Montpellier man enjoys second jackpot in 15 years after continuing to play game using same numbers Most people would assume that, after a multimillion-euro lottery win, you have already had your luck and there would not be much point in buying another ticket. But a man in southern France has won the jackpot for the second time in 15 years by playing the same numbers. The man, an industrial worker from Montpellier who is in his 50s and wants to remain anonymous, first won the lottery in 1996, taking home the equivalent in francs of €2.8m (£2.47m). He kept playing the same winning numbers, spending €1,000 a month on various games. Last month, he won a second jackpot of more than €3m. He said he had a “lucky star”. When he was awarded his first cheque by lottery bosses in 1996, they jokingly asked him to keep supporting the game by continuing playing. He has been playing the same numbers since the French lottery started in 1976. “The first time I won, I nearly fainted, I went white and had trouble breathing before I really believed it,” the man told the BFMTV news channel. “This time, I took it all a lot more calmly, but with the same joy and the same gratitude towards fate.” He said he had invested his first winnings in business and planned to invest the second win for his two children’s inheritance. The lottery body, La Francaise des Jeux, said there was “one in more than a billion chance” of winning twice. There have been a handful of repeat lottery wins in France in the past 30 years, including one man who twice won €2.8m in three years. France Europe Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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Cables highlight regulation weaknesses that permitted cheap, out-of-date technology, ‘vastly increasing’ risk of nuclear accident China has “vastly increased” the risk of a nuclear accident by opting for cheap technology that will be 100 years old by the time dozens of its reactors reach the end of their lifespans, according to diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Beijing. The warning comes just weeks after the government in Beijing resumed its ambitious nuclear expansion programme, that was temporarily halted for safety inspections in the wake of the meltdown of three reactors in Fukushima, Japan. Cables released this week by WikiLeaks highlight the secrecy of the bidding process for power plant contracts, the influence of government lobbying, and potential weaknesses in the management and regulatory oversight of China’s fast-expanding nuclear sector. In August, 2008, the embassy noted that China was in the process of building 50 to 60 new nuclear plants by 2020. This target – which has since increased – was a huge business opportunity. To keep up with the French and Russians, the cable urged continuous high-level advocacy on behalf of the US company Westinghouse to push its AP-1000 reactor . This is crucial, according to the cable dated 29 August 2008 from the American Embassy in Beijing , because “all reactor purchases to date have been largely the result of internal high level political decisions absent any open process.” For the US embassy, a bigger concern was that China seemed more interested in building its own reactors – the CPR-1000 – based on old Westinghouse technology, at Daya Bay and Ling Ao. “As the CPR-1000 increases market share, China is assuring that rather than building a fleet of state-of-the-art reactors, they will be burdened with technology that by the end of its lifetime will be 100 years old,” reads another cable dated 7 August 2008 . For the past 10 years the CPR-1000 has been the most popular design in China. In 2009, the state news agency Xinhua reported that all but two of the 22 nuclear reactors under construction applied CPR-1000 technology. The cable suggests this was a dangerous choice: “By bypassing the passive safety technology of the AP1000, which, according to Westinghouse, is 100 times safer than the CPR-1000, China is vastly increasing the aggregate risk of its nuclear power fleet. ” “Passive safety technology” ensures that a reactor will automatically shut down in the event of a disaster. This is what happened when the earthquake struck Fukushima, though the fuel still overheated when the cooling system broke down. Plants without this feature are considered even less safe as they rely on human intervention which can be difficult to provide in a crisis situation. China says it has updated and improved the technology on which the CPR-1000 is based, but the government recognises that it is less safe than newer models. China’s national nuclear safety administration and national energy administration are currently drafting new safety plans, which are thought likely to include a stipulation that all future plants have to meet the higher standards of third-generation reactors like the AP-1000 or thorium technology. But it will still have to manage dozens of second-generation reactors for decades to come. Four CPR-1000s were approved by the state council just days before the Fukushima explosions. That accident – which was ranked on the same level as Chernobyl – has prompted a dramatic rethink of nuclear policy in Japan, Germany and Italy . There is no sign of a change of heart in China, which plans to build more reactors than the rest of the world put together between now and 2020. The latest to be completed was the CPR-1000 at Ling Ao earlier this month. The US embassy and Westinghouse may have wanted to play up the risks to improve the strength of their own bids, but safety concerns are also expressed within China. This year, Prof He Zuoxiu, who helped to develop China’s first atomic bomb, claimed plans to ramp up production of nuclear energy twentyfold by 2030 could be as disastrous as the “Great Leap Forward” – Mao Zedong’s disastrous attempt to jump-start industrial development in the late 1950s. Writing in the Science Times, He asked: “Are we really ready for this kind of giddy speed [of nuclear power development]? I think not – we’re seriously underprepared, especially on the safety front.” The rush to build new plants may also create problems for effective management, operation and regulatory oversight. Westinghouse representative Gavin Liu was quoted in a cable as saying: “The biggest potential bottleneck is human resources – coming up with enough trained personnel to build and operate all of these new plants, as well as regulate the industry.” Such worries increased in July when another of China’s new industrial projects – a high-speed railway – led to a collision that killed 39 people. It too was built domestically, based on foreign designs and rolled out faster than its operators appear to have been capable of dealing with. Nuclear power Energy WikiLeaks China Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
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Defence company Raytheon reveals £500m ligitation suit after termination of its IT system contract by UK Border Agency The government is facing a £500m litigation suit from an American firm that was stripped of its contract to develop the country’s e-border system after ministers said it had failed to deliver. Defence company Raytheon was given a £742m contract to design and implement the IT system that would allow the UK Border Agency to count every person who arrives and leaves the country. The coalition terminated the deal last year, claiming the firm had missed deadlines and delivered substandard results. But in a letter to the home affairs committee, which has been investigating the problems with the deal, the chief executive of Raytheon UK, Robert Delorge, revealed it was claiming £500m in the courts, arguing that the delays were due to mismanagement by the Border Agency. The letter said: “The circumstances surrounding the home secretary’s decision to terminate Raytheon’s contract and engage a replacement service provider in its place are the heart of the arbitration. “Without going into the details, it is Raytheon’s position that the decision was unjustified and unlawful, not least because the delays and other problems on the e-borders programme were attributable to breaches of contract and serious mismanagement of the programme by the UKBA, and not to any fault on Raytheon’s part.” The e-border system was supposed to electronically record every person moving in and out of the country. The home affairs committee had previously concluded that they had “no confidence” in Raytheon to complete the project and the company was dismissed in July 2010. IBM was brought in during November to run the basic database, and Serco in April 2011 to provide the interface between carriers and the agency. Keith Vaz MP, the committee’s Labour chairman, said: “I am deeply disappointed that such a high-profile project such as this has ended with such costly litigation, with the possibility that the taxpayer will have to pay millions of pounds even though the programme has not been completed. “We need to know if and why this company was not given the clear targets and objectives it sought. The committee will continue to pursue this matter until we receive satisfactory answers. Why should the taxpayer foot the bill?” A separate letter also released by the committee today from Home Office minister Damian Green, responding to questions about the contract, said that only one of the four main parts of the contract had been concluded, with that one having “important capabilities missing”. A UK Border Agency spokesman said: “Last year we terminated Raytheon’s contract because it was unable to deliver on key elements of the e-borders programme. The contract has now been transferred to alternative suppliers. “E-borders continues to reduce the risk of terrorism, crime and immigration abuse.” No one from Raytheon was available to comment. Immigration and asylum Terrorism policy IBM Damian Green Keith Vaz Defence policy Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Keith Olbermann talked to the AP’s Matt Arpuzzo who helped to break this story today — With CIA help, NYPD moves covertly in Muslim areas . TPM did a nice summary of the article here — CIA Helped NYPD ‘Mosque Crawlers’ Investigate Muslim Communities : The New York Police Department, with help from the CIA, is running antiterrorism operations outside of their jurisdiction that target ethnic communities in a way the federal government can’t, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo report for the Associated Press. Undercover officers known as “rakers” and undercover informants known as “mosque crawlers” are sent into minority neighborhoods, the AP reports. The NYPD denied that it targeted ethnic neighborhoods, saying that it only followed leads. The program, the AP reported, was started by David Cohen, a retired 35-year veteran of the CIA who started at the NYPD in Jan. 2002. He, like police commissioner Ray Kelly, thought that the NYPD couldn’t just rely on the federal government to protect the city from a future terrorist attack. CIA Director George Tenet tapped Larry Sanchez to help out Cohen. Sanchez, still on the CIA payroll, schooled officers in the art of intelligence gathering, said the AP. Cohen started a secret squad that would infiltrate Muslim communities, several current and former officials involved in the program told the AP. One of the biggest issues for the CIA is that their intelligence officials are overwhelmingly white. But the NYPD didn’t have that problem thanks to their diverse pool of officers, and were able to find the right fit for their undercover officers: Read on…
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Police investigate mentally ill daughters’ claims that 80-year-old father sexually abused them during decades of captivity Austrian police are investigating claims that a man locked up his two mentally ill daughters in a small room in their home and sexually abused them for 41 years. Officers said the 80-year-old repeatedly raped the women between 1970 and May 2011 in St Peter am Hart, near the Bavarian border. The alleged victims are now aged 53 and 45. A police official did not name either the suspect or the alleged victims. Police confirmed they were investigating after a report in the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten newspaper. The newspaper said the women escaped when the father was unable to get off the floor after the older daughter pushed him over when he last tried to rape her. The police official said the 80-year-old suspect was free, pending an investigation and possible charges, because there was no danger of him fleeing. The state broadcaster, ORF, said the claims were only recently revealed because the two alleged victims did not tell anyone about them for weeks after their escape. It said the suspect was now in a care home. The allegations evoke the case of Josef Fritzl, an Austrian who imprisoned his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24
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French and other foreign languages continue to decline in popularity Nearly one in four GCSE entries has been awarded an A or an A* grade in results published on Thursday, which show a further decline in the number of pupils taking French and other foreign languages. Entries for French have fallen since languages were made optional at GCSE seven years ago. This year, they were down to just over 154,000 from around 170,000 last year, and compared with more than 300,000 in 2004. French fell out of the top 10 most popular subjects last year, with more pupils choosing to study geography or art for GCSE. Religious studies has grown in popularity for the 13th year running, with nearly 222,000 entries, up from 188,704 last year. About 650,000 children receive their GCSE results today in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a smaller group than in 2010. The number of 16-year-olds in the population has been declining since 2004. The overall pass rate at grades A* to C has increased to 69.8%, while the percentage getting an A or A* has risen from 22.6% last year to 23.2% this summer. The decline in French has been accompanied by falls in popularity for other languages, in a pattern that appears likely to cement Britain’s reputation as a monolingual country. Entries for German are down to below 70,000 while Spanish has dipped to around 66,000. Geography has also waned in popularity. This year’s A-level results showed year-on-year rises in entries for maths, biology, chemistry and physics. And this year’s GCSE results also show an increase in entries for physics, chemistry and biology. Physics is up 16.4%, chemistry 16.2% and biology 14.2%. The number of pupils taking single sciences at GCSE surged in the previous year. Entries for chemistry and physics GCSEs rose by 32%, while those for biology were up 28%. Biology was the most popular of the three in last summer’s results, with 129,000 taking the subject. This year there were nearly 148,000 entries for biology. In last summer’s results, Spanish appeared poised to overtake German at GCSE, with the numbers taking it rising to more than 67,000, while German entries fell to around 70,000 in 2010. The numbers taking Mandarin, Portuguese and Polish also rose last year, with the last of these thought to be fuelled by an increase in the number of pupils who are children of recent Polish migrants. Last year’s results showed that private school pupils were disproportionately likely to do languages and single sciences. The independent sector accounted for just 7.7% of all GCSE entries, but 15.4% of chemistry, 15.1% of biology and 14.8% of physics entries. Last year’s GCSE results showed that thousands more teenagers were sitting the exams at least one year early. Last summer, 11% of maths GCSE entries were taken early and 9.5% of English GCSE entries. In 2010, boys beat girls at GCSE maths for the second year in a row, following a decision to drop coursework in the subject. The proportion of boys getting grades A* to C in maths has risen again this year from 57.6% to 58.6%. The proportion of girls passing has also risen, from 56.8% to 58.3%. Boys have also done better than girls in biology, where the male pass rate is 93% compared with 92.7% for girls, and in physics, where 93.9% of boys have passed compared with 93.4% of girls. In last year’s results, economics saw a higher pass rate for boys, though only around 3,000 candidates of either sex entered. Ministers have announced plans to overhaul GCSEs in the future. From September 2012, pupils will sit all their exams at the end of the two-year courses, rather than throughout the course. Pupils will also be marked on their spelling, punctuation and grammar in subjects that have a high “written English” element, such as history, geography, religious studies and English literature. Further reforms to GCSEs are expected to be announced after the review of the national curriculum is published. GCSEs Schools Secondary schools Languages Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy Yesterday I read in The Hill , about how Elizabeth Warren will have a hard time raising enough money because she won’t have Wall Street behind her. I was furious! First, let me just get past the premiss: The idea that someone in today’s political climate can’t get elected without the help of Wall Street is disgusting. The fact that we need such a huge amount of money to get someone elected continues to astound me. A few months ago I had a friend reviewing my resume. I started out my life in politics as a finance director on campaigns – raising money for candidates. My first race – a Congressional – we raised $1.1million. My friend looked at the line on my resume and replied “awww how cute is it that $1.1 million in 2004 was how much campaigns used to cost?” There is something very wrong with our country. Scott Brown has a whopping $10 million in the bank – and the leading contributors – you guessed it – come right out of the banking, financial, hedge fund, mortgage industry. And Elizabeth Warren has the gall and gumption to think that she can stand up for people like me and defend my rights as a consumer – and still get elected to the U.S. Senate. I have to wait to get paid in a few weeks but I’m pulling out my credit card right now. The question persists is money the only power in politics. I wish it weren’t – I wish it didn’t matter, but we all know too well the sheer number of people you need to match a million bucks. We saw it in Wisconsin where the Koch brothers as well as every right wing organization in the country was spending millions just to hold on to a few state Senate seats. But they didn’t hold them all – they lost two and they almost lost three. And we were so outmatched financially it was ridiculous. We did that. Our blogs, our door knocking, our phone banking from across state lines – we did that. And we can do it again. Last night on MSNBC’s The Last Word the special commentary dealt with these very issues – and posed the question – is there any room left for people power in politics? I don’t want to sugar coat anything – I think only time will tell, but it has been what I personally have based my entire professional political career on. We have the power – we have the voices – we have so much that we can do, not just for Warren but for all of our candidates who stand for the basic fundamentals of our democracy. We have the power – we just have to use it.
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Dick Cheney has begun a media tour to promote his memoir, “In My Time,” with excerpts of his NBC “Dateline” interview showing up on Wednesday’s “Nightly News” and Thursday’s “Today.” If history is a guide, Cheney will face a liberal media that has been stunningly hostile and derisive in their coverage of the former Vice President. Prior to his selection as George W. Bush’s running mate in the summer of 2000, the liberal networks generally treated Cheney — who served as White House chief of staff, Congressman and Secretary of Defense — as a respected Republican leader. But the media turned on Cheney as soon as he joined the Republican ticket, portraying him as an extremist who was “anti-equal rights” and “against education” — even distorting his vote on a non-binding resolution as a vote “against releasing Nelson Mandela from prison,” as if the U.S. House had such power. [video and audio excerpts follow the page break] After September 11, 2001, the networks channeled liberal displeasure with Cheney’s strenuous anti-terror agenda, and the far Left unleashed venomous assaults on Cheney — casting the Vice President as a “terrorist,” “a goon,” and a war criminal. After a suicide bomber attacked the base in Afghanistan where Cheney was visiting — leaving the Vice President unharmed — HBO’s Bill Maher argued: “I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact.” The Media Research Center has compiled the most noteworthy examples of the media’s venomous coverage at MRC.org accompanied by audio and video excerpts where noted. Here are a select few of those: “When you talk about votes like that, that he [Dick Cheney] made while in Congress — anti-affirmative action, anti-abortion, anti-gun control, anti-equal rights — how does George Bush portray him as a compassionate conservative?” — Today co-host Matt Lauer to Tim Russert, July 26, 2000. “I read you once took a psychological profile test, and it said the position you’re most suited for is undertaker.” — ABC’s Claire Shipman to Vice President Cheney in an interview shown August 31, 2004 on Good Morning America . [ MP3 audio ] “There are those who believe that Dick Cheney has led this administration and this President down a path of recklessness, that maybe his approach, his dark approach to this constant battle against another civilization, is actually the wrong approach for ultimately keeping America safe.” — NBC White House reporter David Gregory during live convention coverage on MSNBC about 8:30pm EDT on September 1, 2004 about two hours before Cheney spoke. [ MP3 audio ] For the complete Media Reality Check post, click here .
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One of the country’s best-known celebrities announces his retirement after admitting ties to Japan’s equivalent of the mafia It is almost impossible for evening TV viewers in Japan to avoid the gravelly voiced and impressively coiffured figure of Shinsuke Shimada. Now, though, millions of viewers will have to find a new primetime companion after Shimada, one of the country’s best-known celebrities, was forced to resign over links to organised crime. The 55-year-old sobbed, but showed little remorse as he announced his retirement at a late-night press conference, called just two days before a popular weekly magazine was due to run an exposé of his alleged links with the yakuza, Japan’s answer to the mafia. Shimada conceded he had exchanged text messages with the leader of an Osaka-based gang affiliated to the Yamaguchi-gumi , Japan’s biggest underworld organisation. “We have met in person just four or five times as we were aware that entertainers and crime syndicate members should not mix,” he said. He said the gangster had helped solve an unspecified “personal problem” more than a decade ago, but denied he had paid him for his troubles. “I felt indebted to him. I didn’t feel like I was doing anything wrong. To me the relationship was safe, but I learned the day before yesterday that it wasn’t.” His management agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo, insisted the disgraced star had not been involved in any illegal activity. But it added: “Regardless of the reason, it is not permissible for a performer who exerts such a strong social influence on mainstream TV to have these ties.” Shimada began his career as a standup comic in Osaka in the late 1970s before going on to present variety shows, as well as political discussion programmes, for commercial networks. He has been a fixture on Japanese television for 25 years; just before his resignation he fronted several weekly shows that gave him almost 50 hours of airtime a month. Fortunately for his detractors, who bristle at his brash TV persona and penchant for bullying guests, Shimada conceded his TV career was at an end: “From tomorrow I will become just another regular person. I want to live a quiet life.” Many have questioned why Shimada was not sacked in 2004, when he was suspended from work and fined 300,000 yen (£2,400) for punching a female colleague. Shimada’s resignation comes amid a police campaign to weaken the yakuza’s influence in mainstream Japanese society. His managers may also have had an eye on forthcoming changes to anti-yakuza laws that will make any activity deemed to benefit organised crime a criminal offence. “It’s no longer acceptable to have yakuza links, especially now that companies risk being prosecuted,” said Jake Adelstein, a yakuza expert and author of Tokyo Vice. “The police have already cracked down on links between organised crime and sumo . Now they’re trying to do the same with the yakuza and the entertainment industry.” Shimada’s profile was sufficiently high for his resignation to elicit comment from the chief government spokesman, Yukio Edano. “[The resignation] was unavoidable given the government’s efforts to eliminate organised crime,” he told reporters. “People loved Shimada for his genius. It’s unfortunate that such talent has been cut down in this way.” Japan Television Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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RAF says operations will resume after initial inquiry into crash that killed Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging at air show The Red Arrows have been cleared to resume flying after the air show crash that killed one of their pilots. Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, 33, from Rutland, died when his aircraft plunged to the ground near Bournemouth airport in Dorset on Saturday, after completing a formation display over the town’s seafront. The RAF grounded all 126 of its Hawk T1 training jets while preliminary investigations were carried out into the cause of the tragedy. But the Ministry of Defence confirmed on Thursday that there were no wider safety concerns about the aircraft, meaning the Red Arrows can begin flying again. A spokeswoman said: “Having been assured of the airworthiness of the Hawk T1 fleet, the precautionary suspension of flying activity has been lifted and flying operations have been resumed.” It is not known when the Red Arrows will begin performing at air shows again. The aerobatics team’s aircraft, which have undergone routine maintenance at Bournemouth airport while they were grounded, will return to their base at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire in the coming days. Egging’s wife, Dr Emma Egging, watched her husband perform with the Red Arrows just minutes before he crashed to his death. Witnesses described seeing the aircraft flying low before smashing into a field and coming to a standstill with its nose in the river Stour near the village of Throop. The full service inquiry into the crash is expected to last months. Investigators have released no details about their initial findings. The Red Arrows have used the dual control BAE Systems Hawk T1, which has a top speed of Mach 1.2, since 1979. Hawk T1s are also used for training fast-jet pilots at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales, and RAF Leeming, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire. Military guardian.co.uk
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