Welcome to Newslip. Today's date is Sunday, 19th July 2009. I'm Wesley Gerrard and here are the stories making this week's news.
British backpacker Jamie Neale who was travelling around Australia on a gap year, got lost in the Australian Bush and had a twelve day ordeal in which his survival skills were tested to the limit. He had to strip bark from trees to use as a makeshift mattress to protect against the night-time cold. He dried his damp clothes in the fierce daytime sun and kept close to creeks to be near a fresh water supply. Luckily, though he believed rescue teams had given up their search, Mr Neale was eventually recovered. Mr Neale told police it was "vastly different hiking in the UK than it is bush walking in the Australian bush." Doctors ruled he was healthy enough to be discharged and he walked out of the Blue Mountains Hospital accompanied by his father and newly hired agent. He then threw a party for his rescuers with some of the earnings, reputed to be between £50,000 and £100,000, which he made by selling his story to the Australian media.
First World War veteran Henry Allingham – who last month officially became the world's oldest man – has died at the age of 113. Mr Allingham died in his sleep at 3.10am on Saturday at his care home near Brighton. He had lived a full life, experiencing the rule of six monarchs and saw three different centuries. He was the last surviving founder member of the RAF and had volunteered for service in the first world war. There are two remaining British servicemen who saw action in that war. When receiving official recognition as the world’s oldest man by the Guiness Book of Records, Mr Allingham jokingly attributed his longevity to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women". Right up until the end of his life he had been active and was well known in local schools where he gave many speeches about World War I. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said: "The Queen was saddened to hear of the death of Henry Allingham.
The United States and Colombia are poised to sign an agreement to transfer anti-drug flight operations from Ecuador to at least three Colombian air bases, a move that has drawn criticism in Bogota that it will leave the country even more dependent on Washington. Colombia annually receives more than $500 million in mostly military aid under Plan Colombia, the U.S. program to combat terrorism and drugs. Since 1999, the U.S. aircraft based in Manta, Ecuador, have flown an average 800 missions a year and assisted in nearly two-thirds of all cocaine seizures in the Pacific. The Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa declined to extend the U.S. lease at Manta beyond this year. Colombia is by far the strongest ally of the USA in the region with most other governments leaning too much to the left. There is fear in Washington that in setting up the main base of operations in wartorn Colombia, they may become easy targets for the FARC, who are opposed to imperialism in Colombia.
A 16-year-old girl from Wales who made history when she had a donor heart grafted onto her own as a baby has made a full recovery. Doctors say Hannah Clark's own heart is now in perfect working order three-and-a-half years after her "piggy-back" donor heart was removed. The donor heart had taken over the bulk of blood pumping duties in her body but due to the massive amount of immunosuppressant drugs she was taking to prevent rejection of the donor organ, it was decided that it was time to remove the donor heart. Hannah, from Mountain Ash in Rhondda Cynon Taf, has recovered well say her surgeons Sir Magdi and Mr Victor Tsang. Hannah said she felt lucky to be alive. "I would not have been here today if it wasn't for the donor and the surgeons who did my operation. I'm really grateful.”
Riot police raided a 30th birthday barbecue in a Devon because they thought the organiser, who had invited his friends via Facebook, was staging a rave. Coach driver, Andrew Poole, had invited 17 guests to an 'event' on his social networking page by private invitation and was about to light the barbecue when the gazebo suddenly started flapping wildly and the sound of chopper blades filled the air. A police helicopter circled the field several times before four police cars and a riot van stormed into the field in a small village near Sowton, Devon. Eight officers wearing camouflage trousers and body armour then jumped out and ordered the party to be shut down or everyone would be arrested. Andrew said 'I told them it was my 30th birthday. I said "this is a once in a lifetime event for me, please don't ruin it". But they kept on insisting I had been advertising it as an all-night rave on the internet. Apparently illegal raves had been causing disturbances in the area. It is nice to know that police resources are being spent appropriately and that they are monitoring potentially disruptive social gatherings on social networks.
An Iranian passenger aircraft flying from Tehran to Yerevan in Armenia crashed with the loss of all 168 passengers and crew on board. Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation said it was looking into the causes of the incident without giving any indication of possible mechanical problems. There were no reports of sabotage. The aircraft was a Russian-built Tupolev, which belonged to the semi-private Caspian Airlines. It took off at 11.33am local time on Wednesday from Imam Khomeini airport and crashed 16 minutes later. Iran's national youth judo team, which had been set to take part in the World Cup next month in Hungary, was on board along with tens of Iranian Armenians, the religious minority. Ilna, a semi-official news agency, quoted witnesses as saying that the tail of the aircraft was on fire before the crash happened, indicating that technical reasons could have caused the disaster.
The interim government in Honduras has reimposed a night-time curfew after accusing opponents of seeking to provoke disturbances. Supporters of the ousted President, Manuel Zelaya, had earlier said they would call strikes and block roads. Mr Zelaya, who is recognised internationally, says his backers have "the right to insurrection". Roberto Micheletti took over at the head of a military-backed interim Honduran government after Mr Zelaya was bundled out of the country on 28 June. Micheletti said he was willing to step down, but only if Mr Zelaya did not return. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is the chief mediator between the rival factions and is a Nobel Prize laureate.
Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group inspired by Al-Qaeda, stands accused of suicide bombings in the Indonesian capital where it has mounted a string of attacks in recent years. JI's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state, using terrorist attacks to destabilise governments across Southeast Asia. In its latest handiwork, two suicide bombers posed as guests before detonating powerful devices in crowded public areas at the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in an upmarket business district of Jakarta. The blasts killed at least eight people and wounded more than 50 — and broke a four-year lull in terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
A man found naked at a casino claimed he was a Terminator sent from the future. 19-year-old Sean Stanley Smith was arrested on the Nevada border after he was spotted by a motorist wandering around the highway nude. He was ordered by police to stop but proceeded into a nearby casino - where he was then tasered in front of a group of children. Smith claims he was a Terminator sent back in time from the future - a reference to the film character made popular by Arnold Schwarznegger in the sci-fi franchise. The films usually start with a naked man being transported to the past. However, it turned out that Smith was not a time-travelling Terminator but was in fact suffering from the effects of LSD and marijuana. He was charged with indecent exposure and resisting a police officer.
And this week's top story...
Dozens of British schoolchildren and teachers were in quarantine in a hotel in Beijing on Saturday night after four of their group were struck down with swine flu. Three of the infected four, who are aged 14 to 15, were found to have high temperatures when they arrived in the Chinese capital earlier in the week. They were taken direct from the airport to the Ditan Infectious Diseases Hospital where it was confirmed they had swine flu. A fourth classmate fell ill later in the week. The four remain at the hospital, where they have been described as "comfortable and making a speedy recovery". On Wednesday, following the diagnosis, 52 other members of their group who had been in contact with the children were told to gather at the four star Yanxiang Hotel, where they were placed in quarantine. The party is mostly made up of 14-year-olds from schools across England on a visit organised by the Confucius Institute, which promotes Chinese language and culture.
That's all for Newslip. Thanks for tuning in. See you again next week. Goodbye.
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