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 21 31.05.09

Welcome to Newslip. Today is Sunday, 31st May 2009. I’m Wesley Gerrard and here are the stories making this week’s news…

A 61-year old Briton has been killed in a hot air balloon crash in central Turkey. Ten others were injured in the incident, including nine other British tourists and the balloon operator. The balloon was conducting a tour of the Cappadocia region which is popular with tourists for its cone-shaped rock formations, rock-carved underground cities and early Christian churches. The balloon fell from a height of 200m and an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the crash.

Manchester United has lost the Champions League Final against Barcelona. Samuel Eto’o’s early goal in Rome was enough to keep the United team well subdued for the game in which Barcelona dominated. Lionel Messi scored later to seal the win with a two-nil score line. The victory meant that Barcelona won a treble. The FA cup final between Chelsea and Everton was won by Chelsea after they came from a goal behind to win 2-1 and was the icing on the cake for Gus Hiddink in his last game in charge of the club before he returns to manage the Russian national team.

Gay marriage has been outlawed in America’s most populous state, California. In demonstration against the Proposition 8 vote, 3000 gays and lesbians marched across California to their support base in Fresno. They are comparing their plight to that of US Civil Rights activists in the 1960s. Despite the outcry against the amendment, Proposition 8 was democratically decided with more than 70% voting to ban homosexual wedding ceremonies. Those wedded prior to the introduction of the law will be able to retain their statuses.

A one-armed multi-millionaire is currently standing trial in Moscow accused of a botched murder attempt on a rival in his silver Rolls-Royce. Vladimir Barsukov is reputed to be the last gangster at large in Russia out of those criminals that benefitted from the collapse of communism to extend vast organised crime networks that penetrated every Russian institution. Indeed Barsukov has business links to Vladimir Putin from his time as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. He has been compared to Al Capone for his actions during Russia’s mafia wars. Barsukov, at the height of his power, had 2000 armed foot soldiers. He lost his arm in an assassination attempt on him in 1994. At his trial, the 53 year old gangster is protected by a bulletproof glass cage. He stands flanked by his lieutenants and is claiming that he is a high level political victim. He stated that he has no-one to answer to but God.

A mother has been reunited with her son, Gavin, after 27 years due to him appearing on facebook. Avril Grube of Poole, Dorset, claimed that her son was kidnapped when his Hungarian father, who had visiting rights, said he was taking him to the zoo, then disappeared back to Hungary with him. Grube’s sister was surprised when doing a Google search for her nephew’s name, discovered he had a facebook profile. Initial emails went unresponded as Mr Paros hadn’t logged into his site since October. But after his Auntie started contacting his children, he replied, and has been reunited with his estranged mother. His father died in 2006 and is mother is now in poor health. After years of protest involving contacting Margaret Thatcher and the Hungarian embassy to no avail, the social network site has produced a success story for this family.

The Pakistan defence secretary, Syed Athar Ali, has declared that government forces are successful in their operations against Taliban insurgents in the Swat valley with only about 5-10% of their job left before they have successfully cleared the risk of Taliban fighters in the region. The army had recaptured Mingora, the main city in Swat, and say that only a hardcore element of Taliban fighters remain. Out of revenge for the Swat offensive, the Pakistani Taliban bombed Lahore, the two bomb blasts killing 5 and injuring 30. Also in Lahore a suicide bomber killed 24 people and injured 300 a day prior to the Taliban bomb blasts.

The British Lion rugby tour of South Africa has gotten underway with a hard fought 37-25 victory over a Royals XV, who led 18-3 at halftime. Irish fly half Ronan O’Gara, paved the way to victory with a try and seventeen points from his boot. The Lions have a total tour schedule of ten matches, including three tests against South Africa. Their shaky start bodes badly for the tour outcome. Injury losses to the squad, including Welsh centre Tom Shanklin; mean that their stiff challenge to succeed will be more difficult. The 1997 tour to South Africa resulted in a 2-1 test victory and after the whitewash on the last tour to New Zealand; the Lions will be hoping to satisfy their multitude of travelling supporters with flowing rugby and healthy victories.

A manhunt for British Tycoon, Alan Griffin, is underway after his Polish girlfriend, Kinga Legg, was found murdered in their suite at the Hotel Le Bristol in Paris. Her bloodstained body lay amid a wreck of furniture and the crimson-coated hotel room was said to be due to a fisticuffs following a big champagne binge. Griffin, who made his money as a tan salon and mobile phone ringtone entrepreneur, made haste from Paris in his black Porsche, which was later recovered from near his parents’ home in Cheshire. He had been planning a seaborne getaway. He turned up at Shepperton Marina in Surrey and demanded that repairs on his speedboat were hurried up. When it became apparent that this would not be possible he inquired about making a quick purchase of a cabin cruiser. Apparently he also purchased a satellite navigation system and maritime charts for the waters of Britain, Ireland and Europe. The search for the murderer of the high flying Polish vegetable seller continues.

A British mother has gone to the European Court of Human Rights after she was branded ‘not clever enough’ to look after her three year old daughter. The woman has been certified by a psychiatrist to have no learning difficulties and ‘good literacy and numeracy and that her general intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range’. However, it has been felt by social services that the complex medical care needs of her daughter cannot be addressed by the mother who is known as Rachel. The twenty-four year old can at the moment visit her daughter at the foster carers', but plans are for the visits to reduce in frequency and eventually stop. Social services allowed the parents of Baby P to continue looking after their child, which eventually led to his death. Yet at the same time, they are prepared to go to lengths to break up the family unit and give into adoption a baby whose mother has been certified capable of care. John Hemming, the liberal democrat MP, has taken up Rachel’s cause and is hoping that the system sees sense.

And this week’s top story…

North Korea has added to the controversy surrounding its satellite launch last month by claiming to have successfully detonated a nuclear bomb. The underground test was detected by seismologists after it triggered an earthquake in the region. It is believed to be on the same scale as the American bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War 2 and is significantly larger than the one previously tested in 2006. In addition to the tests, it was reported that several ballistic missiles were also launched from a base on North Korea’s east coast. China, a staunch ally of North Korea, and who supply up to 90% of the isolated country’s electricity and 40% of its food, condemned the tests along with most of the international community. Pyongyang made a declaration that its troops were prepared for war, a situation that bids ominously for its South Korea neighbour, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia.

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