Newslip Episode 26 05.07.09

Welcome to Newslip. Today’s date is Sunday, 5th July 2009. I’m Wesley Gerrard. Here are the stories making this week’s news.

At least 13 people died in a horrible accident in Northern Italy when a train carrying liquid petroleum gas derailed and exploded. At least 36 people were injured, 15 of those are in a critical condition. Most of those affected lived in local houses. The accident happened near the train station in the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio, about 350 kilometres north of Rome. Eyewitness Gianfranco Bini said, "We saw a ball of fire rising up to the sky. We heard three big rumbles, like bombs. It looked like war had broken out." Firefighters battled overnight to contain blazes started by at least three explosions. Over a thousand people were evacuated from their homes.

Former England soccer star, Michael Owen, has committed one of football’s cardinal sins. The former Liverpool schoolboy who went on to carve worldwide fame for himself while at Liverpool, caused massive upset when he left the Merseysiders for Real Madrid. After a relatively unsuccessful period at the Bernabeu, Owen returned to England, to Newcastle United. Newcastle have just been relegated and out of contract Owen signed for Manchester United. The rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester means that there is very little movement of players between the clubs. Owen, a former winner of the Ballon D’Or, and once regarded as one of the best strikers on the planet, has in recent years had a loss of form, with many nasty injuries and has also lost his place in the national team. Maybe the new European Champions believe that they can reignite this once great player’s career?

Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, 79 and in poor health, was denied parole after Justice Secretary Jack Straw vetoed the decision which was supposed to have released him. In 1963 Biggs was part of a gang which robbed a Glasgow to London mail train and escaped with £2.6m in used bank notes, the biggest haul of an era when many criminals became celebrities. In 1964 Biggs escaped from Wandsworth prison and began a life on the run which ended in 2001 when he left his refuge in Brazil and returned to Britain where he began a jail sentence. Throughout his years on the run, Biggs regularly courted the media and even appeared as a guest vocalist on a Sex Pistols song. In recent years his health has declined and he is currently being treated at a Norwich hospital. He son spoke of the heartlessness of the Justice Secretary, not to release a man on compassionate grounds. It is Biggs’ dream to die a free Englishman in his own country and he has appointed lawyers who are questioning the legality of Jack Straw’s decision.

Two German Shepherd police dogs have died after being left in a hot car by their handler. The dogs were found dead in a police car parked outside Nottinghamshire's force headquarters in Arnold at 2.15pm on Wednesday. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is deciding on whether or not to allow the RSPCA to investigate the matter. The maximum sentence for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal is six months in prison and a £20,000 fine. Nottinghamshire Police said the handler has not been suspended. It can take just 20 minutes for a dog to die and temperatures reach over 40 degrees in some vehicles. On the day of the incident temperatures hit 29.4 degrees centigrade in Nottingham. It is believed the dogs' handler was not on duty at the time and had called in to the force's headquarters at Sherwood Lodge, leaving the dogs to over-heat in the parked car.

The National Express franchise of the East Coast mainline announced that it had run out of money for the year and the government stepped in and nationalised the stricken rail service. The rail economy, although private, is heavily dependent on the state of the economy as user figures are very closely correlated with it. The economic conditions of three years ago when National Express made a successful bid were soon to change and what was considered a medium risk venture has now collapsed. The Transport Secretary threatened to also immediately take two other National Express franchises into state ownership. Lord Adonis went on to say, “It is simply unacceptable to reap the benefits of contracts when times are good, only to walk away from them when times become more challenging.” There were reports that National Express offered the government £100 million in cash in order to end the contract. National Express are better known for their ventures in national coach travel.

Mourning for the dead pop singer Michael Jackson continued. The family announced that there would be no public showing of the body. There was a scramble for lottery won tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial with 8500 lucky ‘winners’ instantly putting their tickets up for auction. Jackson’s will made preparations for the care of his children. He stated that if his mother were unable to look after the three kids then they should be handed over to Diana Ross’ care. It is believed that his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, intends to fight a custody battle. Recent video footage of the star’s gruelling preparations for his forthcoming tour were released. Fellow superstar Madonna gave a special tribute to Michael Jackson, fittingly at the O2 Arena in London where Jackson had intended to begin his final farewell concerts…

British police have called off their 45-year search for the last missing Moors murder victim Keith Bennett. Bennett was just 12 when he became the third victim of notorious killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady in June 1964. Hindley and Brady killed a total of five youngsters between 1963 and 1965 before burying them on Saddleworth Moor, Greater Manchester. Bennett was the only victim whose remains were never found. Bennett's mother Winnie Johnson, 75, was devastated by the police decision to end the search for her son. Brady, 71, remains in Ashworth high security hospital in Liverpool. Hindley died aged 60 of a heart attack while in jail in 2002.

The sole survivor of Yemenia Flight 626 could barely swim and didn't have a life jacket. When Bahia Bakari's airplane crashed into the stormy Indian Ocean this week, killing 152 other passengers and crew, the 12-year-old girl suddenly found herself in the watery darkness. She could hear the voices of other passengers, but couldn't see anyone, including her mother who perished. For 13 hours, Bahia clung to debris until she was rescued. Back now in France with her father Kassim, he commented, "I would never have thought she would have survived like this. I can't say that it's a miracle, I can say that it is God's will." Research has been produced that apparently sitting towards the rear of an aircraft encourages your chances of surviving a crash so the advantages of flying first class and business class do have certain drawbacks…

A tower block fire in South London left six people dead including a three week old baby and two children. About 30 people were rescued from the fire at the 12-storey Lakanal House on the Sceaux Gardens Estate, Camberwell. The blaze started on the ninth floor, at 1620 BST on Friday. Of the 30 people rescued, 15 were taken to hospital for treatment, including three who died. Fire bosses believe it will take "weeks if not months" to establish how the blaze, in south-east London, happened and the whole area was being treated as a crime scene so many people weren’t allowed to return to their homes. Harriet Harman MP, whose constituency includes the tower block, said it was "clearly a very tragic situation".

And this week’s top story…

The lawn tennis championships at Wimbledon have concluded for yet another year. The weather throughout the tournament was surprisingly good with Britain experiencing an early summer heatwave. Serena Williams upstaged her big sister, Venus, in a closely fought Ladies Singles final. Serena turned on the heat in the final set, winning four games in a row to finish with a score of 7-6, 6-2. Her victory makes a mockery of the world rankings system which states that Dinara Safina is the best player in the world despite having not won a grand slam. In the men’s tennis, Britain’s great hope did as well as Tim Henman had done previously, by making it to a semifinal. But unfortunately for the excited strawberry eating, cream-slurping fans, Murray got knocked out by Andy Roddick. Federer went on to win the final after a prolonged battle with Roddick which never seemed to want to end. 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14 were the final scores. The victory was the Fed Express’ 15th Grand Slam title, helping him take an onlooking Pete Sampras’ record. The win means that Roger Federer reclaims the No1 world ranking spot ahead of injured Rafael Nadal.

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

Newslip Episode 22 07.06.09

Welcome to Newslip. I'm Wesley Gerrard.Today's date is Sunday, 7th June 2009 and here are the stories making this week's news...

The twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre passed this week with no official recognition from China other than the mass deployment of security forces in Beijing where they outnumbered tourists and ensured that no protestors would gather in a country where to even speak of Tiananmen is illegal. On June 4th 1989, angry students, who sought more political rights, were confronted by Chinese army tanks. Scores of peaceful protestors were massacred that day in an event which shocked the world and presented the ruling communist party of China in a very unfavourable light. The past twenty years have seen China truly rise to the world stage as a superpower. However, as protestors gathered to commemorate the event in international cities, the general consensus was that despite the economic leap forward, political rights in China had hardly changed at all. Today’s student generation are in general politically apathetic.

One of Britain’s Got Talent’s stars has been admitted to a mental hospital suffering from exhaustion. Susan Boyle was runner up on the TV talent contest and her dowdy and unglamorous appearance captivated the imagination of global viewers. After coming second in the contest’s final when she lost out to dance troupe, Diversity, from London, the visibly shaken unemployed church volunteer, broke down and was admitted to the Priory clinic suffering from mental exhaustion. The singer had been born with slight brain damage after suffering from lack of oxygen at birth. Despite her loss in the final of the show, Boyle is undoubtedly the show’s star. Her performances have received over 200 million Youtube downloads and she has been invited to appear on Oprah Winfrey and Larry King’s US show. It is expected that Simon Cowell is likely to cash in on her success by signing her up in a music deal. After spending less than a week in the celebrity clinic, Boyle left for home in a central London flat where it is hoped that the press will cease camping out on her doorstep and allow her to recover.

Actor David Carradine has been found dead in his Bangkok hotel room. The star of Kill Bill made his name as Caine in the cult 1970s TV series Kung Fu. The Thai Police say that he was found naked in his wardrobe with a cord tied around his neck. They have initially said that they believe the death was a suicide and cctv footage suggests that he was alone in his hotel room at the time of death. However, foul play has not been ruled out and close friends of the actor have stated that he was suffering from no form of depression. The FBI have been asked to investigate. Controversial photos of the death scene were printed in the Thai press and Carradine’s family have threatened to sue any news outlet that reprints the pictures.

Eating a curry once or twice a week can, according to American research, prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The key ingredient is curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric. Curcumin appears to prevent the spread of amyloid protein plaques - thought to cause dementia - in the brain. It is known that Turmeric is a very useful anti-cancer spice. Some sceptics at the Royal College of Psychiatrists have poured scorn on the findings and the incomplete research is set to be put to the test by studying the effects of curry bingeing when they analyse the effects of people eating curries all week long. Apparently eating a curry could not counter-balance the increased risk of dementia associated with a poor diet. As curry is now the national dish of Britain, there is hope for the future.

Violent clashes between security forces and indigenous people in Peru have led to 31 deaths. In the most intense fighting since trouble began to flare in the Amazon region in April, 22 tribesmen and 9 police died. The natives are incensed by government supported attempts to exploit oil reserves in their territory. New laws that have been passed by Peru’s President, Alan Garcia, also offer up the exploitation of communal land to foreign logging companies, large-scale farming and mining. Most of the trouble occurred six hundred miles to the north of Lima near the town of Bagua. Indigenous leaders say police using helicopters opened fire on demonstrators in the latest incident though the government counter-claimed, equating the locals to criminals and by saying that they were first to open fire.

Neil and Kazumi Puttick were so overcome with grief at their loss of their son, Sam, that they drove to the cliffs in East Sussex and jumped 400ft to their deaths, holding his body in one rucksack and his toys in another. Sam who had as a toddler been paralysed in a car crash, had just died from Meningitis. It has been suggested that his loving parents made a Japanese suicide pact before ending their lives at the notorious Beachy Head blackspot. In the hours after his death they had refused visits from friends. Their devotion to their son during his life was intense and they revealed their anguish in a typewritten note before the final tragic event unfolded.

The 20-20 cricket world cup is underway in Britain with some amazing results captivating the willow world. There was a massive shock on the first day when England lost to cricketing minnows, The Netherlands. Australia also suffered a surprise defeat when they were soundly beaten by the West Indies after an impressive performance by the islanders in which batsman Chris Gayle scored six sixes, resulting in a seven wicket defeat for the world champions with four overs to spare. England managed to salvage a place in the last eight after recovering from the Dutch and beating Pakistan by 48 runs. The tournament continues for the next few weeks and the success of the shortform of cricket looks set to blossom with the exotic nature of results.

Barack Obama made a tour of the Middle East in which he gave speeches reaching out to the Muslim world. He stated that the "cycle of suspicion and discord" between the US and Muslims must end. He gave a keynote speech in Cairo, calling for a ‘new beginning’. In his speech he made key references to the Koran. His father is a Muslim and Obama spent part of his early life growing up in the Muslim country of Indonesia. He spoke of hopes for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and also emphasized that Islam had a been a major part of US history and had an important role to play within the USA’s borders. He tried to convey the feeling that he didn’t associate the Islamic militants and their violence with the entire Islamic community. He equated the plight of the Palestinians with that of slaves in America. His addresses were condemned for their inconsistencies by Hamas and the Ayatollah in Iran made a prior speech stating that America was still very much hated in the region.

Voters across Europe went to the polls this week and turned up some surprises in the European elections. On the whole, socialist parties lost out and right-wing parties came out on top. In Britiain the ruling Labour party suffered catastrophic defeat, with many calling for Gordon Brown to resign. Conservatives made good of the voters’ disillusionment with Labour but there were also shock elections to the European parliament for the controversial BNP with them gaining two seats in Brussels due to the proportional representation aspect to the vote. Although the British government felt the worst effects of defeat in Europe, Germany’s ruling Social Democrats and France’s Socialist Party were also heading for historic defeats. Some British Labour MPs stated that they were not concerned too much as they had previously done badly in European polls yet gone on to win in general elections.

And this week's top story...

An Air France plane travelling from Rio Di Janeiro to Paris went missing over the Atlantic and initial attempts at locating the plane were unsuccessful. There were 216 passengers aboard flight 447. Relatives fears for the worst looked substantiated when body parts and plane debris were located in the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. There has however been no confirmation of a crash and location of flight recorders hasn’t succeeded. Experts are baffled as to what may have caused a plane in perfectly good condition to plunge from the sky on a routine flight. 17 bodies have been recovered in total. Among the lost passengers were three Irish doctors of a mainly French and Brazilian populace. It is the second serious plane tragedy in Brazil in the last two years after a major crash in Sao Paolo in 2007 when199 people perished.

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