Four charged with post office murder

By Calvin Palmer

Four men have been charged with the murder of a Worcestershire sub-postmaster’s son during an armed robbery, police said today.

Craig Hodson-Walker, 29, was shot dead at the post office and general store in the village of Fairfield, Worcestershire, on January 9. His father Ken, 56, was shot in the leg and remains in hospital.

West Mercia Police said the four men are Christopher Morrissey, 31; Declan Morrissey, 33; Anselm Ribera, 33; and Adrian Snape, 24.

They have also been charged with attempted murder and armed robbery.

The men were arrested on Tuesday morning in a series of dawn raids, involving more than 100 police officers, at six addresses across south Birmingham, police said.

They are due to appear tomorrow at Redditch Magistrates Court, Worcestershire.

[Based on reports by The Guardian and Reuters.]

Sea conditions halt attempts to rescue right whale off Florida coast

By Calvin Palmer

Choppy seas and wind today prevented further attempts to free a right whale off Daytona Beach, Florida, said an official of the Wildlife Trust.

The whale, tangled up in fishing gear, was first spotted on Wednesday, 15 miles offshore from Brunswick, Georgia, which lies 68 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida.

North Atlantic right whale. Picture courtesy of NOAA.

A Georgia Department of Natural Resources crew managed to cut away several of the fishing lines by snaring them with grappling hooks and dragging them into a boat. They also attached a tracking buoy to monitor the whale’s movement.

Rescuers said their odds of freeing the 40-foot whale from the life-threatening entanglement were about 50-50.

Patricia Naessig, right whale aerial survey coordinator for the Wildlife Trust, said wind and choppy seas prevented further attempts to free the whale today.

She said Sunday might be the soonest seas would be calm enough for another attempt.

“We are concerned if something isn’t done for this whale, its health condition could deteriorate over time,” Naessig said.

Naessig said the whale still had fishing line caught in its mouth and was dragging three lines 50 to 80 feet behind it. She said the lines were cutting into the top of the whale’s head and the base of its tail.

Researchers believe only about 300 North Atlantic right whales remain in existence. They spend most of the year off the coast of the northeastern U.S., but migrate to warmer waters off Georgia and Florida each winter to birth their calves.

Whale entanglement experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts were discussing Friday the safest ways to try to free the whale.

Jamison Smith, NOAA’s East Coast project leader for whale disentanglement, said the success rate for freeing right whales from fishing gear is about 50 percent.

“It’s very dangerous, both for the whales and the people responding,” Smith said. “This animal’s in better shape than it was on Wednesday because it doesn’t have as much drag pulling on it. But the entanglement is fairly severe.”

[Based on a report by Associated Press.]

Both engines missing from Hudson River jet

By Calvin Palmer

Both engines are missing from the US Airways Airbus A320 forced to ditch in the Hudson River shortly after taking off from New York ‘s LaGuardia airport, said National Transportation Safety Board member Kathryn O. Higgins.

Higgins said today crews are using sonar to search the river for wreckage from the engines. She says both engines apparently came off after hitting the water but it is unclear when the engines separated from the plane.

The plane is moored to a bulkhead at Battery Park City with its left wing and tail sticking out of the water. Investigators have brought in a crane and barge.

Crews plan to begin hoisting the plane from the water tomorrow before putting it on a barge and removing the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

Engines mounted under the wings, as in the case of the A320, commonly detach from the wing in crashes.

Investigators want the engine to look for signs of damage from birds, which could have been the cause of the accident. They will also examine the airframe itself for signs of bird strikes.

Pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III, had radioed air traffic control a couple minutes after takeoff from LaGuardia airport and said the plane had suffered a “double bird strike.”

Higgins said investigators would also examine audio tapes and radar tapes to see if there were reports from other planes of birds in the area or pilot reports back to controllers of birds, or controller warnings to pilots about birds.

Capt. Sullenberger and his crew were hailed as heroes this morning at a ceremony organized by Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg.

The mayor promised them a gold-plated “key to the city” in recognition of a “miraculous” piece of airmanship.

“This is a story of heroes – something out of a movie script,” said Bloomberg. “But if it was a movie people probably wouldn’t believe it. It is too good to be true.”

Bloomberg  also presented rescue officials from the New York Waterway ferry, the Fire, Police and Coast Guard, with certificates of appreciation.

Sullenberger’s sister, Mary Margaret Wilson, a resident of Dallas, watching yesterday’s events unfold on television, thought to herself, “That’s something my brother could do.”

Many who knew Sullenberger from his days growing up in the North Texas town of Denison had similar reactions to the news that he piloted a jetliner to a smooth landing on the river after the plane lost engine power, saving 155 lives.

People in the town, which has a population of 23,000 and is located about 65 miles north of Dallas, recalled a kind and serious student whose parents were a respected dentist and schoolteacher. And they remember him making headlines in the local newspaper for piloting a crop duster when he was 15.

“He was in the brainiac clique,” said Mayor Robert Brady, who graduated from Denison High in 1969 with Sullenberger. “I knew who he was — a nice guy, the kind of guy you wanted to sit behind in class so you could cheat off him.”

But the real debt of gratitude was expressed by passenger Mary Berkwits, of Stallings, North Carolina.

“If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today,” she said as she prepared to return to Charlotte this morning. “He was just wonderful.”

That assessment was shared by Sullenberger’s wife, Lorrie.

Speaking from their home in Danville, California, she told reporters that she wasn’t too surprised to hear that her husband safely guided a plane full of passengers through an emergency landing on the Hudson River.

“This is the Sully I know,” she said. “I always knew this is how he would react to something. He’s a consummate professional.”

She said she and her two daughters, Katie and Kelly, are very grateful that everyone got off the plane safely.

“We are all very proud,” she said.

[Based on reports by The New York Times, newsday.com, The Times, Houston Chronicle and The Mercury News.]

Zimbabwe issues 100 trillion dollar banknote

By Calvin Palmer

In a move reminiscent of Weimar Germany in the 1920s, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe today issued a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar banknote.

The move by the country’s central bank is meant to ensure the public has access to their money from banks.

The new note is worth around $33 (£22) on the black market.

In an attempt to keep pace with inflation, the central bank released a 50 billion banknote last May.  It was worth around 30 pence (48 U.S. cents).

Inflation was last reported at 231 million percent in July, but the Washington think-tank Cato Institute has estimated it now at 89.7 sextillion percent — a figure expressed with 21 zeroes.

When Robert Mugabe took power at independence from Britain in 1980, the Zimbabwe dollar was equivalent to the British pound.

Zimbabwe is now in economic and political turmoil. A cholera outbreak has claimed more than 2,000 lives and a power-sharing agreement, brokered in September by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, between the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, and President Mugabe has stalled.

Hoping to salvage the deal, South Africa’s new President Kgalema Motlanthe plans to fly to Harare on Monday with Mbeki and Mozambique’s President Armando Emilio Guebuza to mediate new talks.

“They will focus their discussions on the outstanding matters in the implementation of the global agreement,” Motlanthe’s spokesman Thabo Masebe said.

Tsvangirai told reporters yesterday that he remained committed to the unity accord. “All I lack is a willing partner,” he said.

But Tsvangirai is not willing for talks to drag on indefinitely.

“At some point we will have to decide whether it is worth going into this government or not,” he said.

[Based on reports by The Guardian and AFP news agency.]

Sir John Mortimer — enemy of the nanny state

By Calvin Palmer

Sir John Mortimer, the author, dramatist and creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, died today at the age of 85.

Sir John, knighted in 1998, was one of the ‘Labour Luvvies’ but he was old school Labour, concerned with righting injustice and inequality rather than trying to force the rigidity of Marxist principles down people’s throats.

He valued freedom, was a fierce critic of political correctness and loathed the impositions of the socialist nanny state.

In a 2008 interview with The Times, he said: “The Government is there only to make the trains run on time and to keep the drains clear. It has absolutely nothing to do with what people eat and smoke. It’s none of their business to stop people doing dangerous things.

“We won two world wars with people constantly smoking. They were given cigarettes in their rations. Mountain climbers, hunters and divers are entitled to endanger their lives. I can’t stand this Government of busy control freaks, it’s like being under a bossy matron.”

“It’s a very dour and gray world under Brown,” he adds. “The Sixties were a very relaxed period. They really were swinging. But even they were not as relaxed as during the war, when everyone slept with everyone else because you might be dead in the morning.

“It would be great if today’s government ministers concentrated on something important rather than what we eat. You go to school to enhance your mind, to learn poetry and Dickens and beauty, not how to cook scrambled egg.

“I think what happened is that the decline of religion meant that bossy people had to find other ways to make people uncomfortable and worried about things.”

Approaching the end of his life, he did not seek the comfort of religion.  He was not brought up to be religious.

“I appreciate Christianity for the culture and buildings and for the beautiful language,” he said. “You can get the best parts of it without believing any of it.

“Christianity has conferred great blessings on the world. But the most dangerous thing in the world is the view that God is on your side. You’re absolutely lost.”

When asked about what happens after death, he replied: “Nothing.  Nothing at all. My father used to say that the prospect of an afterlife would be like living in some vast trust house with nothing to provide relief, that belief in the afterlife was put there by people in power to control you.”

Sir John had been in poor health for some time and died at his Oxfordshire home at 6:00 this morning. His second wife, Penelope, and children were by his side.

 His agent, Anthony Jones, said: “He died at home, surrounded by his family. He had been unwell for some time.”

A trained lawyer, Sir John drew on his experience to create Rumpole, the shambolic barrister who became one of the best-loved characters on British television.

His work also included Paradise Postponed an indictment of the selfish and, at times, vindictive spirit of the years Mrs. Thatcher was in power.

Other credits include an adaption of John Fowles The Ebony Tower; the autobiographical Voyage Round My Father, starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Alan Bates; Tea With Mussolini (1999), the Zeferelli film starring Joan Plowright, Cher, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin.

Although wheelchair-bound towards the end of his life, Sir John defied health edicts and continued to enjoy fine wine and good living, beginning each day with a glass of champagne for breakfast.

Another voice of reason has departed this mortal coil, a voice that will be greatly missed.

Sadly, because he smoked during his life, Sir John’s death will provide a triumph to the do-good busybodies.  The statistics will record his death as smoking-related, thereby justifying the specious beliefs of the anti-smoking “science shows us” brigade.

[Based on a report by The Daily Telegraph.]

Sulfuric acid lands on children during argument in truck

By Calvin Palmer

A woman said she was the intended target for sulfuric acid, thrown by her boyfriend, which  landed on her four children, Cooke County Sheriff Michael Compton said yesterday.

Cynthia Darlene Stout, 43, told authorities that her boyfriend was trying to throw the substance on her during an argument in their pickup truck and that it hit the children instead.

Stout was arrested on Wednesday on a charge of child endangerment after three of her children, ages 14, 7 and 4, were badly burned by the acid.

Compton said Stout tried to walk away from the truck near a cafe in Woodbine, 60 miles north of Dallas, while the man took the 18-month-old to a nearby residence where a woman washed down the infant with water.

Deputies were able to locate the 18-month-old through witnesses at the scene, Compton said, adding that Stout was apprehended while trying to leave the cafe without the three older children. He said she had walked 500 to 600 yards down the road when she was caught by police.

Stout remains in jail on a $100,000 bond.

Compton said that they are preparing charges against the man, who has not yet been arrested.

All four children were flown by air ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.  A hospital spokesperson was unable to release any information on their condition.

Compton said it was unclear why sulfuric acid was in the truck. He said Stout told authorities the chemical was for a clogged drain.

[Based on a report by Associated Press.]

Pilot skill and fast response by ferries led to ‘miracle on the Hudson’

By Calvin Palmer

When a US Airways Airbus A320 lost power yesterday afternoon shortly after taking off from New York’s La Guardia airport, what could have been a major disaster was averted due to the skill of the pilot and the quick response of rescuers.

New York Governor David Patterson, speaking from the New York Waterways Ferry building where some of the rescued passengers were taken, said: “We’ve had a miracle on 34th Street before. I believe now we’ve had a miracle on the Hudson.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: “The pilot certainly did a masterful job of landing and everybody worked together. It is terrible that it happened at all but if it was going to have to happen, this outcome is as good as you could ever hope and pray for.”

US Airways Flight 1549, took off at 3:26 en route for Charlotte, North Carolina, with 150 passengers and five crew members aboard.
As the plane lost power, thought to be due to hitting a flock of geese, pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III, 57, took the decision to avoid densely populated areas and try for the Hudson River.  He warned the 150 passengers to brace for a hard landing.

Sullenberger is understood to have walked up and down the plane twice after every passenger and crew member had disembarked to make sure that no-one was left onboard before exiting himself.

“If you know you are facing a ditching, the crash-landing of an aircraft on water, it is crucial that you land the plane absolutely level,” said David Learmount of Flight Global magazine.

“You must not try to keep the plane airborne and if you land it too slowly you will drop out of the sky. It is quite clear that he got everything absolutely right.”

As passengers clambered out on to the wings in the chilly water, they were met by a swift response by rescuers.

Commuter ferries from New York and New Jersey sprang into action.  The fire department in New York received the first emergency call at 3:31 p.m.and was on the scene in less than five minutes.

Fourteen vessels responded to the incident, their crews trained to respond to people overboard.

The first boat to arrive at the scene was the Thomas Jefferson, captained by Vincent Lombardi.

Lombardi said: “We had to pull an elderly woman out of a raft in a sling. She was crying. … People were panicking. They said, ‘Hurry up, hurry up.’ We gave them the jackets off our backs.”

Across the river, at Weehawken, New Jersey, police, firefighters and emergency medical crews boarded ferries awaiting the rush hour and headed to the stricken plane.

The ferries pulled up slowly to avoid washing passengers off the plane with their wake. Some passengers were already standing on the wing, other passengers were in inflatable rafts.

Lombardi’s crew rescued 56 passengers. Brittany Catanzaro, captain of the Thomas Kean, pulled 24 people aboard with her crew.

An elite emergency police team commandeered a sightseeing ferry at 42nd Street and headed to scene.

As the vessel arrived at the sinking fuselage, Sgt. Michael McGuinness and Detective Sean Mulcahy tied ropes around themselves that were also tied to their colleagues, detectives John McKenna and James Coll who entered the plane to rescue four passengers still inside.

Firefighters responded by boat and collected other passengers. They also anchored the plane with ropes to keep it from sinking or drifting away with the current.

Police divers Michael Delaney and Robert Rodriguez of the New York Police Department dropped from a helicopter into the water.

“From the air,” Delaney said, “it all looked very orderly. The plane’s crew appeared to do a great job.”

Both divers spotted a woman in the water, hanging on to the side of a ferry boat.

“She was frightened out of her mind,” Rodriguez said. “I see panic out of this woman. She was very cold, so she was unable to climb up.”

The two pulled another female passenger from the icy water as other passengers sat calmly on the plane’s flotation devices, waiting to board the ferries standing by.

Both divers climbed on to the wing and entered the plane and confirmed everyone was off.

One passenger suffered two broken legs, a paramedic said, but there were no other reports of serious injuries.

Fire officials said at least half the people on board were evaluated for hypothermia, bruises and other minor injuries.

Dozens of survivors were taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan. Jim Mandler, a spokesman at Roosevelt, said ten patients, ranging from their early 30s to a woman about 85, had been treated, mainly for hypothermia. A flight attendant had suffered a lacerated leg.

[Based on reports by The New York Times, newsday.com and The Daily Telegraph.]

States sue to defuse Bush’s ticking time bomb for women’s health care

By Calvin Palmer

Seven states sued the federal government today over a controversial new rule that expands protection for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions and other forms of care, including emergency contraception to rape victims, on the grounds of their religious and moral beliefs.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed the lawsuit in federal court in Hartford on behalf of the other six states.

The “Provider Conscience Rule,” issued by the Bush administration last month, takes effect on January 20 and reinforces protections for health care workers and institutions who refuse to provide services they object to.

“On its way out, the Bush Administration has left a ticking legal time bomb set to explode literally the day of the inaugural and blow apart vital constitutional rights and women’s health care,” Blumenthal said.

The new rule would override state laws protecting women’s access to birth control, reproductive health services and emergency contraception.

Blumenthal said the rule “shrouds the term abortion in new and unnecessary ambiguity” and encourages medical providers to define it themselves and deny patients contraception, including emergency contraception for rape victims.

It conflicts with three Connecticut laws, Blumenthal said — one requiring pharmacists to provide drugs without discriminating based on the type of drug; one requiring insurance companies to provide coverage for medication without discrimination about the type of medication; and the emergency contraception law.

That law requires that hospitals make emergency contraception, commonly known as Plan B, available to rape victims, but allows hospitals to hire outside contractors to provide it. Before it was passed, advocates cited dozens of cases in which hospitals failed to provide rape victims with emergency contraception.

Catholic leaders objected to the law but, days before it took effect, the state’s Roman Catholic bishops announced that Connecticut’s four Catholic hospitals would comply and not employ outside contractors to dispense medication.

At stake are billions of dollars in federal public health money received annually by the states. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could order a return of all HHS funds from state and local governments that violate the regulation.

Rebecca Ayer, director of media affairs for the department, said the agency has not yet reviewed the lawsuits and will respond to them in court.

“The department followed appropriate procedures to put the regulation in place and the regulation is fully supported by law,” Ayer said.

Under long-standing federal law, institutions may not discriminate against individuals who refuse to perform abortions or provide a referral for one. The administration has said the new rule is intended to ensure that federal funds don’t flow to providers who violate those laws.

“Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said last month when the rule was issued.

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has said he will deal with “all eleventh-hour regulations” once he is president.  But it could take Obama 60 to 90 days to roll back the new HHS regulation.

California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island joined Connecticut in the lawsuit, which seeks a court order blocking the new rule.

Planned Parenthood of Federation of America Inc. and National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association said they are filing separate, parallel lawsuits.

Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives today also introduced legislation designed to stop the new regulation.

Mary Jane Gallagher, president and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said the rule is unnecessary because there have been laws on the books for decades protecting medical providers if they refuse to participate in abortions and sterilization services.

She accused the Bush administration of trying to appease religious conservatives who are opposed to contraception.

“It’s all ideology. It is how to appeal to this small minority of people who don’t want women and men to have reproductive health choices,” she said.

Gallagher said the rule most likely will affect poor and uninsured women who rely on family planning clinics for counseling, education and contraception.

[Based on reports by Associated Press and Hartford Courant.]

All passengers safe as US Airways jet crashes into Hudson River

By Calvin Palmer

A US Airways Airbus A320 crashed this afternoon into the Hudson River, in New York, after taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport en route to Charlotte, North Carolina, said the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane, US Airways Flight 1549, took off at 3:26.  It had 146 passengers and five crew members aboard.

The Federal Aviation Administration said all passengers were rescued safely from the crash.

“The left engine just blew,” said passenger Jeff Kolodjay, 31, of Norwalk, Connecticut, who was in seat 22A. “The pilot said you’ve got to brace for a hard impact.” Kolodjay said passengers hit their heads against the roof when the plane crashed.

Government officials said the plane had hit a flock of birds that disabled two engines.

Several commuter ferries, as well as the Coast Guard Cutter Ridley, went alongside to pick up passengers standing on the wings.  Divers from New York Police Department assisted with the rescue, diving into the water from helicopters, police officials said.  New York City firefighters are at the scene. 

Some passengers plucked from the frigid water were being taken to the Circle Line piers nearby at West 42nd Street. It was less than 20 degrees Farenheit in New York City at the time of the crash.

A witness, Barbara Sambriski, said: “I just thought, ‘Why is it so low?’ And, splash, it hit the water.”

“I saw what appeared to be a tail fin of a plane sticking out of the water,” said Erica Schietinger, whose office windows at Chelsea Piers look out over the Hudson.

“Wow, thank the Lord and thank the pilot,” said Alberto Panero, a passenger quoted on CNN. “I can’t believe he managed to land the plane safely.”

US Airways officials says anyone with family on board the flight should call 1-800-679-8215.

[Based on reports by Associated Press, newsday.com and The New York Times.]

Ambien found in bedroom of sleepwalker who froze to death

By Calvin Palmer

A bottle of Ambien may hold the key to why a barefoot Wisconsin man, dressed only in a fleece shirt and his underwear, froze to death on Monday night while sleepwalking.

Timothy Brueggeman, 51, an electrician from Hayward, was found outside his rural home on Tuesday morning, hours after temperatures had fallen to minus 16.  He died of hypothermia, authorities said.

Investigators found a bottle of Ambien in his bedroom, but they have not determined whether he took the medication on the night of his death.

Ambien, the most-prescribed sleeping pill in the nation, has been linked to hundreds of cases of sleepwalking, sleep-driving and even sleep-shoplifting. Sanofi-Aventis, which makes the drug, maintains it is safe when taken correctly and not mixed with alcohol or other drugs.

A longtime friend, Ed Lesniak, said Brueggeman, after taking Ambien and going to bed one night last summer, drove his pickup without waking up.

“He drove into the side of his own garage, knocked a neighbor’s hanging plant off the eaves of their house, and came to rest against a tree,” Lesniak said. “The next day he didn’t know what happened.”

Brueggeman’s mother, Geraldine Brueggeman, of Bloomington, said she was so unnerved by that episode that she made her son promise never to take the drug again.

She said yeterday that he had been plagued by insomnia for 10 years and apparently went back to the drug or never stopped.

Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said investigators believe Brueggeman may have been drinking before he died. They were awaiting test results to determine whether he had taken Ambien and alcohol together.

Geraldine Brueggeman said several empty light beer cans were found in the garbage.

Lesniak, with whom Brueggeman lived for a time after going through a divorce, said his friend sometimes drank while taking Ambien.

“He was like a lot of us,” Lesniak said. “He’d stop off after work or have a couple throughout the evening and then take a pill to go to sleep.”

Dr. Michel Cramer Bornemann, of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center, said a person wouldn’t have to be on the Ambien to sleepwalk in the snow.

“People who sleepwalk can bump into things or walk on a very cold surface and not be able to sense it,” he said and cited several cases, in recent years, of children who have died by wandering asleep outside in winter.

[Based on reports by Associated Press and The Star Tribune.]