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Monday, January 3, 2011

Pakistani officials have stated that three US drone strikes have killed fifteen people in the country Saturday. The attacks occurred to the north of Miranshah town in the North Waziristan region.

Security officials in the town informed AFP that in the first strike, US drones fired four missiles on a car, killing seven suspected militants. A nearby “militant compound” was also destroyed by the missiles. “Three militants were killed in the car while four were killed in the house,” the official said. The second attack occurred within minutes of the first, and four militants, who were carrying on rescue work were killed by the two missiles that had been fired.

Intelligence officials believe that the militants were associated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur. “We are trying to establish identity of the militants but most of them are believed to be fighters of Hafiz Gul Bahadur,” an official told the media. However, the death toll and the identity of those killed was not officially confirmed. A local official stated that they had heard reports stating “that four foreigners were also killed in these fresh attacks”. However, he added that their identity is “still not known” and mentioned that they “are collecting more information.”

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Despite the passage of a 700 billion USD bill by the United States House of Representatives on Friday and the Senate on Wednesday, two U.S. states may need loans totaling over 14 billion dollars.

California and Massachusetts are seeking at least 7 billion dollars each from the federal government as loans. Officials and lawmakers in both states say that the loans would be temporary.

According to Massachusetts’ state treasurer, Timothy P. Cahill, the state was unable to borrow money last week on a short term loan. He also states that the state can afford to pay its bills and debts for the next few weeks, but not beyond that without a short-term loan from the government. Cahill has asked the federal government for a loan similar to the recent one passed by Congress and the Senate.

“That’s all we would ask them to do: Treat us like the investment banks,” said Cahill to the Associated Press.

Officials in California say they need an emergency loan, or they will run out of money by the end of October. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state is “not out of the woods” and needs a short term loan from the government.

“California and other states may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the federal treasury for short-term financing,” said Schwarzenegger in a letter to the Treasury Department, which is taking the letter under consideration.

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representative voted to pass a revised bailout bill which included raising the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000, a move designed to please progressives. However, the $110 billion in tax breaks, earmarks and what has been called pork barrel spending is not offset by any increases in revenues and has added opposition to the bill from some Representatives in the House. Earmarks added into the bailout bill included $192 million in tax rebates for the Virgin Islands rum industry, $148 million in tax cuts for the wool industry, $100 million tax cuts to the auto racing industry, and $48 million in Hollywood tax incentives, among others.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

The following is the fifth edition of a monthly series chronicling the 2020 United States presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

This month’s spotlight on the campaign trail: the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee secures ballot access in all 50 U.S. states, the Unity Party of America presidential nominee proposes a novel solution to the issue of “packing” the U.S. Supreme Court, and three candidates give their thoughts on the latest military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

According to East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme Kenyan chapter head, Andrew Mwangura, the Greek freighter MV Captain Stephanos and all its 19 crew, consisting of 17 Filipinos, one Chinese and a Ukrainian, had been released late Monday, after 78 days in captivity. It was unclear, however, if any ransom was paid. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said that “there are [still] 91 Filipino seafarers on board six ships still with Somali pirates.”

Somali pirates seized the Bahamas-flagged vessel on September 21 near the Horn of Africa, as the bulk carrier, was cruising in the Gulf of Aden en route and transporting coal to Europe. The captors locked the crew inside the vessel and they were not fed well. The vessel is now headed to Italy and will sail from there to Greece, to meet the ship owners.

Reuters reported that “a surge in attacks at sea this year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has pushed up insurance costs, brought the gangs tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, and prompted foreign warships to rush to the area.”

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Officials from France’s aviation accident investigation agency, the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), announced on Tuesday that they had recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of Air France Flight 447. It was located and brought to the surface by a Remora 6000 unmanned submarine, then taken aboard the Île de Sein, one of the vessels taking part in the recovery and salvage efforts.

This came two days after an announcement on Sunday that the crash-survivable memory unit of the flight data recorder (FDR) of the aircraft had been located and brought to the surface. The chassis of the FDR was located on April 27, with the memory unit missing. It was found a short distance from the chassis. It was also brought to the surface by the Remora 6000.

With the recovery of both recorders, which are reported to be “in good condition”, French officials hope to determine what caused the Airbus A330-200 to crash into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, when it departed Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão International Airport before it was lost 600 miles (965 km) off the coast of Brazil en route to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport with 228 passengers and crew on board.

The leading theory at the moment is that the crew received incorrect air speed readings from the aircraft’s pitot tubes, devices which measure how fast the aircraft is traveling. Experts say the tubes may have become iced over, causing the crash. The plane’s Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) sent out 24 messages over a four-minute long period stating numerous problems and warnings, including incorrect air speed warnings occurring aboard the aircraft, just prior to it going down.

However, chief operating officer of the International Bureau of Aviation, Phil Seymour, speaking to CNN, believes the memory unit will not be of much use to investigators saying because of the depth it was located at, “If you were to throw a computer into the ocean, imagine how all the parts would eventually split and you have the corrosive effects of seawater and the depths involved.” Seymour believes the wreckage will help reveal what happened as more is recovered.

“It may be that the more wreckage they find will help them to piece it all together, which bit by bit could help them build a picture of what caused the plane to come down,” he added.

A BEA spokesperson had agreed with that possibility a few days earlier when speaking to the Associated Press about the recovery of the flight data recorder. “We can’t say in advance that we’re going to be able to read it until it’s been opened,” the spokesperson said. As

The wreckage of the Airbus A330-200, was found back on April 8 at a depth of 3,800 and 4,000 meters (2,070 to 2,190 fathoms or 12,467 feet and 13,123 feet), by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, using a Remus robotic submarine and its side-scan sonar. After the wreckage was found, another Remus robot submarine with cameras was sent down to the site, where it filmed bodies in the wreckage. The location of the recorders were localized within 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) of the flight’s last position last year.

In March, a French judge placed the European aircraft maker Airbus and Air France under investigation for possible involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2009 crash. Both are paying the cost of the search which is estimated to be $12.7 million (nine million euro). The crash is the deadliest in Air France’s history.

Monday, January 9, 2006

Two suspects, believed to be responsible for a killing spree that started on New Year’s day in the Richmond, Virginia area, were apprehended in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday where they were held on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and auto theft. The two declined to fight extradition to Virginia and were flown into the Richmond International Airport Monday afternoon.

Police believe the total of seven victims from two different crime scenes were linked, as both groups were bound with duct tape prior to their being brutally murdered. The suspects, both 28-year-olds, are Ray Joseph Dandridge and Ricky Gevon “Cooley” Gray.

The initial incident took place on New Year’s day when all four members of the Harvey family were discovered in their basement bound by tape and with their throats slit. Johnny Hott, a family friend, had discovered a fire at the Harvey’s home as he arrived for a 2pm family and friends chili party gathering to ring in the new year that Sunday. Emergency crews responded to a 911 call and put out the fire, which at that point had only caused moderate damage, and then discovered Bryan Harvey, 49, his wife Kathryn, 39, and their two children Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4. Harvey was a musician who achieved some airplay while in the 1980s duo House of Freaks, and his wife was a well-known Richmond toy store owner who also happened to be the half sister of Steven Culp who played Rex Van De Kamp on Desperate Housewives.

Police initially believed the Harvey family murders were committed by someone close to the family. But as later events unfolded in nearby Chesterfield County, a more random picture emerged.

A witness reported that a white van was parked outside the Harvey residence where a woman identified as 21-year-old Ashley Baskerville was said to be inside it at the time of the murders.

Then two days later, on Tuesday at the Goolsby residence, a relative speaking for the shaken victims of a separate home-invasion robbery said that the Baskerville woman was with two men who forced their way into the home and robbed them of a computer, television, DVD player and money.

Ultimately, Ashley Baskerville was found dead on Friday, bound with duct tape and murdered at her parent’s residence along with her mother Mary Tucker, 47 and step-father Percyell Tucker, 55. That residence is located no more than 3 miles from the Harvey residence.

The white van believed to have been the one spotted in front of the Harvey residence was recovered at the Tucker home. A green Chevrolet Blazer was taken by Dandridge and Gray to travel to west Philadelphia where they arrived some time on Friday afternoon at the home of Dandridge’s father. The two were arrested there by a SWAT team.

Police are also interested in any possible connection the two might have with the murder of Gray’s wife. The body of Treva Gray was found on November 5 southwest of Pittsburgh, in the town of Washington, Pennsylvania. Her murder occurred less than two weeks after Dandridge’s release of from prison.

Dandridge was released from James River Correctional Center November 2005 after serving a ten year prison sentence for robbery. Gray is Dandridge’s uncle, and believed to be from Arlington, in Northern Virginia.