of space to express themselves but also need a showman to take some of the attention-flak. Ross is brilliant at all that. The band, the piano, the poofs, all the furniture had started to look a bit old-fashioned, a bit Royal Variety performance (who invented the musical interlude? Logie Baird?). But actually, the format wasn't broke, and nobody's even fixed it. We've just stamped on it and made a mess. And in due course, it will reappear on ITV. It doesn't do to get mawkish – it's not the end of the world, certainly not for Ross, who is generally thought to feed on adversity and get a bit lazy in good times. But it's hard to shake the feeling that he was cut down for no good reason, just for the insult of his riotous, unstoppable thriving. ||||| Jonathan Ross bows out of BBC Radio 2 show Jonathan Ross said presenting the show had been a "tremendous experience" Jonathan Ross has finished his last BBC Radio 2 show, saying "about 90%" of his guests were "great" and "only a handful were terrifically disappointing". His decision to leave the BBC came more than a year after the so-called "Sachsgate" affair in which he and comedian Russell Brand left lewd messages for actor Andrew Sachs. The presenter said there had been only a few shows he had been "ashamed of". He added: "The vast majority are shows I am proud of." Mr Ross, who said in January he would not be renewing his BBC contract after 13 years, is to present an ITV chat show. The previous night his final television chat show for the BBC was broadcast, in which he said he was "grateful, lucky and honoured" to have worked at the corporation. 'Too lively' For his final BBC radio presenting appearance, Mr Ross and his sidekick Andy Davies were joined by X-Factor twins John and Edward Grimes or "Jedward", comedian Alan Carr and singer Sir Tom Jones. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote We really have been spoiled” End Quote Jonathan Ross The three-hour pre-recorded show opened with the Sex Pistols song Pretty Vacant. Discussing his 11 years presenting the radio show, Mr Ross told listeners: "It has been a tremendous experience for us - obviously I like to think that the place has always been a little livelier while we are around. "There were certain periods when it was a little too lively, but it's been a great experience and a learning experience, bizarrely for people of our age." Recalling the musicians who had appeared as guests, he added: "We really have been spoiled - and we've worked with some great people here at the BBC - and the BBC have supported us and shown us a great degree of leeway and I leave with nothing but fond memories and gratitude." Related stories He also paid tribute to the show's crew and his rapport with Davies, which he compared to Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale sharing a cell in the 1970s sitcom Porridge. Drive-In Saturday by David Bowie was the final tune. Ross will begin his new ITV series, which will air in a peak-time slot, in late 2011. He was suspended for three months over "Sachsgate" incident, in which he and Mr Brand left obscene messages on the actor's answering machine. ||||| Jonathan Ross bows out with final BBC show Jonathan Ross's BBC chat show has bowed out with interviews from the likes of David Beckham, Mickey Rourke and Jackie Chan. The TV presenter - who hit the headlines in recent years not only for his alleged £18 million salary but also for making prank phone calls with Russell Brand to actor Andrew Sachs - fought back tears while filming the final instalment of the Friday night series. Graham Norton is set to replace him next year. Jonathan Ross's final guests included David Beckham (Ian Nicholson/PA Wire) And although he is sad to leave, Ross told the press his experience at the BBC was fantastic, despite controversial moments. "Never in TV have I felt like that, over the last ten years it was a lovely place to be. It has been difficult. But if I ever instrumentally damaged the BBC then I would hate myself forever," he told the Mirror's 3am team. Roxy Music provided the musical entertainment for the show, following Ross's interview with Beckham. | (right) with his wife . presented his final episode of '''' on the after more than nine years. He also finished hosting his programme on . Ross announced his departure from the BBC in January 2010, having decided not to renew his contract with the broadcasting organisation. The guests that appeared on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' on Friday were English football player , American actor and , an actor from Hong Kong. Ross has stated that he was "ashamed of" few programmes and that "the vast majority are shows I am proud of." He felt "grateful, lucky and honoured" to have been able to work at the BBC. When talking about his programme on BBC Radio 2, during his final pre-recorded three-hour-long edition broadcast yesterday, Jonathan Ross commented: "It has been a tremendous experience for us - obviously I like to think that the place has always been a little livelier while we are around. There were certain periods when it was a little too lively, but it's been a great experience and a learning experience, bizarrely for people of our age." The final song to be played at the end of the show was "", performed by . Jonathan Ross is expected to present a new television chat show on commercial British channel at some point in the future. It is believed that will be the replacement for Jonathan Ross as of 2011. |
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has chosen Frank Hsieh, a leading member of his pro-independence party, as the government's new premier. Mr. Hsieh is promising to aid the president in mapping out more pragmatic policies toward China. Frank Hsieh replaces Yu Shyi-kun, who served as Taiwan's premier for three years. Mr. Yu and the entire 20-member cabinet resigned Monday to give President Chen Shui-bian a free hand in reshaping his government, after his party lost parliamentary elections last month. President Chen praised Mr. Hsieh as "the best person" to help open a new era of negotiations with both the opposition and with Mainland China. Mr. Hsieh on Tuesday promised to seek co-existence and "cross-strait peace" through dialogue with Beijing. He said the new cabinet must maintain cross-strait stability. The pro-independence policies of President Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party have angered Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province. Beijing has threatened a military attack if the Taiwan government formally declares independence. The Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, which won the parliamentary elections, favors maintaining the status quo. Party leaders say the question of whether Taiwan should be independent should be decided by future generations. Philip Yang, an associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, says the recent election's message was that the president and his new premier will have to pay serious attention to relations with Beijing. "A new message from the people [is] demanding the government to pay more attention to enhance cross-straits interaction," he said. Mr. Hsieh, the 59-year-old mayor of Taiwan's second largest city, Kaohsiung, is expected to announce a new cabinet in two days. The cabinet must be endorsed by the new parliament, which convenes February 1. ||||| Top Worldwide Taiwan's Chen, Wooing Support, Names Hsieh Premier (Update1) Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian named Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh as his fourth premier since he took office in 2000, betting the popular leader of the island's second- largest city will help the government regain support. Hsieh, 58, won a second four-year term in December 2002 in Kaohsiung, where he impressed voters with his efforts to gather support from city officials to improve drinking water, clean up the city's polluted Love River and accelerate delayed construction of a mass transit system. ``Hsieh's brilliant record and negotiation capability in dealing with the city council proved he is the best choice,'' Chen said at a briefing in Taipei. Chen needs an ally who can mend relations with opposition parties, which last month maintained 114 of the 225 seats in legislative elections amid heavy campaigning by Chen. The president also needs to maintain the island's economic recovery and smooth relations with political rival China, the island's biggest trading partner. ``His two challenges ahead surely are cross-Strait relations and the Taiwan economy,'' said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Council for Advanced Policy Studies in Taiwan. Chen, who won a second term in March by a margin of less than 30,000 out of 13 million votes cast, has repeatedly complained the opposition-controlled parliament has slowed the passage of key bills. Taiwan's businesses, with more than $100 billion invested in China, want improved transport links with China, such as direct flights and shipping routes. Growth Slowing ``I believe in win-win and cooperation,'' Hsieh said after his appointment was announced. ``I'll pursue political stability and cross-Strait stability.'' It won't be easy, say analysts. The economy probably grew 5.9 percent last year, the fastest in seven years, according to government statistics. Taiwan's economic growth may slow to 4.6 percent this year as exports flag. Sluggish overseas sales are prompting companies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and AU Optronics Corp. to rein in investment. Exports, which account for almost half of Taiwan's gross domestic product, rose 6.2 percent from a year earlier in December at the slowest pace in 17 months. A weaker U.S. dollar made it more expensive for U.S. customers to buy the island's laptop computers, flat-panel displays and cell phones. Budget Deficit Taiwan faces a projected record budget deficit of NT$337.3 billion ($10.6 billion) for 2005. The government has been running deficits every year since Chen's upset election victory in 2000 that ended 50 years of Nationalist Party rule. Relations with China have worsened under Chen's administration. Beijing, which regards the Taiwan as a renegade province, has said the island may be reunified by force should it move toward independence. Chen has been pushing to change the constitution, which China perceives as such a move. Chen has drawn criticism from investors, Standard & Poor's and the U.S. for his stance. ``No one can say it's an easy job, given the high difficulty in handling cross-Strait relations and negotiation with opposition parties,'' Yang said. On Nov. 30, Taiwan's debt outlook was cut to negative by S&P, which cited the island's record budget deficit and tense relations with China. Taiwan has a rating of AA-, the fourth highest of 10 investment grades at S&P, which last cut the rating in December 2002. Moody's Investors Service gives Taiwan a rating of Aa3, the fourth highest of 10 investment grades. Presidential Candidate? A successful stint as premier may lead to bigger things for Hsieh, who is considered one of the four possible presidential candidates when Chen completes his term in 2008. Hsieh was the Democratic Progressive Party's vice presidential candidate in the 1996 presidential election but lost in the election. Hsieh, Chen and Vice President Annette Lu graduated from the island's top law school, National Taiwan University. He spent eight years as a city councilor in the capital of Taipei and eight years as a Taiwan lawmaker before moving to head the Kaohsiung government. He's often compared with the 53-year-old Chen. Both were born to poor families and were hard-working students who passed the bar examination with the highest score in their junior year. Both began their political careers by defending dissidents from the Kaohsiung incident on Dec. 10, 1979, when a rally organized by opposition politicians to commemorate Human Rights Day turned into a riot that injured scores of demonstrators and police. `Love River Miracle' Hsieh became Kaohsiung mayor in December 1998, inheriting a council controlled by the opposition Nationalist Party and a city of 1.5 million people known for having one of the island's most polluted rivers. He introduced programs to transform the Love River from a highly polluted waterway into a source of drinkable water. At the same time, he turned the city into a popular tourist destination boasting riverside pedestrian walkways and restaurant districts. ``The so-called `Love River miracle' and drinking water improvement have won Hsieh high support from Kaohsiung citizens,'' Yang said. Hsieh also accelerated the construction of the city's long- delayed NT$240 billion mass-rapid transit system, which is set to start operation next year. A United Daily News poll on Dec. 21 last year showed that 74 percent of Kaohsiung citizens surveyed were satisfied with Hsieh's performance, up from 37 percent one month after he first took office in January 1999. The poll, which surveyed 1,023 people, had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. ``It's still too early to say whether Hsieh can succeed,'' said Charles Chen, who manages the equivalent of $150 million at JF Asset Management co. in Taipei. ``Let's wait for his cabinet reshuffle and most important, details of what he plans to do.'' ||||| By Caroline Gluck BBC, Taiwan Mr Hsieh is known as a skilful negotiator The appointment came a day after the cabinet resigned in the wake of the DPP's disappointing results in legislative elections last month. The appointment of Mr Hsieh had been widely anticipated. But he will face a tough task trying to push through government policy in the opposition-controlled legislature. In his acceptance speech Mr Hsieh, the mayor of Taiwan's second-largest city, Kaohsiung, spoke of the importance of co-operation and dialogue. He said his new cabinet would focus on seeking political and social stability and better cross-strait relations with the Chinese mainland. He also promised a stable investment environment. After consulting with the president, the prime minister will announce a new cabinet in the next few days, before the new legislature convenes on 1 February. Analysts believe it will only be a partial reshuffle, with many key ministers, including those responsible for defence, foreign affairs and relations with China, likely to retain their posts. The main opposition nationalist or KMT party had nominated its own candidate for prime minister, saying that its legislative majority should be reflected in the make-up of the new cabinet. After the December elections, President Chen had promised to build more political consensus and consult with the opposition alliance. However, no formal talks have taken place. | Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has chosen Frank Hsieh, a leading member of his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, as the new Premier of the Republic of China. Frank Hsieh replaces Yu Shyi-kun, who served as Taiwan's premier for three years. Mr. Yu and the entire 20-member cabinet resigned Monday to allow President Chen Shui-bian to reshuffle the cabinet, after his party's coalition lost parliamentary elections last month. Mr. Hsieh, the 59-year-old mayor of Taiwan's second largest city, Kaohsiung, is a close ally of Mr. Chen and will be expected to closely carry out the president's agenda. Mr. Hsieh served as Chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party from 2000 to 2002. President Chen praised Mr. Hsieh as "the best person" to help open a new era of negotiations with both the opposition and with Mainland China. Analysts suggest that Mr. Chen's appointment may signal President Chen's preference for a successor. Mr. Chen's second term ends in 2008 and Mr. Hsieh has had previous experience as a vice presidential candidate in 1996. In ways, the two men are alike. Both grew up in poor families, graduated from Taiwan's most prestigious National Taiwan University, and passed the bar with the highest score in their junior years in college. Like President Chen, Mr. Hsieh rose to prominence defending the dissidents of the Kaohsiung Incident and went on to serve as a Taipei city councilor and a legislator. Mr. Hsieh is expected to announce a new cabinet in two days. The cabinet must be endorsed by the new parliament, which convenes February 1. Analysts believe that many key ministers, including those responsible for foreign affairs, defense, and mainland affairs, are likely to retain their posts. Mr. Hsieh on Tuesday promised to seek co-existence and "cross-strait peace" through dialogue with the People's Republic of China. He said the new cabinet must maintain cross-strait stability. He will also need to smooth the economic recovery. He will have to face a parliament in which the opposition holds 114 of the 225 seats. Mr. Chen has complained that passage of his key bills have been slowed by the parliament. The pro-independence policies of President Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party have angered Beijing, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province. Beijing has threatened a military attack if the Taiwan independence is declared. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949 when the Communists established the People's Republic and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, moved the original government to Taiwan where they maintained the Republic of China, which Beijing regards as defunct. President Chen maintains there are two countries. The Kuomintang favors maintaining the status quo. Party leaders say the question of whether Taiwan should be independent or reunited with mainland China should be decided by future generations. The Kuomintang, citing its parliamentary victory, had sought to name its own premier and government. Philip Yang, an associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, says the recent election's message was that the president and his new premier will have to pay serious attention to relations with Beijing. "A new message from the people is demanding the government to pay more attention to enhance cross-straits interaction," he said. |
Bell-bottoms came and went and came back again. But Dick Clark? He never left. With his toothpaste-ad smile and a microphone always ready, Dick Clark was a fixture in our pop culture for decades. Maybe you hear his name and think New Year's Eve stalwart, or American Bandstand host, or "World's Oldest Teenager," a nickname he picked up from TV Guide years ago, but Dick Clark was much more than any of those single images. Clark, who suffered a debilitating stroke in 2004 and died Wednesday of a heart attack, was a shrewd entrepreneur who built a small empire for himself in the entertainment industry. He was 82. Teen dance shows, prime-time programming, specials, games shows, made-for-TV movies, and even feature films and restaurants, the ambitious Clark made Dick Clark Productions into a thriving business that touched the worlds of music, television and film. From Bandstand in the 1950s to his three decades of New Year's Rockin' Eves, Clark was particularly adept in the melding of music and TV. "Music is the soundtrack of your life," he was quoted as saying, and yet, he wasn't ever the one shimmying on the dance floor. And his favorite music? "Disco," he said in more than one interview. Clark was all about the smooth running of the production, not so much the joy of music. "I don't make culture," he once said. "I sell it." In fact, the life of Richard Wagstaff Clark is a classic mailroom-to-boardroom Hollywood story. He was a broadcast salesman from start to finish. The Mount Vernon, N.Y.-born Clark began his career in 1945 working as a teenager in the mailroom of WRUN-AM in Utica, N.Y., a station owned by his uncle and run by his father. He worked his way up to weatherman and newsman. At Mount Vernon's A.B. Davis High School in 1947, Clark was voted "Most Likely to Sell the Brooklyn Bridge." After getting his business administration degree from Syracuse University in 1951, clean-cut Clark used his stint in radio to move into a newscasting job at WKTV in Utica. But it was in 1952, when he went to work for WFIL radio and television in Philadelphia, that his career really began to take off. That summer WFIL decided to follow the new trend of having radio announcers play records over the air. Shortly after, the station decided to try the trend on TV. Teenagers were invited to come and dance while the records were played by host Bob Horn. The show was called Bob Horn's Bandstand. When Horn went on vacation, Clark filled in for him, and when Horn was arrested for drunken driving in 1956, Clark got the job permanently. What made him a success was his rapport with the teens and his non-threatening image to their parents. He knew what to sell. But he deserves credit for doing something bigger than just putting on a show. In 1957, American Bandstand went national, and Clark began introducing the American public to rock and roll. He was, in some ways, the Carson Daly of his day. American Bandstand was important to the music world. Not only did it show worried parents exactly what their kids were interested in, but when Clark changed the name of the show, he also ended its all-white policy and began introducing black artists, a hot-button issue of the time. American Bandstand provided the first national exposure for Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Chubby Checker, among others. "The man was big. He was the biggest thing at the time in America at that time. He was bigger than the president!" Hank Ballard, who wrote The Twist, once said. But Clark, while breaking ground for black acts, shied away from grittier fare. He basically ignored the British Invasion, figuring The Beatles would never be big, and gravitated to the tamest pop acts he could find. He was diehard mainstream — always keeping his eye on what would sell in America and therefore ensure his success. "I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I did this solely to keep music alive," he once told Rolling Stone. "To perpetuate my own career first and foremost, and secondly the music." By 1959, American Bandstand was broadcast by 101 affiliates and reached an audience of 20 million. The music industry quickly realized that once a new song was played on the show, it became a hit the next week. Soon the power of the show became a concern within the business. In 1959, the U.S. Senate began investigating the practice of "payola," or record companies paying radio personalities to play new records. Clark admitted he accepted a fur stole and jewelry and held financial interests in artists and songs that were frequently on American Bandstand. Even though Clark was cleared of any wrongdoing, he was ordered to either leave ABC or sell his interests; he sold. Clark, who started Dick Clark Productions in 1957, moved his headquarters to Los Angeles in the 1960s. During that time, he became friends with an up-and-comer named Chuck Barris, who went on to host The Gong Show, and Ed McMahon. Clark was responsible for McMahon meeting Johnny Carson. Clark is a "wonderful guy," McMahon told Newsday in a 2003 profile of Clark. "He's a businessman, just like I am. And the fact is, he's very efficient and very well-organized when he does something." In 1965 Clark produced Where The Action Is for ABC-TV. Hosted by Paul Revere and the Raiders, it was a Bandstand-type show. Clark continued to host American Bandstand after it left ABC-TV and went into syndication. When he quit hosting in 1989, it had become the longest-running television variety show of all time. In 1973 Clark took on a new production, The American Music Awards, which offered an alternative to the Grammys. It became a battleground for loyalty in the music industry. In 2001, that battle came to a head. Clark filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles, alleging that Michael Greene, president and chief executive of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, maintained a "blacklist" policy that prevents stars — including Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Toni Braxton— from performing on both Greene's Grammy Awards and Clark's American Music Awards. The suit sought $10 million in damages. The suit was withdrawn when Greene announced his resignation in April 2002 after a sexual harassment probe. With Greene gone, Clark felt the problem was gone. In 2001, Clark sold Dick Clark Productions for $137 million to a group of private investors but stayed on as chairman and chief executive, producing various shows and cultivating other parts of the business, such as Dick Clark Restaurants. "Awards shows are the variety shows now because there are no more variety shows," Clark told The Los Angeles Times in 2004 before his 31st edition of the AMAs aired. But Clark was also a big believer in game shows. In 1973, he became host of the game show $10,000 Pyramid. From 1985 to 1988, Clark hosted both the CBS $25,000 version and a daily $100,000 Pyramid in syndication. Clark's daytime version of Pyramid won nine Emmy Awards for best game show. And in 1984, Clark discovered a new franchise for himself. He produced and hosted the NBC series TV Bloopers & Practical Jokes, which ran through 1988 and continues in specials hosted by Clark (first on NBC, now on ABC). In the 1990s he produced made-for-TV films as well as theatrical movies. Clark's company also produces The Golden Globes awards show, and created the mid-2000s television series American Dreams about a Philadelphia family in the early 1960s whose daughter is a regular on American Bandstand. Clark was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1994, he announced he was battling Type 2 diabetes. Whenever he was asked about how he retained his youthful, teenage looks, Clark would always says, "I've got the pat answer — select your parents carefully, get the good genes." On Dec. 8, 2004, he was hospitalized with what was described as a "mild" stroke and missed ringing in 2005 on his New Year's Eve show. Regis Philbin substituted for him on the show, saying: "It's an American television tradition." Clark was back for that tradition when 2005 turned to 2006. His speech was slurred and he looked gaunt as he sat in the ABC studio in Times Square and told the audience the stroke had left him "in bad shape." When the new year was rung in, the camera cut to Clark kissing his wife, Kari. Clark and Kari Wigton were married on July 7, 1977 (7/7/77) in a ceremony that started at 7 p.m. (His P.O. Box address in Burbank at that time was #7777.) She was his third wife. Clark married Barbara Mallery in 1952. They had one child and divorced in 1961. He married Loretta Martin in 1962 and they split in 1971. They had two children. Kari doubled as his executive assistant, always making sure things went smoothly for her husband. Clark's early post-stroke countdowns were marred by slurring and some confusion, but his appearance and delivery gradually improved. "I enjoy the annual appearance, though I wish my delivery was as easy as it used to be," he told USA TODAY in an e-mail interview last December. "I'm encouraged by the many people who tell me I'm an inspiration to them," he said, adding that he tried to keep a positive attitude "and attack every day with the thought things are going to get better." ||||| Los Angeles (CNN) -- Broadcast icon Dick Clark, the longtime host of the influential "American Bandstand," has died, publicist Paul Shefrin said. He was 82. Clark suffered a heart attack while at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica for an outpatient procedure, his publicist said Wednesday. "Attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful." The family has not yet decided whether there will be a public memorial service for the multifaceted Clark, although Shefrin said, "There will be no funeral." Clark suffered what was then described as "a mild stroke" in December 2004, just months after announcing he had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. That stroke forced Clark to cut back on his on-camera work, including giving up the hosting duties for the "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" specials. He returned as a co-host with Ryan Seacrest on December 31, 2005. Clark anguished each year over whether to continue appearing on the annual show because of limitations on his speech from the stroke, U.S. Rep. David Dreier, a longtime friend, told CNN Wednesday. "But then he would get deluged by people who were stroke victims and other people who had infirmities and they were such admirers of his fighting spirit," said Dreier, R-California. Share your memories of Dick Clark Clark's "American Bandstand" work, which he began when it was a local TV show in Philadelphia in 1956, earned him the nickname "America's oldest living teenager." The dance show was picked up by ABC and broadcast nationally a year later. "If you didn't go on 'American Bandstand,' you hadn't made it yet," singer Aretha Franklin told "AC360." The savvy entrepreneur was a pioneer in introducing African-American and other performers to millions of young TV viewers. His audiences were integrated, among the first on television. "Only God is responsible for making more stars than Dick Clark," said singer Tony Orlando, who was 16 when he first appeared on Clark's show in 1961. Entertainers told CNN on Wednesday that Clark knew that music transcends race. "Dick understood the connection that music had. It wasn't about black, it wasn't about white," Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men told "Piers Morgan Tonight." Seacrest gave a statement to CNN expressing deep sadness for "the loss of my dear friend Dick Clark." "He has truly been one of the greatest influences in my life," Seacrest said. "I idolized him from the start, and I was graced early on in my career with his generous advice and counsel. When I joined his show in 2006, it was a dream come true to work with him every New Year's Eve for the last six years." Seacrest called Clark "smart, charming, funny and always a true gentleman." Another major figure on the music scene was too upset to talk about Clark's death. Radio host Casey Kasem's wife, Jean, told CNN that Clark served as substitute host for Kasem's popular "American Top 40." "We just feel that he was one of the most magnanimous human beings that we ever knew in the industry," Jean Kasem said of Clark. Clark became wealthy as a businessman, producing successful TV shows through Dick Clark Productions. He created the American Music Awards in the 1970s, a competitor to the Grammy Awards. He sold the company to Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder in 2007. "One of the real draws when we purchased Dick Clark Productions was the opportunity to build on the tremendous foundation of programming that this icon of American broadcasting created," Snyder said Wednesday. "I got to know Dick over the past five years, and he was just as personable and warm in person as he was on television. Once you got to know Dick, it was obvious why he was so beloved by his fans. He was, in every sense of the word, a giant." Born Richard Wagstaff Clark in Mount Vernon, New York, on November 30, 1929, he began his broadcast career working at a radio station managed by his father. Clark, who was married three times, is survived by his wife, Kari, two sons and a daughter. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Clark in its nonperformer category in 1993. Clark also hosted numerous other television favorites, including the "Pyramid" game shows and "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes." "This guy was the best," said singer Freddy Cannon, who appeared on "American Bandstand" 110 times. "He helped me from the very bottom of my career all through the '80s and the '90s, and he's going to be missed a lot." Former CNN talk host Larry King said Clark's secret for success was his ability to be natural on camera. "The hardest thing in the business is to be yourself, and no one knew that better than Dick Clark," King said. Singer Donny Osmond said Clark was one of a kind: "If someone cannot fill your shoes, you are a legend. And Dick Clark was a legend." Clark's passing follows by less than three months the death of another TV dance show icon, Don Cornelius, the creator of "Soul Train." Cornelius was found dead of what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Los Angeles on February 1. He was 75. CNN's Denise Quan and JD Cargill contributed to this report. | Dick Clark backstage during the Grammy Awards telecast February 21, 1990. , U.S. entertainment media cultural icon, died at St. John’s Hospital in , California on Wednesday of a heart attack, according to his publicist Paul Shefrin. He was 82 years old. "Attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful," Shefrin said. In December 2004, months after going public with his Type 2 diabetes, Clark experienced a mild stroke, after which he did less on-camera. Clark was a charismatic and successful entertainment-industry businessman. His business featured teen dance television programs, prime-time specials, game shows, and movies. Known as "America’s Oldest Teenager," Clark was known for his roles as host of '''' and ''.'' He was inducted into the in 1993. "I'm encouraged by the many people who tell me I'm an inspiration to them," Clark said in an email interview with '''' last December. He also said he would try to stay positive "and attack every day with the thought things are going to get better." Clark is survived his by wife, two sons, and daughter. == Sources == * * |
A fifth child has died after a stolen car fleeing police in California ran a stop sign and crashed into a pickup truck carrying a seven members of a young family, robbing a young couple of all of their children. Dinuba police say that a carjacked Dodge Neon carrying the suspects sped away from police when an officer tried to pull the vehicle over for a traffic infraction Saturday afternoon. All three passengers in the Neon died when the car plowed into the truck, leaving a death toll of eight. No one in the 1997 GMC pickup was wearing a seat belt, and the parents of the five deceased children, Carlos and Jennifer Salazar, remain in the hospital with moderate to major injuries. Four of their young kids were killed at the scene, and a fifth — 8-year-old Carlos Eric Salazar — died at the hospital Sunday. The four children who were ejected and died at the scene were identified as 7 year-old Jocelyn Grace Salazar; 4-year-old Monique Janae Salazar; 3-year-old Michael Alexander Salazar; and 1-year-old Sienna Rose Salazar, CHP Officer Felipe Martinez told FOX News on Sunday. The Salazars were on their way to a youth football game, where 8-year-old Carlos was supposed to play, before the crash. Officers had been chasing the suspects in the Neon for four miles before the deadly collision. Click here for more from KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| A fifth child has died in that police pursuit near Fresno that ended in a deadly collision, officials said today. The death Sunday of 8-year-old Carlos Eric Salazar brought the death toll to eight in the Tulare County crash. The boy was one of five siblings killed when a motorist fleeing police ran a stop sign and crashed into a pickup truck, killing himself and two male passengers. The other children in the truck were identified as Jocelyn Salazar, 7, Monique Salazar, 4, Michael Salazar, 3 and Sienna Salazar, 1. The four were thrown from the truck and died at the scene. None of the children was said to have been properly restrained. CHP Officer Chris Wright said the 2005 Dodge Neon that carried the fleeing suspects had been carjacked. When an officer tried to pull the car over for a traffic infraction Saturday afternoon, the driver led authorities on a chase. The car ran a stop sign and slammed into a 1997 GMC Sierra pickup truck, carrying a couple and their five children. No one in the truck was wearing seat belts. Carlos Salazar Jr., 29, and Jennifer Salazar, 26, were at a Fresno hospital today with minor to moderate injuries. The crash occurred at the intersection of Avenue 424 and Road 120, about four miles from where a Dinuba, Calif., police officer tried to pull over the suspects. The motorist allegedly ran a stop sign on East Nebraska Avenue and then sped through a second stop sign, crashing into the pickup truck carrying the family, Wright said. All three men in the car died at the scene, and one was thrown from the car. Authorities have not identified the men. -- Gerrick D. Kennedy ||||| Car fleeing Calif. police hits pickup, killing 7 SAN FRANCISCO — A stolen car fleeing from police ran a stop sign and slammed into a pickup in California's Central Valley, killing four young children in the truck and all three people in the car, police said Sunday. The Dodge Neon was carjacked either late Friday or early Saturday in Selma, about 10 miles from Dinuba, where Saturday afternoon's crash took place, Dinuba police Sgt. Thaddeus Ashford said. No other details on the carjacking were available, he said. The four children were thrown from the truck, authorities said. None of the children in the truck were wearing seat belts or any restraints, California Highway Patrol Officer Felipe Martinez said. A fifth child from the truck, Carlos Eric Salazar, 8, was airlifted to Community Regional Hospital in Fresno with major injuries. Dinuba is about 33 miles southeast of Fresno. The children's parents, Carlos Salazar, Jr., 29, and Jennifer Salazar, 26, were also injured. One was airlifted to Community Regional with major injuries, the other taken by ambulance to the same hospital with moderate injuries, Martinez said. He wasn't sure which parent suffered the major injuries. The three men who fled from Dinuba police died at the scene and haven't been identified, Martinez said. None of them were carrying identification, he said. The four children who died were: Jochelyn Grace Salazar, 7; Monique Janae Salazar, 4; Michael Alexander Salazar, 3; and Sienna Rose Salazar, 1, the patrol said. Dinuba Police haven't identified the officer involved in the car chase, and Ashford said he couldn't comment on whether the officer knew during the pursuit that the Neon had been stolen. Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | A fifth child has died as a result of a police pursuit that ended in a crash in Dinuba, California on Sunday, August 9. Carlos Eric Salazar, aged 8, was the eighth victim to die as a result of the crash. Map highlighting location of Dinuba, California within Tulare County. On Sunday, four children were among seven that were killed when the pursued suspect who, after refusing to stop for police, slammed into the GMC Sierra pickup truck carrying a family, two adults and five children. The family was on their way to attend a football game for youths when the crash occurred. Four of the children were ejected from the truck and died at the scene. The two adults and one child were taken to Community Regional Medical Center located in Fresno. Both vehicles collided with lemon trees at an orchard near the intersection of Avenue 424 and Road 120 in Dinuba. Three people, including the suspect, were in a stolen 2005 Dodge Neon and also died at the scene. Their identities are not yet known as none of them were carrying identification. The other children were named Sienna Salazar aged 1, Michael aged 3, Monique aged 4 and Jocelyn aged 7. The two adults, Carlos Salazar Jr., 29, and Jennifer, 26, remain in the hospital where they are recovering from their injuries. None of the victims in the pickup were wearing seat belts, according to Fox News. |
Brumby's new Cabinet sworn in Victoria's new Cabinet has been officially sworn in, one week after the shock resignations of premier Steve Bracks and his deputy, John Thwaites. Victorian Governor David de Kretser swore in the reshuffled Cabinet under new Premier John Brumby, at a ceremony at Government House. The ceremony, which began about 11.20am (AEST), is the last official stage in the leadership change-over. Under the reshuffle, John Lenders takes Mr Brumby's old job of treasurer and former health minister Bronwyn Pike has moved to education. Former gaming minister Daniel Andrews has been promoted to the health portfolio and Tim Holding has added water to his finance portfolio, while Gavin Jennings will take over environment. The Cabinet also includes two new ministers, Tony Robinson and Maxine Morand. The ceremony was attended by family and friends of the new Cabinet line-up. ||||| State political reporter Ellen Whinett reveals the new Brumby team. JOHN BRUMBY, 54 Premier, Multicultural Affairs, Veterans Affairs Acquiring Steve Bracks' portfolios, the new boss has dropped three ministries, including Treasury. Two factional allies will aid him in the small portfolios - James Merlino, Multicultural Affairs, and Tony Robinson, Veterans Affairs. Will keep close eye on Treasurer John Lenders Seat: Broadmeadows Faction: Right (Labor Unity) ROB HULLS Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Industrial Relations, Racing Mr Hulls will juggle the deputy's job with his portfolios. A sign he won't shake off the head-kicker role, he's kept industrial relations, mostly used to undermine the Federal Government's IR laws Seat: Niddrie Faction: Right (Labor Unity) Bail out: Return to main report GAVIN JENNINGS, 50 Environment and Climate Change, Innovation Promotion for former community services minister, who wins innovation, formerly held by Mr Brumby, along with climate change and environment, left by John Thwaites. His profile should subsequently rise. Sets up tussle with industry minister Theo Theophanous, who sits in Upper House with Mr Jennings LYNNE KOSKY, 48 Public Transport, Arts No changes for Ms Kosky, who pleaded with Mr Brumby to let her keep her duties. She can now show what she can do by easing public transport congestion - a Brumby priority. She needs to lobby for more money for public transport infrastructure JOHN LENDERS, 48 Treasurer Our former education minister leaps ahead by taking on the third most powerful job. Must hit the books at once and take over Brumby's work to start preparing for next year's State Budget. He will be responsible for balancing the books in a state with a budget worth over $33b a year JUSTIN MADDEN, 46 Planning In this every-player-wins-a-prize reshuffle, Mr Madden's keeps planning but gains more duties as lead minister in the new Department of Planning and Communication Development. This recognises the need to maintain liveability in a state with a population growing by 1000 people each week. Needs to publicly explain his decisions JAMES MERLINO, 34 Sport and Recreation, Youth Affairs, Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs Status quo for the low-profile Mr Merlino, who assumed these portfolios in November. In fairness, he took over from former footballer Justin Madden, and he didn't have the Commonwealth Games to spruik. Still, being sports minister should carry a certain cache that Mr Merlino is yet to achieve MAXINE MORAND, 48 Children and Early Childhood Development A new minister taking on junior portfolios, Morand has secured the important but low-profile children's ministry, and the new early childhood development portfolio. Brumby's decision to move early childhood development out of health and into education shows a new approach, and the former nurse can use all her pragmatic skills in these two areas LISA NEVILLE, 43 Mental Health, Community Services, Senior Victorians Former newcomer Neville has taken on the added community services role, and shed the children's ministry, now in a new portfolio. Aged care has been re-badged as Senior Victorians, but her responsibilities are similar and serviced-base. A small step up for the ladder after eight months in the job TIM PALLAS, 47 Roads and Ports No changes here for the man who joined the front bench four days after being elected to Parliament. While there are grumbles about his performance, they seem to be more about style than substance. Will have a busy time when the East-West needs study into Melbourne's congested roads is released next year BRONWYN PIKE, 51 Education Takes on education after almost five years in health. More a step sideways but allows her a breather after scandals in health, especially the bungled handling of HIV cases and the chief health officer's sacking. Cements her position as Cabinet's most powerful woman. She takes on Labor's No.1 priority TONY ROBINSON, 45 Gaming, Consumer Affairs, Minister Assisting the Premier on Veterans Affairs Promoted, this keen punter takes on gaming. The third gaming minister in less than a year, he'll have to contend with the tricky review of Victoria's lucrative gaming licences, but won't appear before the Upper House inquiry into those reviews. A close associate of Brumby, he'll stick close to him through his role assisting him on veterans affairs THEO THEOPHANOUS, 59 Industry and trade, information technology, major projects Minor change for veteran Theophanous, who offloads small business but gains information technology. Keeping major projects, he will deliver big developments, including the new stadium/convention centre. Keeps industry and trade duties, a re-branding of industry and state development RICHARD WYNNE, 51 Housing, Local Government and Aboriginal Affairs Another new minister from the last intake, who also picks up Aboriginal Affairs. Will oversee the $500m public and community housing spend-up, so should have a rewarding few years, but needs to tackle rogue councils paralysed by political infighting PETER BATCHELOR, 56 Energy and Resources, Community Development As second-in-command to Justin Madden, the erosion of Batchelor's power continues since he quit transport eight months ago. Madden is lead minister in a larger Department of Planning and Community Development. Batchelor can still pursue his energy interests BOB CAMERON, 44 Police and Emergency Services, Corrections No change here for this MP who assumed these portfolios a year ago. While midway through a bruising police pay rise dispute, Cameron has otherwise had an easy ride in a tough area. A former lawyer-turned agriculture minister, country-boy Cameron brings an easy-going charm to the job JOE HELPER, 47 Agriculture, Small Business Fledgling agriculture minister adds small business and associated legislation to his duties. A slight increase in responsibilities for this no-fuss country MP, who's a qualified mechanic and service station owner. Could start building his public profile TIM HOLDING, 34 Water, Finance, WorkCover, TAC, Tourism and Major Events Any chagrin this up-and-comer felt about missing Treasury will be offset by winning the high-profile water portfolio. Must deliver the $1.9b north-south pipeline and $3.1b Wonthaggi desalination plant. Keeps tourism and major events portfolios and finance. Can he end the Murray-Darling dispute? JACINTA ALLAN, 33 Regional and Rural Development, Skills and Workforce Participation A move sideways. The former Education Services Minister would be unhappy to miss out on education DANIEL ANDREWS, 35 Health Second-biggest winner in reshuffle behind John Lenders. He assumed the gaming and consumer affairs portfolio only eight months ago ||||| The Bananas explore their town of Cuddlestown with their best friends Rat In A Hat and the Teddies (Lulu, Morgan and Amy). Bananas in Pyjamas party pack Throw your own special party with the Bananas in Pyjamas Party Pack. The pack includes everything you need to hold a Bananas in Pyjamas themed party including invitations, decorations, party games and even a B1 & B2 cake recipe! | At 11:20 a.m. in the Australian state of Victoria, the Governor David de Kretser started the ceremony for the swearing in of the new Brumby's cabinet, attended by family and friends of the ministers. This comes a full week after the resignation of Steve Bracks from the top position, and his deputy John Thwaites. The ministers and their portfolios are: *John Brumby has the role of Premier as well as the ministries of Multicultural Affairs and Veterans Affairs, *Deputy Premier Rob Hulls has the Industrial Relations and Racing, *Gavin Jennings Environment and Climate Change, and Innovation *Lynne Kosky has Public Transport and the Arts, *John Lenders is the new Treasurer, *Justin Madden retains his portfolio of Planning minister, *James Merlino takes on multiple roles of: Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation and Youth Affairs *Maxine Morand Children and Early Childhood Development *Lisa Neville has Mental Health, Community Services and Senior Victorians, *Tim Pallas retains Roads and Ports, *Bronwyn Pike changes to Education, *Tony Robinson has the multiple portfolios of Gaming, Consumer Affairs and the Minister Assisting the Premier on Veterans Affairs, *Theo Theophanous retains Industry and trade and major projects, gains minister for Information Technology but loses Small Business, *Richard Wynne has Housing, Local Government and Aboriginal Affairs, *Peter Batchelor has Energy and Resources, and Community Development, *Bob Cameron retains Police and Emergency Services, and the Corrections portfolios, *Joe Helper retains both Agriculture, and Small Business, *Tim Holding has the Water, WorkCover, Finance, Tourism and Major Events and the TAC Ministries, *Jacinta Allan has the Regional and Rural Development, and Skills and Workforce Participation from the Education Ministry. *Daniel Andrews has Health |
When early word of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s latest picture – Ploy - began to circulate the speculation was immediate that the film would represent a return to the Thai auteur’s old form, a return to more straightforward storytelling. It’s a reasonable assumption to make since the film does reunite the director with the star of his crime caper 6ixtynin9, but it is also completely and totally incorrect. Ploy represents Ratanaruang’s continued evolution. It is another step further down the road he began to chart with Last Life in the Universe. Though there is a crime element to it, as there is in every one of Ratanaruang’s films, the film far more resembles the work of his countryman Apichatpong Weerasethakul than it does Tarantino – to whom his early films drew frequent comparisons – while also inviting a re-evaluation of his previous film, Invisible Waves, as a necessary step taken to arrive here. And, yes, it is very good. Ploy is essentially a lucid dream, a film that takes place in that odd in-between state when you cannot be sure whether you are sleeping or awake and there are seemingly sure pointers that would have you believe both. It is a film about people dislocated and relationships formed while others are breaking down badly. Set in a Phuket hotel the core story revolves around Wit and Dang, a married professional couple just returned home to attend a funeral. There may have been love in the relationship once but it has gone cold now, Dang turning to drugs and alcohol for support while Wit simply ignores her. An early morning trip to the hotel bar for cigarettes leads to a chance encounter between Wit and Ploy, a teenage girl waiting for her mother to arrive from Stockholm. When Wit realizes that she is simply sitting and waiting in the hotel bar and must continue to do so for the next five hours, he invites Ploy up to use his room to nap, shower and freshen up – a situation which infuriates Dang, who resents that Ploy is receiving the type of attention Wit withholds from her. She eventually storms out and has a chance encounter of her own, one that turns potentially deadly. Also present in the hotel are the overnight barman – played by Shutter’s Ananda Everingham, who is suddenly ubiquitous in Thai film – and a maid having a role-playing affair in the hotel’s vacant rooms using clothing stolen from the in-house dry cleaners. With the body of the film set between the hours of five and ten AM and all of the characters suffering from some severe sleep deprivation, Ploy moves with a slow, hazy pace. While things appear straightforward in the early going it soon becomes clear that some sequences are in fact dreams had by some characters about the others and the lines between what is real and what is imagined becomes deeply and irrevocably blurred. And this is very likely the entire point of the film. Ploy isn’t really a film about what is so much as it is a film about what might be. It is a film about the different paths a relationship might take, about how we may choose to either support or destroy one another. Both paths are equally valid, both are equally likely, and so Ratanaruang simply leaves it up to you to decide which you choose to follow and label truth and which you choose to label fantasy. The choice, ultimately, is up to you. Beautifully shot and very well performed Ploy will very likely have difficulty finding widespread acceptance in Thailand thanks to its scenes of explicit – at least by Thai standards, it would likely be a soft R in America – sex. Thailand is notorious for the uneven application of its censorship laws but graphic nudity is pretty much always frowned upon and with equally acclaimed countryman Weerasethakul having just had his most recent film confiscated it seems unlikely that Ratanaruang can rely on his reputation to leave the film intact at home. This is purely Thailand’s loss. Ploy is a beautiful, thoughtful, meditative film, one that requires more effort from its audience than does Last Life in the Universe but one that the patient will find no less rewarding. ||||| Dir/scr: Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Thai. 2007. 105 mins. Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang's most mature, measured film to date, Ploy offers a darkly poetic variation on the theme of The Seven Year Itch. Though its slow pacing demands a certain patience, the slow waltz of story, editing and camerawork goes beyond the surreal, open-ended ditherings of the director's last film, Invisible Waves, to deliver a solid dramatic punch and an unforced moral message. This is such a tasty slice of cinema, by turns onieric, erotic, funny and emotionally perceptive, that it could easily have made the Cannes competition rather than the Quinzaine sidebar. Ploy imposes its own unhurried rhythm but then rewards its viewers for their indulgence, and within the arthouse niche that it will inevitably inhabit this could turn out to be a strong seller for Fortissimo, possibly outdoing Last Life In The Universe: it's difficult to see distributors in territories with resilient cineaste audiences passing this one up. Critical buzz and further festival dates should help to get the word out. Right from the beginning it becomes clear that we are in a transit zone, both geographical and emotional. We see a couple arrive at Bangkok airport, take a cab and check in at an anonymous contemporary hotel in the small hours of the morning. The husband, Wit (Pornwut Sarasin), goes down to the bar for a packet of cigarettes and starts chatting to Ploy (Apinya Sakuljaroensuk), a vivacious, Lolita-like girl who claims to be waiting for her mother, and looks younger than the almost-19 she declares. As there are still several hours to go until Ploy's mother arrives, Wit invites her to get some rest in his suite, where he has left his wife Dang (well-known Thai film and TV actress Lalita Panyopas) asleep. But she's not asleep now, and is understandably annoyed with, and suspicious of, her husband. Just like her, we're never quite sure whether Wit's invitation was purely altruistic, just as we're not sure whether Ploy's acceptance was as innocent as it seems – or rather, didn't seem. Ratanaruang plays with this uncertainty in a masterly way throughout the film – in fact, Ploy (the film) is a fine example of his skill as a scriptwriter as well as his assured way with actors, staging and framing. Meanwhile, in an apparently unrelated story, Nut (Ananda Everingham), the barman we saw downstairs, meets Tum (Phorntip Pananai), a chambermaid, for a gently erotic illicit encounter in a hotel room. Australian-Laotian Everingham is a hot star in Thailand – though its difficult to know whether his fans at home will be amused or annoyed by the fact that, as the director declares in the press book, "he spends most of his screentime inside a girl's skirt". Gradually the connection between the two plotlines is revealed, or half-revealed. Because although the dreams Wit, Ploy and Dang have during their fitful slumbers invade the story (and this may or may not be one of them), they do so with an inventive edginess that keeps us guessing. Charnkit Chamniwikaipong proves a worthy successor to Chris Doyle, who worked as cinematographer on Ratanaruang's last two films: Ploy is beautifully framed and shot, most of the time in a painterly half-light that stresses the transitional zone that Wit and Dang's relationship has reached: it's a kind of emotional twilight. Music consists mostly of subdued electronic suspense chords and fugue-like organ notes, with more dramatic free-jazz impro raising the temperature near the end. Even a torch song delivered straight to camera by Tum, the chambermaid, does not break the mood: like everything else in this impressive film, it is perfectly judged. Production companies/backers Fortissimo Films A Five Star Production The Film Factory Ltd International sales Fortissimo Film Sales Producer Rewat Vorarat Executive producer Charoen Iamphungporn Cinematography Charnkit Chamniwikaipong Production design Saksiri Chantarangsri Editor Wittaya Chaimongkol Music Hualampong Riddim Koichi Shimizu Main cast Lalita Panyopas Pornwut Sarasin Ananda Everingham Apinya Sakuljaroensuk Phorntip Papanai Thaksakorn Pradabpongsa ||||| Cannes Ploy (Thailand-Netherlands) A Fortissimo Films presentation of a Fortissimo Films (Netherlands), Five Star (Thailand) production, in association with the Film Factory (Thailand). (International sales: Fortissimo Films, Amsterdam.) Produced by Rewat Vorarat. Executive producer, Charoen Iamphungporn. Co-producers, Aphiradee Iamphungporn, Kiatkamon Iamphungporn, Wouter Berendrecht, Michael J. Werner. Directed, written by Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Dang - Lalita Panyopas Wit - Pornwut Sarasin Nut - Ananda Everingham Ploy - Apinya Sakuljaroensuk Tum - Phorntip Papanai Moo - Thakaskorn Pradabpongsa Jealousy erupts quickly but steamy sex and dull narrative move at a glacial pace in Thai somnambulistic melodrama "Ploy." Pen-ek Ratanaruang's return to a sole scripting credit after "Invisible Waves" makes that maligned, slow pic look like a rapid approaching tsunami in comparison. Yarn about a Thai man whose casual friendship with a 19-year old girl flames the paranoid imagination of his wife, is too flimsy and false to truly engage. Helmer's rep will insinuate this pic into fest slots, but commercial prospects are small. Wit (Pornwut Sarasin) and his wife Dang (Lalita Panyopas) have returned to Thailand for a funeral after a decade living in the United States. Jet-lagged, Wit goes down to the Bangkok airport hotel bar while his wife sleeps. Also in the bar is an sexy 19-year-old waif Ploy (Apinya Sakuljaroensuk), who is waiting for her mother to arrive from Stockholm. Based on the fact that they are both originally from Phuket, Wit invites the girl to rest up in his hotel room. Unsurprisingly, Dang is less than impressed and the married couple quietly argue while the young girl showers, before taking a nap. Each of the three protagonists move in and out of their early morning snoozes, allowing Ratanaruang to practice cinematic sleight of hand with his slim narrative. Chief among these illusory happenings is an extended erotic encounter between hotel maid Tum (Phorntip Papanai) and the barman Nut (Ananda Everingham), who served Ploy and Wit. Compellingly erotic, these scenes are the principal reason for the deliberate pace employed by Ratanaruang, and indicate that cinema's gain has truly been pornography's loss. Helming is solid but a lack of substance to accompany the snail pace will test the endurance of patient auds. Proficient thesps do well to carry the heavy load. Tech credits are strong but lulling soundtrack by Hualampong Riddim and Koichi Shimizu not only emphasizes the sleepy state of the protagonists but threatens to recreate it in the audience. Camera (color), Charnkit Chamniwikaipong; editor, Patamanadda Yukol; music, Hualampong Riddim, Koichi Shimizu; production designer, Saksiri Chantarangsri, art director, Pipat Permpoon; sound, (Dolby Digital) Akritchalerm Kalaynamtr. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Directors' Fortnight), May 21, 2007. Running time: 95 MIN. | __NOTOC__ From left, Lalita Panyopas, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk and Pornwut Sarasin, chat with the press. Following a world premiere during the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, the latest film by Thai auteur Pen-Ek Ratanaruang made its Thailand premiere on Tuesday night in a screening for the press and celebrities. Before the screening of the new film, ''Ploy'', the director and his stars took the rostrum for a question-and-answer session, during which Pen-Ek pulled out a digital camera and took photos of the presenter, the press and the actors. ===Film plot=== ''Ploy'' is a drama film, about a middle-aged Thai-American couple, portrayed by popular Thai soap opera actress Lalita Panyopas and Pornwut Sarasin, a first-time actor whose day job is working as vice president of Thai Namthip, the distributor of Coca Cola in Thailand. The couple have returned to Thailand for the first time in many years to attend the funeral of a relative. They arrive at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport at 5 a.m. after a long-haul flight from the U.S., and check in to a hotel. The wife, Dang, just wants to sleep, but the husband, Wit, wants some cigarettes, so he goes to the hotel bar to buy some. There, he strikes up a conversation with a 19-year-old girl named Ploy (17-year-old first-time actress Apinya Sakuljaroensuk), who's waiting at the hotel for her mother. Wit then invites the girl to his and Dang's room, so she can take a shower and relax. This poor judgment by Wit ignites feelings of jealousy and anger in Dang, and causes the couple to review their marriage of seven years. Lao-Australian leading man Ananda Everingham is in a supporting role as the hotel bartender. As a counterpoint to Wit's and Dang's bickering, the bartender engages in an erotic tryst with a hotel maid (model-actress Porntip Papanai) in a nearby room. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, second from left, snaps photos with his digital camera, during a press conference for his new film ''Ploy'', which co-stars, starting third from left, Ananda Everingham, Porntip Papanai and Thaksakorn Pradabpongsa. ===Censorship fears=== The press screening was held at SF World Cinemas at CentralWorld shopping mall in Bangkok. Given the presence of Coca-Cola's Pornwut in the cast, it was perhaps not a coincidence that cans of Coke Zero, a new soft drink that is just being introduced in Thailand, were being doled out for free. According to early reviews at Cannes, ''Ploy'' contains a high level of nudity and eroticism, which is uncommon for a Thai film, because Thailand has no film-ratings system and instead adheres to a strict censorship code that excises nakedness and sex scenes. Ahead of its Thailand premiere, Aphiradee Iamphungphorn, co-producer for Five Star Production, said she knew the film would have to be re-edited for Thailand, but "hopefully not more than we can bear." To get past the censors, Pen-ek created a special Thailand edit of the film, in which the sex scenes are toned down. ''Ploy'' is the director's sixth feature film since he made his debut in 1997 with ''Fun Bar Karaoke'', which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, his films are regularly featured on the festival circuit, and are submitted by Thailand's film industry for consideration by the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Pen-Ek's latest film is a return to screenwriting, after his previous two films, ''Last Life in the Universe'' and ''Invisible Waves'', were scripted or co-scripted by Thai writer Prabda Yoon. It also marks a reunion with leading actress Lalita, who starred in his second feature, 1999's black comedy, ''Ruang Talok 69'', as well as Porntip, who co-starred in Pen-Ek's 2001 musical-comedy-drama ''Monrak Transistor''. ''Ploy'' opens in Thailand cinemas on Thursday. |
We've noticed you're adblocking. We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. Thank you for your support. ||||| LONDON (Reuters) - British actor-comedian Sacha Baron Cohen says the time has come to shed forever his persona as Borat, the boorish, oversexed, TV journalist from Kazakhstan who became a surprise box office sensation last year. In a rare interview as himself, Cohen told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper he found it painful to abandon his Borat character, and another of his oddball alter egos, Ali G, but felt both had become too familiar to the public. Cohen created both personae as devices for improvised social satire, in which people he interacted with in interviews or casual encounters became his unsuspecting comic foils. His act was most famously showcased in last year's movie phenomenon "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," a faux documentary of the Central Asian reporter on a cross-country U.S. road trip. "When I was being Ali G and Borat, I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them. So admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing," he told the newspaper. "It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I 'get' with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really." The Borat film was a box office smash that turned Cohen's cluelessly offensive Central Asian character -- complete with thick moustache, wild-eyed grin and boisterous catch phrases like "Very nice!" and "Sexytime!" -- into a household name. The film benefited in part from publicity sparked by Kazakh officials protesting the unflattering portrait of their country as a backward nation of misogynists and anti-Semites. Speaking from a hotel in Los Angeles where he now lives with his Australian actress girlfriend Isla Fisher and new-born daughter Olive, Cohen said he was sorry to leave Borat behind. "But the success has been great and better than anything I could have dreamed of," said Cohen, who is currently starring with Johnny Depp in the musical "Sweeney Todd," playing Pirelli, a rival singing barber who meets a bloody end at Todd's hands. Since creating Ali G and Borat, Cohan has rarely given interviews out of character. He said it was much easier for him like that -- and more entertaining. "I think it can get a little (bit) tiresome if you're having to be the real person and talking about how important and interesting the role was," he said. Cohen is now finishing work on his next project in which he plays Bruno, a gay, Austrian fashion reporter who also was introduced on his TV program "Da Ali G Show." (Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Alan Elsner) ||||| British actor Sacha Baron Cohen, dressed in his character "Borat" poses for the press near the Eiffel tower in Paris, in this, Oct. 9, 2006, file photo. Cohen tells The Daily Telegraph that he's retiring the clueless Kazakh journalist, as well as his alter ego, aspiring rapper Ali G. "When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing," the 36-year-old actor-comedian says in the British newspaper's edition on Friday, Dec. 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, file) Report: Baron Cohen Offing Borat, Ali G NEW YORK (AP) — Borat is dead. Sacha Baron Cohen tells The Daily Telegraph that he's retiring the clueless Kazakh journalist, as well as his alter ego, aspiring rapper Ali G. "When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing," the 36-year-old actor-comedian says in the British newspaper's Friday edition. "It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I `get' with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really." Baron Cohen brought Borat Sagdiyev — an anti-Semitic buffoon in search of Pamela Anderson — to the masses last year with his smash comedy, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." He first introduced the character on "Da Ali G Show," which was carried in the U.S. on HBO. "It's much easier for me to be in character and it's a lot more fun," he says. "If I'd done the entire promotional campaign for (the `Borat' movie) as myself it wouldn't have developed in the same way." Baron Cohen — not Borat — can be seen as a singing barber in Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd," co-starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. His spokesman, Matt Labov, did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages by The Associated Press seeking comment on the "deaths" of Borat and Ali G. ||||| Comedian Cohen says he is killing off Borat LONDON (AFP) — The actor behind controversial spoof reporter Borat has killed him off, he said in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper published on its website Friday. Sacha Baron Cohen said that Borat, the outrageous, blundering character from Kazakhstan who earned him a Golden Globe award last year, had made his last screen appearance. He is also killing off his second most famous character, youth presenter Ali G, who like Borat often excels at eliciting indiscreet comments from interviewees thanks to his apparently guileless interviewing style. "When I was being Ali G and Borat, I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing," he told the paper. "It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. "It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I "get" with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really." The 2006 smash hit film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" offended some in the central Asian nation by portraying it as full of backward racists who drink horse urine. The country's government was initially angered by the film, which saw the character travel through the United States in search of cultural enlightenment, but its response seemed to soften amid the publicity it brought Kazakhstan. The makers of the movie are also facing threats of legal action from several people who say they were tricked into appearing in the mock documentary. "Since last year I've been sued by about 3,000 people," Baron Cohen told the Telegraph. "Some of the letters I get are quite unusual, like the one where the lawyer informed me I'm about to be sued for 100,000 dollars and at the end says, "P.S. Loved the movie. Can you sign a poster for my son Jeremy?'" Baron Cohen's next project features Bruno, an effeminate Austrian fashion reporter. | Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat. Sacha Baron Cohen, the British actor and comedian known for his characters Borat Sagdiyev and Ali G, told Britain's ''Daily Telegraph'' on Friday that he was officially retiring both aforementioned characters. The reason for this, he said, is because of the public becoming too knowledgeable of him and his alter egos. "It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I 'get' with Borat again, so it's a kind of self-defeating form, really," Cohen stated. Borat Sagdiyev is a fictional character who is a Kazakhstani journalist with anti-Semitic and misogynist viewpoints, and Ali G is a "gangsta" from the "Staines ghetto". When posing as Borat or Ali G, Cohen would conduct interviews with unsuspecting people who believed that the interviews and the character were genuine. He would ask questions designed to make the interviewee look foolish or ignorant. He has showcased this method in the television program ''Da Ali G Show'' and the faux-documentary ''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Cohen generated much controversy from the nation of Kazakhstan, who claimed that Borat portrayed a negative image of the country's people. He also garnered lawsuits from the unknowing participants of his act. Cohen's third persona, a gay Austrian reporter named Bruno, is slated to appear in a 2008 film. |
Un filmato autoprodotto della Svt mostra immagini del premier e di programmi "trash", con un sottofondo di mandolini Svezia, la tv di Stato si fa lo spot "Non siamo come Berlusconi" Silvio Berlusconi - Per farsi pubblicità, e sottolineare la sua indipendenza e obiettività, la televisione di stato svedese Svt usa l'immagine di Silvio Berlusconi. In un filmato breve, che va in onda in questi giorni e si può vedere anche sul sito dell'emittente, sfilano alcune riprese di Berlusconi che saluta la folla o che appare su decine di video contemporaneamente. Il sottofondo musicale è il mandolino tipico della peggiore iconografia dell'italietta, con le note ovvie di "O sole mio".Ad accompagnare le immagini una serie di scritte: "In Italia, il 90 per cento dei mass media è in mano a Silvio Berlusconi", "Dopo intensiva campagna elettorale (grazie ai propri mezzi di comunicazione) vince le elezioni" ", "Ora è anche presidente del consiglio" e per finire: "Svt: noi siamo una televisione libera".La televisione svedese non sottolinea solo la concentrazione dei mezzi di comunicazione in mano al presidente del consiglio, ma anche la qualità dei programmi. Le riprese di Berlusconi, che saluta sorridente, sono alternate a quelle di ballerine poco vestite nei varietà italiani. ||||| Italiens premiärminister Silvio Berlusconi från SVT:s kampanjfilm. Svenske ambassadören kallad till UD Publicerad 18 februari 2005 - 11:26 Uppdaterad 18 februari 2005 - 21:08 SVT:s kampanj "Fri Television" har retat upp den italienska regeringen. Sveriges ambassadör kallades i går till italienska utrikesdepartmentet. Video Italien: En förenklad bild SVT: De har rätt att framföra sina åsikter Reinfeldt: Den känns omdömeslös -Man ser det som en förenklad bild av en person som är vald av italienska befolkningen, säger ambassadör Staffan Wrigstad till Rapport. Enligt SVT:s vd Christina Jutterström finns inga planer på att stoppa kampanjen på grund av kritiken. -Den här kampanjen är lite som italienska skor. Den är spetsig och lite obekväm, och det tycker jag att vi ska få kosta på oss när vi vill lyfta just public service-tv till diskussion, säger Christina Jutterström. Starka reaktioner I kampanjfilmen för Sveriges television lyfts Silvio Berlusconis roll som premiärminister och ägare av flera riksmedier fram som motsats till det som kallas "fri television". "-Den här kampanjen är lite som italienska skor. Den är spetsig och lite obekväm" -SVT:s vd Christina Jutterström Reaktionerna i Italien är starka. Senatorn Franco De Benedetti säger enligt Aftonbladet att detta är inblandning i främmande staters inre angelägenheter. Italiens kommunikationsminister ska ha kallat SVT:s kampanj för en "kompott av falskhet". Det är inte bara politiker som reagerat enligt ambassadör Staffan Wrigstad. Staffan Wrigstad -Vi har fått en del e-post från italienare där några känner sig besvikna och säger att de vill avbeställa resor till Sverige och andra som tycker att vi ska ägna oss år våra egna angelägenheter. En del är väldigt arga och någon enstaka tackar oss och tycker att det är bra, säger han. SVT:s vd Christina Jutterström framhåller att både den italienska regeringen och folket har rätt att föra fram sina åsikter i SVT, det ingår i uppdraget, säger hon. -Men jag utgår också från att den svenska regeringen och dess representanter talar om att här i Sverige har vi riktigt oberoende public service-tv, och lever upp till det som står i vårt tillstånd att vi är oberoende av politiska, ekonomiska och andra maktsfärer, säger Christina Jutterström till Rapport. Kritiken gäller en kortfilm som kopplar premiärminister Silvio Berlusconis valseger 2001 till hans tv-kanaler.-Man ser det som en förenklad bild av en person som är vald av italienska befolkningen, säger ambassadör Staffan Wrigstad till Rapport.Enligt SVT:s vd Christina Jutterström finns inga planer på att stoppa kampanjen på grund av kritiken.-Den här kampanjen är lite som italienska skor. Den är spetsig och lite obekväm, och det tycker jag att vi ska få kosta på oss när vi vill lyfta just public service-tv till diskussion, säger Christina Jutterström.I kampanjfilmen för Sveriges television lyfts Silvio Berlusconis roll som premiärminister och ägare av flera riksmedier fram som motsats till det som kallas "fri television".Reaktionerna i Italien är starka. Senatorn Franco De Benedetti säger enligt Aftonbladet att detta är inblandning i främmande staters inre angelägenheter. Italiens kommunikationsminister ska ha kallat SVT:s kampanj för en "kompott av falskhet".Det är inte bara politiker som reagerat enligt ambassadör Staffan Wrigstad.-Vi har fått en del e-post från italienare där några känner sig besvikna och säger att de vill avbeställa resor till Sverige och andra som tycker att vi ska ägna oss år våra egna angelägenheter. En del är väldigt arga och någon enstaka tackar oss och tycker att det är bra, säger han.SVT:s vd Christina Jutterström framhåller att både den italienska regeringen och folket har rätt att föra fram sina åsikter i SVT, det ingår i uppdraget, säger hon.-Men jag utgår också från att den svenska regeringen och dess representanter talar om att här i Sverige har vi riktigt oberoende public service-tv, och lever upp till det som står i vårt tillstånd att vi är oberoende av politiska, ekonomiska och andra maktsfärer, säger Christina Jutterström till Rapport. | The Italian government has criticized the Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) for their recently launched campaign called "Fri Television". One of the promotional films in the campaign refers to the media situation in Italy. The film says that president Sivlio Berlusconi was elected after a campaign on his own television channels and that he now also controls the state television, RAI. The music theme of the campaign is a Mandolin version of the popular Italian song "O' sole mio". The Italian government has said that this is a matter for Italy. Telecom minister Maurizio Gasparri said that the information is false. The Swedish ambassador in Italy, Staffan Wrigstad, was yesterday called to the Italian ministry of foreign affairs. The CEO of SVT, Christina Jutterström, says that she doesn't have plans to stop the campaign. "This campaign is like Italian shoes. It's pointed and a bit uncomfortable", Jutterström said to the Swedish news program Rapport. |
MEXICO CITY A fire killed 35 children in a day care center in northern Mexico despite desperate attempts of firefighters and a father who crashed his pickup truck through the wall to rescue babies, toddlers and others trapped inside. The building had only one exit, according to the fire department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the fire. He said firefighters pulled children through the only door and through large holes that a civilian knocked into the walls before rescue crews arrived. Noe Velasquez, an employee at a nearby auto parts store who helped pull out five toddlers, said the father of one of the children rammed his pickup truck through a wall. "I didn't sleep last night. I've never gone through anything like that in all my life," he said Saturday. The death toll rose to 35 after several children died overnight. At least 41 children and six adults were hospitalized after Friday's fire in ABC day care in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora state Gov. Eduardo Bours said. The adults included staffers at the day care and civilians who tried to help. Some of the children had third-degree burns, an Hermosillo fire department official said. One child was flown to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, California, the governor said. Others were sent to a hospital in Guadalara that has a special burns unit. There were about 142 children in the day care at the time, with ages ranging from six months to 5 years, and six staffers to look after them, Bours said at a news conference Saturday. The ratio is in keeping with legal standards, said Daniel Karam, the director of Mexico's Social Security Institute, which outsourced services to the privately run day care. He said a May 26 inspection found that the building — a converted warehouse — complied with safety standards. Asked if the single exit constituted a safety code violation, Karam only repeated that the building passed the inspection, although he conceded that the security requirements might have to be re-evaluated. "We always have to be open to improvements, especially when we have a tragedy that has so moved us," Karam said. Velasquez said he and several other people rushed to the day care when they saw smoke. Teachers already had lined up some of the children outside but the very smallest were trapped, some in their cribs. Velasquez said he pulled out limp toddlers without knowing if they were dead or alive. The fire started at an ajoining tire and car warehouse leased by the state government, Bours said. The blaze eventually spread to the roof of the day care, sending flames raining down on the children, the fire department official said. Firefighters took two hours to control the blaze, the cause of which was still unconfirmed. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation. Sobbing parents flooded hospitals, desperate for news about their children. Police trucks on Saturday cordoned off the block surrounding the salmon-and-blue day care, a cavernous building with a few, small windows mounted high up on the walls. Forensic investigators gathered material, searching for clues to what started the blaze. Photographs showed the sidewalk outside the day care strewn with upturned, slightly blackened baby seats and cribs in the immediate aftermath of the blaze. Cribs also could been seen through large holes punched through the walls. The Mexican government sent a team of 15 burn specialists, three air ambulances, and other medical equipment, President Felipe Calderon said. He ordered an investigation by Mexico's attorney general. Building safety violations have been blamed for previous disasters in Mexico. In 2000, a fire killed 21 people at a glitzy Mexico City disco that only had one available exit, lacked smoke detectors and did not have enough fire extinguishers. Many of the dead were found near the club's emergency exit, which was locked with a chain. More than 140 nightclubs were closed for code violations after that fire. Last year, 12 people died in a botched police raid at another Mexico City nightclub. Officers blocked the overcrowded club's lone working exit, creating a deadly stampede in which nine patrons and three police died in the rush to get out. The emergency exits had been blocked. ||||| MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The death toll from a fire at a day-care center in northern Mexico rose to 35 children with at least 40 more hospitalized, many with life-threatening burns, Mexican authorities said on Saturday. Mexican President Felipe Calderon said he has ordered an investigation into Friday’s fire at the ABC day-care center in the northern city of Hermosillo to find who is to blame. As flames blocked the center’s doorway, employees and neighbors used cars to punch holes through a wall and stumbled over unconscious infants and toddlers as they tried to rescue them, witnesses said. Smoke inhalation killed many children before rescuers could reach them, with the victims ranging in age from a few months old to about 3 years old, authorities said. It was unclear where or how the fire started, although it may have broken out in a nearby warehouse or a tire workshop, the government said. “According to what our people saw, there was an explosion followed immediately by flames,” Daniel Karam, head of the Mexican agency responsible for health care and social security, said at a news conference in Hermosillo. The city of about 700,000 people is located about 170 miles south of the border with the U.S. state of Arizona. Calderon said he was rushing medical assistance to overwhelmed medical staff in Hermosillo, including air ambulances and specialists in reconstructive surgery. Slideshow ( 3 images ) “I have ordered the attorney general, along with local authorities ... to investigate as soon as possible to find out exactly what happened and identify whoever may be responsible,” Calderon said in a speech during an event in the state of Quintana Roo. FACILITY PASSED INSPECTION More than 140 children were in the ABC day-care center when the fire broke out, Karam told reporters. Karam said the center had passed its last government inspection in May. The previous death toll given by the government was 31 children, but four more died in the hospital overnight. In addition, at least 40 more children remained hospitalized, authorities said. About 20 were in “extremely grave” condition, some with burns covering more than 70 percent of their bodies, the government said. Six adults also were hospitalized in less serious condition following the fire, authorities said. At a government auditorium, parents waited silently for their children’s bodies to be turned over to them. At least one child was being flown to the Shriners children’s hospital in Sacramento, California, which specializes in burns and has been consulting with Mexican doctors, the hospital said. “Our burn team here has been working all night with the medical professionals in Mexico to triage these patients, on the phone,” Shriners hospital spokeswoman Catherine Curran told Reuters. ||||| MEXICO CITY A fire killed 35 children in a day care center in northern Mexico despite desperate attempts of firefighters and a father who crashed his pickup truck through the wall to rescue babies, toddlers and others trapped inside. The building had only one exit, according to the fire department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the fire. He said firefighters pulled children through the only door and through large holes that a civilian knocked into the walls before rescue crews arrived. Noe Velasquez, an employee at a nearby auto parts store who helped pull out five toddlers, said the father of one of the children rammed his pickup truck through a wall. "I didn't sleep last night. I've never gone through anything like that in all my life," he said Saturday. The death toll rose to 35 after several children died overnight. At least 41 children and six adults were hospitalized after Friday's fire in ABC day care in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora state Gov. Eduardo Bours said. The adults included staffers at the day care and civilians who tried to help. Some of the children had third-degree burns, an Hermosillo fire department official said. One child was flown to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, California, the governor said. Others were sent to a hospital in Guadalara that has a special burns unit. There were about 142 children in the day care at the time, with ages ranging from six months to 5 years, and six staffers to look after them, Bours said at a news conference Saturday. The ratio is in keeping with legal standards, said Daniel Karam, the director of Mexico's Social Security Institute, which outsourced services to the privately run day care. He said a May 26 inspection found that the building — a converted warehouse — complied with safety standards. Asked if the single exit constituted a safety code violation, Karam only repeated that the building passed the inspection, although he conceded that the security requirements might have to be re-evaluated. "We always have to be open to improvements, especially when we have a tragedy that has so moved us," Karam said. Velasquez said he and several other people rushed to the day care when they saw smoke. Teachers already had lined up some of the children outside but the very smallest were trapped, some in their cribs. Velasquez said he pulled out limp toddlers without knowing if they were dead or alive. The fire started at an ajoining tire and car warehouse leased by the state government, Bours said. The blaze eventually spread to the roof of the day care, sending flames raining down on the children, the fire department official said. Firefighters took two hours to control the blaze, the cause of which was still unconfirmed. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation. Sobbing parents flooded hospitals, desperate for news about their children. Police trucks on Saturday cordoned off the block surrounding the salmon-and-blue day care, a cavernous building with a few, small windows mounted high up on the walls. Forensic investigators gathered material, searching for clues to what started the blaze. Photographs showed the sidewalk outside the day care strewn with upturned, slightly blackened baby seats and cribs in the immediate aftermath of the blaze. Cribs also could been seen through large holes punched through the walls. The Mexican government sent a team of 15 burn specialists, three air ambulances, and other medical equipment, President Felipe Calderon said. He ordered an investigation by Mexico's attorney general. Building safety violations have been blamed for previous disasters in Mexico. In 2000, a fire killed 21 people at a glitzy Mexico City disco that only had one available exit, lacked smoke detectors and did not have enough fire extinguishers. Many of the dead were found near the club's emergency exit, which was locked with a chain. More than 140 nightclubs were closed for code violations after that fire. Last year, 12 people died in a botched police raid at another Mexico City nightclub. Officers blocked the overcrowded club's lone working exit, creating a deadly stampede in which nine patrons and three police died in the rush to get out. The emergency exits had been blocked. | Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. 35 children were killed and more than 40 were injured in a fire which roared through the ABC child care center in Hermosillo, Mexico on Friday afternoon. Among the injured were six adults, most who have yet to be identified. Over twenty other children have been hospitalized with burns. They have been transported to local hospitals and other medical facilities in the United States. Neighbors, employees and firefighters broke walls to rescue unconscious children and babies from the fire in the converted warehouse building which was equipped with only one exit. Three air ambulances, medical equipment and fifteen burn specialists were dispatched to the scene where children between the ages of six months and five years old perished from smoke inhalation. The majority of the injured and killed were under three years of age, said government officials. President of Mexico Felipe Calderón Red Cross rescue workers say that 100 children were being cared for when the fire broke out. Sonora state Gov. Eduardo Bours confirmed that 142 children were in the child care center. Already, 27 of the 31 child fatalities have been identified, as parents continue to await news on their children. Preliminary reports state that the fire may have started in the neighboring tire and car warehouse and spread to the childcare center. President of Mexico Felipe Calderón has placed the attorney general, Eduardo Medina-Mora in charge of the investigation into the cause of the blaze. Mexico's Social Security Institute also sent out resources to their privately run facility. Hermosillo, population of over 700,000, is the capital of the Mexican state of Sonora from the American border. |
SBS Sites - Dateline - Insight - Living Black - The World News - World View - World Watch - Alchemy Radio - Radio - Radio Language Programs - A Fork in the Mediterranean - Chappelle - Crank Yankers - Cutting Edge - Cycling Central - Desperately Seeking Sheila - Fashionista - Feast India - Fine Line - Food Lovers' Guide To Australia - Fresh Australian Drama - Global Village - Hotline - If Awards - In Siberia Tonight - Inside Australia - John Safran vs God - Lonely Planet: Six Degrees - Movie Show - Music Jamboree - Mythbusters - Noise TV - Oz - Pizza - Queer as Folk - Remote Area Nurse - RocKwiz - SBS Sport - So Frenchy, So Chic - SOS - South Park - Speaking in Tongues - Storyline Australia - Taste Le Tour - The Ashes - The Deadly Awards - Top Gear - Tour de France - Under the Grandstand - Vietnam Nurses - What's On TV - Confusion II - Cornerfold - Desktop Delivery - Gold - Marx and Venus - Marx and Venus - My Space - Podcasting - Strait Up - The World Game - Whatever Music - World Tales - New Regional Viewers - SBS Corporate - SBS Current Affairs Sales - SBS Digital Television - SBS Publicity - SBS Sales Division - SBS Shop - SBS Subtitling - SBS Transmission - SBSi - SBSin SBS THE WEB ||||| Images from the tape were broadcast in the Middle East Newspapers in the Middle East continue to react angrily to pictures appearing to show British troops abusing Iraqi civilians, with one commentator drawing parallels with the prisoner-abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail. Elsewhere in the Muslim world, an Indonesian commentary uses the same image and a Pakistani paper demands a British government apology. ALI QASIM IN SYRIA'S AL-THAWRAH The scandals of torture in Iraq are returning to TV screens and newspaper headlines... It is possible that the British prime minister's statement recalls the statements of American officials after the Abu Ghraib scandals and that his promise to launch an investigation will be no better than the investigation carried out by the Americans. EDITORIAL IN EGYPT'S AL-JUMHURIYAH It seems that the Anglo-American occupation forces need to build more detention camps and prisons in which the ugliest crimes against humanity are practised so that they can carry out their mission to impose their democratic lessons on the Iraqis, who do not want to learn and are resisting by all means this savage occupation of their country. NAWWAF ABD-AL-HAJA IN JORDAN'S AL-DUSTUR The published pictures of British soldiers... demonstrate the extent of the black grudge harboured by those occupiers against our kinsfolk in Iraq. ALI TU'AYMAT IN QATAR'S AL-WATAN The videotape which shows British soldiers occupying Iraq savagely attacking unarmed Iraqi youngsters... reveals the scale of the lie which they have used to humiliate Iraq's young people... It is clear that this cowardly act is not an individual or isolated case. AHMAD DAHBUR IN PALESTINIAN AL-HAYAT AL-JADIDAH Let us pray that the world will not forget the pictures of British soldiers heavily beating, kicking and slapping teenage Iraqi boys. This happened not a century ago but barely 48 hours ago. INDONESIA'S JAWA POS It turns out British and US troops have treated prisoners of war in exactly the same way... The scandals of Abu Ghraib I and II have, in principle, shown that big countries such as the US and Britain always do as they please on any battlefield. The moral statements in the name of democracy that the two countries have delivered on various occasions are merely persuasive propaganda to justify their brutal political practices towards other, weak countries. PAKISTAN'S MASHRIQ It is now the duty of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to lodge a strong protest against this brutality, and it would be better for the UK government to confess its troops' excesses and apologise to the Iraqi people, in addition to severely punishing the soldiers responsible. BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad. ||||| Go to: Guardian Unlimited home UK news World news Comment is free blog Newsblog Sport blog arts & entertainment blog Podcasts ---------------------- Archive search Arts and entertainment Books Business EducationGuardian.co.uk Environment Film Football Jobs Life and health MediaGuardian.co.uk Money Music The Observer Politics Science Shopping SocietyGuardian.co.uk Sport Talk Technology Travel Been there ---------------------- Audio Email services Special reports The Guardian The northerner The wrap ---------------------- Advertising guide Crossword Events / offers Feedback Garden centre GNM press office Graduate GuardianFilms Headline service Help / contacts Information Living our values Newsroom Notes & Queries Reader Offers Soulmates dating Style guide Syndication services Travel offers TV listings Weather Web guides Working for us ---------------------- Guardian Abroad Guardian Monthly Guardian Weekly Money Observer Public Learn Guardian back issues Observer back issues Guardian Professional ||||| By Sebastian Usher BBC World media correspondent Image of suspected Abu Ghraib abuse. Courtesy SBS television The most influential Arab channel, al-Jazeera, is showing the latest images at the top of its bulletins, describing them as showing "further acts of humiliation much stronger than those that were published before". Al-Jazeera has displayed most of the pictures that were broadcast on the Australian TV station, SBS. It quoted SBS's comments: "These are the pictures the US government didn't want you to see." The problem facing the American government now is the timing of the leaking of these pictures Al-Jazeera Washington correspondent "If al-Jazeera had been the first to air these pictures, the story would have been different," he said. "The problem facing the American government now is the timing of the leaking of these pictures, when the world is witnessing sharp tension between the Muslim world and the West as a result of the anti-Prophet Muhammad cartoons." The Arab television station run by Iran, al-Alam - which has a big audience in Iraq - has also featured the story strongly. But it only showed two or three of the pictures, explaining that the rest would be too offensive for its viewers. It did describe them in some detail, however. Fierce reaction The Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV station - owned by Saudis - has made less of the pictures so far, reporting on them only briefly. In Iraq, the privately-owned channel al-Sharqiyah started showing the pictures several hours after al-Jazeera, ensuring that - one way or another - most Iraqis will have been able to see the images for themselves. The original pictures of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib ignited outrage across the Arab world two years ago. The anger was propelled by the extensive Arab media coverage of the scandal. Washington is likely to be holding its breath to see how fierce the reaction in the Arab world is this time. | An Australian TV station has shown new photos allegedly showing more of the prisoner abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison. "Dateline", a current affairs programme broadcast on the SBS public network, claimed the images they displayed were examples of the range of abuses carried out at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and included previously unseen material such as killing, torture and sexual humiliation. The program also alleged that prisoners at Abu Ghraib had been killed when U.S. soldiers ran out of rubber bullets as they tried to handle a jail riot, and started to use live rounds. Executive producer Mike Carey said Dateline had obtained a file containing hundreds of pictures, some known and others that show new abuses. However, he declined to say how the pictures came into their possession. Some pictures appear to show U.S. soldier Charles Graner who had a leading role in the earlier Abu Ghraib abuse scandal. Many of the new images are more graphic than those previously published - these new photos include prisoners performing sex acts and wounded/dead prisoners. SBS alleged the photographs of the dead bodies were of people who had died at Abu Ghraib during interrogation. The Guardian cites an unnamed US defense official saying that the Army had reviewed the pictures posted by SBS and confirmed that they were among those that are subject to the Freedom of Information Act request made by the ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union has been granted access to pictures in possession of the army that had not been publicly released by a U.S. federal court in September, but the U.S. government appealed the decision. Map of Iraq Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman stressed it is U.S. policy to treat all detainees humanely. He further said that "The abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated," and that "When there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly, investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals." The pictures have been shown widely on television throughout the Middle East, including in Iraq. Saleh al-Humaidi, a Yemeni journalist, told Reuters "This is truly American ugliness that no other country in the world can compete with... the Americans ought to apologize to mankind for their government's lie to the world that it is fighting for freedom and that it came to Iraq to save it from Saddam Hussein's oppression." U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testified that not all known photographs of the abuses at Abu Ghraib had been publicly released at the Senate Armed Services Committee inquiry in May 2004. Mr Rumsfeld said, "beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence toward prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman." |
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Wildcat strikes are "not defensible", Gordon Brown has told those angry at the employment of foreign workers. Hundreds of employees staged walkouts across the UK over the use of foreign staff at a Lincolnshire refinery. The PM told the BBC's Politics Show he understood workers' fears, but walkouts were "not the right thing to do". The Tories said they did not back the strikes either but said Mr Brown's 2007 "British jobs for British workers" pledge had been exposed as "fiction". Unofficial "sympathy strikes" spread across the country after workers walked out at the Lindsey Oil Refinery when owner Total gave a £200m contract to Italian firm IREM. You'll find that no government in history is doing more to try and find ways that we can help people who are unemployed back in to work as quickly as possible Gordon Brown PM says 'no clear map' for crisis Mandelson warns on protectionism The government has called in independent mediator Acas to look into claims that British workers are being illegally excluded from engineering and construction projects, while unions have urged Mr Brown to meet heads of industry in the sectors as soon as possible. 'Undercut' Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Mr Brown said instead of spontaneous strike action, "what we've got to do over time, as I've always said, is that where there are jobs in this country, we need people with the skills, developed in this country". Tackled about his 2007 Labour conference pledge to create "British jobs for British workers" - a slogan used by the striking refinery workers - Mr Brown said: "Well, we are part of a single European market but I have always understood the worries that people have. WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW On BBC One: The Politics Show, 1200, Sunday 1 February Or watch it for up to seven days on the BBC iPlayer "They look round and say, well, why can't we do these jobs, jobs ourselves, these are jobs that we can do. "When, when I talked about British jobs, I was taking about giving people in Britain the skills, so that they have the ability to get jobs which were at present going to people from abroad." Mr Brown added: "You'll find that no government in history is doing more to try and find ways that we can help people who are unemployed back in to work as quickly as possible." Health Secretary Alan Johnson said EU laws guaranteeing employment rights had been "undermined" by two recent judgements in the European Court of Justice and the government would push for action at a European level if it was proved British workers were being "undercut" by cheap labour from other parts of the EU. HAVE YOUR SAY It is a shame that it has come to this, but necessary if this is the only way it will get our government to put our interests above others. Carrie100, London "If workers are being brought across here on worse terms and conditions to actually get jobs in front of British workers, on the basis of dumbing down the terms and conditions, that would be wrong and I can understand the anger about that," he told BBC One's Andrew Marr show. "These various judgments have distorted the original intention and we need to bring in fresh directives to make it absolutely clear that people cannot be undercut in this way." But he also defended comments by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, who warned against protectionism and said British workers were free to take jobs in Europe, saying it was "great" if other countries wanted to employ "skilled British craftsmen and women". 'Ridiculous' Shadow foreign secretary William Hague, for the Conservatives, said the strikers were asking "legitimate questions...and we have to recognise people are very worried about unemployment now" but he added: "Strikes are never the way forward." He said no "mainstream" party would promise "British jobs for British workers" as there was free movement of labour in the EU, which the Tories "strongly supported". "It was so unbelievably ridiculous and silly for the prime minister to say that in the first place," Mr Hague told the BBC. ENERGY WORKERS' PROTESTS 1. Grangemouth oil refinery, Central Scotland 2. Scottish Power's Longannet power station, Fife 3. Scottish Power's Cockenzie power station, East Lothian 4. Shell gas processing plant, St Fergus, Aberdeenshire 5. British Energy power station, Torness, East Lothian 6. Mossmorran chemical plant, Fife 7. Npower Aberthaw power station, south Wales 8. South Hook natural gas terminal, Milton Haven, Pembrokeshire 9. ICI chemical refinery at Wilton, Teesside 10. Corus steel plant near Redcar, Teesside 11. Scottish & Southern's Fiddler's Ferry power station, Cheshire 12. AES Kilroot power station, County Antrim 13. Marchwood power station, Hampshire Where are protests taking place? But he said people worried about their jobs could "certainly look to the Conservative Party to do more to promote employment and combat unemployment than is being done in this country at the moment". Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of the Unite union, told Sky News that growing industrial action demanded solutions. "It's certainly unofficial, it can't be sanctioned by the union, it hasn't been organised by the union, but whether you call it indefensible or not I think a lot of people will find it understandable in the circumstances." Acas chief executive John Taylor said it was at the initial stages of its investigation into the wildcat strikes originating in Lincolnshire. He said: "We hope to start a more detailed investigation on Monday. "We'll also be talking to employers and unions regarding a wider inquiry into the issues around 'contracting-out' on large construction projects." But Gordon Brown is facing calls to push for an urgent change in EU law to protect the interests of British workers. Labour MP Frank Field, co-chairman of a cross-party group on immigration, said: "This form of contract clearly cannot go on - where contracts are awarded and there's free movement of companies but those companies then restrict who can apply for those jobs. "That clearly has got to change and tomorrow [Monday] I hope he'll make an announcement, saying that if that is the law, then the law in the European Union is actually going to be changed." Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, which campaigns for the UK's exit from the EU, said it was "misleading" to suggest Acas could resolve the issue: "It doesn't matter how many meetings are held, how much or how loud anyone shouts, there's nothing anyone in this country can do." Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version ||||| By James Tapsfield and Liam Creedon, PA Gordon Brown condemned wildcat strikes as indefensible amid frantic efforts to prevent the row over the use of foreign labour escalating into mass industrial action. The Prime Minister said he recognised people were "worried" about jobs being taken by workers from other countries, but stressed that the UK was part of a "single European market". He also sought to explain his pledge of "British jobs for British workers", insisting he had only meant people would be given the skills to compete against other nationalities. The comments, in an interview with the BBC's Politics Show, came as efforts continued to stop tensions spiralling out of control. Officials from government departments, unions, employers and the mediation service Acas have been in frantic discussions following a series of wildcat strikes that erupted across the country on Friday. The protests were prompted by a decision to bring in hundreds of Italian and Portuguese contractors to work on a new £200 million plant at the giant Lindsey Oil Refinery at North Killingholme, North Lincolnshire. Unions claim Britons were not given any opportunity to apply for the posts. Earlier yesterday, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson promised that the Government would "make sure that both domestic UK law and European rules are being applied properly and fairly". "But it would be a huge mistake to retreat from a policy where within the rules, UK companies can operate in Europe and European companies can operate here," he added. "Protectionism would be a sure-fire way of turning recession into depression." In his interview, to be broadcast today, the Prime Minister was asked what his message would be to those thinking of staging sympathy strikes on Monday. "That that's not the right thing to do and it's not defensible," he replied. "What we've set up as a process to deal with the questions that people have been asking about what has happened in this particular instance." He went on: "When I talked about British jobs, I was taking about giving people in Britain the skills, so that they have the ability to get jobs which were at present going to people from abroad and actually encouraging people to take up the courses and the education and learning that is necessary for British workers to be far more skilled for the future." However, the Government's stance was given short shrift by the unions. Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, told the Press Association: "No company should be able to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of where they were born. "You simply cannot say that only Italians can apply for jobs as has happened in this case. "No-one is saying that different countries cannot bid for different contracts. "What is happening here would be illegal under UK domestic law." Acas was drafted in on Friday night by Employment Minister Pat McFadden to mediate between the opposing parties, amid threats of mass industrial action. But some MPs said there was little that could be done to resolve the dispute while the UK remains a member of the European Union. Former welfare minister Frank Field laid into Mr Brown's now infamous line about providing "British jobs for British workers" The MP for Birkenhead said: "These strikes are proving to be for Gordon Brown a double whammy. "The claim of 'British jobs for British workers' looks a pretty empty promise. "Worse still, it shows the European Union has us in a double arm lock. "British workers are being specifically excluded from working on contracts by European contractors - contracts won by European contractors to operate in our very own country." Mr Field's comments were echoed by UKIP leader Nigel Farage who offered a gloomy prognosis on what the talks could achieve. He said: "The government, Acas, the unions, thousands upon thousands of angry workers are all entirely impotent. "This is European Union law and it's been confirmed by the European Court of Justice in two separate cases, Laval and Viking. "It doesn't matter how many meetings are held, how much or how loud anyone shouts, there's nothing anyone in this country can do. For we've signed away our rights when we joined this prison of nations that is the EU." He added: "British jobs for British workers will only happen when Britain is run by and for Britons." Union leaders and representatives of engineering construction firms and contractors are expected to meet in London next week in a bid to find a way of resolving the row. The so-called National Joint Council will meet on Wednesday. This will be followed by a meeting of union shop stewards a few days later. Mr McFadden said he had asked Acas to examine claims that British workers were being illegally excluded from some major engineering and construction projects. There was speculation that the dispute will escalate tomorrow and spread "like wildfire" across the country if the deadlock is not broken. Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said Mr Brown's "British jobs for British workers" pledge was "unbelievably ridiculous and silly". He told BBC1's Andrew Marr show the protesters "clearly have some legitimate questions" but said strikes were "never the way forward". Mr Hague said: "If a company was saying that they are never going to take on British workers, well that would clearly be illegal. "But when Gordon Brown said 'British jobs for British workers' ... it was a fiction in pretending that that could be guaranteed because there is free movement of workers within the European Union." He said no mainstream political party would be able to keep Mr Brown's pledge "which is why it was so unbelievably ridiculous and silly of the Prime Minister to say that in the first place". But Mr Hague added that the Conservatives would "do more to promote employment and to combat unemployment than is being done in this country at the moment". Health Secretary Alan Johnson - a former trade union leader - insisted that wildcat strikes were "unhelpful". He said free movement of labour was "fundamental" to the EU, but suggested European court judgments could have "distorted" the rules. "If workers are being brought across here on worse terms and conditions to actually get jobs in front of British workers on the basis of dumbing down the terms and conditions that would be wrong, and I understand the anger about that," Mr Johnson told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. "These various judgments have distorted the original intention and we need to bring in fresh directives to make it absolutely clear that people cannot be undercut in this way." ||||| Gordon Brown today condemned wildcat strikes as "indefensible" amid efforts to prevent the row over foreign labour escalating into mass industrial action. The prime minister said he recognised that people were worried about jobs being taken by workers from other countries, but stressed that the UK was part of a single European market. In an interview for the BBC's Politics Show, he sought to explain his pledge of "British jobs for British workers", insisting he had only meant people would be given the skills to compete against other nationalities. Asked for his message to those thinking of staging sympathy strikes tomorrow, Brown said: "That that's not the right thing to do and it's not defensible." Officials from government departments, unions, employers and the mediation service Acas have been in discussions after a series of wildcat strikes across the country on Friday. The protests were prompted by a decision to bring in hundreds of Italian and Portuguese contractors to work on a new £200m plant at the Lindsey oil refinery, in North Lincolnshire. Unions claim Britons were not given any opportunity to apply for the posts. The justice secretary, Jack Straw, appeared to suggest some sympathy for the protesters, saying it was important to establish whether "British firms and British workers had a fair crack of the whip" in bidding for the contract. He said Brown had been "very clear" what he meant when he promised British jobs for British workers. "The last person in the world, and everybody knows that, to be talking about protectionism is the prime minister," Straw told Sky News. "What he was talking about was ensuring that we build up the skills base in this country so when a firm wants to take someone on, they don't have to look abroad." The health secretary, Alan Johnson, a former trade union leader, said wildcat strikes were unhelpful but he understood the anger. He said free movement of labour was fundamental to the EU, but suggested European court judgments could have "distorted" the rules. "If workers are being brought across here on worse terms and conditions to actually get jobs in front of British workers on the basis of dumbing down the terms and conditions, that would be wrong and I understand the anger about that," Johnson told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. "These various judgments have distorted the original intention and we need to bring in fresh directives to make it absolutely clear that people cannot be undercut in this way." Yesterday, the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, promised the government would "make sure that both domestic UK law and European rules are being applied properly and fairly. "But it would be a huge mistake to retreat from a policy where within the rules, UK companies can operate in Europe and European companies can operate here," Mandelson said. "Protectionism would be a sure-fire way of turning recession into depression." The government's stance was given short shrift by unions. Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, said: "No company should be able to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of where they were born. "You simply cannot say that only Italians can apply for jobs as has happened in this case. No one is saying that different countries cannot bid for different contracts. What is happening here would be illegal under UK domestic law." | British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has condemned the workers who staged mass walkout across the country on Friday. File photo of Gordon Brown Speaking to the BBC from the World Economic Forum in the Swiss skiing resort of Davos, he said that the walkouts were "not the right thing to do". Workers on industrial sites in Wales, Scotland, Cheshire, Hampshire and Teesside had left their plants and staged protests outside in sympathy with staff at Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire, after French owner Total had given a contract to an Italian firm. The firm brought 300 Italian and Portuguese staff into the plant. Brown had made a speech in 2007 where he called for "British jobs for British workers". He explained to the BBC's Politics Show that "when I talked about British jobs, I was taking about giving people in Britain the skills, so that they have the ability to get jobs which were at present going to people from abroad". The government says that European Union (EU) law makes it impossible for them to provide British jobs for British workers in the EU common market. Earlier, the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, told the BBC that recent European Court of Justice judgments had undermined employment rights but that the government would be pushing the EU to take action if it finds that the foreign workers are 'undercutting' UK citizens. He described the walkouts as "unhelpful", but said he understood the anger over EU workers coming to the UK "on worse terms and conditions to actually get jobs in front of British workers on the basis of dumbing down the terms and conditions." The walkouts were also condemned by the opposition Conservative Party. Foreign affairs spokesman William Hague said that "strikes are never the way forward" and that his party strongly supported the free market in labour in the EU. He said that it was "so unbelievably ridiculous and silly" for Brown to have made the promise on British jobs in the first place. The government has asked the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to examine the circumstances behind the strikes and see if British workers are being unlawfully excluded, as the GMB union has claimed. Secondary or sympathetic industrial action has been illegal in the UK since the 1980s. However, the penalties apply only to unions organizing secondary action and not to individual workers walking out. |
Please check this documentary filmmakers' network in India, Docuwallahs2: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/docuwallahs2 your call: is this comment useful? your take: fredericknoronha (India) · Feb 29th, 2008 7:21 amyour call: is this comment useful? Oops, forgot to add my name to the above comment. -- Frederick Noronha (a journalist in Goa, India and act as moderator for the above list) fred at bytesforall dot org your call: is this comment useful? your take: fredericknoronha (India) · Feb 29th, 2008 7:22 amyour call: is this comment useful? Wow Frederick this group looks very worthwhile! How do i become a member to be able to post? your call: is this comment useful? your take: mammique (France) · Feb 29th, 2008 9:11 pmyour call: is this comment useful? ||||| Un article de Wikinews. Rechercher Aller à : Navigation Rajagopal dans le viseur de la caméra. 14 février 2008. – Un nouveau site collaboratif, dédié aux documentaires libres de droits, vient de voir le jour sur la Toile sous le nom de « Then You Win ». Bien que très récent, la plateforme résulte du fruit de plusieurs mois de tournages, notamment en Inde ou au Bangladesh, par trois passionnés. Il consent à répondre aux questions de Wikinews. C'est donc dans le cadre d'une discussion en privé sur Freenode, le 13 février 2008, que l'entretien a eu lieu. Wikinews : En quoi consiste le site Then You Win Camille Harang : C'est une plateforme de travail collaboratif et de financement pour libérer des documentaire professionnels. Pour libérer, il faut entendre « libérer des droits en conformité avec la définition du libre. » WN : Quelles sont vos fonctions sur ce projet ? C.H. : Je gère la globalité du projet, excepté la réalisation des documentaires où Sébastien Saugues, le réalisateur, s'en charge. WN : Depuis combien de temps le projet existe-t-il ? C.H. : Depuis environ une semaine. Le tournage a commencé en Inde en juillet, mais le site est en ligne depuis le 4 février. WN : comment collabore-t-on sur ce projet ? C.H. : nous avons mis en avant 5 principales activités, mais le projet est ouvert à toute autre type de collaboration : dons promotion montage traduction partenariat : nous avons mis en avant 5 principales activités, mais le projet est ouvert à toute autre type de collaboration : WN : Comment sont obtenus les documentaires ? Sous quelles formes ? C.H. : Ils seront vraisemblablement envoyés par DVD à ceux qui en auront fait la demande, ensuite les médias s'il y a lieu, et bien sur le site internet, en format Ogg/Theora/Vorbis, cela va de soi :-) Pour répondre à la deuxième partie de la question, nous commencerons chronologiquement par le DVD.. WN : Quelles sont les sources pour obtenir les supports ? (particuliers, professionnels, médias…) C.H. : Nous sommes partis en Inde pour le tournage. Nous sommes trois personnes à avoir quitté nos emplois respectifs en juillet 2007 pour nous retrouver en : Nous sommes partis en Inde pour le tournage. Nous sommes trois personnes à avoir quitté nos emplois respectifs en juillet 2007 pour nous retrouver en Inde pour le tournage. Nous venions de Corée, Thaïlande et France. Le tournage a duré entre 4 et 5 mois en tout dont une partie a été réalisée aussi au Bangladesh. WN : Vous vouliez parler du Janadesh, je présume ? C.H. : Exact. WN : Si je comprends bien, vous réalisez vous-même les reportages C.H. : Le cœur du projet oui, mais le travail collaboratif est essentiel. Une équipe va chercher la matière première, et la met ensuite sur la table pour un travail collaboratif. Le réalisateur Sébastien Saugues travaille depuis une dizaine d'année dans le secteur humanitaire; il a côtoyé Rajagopal, le « nouveau Gandhi » . Il a donc décidé de faire une série de documentaires sur ses luttes non-violentes, dont la plus spectaculaire : : Le cœur du projet oui, mais le travail collaboratif est essentiel. Une équipe va chercher la matière première, et la met ensuite sur la table pour un travail collaboratif. Le réalisateur Sébastien Saugues travaille depuis une dizaine d'année dans le secteur humanitaire; il a côtoyé Rajagopal, le. Il a donc décidé de faire une série de documentaires sur ses luttes non-violentes, dont la plus spectaculaire : le Janadesh WN : Sous quelles licences sont-ils mis en ligne ? À quels prix ? C.H. : Comme la majorité des productions professionnelles ils sont en premier lieu tous droits réservés : Le prix total du budget a été réduit de 30 à 40% grâce : au travail collaboratif, l'utilisation exclusive de logiciels libres le contournement de nombreux intermédiaires les coûts logistiques (excluant tout salaire) s'élèvent à 20 000 €. Si ce palier de remboursement est atteint, un licence plus permissive sera appliquée : Creative Commons NC-BY-ND. : Comme la majorité des productions professionnelles ils sont en premier lieu tous droits réservés : WN : Pour les lecteurs, pouvez-vous expliquer ce que signifient Creative Commons NC-BY-ND ? C.H. : C'est à dire que le public peut copier et diffuser le contenu pour une utilisation non commerciale, ce qui n'est pas compatible avec la définition du libre, mais s'en rapproche. Celle-ci est définie à : C'est à dire que le public peut copier et diffuser le contenu pour une utilisation non commerciale, ce qui n'est pas compatible avec la définition du libre, mais s'en rapproche. Celle-ci est définie à cette adresse . Par la suite, si nous réussissons à atteindre le palier de 50 000 €, correspondant au budget logisitique incompressible ainsi qu'aux salaires des employés, une licence CC BY-SA sera appliquée, c'est à dire une licence libre compatible avec Wikipédia par exemple. Plus précisément, ce sera la version 3.0 (anglais) qui sera utilisée. Ce modèle est appelé funding and licencing par Creative Commons. C'est la première initiative de ce genre pour un projet de cette envergure. Il est soutenu par Lawrence Lessig , depuis le premier jour. WN : La Wikimedia Fondation se serait-elle intéressée à vos travaux ? C.H. : Oui, j'ai contacté Anthere[1] à ce sujet, elle pense que Commons et Wikinews pourraient être intéressés. Lorsque le projet sera libre évidement. Erik Möller[2] a proposé la création d'une page dédiée à faire lumière sur ce type de projet sur le site de la fondation. : Oui, j'ai contacté Anthereà ce sujet, elle pense que Commons et Wikinews pourraient être intéressés. Lorsque le projet sera libre évidement. Erik Möllera proposé la création d'une page dédiée à faire lumière sur ce type de projet sur le site de la fondation. WN : Quel message désirez-vous laisser aux lecteurs de Wikinews ? C.H. : Que les médias traditionnels et le travail collaboratif ne sont pas en opposition : les deux parties auront tout à gagner à travailler ensemble, pour plus de contenu, plus de liberté, plus de qualité et plus de notoriété. Notes Voir aussi LinuxFR Site officiel de Then You Win Pages « Inde » de Wikinews. L'actualité indienne dans le monde. ||||| Open documentary proposal: then you win A proposal to create three documentaries related to the movement Ekta Parishad. One interesting thing about the proposal is the funding and licensing model, which the image below explains well. This model has been discussed many times but little tried. | Rajagopal in the camera. New Delhi's struggle facing the medias. Recently the professional filmmaker association Loin de l'Œil started to produce a set of three documentaries (90~120mn) about nonviolent movements in India. From the 70's, to the largest nonviolent struggle (after Gandhi's one) that happened in October 2007, and called Janadesh. This content is dedicated to be liberated via a special website, experimenting for the first time the "funding and licensing" model to release under Creative Commons licenses: :"The idea is that the more people donate to the project, the more freedom the movies achieve, moving along a scale with the CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 and the CC BY-SA 3.0 licences at the two extremes. Look at this freedom gauge to track the progress of donations." Daniela Faris, iCommons, Webmaster. The project name "then you win" comes from the famous quote: :"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.", Mahatma Gandhi. The budget could be reduced about 30-40% by using exclusively free software, collaborative work, and bypassing numerous middlemen. Audience is still low because of the project's youth but getting more and more interest from the free culture community, the most significant support came from Lawrence Lessig who became the first online donor. |
Home||Local Taylor Bailey, 4, lifted his leg to show his bite marks while he and his mother, Melinda Walters, recounted the attack at midnight Wednesday by a neighbors dog. The 85-pound Staffordshire bull terrier mix broke free and chased the 4-year-old Columbia Heights boy, then knocked him to the ground and bit his legs. His mother fought off the dog, which had bitten the boy's father a week earlier. As he stepped out of his mom's car in front of their Columbia Heights apartment into the darkness late Wednesday, 4-year-old Taylor Bailey saw the dog's eyes shining in the shadows. It was the same pit bull mix that had bitten his father a week earlier. "There's the dog!" Bucky, as the boy is known, said to his mother, and she urged the boy to come to her. But the 85-pound male named Money dashed across the street and chased Bucky, who ran in circles screaming until the dog knocked him to the ground, biting and holding on, thrashing. "It hurted a lot," the boy said, showing tiny legs with punctures, scratches and a bit of flesh missing. "It didn't go away. It was just trying to grab me ... trying to kill me." The latest metro-area pit bull attack came at midnight Wednesday after the Staffordshire bull terrier mix broke loose from the neighbors' carport. During a terrifying struggle that lasted several minutes, Bucky's mother, Melinda Walters, fought off the dog. Police ticketed the Spring Lake Park owner of the dog, as well as a relative who was watching him in Columbia Heights. Owner Marquita Mooney, 23, told police she would have the dog put down rather than register him as a potentially dangerous animal, as police requested. That requires an insurance bond, fee payments, kennel requirements and more. The attack is sure to fuel an intense debate over whether pit bulls and other so-called dangerous breeds should be banned in Minnesota communities. It's a debate that's taken on urgency since a pit bull killed a boy in his north Minneapolis home on Aug. 16. "Kids are easy targets," said Bucky's grandfather, Ron Walters. Walters suggests that as one way to keep dog owners accountable, a new ordinance could require owners of pit bulls and other dangerous breeds to post $5,000 bonds to keep the dogs, with the money to be paid to dog-bite victims. Critics of such ideas say that it's unfair to target a specific breed and that behavior is shaped more by owners who teach the dogs to be vicious or fail to socialize them than by genetics. Identifying a pit bull is difficult, dog experts say, because it's a generic term. The American pit bull terrier, the American Staffordshire terrier and the Staffordshire bull terrier all are often called pit bulls. The 1-year-old dog in this case was being kept in Columbia Heights after it bit two dogs in Spring Lake Park about two weeks ago, police reports show. Mooney had been ticketed in those incidents. Bucky said he's glad police took away the scary, tawny-colored dog. Thursday, his mother was in worse emotional shape, weeping each time she imagined what could have happened had she not been there when her son was attacked. "I've cried so much more than he has," said Walters, 26. Her knees were scraped and her thigh scratched from wrestling with the dog. "The fear keeps running through my head," she said. "The fear of what could have happened." During the struggle, Walters said, she recalled stories of how 7-year-old Zachary King Jr. was killed by his family's pit bull in his north Minneapolis home. She feared her son would die, too. Columbia Heights Police Capt. Bill Roddy said the dog had run across the street to the apartment complex in the 4600 block of Polk Street NE. Roddy said he is being held in quarantine. Roddy confirmed the account given by the mother and son: The dog bit the boy in the left leg, pulling him to the ground, then kept biting him in the right lower leg. Walters was carrying another son, 3-year-old Jason, on her hip during much of the fight, she said. Bucky said he tried to hide from the dog, but he kept chasing the boy. "He just ran out and bit my leg," the boy said. "He wouldn't let go." Joy Powell 612-673-7750 ||||| Home||Local Taylor Bailey, 4, lifted his leg to show his bite marks while he and his mother, Melinda Walters, recounted the attack at midnight Wednesday by a neighbors dog. The 85-pound Staffordshire bull terrier mix broke free and chased the 4-year-old Columbia Heights boy, then knocked him to the ground and bit his legs. His mother fought off the dog, which had bitten the boy's father a week earlier. As he stepped out of his mom's car in front of their Columbia Heights apartment into the darkness late Wednesday, 4-year-old Taylor Bailey saw the dog's eyes shining in the shadows. It was the same pit bull mix that had bitten his father a week earlier. "There's the dog!" Bucky, as the boy is known, said to his mother, and she urged the boy to come to her. But the 85-pound male named Money dashed across the street and chased Bucky, who ran in circles screaming until the dog knocked him to the ground, biting and holding on, thrashing. "It hurted a lot," the boy said, showing tiny legs with punctures, scratches and a bit of flesh missing. "It didn't go away. It was just trying to grab me ... trying to kill me." The latest metro-area pit bull attack came at midnight Wednesday after the Staffordshire bull terrier mix broke loose from the neighbors' carport. During a terrifying struggle that lasted several minutes, Bucky's mother, Melinda Walters, fought off the dog. Police ticketed the Spring Lake Park owner of the dog, as well as a relative who was watching him in Columbia Heights. Owner Marquita Mooney, 23, told police she would have the dog put down rather than register him as a potentially dangerous animal, as police requested. That requires an insurance bond, fee payments, kennel requirements and more. The attack is sure to fuel an intense debate over whether pit bulls and other so-called dangerous breeds should be banned in Minnesota communities. It's a debate that's taken on urgency since a pit bull killed a boy in his north Minneapolis home on Aug. 16. "Kids are easy targets," said Bucky's grandfather, Ron Walters. Walters suggests that as one way to keep dog owners accountable, a new ordinance could require owners of pit bulls and other dangerous breeds to post $5,000 bonds to keep the dogs, with the money to be paid to dog-bite victims. Critics of such ideas say that it's unfair to target a specific breed and that behavior is shaped more by owners who teach the dogs to be vicious or fail to socialize them than by genetics. Identifying a pit bull is difficult, dog experts say, because it's a generic term. The American pit bull terrier, the American Staffordshire terrier and the Staffordshire bull terrier all are often called pit bulls. The 1-year-old dog in this case was being kept in Columbia Heights after it bit two dogs in Spring Lake Park about two weeks ago, police reports show. Mooney had been ticketed in those incidents. Bucky said he's glad police took away the scary, tawny-colored dog. Thursday, his mother was in worse emotional shape, weeping each time she imagined what could have happened had she not been there when her son was attacked. "I've cried so much more than he has," said Walters, 26. Her knees were scraped and her thigh scratched from wrestling with the dog. "The fear keeps running through my head," she said. "The fear of what could have happened." During the struggle, Walters said, she recalled stories of how 7-year-old Zachary King Jr. was killed by his family's pit bull in his north Minneapolis home. She feared her son would die, too. Columbia Heights Police Capt. Bill Roddy said the dog had run across the street to the apartment complex in the 4600 block of Polk Street NE. Roddy said he is being held in quarantine. Roddy confirmed the account given by the mother and son: The dog bit the boy in the left leg, pulling him to the ground, then kept biting him in the right lower leg. Walters was carrying another son, 3-year-old Jason, on her hip during much of the fight, she said. Bucky said he tried to hide from the dog, but he kept chasing the boy. "He just ran out and bit my leg," the boy said. "He wouldn't let go." Joy Powell 612-673-7750 ||||| Home||Local Taylor Bailey, 4, lifted his leg to show his bite marks while he and his mother, Melinda Walters, recounted the attack at midnight Wednesday by a neighbors dog. The 85-pound Staffordshire bull terrier mix broke free and chased the 4-year-old Columbia Heights boy, then knocked him to the ground and bit his legs. His mother fought off the dog, which had bitten the boy's father a week earlier. As he stepped out of his mom's car in front of their Columbia Heights apartment into the darkness late Wednesday, 4-year-old Taylor Bailey saw the dog's eyes shining in the shadows. It was the same pit bull mix that had bitten his father a week earlier. "There's the dog!" Bucky, as the boy is known, said to his mother, and she urged the boy to come to her. But the 85-pound male named Money dashed across the street and chased Bucky, who ran in circles screaming until the dog knocked him to the ground, biting and holding on, thrashing. "It hurted a lot," the boy said, showing tiny legs with punctures, scratches and a bit of flesh missing. "It didn't go away. It was just trying to grab me ... trying to kill me." The latest metro-area pit bull attack came at midnight Wednesday after the Staffordshire bull terrier mix broke loose from the neighbors' carport. During a terrifying struggle that lasted several minutes, Bucky's mother, Melinda Walters, fought off the dog. Police ticketed the Spring Lake Park owner of the dog, as well as a relative who was watching him in Columbia Heights. Owner Marquita Mooney, 23, told police she would have the dog put down rather than register him as a potentially dangerous animal, as police requested. That requires an insurance bond, fee payments, kennel requirements and more. The attack is sure to fuel an intense debate over whether pit bulls and other so-called dangerous breeds should be banned in Minnesota communities. It's a debate that's taken on urgency since a pit bull killed a boy in his north Minneapolis home on Aug. 16. "Kids are easy targets," said Bucky's grandfather, Ron Walters. Walters suggests that as one way to keep dog owners accountable, a new ordinance could require owners of pit bulls and other dangerous breeds to post $5,000 bonds to keep the dogs, with the money to be paid to dog-bite victims. Critics of such ideas say that it's unfair to target a specific breed and that behavior is shaped more by owners who teach the dogs to be vicious or fail to socialize them than by genetics. Identifying a pit bull is difficult, dog experts say, because it's a generic term. The American pit bull terrier, the American Staffordshire terrier and the Staffordshire bull terrier all are often called pit bulls. The 1-year-old dog in this case was being kept in Columbia Heights after it bit two dogs in Spring Lake Park about two weeks ago, police reports show. Mooney had been ticketed in those incidents. Bucky said he's glad police took away the scary, tawny-colored dog. Thursday, his mother was in worse emotional shape, weeping each time she imagined what could have happened had she not been there when her son was attacked. "I've cried so much more than he has," said Walters, 26. Her knees were scraped and her thigh scratched from wrestling with the dog. "The fear keeps running through my head," she said. "The fear of what could have happened." During the struggle, Walters said, she recalled stories of how 7-year-old Zachary King Jr. was killed by his family's pit bull in his north Minneapolis home. She feared her son would die, too. Columbia Heights Police Capt. Bill Roddy said the dog had run across the street to the apartment complex in the 4600 block of Polk Street NE. Roddy said he is being held in quarantine. Roddy confirmed the account given by the mother and son: The dog bit the boy in the left leg, pulling him to the ground, then kept biting him in the right lower leg. Walters was carrying another son, 3-year-old Jason, on her hip during much of the fight, she said. Bucky said he tried to hide from the dog, but he kept chasing the boy. "He just ran out and bit my leg," the boy said. "He wouldn't let go." Joy Powell 612-673-7750 | Just before midnight Wednesday, four-year-old Taylor Bailey, nicknamed Bucky, was attacked by a neighbor's dog. The Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix named Money chased the boy after he stepped out of his mother's car, eventually knocking the boy to the ground and latching onto his leg. The same dog had bitten the boy's father the week before, according to the family, although this has not been confirmed by police. He recognized the dog and alerted his mother to the dogs presence just moments before the attack. She urged her son to come to her, but the one-year-old, 85-pound (~39 kg) male broke free from his restraints and attacked the screaming boy. The struggle lasted several minutes before the boy's mother, Melinda Walters, was able to fight off the dog, leaving her knees scraped and thigh scratched. The boy's legs were punctured, scratched and bruised with bits of flesh missing. "It didn't go away. It was just trying to grab me ... trying to kill me," the boy said. Walters was carrying her three-year-old son Jason on her hip during much of the fight. The dog's owner, Marquita Mooney, 23, was ticketed along with a relative who was watching the dog. She said that rather than register the dog as a potentially dangerous animal—which involves an insurance bond, fees, kennel requirements and more—she would have the dog put down. Police reports indicate that the dog bit two other dogs about two weeks ago. Mooney has been ticketed for both incidents. This is the second such incident in Minneapolis this month—seven-year-old Zach King Jr. was attacked and killed in his home last week by his family's pit bull—fueling the debate over banning pit bulls and other "dangerous breeds" in some communities. Since 1966, there have been four other deaths from dog attacks in Minnesota, all but one of which were of children seven-years-old or younger. |
Despite a rescue attempt, a man died after being swept out to sea at Blackpool (Alamy) The victim was standing on steps near the resort's Cocker Square, close to the water's edge, when he was swept away in front of shocked onlookers. Officials said a huge rescue mission was launched with coastguard officers from Blackpool and Lytham St Annes joined by a helicopter from RAF Valley and Blackpool RNLI inshore lifeboats. The man, aged 44, was eventually recovered from the water and taken ashore to a waiting ambulance. However, he was confirmed dead at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Su Daintith, Watch Manager at Liverpool Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre, said: 'The man, we believe, was about to enter the water at the bottom of the seawall steps when he was swept off without any warning by a large wave which was a result of the overnight weather conditions. 'Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this tragic time' ||||| Man dies after being hit by wave on Blackpool sea wall The coastguard said the man was hit by a large wave A man has died after being swept into the sea by a large wave on Blackpool's sea wall. Coastguard officers, RNLI lifeboats and an RAF helicopter were all sent to reports of a person in the water off Cocker Square at lunchtime. The man was pulled out of the sea by a lifeboat crew and ashore to a waiting ambulance. A Coastguard spokeswoman said he was later pronounced dead at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Su Daintith, Watch Manager, said: "The man we believe was about to enter the water at the bottom of the sea wall steps when he was swept off without any warning by a large wave which was a result of the overnight weather conditions. "Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this tragic time." | Blackpool's promenade, showing the treacherous sea conditions and the steps in the Cocker Square area. A man has died after he was hit by a large wave and swept out to sea in , England. The 44-year-old victim was reportedly stood on the steps near to when he was hit by the wave. Witnesses looked on as the man was swept out to sea. Watch manager Su Daintith released a statement confirming the death of the individual. "The man we believe was about to enter the water at the bottom of the sea wall steps when he was swept off without any warning by a large wave which was a result of the overnight weather conditions," they said. "Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this tragic time." lifeboats, officers and the received reports of a man in the sea around lunchtime. A lifeboat crew managed to retrieve him from the water, and he was transported by ambulance to , where he was pronounced dead. |
Photo taken on July 22, 2010 shows fishing boats anchored at Shapa Harbor in Yangjiang City, southern China's Guangdong Province. Chanthu, the third typhoon of the season, made landfall at the coastal area of Wuchuan City, southern China's Guangdong Province on Thursday afternoon, with winds near its center at 126 km per hour. Local meteorologists said Chanthu brought strong gales and torrential rains to many parts of the province, particularly in the west. (Xinhua/Zhou Ji) GUANGZHOU, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and the lives of more than one million people were disrupted after Chanthu, the third typhoon of the season, made landfall at the coastal area in south China' s Guangdong Province Thursday noon. Two pedestrians were killed by walls that blew over in strong gales accompanying Chanthu after it went ashore at Wuchuan City at around 1:45 p.m., according to officials at the provincial flood control headquarters. Chanthu also brought torrential rains to several cities in Guangdong. As of 8 p.m., more than 1.35 million people in 20 counties or cities in Guangdong were affected and 2,915 houses collapsed in the rainstorms and strong gales, with economic losses estimated at 2.2 billion yuan (about 324 million U.S. dollars), according to statistics from the headquarters. After weakening into a tropical storm, Chanthu moved on to neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at around 8 p.m. Chanthu delayed 30 flights at the Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou. However, few passengers have been stranded at the airport, according to Baiyun airport officials. The airport also provided free food and made hotel reservations for passengers whose flights were delayed for more than two hours. At least 26 flights in and out of Haikou Meilan International Airport in Haikou, capital of the island province of Hainan, which is just one strait away from Guangdong, had been canceled Thursday. Passengers who arrived at the airport were provided with free hotel services, and no passengers were left stranded at the airport, said an airport spokesman. No casualties have been reported in Hainan. Meteorologists in Guangdong forecast that in the next 24 hours Chanthu would continue traveling northwestward at a speed of 15-20 km per hour while gradually weakening. ||||| Tropical storm Chanthu drenched southern China today after killing two people and knocking down thousands of homes in Guangdong province. Almost 3,000 homes collapsed in the storm’s strong gales and heavy rains, leading to 2.2 billion yuan ($325 million) of estimated losses and affected 1.35 million people as of 8 p.m. local time yesterday, Xinhua News Agency reported. Chanthu moved late yesterday northwest from Guangdong into neighboring Guangxi province, which was ravaged by floods in June, the China Meteorological Administration said. Downpours from Chanthu are set to deluge four southern provinces today, with western and central regions of China also forecast to receive torrential rains, as President Hu Jintao called for increased flood control and relief efforts. Flooding in China has killed more than 700 people this year, the most in more than a decade. At least 45 people have been killed by flooding and landslides in western China’s Shaanxi province, triggered by downpours in the region from July 14, the local government said in a statement posted to the State Council Information Office. The storms also destroyed 27,160 houses and damaged 101,000 hectares of farmland, with losses estimated at 2.49 billion yuan, Xinhua reported. Floods in neighboring Sichuan province have killed 32 people, left 38 missing and forced the evacuation of almost 1 million residents, Xinhua reported separately. Rain Forecast Both Shaanxi and Sichuan are forecast to receive heavy rain today along with the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan, Henan and Gansu. Flooding in China has killed 701 people and left 347 others missing this year, Ministry of Water Resources and the flood control office said in a July 21 joint statement. Since July 8, floods have killed 187 people and left 173 missing, according to the statement. Premier Wen Jiabao visited southern China twice last month, when flooding in the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian killed more than 200 people. Downpours from Chanthu may again cause floods and landslides in parts of southern China, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on its website. For Related News and Information: Stories on natural disasters in China: TNI CHINA NAT BN Bloomberg weather center: WEAT Bloomberg mapping: BMAP China economic statistics: ECST CH ||||| Beijing, China (CNN) -- Chanthu, the third typhoon of the West Pacific season, slowed down Thursday as it made its way over land in southern China. As the tropical storm drenched a region already inundated by heavy rain and deadly flooding, its top winds slowed to 63 mph (101 kph). It had made landfall with winds above 70 mph at 1:45 p.m. in Wuchuan City in southern China's Guangdong Province, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The government ordered evacuations in severely affected areas, especially in ports, fishing farms on the sea, dilapidated housing and low-lying ground. It urged local governments to step up flood control efforts. No casualties have been reported so far. Torrential rains and flooding this year already have been the worst in a decade, claiming the lives of 701 people and leaving 347 missing, Xinhua said, citing government figures. Chanthu could drench some rain-swollen areas with another 20 inches of rain, said CNN meteorologist Jenny Harrison. As the storm moves by, an area of particular concern is the region along the Yangtze River, which already has experienced the worst flooding in 30 years. Floodgates on the Three Gorges Dam have been opened to control the flow, and pictures from the scene show huge volumes of water pouring from it. Throughout the country, floods have hit 27 provinces and municipalities, affecting 110 million people, according to Xinhua. It said more than 8 million people have been relocated. About 287,000 military personnel have been mobilized in anti-flood operations, and schools are being advised to do what they can to ensure students' safety. | Satellite image of Chanthu before it made landfall Two people are dead and thousands of others lost their homes in southern China after . The Typhoon made landfall in the province with winds that reached 126 kilometers per hour (78 miles per hour). The storm caused approximatively 2.2 billion (325 million, 251 million) worth of damages. Chanthu caused downpours in China's southern provinces, with central and western provinces expected to flood as well. The Typhoon prompted President Hu Jintao to call for increased flood control measures. Chanthu is the latest in a string of recent violent storms followed by massive floods. So far this year 701 people have been killed by flooding, the highest since 1998. Along with that 347 people are missing and presumed dead. Storms have also destroyed 27,160 houses and 101,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of farmland. |
The attack came hours after reports that 17 bodies had been found bound and killed execution-style in the same restive province, Anbar. In Baghdad, at least three Iraqis were killed and several wounded in a car bomb attack near a busy marketplace in the mainly Shia district of Shula. In Kirkuk and Basra, police colonels were killed in drive-by shootings. "Five marines were killed in action Thursday when their vehicle hit an explosive device while conducting combat operations near Haqlaniyah," the US military said in a statement. Further west, close to the Syrian border, 17 bodies were found in two separate groups near the desert town of Qaim. Officials said 22 Iraqi soldiers were kidnapped in the area on Wednesday but it was not clear if the bodies were of some of the troops. Eleven of the bodies had been dumped in a gravel pit. Witnesses, including an Associated Press reporter, said the victims had their hands tied behind their backs and were wearing civilian clothes. Website claim The discovery came a day after six bodies were found nearby, also in civilian clothes. Some of them had been beheaded, witnesses said. The group of soldiers went missing on Wednesday after leaving their Qaim base to go to Baghdad on leave. They had been wearing civilian clothes, police said. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group led by Iraq's most-wanted militant, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, said on a website it had captured 36 Iraqi soldiers, or "infidel guards", in western Iraq on Wednesday. The blast in Baghdad happened near a busy marketplace at 2200 (1800 GMT), an hour before a night-time curfew came into the effect, an interior ministry source told the AFP news agency. At least 15 people were wounded, the AFP reported. Police in the northern city of Kirkuk said Colonel Rahim Uthman, head of the local anti-terrorist department, had been killed on Thursday. He and his assistant Major Ghanim Jihad were shot dead from a blue BMW, they said. And on Friday in the southern city of Basra, the commander of the local police academy was shot dead. Three or four gunmen in a car swerved in front of Colonel Abdelkarim Daraji's vehicle and opened fire, police said. His brother also died in the attack. ||||| Bombs kill Marines, civilians in Iraq Army conducting 'criminal probe' into soldiers' deaths BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A car bomb exploded Friday evening in a northwestern Baghdad neighborhood, killing nine Iraqi civilians and wounding 15 others, Iraqi security forces said. In another incident, five U.S. Marines died when a bomb hit their vehicle near Haqlaniya in Anbar province, the Marines said Friday. The assault happened Thursday while the troops were conducting combat operations. They were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force. In recent weeks American and Iraqi forces have responded to a surge in violence by launching a series of operations against insurgents in Baghdad and in western and northern Iraq. The Marines' deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in the war to 1,690. Twenty-four have been killed in the first nine days of June alone. Of those June deaths, at least 18 were combat-related. The U.S. Army disclosed that it is conducting a "criminal investigation" into the deaths of two others. Capt. Phillip T. Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen died about 10 p.m. Tuesday at Forward Operating Base Danger, near Tikrit. "The initial investigation by responders and military police indicated that a mortar round struck the window on the side of the building where Esposito and Allen were located at the time," a military statement said. "Upon further examination of the scene by explosive ordnance personnel, it was determined the blast pattern was inconsistent with a mortar attack," the document states. The Army is looking at a number of scenarios, including accidental death, attack by an intruder or infiltrator -- and fragging, which is the killing or wounding of a fellow soldier. Both officers were "assigned to Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 42nd Infantry Division, New York Army National Guard. Esposito was the company commander; Allen served as a company operations officer," the statement reads. EU delegates visit Thursday, a group of European Union members was in Baghdad, marking the first such high-level delegation visit to the country since the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein. Javier Solana, the EU's top foreign policy official, and Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met with Iraqi officials to prepare for an international conference on Iraq. The EU and the United States are co-sponsors of the conference that will have "three main issues -- one that is related to politics in general. The second related to security, and the third related to what we may call rule of law," Solana said. The conference will be in Brussels, Belgium, on June 22. Solana said the delegation was meeting with "everybody," including government leaders and Sunni officials who "are not part of the mainstream of the political system." "We would like very much to see them incorporated. It will not be a successful transition without the participation of everybody," he said. Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, said, "We are pleased to have frank dialogue with them [the EU delegation]. They visited Iraq, which was liberated from dictatorship, to show their solidarity with the Iraqi people and pave the way to the conference due to be held in Brussels shortly to help the Iraqi people." The visit coincided with the announcement that the 55-member National Assembly committee chosen to write a constitution will be expanded to include 15 to 25 non-elected Sunni Arabs. A large and powerful minority group, Sunni Arabs have been alienated from Iraq's political process since the fall of Saddam Hussein, under whose regime they enjoyed power. They stayed away from the January 30 transitional assembly election, and they are believed to hold sway over members of the insurgency. The transitional government has been looking for ways to bring Sunni Arabs into the political fold. Some Shiite members of the committee have expressed their reluctance to grant voting rights to the Sunnis. Other developments In an apparent assassination, gunmen on Friday shot and killed a police academy commander in the southeastern city of Basra, an Iraqi army official said. The victim was identified as Col. Abdul Karim al-Daraji. At least 17 bodies in civilian clothes were found scattered near a town close to the Syrian border that is considered an insurgent hotbed, with 11 shot in the head and another beheaded, witnesses said Friday. The 11 had their hands tied behind their backs, according to the witnesses. (Full story) A man described as a "terror suspect" was wounded and detained by Task Force Liberty soldiers in Samarra Friday morning, the U.S. military said. | "Five marines were killed in action Thursday when their vehicle hit an explosive device while conducting combat operations near Haqlaniyah," the United States Military said in a statement on Friday evening. The attack itself came hours after reports that up to 17 bodies had been found killed in the same province. Reports say that the bodies were killed "execution style" and were near Anbar. In Baghdad, up to three Iraqi civilians were killed and several others were wounded in a car bomb blast, that exploded near a busy marketplace in the mainly Shia district of Shula. |
At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from "eating your own dogfood"). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level. We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it. Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet. Posted by Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management | | ||||| 'Google phone set for launch': Videos emerge of new Nexus One mobile dubbed 'iPhone-killer' By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 11:53 AM on 16th December 2009 Two videos have emerged of Google's first ever phone called Nexus One. The mobile is still unofficial but reports suggest it will be launched in the New Year in a bid to take on Apple iPhone. A technology website has released two short teaser clips of the phone in action. The first video showed the animation on the start up screen, incorporating the colours of Google's logo. The second appeared to show an animated wallpaper. The phone, also nicknamed 'Passion', will feature Google's own Android 2.1 software and will be manufactured by Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC. This picture of the Nexus One was one of many that have appeared on Twitter over the weekend The internet giant is planning to sell two handsets. One will be available with a T-Mobile contract. The other handset will be sold unlocked directly to customers via its website. This means Google can partly avoid having to tie itself to any particular carrier. In Britain, iPhones were originally only available to 02 customers. The handsets are now also available on the Orange network. Google decided to road-test the device by handing them to its own employees over the weekend. Technology blog Engadget reported that device boasts microSD expansion, WiFi and Bluetooth. It will also use Qualcomm’s super-fast Snapdragon processing chip The company's mobile phone blog cryptically admitted a phone had been produced with a posting over the weekend. It said: 'We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with 'Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.' The Google phone will come loaded with Google Navigation and Google Goggles according to Engadget The phone is thinner than an iPhone and features a similar touch-screen configuration but with the addition of a Blackberry-style track ball. The Nexus One has not been officially released but the name has already stirred by controversy. Some commentators have speculated that the name is inspired by Nexus series of androids in the film Blade Runner. However creator Philip K. Dick's daughter, Isa, said: 'We were never consulted, no requests were made, and we didn't grant any sort of permissions.' Google has created two other 'Googlephones' in the past: the so-called 'Dev Phone 1', which was an unlocked phone the company sold online; and the Ion. Both were 'Google' handsets, both were given out to employees early on and both were built by HTC. The internet firm's Android operating system has also been installed on phones manufactured by Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Customers would still need to have a contract or pay-as-you-go agreement to use it. Ben Schachter, an analyst at San Francisco-based Broadpoint AmTech Inc, said: ‘If all of a sudden everyone is getting on the internet via their mobile device, Google needs to make sure it has an influence on that. ‘They need to make sure they have influence on how the mobile web will develop.’ Experts believe aim of the launch is to gain access to valuable consumer data that can be used to sell ads at premium prices, rather than to make money from direct hardware sales. Google said that it had given out handsets for staff to test, so they could ‘experiment with new mobile features and capabilities’ and give quick feedback on the new technology. Mario Querioz, Google’s London-based vice president of product management, wrote in his blog on Saturday: ‘At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements. ‘We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities.' Rumours of a so-called 'Googlephone' have appeared regularly ever since the internet company bought a Californian mobile software startup company, also called Android, in 2005. Watch the two new clips of the Google phone below: For more information visit www.thenexusone.com and for photos visit www.engadget.com ||||| Google gave some staff a new unlocked mobile phone handset at the weekend that some believe is the much-anticipated "Google Phone". Pictures suggest the Nexus One is made by HTC, which brought out the first handset to run Android, the open, Google-sponsored mobile phone operating system. (Nexus was the name of the killer android range in Blade Runner.) From comments on various blogs, the phone appears to run Android 2.1, an operating system upgrade expected to be launched in January. The user interface allows animated responses to touch, making for effects such as ripples on a pond. Blogger Scott Deto suggested the "killer" scenario as being to use Google Voice for all calls and SMS, to connect via Wi-Fi where available, and to use a T-Mobile pre-paid SIM on HSPA 7.2/HSPA+21 when necessary. "The mobile carrier becomes the back-up connectivity commodity," he said. Android, a Unix-based operating system, has been less successful in capturing market share in the US than Apple's iPhone, and is almost unknown outside the US, where Nokia's Symbian has about two-thirds of the market. Android also faces competition from Samsung, the world's number two handset maker, which launched its own Linux-based operating system, Bada, in November. The mobile market is overcrowded with operating systems. This makes it harder for applications developers to target more than one or two hardware/software platforms. Handset makers are going all-out to encourage them to produce for their handsets and to sell through online stores, such as Apple's App Store or Nokia's Ovi Store. But this strategy may prove counter-productive. App Store is believed to have more than 100,000 applications. That makes it difficult for users to find them. Some say fewer than 2% of those apps have been downloaded. That makes it hard for users to judge the quality of the apps before they download them, because there is so little user comment or review information. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (Rim) recently attracted more than 1,000 programmers to a developers' conference. Rim sources said the firm would open an app store to meet demand from the growing number of consumers, rather than corporate users, who prefer BlackBerries. Proprietary operating systems are likely to continue to serve users with specific needs. But the number of Unix/Linux-based operating systems is likely to attract most developers because of the relative ease with which they can adapt their software to slightly different environments. | left The first widely available Android phone, the G1 Rumours have increased over the possible release of a Google branded smartphone in the New Year, running its Android mobile operating system. Speculation has been rife after it was reported that Google have distributed handsets to its employees for testing worldwide. It is believed to be being built by the Taiwan based manufacturer HTC, who have already released two phones based on the Android operating system and will feature the newly released Android 2.0. It is currently named the Nexus One. On their official blog, Google have confirmed the existence of a handset and the fact that it is currently being tested, but have relased no more details. It is also understood that it will be sold directly to consumers and will not be locked to any particular network, in a sharp departure from previous handsets sporting Android. Ben Schachter, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech Inc, based in San Francisco, said: "If all of a sudden everyone is getting on the internet via their mobile device, Google needs to make sure it has an influence on that...they need to make sure they have influence on how the mobile web will develop." Google is one of the founding members of The Open Handset Alliance, creator of the open-sourced mobile OS Android. |
Rhys Johnson was playing near his house in Llansamlet A coroner has urged parents to supervise children using air guns after a 10-year-old boy died after being shot at close range in the heart. Rhys Johnson of Llansamlet in Swansea died in hospital on 27 September. An inquest heard he and a friend were using his father's airgun without his knowledge in a lane behind his home. Recording a verdict of accidental death coroner Philip Rogers was told Rhys's friend did not mean to shoot him as they were taking 'pot shots' at cans. Mr Rogers heard Rhys and his 12-year-old friend were playing in the lane behind his house. Det Sgt Nigel Morgan said the friend was holding the .22 calibre air rifle when he thought he heard Rhys call to him. "Rhys was standing to his left calling him and laughing," he said. "The boy held the rifle at the butt in his right arm with his finger on the trigger. I'm sure Mr and Mrs Johnson were not aware the children were using the weapon unsupervised Philip Rogers, coroner "As he turned he felt the gun to be heavy. As it fell away he pulled it towards him and accidentally fired the trigger. "Rhys was holding himself to the chest - he thought he was joking then he thought he's shot Rhys in the hand. "He saw no blood and Rhys ran to the house." The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, dropped the Webley Vulcan .22 break-barelled air rifle and followed Rhys into his house. Det Sgt Morgan said: "He was crying and apologising for what happened." Rhys was hit by a pellet at close range. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Surgeons in Swansea battled for several hours to save the schoolboy but he died in the early hours of the morning of the following day. The medical cause of death was an airgun wound to the heart. The Swansea inquest heard no legal action was taken against the boy. Playing indoors The inquest was told Rhys had played with his father's gun since the age of eight but only while supervised. His father, workshop engineer David Johnson, told the inquest: "I would allow him to use it if he was with me when I was up the garden or we were spending time together. "Rhys would have shown interest in it from when he was about eight-year-old - maybe younger." Mr Johnson, 36, said he thought Rhys was indoors on his Playstation when the tragedy happened. Swansea coroner Philip Rogers said: "This sad case proved the danger of air weapons. Such weapons although not requiring to be licensed can prove fatal. "I would urge anyone with children to try and ensure that such weapons are not used without parental supervision. "I'm sure Mr and Mrs Johnson were not aware the children were using the weapon unsupervised." Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version ||||| Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage from Swansea. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter too. Looking for a different part of South West Wales? - Carmarthen news - Llanelli news - Neath news - Port Talbot news - All other areas - Swansea City news - Ospreys news And don't forget you can sign up to get news that's local to you on InYourArea. | An inquest was held this week after a 10-year-old boy died after being shot with an air rifle in Swansea, Wales. On September 27, 2009, Rhys Johnson and his friend, aged 12, took, without permission, an air gun which belonged to Rhys' father. The two boys played with it near to the location of the Johnson house in the district of Llansamlet. They were unsupervised when they were shooting the gun at a bucket that was hanging in a tree and a tin can that was placed on a box. The friend, who has remained anonymous, shot Rhys Johnson in the heart with the .22 caliber Webley Vulcan air gun at close range. Johnson died in a hospital at 0211 BST the next day from said wound. Philip Rogers, a coroner from Swansea, recorded the verdict as an accidental death. He was told that the friend had no intention of shooting Johnson. Therefore, no legal action has been taken against Johnson's friend accordingly. Detective Sergeant Nigel Morgan of South Wales Police said that "Rhys was standing to his left calling his friend and laughing. The boy held the rifle at the butt in his right arm with his finger on the trigger. As he turned he felt the gun to be heavy. As it fell away he pulled it towards him and accidentally fired the trigger. Rhys was holding himself to the chest—he thought he was joking then he thought he's shot Rhys in the hand. He saw no blood and Rhys ran to the house." The detective stated that the friend "was crying and apologizing for what happened." Rhys Johnson's father, David, age 36, an engineer in a workshop and the owner of the air rifle testified, "I would allow him to use it if he was with me when I was up the garden or we were spending time together. Rhys would have shown interest in it from when he was about eight-years-old." The coroner urged "anyone with children to try and ensure that such weapons are not used without parental supervision," going on to say that he was "sure Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were not aware the children were using the weapon unsupervised." |
Andy Harper and Robbie Slater preview all the action in round three of the Hyundai A-League. Cricket: Malaysian ODI series Australia, India, West Indies LIVE Sep 12 - 24, 4.30pm FOX SPORTS 2 11:00 pm - 07:30 am LIVE COVERAGE 02:30 am - 05:00 am Animal passion Want to become well educated and earn a salary at the same time? Fuel for thought Alternatives to petrol can provide economy and performance to boot. homesite.com.au Get the products and advice you need to create your dream home. ||||| JUNINHO has warned that on-field thuggery is destroying the A-League's potential "beautiful game", saying his natural talent is being suppressed in Australia. "I am suffering a lot because of the violence," said Juninho, who in recent weeks has become more marked than marquee, particularly while carrying a shoulder injury. "The tackling is continuous and I know it belongs to football. But it cannot be the main part of the game. "It is not like this anywhere so it should not be like this here." Speaking to a Brazilian newspaper Juninho, who has been nursing a shoulder injury since round two, said the A-League needed to look after its skilful players. "Unfortunately this football has a lot to improve," Juninho said. "Especially the violence which has been used in Australia." The playmaker made a plea to the A-League's officials to crack down on referees. "I am begging the referees to do the utmost and all they can to stop the violent game that makes Australia have an ugly football." Juninho said the Australian game based itself on unfairly stopping the creators of the game. "They first think of tackling and not the football," he said. "Defenders in Australia are extremely violent." Given the Brazilian's two spells in England and one in Scotland - arguably the two most physically demanding leagues in the world - his criticism is the more remarkable. "They have amazing potential (Australian players)," he said. "They have great players in Australia. "But referees must protect creative and skilled players. We are at the mercy of violence and players who first think to destroy." Juninho sang the praises of some of the league's showmen who he said should be given every opportunity to play the beautiful game. "There are excellent players who could build up an excellent football," he said. "But they become scared. "I am in love with this country. I am not sorry for my move. "The only thing I'm saying is for referees to do all they can, to keep the fair play. Because in the end everyone will enjoy it. The public and the creative player will be more secure to show the beautiful game." Meanwhile, the fallout from Sydney's clash with Melbourne on Saturday continued yesterday, with FC believed to be contemplating a ban on away supporters. After widespread reports of bad behaviour by Melbourne fans, Sydney officials are considering refusing to pay for a separate policed section for Victory fans at future games in Sydney, or even banning the purchase of tickets by Victorian residents. The club believes the cost of providing even more security would mean them making a loss, after a Melbourne fan evaded stewards to confront Sydney fans before the game. Witnesses said Victory fans tore seats out and smuggled fireworks into the stadium. The situation was further complicated by Sydney fans who threw water bottles at referee Mark Shield as he left the field. FC officials are reviewing CCTV footage of the incident to identify the perpetrators, determined to set a lead in banning those responsible. Amid other reports of cars being attacked and officials intimidated by Victory fans, Sydney will discuss with the SCG Trust, who run the SFS, to see what measures that can be taken. Sydney boss Branko Culina may also come under scrutiny for comments made to the referee, with the FC boss reportedly saying to Shield as he headed towards the tunnel: "If the police need to escort you, it's not a good sign." | Round 7 of the A-League 2007-08 has produced some interesting moments throughout the country. Accusations have been made that the A-League's 'thug-like' onfield play has decreased its good name, but all teams enjoyed a close-to satisfying game, whatever the result. WA team Perth Glory is still stalling in its win drought, sparking calls for coach Ron Smith's dismissal, however this was met with limited concern. The low attendance numbers were partly due to the Perth Glory vs Adelaide United match with one of the lowest crowds in Perth's history, 6252. * '''Attendance/Average:''' 49,768 / 12,442 |
Suspect in police custody; university to resume normal operations By Larry Hincker BLACKSBURG, VA., August 21, 2006 -- (Updated at 4:30 p.m.) Police have apprehended William Charles Morva, suspect in the fatal shooting of a security guard and a sheriff's deputy, and the wounding of another sheriff's deputy. Virginia Tech wishes to express profund appreciation to officers of the Virginia Tech Police Department, Blacksburg Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, and the Virginia State Police for their exhaustive, diligent, and successful efforts on behalf of the campus community. Virginia Tech will resume full normal operations on Tuesday, August 22. Video: Statement by President Charles Steger | Quicktime video and transcript (Length: 1:12; 4.4 MB) ----------- EMERGENCY UPDATE 3:50 P.M.: Suspect reported to be in custody Blacksburg Police have reportedly captured William Charles Morva, suspect in the fatal shooting of a Montgomery Regional Hospital security guard and a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy, and the wounding of another deputy. ----------- EMERGENCY UPDATE 12:45 P.M.: Employees north of Drillfield asked to leave campus The university is asking that all employees on the north side of the Drillfield depart from work and leave for the day. When exiting the campus, please use the Prices Fork entrance. Southgate Drive remains closed. Further information for remaining employees will be provided as soon as possible. All classes, events, programs, meetings, and other activities scheduled for the Blacksburg campus on Monday, August 21, are cancelled. Stay tuned to the campus media which includes www.vt.edu, Weatherline (231-6668), e-mail, and your phone mail. We will provide further information on shift work tomorrow sometime before midnight. Podcast (1 p.m.): Statement by Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker | Download MP3 (Length: 0:26) BT to run modified break service Blacksburg Transit will go to modified break service at 1:15 p.m. on Monday, August 21. One bus will run break schedule on the following routes: Southbound\Northbound Main Street Hethwood\Windsor Hills Tom's Creek A Tom's Creek B University Mall Shuttle Two Town Trolley Hokie Express service has been cancelled for the remainder of Monday, August 21. For more information call (540) 961-1185 or visit the BT website. ----------- EMERGENCY ADVISORY 10:30 a.m.: University to cancel remaining classes In an effort to help law enforcement officials, all remaining classes will be canceled. Students should return to their residence hall rooms or apartments and not venture out. Employees are asked to remain in their offices until further notice. The south side of campus (south of Washington Street) remains blocked off by police. Those roads are closed to vehicular traffic. Police continue to pursue the William Morva, the escaped prisoner from the Montgomery County Jail who is a suspect a homicide case. Police report the suspect is now wearing a tie-dye shirt, khaki shorts and is barefoot. Podcast (10:30 a.m.): Statement by Vice President Kurt Krause | Download MP3 (Length: 1:18) ##06415## ||||| BLACKSBURG, Va. - An escaped inmate wanted in the shooting deaths of a hospital guard and a sheriff's deputy has been found, Blacksburg police say. Blacksburg police say they caught 24-year-old William Morva at approximately 3:30 p.m., as officials from the town and Virginia Tech were holding a news conference. Police say Morva was found hiding in a briar patch on an off-campus trail about 150 yards from where the deputy was shot this morning. A weapon also was recovered, but police would not elaborate. Morva was quickly taken in shackles to the Montgomery County Jail under a heavy police presence and was to be transferred to a regional facility for security reasons. The manhunt began after Morva, who was jailed on charges of robbing a deli, escaped after being taken to the Montgomery Regional Hospital emergency room on Sunday in handcuffs and leg irons after he suffered a sprained wrist and ankle, Sheriff Tommy Whitt says. He overpowered a deputy and took his pistol. Shots were fired, killing hospital security guard Derrick McFarland, 26, as he tried to help the deputy. Police say Morva allegedly shot a police officer on the trail at about 7:30 a.m. Monday near the Blacksburg Public Library and police station. Police have identified the officer who was shot and killed as Montgomery County, Va., Sheriff's Deputy Eric Sutphin. Sutphin was a 13-year veteran of the force and had received a commonwealth medal of valor for his role in a May 2003 incident when cornered a suspect fleeing a fatal police shooting in Christiansburg. On Monday morning, Virginia State Police, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg and Montgomery County, Va. authorities searched for Morva along Huckleberry Trail, a six-mile trail near the Virginia Tech campus that connects Blacksburg with Christiansburg. Morva had been jailed awaiting trial on charges of attempting to rob a store last year. The manhunt for Morva prompted Virginia Tech to cancel classes -- the first day of the fall semester -- and lock down the campus. Authorities used helicopters and dogs to sweep an area that included the university campus, about one block from the Blacksburg Police Station. (Copyright 2006 by WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) | Police at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. William Morva, who escaped from a hospital in Blacksburg on Sunday, is in custody. He is a suspect in the murders of hospital security guard, Derrick McFarland on Sunday, and police officer Cpl. Eric Sutphin. Virginia Tech has closed their campus and cancelled classes on Monday. They issued an emergency advisory at 10:30 am local time. William Morva, 24, was taken to a hospital after complaining of a sprained wrist and leg, and escaped early Sunday morning after wounding a police officer and killing Derrick McFarland, an unarmed security guard. Around 7:30 am, Morva shot and fatally wounded Cpl. Eric Sutphin while he was on patrol on a local trail. Virginia Tech cancelled classes after a report that Morva was seen in a campus building. The building was evacuated, but he was not found. At 3:36 pm EDT August 21, 2006, Montgomery County Police reported over the police scanner that William Morva was captured and taken into custody. He was captured west of the rugby fields on the Virginia Tech campus. This has been confirmed by a statement by the Blacksburg Police.. |
Vandals dig up grave of Hungary's communist-era leader Janos Kadar Vandals dug up the grave of Hungary's communist-era leader Janos Kadar, damaged his casket and stole the urn containing his wife's remains. "Not all the grave site was dug up," Budapest Police spokesman Endre Kormos said at the scene, adding that forensic experts were investigating whether any of Kadar's remains had been taken from the coffin. The tomb's marble cover was removed, and some dirt beneath was dug up, police said. The vandals also wrote "Murderer and traitor, you cannot rest in holy ground" on a memorial to communist leaders near Kadar's tomb. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany a former communist youth leader who has distanced himself recently from Kadar's regime condemned the attack as an "abominable, inhumane and cowardly act" that had nothing to do with politics or with Kadar's political legacy. Fidesz, the main center-right opposition group, and other political parties across the ideological spectrum also condemned the vandalism. Kadar, who became Hungary's leader after the defeat of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, was in power until 1988 and died in 1989, a few months before the democratic changes. He and his wife, Maria Tamaska, are buried together at the Kerepesi Cemetery near the city center. A special 10-member police unit was set up to investigate the crime. The vandals had dug about 1.5 meters (5 feet) into the ground, said Edit Simoka, director of the Budapest Funeral Institute, which oversees the cemetery. Security guards who discovered the vandalism initially thought maintenance work was being done on the tomb, as hundreds of people had visited and left candles at the site on May 1, the Labor Day holiday. Some Hungarians, especially among the elderly, consider Kadar a father figure who provided them with a better life in comparison to other communist countries. There are about 3,000 famous Hungarians buried in the 140-acre (56-hectare) cemetery, Simoka said. ||||| Grave of Hungarian Communist leader Janos Kadar vandalized BUDAPEST, Hungary: Vandals dug up the grave of Hungary's communist-era leader Janos Kadar on Wednesday, broke open his casket and may have taken his remains and the urn containing his wife's ashes, police said. "Not all the grave site was dug up," Budapest Police spokesman Endre Kormos said at the scene. He said the vandals had cut a 40 centimeter (15.75 inches) hole into the coffin. Attila Perlaki, district police chief, said that Kadar's bones were no longer in his coffin, but other police officials could not confirm his statement. "Experts are going to open the casket but as far as we can tell through the hole that has been cut into the coffin there are bones missing, "Kormos said. Forensic experts were expected at the scene to determine which of the bones may have been stolen by the vandals. Kormos said the casket has not been opened by police at the scene but that it had been pried open, so it was likely that bones had been moved. The tomb's marble cover was removed, and some dirt beneath was dug up, police said. The vandals also wrote "Murderer and traitor, you cannot rest in holy ground" on a memorial to communist leaders near Kadar's tomb. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany — a former communist youth leader who has distanced himself recently from Kadar's regime — condemned the attack as an "abominable, inhumane and cowardly act" that had nothing to do with politics or with Kadar's political legacy. Fidesz, the main center-right opposition group, and other political parties across the ideological spectrum also condemned the vandalism. Kadar, who became Hungary's leader after the defeat of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, was in power until 1988 and died in 1989, a few months before the democratic changes. He and his wife, Maria Tamaska, are buried together at the Kerepesi Cemetery near the city center. A special 10-member police unit was set up to investigate the crime. The vandals had dug about 1.5 meters (5 feet) into the ground, said Edit Simoka, director of the Budapest Funeral Institute, which oversees the cemetery. Security guards who discovered the vandalism initially thought maintenance work was being done on the tomb, as hundreds of people had visited and left candles at the site on May 1, the Labor Day holiday. Some Hungarians, especially among the elderly, consider Kadar a father figure who provided them with a better life in comparison to other communist countries. There are about 3,000 famous Hungarians buried in the 140-acre (56-hectare) cemetery, Simoka said. ___ Associated Press Writer Pablo Gorondi contributed to this report. ||||| Kádár János síremlékének fedelét ismeretlen tettesek szerdára virradóra leszedték, és felnyitották fémkoporsóját. A csontokat elvitték, és nem találják Kádár János feleségének urnáját sem. A munkásmozgalom panteonján egy gyalázkodó felirat olvasható, a rendőrség egyelőre vizsgálja, van-e egymáshoz köze a két esetnek. Meggyalázták Kádár János síremlékét a fővárosi Fiumei úti temetőben szerdán, a csontokat ellopták, közölte a rendőrség. Kormos Endre, a Budapesti Rendőr-főkapitányság (BRFK) sajtóügyeletese elmondta, ismeretlenek leszedték Kádár János és felesége síremlékének márvány fedlapját, a földet pedig kidobálták. A tettesek felfeszítették a volt pártfőtitkár két méter mélyen fekvő fémkoporsóját, és elvitték a földi maradványokat is, illetve Kádár feleségének, Tamáska Máriának az urnáját - ami az egykori pártvezető sírján volt. Ennek megállapításához teljesen ki kellett bontani a sírt. A történteket először a sírkert biztonsági őre észlelte, ő értesítette a rendőröket nem sokkal dél előtt, a temető tájékoztatása szerint kedd éjjel még égtek a mécsesek a sírhelyen. A temetőt megszállták a rendőrök, tudósítónk legalább 10 rendőrautót és egy csapaszállító kisbuszt is látott. A helyszínelők kordonnal lezárták a sírt körülvelő füves, legalább 40x50 méteres területet. Vizsgálják a koporsót Fotó: Mihádák Zoltán Fotó: Mihádák Zoltán Mivel a fémkoporsó rossz állapotban volt, elszállították, hogy az antropológusok megfelelő körülmények között vizsgálhassák meg, mondta sajtótájékoztatón Simóka Kálmánné, a Budapesti Temetkezési Zrt. vezérigazgatója. A vizsgálatok elvégzése után a földi maradványokat visszaszállítják a temetőbe, és gondoskodnak az újratemetésről, ennek részleteire azonban egyelőre nem tért ki. Simóka beszélt arról is, hogy hosszú távon meg kell erősíteni a temető védelmét. Feltételezhető, hogy a tettesek többen voltak: először eltávolították a fedlapot, amire a "gyilkosok 56" feliratot fújták rá, utána majdnem 2 méter mélyen kiásták a sírt. A fémkoporsóba a lábhoz közeli részen egy 30x30 centis lyukat vágtak. A koporsó valószínűleg ekkor telt meg földdel, ami nehezítette a csontok keresését. A VIII. kerületi kapitányság rongálás miatt rendelt el nyomozást, a csontok eltűnése miatt azonban csak akkor nyomoznak kegyeletsértés miatt, ha a közvetlen hozzátartozók feljelentést tesznek. Ha csak rongálásról van szó, akkor az 3 évig terjedő szabadságvesztéssel büntethető. Gyalázkodó felirat A temetőben a munkásmozgalom panteonjára fekete festékkel gyalázkodó feliratot írtak: "Gyilkos és áruló szent földben nem nyughat". Ez az idézet a Kárpátia együttes Neveket akarok hallani című dalából származik, az együttes erősen nemzeti identitású és revizionista zenét játszik. A BRFK vizsgálja, hogy a feliratnak van-e köze a sírrongáláshoz. Kattintson. (fotók: Huszti István) Kattintson. (fotók: Huszti István) A sír kifosztását a radikális jobboldali szervezeteken kívül szinte az összes politikai csoportosulás - a KDNP-től a Munkáspártig - elítélte. A tisztelet minden magyar állampolgár sírját megilleti, így a diktatúra vezetőjéét is, mondta az Indexnek a magyar kegyeleti bizottság elnöke, Boross Péter. Legutóbb 2000 novemberében gyalázták meg Kádár János sírját, akkor egy idős asszony mázolta le zöld festékkel. Tettét azzal magyarázta, hogy sok fiatal halála szárad Kádár lelkén. Kádár János 1956 novemberétől több mint harminc éven át volt Magyarország első számú pártállami vezetője. Az MSZMP volt főtitkára 1989. július 6-án halt meg, azon a napon, amikor a Legfelsőbb Bíróság hatálytalanította a Nagy Imre és társai perében hozott ítéleteket. ||||| Ismeretlen tettesek mára virradóra meggyalázták Kádár János sírját a Fiumei úti sírkertben. A Népszabadság a helyszínen tartózkodóktól úgy értesült: a tettesek felfeszítették a márvány fedlapokat, elvitték Mária asszony, Kádár János felesége urnáját, és a néhai MSZMP-főtitkár csontjait is. A Fiumei úti temetőben még nem volt példa ilyen súlyos atrocitásra. "Szent földben nem nyughatnak" Gyalázkodó felirat a a Munkásmozgalmi Panteon falán a fiumei úti temetőben Kép: Reviczky Zsolt Háromezer neves síremlék eshet áldozatul A rendszeresen járőröző biztonsági őrök kijátszásával rongálhatták meg a síremléket - mondta a Budapesti Temetkezési Intézet Zrt. vezérigazgatója. Simóka Kálmánné elmondta, hogy éjjel egy órakor a biztonsági őrök még mindent rendben találtak a sírnál, amikor a nap közben odahelyezett mécseseket ellenőrizték. A rongálást ezt követően történhetett - mondta a vezérigazgató. Szerinte teljes biztonsággal nem lehet védeni a sírokat. A háromezer neves síremlék bármelyike, akár például Antall Józsefé is ilyen rongálás áldozata lehet. A történtek után növelik a temetői biztonsági őrök létszámát - tette hozzá. A vezérigazgató tájékoztatása szerint nagyobb biztonságot az jelentene, ha térfigyelő kamerákat helyezhetnének el a temetőben. Egy évvel korábbi felvetésüket az adatvédelmi biztos azonban kategorikusan elutasította, mondván, hogy személyiségi jogot sértene. Kormos Endre, a Budapesti Rendőr-főkapitányság sajtóügyeletese elmondta, hogy ismeretlenek leszedték Kádár János és felesége síremlékének márvány fedlapját, a földet kidobálták és felfeszítették a volt pártvezető fémkoporsóját. A VIII. kerületi kapitányság rongálás miatt rendelt el nyomozást, a helyszíni szemle jelenleg is tart.Perlaki Attila VIII. kerületi kapitány szerda délután megerősítette, hogy a koporsóból eltűntek Kádár János csontjai. Az MSZMP egykori első titkárával közös sírban voltak felesége földi maradványai is, de a feleség urnáját nem találják, elképzelhető, hogy azt is elvitték a tettesek. Emlékeztetett rá, hogy négy éve egy idős asszony festékkel leöntötte Kádár János sírját. Ezt a rongálást azonban viszonylag könnyen meg tudták szüntetni. A mostani rongálásról a még zajló rendőrségi vizsgálat keretében annyit tudnak, hogy Kádár János fémkoporsóján 30-szor 30 centiméteres lyukat vágtak. Az, hogy a koporsóból csontokat szedtek volna ki, csak azután derül ki, ha felnyitották a koporsót. A pártok elítélik a történteket Az MSZP kegyeleti kérdésnek tartja az esetet. "Európában sírt gyalázni és könyvet égetni nem illik, nem szokás, nem szabad" - fogalmazott Nyakó István, a párt szóvivője, hozzátéve, hogy az esetet "ugyanebbe a kategóriába" sorolják. A Fidesz nevében Cser-Palkovics András, a párt helyettes szóvivője reagált a sírrongálásra. Mint közleményében írta, "a Fidesz ezt az esetet nem politikai, hanem kegyeleti kérdésnek tekinti"; "a végső nyugalom mindenkinek jár". A Kereszténydemokrata Néppárt közlésében szintén elítélte Kádár János sírjának "barbár meggyalázását". "Egy ember életében elkövetett cselekedetei - halála után - csak Istenre és őrá tartoznak" - írta Halász Zsuzsa, a párt szóvivője. Az MDF nevében Kerék-Bárczy Szabolcs szóvivő nyilatkozott, aki azt mondta: "az MDF normális Magyarországban hisz, ahol senkinek a sírját nem gyalázzák meg". ||||| Magyarországi képtár | Fotó | Képriport A csont nincs sehol... – Ellopták Kádár Jánost a temetőből MNO Megrongálták Kádár János síremlékét a fővárosi Fiumei úti temetőben szerdán. A tettesek elvitték Mária asszony, Kádár János felesége urnáját és a néhai MSZMP-főtitkár csontjait is – közölte a rendőrség. A kerületi kapitányság rongálás miatt rendelt el nyomozást, a vizsgálat jelenleg is tart. Kádár sírjának megrongálását kegyeletsértésnek és politikától független bűncselekménynek tartják a parlamenti pártok és a kormányfő is. Nézze meg képgalériánkat! (Fotó: Székelyhidi Balázs) Kormos Endre, a Budapesti Rendőr-főkapitányság (BRFK) sajtóügyeletese elmondta: ismeretlenek leszedték a síremlék fedlapját, a földet pedig kidobálták. A kerületi kapitányság rongálás miatt rendelt el nyomozást, a vizsgálat jelenleg is tart – tette hozzá. Az ügy kivizsgálására a kapitányságvezető tízfős nyomozócsoportot állított fel, mely megkezdte a tanúkutatást és az adatgyűjtést. A VIII. kerületi kapitányság rongálás miatt rendelt el nyomozást, a helyszíni szemle jelenleg is tart - tette hozzá. A sajtóügyeletes elmondta: a tettesek felfeszítették a volt pártvezető fémkoporsóját. Perlaki Attila VIII. kerületi kapitány szerda délután azt közölte, hogy a koporsóból eltűntek Kádár János csontjai. Az MSZMP egykori első titkárával közös sírban voltak felesége földi maradványai is. Kormos Endre közlése szerint egyelőre nem találják Kádár János feleségének urnáját, elképzelhető, hogy azt a tettesek elvitték. A HírTV értesülése szerint szerda estére kiemelték Kádár János megrongált koporsóját a sírból. Nem nyitották fel, hanem rögtön elszállították a SOTE-ra, ahol antropológusok vizsgálják majd, hogy van-e még földi maradvány a koporsóban. A vizsgálat eredménye várhatóan csütörtökre születik meg. „Alagút” A Népszabadság Online szerint a sír mellett egy meredek, embernyi vastagságú „alagút“ látható. Vélhetően a tettesek azon keresztül érték el a koporsót, és vitték el a csontokat vagy azok egy részét. A Hír Televízió úgy tudja, Kádár maradványait kettős koporsóba temették. A tettesek a belső, fémkoporsót kivágták, s valószínűleg azon keresztül szedték ki a csontokat. A Hír Televíziót arról tájékoztatták a helyszínen, hogy a rendőrség nagy erőkkel keresi a maradványokat a közeli bokrok alatt is, s a tervek szerint az egész temetőt átvizsgálják. A temetőben a munkásmozgalom panteonjára fekete festékkel gyalázkodó feliratot írtak: „Gyilkos és áruló szent földben nem nyughat.“ A BRFK vizsgálja, hogy van-e köze a feliratnak a sírrongáláshoz. Kádár János 1912-ben született Fiumében. Eredeti neve Csermanek. Írógépműszerész-tanonc lett, 1930-ra tanulta ki a szakmát. 17 évesen a Vasas Szakszervezet ifjúsági csoportjának tagja, majd 1931-ben belép az illegális Kommunista Ifjúmunkások Magyarországi Szövetségébe (KIMSZ) és a Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártjába. Mozgalmi fedőneve Barna János, 1933-ban a KIMSZ KB titkára. Kommunista szervezkedésért két év fegyházbüntetésre ítélik. A rendőrségen tanúsított magatartása miatt a KIMSZ kizárja soraiból. A börtönévek alatt ismerkedett meg számos büntetését töltő kommunistával, így Rákosi Mátyással is. A háborút követően, 1948 és 1950 júniusa között belügyminiszterként jelentős szerepe volt a Rajk-per megrendezésében. Kádár, még belügyminiszterként, döntő szerepet játszik abban hogy az ÁVO (Államvédelmi Osztály) ÁVH-ként (Államvédelmi Hivatalt), működjék tovább. Hihetetlen mértékben megnöveli a Péter Gábor vezette, lényegében állami terrorszervezetként működő testület hatáskörét. Az ÁVH, melynek létrehozásáról eltérő történeti források a hivatal létrejötteként hol 1949-et, hol 1950. január 1-jét jelölnek meg, a magyar történelem talán legvéreskezűbb diktatúrájának letéteményese volt. Jelmondatát: "Minden eszközzel tudni kell ütni", Kádár János fogalmazta meg. Kádár a szerencsétlen falusi kisbirtokok ("kulákok") még kegyetlenebb kínzására ösztönözte az ÁVH-sokat személyes eligazításai alkalmával. Az ÁVH-t 1956. október 29-én Nagy Imre koalíciós kormánya oszlatta fel. A kommunista államgépezet sajátos törvényszerűségeinek köszönhetően 1951 tavaszán a lényegében általa létrehozott ÁVH őt is letartóztatja. 1952 decemberében életfogytiglant kap. 1954 júliusában rehabilitálják, szabadlábra kerül. Az 1956-os forradalom idején az október 30-án létesült kabinet tagjává és államminiszterré nevezték ki. November 1-jén a forradalmat elárulva átállt a szovjetekhez: Münnich Ferenccel együtt a Szovjetunióba távozott. November 7-én a szovjet hadsereg tankjai kíséretében érkezett Budapestre. 1956 novemberétől több mint 30 éven át Moszkva bizalmasaként ő volt a tényleges végrehajtói hatalom első embere. Nevéhez kapcsolódnak a levert forradalom és szabadságharc utáni, évekig tartó, tömeges kivégzések (történészek 3-400 fő közé teszik az áldozatok számát; főleg munkásfiatalokat és diákokat ítéltek halálra). 1985 és 1988 között az MSZMP KB főtitkára. Az MSZMP KB 1989. májusi tanácskozásán – egészségi állapotára hivatkozva – felmentették KB-tagságából és pártelnöki tisztéből. 1989. július 6-án halt meg, azon a napon, amikor a Legfelsőbb Bíróság hatálytalanította a Nagy Imre és társai perében hozott ítéleteket. „Regnálása" alatt végig titokban tartották, hová rejtették el a méltatlan körülmények között elföldelt Nagy Imre földi maradványait. Gyurcsány: Kádár János sírjának meggyalázása köztörvényes bűncselekmény Az, amit Kádár János sírjával és földi maradványaival tettek, a kormányfő szerint köztörvényes bűncselekmény, annak is a leggyalázatosabb és legembertelenebb formája. Ennek a szégyenteljes eseménynek semmi köze a politikához vagy a történelemhez, azt pártállástól és világnézettől függetlenül minden jóérzésű, civilizált ember elítéli – fogalmaz Gyurcsány Ferenc közleményében. Az emlékhely meggyalázásának elítélése Gyurcsány szerint független attól, hogy a harmadik Magyar Köztársaság hogyan viszonyul a Kádár-rendszerhez és Kádár János politikai örökségéhez: ez a bűncselekmény nem Kádár Jánosról, hanem a sírját meggyalázókról szól. Azzal, ami történt, egy teendője van minden politikusnak a miniszterelnök szerint: a lehető leghatározottabban elítélni. „Így teszek a magam és a kormányom nevében én is: nincs olyan politikai vagy egyéb szempont, amely menthetne vagy magyarázhatna a szememben ilyen szörnyűséges, embertelen és gyáva tettet.” A többi a rendőrség dolga – áll a közleményben. Fidesz és MSZP: Ez kegyeleti kérdés A Fidesz ezt az esetet nem politikai, hanem kegyeleti kérdésnek tekinti. A végső nyugalom mindenkinek jár – áll az ellenzéki párt által kiadott közleményben. Az MSZP ugyancsak kegyeleti kérdésnek tartja az esetet. „Európában sírt gyalázni és könyvet égetni nem illik, nem szokás, nem szabad" – fogalmazott Nyakó István, a párt szóvivője, hozzátéve, hogy az esetet „ugyanebbe a kategóriába" sorolják. A Kereszténydemokrata Néppárt csatlakozik mindazokhoz, akik elítélik Kádár János sírjának barbár meggyalázását, közölte Halász Zsuzsa, a Kereszténydemokrata Néppárt szóvivője. Hozzátette, hogy egy ember életében elkövetett cselekedetei halála után csak Istenre és őrá tartoznak, olvasható a közleményben. „Kádár János és felesége síremlékének meggyalázása egy tolerálhatatlan, ízléstelen tett volt. Mi, liberálisok elítéljük a diktátor cselekedeteit – de nem jobbak nála a temetői vandálok sem" – olvasható az SZDSZ közleményében. Elkeserítő, hogy a temetői fütyülés és ordibálás után rongálásba kezdett a politikai ostobaság, teszik hozzá a liberálisok. A Magyar Ellenállók és Antifasiszták Szövetsége, a Magyar Antifasiszta Liga, a Kádár János Baráti Kör, a Marx Károly Társaság, a Május 1. Társaság, a Társadalmi Demokráciáért Mozgalom, a Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt és a Magyarországi Munkáspárt 2006 közös közleményben tiltakozott a sírrongálás ellen. Közleményükben felteszik a kérdést: meddig engedhető meg „a barbár sötét erők utcai garázdálkodása", az emlékművek megrongálása és a sírgyalázás? „Meddig kell még várni, hogy a hatalom a fasiszta háborús bűnösök rehabilitálása, az ordas eszmék terjesztőivel szemben tanúsított bátorító elnézés helyett végre határozottan fellépjen, és megfékezze a sötét erőket?" – tették fel a kérdést. A közlemény aláírói követelik a gaztettek gyors kivizsgálását, a bűnösök szigorú felelősségre vonását és példás megbüntetését. „Lehetetlen nem észre venni a kapcsolatot a Kádár János személye elleni gátlástalan mocskolódó hadjárat és a barbár sírgyalázás között. A sírgyalázásra válaszoljunk Kádár János 95. születésnapjának és temetése 18. évfordulójának méltó megünneplésével" – írják. A Magyar Kommunista Munkáspárt elnöksége közleményben tudatta: a párt „mélységes aggodalmának és felháborodásának ad hangot Kádár János sírjának meggyalázása miatt", és elítélik mindazokat, akik a sírgyalázást elkövették vagy elősegítették. A párt azt követeli, hogy a kormány „azonnal és a leghatározottabban ítélje el az eseményt", a nemzetbiztonsági szolgálatok és a rendőrség pedig találja meg a tetteseket. (MTI/nol.hu) Cikk küldése | Szóljon hozzá a fórumban | Nyomtatási verzió Hirdessen Ön is ETARGET-tel! | The tomb of former general secretary of the , , located in Budapest, Hungary in the , was vandalised on Wednesday night. Vandals accessed Kádár's casket by cutting a 40 cm hole into it and then removed some of his remains, police have confirmed. Reports say the urn containing his wife's ashes was also stolen. In addition, the vandals wrote "murderer and traitor may not rest in holy ground" on a memorial to communist leaders near Kádár's tomb. "Not all the grave site was dug up. Experts are going to open the casket but as far as we can tell through the hole that has been cut into the coffin there are bones missing," said Endre Kormos, a spokesman for the Budapest Police Department. The damaged coffin has been removed by authorities for further athropological investigations. Police also said a plate of marble that was covering his grave was also stolen. Kádár was a controversial and important figure of the 20th-century Hungarian history. He was the leader of the country in the period of , when Hungary had one of the most liberal systems in the Eastern Bloc, however, he also assisted the Soviet troops in crushing the , and is held responsible for the jailing and execution of revolutionists, including and other members of the government. The Hungarian Prime Minister , the center-right opposition party and other political parties condemned the act, the Russian ''Pravda'' reports. |
From Wikileaks {leak |country=United Kingdom |description=1. Released before? Not at time of upload. Currently attempting to obtain publicity for content through UK media, and will reference wikileaks in doing so. 2. Importance? The document is the Non-Disclosure Agreement that was signed by those companies bidding for work related to the National Identity Scheme (the ID card programme). It was drafted in 2007 and has been signed by the five companies on the supplier short-list, one of which (Thales) has been awarded a multi-million pound contract to start work on the scheme. Clause 5 of the document provides the grounds upon which the Home Office can secure access to the property, computers and records of the company, its employees and subcontractors. Such access would be at the "sole discretion" of the Home Secretary. No search warrant or judicial oversight would be required. This would mean, for example, if an employee of a software company working on the ID scheme took a work laptop home with them, they could face seizure of this computer from their domestic property without a search warrant (or indeed, without any suspicion of a crime having been committed). 3. Audience? UK press public and parliamentarians. Anyone involved in technical implementation of UK National ID Scheme or as another client of the ID scheme contractors whose confidentiality is compromised by these provisions. 4. Verification? Companies supplying Home Office, including Thales. UK Identity and Passport Service. 5. Why leaked? To bring attention to the manner of construction of the ID scheme and the highly secretive approach being adopted by the UK government. 6. Urgency? No. But the UK government being aware it has been leaked, means it needs to be held by wikileaks. It appears in the context of current news stories about the Home Office raiding an MP's office. |note=See http://no2id.org.uk/ for further information on this issue. |file_digest=SHA256 c30de6e9bf67c1b33927492da368e9b92ccf00717b3fda8d019cb011b1754c02 |file_info=PDF document, version 1.3 |file_name=homeoffice-id-nda-2007.pdf |file_size=2448356 |lang=en |organization=UK Home Office |organization_type=GOV |release_date=2008-12-6 |title=UK Home Office ID Scheme Non-Disclosure agreement, 2007 } ||||| Why we need ID cards Why we need ID cards The introduction of ID cards is controversial and we do not take the issues surrounding ID cards lightly, but we do think there are some compelling reasons to use them. ID cards will: help protect people from identity fraud and theft ensure that people are who they say they are tackle illegal working and immigration abuse disrupt the use of false and multiple identities by criminals and those involved in terrorist activity ensure free public services are only used by those entitled to them enable easier access to public services ID cards and biometrics: increasing security A biometric identifier is a unique physical characteristic like an iris pattern or fingerprint. Recording biometrics means that we will have a much stronger way of linking the identity to an individual. Because biometric identifiers are unique, they more accurately verify identity compared to other forms of authentication like PIN numbers and passwords, which can be stolen. As well as being used in the proposed ID cards, biometrics will be used in a new biometric British ‘ePassport’ in 2006. Right across the world there’s a drive to increase document security and improve border controls with biometrics. Twenty one of the 25 EU Member States have already introduced ID cards. Explore our dedicated website at www.identitycards.gov.uk to find more information on Identity Cards. | The Non-Disclosure agreement for companies working with the UK Government on the National identity card has been leaked on WikiLeaks. The document states, among other things, what rights the Government has to search the properties of companies involved and the obligations on the companies to keep information secret. Wikileaks logo Section five of the document states that if a company fails to comply with the agreement, or in other cases at the "sole discretion" of the Home Office, the government may search the property, records and computers of the company. The anonymous individual who leaked the documents has stated that "no search warrant or judicial oversight would be required," to carry out the search. The leaker also states that individuals working for the company may have their computers searched "without any suspicion of a crime having been committed," although the document does require that these searches may only take place "for the purposes of ensuring that all National Identity Scheme information and associated copies are secure in accordance with this agreement or have been destroyed permanently or removed from their possession. Section two of the document requires that the document is secured in accordance with policy set out by the government, and requires that the information is only disclosed to those who need to have access as part of the identity card programme. Section four of the document states that it shall be liable to the government for any breach of the agreement, and that, except for obligations required by the Official Secrets Act, the requirements shall no longer apply 25 years after the signing of the agreement, which took place in 2007. The individual leaking the document has stated that he did so "to bring attention to the manner of construction of the ID scheme and the highly secretive approach being adopted by the UK government." Despite the criticism of the scheme, the Home Office has stated that the cards are required to "help protect people from identity fraud and theft," and "disrupt the use of false and multiple identities by criminals and those involved in terrorist activity." |
British scientists could treat or even cure cancer using a groundbreaking technique that finds and attacks the “Achilles’ heel” of tumours, they say. Research by University College London harnesses the body’s immune system to wipe out each cancer cell in a “potentially revolutionary” way. It promises to be effective against fast-mutating types of the disease, such as lung cancer, that have so far evaded most treatments. Scientists are hopeful that it will work on all cancers. Researchers involved in the latest breakthrough warned that the work was in its early stages and trials were needed before it could be used to treat patients. Charles Swanton, from the UCL Cancer Institute, said: “I will be disappointed if we haven’t treated a patient [in a trial] within two years.” About 160,000 people die from cancer each year in the UK, accounting for almost a third of all deaths. Half are from lung, bowel, breast and prostate cancer. The research, published in the journal Science, describes a method for creating individualised cancer treatments by finding a key change common to all cells in a person’s tumour and mobilising the immune system to fight it. Peter Johnson, from Cancer Research UK, said that the work was very exciting. “[It is about] understanding at a fundamental molecular level what it is that the immune system can see in tumours, leading to effective treatments. We have big optimism about what it will delive ||||| Hotel receptionist Baha Mousa died in custody in 2003 Iraqi civilian Kifah Taha Musa Mutairi said the names included Dutch stars Gullit and Van Basten. Cpl Donald Payne has already admitted the war crime of inhumanely treating civilian detainees in southern Iraq. He and six others deny other charges relating to the alleged abuse in 2003. Seven soldiers are charged with treating civilians inhumanely and manslaughter. The charges faced by the seven soldiers at the Military Court Centre, Bulford Camp, Wiltshire, also relate to the death of Baha Mousa, 26, in custody in Basra. If we were not able to recite our respective nickname we would be kicked and beaten Statement of Kifah Taha Musa Mutairi Mr Mousa, a hotel receptionist, was among a group of detainees arrested following a counter-insurgency operation in September 2003. The written statement of Mr Mutairi, who was killed in a separate incident some time after the alleged abuse, said that, if the detainees fell asleep, the soldiers would wake them up and ask them for their nickname. "If we were not able to recite our respective nickname we would be kicked and beaten," his statement said. Of the 11 Iraqi men alleged to have been hooded, deprived of sleep and beaten at the British detention centre in Basra, the dead man - Mr Mousa - had suffered the most, Mr Mutairi's statement said. "He was constantly crying out with pain during his beatings," it said. "I believe that he was beaten more because he cried out in pain. The rest of the group suffered pretty much the same." 'No morals' Petrol was rubbed under his nose, water poured over his head and an ignited lighter placed close to his face as he was told in English, "I'm going to burn you", Mr Mutairi said. CHARGES IN FULL Cpl Donald Payne - manslaughter, inhumane treatment of persons, perverting the course of justice L/Cpl Wayne Crowcroft - inhumane treatment of persons Pte Darren Fallon - inhumane treatment of persons Sgt Kelvin Stacey - actual bodily harm, alternatively assault Warrant Officer Mark Davies - negligently performing a duty Maj Michael Peebles - negligently performing a duty Col Jorge Mendonca - negligently performing a duty Last month, Cpl Payne, 35, of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, became the first British soldier to admit to a war crime after pleading guilty to the inhumane treatment charge. He denies further charges of perverting the course of justice and manslaughter. L/Cpl Wayne Crowcroft, 22, and Pte Darren Fallon, 23 - both also of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment - deny the charge of inhumane treatment. Sgt Kelvin Stacey, 29, of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, is accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, with an alternative count of common assault. Maj Michael Peebles, 35, and Warrant Officer Mark Davies, 37, both of the Intelligence Corps, face charges of negligently performing a duty. And Col Jorge Mendonca, 42, formerly commander of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment - is now the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment - is charged with negligently performing his duties. | A war crimes court trying seven British servicemen heard written evidence from Mr Kifah Taha Musa Mutairi, one of eleven Iraqi detainees allegedly abused by British soldiers in a detention camp in Basra in 2003. The court is also hearing evidence relating to the death, in custody, of an Iraqi hotel receptionist Mr. Baha Musa. Mr. Mutairi died in what is said to have been an unrelated incident, when the roof of his house fell on him. The court martial now in its fifth week, heard how Mr Mutari said he was treated three years ago in a holding camp in Basra. In written testimony, he said that prisoners had been given names of famous footballers and had been punished if they did not answer to them, even when woken from sleep. The prisoners, hooded and handcuffed, were beaten and kicked in the style of a kickboxer. Mr Mutari testified that when he was kicked in this manner, he feared he would be beaten to death without any mercy whatever. He said that petrol had been rubbed on his nose and that he had been threatened with a lit cigarette lighter held close to his head, being told that he would be burned. The death of hotel receptionist, Mr Baha Musa (26), another of the prisoners is of concern to the court. Mr Mutari's statement referred to how Mr Musa was treated, saying that he was beaten and constantly crying out in pain. It is said that British soldiers found arms, including grenades, AK47 rifles and Soviet uniforms, in the hotel where he was the receptionist. One of the accused, Corporal Donald Payne (35), has already pleaded guilty to crimes under the International Criminal Court Act 2001. The other defendants include Colonel Mendonca who is accused of failing to ensure that the detainees were not ill treated. All the accused were members of The Queen's Lancashire Regiment, now The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. |
Home||Local|Crime Three Gophers football players remain jailed Police released few new details about the alleged rape, which reportedly occurred at the University Village Apartments. Printer friendly E-mail this story Save to del.icio.us E.J. Jones Keith Massey Related Content Arrests cast pall on spring 'celebration' Crime Woman trying to rob store is shot by clerk after scuffle Three Gophers football players remain jailed Arrest made in fatal hit-and-run Sheriff: Runaway held captive, raped As court date nears, hurt stays Three University of Minnesota football players suspected of being involved in the alleged rape of an 18-year-old woman at an apartment complex near campus remained in jail Saturday after their bail was set at $100,000 each. Charges against Alex Daniels and Keith Massey, both 20, and E.J. Jones, 19, could come as early as Monday, authorities said. Charges against Alex Daniels and Keith Massey, both 20, and E.J. Jones, 19, could come as early as Monday, authorities said. If the Hennepin County Attorney's Office does not file charges against them by noon Monday, the three would be released from the Hennepin County jail, said University Police Chief Greg Hestness. But that wouldn't preclude them from being charged later, he added. If the Hennepin County Attorney's Office does not file charges against them by noon Monday, the three would be released from the Hennepin County jail, said University Police Chief Greg Hestness. But that wouldn't preclude them from being charged later, he added. The players, who have been suspended from the team by coach Tim Brewster pending the outcome of the investigation, did not play in the team's annual spring scrimmage Saturday at the Metrodome. The players, who have been suspended from the team by coach Tim Brewster pending the outcome of the investigation, did not play in the team's annual spring scrimmage Saturday at the Metrodome. After the scrimmage, Brewster gave a brief statement and then said he would not discuss the situation further. University officials told news media members that they would cut off any interviews with players that didn't focus strictly on the spring game. After the scrimmage, Brewster gave a brief statement and then said he would not discuss the situation further. University officials told news media members that they would cut off any interviews with players that didn't focus strictly on the spring game. "Obviously it's a disappointing situation that's been presented to me," Brewster said. "There's an investigation that's ongoing that we're going to cooperate fully with." "Obviously it's a disappointing situation that's been presented to me," Brewster said. "There's an investigation that's ongoing that we're going to cooperate fully with." Said university athletic director Joel Maturi: "We will let the process take its course and then do the appropriate thing. But I'm not ready to abandon these kids. It's our responsibility to stand by them and their families." Said university athletic director Joel Maturi: "We will let the process take its course and then do the appropriate thing. But I'm not ready to abandon these kids. It's our responsibility to stand by them and their families." According to Hestness, the alleged rape occurred late Tuesday or early Wednesday at the University Village Apartments on University Avenue, where the players live. According to Hestness, the alleged rape occurred late Tuesday or early Wednesday at the University Village Apartments on University Avenue, where the players live. He said that the 18-year-old woman is not a resident there and that she is not a University of Minnesota student. He said that the 18-year-old woman is not a resident there and that she is not a University of Minnesota student. Hestness said police are continuing to investigate, and he would not discuss how the woman and players encountered each other, or what led to the alleged attack. Hestness said police are continuing to investigate, and he would not discuss how the woman and players encountered each other, or what led to the alleged attack. He also did not discuss details of the allegations, though he noted the players "were booked on criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. And that usually does involve penetration, nonconsensual penetration." He also did not discuss details of the allegations, though he noted the players "were booked on criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. And that usually does involve penetration, nonconsensual penetration." On the day of the incident, the woman did go to a hospital for a sexual-assault examination, and was offered services from victim advocates, according to a police report. On the day of the incident, the woman did go to a hospital for a sexual-assault examination, and was offered services from victim advocates, according to a police report. Early Friday, she flagged down a university officer who was on patrol to report the rape, Hestness said. Early Friday, she flagged down a university officer who was on patrol to report the rape, Hestness said. "It's really not uncommon for victims of sexual assault to delay reporting," he said. "It's a difficult decision for a lot of women." "It's really not uncommon for victims of sexual assault to delay reporting," he said. "It's a difficult decision for a lot of women." Several detectives began investigating the incident, including searching the apartment complex Friday, he said. The players were then arrested and booked at the jail just before 9 p.m. Several detectives began investigating the incident, including searching the apartment complex Friday, he said. The players were then arrested and booked at the jail just before 9 p.m. In most years, university police receive about eight to 20 reports of sexual assaults, with only one or two, if any, of the incidents involving rape by a stranger, Hestness said. Most of the incidents involve acquaintances, he said. In most years, university police receive about eight to 20 reports of sexual assaults, with only one or two, if any, of the incidents involving rape by a stranger, Hestness said. Most of the incidents involve acquaintances, he said. ||||| Apr 7, 2007 9:03 am US/Central (WCCO) Minneapolis Saturday was supposed to be an exciting day for Gopher football players, their Spring finale at the Dome, but Friday night, a dark cloud hung over the team. Police arrested three players Friday afternoon. They were in custody, accused of sexual assault. According to the University of Minnesota, they are Alex Daniels, Keith Massey and E.J. Jones. Daniels and Massey are 20 years old. Jones is 19. A university spokesman said all three are sophomores, but Daniels is listed on the roster as a junior. It appeared they had not been charged with any crime as of Friday night, but they remained in police custody. "Three young guys have been suspended from the football team due to rules violations. These young guys, it's very, very disappointing to me, but we're going to support these guys and we'll see where it goes," said Gopher football coach Tim Brewster. Brewster wouldn't say anything more, except that the department is cooperating with the investigation. "Overnight one of the University Officers was flagged down by a young woman who wanted to make a report that she'd been sexually assaulted," said U of M Police Chief Greg Hestness. According to the police report, it happened Wednesday. Police said it happened at University Village Apartments. Police served search warrants Friday afternoon and then took the three men into custody. On Friday it wasn't clear what role each was accused of playing and it also wasn't clear if the woman knew the men before the incident happened. "We took the victim's initial report and followed up with statements with her and other witness and it still seems pretty credible. I mean there's no rush to judgment here. Obviously they have presumption of innocence and the right to respond, but so far the case seems credible," said Hestness. The woman did go for a sexual assault exam, known as a rape kit, and police hope that might provide some evidence. Police said the alleged act fits first-degree criminal sexual conduct. That usually requires penetration and is usually accompanied by threats, force or accomplices. Police are interviewing witnesses and trying to figure out what role each is accused of playing in the incident. ||||| MINNEAPOLIS -- Three University of Minnesota football players were undergoing questioning Friday after allegations of criminal sexual conduct, the university said in a statement. As of Friday night, it appeared they had not been charged with any crime, but the players remained in police custody Coach Tim Brewster immediately suspended the players until the investigation is complete. The allegations came on the eve of the team's spring intrasquad game. The players were identified by the university as Alex Daniels, listed as a 6-foot-3, 255-pound defensive end who came to the Gophers as a highly touted linebacker from Columbus, Ohio; Keith Massey, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound cornerback from Columbus; and E.J. Jones, a 5-foot-9, 185-pound running back from Edwardsville, Ill. Daniels and Massey are 20 years old. Jones is 19. A university spokesman said all three are sophomores. According to a police report, an 18-year-old woman claimed she was raped Wednesday morning. The victim, whose name is not being released, was examined at a local hospital. University Police Chief Greg Hestness said in a statement that his department learned of the allegation early Friday, and the players were being questioned that evening. Once the investigation is complete, he said, the case will be submitted to the Hennepin County attorney for possible charges. "Obviously, this is disappointing news for any coach to receive," Brewster said. "There is an ongoing investigation and we will cooperate fully with law enforcement on this matter." This is Brewster's first season as the Gophers' head coach. He replaced Glen Mason, who was fired after 10 seasons with Minnesota. Brewster spent the last two seasons as the tight ends coach with the Denver Broncos, and also served as an assistant with the San Diego Chargers and in college under Mack Brown at Texas and North Carolina. The Gophers' spring game is at noon Saturday at the Metrodome. Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press | Three players for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team have been arrested following a rape allegation. The three players have been identified as defensive end Alex Daniels, cornerback Keith Massey, and running back E.J. Jones, all sophomores. They are in custody at the Hennepin County Jail pending charges. Bail has been set at $100,000 for each player. The three are accused of raping an 18-year old woman at the University Village Apartments, where the accused players live. "Overnight one of the University Officers was flagged down by a young woman who wanted to make a report that she'd been sexually assaulted," said University Police Chief Greg Hestness. Hestness did not disclose further details of the allegations, though he stated the players "were booked on criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. And that usually does involve penetration, non-consensual penetration." Once an investigation is complete, the case will be presented to the Hennepin County attorney for possible charges. Following Saturday's spring scrimmage at the Metrodome, new coach Tim Brewster said "Obviously it's a disappointing situation that's been presented to me. There's an investigation that's ongoing that we're going to cooperate fully with." The players have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, and did not participate in the annual intrasquad game. Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said "We will let the process take its course and then do the appropriate thing. But I'm not ready to abandon these kids. It's our responsibility to stand by them and their families." |
Billboard hijacked by porn hackers Drivers in downtown Moscow were squinting in disbelief when an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video in place of regular advertising clips. Late-night traffic on one of the capital's busiest roads slowed to a crawl as a couple's explicit escapades appeared across the 9-by-6-metre display on Thursday. The screen's owner -- the 3 Stars advertising agency -- blamed the incident on a hacker attack. Copyright © 2010 The Press Association. All rights reserved. ||||| Highway Porn Greets Moscow Drivers Electronic Highway Billboard Blazes 2-minute Porn Clip Instead Of Advertising (AP) Section Strange News Weird events, odd people and more peculiar happenings. CBSNews.com On Digg Drivers in downtown Moscow squinted in disbelief as an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video instead of its regular advertising clips.Late-night traffic on one of the Russian capital's busiest roads slowed Thursday as a couple's explicit escapades appeared on the 9-by-6-meter display.Some people took pictures of the sight with their mobile phones and posted them on the Internet.Passer-by Alyona Prokulatova told The Associated Press that she was "so shocked that I couldn't even shoot video or take a picture of it."The screen's owner, 3 Stars, told the AP that a hacker attack was likely to blame. Police were investigating the incident. ||||| Russian hackers jam traffic with porn video: reports MOSCOW — Traffic jerked to a standstill as rubbernecking motorists ogled a pornographic clip posted by hackers on big-screen video billboards in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported on Friday. The company that operates the billboards, Panno.ru, said hackers were behind a graphic sex video broadcast late Thursday night on two roadside screens along Moscow's Garden Ring Road, one of the city's busiest arteries. "This was an attack by hackers on the computers, as a result of which one of the commercial video clips was swapped for an indecent video," Panno.ru commercial director Viktor Laptev told RIA-Novosti. He speculated the attack could have been linked to competition on the advertising market, or simply "hooliganism." Witnesses said traffic crawled to a halt as unbelieving motorists craned their necks to stare at the X-rated clip which ran for about 20 minutes on the oversized screens. "Within three minutes we found it out, and within fifteen minutes the screen was shut off," the deputy head of the Moscow city advertising committee, Alexander Menchuk, was quoted as saying by Interfax. Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Obscene prank causes traffic jam in Moscow A video panel over one of Moscow’s major roadways streamed a pornographic video clip instead of commercials on Thursday night. Amused drivers, who took pictures with mobile phones, blocked the traffic. The company owning the panel blamed unknown hackers for the incident. “It was a hacker attack on the controlling computer, in which one of our commercials was substituted with the obscene video,” a spokesman for the firm said in a statement. Read more An police investigation is underway into whether the attack was a pure act of hooliganism or one commissioned by competitors, he said, adding that the operators shut down the screen as soon as they were informed about what it was showing. Earlier version suggested that the company’s own engineers may have been involved in the prank. Dozens of eyewitnesses managed to take pictures and video of the offensive panel, and Russian blogs were soon full of comments on the incident. The episode is far from being world’s first case of obscene material displayed on the street. Even Iran, a country highly intolerant of piquant pictures, faced such a display in 2007 much to the outrage of the authorities and the public. Read also: Russian male prostitutes considered valuable assets | Drivers in the Russian capital, Moscow, were given an unexpected show courtesy of a 30-by-20 foot electronic highway billboard when an explicit pornographic video was played for nearly twenty minutes in place of the paid advertisement clips that are usually shown. The incident happened near the entrance into Serpukovskiy tunnel on Sadovoe Ring Road, about 2 kilometers south of the Kremlin. "Within three minutes we found it out, and within fifteen minutes the screen was shut off," the deputy head of the Moscow city advertising committee, Alexander Menchuk, said in a statement to Interfax. A passerby told the Associated Press that she was "so shocked that I couldn't even shoot video or take a picture of it." The display screen's owner, the Three Stars Advertising Agency of Panno.ru, said that computer hackers attempting to execute a practical joke were likely to blame. Viktor Laptev, commercial director for the firm said, "They were either acting out of hooliganism or were from a rival company." Although a city official has been quoted as telling local media that Moscow would increase security of data transmission in light of what happened, local police say they have yet to receive a single complaint about the incident, and thereby have not opened an investigation. Nudity on television is officially banned in Russia. |
Adriano has slipped down the pecking order at the San Siro Adriano, 25, has also been linked with Manchester City, while Serie A side Lazio have also stated their interest in landing the Brazilian. A statement by the Hammers said: "We are investigating the possibility of a loan deal at this stage." But Curbishley said: "I don't know too much about it to be fair. "I don't know if it is talk to stir things up, if you like, we will have to see. I just think it is something that has cropped up. "Is it speculation or is there something in it? I don't know." Adriano has slipped down the pecking order at Inter and fellow Serie A side Lazio would take him depending on his attitude. The Brazilian has scored 25 goals in 37 games for his country but has suffered a loss of form amid a succession of injuries and doubts over his commitment. 606: DEBATE Whatever they say about his fitness and commitment, he is one hell of a player nph "Adriano is an important player," said Lazio coach Delio Rossi. "I wish he would come to Lazio. But, if he comes, he should come with the right spirit." Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed he rejected a chance to take Adriano on loan. Part of Wenger's refusal to do business with Inter was because they wanted an unnamed Arsenal player on loan as part of the deal. But the Gunners boss says he feels that area of his squad is strong enough, explaining: "We do not need him and it was an easy decision to make because we're not out there to sign another striker. "The agreement was for a loan. Adriano has qualities we don't need. They wanted to give us a player but wanted one back in return. "I won't say who it was. I didn't want to lose the player they requested. I didn't necessarily think Adriano would upset the balance of the squad." ||||| Last updated at 12:34 29 August 2007 The Premier League's Brazilian recruitment drive stepped up another gear last night as Manchester City and West Ham joined Chelsea in trying to sign a superstar. On a day when Chelsea captain John Terry urged his employers to take Ronaldinho from Barcelona, Manchester City were preparing to see off competition from West Ham with a £12million bid for Inter Milan's Adriano. Sportsmail revealed that City were weighing up a loan deal for the 25-year-old powerhouse, and West Ham yesterday sent a delegation to Milan to discuss a similar deal. But City boss Sven Goran Eriksson, who held talks with Adriano's representatives yesterday, is aware the player does not want to go on loan and City are trying to stretch their budget to pull off what would be a remarkable coup at wages of around £70,000 a week. Adriano has been at Inter for four seasons and has scored 43 goals in 99 games. However, his love of the good life is alleged to have affected his performances and Inter have decided to cut their losses. The Brazilian said: "I don't want to go out on loan again. I've already been at Parma, and at that time it was right for my career but now I really must leave for good and that's that." Barcelona, however, have told Chelsea they will have to double the world record transfer fee and pay £85m if they want Ronaldinho. But Terry expressed the enthusiasm of the Chelsea dressing room yesterday when he said the 27-year-old double world player of the year would be "a great acquisition". "It was exciting to hear about it," said Terry in reference to the Sportsmail exclusive that revealed last weekend's meeting between Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and Ronaldinho's brother, Roberto de Assis Moreira. "It would be a great acquisition to get a player of that ability. I've seen what he's all about and he's a very difficult player to mark. "It would be great for the Premiership to get the likes of Ronaldinho. He was close to joining Manchester United a few years ago. If we can get him it would be great for us, for me personally, and everyone else at Chelsea." Terry, who was speaking at the King of Shaves six-a-side tournament in Harlington yesterday, did warn the Brazilian he would have to adhere to Jose Mourinho's strict work ethic. "I'd like to think he could fit into the team," he said. "We've got wide men going forward but they have defensive responsibilities as well. We've seen at times that Jose Mourinho has taken Shaun Wright-Phillips or Joe Cole off because they've not been doing their defensive duties. "It takes players a month or so to learn that. Once you've realised that it's about a team and defending, you can attack as well and he can give us something that not many in the world can. If Ronaldinho's doing it going forward then I'm sure the manager will let him off a little bit." A deal with Barcelona needs to be agreed first and yesterday Nou Camp president Joan Laporta warned it was not going to be easy. Laporta said: "I am hostile to any move for any of our top stars and the only way in which any club could obtain Ronaldinho or any other of our stars would be to pay the full amount of his buy-out clause." The transfer window closes at midnight on Friday but Laporta and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon will be in Monaco tomorrow for the Champions League draw. City, who are also interested in Barcelona midfielder Tiago Motta, will look to raise funds for Adriano by selling Giorgios Samaras to Middlesbrough for £2.5m and Darius Vassell to Derby for a similar fee. ||||| Roman's dream scheme: Get me Ronaldinho, the best player in the world... by Friday! By MATT LAWTONLast updated at 00:07 28 August 2007 Roman Abramovich has held two meetings with Ronaldinho's brother and adviser, the second in London this weekend, in the hope of bringing the Barcelona superstar to Chelsea. In the most audacious transfer business of his Chelsea tenure, the Russian billionaire spent the weekend entertaining Roberto de Assis Moreira, flying him in on his private jet and putting him up at the exclusive Lanesborough Hotel in Mayfair. Hold on! Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard grabs Ronaldinho (right) during last night's 0-0 draw in Santander, which did not go to plan Abramovich held the second meeting with Moreira at his Knightsbridge house on Saturday morning and is understood to have put an offer to him that would make the Brazil star the highest paid player in Europe. Sources at Chelsea last night insisted that the first approach came from Ronaldinho's camp and it is unclear what exact figures have been discussed. It will, however, dwarf the £130,000-a-week deal recently agreed with captain John Terry. Luring Ronaldinho from the Nou Camp is not going to be easy, and not just because the summer transfer window closes this Friday. There is the buy-out clause in the contract Ronaldinho signed at Barcelona in September 2005 which runs until 2010. It is a staggering £85million. But Abramovich is desperate to see his Chelsea side play with more flair and adventure, not least after seeing them stutter to a 1-0 win against Portsmouth on Saturday, and would consider it money well spent for the 27-year-old, who has twice been named World Player of the Year. Stamford Bridge officials have also been encouraged by Ronaldinho's stuttering performance as part of a three-pronged attack in Barca's La Liga opener against Racing Santander, which they drew 0-0. Evidence is mounting that the talented attacking quartet of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi is becoming increasingly difficult for Nou Camp boss Frank Rijkaard to juggle. Sportsmail understands that Moreira flew back to Spain last night to speak to his brother following the fixture in Santander and discuss the meeting he had with Abramovich. On Friday, Jose Mourinho said the transfer window had now closed for Chelsea, insisting the arrival of Juliano Belletti from Barcelona marked the end of their recruitment drive. "I have closed the door of my dressing room and that's very important to me," said the Chelsea boss. "My squad is completely closed. I know the market is open until the 31st - but not for us." The Brazilian may now be heading to Chelsea after his adviser-brother Roberto (right) held talks in London Mourinho has, however, been made aware of the meeting with Moreira and would be more than happy to make an exception for the World Cup and Champions League winner, even if he will have to be creative in accommodating Ronaldinho and Florent Malouda in the same side. Both players would say their preferred position is on the left wing. Abramovich hopes the presence of two Brazilians - Belletti and Alex - will encourage Ronaldinho to move to Stamford Bridge, but the key remains the player's brother. Moreira has long been praised for his 'intelligent' management of his younger brother's career and is hugely influential when it comes to making major decisions. When Ronaldinho won FIFA's prestigious World Player of the Year award for a second successive year in December 2005, he paid tribute to his brother. "He's my idol," said Ronaldinho. "He's been through a lot and has helped me every step of the way." A family tragedy, when Moreira was 17 and Ronaldinho (real name Ronaldo de Assis Moreira) was only eight, formed an unbreakable bond between them. Frank advice: is Lampard inviting Ronaldinho to join Chelsea after the 1-1 Champions League draw with Barcelona in March 2006? Moreira was also a promising footballer, representing their local club side in Porto Alegre, Gremio, when he was offered a move to Italy. As an incentive to stay, Gremio - the club Ronaldinho represented before signing for Paris St Germain - the Moreira family were given a new villa with a swimming pool. But their father Joao was killed in a horrific accident in the pool, reportedly suffering a heart attack caused by an electrical fault. Moreira's playing career was ended prematurely by injury but by then his brother was fast emerging as a hugely exciting talent and he turned his attention to advising him. Meanwhile Barcelona looked lethargic and Thierry Henry was restricted to a half-hour substitute's appearance as they were held at 10-man Racing Santander in their opening La Liga match of the season. The Catalan club, who spent around £45million on new players this summer including Arsenal's Henry, were outplayed by their modest opponents, one of Spain's lowest-spending teams. Santander's Polish debutant Ebi Smolarek was sent off midway through the second half. Henry replaced Lionel Messi, who started alongside Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho, but Henry came closest, hitting a post late on. | The Premier League's Brazilian numbers could be getting larger as Manchester City and West Ham joined Chelsea in trying to sign a Brazilian superstar. Yesterday, Chelsea captain John Terry urged Roman Abramovich to buy Ronaldinho from Barcelona, while Manchester City were preparing to out-bid West Ham with a £12m bid for Inter Milan's Adriano. On Tuesday, it was reported that Roman Abromovich had met twice with Ronaldinho's brother, Roberto de Assis Moreira, and given him a trip on his private jet and hosted him at Lanesborough Hotel in Mayfair, London. Abramovich held the second meeting with Moreira at his Knightsbridge house on Saturday morning and is understood to have put an offer to him that would make Ronaldinho the highest paid player in Europe. Sven Goran Eriksson, who held talks with Adriano's representatives on Tuesday, is aware the player does not want to go on loan and City are trying to stretch their budget to give Adriano wages of around £70,000 a week. Adriano said: "I don't want to go out on loan again. I've already been at Parma, and at that time it was right for my career but now I really must leave for good and that's that." A statement by West Ham said: "We are investigating the possibility of a loan deal at this stage." Adriano has slipped down the pecking order at Inter and fellow Serie A side Lazio would take him depending on his attitude. |
Hammer of the Chimps? Julio Mercader, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary, has unearthed stone hammers that he says chimps used 4,300 years ago to crack nuts. If the findings hold up, it's another example in widening body of work that shows that other primates developed tools. The hammers were discovered in the Tai rainforest in modern-day Ivory Coast. The tools, according to Mercader, show distinctive signs of wear and are thus not likely the product of natural forces. The tools, however, wouldn't be the kind humans would make. The cantaloupe-size stones are too large to be wielded by a human hand. Farmers didn't live in the region at the time, so it is unlikely the chips picked it up through watching villagers. In addition, the stones contain starch residue from several types of nuts known to be staples in the chimp diet. These nuts were not part of the human diet. "Some of the nuts require a compression force of more than a thousand kilograms to crack. And the idea is to crack the shell but not smash it--it's not a simple technique," said Mercader in a prepared statement. Modern chimps teach each other nut cracking techniques, but it generally takes an animal seven years to learn the appropriate techniques. Many may shrug and say: So what? The media in shows such as Lance Link Secret Chimp has shown how chimps can drive miniature Rolls Royces and wear neckties. Many of these scenes, however, are likely staged. TalkBack No discussion exists, click here to start it. ||||| Chimp "Stone Age" Finds Are Earliest Nonhuman Ape Tools, Study Says Humans might not be as pioneering as we're cracked up to be. That's one possible explanation for new evidence that West African chimpanzees learned to use stone tools on their own to crack nuts at least 4,300 years ago. The research pushes back chimpanzee tool use thousands of years. It casts into doubt the long-standing theory that direct human ancestors were the only animals to independently develop tools—and that chimps learned to use stone tools by watching humans. (Follow a time line of human evolution.) Instead both humans and chimps could have inherited the ability to crack nuts with rocks from a common ancestor, Julio Mercader of the University of Calgary in Canada and co-authors report in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Or chimps may have developed the behavior on their own. In either case, it's no longer likely that chimps learned to use stones as tools only by imitating humans. At 4,300 years old, the chimps' tools correspond to the late Stone Age of human history—before the advent of agriculture in West Africa. "Until recently people used to say that among modern-day chimpanzees the behavior came from imitation of farmers," Mercader said. "That assumption is no longer valid. What we present predates the presence of farming." Ancient Nutcrackers Mercader and colleagues found subtly altered rocks in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in Africa at a research site that houses the only known prehistoric chimpanzee settlement. (Related news: "Chimp Nut-Cracking Site Offers Clues to Early Tool Use" [May 23, 2002].) The excavated stones resemble those used by ancient humans and modern chimpanzees to smash nuts—showing evidence of flakes, chips, and worn edges. | Archaeologist Julio Mercader at the University of Calgary has discovered hammer-like tools dating back 4300 years. The tools are thought to have been used by non-human primates to crack nuts. The large size of the stones are of too great a weight to have been favoured as tools by humans. Further, humans are not believed to have been in that area at that time for the primates to have learned from them by observation. Mercader suggests that this implies the primates learned to use the tools either independently of humans or else by a common ancestor (of common descent). Further evidence supporting the hypothesis that the hammers were not used by humans includes that the nut residue on the tools are of nuts which were not regularly a part of a human diet. Mercader elaborates in a prepared statement: “Some of the nuts require a compression force of more than a thousand kilograms to crack. And the idea is to crack the shell but not smash it — it’s not a simple technique.” Editorial correction: force is a vector while mass is a scalar. By context, the force is approximately 10KN (10 KiloNewtons). Social and Political implications follow from the findings also. Anthropologist Agustín Fuentes (at Indiana’s University of Notre Dame) said, “It puts the nail in the coffin on those who say chimp tool use is atypical.” This parallel of human evolution may also lead to further debate on the legal rights of primates. |
Switzerland has finally lifted a more than fifty-year ban on organising motor racing events such as formula one. A photograph in the country's national newspaper Blick showed politicians celebrating the occasion by spraying each other with champagne. The ban fell back in 1955, after more than 80 spectators died in an horror crash at Le Mans. But in parliament this week, it was lifted when 97 votes defeated 77, with politicians arguing that motor racing would be of benefit to Swiss car component manufacturers and tourism. Those opposed said motor racing was damaging to the environment and would promote hooligan driving on the roads. The news, however, instantly sparked speculation of a return of the Swiss grand prix; a formula one event that was last held at the Bremgarten circuit and won by Juan Manual Fangio in 1954. "But where are we going to build this apparent circuit?," a sceptical Beat Zehnder, BMW-Sauber's team manager, wondered in Montreal. "Talking about a grand prix is, I think, simply unrealistic," he added, explaining that Switzerland can probably not compete with big-spending countries like Abu Dhabi and South Korea for a spot on the calendar. Source: GMM ||||| Welcome back Switzerland For many years in the early years of the sport, Switzerland was the home of one of the major Grands Prix of the year, at the exciting Bremgarten circuit, on the outskirts of Berne. But in 1955, in the wake of the Le Mans disaster, in which around 100 people were killed when a car flew into the crowd, the Swiss decided to ban motor racing competitions. Hillclimbs were still allowed but cars were not allowed to race one another. They could only race the clock. This week, however, the Swiss parliament finally voted out the ban after a passionate debate in which some argued that the sport would be good for the country's component manufacturers and tourism and others argued that it was bad for the environment. The vote ended up with 97 members of parliament in favour of lifting the ban and 77 against. This does not mean that the Swiss will soon be having a Grand Prix. Building a racing circuit in a country filled with green-minded citizens is not going to be the work of a moment. | Switzerland has lifted a 52 year old ban on any form of motor racing taking part in the country. The ban was first introduced following the more than 80 deaths in the disaster at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans. The ban was lifted following heated discussions within the Swiss parliament with some arguing that the reintroduction of the sport could help the countries component manufacturers and the tourism industry, while others argued that the sport wasn't good for the environment. The final voting saw the ban lifted with 97 votes for and 77 against. |
James Doohan to be sent to his final frontier James Doohan as Montgomery Scott guest-starring on an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." RELATED YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS James Doohan Star Trek Gene Roddenberry William Shatner or or Create Your Own LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- He made his name in Hollywood beaming his colleagues back to the safety of the Enterprise on "Star Trek." Now, actor James Doohan's family is hoping to beam him up to the "final frontier" that Doohan's character "Scotty" loved so dearly. The actor, who died Wednesday at age 85, had told relatives he wanted his ashes blasted into outer space, as was done for "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. "He'll be there with his buddy, which is wonderful," said Doohan's agent and longtime friend, Steve Stevens. Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Wash., with his wife of 31 years, Wende, at his side. He had retired from public events last year, not long after announcing he had Alzheimer's disease. Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, plans to send a few grams of Doohan's ashes aboard a rocket later this year. The remains, which will be sealed in an aluminum capsule, will eventually burn up when they re-enter Earth's atmosphere. It should be a fitting finale for an actor who, as the Starship Enterprise's frazzled chief engineer saved the Enterprise almost every week from blowing up, burning up or being overrun by renegade aliens when the warp drive, the phasers, the shields, the power cells or some other futuristic collection of doohickies failed. As the man who commanded the Enterprise's particle beam transporter, Doohan's character also inspired the phrase, "Beam me up, Scotty." Capt. Kirk and other members of the Enterprise crew never really issued the order quite that way, however, until the fourth "Star Trek" film when Kirk said, "Scotty, beam me up." A master of dialects from his early years in radio, the Canadian-born Doohan experimented with seven different accents for the hard-pressed engineer. "The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman."' Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife, Sarah. He wrote in his autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," that his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children. At 19, he escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, where he became a lieutenant in the artillery and was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. After the war, Doohan enrolled in a drama class in Toronto on a whim. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone. His commanding presence and booming voice brought him steady work as a character actor in films and television in Canada and the United States. Then came "Star Trek" and fans forever screaming "Beam me up, Scotty." "Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years," he said in an 1998 interview. "It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun." Married three times, Doohan was the father of nine children. "A long and storied career is over," William Shatner, who played Kirk, said Wednesday. ||||| James Doohan as "Montgomery" Scott He dealt, on a seemingly weekly basis, with the ship's overloaded reactors and damaged warp drives. His plaintive, if somewhat unauthentic, Scottish cry - "I dannae if she can take any more, Captain!" - rang through the outer edges of the cosmos as Captain James T Kirk urged even more power out of the craft. For millions of TV viewers worldwide, this low budget science fiction show was the highlight of the week and Scotty one of its best-loved characters. Cult status Even though the original series ran for only three years, subsequent repeats and a series of highly-successful spin-offs and feature movies brought Star Trek huge cult status. Doohan saw action on D-Day It made the man behind Scotty, actor James Doohan, into one of the entertainment world's most familiar faces. James Montgomery Doohan (he shared a name with his most famous character) was not, in fact, a Scot but a Canadian. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1920, his early life, like that of his contemporaries, was dominated by World War II. Wartime exploits Doohan's wartime experiences were every bit as hair-raising as his fictional fights with the Klingons. As a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment, he lost a finger on the first morning of the D-Day landings in Normandy. To boldly go where no man has gone before The Enterprise's mission He then saw a tank, which was carrying his substantial winnings from a cross-Channel card school, blown to pieces before his eyes. Besides this, his aerobatic exploits, which included nearly crashing his aircraft in Holland while taking "a look" at a German U-boat, earned him the title of "the craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force". After the war, Doohan spent two years studying acting at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse, where he later taught. Strong character Returning to Canada in 1953, he worked in 4,000 radio programmes and 400 television shows before moving to Hollywood. There he enjoyed small parts in TV shows such as Peyton Place, The Virginian and The Twilight Zone. Capricious spacecraft: The USS Enterprise Working alongside fellow Canadian William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, he benefited from the strong characterisation which offset the show's small budget. Avuncular and wise, Scotty appeared a loyal and steadfast officer. His ability to conjure solutions to the Enterprise's regular engineering crises often made him the saviour of his beloved ship. Trekkies' favourite The series lasted two years fewer than the Enterprise's "five-year mission...to boldly go where no man has gone before". Beam me up, Scotty! Kirk's way out in times of need But the continuing interest created by constant repeats led, in 1979, to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a worldwide box-office hit and the first of seven Star Trek movies. Though his other work made little impact, Doohan enjoyed a lucrative old age as the star of many Star Trek conventions. The programme's fans, or Trekkies as they are known, found him an approachable and affable figure who often entertained the crowds with his singing. Inspiring engineer Star Trek's impact became apparent when he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, after half the students there said that Scotty had inspired them to take up the subject. Kirk and his crew face more peril Paradoxically, the catchphrase for which Doohan will be best remembered was said to, and not by, him. Adopted now as a throw-away line in any desperate situation, "Beam me up, Scotty!" has become a part of the linguistic currency. In the same way, James Doohan's most famous creation is, and will remain, one of TV's favourite characters. ||||| (07-20) 16:37 PDT Los Angeles (AP) -- James Doohan, who played engineer Montgomery Scott, the scrappy Scotsman who repeatedly gave the Starship Enterprise "all she's got" in the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures, died Wednesday, his publicist said here. He was 85. Almost every week, the frazzled Scott was asked to perform an engineering miracle with the warp drive, shields or phasers to save the ship from certain death at the hands of Romulans, Klingons or other assorted aliens. Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said. Doohan inspired the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty," although Capt. Kirk never issued that order until the fourth movie. He told his family he wanted his ashes blasted into space, Stevens said. Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, said it would send Doohan's remains, along with 125 others, aboard a rocket later this year. Doohan will join "Star Trek" series creator Gene Roddenberry, whose ashes were launched into space six years after he died in 1991. The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents. "The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.'" The series, which starred William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children, but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons. "A long and storied career is over. I knew Jim when he started out in Canada and I knew him in his last years in America, so we go way back. My condolences go out to his family," Shatner said in a statement. When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as the canny engineer with a burr in his voice. In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: "Jimmy, you're going to be Scotty long after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go with the flow." "I took his advice," said Doohan, "and since then everything's been just lovely." "Star Trek" continued in syndicated TV both in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years, Doohan attended 40 "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges. The huge success of George Lucas's "Star Wars" in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures, which had produced "Star Trek" for TV, to plan a movie based on the series. The studio brought back the TV cast and hired a topflight director, Robert Wise. "Star Trek — The Motion Picture" was successful enough to spawn five sequels. The powerfully built Doohan, a veteran of D-Day in Normandy, spoke frankly in 1998 about his employer, Paramount, and his TV commander: "I started out in the series at basic minimum_ plus 10 percent for my agent. That was added a little bit in the second year. When we finally got to our third year, Paramount told us we'd get second-year pay! That's how much they loved us." He accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: "I like Capt. Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself." Shatner was on hand when Doohan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August 2004 and it appeared the men had mended fences. The star was part of a two-day fan farewell tribute to Doohan, who was retiring from public life after being diagnosed with Alzeimer's several months earlier. James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, B.C., youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife Sarah. As he wrote in his autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children. At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans." The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on the screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case. After the war, Doohan on a whim enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone. His commanding presence and booming voice brought him work as a character actor in films and television, both in Canada and the U.S. Oddly, his only other TV series besides "Star Trek" was another space adventure, "Space Command," in 1953. Doohan's first marriage to Judy Doohan produced four children. He had two children by his second marriage to Anita Yagel. Both marriages ended in divorce. In 1974 he married Wende Braunberger, and their children were Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born in 2000, when Doohan was 80. In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line "Beam me up, Scotty." "I'm not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun." | Doohan 1997 James Montgomery Doohan, the Canadian actor best known for playing the role of ''Star Trek'''s "Scotty" the engineer died Wednesday of pneumonia after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 85 years old. Now, Doohan's family is hoping to beam him up to the "Final Frontier" that Scotty loved so dearly. The actor had told relatives he wanted his ashes blasted into outer space, as was done for "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. "He'll be there with his buddy, which is wonderful," said Doohan's agent and longtime friend, Steve Stevens. At the time of his death, he was living in Redmond, Washington in the United States with his wife and their three young children. Doohan was born in Vancouver and participated in World War II as a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery. He lost the middle finger of his right hand at the Invasion of Juno Beach on D-Day, a bloody scene immortalized in the 1998 Steven Spielberg film ''Saving Private Ryan''. Doohan was among the film's greatest supporters, thanking the director for not sanitizing the gore of the actual event. Doohan as ''Star Trek'' character "Scotty" in an autographed photo of him in one of the Star Trek movies. ''Source: Wikipedia'' He started his acting career with a radio appearance at a CBC show and went on to act in several character roles. Doohan had already made a name for himself in the entertainment business as a featured voice actor in Canadian and U.S. radio dramas and motion picture voice-overs due to his knack for picking up linguistically perfect accents. His ability to affect a near-perfect Scottish accent made him a natural for the role of Scotty, according to producers at the time. When he auditioned for what would become the role of his life in 1966, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry asked him which of the different accents Doohan mastered would best suit the role of Scotty. Doohan respond that he believed "all the world's best engineers have been Scottish". After the original Star Trek series had ended, Doohan found himself typecast and had difficulties getting other roles. Doohan suffered from Parkinson's as well as Alzheimer's disease. In August last year he received a star on Hollywood's Walk of fame. After DeForest Kelley, Doohan is the second actor of the original Star Trek cast to die. He is survived by his wife Wende, with whom he had been married since 1975, and seven children. |
Major Flood Stage: 25 Moderate Flood Stage: 23 Flood Stage: 22 Action Stage: 21 Historical Crests (1) 0 ft on 1915/02/18 (1) 0 ft on 1912/04/4 (1) 0 ft on 1917/03/29 (1) 0 ft on 1911/02/17 (1) 0 ft on 1907/07/15 (1) 0 ft on 1910/03/9 (1) 0 ft on 1909/07/7 (1) 0 ft on 1913/03/24 (1) 0 ft on 1908/06/3 (1) 0 ft on 1934/07/17 Low Water Records (1) 9.1 ft on 2003/10/ 1 (2) 9.2 ft on 2005/11/ 2 (3) 0 ft on 1916/10/ 21 ||||| Impacts 24.2 water reaches the bottom of the 1st Avenue bridge deck in downtown Cedar Rapids 23.5 water reaches the bottom of the county road F28 bridge deck at Cedar Bluff 22.5 water reaches the top of a levee along 1st Street SW in Cedar Rapids 22.2 water reaches the bottom of the 2nd Avenue bridge deck in downtown Cedar Rapids 20.2 water reaches the bottom of the 3rd Avenue bridge deck and begins affecting several homes along the river on 1st Street NW in Cedar Rapids 19.5 water reaches the bottom of the Blairs Ferry Road bridge deck 19.0 water reaches the bottom of a railroad bridge over the river near 1st Street NW and I Avenue NW in Cedar Rapids 18.5 water begins affecting the lowest residences in Palo 18.2 water reaches the bottom of the railroad bridge along 8th Avenue in Cedar Rapids 18.0 water covers the lowest sections of Edgewood Road NW between Ellis Road NW and the Cedar River 17.7 water covers the lowest sections of the main road through a boat club on Ellis Road NW. Water begins affecting the lowest sections of Blairs Ferry Road near the Cedar River 17.3 water begins affecting Edgewood Road NW between Ellis Road NW and the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids 16.5 water begins affecting the lowest sections of Ellis Road NW near the Ellis Pool and is onto the entrance road to a boat club on Ellis Road NW in Cedar Rapids 15.5 water begins affecting the lowest sections of Old River Road SW 15.2 water begins affecting the parks along the river between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue, and between 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue 14.2 water begins affecting the lowest sections of C Street SW near Prairie Creek 14.0 water begins affecting a restaurant along the river on Ellis Road NW. Water affects many residences in Cedar Bluff 13.5 water begins affecting the lowest sections of Palo 13.0 water begins affecting the lowest residences in Cedar Bluff 12.7 water begins entering the Palo water treatment plant 11.5 water begins affecting Osborn Park in Cedar Rapids 9.5 water begins affecting the lowest sections of Otis Road SE ||||| DOT Updates Road Closures (6-13-08 6:00 p.m.) By Becky Ogann Iowa roadways remain closed due to flooding AMES, Iowa – June 13, 2008: 6 p.m. – Flooding continues to affect many roadways in the state, according to Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) officials. Iowans are urged to closely monitor conditions and never enter a water-covered roadway. The Iowa DOT's temporary customer service phone line will be in operation from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily until further notice. That number is 866-452-8510. This number was set up for assisting travelers navigate state roadway closings. It is not an emergency number. Emergency calls should be made to 911. This phone line is extremely busy, so if you get a busy signal please call back. For Internet users accessing closure information, visit www.511ia.org (use the low bandwidth service since the high bandwidth service has been temporarily disabled due to high volume). New or updated road closures • I-380: in Johnson County – North- and southbound lanes of Interstate 380 (also U.S. 218/Iowa 27) in eastern Iowa between exit 4 (North Liberty) and exit 10 is closed. Detour information can be found by clicking here. • Iowa 22: in Muscatine County – Iowa 22 is closed east of Muscatine to Scott County Road Y-40. Roadways now open to traffic • Iowa 150: in Buchanan County – This road is now open. Previously mentioned and updated road closures Interstate routes • I-29: All exit and entrance ramps at McPaul interchange – All exit and entrance ramps are closed at the McPaul interchange (exit 20) in Fremont County. • I-80 and Dubuque Street interchange: in Johnson County – Flood waters are over Dubuque Street south of this interchange in Iowa City. The southbound exit from I-80 is closed. • I-80 in Cedar County: Both east- and westbound lanes of I-80 are closed at milepost 266, just west of the Iowa 38 interchange. This road is expected to remain closed for two to three days. The detour route is U.S. 61 north to U.S. 20 in Dubuque, west on U.S. 20 to Interstate 35, and south on Interstate 35 to Interstate 80 in Des Moines. • I-380 and H Avenue Interchange: in Linn County (ramp closure only) – The southbound I-380 exit ramp (#21) to H Avenue has been closed due to flooding. • I-380 and 1st Avenue interchange: in Linn County (ramp closures only) – The northbound I-380 entrance ramp (#19A) to 1st Avenue West and the southbound I-380 exit ramp (#19B) have been closed due to flood waters over 1st Avenue West in downtown Cedar Rapids. I-380 remains open. • I-380 and 1st Street interchange: in Linn County (ramp closures only) – The northbound I-380 exit ramp (#19C) to 1st Street West and the southbound I-380 exit ramp (#20A) to 1st Street East have been closed due to flood in downtown Cedar Rapids. I-380 remains open. • I-380 exit ramp Diagonal Drive Interchange: in Linn County (ramp closure only) – The northbound I-380 exit ramp (#19A) to Diagonal Drive has been closed due to flooding. U.S. routes • U.S. 6: in Johnson County – U.S. 6 is closed from Burlington Street to the intersection of Iowa 1 West within the city of Iowa City due to flooding. • U.S. 6: in Muscatine County – U.S. 6 is closed from Muscatine County Road X-46 to Iowa 38 due to flooding. • U.S. 18: in Floyd County – Portions of U.S. 18 in Floyd County are open. While flood waters have receded, the water damaged the roadway east of Charles City. U.S. 18 will remain closed from Charles City to New Hampton until repairs can be made. Detour using local roads. • U.S. 18 in Floyd County – Due to rising river levels, U.S. 18 is once again closed in Charles City. The exact location of the closure at this time is from 11th Street to Clark Street. • U.S. 30: in Boone County – U.S. 30 is closed at the Des Moines River west of the city of Boone. • U.S. 30: in Linn County - Both east- and westbound lanes are closed now from Interstate 380 to Iowa 1 (Mount Vernon). • U.S. 52: Dubuque County – Road is closed between Sageville and Rickardsville due to flooding. • U.S. 59: in Page County – U.S. 59 north of Shenandoah is closed due to flooding on the East Nishnabotna River. • U.S. 61: in Scott County – U.S. 61 is closed in the city of Davenport from Iowa 22 to U.S. 67 south due to the rising Mississippi River. • U.S. 61: in Louisa County – U.S. 61 is closed from the north city limits of Wapello to south of Iowa 92. • U.S. 63: in Tama County – This road is closed south of Tama due to flooding of the Iowa River. • U.S. 67: in Scott County - U.S. 67 is now closed in the City of Davenport from 8th Street to the Illinois State Line (this is an update to a previous closure). • U.S. 65/Iowa 5 bypass: in Polk County – U.S. 65 is closed in both directions from U.S. 69 (E. 14th Street) to Iowa 163/University Avenue due to the rising Des Moines River. • U.S. 65: in Cerro Gordo County – The outside lanes of U.S. 65 are closed on the north edge of Mason City. • U.S. 65: in Polk County – The Vandalia Road exit from U.S. 65 in Pleasant Hill is closed. • U.S. 136/U.S. 61: Lee County – U.S. 136/U.S. 61 is closed until further notice due to flooding at the Missouri state line. • U.S. 151 Business: in Linn County – The city of Cedar Rapids is closing the 1st Avenue bridge (also Business U.S. 151) due to rising flood waters. • U.S. 151: in Linn County – Road closed from Iowa 220 to U.S. 6 between the town of Amana and Homestead. • U.S. 151/Iowa 13: Linn County – Road is closed on just north of U.S. 30 to Mount Vernon Road due to flooding. • U.S. 169: in Dallas County – U.S. 169 is closed in Adel. Traffic is being detoured using Dallas County roads F-65 and P-58 and Iowa 44. • U.S. 218 ramp: in Black Hawk County – The Iowa 57 westbound ramp from U.S. 218 southbound is closed. • U.S. 218 ramp in Black Hawk County – The northbound U.S. 218 exit and entrance ramps at Lone Tree Road remain closed. • U.S. 275: in Fremont County – This roadway is closed from the Missouri state line to Fremont County Road J-64 (old Iowa 333) at Hamburg. Iowa routes • Iowa 1: in Linn County – Road closed from U.S. 30 to the city of Solon due to flooding. • Iowa 1: Lacey State Park in Van Buren County - Van Buren County. Iowa 1 and Van Buren County Road J-40 are currently still open, however; all roads leading in and out of Lacey State Park are closed due to flooding. • Iowa 3: in Butler County – This highway is closed west of Shell Rock. There is roadway damage that must be repaired. • Iowa 5: in Warren County – Northbound Iowa 5 is closed at Hartford. Water is over the road about 2.5 miles north of the intersection of Iowa 5 and Warren County Road G-24. • Iowa 14: north of Marshalltown – Iowa 14 is closed beginning at Marshall County Road E-27 due to rising waters from the Iowa River. • Iowa 14: in Marion County - Iowa 14 is reduced to one-lane from northern city limits of Knoxville to Marion County Road G-40 due to a landslide. Electronic traffic signals are in place to direct traffic. • Iowa 21: from Iowa 212 north to Benton County Road E-66 – The road remains closed south of Belle Plaine. • Iowa 22: in Washington County - Iowa 22 is closed from U.S. 218 to Iowa 70. • Iowa 22: in Muscatine County - Iowa 22 is closed from Iowa 70 east to U.S. 61 due to flooding. • Iowa 24: in Winneshiek County – Iowa 24 is closed at Fort Atkinson. This will be a long-term closure for bridge repair. • Iowa 28: in Warren County – Iowa 28 is closed south of Norwalk due to flooding of the North River. • Iowa 70: in Louisa County - Iowa 70 is closed to traffic from IA 92 to before Muscatine County Line due to flooding. • Iowa 92: in Louisa County – Iowa 92 is closed in Columbus Junction. Traffic is being detoured onto local roads. • Iowa 92: in Mahaska County – Iowa 92 is closed at Mahaska County Road V-13. Traffic is being detoured on local roads. • Iowa 92: in Marion County – Iowa 92 is closed to traffic from Mahaska County line west to Marion County Road T-17 due to flooding. • Iowa 92: in Muscatine County - Iowa 92 is closed within city limits of Muscatine due to flooding. • Iowa 220: in Iowa County – Iowa 220 is closed between South Amana and West Amana. • Iowa 150: Benton County – Iowa 150 is closed in Vinton. • Iowa 330: south of Albion in Marshall County – This road is closed due to rising waters from the Iowa River. • Louisa County: Meyerholz Lake Area – Louisa County Road G-26 is closed. Several local roads are also closed in this area. | Interstate 80 is closed in Cedar County, Iowa, east of the Iowa City area, due to flooding from the Iowa River and Coralville Lake. The flooding that has devastated cities in eastern Iowa has travelled downstream and is now threatening Iowa City and Coralville, both of which have issued evacuations for low-lying areas. Flooding on the Cedar River earlier filled Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with record-breaking water levels. Interstate 80 is closed between mile markers 266 and 267, with a 281-mile long detour to get around it: Eastbound through traffic must leave I-80 at Des Moines and travel north along Interstate 35 then east to Dubuque via U.S. Route 20, where it can move south along U.S. Route 61 to return to Interstate 80 at the Quad Cities, with westbound through traffic following the opposite route. Local traffic is being allowed, since this shuts off a 150-mile stretch of highway. Interstate 380 has also been closed, between mile markers 4 and 10, due to flooding from the Iowa River and Lake Coralville. This, combined with the flooding of the bridges across the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids, effectively cuts Cedar Rapids off from Iowa City; the only way between the two cities, normally 30 miles apart, is a 281-mile long detour that takes drivers through Des Moines. The Cedar River at Cedar Rapids crested today at a record-breaking 31.1 feet, nearly 20 feet above flood stage. The Iowa River is expected to crest at Iowa City at 33 feet, 11 feet over flood stage and 4.5 feet over the record, on the morning of June 17. |
China-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) can be the most significant event of this decade – China pushes for FTA Sonal Joshi Mar. 25, 2005 China is pushing for a Free Trade Agreement with India, which will create the biggest free trade region in the world. Speaking to media persons at a round table on trade with China organized by the Federation of Indian Export Organization, Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi said, “ while the Chinese government supported the proposed FTA, the business community and experts needed to have detailed discussions on the issue.” Based on a detailed study by joint study group (JSG), Yuxi said, “Chinese representatives in the group had advocated the need to go in for an FTA between the two countries. It is now for the Indian side to take a decision on the issue,” ”The two governments were working seriously to finalize by the end of the month the program for the development of India-China trade and economic cooperation for the next five years” says the Chinese Ambassador to India. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo is visiting India next month and the program will be announced at that time. The two countries can increase bilateral trades with the FTA many times. In 2004, the bilateral trade between the two countries increased by 650% over the past five year. The bilateral trade can touch a staggering 130 billion dollars by 2010. According to the Chinese Ambassador, healthcare, industry and services are the fields where the two countries can focus initially besides agriculture and the two giant economies are together in the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. 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READ MORE>> ||||| BEIJING : China will boost its military spending by 12.6 percent this year, as the nation readies to prevent any eventual move by Taiwan to declare independence. "According to the draft budget given to this year's congress by the State Council, it has been proposed that national defense expenditures be 247.7 billion yuan (29.9 billion dollars), up 12.6 percent from last year," Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the National People's Congress (NPC), said Friday. The rise in spending comes with Washington voicing concern that China's military build-up could tilt the strategic balance with Taiwan and also threaten US forces in Asia. But Jiang insisted the budget is "still a fairly small amount compared with other major countries". By comparison, the US defense budget is about 400 billion dollars this year, while Japan's is about 47 billion dollars. The expenditures will be used to upgrade military armaments and modernize national defense, he told a press conference. It will also be used for raising the salaries and social security net of military personnel and for adjusting and transforming military systems and mechanisms. China, meanwhile, would demobilize 200,000 soldiers this year, but Jiang did not say if this was part of a 500,000 soldier cut announced several years ago or a new initiative. The People's Liberation Army is the world's largest standing army, with some 2.5 million members. China's stated military budget has increased by double digits over most of the last 15 years with defense spending rising by more than 17 percent in 2001 and 2002. It fell to a 9.6 percent clip in 2003 before rising again to 11.6 percent last year. According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, China's publicized military budget is "less than half of China's actual defense spending". Other military analysts say China's actual defense spending could be up to three times more than its stated figure as Beijing does not include new arms purchases and weapons research and development in the figures. Jiang also announced that a major task of the National People's Congress, the parliament which begins its annual session on Saturday, would be to pass an "anti-seccession law" on Taiwan. But he downplayed widespread concern that the law would lead to hostilities across the Taiwan Strait. In a white paper on defense published in December, China said its ongoing military modernization was aimed at squashing "Taiwan independence forces" and made clear any attempt at independence would be harshly dealt with. The document said it was the "sacred responsibility" of the Chinese armed forces to stop Taiwan independence forces from splitting the country. But Robert Karniol, a defence expert for Jane's Defense Weekly, said the budget should not be viewed as a new provocation toward Taiwan. "The increase in military spending does not represent a new direction for Beijing in the sense that Beijing has been prepared to act forcefully to resolve the Taiwan issue, if necessary, for about a decade, so this does not represent a hardening of their position," Karniol told AFP. "Secondly, China has been recently introducing new legislation to institutionalize a lot of aspects of its military activities, so in this sense the anti-seccession law on Taiwan is a part of that broader trend." China already has 600 missiles pointed at the island, from which it split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. The rise in spending comes as the European Union considers the lifting of an arms embargo on China put in place following the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen democracy protests in central Beijing. The United States adamantly opposes the ban being lifted. - AFP ||||| This story is from our news.com.au network Source: Reuters back China military budget up 12.6pc March 04, 2005 CHINA'S military budget will rise 12.6 per cent this year to 247.7 billion yuan ($37.2 billion), parliament spokesman Jiang Enzhu told a news conference today. He said the figure was contained in the Budget report to be presented to China's parliament, or National People's Congress, which opens its annual session tomorrow. China has boosted defence spending steadily in the past 15 years to transform the military into a high-tech force with the muscle to back its threat to attack rival Taiwan. | In the wake of 's March 26 announcement that it intends to build its first indigenous aircraft carrier, and recent American overtures aimed at greater defense cooperation to help make India a "major power," speculation is rife as to the future geopolitical consequences for the Asian region and the world. India's rise to greater military power may serve as a counterbalance to in the Asian region. China is interested in developing a free trade pact with India and has made overtures in that direction, which are under consideration in India. Indeed, China's military might is also increasing at a rapid rate as that nation's government commits an ever-greater percentage of its budget to national defense. Nonetheless, the two nations are seeking a free trade agreement (FTA), which some observers have declared as having the potential to be "the most significant event of this decade" for the Asian region. |
Abby Dwommoh International Organization for Migration The neglected part of migration is one of the most important Migration is not a new phenomenon. It is actually as old as time, but to hear it discussed today, this is an easy fact to forget ||||| DA QAIDAM, Qinghai, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring6.3 on the Richter scale hit northwest China's Qinghai Province at9:22 a.m. on Monday, but as yet no casualties have been reported. The epicenter, at 37.6 degrees north and 95.9 degrees east, was in the Mongolian-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi, about 716kilometers west of the provincial capital Xining, according to the National Seismic Network. By noon, the Qinghai Seismic Network had monitored at least 25 aftershocks in the area, with the strongest measuring 5 on the Richter scale. But seismologists expected no further quakes above 6.3 magnitude imminently. The earthquake toppled several huts in Da Qaidam district near the epicenter, and mud houses had cracks in their walls, said Gu Xiaodong, a deputy official of the administrative committee of the district. "No casualties have been reported as yet," Gu said. Schools in Da Qaidam had been closed for safety reasons and classes would be suspended for at least one day, he said. Da Qaidam is sparsely populated with about 16,000 people, including Mongolians, Tibetans, Muslim Hui and Han, according to the county government's website. Da Qaidam, which literally means "a big salt lake" in Mongolian, is rich in mineral resources, with one of the largest lead-zinc mines in western China and several coal mines. Gu said the epicenter was close to two coal mines, Kaiyuan and Dameigou, "but no serious damage has been incurred". "Altogether 119 workers underground and 38 above ground were evacuated to safe areas by 10:35 a.m.. Only three people were slightly injured, and they have been sent to hospital," said Duan Mingdao, deputy manager of Yihai Energey Company that runs the Dameigou Coal Mine, about 15 kilometers from the epicenter. "The quake cut the mine's communication network and power supply, which resumed at midday and 5 p.m., respectively," he told Xinhua. Big cracks could be seen on most buildings at the mine, and workers' dorms were in a dangerous condition. The company bought 20 tents to accommodate about its 700-strong workforce. "The mine has suspended operation," Duan said. At least seven mines in Haixi prefecture, near the epicenter, reported they felt the tremor, but there were no reports of casualties. The tremor was noticeably felt in Haixi's industrial city Golmud -- the starting point of the Qingha-Tibet Railway, the world's highest railway -- and Haixi prefecture's capital Delinha. Schools were also suspended in the two cities. When the quake struck, many people ran out of buildings. "Some residents said it was the biggest tremor they felt since the 8.1-magnitude quake jolted Hol Xil in 2001", said Luo Zhenggang, an official in Golmud. Hol Xil, a major nature reserve and habitat for the critically-endangered Tibetan antelope, is in the Kunlun Mountain Range, near Golmud. The quake was also felt in Xining, where Xinhua reporter Ma Yong said, "We all jumped up in the middle of our morning editorial meeting." The office is on the third floor of a four-storey building downtown. The Qinghai-Tibet railway seemed largely unaffected by the earthquake. "Railway operation remains normal," said a company spokesman. "But we have tightened safety surveillance along the route, and equipped every train with additional mechanical engineers." An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale hit the same region in April 2003, but did not cause casualties, and only damaged old buildings. The China Earthquake Administration suggested Monday's earthquake would have caused limited losses. The quake occurred almost six months to the day after the 8-magnitude May 12 earthquake hit southwest China's Sichuan Province, leaving more than 80,000 dead or missing. It was the deadliest and strongest tremor to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. ||||| BEIJING (Reuters) - A strong earthquake measuring 6.5 hit a sparsely populated area in China’s western province of Qinghai Monday, but there were no reports of deaths or injuries. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) originally put the magnitude of the quake at 6.7 but quickly revised it down to 6.5. China’s Xinhua news agency put the magnitude of the tremor at 6.3. Buildings shook in the remote mining city of Golmud and the regional capital, Xining. State television said there had been no reports of deaths or injuries. “We are on the tenth floor, so I felt a very strong tremor 10 minutes ago, but there’s been no damage,” said a Xining government official who only gave her surname, Wang. The USGS said the epicenter of the quake was 161 km (101 miles)) north-northeast of Golmud at a depth of 9.9 km. Golmud is an industrial city that is dependent upon potassium mining. Xinhua said some mud houses in Da Qaidam, near the epicentre, had cracks in their walls and a few huts had collapsed. Schools have also been closed. Seven mining firms in the immediate vicinity had shut as a safety precaution, the Xinhua news agency said, listing coal mines and a base metals mine. An official at the province’s largest lead-zinc miner, Western Mining, said the company had not received any reports of damage at its mines. | Map highlighting Qinghai province. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an earthquake with magnitude of 6.5 has struck China. ''Xinhua'', one of China's main news agencies, reports the quake at a magnitude of 6.3. According to the USGS, the quake was centered 55 kilometers (35 miles) East, Southeast of Da Qaidam, Qinghai province and was reported at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). It struck at approximately 9:22 a.m local time on Monday morning. Although there have been no immediate reports of damage or injuries, the USGS says damage in the area could be "very heavy". The shaking was felt as far away as Golmud, and Xining, where witnesses say buildings shook, but there was no damage. This is adjacent to Tibet Autonomous Region and just at the foothills of Tibetan Plateau. The Da Qaidam region is an area of China where there are several launch sites for DF-4 nuclear missiles. At least two nuclear missiles are reported to be stored in the Da Qaidam Basin and were deployed there in 1998. Da Qaidam is one of five locations throughout China where launch sites exist. There is no word if the sites suffered any damage from the quake. |
Court says Massey can appeal MSHA restrictions MCT REGIONAL NEWS By Taylor Kuykendall The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va. (MCT) June 11--A federal appeals court says Massey Energy is entitled to appeal the restrictions federal investigators placed on its internal investigation. The unanimous decision, written by Judge Janice Rogers Brown and released Friday by the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, says Performance Coal, a Massey subsidiary, is entitled to appeal the Mine Safety and Health Administration's restrictions on the coal company in the investigation of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. A request from Massey to challenge the restrictions was refused shortly after the incident. The appeal to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission was initially denied. The denial was based on an interpretation of a Mine Act rule the court of appeals found "untenable." Massey recently released the results of the investigation in a report that calls the incident an act of nature and denies culpability. The report was contrary to an independent investigation that found fault in the recently merged company's safety culture. MSHA had seized control of the site hours after the explosion. Later, safety officials would determine 29 coal miners had died as a result of the explosion. In June, Massey asked the commission to remove some of the modifications that had been made to the control order to complete an internal investigation. ||||| A federal appeals court today ruled in favor of Massey Energy Co. -- now owned by Alpha Natural Resources Inc. -- over the federal government's handling of the investigation into the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia. The case concerns the refusal of the government to allow Massey to immediately challenge an order that restricted it from completing its own investigation into the April 5, 2010, incident at the mine, in which 29 miners died. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia concluded that the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, which handles legal disputes over mining regulations, was wrong to rule that it had no authority to consider Massey's appeal. The judges had appeared sympathetic to Massey during the oral argument in April (Greenwire, April 4). After the incident, the Mine Safety and Health Administration immediately seized control of the mine, as authorized under the Mine Act, by issuing a control order. In June 2010, Massey asked the commission to lift modifications to that control order that prevented it from carrying out its investigation, but that request was rejected. The commission said the Mine Act did not allow it to grant temporary relief from a modification to a control order. The appeals court disagreed. Writing for a unanimous panel, Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote that the government's position was "simply untenable." The government had maintained that statutory language in the Mine Act was ambiguous, which therefore meant the government had some leeway in how it interpreted it. But Brown wrote that the statutory language "satisfies us that the provision is unambiguous," meaning that Massey could seek temporary relief from "any order." Clearly unimpressed with the government's position, Brown concluded that the statute is, in fact, "a model of near-perfect clarity." The court also rejected the commission's argument that the case was moot because the modifications to the order were no longer in effect. Massey noted in court papers that it could not take or retain photographs, collect mine dust samples or participate in destructive testing of materials gathered underground. The government's actions potentially deprived Massey of "potentially important exculpatory evidence" that could be vital depending on what conclusion is reached in the investigation, the company's lawyers maintained. Massey denies blame The ruling comes in the wake of a report by independent investigator Davitt McAteer, appointed by former West Virginia Gov. and now U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D), faulting Massey for contributing to the explosion through a focus on profits over safety. But earlier this month, a former Massey executive, without Alpha's approval, released the results of the company's own investigation (E&ENews; PM, June 3). Massey denies wrongdoing in its report and blasts the Mine Safety and Health Administration for a "deeply flawed" investigation, saying the agency has been trying to build a case against Massey instead of looking for the true cause of last April's disaster. "Although MSHA closed off the mine from any underground investigation for nearly three months to allow conditions to improve, MSHA nevertheless affixed blame in the interim," the Massey report says, adding that the agency put up numerous obstacles to the company's assessment. MSHA is scheduled to release more information about its investigation later this month. A Justice Department criminal probe is also ongoing. Click here (pdf) to read the ruling. Copyright 2011 E&E; Publishing. All Rights Reserved. ||||| 1. MINING: Massey refuses blame for Upper Big Branch, is rebuked by new owner (E&ENews PM, 06/03/2011) Advertisement Manuel Quinones, E&E; reporter A former Massey Energy Co. executive today released the results of the company's investigation into the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 miners in West Virginia last year, contradicting the results of an independent probe released last month. The Massey report -- released just days after the company was bought by Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and without its new owner's permission -- blames the deadly blast on a "massive inundation of natural gas." Breaking with results from the independent probe led by former Mine Safety and Health Administration chief Davitt McAteer, who was appointed by former West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) to investigate the disaster, the Massey document says coal dust "did not contribute materially" to the magnitude or severity of the blast. "Immediately after the accident, MSHA captured gas samples from air exiting from the mine's exhaust fan," the Massey report says. "These samples show conclusively that the mine experiences a massive inundation of natural gas that was distinct in its composition from ordinary coal bed methane." The McAteer report cited poor ventilation systems at Upper Big Branch, which allowed a buildup of explosive gases. And it said water sprays on a mining machine did not function adequately, prompting a small ignition to grow in strength. The Massey report also tries to shoot down those assertions. "Despite the contrary evidence, the government has settled upon the longwall shearer as the ignition source," it says. "As with other aspects of the government's investigation, its theory cannot be reconciled with evidence." In a cover letter accompanying the report, Bobby Inman, the former Massey chairman, said the report's release was delayed to avoid bad publicity in advance of the Alpha-Massey merger. The delay was requested by Alpha executives and major Massey shareholders, he said. Inman previously accused the Obama administration of wanting to "destroy" Massey, according to unsealed court documents (Greenwire, May 25). McAteer's report paints Massey as a rogue operator, focused more on profits than safety (Greenwire, May 19). "A company that was towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking," it says. But the Massey document paints the company as a promoter of mine safety that was under attack by regulators. In his cover letter, Inman said, "My fellow Board member Stan Suboleski, who has great expertise in this area, will provide a critique of the McAteer report in the next week or two." The Massey report directs its heaviest fire at MSHA, saying the agency has been trying to build a case against Massey instead of looking for the true cause of last April's disaster. "It is unacceptable to expect MSHA to act as the investigator, judge and jury when their direct actions or lack thereof may have contributed to accidents," Inman wrote. Even as Massey's report takes aim at MSHA's investigation, the federal agency has yet to make its findings public, other than preliminary reports that appear to conform with McAteer's conclusions. "We are currently reviewing the findings that appear in Massey's report released this morning," an agency spokesman said in a statement. "MSHA's own conclusions about the cause of the explosion at Upper Big Branch will be discussed in great detail at our public briefing June 29 in [Beckley, W.Va]." Alpha responds In a statement this afternoon, Alpha Natural Resources called the report's release "inappropriate." Alpha said it would conduct its own probe into the Upper Big Branch disaster and promised to cooperate with pending government investigations, including a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice. "Alpha Natural Resources did not commission or authorize the release of the report or the letter, and was not given the opportunity to review either this report or the letter before the public release," the statement said. "Although Alpha did not operate the Upper Big Branch mine at the time of this tragic explosion, Alpha feels strongly that the families of the fallen miners are owed a complete and final explanation of the circumstances surrounding the accident." The release puts Alpha CEO Kevin Crutchfield in a tough spot. He has taken pains to promise a safer future for former Massey mines. In a statement after the merger he said, "We will immediately begin building upon our history of successful integrations, including implementing Alpha's unique employee-driven Running Right philosophy of safety and environmental stewardship across the businesses." Click here to read the Massey report. | West Virginia. In a unanimous decision, a US federal appeals court issued a ruling Friday against the federal government, in favor of , owner of the Upper Branch Mine in West Virginia, the location of last year's that killed 29 workers. The court ruled the company may appeal the restrictions placed on it by a government order hindering the company's ability to conduct its own internal investigation of the disaster. The order controlling Massey's investigations into the disaster was placed on Massey immediately after the incident by the (MSHA) when it seized control of the coal mine six hours after the blast on April 5. MSHA's controls prohibited Massey from "taking or retaining photographs, collecting and preserving mine dust samples, employing mine mapping technology, and participating in or objecting to any destructive testing of materials gathered underground." Massey said MSHA's restrictions prevented the company from evaluating the accident site before it was altered by investigators, and denied Massey the chance to gather evidence to use in the company's defense. Massey's appeal to the (the commission that decides disputes over mining regulations) to void the order by MSHA was denied by the commission. It based its decision on its interpretation of the that it had no authority to consider Massey's appeal. The set aside this decision, finding the commission's interpretation of the act was "simply untenable" and the government's actions had denied Massey the opportunity to gather "potentially important exculpatory evidence". The court rejected the commission's position that the Mine Act's language was ambiguous, allowing the government flexibility in its implementation. Rather, the court said, "No matter how you parse it, the act is a model of near-perfect clarity. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a clearer expression of congressional language." It also rejected the commission's position that the case was moot: "This case is not moot. Indeed, even the counsel recognized the near-frivolity of this argument, and made only a half-hearted attempt to persuade us." The court's ruling comes after a state government-comissioned report issued on May 19 by investigators found Massey Energy responsible for the deaths of the 29 workers. The workers were killed in an explosion that could have been avoided, the report said, if Massey had put in place standard safety procedures. "The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris. A company that was a towering presence in the coal fields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk taking," the report read. "The company's ventilation system did not adequately ventilate the mine. As a result, explosive gases were allowed to build up." The report detailed claims Massey threatened miners with termination if they stopped work in areas that lacked adequate oxygen levels and listed numerous other state and federal safety standards that Massey failed to follow. Also blamed in the report was MSHA for failing to enforce federal regulations. The report was considered by the those in the mining industry as especially direct and "hard hitting". It firmly rejected conclusions reached by Massey officials that the incident was caused by an unexpected, massive, and uncontrollable bubble eruption, an occurrence that Massey said it could neither predict nor manage. The company immediately challenged the report and issued its own report on June 3, blaming the blast on an act of nature and denying the company's safety culture was at fault. MSHA also have an as-yet unreleased report in the works. |
Exiled PM and his wife have to be present to receive charges on SC Asset : DSI Exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, Pojaman, have to be present to receive the formal charges on alleged share concealment in the case linking British Virgin Islands-registered Win Mark with his family's property company, SC Asset. Department of Special Investigation (DSI)'s chief Sunai Manomai-udom said that Thaksin, Pojaman, and Busaba Damapong, were asked to report themselves with DSI between June 26-29. If Thaksin claimed that he could not be present because he is now in a foreign country, the investigators will consider whether he intended not to receive the formal charges or not. If he is considered intending to do so, the investigators will issue an order again. If he failed to be present, an arrest warrant will be issued. DSI on Tuesday charged Thaksin, his wife and Busaba, of alleged share concealment in the case linking British Virgin Islands-registered Win Mark with SC Asset. The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Thaksin of failing to inform the authorities of his shareholding in OAI Property, the old name of SC Asset. In filing his stake, Thaksin did not include the shares he transferred to Win Mark, saying that Win Mark was not his company. If convicted under the Securities and Exchange Act, Thaksin would be subject to up to five years' imprisonment and a fine no more than twice the value of the shares he offered to sell to related parties. The value of shares Thaksin sold in 2000 was Bt969 million, meaning he could be fined Bt1.938 billion. In 2000, Thaksin said he had sold shares in three property companies - OAI Property, PT and SCK Asset - to Win Mark for a total of Bt906 million. However, the Democrats found that Win Mark also held shares in two other companies: SC Office Park and Worth Supplies. Total investment in the five firms was Bt1.5 billion. In his 2000 statement, Thaksin said Win Mark had bought the shares on expectation of reaping profits when the firms were listed. However, Win Mark had sold shares in OAI Property to Value Asset Fund of Malaysia (VAF) in 2003, and three weeks later VAF sold the shares to Overseas Globe Fund and Offshore Dynamic Fund Inc. The three funds share the same address in Malaysia. Remarkably, the sale took place before OAI Property, later renamed SC Asset, was about to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in November of that year. VAF also transferred the right to buy 70 million new shares of OAI at their Bt10 par value to Thaksin's daughters, Pinthongta and Paetongtarn. Based on the initial public offering price of Bt15 per share, the two children automatically netted a total profit of Bt350 million. The Nation ||||| Thaksin ordered to appear before Thai police Related News Thaksin calls for elections in Thailand Thaksin has no immediate plans to return to Thailand: spokesman Thai PM says Thaksin can return from exile BANGKOK: Thailand's ousted and exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ordered on Tuesday to appear before police in Bangkok next week to face corruption charges. Thaksin and his wife Pojaman, who are both out of the country, will be charged with making fraudulent filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission over the 2003 listing of a property company owned by his family, police said. They will also be charged with failing to inform the Stock Exchange of Thailand about later transactions involving the company, SC Asset, which was part of Thaksin's Shin Corp telecom empire, police added. Thaksin and Pojaman were both ordered to appear before police between June 26 and 29 to hear the charges, said Sunai Manomai-udom, head of the Department of Special Investigations. "If they intentionally fail to appear, we must issue an arrest warrant," Sunai told reporters. Thaksin's lawyer, Noppadon Pattama, said he was studying the latest charges to see if he could represent his client before the police. Sunai said the fraudulent filings in 2003 covered up the fact that Thaksin and his family held a controlling stake in the company. If convicted, Thaksin and his wife could each face five years in prison and fined at least 500,000 baht (15,000 dollars), Sunai added. Thaksin was in New York when the military toppled his government in September. He has remained in exile since then, staying mainly in London. His wife has travelled in and out of Thailand, but she missed an appearance before anti-corruption authorities on Tuesday, with her lawyer saying she was hospitalised in Singapore. Pojaman was due to testify before the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) over the family's controversial sale of Shin Corp, which earned them 1.9 billion dollars in a tax-free deal in early 2006. The sale of Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings sparked street protests and eventually led to Thaksin's overthrow in a coup last September. "She claimed through a lawyer that she was sick in Singapore," said AEC spokesman Sak Korsaengrung. She was reportedly suffering from headaches and heart problems. Sak said Pojaman was seeking to delay the hearing until July 19 – a request the AEC would discuss once they receive an official medical certificate. Pojaman has already been charged with tax evasion stemming from a 1997 share deal. She has pleaded not guilty and a court is currently hearing the case. Her and her husband are also facing corruption charges linked to a controversial land purchase, while the AEC last week froze 1.52 billion dollars in assets held by Thaksin and his family. The military government have cited corruption and abuse of power as key reasons for Thaksin's ouster, and are under pressure to pin down the billionaire businessman on graft charges. In addition to the legal challenges to Thaksin's business empire, a military-appointed court last month dissolved his political party and barred him and 110 other top party members from running for office for five years. - AFP/so ||||| Wife of exiled PM asks AEC to delay hearing on sales of Shin stocks Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra's lawyer Somporn Pongsuwan said that it is up to AEC's decision whether to agree to the request. Somporn told reporters after submitting the request for the postponement to AEC that Pojaman is sick with headache and unusual heart beating. He also presented medical certificate from Raffle Hospital in Singapore to prove the claim to the AEC. AEC spokesman Sak Korsaengrueng said in a separate interview that AEC has not yet decided on the request and asked the lawyer to present an official medicate certificate and details of symtoms of Khunying Pojaman's illness within seven days. The certificate the lawyer presented to the AEC was not official one, he said. Pojaman is scheduled Tuesday to give testimony to the graft busters on her sales of Shin Corp stocks to Singapore-owned Temasek Holdings. AEC's spokesman Sak Korsaengrueng said on June 6 that Pojaman could face up to six months in jail if she failed to turn up to testify at the AEC on Tuesday. Sak said it appeared she intentionally postponed giving testimony on the Shin share sale twice in order to delay any move to prosecute. by Budsarakham Sinlapalavan The Nation ||||| BANGKOK, Aug 19 (TNA) - Thailand is gearing up to host the next meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in October when the government will urge members to the convention to stop the trade in 'jungle food. Over 2,000 delegates from 166 member states are due to flock to Bangkok's Queen Sirikit Convention Centre to attend the 13th CITES meeting on 2-14 October. This year's meeting will focus on reviewing the current list of endangered flora and fauna, and will work to ensure that signatories to the convention strictly enforce its precepts. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said today that Thailand would call on members to the convention, particularly those in Asia, to reduce, or refrain from consuming 'jungle food'. Noting that a lack of demand for 'jungle food' would serve to stifle the illegal wildlife trade, he said that crackdowns in Thailand had already proved highly successful. However, he conceded that the complete eradication of the illegal wildlife trade was a virtual impossibility. Thailand will also propose that Irrawaddy dolphins, which are close to extinction, are placed on the CITES top list of most endangered species. Government figures show that from October 2003 to June 2004, Thailand's authorities have been able to size 1,787 illegally traded mammals, including pangolins and bears, 11,367 birds, 917 reptiles, 414 fish, and ivory weighing nearly 5,500 kilograms. (TNA)--E006 ||||| BANGKOK, Aug 19 (TNA) - Thai researchers are developing a vaccine and new treatment methods for leptospirosis, which should become available within the next three years, a senior researcher from the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) confirmed today. Noting that recent flooding in Thailand had made outbreaks of leptospirosis a particular hazard, Prof. Wanphen Chakhampha said that attempts to control the disease had to date been hampered by the ineffectiveness of diagnostic tools, and the fact that early symptoms were those shared by many other diseases. However, she said that a team of researchers from Thammasat University had already developed an accurate diagnostic kit which was able to provide results in only two hours, and which could be used to detect all strains of the bacteria, even in people who were not yet displaying symptoms. Leptospirosis, or 'rat pee disease' as it is known more prosaically in Thai, is spread by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals. Certain occupations, such as farming, refuse collection, mining and work in abattoirs, put people particularly at risk. Symptoms can range from a light headache to kidney damage, liver failure, meningitis and respiratory disease. In rare cases the disease can be fatal. Prof. Wanphen said that funding had been provided for second phase research, which would include a search for effective treatment methods and the development of an animal vaccine against the disease. She expressed hope that these new developments would be available for use within the next three years. (TNA)--E006 | __NOTOC__ Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005. Ousted and living in exile, with assets frozen in Thailand, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ordered today by the Royal Thai Police to appear on charges related to the sale of some of his family's stock holdings. The order adds to mounting, increasingly complex legal troubles for Thaksin, the telecommunications billionaire who led Thailand until he was unseated in a coup last year. Thaksin and his wife, Potjaman Shinawatra, who are both outside of Thailand, were both ordered to present themselves to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) by June 29 at the latest. A relative of Potjaman's, Busaba Damapong, was also ordered to appear. "If they intentionally fail to appear, we must issue an arrest warrant," DSI chief Sunai Manomai-udom was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse. Noppadol Pattama, Thaksin's lawyer and spokesman in Thailand, could not say when his client would return. "We will have to seek legal consultations among the lawyers. His security is only one factor. We will have to see what our options are and consult with him as well," Noppadol was quoted as saying by Associated Press. Last week, interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and the junta's leader, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, both said Thaksin could return to Thailand of his own free will, in order to appeal the seizure of his assets. But later, Sonthi said Thaksin might face harm if he returned too soon. The latest charges relate to the transfer of shares in 2000 in a real-estate company called SC Asset to a British Virgin Islands-owned company called Win Mark. Police say the Shinwatras' controlling ownership of SC Asset was illegally concealed through nominees. Potjaman's relative, Busaba Damapong, served as executive director of SC Asset. Through nominee companies and disclosed shares, Sunai said, the Shinawatra family owned 79.87 percent of SC Asset. "Not only did they have control of a majority stake but also control over board decisions," Sunai told Associated Press. They broke the law in failing to report their ownership in SC Asset and failing to report the transfer of the shares, Sunai said. They could face five years in prison and fined at least 500,000 baht (about US$15,000), Sunai added. Thaksin is also supected of violating the prohibition on Cabinet members holding shares in publicly traded companies, and could face up to ten years in prison and a 1 million baht fine for that. ===Potjaman's legal troubles, land purchase=== Potjaman and Thaksin were also charged yesterday over the purchase of a 13-acre tract of land along Ratchadaphisek Road near the Thailand Cultural Centre in Bangkok. The Office of the Attorney General says Potjaman purchased the land in an auction that was possibly rigged. Valued at 2.1 billion baht before the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and 870 million baht after, Potjaman purchased the land in 2003 for 772 million baht. The Attorney General's office is recommending to the Supreme Court that the land be confiscated by the government. Potjaman is also sought in Thailand to testify before the Assets Examination Committee (AEC) on the sales of her family's Shin Corporation stock to Singapore-owned Temasek Holdings. She sent word today that she is seeking medical treatment for headache and irregular heartbeat in Raffles Hospital in Singapore, and that she asked the AEC to delay the hearing. Potjaman appeared in court last month to plead not guilty to charges of tax evasion in the sale of Shin Corp. stock to Temasek. ===Missing 8 million baht found=== The AEC yesterday ordered an additional seven bank accounts seized after it was discovered that the accounts are controlled by the Shinawatra and Damapong families. The accounts contain 8 million baht that was feared missing last week after the AEC ordered 21 of Thaksin's bank accounts frozen. The 8 million baht had been transferred just before the AEC's order, to the other seven accounts. Authorities have frozen a total of 52 billion baht, or about US$1.6 billion, frozen, money they say came from the Shinawatra family's sale of Shin Corp. stock to Temasek. The stock sale prompted mass protests against Thaksin last year and was one of the factors in the coup that overthrew his government. The authorities also believe that the Shinawatras and the Damapongs have 73 billion baht from the stock sale remaining in Thailand, and officials are still hunting for another 21 billion baht to seize. |
Nobel Winner Chu To Land Top Energy Post Enlarge Ben Margot Enlarge Chip Somodevilla NPR.org, Steven Chu, a renowned physicist and green-energy advocate, has reportedly been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to run the federal Department of Energy. Chu runs the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, and he has made climate change the new centerpiece of his career. Chu's resume contains an item never before seen on a DOE director's CV: a Nobel Prize in physics. Chu, who comes from an immigrant family of scientists, shared the prize with two other physicists in 1997. His contribution was an ingenious set of experiments that captured atoms in different kinds of "atom traps." He created the traps by firing lasers at right angles to each other. The laser light functioned as a sort of "optical molasses," according to the Nobel committee. Individual atoms slowed down within the laser beams, enough so that scientists could study their inner structure. Chu did most of that work at AT&T; Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. He went from there to a research position at Stanford University, then took over the Lawrence Berkeley lab in 2004. He is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Lab staff declined to comment on the choice of Chu for DOE. News agencies have cited sources at the Obama transition team as confirming his selection. A Democratic aide also said Obama has settled on former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner for a new position coordinating White House policy on energy, climate and environmental issues. A Rising Star Scientists in the energy field have watched Chu's star rise over the past few years as he turned the lab toward research in new forms of low-carbon energy. "Steve has given the lab clear and innovative direction. He has taken the lab's strength in energy efficiency ... and pushed it along the whole spectrum, from basic to applied science," says Dan Kammen, a physicist and energy analyst at UC, Berkeley. And having a Nobel laureate running DOE, Kammen adds, "is a neat sign for science." Chu has turned his attention in the past few years to building financial support for alternative energy research. He helped win half a billion dollars from British Petroleum to fund an Energy Biosciences Institute, which focuses research at several institutions, including his lab, on producing biofuels from plant materials. In fact, some of Chu's earlier work in physics applied techniques similar to atom-trapping to biological materials such as DNA. Urging Action On Global Warming Chu has used his reputation to urge action to slow global warming. In a PBS news program last year, he said it was his obligation. "In the last five or six years," he said, "I was following this as an interested citizen. And it became more and more apparent to me that the dangers, the potential risks of climate change were looking like they were more and more likely, and that ... as a scientist, a responsible scientist, you really have to think of what you can do to help with this problem." Chu also established the Helios Center within the Berkeley lab, aimed at research on new fuels for transportation. These include making biofuels from biomass, using algae in fermentation tanks to make fuel, and applying solar energy to convert water and carbon dioxide to fuels. The Coal Question The Department of Energy is the leading supporter of energy research within the federal government. As director, Chu will have to grapple with powerful supporters of coal, who have backed new DOE research on turning coal into liquid fuel. The department has also dedicated tens of millions of dollars to designing new power plants that capture carbon dioxide from coal before turning it into a gas to make electricity. Much of coal's future — it currently is used to make about half the country's electricity — depends on research funded by DOE on how to bury that captured carbon dioxide so it won't rise into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. A major part of DOE's budget is dedicated to nuclear weapons research and maintaining the military's nuclear arsenal. Among the biggest tasks facing the agency is disposing of nuclear waste from civilian power plants and government weapons labs around the country. The leading candidate for a dump site, Yucca Mountain in Nevada, has been mired in technical and legal debate for years and is decades behind schedule. ||||| Nobel physicist Chu in line for Obama energy post Nobel physicist Steven Chu in line for energy post WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama is expected to nominate Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu to become the nation's next energy secretary. Obama also is poised to select Lisa Jackson to head the Environmental Protection Agency, while one-time EPA administrator Carol Browner would serve in the White House as an overall energy "czar." Jackson worked at the EPA during Browner's tenure, and is former administrator of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The selection of a scientist rather than a Washington insider as energy secretary suggests that in the Obama administration, energy policy will be directed out of the White House rather than the Energy Department. Frank Maisano, a Washington-based energy specialist with Bracewell & Giuliani, said Obama has selected "capable, bright people" who will be "solid managers at EPA and the the Department of Energy." "But it also underscores the high profile the White House will play in energy policy within its own walls," Maisano said. Chu has served for the last four years as director of the Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. He was an early advocate of finding scientific solutions to combat climate change, according to the Berkeley Lab Web site. And during his tenure there, he has worked to make the Berkeley facility a world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, particularly with the development of carbon-neutral energy sources. In 1997, Chu shared the Nobel Prize in physics for his work to develop methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. david.ivanovich@chron.com ||||| By Deborah Charles CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama's team to address climate change emerged on Wednesday as Democratic officials said he had chosen a Nobel laureate for U.S. energy secretary and was likely to pick an environmental veteran to serve as coordinator of climate policies. Rounding out his cabinet, Obama planned to announce at a Chicago news conference on Thursday that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, would lead efforts to improve the U.S. health care system as the secretary of Health and Human Services. Simmering in the background is the scandal involving Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested on Tuesday and charged with attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat that Obama had held until he was elected president on November 4. Obama on Wednesday called on Blagojevich to resign and has sought to distance himself from the disgraced governor. Announcements to come in the days ahead include several key environment-related appointments -- Steven Chu as energy secretary, Carol Browner as energy and climate coordinator, Nancy Sutley to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Lisa Jackson to run the Environmental Protection Agency. They will be charged with developing policies to reduce carbon emissions blamed for global warming, develop new sources of energy and create new jobs -- a top priority for Obama. Chu is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics. He was an early advocate for scientific solutions to climate change. Browner was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration. A principal at global strategy firm The Albright Group LLC, she heads Obama's advisory team on energy and the environment. Sutley has a long history in the environmental community. She is currently deputy mayor for energy and environment for Los Angeles and served on the California State Water Resources Control Board earlier this decade. Jackson has served as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection in New Jersey. 46 MILLION UNINSURED AMERICANS A big challenge for Obama and Daschle will be extending health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and determining whether to reshape a system that is currently employer-based. Close to 46 million Americans have no health insurance, and Americans are more likely to die of common diseases than people living in many other developed countries. Daschle has already been involved in considering ways to improve the system. Obama's transition team in the second half of this month will hold a series of meetings across the country to discuss ways to change the way health care is delivered. During the campaign, Obama pledged to bring health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans and spend about $50 billion to make U.S. health records electronic. Continued... | According to reports, Barack Obama, the President-elect of the United States, will nominate Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, to be his Secretary of Energy. Steven Chu in 2005 Chu has been the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California for the past four years. He shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997 with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William Daniel Phillips for developing ways to cool and trap atoms with a laser light. In the past, Chu was the head of an electronics lab at the Bell Labs in New Jersey. He has also worked on solar technologies and global warming, and is a professor at the University of California. Chu has worked on ways to develop carbon-neutral energy. Chu is currently scheduled to travel Asia and Europe and is expected to be back at work on Monday, according to a spokesperson at Lawrence Berkeley. |
Missing Afghan Passenger Jet Found Crashed in Mountains Afghan National Army patrol searches for missing Afghan plane in Khaki Jabar Afghan and foreign troops have found the wreckage of a passenger plane missing since Thursday. Authorities say there are no signs of any survivors. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said Saturday the Kam Air Boeing 737 went down just outside the capital Kabul, where it had been trying to land. "The debris of the plane was found around 25 kilometers east of Kabul in a mountainous area called Band-e Ghazi," said Latfullah Mashal. One hundred and four people are reported to have been on board the flight when it went down. Most were Afghans, but about 20 foreigners were aboard, including several members of the eight-person crew. The aircraft had been en route to Kabul from the western city of Herat, but was diverted from the Kabul airport because of heavy snow. The plane had sought clearance to land across the border in Peshawar, Pakistan, before it lost contact with air control. Mr. Mashal says the plane broke up on impact. "The plane is completely destroyed, turned into wreckage, and most of the parts of the plane are covered with snow," he said. Snow and fog had slowed the search for the plane, but helicopters flown by NATO peacekeeping troops found the crash site Saturday. Mr. Mashal says Afghan police and units from Afghanistan's foreign peacekeeping force are investigating the scene of the crash. ||||| World News The daily toll from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy fell to 153 on Saturday, its lowest since March 9, against 242 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases increased to 875 from 789 on Friday. ||||| Afghan police officers search the site of the crash, February 5. (AP Photo) NATO helicopters have spotted the wreckage of an Afghan airliner that disappeared in the mountains east of Kabul. All 104 people on board appeared to have been killed, officials say. The Kam Air Boeing 737-200 vanished from radar screens on Thursday while flying from the western city of Herat to the Afghan capital. The aircraft had been turned away from Kabul's airport because of a severe blizzard. The pilot had contacted an airport in neighboring Pakistan for permission to land and was not heard from again. Rugged terrain in Sorobi District and freezing fog and heavy snow slowed the search. Airline officials say at least 21 foreigners were among the 96 passengers, including nine Turks and six Americans. Six Russian crew members and two Afghan staff were also on board. On Friday, Canada's foreign affairs department said it's investigating whether any Canadians were on the flight. Unconfirmed reports said one of the pilots carried a Canadian passport. Officials say NATO ground teams and about 200 Afghan national army troops were heading to the crash site, preparing for the job of picking through the wreckage. The team includes a convoy of German armoured vehicles from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO-led peacekeeping force operating in Afghanistan. ISAF says the wreckage is at an altitude of 3,000 metres (9,840 feet). | On Saturday NATO and Afghan troops located the wreckage of the missing since Thursday. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal announced the discovery. "The debris of the plane was found around 25 kilometers east of Kabul in a mountainous area called Band-e Ghazi." The jet had been enroute to Kabul from when it was diverted due to heavy snow. The crew then sought clearance to land across the border in , before it lost contact with air control. 104 persons are reported to have been aboard, including 8 crew members; there are no signs of survivors reported. The weather conditions have hampered search and rescue efforts. NATO-operated helicopters located the crash site. Afghan police and units from Afghanistan's foreign peacekeeping force are investigating the scene of the crash, according to Mr. Mashal. |
I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called "Face" of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such "liberal blogs" as the Democratic Underground. Being called an "attention whore" and being told "good riddance" are some of the more milder rebukes. I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me. The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system? However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left", but "right and wrong." I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt "two" party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland. I am demonized because I don’t see party affiliation or nationality when I look at a person, I see that person’s heart. If someone looks, dresses, acts, talks and votes like a Republican, then why do they deserve support just because he/she calls him/herself a Democrat? I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an "attention whore" then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others. I have spent every available cent I got from the money a "grateful" country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey’s brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times. The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most. I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions. Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people. However, in five, ten, or fifteen years, our troops will come limping home in another abject defeat and ten or twenty years from then, our children’s children will be seeing their loved ones die for no reason, because their grandparents also bought into this corrupt system. George Bush will never be impeached because if the Democrats dig too deeply, they may unearth a few skeletons in their own graves and the system will perpetuate itself in perpetuity. I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost. I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble. Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford , Texas ? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too...which makes the property even more valuable. This is my resignation letter as the "face" of the American anti-war movement. This is not my "Checkers" moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources. Good-bye America ...you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it. It’s up to you now. ||||| Fast Facts Fueling Sheehan's decision to end her public protest was frustration with national politics as well her unsuccessful attempts to work "within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life." WHAT DO YOU THINK? Go To Comments (CBS/AP) Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan announced Monday she is giving up her role as the "face" of the American anti-war movement. "I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday while driving from her property in Crawford to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California. "I'm going home for awhile to try and be normal," she said. Sheehan, 49, of Vacaville, Calif., lost her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She has since emerged as one of the most vocal and high-profile opponents of the war, drawing international attention nearly two years ago when she camped outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch to protest the war. "I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost," Sheehan said. "I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources," she said. In announcing her decision in a statement released to the liberal blog Daily Kos, Sheehan said the protest had taken an enormous physical and emotional toll on her. Sheehan said she had sacrificed a 29-year marriage and endured threats to put all her energy into stopping the war. "I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times," Sheehan said. But she said the most devastating conclusion she had reached "was that Casey did indeed die for nothing ... killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think". Fueling Sheehan's decision to end her public protest was frustration with national politics as well her unsuccessful attempts to work "within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life." "It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions," Sheehan said. Cindy Sheehan started her protest small in August 2005, but it quickly drew national attention. Over the following two years, she drew huge crowds as she spoke at protest events, but she also drew a great deal of criticism. When she had first taken on Mr. Bush, Sheehan was a darling of the liberal left. "However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used," she wrote. "I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of 'right or left', but 'right and wrong,"' the diary says. Sheehan criticized "blind party loyalty" as a danger, no matter which side it involved, and said the current two-party system is "corrupt" and "rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland." Sheehan paid for a 5-acre lot about 7 miles from Mr. Bush's ranch last month so protesters would have a place to gather while the president is at his ranch. Last year, she started out camped in ditches along the road leading to Mr. Bush's ranch, until county officials banned roadside parking and camping. A sympathetic landowner then let the group gather on his 1-acre lot near the ranch. "Camp Casey has served its purpose," Sheehan said. "Its for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too...which makes the property even more valuable." © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | New Orleans in 2005. War protestor Cindy Sheehan, the mother of fallen soldier Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq 3 years ago, wrote on what has been published by the Daily Kos as a personal web journal on Monday morning, a day in observance of Memorial Day in the United States, that "This is my resignation letter as the 'face' of the American anti-war movement." Her son Casey would have been 28 years old Tuesday. In what she writes are meditations upon developments in Sheehan’s life after she began a war protest that led her and a following of people to Camp Casey, beside the Texas ranch of President Bush in August 2005, included the notion that, "The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think." In the text of Sheehan's diary she is unable to reconcile herself with the Democratic Party that on Thursday, May 24, succumbed to the Bush administration on language for a troop funding bill that at one time tied funding to a time limit for U.S. involvement in Iraq. The presidential veto of that legislation to set a deadline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq resulted in the U.S. Congress caving to executive branch over the issue of war funding, and may have been the final straw for Sheehan. "I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike," wrote Sheehan. Sheehan said that she has spent every bit of money that she has received as compensation for the loss of her son from the U.S. government, and as a person who garnished speaking fees from the national attention on her campaign against the Iraq war, on trying to bring peace. "I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost," wrote Sheehan. |
Top Stories - Yahoo! India News Taliban demand Indians leave Afghanistan By Mirwais Afghan KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents on Saturday threatened to kill a kidnapped Indian telecommunications worker unless Indians left Afghanistan. The Indian and his Afghan driver were kidnapped after gunmen stopped their car on a road in the volatile southern province of Zabul on Friday. "If India does not pull out all its nationals working in Afghanistan by 6 p.m. (1330 GMT) tomorrow, we're going to kill him," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone from an undisclosed location. In New Delhi, the Indian foreign ministry said it was sending a team of officials to Kabul to help secure the release of the man, whom it named as K. Suryanarayan. The team included members with hostage negotiation skills. But it said India was committed to maintaining a presence in Afghanistan to help work on economic development. India has close relations with Afghanistan and is involved in numerous aid and reconstruction projects. Violence and lawlessness across much of the Afghan south has crippled development, and the main task of thousands of NATO troops due soon to move into the region will be to ensure sufficient security for reconstruction. Militants have kidnapped aid agency staff and foreign company workers, who the Taliban say are supporting the Western-backed government. Some have been released but several, including Turks and Indians, have been killed. Police reinforcements had been sent to Zabul to help with the hunt for the Indian and his driver, said Gulab Shah Alikhail, spokesman for the governor of Zabul. "By the grace of God, we'll find him soon safe and sound," Alikhail. He declined to comment on the Taliban demand and threat to kill the Indian, a contract worker for Afghan telecommunications company Roshan. INDIAN PRESENCE Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said the Indian government was in touch with the Afghan authorities to establish whether the threat to kill Suryanarayan did indeed came from the people who kidnapped him. "Our presence in that country is to promote the welfare of the people of Afghanistan ..." he said in a statement. "We wish to assure the government and the people of Afghanistan that India stands by them and will continue to fulfill its solemn commitments to Afghanistan's development." Security is a major worry in Afghanistan with Taliban attacks mounting as NATO prepares to double its peacekeeping operations, and the United States hopes to cut its forces there by several thousand. In a separate incident on Saturday, two Taliban were killed when government troops attacked a Taliban hideout in the volatile southern province of Helmand, a commander said. About 3,500 British troops are going to be stationed in Helmand province, where the two Taliban were killed in an hour-long clash, said General Rahmatullah Raufi. U.S. and Afghan opposition forces drove the Taliban from power in late 2001 after the Islamists refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks. (Additional reporting by Shailendra Bhatnagar in New Delhi) ||||| Top Stories - Yahoo! India News Taliban demand Indians leave Afghanistan By Mirwais Afghan KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents on Saturday threatened to kill a kidnapped Indian telecommunications worker unless Indians left Afghanistan. The Indian and his Afghan driver were kidnapped after gunmen stopped their car on a road in the volatile southern province of Zabul on Friday. "If India does not pull out all its nationals working in Afghanistan by 6 p.m. (1330 GMT) tomorrow, we're going to kill him," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone from an undisclosed location. In New Delhi, the Indian foreign ministry said it was sending a team of officials to Kabul to help secure the release of the man, whom it named as K. Suryanarayan. The team included members with hostage negotiation skills. But it said India was committed to maintaining a presence in Afghanistan to help work on economic development. India has close relations with Afghanistan and is involved in numerous aid and reconstruction projects. Violence and lawlessness across much of the Afghan south has crippled development, and the main task of thousands of NATO troops due soon to move into the region will be to ensure sufficient security for reconstruction. Militants have kidnapped aid agency staff and foreign company workers, who the Taliban say are supporting the Western-backed government. Some have been released but several, including Turks and Indians, have been killed. Police reinforcements had been sent to Zabul to help with the hunt for the Indian and his driver, said Gulab Shah Alikhail, spokesman for the governor of Zabul. "By the grace of God, we'll find him soon safe and sound," Alikhail. He declined to comment on the Taliban demand and threat to kill the Indian, a contract worker for Afghan telecommunications company Roshan. INDIAN PRESENCE Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said the Indian government was in touch with the Afghan authorities to establish whether the threat to kill Suryanarayan did indeed came from the people who kidnapped him. "Our presence in that country is to promote the welfare of the people of Afghanistan ..." he said in a statement. "We wish to assure the government and the people of Afghanistan that India stands by them and will continue to fulfill its solemn commitments to Afghanistan's development." Security is a major worry in Afghanistan with Taliban attacks mounting as NATO prepares to double its peacekeeping operations, and the United States hopes to cut its forces there by several thousand. In a separate incident on Saturday, two Taliban were killed when government troops attacked a Taliban hideout in the volatile southern province of Helmand, a commander said. About 3,500 British troops are going to be stationed in Helmand province, where the two Taliban were killed in an hour-long clash, said General Rahmatullah Raufi. U.S. and Afghan opposition forces drove the Taliban from power in late 2001 after the Islamists refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks. (Additional reporting by Shailendra Bhatnagar in New Delhi) | An Indian engineer working in Afghanistan was kidnapped on Friday evening while travelling from , the capital of province, to . A. Suryanarayana works for a Bahraini telecommunications and construction firm, ''Al Mayyad''. According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, , a spokesman for the Taliban, has claimed responsibility. Later, another spokesman for the Taliban, threatened to kill Suryanarayana within hours if their demand that all Indian citizens leave Afghanistan within 24 hours is not met. The abducted man's wife has said that she and her three children will commit suicide if anything untoward happens to her husband. A team of Indian experts headed by the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, K.B.S. Katoch, has been dispatched to Afghanistan to facilitate the release of Suryanarayana. |
Iran, Venezuela bash US, seek stronger ties Posted Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have slammed arch-foe the United States and pledged to boost trade ties. Mr Chavez arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a two-day visit on the last leg of a tour of nations at loggerheads with Washington, which has already taken him to Russia and Belarus. "The United States is incapable of hurting Iran and Venezuela ... cooperation between the two independent states is natural and it must be expanded," state television quoted Ayatollah Khamenei as telling Mr Chavez. "America's greatness has deteriorated and it faces many problems, independent countries should consider this and expand their cooperation." "The election of anti-American governments in the (Latin American) region shows that US imperialism is weakening," Mr Chavez said. "Numerous oil and gas contracts between Iran and Venezuela show the two countries are serious in developing ties," he said, describing Iran as a "good model for other countries." Hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for stronger ties with Latin America in talks with his "ideological brother" Mr Chavez. Aside from their anti-US stance, the two countries enjoy warm ties and cooperation in the energy sector, with Iran OPEC's second largest crude producer and Venezuela also a major player in the cartel. Mr Chavez, who is accompanied by his foreign, communications, energy, industry and economy ministers, is expected to sign 20 agreements including the construction of 7,000 houses, a petrochemical plant and a vocational training centre in Venezuela. Mr Chavez is the most vocal cheerleader in Latin America for Iran and its nuclear program, which is feared by the West to be a cover for weapons development although Tehran insists it is purely peaceful. His trip comes as Iran is being threatened with toughened UN Security Council sanctions for its continued refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, a process which makes nuclear fuel but can also be the core of an atomic bomb. Earlier this month, Iran welcomed Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a Cold War foe of the United States. Tehran has also boosted ties with other countries which have frosty ties with Washington, notably Belarus, whose president has been condemned by the European Union for rights violations. Bolivian President Evo Morales is also expected to visit Tehran in the coming months. -AFP Topics: world-politics, oil-and-gas, iran-islamic-republic-of, venezuela ||||| Venezuelan President Meets the Leader Speaking at the meeting, which was also attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Leader stated that independent countries should increase their power through unity and cooperation and defend their common identity and the interests of their nations with hope and vitality and dynamism. Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to the U.S. failure in dealing a blow to Venezuela and the Islamic Republic of Iran. “The Islamic Republic of Iran and Venezuela both have independent and national governments that rely on their general public. Therefore, the cooperation between these two countries is something quite natural, and it should be further expanded and consolidated,” Ayatollah Khamenei remarked. Further in his statements, the Leader of the Islamic Republic hinted at the U.S. plans and measures to deal a blow to independent countries. “The domineering powers bully other countries by putting on an awe-inspiring front. However, today the United States has to a great extent lost its awe-inspiring front, and this country is facing many problems with respect to its political structure and organization. In view of these realities, independent countries should try to further expand their cooperation,” the Leader told the Venezuelan president. Ayatollah Khamenei described as necessary the making of earnest efforts to follow up and carry into effect the agreements reached between the two countries. He stated that it is possible to expedite the expansion of cooperation between the two countries by utilizing the existing capabilities. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, for his part, expressed great pleasure over his new visit to Tehran. He described the Islamic Republic of Iran as an appropriate model for other countries. The Venezuelan president also said that the various agreements reached between the two countries in the oil and gas and petrochemical sectors and in different industries indicate that Tehran and Caracas are determined to expand their cooperation. President Chavez further referred to the political developments that have taken place in Latin America over the recent years, during which independent and anti-American governments have taken office in a number of regional countries. “These realities indicate that U.S. imperialism is declining, and independent countries are viewing the future with hope and optimism,” the Venezuelan president told the Leader. | Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez met Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They pledged further cooperation of "independent nations." The visit of Chavez to Tehran, Iran, followed earlier ones to Russia and Belarus. Iran's state-run television reported that Hugo Chavez stated to Khamenei that Iran was an apt model for other nations to emulate. Chavez said that the two nations' ties in the petroleum, gasoline, and petrochemical sectors will be expanded. In a reference to the recent political development in various parts of Latin America where anti-American leaders have attained political control, Chavez said, "U.S. imperialism is declining, and independent countries are viewing the future with hope and optimism." Both Venezuela and Iran are members of OPEC. Last month, Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, came to Iran. In the following months, Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, is expected in Tehran. |
Another 14 people were pulled from under the rubble of the residential block in the city's densely populated Idi-Araba neighbourhood on Tuesday, with others feared trapped, rescue workers said. Two people have died after a four-storey building collapsed in Lagos in southern Nigeria. One male and one female were killed during the incident near to Lagos University Teaching Hospital in the country's largest city. "There are about 14 people so far rescued alive. It was a four-storey building, fully residential. There are still some people trapped inside," Umo Okon, a Red Cross spokeswoman, said. What caused the building to collapse was not immediately apparent, and the police are yet to comment. Construction workers close by helped to remove the roof of the building to aid rescue attempts. Poor quality materials used in construction and negligible building standards in Nigeria are often blamed for such collapses. Buildings are often made with blocks of sand and cement scavenged from the ocean. Rain can subsequently cause degradation of these materials. At least three people died in July 2008 when a four-storey shopping centre in Abuja, the capital, collapsed. In 2006, 28 people were killed when another four-storey construction, with a restaurant, bar and shops, fell down in Lagos. ||||| (Adds details, background) LAGOS, March 24 (Reuters) - A four-storey residential building collapsed in Nigeria's biggest city Lagos on Tuesday, killing at least two people, a Reuters witness said. A Reuters reporter saw rescuers pull two bodies, one male and one female, from the rubble of the building, located in the densely populated Idi-Araba neighbourhood close to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. "There are about 14 people so far rescued alive. It was a four-storey building, fully residential. There are still some people trapped inside," Red Cross spokeswoman Umo Okon said. Construction workers from a nearby site brought excavators to try to lift the roof off the collapsed building and allow rescue workers to get inside. Substandard materials and disregard for building regulations mean such collapses are not uncommon in Africa's most populous nation, where infrastructure is old and poorly maintained. Twenty-eight people were killed in 2006 when another four-storey building collapsed in Lagos. The death toll then was high because people were using a restaurant, bar and shops on the ground floor at the time. At least three people were killed last July when a four-storey shopping centre being built in the capital Abuja collapsed. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (Reporting by Seun David; writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Tim Pearce) | A residential four-storey building collapsed in , Nigeria on Tuesday. At least two people have died, and another fourteen people have been rescued from the debris. The building was located in the Idi-Araba neighbourhood, a densely populated area of the city. A spokeswoman for the Red Cross, Umo Okon, stated that "there are about 14 people so far rescued alive. It was a four-storey building, fully residential. There are still some people trapped inside." Construction workers working at another site nearby helped remove the building's roof to help the rescue effort. Building collapses are not unheard of in Nigeria: In 2006, 28 died after a building, with a restaurant and shops, collapsed in Lagos. In July of last year, three people were killed when another four-storey building came down in , the capital of the country. It is still uncertain what caused the incident, although collapses such as these have in the past been blamed on poor building standards and low construction material quality. |
October 29, 2009 5:48 a.m. EST Anne Lu - Celebrity News Service News Writer Nova Scotia, Canada (CNS) - Canadian singer Taylor Mitchell has been mauled to death by coyotes. The 19-year-old up-and-coming star died hiking alone in Cape Breton Highlands National Park Tuesday. Mitchell was hiking alone in Nova Scotia and walking along the Skyline Trail when two coyotes brutally attacked her. Other hikers in the area heard her screams and called the police. She was then airlifted to a hospital in Halifax, but she was listed in critical condition with bites covering her whole body. She died Wednesday morning. According to reports, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived on scene and found the two animals highly aggressive. They shot and injured one of the coyotes, but it fled. They are still searching for the injured coyote, while the other animal was killed later that evening. Mitchell was recently nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award. She excitedly told fans on her blog ten days earlier that she had just finished her "first 'official' show of the tour." ||||| Login Enter your details below to login If you are an existing member of The Times and The Sunday Times enjoying the full benefits of thetimes.co.uk, then simply enter your Times+ login details below and press 'Enter' Enter your details to login Email address Password Keep me logged in information Keeps you logged in for a rolling 15 days or until you logout ||||| Fans are mourning a 19-year-old folk musician who died this week after being attacked by two coyotes in her native Canada. Taylor Mitchell of Toronto reportedly was hiking by herself Tuesday in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia when the animals attacked. Click here to see a slideshow of Mitchell. Another hiker called for help after hearing Mitchell's screams, the Ottawa Citizen reported. Police responded and had the singer flown to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries Wednesday. Park officials killed one of the coyotes in question and sent its body for testing to try to determine what caused the animals to attack, the Los Angeles Times reported. The incident is very out of character for the normally shy animals, but the park had received some reports of aggressive animals in the past, the Times of London reported. Mitchell was nominated this year for a Canadian Folk Music Award in the "young performer of the year" category and was seen as an up-and-coming artist. Fans showed an outpouring of support on her MySpace and Facebook pages after hearing of her death. "Your voice is angelic. You were just beginning to spread your wings and fly. Will see you up there sometime. Play on..." one fan wrote. "Taylor I wish I discovered you sooner. Your music is beautiful. I suspect your soul is also," someone said in another post. Mitchell was playing on a tour of eastern Canada at the time, the Times of London reported. "Taylor was a brilliant and beautiful light that people were naturally drawn to," Michael Johnston, who produced her debut CD, "For Your Consideration," told the paper. "She was so young and talented — her big dreams were a perfect match with her big, kind heart." Click here for more on this story from the Times of London. Click here for more on this story from the Los Angeles Times. | Canada highlighting Nova Scotia Taylor Mitchell, a Canadian folk singer, was attacked by two coyotes while hiking alone in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia on Wednesday, officials said. Another hiker nearby heard screams and contacted park rangers, where they found two coyotes attacking Mitchell. Rangers shot and injured one of the animals as it tried to flee. Mitchell, aged 19, was airlifted to a Halifax hospital in critical condition. That evening, police found what they suspected to be the other coyote, and shot and killed it. Mitchell died the following morning from bite wounds covering her entire body. The animals were described as "extremely aggressive" by park authorities. The dead coyote was tested to determine what caused the two to attack, as coyote attacks are very rare. |
Rescue workers have searched through heavy mud and rock for dozens of people believed missing [AFP] Rescue workers have searched through heavy mud and rock for dozens of people believed missing [AFP] Firefighters used heavy machinery and shovels on Saturday to search for people who went missing when a massive slab of hillside collapsed after torrential rain in Rio de Janeiro state. The death toll from a spate of flooding and mudslides in southeastern Brazil has risen to at least 60, as rescue teams continue to search for survivors. At least 26 people died in the worst hit area on the island resort of Ilha Grande, as thick mud and rock covered an upscale resort on the island on Friday, authorities and witnesses said. "We came to celebrate the New Year and then all this sadness happened," Fernanda de Oliveira, a witness to the mudslide on Ilha Grande, told the O Globo newspaper. "We couldn't see what was happening. It was raining hard and the water was leaking into our house. "Suddenly, we saw people in the sea and we went down to rescue them." Homes crushed The mudslide also crushed three homes and a hotel on an island off the city of Angra dos Ries, burying some people in their homes on Friday. The landslides were part of a series of mudslides and flooding triggered by heavy rains across the state of Rio de Janeiro since Wednesday, leaving dozens of people missing. On Thursday, mudslides elsewhere in the state killed 19 people, mostly inhabitants of shantytowns in the greater Rio de Janeiro city area. About 80 mudslides have occurred in the region and more rain is forecast for the upcoming days, officials said. Three days of mourning have been declared locally and the city's annual celebration on January 6 has been cancelled. Officials have warned the death toll could rise. ||||| RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Rescue crews on Saturday intensified the search for victims at a plush Brazilian beach resort ravaged by mudslides and flooding that have killed at least 64 people in three states. World | Green Business | Brazil Firefighters waded through mountains of mud and sifted through the remains of a lodge and homes that were destroyed in the early hours of Friday when a hillside collapsed in the luxury beach resort of Angra dos Reis, removing 35 bodies, authorities said. Angra dos Reis, the nearby island of Ilha Grande and other towns on the southern coast of Rio de Janeiro state are a magnet for local and foreign tourists over the New Year's holiday. Heavy rain also left several cities without power in the state of Sao Paulo, where six tourists died in a mudslide in the town of Cunha. At least three people died because of mudslides in Juiz de Fora, a city in Minas Gerais state. In Rio de Janeiro state, where Brazil has most of its oil reserves and has long been the nation's flagship tourist destination, the death toll climbed to 55, authorities said. "The weather is improving, which helps us with the search, but we won't rest as long as we suspect that there are more bodies underneath the remains," said Colonel Jerri Andrade of Angra's firefighters corps and who is overseeing the search. Television footage showed the Sankay lodge and surrounding homes in Angra buried under a mountain of reddish-brown mud. Access to the area, known as Praia do Bananal, remained difficult as roads and the beach were covered with mud and trees from the collapsed hillside. The lodge, which can accommodate up to 50 people, was reportedly full at the time of the disaster. Victims included the 18-year-old daughter of the lodge's owners, according to O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. So far, there have been no reports of any foreign victims. Earlier in the day, rainfall subsided and rescue teams, aided by helicopters and navy vessels, managed to reach the area to remove more bodies, Andrade said. Despite the break in the weather, heavy rains are forecast for the coming days, which could make rescue work harder and trigger more mudslides, authorities said. One state that could be hit by a lengthy downpour is Parana in Brazil's south, O Globo newspaper reported on Saturday. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged federal assistance to Rio state Governor Sergio Cabral, who flew over the region early on Saturday to assess the damage. Intense rainfall triggered mudslides along some points of the Rio-Santos highway, with traffic halted near the historic city of Paraty. In some parts of Rio state, it rained more in the last four days than it normally does in a month. (Additional reporting and writing by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Todd Benson and Eric Beech) | At least sixty people have been confirmed dead after mudslides in southeastern Brazil, mostly on Ilha Grande, caused by torrential rainfall. Rescue efforts are still continuing in the state of Rio de Janeiro for people feared to be buried under houses, which collapsed due to the deluge of mud and rain. Rescuers used shovels and heavy machinery to dig through the rubble. Colonel Jerri Andrade, who is supervising the rescuers, commented on the current status of rescue efforts. "The weather is improving, which helps us with the search, but we won't rest as long as we suspect that there are more bodies underneath the remains." More rain is forecast in the days ahead, making additional mudslides a possibility. The authorities have warned that the death toll could increase as more bodies are found. Three days of mourning were declared in the Rio de Janeiro greater area, and celebrations scheduled for January 6 were called off. |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As U.S. legislators consider a bill to force China to raise the value of its currency, a China trade expert and former International Monetary Fund economist warned that being confrontational would cause more harm than good. Yuan notes are counted at a currency exchange office in Hong Kong January 11, 2007. As U.S. legislators consider a bill to force China to raise the value of its currency, a China trade expert and former International Monetary Fund economist warned that being confrontational would cause more harm than good. REUTERS/Bobby Yip In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Eswar Prasad, a senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University, said drastic U.S. policy actions over the currency would simply poison U.S.-China relations. “Furthermore, this approach is unlikely to have a large or lasting impact on problems such as the U.S. trade deficit or imbalances in the Chinese economy, and could make matters worse for everyone by creating instability in the global economy,” said Prasad, who worked on China issues as a research economist at the IMF until he left late last year. He said the United States could work with China in a way that generated results rather than just “kicked up a lot of dust.” Prasad said it would be more helpful if the United States worked with China to transform its economy. “This would be win-win international financial diplomacy -- it would improve Chinese macroeconomic performance and defuse tensions abroad,” Prasad added. The U.S. legislation is being developed by two Democrats and two Republicans that would force China to raise the value of the yuan against the dollar. Many U.S. lawmakers and manufacturers believe the Chinese yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, which gives Chinese firms an unfair price advantage in global trade. The so-called “veto-proof” bill would need two-thirds support in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate to protect it from a veto by President George W. Bush. But Prasad argued that greater flexibility of the yuan, while important, was “hardly an end in itself”. It was more important to focus on what monetary policy framework would replace a fixed Chinese exchange rate that had helped China anchor inflation expectations, he added. Prasad suggested China adopt an inflation objective -- a long-run target range -- as a new anchor for monetary policy. “An inflation objective, coupled with exchange rate flexibility, would work best to stabilize the Chinese economy and enable policymakers to deal nimbly with various domestic and external shocks,” he said. ||||| A bill is being considered by the U.S. legislators to force the Chinese authorities to raise the value of the yuan, the Chinese national currency. Eswar Prasad, a senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University, warned the legislators that the present bill could become more harmful to the relationship between the two countries than the legislators could expect. Taking in consideration, that prof. Prasad has had much experience in this sphere while working as a China trade expert and as an economist at the International Monetary Fund, one could say that the legislators should count with what the professor says. The professor mentioned that it was unlikely for this bill to influence on a large scale the problems the legislators are trying to avoid, such as the U.S. trade deficit and instabilities of the Chinese economy. He added that this measure could also have an international impact, by brining instability in the global economy. Prof. Prasad said that the U.S. should rather work some ways to collaborate with China to transform its economy, instead of 'forcing them' change something. This strategy could be more effective, Prasad said, because it could improve the macroeconomic situation in China and would relief the international tension. The reason for issuing the bill under discussion was the fact that the Chinese yuan is undervalued by about 40% and this fact advantages the Chinese manufacturers over international firms in terms of pricing. Thus two Democrats and two Republicans wanted to force a raise of the Chinese national currency, yuan, against the U.S. dollar. The bill will need a two thirds support both in the House of Representatives and the Senate, in order it would not be vetoed in the future by the President Bush. Powered by www.infoniac.com | Eswar Prasad, a professor at the trade policy from the Cornell University, warns the United States legislators, that their bill could poison the relationship between USA and China. This warning was given regarding the U.S. bill, which is meant to force China to raise the value of its national currency yuan. Currently yuan has a value, which is about 40% lower than it should be, as stated by the legislators, which gives the Chinese trading companies a huge advantage on the international trading ground. Professor Prasad, who was a China trade expert and an economist at the International Monetary Fund until late last year, said that this bill would not have a long lasting effect and would not influence the problems the legislators are trying to avoid. The opinion of the China trade specialist was that the USA should try to collaborate with Chinese officials in order to fix the problem of U.S. trade deficit and the current instabilities in the Chinese economy. The strategy to force the Chinese Government to do something would only worsen the relationship between the two countries. The expert's opinion was it was more important to concentrate on the question what framework of the monetary policy could substitute the fixed exchange rate of the Chinese currency, which helped China in anchoring the inflation expectations. Mr. Prasad added that the best way to stabilize the Chinese economy would be to couple an inflation objective with a flexibility of exchange rate. The bill needs two thirds of the votes both in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Senate, in order President George W. Bush would not have the possibility to veto the bill. |
Israeli authorities have torn down several Palestinian houses in occupied east Jerusalem, defying international calls to halt the demolitions in the disputed city. Gidi Schmerling, a Jerusalem municipality spokesman, said the houses in the Shuafat, Zur Baher, Silwan and Jabel Mukabar neighbourhoods were pulled down on Tuesday because they had been built illegally. "All the houses were demolished in accordance with a court order," he said in a statement to the AFP news agency. Palestinians say that the municipality discriminates against them, making it virtually impossible for them to get legal permits for new homes or extensions to existing ones. As a result, thousands of effectively illegal structures have been built in recent decades with Israel responding by destroying dozens of houses each year. Construction crackdown Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, had vowed to crack down on illegal construction in the city, including east Jerusalem, whose fate is one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the United Nations on Tuesday called for an immediate halt to all forced evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in the area, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 war."Such actions run counter to international law and have a serious and long-term negative impact on Palestinian families and communities,” the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement. "The UN reiterates its call for an immediate and unconditional halt to such actions and urges the state of Israel to protect the civilian population in OPT [occupied Palestinian Territories] from further displacement and dispossession." At least 600 Palestinians ave been displaced by eveictions and demolitions since the beginning of the year, according to OCHA, and many thousands more may be at risk. The United States, which is seeking to revive peace talks in the long-standing dispute, called the latest demolitions "unhelpful". The forced evictions and demolitions have raised tensions in the eastern half of the city, which Palestinians see as the capital of any future independent state. The situation has prompted a number of protests and Palestinians have attempted to challenge the municipality's actions in the courts. 'Irresponsible step' An Israeli rights group, Ir Amim, said the demolitions were "an irresponsible step that could escalate the situation in the city and bring it to a new boiling point". Palestinians and human rights groups have condemned Israel's demolition policy, accusing it of using the demolitions to shift east Jerusalem's demographic balance. "International bodies and the United Nations Security Council should intervene to stop Israeli authorities from carrying out these criminal actions," Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, said. A UN report in May showed that 1,500 demolition orders issued by the Jerusalem municipality were pending for illegal Palestinian dwellings. The report said that if the orders were implemented, about 9,000 Palestinians would be displaced. There are about 200,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem, alongside an estimated 250,000 Palestinians. ||||| Israel destroys protest tent in East Jerusalem JERUSALEM — Israeli police on Wednesday destroyed a protest tent set up last summer outside two homes where Palestinian families were evicted to make way for Jewish settlers, witnesses said. Police arrived at the site mid-morning and destroyed the tent, which in recent weeks has served as a focal point for demonstrations against Israel's policy in mostly Arab East Jerusalem, they said. Palestinian and foreign activists rebuilt the structure but police returned and destroyed it again. The Jerusalem municipality said it was alerted to the structure by an "anonymous tip" and that it had given the owner a three-day warning that it would be destroyed if he did not produce a permit. In August, police evacuated two extended families -- 53 people, including 19 minors -- from their homes after the Israeli supreme court upheld a settler organisation's claim to the properties. The evictions sparked a storm of international criticism, including from Israel's closest ally the United States, which said such actions harmed efforts to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. Israel has also defied international calls to stop demolishing Palestinian homes built in East Jerusalem without official permits, and on Tuesday razed five houses in the disputed city. The European Union's top diplomat Javier Solana expressed concern over the demolitions and called on Israel to "end these discriminatory measures." Arab residents have long said it is virtually impossible to get permits from the Israeli-run municipality for new homes and home extensions in east Jerusalem, and as a result have built thousands of illegal structures there. Israel seized mostly Arab East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and considers all of Jerusalem its "unified and eternal" capital. The international community has never recognised Israel's claim to the entire city. Palestinians want to make east Jerusalem -- home to some 200,000 Jewish Israelis and 268,000 Palestinians -- the capital of their future state. Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More » | 2006 file photo taken in East Jerusalem Despite international calls for an end to home demolitions in East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities tore down five Palestinian homes yesterday; claiming they were built illegally. These home demolitions come after repeated calls from the UN and international community to stop settler activity and home demolitions. The five demolitions took place early morning. Israeli authorities said the homes lacked a permit and therefore were built illegally. Palestinians claim it is nearly impossible to obtain a permit for their homes from the Israeli authorities who rule the area. Palestinians tried to repel the Israeli authorities with rocks but were summarily dispersed and the demolitions went ahead as planned. The UN reports that 1,500 demolition orders are currently pending in Israeli courts. At least 600 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in East Jerusalem since the beginning of this year. Since annexing the city in 1967 Israeli authorities have authorized the demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes in an effort to create a majority Jewish population in Jerusalem. "It has been Israeli policy to try to guarantee a Jewish majority and generate Jewish hegemony in Jerusalem since 1967," said Dr. Roby Nathanson, Director of Israel's Macro Center for Political Economics. "Israel has annexed huge parts of Jerusalem, enlarged the boundaries of the municipality, taken lots of land in the eastern part of the city and built more than 50,000 housing units on this land exclusively for Jews." However, Palestinians still hope to make Jerusalem the capital of their future state. |
Swaziland democracy protests: '50 arrested' Police in Swaziland have arrested about 50 people ahead of protests against sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy, activists say. Most of those detained were later freed and hundreds of people marched through Manzini, Swaziland's commercial centre. Several South Africans trade unionists were prevented from taking part in the march and deported. King Mswati III and his 13 wives are accused of living in luxury while most Swazis are poor. The king is also criticised for having so many partners in a country with one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection - 26% of those aged 15-49. Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the arrests. "The arbitrary arrest of these political activists, lawyers, trade unionists and journalists is nothing short of police harassment and intimidation," the group said in a statement. Continue reading the main story Related stories Police spokeswoman Wendy Hleta said the foreigners were arrested because "we felt that they had no right to interfere" in Swazi affairs, reports the AP news agency. A spokesman for the South Africa trade union federation, Cosatu, said two of those arrested had not been freed and their whereabouts were not known, according to the Reuters news agency. Officials from the banned Peoples United Democratic Movement of Swaziland (Pudemo) were also reportedly detained, including its leader Mario Masuku. The US-funded pro-democracy group, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), says two of its members were among those detained. "It is time that the world understood what kind of regime runs Swaziland. It is a regime that has no respect for human rights, no respect for the rule of law and no respect for democracy," said OSISA head Sisonke Msimang. ||||| Dozens held ahead of Swaziland protest: activists JOHANNESBURG — Up to 50 people were arrested Monday in Swaziland, the day before a planned protest to call attention to human rights abuses in Africa's last absolute monarchy, activists said. The pro-democracy activists were arrested at the Tum's George Hotel in the city of Manzini, according to the South African labour federation Cosatu and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), funded by financier George Soros. "We demand their immediate and unconditional release by the Swazi regime, which is once again displaying is brutal opposition to any democratic opposition," Cosatu said in a statement. The activists included Swazi labour leaders as well as Cosatu officials who went to the tiny mountain kingdom to support the protest slated for Tuesday, it said. "The authorities in Swaziland have become more and more repressive and intolerant in recent years and this is yet another example of the police acting with impunity and outside the rule of law," OSISA executive director Sisonke Msimang said. "It is time that the world understood what kind of regime runs Swaziland. It is a regime that has no respect for human rights, no respect for the rule of law and no respect for democracy," Msimang added. The arrests came ahead of protests planned in Swaziland and other countries, meant to highlight the absolute rule of King Mswati III, who governs by decree. Political organisations have been outlawed since 1973 in the impoverished southern African country, which is known for the lavish lifestyles of the 42-year-old king and his 13 wives. Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » | King Mswati III has been criticised for having thirteen wives. Around 50 people have been arrested ahead of a planned human rights protest in Swaziland. The protest had been planned against the monarchy of Swaziland to call attention to the country's alleged lack of human rights. Many of those arrested have been released but several people remain in custody. The King of Swaziland, Mswati III, has come under pressure for living in luxury with his thirteen wives while many Swazi people are on the poverty line. He has also faced criticism for having a high number of sexual partners, when 26% of 15 to 49 year olds are HIV positive. Several South African trade unionists were included in the protesters arrested. A spokesman for , the South African trade union federation, said that two of the unionists had not been released and their current whereabouts are unknown. Human rights group Amnesty International has commented on the events saying that, "The arbitrary arrest of these political activists, lawyers, trade unionists and journalists is nothing short of police harassment and intimidation." Swaziland is the last country in Africa to hold an . |
WASHINGTON – Behind-the-scenes Republican Party divisions over whether to allow Americans to import lower-priced medications from such countries as Canada exploded Tuesday in an unusually public and personal exchange between two New England lawmakers. At a contentious hearing, Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, squared off over an issue that has increasingly put GOP leaders at odds with rank-and-file lawmakers and much of the public. Snowe, accompanied by a bipartisan group of senators, came to promote a bill creating a regulatory system enabling U.S. pharmacies, wholesalers and consumers to buy less-expensive prescription drugs from about 30 countries. “The bottom line is we assure that a legitimate prescription and a qualified pharmacist will be vital ingredients in assuring safety,” she said. Gregg, former chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, did not mention his own competing bill but lashed out at Snowe and the others for “creating a Russian roulette regime in the name of politics.” He said the bill would undo 100 years of drug safety regulation and replace it with a questionable new system “hinging on the term ‘manufacturing changes.’ ” With his voice rising, he repeatedly pressed Snowe to explain the term. Seated at a table facing Gregg and the other committee members, Snowe held her ground. “We send men and women up to space every day, and we can’t figure this out?” she asked. Back and forth the two parried, Gregg’s face growing a deep pink as Snowe tried unsuccessfully to respond. With Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., looking on in silence, Gregg told Snowe he would not share his limited speaking time with her if she did not answer the question. “I am answering your question,” she said. “You don’t like the answer.” For more than a decade, Americans have traveled to Canada, Mexico and Europe to purchase prescription drugs at 50 percent to 70 percent less than the U.S. cost. Legislative proposals to legalize that practice, first introduced in 1999, have gained votes as public uproar over drug prices has grown. The Bush administration and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., have blocked action on import legislation, even as 77 percent of Americans surveyed in a poll released Tuesday said they support changing the law. David Kessler, who as chief of the Food and Drug Administration had reservations about opening the borders, told the panel Congress must develop a safe importation system. “The choice before you is not the choice of imports or no imports,” said Kessler, now vice chancellor of medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “We already have a system of importation of drugs that jeopardizes public health.” Describing the current unregulated system as “out of control,” Kessler noted that about 10 million prescriptions were shipped from Canada into the United States in 2004. Kessler praised several safety measures added to the bill. The legislation would pertain only to FDA-approved medications made in FDA-inspected plants. U.S. pharmacies and wholesale distributors would be required to register with FDA and to produce “chain of custody” paperwork that documents the source of the drug and its path to the consumer. Pharmaceutical industry representatives did not testify at the hearing but have raised several objections in the past, including concerns over possible counterfeiting or tampering with imported drugs and reduced revenue to support research and development. ||||| Article Not Available The article that you are trying to view is no longer available through this Web site. The content is copyrighted by the Associated Press, which requires TheWMURChannel.com to delete its stories two weeks after they are originally posted. | Olympia Snowe R-Maine In an unusually contentious hearing, Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) argued the pros and cons of allowing the importation of drugs from countries where there are good safety controls and prices that are 50 to 70 percent below U.S. prices. Laws to legalize that practice, which has found favor with 77 percent of Americans in a poll released on Wednesday, are under attack by the American drug makers and their friends in Congress. Sen. Gregg, his face turning pink with anger at times, accused Senator Snowe of throwing away 100 years of federal law by advocating the bill. Snowe replied that the bill would bring foreign drugs, mainly from Canada, Europe and other countries--provided those drugs already have FDA approval--under the aegis of the FDA. Former FDA commissioner David Kessler agreed during testimony, and said that legalizing prescription imports from Canada and elsewhere would make for safer prescriptions for U.S. consumers. Snowe said, “We send men and women up to space every day, and we can’t figure this out?” Senator David Vitter, R-La, weighed in on Snowe’s side, “Safety is a huge reason we should pass legislation like this,” he said. Reporters said the two jousted back and forth for quite a while, not allowing each other to finish an answer, each accusing the other of failing to answer. “I am answering your question,” Snowe said at one point. “You don’t like the answer.” Opponents say that curbing drug prices could discourage research into new products. Snowe countered that drug development in the United States totals $32 billion, compared to $26 billion in Europe. The two feuding lawmakers live on northern New England’s Canadian border and are under pressure from senior citizen’s groups to allow American consumers to import drugs at cheaper costs. |
A crude car bomb of propane, gasoline and fireworks was discovered in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square on Saturday evening, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers on a warm and busy night. Although the device had apparently started to detonate, there was no explosion, and early on Sunday the authorities were still seeking a suspect and motive. “We are very lucky,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a 2:15 a.m. press conference. “We avoided what could have been a very deadly event.” A large swath of Midtown — from 43rd Street to 48th Street, and from Sixth to Eighth Avenues — was closed for much of the evening after the Pathfinder was discovered just off Broadway on 45th Street. Several theaters and stores, as well as the South Tower of the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, were evacuated. Mr. Bloomberg was joined by Gov. David A. Paterson, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and other officials at the early morning press conference to give a chronology of the vehicle’s discovery, its disarming, and the investigation that has been launched. The mayor and police commissioner had returned early from the annual White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington. At 6:28 p.m., Mr. Kelly said, a video surveillance camera recorded what was believed to be the dark green Nissan S.U.V. driving west on 45th Street. Moments later, a T-shirt vendor on the sidewalk saw smoke coming out of vents near the back seat of the S.U.V., which was now parked awkwardly at the curb with its engine running and its hazard lights on. The vendor called to a mounted police officer, the mayor said, who smelled gunpowder when he approached the S.U.V. and called for assistance. The police began evacuating Times Square, starting with businesses along Seventh Avenue, including a Foot Locker store and a McDonald’s. Police officers from the emergency service unit and firefighters flooded the area and were troubled by the hazard lights and running engine, and by the fact that the S.U.V. was oddly angled in the street. At this point, a firefighter from Ladder 4 reported hearing several “pops” from within the vehicle. The police also learned that the Pathfinder had the wrong license plates on it. Members of the Police Department’s bomb squad donned protective gear, broke the Pathfinder’s back windows and sent in a “robotic device” to “observe” it, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the police department’s chief spokesman. Inside, they discovered three canisters of propane like those used for barbecue grills, two five-gallon cans of gasoline, consumer-grade fireworks — the apparent source of the “pops” — and two clocks with batteries, the mayor said. He said the device “looked amateurish.” Mr. Browne said: “It appeared it was in the process of detonating, but it malfunctioned.” Bomb squad officers also discovered a two-by-two-by-four-foot metal box — described as a “gun locker” — in the S.U.V. that was taken to the Police Department’s firing range at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx to be destroyed, Mr. Kelly said. It was not immediately known what, if anything, was inside it. Officials said they had no reports of anyone seen running from the vehicle. Mr. Kelly said police were scouring the area for any additional videotapes but noted that the S.U.V.’s windows were tinted, which could further hamper any efforts to identify those inside. Some of the surveillance cameras nearby were located in closed businesses, and the mayor made clear it would take time to review all available tapes. “We have no idea who did this or why,” Mr. Bloomberg said. Kevin B. Barry, a former supervisor in the New York Police Department bomb squad, said that if the device had functioned, “it would be more of an incendiary event” than an explosion. The license plates on the Nissan were registered to another vehicle — a Ford pickup truck that was taken to a junkyard near Bridgeport, Conn., within the last two weeks, according to a law enforcement official. The previous owner of the Ford was interviewed Saturday night by the F.B.I., but it did not appear he was regarded as a suspect. Still, the junkyard was considered a primary target of the initial investigation. The S.U.V.’s standard vehicle identification number had been removed, Mr. Bloomberg said, and investigators were scouring it to see if the number appeared elsewhere. The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the episode and had pledged federal assistance in the investigation. Times Square on a Saturday night is one of the busiest and most populated locations in the city, and has long been seen as a likely target for some kind of attack. ||||| Police evacuated New York's Times Square Saturday night after a dark-colored sports utility vehicle was found to be smoking and a small "flash" was observed by firefighters on the scene. Officers at the scene said the evacuation order stemmed from an "emergency investigation" and dozens of officers blocked access to the busy central Manhattan square, which is popular with tourists and theater-goers.. New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said a vehicle had been left in Times Square, with smoke seen coming from it. There was an unconfirmed report that someone was seen running from the car, Browne said. A bomb squad responded and a small fire was extinguished, he said. "We're just trying to determine if it was anything other than a car fire," said Browne. "We don't know yet if it's anything more than that." A New York City firefighter who said he arrived early on the scene described the vehicle as a dark-colored SUV, and said it was parked at the corner of 45th Street and Seventh Avenue. He confirmed the vehicle was smoking and also said he saw "a flash" from the back of the SUV. The firefighter said a "mini-explosion" occurred between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. "The SUV was smoking. There was a flash and we put two and two together" and an evacuation was ordered, he said. Other emergency personnel on the scene called the incident a "car fire." The firefighter said the bomb squad remained at the scene as of 9 p.m., including a firefighter in a bomb suit. A robot was being used to investigate the suspicious SUV. Reuters reporters on the scene said they heard an explosion from the area of the SUV around 9:15 p.m. Two fire trucks were also at the scene, prepared to douse the vehicle with water if needed, the firefighter said. Police said they planned to "close down" Broadway shows in the vicinity, but it was not clear whether any theaters had actually been evacuated. The square itself was mostly evacuated by 8 p.m., according to Reuters reporters on the scene. Police had evacuated an area stretching from about 42nd Street up to 47th Street and including Seventh Avenue and Broadway. ||||| Getty Images Police guard the perimeter of Times Square on Sunday. A failed car bomb smoked, popped and shut down Times Square, causing panic, evacuations and confusion Saturday on one of the tourist spot's busiest nights. Most of the streets in the area were reopened Sunday morning, though a heavy police presence remained in the area. New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said officers are heading to a town in Pennsylvania to talk to a man who believes he may have recorded a bombing suspect on his video camera. Police are looking a for a white male in his 40s who was seen shedding a dark shirt with a red shirt underneath, he said at an afternoon press conference. Investigators are now looking through "hundreds of hours of surveillance videos," Mr. Kelly added. On Sunday, a Pakistani Taliban group took credit for the attempted attack in a short video. The video, purportedly from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan group, offered "congratulations to the Muslim ummah (community) on the jaw-breaking blow to Satan's USA." The video, which made no mention of the plot's failure, said the attack was a response to recent killings of top Pakistani Taliban figures, including Baitullah Mehsud. Mr. Kelly said there is no evidence of a Taliban link to the attempted bombing and noted that the group had falsely claimed responsibility for other incidents in which it had no involvement. "The intent was to cause mayhem," he said. Authorities said a Nissan Pathfinder at West 45th Street and Seventh Avenue was left Saturday night loaded with a bomb made from two clocks, three propane gas tanks, two additional one-gallon gas canisters and fireworks. "It appeared that [the bomb] was in the process of detonating and malfunctioned," said police spokesman Paul Browne. A street vendor alerted a policeman on mounted patrol—Wayne Rhatigan, 47 years old, a 19-year-veteran of the force. In an interview, Mr. Rhatigan said he smelled gunpowder coming from the vehicle and went toward it, thinking it could explode at any second. He grabbed two other officers to help move people away from the smoking Pathfinder as he called for backup at 6:34 p.m. Police blocked the area from West 43rd to 47th streets along Broadway and Seventh Avenue with metal railings. Parts of West 48th Street were also closed. Most of the streets were reopened Sunday morning after police removed the Pathfinder. View Slideshow Mustafah Abdulaziz for The Wall Street Journal Onlookers lined police barracade early Sunday morning in Times Square. Police later said the Pathfinder was spotted on security video at 6:28 p.m. The video wasn't clear enough to identify the driver and no videos have been found showing the suspect in the attack, police said. Pakistani Group Claims Credit The Middle East Media Research Institute first reported the discovery of an online video claiming responsibility for the attempted car bombing in Times Square. The video shows a montage while an unseen person speaks in Urdu. The speaker is allegedly Qari Hussain Mehsud, a spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, formally known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. The video does not specifically refer to the Times Square incident, describing it only as "this attack." Marc Sageman, a terrorism expert and former Central Intelligence Agency officer in Pakistan, said the Pakistan Taliban has a history of claiming responsibility for events they had nothing to do with. He said the group falsely claimed credit for a series of blackouts that hit the northeast several years ago and for a mass shooting in upstate New York last year. "Everything should be looked at skeptically unless you have pretty strong evidence one way or another," Mr. Sageman said. In a statement, the IntelCenter think tank said if the Pakistan Taliban's claims were confirmed, it would be their first attack against a target in the U.S. More Videos Police Defuse Bomb in SUV The Times Square scare is the latest in a series of attacks and attempted attacks on the U.S. over the past year that has counter-terror experts concerned about a possible shift in terrorist tactics to embrace small-scale strikes that are harder to identify and prevent. Over the past year, on at least eight different occasions, people linked to radical Islamic thought attempted to carry out or carried out attacks on targets inside the U.S. That includes the failed Christmas Day bombing on board a Detroit-bound airliner, the shooting rampage at Ft. Hood in Texas, three separate bomb plots foiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last September, and a handful of earlier plots broken up last spring and summer. Investigation Traces Plates to Connecticut Earlier Sunday morning, however, New York officials had no information on those responsible for the attempted attack. "We have no idea who did this or why," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, alongside Mr. Kelly at a Times Square news conference. The mayor called the bomb "amateurish." Investigators said that the vehicle's Connecticut license plates didn't match the make of the car. The license plate's last known location was Kramer's Used Auto Parts in Stratford, Conn., according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. No one answered the phone there Sunday. Police said the bomb parts and an additional locked metal box would be removed to the NYPD Rodman's Neck firing range in the Bronx. New York as Terror Target Terrorist activity in New York since the Sept. 11 attacks. View Interactive More photos and interactive graphics Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano echoed Mr. Bloomberg's comments, saying Sunday on Fox News that the bomb appeared to be an "amateurish" terrorism attempt. Ms. Napolitano said the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and the city of New York were investigating the incident, including examining the car, tracing fingerprints and looking at video from the area around the bomb. "There are a lot of cameras in that area," she said, adding that there's "a lot of activities in terms of investigation." Ms. Napolitano said there was no information to suggest that any other sites had been targeted in Saturday's car bomb attempt. Evidence so far suggested this was a "one-off attempt," she said. Mr. Bloomberg earlier said that no other hazards were found and that "there's no more danger here than in any other city." Further, no credible threats were made by organized groups with regards to the attack, police said. President Barack Obama had been briefed on the bomb. In a statement, the administration said that the president, who attended an annual dinner for White House news correspondents Saturday night, praised the response by the New York Police Department. The president has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support, the Associated Press reported. 'Everyone Started Running' Street vendor Larry Franklin, 56, said a friend reported a man to police who put keys in the black SUV and walked away. His friend told him smoke began coming out of the back and police rushed to the scene. "I looked back and boom," said Matthew Fox, 44, a street vendor. "Everyone started running and women started screaming." He said he was "10 blocks away from 9/11 when it happened," but that "this wasn't anything like that." Nineteen-year-old Ivan Morrison, who was in town from Vermont to see "The Addams Family," said "it sounded like a deeper gun shot." View Full Image Getty Images A picture is displayed of an alarm clock found in a dark SUV which is said to be in the vehicle with a bomb that was discovered before it could be detonated in Times Square. Subway service on many lines was suspended or delayed. On Broadway, "God of Carnage" and "A Behanding in Spokane" each began 30 minutes late, show officials said. The evening performance of "The Lion King" was performed as scheduled. Early reports erroneously said that the show had been canceled. About 11 hours after the attempted attack, the streets of normally bustling Times Square were reopened and tourists again began pouring back into the area, many of them taking the incident in stride. Honeymooners Lorenz Inglin, 31, and his wife Claudia, 27, who had traveled to New York from Zurich, Switzerland, said they lingered in Times Square to soak up the scene of police and a traffic jam of people, thinking whatever had happened was likely a hoax. "If we had known this was a real threat we wouldn't have stayed and watched it," said Mr. Inglin. But they weren't planning to cut short their visit or avoid New York in the future. "We are aware that terrorists could happen anywhere," he said. "We always have the eyes open." —Sophia Hollander, Ian Talley, Joseph De Avila and the Associated Press contributed to this article Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com ||||| "Amateurish" Bomb Defused in Times Square New York Mayor Says City Safe Again After T-Shirt Vendor Alerted Police to Explosive Device Play CBS Video Video Failed Terror Attack in NYC Authorities are downplaying an Internet claim of Pakistani Taliban responsibility for the NYC car bomb incident. As Jim Axelrod reports, authorities call the bombing attempt "amateurish." A police vehicle moves along 44th street near Times Square in New York Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) A crowd gathers in Times Square near 46th Street in New York May 1, 2010. (AP Photo) A crowd forms on West 45th Street after a suspicious package was found in a car near Times Square in New York May 1, 2010. (CBS/Clifden Kennedy) Previous slide Next slide CBSNews.com On Digg New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says a suspicious vehicle in Times Square "did indeed contain an explosive device," which he described as "amateurish."The mayor spoke at a news conference early Sunday along with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The two officials hastily returned back to the city after attending the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington. President Obama was also in attendance at the dinner."We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event," Bloomberg said. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."Kelly says the car contained three propane tanks, consumer-grade fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components. He says a black metal box resembling a gun locker was also recovered."I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire," Kelly said."We often say that when a terrorist is caught he has a map of New York City in his pocket," said Bloomberg. "That's a conversation I had earlier tonight in Washington, and tonight is a further reminder of the dangers that we face."Bloomberg thanked the police for their work and said no other suspicious activity was detected in the city."This city is safe and we should all go about our business," Bloomberg said. "Tomorrow the weather's going to be nice. It's a Sunday. People should go and enjoy themselves and just be thankful."Police are looking for additional surveillance video.The mayor said an "alert T-shirt vendor" who was a veteran of the Vietnam War alerted police to white smoke coming from the SUV. A mounted police officer then investigated further.That led to a white robotic police arm breaking windows of the black Nissan Pathfinder to remove any explosive materials while heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city's busiest streets, teeming with taxis and theatergoers on one of the first summer-like days of the year.Investigators removed bomb-making materials, including propane tanks, explosive powders and a crude timing device, top police spokesman Paul Browne said."There were explosive elements, including powder, gasoline, propane and some kind of electrical wires attached to a clock," Browne said early Sunday. "No motive has been identified."An officer noticed smoke coming from the SUV around 6:30 p.m. and cleared the streets. The area remained closed more than seven hours later.Police are investigating a report that someone was seen running from the vehicle at some point and are reviewing security videotapes, Browne said. The Nissan Pathfinder's license plates do not match the car's registration, he said.Police evacuated several residential and commercial buildings and cleared the streets of people. Police were deployed around the area with heavy weapons on empty streets in the heart of busy midtown Manhattan.A federal law enforcement official toldthat the "potential incendiary device" is being taken very seriously.Nobody is in custody, the official said.Paul Bresson, head of the FBI's public affairs office at bureau headquarters in Washington, said agents are on the scene with the New York Police Department and that the matter is being taken seriously.The Homeland Security Department is aware of the situation, but the NYPD has it under control and is investigating, said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is in progress.Mr. Obama was updated on the incident at about 10:45 p.m. Saturday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. That was around the time the correspondents' association dinner was wrapping up. Mr. Obama spoke at the event before headliner Jay Leno.The president praised the quick response by the New York Police Department.Mr. Obama has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support.Times Square, known as the Crossroads of the World, is one of the busiest urban areas in the U.S. and is typically teeming with people.Some tourists reported hearing a small explosion hours after the car was first located.reports the area is heavily covered with security cameras and that footage may show who parked the SUV there and when.Police evacuated several residential and commercial buildings and cleared the streets of people. Police were deployed around the area with heavy weapons on empty streets in the heart of midtown Manhattan that normally teem with thousands of theatergoers and tourists.Shelly Carlisle, of Portland, Ore., said police crowded into her Broadway theater after the curtain closed on "Next to Normal," a show on the same block where the SUV was found."At the end of the show, the police came in. We were told we had to leave," Carlisle said. "They said there was a bomb scare."Two CBS producers reported their Broadway shows were cancelled because police evacuated the area.The block that was closed is one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows, with seven theaters housing such big shows as "Billy Elliot" and "Lend Me a Tenor."The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" opened a half hour later than usual, but the shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown.Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were shopping for souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds."It was a mass of people running away from the scene," Neubauer said.Said Saunders: "There were too many people, too many cops. I've never seen anything like it."A NYPD public information officer toldthe car was initially thought to be on fire. Firefighters later found that the car was smoking, not on fire, but the suspicious package was found in the car's back seat.The car was first reported to police at 6:33 p.m. Eastern time, the officer said.Officials toldin New York that there were no injuries at the scene . As a precaution, the bomb squad was brought to the scene and used a robot to inspect the package.Vehicle and foot traffic was blocked off from Broadway to Seventh Avenue and between 44th and 46th streets. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of the site where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001.In December, police evacuated thousands of holiday tourists from Times Square after finding a white van that had been parked there for days without license plates and blacked-out windows. No bombs were found, and police later said they overlooked the van because it contained a parking placard for a nonprofit police group.In March 2008, a hooded bicyclist hurled an explosive device at a military recruiting center in the heart of Times Square, producing a flash, smoke and full-scale emergency response. No suspect was ever identified.Police have spent years trying to crack down on street hustlers and peddlers preying on tourists. But there have been two major instances of gunfire in recent mnonths. A street hustler armed with a machine pistol exchanged shots in December, shattering a Broadway theater ticket window, before police fatally shot the man.Four separate shooting incidents and more than 50 arrests on a mile-long stretch of Manhattan last month around Times Square prompted the mayor to call the mayhem "wilding." ||||| Police said the device was being dismantled by officers at the scene after it was found outside a theatre on Saturday evening. US police and bomb squad officers in New York City have evacuated thousands of people from streets around Times Square following the discovery of a vehicle suspected to be containing bomb. "This appears to be a car bomb that the bomb squad is in the process of dismantling," Paul Browne, a police spokesman, said. "We do not know the motive." Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that a federal official said the incident was not considered a terrorist threat and that the New York police department had told the department of homeland security to stand down. The busy square in the heart of Manhattan was evacuated after the dark-coloured 4-wheel-drive vehicle was found to be smoking and a small flash was observed by firefighters. Popping sounds were reportedly also coming from the car. 'Failed device' Police and fire department sources said the device was being treated as a "failed device" and included explosives, burned wires, three tanks of propane and two canisters of gasoline. Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from Manhattan, said that while the square was shut down, life was going on as usual in areas nearby. "New Yorkers have lived through many scares," she said. "The SUV was a Nissan Pathfinder with licence plates from the state of Connecticut. The plates were actually traced and found to belong to another vehicle so obviously investigation is still going on." A statement issued by the White House said the New York police department had done "excellent work" in responding to the incident. Unconfirmed reports said someone had been seen running from the car. The vehicle had been parked close to a theatre on the corner of 45th Street and Seventh Avenue showing a production of The Lion King. Firefighters in bomb suits were seen at the area and a robotic device was being used to investigate the suspicious vehicle. Police said they were evacuating several blocks around the scene in case there were other devices. Times Square is one of the city's most high-profile attractions and police are deployed there in large numbers. In December they closed the area while inspecting a van at first feared to contain a bomb, but which turned out to be carrying nothing dangerous. ||||| Mars and the Moon Will Appear Side by Side in Rare Cosmic Display on May 14–Here’s What You Need to Know ||||| Car bomb scares Times Square, but fails to explode NEW YORK — Police found an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, authorities said Sunday. Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours while the bomb was dismantled. "We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact." Investigators removed three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components from the back of the Nissan Pathfinder, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. A black metal box resembling a gun locker was also recovered and will be detonated off site, he said. Bloomberg called the explosive device "amateurish" and Kelly said the explosives were consumer-grade fireworks but could have caused huge damage on a block of Broadway theaters and restaurants teeming with tourists. "I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire," Kelly said. Firefighters who arrived shortly after first call heard a popping sound, said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, who described the sound as not quite an explosion. The bomb appeared to be starting to detonate but malfunctioned, top police spokesman Paul Browne told The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. No suspects were in custody, although Kelly said a surveillance video showed the car driving west on 45th Street before it parked between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Police were looking for more video from office buildings that weren't open at the time. "The full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism," Gov. David Paterson said in a statement. Bloomberg did not describe it as an act of terrorism. A T-shirt vendor alerted police to billowing smoke coming from the back of the vehicle at about 6:30 p.m, the height of dinner hour as theatergoers rush to eat before Saturday night shows begin. Smoke was coming from the car, its hazard lights were on and "it was just sitting there," said Rallis Gialaboukis, 37, another vendor who has hawked his wares for 20 years across the street. A white robotic police arm broke windows of the dark-colored Pathfinder to remove any explosive materials. A Connecticut license plate on the vehicle did not match up, Bloomberg said. Police interviewed the Connecticut car owner, who told police he had sent the plates to a nearby junkyard, Bloomberg said. Heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city's busiest streets, choked with taxis and theatergoers on one of the first summer-like days of the year. Shelly Carlisle, of Portland, Ore., said police crowded into her Broadway theater after the curtain closed on "Next to Normal," a show on the same block where the SUV was found. "At the end of the show, the police came in. We were told we had to leave," Carlisle said. "They said there was a bomb scare." The car was parked on 45th Street, and the block was closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues as a precaution, police said. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001. The block that was closed is one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows, with seven theaters housing such big shows as "Billy Elliot" and "Lend Me a Tenor." The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" opened a half-hour later than usual, but the shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown. Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were shopping for souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds. "It was a mass of people running away from the scene," Neubauer said. Said Saunders: "There were too many people, too many cops. I've never seen anything like it." Bloomberg left early from the White House correspondent's dinner Saturday night. President Barack Obama, who attended the annual gala, praised the quick response by the New York Police Department, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said. He has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support. Brennan and others will keep Obama up to date on the investigation, Shapiro said. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York responded along with the NYPD, said agent Richard Kolko. "We have no idea who did this or why," the mayor said Sunday, but said that the city is always a top terrorism target. The latest threat came last fall when air shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi admitted to a foiled homemade bomb plot aimed at the city subway system. "These things invariably ... come back to New York," Bloomberg said. The theater district in London was the target of a propane bomb attack in 2007. No one was injured when police discovered two Mercedes loaded with nails packed around canisters of propane and gasoline. Officials said the device found Saturday was crudely constructed, but Islamic militants have used propane and compressed gas for years to enhance the force of explosives. Those instances include the 1983 suicide attack on the U.S. Marines barracks at the Beirut airport that killed 241 U.S. service members, and the 2007 attack on the international airport in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2007 the U.S. military announced that an al-Qaida front group was using propane to rig car bombs in Iraq. Times Square has been a frequent target, if not for potential terrorists, then for rabble-rousers. In December, a van without license plates parked in Times Square led police to block off part of the area for about two hours. A police robot examined the vehicle, and clothes, racks and scarves were found inside. In March 2008, a hooded bicyclist hurled an explosive device at a military recruiting center in the heart of Times Square, producing a flash, smoke and full-scale emergency response. No suspect was ever identified. Police have spent years trying to crack down on street hustlers and peddlers preying on tourists. But there have been two major gunfights in recent months. A street hustler armed with a machine pistol exchanged shots in December, shattering a Broadway theater ticket window, before police fatally shot the man. Four separate instances of shootings and more than 50 arrests on a mile-long stretch of Manhattan last month around Times Square prompted the mayor to call the mayhem "wilding." Contributing to this report were AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier, AP Radio correspondent Julie Walker in New York and Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Pete Yost in Washington, Michael Kuchwara in New York and Robert H. Reid in Kabul. Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | Archive photo of Times Square. A car containing a bomb was discovered in , New York City, causing the evacuation of streets surrounding the area. Reports say the vehicle, a , parked outside a theatre on 45th Street and Seventh Avenue, had smoke coming out of the back at around 6:30 p.m EDT (10:30 p.m. UTC). Unconfirmed reports say an unknown man ran away from the car. A roughly square area of the city, its boundaries formed by 43rd and 48th Street and 7th and 8th Avenue, was evacuated. The bomb squad was called in and were able to retrieve the package using a . Officials removed , consumer-grade , two five-gallon cans of gasoline, three propane tanks, electrical wiring, and two clocks with batteries that apparently were fashioned as one or two . The bomb has been described as "amateurish". No casualties or injuries were reported. As of yet police have not named a suspect and are reviewing security footage. The car used by the suspect was and had a non-matching license plate; the legitimate owner of the plates does not appear to have been involved in the incident. President Barack Obama has congratulated the speediness with which the New York Police Department responded. New York has been in a state of constant alert since the that occurred on September 11, 2001. In September 2009, a plot to attack the with was uncovered by police. In December 2009, Times Square was evacuated due to a illegally parked van, although it contained no explosives. On March 6, 2008, a small bomb was set off in front of the United States armed forces recruiting station in . |
Q&A; Jo Harlow heads up Nokia's smartphone business, and as such plays an integral part in the way the Finnish company develops and updates Symbian devices such as the consumer-orientated N8 and business-focused C7. On Monday, Nokia announced that it was bringing the development of Symbian back in-house after a two-year period in which the platform was open-sourced under the auspices of the Symbian Foundation. In addition, new Nokia chief Stephen Elop said last month that Symbian would in future be updated in a new way — incrementally, rather than in a succession of major versions. ZDNet UK spoke to Harlow on Tuesday at the Symbian Exchange and Exposition 2010 in Amsterdam to find out more about Nokia's plans for the world's most widely deployed smartphone platform. Q: Is Symbian still open? How will Nokia change its licensing terms? A: I don't have the complete answer right now because this is something we're currently working on, over the course of the next three months, with the Foundation and our partners. We will define what 'open' means — we believe in being open, but we'll define what that means in the future and, from a licensing perspective, the direct relationship between Nokia and others. Will other manufacturers still be able to build Symbian devices, if they choose? Yes. Why did Nokia bring Symbian back in-house? Was it because Sony Ericsson and Samsung decided not to build any more Symbian devices? First of all, Nokia was already doing the vast majority of the development of the Symbian platform. The decision to wrap down the operations of the Foundation was really taken by the Foundation, not Nokia — we are a board member, one of 11 or 12. Read this Nokia to 'fight back' after year of turmoil Nokia's management is facing Apple's and Google's economic might, brand power and sudden relevance in the mobile phone market that Nokia once dominated Read more If you go back to the reason the Foundation was created in the first place, each of the manufacturers was expected to contribute code. Having the Foundation and a governance approach to the Symbian platform made sense. Now that the decisions have been made by some of the other manufacturers, it's clear the role of the Foundation in its current form is not needed. For us, it means not a lot. We will continue to develop the Symbian platform and we no longer need to have the extra step of working with the Foundation in terms of making that available to third parties. So does that mean development of the platform will now speed up? In eliminating some of the additional steps and work necessary in terms of working with the Foundation, yes, that should bring some benefit. I wouldn't characterise it as a dramatic improvement in time-to-market, but it is a simplification. If you think about what is a UI paradigm, the UI paradigm of an iPhone is that you're standing at the front door of the house and you can go to any other room, but then you have to go back. The UI paradigms of Android and Symbian are similar: that you can go into a room and into the next room. What sort of updates can we expect to see to the Symbian UI, and when? In early 2011 there will be things like split-screen text entry, portrait Qwerty and Swype integrated into the UI, as well as a new browser and a new browsing experience that is much more modern. We will... ||||| Nokia reabsorbs Symbian smartphone software Nokia recently launched a raft of new phones based on the Symbian system Continue reading the main story Related stories Nokia has taken back control of the Symbian operating system, 18 months after it set up a non-profit foundation to oversee its development. Nokia will control the future direction of the the world's most popular smartphone software from April 2011. Analysts said the move was inevitable as firms abandoned Symbian for rival software such as Google's Android. The Symbian Foundation - a consortium of firms that oversees the software - will become a licensing body. "There has since been a seismic change in the mobile market but also more generally in the economy, which has led to a change in focus for some of our funding board members," said Tim Holbrow, executive director of the Symbian Foundation. "The result of this is that the current governance structure for the Symbian platform - the foundation - is no longer appropriate." He said that as of April 2011 it was "unlikely" that the foundation would need "any employees". The decision comes less than two years after Nokia paid 264m euros (£227m) to buy out the other shareholders in Symbian. The Finnish phone giant then teamed up with others, such as AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone to set up the Symbian Foundation. The organisation was set the task of "open-sourcing" the code underlying the software. Earlier this year, that was completed meaning that any organisation or individual could use and modify the platform's underlying source code "for any purpose". During that time the phone market significantly changed. Figures from research firm Canalys show that in the third quarter of this year the smart phone market grew by 95% over the same quarter a year. However, Symbian's portion of that market has consistently shrunk. "With the benefit of hindsight, it looks like the decision to go with the open source approach was the wrong one," Ben Woods of analysts CCS Insight told BBC News. "The delays caused by the open source approach has undoubtedly led to Nokia losing its competitive edge." Recently, the Symbian foundation lost its executive director and firms such as Samsung and Sony Ericsson withdrew their support for the software. "The question is, is it too late to have a meaningful impact on the future direction of the operating system," said Mr Woods. ||||| Both options are flawed. The I.C.O. was a player in the attempted cover-up in this criminal act. Let’s not forget that having ruled that it MUST... Both options are flawed. The I.C.O. was a player in the attempted cover-up in this criminal act. Let’s not forget that having ruled that it MUST... Lol, thought I'd design a suitable sticker to put on Windows PCs to help prevent user problems...... Thanks, dawnlevy1! This story and the original version have been updated. The lede needs correction. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is not located at the University of Tennessee. ORNL is in Oak Ridge, which is half an hour... You are rather quick to rubbish (excuse the pun) other Recycling companies. I notice on your web site that you offer zero landfill. Hmmm how can... You are rather quick to rubbish (excuse the pun) other Recycling companies. I notice on your web site that you offer zero landfill. Hmmm how can... The fact that Microsoft intentionally cripples their edition of Windows 7 for netbooks should upset Windows users. It certainly would if I used... Richard. Your (article marketing) comments are becoming more and more offensive to the small recycling operators who are doing a fantastic job and... It is a great idea but there are some serious issues, the primary one being that google sites is really not very good, certainly not suitable for... As most you already know, Java Web ADF is built on the Java Server Faces (JSF) technology which allows developers to build web applications and... Windows 7 updates is a huge pain in corporate environments, mainly with the end user experience. When supporting desktop PCs, updates install... Interesting announcements from Riverbed. I certainly agree that now is the time for traditional and advanced IT services to begin moving into the... This is the same article that Jack Wallen posted on Techrepublic site a little while ago. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1507 This is the same article that Jack Wallen posted on Techrepublic site a little while ago. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1507 @dlswen717 Linux can stream video fine, it does it with Youtube, or Ustream (even as a source) or with VLC or many others. Netflix decided... @dlswen717 Linux can stream video fine, it does it with Youtube, or Ustream (even as a source) or with VLC or many others. Netflix decided... Grab your XP licenses now. Windows 7 is just like Vista. Tons of features removed and broken. Poor usability. See... I have listed the 16 patents-in-suit here: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-surprise-here-motorola-countersues.html 3 of them are also... | Nokia 7710 using Symbian OS in 2006 On Monday, discontinued , as a result of its lost popularity since came to market. The Finnish telecommunications company Nokia, being one of the few hardware manufacturers who use the system on some of the models, announced that it has taken over the 's development. Nokia had acquired Symbian Foundation in 2008. Now, the foundation refused to continue the project, because this smartphone operating system had lost its popularity when Android came to market. During the next several months, most Symbian Foundation employees, who were completely governing the project previously, will retire. By April 2011, only the licensing team will stay to oversee the project. The executive director of the Symbian Foundation Tim Holbrow explained the change, saying that "There has since been a seismic change in the mobile market but also more generally in the economy, which has led to a change in focus for some of our funding board members. The result of this is that the current governance structure for the Symbian platform — the foundation — is no longer appropriate." Instead, Nokia takes over the development of the system. This is possible because the Symbian OS is currently open source and freely redistributable. In an interview with , the head of Nokia smartphone business Jo Harlow said that the takeover was in significant part because Nokia hardware was the major one using the OS. The development environment would be switched to for the system to support cross-platform applications use and development. It is unclear whether the licensing of the future releases of the system would remain open-source. == Sources == * * * |
Scorecard - Commentary - Wickets - 3D animation - Partnerships - Wagon wheels - Player v player - Over comparison - Over graphs - Career averages - Match home - Bulletin - Article index (9) - Photo index (33) ODI no. 2557 ICC World Cup - 27th Match, Super Eights West Indies v New Zealand 2006/07 season Played at , on 29 March 2007 (50-over match) Result New Zealand won by 7 wickets (with 64 balls remaining) West Indies innings (50 overs maximum) R M B 4s 6s SR b Oram 44 96 56 8 0 78.57 c Styris b Bond 4 31 28 0 0 14.28 c McCullum b Oram 19 35 27 2 0 70.37 c McCullum b Oram 9 16 18 1 0 50.00 c McCullum b Styris 37 65 49 1 0 75.51 c McCullum b Bond 18 40 30 0 0 60.00 c Oram b Vettori 15 32 22 2 0 68.18 not out 14 34 26 2 0 53.84 b Vettori 8 8 6 0 1 133.33 lbw b Vettori 0 2 1 0 0 0.00 b Bond 0 3 5 0 0 0.00 Extras (b 1, lb 5, w 3) 9 Total (all out; 44.4 overs) 177 Fall of wickets Bowling O M R W Econ 6 2 14 0 2.33 (1w) 8.4 0 31 3 3.57 (2w) 3 0 29 0 9.66 8 2 23 3 2.87 10 1 35 1 3.50 9 1 39 3 4.33 New Zealand innings (target: 178 runs from 50 overs) R M B 4s 6s SR b Powell 0 2 2 0 0 0.00 run out (Lara) 45 96 66 6 1 68.18 c Lara b Powell 15 31 23 2 0 65.21 not out 80 139 90 7 0 88.88 not out 33 77 57 3 0 57.89 Extras (lb 1, w 3, nb 2) 6 Total (3 wickets; 39.2 overs) 179 Did not bat , , , , , Fall of wickets Bowling O M R W Econ 10 2 39 2 3.90 (2nb, 1w) 5 0 24 0 4.80 (1w) 9 0 43 0 4.77 8 0 32 0 4.00 6.2 0 35 0 5.52 (1w) 1 0 5 0 5.00 Toss New Zealand, who chose to field first Points New Zealand 2, West Indies 0 Player of the match JDP Oram (New Zealand) Umpires (Pakistan) and (South Africa) TV umpire (Pakistan) Match referee (South Africa) Reserve umpire (New Zealand) Match notes West Indies innings Power Play 2: Overs 10.1 - 15.0 West Indies: 50 runs in 13.5 overs (86 balls), Extras 4 Power Play 3: Overs 15.1 - 20.0 2nd Wicket: 50 runs in 49 balls (CH Gayle 32, RR Sarwan 18, Ex 1) Drinks: West Indies - 66/2 in 16.2 overs (CH Gayle 39) West Indies: 100 runs in 26.6 overs (165 balls), Extras 4 Drinks: West Indies - 128/5 in 33.1 overs (BC Lara 30) West Indies: 150 runs in 36.2 overs (221 balls), Extras 6 New Zealand innings Lunch: New Zealand - 0/0 Power Play 2: Overs 10.1 - 15.0 New Zealand: 50 runs in 14.5 overs (92 balls), Extras 4 Drinks: New Zealand - 51/2 in 16.0 overs (SP Fleming 30, SB Styris 2) New Zealand: 100 runs in 25.6 overs (159 balls), Extras 4 4th Wicket: 50 runs in 58 balls (SB Styris 29, CD McMillan 21, Ex 0) Rain: New Zealand - 130/3 in 31.4 overs (SB Styris 44, CD McMillan 22) SB Styris: 50 off 72 balls (3 x 4) New Zealand: 150 runs in 36.1 overs (221 balls), Extras 5 4th Wicket: 100 runs in 112 balls (SB Styris 67, CD McMillan 33, Ex 2) Attendance - 5,414 ||||| ICC World Cup: West Indies v New Zealand 29-03-2007 at Antigua New Zealand beat West Indies by 7 wickets New Zealand won the toss and decided to field West Indies Innings 177 all out (44.4 overs) New Zealand Innings 179 for 3 (39.2 overs) West Indies Innings Runs Balls 4s 6s C H Gayle b J D P Oram 44 56 8 0 S Chanderpaul c S B Styris b S E Bond 4 28 0 0 R R Sarwan c B B McCullum b J D P Oram 19 27 2 0 M N Samuels c B B McCullum b J D P Oram 9 18 1 0 B C Lara c B B McCullum b S B Styris 37 49 1 0 D J Bravo c B B McCullum b S E Bond 18 30 0 0 D Ramdin c J D P Oram b D L Vettori 15 22 2 0 L M P Simmons not out 14 26 2 0 D S Smith b D L Vettori 8 6 0 1 D B Powell lbw b D L Vettori 0 1 0 0 C D Collymore b S E Bond 0 5 0 0 Extras 3w 1b 5lb 9 Total all out 177 (44.4 ovs) Bowler O M R W M J Mason 6.0 2 14 0 S E Bond 8.4 0 31 3 J E C Franklin 3.0 0 29 0 J D P Oram 8.0 2 23 3 S B Styris 10.0 1 35 1 D L Vettori 9.0 1 39 3 Fall of wicket 14 S Chanderpaul 66 R R Sarwan 78 M N Samuels 81 C H Gayle 128 D J Bravo 150 B C Lara 158 D Ramdin 176 D S Smith 176 D B Powell 177 C D Collymore Back to top New Zealand Innings Runs Balls 4s 6s P G Fulton b D B Powell 0 2 0 0 S P Fleming run out 45 66 6 1 H J H Marshall c B C Lara b D B Powell 15 23 2 0 S B Styris not out 80 90 7 0 C D McMillan not out 33 57 3 0 Extras 2nb 3w 1lb 6 Total for 3 179 (39.2 ovs) Bowler O M R W D B Powell 10.0 2 39 2 D S Smith 5.0 0 24 0 C D Collymore 9.0 0 43 0 D J Bravo 8.0 0 32 0 C H Gayle 6.2 0 35 0 R R Sarwan 1.0 0 5 0 Fall of wicket 0 P G Fulton 36 H J H Marshall 77 S P Fleming Back to top Umpires: Asad Rauf, R E Koertzen West Indies: C H Gayle, S Chanderpaul, R R Sarwan, M N Samuels, B C Lara, D J Bravo, D Ramdin, D S Smith, L M P Simmons, D B Powell, C D Collymore New Zealand: P G Fulton, S P Fleming, H J H Marshall, S B Styris, C D McMillan, J D P Oram, B B McCullum, D L Vettori, J E C Franklin, S E Bond, M J Mason | New Zealand beat the West Indies by 7 wickets (with 64 balls remaining) in the Super 8 phase in the World Cup at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua and Barbuda. This was West Indies second game of the Super 8 stage, having already lost to Australia only yesterday. For New Zealand it was their first game in this stage, although they already had two points carried forward from their group stage victory over England. '''Toss: '''New Zealand won, and elected to field first. ----> '''Fall of wickets:''' 1-14 (Chanderpaul, 7.5 ov), 2-66 (Sarwan, 16.2 ov), 3-78 (Samuels, 20.3 ov), 4-81 (Gayle, 22.2 ov), 5-128 (Bravo, 33.1 ov), 6-150 (Lara, 36.3 ov), 7-158 (Ramdin, 41.3 ov), 8-176 (Smith, 43.3 ov), 9-176 (Powell, 43.4 ov), 10-177 (Collymore, 44.4 ov) '''Fall of wickets:''' 1-0 (Fulton, 0.2 ov), 2-36 (Marshall, 8.3 ov), 3-77 (Fleming, 20.6 ov) '''West Indies:''' C H Gayle, S Chanderpaul, R R Sarwan, M N Samuels, B C Lara (capt), D J Bravo, D R Smith, D Ramdin (wkt), L M P Simmons, D B Powell, C D Collymore '''New Zealand:''' P G Fulton, S P Fleming (capt), H J H Marshall, S B Styris, C D McMillan, J D P Oram, B B McCullum (wkt), D L Vettori, J E C Franklin, S E Bond, M J Mason '''Player of the match:''' J D P Oram (New Zealand) Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and R E Koertzen (South Africa) TV umpire: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) Match referee: M J Proctor (South Africa) Reserve umpire: B F Bowden (New Zealand) |
ABC News More Than 50 Bodies Found in Iraq River Iraqi President Says More Than 50 Bodies Found in Tigris River; 19 Bodies Left in Soccer Stadium Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announcing that the bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, during a news conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 20, 2005. The bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in the Madain region earlier this month. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) By SAMEER N. YACOUB Associated Press Writer The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq Apr 20, 2005 The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month. In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said. Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad. Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized. "Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes." In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot. Residents said they believed the victims all men in civilian clothes were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad. The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad. ||||| More than 50 Bodies Pulled from Tigris River South of Capital Iraqi President Jalal Jalal Talabani says the bodies of more than 50 people thought to have been kidnapped late last week have been pulled from the Tigris river south of Baghdad. The president says the bodies of men, women and children were recovered and identified. He also says authorities know the identity of the killers. Last Saturday, Shi'ite officials said about 50 people were kidnapped by Sunni militants in the town of Madaen, near the capital, and were threatened with death. But Iraqi forces who raided the town Monday said they found no evidence that anyone had been taken hostage. Elsewhere, the bullet-riddled bodies of 19 Iraqis have been found in a soccer stadium about 200 kilometers north of Baghdad. An Associated Press reporter in the town of Haditha said he saw the bodies of 19 men in civilian clothes lying against a wall. Residents said they believe the men were Iraqi soldiers heading home on holiday leave. There was no government confirmation of the witness reports. Some information for this report provided by AP, Reuters. ||||| Register for NYTimes.com. Complete New York Times articles Up-to-the-minute breaking news In-depth multimedia presentations It's free and it only takes a minute! Member ID: Password: Forgot Your ID or Password? Remember my Member ID and password on this computer. | Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in a press conference to reporters Wednesday was quoted saying: :"More than 50 bodies have been brought out from the Tigris and we have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes. :… terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true that there were no hostages. There were, but they were killed and they threw the bodies into the Tigris." He promises more details in the coming days. The presidential news conference was in response to events unfolding by reports from Shi'ite officials. They said Saturday that as many as 100 Shi’ites were taken hostage by Sunni fighters, and were threatened with death in the town of al-Madain, near Baghdad. An Iraqi security force on Monday raided the town of about 1,000 families, but found no evidence of a hostage situation. The Shi’ite officials later said the bodies — believed to be the hostages — were found in the Tigris River. In a separate incident 200km north of Baghdad in Haditha, after hearing shots reporters and residents found the bodies of 19 men executed in a soccer stadium on Wednesday. It is believed those shot were Iraqi soldiers executed by anti-government fighters, according to an Interior Ministry official, although the victims were not dressed in military garb. They were thought to have been heading home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad when abducted by insurgents. |
coronavirus Patients whose vaccine appointment cards were lost in the post have been told they will have to wait another three weeks for the jab. Everyone over the age of 65 was due to receive a vaccine by early March but one GP practice in Fife disclosed that they had been “inundated” with calls from patients who had still not received their letter.Patients whose vaccine appointment cards were lost in the post have been told they will have to wait another three weeks for the jab. Everyone over the age of 65 was due to receive a vaccine by early March but one GP practice in Fife disclosed that they had been “inundated” with calls from patients who had still not received their letter.Patients whose vaccine appointment cards were lost in the post have been told they will have to wait another three weeks for... ||||| Summary The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS) is the holding company of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and National Westminster Bank Plc, which are United Kingdom-based clearing banks. RBS provides a range of products and services to personal, commercial and large corporate and institutional customers. The Company's activities are organized into six business divisions: Corporate Markets (formerly Corporate Banking & Financial Markets), Retail Markets (comprising Retail Banking, Retail Direct and Wealth Management), Ulster Bank, Citizens, RBS Insurance and Manufacturing. In April 2007, RBS sold 47 Marriott hotels in Britain to a group of investors led by Irish private-equity group, Quinlan Private and real-estate investor, Igal Ahouvi Group. ||||| Latest News Sherwin-Williams Q4 Profit Plunges On Lower Revenue, Higher Expenses; Guides Q1, FY09 Israel warns of resuming attack to stop arms smuggling Microsoft Q2 profit falls 11%; to cut 5,000 jobs Consolidated Edison Q4 profit declines; adj. earnings top estimates - update Croatia and Bosnia seek alternative gas sources Reports say Romanian sailor freed off Nigeria Twenty-Six More Arrested In Turkey Coup Plot Probe European markets fall on profit concern - European commentary Former Merrill CEO Thain To Leave Bank Of America EU grants additional funding for Gaza power plant fuel | The RBS headquarters The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has lost around 70% of its share price in a matter of hours, after news reports indicated a GBP 28 billion loss for 2008, and the UK government pledged to increase its stake in the company to 70%. The RBS shares in London opened today at 34.50, and apart from a small increase to 34.90, the shares have been below that rate throughout the day. The shares fell to just over 10, although they have since recovered very slightly to 11.60 as of 16:05 UTC. These low share prices are only a fraction of the 52 week high of 427.50p, and the all time high of 607p. The all time high was reached approximately two years ago, in February 2007. In addition to the falls in London, RBS shares in New York also fell dramatically on their most recent trading day. The shares fell by 10.33%. The bank's chief executive, Stephen Hester, spoke to ''The Times'' regarding the poor performance of his company. "The world remains an uncertain place. We can all be sure there will be future significant credit losses but we can’t be sure of what amount and what timing…all banks are facing uncertainties," he said. |
After being held captive for five days in Syria, NBC's Richard Engel and his team recount being ambushed, blindfolded and traumatized before being freed at a checkpoint. Updated at 8:15 a.m. ET: NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and members of his network production team were freed from captors in Syria after a firefight at a checkpoint on Monday, five days after they were taken prisoner, NBC News said early Tuesday. “After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed. We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country,” the network said in a statement. “It is good to be here,” Engel said during a live appearance on TODAY from Turkey. “I’m very happy that we’re able to do this live shot this morning.” Engel said that they were traveling with Syrian rebels when a group of about 15 gunmen “jumped out of the trees and bushes” and captured them. 'Psychological torture' He said the gunmen executed one of the rebels “on the spot,” and later during their captivity they were subjected to mock executions while blindfolded and bound. "We weren't physically beaten or tortured. It was a lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed," Engel said. "They made us choose which one of us would be shot first and when we refused there were mock shootings. They pretended to shoot Ghazi [Balkiz, an NBC producer] several times,” Engel said. Balkiz said that they had “worked with each other very well… we kept each other’s spirits up” during their ordeal. Cameraman John Kooistra said he had “made good with my maker” and had been “prepared to die many times.” Engel said their captors “were talking openly about their loyalty to the government” of Syrian President Bashar Assad. He said he had a “very good idea” about who they were -- members of the “shabiha” militia, loyal to Assad, trained by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and allied with Lebanon-based group Hezbollah. Engel said their captors’ plan was to use them to win the freedom of people held by the rebels. “They captured us in order to carry out this exchange,” he said. NBC News file Richard Engel at the end of a reporting trip in Syria in July of this year. Engel, 39, and his team disappeared shortly after crossing into northwest Syria from Turkey on Thursday. The network had not been able to contact them until learning that they had been freed on Monday. The network said there was no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors and no request for ransom during the time the crew was missing. After entering Syria, Engel and his team were abducted, tossed into the back of a truck before being transported to an unknown location believed to be near the small town of Ma’arrat Misrin. During their captivity, they were blindfolded and bound, but otherwise not physically harmed, the network said. Early Monday evening local time, the prisoners were being moved to a new location in a vehicle when their captors ran into a checkpoint manned by members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, a Syrian rebel group. There was a confrontation and a firefight ensued. Two of the captors were killed, while an unknown number of others escaped, the network said. The NBC News crew was unharmed in the incident. They remained in Syria until Tuesday morning when they made their way to the border and re-entered Turkey, the network said. They were to be evaluated and debriefed, but had communicated that everyone was in good health. NBC News said it “expressed its gratitude to those who worked to gather information and secure the release of our colleagues.” Engel is widely regarded as one of America’s leading foreign correspondents for his coverage of wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 15 years. Most recently, he was recognized for his outstanding reporting on the 2011 revolution in Egypt, the conflict in Libya and unrest throughout the Arab world. One of the only Western journalists to cover the entire war in Iraq , Engel was named chief foreign correspondent of NBC News in April 2008. He joined the network in May 2003. The Syrian civil war began in March 2011, when demonstrators took to the streets to show support for the so-called Arab Spring uprisings sweeping across the Middle East and north Africa and to demand the resignation of Assad of the ruling Ba’ath Party. The following month, Assad deployed the Syrian army to quell the uprising, ordering troops to open fire on demonstrators. But despite the harsh crackdown, Assad’s troops and militias loyal to the government were unable to quell what soon became an armed uprising. In the intervening months, the security situation in the country has continued to deteriorate amid increasingly fierce fighting between Syrian troops and a loose confederation of outgunned but increasingly emboldened rebel forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated in November that more than 40,000 people had died in the fighting. More world stories from NBC News: Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook ||||| ANKARA, Dec 17 (KUNA) -- Turkish reporter working for US news channel (NBC), Aziz Akyava has been missing since the past five days, amid reports that the Syrian regime might have kidnapped him. According to Turkish news channel (NTV) the reporter went missing since last Wednesday....... ||||| BY Danica Bellini,Mstarz reporter | Dec 17, 2012 06:30 PM EST (Photo : Twitter) Popular NBC News correspondent supposedly missing in Syria. Recent reports allege that Richard Engel, the popular and well-respected NBC News foreign correspondent, has gone missing in Syria. Engel and Aziz Akyavaş, a Turkish journalist who was working with him, have been unaccounted for in the Asian country since December 13. Turkish media has been circulating the "missing persons" report for several days, but up until Monday (Dec. 14) American news outlets had been operating under a "news blackout" requested by NBC. Gawker was the first social media gossip site in the U.S. to report on Engel's being missing. Like Us on Facebook According to reports, Engel's last report was on Dec. 11 and his last tweet was on Dec. 6, which is worrisome since Engel is an avid tweeter. Upon hearing the news in the States, Engel's NBC colleague David Shuster tweeted his concern about the missing journalist and author: @DavidShuster: "Original report from Turkish media... Praying its wrong. RT@sallykohn: My thoughts are with NBC's Richard Engel, missing in Syria." Gawker decided to break NBC's news blackout because, according to blogger John Cook, " I would not have written a post if someone had told me that there was a reasonable or even remote suspicion that anything specific [like the men's death] would happen if I wrote the post." Engel, who is not married and has no children, is one of the only western journalists to cover the entire war in Iraq. He joined NBC News in May 2003 and became the station's chief foreign correspondent in 2008. As the correspondent in charge of NBC's Middle East bureau, Engel has been reporting on the ongoing conflict between rebels and supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Engel is widely recognized for his coverage of wars, revolutions, and political transitions around the world over the past 15 years. Engel's work and dedication has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for his report "War Zone Diary," five News & Documentary Emmys, the Edward R. Murrow Award for "Baghdad E.R.," the Daniel Pearl Award/David Bloom Award/Overseas Press Club Award in recognition of his coverage of the war in Afghanistan, and the Gracie Award for his work on "Unlikely Refugees." Meanwhile, NBC continues to try and enforce the news blackout. The popular American broadcasting network has taken to Twitter, asking people/reporters who repost the Turkish reports to promptly take them down. NBC News declined to comment about Engel's whereabouts, and allegedly asked Gawker not to report on "rumors" about Engel's current status. ||||| NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has gone missing in Syria, according to Turkish news reports. The reports also say that Aziz Akyavaş, a Turkish journalist working with Engel, is unaccounted for. NBC News has been successfully keeping Engel's status subject to a news blackout—one to which Gawker agreed until now—for at least the past 24 hours. Turkish newspaper Hurriyet is reporting that Engel and Akyavaş were last known to be in Syria and haven't been in contact with NBC News since Thursday morning. The news has been reported widely in the Turkish press over the past 24 hours, including by Turkish news channel NTV, which presents itself as an international partner of MSNBC. It's also been widely distributed on Twitter. But NBC News has been asking every reporter who inquires about the report to participate in a news blackout. It has also taken to Twitter and asked people who repeated the Turkish reports there to take them down. You can see here a screengrab of the Twitter account @NBCComm asking a Twitter user who had mentioned the reports to urgently call a cell phone number (that account has since been taken down). NBC News declined to comment for the record about Engel's whereabouts, but asked Gawker not to report what it characterized as "rumors" about Engel's current status. The Turkish reports have been referenced on Twitter by Slate's David Weigel, Michelle Malkin, former MSNBC anchor David Shuster, and hundreds of others. RT @francesmartel: Oh no. Prayers. RT @sallykohn: My thoughts are with NBC's Richard Engel, a great reporter, missing in Syria. — daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 17, 2012 ICYMI @twitchyteam report last night: Is NBC News reporter @richardengel missing in Syria?==> is.gd/o3aUUF — Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) December 17, 2012 Original report from Turkish media... Praying its wrong. RT @sallykohn: My thoughts are with NBC's Richard Engel, missing in Syria. — David Shuster (@DavidShuster) December 17, 2012 Chinese newswire Xinhua, Daily Kos, and Breitbart.com have also both repeated the Turkish reports. When New York Times reporter David Rohde was kidnapped in 2008, the Times successfully maintained a months-long news blackout about his condition by arguing that the militants holding Rohde had issued specific instructions to keep his condition quiet (those claims were later undermined after Rohde escaped). An NBC News spokeswoman could not offer any detail about Engel's condition or status. Update: Some readers may be interested to read a more detailed explanation for why we decided to publish this post against NBC News' wishes. I supplied such an explanation to a commenter here; I've also pasted that reply below. The rationale for the blackout was offered in off-the-record conversations, so I can't present their argument here. But I will say this: No one told me anything that indicated a specific, or even general, threat to Engel's safety. No one said, "If you report this, then we know, or suspect, that X, Y, or Z may happen." It was infinitely more vague and general than that. As I wrote in the post, when the New York Times maintained a blackout about David Rohde, the rationale was clear: I was directly told that the Times had reason to believe that the people who had Rohde would harm him if news got out. There was nothing approaching that level of specificity or argumentation here. I would not have written a post if someone had told me that there was a reasonable or even remote suspicion that anything specific would happen if I wrote the post. Also: There was in practice no blackout. Xinhua and Breitbart had published English language accounts. There were probably like 100 posts to Twitter per minute about him. This was a situation where the information was freely available on the internet, and in the region—these are large Turkish outlets reporting this information. It was out. [Image via Getty] ||||| AMERİKAN NBC Televizyonunun Türkiye Temsilcisi Aziz Akyavaş ve Ortadoğu muhabiri Richard Engel, Suriyede perşembe gününden bu yana kayıp. Meslektaşları ve yakınları Suriyeden gelecek iyi haberleri bekliyor. Savaş muhabirliğinde oldukça tecrübeli olan Aziz Akyavaşın amcasının kızı ünlü sanatçı Hümeyra da büyük endişe içinde... Hümeyra, Aziz Akyavaştan Perşembe sabahından bu yana haber alamadıklarını gözyaşları içerisinde anlattı. KİM NE DEDİ? Aziz Akyavaşın kaybolma haberini twitterdan ilk olarak Cüneyt Özdemir duyurdu. Gazeteciler daha sonra meslektaşları için şunları söyledi: Serdar Akinan: Aziz Akyavaş benim mesleki büyüğüm, efsane kameraman Suriyede ve dört gündür kendisinden haber alınamıyormuş. İsmet Berkan: Aziz Akyavas bugune kadar neleri atlatti, bunu da atlatir eminim... Ama umarim Disisleri Başkanlığı Suriyedeki Aziz icin bir sey yapiyordur. Nurten Topaloğlu: Gazeteci Aziz Akyavaş da Bashar Kadumi gibi Suriyede kayıpmış. İnşallah tez zamanda bulunurlar. Hümeyra Büyük panik içerisindeyiz. Suriyeli muhaliflerin elinde olduğu yönünde haberler geliyor. NBC televizyonu ise kaybolduğunu haber yapmıyor, galiba bir pazarlık söz konusu. Sürekli Hatay valisine ve bölge milletvekillerine ulaşmaya çalışıyorum ama başaramadım. Herkesten yardım bekliyorum, kim ne yapabiliyorsa... Lütfen Azizi kurtarmamıza yardım edin dedi. Yıl 1990. Saddam Hüseyin yönetimindeki Irak mini yüzölçümlü komşusu Kuveyti işgal etti. Bu Körfez savaşının ayak sesleriydi. ABD öncülüğündeki bir grup devletin Iraka saldırmak için hazırlık yaptığı konuşuluyordu. Bir çok gazeteci de Iraka gitmişti. ABD uçakları Bağdatı bombalamaya başladığı gece oradaki tek Türk kameraman Aziz Akyavaştı. Türkiye ilk saldırıdan sonra yaşananları ondan dinledi. Bu Aziz Akyavaşın gördüğü tek çatışma da değildi. Aziz Akyavaşın kayıp olduğu haberini duyan meslektaşları da savaş muhabirliği tecrübesine atıf yaparak, kısa zamanda sağlıklı bir şekilde haber almayı diledi. | Video showing rocket strike near camera from a citizen journalist broadcasting live footage from Homs, Syria on February 9. At least two journalists were released after being held captive in Syria for approximately five days according to . Turkish journalist Aziz Akyavaş and journalist went missing on Thursday. Both work for and were on assignment in the country. "After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed. We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country," said NBC News in a statement on their website. Earlier , the Turkish language partner of , reported Akyavaş may have been , but they also added, The Kuwait reported Akyavaş may have been kidnapped, but also reported Engel was the one who announced Akyavaş was missing. The journalists went missing after crossing into Syria from the Turkish border. NBC News says Engel and others were tied up, blindfolded, and put in the back of a truck and driven to possibly near the Syrian town of . When they were moved to another location, the kidnappers accidentally approached a Syrian rebel checkpoint and a gunfight broke out. Two unnamed captors were killed in the attack, but Engel and others were able to escape. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and no one was injured. NBC News never had contact with their captors and a ransom demand was never made. Little was initially known about the situation. At first, NBC didn't officially acknowledge either of the journalists were missing and according to , they website was "subject to a news blackout — one to which Gawker agreed until now — for at least the past 24 hours." Engel is a regular user of the social networking website Twitter and has not posted a 'Tweet' since December 6. His last official report was filed on December 11. In February, ''Wikinews'' reported journalists were apparently targeted in Syrian government attacks, and some of them killed. On February 9, a Syrian citizen journalist named 'Omar' was airing a live feed of the bombardment of Homs when several rockets struck near the camera's position, nearly destroying it. On February 21, a member of the Homs Media Center was killed by a rocket as Syrian forces continued their bombardment of the city for an eighteenth straight day. A day later, , a journalist, and award winning French photographer , were killed when rockets again hit the media center. At least two others were injured in the attack, French journalist Edith Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy. |
The move to shut the base comes at a critical moment for the US Kyrgyzstan says its decision to close a US base that serves as a vital supply route for US and Nato operations in Afghanistan is "final". It contradicts US statements that talks are ongoing about the base's future. Meanwhile, the US has asked to move supplies through Russia, and Tajikistan has said it will allow the transit of non-military goods into Afghanistan. Nato is understood to be increasingly concerned about the security of its supply routes through Pakistan. Most of its supplies come through Pakistan's Khyber Pass, which has come under increasing militant attacks. Critical timing "The decision has been made," said Kyrgyz government spokesman Aibek Sultangaziyev. "The US embassy and the [Kyrgyz] foreign ministry are exchanging opinions on this, but there are no discussions on keeping the base." See map of existing and possible supply routes in the region Manas, just outside the capital Bishkek, is the only US base in Central Asia and is a vital transit point for Nato and US operations in Afghanistan - an hour-and-a-half's flight away. The base is used to refuel Afghan-bound planes, and is the first point of stop for the majority of coalition troops on their way in and out of Afghanistan. The closure announcement came after Russia promised Kyrgyzstan $2bn (£1.4bn) in aid. However, Kyrgyzstan says the moves are not linked. Kyrgyz MPs will vote on the closure later this month. Russia has long opposed the presence of American military forces in Central Asia, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow. Russia says it has agreed to a request from the US to allow the transit of non-military Nato supplies across its soil, but says it is waiting for details of specific shipments before issuing permissions. The US embassy and the [Kyrgyz] foreign ministry are exchanging opinions on this, but there are no discussions on keeping the base Aibek Sultangaziyev Kyrgyz government spokesman Inside US base at Manas US Kyrgyz base is pressure point "As soon as that happens we will give the corresponding permission," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, quoted by Russian media. For the US, the base closure comes at a critical moment, as the new administration of President Barack Obama plans a sharp increase in the number of American troops in Afghanistan. For Russia, on the other hand, its closure would be a significant diplomatic victory as it seeks to reassert its influence in all former Soviet republics and beyond, analysts say. The Manas base was set up in 2001 to assist the US military operation against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan. Under the lease agreement, the US must be given six months' notice to close its operations. Meanwhile, diplomatic sources say that the US is close to a deal with Uzbekistan as part of back-up plan. The US left its air base there following a dispute over human rights in 2005. EXISTING/POSSIBLE SUPPLY ROUTES TO TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN 1. Manas airbase: the only US base in Central Asia, a vital transit point for Nato and US operations. Kyrgyz government wants it closed. 2. Karshi-Khanabad airbase: US forces were ordered out in 2005. Uzbekistan may agree to allow it to be used for non-military transports. 3. Bridge over Panj river: part-funded by the US, it was completed in 2007. May serve as another supply route into Afghanistan. 4. Khyber Pass: most supplies to US and Nato troops come through Pakistan. Increasing number of attacks in the area mean the US army is looking for back-up routes. Return Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version ||||| U.S. soldiers open the gates of a military base, which is located within Manas civilian airport, near Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, 04 Feb 2009 Kyrgyzstan says its decision to shut down a U.S. military base is "final." That word from a Kyrgyz government spokesman on Friday contradicts earlier statements from both Kyrgyzstan and the United States that discussions about the base are continuing. A U.S. State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid, reiterated that there has been no official notification from Kyrgyzstan on the status of the base. He said Friday that normal operations continue at the base, along with talks with Kyrgyz authorities on the U.S. presence. The Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan plays a major logistical role in supplying U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced plans to shut the base on Tuesday in Moscow, shortly after securing $2 billion in loans and aid from Russia. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says his country will allow the United States to cross Russian territory to deliver non-military supplies to Afghanistan. Tajkistan is also offering help. The U.S. ambassador in Dushanbe, Tracey Ann Jacobson, says the Tajik president is ready to allow transport of non-military supplies to Afghanistan through his territory. Diplomatic and defense sources say the United States is considering a military deal with Uzbekistan to establish an alternate supply route for NATO forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Most U.S. and NATO shipments into Afghanistan have been arriving by road through Pakistan, but those convoys have increasingly come under attack from Taliban and al-Qaida militants in recent months. The Kyrgyzstan base issue flared as the Obama administration continued a policy review on the Afghanistan conflict that is widely expected to include a big increase in U.S. troop strength there. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that denial of access to Manas would be regrettable but would not affect U.S. Afghan strategy. | A spokesman for the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan stated on Friday that its decision to close down a United States military base is "final". The base is an important supply route for NATO and U.S. operations in nearby Afghanistan. "The decision has been made," said Kyrgyz spokesman Aibek Sultangaziyev. "The U.S. embassy and the Kyrgyz foreign ministry are exchanging opinions on this, but there are no discussions on keeping the base." The announcement contradicts statements from both Kyrgyzstan and the U.S. saying that talks about the base are still in progress. The President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, disclosed plans about shutting down the base on Tuesday while in Moscow, soon after receiving US$2 billion worth of aid from Russia. However, the Kyrgyz government says that the two moves are not related. U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said that there was no official word from the Kyrgyz government upon the status of the base. The U.S. has meanwhile requested to transport supplies through Russia instead. The neighboring country of Tajikistan has offered to allow the transport of non-military goods to Afghanistan. Currently, most shipments by NATO and the US come into Afghanistan through neighboring Pakistan, but NATO has become concerned about the safety of that route, as transport convoys have become increasingly under attack from Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The closing of the base comes at a critical time for the U.S., as the nation is planning a large increase in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. |
GREAT Western Football Club will remain in the Horsham and District league next season. The Victorian Country Football League turned down its bid to switch competitions. The Lions appealed to the VCFL after their preferred new home, the Mininera and District league, rejected a transfer application in October. The club was informed last week its appeal had been denied by the VCFL board. VCFL rules prevent Great Western from submitting a similar transfer request for two years. In a short statement, the VCFL said it "did not see the need to force change" in the Mininera and District league. The decision comes less than two months after the VCFL approved the inclusion of Ararat Eagles in the Mininera league, despite Mininera clubs voting against it. "The VCFL board ... was of the opinion that the Mininera league be given time to consolidate before any further changes be contemplated," the statement said. Great Western applied for the transfer to combat player recruitment and retention problems caused by long travelling distances. Meanwhile, the Gippsland league will boast 10 competing clubs for the first time since 1998, after it formally accepted Bairnsdale Football Club into its ranks at the league's annual general meeting last week. The Redlegs will field teams in the senior, under-18 and under-16 football grades, and as many as five netball teams. ||||| BAIRNSDALE Football Club has signalled its intention to return to major league football. The development comes after a push to field an East Gippsland representative team in the Gippsland league was shelved earlier this month. The club held a meeting this week to discuss the proposal, which would see the Redlegs enter a senior, under-18 and under-16 team in Gippsland's highest-standard competition. The discussions come 12 years after Bairnsdale withdrew from the then-Gippsland-Latrobe league at the end of the 1998 season. Difficulty in fielding reserves was a key factor in the Redlegs' decision to return to the lower-standard East Gippsland league. VCFL chief executive Glenn Scott said the Redlegs' proposal had merit. "I think conceptually it's a great idea," Scott said. "Bairnsdale, by virtue of the fact they've won eight of the past 11 (premierships), they're arguably too strong for the East Gippsland league. "But it needs to be sustainable, and that's the challenge with this sort of move." Bairnsdale hopes to set up a system where top-notch players in the East Gippsland league train with the major league team, and return to their home club if not selected for the Redlegs in any given week. Scott said the proposal would require approval of the VCFL rules committee, as current regulations prevent a player from taking the field in a higher-standard league more than eight times in a season without applying for a transfer. "All that would need to be sussed out," Scott said. "It might seem easy to do something in isolation that suits Bairnsdale, but the rules go right across the board. "Other clubs in other leagues might think 'oh, we can use that ruling somehow' so we need to be careful." Meanwhile, Bairnsdale's rampaging grand final win over Lindenow earlier this month was cut short in the final term after a spectator threw a drink can on to the field, hitting an umpire. Bairnsdale was in front by 10 goals when the incident occurred halfway through the last quarter. Umpires were reluctant to continue the match, and both clubs agreed to abandon the game due to Bairnsdale's unassailable lead. The spectator was not believed to be aligned with either competing club. ||||| ROSLYN LANIGAN speaks to the man in charge of Victoria's most geographically-challenged major league. Chris Soumilas knows the Princes Highway like the back of his hand.As general manger of the Gippsland League – the most spread-out major league in country Victoria – Soumilas travels from his home office in Garfield to clubs as far-flung as Maffra, Sale and Wonthaggi.And he’s happy to admit the league’s vastness has its problems."When you say the Gippsland League, people talk about the distance from Wonthaggi to Maffra (170km)," Soumilas said."They don’t say from Drouin to Moe (40km), or from Moe to Traralgon (32km)."Most of our clubs do have the majority of our games within an hour’s drive, but from one end of the league to the other, travel is an issue."Aside from travel, Soumilas said the Gippsland League faced another challenge not encountered by most major leagues."We don’t have 100,000 people in one town that we’re based around, unlike like other major leagues," he said."Our total population would be under 100,000, probably more like 80,000."Trying to attract business partners is difficult because there’s not many businesses that go from one end to the other of our league."It’s no good me chasing a car dealership in Maffra or Sale unless they’re part of a chain that goes along the highway."But Soumilas said the challenge of attracting sponsors had lessened in recent seasons, as the profile of the league grew.He said the competition’s name change – from West Gippsland Latrobe to Gippsland – at the beginning of the season had helped shore-up its standing as the best league in the region."We’re not big yet, but it is starting to develop," Soumilas said."Five years ago, I would go out to see people and they’d say 'how long is this (league structure) going to last?'. "We’d had a few (structural) changes."Few, of course, is an understatement.Until 2002, Gippsland had two major leagues – West Gippsland and Gippsland-Latrobe Valley.Soumilas, then the stand-in general manager of the West Gippsland league, recalls the lead-up to the league merger better than most."The problem we had was that Gippsland-Latrobe was losing clubs, and in West Gippsland, the bottom half (of the ladder) was not coping playing against the top half," he said."We’d had about four reviews and investigations over a number of years and they’d usually come up with merging the top brackets of those two leagues together."That didn’t occur, and basically what happened was Pakenham and Beaconsfield went in the Melbourne direction and West Gippsland was left with nine clubs, then we had seven up there in Gippsland-Latrobe."In the space of a few seasons, Tooradin and ROC moved to the Casey Cardinia league , Nar Nar Goon and Koo-wee-rup headed to the Ellinbank and District league and Phillip Island and Kilcunda-Bass departed for the Alberton league "That left three teams with us (Drouin, Warragul and Garfield) and they were put into that mix with the Gippsland-Latrobe clubs," Soumilas said.This year, Garfield returned to district league footy in the Ellinbank league and Wonthaggi made a forced transition from the Alberton competition to major league football.With 35 years of football administration experience under his belt, Soumilas predicts there’s more changes to come in the Gippsland region."With population influx and the urban spread, it’s going to put different pressures on certain towns," he said."Some are going to explode, whereas other towns are just going to go very slowly. I see it changing constantly over the next 20 years."That said, I think we’ll consolidate our spot as the major league in Gippsland and it’ll stay like that for a long time because there isn’t really anywhere for our clubs to drop down to."Soumilas said the league had adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude to the possible development of a major league team in Bairnsdale, representing the East Gippsland region."At the present time we’ve got about 15 kids in our under-16 competition travelling from Bairnsdale on permits to play with our clubs, so there seems to be a desire there to play at the higher level," he said."But until we get a solid, concrete proposal, it’s very hard for us to look at anything."Soumilas said one of the advantages of a widespread league was that each cluster of clubs had a different district league to draw players from.Maffra and Sale sit alongside the North Gippsland league; Wonthaggi and Leongatha recruit from the Alberton league; Morwell, Moe and Traralgon comb the Mid Gippsland league; while Warragul and Drouin are neighbours to the Ellinbank and District league."We’re there to provide a game of footy and netball for people who want to play at a higher level," Soumilas said."But in each little region, if the clubs have good communication with district clubs, they then have their own little recruiting area."Soumilas said while the league still operated under a club-based executive, the wheels were in motion for a switch to an independent board."What we have now is people that are elected from clubs so they have an allegiance," he said."What we’re looking to do is have a group of people who can devote their time to the league."I think our clubs – the overwhelming majority of them – will vote in favour of it."Soumilas said the league was also in the process of developing a better unified umpiring system across the four umpires’ associations used by the league."The panels are telling us the umpires do want to umpire at the higher level so we want to develop that," he said."We’d like to have the Gippsland League leading the way on umpiring." | Bairnsdale will host their first home game back in the major competition against Moe will return to Gippsland's major Australian rules football league after members voted to join the Gippsland League (GL). The GL, and the , regional Victoria's governing Aussie rules body, have all approved the move. '''Round 1, 2011''' ''April 9'' Warragul vs. Bairnsdale Wonthaggi vs. Morwell Traralgon vs. Leongatha ''April 10'' Maffra vs. Sale Drouin vs. Moe Bairnsdale will field teams in the seniors, under 18 and under 16 grades, but not a reserves side like the rest of the competition. Players not selected in the senior side will be able to play for a club in the East Gippsland minor league, under a unique transfer agreement. They will play their first game back in the major league in Warragul on April 9 before playing their first home game against Moe a week later. Their furthest away game will be to Wonthaggi – a one way trip of approximately 224 kilometres. |
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate said it was undeterred by an Israeli move to ban it along with 19 other organizations advocating a boycott of Israel Sunday, as anger over the Israeli blacklist simmered. American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that won a Peace Prize in 1947 for assisting World War II refugees, said it would continue to work for “peace and justice.” Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up “We answered the call for divestment from apartheid South Africa and we have done the same with the call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions from Palestinians who have faced decades of human rights violations,” said Kerri Kennedy, an AFSC official responsible for international programs. The group was one of 20 included on an Israeli list published Sunday of BDS groups whose members will be banned from entering the country. Israel said the blacklist, which includes Jewish advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace, was justified in preventing entry to members of Boycott, Divest and Sanction proponents who aim to harm the country. According to the website of the AFSC, the group supports a boycott of Israeli settlements but is opposed to boycotting all of Israel. “In the context of Israel and Palestine AFSC supports the the use of boycott and divestment campaigns targeting only companies that support the occupation, settlements, militarism, or any other violations of international humanitarian or human rights law,” the website reads. AFSC won its Nobel Prize, which it shared with the British Friends Service Council, for work helping World War II refugees, primarily Jews who were in mixed marriages or were the product of mixed marriages, according to Haaretz. The paper reported that many were surprised to find the group on the list given its relatively moderate stance. However the conservative NGO monitor group said AFSC was “among [the] leaders of BDS on US campuses and churches,” and accused it of rejecting normalization of Israel or talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Other groups also strongly criticized the decision to publish the blacklist. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign called the move “appalling,” and organization head Fatin al-Tamimi said it would mean she could no longer visit her family in Hebron and Gaza. “For me as a Palestinian, it means a lot that they are going to ban me from going to see my family and people. It is absolutely horrible,” she told the Irish Times. Ben Lorber, a campus coordinator for Jewish Voice for Peace, said the move would keep him from being able to make pilgrimages to Jewish sites in Israel. “Israel will not succeed with this ban in intimidating American Jews away from joining JVP and supporting the BDS movement for justice and equality,” he wrote in the Forward newspaper. Earlier, JVP executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson responded in a piece published on the Haaretz website, accusing the government of “seeking to intimidate and coerce us into silence.” Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan announced the list Sunday, saying Israel was going on the offensive against the BDS movement. “Boycott organizations need to know that Israel will act against them and will not allow [them] to enter its territory in order to harm its citizens,” he said. The groups, considered central to the boycott movement, “operate consistently, continuous and persistently against Israel, by way of pressuring entities, institutes, and countries to boycott Israel,” a ministry statement declared. “The activities of the organizations are carried out by way of a false propaganda campaign, aimed at undermining Israel’s legitimacy in the world.” In March 2017, the Knesset amended the Law of Entry to prevent leaders of the BDS movement from being allowed into Israel. The amendment applies to organizations that take consistent and significant action against Israel through BDS, as well as the leadership and senior activists of those groups. One of the banned organizations, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, said in a statement that “the publication of this list is part of an increasing effort by the State of Israel to repress the growing movement for Palestinian rights around the globe.” “We wear this designation as a badge of honor,” added USCPR Executive Director Yousef Munayyer. “When Israel, which aims to portray itself to the world as liberal and democratic, blacklists activists dedicated to nonviolent organizing and dissent, it only further exposes itself as a fraud.” “This blacklist and repressive efforts like it will be mere footnotes in the historic march toward freedom, justice and equality,” he said. The left-wing New Israel Fund, which was not named on the blacklist, also criticized the ban, saying it was undemocratic. In a statement, NIF noted that while it does not support the BDS movement, “banning political opposition is the policy of autocracies, not democracies.” Adalah, an Israeli organization providing legal aid for Arabs, warned that the ban will restrict family visits and family unification for Palestinians in the West Bank. “This move is reminiscent of South Africa’s apartheid regime which also prepared blacklists in order to punish people and prevent the entry of those opposed to its racist policies,” said Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah. Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, also not on the list, said in response that Israel is trying to impose its policies in the West Bank on the whole world. “Israel is already used to defining that in the territories there is no legitimate resistance in its eyes,” B’Tselem said in a statement. Now, Israel allows itself the authority to try to define what is legitimate political activities in additional territories outside of its jurisdiction — not only the [Palestinian] territories but throughout the world. The attempt to prevent criticism of the occupation — in the territories, in Israel, or in the world — will not give the occupation a humane appearance, and will not make it less terrible.” Here is the full list: United States: • AFSC (American Friends Service Committee) • AMP (American Muslims for Palestine) • Code Pink • JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace) • NSJP (National Students for Justice in Palestine) • USCPR (US Campaign for Palestinian Rights) Europe: • AFPS (The Association France Palestine Solidarité) • BDS France • BDS Italy • ECCP (The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine) • FOA (Friends of al-Aqsa) • IPSC (Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign) • Norgeׂׂ Palestinakomitee (The Palestine Committee of Norway) • PGS Palestinagrupperna i Sverige (Palestine Solidarity Association in Sweden) • PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) • War on Want • BDS Kampagne Latin America • BDS Chile South Africa • BDS South Africa Other • BNC (BDS National Committee) JTA contributed to this report. ||||| British groups War on Want and Palestine Solidarity Campaign among those whose staff are barred from visiting Israel The prominent British campaign group War on Want has been listed as one of 20 foreign NGOs whose representatives are banned from visiting Israel over their support of the pro-Palestinian boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) movement. The publication of the list, which also includes a well-known Jewish anti-occupation group and a Nobel peace prize-winning US Quaker group, had been threatened for months by Israel. The organisations were singled out by Israel’s rightwing strategic affairs and public security minister, Gilad Erdan, for advocating boycotts of Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. US projects in Palestinian territories face backlash amid calls for boycott Read more Erdan said on Sunday that the groups “operate consistently and continuously” against Israel using a “campaign of incitement and lies”. Human rights groups condemned the move as an assault on free speech. A number of individuals have been refused entry into Israel in recent months, including a prominent African theologian and official of the World Council of Churches. While most of the organisations listed by Erdan are local branches of the BDS movement around the world, others include Jewish Voice for Peace, which has 13,000 members, the US group Code Pink and the American Friends Service Committee, which won the peace prize in 1947. As well as War on Want, the list names a second British group, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Jeremy Corbyn is a patron. Erdan said Israel had “shifted from defence to offence” with the publication of the list. “The boycott organisations need to know that the state of Israel will act against them and not allow [them] to enter its territory to harm its citizens,” he said. “No country would have allowed critics coming to harm the country to enter it.” The interior minister, Arye Dery, whose ministry is responsible for barring those listed, said: “These people are trying to exploit the law and our hospitality to act against Israel and to defame the country. I will act against this by every means.” The travel ban is the latest in a series of populist moves by the Israeli government, the most rightwing coalition in the country’s history. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he intends to remove 40,000 African migrants from Israel and expressed support for making it easier to hang people convicted of terrorism. Rebecca Vilkomerson, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, criticised the publication of the list, saying it was “disconcerting but not surprising given the further erosion of democratic norms and rising anxiety about the power of BDS as a tool to demand freedom.” She wrote on Facebook: “As someone with considerable family in Israel, this policy will be a personal hardship. But I am also heartened by this indicator of the BDS movement’s growing strength, and hope that it will bring the day closer when just as I go to visit my friends and family in Israel, so will Palestinian friends and colleagues be able to return home.” Hassan Jabareen, of the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said the travel ban was draconian and arbitrary. “This ban is an overt violation of the constitutional rights of Israeli citizens and the rights guaranteed to Palestinian residents of the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] under international humanitarian and human rights law. This move is reminiscent of South Africa’s apartheid regime which also prepared blacklists in order to punish people and prevent the entry of those opposed to its racist policies.” In November Israel denied entry to a US employee of Amnesty International as part of its anti-boycott offensive under the same rules. Amnesty is not on the list of 20 groups published on Sunday. ||||| Israel on Sunday published a list of 20 global organizations whose members will be barred from entering the country due to their support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The so-called “BDS Blacklist” was published in full on Sunday by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, which together with the Ministry of Interior decided that entry to Israel would not be permitted to individuals associated with the listed organizations. "We have moved from defense to attack. The boycott organizations need to know that the State of Israel will act against them and will not allow them to enter its territory in order to harm its citizens," Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement issued with the list on Sunday. "Forming the list is another step in our struggle against the incitement and lies of the boycott organizations, and no state would allow visitors who come to harm the state to enter it, and certainly with the goal of destroying Israel as a Jewish state," he said. American organizations appearing on the blacklist include: American Friends Service Committee, American Muslims for Palestine, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Code Pink, and Jewish Voice for Peace. Banned groups from Europe include: The France Association Palestine Solidarity, BDS France, BDS Italy, The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, The Palestine Committee of Norway, Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want, and BDS Kampagne. BDS Chile, BDS South Africa, and the BDS National Committee were also blacklisted. "These people are trying to exploit our law and our hospitality to act against Israel and to defame the country. I will work against it in every way," said Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who spearheaded the 'Entry into Israel Law' passed in March 2017 authorizing his ministry to deny visas to non-Israeli citizens who are believed to have been involved in BDS activities. The ban will impact those who hold senior or important positions within the blacklisted groups, as well as activists associated with the organizations even if they do not hold official positions. Mayors and other establishment figures who promote boycotts of Israel will also be barred from entering the country, as will activists who arrive to the country as part of a delegation initiated by any of the blacklisted groups. Israel had previously refused to divulge the full list of blacklisted groups. BDS is a global movement that advocates boycotts against Israel as a state. | On Sunday, Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs published a list of 20 specific non-government organizations (NGOs) now forbidden to enter the country. These organizations were associated with the (BDS), which supports of Israel as a state and other actions as a means of protesting Israel's treatment of Palestine. "Forming the list is another step in our struggle against the incitement and lies of the boycott organizations, and no state would allow visitors who come to harm the state to enter it, and certainly with the goal of destroying Israel as a Jewish state," Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan told the press. The proscribed organizations include the BDS organizations from France, Italy, Chile, and South Africa, BDS national committee, and BDS Kampagne; the , the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Palestine Committee of Norway, , , and the Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden from Europe; and , U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, National Students for Justice in Palestine, , , and the from the United States. "Friends" is another name for the Quakers, a Christian sect with egalitarianism as a central tenet. Officials from these organizations and any activist known to be associated may be barred from entering Israel. Other public figures who advocate boycotts of Israel, such as the mayors of towns, may also be denied entry. The American Friends Service Committee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for its work helping refugees displaced by World War II; principally, noted Israeli newspaper '''', families of Jewish refugees married to non-Jews. "For me as a Palestinian, it means a lot that they are going to ban me from going to see my family and people. It is absolutely horrible," said Fatin al-Tamimi, head of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Israeli Minister of the Interior Arye Derry issued a statement: "These people are trying to exploit the law and our hospitality to act against Israel and to defame the country. I will act against this by every means." Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of one of the listed groups, Jewish Voice for Peace, responded on Facebook, "As someone with considerable family in Israel, this policy will be a personal hardship. But I am also heartened by this indicator of the BDS movement's growing strength, and hope that it will bring the day closer when just as I go to visit my friends and family in Israel, so will Palestinian friends and colleagues be able to return home." Human rights groups sharply criticized the prohibition as opposing free speech. == Sources == * * * CAT:IsraelCAT:PalestineCAT:Politics and conflictsCAT:Middle East |
Font Size A A A Cell Phone Making You Itch? Nickel Allergy May Prompt Skin Rash in Some Cell Phone Users WebMD Health News By Miranda Hitti WebMD Health News Oct. 17, 2008 -- Some cell phone users may get a skin rash in reaction to the nickel in their cell phones, a condition that the British Association of Dermatologists has dubbed "mobile phone dermatitis." The British Association of Dermatologists issued a news release yesterday to inform doctors to be aware of the allergic reaction. Nickel allergy is common, and people who are allergic to nickel may get a rash on their cheek or ear if they spend a lot of time talking on a cell phone containing nickel. They might also get a rash on the fingers if they send lots of text messages, according to the association. Not all cell phones contain nickel. Earlier this year, researchers at Brown University tested 22 wireless communication devices and found that 10 of them contained nickel. The researchers -- who included dermatologist Lionel Bercovitch, MD, of Brown's Warren Alpert Medical School -- saw a pattern in which types of phones contain nickel and which don't. "Cell phones intended for rugged use ... often have rubber coating and no surface nickel. Those with more fashionable designs often have metallic accents and are more likely to contain free nickel in their casings," Bercovitch and colleagues write in the Jan. 1 edition of the Canadian Medical Association's journal, CMAJ. Bercovitch's team advises nickel-sensitive people to spot-test cell phones for nickel -- using kits made for consumers -- before selecting a cell phone. A spokesperson for CTIA -The Wireless Association was not immediately available for comment. ||||| Too much cellphone time may give you a rash CTV.ca News Staff Cellphone addicts, beware. Using your phone for long periods of time may cause a rash to develop on your face and ears, doctors warn. The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) has identified a skin disorder called mobile phone dermatitis, which is an allergic reaction to a cellphone's nickel surface. The Association cited published case studies of patients who had unexplained rashes that were later linked to the nickel in phone buttons and casings. "Prolonged or repetitive contact with a nickel-containing phone is more likely to cause a skin reaction in those who are allergic," Dr. Graham Lowe of BAD said in a news release. "If you have had a previous reaction to a nickel-coated belt buckle or jewelry, for example, you are at greater risk of reacting to metal phones." The dermatologists believe the condition is on the rise and, because it has only recently been identified, may be under reported. They also warn that the rash may spread to phone users' fingers if they spend a lot of time using buttons for text messaging or surfing the web. "The more you talk on the phone, the more you sweat, the more the nickel leeches out," dermatologist Dr. Joel DeKoven told CTV News. U.S. researchers conducted a study earlier this year and found nickel in 10 of 22 phones from eight different manufacturers. The researchers, from Brown University, found nickel in the menu buttons, logos and the metallic frames around the display screens. "Given the widespread use of cellphones the presence of metal in the exterior casing of these phones and the high prevalence of nickel sensitization in the population, it is not surprising that cellphones cause allergic contact dermatitis," Dr. Lionel Bercovitch, one of the study's authors, said in a statement. Some of the cellphone models included in the study are no longer sold while other manufacturers told CTV News they are limiting or eliminating the use nickel in their products. Symptoms of dermatitis include a rash, flaking or itchy skin. Treatments include applying a topical steroid cream and avoiding contact with the allergen (in this case, nickel). "If you have an allergy to nickel in your phone the best option is to get a new phone," Toronto dermatologist Dr. Sandy Skotnicki-Grant told CTV News The British dermatologists advise anyone who develops a rash on their face to see a doctor or dermatologist right away. Comments are now closed for this story Joee Ok, cancer was bad...... but a rash.....this is just too much. lepew Too much use of any cell phone can cause a large phone bill. M I really think they are just looking for problems now. Anne Ottawa and using a cellphone while driving can cause death...cant wait for legislation in Ontario to prevent that. I just love waiting behind poky people going slow in the passing lane because they are talking on their cellphone. .... RC of Toronto Too much of everything is always bad. Too much texting can cause callous to the thumb too. :D Ian Ottawa Unless you are important enough to be contacted in an emergency why even have a cell? Kids (mine included) feel they have to be available 24/7 with there friends. Rash? Pain in the A_ _. Andrea It is not a proven fact, but I strongly believe cell phones are a major cause of brain tumours. I do not understand why people put themselves at risk to such a terrible possiblity ... let alone a simple skin rash. Anne Ottawa Andrea the scary thing is, that if it is true, because so many young people, ie 10 years old and up have cell phones now and use them fairly frequently, in about 10 years we will see an increase in brain tumours in the 20 ish, 30 ish popn. I hate to see young people being used as human guinea pigs though. I guess we will see. Lisa So much for the iphone users !! LOL Sale on skin cream coming soon ,, price will sky rocket now LOL Wendy In Montreal Call me old fashioned but I have never owned one, don't want one and I feel if people need to get hold of me they can leave a message on my landline which I will never give up. I laugh at people walking down the street or on the bus speaking on their cellphones. I just don't get it! Ok, cancer was bad...... but a rash.....this is just too much.Too much use of any cell phone can cause a large phone bill.I really think they are just looking for problems now.and using a cellphone while driving can cause death...cant wait for legislation in Ontario to prevent that. I just love waiting behind poky people going slow in the passing lane because they are talking on their cellphone. ....Too much of everything is always bad. Too much texting can cause callous to the thumb too. :DUnless you are important enough to be contacted in an emergency why even have a cell? Kids (mine included) feel they have to be available 24/7 with there friends. Rash? Pain in the A_ _.It is not a proven fact, but I strongly believe cell phones are a major cause of brain tumours. I do not understand why people put themselves at risk to such a terrible possiblity ... let alone a simple skin rash.Andrea the scary thing is, that if it is true, because so many young people, ie 10 years old and up have cell phones now and use them fairly frequently, in about 10 years we will see an increase in brain tumours in the 20 ish, 30 ish popn. I hate to see young people being used as human guinea pigs though. I guess we will see.So much for the iphone users !! LOL Sale on skin cream coming soon ,, price will sky rocket now LOLCall me old fashioned but I have never owned one, don't want one and I feel if people need to get hold of me they can leave a message on my landline which I will never give up. I laugh at people walking down the street or on the bus speaking on their cellphones. I just don't get it! | A selection of cellular phones. The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) has released a report saying that an illness they named 'mobile phone dermatitis', in which individuals owning a cell phone have developed a rash on the side of their face, is likely linked to nickel deposits in the metal of some cellular phones. Nickel has been known to cause rashes on those who have a sensitivity to, or are allergic to the metal. Nickel is also mixed with other metals to make jewelry. The Association says that the condition is likely to affect people who spend too much time talking on the phone. They found that those who spend too much time text messaging or talking for long periods on the phone, were most likely to develop a rash, sometimes severe, on their face and ears, or the tips of their fingers. Tests in January, performed on 22 cellular phones by scientists at Brown University in Rhode Island located in the United States, had found that just under half, a total of 10, contained nickel while the rest had rubber buttons and a plastic case. Initially the rashes were unexplained, and researchers could not find a reason why so many individuals began to experience the symptoms. In most cases the rashes were untreatable. "Cell phones intended for rugged use ... often have rubber coating and no surface nickel. Those with more fashionable designs often have metallic accents and are more likely to contain free nickel in their casings," said Lionel Bercovitch MD., one of the researchers, in a report in the journal for the Canadian Medical Association on January 1, 2008. Researchers also state that although some people may not be allergic to nickel, "prolonged" and continuous exposure to it can cause severe reactions. "Prolonged or repetitive contact with a nickel-containing phone is more likely to cause a skin reaction in those who are allergic," said BAD dermatologist Dr. Graham Lowe in a press release. In the United Kingdom alone, BAD says nearly 30% of the population suffers from rashes brought on by prolonged exposure to the metal. The researchers also recommend individuals to buy swab test kits to test for traces of nickel. |
Login Enter your details below to login If you are an existing member of The Times and The Sunday Times enjoying the full benefits of thetimes.co.uk, then simply enter your Times+ login details below and press 'Enter' Enter your details to login Email address Password Keep me logged in information Keeps you logged in for a rolling 15 days or until you logout ||||| Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The author JG Ballard, famed for novels such as Crash and Empire of the Sun, has died aged 78 after a long illness. His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill "for several years" and had died on Sunday morning. Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Jim Ballard said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future". His most acclaimed novel was Empire of the Sun, based on his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China. I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on JG Ballard Obituary: JG Ballard JG Ballard: Your memories The author of 15 novels and scores of short stories, Ballard grew up amongst the expatriate community in Shanghai. During World War II, at the age of 12, he was interned for three years in a camp run by the Japanese. He later moved to Britain and in the early 1960s became a full-time writer. Ballard built up a passionate readership, particularly after Empire of The Sun, a fictionalised account of his childhood, was made into a film by Steven Spielberg. He said of his experiences: "I have - I won't say happy - not unpleasant memories of the camp. I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on, but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!" His friend and fellow author, Iain Sinclair, said Ballard had developed into a major literary figure. "He was one of the first to take up the whole idea of ecological catastrophe. He was fascinated by celebrity early on, the cult of the star and suicides of cars, motorways, edgelands of cities. "All of these things he was one of the first to create almost a philosophy of. And I think as time has gone on, he's become a major, major figure." 'Ballardian world' Director David Cronenberg brought Ballard's infamous book about the sexual desires stimulated by car crashes to the screen in the film Crash. The film caused a media stir, adding to Ballard's reputation for courting controversy. In later years he wrote other acclaimed novels such as Super-Cannes and Millennium People. Hephzibah Anderson, former fiction editor at the Daily Mail and books columnist for the Observer, said Ballard's work had anticipated life as it was now. "If you look at the start of his career, he began writing science fiction stories and we was regarded as very avant garde. "And there was a kind of violence lurking beneath the texture of these novels. And they've come to seem less and less futuristic and you know it's as if we're embodying, we're living in now a kind of Ballardian world." Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version ||||| The award-winning novelist and short story writer JG Ballard has died aged 78 after a long battle with illness. Ballard was highly regarded but also had his critics The author, best known for Empire of the Sun and Crash, had been ill "for several years", his agent Margaret Hanbury said. It was "with great sadness" that he died on Sunday morning, she added. Although regarded as a science fiction writer, Ballard said what he was really doing was "picturing the psychology of the future". In a prolific career, ballard attracted critical acclaim and controversy in equal measure for his work. Born in Shanghai, China, he was educated at Cambridge University before becoming an RAF pilot. He also worked as an advert agency copywriter, encyclopaedia salesman and assistant editor of scientific journal Chemistry and Industry. I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on, but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time! JG Ballard on life in occupied Shanghai After coming to Britain, he built up a dedicated following, particularly after Empire of The Sun was made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1987. The book tells the story of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai, describing his experiences of starvation, survival and death marches. He said of his childhood: "I have - I won't say happy - not unpleasant memories of the camp. "I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on, but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!" Director David Cronenberg also brought Ballard's infamous book about the sexual desires stimulated by car crashes to the screen in the film Crash. His more recent works include Super-Cannes and Millennium People. | British author James Graham Ballard, known as J. G. Ballard has died at the age of 78. Ballard died on Sunday after a long battle with prostate cancer. According to a spokesperson, Ballard had been sick "for several years" and that it was "with great sadness" to have to make the announcement of his death. He died at the home of his long-time partner. Ballard is best known for writing the novels ''Crash'' in 1973 and ''Empire of the Sun'' in 1984 which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Both books went on to be major motion pictures. "He was a colonial figure in some senses. He had grown up in Shanghai and had very good manners. He was very generous and polite and it took a long while before he would do anything that wasn’t very controlled," said friend and author Iain Sinclair to The Times. Ballard was born in Shanghai, China in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1930. When he was 12, he and his family were forced to live in a camp run by Japanese forces during World War II. Ballard says that he won't say happy things about his experience in the camp, but also no unpleasant ones either. In an interview with BBC News, Ballard said "I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on, but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time." In 1946 he moved to the UK with his sister and mother where he began to write. Twenty years later, in the 1960's, he employed himself as a full time writer. He produced his first novel in 1961 titled ''The Wind from Nowhere'' and ''The Drowned World'' just a year later. |
SUSSEX, Virginia (CNN) -- Suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick must adhere to tightened restrictions after he tested positive for marijuana use, a federal judge said Wednesday. Suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick tested positive for marijuana in a September 13 drug test. Vick tested positive for the drug on September 13, a court document from the Eastern District of Virginia shows. As a result, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ordered Vick to "submit to any method of testing required by the pretrial services officer or the supervising officer for determining whether the defendant is using a prohibited substance." Those methods could include random drug testing, a remote alcohol testing system "and/or any form of prohibited substance screening or testing," the order said. Vick, 27, must participate in substance abuse therapy and mental health counseling "if deemed advisable by the pretrial services officer or supervising officer" at his own expense, the order said. Vick was also ordered to stay home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., "or as directed by the pretrial services officer or supervising officer," the order said. He is to be electronically monitored during that time. The conditions are to apply until Vick's sentencing, which is set for December 10. Read about the federal case against Vick » "This is a very difficult time for Mr. Vick," said Billy Martin, Vick's lead defense counsel, in a written statement. "He will comply with the court's new conditions regarding release." Vick faces a possible prison term of 12 to 18 months after his August guilty plea to federal conspiracy charges related to dogfighting on his property in Surry County, Virginia. The original terms of the pretrial release, set in July by U.S. Magistrate Dennis W. Dohnal, required that Vick not use narcotic drugs or other controlled substances unless prescribed by a doctor. Vick's guilty plea in the federal case came after three associates -- Purnell Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Quanis Phillips, 28, of Atlanta, Georgia; and Tony Taylor, 34, of Hampton, Virginia -- admitted their roles in the operation and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. On Tuesday, a Virginia grand jury indicted Vick and the three co-defendants on state charges of running a dogfighting ring at the home. See a timeline of the case against Vick » The Surry County grand jury brought two charges against Vick: one count of unlawfully torturing and killing dogs and one of promoting dogfights. Each is a felony charge that could result in a five-year prison term. Vick will be arraigned October 3 in state court in Virginia. Vick's attorneys say they are fighting the state charges on the grounds that he can't be convicted twice of the same crime. E-mail to a friend CNN's Eric Fiegel contributed to this report. All About Animal Cruelty • Michael Vick ||||| RICHMOND, Va. A federal judge placed tighter restrictions on Michael Vick on Wednesday after the Atlanta Falcons quarterback tested positive for marijuana. Because of the result, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson placed special conditions on Vick's release, including restricting him to his home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with electronic monitoring and ordering him to submit to random drug testing. The urine sample was submitted Sept. 13, according to a document by a federal probation officer that was filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. Vick, who has admitted bankrolling a dogfighting operation on property he owns in Surry County in his written federal plea, is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 10. He faces up to five years in prison. On Tuesday, Vick also was indicted on state charges of beating or killing or causing dogs to fight other dogs and engaging in or promoting dogfighting. Each felony is punishable by up to five years in prison. The 27-year-old former Virginia Tech star was placed under pretrial release supervision by U.S. Magistrate Dennis Dohnal in July. The restrictions included refraining from use or unlawful possession of narcotic drugs or other controlled substances. The random drug testing ordered Wednesday could include urine testing, the wearing of a sweat patch, a remote alcohol testing system or any form of prohibited substance screening or testing. Hudson's order also requires Vick to participate in inpatient or outpatient substance therapy and mental health counseling, if the pretrial services officer or supervising officer deem it appropriate. Vick must pay for the treatment. Vick's attorney, Billy Martin, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. In January, Vick was cleared by police of any wrongdoing after his water bottle was seized by security at Miami International Airport. Police said it smelled of marijuana and had a hidden compartment that contained a "small amount of dark particulate." Lab tests found no evidence of drugs, and Vick explained that he used the secret compartment to carry jewelry. The federal dogfighting case began in late April when authorities conducting a drug investigation of Vick's cousin raided the property and seized dozens of dogs, most of them pit bulls, and equipment commonly associated with dogfighting. Six weeks later, when the local investigation seemed to be dragging and a local search warrant was allowed to expire, federal agents arrived with their own warrants and started digging up dog carcasses buried days before the first raid. ||||| A federal judge placed tighter restrictions on NFL star Michael Vick on Wednesday after he tested positive for marijuana while awaiting sentencing on charges related to dog fighting. Because of the result, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson placed special conditions on Vick's release, including restricting him to his home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and ordering him to submit to random drug testing. The urine sample was submitted Sept. 13, according to a document by a federal probation officer that was filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. Vick, who admitted bankrolling a dog-fighting operation on property he owns in Surry County in his written federal plea, is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 10. Vick and three co-defendants were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on state charges related to the dog-fighting ring. Vick was indicted for beating or killing or causing dogs to fight other dogs and engaging in or promoting dog-fighting. The grand jury passed on indicting the Atlanta Falcons quarterback and two co-defendants on eight counts of animal cruelty, which would have exposed them to as many as 40 years in prison if convicted. Any animal cruelty charge in Virginia is punishable by up to five years in prison. And in a written plea for the federal case, Vick admitted helping kill six to eight dogs at the Surry County property. Similarly, the three co-defendants in the case have admitted their involvement and detailed what they claim was Vick's role. For county law enforcement officials who started the investigation with a raid on Vick's property in late April, those signed statements provided ample evidence to support further prosecution. Meanwhile, a Canadian bank is suing for more than $2.3 million, arguing that his guilty plea to federal dog-fighting charges -- and the resulting impact on his career -- have prevented him from repaying a loan. Vick borrowed $2.5 million in January with plans to use the money for real estate investments, Royal Bank of Canada said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newport News on Thursday. The loan's terms specify that any employment change negatively impacting Vick's income constitutes a default on the loan, according to the lawsuit. Surry County Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald G. Poindexter asked that the four be arraigned Oct. 3 and requested that each be released on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond. None of the defendants nor their lawyers were in court. The charges are the first leveled against Vick in the county where he built a home on 15 acres that was the base of the dog-fighting operation. "We are disappointed that these charges were filed in Surry County since it is the same conduct covered by the federal indictment for which Mr. Vick has already accepted full responsibility" and pleaded guilty, Billy Martin, one of Vick's attorneys, said in a statement. Martin said Vick's legal team would examine the charges "to ensure that he is not held accountable for the same conduct twice." A defense attorney who was at the courthouse Tuesday said he was "befuddled" when he learned the grand jury had passed on indicting Vick and the others on animal cruelty charges. "There's something going on here that I don't understand," said Joe Pennington, a Norfolk defense attorney who was at the courthouse. "The grand jury is generally regarded by defense attorneys as a rubber stamp." Falcons spokesman Reggie Roberts said the team had no comments on the new charges. The case began when authorities conducting a drug investigation of Vick's cousin raided the former Virginia Tech star's property in April and seized dozens of dogs, most of them pit bulls, and equipment commonly associated with dog-fighting. Six weeks later, with the local investigation perceived to be dragging and a search warrant allowed to expire, federal agents arrived with their own search warrants and started digging up dog carcasses buried days before the first raid. Poindexter, widely criticized for the pace of the investigation, reacted angrily when the feds moved in, suggesting that Vick's celebrity was a draw, or that their pursuit of the case could have racial overtones. He later eased off those comments, saying the sides would simply be pursuing parallel investigations. Vick, who faces up to five years in federal prison, has been indefinitely suspended without pay by the NFL and been dropped by all his major sponsors, including Nike. | Michael Vick, of the Atlanta Falcons scrambles past Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney in the 2006 Pro Bowl. After testing positive for marijuana amid the latest drug test, former NFL star Michael Vick was placed under tighter restrictions by U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson. Vick must be home between between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and he must submit to random drug tests that will be conducted in the future. Hudson also ordered that Vick may have to attend and pay for inpatient or outpatient substance therapy and mental health counseling if a supervising officer deems so. A document filed in U.S. District Court today said Vick tested positive amid a urine sample that was submitted on September 13, 2007. Vick is scheduled for sentencing on December 10 for bankrolling a dogfighting operation on his property. |
Three teenagers were removed from a New Mexico doomsday cult compound after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced. The teens — two girls and a boy — were removed Wednesday after allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the church leader, Michael Travesser, said state officials. Prudence Welch, who spent 15 years as a member of the New Mexico cult, fled the compound in 2005. She talked to "GMA" Friday about her time there. The Lord Our Righteousness Church centers on Travesser, who led his acolytes to Strong City, N.M. seven years ago and declared himself the son of God and the sect's messiah, according to material posted on the group's Web site. Travesser has acknowledged that naked, underage virgins had laid with him on his bed, according to the group's Web site. Romaine Serna, a spokeswoman for the state's Children, Youth and Families Department, said that the state took three children into custody. "We did receive information alleging inappropriate contact with minors on the compound," Serna confirmed to ABC News. Serna would not say who provided her department with the tip, but said it came from a "very reliable source." Though he admitted in a new National Geographic documentary to lying naked with minors — to bring them closer to God — Travesser denies having sex with them. "Nakedness is another symbol of our relationship with God. We are naked and unashamed," Travesser told National Geographic in a film that airs next week. "I treated them with the same deference as if I was a physician, an M.D. who was doing surgery." "Esther," a cult member, described her interaction with Travesser. "He took me to bed and laid me down and somehow it was like all of heaven was open to me, somehow I started to see God, after all he is the son of God," she told National Geographic. In 2000, shortly after moving to the New Mexico property in the state's northeastern corner, Travesser, 66, began claiming that he was annointed by God as the group's divine leader, according to the group's Web site. "God said to me, 'You are messiah,' certainly by no instruction from me," Travesser told National Geographic. "Two witnesses, these two left their homes, left their families and it wasn't at my instruction or behest." The group began in California after Travesser broke from the Seven Day Adventist church in 1987 to form his Lord of Our Righteousness Church. Reports have put the number of church members between 50-60 people. Serna said that the state is looking into the best options for the children. "From a child protective standpoint, our concern is the parental role where the parents, either by neglect or active participation, abandoned or neglected a child," she told ABC News. ||||| Letter to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson By Jeff Bent | Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Governor Richardson: I am writing to you from Strong City, a small spiritual community in northeastern New Mexico. Recently representatives from CYFD came to our land and kidnapped three teenagers who are part of our family here. I call it an abduction because that is how God views it. There were no moral grounds for them to be taken. Yesterday, a representative from CYFD told one of the girl’s parents that your office ordered CYFD to make their move against our church. I am glad to know this, because now I know who to hold responsible. Now we have a face and a name, whereas before we only had the names of your employees, who said they were just following orders. We know that excuse didn’t save the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials from the hangman’s noose, but that is a subject for another time. Tell me, Governor, where did your orders come from? Was it from your handlers at the Bilderberg Group? You and Texas governor, and fellow-Bilderberger, Rick Perry are both singing from the same hymnbook, and I am eager to know who is directing policy from above. Who made the decision that it’s time for the states to move against groups who are separate from mainstream society? If you tell me, I will pray for the plagues to fall on them, too. But until then, the buck stops with you. If those three children you abducted from us are forced to take drugs, are molested or harmed in any way, you will be held personally responsible, and I promise you there will be consequences. There is a God who rules over the affairs of men, and that God is not the state. He will avenge His elect. Those children are not like the children in your world. I’ve been around your children. A large majority of them are arrogant, rude, disrespectful of authority, and full of themselves. They are conditioned by television, rap music and trash culture, and think that they are owed everything on a silver platter. Many are so stupid they couldn’t find Mexico or Canada on a map, or tell you what the First Amendment is (maybe you don’t know that one, either). Your schools have done a great deal to help create this generation of the damned. They are vessels prepared to receive the wrath of God. Governor, I am not writing to you because I am under the illusion that you are motivated by a higher principle than your own appetites, or that you have the capacity to recognize truth, and stand up for it. I attended your rally in Clayton a couple of years ago where you were selling the town a prison, not just a run-of-the-mill state prison, but a private prison run by your cronies at Wackenhut / Geo Group. This multi-national, Wall Street traded company extracts profits from the incarceration of human beings around the world. They operate in a growth industry of privatized slave-labor. I was sickened and appalled you would try to pawn this prison off as “economic development” for Clayton. I was more appalled that the citizens of this county would let you do it, and even applaud your absurd notion that this is how to build a prosperous society. Do you knowingly lead the lemmings off the cliff, or are you just one of them? Those of us here in Strong City have been set apart by God from this nation of lemmings (no offense to lemmings). We will not be slaves on your global plantation and work in your prisons. We educate our children to avoid the slavery you seek to impose on them, and to experience the freedom they have in God. We have given everything to prepare them for an eternity with God. We haven’t oppressed them with your atheistic globalist curriculum, socialist indoctrination, and “alternative lifestyles” dogma that comprise modern public education. We have taught them higher values than the values of your slave-state, and have sought to shield them from the abuse that is institutionalized in your system. Over the years we have used our time here to fully conform ourselves to the will of God. He did not appoint us to sit out here in the wilderness and live to ourselves. Without our foreknowledge, God made a spectacle out of us. Parables have been acted out here that are of a nature to offend the wicked and perverted heart. This offense causes the wicked to judge themselves in the judgments they make against us. We haven’t concealed anything, but published it abroad through home movies and the Internet. What cult engaged in wrong-doing would throw open their doors to documentary filmmakers and urge them to ask any question they wish? Don’t evil people have something to hide? I know your cult has much to hide. I am a former police officer and have investigated a number of child abuse cases. I can tell you that no child has been abused or neglected in Strong City. Your social workers are pursuing a predetermined agenda. There is no physical or sexual abuse, no failure to protect or supervise, no failure to educate. On the other hand, I see these crimes against children every day in your cult. I am incensed at the hypocrisy of your world, that you can accuse us of the very crimes your cult is guilty of. I pray that you are brought to justice. God was willing to tolerate your cult for a time, but now that you have kidnapped His children, charging us with the very crimes you commit every day, He will tolerate you no more. Over the years, your police and social workers have come and visited our land, and questioned our children. They always left satisfied that things were well here. As long as you left us alone and respected our freedom to worship according to our conscience, our God left you alone. Even if a nation is given over to sinful practices, God cannot destroy it if the righteous are respected and free, for they are the salt of intercession and they keep the world going. Now that you have moved against us because of our faith, the cup of God’s anger is full to the brim, and now He is free to move against you. That is God’s purpose in all of these things. Sincerely, Jeff Bent | Three teenagers have been taken from a compound in New Mexico, United States after it was alleged that minors in the compond, called the Lord Our Righteousness Church were being abused. A person from the compound said, "Recently representatives from CYFD Children Youth and Family Department of New Mexico came to our land and kidnapped three teenagers who are part of our family here." He continued, " I call it an abduction because that is how God views it. There were no moral grounds for them to be taken." |
“We want to make it more difficult for kids to access marijuana. That is why we are going to legalize and control marijuana,” the Prime Minister proclaimed in the Commons on the day before his government tabled two bills to implement his election promise. ( Ron Ward / THE CANADIAN PRESS ) Justin Trudeau wants Canadians to see his plan to legalize marijuana as a massive government intervention to save the country’s youth from the perils of cannabis. “We want to make it more difficult for kids to access marijuana. That is why we are going to legalize and control marijuana,” the Prime Minister proclaimed in the Commons on the day before his government tabled two bills to implement his election promise. With the stage set for a less-than-festive announcement, sunny ways were definitively not in the government’s script for Thursday’s opening act in the legislative debate on the legalization of marijuana. Absent the prime minister — otherwise occupied somewhere else in the parliamentary precinct — it was left to a quartet of grim-faced ministers to expand on the legislation. This they did by showcasing a litany of planned prohibitions and restrictions, and saying as little as possible as to the actual intent of the policy, which remains to make it possible for adults to procure cannabis legally. Article Continued Below If the argument that the way to keep more teenagers away from marijuana is to sell it legally sounds counterintuitive, it may be because most of us do not remember having a harder time — as adolescents — getting our underage hands on alcohol and tobacco products than on cannabis. There is for now scant evidence that Canada, by going through the many hoops involved in legalizing marijuana, will achieve Trudeau’s purported societal goal. When it comes to selling cannabis legally, the state of Colorado has a head start on comparable jurisdictions. It is not clear that the policy has had the kind of impact on underage consumption that the federal government says it is looking for. Or for that matter the negative consequences critics of legalization warn about. But then the first risk the government is attempting to counter with the repressive subtext of its dual bills is political. There is widespread public ambivalence about the Liberal plan. It might not take much to turn that ambivalence into a backlash. Hence the heavy emphasis on the introduction of maximum sentences for selling or giving marijuana to a minor on par with those on the books for raping a child, and a plan to give the police the right to demand saliva tests from drivers on a basis as slim as red eyes. The provinces would also be free to raise the legal age to buy cannabis up from 18 and to lower the maximum amount of cannabis allowable down from 30 grams. The New Democrats have long supported the decriminalization of marijuana and have no ideological objections to going the extra step to legalization. They are happy, for now, to watch the government sink or swim with its bid. The Conservatives did campaign against Trudeau’s promise in the last election. But there is no consensus on the way forward among their leadership candidates. Some — like Kellie Leitch — are promising to repeal the legislation. Others — like Kevin O’Leary and Maxime Bernier — have expressed qualified support for the move in the past. There is no need for the opposition to rush to judgment. This debate will play out for much of the remainder of the Liberal mandate. The government would like to have the law in place by July of next year but with the pricing issues among many others still up in the air it would probably be wise to not hold one’s breath for the rollout to be on schedule. On Parliament Hill, the last few hours before a long weekend and a two-week parliamentary break are the equivalent of a graveyard shift. On afternoons when Ottawa’s airport lounge is busier than the Commons lobby, governments have tended to dump potentially embarrassing news, in the hope that they will get a swift burial. It is in this parliamentary cemetery that Trudeau’s government chose to plant the legislative seeds of its marijuana policy on Thursday. The choice of timing is not a conventional one for what used to be a signature platform plank. But then, like the defunct Liberal commitment to a new voting system, the marijuana promise was one that no leader before Trudeau had ever made, and he made it at a time when the party was further removed from power than at any other point in its modern history. Based on the collective body language on exhibit on the government side on Thursday, the two promises have in common that the Liberals have come to rue the day Trudeau made them. Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Read more about: ||||| Though eight American states have legalized marijuana to various extents, the drug remains illegal under federal law. Mr. Trudeau’s move eliminates any such ambiguity in Canada. It follows a court-mandated legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, which was introduced with tight controls in 1999 and later broadened by further court orders. Advertisement Continue reading the main story While the new legislation will take Canada beyond its medical marijuana system, it stops far short of creating an open market. The law will require purchasers to be at least 18 years old — though provinces can set a higher minimum — and it will limit the amount they can carry at any one time to 30 grams, about an ounce. Households will be allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants. But the legislation seems built on the assumption that most users will be supplied by commercial growers, who will be licensed and closely supervised by the federal government. Each province will decide where and how marijuana may be sold and will set prices. How much marijuana will cost and how heavily it will be taxed will be influenced by Canada’s experience with tobacco, which is also tightly regulated. When the country tried to discourage smoking by sharply increasing cigarette taxes, it inadvertently created a growing black market for cigarettes smuggled from the United States and elsewhere. Since one of the government’s main aims with the new law is to wipe out — or at least reduce — marijuana dealing, it will want to avoid measures that spur its growth. Advertisement Continue reading the main story It is unclear where users will be able to buy the drug. Several provinces restrict alcohol sales mainly to government-run liquor stores, and a similar arrangement may be used for marijuana. But a federal task force that released its findings late last year recommended that marijuana not be offered in shops that also sell alcohol. One thing seems clear: the illegal marijuana stores that sprang up in several cities after Mr. Trudeau came to power in late 2015, in anticipation of the new law, are not likely to be allowed to stay in business. The shops are supplied by black-market growers, and while the police have left them alone in some cities, the authorities have been openly skeptical about assertions by shop owners that they sell only to medical users. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ontario’s attorney general is seeking a forfeiture order for almost 600,000 Canadian dollars in cash — about $450,000 — that was seized at the Toronto airport from an employee of a chain of seven illegal medical marijuana outlets in the city. Figuring out how to measure impairment is high on the government’s list of things it must do before the legal market is expanded. Several police forces, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are testing two types of screening devices that can detect drugs in saliva, including THC, the main psychoactive substance in marijuana. Sign Up for the Canada Today Newsletter Every week, receive a handpicked selection of news and opinion plus exclusive commentary from New York Times journalists. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Proposed amendments to criminal laws would require motorists to give the police saliva samples on request and allow officers to demand a breath test for alcohol when stopping drivers for any reason. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The issue goes beyond motorists. Gilbert Brulotte, the former chairman of the Canadian Construction Association, said the law may lead to increased accident rates on job sites. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Brulotte acknowledged that marijuana use by construction workers has been a safety problem for a long time. But until now, he said, any evidence of marijuana use was grounds to fire someone. After legalization, employers will need to show that the worker was impaired on the job. “We are not against legalization, we’re just interested in making sure that thresholds and proper technologies are in place,” Mr. Brulotte said, adding that the industry also wanted the right to perform random drug tests in the workplace. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The legislation would seem to put Canada in violation of three United Nations treaties concerning drugs. But a study released this week by the University of Ottawa Global Strategy Lab found that the government may be able to justify the measure under exemptions for “scientific purposes.” The promise of the new law has prompted investors to bid up the stocks of 11 licensed medical marijuana growers. Several have tripled or quadrupled in price over the past year. But while the existing licensed growers — more than 40 in all, including those that are not publicly traded — are expected to have a head start in the recreational market, it is not clear that they will see a boom of the kind that, say, whiskey distillers enjoyed after Prohibition was repealed. Under the new law, marijuana will be marketed more like cigarettes than like liquor. Rather than being able to develop and promote brands that consumers seek out, marijuana growers may find that they can merely sell an agricultural commodity. Marketing will be limited largely to providing factual information about the product, like its name, its ingredients and the strain of marijuana used. The government is considering regulations that would allow only plain packaging to be used. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Though many licensed growers appeared to get into the medical marijuana business with an eye toward the eventual opening of the much larger recreational market, Canada’s first legal grower said on Wednesday that the government’s action was premature. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I think it’s rather aggressive,” said Brent Zettl, the president and chief executive of CanniMed Therapeutics in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. “I think it’s rather arrogant of Justin Trudeau.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Zettl, whose company had the medical marijuana market to itself for several years, said he owed it to his investors to get into recreational marijuana, but he was not certain that it would be very profitable. And he said he agreed with doctors and police officials who want the minimum age to buy the drug to be set higher, at 25 for high-potency products and 21 for reduced potency. The bill includes stiff new criminal penalties for people who sell or give marijuana to minors, or who create cannabis products that appeal to children or adolescents. Widespread use of more potent recreational marijuana, he added, may also undermine efforts to understand the drug’s medicinal effects, particularly for users who are looking for relief, not a high. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It’s good from an industry perspective,” Mr. Zettl said of the new law. “I don’t think it’s good for society.” ||||| Proposed legislation would provide regulated and restricted access to cannabis and crack down on impaired driving April 13, 2017 Ottawa, ON Government of Canada The current approach to cannabis does not work. It has allowed criminals and organized crime to profit, while failing to keep cannabis out of the hands of Canadian youth. In many cases, it is easier for our kids to buy cannabis than cigarettes. That is why the Government of Canada, after extensive consultation with law enforcement, health and safety experts, and the hard work of the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation, today introduced legislation to legalize, strictly regulate and restrict access to cannabis. The proposed Cannabis Act would create a strict legal framework for controlling the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada. Following Royal Assent, the proposed legislation would allow adults to legally possess and use cannabis. This would mean that possession of small amounts of cannabis would no longer be a criminal offence and would prevent profits from going into the pockets of criminal organizations and street gangs. The Bill would also, for the first time, make it a specific criminal offence to sell cannabis to a minor and create significant penalties for those who engage young Canadians in cannabis-related offences. In addition to legalizing and strictly regulating cannabis, the Government is toughening laws around alcohol- and drug-impaired driving. Under the Government’s proposed legislation, new offences would be added to the Criminal Code to enforce a zero tolerance approach for those driving under the influence of cannabis and other drugs. Additionally, the proposed legislation would authorize new tools for police to better detect drivers who have drugs in their body. Subject to Parliamentary approval and Royal Assent, the Government of Canada intends to provide regulated and restricted access to cannabis no later than July 2018. The Government will invest additional resources to make sure there is appropriate capacity within Health Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Department of Public Safety to license, inspect and enforce all aspects of the proposed legislation. These additional resources will also allow the Government to undertake a robust public awareness campaign so that Canadians are well informed about the dangers of driving under the influence of cannabis and other drugs. Working in partnership with provinces, territories, municipalities and local communities, the Government will also make appropriate investments to train and equip law enforcement so that Canada’s roads and highways are safe for all Canadians. In the months ahead, the Government will share more details on a new licensing fee and excise tax system. It will also continue to engage with all levels of government and Indigenous Peoples. Quotes “As a former police officer, I know firsthand how easy it is for our kids to buy cannabis. In many cases, it is easier for our children to get cannabis than it is to get cigarettes. Today’s plan to legalize, strictly regulate and restrict access to cannabis will put an end to this. It will keep cannabis out of the hands of children and youth, and stop criminals from profiting from it.” Bill Blair Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice “Today, we are following through on our commitment to introduce comprehensive legislation to legalize, strictly regulate and restrict access to cannabis and to create new laws to punish more severely those who drive under its influence. The Cannabis Act reflects an evidence-based approach that will protect Canadians’ public health and safety. By tackling alcohol- and drug-impaired driving with new and tougher criminal offences, Canadians will be better protected from impaired drivers and the number of deaths and accidents on our roads will be reduced.” The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada “The bills we propose today are aiming at putting drug dealers and organized crime out of the cannabis business. It will allow law enforcement to focus on other serious offences, including the distribution of cannabis to children and youth and driving under the influence of drugs. Drug-impaired driving puts the lives and the safety of drivers and passengers at risk every day, and we will lead a wide-ranging campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of driving while impaired. The proposed Bill will also provide more tools and stronger laws to punish more severely drivers who drive under the influence of drugs, including cannabis. We will continue to work with our law enforcement, provincial and territorial partners and stakeholders to develop a consistent enforcement approach and to provide support in building capacity across the country.” The Honourable Ralph Goodale Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness “The Cannabis Act will help keep our children safe and address the health risks associated with cannabis. The proposed legislation would allow Canadian adults to possess and purchase regulated and quality-controlled cannabis products, while prohibiting sales to young Canadians and any products, promotion, packaging or labelling that could be appealing to young people.” The Honourable Jane Philpott Minister of Health Quick Facts The Cannabis Act proposes that legal sales of cannabis would be restricted to people who are 18 years of age and over. Provinces and territories could increase the minimum legal age of sale, purchase and consumption. The movement of cannabis and cannabis products across international borders would remain a serious criminal offence. Following Royal Assent, the Government intends to bring the proposed Act into force no later than July 2018. At that time, adults would legally be able to possess up to 30 grams of legal cannabis in public, and to grow up to four plants per household at a maximum height of one metre from a legal seed or seedling. Until the new law comes into force, cannabis will remain illegal everywhere in Canada, except for medical purposes. The provinces and territories would authorize and oversee the distribution and sale of cannabis, subject to minimum federal conditions. In those jurisdictions that have not put in place a regulated retail framework, individuals would be able to purchase cannabis online from a federally licensed producer with secure home delivery through the mail or by courier. The proposed legislation would amend the Criminal Code to modernize and simplify the transportation provisions, strengthen the criminal law responses to impaired driving, and facilitate the effective and efficient investigation and prosecution of drug- and alcohol-impaired driving. To facilitate detection and investigation of drug-impaired driving, law enforcement officers will be authorized and equipped to use oral fluid drug screeners at the roadside. Related Products - 30 - Contacts David Taylor Office of the Minister of Justice 613-992-4621 Media Relations Department of Justice Canada 613-957-4207 media@justice.gc.ca Andrew MacKendrick Office of the Minister of Health 613-957-0200 Media Relations Health Canada 613-957-2983 Scott Bardsley Office of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness 613-998-5681 Media Relations Public Safety Canada 613-991-0657 media@ps-sp.gc.ca Public Inquiries: 613-957-2991 1-866 225-0709 ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Füge diesen Tweet zu deiner Webseite hinzu, indem du den untenstehenden Code einfügst. Mehr erfahren Füge dieses Video zu deiner Webseite hinzu, indem du den untenstehenden Code kopierst. Mehr erfahren Hmm, es gab ein Problem, den Server zu erreichen. Erneut versuchen? Vorherigen Tweet einfügen Medien beifügen Indem du Twitter Inhalte in deine Website oder App einbettest, akzeptierst du die Twitter Entwicklervereinbarung und die Entwicklerrichtlinien. Vorschau ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Προσθέστε αυτό το Tweet στην ιστοσελίδα σας αντιγράφοντας τον παρακάτω κώδικα. Mάθετε περισσότερα Προσθέστε αυτό το βίντεο στην ιστοσελίδα σας, αντιγράφοντας τον παρακάτω κώδικα. Mάθετε περισσότερα Χμμ, προέκυψε πρόβλημα στην επικοινωνία με το διακομιστή. Προσπαθήστε ξανά. Συμπερίληψη γονικού Tweet Συμπερίληψη πολυμέσων Ενσωματώνοντας περιεχόμενο του Twitter στην ιστοσελίδα ή την εφαρμογή σας, συμφωνείτε με τη Συμφωνία του προγραμματιστή εφαρμογών και την Πολιτική απορρήτου του προγραμματιστή εφαρμογών του Twitter. Προεπισκόπηση | In order to put the drug (marijuana) out of reach of minors, the Canadian federal government announced a bill to legalise cannabis for the age group of eighteen and above, on Thursday. The bill would allow adults to possess cannabis publicly, previously a criminal offence. Canada's health minister tweeted, The Canadian government, via their official website, explained cannabis is available illegally, and their measures to stop it did not work. Criminal organisations are making money selling cannabis. Under-aged people can obtain the drug easily; they said, "it is easier for our kids to buy cannabis than cigarettes." The bill allows provinces and territories to set the age limit above eighteen. In order to prevent criminal gangs from making a profit, selling the drug needs a license permitting its sale. Adults can purchase the drug online from a licensed producer if a retail shop is not available in the province. Adults can carry up to 30 (slightly over an ) of cannabis and grow at most four cannabis plants at home, for personal use. The plants should be no taller than a , the bill proposed. Selling cannabis to minors would be a specific criminal offence. The legislation requires parliamentary approval and royal assent. If passed, the bill would be under effect by July 2018, the government said. Health and safety experts and law enforcement were consulted before proposing the legislation. Except for medical purposes, possession of the drug remains illegal until the bill is passed. Regardless of the status of the bill, import and export of the drug would be illegal. Previously when the government increased the taxes on cigarettes to discourage citizens from smoking, a black market for cigarettes developed. Along with legalising cannabis, the bill would also permit the police officials to use tools like oral fluid drug screeners to detect if drivers are under the influence of the drug. Zero tolerance against drivers under influence of drugs is proposed. The government would also implement a public awareness campaign on the perils of driving under the influence of drugs. The government still working on the restrictions. Lawmaker and former police chief Bill Blair said, "We do accept that more important work remains to be done." If the bill is passed, Canada would be the second country to legalise cannabis completely. is the first. Some countries, such as Germany, allow medical use of cannabis, but recreational use is prohibited. |
Oracle Profit Jumps 29 Percent September 20, 2006 by The Associated Press Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Larry Ellison showed his notorious competitive streak Tuesday, when the business software maker reported first-quarter profit jumped 29 percent and revenue soared 30 percent. In a conference call with investors, Ellison crowed that Oracle had "leapfrogged" German software powerhouse SAP AG in numerous market segments. Oracle's rivals also include BEA Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. -- advertisement -- Ellison -- a college dropout who once rivaled Microsoft Corp.'s Bill Gates as the world's richest businessman -- was also quick to attack SAP Chief Executive Henning Kagermann. "SAP appears to be rethinking their strategy as they lose application market share to Oracle," Ellison said. "They've just announced that they are delaying the next version of SAP applications until 2010. That's a full two years behind Oracle's scheduled delivery...and now Kagermann is talking about an acquisition strategy to augment SAP's slowing organic growth." Walldorf, Germany-based SAP immediately fired back, saying Ellison's characterization of its product and acquisition strategy was a "complete misrepresentation of the facts." "Oracle's next-generation applications exist only in PowerPoint and won't be delivered until 2008 or beyond," SAP spokesman Bill Wohl said. "We have delivered on our roadmap consistently, Oracle is just making promises." The skirmish comes after Oracle reported fiscal first-quarter profit was a record $670 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with $519 million, or 10 cents a share, in the same quarter of fiscal 2006. Revenue for the three months ended Aug. 31 was a record $3.59 billion, up nearly 30 percent from $2.79 billion in the year-ago period, thanks to lucrative contracts with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers. Excluding acquisition expenses and other costs, the world's largest business software company earned $931 million, or 18 cents per share, up 26 percent from $738 million, or 14 cents per share, in the year-ago period. On that basis, which does not conform to standard accounting methods, analysts expected the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company to report a profit of $853.26 million, or 16 cents per share, on revenue of $3.47 billion. New software license sales, which investors watch closely because they are a strong indicator of future performance, rose nearly 28 percent to $804 million from $629 million last year. Results for both periods include Oracle's $11.1 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft Inc. "You've got to give credit where credit's due. It was a good quarter all across the board," said WR Hambrecht & Co. analyst Robert Stimson. "It was clean -- almost too clean." But other analysts said the company's performance -- though admirable -- didn't necessarily merit Ellison's braggadocio. Unlike industries with huge fixed costs, competitors in the software niche often gain or lose market share quickly, depending on one or two successful new products or an important merger or acquisition. "SAP did a great job of kicking Oracle when it was down...but Oracle couldn't stay weak forever," said Cowen and Co. analyst Peter L. Goldmacher. "Larry is probably the smartest guy in the business, and his M&A; strategy was exceptionally well-thought out, and now we're seeing it exceptionally executed." Oracle President and Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz forecast profit before one-time costs in the current quarter would be 17 cents per share, or 22 cents per share after one-time costs -- exactly what analysts were expecting. Sales will rise 24 percent to 26 percent from the same period last year, she said. Since early last year, Oracle has spent more than $20 billion acquiring competitors in the business software arena in a bid to combat slowing growth. Besides PeopleSoft, Oracle has also swallowed up former competitors including Siebel Systems Inc. for $6.1 billion and smaller companies such as Portal Software Inc. for a total of about $2 billion. Ellison has said the takeovers will allow Oracle, whose 275,000 customers include 98 of the Fortune 100, to increase profit by 20 percent per year and overtake competitors. Oracle released the results after the stock market closed. The company's shares closed Tuesday at $16.13, down 12 cents from Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock gained $1.47 or 9.1 percent in after-hours trading. SAP shares closed Tueday at $47.86, down 89 cents, or about 2 percent, from Monday. The stock gained another 13 cents in after-hours trading. You can contact the editors about Oracle Profit Jumps 29 Percent at editor@rcpmag.com. ||||| Oracle posted outstanding results for its first fiscal quarter, which ended August 31, 2006. All software segments of Oracle’s business, including database, middleware, and applications, reported very strong growth. The total revenue for the quarter increased 30% to $3.6B, and both net income and software revenue grew 29% over the prior year. AMR Research clients, please login. This document is available to AMR Research clients only. If you would like further information about how to become a client, please contact info@amrresearch.com. AMR Research® is a registered trademark of AMR Research, Inc. | "There's no doubt we're gaining share across all product lines," said Oracle's CFO, after a quarter where net income grew 29% and revenue grew 30% to $3.6bn. Applications license revenue climbed 78% on a constant currency basis. CEO noted that, in comparison, saw its application license revenue grow a more modest 8%. Oracle's president claimed 88 head-to-head wins against SAP in the quarter. Some commentators noted that, though impressive, Oracle's results may not persist. Unlike industries with huge fixed costs, competitors in the software industry can quickly gain and lose market share through new product launches and mergers. Ovum noted that the integration of acquisitions such as , , and now seem to have been accomplished, and that both Oracle and SAP are benefitting from the increasing symbiosis between the middleware and application markets. SAP replied with a statement noting that it offers "market-leading SOA applications today, while Oracle's next-generation applications exist only in and won't be delivered until 2008 or beyond." |
The World Today - Friday, 18 November , 2005 12:18:00 Reporter: Daniel Hoare ELIZABETH JACKSON: Supporters of the convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, have gathered outside the State Library in Melbourne to display thousands of messages of opposition to his death sentence. Singapore officials have advised 25-year-old Nguyen's mother of plans to execute him in a Singapore jail in 14 days time. Australians have rallied to support the 'Reach Out' campaign organised by Nguyen's Melbourne friends, who continue to receive messages calling for the Singapore Government to grant him clemency. Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, will fly to Singapore tonight, where he'll continue to publicly lobby for clemency despite a date being set for the execution. Callers to talkback radio in Melbourne this morning were overwhelmingly against the death penalty being applied in the case of Nguyen, who immediately admitted his guilt and has cooperated with authorities since being caught smuggling nearly 400 grams of heroin into Singapore. In Melbourne, Daniel Hoare reports. DANIEL HOARE: As friends and supporters of Van Nguyen gathered outside Melbourne's State Library to unveil the extraordinary response to the campaign against his death sentence, talkback callers raged against the Singaporean Government. Many called for a boycott of Singaporean products. TALKBACK CALLER: We, personally, have a reservation to go overseas on Singapore Airlines next year, early in the year, and we discussed cancelling it last night. RADIO HOST: Are you going to cancel it though? TALKBACK CALLER: Yes. TALKBACK CALLER: There's a bigger company than Optus in Victoria that's owned by the Singapore Government, and that's our electricity company called TRU. The Singapore Government needs to know that we're so upset about it we'll boycott their industries. TALKBACK CALLER: I was slightly stunned when Howard announced that they were contemplating merging Qantas and Singapore Airlines at the same time as he was asking for clemency. I'm completely against the death penalty under any circumstances. DANIEL HOARE: The Reach Out campaign, organised by Van Nguyen's close friends, has called for messages of support for the 25-year-old. And despite the fact that Van Nguyen is now almost certain to be executed in 14 days, the thousands of messages are united by a common theme: that it isn't too late for the Singaporean Government to reverse its decision. Nguyen's close friend, Kelly Ng, says she's been overwhelmed by the support from the Australian public. KELLY NG: The response has been phenomenal. We can't put a specified number, but we've received thousands and there still are hundreds, I believe, coming through the mail that have not been opened. All the hands that we have received so far are from across Australia and even from overseas. DANIEL HOARE: Just standing here looking down it looks like there's, there would have to be thousands of colourful hands spread across the lawn here. How many do you estimate there'd be here? KELLY NG: I really don't know. Just thousands and thousands. DANIEL HOARE: And it also looks as though people have put a lot of effort into preparing them. KELLY NG: Yes, they've decorated them, they've used different colours, they've bought different papers, yeah. A lot of people have just put a lot of effort into them and it's just not about just tracing hands. DANIEL HOARE: Does it feel good to have received some support? Despite the horrible circumstances of this, does it give you some faith in the Australian people? KELLY NG: It gives us a lot of faith and hope in humanity. The compassion that Australians have shown is really, really heart-touching. Despite all the horrible things that happen in this world, it's just good to know that, deep down everyone is compassionate, that we are all human, we all do have feelings, and that, when required, we will unite as one. DANIEL HOARE: Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry, who will fly to Singapore tonight, paid tribute to those who responded to the campaign by sending letters in the shape of hands. LEX LASRY: They are a very powerful and potent reminder of the importance of this case and the injustice. And they come from everywhere. I haven't seen them all, but they come from, some from families affected by drugs. They come from prisoners in custody and all sorts of other people who've been through all sorts of traumas in their own lives and who have identified with this. It's the most touching thing, I must say, I've ever seen in 32 years in the law and I commend everyone for their participation. DANIEL HOARE: The Victorian Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, was also at this morning's gathering outside the State Library. He says the Singaporean Government has shown no compassion whatsoever in its treatment of Van Nguyen and his family. ROB HULLS: What's happening is brutal, is inappropriate. I, and the Victorian Government, vehemently oppose the death penalty in any circumstances. And can you imagine sitting at home, getting a letter and opening up that letter and being told that your son is to be executed on a particular date, two week's time, and also told that you have to make funeral arrangements for your son? I mean, it is just totally inappropriate. This is a young kid who has assisted the police all the way, prepared to testify against those for whom he was carrying this contraband. In any other country, he would get a discount in relation to the penalty. But because there is a mandatory death penalty for drug offences in Singapore, this young man may well be executed. It is just grossly inappropriate. ELIZABETH JACKSON: Victoria's Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, with our reporter Daniel Hoare. ||||| AUSTRALIAN drug smuggler Van Tuong Nguyen is calmly preparing for his execution by Singapore in less than two weeks, and is now concerned only for his family and friends, his lawyers said. The 25-year-old Melbourne salesman's Australian legal team met with him in Singapore's Changi prison today, just days after the December 2 date for his execution by hanging was set. Lex Lasry, QC, and Julian McMahon spent two and half hours with Nguyen and said he was showing courage and acceptance. "He's composed and although I wouldn't say he's not frightened, he's remained courageous and is showing incredible fortitude," Mr Lasry said from Singapore. "He was calm, reflective, rational and obviously preparing himself for the end of his life, which I must say takes my breath away. "The thing I'll take from this case is the privilege of being able to spend time with this young man at this stage. "I've never believed that anyone could show the kind of courage that he's demonstrated in the face of this kind of adversity." Mr Lasry said Nguyen was preparing himself to die. "He's getting spiritual and physical support at Changi through a number of people including a number of prison staff," he said. "He's composed and strong and concerned for the welfare of others, for his family." Nguyen's mother Kim and his twin brother Khoa will fly to Singapore to visit him in Changi prison next week. It will be the first time Nguyen has seen his brother since he was caught with 396 grams of heroin at Changi airport in 2002. He told the court he was trafficking heroin to help pay off legal fees incurred by Khoa. "He loves his brother and wants to see him before he dies," Mr Lasry said. Mr McMahon said Nguyen was grateful for the support of many people, including Prime Minister John Howard who visited his mother last Tuesday. "What I was able to tell Van was how Mr Howard had met with his mother and how kind and considerate he had been to her and Van was deeply moved by that," Mr McMahon said. Mr Lasry said Nguyen's legal team had not given up and were looking at a number of options available to them, including appealing to the United Nation's International Court of Justice (ICJ). "We'll be approaching the Australian Government this week to discuss with them whether its feasible," Mr Lasry said. Nguyen's lawyers will also be appealing to the Government to raise the matter at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta next week. Meanwhile an international campaign to abolish Singapore's mandatory death penalty would continue after his death. "Even if our client is executed as he probably will be, the campaign against Singapore's mandatory death sentence (for heroin trafficking and possession of more than 15 grams of heroin) will continue," Mr Lasry said. Mr Lasry said today's visit with Nguyen, the first in months, was probably the most difficult in his career. But it was his next visit in 10 days which would be the hardest. "It will be a farewell," he said. ||||| NGUYEN Tuong Van's twin, Khoa, wants to visit him on death row in Singapore to say goodbye. It will be the first time the 25-year-old brothers have met since Nguyen was arrested in 2002 with 396 grams of heroin he was carrying for a Sydney syndicate to help pay Khoa's debts. It is believed that Khoa will seek permission to meet his twin in the maximum-security Changi prison in the days before the Melbourne salesman's dawn execution on December 2. He wants to join his mother, Kim Nguyen, a close circle of friends, defence lawyers Lex Lasry, QC, and Julian McMahon and others permitted to visit by prison authorities. No one will be allowed to see Nguyen on the morning of his execution. His body will be released to his mother. A thick glass panel will prevent the brothers from touching, but Khoa will follow his brother's traditional greeting by holding a hand to the glass as do all his visitors. Khoa has led a troubled life since his teenage years and lives interstate. He is said to be in an extremely fragile state, feeling the pain of his brother's fate. Khoa received a suspended prison sentence in the Victorian County Court in June last year on charges that involved an attack in which a man was seriously injured at a railway station. His brother, who has no criminal record in Australia, is widely regarded as popular, a hard worker and a devoted son. Mrs Nguyen was told on Thursday by registered mail from the Singapore prisons service of the execution date. Nguyen was found guilty in March last year of importing the heroin into Singapore, although he had never left the transit area of Changi international airport, where he was waiting for a flight to Melbourne. He was sentenced to death under Singapore law that determines a mandatory death sen- tence for anyone guilty of possessing more than 15 grams of heroin. Singapore President S. R. Nathan rejected Nguyen's clemency appeal four weeks ago. His Government has steadfastly refused requests to reconsider its decision from Australian politicians, religious groups, Amnesty International and thousands among the public. Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls yesterday pleaded with the Singapore Government to save "our son, our brother, our friend". In an emotional address to open a display of outlines of hands in a Reach Out campaign aimed at winning clemency for Nguyen, Mr Hulls said: "With all humility, I appeal to the special spirit of friendship that exists between Victoria and Singapore and I plead with the Singapore Government to reject this (death) penalty, one which is utterly disproportionate to his offence," he said. ||||| Singapore: Urge authorities to stop the execution of Van Tuong Nguyen AI Index: ASA 36/003/05 24 October 2005 UA 279/05 Van Tuong Nguyen Van Tuong Nguyen is facing imminent execution following the rejection of his appeal for clemency by the President of Singapore on 21 October. A date has not yet been announced, although the hanging is likely to be carried out within weeks. An Australian of Vietnamese origin, Van Tuong Nguyen was arrested at Singapore's Changi airport in transit from Cambodia to Australia in December 2002, after police found a package of heroin strapped to his back and a second package in his backpack. In March 2004 Van Tuong Nguyen, a former salesman, was sentenced to death for importing 396.2 grams of heroin into Singapore. He was convicted under the Misuse of Drugs Act, which carries a mandatory death sentence for anyone found guilty of trafficking in more than 15 grams of heroin. In October 2004 the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal against the death sentence. Van Tuong Nguyen, who had no previous criminal record, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to Australia with his mother and twin brother when he was six months old. He told investigating officers that he had agreed to carry the drugs in order to pay off debts owed by his twin brother. He said he did not know how much he was being paid for the trip. It was his first trip outside Australia. Since his arrest he has shown remorse and cooperated fully with the authorities. The Australian Federal Police have confirmed that, while in custody, Van Tuong Nguyen assisted their investigation into the international drugs syndicate for which he had worked. Background information There is usually very little public debate in Singapore about the death penalty, partly as a result of tight government controls on the press and civil society organisations. However, the case earlier this year of Shanmugam s/o Murugesu, who was sentenced to death after he was found in possession of just over one kilogram of cannabis, sparked unprecedented public discussion. In April and May, local activists organised a public forum, petitions, vigils and other events to campaign for Shanmugam's life to be spared, and to raise awareness in Singapore about the cruel and arbitrary nature of the death penalty. The authorities refused to allow an Amnesty International representative who attended the public forum to address the meeting. Shanmugam was hanged on 13 May. His lawyer was reportedly subjected to attacks on his character in government-controlled newspapers over his work on the case. In April, the Singapore Law Society Gazette published a commentary on Van Tuong Nguyen's Appeal Court decision, arguing that there was "light on the path" because "it is now open to an accused to show ... that a mandatory death sentence is cruel and inhuman punishment under customary international law". Singapore, with a population of just over four million, has the highest per capita execution rate in the world. More than 420 people have been executed since 1991, the majority for drug trafficking. The Singapore government has consistently maintained that the death penalty is not a human rights issue. The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for a mandatory death sentence for at least 20 different offences and contains a series of presumptions which shift the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defence. Prisoners facing execution may be granted clemency by the President, but this is extremely rare. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases as a violation of one of the most fundamental of human rights: the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and there is no escaping the risk of error, which can lead to the execution of an innocent person. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has called for the death penalty to be eliminated for drug-related offences. In April 2005, the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) renewed calls upon all states that retain the death penalty to abolish it completely and, in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions. Recommended action: Please send appeals in English to arrive as quickly as possible: urging the Cabinet to reconsider the decision to refuse clemency in the case of Van Tuong Nguyen, and commute his death sentence; urging them to impose a moratorium on executions, with a view to complete abolition, in line with the April 2005 UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) resolution on the question of the death penalty; noting that the UNCHR has urged states which still maintain the death penalty not to impose it as a mandatory sentence, or for crimes without lethal or extremely grave consequences. Appeals to Prime Minister LEE Hsien Loong Prime Minister's Office Istana, Orchard Rd Singapore 238823 Fax: 0015 65 6332 8983 Email: lee_hsien_loong@pmo.gov.sg Salutation: Dear Prime Minister Minister of Law Prof. S. Jayakumar Ministry of Law 100 High Street The Treasury #08-02 Singapore 179434 Fax: 0015 65 6332 8842 Email: jayakumar_s@mfa.gov.sg Salutation: Dear Minister Attorney General Chan Sek Keong Attorney General's Chambers 1 Coleman Street #10 00 Singapore 179803 Fax: 0015 65 6332 5984 Email: agc@agc.gov.sg Salutation: Dear Attorney General Copies to His Excellency Mr Joseph K H KOH High Commissioner for Singapore High Commission of the Republic of Singapore 17 Forster Crescent Yarralumla ACT 2600 Fax: (02) 6273 9823 Email: singapore_hc@bigpond.com Salutation: Your Excellency Recommended wording for appeal His Excellency Joseph Koh High Commissioner High Commission of the Republic of Singapore 17 Forster Crescent YARRALUMLA ACT 2600 Your Excellency I am appealing to your Cabinet to urgently reconsider granting clemency to Australian man Van Tuong Nguyen who will otherwise be executed for drug trafficking. I believe the death penalty is the most cruel and inhumane punishment and is an appalling abuse of the most fundamental human right - the right to life. Van Tuong Nguyen is a young man with no prior criminal conviction who does not deserve to pay the ultimate price for this mistake. I understand under Singapore's Constitution, clemency can be granted in rare circumstances and that Van Tuong Nguyen's case fits the criteria - I believe he has always shown remorse, confessed at the earliest opportunity and cooperated fully with the Singaporean authorities and the Australian Federal Police. I urge your government to show compassion and grant clemency to this young man. Yours sincerely PLEASE SEND YOUR APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. ||||| HUMAN RIGHTS FOR EACH PERSON REGARDLESS OF AGE, RACE, RELIGION OR POLITICS Nguyen Tuong Van NGUYEN VAN TUONG HAS BEEN EXECUTED Australia weeps for a young man who for whatever reason made a stupid mistake. This was his first crime! He was cooperative and helpful to the authorities, he has demonstrated real remorse for his crime. He is an Australian Citizen, yet he has been put to death in a foreign country, for a crime he would be lucky to get 10 years for here in Australia! What are we going to do Australia - How many kids have to die? In Memoriam - Tuong Van Nguyen Executed by the Singaporean Government on 2 December 2005 It was his first and only criminal offence! Foreign Prisoner Support Services extend our sincerest condolences to the family of Australian Tuong Van Nguyen who was hanged in Singapore at 6am on 2 December 2005. This young man will never get the opportunity to learn from his mistake but we hope that in his passing, others might. We encourage our members and visitors to this site to send a card of condolence or a few kind thoughts and words of compassion to his dear mother Mrs. Kim Nguyen. We also respect that there are people who believe Van Nguyen deserved to be punished in this way. We ask that you please understand that what is done is done and that you allow his mother to grieve in peace. That you refrain from sending any disrespectful or hurtful correspondence to FPSS, to Van's lawyers and to his family. The time for accusations has surely passed and now is a time when we should come together in the spirit of humanity to support a mother who has just lost her son! Down a road that's calm and peaceful, Guided by God's loving hand, He has gone upon a journey To a distant, brighter land. And although our hearts are heavy With sorrow we still bear, It helps to bring us comfort, Knowing he is happy there. Condolences can be directed to: Mrs. Kim Nguyen C/- Mr. Lex Lasry QC Australian Lawyer 1-13 University Avenue, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia Information about Nguyen Tuong Van Reuters Photo: File photo shows Kim Nguyen, mother of convicted Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, after.. MORE INFORMATION Singapore Death Penalty An Australian man, Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, convicted of drugs charges in Singapore has lost his final appeal for clemency and will be executed. Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer Lex Lasry said the Singapore decision was devastating for Nguyen, his family and "anyone who values humane treatment of their fellow human beings." "Death by hanging is hideous. Further, it is grossly out of proportion to the crime committed," he said in a statement, adding that Nguyen had admitted his guilt and cooperated with authorities. "We call on the Singapore government to reverse this decision. We make this call in the name of fairness and justice." But Downer said there was little more Australia could do. The F.P.S.S are shocked to hear that all avenues of appeal have been exhausted. Nguyen Tuong Van should NOT receive the Death Penalty because; Nguyen has always admitted his guilt. He has NO history of criminal activity. Nguyen Tuong Van assisted the authorities, including the Australian Federal Police in their investigations. There are provisions of the Singapore Constitution that make specific reference and provide for clemency to those who assist the authorities with information which can be used to prosecute others. The F.P.S.S, it's members & volunteers respectfully request the Singapore Authorities act Immediatly to save Nguyen's life! COURT TRANSCRIPTS Public Prosecutor v Nguyen Tuong Van - 20 Mar 2004 Nguyen Tuong Van v Public Prosecutor - Appeal 06 Oct 2004 Mothers Plea click here CONTACT DETAILS The address where Nguyen is currently detained and will likely be hanged if the appeal is rejected is at the address below. Letters are not generally accepted by the Prison. Please forward your correspondence to the High Commission instead. Tanah Merah Prison [Changi Prison] 10 Tanah Merah Besar Road, Changi, Singapore 498834. Contact Lawyers Lex Lasry - Australian Lawyer - Email: lexlasry@empirechambers.com.au 1-13 University Avenue, Canberra ACT 2601 (02) 6257 6007 Fax (02) 6257 6290 DX 99 Canberra Enquiries: clerk@empirechambers.com.au Joseph Theseira - Singapore Lawyer Tel: 6533-0288 Fax: 6533-8802 E-mail: isaaclaw@singnet.com.sg 20A Circular Road Singapore 049377 Australia buries executed Nguyen Nguyen's body was flown back to Melbourne for burial At least 1,000 mourners have attended the funeral in Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral of a man executed in Singapore for drug-smuggling. Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian of Vietnamese descent, was hanged last Friday for trafficking heroin despite strong appeals for clemency. The 25-year-old's body was flown back to Melbourne on Sunday. A plea for forgiveness written by Nguyen hours before his death was read out at the requiem Mass. Fr Peter Hansen made a strong condemnation of "retribution and vengeance" in his sermon to the congregation in the Roman Catholic cathedral. "And I say to these people if you build a world upon these so-called values of retribution and vengeance, then you will build a world in which some people will always seek to take drugs," he said. All Australians, he told Nguyen's mother Kim as she sobbed, supported her in the face of her pain. Click Here for Complete Story Van's final words Nguyen letters read at his funeral Nguyen mourners slam death penalty Singapore hangs Australian drug smuggler People hold a flower and weep for condemned drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van during a vigil in Sydney, Australia, Friday, Dec. 2, 2005, as they gather at the hour of his execution. [AP] Singapore executed a 25-year-old Australian on Friday for drug trafficking, despite numerous appeals from the Australian government and hours after the condemned man had a "beautiful last visit" with his family. Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged before dawn as a dozen friends and supporters, dressed in black, kept an overnight vigil outside the maximum-security prison. His twin brother, Nguyen Khoa, was dressed in white. Vigils were also held in cities around Australia, with bells and gongs sounding 25 times at the hour of his execution. "The sentence was carried out this morning at Changi Prison," the Home Affairs Ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Nguyen received a mandatory death sentence after he was caught in 2002 at Singapore's airport on his way home to Melbourne carrying about 14 ounces of heroin. Click Here for Complete Story Candlelight vigil marks protest against Nguyen execution Thousands of candles have been lit outside Parliament House in Canberra to protest against the impending execution of convicted drug smuggler, Australian man Van Nguyen. Van Nguyen is due to be executed in Singapore at dawn on Friday. With the sun setting over Parliament House, the glow from around 3,000 candles is lighting up the lawn in the front of the building. About 200 people have joined the vigil to show their support for the 25-year-old and their opposition to the death penalty. A spokesman from a family drug support group who lost his son to a heroin overdose told the gathering Nguyen is about to become just another victim of drugs. The president of Amnesty International Australia, Russell Thirgood, says he hopes tonight's vigil will bring some comfort to Nguyen and his family. Archive of this story Nguyen to die on December 2nd M. Ravi a Singaporean human rights lawyer and anti-death penalty campaigner holds messages addressed to Nguyen Tuong Van while on his way to Changi Prison in Singapore November 8, 2005. Ravi was attempting to deliver the messages to Nguyen, who was sentenced to death in March 2004 for smuggling almost 400 grams of heroin from Cambodia. Singapore is set to precede with the execution of convicted Australian drug smuggler, dismissing a final plea by Canberra to spare him, Australia's foreign minister said last week. Alexander Downer said he had received a letter from his Singapore counterpart, George Yeo, late on Wednesday rejecting an appeal for clemency for Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, and expected the death sentence to be carried out in the next month. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash Twins - one on death row, other in despair THE LITTLE twins smile happily for the camera, their young lives filled with endless possibilities. Today one of them sits on death row, the other is in hiding — filled with despair over the loving brother whose life looks certain to be cut short on the gallows in Singapore. The image of Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, and his brother, Khoa, was released by lawyers for Nguyen, who are fighting to save his life. Nguyen was arrested in Singapore in 2002 carrying 396 grams of heroin. He told police he was acting as a courier for a Sydney drug syndicate to earn money to pay for his brother's legal debts. Few people know where Khoa is today, but those who know him say he is devastated. The pair had been inseparable since arriving in Australia with their mother when they were four months old. Nguyen's application for clemency was refused by Singapore's President S.R. Nathan on October 21. But friends and supporters have not given up hope. Yesterday, supporters of the Reach Out campaign, set up by friends of Nguyen, gathered in Melbourne to sort through the thousands of letters of support. Click Here for Complete Story NEWS ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS FREEDOM IS A RIGHT OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS IN A WORLD WHERE LIFE IS VALUED AND PEACE MAY FINALLY BE A POSSABILITY | Supporters of convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, gathered outside the State Library in Melbourne yesterday to display thousands of messages of opposition to his death sentence. Callers to talkback radio in Melbourne were overwhelmingly against the death penalty of Nguyen, who immediately admitted his guilt and has cooperated with authorities since being caught smuggling heroin into Singapore. Many called for a boycott of Singaporean products. 25-year-old Nguyen was arrested at Changi Airport in 2002 for carrying heroin and sentenced to death in March. Nguyen claims he carried the 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body in an attempt to pay off his brother Khoa's $30,000 legal debts. The Singapore government have announced they will execute Nguyen at dawn on December 2nd. Singapore President S. R. Nathan rejected Nguyen's clemency four weeks ago. The Melbourne salesman was sentenced to death under Singapore law which determines a mandatory death sentence for anyone found guilty of possessing 15 grams of heroin or more. Nguyen's mother was informed on Thursday by registered mail from the Singapore prisons service of the execution date. The letter stated that she should start making funeral arrangements. She will get to see her son in the three days leading up to the execution. Despite repeated pleas for clemency from many thousands of supporters; religious groups; human rights organisations; the Pope; and the Australian Government - including Prime Minister, John Howard - Singapore officials have said Nguyen's execution is irreversible. Mr Howard had argued that Nguyen should be spared, citing mitigating circumstances in his case which pointed to the fact that he was not a serial drug trafficker but had merely been trying to pay off his brother's debts. The Victorian Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, says the Singaporean Government has shown no compassion whatsoever in its treatment of Van Nguyen and his family. "What's happening is brutal, is inappropriate. I, and the Victorian Government, vehemently oppose the death penalty in any circumstances", he told ABC Radio. "This is a young kid who has assisted the police all the way... In any other country, he would get a discount in relation to the penalty. But because there is a mandatory death penalty for drug offences in Singapore, this young man may well be executed. It is just grossly inappropriate." "Singapore maintains that capital punishment is a criminal justice issue; it is the sovereign right of every country to decide whether or not to include capital punishment within its criminal justice system," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Singapore argues that there was no international consensus that capital punishment should be abolished. At the most recent meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights, 66 countries dissociated themselves from a resolution calling for the abolition of capital punishment. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong affirmed Singapore's position by saying that it has to "stand firm on drugs to protect its citizens from the scourge and to ensure the country does not become a conduit for the trafficking of illicit drugs." In reply to a letter appealing for clemency from his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said: "Mr Nguyen imported almost 400gm of pure heroin which would have supplied more than 26,000 doses to drug addicts." No one will be permitted to see Nguyen on the morning of his execution. His body will be released to his mother. |
Japan teen 'took mum's head to Net cafe' A 17-year-old Japanese boy suspected of killing and beheading his mother went to an internet cafe with her head in a bag and watched a music DVD before turning himself in, media reports said on Wednesday. The teenager, arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of murder, spent about two hours at the cafe watching a DVD of a hip-hop group in his cubicle and then took a taxi to a local police station, the reports said. Media quoted employees of the cafe as saying the youth, a student at a local high school, was carrying a school bag and that one of his hands was wrapped in bandage. Police in rural Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture, 200km north of Tokyo, arrested the teenager after he walked into a police station early on Tuesday carrying a severed human head in a bag. Officers found a beheaded body in the apartment where he lived. The teen - who had not been attending school recently and was being treated by a psychiatrist - told police he killed his mother on Monday evening while she was asleep, media said. Japan has been shocked by a number of sensational and gruesome crimes by youths in recent years, including the murder and beheading of an 11-year-old boy by a 14-year-old schoolboy in the western city of Kobe in 1997. In 2004, an 11-year-old schoolgirl stabbed a classmate to death at their school, prompting calls for harsher punishment against juvenile crime. A bill to lower the age at which minors can be sent to reformatories to 12 from 14 was passed by the lower house of parliament last month. The bill remains controversial and still needs approval from the upper house before becoming law. Government statistics show that overall juvenile crime including murder by minors - those under 20 - has declined in recent years. ||||| JAPANESE police arrested a 17-year-old boy today on suspicion of murdering his mother after he turned up at a police station carrying a severed human head in a bag. Police in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture, 200km north of Tokyo, said they arrested the teenager, a student at a local high school, after officers found a beheaded body in the apartment where he lived. The boy told police he killed his mother last night while she was asleep, Kyodo news agency said. The teenager, a student at a local high school, showed up at the police station alone early today, carrying the head in a shopping bag, Kyodo said. "If it's true, then it is horrendous," the government's top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, said. The boy had not been attending school recently and was being treated by a psychiatrist, Kyodo said. He reportedly told investigators: "It would be good if terrorism and war were gone from this world. I didn't care who I killed." Kyodo said today was the mother's birthday and she would have turned 47. The boy was living with his younger brother in the apartment, away from their family home, so they could attend schools in the area, and the mother would often visit at weekends and wash their clothes, Kyodo said quoting neighbours. In 1997, the nation was shocked when a 14-year-old schoolboy was arrested for the murder and beheading of an 11-year-old boy and leaving the boy's head next to a school gate in the western city of Kobe. While government statistics show that overall juvenile crime and murder by minors - those under 20 - have been on a decline in recent years, a number of sensational crimes has led to calls for harsher punishment against young offenders. Following the Kobe murder, the age at which youths could be sent to reformatories was lowered to 14 from 16 in 2001, and a Bill to further bring the age down to 12 passed the lower house of parliament last month. In 2004, an 11-year-old school girl killed a classmate by stabbing her in the neck with a knife, and the year before, a 12-year-old boy murdered a four-year-old by pushing him off the roof of a garage. - with Reuters Share this article (What is this?) NEWS.com.au is not responsible for the content for external internet sites ||||| The 17-year-old went to a police station in the town of Aizuwakamatsu, north of Tokyo, carrying the head in a sports bag, Japanese media said. The beheaded body of a woman was later found at the boy's home, police said. This is the latest in a series of grisly killings in Japan, a country renowned for its low crime rate. On Monday a severed human leg was discovered in a small river in central Tokyo. In January, a 32-year-old woman was arrested after she confessed to killing her husband, dismembering him with a saw and dumping body parts around Tokyo. 'It's horrifying' In the latest case, the boy, said to be a local high school student, reportedly told police he killed his mother with a knife during the night as she slept, and had acted alone. Japanese press said the boy lived with his young brother, separately from their parents. Their mother was believed to have been visiting them on Monday. The teenager was reported to have undergone psychiatric treatment at some point in the past. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki expressed his alarm at the reports. "If it's true, it's horrifying," he said. Aizuwakamatsu is located in Fukushima prefecture, some 200km (125 miles) north of Tokyo. | Map highlighting the Fukushima prefecture. A boy from Aizuwakamatsu, Japan a town just north of Tokyo, walked into the local police station with a sports bag which police say contained the severed head of his mother. "If it's true, then it is horrendous," said Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the head spokesman for the Japanese government. Police say the 17-year-old boy told them that he killed his mother Monday night, and that he acted alone. Police later found the mother's remains inside the boy's apartment. Police say that an object much like a knife was used to sever her head. There have been a series of murders involving the dismemberment of body parts in Japan in the past few months. A leg severed from an unknown body was found in Tokyo inside a trash bin on Monday. A woman, 32, was arrested in January when she admitted to murdering her husband, dismembering his body, then placed his remains around several spots in Tokyo. |
The 2007 Tour de France begins in London on Saturday Some 189 riders will compete in a 7.9km time trial on Saturday as the famous race makes its third visit to Britain. The winner will wear the leader's yellow jersey as the peloton rides 203km to Canterbury in Kent on Sunday. Mayor Ken Livingstone said the tour's Grand Depart is "the biggest sporting event hosted by London ahead of the 2012 Olympics". The Tour then crosses to Belgium before moving into France, with the race ending in Paris on 29 July. The 3,570km route features 20 stages, with six days in the mountains, including three mountain-top finishes and two time trials. The Tour, which has started in a host of different countries in recent years, made its debut in Britain in Plymouth in 1974 and returned to Dover, Brighton and Portsmouth in 1994. I want the guy who raises his arms in triumph on the Champs-Elysees to be the irreproachable champion Tour chief Christian Prudhomme The event is watched by as many as 15 million people on the roadside every year with an estimated two billion watching on television over the three weeks. But the 94th edition of the race, won by American Lance Armstrong for seven years in a row from 1999 to 2005, will begin under a cloud as drug allegations again haunt the sport. Floyd Landis, last year's winner, is awaiting the verdict of a doping hearing, while Giro D'Italia champion Danilo di Luca is also being investigated. In addition, 2006 Giro winner Ivan Basso was recently handed a two-year ban and 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis admitted using performance-enhancing drugs. Organisers are desperate to crack down on drugs in cycling and have asked teams to sign a pre-Tour pledge. Millar (left) and Wiggins will fight it out in Saturday's prologue The charter stipulates that all riders must give DNA samples to Spanish authorities investigating the Puerto affair 15 months after a blood-doping scandal erupted in Spain. And it requires them to lodge a year's salary which will be forfeited if they are convicted of any doping charges. Every rider on the start list had signed up by Friday, while on Thursday the entire field was blood tested to the satisfaction of organisers. "I want the guy who raises his arms in triumph on the Champs-Elysees to be, and remain, the irreproachable champion," said race chief Christian Prudhomme. Britain will be represented by David Millar, Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas, Charlie Wegelius and Bradley Wiggins - the biggest British contingent for 20 years. Thirty-year-old Millar, who is riding his second Tour since serving a two-year doping ban, is one of only four Britons - along with Tom Simpson, Chris Boardman and Sean Yates - to wear the yellow jersey after his win in the 2000 prologue. Now an ardent anti-drugs campaigner, the Scot is one of the favourites for Saturday's prologue, along with 27-year-old Londoner Wiggins, the world and Olympic pursuit champion. The important message is that London is open for business as usual Met Police chief Ian Chappell Overall race favourites include Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, German Andreas Kloden, Spanish duo Alejandro Valverde and Carlos Sastre, and American Levi Leipheimer. Security has been stepped up in London, with 5,000 police officers set to be deployed, following the failed terror attacks in Britain last weekend. "The important message is that London is open for business as usual, but we have reviewed our security plans in light of what happened," said Superintendent Ian Chappell of London's Metropolitan Police. Eight suspects have been arrested in Britain and Australia over two botched car bomb attacks in London on 29 June and a third at Glasgow airport the following day. ||||| The City of London is a vital, exciting and fabulous place to be. To highlight the many venues, activities and places to see we have produced One Square Mile - a pocket-sized guide on what to do and where to go - for the benefit of workers, residents and visitors. To receive your free copy, please email us your details or download the sections that interest you. If your fingers are tired of doing the walking, get On Your Feet and download one of our walks - each takes you through a different part of the City and its surrounding streets. This is your City and we hope that the guide inspires you to go exploring. Tell us what you find so that we, in turn, can tell others. The Tell us More form allows you to share your experiences, to tell us of any updates to the information we provided or let us know about anything that we've missed ||||| Press Release Mayor pledges most spectacular Grand Départ for the Tour de France 4-7-2007 421 As the Tour de France organisers arrived in the capital today ahead of the London Grand Départ this weekend, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, welcomed the event to London for the first time in its 104 year history. A celebration of the Tour de France and cycling in London began with the Mayor officially opening the Tour de France Permanence and Press Centre at the ExCeL Centre in London’s Docklands. The Permanence is the base for the race during its visit to London and will house around 2000 media personnel. More than two million people are expected to come and watch the free to view race during the weekend, with one million spectators in London alone. This will bring an estimated £115 million to the London and South East economy and with the event broadcast in almost 200 countries London will be promoted across the world. The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: “The Tour de France is a free event and, alongside the race itself, there will be a host of festivals and events taking place across the capital to ensure Londoners and visitors have an unforgettable weekend. “The Tour de France Grand Départ will be the biggest sporting event hosted by London ahead of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games giving a taste of what is to come. London is already famous across the world for hosting world-class events. I believe this will be the most spectacular Grand Départ the Tour has ever seen and the weekend will underline London’s great sporting reputation. “The Tour de France is also a superb opportunity to promote London as a cycling city. The number of people taking to two wheels has soared by 83 per cent over the last seven years. We want the excitement of the Tour de France to encourage even more people to take up cycling." The Prologue on Saturday 7 July will be an eight kilometre (five miles) lap of central London, starting on Whitehall, taking in some of London’s most famous landmarks including Whitehall, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and finishing on the Mall. Stage One, on Sunday 8 July, will start in central London, passing close to a variety of historic and contemporary sites including Big Ben, the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Gherkin and crossing Tower Bridge close to City Hall. The race will then travel through Bermondsey, Deptford, Greenwich and Erith before heading out into Kent. In Kent the Tour will pass through Dartford, Gravesend, Medway, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and Ashford before the stage finish in Canterbury. There are a number of activities being organised to accompany the Tour including the People's Village - an event to celebrate and promote cycling in Hyde Park - and 18 giant screens in the capital so everyone can get a good view of the racing. Plus an additional 11,000 cycle parking spaces for spectators. The Grand Départ takes place during three days: Friday 6 July – Tour de France Opening Ceremony - from 18.00 Trafalgar Square. A spectacular presentation of the riders followed by live music. Saturday 7 July – Tour de France Prologue - a 7.9km individual sprint around central London: 13.00 Tour de France Publicity Caravan sets off ; 14.00 Riders warm up; 15.00 Race Start; 18.20 Race Ends. Sunday 8 July Tour de France Stage One - A 203 km stage starting on the Mall in central London through South East London into Kent with the finish in Canterbury: Caravan leaves the Mall at 8.40; Riders leave the Mall at 10.25. In addition, there will be a number of events taking place across London: The People’s Village Hyde Park - A free entry event celebrating and promoting cycling. Taking place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and featuring French and British food and drink, information about how to get into cycling, entertainment and giant screens to watch the action. Hyde Park Cycling Festival - A free event on Sunday 8 July with cycling activities on a 3.5km section of the Tour de France Prologue course within Hyde Park. The programme includes over 300 elite, international athletes competing in a wide variety of races, from the London Youth Games finalists, to national level youth and women races, showcasing the best British talent. Festivals and Events - On Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 July there will be a huge range of free festivals and events taking place in central London and along the Stage One route in London and Kent. For more details visit www.tourdefrancelondon.com or call 020 7222 1234. Notes to editors The publicity caravan is a huge carnival containing vehicles from the Tour de France’s sponsors. The caravan contains more than 200 vehicles and floats playing music and giving out free gifts to the crowds. The caravan passes one hour before the race and goes everywhere the race goes. Full details of the route for the Tour de France Prologue on Saturday 7 July and Stage One on Sunday 8 July are available at www.tourdefrancelondon.com or by calling 020 7222 1234 London Development Agency is the Mayor of London's agency for driving London's sustainable economic growth. Its job is to make sure London remains a global success story - next year, the next decade and beyond, promoting London as the World City. The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) is the Government funded Agency responsible for the sustainable economic development and regeneration of the South East of England – the driving force of the UK’s economy. Our aim is to create a prosperous, dynamic and inspirational region by helping businesses compete more effectively, training a highly skilled workforce, supporting and enabling our communities while safeguarding our natural resources and cherishing our rich cultural heritage. The London Grand Départ of the Tour de France has been supported by UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Events Programme, which aims to secure events of strategic importance that deliver a range of lasting benefits. These include economic, social and cultural benefits as well as improving sporting performance by home athletes, encouraging participation and leaving a legacy of facilities and development initiatives. Over 120 sporting events have been staged in the UK through the Programme since 1997. More at www.uksport.gov.uk British Cycling is the internationally recognised governing body of cycling in the UK: running the number one ranked GB cycling team; servicing 20,000 members; and providing thousands of sport and leisure cycling opportunities every year. Visit www.britishcycling.org.uk, www.everydaycycling.com Or contact pressoffice@britishcycling.org.uk Visit London is the official visitor organisation for London. Our role is to promote London as the most exciting city on the planet, targeting domestic and overseas leisure and business visitors as well as Londoners. Visit London works in partnership with the Mayor, the London Development Agency and the tourism industry in London. Canterbury is a world-class destination, with a perfect blend of historic features and modern facilities. To visitors the city is Simply Inspirational, while the rest of the Canterbury district offers fabulous coast and countryside, ensuring that modern-day pilgrims are bound to be spoilt for choice. Kent County Council is rated as a four star authority and is responsible for providing a wide range of services for Kent’s 1.3 million residents. Services provided include roads, schools, social services, libraries, adult education centres, trading standards and planning which affect the daily lives of people living, visiting or working in Kent. Kent is one of the largest counties in England and is widely known as the Garden of England for its stunning countryside. For more information visit: www.kent.gov.uk Medway is one of the biggest and most significant urban areas in the south-east outside London, made up of the towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham, and rural outlying areas. Medway Council works in partnership with private, public and voluntary sectors to serve the people of Medway. The council is responsible for an established and successful programme of events, reflecting the area's rich and diverse history. Medway is an integral part of the Thames Gateway and is striving to become the city of learning, culture, tourism and high technology for the gateway. The Royal Parks Agency manages eight Royal Parks across London, balancing the responsibility to conserve and enhance these unique environments with creative policies to encourage access and to increase opportunities for enjoyment, education, entertainment, sport and healthy recreation. These Royal Parks comprise 5000 acres of parkland hosting a rich diversity of wildlife, including many rare and endangered species. The Royal Parks Agency works hard to create living environments where insects, invertebrates, birds and mammals can flourish, as well as making wildlife as accessible as possible to all visitors. Sport England is a non-departmental public body and Lottery distributor which exists to sustain and increase participation in community sport. Through the Tour de France, Sport England is encouraging people to be inspired and get involved in cycling in their local communities. Simply log on to www.sportengland.org/london to find out more about opportunities to take part in cycling where you are. For media enquiries please call Hilary Merrett on 020 7983 4753. For out of hours media enquiries please call 020 7983 4000. For non-media enquiries please call the Public Liaison Unit on 020 7983 4100. ||||| The event will run from 10am to 4pm and will include street performers and an open air picnic, all with a distinct French flavour. Performers will include: Compagnie Off’s stunning mobile Giraffes with opera singer and special effects Free family art workshops inspired by French artists Zic Zazou’s amazing roving bandstand and eccentric musicians Osadia’s open-air hairdressing salon – have your hair transformed into an incredible French design. Bruce Airhead, one of the UK’s top street artists in a new, French inspired show Interactive chansons and French operatic arias from The Oyster Opera Duo Café accordion music from Frankie Chalet. Giant screen A giant screen in Cutty Sark Gardens will broadcast live coverage of the Tour to enable visitors to watch progress of the race on its way to Canterbury. Find out when the Tour de France riders will be cycling through Greenwich. Great Get Together The event forms part of the Council’s Great Get Together programme and will include a Talk Café in Cutty Sark Gardens, where residents will get the chance to have their say on local services. Other ways to have your say on local issues. Unique event Greenwich Council deputy leader Peter Brooks said: "The arrival of the Tour de France is a unique moment for Greenwich, and we are very proud to be supporting such an important sporting event. "As an Olympic host borough, this is a further opportunity for Greenwich to host a major world sporting event and I am sure that thousands of local people and visitors will be on the streets of Greenwich to give the riders a rousing send-off. "Once the Tour has passed through on Sunday, we invite spectators to stay in Greenwich to enjoy the spectacular free attractions offered by Greenwich en Fête, and to enjoy the other attractions of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site." Related links Tour de France road closures Cycling in Greenwich Local events and entertainment Tour de France website. 28 June 2007 The centrepiece will be 'Greenwich en Fête' – an all-day street carnival in Greenwich town centre on Sunday 8 July.The event will run from 10am to 4pm and will include street performers and an open air picnic, all with a distinct French flavour.Performers will include:A giant screen in Cutty Sark Gardens will broadcast live coverage of the Tour to enable visitors to watch progress of the race on its way to Canterbury.The event forms part of the Council’s Great Get Together programme and will include a Talk Café in Cutty Sark Gardens, where residents will get the chance to have their say on local services.Greenwich Council deputy leader Peter Brooks said: "The arrival of the Tour de France is a unique moment for Greenwich, and we are very proud to be supporting such an important sporting event."As an Olympic host borough, this is a further opportunity for Greenwich to host a major world sporting event and I am sure that thousands of local people and visitors will be on the streets of Greenwich to give the riders a rousing send-off."Once the Tour has passed through on Sunday, we invite spectators to stay in Greenwich to enjoy the spectacular free attractions offered by Greenwich en Fête, and to enjoy the other attractions of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site."28 June 2007 ||||| Tour de France comes to town LE Tour de France, the world’s largest annual sporting event, is coming to the UK this July. Over the weekend of July 6, 7 and 8, London will stage Le Grand Départ of the Tour de France. Teams will be unveiled on Friday, July 6 in Trafalgar Square. And on Saturday, July 7, around 200 riders will speed around the 7.9km Prologue course, and British hopefuls Bradley Wiggins and David Millar will be competing for the coveted yellow jersey. On Sunday, July 8, the Tour de France will depart for the 209km Stage 1 from The Mall.Stage One is set to be one of the most spectacular stages of the Tour. It will pass some of London’s most iconic landmarks,before whizzing down through theGarden of England to a spectacular finish in the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral. With more than two million spectators expected to line the route from London to Kent, the event will be unmissable. ||||| MAYOR of London Ken Livingstone vowed the capital will give the 2007 Tour de France its greatest ever send-off as the full route of the race was unveiled in Paris. An estimated two million spectators will descend on London and Kent between July 6-8 next year for the first three stages of the iconic Tour. It is being billed as the biggest sporting event to hit London before the 2012 Olympics and is expected to inject £115million into the tourism industry. Livingstone, in Paris for the ceremonial announcement, said: ‘I am proud that London will play a part in the long history of the Tour de France and the London Grand Depart underlines the capital’s status as a venue for world sporting events ahead of the Olympics in 2012. ‘The Tour de France is so much more than just a cycle race, creating a carnival atmosphere wherever it visits. ‘We want 2007 to be the greatest Grand Depart the Tour has ever seen, giving the riders a fantastic send-off as they start a gruelling three weeks racing.’ London will host the opening ceremony before the racing starts with the prologue on July 7, a five-mile lap of London starting at Whitehall and taking in some of London’s most famous landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park before finishing on the Mall. Stage one of the race starts the following day with the route taking riders through central London and out into Kent with the finish in the shadows of Canterbury cathedral. The riders will cover a total of 3,547 kilometres in 20 stages through to the finish on the Champs Elysee on July 29. | London is preparing for ''Le Grand Départ'' of the 2007 Tour de France. The route, which will run through the Greenwich Millennium Village, is being prepared for the ''Départ''. The Tour de France will be in London and the South East for the two days of the 7th and 8th of July. The event will start in Trafalgar Square at 15:00 BST (UTC+1). "I believe this will be the most spectacular Grand Départ the Tour has ever seen and the weekend will underline London’s great sporting reputation," said Ken Livingstone, mayor of London. The parts of the Tour that London will be hosting are the ''Prologue'' and ''Stage One''. The ''Prologue'' will be on Saturday, the 7th of July, starting in Trafalgar Square at 15:00 BST and finishing at 18:20 BST. ''Stage One'' will be on the following day, starting in Greenwich at 11:00 BST and finishing in Canterbury, Kent. Over the years the Tour de France has seen 52 British riders; the first being Charley Holland and Bill Burl in 1937. Londoners may get to see today's riders on their two wheels, but they will be followed by 1,500 vehicles, 13,000 policemen and women patrolling the route and 2,300 members of the world press. During the event many roads will be closed along the route and off it. The official website provides detailed information. |
Image copyright EPA, Getty Images, Reuters Forty-nine people have been killed and 48 wounded in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the deadliest attack in the country's history. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called it one of New Zealand's "darkest days". Here's what we know so far about how the attacks unfolded. The first shooting took place at the Al Noor mosque, in central Christchurch. A gunman using the name Brenton Tarrant live-streamed footage of his rampage to Facebook, filmed with a head-mounted camera. Footage showed the man, armed with semi-automatic weapons, firing indiscriminately at men, women and children from close range inside the mosque. The attacker's headcam footage begins in an industrial estate on Leslie Hills Drive, just west of Al Noor mosque. It shows him driving south on to Mandeville Street and Blenheim Road towards the city centre before turning north up Deans Avenue. He reaches the mosque a few minutes later, pulling the car into an alleyway at the side of the building and turning the car around to park facing Deans Avenue. The suspect then gets out, selects a weapon from the boot of the car and walks to the building, where he begins his deadly attack on worshippers inside. This was approximately 13:40 local time (00:40 GMT). Six minutes later, he drives along Deans Avenue, around the Botanic Gardens to Bealey Avenue, where his headcam footage cuts out. The second attack then took place a little later five kilometres away at Linwood Mosque, east of the city centre. Attack 1: Al Noor mosque, 41 dead Image copyright EPA Officers responded to reports of shots fired at the mosque during Friday prayers at about 13:40. By 14:11 police confirmed they were attending an "evolving situation" and schools went into lockdown a few minutes later. At 14:30 police confirmed the incident involved a gunman. The headcam images show the gunman passing from room to room, killing as he goes and shooting the wounded from close range. The attacker targeted both the men's and women's prayer rooms. Witnesses told local media they ran for their lives, and saw people bleeding on the ground outside the building. "There were bodies all over," one man said. Attack 2: Linwood mosque, eight killed (one dying in hospital from injuries) There were fewer details about the attack in the Christchurch suburb of Linwood. Survivors told local media they saw a gunman in a black motorcycle helmet open fire on about 100 people praying inside. Police Commissioner Mike Bush described the twin attacks as a "very well-planned event". Firearms were recovered from both scenes. Two IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were found in a car and neutralised by the military, police said. Australian national Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, appeared in court in Christchurch a day later charged with murder. The New Zealand resident was remanded in custody. A man with the same name appears to have published a manifesto before the attack outlining his intentions. He identified himself as a 28-year-old Australian citizen and espoused far-right and anti-immigrant ideology. Two other men and one woman were detained nearby and firearms seized. Officers are investigating whether they were involved. By Dominic Bailey, David Brown, Salim Qurashi, Debie Loizou, Lucy Rodgers and Prina Shah. ||||| Christchurch mosque shootings accused Brenton Tarrant appears in court on murder charge Updated The man charged over the Christchurch mosque shootings has appeared in court and been remanded in custody until April 5. Key points: Armed police officers were on hand as Brenton Tarrant made a brief appearance He has been charged with one count of murder, but police will be filing more charges Mr Tarrant had a gun licence which allowed him to legally obtain weapons In a brief appearance on Saturday morning, 28-year-old Australian man Brenton Harrison Tarrant did not apply for bail or for the suppression of his name. Handcuffed and wearing a prison robe, he was not required to speak, and appeared calm during his three-minute appearance, gazing around a packed courtroom. As he was being brought into court he made a white power gesture. Mr Tarrant was charged with one count of murder. Further charges will be laid. Armed police officers were on hand and nearly 50 reporters had packed the courtroom in downtown Christchurch. The judge barred members of the public from entering the courtroom "for reasons of public safety". The attack, labelled terrorism by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, was the worst ever peacetime mass killing in New Zealand and prompted the country to raise its security threat level to high. Armed police were also deployed at several locations in New Zealand cities, unusual in a country where levels of gun violence are low. Ms Ardern has flagged changing the country's gun laws amid revelations Mr Tarrant had a gun licence that allowed him to legally obtain weapons, and said security officers would be stationed at mosques throughout New Zealand in the foreseeable future. She said he had travelled extensively in the past four years, spending time only sporadically in New Zealand, had no criminal history and was not on any watchlists in New Zealand or Australia. Mr Tarrant was "mobile", had two other firearms and it "absolutely was his intention to continue with the attack", she said, reiterating that he was apprehended by police within 36 minutes from the first call to emergency services. Two other people remain in custody. Australian authorities assisting with investigation Ms Ardern said the Government was liaising closely with its Australian counterparts, and that New Zealand security agencies had been asked to examine a "raft of issues" including gun laws, the rise of right-wing extremism and whether or not authorities should have been aware of Mr Tarrant before the attacks. "This individual should have been someone that the authorities were aware of and were proactively already focused on," she said. "Those are the exact questions that we have asked and that the agencies are working on." Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said local authorities were providing "significant assistance" with the police investigation, and support had been made available for the Muslim community. He said the issue reached "well beyond the borders of New Zealand and Australia". "These right-wing extremist views, white supremacist, white separatist views are not the flu," he said. "These sentiments have, sadly, existed in Australia for hundreds of years. "Hatred, bigotry, racism, these are things that we do stand out against and we always seek to combat." Mr Morrison said comments made by independent senator Fraser Anning about the mosque attacks would be the subject of a bipartisan censure motion when Federal Parliament returned next month. Authorities working to return victims to families Ms Ardern said authorities were working to get the bodies of those killed in the attacks out of the mosques and returned to their families so that burials could begin. She said the main focus was assisting with repatriation "in a way that is consistent with the Muslim faith, while taking into account these unprecedented circumstances and the obligations to the coroner". She said ethnic liaison officers were working to support the community, and that police were hoping to have all bodies removed from the mosques by the end of Saturday. "At Hagley Park, the number one focus really was on identification of those who were still in the mosque, the timeline for when those individuals will be removed from the mosque," she said. "The hope is that they will have all bodies removed by the end of the day and, of course, as I said, the burial process. "That's an incredibly important part of the Muslim faith, and police are familiar with that." 11 people remain in intensive care Greg Robertson, the chief of surgery at Christchurch Hospital, said surgeons worked in 12 operating theatres through the night to treat some of the 48 people admitted to hospital. Thirty-nine people remain hospital, with 11 in the intensive care unit. Dr Robertson said they ranged in ages from the very young to the elderly, but the majority were men in their 30s and 40s. He said their gunshot injuries ranged from "relatively superficial soft tissue injuries" to more complex ones involving the chest, abdomen and head. Dr Robertson said the experience gained during the 2011 earthquake meant the hospital had the ability to deal with mass casualty events. Dozens of people laid flowers at cordons near both mosques in the South Island city, which is still rebuilding after the earthquake. A memorial site has also been set up in the botanical gardens near the hospital where many of the injured are being treated. The 49 victims include citizens from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. ABC/AP Topics: law-crime-and-justice, terrorism, courts-and-trials, new-zealand First posted ||||| Christchurch mosque shootings will spark New Zealand gun law changes, Jacinda Ardern says Updated New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has flagged immediate changes to the country's gun laws in the wake of shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, where 49 people were killed. Key points: Jacinda Ardern says five firearms were used in the mosque shootings She says the shooter purchased them legally as he had a "category A" gun licence New Zealand has attempted to change gun laws three times since 2005 Speaking at a media conference Saturday, Ms Ardern said Brenton Tarrant, the Australian man charged with murder and remanded in custody over the terrorist act, had allegedly used five firearms including two semi-automatic weapons, two shotguns and a lever-action firearm. She said he had been in possession of a "category A" gun licence, obtained in 2017, which allowed him to legally obtain the weapons in December 2017, and that he was not on any watchlists prior to the attacks. "While work has been done as to the chain of events that led to both the holding of this gun licence and the possession of these weapons, I can tell you one thing right now: our gun laws will change," she said. "There have been attempts to change our laws in 2005, 2012 and after an inquiry in 2017. Now is the time for change. "There are obviously questions being asked of how this person was able to enter the country and undertake this act of terror. "I have instructed ODESC (Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination) to report to Cabinet on Monday on these events with a view to strengthening our systems on a range of fronts including, but not limited to, firearms, border controls, enhanced information-sharing with Australia, and any practice reinforcement of our watchlist processes." Before Ms Ardern's announcement, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark told the ABC that while the country had gun control, there was room for improvement. "We do have gun control. People have to be fit and proper persons to have guns. But undoubtedly, the law can be strengthened and improved," she said. "Personally, I would be surprised if the New Zealand Parliament didn't accept that challenge head on to strengthen the law. "I think we could do better, and a tragedy like this brings that forward as a priority." Ms Ardern said the 28-year-old Australian had based himself in the city of Dunedin prior to the attack. Ms Ardern said a fourth person who had been arrested while in possession of a firearm on Friday had been released, as they were a member of the public wanting to help authorities. The two others were still being questioned. Ms Ardern praised the police officers and emergency services involved in locking down Christchurch schools and offices, swiftly arresting the suspect, treating victims; and the defence specialists for defusing improvised explosive devices. "Many of you may have seen the footage of the arrests, and I can only describe it as an act of bravery on behalf of all New Zealanders, and an act that shows very little regard for their own personal safety," she said. "I also want to acknowledge ambulance staff who many will have seen acting swiftly under horrific conditions, and all medical staff who continue to work with those who are injured." Topics: crime, law-crime-and-justice, government-and-politics, world-politics, new-zealand First posted ||||| New Zealand's gun control laws scrutinised after Christchurch mosque shootings Updated New Zealand currently has about one firearm to every four people and no ban on semi-automatic military-style weapons, but that could all change in the wake of the mass shootings at two Christchurch mosques. Key points: New Zealand doesn't have a gun register, prompting calls for tighter controls The weapon used by the Christchurch gunman appears similar to an AR-15, used in US massacres New Zealand ranks 18th in the world for the rate of civilian gun ownership Speaking at a press conference on Saturday morning, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Australian suspect, identified as Brenton Tarrant, had licences for the two semi-automatic weapons, two shotguns and a lever-action firearm he allegedly used during the terrorist attack that left 49 dead. She also said he was not on any watchlists prior to the attacks. Ms Ardern flagged immediate changes to the nation's firearms laws, saying: "I can tell you one thing right now, our gun laws will change." Security expert John Battersby, from Massey University in Wellington, said until now the country had no ban on semi-automatic military-style weapons. "Yes, we have a tough licensing system, but we lack the register that Australia has," Dr Battersby said. "We actually probably don't know how many legal firearms there are in New Zealand and we certainly don't know how many illegal firearms there are. "How these individuals have got hold of these weapons, that's going to be a big question." Before Ms Ardern's announcement, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark told the ABC that while the country had gun control, there was room for improvement. "We do have gun control. People have to be fit and proper persons to have guns. But undoubtedly, the law can be strengthened and improved," she said. "Personally, I would be surprised if the New Zealand Parliament didn't accept that challenge head-on to strengthen the law. "I think we could do better, and a tragedy like this brings that forward as a priority." Counter-terrorism expert Greg Barton, from Deakin University, said there were questions to be asked about how Tarrant was able to gain access to certain weapons. "New Zealand doesn't have a gun register, so in that sense many people have for years been calling for a gun register and tighter control," he said. "You would have thought getting an assault rifle was very hard, not like it is in America where it's very easy. "How could that have happened? Was it a freak occurrence or was it fairly easy to do?" How many guns are there? New Zealand has almost double the number of guns per person compared to Australia — around one weapon for every four people. The Small Arms Survey estimated New Zealand possessed 1.2 million guns for its 4.6 million population as of last year (although some media reports estimate it could be as high as 1.5 million). That compares to Australia's 3.5 million guns for 24.6 million people — around one weapon for every eight. By comparison, for every 100 people in the United States there are 120 guns — more than one per person. New Zealand ranks 18th in the world for the rate of civilian gun ownership, the Small Arms Survey said, higher than Kosovo, Pakistan and Iraq. 'The difference one weapon can make' Professor Barton said the Christchurch gunman's weapon resembled an AR-15 — the assault rifle used in a number of US massacres, including the Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58 people in 2017. "The attacker was using a couple of guns, one was a shotgun, one was an AR-15 — that's the so-called civilian equivalent of the M-16. It's an assault rifle," he said. "What we saw was disturbing effectiveness in cold-blooded shooting, murderous shooting, which is why we now have 49 dead, perhaps even more to come. "That shows the difference that one weapon can make. "We haven't seen these assault weapons used in Australia and New Zealand. "I think now we've got to face the fact that they're at large." How do our laws compare? According to GunPolicy.org, run by Philip Alpers, a firearms analyst at The University of Sydney, Australia has the tightest gun control policies in the Pacific region, while New Zealand's laws are considered more lax. "Among developed nations it stands alone with the United States as the only two countries without universal gun registration," he said. Australia and New Zealand both have strict licensing around firearms, but most weapons aren't registered with the police in New Zealand. In Australia it's illegal to have an unregistered firearm, and the government severely restricted automatic and semi-automatic weapons following the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996. In New Zealand, you can apply for a firearms licence at 16 years or older to use shotguns and rifles for things like sport and hunting. Self-defence is not considered an adequate reason for owning a gun in New Zealand. Upon application for a licence, there are police background checks, firearms safety training, and follow-up police interviews. New Zealand civilians can possess a military-style semi-automatic firearm if they are over 18 and have an additional special permit from police — they must be registered and there are special storage requirements. But some media reports highlight concerns that unregulated add-ons could easily convert basic, unregistered weapons to be used like semi-automatics. In 2015, a New Zealand journalist purchased a gun online without a licence, ostensibly in a bid to highlight loopholes in online gun buys. One New Zealand gun shop, Gun City, came under scrutiny for selling and promoting the AR-15 in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting in the US. 'Missed opportunity' Eighteen months ago, in October 2017, New Zealand's Police Association president Chris Cahill lamented the "missed opportunity" to reform gun laws, after Police Minister Paula Bennett rejected 12 of 20 recommendations from a select committee inquiry into the illegal possession of firearms. "It's very frustrating the opportunity was missed earlier this year [2017], and you know what it's going to take to bring it on the table again, and unfortunately that's a tragedy," he told Stuff.co.nz at the time. Ms Clark said that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would "want to leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of this, and to know what New Zealand needs to do better to stop it ever happening again". "This is not the New Zealand we know and love," she said. "We don't see ourselves as a people who would ever accept such attitudes or such horrors in our community." ABC Topics: terrorism, religion-and-beliefs, murder-and-manslaughter, new-zealand First posted ||||| Police believe one man is responsible for yesterday's Christchurch massacre — and allege he travelled between two packed mosques and killed at least 49 people within seven minutes. And within 36 minutes — it was all over. He was caught, dragged from a car by two police officers, and taken into custody. Read more Live updates: NZ in mourning after Christchurch mosque attacks Advertisement Police Commissioner Mike Bush today travelled to Christchurch where he briefed media on the latest on the investigation into accused murderer Brenton Tarrant. Bush revealed that police believe Tarrant is responsible for both attacks. He said Tarrant did not give up willingly when he was found. Bush was listening to live audio of the arrest and said Tarrant was "non compliant". He was arrested 36 minutes after the initial attack at the Al Noor Mosque. Tarrant is likely to face further charges but Bush could not say what they might be. "What charges he faces will be determined by the investigation," he said. Bush acknowledged the bravery of the staff who arrested Tarrant, and other front line officer. He also thanked other first responders and support agencies including St John, Fire and Emergency NZ, Victim Support, Civil Defence and the Defence Force. He said some responders and members of the public had shown "absolute bravery" and put themselves in harm's way — action that would have "saved lives". Bush confirmed the youngest victim of the massacre was a child however he was reluctant to give a specific age range as details of the dead were still being confirmed. The death toll could still rise. The Herald is aware of one man in a critical condition who is undergoing a six-and-a-half hour surgery this afternoon. It is understood he was hit by multiple bullets. Two other people were arrested and may face charges in relation to the massacre. Bush said they were still under investigation. An 18-year-old man has also been charged with inciting racial or ethnic hatred. Bush said a "considerable" number of people were being looked at as part of the broader investigation including those posting on social media. He stopped short of saying the teen had been charged due to a social media post — but indicated that was part of the investigation. He and Canterbury District Commander John Price wanted to reassure the public that there was no "imminent" threat to their safety. "There is no intelligence about imminent threats," he said. "But I would never assume anything in this situation. "We have a number of leads and we are not searching for anyone who is an imminent threat. "That doesn't mean that doesn't exist." Tarrant was held in the Christchurch central police station — housed in the Justice Precinct buildings — overnight and walked to the courtroom next door for his appearance. He said it would be "improper" to confirm this early that there was only one shooter — but it was believed Tarrant was behind all of the terror attacks. ||||| At least one shooter opened fire at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday, killing several. New Zealand Police confirmed the incident, saying that a "serious and evolving situation" is occurring with an active shooter. Police Commissioner Mike Bush said in a statement that authorities had taken one person into custody but the police believe "there may be other offenders." "This is an evolving incident and we are working to confirm the facts, however we can confirm there have been a number of fatalities," Bush said. "Police recommend that residents across Christchurch remain off the streets and indoors until further notice. Christchurch schools will be locked down until further notice," a separate official notice said. Local media cited sources indicating there had been multiple deaths from the shooting. The Bangladesh cricket team was in the vicinity of the shooting but all members were safe, a team coach told media. Radio New Zealand quoted a witness inside the mosque saying he heard shots fired and at least four people were lying on the ground and "there was blood everywhere." "Horrified to hear of Christchurch mosque shootings. There is never a justification for that sort of hatred," said Amy Adams, a member of parliament from Christchurch. The Bangladesh cricket team is in Christchurch to play New Zealand in a third cricket test starting on Saturday. Mario Villavarayen, strength and conditioning coach of the Bangladesh cricket team was quoted by the New Zealand Herald as saying that the team was close to where the shooting occurred, but was safe. "The players are shaken up but fine," Villavarayen was quoted as saying. —Reuters contributed to this report. | An Australian, , aged 28, appeared in District Court, New Zealand yesterday, charged with one count of murder pertaining to a on Friday, which caused the death of at least 50 people. Judge Paul Kellar ordered the accused remain in custody until his next court appearance on April 5. Police alleged the accused performed two attacks. The first attack reportedly was in at about 13:40 local time (0040 ), which left at least 42 people dead. The second attack reportedly was in , killing at least eight people, on the same day. Brenton Tarrant did not apply for bail. Further charges may be laid in the future, police said. Police arrested the accused in the neighborhood of Strickland Street, 36 minutes after the mass shooting in Al Noor Mosque according to police. After his arrest on Friday, Brenton stayed in the Christchurch central police station overnight before appearing in court on the next day. Brenton Tarrant had a valid gun licence allowing him to buy weapons, ABC reported. According to New Zealand Prime Minister , Brenton had a licence for the five firearms he allegedly used for the attack — two semi-automatic, two shotguns, and one lever-action. Professor Greg Barton, Chair In Global Islamic Politics in the Faculty of Arts and Education at the , said "The attacker was using a couple of guns, one was a shotgun, one was an — that's the so-called civilian equivalent of the . It's an ". The authorities seized these firearms. Prime Minister Ardern said at a press conference yesterday morning the gun laws should be changed. She said, "I have instructed Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination to report to Cabinet on Monday on these events with a view to strengthening our systems on a range of fronts including, but not limited to, firearms, border controls, enhanced information-sharing with Australia, and any practice reinforcement of our watchlist processes." Brenton also allegedly released an anti-Muslim document online, outlining political motivation, prior to the murders. Social media have been struggling to censor the alleged gunman's videos of the murder, according to reports. |
WASHINGTON -- The federal government will have to borrow $1.6 trillion this year to finance its operations, the highest single-year budget deficit in the post-World War II era, the Congressional Budget Office said in a mid-year update Tuesday. New spending by Congress since the CBO last updated its projections in March prompted it to raise its estimate of the total deficit from 2010-19 by $2.7 trillion, the CBO said in its update. That 10-year cumulative budget deficit is now expected to reach $7.137 trillion, the CBO said. Much of that 10-year deficit increase is accounted for by additional appropriations to finance the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. About half of the increase in the 10-year deficit is a result of lowered revenue expectations as the economy continued to struggle, and additional interest costs to finance the national debt. The U.S. public debt will exceed 61% of gross domestic product by the end of 2010, the CBO said, with that figure rising to 68% of GDP by the end of 2019. The $1.6 trillion deficit now projected by the CBO for 2009 is $80 billion less than it projected in its March update. That decrease is mostly due to lowered projections of how much the government will spend on its Troubled Asset Relief Program to rescue the banking sector. The CBO's estimates are broadly in line with new deficit figures released by the Obama administration Tuesday. The White House Office of Management and Budget also slightly reduced its deficit estimate for 2009, to $1.58 trillion. The White House estimates the 10-year deficit at $9 trillion. Write to Martin Vaughan at martin.vaughan@dowjones.com ||||| * White House sees 10-year deficit at $9 trillion * Grim news for Obama's healthcare push * Slow recovery to hurt tax revenues as spending soars (Adds detail, reaction) By Alister Bull and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. national debt will nearly double over the next 10 years, government forecasts showed on Tuesday, challenging President Barack Obama's economic and healthcare overhaul agenda. The White House midsession budget forecast and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office both forecast that government revenues will be crimped by a slow recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s Great Depression, while spending on retirement and medical benefits soars. The White House projected a cumulative $9 trillion deficit between 2010 and 2019, while the CBO pegged the total at $7.1 trillion because it assumed higher revenues as tax cuts expire. [ID:nN25198577] The spending blitz could push the national debt, now more than $11 trillion, to close to $20 trillion. The debt is the total sum the government owes, while the deficit is the yearly gap between revenues and spending. "If anyone had any doubts that this burden on future generations is unsustainable, they're gone," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, adding that economic stimulus funds should be diverted to pay down U.S. debt. However, both the White House and CBO anticipate that the deficit, now at its highest level as a percent of economic output since World War Two, will decline relatively swiftly in the next three years as growth resumes and federal bailout programs shrink. White House budget director Peter Orszag said the deficit was too high and cited this as a reason to pass Obama's healthcare overhaul plan, which is in trouble with lawmakers while opinion polls show it losing popular support. Democrats argue that the $1 trillion plan will stem the growth of healthcare costs.[ID:nN25210368] "I know that there will be some who say this report proves that we cannot afford health reform. I think that has it backward," Orszag told reporters on a conference call. The debate is gaining steam as Republicans seek momentum for next year's mid-term elections, where they hope to chip away at the dominant position Obama's Democrats enjoy in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congressional Democrats said the country's fiscal condition was a legacy from former Republican President George W. Bush, who cut taxes while pursuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also said spending on retirement and health benefits must be put under control as millions of Baby Boomers retire. "Today's budget numbers send a clear signal that the time for putting off tough choices is over and the time to act is now," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat. NEAR-TERM FORECASTS SIMILAR The White House forecasts a record $1.58 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009, matching the numbers of the CBO, while it shows the deficit at $1.5 trillion in 2010, a touch higher than the $1.48 trillion projected by CBO. The estimates for the current fiscal year were reduced from earlier forecasts because of lower anticipated spending on financial bailout programs as markets have stabilized. The White House has withdrawn a $250 billion "placeholder" budget request, while the CBO estimates that actual TARP outlays this year will be $203 billion less than anticipated . But both estimates show annual deficits staying above $500 billion every year until 2019, compared with a then-record $459 billion last year. The White House shows the gap averaging 5.1 percent of gross domestic product per year through 2019, compared with 3.2 percent last year. By 2019 the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product will rise to 69 percent from 48 percent in 2009 the White House said, closely tracking CBO's estimates. "The administration has always said that you have to get deficits under 3 percent of GDP to be safe. They now admit that they will not in the next 10 years," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a CBO chief under Bush and chief economic adviser to Republican Senator John McCain for his 2008 presidential bid. [ID:nN24166732] The budget news was overshadowed by Obama's surprise announcement on Tuesday to renominate Ben Bernanke to a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chairman, a move seen as aiming for continuity at the central bank during a tentative stage of recovery. "I'm stunned at how hard they have worked to bury this," Holtz-Eakin said of the White House's budget estimate timing. DIFFERING ASSUMPTIONS The CBO and OMB typically end up with different numbers because of differing accounting methods and variations in key assumptions. The CBO employs a baseline method that only takes into account policies that have already become law. [ID:nN25208016] The administration's forecasts can reflect the economic impact of policies it hopes to implement, even if they have not yet been approved by lawmakers. For example, the CBO assumes the there would be no "patch" for the Alternative Minimum Tax, meaning millions more Americans would have to pay higher taxes even though Congress has agreed to a temporary reprieve every year to prevent this happening. CBO also assumes Bush's tax cuts will expire at the end of 2010. Had the White House used the CBO's methods it would have arrived at a much lower 10-year deficit figure of $6.3 trillion, the congressional budget experts said. Conversely, a CBO estimate built on the White House's methods would likely reach a higher figure than the administration's $9 trillion. Orszag said that the White House numbers also assumed that some of the Bush tax cuts would be extended. Obama has pledged not to raise taxes on U.S. households earning less than $250,000 a year. (Writing by David Lawder, Editing by Vicki Allen) ||||| WASHINGTON The nation’s fiscal outlook is even bleaker than the government forecast earlier this year because the recession turned out to be deeper than widely expected, the budget offices of the White House and Congress agreed in separate updates on Tuesday. The Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget raised its 10-year tally of deficits expected through 2019 to $9.05 trillion, nearly $2 trillion more than it projected in February. That would represent 5.1 percent of the economy’s estimated gross domestic product for the decade, a higher level than is generally considered healthy. The Congressional Budget Office, which unlike the administration did not account for the president’s policy proposals in its latest report, increased its projection of deficits over the next decade. Absent any changes in law, it said the deficit would rise to $7.1 trillion, from $4.4 trillion in March. The C.B.O. did analyze the president’s budget in June and concluded his proposed tax cuts and spending would push deficits through 2019 above $9 trillion. While the administration now agrees with that figure, technical data in the new C.B.O. report suggests that if it were to review the Obama budget now, it would project deficits through 2019 above $10 trillion, analysts speculated. ||||| OMB HOME • Mid-Session Review Today, OMB released the Mid-Session Review (MSR) which updates the Administration’s economic forecast, last done in February, and its budget projections.The MSR shows a smaller 2009 deficit but larger out-year deficits than previously projected. Overall, it underscores the dire fiscal situation that we inherited and the need for serious steps to put our nation back on a sustainable fiscal path.First, let’s consider this year’s deficit. We now expect that the policies put in place to repair the financial system are likely to cost taxpayers less than previously anticipated. In particular, we have decided to remove from the budget a placeholder for further financial stabilization efforts that seemed prudent earlier this year. And we have lowered our estimate of the expected costs of FDIC bank rescues.The net result is a $262 billion improvement in the projected 2009 deficit. The 2009 deficit is now projected to be $1.58 trillion – or 11.2 percent of GDP – down from a previously projected $1.84 trillion or 12.9 percent of GDP.Second, with regard to the out-year deficits, the changes are primarily driven by changes in our economic assumptions. In line with the current consensus among professional forecasters, the Administration’s economic projections show that we inherited a deeper recession than projected in February. These revisions are based on new data on the severity of the recession that weren’t available last winter.As a result of a deeper-than-expected recession, certain spending programs (such as unemployment insurance and food stamps) are projected to automatically increase and revenues are projected to automatically decline, compared to our previous projection. Although these effects help to ameliorate the economic downturn by stimulating demand, they also lead to higher medium-term deficits both directly and indirectly (through higher interest costs on a higher level of public debt). Over the next 10 years, the net impact is to add $2 trillion to the projected deficit, compared to our last projection made based on February’s economic assumptions. That brings the projected 10-year deficit for 2010-2019 to $9.05 trillion – in line with CBO’s June projection.It is worth noting, however, that by 2019, the difference between non-interest spending and revenue, which is also known as the "primary deficit," is only 0.6 percent of GDP. Interest payments, which almost entirely represent the cost of the debt accumulated due to the policies of past administrations and the need to run short-run deficits to help the economy recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, are 3.4 percent of GDP.During an economic downturn, one wants to allow the deficit to increase, so deficit reduction should be focused on the out-years – after the economy has recovered. That said, the out-year deficits hover in the range of 4 percent of GDP, which is higher than desirable. Getting the out-year deficit under control is a top priority of the Administration.We are in the midst of the policy process surrounding the FY 2011 budget, and that process will include proposals to put the nation back on a fiscally sustainable path. In the meantime, we have to stop making these longer-term deficits worse – which is why the Administration supports statutory pay-as-you-go legislation, so that any new tax or entitlement initiatives are fully paid for. (If pay-go rules had been followed over the past eight years, the projected deficit would be $5 trillion lower over the next decade.)In addition to avoiding making the problem any worse, we need to address the key driver of our long-term deficits: health care costs. The federal government simply cannot be put on a fiscally sustainable path without slowing the rate of health care cost growth in the long run. That is why the Administration is insistent that health care reform not only be deficit neutral over the next ten years, but also incorporate changes that will help reduce the deficit thereafter.There’s no doubt that additional steps will be necessary to reduce our out-year deficits (including continuing our effort to reduce spending and reform government contracting), and the Administration will have more to say about all that as part of the FY 2011 Budget.On inauguration day, the Administration inherited the greatest economic crisis and the largest deficits since the end of World War II. The economic freefall has been arrested, and, while too many people remain out of work, the consensus among private forecasters is that the economy will return to positive growth in the second half of this year. As the economy recovers, the Administration is committed to putting the nation on a fiscally sustainable path. | The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is predicting that the national debt of the US will double in 10 years. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has raised its forecast of the 10-year cumulative budget deficit to US$7.137 trillion, due to increased spending. Both offices released reports on Tuesday. OMB "Over all, it underscores the dire fiscal situation that we inherited and the need for serious steps to put our nation back on a sustainable fiscal path," wrote Peter R. Orszag, President Barack Obama's budget director. "I know that there will be some who say this report proves that we cannot afford health reform. I think that has it backward," Orszag said in a conference call. The CBO report predicts that public debt will exceed 61% of gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of 2010 while continuing to rise to 68% of GDP by the end of 2019. "If anyone had any doubts that this burden on future generations is unsustainable, they're gone," said Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader. "Today's budget numbers send a clear signal that the time for putting off tough choices is over and the time to act is now," said the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad. "While the U.S. health care system does need to be reformed, we cannot ignore the fiscal realities of our situation," said Senator Judd Gregg who is also on the Senate Budget Committee. "We must proceed with extreme caution before putting in place a huge and costly new program that will threaten our economy and the future of our children." "The administration has always said that you have to get deficits under 3 percent of GDP to be safe. They now admit that they will not in the next 10 years," commented Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the CBO. "I'm stunned at how hard they have worked to bury this." |
FBI Probes AT&T Network’s IPad E-Mail Security Breach (Update2) (Updates share prices in penultimate paragraph.) By Karen Gullo and Greg Bensinger June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation started an investigation of a security breach in AT&T Inc.’s wireless network that exposed the e-mail addresses of users of Apple Inc.’s iPad 3G. “The FBI is aware of these possible computer intrusions and has opened an investigation to address the potential cyber threat,” FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said in an e-mail. She said in an interview no other details were available. A group called Goatse Security said it obtained the e-mail addresses through a program on AT&T’s website, according to Gawker Media’s Valleywag website, to whom the group released addresses of iPad users, including New York Times Co. Chief Executive Officer Janet Robinson and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The addresses were released on condition that the website not publish them, Goatse Security analyst Escher Auernheimer said in a phone interview. “We’ve acted completely in good faith,” Auernheimer said. He said no one at the Internet security firm had been contacted by the FBI. “We’ve taken absolute steps to ensure that no one was affected by the data we had,” Auernheimer said. Gawker Media was contacted yesterday by FBI officials and asked to keep documents related to the iPad security breach posting, Editor-in-Chief Remy Stern said in an interview. He said he didn’t know the nature of the investigation. AT&T, the second-largest U.S. mobile-phone provider, corrected the flaw, the company said June 9 in an e-mailed statement. Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, said today there was no additional information to provide. 114,000 Addresses Valleywag said on its website on June 9 that about 114,000 e-mail addresses of iPad users, including members of the U.S. military and executives at media, technology and finance companies, were compromised. Apple has sold more than 2 million iPads since releasing the device in April. Some models of the iPad tablet work with AT&T’s third-generation wireless network, and other versions only work on Wi-Fi networks. Apple doesn’t say how many of each model it has sold. A computer crime task force in a suburb of San Francisco is investigating how an unreleased prototype of Apple’s iPhone was obtained by technology blog Gizmodo, also owned by New York- based Gawker Media. Gizmodo said it purchased the phone for $5,000 after it was found in a bar in Redwood City, California. An Apple engineer left the device in the bar, said Gizmodo, which returned the phone to the company. Apple reported the device as stolen in April. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, didn’t respond to a request for comment. AT&T declined 15 cents to $25.29 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have lost 9.8 percent this year. Apple added $3 to $253.51 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock has climbed 20 percent this year. --With assistance from Peter Burrows in New York. Editors: Peter Blumberg, Michael Hytha. To contact the reporters on this story: Karen Gullo in San Francisco at kgullo@bloomberg.net; Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net. ||||| Gawker Media LLC said the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked it to retain documents as part of a probe into the exposure of email addresses belonging to iPad owners, the second time the blog publisher has been in a legal spotlight over a big news story it wrote involving Apple Inc. The New York-based media company said Friday it had been contacted by the FBI to preserve the information, but Gawker Media said it doesn't believe it is a target of the probe. The FBI said Thursday it opened a probe but hasn't said what it may be investigating. Gawker's Valleywag section wrote Wednesday about a glitch in AT&T Inc.'s website that exposed the email addresses of iPad owners, including politicians, military officials and media executives. "There's always blowback when you break a big story," Remy Stern, the editor-in-chief of Gawker.com, said Friday. He said the AT&T story has become one of the most popular ever at Gawker Media, whose collection of sites include gadget blog Gizmodo and women's site Jezebel. The post from Wednesday has been clicked on 850,000 times so far, Mr. Stern said. Gawker.com on Wednesday had about 2.8 million page views, about 75% more than total page views for a typical weekday, according to Mr. Stern. View Full Image Associated Press IPads shown at an Apple store in New York in April. Mr. Stern said he and Valleywag editor Ryan Tate spent all night Tuesday verifying the data file from a group of computer experts that calls itself Goatse Security, which had identified the AT&T breach and sought to publicize it. Gawker verified the information and only posted partial email addresses. Mr. Stern said it didn't want to disclose potentially sensitive email addresses or the unique iPad ID numbers. Mr. Stern and Goatse Security said Gawker Media didn't compensate the group for the scoop. In a blog post defending Goatse Security's actions, a member of the group said it only gave the data to Gawker and later destroyed it. The member added: "The rhetoric, tone, and outlet we chose for our disclosure is free speech, plain and simple." Gawker Media continues to be involved in a possible criminal investigation in California related to its April disclosure of details about a new iPhone device that Apple had been keeping secret. Gawker's Gizmodo blog broke news of the new iPhone after it paid for a prototype of the device it said was mislaid by an Apple employee. Apple notified authorities about the missing phone, and the police seized a Gizmodo editor's computers. Apple didn't respond to a request for comment Friday, and an AT&T spokesman declined to comment. Write to Shira Ovide at shira.ovide@wsj.com ||||| A glitch in AT&T's Web site has exposed the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 iPad buyers. People who read this also read: The data was downloaded by a hacking group known as Goatse Security, which obtained the information after stumbling upon a program on AT&T's Web site that would send back the iPad user's e-mail address when given a unique SIM card identification number known as an ICC-ID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier). By guessing ICC-ID numbers, the hackers were able to download 114,000 e-mail addresses, according to the Web site Gawker, which first reported the news on Wednesday. "AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC-IDs," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said in an e-mail message on Wednesday. "This issue was escalated to the highest levels of the company and was corrected by Tuesday; and we have essentially turned off the feature that provided the e-mail addresses." AT&T said the only information hackers could have obtained as a result of this bug was the e-mail address attached to the iPad. That data could have been misused by spammers. AT&T plans to inform customers whose e-mail addresses were obtained, Siegel said. "At this point, there is no evidence that any other customer information was shared." There are some pretty powerful iPad users out there, apparently. After examining the hackers' data, Gawker found e-mail addresses belonging to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer, as well as addresses belonging to Google, Amazon, Microsoft and the U.S. military. "The person or group who discovered this gap did not contact AT&T," Siegel said. Neither Apple nor Goatse Security responded to requests for comment. | The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a probe into a security breach that allowed hackers to retrieve 114,000 addresses of users on the network. The FBI announced the investigation Friday, which will determine exactly what allowed a group of hackers using the name "Goatse Security" to access the data. The security breach was first announced by the on Wednesday. The FBI has since asked Gawker Media LLC, the owners of the site, to retain all information relating to the incident. The company was also involved in another recent case with Apple Inc., which included the . Gawker said that it does not believe it is the main target of this FBI investigation. Editors at Gawker were able to verify the information the hackers sent to them, and did not post full e-mail addresses or any other identifying information in its initial story of the incident. Gawker said that it did not pay Goatse Security for the data. One of the hackers later wrote that they did not reveal the addresses to anyone else and had already deleted them. The hackers were able to obtain the data after discovering a program on AT&T's website that provides the e-mail address of a user when that user's identification number is given. The hackers essentially guessed and then saved the numbers for the 114,000 users. They did not tell AT&T of the security hole. A spokesperson for AT&T said Wednesday that the company "was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC-IDs the identification numbers", and had disabled the e-mail-providing program by Tuesday. AT&T also said that no other information was stolen other than the e-mails addresses of their customers, and that "there is no evidence that any other customer information was shared." The company says it will notify all of the iPad users whose information was compromised. Many of the users involved are high-ranking government or corporate officials, including , the current , and Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City. Others include employees of Google and the . Apple has not commented about the breach. |
By Theo Leggett BBC European business reporter A Luxembourg courtroom is to play host to a crucial showdown between the European Commission and Microsoft. Microsoft says the EC's ruling is unfair The software giant is appealing against the commission's decision to fine it hundreds of millions of dollars for allegedly breaking European Union competition law. When the commission announced its decision in March 2004, it followed more than five years of intensive investigations. It was the highest-profile competition case the regulator had ever tackled, and resulted in the largest fine it had ever imposed: 497m euros (£344m; $613m). The Commission ruled that Microsoft had been trying to hinder its rivals' attempts to make software systems which could work with its own Windows operating system. It also said that by including video and audio programmes - or media players - within the basic windows package, it was preventing rival firms from selling their own media software. As well as being fined, Microsoft was ordered to give its rivals software codes to enable them to make products which would be compatible with Windows. And finally, it was told to make a version of Windows available without the built-in media players. The whole package was justified as a means to prevent Microsoft from dominating the market - to the detriment of both its rivals and its customers. Innovation arguments Microsoft, needless to say, has always said the ruling was far too severe. If the Commission doesn't win this one, one can wonder which case it can win Thomas Vinje, Clifford Chance And this week, at the European court of first instance in Luxembourg, it will make its formal appeal. The company says the Commission's arguments are legally flawed. Moreover, it argues that by preventing it from adding new features to Windows, the ruling means consumers will be the losers. Ultimately, though, Microsoft accuses the Commission of trying to create new law, by suggesting that dominant firms should be forced to share the fruits of their research and development with other companies in the same market. Several other organisations have weighed into the case. One, a lobby group called the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), has spent the past eight years arguing Microsoft's case in a series of anti-trust actions. "This case fundamentally is about innovation," says Jonathan Zuck, its president. "It's about Microsoft's innovation and also the innovation of the thousands and thousands of developers who develop on the windows platform." Microsoft is widely thought to be a major funder of ACT, although the organisation insists it represents many other, much smaller firms as well. 'Grand-daddy' Microsoft believes it has a strong case - but so too does the Commission. It has the backing of several rivals to Microsoft, and Thomas Vinje - of law firm Clifford Chance, which represents a number of rival firms - says the Commission's factual and economic analysis is much more solid than any of its previous competition decisions. "This is the grand-daddy of them all," he says. "If the Commission doesn't win this one, one can wonder which case it can win." What is beyond doubt, however, is that this is a courtroom battle which neither side can really afford to lose. If Microsoft wins, analysts say, the Commission could lose much of the international credibility which it has built up by its aggressive stance against the company - and would find it harder to impose its will in future cases. But if the appeal fails, Microsoft is likely to face further investigations and the possibility of yet more lawsuits. ||||| ABC News Microsoft, EU Face Off Over Antitrust 2 Years After Record Fine, Microsoft Corp. and EU Face Off Over Antitrust Issues By AOIFE WHITE AP Business Writer LUXEMBOURG Apr 24, 2006 (AP) Microsoft Corp. went to court Monday to challenge the European Commission's landmark antitrust ruling against it, arguing that the future of innovation in the technology industry was at stake. In its opening statement, Microsoft lawyer Jean-Francois Bellis said the Commission made "serious errors" in its decision two years ago that the company abused its dominant market position. The hearing, expected to take five days, will focus on Microsoft's behavior in the late 1990s, with EU regulators using evidence from the company's rivals. At its core, the hearing is focusing on two issues. The first is Microsoft's bundling of Media Player as a core part of its operating system, the second is on the Commission's order that Microsoft share information and code with competitors to help them make software that worked smoothly with Windows. In 2004, the Redmond, Wash.-based company was fined a record 497 million euros ($613 million) after the European Commission found that Microsoft had taken advantage of its position as the leading supplier of software for PC operating systems to elbow in on rivals for work group server operating systems and for media players. The commission ordered Microsoft to share information and communications code with rivals and to market a version of Windows without the media player to give consumers a free choice of media software. In opening arguments, Bellis claimed that stripping out Media Player from Windows XP left consumers without the ability to listen to more music or watch more video. On the Commission's order, Microsoft made available for purchase Windows XPN, which did not include the ubiquitous player. That, lawyers said, meant consumers could not listen to CDs or play music from providers like Yahoo or Napster. "Many functions … were lost in creating Windows XPN," Bellis said, adding that all media functionality in Windows is part of the platform. Furthermore, he said that no computer maker had shipped a PC or laptop with Windows XPN pre-installed. ||||| ABC News Microsoft Seeks to Overturn EU Ruling Microsoft Seeks to Overturn EU Ruling, Tells Court It Was Forced to Make Product No One Wanted By AOIFE WHITE AP Business Writer LUXEMBOURG Apr 24, 2006 (AP) The European Commission forced the world's largest software maker to offer a product no one wanted and virtually no one bought, Microsoft Corp. told the EU's second highest court Monday as it began trying to overturn a landmark antitrust ruling against it. Microsoft lawyer Jean-Francois Bellis said in his opening statement that the Commission made "fundamental errors of fact and reasoning" in its decision two years ago that the company abused its dominant market position to muscle into media software. The Commission's order that Microsoft offer customers a version of its Windows desktop operating system without the Media Player intended to give people a free choice of media software has been a spectacular failure, he said. No computer maker has shipped a PC or laptop with the media player-free Windows XP N version, which is available only in Europe. "Not a single one," Bellis told the 13 judges. Some 90 percent of Windows sales come from being pre-installed on computers when they are sold. XP N sales represent 0.005 percent of overall XP sales in Europe, Microsoft told the court, and many of the copies produced may remain unsold, it said. French retailer FNAC, the single largest retailer to order XP N with 46 percent of the orders, has said that it sees no consumer demand for the product, Microsoft said. But others argued that it is Microsoft's continued power over the market that is keeping people from embracing XP N, not a lack of consumer interest. Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for the European Committee for Interoperable Systems a group representing some of Microsoft's rivals that is backing the Commission said the lack of sales was a clear sign that Microsoft had held the market in check. "It's a missile that comes back squarely into the heart of Microsoft," he said, adding that in 1999 PC makers had a choice of bundling different media players but with Media Player tied to the Windows OS, it quickly became the first pick for new computers. | Microsoft Windows Logo Today, court proceedings in the European Union's Court of First Instance in Luxembourg began as Microsoft Corporation filed an appeal against the European Union Commission's decision in an anti-trust case, commenting that the Commission made several mistakes in its decision to fine Microsoft 497 million euros, or approximately 613 million dollars concerning several allegations that Microsoft used its majority share in desktop software to also take over the video and media player business. The Commission also forced Microsoft to produce a version of Windows XP that did not include Windows Media Player. Only 1,787 copies were ordered through March 31st. Microsoft has also alleged that the proposed punishment of 2 million euros per day is too severe. The EU has also proposed that Microsoft's upcoming operating system, Windows Vista will also exclude rivals through bundling programs. Although a decision is not expected for at least several months, analysts have predicted that a verdict in favor of Microsoft would destroy the EU Commission's prestige as well as any case against Microsoft. |
The gap in mortality rates between Aboriginal and non-indigenous Australians is growing wider, underlining the greatest failure of the nation's health system, a major conference has heard. Seventy-one per cent of indigenous people die before they reach 65, compared with just over one fifth of other Australians, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) conference in Canberra heard on Tuesday. Life expectancy for Aborigines is at least 17 years lower than for non-indigenous Australians. They are 12 times more likely than non-indigenous people to have diabetes, four times more likely to have a respiratory disease and three times more likely to die from injury. Advertisement Indigenous Australians are twice as likely to be obese as their non-indigenous counterparts, and almost half of Aboriginal people smoke tobacco. Aboriginal women are four times as likely to fall pregnant during their teenage years, with one in five giving birth before they turn 20. Rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) chlamydia and gonorrhoea have skyrocketed among indigenous people, the conference was told. Between 1994-2000, rates of chlamydia for indigenous people leapt 179 per cent, while the incidence of gonorrhoea jumped by almost two thirds. But despite the great disparities, the nation spent just 17 cents more per person on indigenous health than on non-indigenous Australians. While the death rate for the Aboriginal population has fallen, that for non-indigenous people has declined more quickly. "Although there have been improvements in the mortality rates of indigenous Australians in recent years, available data suggests that the relative gap in overall mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is widening," the AIHW Australia's Health 2008 report said. Former health minister Dr Neal Blewett, the architect of anti-smoking and HIV AIDS campaigns during the 1980s, said the statistics presented on Tuesday merely scratched the surface of the "litany of shame" in indigenous health. "We should be grateful to the institute for once again bringing to our attention in such a powerful and uncompromising fashion, the greatest failure of the Australian health system," he told the conference. Aboriginal leader, Associate Professor Ted Wilkes, said it was part of indigenous culture not to discourage girls of child-bearing age from giving birth. "We need to have some systems in place to deal with that," he told the conference. Suicide was a major concern, and it was vital indigenous parents pass on positive health messages and habits to their children. "The situation for Aboriginal people is that we are born into a world where it's normal to accept that poverty, being on the dole and doing what our parents have done to survive (are) normal behaviour." Hospitals needed to introduce more culturally aware treatment because many indigenous people were intimidated by the system. "Some of our mob are frightened of dying in hospital," Prof Wilkes said. He urged health authorities and the federal government to allow indigenous people to play the leading role in lifting themselves out of poverty. "We have a right to self-determine our pathway out of poverty," he said. ||||| Australia now second in life expectancy stakes Photo: James Brickwood Leo Shanahan June 25, 2008 Page 1 of 2 | Single Page View AUSTRALIANS are now the second-longest-living people on earth with falling death rates for cancer, heart disease, stroke and injury, but the indigenous population continues to die earlier. The latest comparative study of the nation's overall health by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) - the government body responsible for compiling health statistics - shows that a baby born in Australia today can expect to live for 81.4 years, with men expected to live for 79 years and women for almost 84. Australians' life expectancy is bettered only by the Japanese at 82.2 years. But according to the Australia's Health 2008 report, indigenous people continue to trail in life expectancy and mortality rates. "Not all groups within the Australian community are so fortunate - among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, life expectancy at birth is around 17 years less," the report says. The latest institute-approved figures on life expectancy for Aborigines, between 1996 and 2001, were 59 years for men and 65 years for women, similar to those for Aborigines at the turn of the last century. Death rates among indigenous males and females were at least twice as high, across all age groups, as those for non-indigenous males and females. In the four Australian states with the best data on indigenous mortality, 71% of those who died in the 2001-05 period were younger than 65 years, compared with 21% for the rest of the Australian population. Dr Fadwa Al-Yaman, head of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health at the AIHW, said there was no evidence that the 17-year difference in life expectancy would narrow in the near future, partly because of the speed with which the rest of the population was becoming healthier. "We have seen declines in (indigenous) mortality but most of that is in the very young ones. The greatest impact on life expectancy is likely to be on the middle-age group where most of the mortality is happening now," he said. Continued... ||||| AUSTRALIA may be fat, and getting fatter, but there is no evidence that it is the fattest country in the world - contrary to a blizzard of recent media reports warning the country is a ticking "fat bomb" about to explode. Within hours of launching its biennial snapshot report on the nation's health yesterday, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare issued a statement saying it "did not know of any reliable statistics that would support the claim that we were worse than all other countries". Many news services, including The Australian, reported last week that this country had become the world's most overweight nation, after a report by the Melbourne-based Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute claimed that "almost four million adult Australians are currently obese". The report claimed this would result in an extra 700,000 hospital admissions in the next 20 years, costing an extra $6 billion. But yesterday, AIHW director Penny Allbon said the methods by which those estimates were derived could not be supported by existing evidence. The Australia's Health report showed that 19 per cent of males and 17 per cent of females qualified as obese, equivalent to 2.5million people, Dr Allbon said. If the much larger category of overweight people were included, that amounted to 7.4 million people. "So it's high, but it still doesn't make us the fattest in the world," she said. "We do know that Australians have been gradually getting fatter over at least the last 20 years. "The most recent data that we have that tells us about the population is the 2004-05 health survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. At the moment the ABS is out there measuring height and weight in a population-based survey, so we don't know the results. "We were just a bit concerned that the statistics that came out about us being the fattest in the world is not based on a population survey." The Baker's results were based on measurements of people at 100 sites around the country, which the AIHW said might not have given a representative sample of the population. The Australia's Health report said close to three in 10 children were either overweight or obese. Tony Hobbs, a GP in the southeastern NSW town of Cootamundra and chairman of the Australian General Practice Network, said people "don't need to get carried away" making international comparisons that might mean little. "I think it's important we worry about our own population, and the other illnesses obesity will drive - and look at a way to engage obese people so we can help them," he said. "We can get distracted by international comparisons." ||||| AUSTRALIANS are fatter, drunker and have more sexually transmitted diseases than ever before, but access to doctors is falling. The appalling state of Aboriginal and rural health continues to stain the nation's bill of health, as these groups lag behind their non-indigenous and city counterparts in life expectancy and quality. The good news from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) biennial national snapshot is we live longer than any other nation except for Japan. Men who reach 65 can now expect to live to the age of 83 and women to 86 - about six years more than a century ago, according to Australia's Health 2008. Death rates for cancer, heart disease, stroke and injury are declining. Australia also leads the world in vaccination, with 90 per cent of children fully immunised against preventable childhood diseases at age two. But the bad news is lifestyle factors, such as obesity and binge drinking, are on the rise, with excessive alcohol consumption costing taxpayers an estimated $10.8 billion in 2004-05. Asthma has become less common among children and adults but the rate of diabetes has doubled in the past two decades. AIHW director Penny Allbon said about 7.4 million Australians were overweight and almost one-third of those were obese. "Close to three in 10 children and young people are overweight or obese," she said. Dr Allbon said there was great scope for tackling lifestyle risk factors, with nine per cent of hospital procedures in 2005-06 potentially preventable. In 2005-06, less than two per cent of health expenditure was for preventative health. "In rank order, the greatest improvements can be achieved through reductions in tobacco smoking, high blood pressure, overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, high blood cholesterol and excessive alcohol consumption," Dr Allbon said. Despite safe-sex campaigns, more people are contracting sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). Chlamydia was the most frequently reported STI last year, at a rate of 238 people per 100,000, up from 57 in 1998. Seeing a GP is increasingly difficult, with the supply of doctors nine per cent lower in 2005 than in 1997. However, access to GPs in remote areas has improved by 15 per cent. The health of indigenous and rural Australians languishes at levels well below that of their non-indigenous city counterparts. Some remote Aboriginal communities have no organised water supply and the life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people is widening. Between 1996 and 2001, the life expectancy for indigenous males was 59 and 65 for females, which is similar to the respective life expectancy for non-indigenous males in 1901-1910, and females in 1920-1922. One encouraging sign, however, is that although indigenous newborns are twice as likely than other babies to be of low birth weight or pre-term, the death rate gap between indigenous babies and non-indigenous babies is shrinking. Almost one-third of mothers have their children via caesarean section, with caesarean rates rising from 18 per cent in 1991, to 30 per cent in 2005. | The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) conference, held in Canberra, Australia, received mixed messages on Tuesday about the health of Australians. While average life expectancy is 81.4 years, second only to Japan's 82.2, and rates of cancer, heart disease and stroke are dropping, incidence of obesity, alcohol-related diseases, and sexually transmitted infections are on the increase. The AIHW report highlighted the increasing gap between Australia's Indigenous population and the rest of the nation. Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have a life expectancy around 17 years lower than the general populace, and in at least four states 71% of Aboriginals who died were under 65-years old, compared with 21% for the rest of the population. Indigenous Australians are reported to have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, respiratory illness, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. People living in rural and regional areas were also found to have lower life expectancies and higher illness rates than their suburban and metropolitan counterparts. While obesity is a growing concern in Australia, AIHW director Penny Allbon expressed skepticism over a recent report from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute that claimed that Australia had overtaken the United States as the "fattest" nation in the world, with "over four million adult Australians ... currently obese". Allben commented that the institute's sample from 100 locations across the country may not be representative of the whole population. "At the moment the ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics is out there measuring height and weight in a population-based survey, so we don't know the results," Dr Allbon said. "We were just a bit concerned that the statistics that came out about us being the fattest in the world is not based on a population survey." AIHW reported the number of Australians being obese as closer to 2.5 million, with 7.4 million being overweight. Between 1997 and 2005, the number of general practitioners in Australia has dropped 9%, although in regional areas there has been an increase of 15%. Based on the report, the AIHW has recommended that Australians consider lifestyle change, such as healthier eating and more exercise, to alleviate the pressure on Australia's public health system. "In rank order, the greatest improvements can be achieved through reductions in tobacco smoking, high blood pressure, overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, high blood cholesterol and excessive alcohol consumption," according to Dr. Allbon. |
Gen Pinochet celebrated his 91st birthday a week ago The 91-year-old needs a second intervention, state media has reported medics treating him as saying. The former leader, who was put under house arrest a few days ago, is in a military hospital in Santiago. Gen Pinochet was in power from 1973-90, during which time more than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared". He is accused of dozens of human rights violations but has never faced trial because of poor health. Angioplasty procedure He was taken to hospital early on Sunday morning after suffering "an acute" heart attack and a build-up of fluid on his lungs, a statement from the hospital said. Doctors had carried out "procedures that rescued him virtually from death," Gen Pinochet's son, Marco Antonio Pinochet told reporters gathered outside the hospital. "He's in a pretty serious state...We're in the hands of God and the doctors." The former leader received the last rites from a Catholic priest, a family spokesman said. One of the medical staff, Dr Juan Ignacio Vergara, said Gen Pinochet was in a stable condition but his life was not out of danger. Gen Pinochet underwent angioplasty, a procedure designed to widen a narrowed or totally obstructed blood vessel, to stabilise his condition, he said. Now, according to reports on Chilean state television, he needs a second operation - possibly a heart by-pass. 'Political responsibility' General Pinochet overthrew the elected government of the left-wing President Salvador Allende in 1973 in a bloody coup. He was placed under house arrest earlier this week over the abduction of two people in 1973. The charges relate to the Caravan of Death - a military operation to remove opponents to Gen Pinochet's rule. He currently faces two other indictments - one for human rights abuses and another for tax evasion. As a former president he enjoys legal immunity, but the courts can strip him of this privilege on a case-by-case basis. On 25 November, his 91st birthday, Gen Pinochet issued a statement in which he took "political responsibility" for acts that took place under his rule, saying that he had believed they were in Chile's best interests. He also alluded to his failing health. "Today, close to the end of my days, I want to make clear that I hold no rancour toward anybody, that I love my country above all else," he said. Gen Pinochet has been in ill health in recent years. He suffers from diabetes and arthritis, and has also had a number of suspected strokes. ||||| Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet continues to fight for his life Sunday after suffering a heart attack, but doctors say his condition has improved. Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, a member of the team treating Pinochet at a Chilean hospital, said an angioplasty performed in the morning to clear a heart artery obstruction "allowed improvement in his condition." Dr. Juan Vergara said Sunday that Augusto Pinochet was breathing without assistance after the angioplasty, but his life was not out of danger. (Santiago Llanquin/Associated Press) Doctors had initially planned bypass surgery Sunday. "No bypass has been performed and we expect no open-heart surgery will be necessary," Vergara said on Sunday afternoon. Vergara said that such surgery was extremely risky for someone of Pinochet's age. The former dictator is 91. "There is a trend toward improvement," he said. "He is conscious, he communicates with us and with his family." But Pinochet remains in serious condition, Vergara said. Headlines in Monday's newspapers in Santiago, Chile, describe the seriousness of Augusto Pinochet's medical condition. (Peter McCluskey/CBC) "The next 24 to 48 hours will be critical to see whether other complications appear." He said an accumulation of fluid in Pinochet's lungs "was a secondary problem that has been solved." Last rites Earlier, a family spokesman said the former military leader received the last rites from a Catholic priest after being taken to the hospital from his suburban Santiago residence. He had been taken to a military hospital in Santiago early Sunday after suffering an "acute heart attack" and a buildup of fluid on his lungs, his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, told reporters. "We are now in the hands of God and of the doctors. My father is in very bad condition," Marco Antonio Pinochet, said earlier. He said that doctors "virtually rescued" his father from death by performing an angioplasty to clear his arteries. Pinochet has used a pacemaker for several years and was diagnosed with mild dementia caused by several strokes. He also suffers from diabetes and arthritis. In the past, he has been deemed too ill to stand trial on charges of murder and kidnapping. Last week, he was indicted and ordered to remain under house arrest for the execution of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende, the freely elected socialist president who was toppled in a 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. Around 3,000 people were reported missing or killed and some 28,000 were tortured during Pinochet's rule in Chile, which lasted until 1990, when Pinochet transferred power to a democratically elected president. He marked his birthday last week by issuing a statement in which he accepted "political responsibility" for abuses committed by his regime. With files from the Associated Press | A map showing the location of Chile Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, 91, has suffered a heart attack early this morning. His son, Marco Antonio, declared that his father had received his last rites from a Catholic priest and that "he is in the hands of God and the doctors". Pinochet underwent a bypass surgery in the Hospital Militar in Santiago and his condition is reported to be critical but stable. Doctors have reported he is also suffering from pulmonary edema. Pinochet came to power in 1973 when the Chilean armed forces led a coup which deposed the left-wing president Salvador Allende. Allende's rule had seen a growing polarization of Chilean society, economic crisis, and terrorist activity from far-left groups. Pinochet set about exterminating his opposition, mainly socalists and communists, and suspended the constiution. His neoliberal economic policies, carried out by the "Chicago Boys", a group of Chilean economists influenced by Milton Friedman, were able to reduce the rampant hyperinflation and stabilize the economy. In 1981, a plebiscite approved a new constitution drafted by Pinochet's government. As the new constitution decreed, another plebiscite took place in 1988 to determine whether Pinochet should remain in power. The "No" option won and Pinochet stepped down. He remained as head of the army and senator until 1998, when he relinquished these positions. He was arrested that year in London for human rights violations, but was able to return to Chile. He is currently under investigation by Chilean officials over tax evasion and human rights violatons. He had recently accepted "responsibility" for "everything that was done" during his government, "which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration". |
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A Russian State Commission is in the process of determining the reasons for the anomaly. ILS will release details when data become available. A copy of the official statement released by Khrunichev, which manufactures the Proton, will also be made available upon translation. In parallel with the State Commission, ILS will form its own Failure Review Oversight Board. The FROB will review the commission's final report and corrective action plan, in accord with U.S. and Russian government export control regulations. ILS remains committed to providing reliable, timely launch services for all its customers. To this end, ILS will work diligently with its partner Khrunichev to return Proton to flight as soon as possible. ### Contact: Fran Slimmer, International Launch Services, McLean, Va.; +1-571-633-7462; mobile: +1-646-229-4801; f.slimmer@ilslaunch.com ||||| MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - A proton-M rocket with a Japanese communications satellite on board that crashed shortly after launch early Thursday was insured for $300 million, an insurance company spokesman said. "We are the insurers for this launch with regard to any liabilities before third parties," Vyacheslav Shabalin of the Russian Insurance Center said. "Our representative is on the investigating commission, and once the circumstances of the crash have been determined, we will be prepared to make all the necessary payments." He said the company has many years of experience insuring space missions and of compensating the costs of failed launches, including the loss of a Dnepr rocket in 2006, which he said was "paid for in full." The Proton-M, which was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 2:43 a.m. Moscow time (10:43 p.m. GMT Wednesday), experienced an engine malfunction and second-stage separation failure 139 seconds into its flight, and came down in the central Kazakh steppe, 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, the spokesman said. Possible environmental contamination from the booster's highly toxic fuel is a particular concern, and a team has been sent to the crash site to determine the extent of any pollution. ||||| BADR-4 Blog Requires Acrobat Reader. Need it? Requires Acrobat Reader. Need it? Get it (click here) Current Campaign Blog: BADR-4 Main Team & SC Arrivals The Main Campaign Team arrived safely at Baikonur early yesterday afternoon. This group of 30 consists primarily of Astrium personnel, a consultant to ARABSAT from Telesat, and a few other support personnel. The photo shows the arriving Main Team as they clear Kazakh customs with the charter aircraft in the background. Now we have a complete crew and we can get on with the important business at hand. Today saw our most important arrival, the BADR-4 (aka ARABSAT-4B) spacecraft. After several days of fantastic, beach-like weather here, we woke up this morning to a glimpse of things to come. We were hit with high winds and cold temperatures as we boarded the 8 a.m. bus to the airfield. We made it in time to greet the massive Antonov aircraft that transported the spacecraft and other equipment from Toulouse, France, where it was built. With regular trips back to the bus to warm up, the crew managed to offload the precious cargo in a very smooth operation. Despite the tremendous size of the cargo hold, the spacecraft container has a tight fit. In a carefully orchestrated operation, the container is hoisted from the Antonov ramp onto a rail car (using Khrunichev's brand new mobile crane) for the six-hour train ride to the processing facilities. The train carrying BADR-4 arrived safely tonight and the next step will be the unpacking process. Photo: Main Team Arrival. Visit the Photo Gallery for more pictures. Posted 10 October 0 comments Posted By: ILS BADR-4 Team at 20:42, Baikonur Catching Up Today is Sunday, our first day off, which gives us an opportunity to reflect on the Early Team activities so far. First, we are happy to report that all Early Team members heeded the early morning wakeup call in Moscow and our charter flight departed from Moscow on time. After a smooth three hour flight, the team arrived in Baikonur enthusiastic and energized as clearly depicted in the bus photo. Along the route from the airport to the hotel area, we were greeted by wild horses crossing the road, a pack of 50 camels (coincidentally, that's one per arriving passenger), and even a caged "Wolf" (actually our computer/network engineer thusly named). The Early Team activities have progessed well as we prepare the facilities for the arrival of the Main Team and then the spacecraft. Many recent improvements to the infrastructure have been observed here, including roadway repairs, residential building renovations, and ongoing exterior upgrades at the processing facilities. It is obvious that the launch organizations are committed to a bright, successful future for the Cosmodrome and the Proton programs. The general consensus is that we are being treated to the the finest weather that any of us can remember here. Blue, cloudless skies, gentle breezes, and daytime temperatures in the 70's. Perfect weather for an outdoor barbecue which is how we ended our first Sunday, under a gorgeous full moon, after many team members spent the day in Baikonur Town. Although this is not the most lush location on earth, the vegetation in front of the Fili affords a touch of Fall as the leaves slowly turn colors. Today is definitely a bit of a breather before the busy schedule triggered by the arrival of the Main Team tomorrow and the BADR-4 spacecraft on Tuesday. Posted 09 October 0 comments Posted By: ILS BADR-4 Team at 09:01, Baikonur Next Stop... Baikonur! With great anticipation, the BADR-4 "early team" has gathered in Moscow for tomorrow's charter flight to Baikonur. This early team consists of about 50 personnel from ILS; ARABSAT, the end customer; Astrium, the contractual customer and spacecraft manufacturer; Khrunichev; DTSA, the Defense Technology Security Administration; Pinkerton Security; and other support staff whose job it is to prepare the Baikonur facilities for the launch campaign. Another charter flight will arrive on 9 October carrying the "main team". A flurry of activities will take place in these next few days to ready the launch site for the spacecraft arrival on 10 October. We have cleared all the usual logistic hurdles with all essential personnel having Russian visas and security access to Baikonur. Thanks to all the hard work of each organization, we are working no significant issues at this time. BADR-4 is also known as "ARABSAT-4B" and it is nearly identical to the ARABSAT-4A spacecraft. Both are Eurostar 2000+ satellites built by Astrium in Toulouse, France. This mission is somewhat unique in that is has a 4-hour mission duration (from liftoff to spacecraft separation), compared to the typical 9+ hour Proton/Breeze M mission profile. Many launch team members -- both in Baikonur and McLean, Va. -- appreciate the shorter launch day support associated with a 4-hour mission. Now it is time to get some rest because the bus leaves at 7 a.m. sharp tomorrow for the Moscow airport. Fortunately, we are expecting pleasant weather for the start of our launch campaign. Next stop Baikonur!! Posted 04 October 0 comments Posted By: ILS BADR-4 Team at 23:38, Moscow Welcome to the BADR-4 Launch Campaign Thank you for joining us for our second launch campaign blog -- Arabsat's BADR-4. If you followed along with our previous campaign blog, we're glad to have you back with us. If this is your first time joining us, we welcome you and trust that you will enjoy this chance to take an inside look at daily life on a launch campaign. We have added an on-site blog photo album where we will post the latest pictures from Baikonur. Also, be sure to drop us a note using our comments feature. Posted 03 October 2006 0 comments Posted By: ILS Communications Team at 14:23, EDT ||||| Media Advisory: ILS Proton to Launch JCSAT-11 Payload: JCSAT-11, A2100 AX platform Separated Mass: Approx. 4,000 kg (8,818 lbs) Launch Vehicle: Proton M/Breeze M Weight at Liftoff: 691,272 kg (1.5 million lbs), including payload Height: 57.2 m (186.6 ft) Launch Time: 04:43 Sept. 6 Baikonur; 07:43 Sept. 6 Tokyo; 22:43 Sept. 5 GMT; 18:43 Sept. 5 EDT Launch Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Launch Pad 39 End User: JSAT Corporation, Tokyo, Japan Satellite Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, Newtown, Penn. Launch Vehicle Manufacturer: Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, Moscow Launch Services Provider: International Launch Services, McLean, Va. Satellite Use: Multipurpose communications satellite to serve as a backup satellite for the JSAT fleet. It will provide coverage over Japan, the Asia-Pacific region, Oceania and Hawaii. Satellite Statistics: 30 active Ku-band transponders 12 active C-band transponders In-orbit backup satellite Anticipated service life of 15 years Mission Profile: The Proton launch vehicle will inject the satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, using a four-burn Breeze M mission design. The first three stages of the Proton will use a standard ascent trajectory to place the Breeze M fourth stage, with the satellite, into a suborbital trajectory, from which the Breeze M will place itself and the spacecraft into a circular reference, or parking, orbit of 192 km (119.3 miles), inclined at 51.5 degrees. Then the satellite will be propelled to its transfer orbit by additional burns of the Breeze M. Following separation from the Breeze M, the spacecraft will perform a series of liquid apogee engine burns to raise perigee, lower inclination and circularize the orbit at the geostationary altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 miles). Target Orbit at Separation: Apogee: 35,786 km (22,236 miles); Perigee: 5,032 km (3,139 miles); Inclination: 21.4 degrees Spacecraft Separation: Approximately 6 hours, 56 minutes after liftoff ILS Mission Statistics: 1st Proton launch for Japanese customer 3rd ILS mission for 2007 42nd ILS mission on Proton 9th Proton launch of A2100 bus 327th Proton launch Live Broadcast in North America: Galaxy 26, transponder 9, 93 degrees West, C-band, analog NTSC, downlink 3880 MHz (vertical). Test signals start at 6 p.m. EDT. Live Feed for Europe and Asia: New Skies NSS-7, transponder NAV6/EUH6, 338 degrees West, Ku-band, digital PAL downlink 11534.65 MHz (horizontal), symbol rate 2.46, fec: 3/4. Test signals start at 2200 GMT. More Information: Live webcast and general mission information are available on the ILS web site at www.ilslaunch.com. Launch status updates are available on the ILS U.S. domestic Launch Hotline at 1-800-852-4980. ### Contact: Fran Slimmer, ILS, McLean, Va.;1-571-633-7462, mobile: +1-646-229-4801; f.slimmer@ilslaunch.com ||||| Proton Baikonur Events BADR-4 Blog Requires Acrobat Reader. Need it? Requires Acrobat Reader. Need it? Get it (click here) 300th Mission Flown by Proton Vehicle ILS Proton Successfully Launches AMC-9 Satellite BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan, June 7, 2003 -- A Proton rocket successfully placed the AMC-9 satellite into orbit this morning for Alcatel Space and SES AMERICOM. The launch was conducted by the U.S.-Russian joint venture International Launch Services (ILS). This marks the 300th flight of a Proton vehicle, including 38 years of Russian federal missions and seven years with commercial flights under the auspices of ILS. Today's mission was the first Proton rocket launch of the year for ILS. The vehicle used today was Proton vehicle with a Breeze M upper stage, which lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:15 a.m. local time (22:15 June 6 GMT, 6:15 p.m. June 6 EDT). After 8 hours and 55 minutes, the AMC-9 satellite was separated from the Breeze M and placed into geostationary transfer orbit. Satellite builder Alcatel Space of Cannes, France, contracted for the launch as a delivery-in-orbit mission. "Once again, Proton demonstrated that it is one of the most reliable vehicles in the world," ILS President Mark Albrecht said. "It's a pleasure to provide both Alcatel Space and SES AMERICOM with another excellent launch." "I am delighted about the launch of AMC-9, a satellite that is important to our plans for growth of the AMC fleet," said Dean Olmstead, president and CEO of SES AMERICOM. "I extend warm congratulations to the entire team on the occasion of this picture-perfect launch and achieving the great 300th Proton mission milestone." This also was ILS' 14th launch of a satellite for a member of the SES GLOBAL family of companies - SES AMERICOM and its predecessor GE AMERICOM, SES ASTRA and AsiaSat. In addition, ILS is scheduled to launch three more AMC satellites on either Proton or Atlas rockets in the 2003-04 time frame, and has recently acquired a fourth, not yet identified AMC mission. This also is the eighth Alcatel Space-built satellite launched by ILS. AMC-9 is a Spacebus 3000B3 model with 48 transponders. It will enable SES AMERICOM, an SES GLOBAL company, to expand its digital television broadcasting, data transmission and telecommunication service offerings to North America. ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) in the United States, which builds the Atlas rocket; and Russian companies Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and RSC Energia. Khrunichev produces the Proton vehicles and the Breeze M upper stage. ILS was formed in 1995 to provide launch services to customers worldwide, including technical, management and marketing expertise. It offers the broadest range of launch services in the world along with the highest reliability in the industry. ### Contact: Fran Slimmer, International Launch Services, McLean, Va.; mobile:1-646-229-4801; fran.slimmer@lmco.com . | A Proton rocket A Proton rocket which was intended to launch the JCSAT-11 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit lifted off and successfully completed its first stage burn, but the second stage failed leading to loss of the rocket and satellite. The launch vehicle was a Proton M booster with a Breeze M upper stage. More than 300 Proton rockets have been launched, all from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Following the launch failure, Kazakhstan suspended the launch of Proton rockets from Baikonur, Interfax news agency reported. JSAT Corporation immediately placed an order with Lockheed Martin, the satellite manufacturer, for an identical replacement satellite based on the A2100AX design. |
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