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Thursday, April 14, 2016

Police Covered In Glass In Brick Attack On Car

Police have released video of the moment officers were attacked with bricks after they stopped two men in car in Kirby, Merseyside.
The dashboard camera shows a Volvo estate being pulled over by police over before the car's driver and passenger jump out and begin throwing bricks at the patrol car, smashing the windscreen.
The officers were showered with glass but gave chase, pursuing the Volvo around Kirby before losing it on the M57.
A police investigation later identified the attackers as 33-year-old Carl Foley and 22-year-old Karl Waring, both of no fixed abode.
The men pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a total of eight years for affray, dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and possession of cannabis with intent to supply.
Inspector Mike McFall of Merseyside Police said: "We welcome these sentences, which should serve as a warning to anyone else considering taking such reckless action against police.
"These two dangerous offenders believed in using violence to aid their escape from police, and in doing so showed complete disregard for the safety of police and towards other road users.
"Unfortunately for Waring and Foley, they only succeeded in raising their profile as a risk to the public, which resulted in substantial terms of imprisonment."

Tech Tycoon's $250m For Cancer Immunotherapy

Tech billionaire Sean Parker has announced a $250m (£175m) grant to fund cancer immunotherapy research.

Mr Parker, the 36-year-old co-founder of file-sharing site Napster and Facebook's first president, plans to set up a centre for immunotherapy that will work with six US cancer research institutions.

Immunotherapy, which enhances the body's immune system to kill cancer cells, made headlines when it was used in a successful treatment of former US President Jimmy Carter.

Mr Parker said in a statement that cancer research had reached an "inflection point".

"Now is the time to maximise immunotherapy's unique potential to transform all cancers into manageable diseases, saving millions of lives," he added.

The new Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will work with over 40 laboratories and more than 300 researchers and immunologists.

All the findings and intellectual property will be shared between researchers, according to a statement.

Progress in the fight against cancer has been slowed over the decades by secretive researchers and drug-makers protecting their discoveries with patents and lawsuits.

Mr Parker - who is estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.4bn (£1.6bn) - and his singer-songwriter wife Alexandra plan to hold a gala event in Los Angeles to mark the launch.

Attendees expected include stars such as Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Sean Penn and Ron Howard.

Tech industry leaders such as Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Anne Wojcicki of Google and Laurene Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow, are also expected to attend.

Mr Parker's centre will be led by University of California-San Francisco scientist Jeffrey Bluestone.

He was appointed to help guide a "moonshot" anti-cancer initiative launched this year by US Vice President Joe Biden.

Airport Dogs Ace At Finding Cheese, Not Drugs

Sniffer dogs at Manchester Airport have been quick to spot holidaymakers' cheese and sausages - but they've not turned up any Class A drugs.
Six dogs, costing £1.25m to house and work, were monitored at Britain's third busiest airport for a report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
The dog at work at Manchester Airport
Each dog had a speciality and was trained to sniff out illegal drugs, tobacco, cash and animal products at the airport, which sees flights arriving from 200 destinations - more than any airport in the UK.
In six months, the dogs managed to find more than 46,000 cigarettes, 60kg of tobacco, 181kg of illegal meat and £28,000 cash.
They discovered some illegal Class B drugs, as well as tablets such as Viagra, but they have disappointed officials by not finding any Class A drugs. 
The report said: "Heroin and cocaine were assessed as 'very high' priority within both air passengers and freight.
Yet, according to the data provided by Border Force, the dogs had made no Class A drugs detections in the period November 2014 to June 2015.
"When deployed, the [animal products] dog made multiple accurate detections, but most were of small amounts of cheese or sausages, wrongly brought back by returning British holidaymakers and posing minimal risk to UK public health."
It suggested the dog's talents would be better employed if specific flights, where there was a higher chance of finding banned "bushmeat", were monitored.  
The report concluded that it was difficult to measure the deterrent effect of having the specialist dogs, but the seizures themselves were a low return on the money spent on new kennels and the cost of operating the unit.
It recommended a review to see how to best use the dogs, which would include deciding which flights would be targeted. Managers say they are taking a fresh look at the matter.

The sexism that female expats are still having to endure

Taylor moved from the UK to Brazil for work in 2014, she says that in terms of women's equality she often felt as if she had gone back in time to the 1950s.
Ms Taylor, a writer and photographer who swapped London for Rio de Janeiro for two years, says she was forced to confront male chauvinism that the UK had given up decades ago.
One night, arguing with a friend's male colleague, a highly regarded lawyer, she says she found herself labelled a "brava", meaning that she was "out of control" for arguing with a man so forcefully.
And when a violent mugging left Ms Taylor with a bruised face, she says one male acquaintance didn't see anything wrong with making a joke about punching his own wife.
"And these examples are from the self-titled 'educated and cultured' upper middle class," adds Ms Taylor, 40.
While Ms Taylor enjoyed the actual work she did in Brazil, and returned to the UK with a fluency in Portuguese, her experience is indicative of the problems that professional Western women - educated females pursuing a career in business or another skilled profession - can continue to face when working overseas.
As recent reports show that a growing number of such women are now choosing or wishing to work abroad - including a NatWest survey revealing that women now make up 46% of all British expats, compared with 33% in 2011 - six females who have worked overseas share some of the problems they have faced.

'Want to scream'

After the tech bubble burst in Israel in 2002, Lisa Goldman was broke and desperate for work when an acquaintance approached her about a job with the Japanese branch of a global finance business.
Her job in Tokyo was intense, with lots of deadlines and extremely long hours, but these weren't the only challenges.
In regard to building a personal life in the Japanese capital, she found that neither Japanese men or male Western expats were interested in dating Western women.
Ms Goodman, now in her 40s, says: "The few single Western women I know in Tokyo seemed to have resigned themselves to being single forever.
"Quite a few succumbed to the heavy drinking culture and became alcoholics."
However, what she says made her "want to scream" was that she would see men openly reading pornographic comic books on underground trains.
"You could buy them from vending machines," says Ms Goodman.
Overall, she describes her six months living and working in Tokyo as "a bit like being a feminist forced to work in a vast, open-air pole dancing club".
Yet it is far from just Asia and South America that can present cultural problems for female Western expats.
Becky Thomas, an "expat coach" from Chicago, who advises people on how to cope with the challenges of working abroad, says that she herself found that living in Italy for four years brought some difficulties.
"If you go into a culture where infidelity is common, and you have a value of loyalty, that's not going to sit well," she says. "It is not about a culture being right or wrong, it is about difference."
Ms Thomas, 40, encourages expat women to find coping mechanisms.
"It's important to understand that there are some things you can control, and some things you can't," she says. "If you're in a country where women are treated differently, that's something that's wired into their culture.
"What you can control is finding a way to deal with any frustration in a way that doesn't make you feel drained."
Ms Thomas also recommends maintaining relationships with fellow expats who share your value system, so as to avoid feelings of isolation.

'Unwanted attention'

Allison (not her real name), finds that working in Switzerland can occasionally be difficult for women.
A 36-year-old Canadian, she has lived in Switzerland for 11 years as a communications consultant.
Allison says she has encountered several sexist situations, such as preparing reports that had to be presented by male colleagues "just so that the client would listen", and being mistaken for a personal assistant.
She adds that she has found it to be normal in job interviews in Switzerland for women to be asked about personal details of their lives, including their relationship status, and any plans to start a family.
Other countries are, however, considerably more of a culture shock for female expats, such as Saudi Arabia.
Ashley (who asked that we only used her first name) moved from Toronto in Canada to the Saudi capital Riyadh for several months in 2015 to open a research unit at a medical school.
She found that she and her male colleague, who had also been sent from Canada, were not permitted to work in the same office.
To get their work done, Ashley says they had to find "little weird loopholes", such as booking official meetings.
But what she found hardest to cope with was the fact that as a woman she couldn't move around unencumbered, both in reference to access to transport and what she could wear.
In the country of Georgia, in the Caucasus region on the edge of Europe and Asia, US expat Caroline Sutcliffe says she gets "a lot of unwanted attention, simply because I'm a foreigner and female".
She adds: "There is a significant lack of respect from men towards my skills, my values, and my vision."
However, Ms Sutcliffe is actually working hard to improve matters, as she runs a non-government organisation which promotes women's rights in Georgia and neighbouring Armenia and Azerbaijan.
She is founder of Chai Khana, which means "teahouse". It helps local female journalists produce video reports that promote female equality.
Despite the difficulties that expat women workers still face, Stacie Berdan, co-author of Get Ahead By Going Abroad: A Woman's Guide To Fast-Track Career Success, says they can gain a big benefit from working overseas.
"Not everyone wants to take those assignments, so it is a good way to break away from the pack," she says.


A Secretary or General?

It is the most important role in international diplomacy. The United Nations Secretary General heads up an organisation that's in charge of keeping the peace around the world.
The role is appointed by the General Assembly - on the recommendation of the Security Council.
And for the first time in the organisation's 70 year history - candidates vying for that position will have to answer questions in open hearings.
And also for the first time - a woman could become Secretary General. Of those who have put their names forward so far, half of them are women.
But how important is the job? And how will the world’s superpowers react?

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Russian Jets 'Simulated Attack' On US Warship

Two Russian warplanes flew "simulated attack profiles" this week near an American guided missile destroyer in international waters off Russia, US officials say.
The apparently unarmed Russian Su-24 jets came so close to the USS Donald Cook they created "a wake in the water", the unnamed officials said.
The overflights are said to have occurred on Monday and Tuesday and were described by US officials as "more aggressive than anything we've seen in some time".
On 11 April, two Russian Su-24s made 20 passes of the US Navy ship, according to the officials, passing within 1,000 yards at an altitude of just 100 feet.
View of the destroyer USS Donald Cook is seen after it arrived at the Black Sea port of Constanta
The American ship had just left the Polish port of Gdynia and was in the Baltic Sea about 70 nautical miles off Kaliningrad, said US officials.
On 12 April, two Russian jets again buzzed the ship in what officials described as "simulated attack profile".
Russian KA27 Helix helicopters
The aircraft were said to have swooped in the same flight mode that would have been adopted if an actual attack was being launched.
Earlier that same day, two Russian Ka-27 Helix helicopters are said to have circled the USS Donald Cook seven times, taking photos.
In one of the incidents, a Russian jet is said to have flown just 30ft (9 metres) above the destroyer.
Crew members on USS destroyer Donald Cook
A US official told CNN the Russian manoeuvres amounted to mock "strafing runs". 
The Russian planes did not respond to attempts by the USS Donald Cook's crew to contact them by radio, said the US officials.
The American ship's commander is said to have deemed the Russian actions "unsafe and unprofessional".
The US believes the overflights breached a 1970s agreement designed to prevent unsafe incidents at sea.
The incidents come as diplomatic tensions continue between Moscow and Washington over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

EgyptAir Hijacker Claims Cyprus Asylum

A man who hijacked an EgyptAir plane on a domestic flight and forced it to divert to Cyprus is claiming political asylum there, authorities have revealed.
The claim, being handled by lawyers on behalf of 59-year-old Seif Eddin Mustafa, will be considered before Cyprus considers a request for extradition from Egypt, Cyprus' interior minister Socrates Hasikos said.
Mustafa was arrested last month after a six-hour standoff in which the Airbus A320 carrying 72 passengers and crew was forced to land at Larnaca airport.
EgyptAir hostage crisis ends in Larnaca
The Egyptian - described by Cypriot authorities as "psychologically unstable" - had told the plane's crew he was wearing a suicide belt and would blow up the plane unless they agreed to his demands.
The belt was discovered to be fake - and 26-year-old British man Ben Innes hit headlines back in the UK when he posed with his captor for a photograph taken by a member of the crew.
Mr Innes, whose mother later called his behaviour "stupid", explained his impulsive action by saying he "just threw caution to the wind while trying to stay cheerful in the face of adversity".
Mustafa's Cypriot former wife, Marina Paraschou, described him as a dangerous drug addict who had beaten her and terrorised their four children during their marriage.
He had been deported and banned from the island in 1990 and had said he wanted to see his family after 24 years.
Ms Paraschou told a local paper: "This man never cared for his children for one minute, either when he lived here or when he went away," Ms Paraschou is quoted as saying.
"He only offered pain, misery and terror. And even now when he's in police custody, my children and I are afraid."
She also said separately that the hijack was an excuse for Mustafa to seek asylum in Cyprus.