Met’s threats to Guardian are ‘direct attack on free press’, say lawyers
September 17, 2011 No Comment
Critics round on police for using Offical Secrets Act to try to force Guardian to reveal source of phone-hacking story Leading journalists and lawyers on Saturday accused Scotland Yard of launching “a direct attack on a free press” after it invoked the Official Secrets Act in an attempt to force journalists to reveal their sources. Lawyers acting for the Metropolitan Police will on Friday apply for an order under the 1989 act requiring the Guardian to hand over documents that could identify the source of information for several articles published as part of the newspaper’s investigation into phone hacking. The Society of Editors on Saturday joined the Index on Censorship in criticising the legal manoeuvre, while a leading QC suggested it could breach human rights laws. “Scotland Yard’s outrageous and unjustified attempt to force the Guardian to reveal its sources in its phone-hacking investigation is a direct attack on a free press,” said John Kampfner, chief executive of Index on Censorship. “This is a shocking move to intimidate the media using the Official Secrets Act, one of the state’s most draconian pieces of legislation.” Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, described the Met’s behaviour as “outrageous, pointless and baffling”. He said: “The Official Secrets Act is designed to protect national security, so there is no justification in this case. The law, and particularly the Human Rights Act, is supposed to protect journalists’ sources.” Sir Harold Evans, former editor of the Sunday Times and Times , branded the Met’s move “ridiculous”. Writing in today’s Observer, he says : “I cannot believe that the attorney general will let this case of uniformed bullying go forward” and claimed that “without the ability and determination of the press to protect sources many wrongs would go undetected and unpunished”. Evans told the Observer the Official Secrets Act was never intended for such use. “This is a cavalier abuse of an act intended to protect national security, not to cover up negligence and corruption, least of all to justify an assault on the very newspaper that exposed the original crime while the police, politicians and the press walked by.” John Cooper, a leading human rights lawyer and visiting professor at Cardiff University, echoed Evans’s concerns. “In my view this is a misuse of the 1989 act,” Cooper said. “Fundamentally the act was designed to prevent espionage. In extreme cases it can be used to prevent police officers tipping off criminals about police investigations or from selling their stories. In this instance none of this is suggested, and many believe what was done was in the public interest.” Cooper added: “The police action is very likely to conflict with article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of speech.” Scotland Yard yesterday defended its attempt to force the paper to reveal its confidential sources, claiming it was important to preserve the integrity of its high-profile investigation into phone hacking, Operation Weeting. “Operation Weeting is one of the MPS’s most high-profile and sensitive investigations, so of course we should take concerns of leaks seriously to ensure that public interest is protected by ensuring there is no further potential compromise,” the Met said in a statement. The police are said to be seeking the source of the Guardian ‘s report disclosing that the mobile phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler had been hacked. The Met said it was not seeking to use the law “to prevent whistle blowing or investigative journalism that is in the public interest”. “We pay tribute to the Guardian ‘s unwavering determination to expose the hacking scandal and their challenge around the initial police response,” it said. “We also recognise the important public interest of whistle blowing and investigative reporting. However, neither is apparent in this case. This is an investigation into the alleged gratuitous release of information that is not in the public interest.” Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger strongly condemned the move as “vindictive and disproportionate”, and said the paper would resist it “to the utmost”. A Guardian reporter, Amelia Hill, has been interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard over the alleged leaks. A 51-year-old detective constable was arrested and bailed last month in connection with the investigation. Press freedom The Guardian Phone hacking Official Secrets Act Metropolitan police Police Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Freedom of speech Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Silvio Berlusconi wiretaps reveal boast of spending night with eight women
September 17, 2011 No Comment
Conversations show that Italian PM resented meetings with the Pope and world leaders interfering with his partying Magistrates investigating an alleged prostitution ring in Italy have published wiretaps in which Silvio Berlusconi boasts of spending the night with eight women and complains that meetings with Gordon Brown and the Pope are interfering with his partying. The wiretaps were released at the conclusion of an investigation into entrepreneur Gianpaolo Tarantini, who is accused of paying women to sleep with Berlusconi, 74, at his homes in 2008 and 2009. The Italian prime minister is not under investigation, although the wiretaps throw doubt on Berlusconi’s claims that he has never paid for sex. “They are all well provided for,” Berlusconi tells Tarantini of the girls passing through his Rome residence in one of the thousands of recorded conversations released, which filled Italian newspapers on Saturday. In another conversation, a woman named Vanessa Di Meglio sends a text from Berlusconi’s residence to Tarantini at 5.52am asking “Who pays? Do we ask him or you?” Tarantini’s supply of women first made the headlines thanks to the revelations of prostitute Patrizia D’Addario, who claimed Tarantini recruited her to have sex with Berlusconi. A second scandal has since erupted over Berlusconi’s subsequent parties at his villa near Milan, with the prime minister on trial accused of paying underage Moroccan dancer Karima El Mahroug for sex. The newly published wiretaps give startling insight into Berlusconi’s sexual appetites. “Last night I had a queue outside the door of the bedroom… There were 11… I only did eight because I could not do it anymore,” Berlusconi told Tarantini in 2009. “Listen, all the beds are full here… this lot won’t go home, even at gunpoint.” Berlusconi, who boasted to one TV showgirl that he was only “prime minister in my spare time”, told Tarantini in September 2008 that he needed to reduce the flow of women since he had a “terrible week” ahead seeing Pope Benedict, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown. Berlusconi has long insisted that his private parties are informal but elegant affairs, that extend only as far as joke telling and songs, but is revealed on the tapes as putting pressure on Tarantini and his associates to conjure up beautiful female guests. He is heard complaining he will need a caravan to pick up all the girls, while in another conversation Tarantini says to a colleague: “Find a whore, please.” Tarantini, an entrepreneur from Bari who sold prosthetic limbs before meeting Berlusconi in 2008, quickly became a confidant of the prime minister. “Listen Gianpaolo, now we need at most two each,” said Berlusconi in one call. “Because now I want that you have yours, otherwise I will always feel I am in your debt. Then we can trade. After all, the pussy needs to go around.” Berlusconi also sought to impress his female guests by inviting senior managers from his cinema production company and from state TV network RAI. “These are people who can get jobs for whoever they want,” he told Tarantini. “Therefore the girls will get the idea that they are in front of men who can decide their destiny.” Tarantini is suspected of procuring women for other top officials, including a magistrate and a manager at state controlled defence group Finmeccanica. In a separate probe, he has also been arrested on suspicion of seeking to blackmail Berlusconi through an intermediary in return for keeping the lid on details of his procurement of women. Berlusconi has claimed the money he paid out, believed to be more than ¤500,000, was merely financial assistance. In a letter published in the newspaper Il Foglio , Berlusconi hit back at the latest wiretaps, claiming: “My private life is not a crime, my lifestyle may or may not please, it is personal, reserved and irreproachable.” Opposition leaders meanwhile demanded an inquiry into suggestions in the wiretaps that Berlusconi used government aircraft to ferry prostitutes to his parties. “Italy, with its grave problems cannot allow itself an executive which governs in its spare time. The time for words is over, Berlusconi must go to the Italian president and resign,” said Davide Zoggia, an official for the opposition Democratic Party. Already in trouble in the polls after pushing through a painful austerity budget, Berlusconi’s political support took another blow over the weekend as his crucial partner Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League party, warned that the administration would not make it to the end of its mandate in 2013. Encouraging support, however, came from Russia, where Vladimir Putin said: “They criticise [Berlusconi] because they are jealous.” Silvio Berlusconi Italy Europe Tom Kington guardian.co.uk
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President Abbas takes case for statehood to the Security Council as negotiators say US response was ‘the final straw’ Palestinian negotiators accused Washington of failing to offer measures that might have headed off a looming diplomatic crisis over UN recognition of a Palestinian state. A senior official said US proposals had been the “final straw” that led to the decision to go to the UN. Nabil Shaath, a member of the team headed by President Mahmoud Abbas that left for New York said he “gulped” when he saw the proposal presented by the US team of David Hale and Dennis Ross. “This was the statement supposed to persuade Abu Mazen [Abbas] not to go?” he said. There was no mention of Israeli settlements, of the future of Jerusalem or of refugees. It also included the demand that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a “Jewish state”. The US, he added, was “not a neutral observer, but a strategic ally of Israel”. His claim came as British officials said they were still undecided on how they would vote either at the UN Security Council later this week or in the subsequent vote in the UN’s General Assembly that is widely expected to grant Palestine enhanced status at the UN. Abbas will lodge the formal application for Palestine to be admitted to the UN as an independent state based on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in the coming week. The Palestinians’ resolve to resist intense pressure from the US, the European Union and Israel has set it on a collision course whose repercussions could be far-reaching. Among the threats of retaliation made by Israeli ministers are tearing up the Oslo accords, under which the Palestinian Authority was given control of parts of the West Bank and Gaza, annexing West Bank settlements to Israel and withholding tax revenues which Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians. But, Shaath said, “there will not be any rowing back, reticence or hesitation in completing our mission of seeking international support for recognition of our independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders.” He added: “This is the moment of truth.” The Palestinians were still prepared to look at fresh proposals for a return to peace talks, but “after all the discussions, negotiations, threats, incentives and meetings of the past two to three weeks” they were now committed to going to the security council. Jerusalem and Ramallah have been the scene of frenetic diplomatic activity in the past week. In addition to Hale and Ross, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Middle East envoy Tony Blair have been attempting to formulate proposals to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. Meetings with the US delegation had continued until “the last minutes before the president’s speech”, said Shaath. As well as rounding on the Americans, he dismissed Blair’s efforts to craft a statement by the Quartet on the Middle East (the US, EU, UN and Russia) as a framework for restarting talks. “Mr Blair doesn’t sound like a neutral interlocutor, he sounds very much like an Israeli diplomat sometimes,” he said. In contrast, “the Europeans have played a much more serious and positive game. The Europeans were seriously engaged.” But the EU had failed to unite around a common position and “they are also being threatened by the US”, he said. The Palestinian team was not alarmed by the prospect of the US withholding funding in the aftermath of their approach to the UN. “To tell you the truth we’re not concerned. You don’t barter for your rights for money,” he said. Arab states had pledged to make up any shortfall, and “the Europeans have assured us they won’t cut our funds, so have the Japanese”. Shaath said the Palestinians had only two serious options. One was to go back to war, “which we don’t want. There is nobody planning violence on this side, but Netanyahu would love to make the world believe that Israel is threatened. We are not going back to violence – it’s too costly for us and the Israelis”. The other was to go to the international community to seek support for a Palestinian state. The US said it continued to be committed to a return to talks. “What we are focused on is… getting them back to the table so that they can address the many final status issues and reach a comprehensive peace agreement that results in two states living side by side,” a State Department spokesman said. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: “When the Palestinian Authority will abandon these futile and unilateral measures at the UN, it will find Israel to be a genuine partner for direct peace negotiations.” Palestinian territories Mahmoud Abbas Israel Middle East peace talks United Nations Tony Blair Binyamin Netanyahu US foreign policy Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Fractious meeting of finance ministers sees Europeans vow to push on with tax to bolster rescue funds despite UK objections European leaders vowed to press ahead with plans for a new tax on financial transactions to bolster EU rescue funds, despite objections from Britain and the US. France, Germany and Austria said a tax on financial transactions could raise billions of euros to support a Greek bailout, but opposition from the chancellor, George Osborne, and the US treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, undermined progress. The row added further tension to an already fractious meeting of finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland, which failed to achieve a consensus among EU countries on how to prevent a Greek default. “There are very considerable divisions,” said Jacek Rostowski, the Polish finance minister who was chairing the meeting, commenting on the transaction tax. “It obviously raises a lot of emotions.” On Friday Geithner told European leaders to stop “loose talk” that was damaging the eurozone and bringing “catastrophic risk” to the global markets. Geithner is reported to have said that divisions were “very damaging”. “Governments and central banks have to take out the catastrophic risk from markets … [and avoid] loose talk about dismantling the institutions of the euro,” he added. “What is very damaging from the outside is not the divisiveness about the broader debate, about strategy, but about the ongoing conflict between governments and the central bank, and you need both to work together to do what is essential to the resolution of any crisis,” he said, according to the Dow Jones news agency. The eurozone ministers have been discussing how to end the crisis in Greece that is threatening to engulf Europe. They agreed to delay a decision on Greece’s next bailout loan as part of a complicated political game designed to appease voters in countries sceptical of Greece’s claims that it is doing everything it can to comply with the austerity measures. They also extended the timetable for approval for the new expanded bailout rescue fund of €440bn (£385bn), which many economists believe is not enough to cover the possibility of several countries defaulting on debt. The head of Germany’s Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, told reporters on Saturday: “The current economic pessimism is exaggerated.” Weidmann said “the growth slowdown” being experienced in Europe and America was mainly based on “temporary facts” such as “supply chain interruptions in Japan” in the aftermath of the earthquake and the high oil prices due to the conflict in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East. Euro European Union Economics Economic policy George Osborne Financial crisis Global recession Banking Greece Europe Phillip Inman guardian.co.uk
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English-speaking youth found in Berlin after claiming he lived in forest for five years with recently deceased father British consular staff are working with police in Berlin trying to identify an teenager who walked out of a German forest speaking English and knowing only his first name. The boy, called Ray, presented himself to the Berlin authorities last week , saying he followed his compass north to reach the city after the death of his father with whom he had roamed through the woods for about five years. A Foreign Office spokesman said consular staff were assisting officials in Berlin but it was not yet known if the boy, thought to be 17 or 18, was a British national. Berlin police said they had approached Interpol to see if the boy matched any missing person reports. Officers will not know the results of the inquiry until Monday. Detectives are going over everything Ray has told them to establish a picture of his background and biography. The teenager told youth workers that his father, whom he called Ryan, had died two weeks ago and he had buried him in a shallow grave covered with stones. The boy said they began wandering in the woods after his mother, who he said was named Doreen, died. He told youth workers that he and his father never set up home but kept moving, staying in tents and huts in the woods. Claudia Elitok, of Berlin police, said: “He speaks fluent English and a few words in German. “He explained that the last five years were spent in the woods with his father, then his father died and he buried him. “He was walking for two weeks before getting to Berlin. “He has said what happened to his mother but I can’t go into that information. “He was found in good condition and is being taken care of by officials.” The teenager’s story is reminiscent of the “Piano Man”, German Andreas Grassl, who was found wandering the streets of Sheerness, Kent, in 2005. Despite Europe-wide appeals, no one knew who the 20-year-old was. For months he remained uncommunicative except for showing his accomplished pianist skills. Germany Europe guardian.co.uk
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Blackburn Rovers ended up delivering on Chris Samba’s promise to make Arsenal’s life a living hell, something of a surprise given that for almost an hour the visitors looked to have only the weather to worry about. Arsenal twice took the lead here and should never have lost so heavily, yet once again they contributed to their own downfall to the extent that the supposedly unhappy Blackburn fans were speculating before the end that this could be another 8-2. The soggiest Saturday of the season so far all but washed away the protest march against Steve Kean before kick-off. A few hundred bedraggled supporters made their point as they were escorted to the ground by police, and perhaps even succeeded in showing the depth of their feeling by braving a downpour, though there was little sign of dissent inside the ground, and even on the concourses home fans were debating with each other whether Kean deserved more loyalty. When a clever ball forward by Alex Song split a statuesque Rovers defence to allow Gervinho to claim his first league goal for Arsenal after only 10 minutes there were still no dissatisfied rumblings from the terraces, and to their credit Blackburn managed to give their fans something to cheer about by getting back on terms midway through the first half. This time it was Yakubu Ayegbeni’s turn to score a first goal for his new club, and though the former Everton striker was slightly fortunate to be in the right place for Junior Hoilett as he wandered back from an offside position, there was nothing wrong with the deft single touch that stranded Wojciech Szczesny. Players were beginning to lose their footing at this point as rain hammered down from a still-darkening sky, though Arsenal produced some of their brightest football and could have scored through Andrey Arshavin and Gervinho in addition to the goal from Mikel Arteta that restored their lead by the interval. Another first-time scorer for a new club, all Arteta had to do was crash the ball home from near the penalty spot after Aaron Ramsey’s shrewd run and perfect square ball had created the opportunity. So Arsenal had little to excuse what befell them at the start of the second half, especially as their inability to defend set pieces reached ludicrous new heights when Song turned Rubén Rochina’s free-kick past his own goalkeeper under no particular pressure. Now trying to weather two storms at once, with the Rovers fans noisily backing their side. Arsenal simply went from bad to worse. Another set piece led to another goal for Yakubu, standing level on the six-yard line to get the crucial last touch to Steven Nzonzi’s low cross after collecting a corner at the back of the area, then almost laughably Arsenal contributed a second own goal. There was not a lot Laurent Koscielny could do to avoid diverting the ball into his own net once Szczesny had failed to cut out Martin Olsson’s firmly struck cutback from the byline, but the way Yakubu, of all people, had sent Olsson skipping down the right to easily evade Johan Djourou’s rushed challenge and allow the substitute to do as he pleased with the whole of the Arsenal half to run at will give Arsène Wenger sleepless nights. Paul Robinson made a couple of good saves before Marouane Chamakh’s well-taken goal five minutes from time gave the scoreline some respectability from Arsenal’s point of view and a better indication of the balance of the game, though conceding four goals to Blackburn is almost as bad as shipping eight at Old Trafford. That’s not to take anything away from a spirited and energetic Blackburn performance. This always promised to be a day for Kean to remember, and amid incredible scenes the end, after Per Mertesacker had headed over and Robin van Persie struck a shot at Robinson with stoppage time chances to claim a point, it was. Premier League 2011-12 Blackburn Rovers Arsenal Premier League Paul Wilson guardian.co.uk
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Deputy PM vows to keep tax level as long it raises revenue, despite calls from chancellor and other Tories for its abolition Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has promised to keep the 50p top rate of tax despite calls from some of their Tory party coalition partners to have it scrapped. However Clegg said the Liberal Democrats would back abolition of the top rate in the long run if it was not raising much revenue and if it was replaced by new taxes on “unearned income”. These could include a 1% annual “mansion tax” on homes worth more than £2m, a land tax, and restricting tax relief on pensions to the basic 20p rate. As Liberal Democrats gathered for their annual party conference in Birmingham, he said cutting rates for the wealthy while millions were struggling to make ends meet could “destroy” public support for the entire tax system. Chancellor George Osborne has made no secret of his desire to abolish the 50p rate on incomes over £150,000 – describing it as a “temporary” measure introduced by the former Labour government. However Clegg made clear that as far as the Lib Dems were concerned, the priority had to be reducing the burden of taxation on lower- and middle-income earners. “We are not there to rush to the aid of the top 1% of very, very rich people who are not in straitened circumstances,” he told the Independent. In a separate question-and-answer session in Birmingham on Saturday morning, for upRising, a leadership programme for young people, Clegg also said the country needed to stop relying on financial services as “the locomotive” of the country and redouble efforts to get growing manufacturing and other services. “What we are going through in this country is not just about balancing the books,” he said. If the country thinks that all it needs to do is “have the City of London … and not worry about the manufacturing … the country won’t move on,” he said. He added: “The need to rebalance, to rewire the country.” In the Independent, Clegg acknowledged that the government had to do more to boost growth in the economy, adopting what he called a “Plan A-plus”. “If millions of taxpayers feel they are being overlooked, ignored and passed over, as preference is given to people who need the least amount of help at the moment, you destroy the very fabric of consensus without which a sensible tax system cannot survive. “It would be utterly incomprehensible for millions of people who work hard, do their best for their families, and play by the rules, if suddenly the priority is to give 300,000 people at the very, very top a tax break. “It is not going to happen – certainly not until there is significant progress on giving tax breaks to those on lower and middle incomes.” While his show of muscle-flexing on the eve of the party conference season will doubtless play well with Lib Dem activists, it will infuriate many Tories who are determined to see an end to the 50p rate. Nick Clegg Tax and spending Tax Liberal Democrat conference Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrat conference 2011 Conservatives George Osborne Economic policy Poverty Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk
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Second world war fighter plunged to ground near grandstand at event near Reno, killing three people and injuring more than 50 Three people have died and more than 50 were injured after a second world war fighter plane flown by a veteran Hollywood stunt pilot crashed at an air race near Reno, Nevada. The plane, piloted by 74-year-old Jimmy Leeward, plunged to the ground without warning near a grandstand. Body parts and debris were strewn across the airfield. Organisers of the event said a mechanical fault was probably to blame but they were awaiting the results of an official investigation. Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, said 56 people were taken to hospital, of whom 15 were in a critical condition and 13 were in a serious condition with potentially life-threatening injuries. “This is a very large incident, probably one of the largest this community has seen in decades,” she said. “The community is pulling together to try to deal with the scope of it.” Witnesses described their shock as the plane tumbled from the sky. Maureen Higgins, of Alabama, was sitting about 30 yards from the crash and watched in horror as the man in front of her started bleeding after debris hit him in the head. “I saw body parts and gore like you wouldn’t believe it. I’m talking an arm, a leg,” she said “The alive people were missing body parts. I am not kidding you. It was gore. Unbelievable gore.” Leeward, of Ocala, Florida, was among those killed. He was a veteran airman and film stunt pilot who named his P-51 Mustang fighter plane the Galloping Ghost, according to Mike Houghton, president and chief executive of Reno Air Races. Renown Regional Medical Centre spokeswoman Kathy Carter confirmed two others died, but did not provide their identities. The P-51 Mustang, a class of fighter plane that can fly at more than 500 mph, crashed into a box-seat area in front of the grandstand at about 4.30pm, race spokesman Mike Draper said. Houghton said the crash appeared to be a “problem with the aircraft that caused it to go out of control”. The rest of the races were cancelled as the National Transportation Safety Board investigated. Another witness Tim Linville, 48, of Reno, said the plane smashed into the ground and shattered, sending shrapnel and debris into the crowd. “It was just flying everywhere,” he said. Tim O’Brien of Grass Valley, California, said he saw the plane pitch violently upward, roll and then head straight down about 100 metres away. O’Brien said it looked like a piece of the plane’s tail had fallen off. United States Nevada David Batty guardian.co.uk
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Forensics teams examine scene at Gleision colliery after four men found dead in flooded mine An investigation has been launched after four men died in a flooded south Wales colliery in the worst mining disaster for 30 years. The inquiry was announced after the discovery of the bodies of the miners, who had been trapped deep underground at the Gleision colliery in the Swansea Valley. Police and safety officials promised to establish how and why they were killed. Forensics teams at the mine in the village of Cilybebyll have begun to piece together what happened. The four – Charles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, Phillip Hill, 45, and Garry Jenkins, 39 – were trapped after water poured into the shaft they were working in on Thursday morning. Three others, including Powell’s son, Daniel, managed to get out and raise the alarm. The Welsh secretary, Cheryl Gillan, said: “We must ensure we learn the lessons and find out what happened to these men.” She said the investigation would initially be led by South Wales police before being handed over to the Health and Safety Executive. David Cameron described the tragedy as a “desperately, desperately sad situation”. The prime minister said the anguish of the miners’ families was “intense” but added it was clear the emergency services had done everything they could. Peter Vaughan, chief constable of South Wales police, said: “We’ve tried to bring this safely to its conclusion. Unfortunately the conclusion we have is the one none of us wanted.” Expressing his condolences to the men’s families, he said: “I can’t begin to imagine what the families are going through. “We’ve been humbled by the community spirit that’s been shown during this most tragic of incidents.” Fire and rescue and ambulance workers said they had never seen or worked in such conditions before. Of the three men who escaped the flooded mine, one is now critically ill in hospital. The two other men who were with him emerged largely unharmed and helped the rescue operation. Neath MP Peter Hain said: “This is the end we all feared but hoped against hope wouldn’t happen. “Extraordinary courage was shown by the families right through the night, tortuous hours of waiting. We can’t imagine what they have been through. “This has been a stab right through the heart of these local communities. There’s a long tradition of mining here but nobody expected the tragedies of past generations would come today.” Richard Smith, chief fire officer for Mid and West Wales fire and rescue service, said: “Ambulance and fire officers have all expressed to me that within 30 years of service they’ve never actually seen such conditions and worked in such conditions that they’ve had to over the last two days to try and bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.” Asked whether any of the men ever stood a chance of surviving, Smith said: “It’s a bit too early to tell whether they would have stood any chance of survival or not but the fact that I think that them being together where they were working will probably be indicative of that.” The archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said: “My heart goes out to the families of those killed in Gleision colliery. The whole community is heartbroken for them.” Wales Mining David Batty guardian.co.uk
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Love the ocean, but hate holding your for breath for extended periods? Good news: a team of software engineers, composers, Oscar-winning animators and more have come together to recreate Davy Jones’ locker in the cloud. Wemo Media is looking for a few thousand good artists for the project, to help create a massive simulation of life under the seas built on its Maker Platform. The project has been around for a bit, but is still in closed beta, making it a private development beach of sorts. You can watch an introductory video and request an invite at the source link below. Oscar winners crowd-sourcing the ocean with The Blu originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Sep 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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