Wednesday, August 29, 2007

An English lawyer has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. He faked a legal judgment and sent it to a father who was pleading in Taunton family court to be able to remain involved in his child’s upbringing. The lawyer, London barrister Bruce Hyman, now awaits his sentence. The judge indicated that he could receive a prison sentence. Bruce Hyman is well-known in media circles, having produced The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on BBC Radio. He also produced a series with Clive Anderson, at Above the Title Productions, called Unreliable Evidence.

The father, a former City financier, had attended a series of court hearings in order to make suitable arrangements to see his child following an acrimonious divorce. Shortly before one of these hearings he received an email, ostensibly from a self-help group to which he belonged, which had attached a Court of Appeal case that appeared favourable to an application he had made for the judge to stand down from the case. The father, who was representing himself, duly showed the case to the judge. At this point, Bruce Hyman, the lawyer representing the former wife, claimed to the judge that the case was a forgery, which indeed it turned out to be.

After confirming that the self-help group had not sent him the email, the father then embarked on some detective work his own. The fraudulent email was traced via its header to a dial-up internet connection and a phone number belonging to a shop in London. The shop was able to recover CCTV footage which showed a man sending the email from an Apple laptop. The man turned out to be Bruce Hyman.

Sentencing of Hyman is due in Bristol Crown Court on the 19th of September.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005File:Bush Embassy photo.jpg

On May 10 while visiting Georgia’s capital Tbilisi a live hand grenade landed within 100 feet of United States President George W. Bush.

The grenade was wrapped in a dark plaid cloth handkerchief. According to Brian Paarmann, the FBI’s legal attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, it was “tossed in the general direction of the main stage” about 1:30 p.m., right after Bush began speaking, and landed less than 100 feet from the podium. The grenade reportedly bounced off a child’s cap and then was removed by a Georgian security officer.

The White House initially stated that the president was in no real danger, however the event has lead to a review of security measures at presidential events.

An FBI official at the U.S. embassy in Georgia confirms that an explosive device was thrown, but due to a malfunction it failed to detonate. “This hand grenade appears to be a live device that simply failed to function due to a light strike on the blasting cap induced by a slow deployment of the spoon activation device,” the FBI stated.

The FBI is still investigating the incident. According to their report the device failed to explode because of a malfunction. “The activation device deployed too slowly to hit the blasting cap hard enough,” agent Bryan Paarmann said. A 20,000 laris (US$10,978) reward is offered for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible.

The grenade was a knock-off of a Soviet-designed RGD-5, which has a lethal range of about 100 feet. “We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of both the president of the United States and the president of Georgia as well as the multitude of Georgian people that had turned out at this event,” Paarmann said. It had initially been believed to be a non-explosive model used for military training.

Monday, June 23, 2008

2008 COMPUTEX Taipei, the largest trade fair since its inception in 1982, featured several seminars and forums, expansions on show spaces to TWTC Nangang, great transformations for theme pavilions, and WiMAX Taipei Expo, mainly promoted by Taipei Computer Association (TCA). Besides of ICT industry, “design” progressively became the critical factor for the future of the other industries. To promote innovative “Made In Taiwan” products, pavilions from “Best Choice of COMPUTEX”, “Taiwan Excellence Awards”, and newly-set “Design and Innovation (d & i) Award of COMPUTEX”, demonstrated the power of Taiwan’s designs in 2008 COMPUTEX Taipei.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

On Monday Nigerian authorities raised the official death toll from January 17’s airstrike upon a refugee camp to 236, though the BBC on Tuesday reported an official told them this was an error and the actual figure was 115. The military said at the time a jet mistook refugees for rebels.

The new toll updates previous estimates, which at the time of the incident were of at least 50 dead. The BBC on Tuesday reported an official told them the figure of 236 was erroneously reached by combining the numbers of dead and wounded. The camp in Rann, Borno State is home to thousands and lies near the northeastern border with Cameroon.

Home to those displaced by Boko Haram insurgents, the camp is in an area suffering famine. Farmers are unable to work owing to bombs on their land. The Red Cross was there to distribute food when the attack happened. Twenty Nigerian Red Cross workers were injured or killed. Médecins Sans Frontières are treating the majority of the wounded in makeshift tents in Rann, which lacks hospital facilities. A small number have been evacuated to Maiduguri.

Military officials said at the time the Air Force had been dispatched to Rann after reports of “remnants” of Boko Haram in the area. The military claims it is in a “final push” against the rebel group. A promised investigation has materialised in the form of a panel of Air Force officials, with orders to complete the probe by the end of next week.

Human Rights Watch have called for compensation for victims. They say the military is not absolved of liability and suggest the camp’s tents were obvious. Eyewitnesses say the aircraft circled twice, dropping multiple bombs, which appears corroborated by satellite imagery. President Muhammadu Buhari called it a “regrettable operational mistake” and has since departed for a holiday in London.

Journalists are barred from the military-controlled camp. Officials claim all the dead in Rann have been buried, and two more died in hospital in Maiduguri. Most of those killed were women and children. Soldiers were also amongst those killed. Eyewitnesses claim two days after the disaster in excess of 100 Boko Haram militants attacked the camp, fighting with soldiers for hours.

MSF field co-ordinator Alfred Davies said, “There are no words to describe the chaos[…] I saw the bodies of children that had been cut in two.” MSF have called for “a transparent account” with the organisation’s general director complaining refugees “were bombed by those who were meant to safeguard them”. Some humanitarian groups have suggested the incident constitutes a war crime even as an accident, and Human Rights Watch is urging an independent probe. They say 35 structures were destroyed at two separate locations within the camp.

“We saw dozens of patients with multiple traumatic injuries, including open fractures and wounds to the abdomen and chest,” said MSF doctor Mohammed Musoke. He described wounded children, including a crying baby with shrapnel in its neck and “a 10-year-old boy with a large, deep flesh wound to his thigh. The flesh was hanging loose on one side and you could see through to the bone.”

Survivor Baba, 37, a refugee, said military aircraft were not an uncommon sight but the attacking jet behaved abnormally. “The plane flew back and forth, and we knew something was wrong before the bombing happened.” His remarks were released by MSF.

Prior to the attacks camp residents had been starving, some dying from malnutrition. War and substandard infrastructure left Rann isolated, and the attack came as the Red Cross were about to distribute food they had just arrived with. The Red Cross say they have five weeks’ worth of food.

The International NGO Safety Organisation claims 2016 saw in excess of 90 aid workers killed worldwide, with 154 injured.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Following the Pilkhana massacre which occurred February 25 and 26 leaving 74 dead and the inferno at the Bashundhara City shopping mall complex March 13 leaving seven dead, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said security measures are being tightened countrywide across Bangladesh.

Fire drills will be enacted at all key-point installations (KPI). Fire fighting systems will be examined by the fire brigade and the public works department (PWD) to ensure functionality. Security measures will be enhanced supplementing areas under private security such as at the Bashundhara City Complex.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence Department requires modernization and needs new equipment to fight fires past the sixth floor of buildings. The Fire Brigade says it needs turntable ladders, snorkels, foam-tenders, lighting units, emergency tenders, fireproof uniforms, and rescue ropes for fire fighting and rescue operations. Transportation to fires is also an issue due to narrow roads, low electrical wires and congestion.

The Bangladesh National Building Code requires fire fighting equipment installed in buildings over seven floors. This code is to be monitored by authorities to ensure compliance with the new guidelines and to make sure buildings are being maintained.

The Bashundhara City Complex opened Monday for shoppers two days after Friday’s blaze. A probe is underway to determine the cause of the fire and to assess structural damage.

Loss of life was minimized as the blaze broke out on a Friday, the beginning of the weekend in Bangladesh, so offices in the upper floors were empty. The lower eight floors are used for shopping and the upper floors are all Bashundhara Group offices.

The mall is valued at Tk 7.0 billion (US$100 million). It is not known if the complex is covered by fire insurance.

It is estimated that it will take over two years to rebuild the area damaged by flames which were burned down to a skeleton. Bashundhara City’s technical advisor, Latifur Rahman, estimated damages at Tk 2.0 billion (US$29m).

Only one television cameraman has been allowed in to film the burnt area. None of the 2,500 shops, cinemas or cafes were burnt by the inferno. The seventh and eighth floors still experience smoke damage, and there was water damage to merchandise.

A three member committee is currently investigating the cause of the fire which will consist of Iqbal Khan Chowdhury, joint secretary of the ministry, representatives of the police, IGP Noor Muhammad, and fire brigade, Director General Abu Nayeem Md Shahidullah. The committee is required to report within the week with their findings. The forensics department is also sifting through the burnt remains.

The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries has also formed a committee which has begun interviewing witnesses and recording their testimony alongside the government committee.

It has been discovered that 150 closed circuit cameras were not being used when the fire started. Another mystery is why the mall fire fighting system has been found unused.

“In the shopping mall there is an ultra-technology elevator which runs even without electricity but we have found that locked,” Iqbal Khan Chowdhury, joint secretary (Police) of the home ministry, said. “Why the fire burnt so fiercely is a matter to think. We have to see if there was any incendiary substance there. These matters seem to be mysterious.”

Mall management has been asked to submit substances and items which would have been in the upper floors when the fire started. The fire erupted on the 17th floor and spread quickly to the two floors above and engulfed the three floors below. The aerial ladders belonging to the Fire Service and Civil Defence reached as high as the 13th floor of the 21-storey building.

Videos have been sent to the United States (US) for examination to assist in determining the cause of the fire and to help in the damage assessment. Experts from the US are expected to arrive soon.

Firefighters were brought to the rooftop of the 20-storey tower by helicopter. The only fatality in this operation was Baki Billa, a firefighter of Bashundhara City firefighting department, who fell when climbing down a rope from a helicopter to the roof of the building. Three other firefighters made the transition safely. At this same time, the chief security officer was safely rescued by the Bangladesh Air Force helicopter, a Bell 212. Six security officers of the complex also lost their lives.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Marussia F1 team’s test driver, Spaniard María de Villota, was taken to hospital by air ambulance today after a collision in testing at Duxford Aerodrome.

At the end of her first installation run, the car she was driving had a low-speed collision with the loading ramp of the team’s support truck. According to BBC Cambridgeshire presenter Chris Mann, the car “suddenly accelerated” into the rear of the vehicle. The Marussia team released a statement an hour and a half after the accident, stating that she had been transferred to hospital, and a further statement would be issued once her condition had been assessed.

A spokesman for the East of England ambulance service, Gary Sanderson, said de Villota had “[…] sustained life-threatening injuries and following treatment at the scene by paramedics, she has been taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital for further care.” According to witnesses, she was motionless for about fifteen minutes as medical teams attended to her, but did move her hands before being taken away from the test track. Medical charity Magpas, whose volunteer paramedics attended the accident, reported she had sustained injuries to her head and face, and was in a ‘stable condition’ when she reached the hospital.

Marussia reported her as conscious later in the afternoon: “Since Maria’s arrival at the hospital at approximately 10.45am this morning, she has been receiving the best medical attention possible at the hospital, which is the region’s major trauma centre. Maria is conscious and medical assessments are ongoing. The team will await the outcome of these assessments before providing further comment. The team’s first priority at this time is Maria and her family.”

De Villota was announced as Marussia’s test driver in March, having prior experience driving for Alan Docking Racing in Superleague Formula in Spain.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald has performed an interview with Dr Isabella Margara, a London-based member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the interview Margara sets out the communist response to current events in Greece as well as discussing the viability of a communist economy for the nation. She also hit back at Petros Tzomakas, a member of another Greek far-left party which criticised KKE in a previous interview.

The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund – should Greece require a bailout; protests have been held against government attempts to manage the economic situation.