#552835 Car bombing kills 27 at Iraq army base <----A car bomb blast struck an army patrol in Taji on Monday, wounding several soldiers At least 27 people have been killed by a car bomb that exploded at the entrance to an Iraqi army base near Baghdad, police and medics say. More than 40 others were wounded by the blast, which occurred at 12:00 (09:00 GMT) at the facility in Taji, about 25km (15 miles) north of the capital. One report said potential new recruits gathered outside were the target. Although violence has decreased in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, insurgent attacks are still common. On Monday, two car bombings killed at least four people and wounded 16 others around Baghdad. The first took place at a market in the mainly Shia district of al-Ubaidi, while the second struck an army patrol in Taji, wounding several soldiers. 'Strong explosion' It is not clear how many of the victims of Tuesday's blast were soldiers. One report said as many as 22 were among the dead. The explosion appears to have occurred as they left the base at lunchtime and walked towards minibuses waiting to transport them. However, sources told the AFP news agency there had also been a recruitment event on Tuesday to welcome potential new soldiers. Mohammed Talal told the New York Times he had been among the would-be recruits. He said the crowd of applicants had been told to check their names against lists posted on the walls outside. "I was heading to the place near the parking lot to check my name when all of sudden a strong explosion happened where the people was gathering," he added. "I turned and started to run, and I began to feel shrapnel in my back and I fell to the ground." Such recruitment events have been targeted by militants in the past. In January 2011, a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of police recruits in the city of Tikrit, killing 50 people. Following Tuesday's blast, heavy security was in place around Kadhamiya hospital, where many of the victims were taken for treatment. The incident is believed to be the deadliest single attack in Iraq since 23 July, when a series of co-ordinated blasts - also in Taji - killed 42 people. No group has said it was behind the bombing, although previous attacks on army bases have been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq, a radical Sunni Islamist militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda. Police: Nanny stabbed herself upon mother's arrival STORY HIGHLIGHTS
"We believe now that the nanny began to stab herself as the woman entered the room," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters in a revised account of Thursday's events. "We initially thought that had already been done but now information is coming out that she did it as the mother entered the bathroom." Earlier, police had said that Marina Krim found nanny Yoselyn Ortega, 50, on the bathroom floor of the family's Upper West Side luxury apartment with self-inflicted wounds. In the tub lay the clothed bodies of two of Krim's children: Leo, who had recently celebrated his second birthday with "Pinkalicious-inspired cupcakes;" and his 6-year-old sister, Lucia, who had performed "beautifully in her ballet recital" in May. Both children had been repeatedly stabbed, police said. Ortega started stabbing herself in the neck with a kitchen knife, police said. Her wrists were slit. "The charge is still to be determined," Kelly said. A mother's greatest fear Krim had left the two children with the nanny, known as "Josie," to take her third child, 3-year-old Nessie, to a swim lesson at a nearby YMCA, Kelly said. She had expected to meet the nanny at a dance class for the 6-year-old around 5:30 p.m. When the nanny and children didn't show up, Krim went up to the apartment, where she found the lights were off, police said. Krim then returned to the lobby and asked a doorman whether he had seen her two other children leave with the nanny; he had not. "There comes a time when she goes looking for her children and enters the bathroom and finds her 6-year-old daughter and son stabbed to death in the tub," Kelly said. Leo, left, and Lucia Krim were discovered dead in a bathtub by their mother. That's when neighbors heard a scream. The children's father, Kevin Krim, a senior vice president for CNBC Digital and former Yahoo executive, was en route back home from the West Coast. Police broke the news to him at John F. Kennedy International Airport. "A member of the CNBC family has suffered an unimaginable loss," NBC Universal said in a statement. "The sadness that we all feel for Kevin, Marina and their family is without measure." The nanny was taken to a hospital, where she was in critical but stable condition. The bodies of the two children were removed from the building on a single stretcher and taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. Ortega was heavily sedated and under police watch on Friday at Weill Cornell Medical Center, said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne. Kelly said she was breathing with the aid of a tube and unable to talk. A native of the Dominican Republic, Ortega had been a naturalized U.S. citizen for 10 years. Friends had introduced the family to Ortega, and she had worked for them since Leo's birth two years ago, police said. She lives at another address on Manhattan's West Side with her son, her sister and her niece, Kelly said. "We're just grieving. Worst nightmare anyone could ever imagine," said grandmother Karen Krim, who lives in California. "We don't have a clue what set her off." Police on Thursday evening escorted from the apartment building the mother and her 3-year-old daughter, covering them with a white sheet to shield them from photographers and gawkers. The mother was treated at a hospital for trauma, police said. More at: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/26/us/new-york-nanny-deaths/index.html?hpt=us_c2 Frenzied preparations as East Coast braces for possible 'superstorm' STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- Got bottled water? Food? Sandbags? Batteries? Toilet paper? Those are questions that millions of people in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast are asking themselves this weekend, as they prepare for Hurricane Sandy -- which has already proven to be a deadly storm and is threatening heartache, and headaches, as it creeps toward the region. Local and state officials have joined meteorologists in trumpeting the storm's potential breadth and impact, especially if it collides with a cold front from the West to create a "superstorm" that stalls over the Eastern Seaboard for days. Computer models predict portions of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia could see up to a foot of rain, according to the CNN Weather Unit. And even though it's still October, communities in and around the Appalachian Mountains could be socked by heavy snow. More at: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/27/us/tropical-weather-sandy/index.html?hpt=us_c1 Implant scandal sparks EU medical device Implant scandal sparks EU medical device rule revampBy Charlie Dunmore and Kate Kelland | Reuters – Wed, Sep 26, 2012 BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union said it wants tougher rules governing the safety and monitoring of medical devices after weak EU regulations were partly blamed for a global scandal over French-made breast implants. The plans will affect a huge range of products, from contact lenses to pacemakers to pregnancy testing kits to high-tech medical equipment such as life support machines. Major manufacturers of medical devices include Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Boston Scientific,Abbott Laboratories, Allergan and Smith & Nephew. Investigations last year showed that hundreds of thousands of women around the world had been implanted with substandard silicone products made by defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), which safety regulators had failed to stop for more than a decade. The scandal prompted calls for Europe to toughen controls on medical devices, which are currently overseen by an ad hoc network of up to 80 national assessment agencies. "Everybody was shocked by the scandal involving fraudulent breast implants which affected tens of thousands of women in Europe and around the world," EU health commissioner John Dalli said as he outlined draft proposals for the new rules on Wednesday The proposals take into account lessons from the PIP implant scandal AND include a scrutiny panel which would monitor the national agencies' assessments. "They (the panel) would have the possibility to pick out medical devices on certain risk-based criteria to decide whether to go into an in-depth analysis of the processes," Dalli told reporters at a news conference. INDUSTRY AND CONSUMER GROUPS CONCERNED Industry body Eucomed, which represents about 22,500 medical technology companies in Europe, said it was unhappy with the proposal for the new scrutiny panel procedure, which it said would "hamper innovation" whilst providing no extra safety nets for patients. "The current regulatory framework has provided a high level of safety for patients in Europe without delaying them access to life-saving medical technologies," Serge Bernasconi, Eucomed's chief executive, said in a statement. "Let's not unnecessarily push away Europe's strong innovation and research capabilities to other continents at a time when they are urgently needed." European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) argued, on the other hand, that the plans fall short of increasing quality and safety standards and said medical device regulations should be beefed up to levels similar to those required for pharmaceuticals. "It is unacceptable that consumers are afforded different protection levels depending whether they have an artificial heart valve or take medicine for diabetes," said Monique Goyens, head of BEUC. She noted that if a there is a problem with a drug, patients can stop taking them, but if an implanted device is problematic, patients may face invasive and risky surgery to have it removed. Among other main changes proposed is an extension of the current legal definition of medical devices to include breast and other aesthetic implants. Independent assessment agencies will be given greater powers to monitor device manufacturers, including unannounced factory inspections and regular product testing, while EU governments will be obliged to improve their supervision of the agencies. Better product traceability systems will also be introduced so that people can be alerted more rapidly to safety concerns surrounding a particular device. The European market for medical devices was estimated at 95 billion euros (123 billion) in 2009. The legislation must be jointly approved by EU governments and lawmakers, which could take up to two years. ($1 = 0.7715 euros) (Editing by James Jukwey and Hans-Juergen Peters) BY:503832___ _ Cannot play media. You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version Swedish alert over fake pork meat Sweden's National Food Agency has issued a warning after as much as 20 tonnes of meat labelled as beef turned out to be coloured pork. An investigator at the agency, Pontus Elvingson, told the BBC that tests were still being done to identify the dye. The Swedish firm Heat AB imported the meat from a supplier in Hungary called Filetto. One of the suspect batches originated in Argentina. Checks show that the dyed meat was first sold in Sweden a year ago. It is not yet clear if Filetto also exported doctored pork to other countries. The Swedish agency has alerted EU authorities. The BBC was unable to reach Filetto for comment. Contamination threat Mr Elvingson said the fake beef had been sold to several Swedish retail outlets, including restaurants. So far about 3.5 tonnes has been removed from sale. "There is no indication that Heat AB sent any of the meat abroad," he told the BBC by phone. Heat AB was not registered as a food company, he added. In Sweden, he said, "it's difficult to tell how much [doctored meat] there is and we don't know if it has all been sold". "The pigmentation of beef is different - this meat is red, but seems not so well dyed in parts, so maybe it was injected with needles," he said. If needles were used to inject the dye then bacteria could have been transferred from the meat's surface to the interior, increasing the risk of food poisoning, he added. The agency was tipped off by Swedish wholesaler Svensk Cater, following a complaint from a customer. Heat AB's Managing Director Ake Hultberg told Reuters news agency that the meat he had tried was good. "When we received the product, I looked at it, I opened a box and took a sample which I myself fried and looked at it. "And there was no problem with it but when it later came to Svensk Cater, there were fillets that were not beef but pork," he said, insisting that parts of the delivery were real beef. BY:569853
A Langley men, 73, who allegedly amassed a collection of stolen vehicles with a second man and then allegedly punched the cop who came to search their property faces numerous charges, including assaulting a police officer. Langley RCMP in March were tipped off about a new Dodge truck parked in the trees of a Langley residence, police said in a news release. The truck was gone by the time the police arrived. The call came days after the 73-year-old reported that the 2012 Dodge pickup he was test driving from a local dealership had been stolen in a carjacking. Also that month, a construction firm reported the theft of a Caterpillar loader and a Komatsu bulldozer. The investigation expanded to include a truck theft reported in July 2011. The 30-year-old told police a truck on which he had agreed to do some engine repairs had been stolen. RCMP’s street enforcement unit, armed with a search warrant, found the loader, bulldozer, keys to the new “carjacked” truck as well as the other truck at the men’s property in the 6600 block of 256 Street. They also recovered a large utility trailer found on the property that had been stolen from ICBC. The new Dodge pickup was recovered at a residence of the older man’s. When an officer arrived and announced they would be executing the warrant, he was allegedly punched in the face by the 73-year-old. Roeloff Dendryver, 73, was charged with public mischief, assaulting a peace officer and possession of stolen property. Derek Hall, 30, was charged with theft of a vehicle, two counts of possession of stolen property and public mischief. Both are charged with theft of a vehicle and two counts of possession of stolen property. They are scheduled to appear in Surrey provincial court on Oct. 29. Peace Arch shooting Ms. Bowcock was struck by a bullet around 2 p.m. Tuesday after the suspected shooter entered Canada with Washington licence plates. RCMP in B.C. say she remains in stable condition in hospital. Sgt. Leon said the OPP was informed of the incident and have told members who knew and worked with the woman while she was in Ontario. “Our concern is obviously for her health and well-being. Certainly as an organization we wish her all the very best with respect to a recovery from this tragic incident and our thoughts are with her and her family as they deal with this ordeal,” he said in an interview. “But at the same time, we do respect the fact the RCMP and [Canada Border Services Agency] have a very, very important job to do. We’re confident they will find the answers to the questions as to how this happened.” Sgt. Leon did not know Ms. Bowcock’s age. But he said she also donned a police uniform because she volunteered with the Middlesex OPP detachment and was trained to assist with various community events like parades and the fall fair. She was working at the Douglas border crossing, commonly known as the Peace Arch crossing. A provincial traveller’s report said Highway 99 southbound, from about two kilometres north of the border, was not expected to reopen until at least 4 p.m. Wednesday due to the ongoing investigation. “The first report at the scene revealed that a male, a lone male, had shot an officer in her booth,” Corporal Bert Paquet told reporters on Tuesday. Cpl. Paquet also said the officer was breathing when she was loaded into an air ambulance and that it appeared she’d been shot in the neck. “We haven’t confirmed the identity of the suspect yet,” he said. “At the instant following the shooting of the officer, the lone male had been pronounced dead at the scene from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” Sergeant Jennifer Pound of Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said in a news release the unit would take over the file and was treating it as an attempted murder investigation. Shirley Bond, B.C.’s minister of justice and attorney general, said the RCMP will be working with their colleagues in Washington state during the investigation. She said Premier Christy Clark and Governor Chris Gregoire have talked about the incident, are committed to a safe and peaceful border and will work with federal officials in both countries to protect border guards. Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he’s not interested in speeding up the arming of border guards, despite the shooting. The CBSA said in 2006 that it planned to arm its 4,800 guards within 10 years, and so far, just under half have been trained. But Mr. Toews says he’s concerned that any effort to hasten that training might compromise safety. Ms. Bowcock had been working in a customs booth at the time, but it is not clear whether she is one of the more than 2,000 border guards who have been trained to carry a firearm. Calling Canadian border guards “an extension of our Washington family,” Mr. Gregoire in a statement pledged full co-operation during the investigation. “This tragedy hits especially close to home and reminds us all that our public safety officers put their lives on the line every day to protect the rest of us,” she said. Glen Pederson, a local resident, said he heard two gunshots in the afternoon but didn’t think much of the noise. “I thought it was these guys next door, it’s a construction site. There’s a house being built here, there’s been all kinds of banging going on for days and weeks.” Mr. Pederson said when he heard a helicopter buzzing over his house, he went outside to his front patio and then walked over to the park at the border to see what was going on. He said he could see a white van stopped near the first booth, closest to the customs building, and surrounded by yellow police tape. Mr. Pederson said dozens of cars were still waiting at the crossing in the late afternoon. “There was cops there so fast it wasn’t even funny,” he said. Kevin McAllister, assistant general manager at the Peace Portal Golf Course, which is adjacent to the crossing, said an employee and several guests reported to him that they heard shots fired. “Two shots were fired,” he said. “We’ve heard fire, police, ambulance heading southbound on [Highway] 99, which is probably about a couple hundred yards from the 18th green. So that’s what they heard when all hell broke loose.” Mr. McAllister said he also heard and saw a police helicopter hovering over the 10th and 11th fairways, which are the closest fairways to the highway and the border crossing. He said the helicopters stopped about 2:40 p.m. “Staff are coming in, talking about it,” he said. Kelsie Carwithen, a spokeswoman with the B.C. Ambulance Service, said one air and two ground ambulances were sent to the scene. The Peace Arch border point is the third busiest crossing between Canada and the United States. An average of 3,500 cars pass through the crossing on a slow day, and during peak periods about 4,800 vehicles will move through the border. During those peak periods, border delays can reach four hours on either side of the border. A Langley men, 73, who allegedly amassed a collection of stolen vehicles with a second man and then allegedly punched the cop who came to search their property faces numerous charges, including assaulting a police officer.
Langley RCMP in March were tipped off about a new Dodge truck parked in the trees of a Langley residence, police said in a news release. The truck was gone by the time the police arrived. The call came days after the 73-year-old reported that the 2012 Dodge pickup he was test driving from a local dealership had been stolen in a carjacking. Also that month, a construction firm reported the theft of a Caterpillar loader and a Komatsu bulldozer. The investigation expanded to include a truck theft reported in July 2011. The 30-year-old told police a truck on which he had agreed to do some engine repairs had been stolen. RCMP’s street enforcement unit, armed with a search warrant, found the loader, bulldozer, keys to the new “carjacked” truck as well as the other truck at the men’s property in the 6600 block of 256 Street. They also recovered a large utility trailer found on the property that had been stolen from ICBC. The new Dodge pickup was recovered at a residence of the older man’s. When an officer arrived and announced they would be executing the warrant, he was allegedly punched in the face by the 73-year-old. Roeloff Dendryver, 73, was charged with public mischief, assaulting a peace officer and possession of stolen property. Derek Hall, 30, was charged with theft of a vehicle, two counts of possession of stolen property and public mischief. Both are charged with theft of a vehicle and two counts of possession of stolen property. They are scheduled to appear in Surrey provincial court on Oct. 29. Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Langley+alleged+have+collected+stolen+vehicles+also+charged+with+punching/7404792/story.html#ixzz29acGF5rQ 504281 &T.W.
Australia A MAN who allegedly took his baby son from a southwestern Sydney home after a domestic violence incident will face court on Tuesday. Police on Monday issued a public alert about a five-month-old boy allegedly taken from his home in Canley Vale. They later arrested a 39-year-old man at a fast food restaurant car park in Villawood. The boy was given a health check in hospital and returned to his mother. The arrested man will appear in Bankstown Local Court on charges including endangering a child, assault and stalking. Read more: http://bit.ly/WfrJfN South Africa CAPE TOWN - One person was killed and two more were missing after a charter boat on a popular sight-seeing trip capsized off South Africa's Hout Bay near Cape Town, rescue officials said on Saturday. Two of those rescued from the twin-hulled catamaran "Miroshga" were French women, said Craig Lambinon, spokesman for the National Sea Rescue Institute. The boat was carrying 41 people, including crew, at the time of the accident, he said. "We recovered one person out of the hull, who has been hospitalized in a stable but serious condition," Lambinon said, adding that rescuers were trying to free another two under the hull. It was unclear what caused the boat to capsize in the cold waters close to Duiker Island, about three km from Hout Bay on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Cape Peninsula. The island is a popular destination for tourists eager to catch a glimpse of thousands of seals found there. Local media had previously reported that at least four people had died. Mexico GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Mexican marines have arrested a Los Zetas drug cartel leader allegedly linked to more than 300 killings across the country, including the massacre of 72 illegal immigrants and the murder of US tourist David Hartley, Milenio reported today. Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo, nicknamed “The Squirrel,” was paraded in front of the media in Mexico City on Monday morning after he was captured following a gunfight on Saturday in Nuevo Laredo, a border city in the northern state of Tamaulipas, El Universal reported. "Squirrel is credited with being the mastermind of the deaths of 72 undocumented migrants in San Fernando," the Mexican Navy said in a statement cited by ABC News. "[He] is the alleged perpetrator of the narco graves found in Tamaulipas state, with more than 200 bodies and the execution of more than 50 people by his own hand in different parts of the republic, [as well as] the murder of David Hartley, an American citizen killed at Falcon Dam on September 30, 2010." The Agence France-Presse said Martinez Escobedo is also accused of taking part in the killing of the police commander who was investigating Hartley’s death. Hartley and his wife were jet skiing on Falcon Lake on the Texas-Mexico border when he was shot in the head by gunmen, ABC News said. Martinez Escobedo is also suspected of being involved in two massive prison breaks in northern Mexico, AFP said. More than 60,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since December 2006 when President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to fight organized crime. Some of the worst violence has been in the country’s north where gangs are battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States. China's ZTE to post nine-month loss of up to 1.75 billion yuan HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese mobile phone and telecoms equipment maker ZTE Corp will report a loss of as much as 1.75 billion yuan ($279.2 million) in the first 9 months of 2012, it said in a preliminary results announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday. The Shenzhen-based company has suffered as a slowing economy has hurt sales and margins have come under pressure. ZTE said its loss will be between 1.65 billion yuan and 1.75 billion yuan. That could be a fall of more than 260 percent compared with the same period last year. Basic earnings per share will be a loss of between 0.48 yuan and 0.51 yuan. The company is due to report final results at the end of the month. ZTE said its results during the period were hurt by the Iranian market. The United States is investigating the company over the sale of banned U.S. computer equipment to Iran, which could be used to monitor landline, mobile and Internet communications. ZTE said it is cooperating with U.S. authorities. Iran is under global sanctions because of allegations it is trying to develop nuclear weapons - something the country denies. ZTE's bigger Chinese rival, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, is also under scrutiny by the United States. U.S. lawmakers have accused the company of being a potential security threat. For the full ZTE Hong Kong Stock Exchange announcement, please see: http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2012/1014/LTN20121014006.pdf ($1 = 6.2672 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Claire Baldwin; Editing by Louise Heavens) SOURCE: ( Yahoo.com) |
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