Wednesday, February 16, 2005The British Countryside Alliance has lost its legal bid to keep hunting with hounds after the High Court rejected their appeal, which had been made on the grounds that the Parliament Act 1949 was invalid. The High Court rejected this, ruling that the 1949 Act was valid. This means hunting with dogs for foxes, hares and badgers will be illegal from Friday 18 February in England and Wales in accordance with the Hunting Act 2004.

The Countryside Alliance has said it is challenging the decision in the House of Lords (the highest court in English Law) and the European Court of Human Rights.

The RSPCA has said the arguments were “wafer thin”.

However the CA as said that the police would have difficulty in policing the law. The League Against Cruel Sports has said it is setting up a “crimewatch service” to police the ban.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Fugitive Ryan Jenkins was found dead in a motel room in Hope, Canada, about 150 kilometers from Vancouver. Police are still trying to determine how long he was at the Thunderbird Motel before he hanged himself.

The RCMP are now looking for an unidentified woman who helped Jenkins check himself into the motel last Thursday. She is described as an attractive blonde in her early 20’s and driving a tinted Chrysler PT Cruiser with Alberta plates.

Ryan Jenkins was wanted for the brutal murdering of his ex-wife, swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore. Her badly mutilated body was discovered in a dumpster southeast of Los Angeles on August 15th. Her teeth and fingers were removed, making identification difficult. She was identified through serial numbers on her breast implants.

Jenkins’s boat was found on Wednesday, south of Vancouver, not far from the US-Canada border. Police believe he drove from California to Blaine, Washington and then took a boat to Point Roberts, Washington where he crossed the border on foot into Tsawwassen, Canada. The RCMP confirmed early Sunday that Jenkins was somewhere in Canada and he should turn himself in. He was considered armed and dangerous.

Ryan Jenkins is from Calgary and moved to Los Angeles after appearing in a reality television show on the VH1 network, “Megan Wants a Millionaire“.

There were a couple of false sightings during the manhunt. One man was stopped on a flight from Toronto to Vancouver for using an alias. Another man was taken off a Vancouver transit bus because he looked similar and was interested in the news story.

U.S. Marshals were offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Satire site Uncyclopedia, a parody of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has been labeled by the Malaysian government as dangerous. The Internal Security Department of Malaysia issued the warning today, saying that the site has “messages and information insulting Malaysia”.

The warning notes the creation date of the website as being 5 January 2005, and hosted by Wikia, Inc., both of which are correct. However, it claims Wikia owns Wikipedia; Wikipedia is a charitable non-profit website owned by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, while Wikia is an independent, for-profit company.

The report evidently mentions that Uncyclopedia covers Malaysian “history, culture, the political leaders, the government, the national song and the name / history of the national flag,” none of which is “correct”. They accuse the website of helping to reinforce a bad international image of their country.

There are no reports of the site being blocked from access within the country, only this statement, which urges Malaysians not to circulate the content.

Uncyclopedia’s article on Malaysia begins:

The site has fired back with a parody article posted at the site under their UnNews section, titled Uncyclopedia Internal Security Department warns on Malaysia. The article suggests that the “Internal Security Department of the Uncyclomedia Foundation,” which is a facetious and fictitious parent organization of Uncyclopedia, identifies Malaysia “as a dangerous country… It warned its people not to use the country today.”

There are forty-seven individual language editions of Uncyclopedia, including Tolololpedia, which is written in Bahasa Melayu, the Malay language. This is in addition to fictional “language” editions which include Oscar Wilde, Newspeak, N00b, White Supremacist, and Re: PharmaccgRy.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Indian aviation sector looks set to shrink amid financial turmoil, with the nation’s air carriers in schemes to try and ride out the problems and domestic air traffic at a five year low.

Air traffic has fallen by 19% in September, the fourth month in a row of negative growth. The news comes as a joint result of the current financial crisis and high jet fuel prices, with Indian airlines in debt to the tune of Rs1,800 crore after surpassing their credit limits with oil companies, who are themselves making losses due to government controls on the price of jet fuel.

Kingfisher Red – originally known as Air Deccan, India’s first budget carrier, until Kingfisher Airlines bought the company out – suffered the biggest drop in passenger numbers at 20% of their load factor. Flag carrier Air India is running at 53% of capacity after a 10% fall, and the average for airlines is now 55% as opposed to 65% this time last year.

Kingfisher Airlines has decided to enter an alliance with Jet Airlines that will see them collectively control half the Indian aviation market. Both airlines are in debt over fuel payments with Jet owing Rs850 crore while Kingfisher refused to disclose the amount they needed to pay. The money is owed mainly to the Indian Oil Corporation, with the rest owed to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation. 45% of costs for Indian carriers is fuel, which is 70% more expensive than abroad due to multiple taxes.

Air India’s head Raghu Menon expressed concern about what the Kingfisher-Jet alliance meant for his own airline. “We were competing with both these airlines separately. Now we’ll be competing with them perhaps as one entity. It’ll be a challenge,” he said.

Kingfisher have cancelled an order for three A340 aircraft from European airframer Airbus. Airbus executive John Leahy said that Airbus had discussed the issue with Kingfisher before the choice was made and that this was the only cancellation from India. He also maintains that India will be an important area for Airbus, with the firm predicting Indian aviation growth will be at 9.7% compared to a global rate of 5.4%. Airbus predict that 1,000 new aircraft will increase the Indian fleet fivefold by 2026. Airbus have also welcomed the partnership between Jet and Kingfisher, saying it will help consolidate the carriers.

Airlines are cutting capacity to reduce costs, with around 20% gone already. Average flight movements are down to 8,000 a week compared to 10,500 in the period from April to June. The aviation industry in India is expected to post a collective loss of US$2 billion.

One executive at Boeing, Dinesh Keskar , predicted the downfall to be brief. “The current downturn in the sector is temporary and may not prolong for more than 6 to 9 months,” he said. Airlines, however, feel that the risk is very much immediate; Jet and Kingfisher are requesting a government bailout package worth Rs 40.7 billion. They are currently losing a combined US$1.3 billion.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

In a vote of 74-25 last Thursday, the US Senate passed a measure that would change bankruptcy laws, making it harder for individuals seeking relief from their debt burden to avoid repayment. Almost twenty Democrats joined Republicans, who currently hold a majority of the seats in the US Senate, in passing the bill.

Lobbyists for credit card companies and financial services firms have worked for the bill during the last two administrations. A similar measure passed both the Senate and House during the previous administration, but then President Bill Clinton pocket-vetoed the measure in 2000.

Democrats sought to soften the bill by allowing bankruptcy filers to negotiate directly with lenders for relief, but the amendments were defeated by the Republican-controlled Senate. Proponents of the bill claim the rise of bankruptcy filings to nearly 1.5 million a year shows that abusers of credit use the filings to shield themselves from irresponsible practices.

“There has been an explosion of bankruptcy,” said Iowa Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the bill’s sponsor. “We preserve the principle of a fresh start, but we also establish a principle that if you have the ability to repay some of your debt, you are not going to get off scot-free.” However, Massachusetts Democratic Sen., Edward M. Kennedy said, “This legislation makes the bankruptcy courts of the United States the collection agency for the credit-card industry.”

The bill impacts a broad spectrum of bankruptcy law, but the most significant impact is on personal bankruptcy filings. Individuals who get behind in repaying credit card debt face high interest charges and stiff late payment fees. By only meeting minimum payment requirements, borrowers remit to the lender over the life of the loan an amount in interest and other fees that can far exceed the value of the principal balance of the loan. This can put consumers who run up high balances on various cards at financial risk of default. Critics of the bill blame these aggressive lending practices as a contributing factor in the rising trend of bankruptcy filings from 1996.

The proposed bill doesn’t only affect debtors with credit card debt.

It also affects debtors who have run up large medical bills.

Patients with a past medical history that disqualifies them from full medical coverage, can easily find themselves facing insurmountable medical bills after just a short stay in the hospital. These individuals will no longer be able to get a fresh start after these personal disasters, and will be forced to live in poverty until they can pay off their medical bills as part of their Chapter 13 filing. (Prior to this bill, they would have been able to file Chapter 7, completely discharging their debt.)

Chapter 7, which accounts for 70% of bankruptcy filings, allows individuals to eliminate most non-secured debts after liquidating assets, with the notable exemption of one’s principle residence in most states. The Senate passed bill would change Chapter 7 eligibility by applying a means-test, where those with a median income higher than the state average would be required to file under Chapter 13 provisions. Under Chapter 13 protection, an individual’s debt is not forgiven; rather it is restructured for payment under more lenient terms.

This was the first major overhaul of federal bankruptcy law in many years.

Under the old bankruptcy law, a personal bankruptcy attorney could not be held financially responsible for his clients mendacity. Under the new bankruptcy law, the bankruptcy attorney is responsible for his client’s lies to the Court about his assets and the bankruptcy attorney and his insurance carrier can be held responsible by the Bankruptcy Court.

The result is that personal bankruptcy attorneys (this does not apply to corporate bankruptcy attorneys) are likely to flee the personal bankruptcy field when the new law takes effect. Their insurance companies will not offer the sort of coverage that they would need to continue to practice.

So when consumers need to file personal bankruptcy under the new law, they will be unlikely to find a bankruptcy attorney to represent them. Consumers will have to file pro se: such consumers will be likely to fail due to the complexity of the law.

The bottom line is that the field of personal bankruptcy law as a practice area of law will cease to exist when the new bankruptcy law takes effect, and consumers will be unable to secure legal counsel and so consumers will lose what legal protections counsel now affords them.

Under the new bankruptcy law about one half million Americans will be forest to pay for at lest 5 years on longer they will be held in servitude as chattel they will be completely subservient to a dominating influence of the company that holds the loan. Their loan will be put on the market for sale for profit. The people will be forced to work harder. People who fail to go to court will have a arrest warrant made out in their name and people who refuseto pay. They will be subject to fines and or jail. About fifty thousand Americans will punished by a fine and or about three thousand Americans every year will go to jail under the new bankruptcy law. For some people this will be a third strike they will be put in jail for life.

The bill has the support of President Bush, and its passage in the House sometime next month seems likely. If enacted into law, lending companies will recover more money on what otherwise would be written off as bad loans. Those persons of median and higher income seeking relief would be required to file under Chapter 13 status and pay up to $100 per month under court imposed conditions. It is expected the proposed changes would cause a sharp increase in filings before the new law could take effect.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

A fire in the Borrabbin National Park between Southern Cross and Coolgardie Western Australia, has so far burnt out 29,000 hectares and killed three truck drivers when the convoy they were travelling in was engulfed by the flames. Great Eastern Highway the primary road for all traffic from Perth heading to the East Coast of Australia has been closed. An alternate route is in place, police are diverting traffic at Norseman. The diversion adds 250 km(160 mi) for the journey to Perth.

The three truck drivers died on Sunday night after they joined a convoy that was released from Coolgardie after being told that the road was safe. Kieran McNamara director general of the Department of Environment and Conservation(DEC) admitted that it had been caught out by its decision to reopen the road at 8pm (wst) on 30 December.

Mr McNamara said “The decision was made with the advice from people at the firefront, and with the latest weather forecasts, and was judged to be the right decision and the safe decision at the time and in those circumstances… Regrettably and with hindsight, that’s not how it’s turned out.”

The driver of another truck in the convoy that was destroyed escaped with burns to his hands and was rushed through the fire front by firefighters to Yellowdine, another driver was rescued uninjured and return to Coolgardie, a spokesman for Whiteline transport the owners of this truck were thankful their driver survived unharmed saying the cost of the vehicle lost was about AU$400,000 plus cargo. Police confirmed that four trucks were destroyed by the fire.

Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia reported that they were fighting the fire without using water. All efforts were focused on building fire breaks with heavy machinery to contain the fire, that 90 volunteer fire fighters on the scene were there to defend the bulldozers.

The fire is still burning on a 150 km (90 mi) front, DEC spokesman says fire fighters are hoping to bring the fire under control with an expected cool change on Wednesday. The Weather Bureau has forecast temperatures to return above 40°C(105°F) by Thursday.

Local Police say that Great Eastern Highway will remain closed until the fire is under control and the damaged vehicles have been removed from the scene, at this stage its not expected to occur before Sunday.