Federal Aviation Administration takes steps to reassure public after a series of embarrassing incidents The US Federal Aviation Administration has fired two air traffic controllers for sleeping on the job and ordered a higher level of supervision over aircraft carrying the first lady or vice-president after a series of embarrassing incidents. The new air traffic rules and the firings come as the FAA struggles to reassure the public that air travel is safe. The agency has been shaken by five cases of controllers falling asleep on the job , a controller caught watching a DVD movie at his post and an aborted landing this week of a plane carrying Michelle Obama and vice-president Joe Biden’s wife, Jill . The controllers fired on Wednesday were assigned to radar facilities in Miami and Knoxville, Tennessee. They had been found sleeping during overnight shifts, according to the FAA. Under the new air traffic rules, flights carrying Michelle Obama or the vice-president will be handled by an air traffic supervisor rather than a controller, the agency said. The new rules apply to approaches and departures handled by a regional air traffic facility in Warrenton, Virginia, and takeoffs and landings at Andrews air force base in Maryland, where the presidential fleet is based. Flights with the president on board are already required to be handled by a supervisor. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it has opened an investigation into the aborted landing of Michelle Obama’s plane. The FAA moved swiftly in the case of the Miami controller, who the agency said was found sleeping at about 5am on Saturday at a regional radar facility that handles high-altitude air traffic for portions of Florida, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. A preliminary review of air traffic tapes indicated he did not miss any calls from aircraft and there was no impact on flight operations. The Knoxville incident occurred on 19 February at a radar facility at McGhee Tyson airport. Officials said the controller made himself a makeshift bed and deliberately slept for about five hours despite attempts by a co-worker to wake him. The aborted landing involving Michelle Obama’s plane occurred on Monday at Andrews air force base just outside Washington. While aborted landings are not unusual, and the first lady was apparently not in serious danger, the episode became another embarrassment for the FAA. The incident occurred at about 5pm, when a Boeing 737 belonging to the Air National Guard, one of several guard planes used by the White House, came within about three miles of a massive C-17 cargo plane as the planes were approaching Andrews to land, according to the FAA and a base spokeswoman. The FAA requires a minimum separation of five miles between two planes when the plane in the lead is as large as the 200-tonne military cargo jet, in order to avoid dangerous wake turbulence that can severely affect the trailing aircraft. Andrews’ civilian air traffic controllers initially ordered the first lady’s plane to conduct a series of turns to bring it farther from the military jet. When controllers realised there still might not be enough time for the cargo plane to clear the Andrews runway before her plane landed, they directed the pilot to circle the airport. This “go-around” is considered a type of aborted landing. The required separation between the two planes “was compromised,” the NTSB said in a statement. The White House continued to refer questions about the incident to the FAA, although press secretary Jay Carney told reporters travelling aboard Air Force One with the president to California that he understood there was “no imminent danger for the first lady or Dr Biden or anyone else on the plane”. Carney said he had not spoken with the president about the incident. The FAA is also investigating the incident as a possible error by controllers at the Warrenton regional facility. United States Air transport Michelle Obama guardian.co.uk
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British tourists James Cooper and James Kouzaris were shot as they tried to escape gunman, says eyewitness Two British holidaymakers killed in a Sarasota street tried in vain to run away after they were shot, according to a new eyewitness. James Cooper, 25, was shot three times in the chest, ran from a driveway, ducked under a clothes line and tripped on tree roots before sitting down on a patch of grass where he died, the witness said. Cooper’s friend, James Kouzaris, 24, was shot in the head and ran across the street in the opposite direction before collapsing and dying in front of a pickup truck, according to the report published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune newspaper. The graphic account of their final moments would seem to support growing speculation that the two Britons, who were on a three-week holiday in Florida with Cooper’s parents, were victims of a robbery. Their bodies were found at 3am on Saturday, about 15 metres apart on Carver Court, a street in the Newtown neighbourhood of the city where the anonymous eyewitness lives. Cooper, of Warwick, and Kouzaris, from Northampton, are known to have been drinking in a downtown Sarasota bar less than two hours before they were shot, but Sarasota detectives admit they have little idea how or why they went to Newtown, a violent neighbourhood a couple of miles away, notorious for gang activity. Police have not corroborated the account, and the Herald-Tribune article states that the witness, who has been interviewed by investigators, saw only the aftermath of the shooting, not the shots being fired. But his testimony could yet be crucial in the case against 16-year-old Shawn Tyson, a Newtown resident who was arrested 24 hours after the double shooting, and who will face trial as an adult on two counts of first-degree homicide. “I haven’t slept since it happened because I feel I was the last person to see these guys alive,” the witness said, recalling that he heard five shots. “I thought it was a 9mm or .38 calibre.” The newspaper said the witness asked for his identity to be withheld because he feared retribution. It has also emerged that nine CCTV cameras that were due to have been working by the end of last year around The Courts public housing complex, where the killings took place, were never installed. Detectives say it has denied them a crucial opportunity to see who was in the area in the early hours of the morning. “Even if it’s not the suspect, even if it’s not the victims, that may give you people we need to talk who are potential witnesses to the crime,” said Captain Paul Sutton of the Sarasota police department. Police on Wednesday released the recording of a frantic emergency call made by a woman who saw one of the bodies lying in the street. “We seen a white dude laying, he’s … blood everywhere, he’s just laid out,” she is heard telling a 911 operator in the call received at 2.56am on Saturday. “I don’t know if he’s dead or not.” Cooper’s parents, Stanley and Sandra, paid tribute to their son in their first comments since returning from the Florida holiday to their home in Warwick. “As his parents, our lives have been shattered, but through us and his friends and family he will live on. God bless you, son, heaven has another angel, but this world is a colder and poorer place without you in it. He was gentle, kind, compassionate, clever and an athlete, but beyond all his achievements he was full of love.” Florida United States Crime Gun crime Richard Luscombe guardian.co.uk
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Photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros are among those killed in latest attacks on rebels’ western stronghold Misrata, the besieged rebel stronghold in western Libya, has come under heavy mortar fire, killing at least 10 civilians and leaving more than 100 injured, according to medical staff. Among those killed were Tim Hetherington, a British-born photographer and Oscar-nominated documentary director, and Chris Hondros, a US photographer for Getty Images . Seven Libyan civilians and a Ukrainian doctor have also died in the most recent fighting, doctors told Reuters, with around 120 people injured. Three rebel fighters died and 17 were wounded early on Thursday in a mortar attack on Tripoli Street, a major thoroughfare in the town that has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent days. Weeping rebels stood over the bodies of their dead comrades in the town hospital. “Some of us were standing outside in the street and some in buildings when the mortars landed,” a rebel spokesman clutching part of a mortar bomb told Reuters. The Mediterranean port of 300,000 people, Libya’s third-largest city, remains divided into zones controlled by rebels and government forces amid a siege by troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi which has lasted seven weeks. Residents accuse Gaddafi’s forces of using mortars, tank shells, rockets and cluster bombs , as well as snipers, to terrorise the population of the city, where the current civil war erupted in February. The UN’s human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, has said government troops may be committing war crimes in the way they are targeting civilians with heavy weaponry. Since the siege began at least 365 people have been confirmed killed and around 4,000 wounded. Among those injured on Thursday were two other foreign photographers, Guy Martin, a British national from the Panos agency, and Michael Christopher Brown. Residents say the intensity of the fighting has increased, making life almost impossible. “The number of artillery shells and mortars is truly amazing,” Abdul-Athim Salim, a professor of geography at the local university told the Associated Press. “The only break is when they are changing ammunition. Other than that, it’s continuous. It just keeps going.” The danger was constant, he added: “About three times, I have just been out driving my car and a mortar has landed in front of me on the road.” Mohammed al-Fagieh, chief surgeon at Misrata’s Hilal hospital, told the Associated Press that on Wednesday the facility had received three bodies, 12 badly injured people and about 25 others who were less badly hurt, saying this was about average. Fagieh, formerly an oncologist whose specialist hospital was destroyed earlier in the fighting, described treating a woman hit by shrapnel while praying. He said: “Most of the injuries are civilians who are in their own homes. There are some injured in the battles, but most of those die right away.” Residents and rebels complain that Nato should be carrying out more air strikes against government positions but the alliance says it can do little when these are nestled so closely against civilian homes, though it claims to have destroyed more than 40 tanks in the city so far. “There is a limit to what can be achieved by air power to stop fighting in a city,” said Brigadier General Mark van Uhm in Brussels. France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has pledged more Nato support after meeting the leader of the opposition Libyan National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, in Paris. “We are indeed going to intensify the attacks and respond to this request from the national transition council,” Sarkozy told him, according to officials. France has also joined Britain and Italy in saying it will send up to 10 military advisers to help train and assist rebel forces. Despite concerns about “mission creep” for Nato, no member of the alliance plans to despatch fighting troops as yet. Very little ordinary life is taking place in Misrata, with most shops closed and long queues at petrol stations. With minimal mains electricity there is increasing demand for generators. Other than Misrata, Gaddafi’s forces control the bulk of western Libya while the rebels are dominant in the east. A rebel spokesman said there had also been fighting around Zintan and Nalut in the west of the country, Reuters reported. He said: “Clashes are currently occurring in Nalut and have been going on since Monday. The Gaddafi forces are using Grad missiles and mortar rounds to attack Nalut. It’s not an even battle. The rebels are not well-armed.” Early on Thursday, Libyan state TV said there had been more Nato air strikes on the capital, Tripoli, killing seven people. The report could not be verified. Libya’s government has repeatedly denied it is shelling Misrata or using cluster bombs, saying it would welcome “any objective investigation of the actions of our army, our government and our officials”. Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Middle East Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Though the timing may be opportunistic, Ed Miliband is right. Libel reform, privacy and media standards need looking at Two cheers for Ed Miliband. In calling for an independent review of the way newspapers behave he is taking a big political risk, opening the door to concerted hostility from media magnates. He also happens to be right on the principle that freedom of expression and holding truth to power are not synonymous with dodgy journalistic practice. He might deserve a third cheer if it were not for the brazen opportunism he and his party are showing by taking on Rupert Murdoch only now that the love is lost. Before the caveats and the cavilling, credit should be given where it is due. Miliband is seeking to take on the good work carried out two years ago by the cross-party Commons select committee on culture, media and sport. When the MPs issued their report they correctly identified and separated out three related strands: the need for libel reform; issues of privacy; and press standards. Their inquiry looked at the media in the round, but also at some egregious cases of abuse. This included the hounding of Gerry and Kate McCann , and the bugging of telephones of politicians and celebrities by the News of the World – which News Corporation is only now, drip by drip, beginning to admit. The MPs made a point that should be blindingly obvious to the media profession – that legitimate investigation is vital to keeping checks on the powerful, but that intrusion into people’s lives, particularly through subterfuge, is not. Seen from one level, the British media are forced to operate under considerable constraint. Until now England and Wales have been global pariahs, sporting some of the most restrictive libel laws in the developed world. It is a tribute to all political parties, but mostly the coalition, that the Libel Reform Campaign led by Index on Censorship and its partners has produced draft legislation that goes some way to removing the chill on free expression and investigative journalism. Sure, the bill is not perfect, but the great should not be the enemy of the good. After all, this is the first serious attempt in 70 years to tackle the problem. Privacy is the thorniest problem. Hypocrisy should be exposed. What about the celebrity who parades their private life in choreographed photoshoots for glossy magazines but then wishes to hide from public view when things go awry? That is a moot point. Assuming you are a public figure but you make no pronouncements on lifestyles or ethics and you do not parade your life in the glare of the cameras, surely you are entitled to privacy? You are, thanks to the Human Rights Act . But as ever, our suspicious judges are interpreting the legislation in a manner hostile to a free media. Ranged against the long lens is the epidemic of the super-injunction . The master of the rolls (the second most senior judge in England and Wales) is due to report on an issue that serves as a perfect example of rich man’s justice. The very idea that the media should be gagged and that the public is prevented from knowing that such an order exists is more in keeping with a dictatorship. This brings us back to media standards. One of the biggest hindrances to strong investigation is cost. Editors and the bean counters who oversee them are reluctant to invest in long-term projects that might prove fruitless. The democratic deficit in the demise of
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Once scholars agonised for years over additions to language. Now, online dictionaries enable instant updates The other week Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park creators , told the audience of the Late Show With David Letterman about the time they decided to go to the Academy Awards in drag. They had gone to the trouble of
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Official figures will show if chancellor George Osborne is on target with his deficit-reduction programme Official figures being published on Thursday will reveal whether the government hit its public borrowing forecasts for the last financial year. Economists expect public borrowing for the year to March, excluding financial interventions such as bank bailouts, to modestly undershoot chancellor George Osborne’s expectations of £146bn by about £3.5bn. The final monthly public finance figures for the 2010-11 financial year are predicted to show borrowing increased by £18bn-19bn in March, bringing the total for the year to as much as £142.5bn. The chancellor has set out austerity measures including £81bn of spending cuts and January’s 20% hike in VAT, resulting in hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs being axed. Osborne’s forecast, set by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, was revised down from £148.5bn when he delivered the annual budget in March. Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said with the fiscal squeeze now kicking in, attention would now focus on how quickly the public finances improve over the coming months. He said: “The chancellor is looking to reduce the public sector net borrowing excluding financial interventions to £122bn in fiscal 2011-12. While this was raised in the March budget from a previous target of £117bn, it still looks challenging given the headwinds facing the economy.” The improved overall economic performance through the past year and the VAT hike should have lifted tax receipts compared with March 2010. Government borrowing Economics Budget deficit Budget Tax and spending George Osborne guardian.co.uk
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British oil firm claims every safety device failed before Gulf of Mexico explosion a year ago BP is suing the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig and the maker of the device that failed to stop last year’s calamitous Gulf oil spill, alleging that negligence by both companies helped to cause the disaster. The British company said in papers filed in a federal court in New Orleans that it was suing the rig owner, Transocean, for at least $40bn (£24bn) in damages, accusing it of causing the deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico that led to the worst offshore oil spill in US history. BP says every safety system, device and well control procedure on the Deepwater Horizon rig failed. It is also suing Cameron International, claiming it provided a blowout preventer with a faulty design that caused an unreasonable amount of risk. Both companies have filed counter claims against BP. The filings are essentially legal manoeuvres to preserve the companies’ claims. A federal trial is scheduled for next year that will determine which companies are at fault and how much their liability should be. The lawsuits, filed on the first anniversary of the explosion that led to the spill, seek damages to help BP pay for the tens of billions of dollars in liabilities it has incurred from the disaster. Though BP has estimated its liabilities at $40.9bn, it could face tens of billions of dollars more in civil and criminal fines and penalties from the US government. “The Deepwater Horizon BOP was unreasonably dangerous, and has caused and continues to cause harm, loss, injuries, and damages to BP (and others) stemming from the blowout of Macondo well, the resulting explosion and fire onboard the Deepwater Horizon, the efforts to regain control of the Macondo well, and the oil spill that ensued before control of the Macondo well could be regained,” BP said in the lawsuit against Cameron. BP wants the court to award it damages against Cameron and to declare that the device maker caused or contributed to the disaster and is responsible for some or all costs incurred by BP. Eleven people were killed when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April 2010, leading to more than 200m gallons (757m litres) of oil spewing from an undersea well. A testing firm hired by the government determined last month the blowout preventer had a faulty design. It also cited other problems related to rig crew actions. BP said in a statement that it wanted Transocean to pay its “proportionate” share of all damages and liabilities from the disaster. In a statement, Transocean called BP’s lawsuit “desperate”, “specious” and “unconscionable”. “The Deepwater Horizon was a world-class drilling rig manned by a top-flight crew that was put in jeopardy by BP, the operator of the Macondo well, through a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk, in some cases severely,” it said. Houston-based Cameron noted that Wednesday was the deadline under the relevant statute for all parties to file claims against each other. “It is not surprising that the companies are filing to protect their indemnity rights (except in the case of BP) and whatever claims they believe they have,” it said. “Additionally, in order to protect ourselves, we, too, have filed crossclaims and counterclaims, including our indemnity claims, against other parties to the litigation.” Cameron, one of the largest makers of blowout preventers, has defended the integrity of its devices and workmanship. Transocean also filed court papers demanding that judgments be made against BP, Cameron and other companies in its favour. Among other things, Transocean wants a judgment against BP for $12.9m and a judgment against the cement contractor Halliburton and other companies for $20m. Transocean said the figures stemmed from contractual obligations and the money it lost when the rig sank. BP oil spill BP United States Oil spills Pollution Oil Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Maybe the most suprising part of President Obama’s town hall meeting at Facebook headquarters today was that Mark Zuckerberg ditched his hoodie and put on a suit and tie, writes Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Chronicle . “For all its tech/youth/cutting edge promise, Facebook’s event was pretty run of the…
Continue reading …BP today marked the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion by pinning the blame squarely on someone else—namely the maker of the rig’s blowout preventer. The company sued Cameron International in federal court in New Orleans, claiming that the “flawed design” of the blowout preventer was the main…
Continue reading …The Libya shelling that took the life of Restrepo director and war photographer Tim Hetherington has claimed a second life—Getty photographer Chris Hondros. Both men were killed while covering the fighting in Misrati, though the circumstances are unclear. One of Hetherington’s last tweets, courtesy of AP : “In besieged Libyan…
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