All 140 passengers survive ordeal after Caribbean Airlines jet breaks in two on landing at Georgetown airport near 200ft ravine A Caribbean Airlines jet carrying 140 passengers from New York crashed and broke in half on landing in Guyana, injuring several people but causing no deaths. The Boeing 737-800 reportedly overshot the 7,400ft (2,200m) runway at Cheddi Jagan international airport in rainy weather, just missing a 200ft ravine that would have made fatalities more likely, according to the Guyanese president, Bharrat Jagdeo. “We are very, very grateful that more people were not injured,” he said as authorities closed the airport, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded and delaying dozens of flights. Authorities struggled at first to remove passengers without adequate field lights and other emergency equipment. About 100 people received medical attention, with four treated for serious injuries, said Devant Maharaj, transportation minister in Trinidad, where Caribbean Airlines is based. He said the company was sending a team to Guyana to help investigate the crash. No further details were available. Maharaj spoke at a press conference in Trinidad and took no questions, saying the investigation is ongoing. Among the injured was Geeta Ramsingh, 41, of Philadelphia, who said passengers had just started to applaud the touchdown “when it turned to screams”, she said, pointing to bruises on her knees. She said she hopped onto the wing and then onto the dirt road outside the runway fence. “I am upset that no one came to rescue us in the dark, but a taxi driver appeared from nowhere and charged me $20 to take me to the terminal. I had to pay, but in times of emergencies, you don’t charge people for a ride,” she said, sitting on a chair in the arrival area surrounded by relatives. She was returning to her native country for only the second time in 30 years. The plane had left New York and made a stop in Trinidad before landing in Guyana. Jagdeo said he has asked the US National Transportation Safety Board to help investigate the crash. He said crews were pushing to reopen the airport as soon as possible. The crash of Flight BW523 is the worst in recent history in Guyana, and only one of the few serious incidents involving the Trinidad-based airline. It is the single largest carrier in the region, operating at least five daily flights. Plane crashes Guyana New York United States Air transport Airline industry guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Schools council rules Peter Harvey can never teach again after he bludgeoned pupil, 14, about head shouting ‘die, die, die’ A science teacher who attacked a 14-year-old pupil with a dumbbell has been banned from teaching for life. Peter Harvey, now 51, had been provoked by pupils during a lesson in July 2009 when they called him a “psycho” and “bald-headed bastard”. He lost control and hit the teenager about the head with the 3kg weight while shouting “die, die, die”. Described as a “fundamentally decent man”, Harvey was handed a two-year community order at Nottingham crown court in May last year after admitting bludgeoning the boy at All Saints Roman Catholic school in Mansfield. He was cleared by a jury of attempting to murder the boy or intending to cause him serious injury . It emerged during the four-day trial that pupils were trying to wind up Harvey so his reaction could be caught on a camcorder being used secretly by a girl in the class. The footage was then to be passed around the school as a way of humiliating him. After the sentencing the married father-of-two was sacked from the school, where he had worked since 1993, for gross misconduct. On Friday a General Teaching Council committee in Birmingham banned him from teaching for life. The Professional Conduct Committee’s decision said: “There is no doubt that prior to this incident Mr Harvey was a highly respected teacher having taught in the school for 17 years. He was held in high regard both by the school and the wider community. There were issues in Mr Harvey’s personal life and medical reasons which possibly explain, but do not excuse, Mr Harvey’s behaviour.” The committee said Harvey accepted he would not be able to teach again. It said the seriousness of the offence meant a conditional registration order or a suspension order would not be sufficient. “Mr Harvey’s behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with being a registered teacher and therefore the only appropriate and proportionate sanction is a prohibition order.” Harvey is no longer eligible to register as a teacher and the committee said he would not be entitled to apply “for restoration of his eligibility for registration”. He could appeal to the Queen’s bench division of the high court within 28 days from being given notice of the order, the committee said. Teaching Teachers’ workload Schools Pupil behaviour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
National Transitional Council minister says rebel-aligned Obaida Ibn Jarrah group murdered defector from Gaddafi regime The gunmen who shot dead the Libyan rebels’ military chief Abdel Fatah Younis were members of an Islamist-linked militia allied to the campaign to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, according to a National Transitional Council minister. After 24 hours of confusion surrounding the death , the NTC’s oil minister, Ali Tarhouni, said Younis had been killed by members of the Obaida Ibn Jarrah Brigade, a militia named after one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad, suggesting that Islamist elements were involved. Tarhouni told reporters in Benghazi that a militia leader who had gone to fetch Younis from the frontline had been arrested and had confessed that his subordinates carried out the killing. “It was not him. His lieutenants did it,” Tarhouni said, adding that the killers were still at large. The NTC leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said on Thursday that Younis had been recalled for questioning to Benghazi but was killed before he arrived. Relatives said they retrieved a burned and bullet-riddled body. The Gaddafi government has said the killing is proof the rebels are not capable of ruling Libya. Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said: “It is a nice slap [in] the face of the British that the [NTC] they recognised could not protect its own commander of the army.” Ibrahim said Younis was killed by al-Qaida, repeating a claim that the group is the strongest force within the rebel movement. “By this act al-Qaida wanted to mark out its presence and its influence in this region,” he said, adding: “The other members of the National Transitional Council knew about it but could not react because they are terrified of al-Qaida.” Younis’s death has raised fear and uncertainty in Benghazi, the rebel stronghold. Thousands marched behind his coffin, wrapped in the rebels’ tricolour flag, to the graveyard for his burial, chanting that he was a martyr “beloved by God”. Troops fired a military salute as the coffin arrived, and angry and grieving supporters fired wildly into the air with automatic weapons. At the graveside, Younis’s son, Ashraf, broke down in tears as they lowered the body into the ground. And in a startling and risky display in a city so allied to the rebel cause, pleaded hysterically for Gaddafi’s return to bring stability back to Libya. “We want Muammar to come back! We want the green flag back!” he shouted at the crowd, referring to Gaddafi’s national banner. Younis’s death appeared to shake both the NTC and its western allies, who have heavily backed the rebels controlling most of eastern Libya. Two weeks ago 32 nations including the US made a major commitment by formally recognising the NTC as the country’s legitimate government. On Wednesday the British foreign secretary, William Hague, declared the council Libya’s “sole governmental authority” and invited the body to set up full diplomatic relations with London. Western worries will likely be deepened if Younis’s death opens major splits among the fractious rebels. Divisions would also weaken the opposition’s campaign to oust Gaddafi, which has largely stalled in a deadlock despite the four-month-old Nato bombing campaign against regime forces. In Washington, state department spokesman Mark Toner said the circumstances of Younis’s death remained unclear. He pressed the opposition to shore up any cracks in their front against Gaddafi. “What’s important is that they work both diligently and transparently to ensure the unity of the Libyan opposition,” Toner said. Abdel Fatah Younis Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Middle East Africa guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Chiefs of general staff, army, navy and air force take ‘early retirement’ in protest at detention of 250 officers Turkey’s military is in turmoil after the country’s four most senior commanders quit in protest over the detention of 250 officers on charges of conspiring against the government. General Işık Koşaner, the chief of general staff, stepped down on Friday night along with the army, navy and air force commanders, plunging Nato’s second-largest army into uncertainty shortly before a senior promotions board convenes. In a farewell message to “brothers in arms”, Koşaner said it was impossible to continue in his job as he could not defend the rights of men who had been detained as a consequence of a flawed judicial process. The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, swiftly appointed General Necdet Ozel, formerly commander of the military police, as the new head of the military. The collective “early retirement” of the top four came hours after a Turkish court charged 22 suspects, including several generals and officers, with carrying out an internet campaign aimed at undermining Erdogan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) government. Miltary chiefs have repeatedly denied the existence of plans for the so-called Sledgehammer coup. “There are two important reasons for this move”, Cengiz Aktar, professor for EU relations at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, told the Guardian. “On the one hand the AKP government’s increasing interference in the appointment of military personnel – which was previously handled solely by the military itself – and on the other hand the arrests in the Sledgehammer coup trials.” The government’s relations with the military, who regard themselves as the guardians of the secular Turkish republic, have been strained ever since the Islamic AKP came to power in 2002. In a move aimed at decreasing the power of the military, the Turkish Grand National Assembly passed decisive reforms in 2003 assuring a civilian majority in the traditionally military-dominated Security Council (MSK). When the ruling AKP proposed Abdullah Gül as its presidential candidate in 2007 the military published a text on its website stating that the Turkish military would “defend secularism in Turkey by all means.” The Turkish military had staged coups in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1991, forcing the ruling government to resign. But the AKP government confidently defied the 2007 “e-coup” and former AKP politican Gül was voted to become the next Turkish president. In a first reaction to the military resignations from the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP), deputy chairman Gürsel Tekin said: “The law clearly states how generals should be promoted. It’s a pity that the government does not care about the laws. The government wants to redesign the military along their own lines. As a reaction to this the generals have resigned.” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the CHP, has interrupted his summer holidays to return to Ankara. Following the resignations, Erdogan met with the head of the gendarmerie (military police), Necdet Özel, the only high commander who remained in office. While Turkish news outlets dubbed the situation a “bomb” and a “political earthquake”, several political analysts argued against overreaction. “The situation has clearly become intolerable for the military forces and they subsequently resigned,” Cengiz Aktar told the Guardian. “This is nothing to make too much of a fuss over; these things are bound to happen in a democracy.” Turkey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Treasury select committee sees HM Revenue & Customs barely able to function, as a result of real-terms cuts to its budget every year since its formation Alex Hawkes A breakdown in basic services provided by HM Revenue & Customs, including unanswered phone calls and unopened letters, risks undermining respect for the tax system, MPs on the Treasury select committee warn today. Large-scale job cuts, a senior management out of touch with day-to-day issues and severe delays responding to queries left the future looking “bleak”. An increasing focus on online is putting its services beyond the reach of some people. The committee paints a picture of a department barely able to function, mainly as a result of cost savings and re-organisations imposed by the coalition and the last Labour government. HM Revenue & Customs has had to deal with real-terms cuts to its budget every year since its formation. In recent weeks HMRC failed to issue thousands of income tax demands to meet the 31 July self assessment deadline. Lord Oakeshott, the former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman said: “Britain is fighting its financial deficit with one hand tied behind its back because HMRC is in such chaos. When businesses lose control of their cash collection they go bust, but HMRC just seems to blunder on.” The report highlights problems with the PAYE system as an example of cuts being introduced before efficiency savings were secured. In June 2009 the department introduced a new computer system but when it came in, a year late, it emerged that 6 million people had either overpaid or underpaid tax, resulting in unexpected bills. The MPs say the ensuing row damaged the public perception of HMRC. “There have been credible suggestions that HMRC has made savings by reducing staff before the enabling efficiencies have been fully realised – with resulting impacts on performance and costs,” the MPs say. The report quotes a former HMRC employee, Martin Lewis, who alleged that senior management are out of touch. “Middle managers are discouraged from reporting “bad news” or news that projects were becoming unmanageable or going awry, he told MPs. “Senior managers are largely unaware of the difficulties, problems, and obstacles that the bulk of the organisation faces. They know little of the scale of unanswered phone calls, and the unopened letters, the data quality of tax payers’ records and perhaps most importantly the nature and quality of the service provided on a daily basis to the taxpaying public.” The committee said HMRC’s record on returning telephone calls was “patchy at best and unacceptable at worst”. Long delays in answering post were endemic, the MPs add. “Such delays increase demand elsewhere , as taxpayers and tax credit claimants chase progress, increasing costs for the public and HMRC alike.” The prospects of HMRC’s service to taxpayers improving are “bleak”, the MPs say. “HMRC’s written evidence suggests the department accepts and understands many of the issues. But the chairman Mike Clasper admitted that, in relation to customer service, ‘we are not going to be in a great place until 2013.’” An HMRC spokesman said: “We know we have a lot more to do to improve our services to customers. But HMRC is in a much stronger position now than in 2010 and plans to go further. “We have recruited 1,000 contact centre advisers to manage exceptionally busy periods this year. We have improved the way we deal with post, for example rapidly reducing turnaround times on PAYE and Self Assessment post. “Moving services online has been a success, making it easier and quicker for most customers to access HMRC services. We recognise that not everybody can access these online services but we are committed to delivering the same quality of service to all customers. Tax Public sector cuts Public services policy Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Frenzied efforts to avoid ‘economic disaster’ as parties wrangle over formula to raise debt ceiling and cut spending The frenzied legislative manoeuvring to avert a crippling US debt default is continuing as Tuesday’s deadline to raise the country’s debt ceiling looms and Congress remains split down party lines. Late on Friday night the Republican-controlled House finally approved a bill to raise the debt ceiling in return for billions of dollars in spending cuts, but the Democratic Senate quickly rejected it. The back-to-back votes broke weeks of political inertia in efforts to lift the $14.3tn (£8.7tn) US debt limit by Tuesday, after which the world’s largest economy will be unable to pay all of its bills. The Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, ceded some ground when he revised his own deficit-reduction proposal to incorporate parts of a “back-up plan” first proposed by the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell. Reid is seeking a vote on the new proposal on Saturday. “Unless there is a compromise or [Republicans] accept my bill we’re headed for economic disaster,” Reid said. The new version would essentially give Barack Obama the authority – and the blame – for raising the debt ceiling in three stages to cover US borrowing needs through the 2012 elections when he is running for a second term. Obama and the Democrats had hoped to avoid multiple votes before the election. Speaking after dismal figures for US growth increased the pressure on politicians to prevent a fresh meltdown in global markets, Obama said: “I am confident we can solve this problem. I am confident we will solve this problem. “For all the intrigue and all the drama that’s taking place on Capitol Hill right now I’m confident that common sense and cooler heads will prevail.” But Congress remained in disarray for much of Friday with the Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, in a dangerous mood after failing to quell a humiliating revolt by the Tea Party wing. Boehner scheduled a vote on Thursday on a Republican bill to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending, but hardcore conservatives refused to back it and the vote had to be temporarily abandoned. The bill was substantially rewritten to meet conservative rebels’ demands. The febrile mood in Washington was matched on Wall Street and in the City of London, where news that the US grew at an annual rate of just 1.3% in the three months to June prompted renewed concern that the world’s biggest economy could lapse back into recession if ratings agencies downgrade its debt. Speculation that the Federal Reserve might need to embark on a third round of quantitative easing – the creation of electronic money – intensified after revisions to past figures for US gross domestic product showed the recession was deeper than originally believed and the subsequent recovery weaker. America’s peak-to-trough drop in output between 2007 and 2009 is now put at 5.1% rather than the 4.1% originally estimated. With the International Monetary Fund warning the US that a continued impasse risks reigniting Europe’s debt crisis, bond yields in Italy and Spain rose. The interest rate on 10-year Italian bonds rose to 5.89%, while that for Spain – where the government called a general election – climbed to 6.09%. Shares in London closed 1% lower, a drop of 58.02 at 5815.19, while the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 96.87 points at 12,143.24, completing a week of daily falls. Sources close to George Osborne, the British chancellor, said the new figures from the US showed that the American and British experience during and after the global downturn had been similar, weakening the argument for the coalition to revisit its tough austerity plans. If the US does not raise its debt ceiling by 2 August it risks being unable to continue borrowing and pay its bills. Obama has said that default is not an option so the US treasury will prioritise keeping up interest payments, which could mean cuts elsewhere. The president reiterated that the victims could be people expecting federal cheques for welfare, and military veterans and government contractors awaiting payments. “This is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart,” Obama said. “There are a lot of crises in the world that we can’t always predict or avoid: hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks. This isn’t one of those crises. The power to solve this is in our hands.” US politics US economy Economics United States Democrats Republicans Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Polygamist Warren Jeffs’ decision to represent himself in court continues to go swimmingly: Today, he relayed a statement from God and threatened the court with biblical destruction unless it ended his trial, reports AP . “I, the Lord God of heaven, call upon the court to cease this open prosecution against…
Continue reading …Psychologists rushing to Ground Zero on September 11 might have done more harm than good. Experts overestimated how many people—including firefighters and police who responded—would experience stress for a prolonged period following the disaster, according to a report coming out in American Psychologist . Many also might have been…
Continue reading …A government employee in Australia is suing her employer because she got injured while having sex at a motel during a business trip. The woman thinks she deserves compensation because a light fixture fell on her, inflicting injuries to her face and causing mental distress, reports the Daily Telegraph .
Continue reading …President Obama’s approval rating has hit an all-time low of 40%, according to Gallup ‘s daily tracking. The rating has previously dipped to 41%—most recently in April—but it had risen to an average of 46% during the past two months. At one point in June, it reached 50%….
Continue reading …