Bin Lorry Crashes Into Shoppers: Six Dead

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 23 Desember 2014 | 12.26

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A council refuse lorry has crashed into a crowd of Christmas shoppers in Glasgow city centre, killing six people and injuring eight.

The crowd were waiting to cross the road outside Queen Street station by the Millennium Hotel on George Square and some people are thought to have been thrown up to 15 metres from the site of impact.

Pictures published on social media showed people being treated along the length of the street - one police officer said the lorry had careered up to 300 metres along the road before slamming into the hotel.

Witnesses described seeing the driver of the lorry, who is among those being treated in hospital slumped over the wheel.

Reporting from the scene, Sky's Scotland correspondent James Matthews said: "It is an absolutely horrendous spectacle and one of extreme carnage in Glasgow today."

He asked witness Melanie Greig to tell him about the people on the pavement who had been hit, to which she responded: "I can't; honestly I just can't do that."

She continued: "When something is coming up behind them like that, how can they run out of the way? It's such a horrific thing. There was noise and bangs and screams.

"There was a baby in a buggy. There were actually two little kids. It was just horrific."

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Gallery: Pictures From The Crash Scene

Emergency services at the scene of the crash

The rubbish lorry crashed through shoppers in Glasgow before hitting the Millennium Hotel in St George Square. Pic: Radio Clyde

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Witnesses described the lorry mounting the pavement and driving for several hundred yards

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A member of the public is comforted by emergency services personnel at the scene

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Several people are also believed to have been injured in the crash. Pic: Stephen Gibson

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Witness Anjan Luthra, who works opposite the crash site, told Sky News: "There were two people getting mouth to mouth. There were some bodies that were just untouchable and people were covering them because they were in such a state."

Another witness told Sky News: "People were just in shock, just standing about screaming. A mother with her baby in the pram fainted. Apparently the lorry had just missed her and her child."

Police have declared the scene a major incident and confirmed there have been six fatalities, but they say they do not believe the incident is terrorism related.

A statement released by Police Scotland said: "About 2.30pm today, a Glasgow City Council bin lorry was travelling north on Queen Street when it appeared to strike pedestrians outside the Gallery of Modern Art.

"It continued to travel towards George Square, where it crashed at the Millennium Hotel on Queen Street."

All casualties, including the driver of the lorry, who is said to have been lucid following the crash, have been taken to the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Western Infirmary.

Lauren Gilmore, a shopper in George Square, said: "Just over a year ago, we had another tragedy in Glasgow – it was the helicopter crash. And now this has happened again just before Christmas."

Witness Janey Godley tweeted: "Utter horrific carnage people on ground getting triage street poles smashed into pavement emergency services all over it."

In a statement, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said : "My thoughts are with everyone involved in this tragic incident, and especially with the friends and families of the six people who lost their lives in what is another sad day for Glasgow and Scotland.

She has requested that flags at Scottish government buildings be flown at half-mast.

Glasgow City Council has also ordered that the Christmas lights at George Square be switched off as a mark of respect.

:: For those people who are concerned, Police Scotland have set up an emergency hotline on: 01786 289 070.

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Written By Unknown on Senin, 22 Desember 2014 | 12.25

Billie Whitelaw, famous for roles in films such as The Omen, has died aged 82, her son has confirmed.

Matthew Muller told the Guardian his mother passed away peacefully at Denville Hall, a retirement home for actors in north London.

He said she had not been well for about a year, but had deteriorated rapidly over the last few months.

Billie Whitelaw famously played the demonic nannie in the film series The Omen and the mother of English gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray in the 1990 film The Krays.

She was also known for her collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, who once famously referred to her as "a perfect actress."

Her later film roles included a cameo in the 2007 police comedy Hot Fuzz.

Billie Whitelaw was awarded a CBE in 1991.

Paying tribute in the Guardian, Mr Muller said she was "an incredibly loving mother".

"I am going to miss her deeply," he said.

12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

DNA Study To Put UK At 'Forefront Of Science'

By Emma Birchley, East of England Correspondent

The diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases and cancer could be transformed by an ambitious project that will see 100,000 complete sets of people's genes decoded.

Eleven Genomic Medicine Centres (GMCs) across England will begin work in February to collect and map the samples over a three-year period.

The initiative, known as the 100,000 Genomes Project, will help scientists and doctors understand more about specific conditions such as the rare genetic illness cystinosis, which left 24-year-old Christopher Melville needing a kidney transplant when he was just 10.

"I'm excited," he said. "Obviously the more knowledge we have, the more understanding we have of how to treat people. It leads to better development, better research and better treatment."

Samples will be taken from people like Christopher and also their parents, while cancer patients will provide both blood and tumour tissue as part of the research.

Professor Dion Morton, who will run the West Midlands GMC, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, described the work as "transformational", adding that not long ago it took eight years to decode a single person's genome.

"It's going to change the way we practice medicine (and) it's going to give us opportunities to bring new medicines to our patients.

"Historically medicine's been delivered to groups of patients with similar conditions and now we can start subdividing those groups into the exact genetic code that is really causing that condition, so target the treatment of that code and hopefully make treatment safer, more effective."

NHS England's medical director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, said the project was an achievable ambition "which positions Britain to unlock long-standing mysteries of disease on behalf of mankind".

"Embracing genomics will position us at the forefront of science and make the NHS the most scientifically-advanced healthcare system in the world," he added.

A total of 75,000 people will take part in the project.

Christopher's mother, Julie Melville, is delighted the project is about to begin.

"It feels like finally somebody is sitting up and taking note that this rare disease exists," she said.

Her hope is that gene therapy could eventually mean a cure for cystinosis sufferers like her son - one of 150 people in the UK with the disease.

It is estimated new diagnostic tests and drugs could be available as a result of the work within 15 years.

12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tsunami Survivor: 'I Felt Guilty I'd Lived'

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 21 Desember 2014 | 12.25

When Amanda Rabbow describes the hours she fought for her life in the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, it is as if she is back in the wave again.

"I just got carried off in the water until I backed into a brick wall - and everything carried in the water piled up against me so I got crushed backwards against this wall - and it started stacking up and rising up above my head and started to push me under," she said.

"Then I remember taking my last breath before I went under - and I just remember thinking - I hope it's quick - because I couldn't breathe.'

Amanda was on holiday in the beach resort of Khao Lak in Southern Thailand with her boyfriend - they were in bed when the wave struck their beachside bungalow.

Miraculously, just as she thought she was going to die, she was pulled out of the water by a local Thai man, who she is convinced saved her life.

She was then washed into the water again and spent three hours battling struggling to survive.

"It took me in it like a washing machine, that's all I can describe it as, and I remember doing massive somersaults and then coming back up to the surface and taking a massive breath and then being taken under again - more somersaults, come up for air, more somersaults," she said.

Amanda was finally able to pull herself up into a tree. When the water receded she climbed down, surrounded by bodies - including the body of the man who saved her.

"I know that he didn't survive and I have a lot of questions in my head in life - if you do the right thing by someone - he should have survived because he saved my life without a doubt."

Amanda managed to find her boyfriend up on the hillside and they stayed in a temple with other survivors until rescue teams finally managed to clear the roads to Khao Lak.

She faced an horrific journey to Bangkok.

"People paid for us to get on this bus but I couldn't sit upright on a chair and so I had to be laid flat in the luggage hold of this bus - and I was sick for 14-and-a-half hours solidly, brown water and I don't know what was coming out of my body - I thought I was going to die."

At last she was back in London, but she faced months of healing both her physical and psychological scars.

"I felt like I should have died, so I felt guilty, felt guilty for surviving and someone else not having the chance to survive," she said.

"I couldn't ever sleep - I didn't want to do anything and ... I was scared to do anything."

As the weeks passed, Amanda became determined to return to Thailand:

'I wanted to go back to Khao Lak and thank the people and to see if I could find the family of the man who I still think saved my life.'

She and a group of friends raised more than £50,000, and went back to Khao Lak to help the rebuilding effort:

"There was just a massive community of people that were there - there were survivors that were in back braces still, so injured, but they had stayed on to help.

"We could see where to use our money - there were Thai man mixing cement by hand, so we said - 'Here's some money, let's buy a cement mixer'."

Amanda remembers Boxing Day 2004 as the day her life changed forever.

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Gallery: Archive CCTV Stills Of Tsunami

Aceh province in Indonesia was the hardest hit by the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. CCTV stills from the capital Banda Aceh show how the tsunami destroyed everything in its path. Here, people walk away from the approaching water - unaware of what is to come

People still on the street see the debris that is being swept along in the water and begin to run

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12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Booze Bus Aims To Ease Pressure On A&E

By Rhiannon Mills, Sky News Correspondent

A mobile treatment centre costing nearly half a million pounds has been opened to keep drunk people out of A&E.

During one of the busiest weekends of the year as many celebrate Christmas parties, Sky News was invited to see the facility in Bristol which has been paid for by pubs and clubs through the National Licensed Trade Association.

The Alcohol Recovery Centre comes in a 65-foot-long truck trailer and is equipped with several beds, a waiting area and showers.

By 11pm on Saturday night the centre had already welcomed its first visitors, all of different ages and from a variety of backgrounds.

We saw patients being assessed by a paramedic to make sure they didn't have any other symptoms or injuries that needed treatment, before being left to rest and sober up.

Chris Hewett from South Western Ambulance Service told Sky News: "We're trying to achieve two things.

"The first thing is take the pressure off our colleagues in the hospitals, and the other thing is to try and keep the 999 ambulances free to go out and answer life-threatening emergencies."

It's hoped the centre will reduce the number of visits to hospital A&E departments, giving paramedics a dedicated space to help people who may be vulnerable because they've drunk too much.

A trial of the scheme, which ran in Bristol during December 2013, was praised for saving hundreds of hospital hours.

There are plans to open more centres like it across the UK in the next 18 months.

Andy Bishop, from the NLTA, said: "I am delighted to be involved with this pioneering national scheme that will have a profound effect on the licensed trade and in turn reduce the pressure of anti-social drinking on the emergency services, maintain ongoing health education and fund increased community support.

"Although we look forward to seeing the success of the project across the UK, our aim is that, through education, there will be no need for such assistance in our society in the future."

Almost 10 million hospital admissions in England last year were related to alcohol, and the cost to the NHS was up to £1.3bn.

Alcohol Concern believes this will contribute to an NHS deficit of £30bn by 2020.

12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Flood Victims Hit By Huge Insurance Quotes

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 20 Desember 2014 | 12.25

By Siobhan Robbins, Sky Reporter

Flood victims in Somerset say they are facing insurance quotes of tens of thousands of pounds to protect their homes from future flooding.

Sky News has seen one renewal quote of almost £100,000 for one year. That falls to just under £500 for the year if flood cover is removed.

The owners did not want to speak on camera but told Sky their property in Moorland would only cost around £120,000 to rebuild from scratch.

Neighbour Sally Vize has been told she won't be able to move back into her home until March - 13 months after the winter storms caused £120,000 worth of damage.

She is due to renew her insurance in the next few months, but is extremely concerned she won't be able to afford the quote.

"I think someone said £12,000 if they want to insure for floods again, who can afford that? It's ridiculous, and I think it's morally wrong," she said.

One in six homes in England are at risk of flooding and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates between 300,000 and 500,000 UK households could struggle to obtain affordably priced flood insurance.

From next summer, in conjunction with the Government, the ABI is hoping to launch its Flood Re scheme which will allow insurers to pass the flood risk element of a home insurance policy into a fund that will pay any subsequent flood claim.

Mark Shepherd, from the ABI, explained: "In certain parts of the country this is becoming a much bigger problem and that's why we are working with the Government to introduce Flood Re, which in the future will ensure those homes at the highest flood risk will still be able to get affordable flood insurance."

Since the flooding began last Christmas, a group called the Somerset Emergency Volunteers have been helping those in need of immediate help.

They have filled a warehouse with donations including food, clothes, furniture and household goods to allow people to begin replacing what they have lost.

They are also providing 400 homes with emergency boxes and sandbags so they are prepared for any repeat.

"Moorland and Fordgate were only given six sandbags by the council when it was flooded - three for the front door, three for the back," said assistant operations manager Sadie Forster.

"We're giving them 36 reusable sandbags."

The Environment Agency has now dredged 8km of river in Somerset, with the Government promising to spend £4.2m on flood defences in the county.

12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man Arrested Over Police Constable's Killing

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after an off-duty police constable was beaten to death in Liverpool.

Neil Doyle was attacked by a group of men during a Christmas night out with colleagues from Merseyside Police.

The 36-year-old got married in July and was due to go on honeymoon next month.

Two other off-duty officers suffered facial injuries in the attack, which took place near the Aloha nightclub in Colquitt Street at around 3.15am on Friday.

Officers are investigating the possibility they were targeted because of their jobs.

The 28-year-old suspect walked into a police station on Friday evening and is being interviewed by detectives.

Mr Doyle, who joined the force in May 2004, was taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, but died a short time later.

A post-mortem examination concluded he died from fatal bleeding around the brain, consistent with an assault.

Chief Constable Sir Jon Murphy described the investigation as being at a "very early stage".

He said: "On behalf of everybody connected with Merseyside Police I extend our heartfelt and sincere condolences to his wife Sarah and the rest of his family.

"Constable Doyle was enjoying a Christmas night out with his work colleagues.

"At around 3.15am Neil left the Peacock bar and walked with two colleagues along Colquitt Street in the city centre.

"The three officers were subjected to an apparently unprovoked and vicious attack by a group of males."

Mr Doyle had received a commendation for his actions in arresting three men after a violent robbery.

Peter Singleton, chairman of Merseyside Police Federation, said the police community was "devastated" by his killing.

"He exemplified the British bobby. He was a solid, good, hard-working, honest copper," he said.

The two other officers required hospital treatment. One suffered a fractured cheekbone.

12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Women Could Be Fighting On Front Line By 2016

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 19 Desember 2014 | 12.25

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

Women could be allowed to fight on the front line from 2016 the Government has announced.

The Defence Secretary has signed off a major review that concluded females could serve in a combat role if they achieved the rigorous physical standards required.

A senior defence source has described it as a "significant step-forward".

The final decision will be made after an 18 month physiological exam. This will look at women's basic physical ability to cope in harsh environments on lengthy deployments of six months or more.

"There is a real desire among Ministers and the military to open up ground combat roles to women," a Whitehall source told Sky News.

"This detailed review is a big step forward in the process, however it is clear further work needs to be done before a final decision is taken.

"The wellbeing of all of our personnel is of the utmost importance, but there is genuine hope this will be a reality come 2016."

Women already serve on the front line in a variety of roles: medics, intelligence officers, fighter pilots, and on submarines.

This will open the way for them to join infantry regiments, tanks units and The Royal Marines.

Some allies, the United States, Canada and Australia, already allow women to serve on the front line.

The six-month review was ordered by the last Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond. It has been on the desk of his successor Michael Fallon for a few weeks.

It was overseen by the Head of the Army, General Nicholas Carter.

Amongst many things, the review examined the possible consequences of male soldiers serving in close quarters with female colleagues including what effect this might have on the morale of a fighting unit.

It also looked at whether women are more prone to injury.

The review, whilst not conclusive, has removed doubts within the MoD.

12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

CCTV Shows Police Shoot-Out On London Streets

CCTV footage of a shoot-out between a criminal and a policeman on a north London street has been released.

Gunman Sedat Meric is seen in the video firing three shots into West Green Pool Bar, in Haringey, where officers from the National Crime Agency were conducting surveillance.

One officer appeared from behind a car, prompting Meric to turn and fire in their direction.

He is then seen running off while shooting eight times at the pursuing officer, who is shown returning fire.

Realising he had run out of ammunition, Meric discarded his firearm on the pavement and subsequently gave himself up to police. No one was injured.

Meric, aged 25, was found guilty of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at the Old Bailey, over the shoot-out in May.

His 22-year-old accomplice, Oktay Ayanoglu, was convicted of the same offence, although both men were acquitted of attempted murder.

DI Shaun Fitzgerald, from the Trident Gang Command, said: "Meric went out that evening intent on causing fear and intimidation and with no regard for who may have got caught up in the crossfire.

"Shooting at officers of the law highlights his complete disregard. I commend the officers from the National Crime Agency for their bravery in the face of an armed man.

"It is sheer luck that no one was injured as a result of this incident and it highlights the inherent dangers present when carrying a gun."

Meric and Ayanoglu will be sentenced on 9 January.

12.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

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