We’ve seen it adorned with a giant Honeycomb and an oversized Gingerbread man , and now Google’s bringing a more practical addition to its Mountain View campus — specifically, a Plugless Power EV charging station. Its maker touts the installation as “the first public release” of the handsfree re-juicing system, and says it will eventually provided power to a fleet of low-speed EVs already in use at El Goog HQ — the first of which has already been retrofitted to get pumped up. Who knows, maybe now we’ll see something come of Google’s claims to make electrical vehicles charge more efficiently. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Google HQ gets juiced with Plugless Power EV charging unit Google HQ gets juiced with Plugless Power EV charging unit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Siege ends in key town as bombs destroy Gaddafi’s tanks and artillery but regime continue to hold Ajdabiya despite air raids Nearly 12 hours of allied air strikes have broken the Libyan regime’s five-day bloody assault on the key rebel-held town of Misrata. Residents said yesterday that the aerial bombardment destroyed tanks and artillery and sent many of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces fleeing from Misrata, ending a siege and attack by the regime that cost nearly 100 lives from random shelling, snipers and bitter street fighting. Mohammed Ali, an IT engineer at Misrata’s main hospital, said that waves of air strikes began shortly after midnight on Wednesday. “They bombed a lot of sites of the Gaddafi army. There is a former hospital where his tanks were based. All the tanks and the hospital were destroyed. A column of tanks was destroyed on the edge of the city,” he said. “After that there was no shelling. We are very relieved. We are very grateful. We want to thank the world. The Gaddafi forces are scattered around. All that is left is the snipers and our fighters can take care of them.” Ali said people in Misrata wanted the coalition to keep up the air strikes until all Gaddafi’s forces were driven away from the town to ensure that those who were able to escape with armoured vehicles and guns did not return. A doctor in the town, who did not want to be named, said snipers were continuing to sow fear by targeting not only rebels but civilians. “The sniper problem is a big one. A lot of people are still afraid to leave their homes,” he said. The apparent breaking of the siege will be a blow to the Libyan ruler’s attempts to reassert control over the entire west of the country. It may also serve as a further deterrent, along with the destruction of Gaddafi’s tanks, artillery and soldiers that were attacking Benghazi, to those still fighting for the dictator. But it did not stop the regime’s forces from continuing to put up stiff resistance around the strategic town of Ajdabiya in the east, despite repeated coalition bombing raids. Ali described the past five days of attack on Misrata as “hell”. “It was crazy in the last five days. The hospital was overwhelmed. Ninety four people were killed. Sixty of them were civilians. Whole families were wiped out driving in their cars,” he said. “The injured were more than 1,300. About 115 serious cases were kept in hospital. Everyone without life threatening injures was sent home. I’ve seen people who’ve just had a leg amputated sent home.” Ali said that the town has had no water or electricity for nine days. The medical centre is running on a generator. The air strikes in and around Misrata suggest that what appears to be a tactic of Gaddafi’s forces to shelter in residential areas, in response to the destruction of tanks and guns on the open desert road near Benghazi, has not provided protection. Residents of the town said that the coalition aircraft managed to destroy the regime’s armour without any known civilian casualties. The revolutionary leadership has said that even if there are civilian casualties, they will be a necessary price to prevent even greater loss of life if Gaddafi’s forces had continued their assault on Misrata and exacted revenge against the residents for their support of the uprising. The US military said that its intelligence showed Gaddafi’s forces remained a threat to Misrata as well as remaining entrenched around Ajdabiya, where the regime’s fighters have put up sustained resistance for three days despite several air attacks by coalition planes. Rear Admiral Gerard Hueber, chief of staff of operation Odyssey Dawn, said the coalition would continue its attacks on Gaddafi’s ground forces in both places as well as other cities under assault by the regime. Hueber said the air attacks were aimed at preventing the regime’s army from entering rebel-held cities as well as cutting supply and communication lines. But he admitted that Gaddafi’s forces were making incursions into some cities and targeting civilians. People fleeing Ajdabiya said that civilians continued to be killed in the town even though most of the residents have left. Hamad Abdul Rahim drove along a desert track with his mother, wife and children, including two young daughters, crammed into a car to escape the town on Wednesday. “There was a lot of shelling last night. There are hundreds of Gaddafi men there. Many of them are not from Libya. They are African people. We saw them,” he said. “Many people have died. Some were shot on the street by Gaddafi’s men.” The regime’s army continued to keep the rebels at bay just outside the town with periodic shelling of the revolutionaries’ front line, some of it intense. An ambulance driver described carrying away two dead rebels who were on the back of a pick-up truck with a mounted machine gun when they took a direct hit from a shell. The rebels say they are waiting for allied air strikes to destroy the tanks and artillery Gaddafi has around Ajdabiya before they attempt to take the town. Gaddafi’s forces also kept up their bombardment of Zintan in the west. “The town is completely surrounded. The situation is very bad,” the resident, Abdulrahman, told Reuters by telephone from the town. “They are getting reinforcements. Troops backed with tanks and vehicles are coming. We appeal to the allied forces to come and protect civilians.” Hueber found himself in difficulty when questioned about whether the US was co-ordinating its attacks with rebel forces, which might be in breach of the UN mandate. Initially, he confirmed that US forces were consulting the rebels about their movements but later in the press conference he backtracked, saying: “I mis-stated that”. He said that the US had communication lines to the Gaddafi regime warning them to pull back their forces. British aircraft flew over Libya yesterday, but for the second day running took no part in attacks, according to defence officials. The commander of British aircraft operating over Libya has said that Colonel Gaddafi’s air force “no longer exists as a fighting force”. Air Vice-Marshal Greg Bagwell said the allies could now operate “with near impunity” over the skies of Libya. Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Nato Chris McGreal Ewen MacAskill Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
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Tension high after first bomb explosion in six years in the holy city leaves one dead and dozens injured The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has vowed to react “aggressively” after a suitcase bomb exploded in Jerusalem, killing a 60-year-old woman and injuring dozens of others. The bombing, the first in the city for almost seven years, follows several days of rising tension along the Gaza border. The violence poses a serious threat to the prospects of reactivating peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Three people were seriously hurt and about three dozen suffered minor to moderate injuries in the attack. “Israel will act aggressively, responsibly and wisely to preserve the quiet and security that prevailed here over the past two years,” Netanyahu said. Earlier he told MPs: “It could be that this matter will entail exchanges of blows, and it may take a certain period of time, but we are very determined to strike at the terrorist elements and deny them the means of attacking our citizens.” The bombing was swiftly condemned by the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, who said the “terrorist operation” damaged the Palestinian cause and contradicted “our people’s legitimate endeavour to gain its freedom by peaceful means”. President Barack Obama criticised the bombings but also expressed condolences to the families of Palestinians killed in recent Israeli air strikes in Gaza. “There is never any possible justification for terrorism,” he said. “The United States calls on the groups responsible to end these attacks at once and we underscore that Israel, like all nations, has a right to self-defence.” But he added: “We also express our deepest condolences for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza yesterday. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to do everything in their power to prevent further violence and civilian casualties.”The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said he did not believe the bombing would cause the situation in Israel deteriorate. “It’s obviously a horrific terrorist attack. I extend sympathy to the families of those who have been injured. But I think, I don’t think I would characterize the situation there as deteriorating,” Gates said. There has been relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories in the past few years, partly as a result of efforts by Palestinian Authority security forces to rein in militant operations. But in the past week a barrage of missiles has been fired into Israel from Gaza, followed by retaliatory air strikes and tank shelling by the Israeli military. Schools in at least two major Israeli cities were closed for the rest of the week as a series of missiles were fired from Gaza and more were expected. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed. Israel Gaza Palestinian territories Binyamin Netanyahu Middle East Conal Urquhart Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …This is the one-year anniversary of the health care reform bill that was finally dragged, kicking and screaming, into becoming the law of the land. On that day, after a century of bruising and ugly battles to get some kind of comprehensive health care package done, the final ugly battle got completed — successfully this time. There is a lot this bill didn’t get done, but one year ago today the United States finally enacted a law that established health care coverage of the entire population as a goal and value of our government. We stated as a country that it should be the right of every American to have health insurance. We declared that insurance companies should be subject to certain humane and commonsense restrictions when it came to denying people coverage — like an insurer had to keep covering people even if they got sick, and they had to keep covering people even when it cost a lot of money. We came squarely down on the side of seniors getting prescription drugs, young people being able to stay on their parents’ plans for a while, more of the working poor being covered by the government, and everyone getting preventive care. There were flaws aplenty. We provided no competition or check on the power of private insurance through a public plan, which will drive costs up. We chose not to lower drug prices for the federal government by having Medicare bargain with drug companies, which also will drive costs up. We totally screwed up the abortion coverage issue. These and other things big and small need to be fixed, and soon. But here’s the thing, the reason that every progressive member of Congress voted for this: it gives us a platform to stand on. It’s a rickety platform because of those construction flaws, and there are plenty of folks trying hard to burn it down. But it is a platform that can be repaired and expanded and strengthened if we keep working on it, the same way Social Security was, the same way the minimum wage and Medicare and Medicaid have been. One of the earliest issue battles I remember following, back when I was just getting interested in politics, was the health care debate of the early ’70s. It didn’t happen then, or a few years later in the Carter years when Teddy Kennedy and Jimmy Carter couldn’t come to terms on the issue. I was thrilled to be working on comprehensive reform in the Clinton White House in the early ’90s, but that effort went down in flames. I have read about Teddy Roosevelt first proposing comprehensive reform in the 1910s and it going nowhere; about FDR passing Social Security, bank regulation, labor law reform and all the rest, but not having the strength to get health care done; about Truman pushing for it in the ’40s and it going nowhere fast; and about LBJ passing civil rights legislation, the war on poverty, Medicare, and Medicaid, but not having the guts to pass a more comprehensive health care bill. I knew all that history, and knew that every failure made the next time around that much tougher. Getting this platform to stand on was never going to be the end of this battle, just the first step forward, but if you get blown up on your first step, the next dozen- or hundred- never happen. So now we have a platform. First we have to defend it from the mob with torches. These Republicans who don’t want there to be “government run” health care are happy to take it for themselves when they are members of Congress, or use Medicare when they get older, or use VA care if they are veterans, or take state government health insurance when they are state Senators, or county government health care when they are county commissioners. But heaven forbid if some working class guy gets sick and dropped from his coverage because his kid develops diabetes, because that would mean government “runs” our health care. Now clearly, the messy way this thing got passed and the bad messaging from the White House didn’t help us in terms of public opinion, but this issue is like every other bit of social progress in the last couple hundred years: right wingers try to scare the hell out of everyone, have some initial success, but once the bill becomes law people start to get used to what they like about it. That is the phase we are going through now, as polling shows the repeal message has less and less support over time. Once we successfully defend the idea of health security for everyone, we have to begin the improvement process, because there are some very important things we need to fix. I am optimistic that we can do that in the coming years, as people continue to get hurt by insurers, and continue to rely more on the protections and security the new health care has for them. Nothing in the course of history is certain. This law might get picked apart, worsened, even repealed by right-wing Republicans if they gain more wins in the next election or two. But my guess is that when we look back on this at the 10-year anniversary of this bill, we will see a law that is rapidly becoming as politically well-established as Social Security, and is being improved over the years just the way Social Security has been. We have a platform to build on; we just need to keep building.
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• Campaign launched to reintroduce terracing at English grounds • We are totally against it, say relatives of 1989 disaster victims Proposals to bring back standing areas at top-flight football grounds in England have been condemned by the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG). As reported by the Guardian, The Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) have launched an online petition calling for the return of standing areas in the top two divisions of English football . The campaign already looks to be foundering, however, with the HFSG and Premier League opposing the move, and the government saying there has been no compelling case to bring back terraces. Standing at matches in the top two divisions was banned following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, and the HFSG chairman Margaret Aspinall said: “The Hillsborough Family Support Group are totally against any form of standing whatsoever. We are absolutely against it and always will be. Our football clubs should remain all-seater stadiums. “People always say they have standing areas in Germany, but we don’t play any part over what happens in that country – we just believe there’s no such thing as safe standing in this country. We will not be encouraging the government to change the law.” The issue of allowing some standing areas has been revisited a number of times since all-seat stadiums became compulsory in 1994. Kate Hoey tried to back a scheme when she was sports minister in 2001 but the then Government blocked it. The FSF held a meeting on Monday with representatives from the police, government and football authorities. In attendance, the sports minister, Hugh Robertson, said he would examine the evidence for safe standing but played down any likelihood of a change to the law. Hillsborough disaster guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Campaign launched to reintroduce terracing at English grounds • We are totally against it, say relatives of 1989 disaster victims Proposals to bring back standing areas at top-flight football grounds in England have been condemned by the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG). As reported by the Guardian, The Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) have launched an online petition calling for the return of standing areas in the top two divisions of English football . The campaign already looks to be foundering, however, with the HFSG and Premier League opposing the move, and the government saying there has been no compelling case to bring back terraces. Standing at matches in the top two divisions was banned following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, and the HFSG chairman Margaret Aspinall said: “The Hillsborough Family Support Group are totally against any form of standing whatsoever. We are absolutely against it and always will be. Our football clubs should remain all-seater stadiums. “People always say they have standing areas in Germany, but we don’t play any part over what happens in that country – we just believe there’s no such thing as safe standing in this country. We will not be encouraging the government to change the law.” The issue of allowing some standing areas has been revisited a number of times since all-seat stadiums became compulsory in 1994. Kate Hoey tried to back a scheme when she was sports minister in 2001 but the then Government blocked it. The FSF held a meeting on Monday with representatives from the police, government and football authorities. In attendance, the sports minister, Hugh Robertson, said he would examine the evidence for safe standing but played down any likelihood of a change to the law. Hillsborough disaster guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Racist letter read by Arizona lawmaker to state Senate may have been a hoax
March 23, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Two Arizona lawmakers set off charges of racism after one instructed the other to read a controversial letter on the state Senate floor last week during a debate over five immigration bills. The letter, allegedly from a man who works as a substitute teacher in Glendale, said that Hispanic students “hate America” and only want to become “gang members and gangsters,” according to ABC News . Problem is, local reporters could not find anyone under the man’s name who had worked for any of the area school districts, and key details in the letter were contradicted by school officials. That left some groups suggesting the letter was an outright hoax. “Most of the Hispanic students do not want to be educated but rather be gang members and gangsters,” State Sen. Lori Klein said, reading from the letter at the prompting of Senate President Russell Pearce. “They hate America and are determined to reclaim this area for Mexico.” “If we are able to remove the illegals out of our schools, the class sizes would be reduced and the students who wanted to learn would have a better chance to do so and become productive citizens,” the letter continued. “Thank you for standing up to this invasion.” Tony Hill, the author of the letter, also claimed that Hispanic students refused to participate in a Mark Twain assignment and instead “threw the textbooks at each other.” “I don’t think I’ve ever heard any floor speech similar to the one that was given out right now,” Democratic State Sen. Steve Gallardo told the Senate. Hispanic students “do not have dreams to be gang members, they do not want to be thugs or whatever we want to phrase it as. These are good kids.” Members of the Hispanic caucus in the state have questioned the authenticity of the author. KGUN 9 contacted all five school districts in Glendale and all said that Anthony or Tony Hill had never worked for them as a teacher or substitute teacher. “The Glendale School District also stated it does not teach its 8th grade students about Mark Twain as Hill alluded to in his letter,” KGUN 9′s Steve Nuñez wrote. “Not only does Senator Klein owe us all an apology and every student in the state of Arizona an apology, I think Russell Pearce has some questions to answer,” Gallardo said. Pearce released a statement Tuesday, refusing to apologize or say if he agreed with the letter. “On March 17, Sen. Lori Klein read on the Senate floor a letter written to me by a teacher in the West Valley,” Pearce’s statement began. “I am shocked that Members of the Minority are so quick to defend the actions of these troublemakers, and mock the frustration many teachers feel in bringing order to the classroom.” “I’ve spoken with the teacher who wrote this letter. He stands by all he wrote. This is happening in our classrooms. The behavior by these students cannot and will not be condoned.” “Some Members of the Minority are now calling for me to apologize, and calling for Sen. Klein to apologize for reading it. We will not apologize,” he added. Pearce drew attention to himself last week when he told tea party members that they were not citizens of the United States. Hill’s letter to Pearce follows: Dear Senator Russell Pearce, I am compelled to write to you about a recent event that occurred to me. I currently work as a substitute teacher in the west valley areas of Phoenix, Glendale, and Peoria. I was called upon to teach history and language arts for 8th grade at a Glendale public school. The number of students I had in each class ranged from 28 to 38 children, which were almost all Hispanic and a couple of Black children. The day started out as usual turning on the television listening and watching the announcements and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. During the Pledge of Allegiance I notice the vast majority of students refusing to stand and say the pledge. I asked the students why they refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance and they responded by saying, ‘we are Mexicans and Americans stole our land’. The teacher’s instructions were for the students to read a few pages and answer the questions regarding Mark Twain in their history textbook and to finish their final drafts to Senator Steve Gallardo thanking him for his position on Illegal Immigration rights. Their teacher apparently had showed them a video with Senator Steve Gallardo and Lou Dobbs. Most of the students came unprepared for class not possessing paper and pencil. I provided the students with paper and pencils only to have them wade-up the paper and throw it at each other along with their pencils. The students’ final drafts that I read were basically the same. Most of them stated they were in the country illegally, White Americans are racist, and that they came here for a better life. I asked the class if America adopted Mexico immigration laws would Americans still be consider racist? That question they could not answer and called me a racist for asking it. I mentioned that my wife and children are Hispanic so how could I be racist? I asked the students to stop speaking Spanish in class because it was impolite to speak a language in front of people who may not speak that language. Their response was that Americans better learn Spanish and their customs because they are taking their land back from us. When it came to completing the Mark Twain assignment only ten students completed it out of all my classes. Most of the students refused to open the book, tore the pages out of the book, or threw the textbooks at each other. I thought are these the students we are trying to educate with taxpayers money. I have found that substitute teaching in these areas most of the Hispanic students do not want to be educated but rather be gang members and gangsters. They hate America and are determined to reclaim this area for Mexico. If we are able to remove the illegals out of our schools, the class sizes would be reduced and the students who wanted to learn would have a better chance to do so and become productive citizens. I applaud and support your efforts to stop this invasion into our state and country. When the citizens of a country are forced to speak the invaders language, adopt their customs, and forced to support them, are we not a conquer nation? I do not want to see our state and nation turned into a third world country. Thank you for standing up to this invasion. You may contact me by phone, e-mail, or mail. Thank you, again. Sincerely, Tony Hill
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Officers narrow down search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and say further searches will take place in daylight Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan have said they are “very close” to identifying her whereabouts. Officers have narrowed down a search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire after a day spent trawling through dense woodland and more analysis of mobile phone records. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said further searches, involving specialist sniffer dogs, would take place in daylight and that the public’s help was no longer needed. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “Searches will be limited by available daylight but we will be further assisted by specialist dog teams who arrive tomorrow and resume the search as soon as daylight permits. While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” A force spokeswoman refused to expand on the statement and declined to say whether the statement meant police believed O’Callaghan – or her body – was actually in the forest. O’Callaghan, 22, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am on Saturday to walk the half mile home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that around 30 minutes after she left the club her phone was somewhere in the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, 12 miles from Swindon. Hundreds of members of the public helped the police search the forest on Tuesday and as many as 1,000 had been preparing to join the search for office administrator O’Callaghan again. Coach parties had been organised and some taxi drivers were offering free lifts out to the site. However police requested that people stay away after narrowing the search area down. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said earlier in the day that further analysis of mobile phone records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. Colleagues of O’Callaghan told how she was in good spirits and looking forward to the weekend before she disappeared. Liz Watson, operations director at industrial storage company Dexion, said: “We are all very worried about her at the moment and hope that further developments of her whereabouts will come to light soon.” Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Officers narrow down search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and say further searches will take place in daylight Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan have said they are “very close” to identifying her whereabouts. Officers have narrowed down a search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire after a day spent trawling through dense woodland and more analysis of mobile phone records. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said further searches, involving specialist sniffer dogs, would take place in daylight and that the public’s help was no longer needed. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “Searches will be limited by available daylight but we will be further assisted by specialist dog teams who arrive tomorrow and resume the search as soon as daylight permits. While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” A force spokeswoman refused to expand on the statement and declined to say whether the statement meant police believed O’Callaghan – or her body – was actually in the forest. O’Callaghan, 22, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am on Saturday to walk the half mile home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that around 30 minutes after she left the club her phone was somewhere in the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, 12 miles from Swindon. Hundreds of members of the public helped the police search the forest on Tuesday and as many as 1,000 had been preparing to join the search for office administrator O’Callaghan again. Coach parties had been organised and some taxi drivers were offering free lifts out to the site. However police requested that people stay away after narrowing the search area down. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said earlier in the day that further analysis of mobile phone records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. Colleagues of O’Callaghan told how she was in good spirits and looking forward to the weekend before she disappeared. Liz Watson, operations director at industrial storage company Dexion, said: “We are all very worried about her at the moment and hope that further developments of her whereabouts will come to light soon.” Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Officers narrow down search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire and say further searches will take place in daylight Police searching for Sian O’Callaghan have said they are “very close” to identifying her whereabouts. Officers have narrowed down a search of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire after a day spent trawling through dense woodland and more analysis of mobile phone records. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said further searches, involving specialist sniffer dogs, would take place in daylight and that the public’s help was no longer needed. Fulcher said: “We have made good progress in narrowing the search using a number of technologies and techniques and I believe we are getting very close to identifying Sian’s whereabouts. “Searches will be limited by available daylight but we will be further assisted by specialist dog teams who arrive tomorrow and resume the search as soon as daylight permits. While I still want anyone with information to contact police I am not asking for any more public assistance with searches at this time.” A force spokeswoman refused to expand on the statement and declined to say whether the statement meant police believed O’Callaghan – or her body – was actually in the forest. O’Callaghan, 22, disappeared after leaving Suju nightclub at about 2.50am on Saturday to walk the half mile home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape. Analysis of O’Callaghan’s mobile phone records suggests that around 30 minutes after she left the club her phone was somewhere in the 4,500-acre Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, 12 miles from Swindon. Hundreds of members of the public helped the police search the forest on Tuesday and as many as 1,000 had been preparing to join the search for office administrator O’Callaghan again. Coach parties had been organised and some taxi drivers were offering free lifts out to the site. However police requested that people stay away after narrowing the search area down. Chief Superintendent Steve Hedley, area commander for Swindon, said earlier in the day that further analysis of mobile phone records had produced several “hot spots” that specialist search teams were examining. Colleagues of O’Callaghan told how she was in good spirits and looking forward to the weekend before she disappeared. Liz Watson, operations director at industrial storage company Dexion, said: “We are all very worried about her at the moment and hope that further developments of her whereabouts will come to light soon.” Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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