Cruise Ship Accident As Costa Concordia Grounds in Giglio, Italy

Posted by Clive in Breaking News

Cruise ship accident as the Costa Concordia grounds near the island of Giglio, Italy.

There are 3 people who are confirmed dead and at least 50 people from the 4000 passengers aboard still missing. Most passengers had managed to escape the cruise ship accident via life boats or by swimming or the nearby shore.

Initial reports suggest the Costa Concordia hit a sandbar on a Friday evening and quickly listed to the side. It is now half submerged in the water.

The Costa Concordia is a $675 million cruise ship that had recently sailed from Rome on a Mediterranean cruise planning to eventually to dock at Marseilles. It never made it.

Passengers had sat down for dinner on Friday when there was a loud bang and everything went dark. The ship started to list and take in water, eventually settling at about 20 degrees.

Passengers were evacuated to nearby island Giglio where the population is a small 700. Suddenly looking after 4000 cold and frightened evacuees can’t have been easy for the tiny island.

There is no indication at the moment why the Costa Concordia ran aground. The coastguard speculated that it had just run too close to a reef but there was no official explanation.

The company who owns the Costa Concordia expressed gratitude to the coastguard, emergency services and everyone who helped evacuate after the cruise ship accident, but declined to speculate on what may have caused the Costa Concordia accident.
 

Photo: Accidental Hedonist

Virginia Tech Shootings Bring Back Memories of 2007

Posted by Jeff in Breaking News

Virginia Tech once again had to deal with a fatal shooting almost 5 years after the 2007 VA tech shooting rampage.

Virginia Tech was locked down for hours on Thursday with students and faculty members told to stay indoors as police and SWOT teams swarmed the campus looking for the gunman.

It seems that a police officer, Deriek W. Crouse, was shot by the gunman when he was making a routine traffic stop.

A man was then found dead in another area of the VA tech campus less than half a mile away, a gun was nearby. Police would not confirm it was the gunman’s body but the latest reports are that it was and that he was not a student at Virginia Tech.

It is not thought that the gunman had anything todo with the vehicle that Crouse stopped so at the time of writing motive for the killing is unclear.

Luckily the Virginia Tech campus was relatively quiet due to exam season, but the shooting brought back memories for many of the 2007 massacre where a gunman killed 32 people after going on a rampage.

The shooting also comes at a time when Virginia Tech launches an appeal against a $55,000 fine by the Education Department for it’s communication response to the 2007 shootings.

Virginia Tech Uses Social Media

Virginia Tech and other campuses now have multiple communication methods and procedures setup, such as twitter and text messaging, to respond to threats and it appears that these were used effectively in the latest incident on Thursday as shown to the right.

Other communication methods included email and website postings.

 

Photo: Virginia Tech University

Gaddafi News: Colonel Gaddafi Killed in Sirte, Libya

Posted by Jeff in Breaking News

Gaddafi has finally met his end in his hometown of Sirte in Libya.

Muammar Gaddafi was captured alive earlier today in his Libyan hometown of Sirte, but then was allegedly killed by crossfire between Gaddafi loyalists and fighters for the transitional council. He died from his wounds just before arriving at hospital.

al-Jazeera TV broadcast footage showing Gaddafi but it is difficult to know what state he was in at that point.

The French Defence Minister has told how French planes had fired warning shots at a convoy trying to flee Sirte carrying Gaddafi. He said that Libyan fighters then surrounded the convoy and took Gaddafi.

Other reports have come in saying that Gaddafi was hiding a drainage ditch and that he was shot when he tried to escape. A fighter wielded a golden gun that he claimed to have taken from Gaddafi.

Perhaps it is unlikely that we will ever know the truth, it is far more convenient for the new Government to deal with Gaddafi and for Libya to move on now that he is dead.

Like Osama Bin Laden, having him able to spout his rhetoric at a trial could have been divisive in a country where there are still people loyal to him.

Speaking for the Libyan National Transitional Council, Mr Jibril confirmed that Colonel Gaddafi was dead.

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed.”

He also read from a forensic report into Gaddafis death,

“When the car was moving it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head. The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi’s forces.”

Saif Gaddafi & Mutassim Gaddafi

It has also been reported that on of Gaddifi’s sons, Saif al-Islam was captured and is under guard at hospital with a wounded leg. His other son with him at the time, Mutassim, is said to have been killed in fighting.

Aisha Gaddafi

Aisha Gaddafi and other members of the Gaddafi family have sought refuge in neighbouring Algeria. We understand that Aisha Gaddafi gave birth to a daughter just hours after arriving in the country.

Aisha Gaddafi recently gave an interview to Arabic TV stating that her father was doing well and fighting on the front line.

Calling the Libyan National Transition Council traitors she called on the Libyan people to rise up against the new rulers.

Gaddafi Gone, Libya Can Move On

Gaddafis death marks the end of a bitter conflict that has been running now since February.

There are still many questions about how Libya will move forward but for now there are celebrations in the streets of another Arab country finally rid of their dictator.

 

Photo: OpenDemocracy

Amanda Knox Freed in Italy After Meredith Kercher Murder Appeal

Posted by Tracy in Breaking News, Celebrity

Amanda Knox is freed in Italy after successfully appealing against her conviction for Meredith Kercher’s murder.

Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, have both been acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher after a high profile appeal in Perugia, Italy.

Both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have been in an Italian jail for four years after being convicted of murdering the 21 year old UK language student, Meredith Kercher, in 2007.

Amanda Knox had been sentenced to 26 years in jail for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Raffaele Sollecito had been sentenced to 25 years in jail. A third person, Rudy Guede a small time drug dealer, was convicted in a separate trial to 30 years in jail.

Deanna Knox spoke to the press after the judgement was announced saying,

“We are thankful that Amanda’s nightmare is over, she has suffered for 4 years for a crime she did not commit. We are thankful to the court for having the courage to look for the truth and overturn the conviction.”

Amanda Knox & Raffaele Sollecito Evidence Unreliable

Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox were friends and shared a cottage in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Prosecutors had successfully argued that Meredith Kercher was murdered during a sex game that went wrong. Her throat had been slit and she had been sexually assaulted.

In the successful appeal, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s lawyers argued that the evidence against them was unreliable.

They showed that experts could not be certain that the DNA found on the alleged murder weapon was that of Meredith Kercher, even though it was a crucial part of their conviction. Proper DNA procedures were not followed by police and samples could have been contaminated.

Another piece of evidence, a bra, was found so long after the event that any evidence it contained was also unreliable. Lawyers also pointed out that no DNA evidence of Knox was found at the murder scene.

Forensic experts also cast doubt on the assertion that bloody footprints found near the scene belonged to Knox and Sollecito, that the burglary had been staged to throw police off the scent, that one witness was unreliable and that Rudy Guede had confessed to another inmate that Knox and Sollecito were innocent even though he had named them in court.

Amanda Knox’s conviction of slander after she accused a bar owner of carrying out the murder was upheld by the judge and she was sentenced to 3 years.

Having already spent 4 years in jail Knox was free to return back to America and attempt to rebuild her life. It seems that she will be in demand with the media and could set herself up for life, but she will never get those 4 years of her life back and the traumatic events in Italy will not be easy to forget.

Meanwhile Meredith Kerchers family are still left with many unanswered questions, namely what did happen in 2007 and who exactly did kill their Meredith?

 

Photo: Tim Pearce