Newslip Episode 24 21.06.09

Welcome to Newslip. I'm Wesley Gerrard. Today is the summer solstice, 21st June 2009. here are the stories making the news this week.

647 workers at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire were sacked after they called wildcat strikes. Their unsympathetic employers, French oil giant Total, had been in a bitter dispute with the union who claimed that promises not to make further job cuts had been broken. The refinery had been subject to strikes against the use of foreign labour back in January. The latest row began after Total sacked 51 employees working on a construction project at the plant. Workers who joined the wildcat action included those at the Staythorpe power station in Nottinghamshire, Ferrybridge power station in Yorkshire and around 1,100 construction workers building a bio-fuel plant on Teesside. Total apparently didn't turn up to a meeting with the union and the leader of the GMB Union, Paul Kenny, said: "Total has not even had the decency or courtesy to turn up at the meeting that they themselves arranged... Bullying and intimidation is not the way to bring about peace."

A truck bomb killed 64 people near the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Saturday, the country's bloodiest attack in 15 months. The attack, which also wounded 202 people, struck near a mosque in Taza Kharmatu, a predominantly Turkmen Shiite town south of Kirkuk, at around 1:00 pm on Saturday and claimed women and children among its victims, officials said. More than one ton of explosives was used in the bombing. Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, is plagued with intercommunal tensions among its Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab communities.

Scotland Yard has decided to launch an investigation into MPs' misuse of expenses. Its economic and specialist crime command will investigate several MPs, Labour's Elliot Morley and David Chaytor have admitted that they are among those under scrutiny. Both apparently claimed interest payments on mortgages they had already paid off. They have been barred by Labour in standing at the next election. Scotland Yard have previously made parliamentary investigations which have ended in no criminal prosecutions. In addition to this new leaf in the ongoing saga, it has been revealed that over 50 MPs had been guilty of overclaiming their council tax expenses. After checking data with local town halls it was discovered that these MPs had falsely inflated the amount that they were actually being charged.

The British and Irish Lions played the first test in their tour of South Africa and were unfortunate to lose. A disappointing first half left them trailing to the hosts by about twenty points. The Lions forwards were letting them down with Phil Vickery performing badly in the scrummage and the Lions lacking the Southern Hemisphere ferocity at the breakdown. Changes were made and the Lions started a comeback which left South Africa shellshocked but it was too little too late and the match was abruptly ended by an under-the-cosh South Africa with them pipping the legendary tourists to a 26-21 defeat and condemning the Lions to the necessity of another comeback if they wish to gain victory in the overall series.

A record crowd has gathered at Stonehenge to witness the summer solstice. 36,500 people gathered at the prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain to watch the sun rise, putting massive pressure on local transport infrastructure. By 3AM revellers were struggling to lift their beer cans to their mouths. Sensibly, the druids held their ceremony beside the heel stone, a leaning monolithic a few dozen yards from the main stone circle. They were joined by a group of Papuans who made the pilgrimage in an effort to draw attention to their struggle with the Indonesian authorities in their homeland. The record crowds were lucky enough in that the sun was shining. The high numbers are due to the solstice falling on a weekend this year.

A row has erupted in Formula 1, threatening to end the sport as we know it. The eight Fota teams - McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Brawn, Toro Rosso, Renault and Toyota - released a statement declaring their intention to quit Formula 1 and set up a breakaway group. Their move is as a protest to the planned budget caps which would limit the amount of money each team could spend. Also they are discontented with FIA President Max Mosley who they see as having an autocratic grip on the sport. He allowed the Concorde agreement to lapse which gave the teams rights in determining the rules and regulations of the sport. Mosley described the breakaway threat as "posing and posturing", adding: "Always with these things in the end there's a compromise."

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Spacecraft are on their way to the moon atop the same Atlas V rocket. LRO will go into orbit around the moon, turning its suite of instruments towards the moon for thorough studies. The spacecraft also will be looking for potential landing sites for astronauts. NASA plan on landing humans on the moon again some time before 2020. In addition to the probing, the current mission, which is due to reach lunar orbit on Thursday, will be seeking to find sources of water on the Moon.

Pressure on the Labour government continued with Hazel Blears, the former communities secretary, narrowly escaping deselection in her Salford constituency. Her decision to quit the cabinet prior to the European elections was said to have been within a hair's breadth of bringing down Gordon Brown. The Prime Minister, this week, spoke of not enjoying the pressures of office and how he could quite easily walk away from his position. The trappings of power continue to haunt him at cabinet level as he faced a hostile pack regarding his plans for taking on the Tories at the next election.

The Islamic Shiite Resistance in Iraq have handed over two dead bodies to British government officials in Iraq. The dead men have been identified as security guards, Jason Swindlehurst, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, from Glasgow. They were part of the hostage party seized by militants in 2007. They had been guarding computer expert Peter Moores, who remains hostage with two other guards. It is believed that the release of the bodies was a goodwill gesture after Laith al-Khazali was released by the Americans last week. The British government has a policy of not paying extortionate ransoms for kidnapped Brits, which has been criticised and also praised.

And this week's top story...

The aftermath of the controversial Iranian election has been the principal headline of the week. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke out against foreign nations and claimed that the UK was the most evil of all these governments. the Iranians have criticised international media bias in its reporting and believes that the current unrest is a result of foreign stirrings. Riots between police and opposition protestors has left at least ten people dead. Authorities are firing into crowds of demonstrators with live ammo. The BBC, whose Persian language channel is very popular in Iran, has evacuated its main Tehran correspondent. There has been a general media blackout in the Pariah state and people there have turned to social networks in their droves to push information out. President Obama has begun to criticise the events after initially maintaining silence.

That's all for Newslip this week. Thanks for tuning in. See you all again soon. Goodbye.

Newslip Episode 17 03.05.09

Welcome to Newslip. I'm Wesley Gerrard and today's date is Sunday, 3rd May 2009. Here are the stories making this week's news.

A five day shutdown of parts of the Mexican economy is in operation to help prevent the spread of the Swine Flu which originated there. Non-essential public services have halted and many public buildings like restaurants and cinemas have also closed their doors. There are over 300 cases of Swine Flu in Mexico. It is believed that the epidemic is on the decline in Mexico now though it is feared that it could resurface during a cold spell. Mexico’s economy is already ailing and will be badly hit by the outbreak of this virulent disease.

The six year British military mission to Iraq has ended in an official ceremony at Basra. The 20th Armoured Brigade lowered the Union Jack and handed over the reins to the US Army. There was a total of 179 British deaths during the conflict and subsequent occupation. Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the UK troops' efforts as a ‘success story’. Opposition called for an immediate postwar inquiry to be held into why British troops were there in the first place. Other voices of criticism included the Stop the War Coalition who have always regarded British troop presence in Iraq as pointless. The BBC's John Simpson says many ordinary Iraqis in Basra are worried that the Americans who will replace the British will be much more aggressive.

A Royal parade for Holland’s ruling family ended in chaos when an assassination attempt was made resulting in the deaths of five people. A 38 year old man driving a black Suzuki Swift went at high speed through police barriers, narrowly missed the royal family’s open top bus and crashed into a memorial column, having taken out several spectators during his efforts. The Royal family looked on in shock as the incident unfolded. The incident occurred at Apeldoorn, a small town 90km south-east of Amsterdam. The event marked celebrations of Queen’s Day, for Queen Beatrix’s birthday. Queen Beatrix addressed the nation to express her dismay. The driver was badly injured but survived and faces a life sentence in jail for the attempted assassination.

The good news is that we can, according to weather forecasters, expect a British summer heatwave this year with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees centigrade. The bad news is that as many of 10000 deaths are predicted due to the intense heat and the government are preparing to put people on high alert. Up to 35000 people were killed across Europe during the 2003 heatwave, 2000 from Britain. The erratic climatic conditions look set to heat things up though as ever with long range forecasts there is a high degree of speculation at work. A hot one this year would certainly make up for last year’s non-event of a summer.

The McCann family marked the second anniversary of the loss of their daughter, Madeline, who went missing during a family holiday at Praia da Luz in the Portuguese Algarve. They published a photo of how she might now look two years on from when the four year old was taken from her parents. They also made a high profile appeal on the Oprah Winfrey show in America. Detectives in Portugal are now concentrating their efforts on the immediate vicinity of the town where Maddy disappeared after corroborated reports suggest a man was seen carrying a small girl similar in appearance to Madeleine near the McCann’s holiday apartment.

The government has won a series of votes on planned MPs' expenses reforms, after it agreed to delay a decision on controversial second homes allowances. Gordon Brown backed down on his original decision made during his episode on Youtube which claimed that he would be scrapping the second homes allowance in favour of a non-receipted attendance allowance. There has been much controversy recently over MPs claiming taxpayers’ money for silly expenses such as for adult films or patio heaters. The proposed changes are believed by the PM to be the most significant changes to expenses in 25 years. His opposition see his climbdown as another sign of weakness.

The trial of a pregnant Briton in Laos has been brought forward. Samantha Orobator, 20, faces charges of heroin trafficking which carries a potential sentence of death by firing squad. The woman who is originally Nigerian but who lived in Britain for twelve years and is a British citizen was found last August at Wattay Airport allegedly with 600g of the drug after a holiday in Thailand and the Netherlands. She became pregnant in December during her stay at the notoriously harsh prison. Her lawyers claim that the bringing forward of legal proceedings makes her defence difficult to arrange.

Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton fought Filipino, Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas. Before the fight Hatton commented ‘This fat, beer-drinking Englishman is going to shock the world again’. Shock the world he did. He was downed twice in the first round, displaying a lack of defence. In the second round, the hard, fast-hitting Filipino caught the celebrity Brit with a perfect left hand knockout punch which sent Hatton unconscious to the ground where he lay dazed for a good couple of minutes. He spent the night mourning the loss of his world title in the local hospital and it is predicted tthat he will be forced into retirement after the worst defeat in a 45 and 2 professional career.

The family of Baby P who we now know as ‘Peter’ have hit headlines again. Baby P was the baby that social services critically failed to protect when he died of neglect at the hands of his mother and stepfather. His stepfather, Steven Barker, was found guilty in court over the rape of a two year old girl. The girl, who is now four, gave evidence to the Old Bailey becoming the youngest ever witness before the court. Her video evidence confirmed the sickening incident to the jury as she used a teddy bear and a doll to demonstrate the trauma she had been forced to endure. The jury were unaware of the man’s relation to the Baby P case. The results of the trial draw into question again the activities of social services who failed to protect the youngster in a similar way to how they failed to protect Baby Peter. It is believed that either Steven Barker or his paedophile brother are being held at Belmarsh prison where they are given round the clock protection from vigilantes.

And this week's top story...

The World Health Organisation announced that it was no longer possible to contain the spread of Swine Flu. Emitting from Mexico the disease has spread to sixteen countries across the world as travellers returning home have started to affect local people with human to human transmission of the deadly virus. The H1N1 strain known as Swine Flu has emerged previously in recent history. The worst medical holocaust since the Black Death killed between 20 and 100 million people in 1918-1919. This was twice as many who died during the First World War. At that time half of the world’s two billion people were infected. In Western Samoa 90% of the population was wiped out. The flu at this time was called Spanish flu but an alternative name was the Swine Flu with which it is now being tagged. Governments across the world have been put on high alert and are stocking up on medical supplies should the crisis worsen.

That's all for Newslip. Thanks for tuning in. See you again next week. Goodbye.