Mid Day International News |
- Indian filmmaker to stay in jail in US
- Mistaken alcohol use kills baby during surgery
- Ex-cop jailed for pushing wife off cliff
- Two-year-old kicks the butt
- No alcohol for trapped miners
- Return of the China traffic jam
- Taliban facing financial crisis, says US
- Divers find 'Shrek fish'
- New book to lift the lid on Carla's love life
- 'I was an animal in the bedroom', says Tony Blair
| Indian filmmaker to stay in jail in US Posted: Indian documentary filmmaker Vijay Kumar, arrested in Houston for allegedly carrying "jihadist" literature and brass knuckles in his checked baggage, will remain behind bars without bail but can leave "voluntarily" if his case is resolved within 120 days. Kumar, 40, who relied on the US Department of Homeland Security's travel rules to carry the items prohibited in Texas, was on Thursday denied bail by a Houston judge and ordered to stay in jail on federal immigration charges until allegations against him are resolved, Houston Chronicle reported. A resident of Malad in Mumbai, Kumar was detained on his way to Canada August 20 by Houston airport security who said he was acting suspiciously. A search turned up brass knuckles, which are illegal in Texas, prosecutors said. Kumar bonded out Aug 23 and surrendered his passport to Harris County officials as a condition of his bail. When released, Kumar's visa was revoked. He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, because he had neither a passport nor a visa. At a hearing on Thursday, a federal immigration judge refused to set a bail for Kumar. Federal officials would not say Thursday why Kumar's visa was revoked, the Chronicle said. John Connolly, assistant agent in charge of ICE in Houston, told the Chronicle that Kumar is not the subject of a homeland security investigation. Kumar turned down an offer to plead guilty in exchange for time served because he did not want to jeopardise his chances to return to America, his attorney Grant Scheiner said. Now he faces the same dilemma. If his case is resolved within four months, he can leave voluntarily and can ask to return. If the case takes longer, he will be deported after it is complete, squelching his chances to return.
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| Mistaken alcohol use kills baby during surgery Posted: A seven-month-old baby died after doctors at a hospital in the US flushed his system with alcohol instead of saline solution during a heart surgery. The incident, termed as a terrible mistake, occurred while Tressel Meinardi underwent heart surgery at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio Aug 21, the Herald Sun reported Friday citing cincinnati.com. The injection of alcohol caused organ failure in the baby, a resident of Richmond in Indiana state. "There's no question a mistake was made," Coroner O'dell Owens said. Police are now investigating how the mistake occurred.
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| Ex-cop jailed for pushing wife off cliff Posted: A former police officer in Australia who murdered his wife by pushing her off a cliff was Friday jailed for 33 years. Des Campbell, 52, who murdered his wife Janet, 49, by pushing her off a cliff, had married her only for her money, the prosecutor told the Supreme Court, adding that Janet had been left well off when her first husband died. Campbell took her camping in the Royal National Park in Sydney six months after they wed, and just before nightfall Janet fell to her death from a 50-metre cliff near their campsite, the court was told. Campbell had secretly carried on affairs with other women during his relationship with Janet. He later did not even attend her funeral, and booked a holiday with one of his girlfriends the week after she plunged to her death. "There can be no doubt that the circumstances under which Janet Campbell met her death demonstrate the offender's sustained callousness towards her for nothing more than monetary gain," sentencing judge Megan Latham was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun. The accused met his wife in Deniliquin town, 750 km from Sydney, where Janet worked as a hospital orderly. Campbell, who had previously been a policeman in Victoria and England, was working as a paramedic.
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| Posted: A two-year-old boy in Indonesia, who used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day, has quit smoking after entering rehab Child protection officials sent Aldi Rizal for therapy and, after three months of treatment, he has kicked the habit. He is now playing normally for the first time. The rehab left Aldi confused. He cried after finishing his last cigarette and then beat his head on walls, it was reported Friday. He had already started showing health complications with his heart developing a thicker lining. He often had a vacant or listless look. Aldi started smoking at 11 months when his fishmonger father gave him a cigarette. The boy's parents, of Sekayu, Indonesia, sought help as they couldn't afford his two packets a day habit. "The money can now go on other things," his mother was quoted as saying.
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| Posted: Meatballs and rice is the first meal for miners; doctors refuse wine and cigarettes The 33 trapped miners in Chile got their first hot meal in weeks, but booze and smokes will have to wait. A NASA doctor nixed the miners' request for alcohol and cigarettes Monday as the men enjoyed meatballs over rice and cheese sandwiches. Instead of cigarettes, the men received nicotine patches and gum to quell their cravings. Out of luck As for the wine, the men, who have lost more than 20 pounds since the San Jose mine collapse August 5, are out of luck for now. "From the alcohol standpoint, we need to first get their nutrition up before we make any considerations there," NASA's deputy chief doctor James Michael Duncan said. Duncan is part of a team of medical experts from the space agency working with the miners in Chile. The other item the trapped men may not get is bad news. Chilean officials are debating whether to censor what the men see and read while they wait to be rescued. No questions "They have told us to not ask any questions to the men in our letters," said Carolina Lobos, whose father, Franklin, is trapped. "We are supposed to write in a positive way that will bring them up," she said. But one psychologist thinks that idea is dangerous. "If you start to do that you are setting up a base for mistrust," Dr Nick Kanas said. "The miners will then ask, 'What else are they hiding from me?' The latest video released by the government shows the men in good spirits and with shaved faces, unlike last week's video where the men sported scraggly beards. The miners will remain underground for up to four months as rescuers delicately drill an escape hole for the men. Since the mine collapse, the men have gotten shots to prevent against disease. The men moved 1,000 feet deeper to a dryer area after some of the miners developed infections and sores. Currently, holes are being used to deliver food and communication equipment, with one hole for ventilation.
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| Return of the China traffic jam Posted: A huge traffic jam stretching at least 120 kilometres reappeared in northern China yesterday, with thousands of cargo trucks stuck in a bottleneck, state media said. State television broadcast images of a long line of mostly cargo trucks inching slowly through Inner Mongolia on a major highway leading toward Beijing that has come to symbolise China's serious traffic problem. "You could say the highway has become a big parking lot," a CCTV reporter at the scene said, estimating the number of vehicles stuck in the congestion at more than 10,000. However, CCTV later said the congestion began to clear in the afternoon. The stretch of highway linking Inner Mongolia and the northern province of Hebei with Beijing is among the nation's busiest as the capital of more than 20 million people sucks in huge shipments of goods. Gridlock has become a feature of the route recently, with blame falling on highway maintenance projects and accidents. Traffic slowed to a snail's pace in June and July for nearly a month, according to earlier press reports. In August, state media said some drivers were stuck in a huge traffic jam on the route for nine days. The traffic subsequently cleared but has worsened again due to accidents and traffic restrictions imposed by authorities, CCTV said. China has embarked in recent years on a huge expansion of its national road system but the volume traffic periodically overwhelms the grid.
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| Taliban facing financial crisis, says US Posted: Noting that the Taliban has been driven to desperation around Marjah in southern Afghanistan, a top US general stationed there has said that the terrorist outfit is facing an acute financial crisis. "We have intelligence that indicates to us that he (Taliban) has got a financial crisis on his hands," US Marine Corps Major General Richard Mills said in a video-briefing from the province to the Pentagon press room. The targeting of the Taliban's opium "treasury" and various steps to undermine the terrorist organisation's opium profits has led to shortage of funds, he said. As a result, Mills said, based in sensitive intelligence, he believes that local insurgency in the Helmand province has less than one-half of what they had last year in operating funds. "He (the Taliban) has a cash-flow problem," Mills said, adding that the Taliban does not have the money needed to buy the weapons needed in order to continue conflicts. The insurgency in the region, he said has been reduced from the use of rather expensive Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to simple bullets, which are cheaper and easier to get. "It's difficult for us to judge specifically how much money he has lost. We believe that the local insurgency here within the province has less than one-half of what they had last year in operating funds. We based that on some sensitive intelligence that we're able to work with and some things we've studied," the general said.
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| Posted: It is not exactly blessed in the looks department.
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| New book to lift the lid on Carla's love life Posted: A controversial new book due this month is set to lift the lid on French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's "secret life and lovers". The lawyers of Bruni-Sarkozy are bracing themselves for the release of the book, written by Besma Lahouri. The security around the book is tight and even the title has not been disclosed. "It's a robust, anything-goes book which contains explosive revelations about everything from Carla's relationship with secret lovers to plastic surgeons," telegraph.co.uk quoted a publishing source as saying. "The principal story is about a fast-living adventuress with an obsession with wealth and fame. Nobody from Carla's camp has assisted with anything. This is a proper, unbiased investigation into a world-famous former model, pop singer and first lady," the source added. Lahouri, who also wrote a biography of French footballer Zinedine Zidane, is currently in hiding and security guards are said to be protecting his work, which is due in about two weeks. Bruni-Sarkozy has had string of affairs with high-profile men including the English rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. According to a source at the Elys �e Palace, any attacks on Bruni-Sarkozy, including in biographies, would be viewed "very seriously". A spokesman for Flammarion publishers said the new biography is "an investigation without co-operation and without bias".
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| 'I was an animal in the bedroom', says Tony Blair Posted: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has revealed in his book that he was an animal in the bedroom. When John Smith died on May 12, 1994, triggering the Labour leadership battle with Gordon Brown, it was clearly an emotional time for Blair and his wife. "That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me; made me feel that what I was about to do was right... On that night of the 12th May, 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly," The Sun quoted him as writing in his memoirs. "I devoured it to give me strength, I was an animal following my instinct, knowing I would need every of emotional power and resilience to cope with what lay ahead. I was exhilarated, afraid and determined in roughly equal quantities," he added. Blair revealed another bizarre obsession - with toilets. The former PM writes that he likes to have "time and comfort in the loo". Wife Cherie revealed Tony proposed after she cleaned a toilet on holiday in Tuscany in 1979. "I was cleaning the bathroom. I''d cleaned the toilet and he announced, while I was on my knees, that we should get married. It was terribly romantic," she said. Blair writes candidly about illicit affairs of the politicians, showing unusual insight for a man with a spotless reputation on that front. "Politicians live with pressure. They have to be immensely controlled to get anywhere... And your free-bird instincts want to spring you from that prison of self-control. Then there is that moment of encounter, so exciting, so naughty, so lacking in self-control," he wrote.
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