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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only individual convicted in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, has been released by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, on compassionate grounds.

Megrahi is suffering from terminal prostate cancer and will be allowed to return to his home country of Libya.

270 people were killed when, on December 21, 1988, the Pan-Am flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was destroyed by a bomb whilst in flight over southern Scotland.

A police convoy escorted Megrahi from his former prison home in HMP Greenock to Glasgow Airport, where he boarded an Afriqiyah Airways flight to Tripoli. He was told he could not remain in Scotland on security grounds.

In announcing the release on compassionate grounds, Justice Secretary MacAskill stated, “Al-Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power. It is one that no court in any jurisdiction could revoke or overrule. It is terminal, final and irrevocable. He is going to die”.

The conviction remains controversial. Last year then-president of US group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 told Wikinews that the vast majority were satisfied in Megrahi’s guilt. UK Families Flight 103 painted a very different picture to Wikinews of the opinions in Britain: “UK Families have different views about Megrahi’s guilt or innocence. Certainly some, including my husband and I, believe that we are not in a position to make a judgment about whether he was involved in some way or not,” said group coordinator Jean Berkley, whose son was killed. “Much of the evidence at the trial was circumstantial and confusing and it is a fact that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, after considering the matter for three years, came to the conclusion that there were grounds for appeal. The UK families are united in believing that the full independent inquiry for which we have been asking since 1989 should now take place, to deal with the many unanswered questions and enable the evidence which would have emerged from the now abandoned appeal to be made public.” This is in sharp contrast to The Daily Telegraph, which earlier reported that the majority of British families felt Megrahi was innocent.

The United States government had been strongly opposed to any possible release. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had previously called the possibility “absolutely wrong”. MacAskill sought to justify the decision by commenting that “Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs th[at] we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people – no matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated.”

Megrahi issued a statement shortly before leaving HMP Greenock in which he maintained his innocence. “The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction. I have been faced with an appalling choice: to risk dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously or to return home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be lifted. The choice which I made is a matter of sorrow, disappointment and anger, which I fear I will never overcome,” said Megrahi.

Robert Gibbs, press secretary for the White House, said “The United States deeply regrets the decision by the Scottish Executive to release Abdel Basset Mohamed al-Megrahi. As we have expressed repeatedly to officials of the government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland.” Many US victims have also reacted with anger.

Many US victims’ families have reacted with anger. One relative commented that “This might sound crude or blunt, but I want him returned from Scotland the same way my wife Lorraine was and that would be in a box.” Dr. Jim Swire, a UK victim, disagreed, saying Megrahi had “nothing to do with” the disaster and calling the earlier dropping of the appeal “a blow to those of us who seek the truth.”

Megrahi’s plane was greeted by crowds in Tripoli waving both Libyan and Scottish flags. Seif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, held his hand as he exited the aircraft amid heavy security. Loudspeakers broadcast patriotic music and it is reported that celebrations are ongoing in Tripoli.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The President of the Swiss Confederation, Mrs. Micheline Calmy-Rey, has begun a 2-day visit to Ghana.

The trip is part of an African tour which includes Senegal, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi. She has already been in Benin.

She held talks with John Kufuor her host. Mrs. Calmy-Rey praised Ghana’s successful democracy and said Ghana has a special role to play in Africa and is partners with Switzerland in that role. She is also keen to see more Swiss investment in Ghana.

They also discussed issues such as trade, taxation relief to help boost Swiss investments in Ghana and Swiss support for Ghana’s cocoa and pineapple industry. Also discussed was possible increased budgetary support as well as assistance to the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

A power outage hit large parts of Tokyo, and Chiba, Japan. The electrical blackout occurred due to an industrial accident, in which a crane damaged some power lines accidentally at 7:40 AM local time (2240 UTC), the Kyodo News agency reported, quoting Tokyo Power Electric Co. Power was reported to have been restored to most areas within a few hours.

At least two elevators stopped with an unknown number of people trapped inside, said a fire official in Tokyo. Some train services were halted. The number of passengers was lower than normal due to a holiday. About 800,000 residences were affected by the blackout, according to the power company. Most services have since then been restored.

Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea delayed opening by an hour as many rides did not function due to the power problems.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Anyone planning on attending the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China can forget about renting a car when they get there.

Newspapers reported on September 18 that no private cars would be allowed near any of the venues in the host city, in an attempt to combat the gridlock that has plagued the city.

Known for its stand-still traffic, Beijing’s transport authority believes it needs to curb at least 20% of traffic flow to ensure the Games run smoothly. The number of cars in the city is set to increase from 2.7 million to 3 million by the time of the Olympics. Country-wide, annual car sales are expected to reach 10 million annually by 2010.

A good infrastructure is one of the International Olympic Committee’s top priorities when searching for bid cities. The IOC requires that athletes, support staff such as coaches, venue volunteers, spectators, and the press all should be able to get from venue to venue without hassle.

Existing plans in Beijing say that private cars may only drive in the city on alternate days. Plates with odd numbers would drive one day, while even numbered licenses would drive the next day.

Wired magazine has suggested fuel-cell vehicles may be China’s next cultural revolution. Vancouver-based venture capitalist Mike Brown told the National Post: “If they get aggressive about this, and they decided to build up a fuel cell manufacturing capability to sell half a million of these things, they’ll get the costs down faster than anybody else.”

Saturday, February 13, 2021

The Greek Parliament passed contentious legislation on Thursday allowing for the creation of a campus police force and disciplinary council to end the tradition of violence at Greek universities. The decision, passed 166–132 in a parliament of 300, was opposed by many students and professors, who claim it would stifle freedom of expression.

Changes proposed included establishment of a campus police division, restriction of entry into university grounds, and formation of a “disciplinary council” empowered to suspend or expel students.

A Ministry for Citizen Protection spokesperson called university campus violence “timeless”; and said “[t]he police will drive out extremist political groups and guard the infrastructure, finally making the university a safe place”.

Prior to the vote, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the centre-right New Democracy political party which first introduced the legislation, told lawmakers “[n]owhere in the world do we see images […] of historical buildings being vandalised”.

Many incidents of unrest have occurred at Greek universities, including a 1973 student revolt at Athens Polytechnic against the 1967–1974 military junta. The government forcefully repressed the uprising, resulting in the death of at least 26. Due to another protest in 1990–91 against high school reform pushed by Mitsotakis’ father Konstantinos, one teacher died. In October, a rector was taken hostage by hooded anarchists.

In 2019, the government repealed a restriction in place since 1982 that had effectively prevented police from entering university grounds.Opponents of the introduction of police at universities have described it as stifling freedom of expression, which the government claimed is “ridiculous”. At recent demonstrations, protestors have chanted “Bread, education and freedom”, a common anti-junta slogan of the 1973 uprising. In January, Athenian police used tear gas to break up a protest which was defying lockdown restrictions.

Many Greek professors have also opposed the idea, with Professor of State Theory and Law at Panteion University Dimitris Kaltsonis claiming, in remarks to Euronews, “there is no need for special police to control the campuses”. Oxford University’s University and College Union (UCU) stated on Twitter “its solidarity to Greek colleagues […] opposing the creation of such a special university police force, which is unlikely to respond to the most pertinent problems of Greek higher education institutions”, and that the then-proposal was “alarming and not in line with best practice.”

Some recent demonstrators have called for “more doctors, fewer police”. Eurostat data from 2016–2018, which a spokesperson for the Ministry for Citizen Protection called “inaccurate”, showed Greece had the second most police officers per capita of any country in the European Union. The spokesperson said the government is “investing in the quality of education as well”, but emphasised “[p]olice on campuses is not a choice, but a necessary move”.

€23 million was recently budgeted for Greek law enforcement to better “face contemporary challenges, such as COVID-19 and external threats”.

Left-wing opposition party Syriza has criticised the legislation as an attempt to make universities “sterile and unfree”.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Two 16-year-old British girls were arrested in Accra, Ghana earlier this month for apparently attempting to smuggle £300,000 worth of cocaine in laptop bags.

Yasemin Vatansever, of Cypriot descent and Yatunde Diya of Nigerian descent were arrested as they attempted to board a British Airways flight from the Kotoka International Airport on July 2, 2007. The arrest was by the Ghanaian Narcotic Control Board. They were alleged to be carrying 6.5 kg of drugs. They are currently in Ghana police custody and have been visited by British High Commission staff.

The girls who are both students from Islington, north London, had left home after informing their families they were making a school trip to France. They are expected to be charged with “possessing narcotic drugs and attempting to export drugs”, for which they could be jailed for up to ten years if found guilty.

The arrest is part of the Operation Westbridge project set up in November 2006 as a collaboration between the Ghanaian Narcotic Control Board and HM Revenue and Customs of the UK. It is to curb the influx of drugs into Europe and the UK through West Africa which is now being used as a transit point from South America. The project involves the provision of technical and operational expertise to the Ghanaian teams and training in the use of specialist scanning equipment. Ghana is the first country in Africa to introduce such equipment.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

British Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that a change in police strategy is appropriate following what many feel to be an inadequate response to the rioting that has overrun many cities across England. Riots started in Tottenham on Saturday night after the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old taxi driver who the Independent Police Complaints Commission state was in possession of a handgun, but did not fire it.

During the Parliamentary debate on the riots, David Milliband, the Labour leader, called on Cameron to reconsider cuts to police budgets. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne described the communities where the rioting occurred as being “left behind” and “cut-off from the economic life-blood of the rest of the country”, and called for solutions to the “deep-seated social problems”

One avenue the Prime Minister is said to be considering is changing regulations on social media services like Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger, the latter being used to communicate between groups of rioters. The Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch came out in opposition to any plans to restrict communication using social media, with Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group warning that such regulation would be abused by the police and private companies.

In Southampton, England, three people were arrested by police for the suspicion of using Twitter or BlackBerry Messenger to encourage the rioting. The government is “working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these Web sites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality,” said Cameron.

The Prime Minister also announced that he would consider using the army to support the police in controlling future rioting, and also that he would consult with William J. Bratton, CBE, who had been the chief of police in Los Angeles and a police commissioner in New York City and Boston. Bratton is quoted as saying that arrests are not the only way to solve societal problems which lead to rioting and unrest: “You can’t arrest your way out of the problem.”