War crimes suspect Karadzic transferred to The Hague

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, caught a week ago after more than a decade on the run, arrived Wednesday in The Hague to be tried for some of Europe's bloodiest atrocities since World War II.

"Radovan Karadzic was today transferred in to the Tribunal's custody, after having been at large for more than 13 years," said the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in a statement.

"Karadzic, who was arrested in Serbia on 21 July 2008, has been admitted in the UN Detention Unit in the Hague."

Karadzic, who faces a trial for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, arrived at Rotterdam airport about 25 kilometres (15 miles away) shortly before 6:30 (0430 GMT).
He had arrived on a special flight from Belgrade, where he was arrested on July 21.

A motorcade entered the gates of the UN detention unit in The Hague, followed a short while later by two blue police helicopters, one of which landed inside the prison grounds.
The plane touched down just before 6:30 am (0430 GMT).

Karadzic faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for his leading role in the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre, during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Serbia's justice ministry confirmed it had authorised Karadzic's transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague "on the basis of Serbia's law on cooperation with the tribunal".

"The decision was preceded by the decision of the District Court in Belgrade that all conditions have been met for the turnover of Radovan Karadzic to the ICTY," it added in a statement.
"The ministry sent its decision to the authorised agencies for its further execution."

Karadzic, 63, was arrested in Belgrade on July 21, after more than a decade on the run disguised as a bearded, long haired alternative medicine guru who specialised in "human quantum energy."

His clever disguise as Doctor Dragan Dabic stunned many. Serbian media said dozens of secret service agents had tracked Karadzic for months before his detention.

"I am proud how he has been hiding all these years and I am appalled how he was thrown in the jaws of the beast," said 55-year-old Karadzic's supporter, writer Momir Vasiljevic.

A close Karadzic ally, Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, is still on the run. Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, another key figure in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, died while being tried by the ICTY.

Karadzic's transfer came only hours after Serbian riot police clashed with youths in central Belgrade at the end of an ultra-nationalist rally by more than 15,000 people opposed to the arrest of Karadzic, who remains an iconic figure among Serbian hardliners .

At least 25 police and 19 civilians, including a Spanish and a Serbian journalist, were injured in the clashes, hospital officials said.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the apparently drunken youths into streets surrounding the Serbian capital's main Republican Square.

Police set up cordons in the central district after the youths were cleared to allow the transfer to go ahead.

The violence erupted as ultranationalist Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic addressed the crowd. He had called for calm so that protestors could stage a "peaceful march" in Belgrade.
"Do not do it, children, we did not gather for that, we do not want to destroy Belgrade, but (President) Boris Tadic," Nikolic said.

Karadzic had been fighting a legal battle against his transfer to the UN tribunal in The Hague.
His entourage claimed he had sent an appeal against his transfer at the last minute on Friday, but the Serbian war crimes court denied that it had arrived on time.

According to the law, a three-judge panel of the court had three days upon receiving the appeal to decide on its merits before the justice ministry issued a final transfer order.

Dusan Ignjatovic, head of the Serbian government office for cooperation with the UN tribunal, expressed doubts about the appeal, which Karadzic's brother Luka has said was sent by regular mail.

The wartime Bosnian Serb leader has been indicted on playing a leading role in the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
The 43-month siege of Sarajevo claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Karadzic vanished from public view in 1996, the year after the ICTY indicted him for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Qantas passengers arrive in Australia after mid-air drama

Qantas passengers who thought they were going to die when a mid-air scare left a gaping hole in their plane's fuselage finally completed a disrupted journey to Australia on Saturday.

They arrived in Melbourne on a replacement aircraft to an emotional welcome from family and friends and as reports emerged that the plane involved in the drama had a history of corrosion problems.

The passengers were flying over the South China Sea bound for Melbourne on Friday when a mid-air rupture punched a three metre (10 foot) hole in the belly of their Boeing 747, forcing the pilot make an emergency landing in Manila.

Many were still shaken by the ordeal which saw the aircraft plunge 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) before stabilising.

Steve Winchester said he thought he was going to die.

"Everyone was just thinking to themselves 'oh I think this is it'," he told reporters.

"I heard someone scream. People were just looking at each other in sheer terror."
Winchester said the fuselage breach caused a hole to open up in the cabin floor and sent debris flying through the plane's interior.

"It was everywhere, it was just like it was snowing in the cabin," he said.

Melbourne man David Saunders said he hugged his girlfriend and put his passport in his pocket so his body could be more easily identified as the plane dived towards the sea.

"I heard an enormous explosion, things went quiet, the cabin instantly lost pressure and the plane just started to dive. I thought we were going down into the sea," he said.

Meanwhile, investigators in Manila, including four officers from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, were poring over the stricken aircraft to try to find the cause of the problem.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported that engineers discovered a large amount of corrosion in the jumbo during a major refurbishment earlier this year.

Under the front page headline "Rust Bucket", the newspaper said the 17-year-old jet received a new interior at Melbourne's Avalon airport in March and said aviation sources had told it engineers had found a lot of corrosion.

A senior Qantas pilot told the Telegraph that Friday's drama may be related to the airline's decision to outsource aircraft maintenance to Malaysia.

"This could well be the direct result of Qantas having stand-in engineers, or from outsourcing maintenance to Malaysia," the unnamed pilot told the newspaper.

"It has been talked about a lot here and we have been told to be extra vigilant when you walk around the aircraft.

"With Qantas outsourcing maintenance to Malaysia, (it) is certainly worrying a lot of us pilots.".

The Boeing 747-400 took off from London with 346 passengers and 19 crew on board and was heading to Melbourne after a stopover in Hong Kong when the incident occurred.

Qantas Airways boasts of its safety record, having never lost a jet to an accident. In the 1988 film "Rain Man," an autistic character played by Dustin Hoffman insists on flying with the airline precisely for that reason.

7/25/2008 : Qantas jumbo lands with 'gaping hole' in fuselage

Qantas Boeing 747 flying to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after a dramatic mid-air rupture that left a "gaping hole" in its fuselage, officials and passengers said.

Stunned passengers reported how the jumbo, which had taken off from London and stopped in Hong Kong, plunged 20,000 feet (6,000) metres in what one said was an "absolutely terrifying" ordeal.

An urgent investigation is underway into what punched a hole of about three metres (10 feet) in diameter into the fuselage near the right wing.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the plane, carrying 346 passengers and 19 crew, was now undergoing an inspection on the ground in Manila, where luggage could be clearly seen jutting out of the hole.

"There was a terrific boom, and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down," June Kane, a passenger from Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"We were told that one of the rear doors, a hole had blown into it, but I've since looked at the plane and there's a gigantic gaping hole in the plane."

"It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm," she added, speaking from the Philippine capital.

Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon said initial inspections showed the aircraft had sustained a hole in its fuselage, and it was being inspected by engineers.

He said the flight crew performed emergency procedures after oxygen masks were deployed and there were no reports of any injuries.

In a statement, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the plane had been flying at 29,000 feet when the crew were forced into an emergency descent after a section of the fuselage separated and resulted in rapid decompression of the cabin.

It said the crew descended the aircraft to 10,000 feet "in accordance with established procedures" and diverted the plane safely to Manila.

The Bureau said it was sending four investigators to Manila to assist local authorities with the investigation.

Qantas flight QF30, which took off from Hong Kong at 9:00am (0100 GMT), had been due to arrive in Melbourne at 1145 GMT, according to the Qantas website.

Passenger June Kane said the problem had appeared to centre on the baggage compartment of the plane.

"I'm looking at the plane now and just forward of the wing, there's a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody," she said.

"It's about two metres by four metres and there's baggage hanging out so you assume that there's a few bags that may have gone missing.

Passengers praised the crew for landing the plane safely.

"We heard a very large bang, the oxygen masks came out. But the crew was very calm and everything was fine," said Phil Rescall, a 40-year-old man from England travelling to Australia for work.

"The shock came when many got off the plane and saw the hole," he told AFP. "You see the hole and you realise we were very lucky.

"Some people were crying, some people were pretty shaken when they saw the hole."
"The crew were terrific, they did a great job," another passenger, Brendan McClements, said. "Everyone gave them a round of applause as we landed."

Qantas said the 747-400 was not the one that was used to fly Pope Benedict XVI out of Australia earlier this month after his visit to Sydney.

Friday, 25 July 2008 : China unveils biggest-ever Olympic team

China on Friday announced it would field 639 athletes to compete at the Beijing Games, its biggest-ever Olympic team and over 40 more than the United States.

China on Friday announced it would field 639 athletes to compete at the Beijing Games, its biggest-ever Olympic team and over 40 more than the United States.

China are hoping their home advantage will help them knock the United States from the top of the medals table, after finishing just behind them at the 2004 Games in Athens.

Reigning 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang and NBA basketball star Yao Ming were among the competitors announced Friday at a special ceremony in Beijing.

The ceremony was closed to the foreign press but details were posted on the website of the Beijing Olympic organisers.

In total, China will have a 1,099-member delegation, which includes coaches and officials.

The United States is sending 596 athletes to the Games, according to the country's Olympic website.
In Athens, Americans claimed 102 medals, 36 of them gold. Russians took 92 overall, 27 gold, while China had 63 overall with 32 gold.

The Games will take place from August 8-24, with most of the events taking place in the Chinese capital.

Newcastle disease

The illness, which can cause respiratory problems, swelling and, in extreme cases, death in birds, and conjuctivitis or flu-like symptoms in humans.

In late August 2007, 40 chicken and turkeys in Kravoder, Bulgaria died from the disease, which was confirmed through tests.

Name change for Talula Does The Hula from Hawaii

A New Zealand judge has ordered a name change for an embarrassed nine-year-old girl called Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

The girl was so embarrassed that she had not revealed the name given by her parents to friends, who simply knew her as K, the Taranaki Daily News said.

Family court judge Rob Murfitt said in a judgement made in February -- but not released until Thursday -- that oddball monikers created social hurdles as children grew up.

"She fears being mocked and teased and in that she has a greater level of insight than either of her parents," he said of the girl.

The judge discovered New Zealand parents had given their children some other unusual names including Number 16 Bus Shelter and Midnight Chardonnay, both of which may relate to the conception of the child.

One child was named Violence and two pairs of twins were called Benson and Hedges and Fish and Chips. The children from one family were all named after six-cylinder Ford cars.

Agence France-Presse - 7/24/2008

French couple rapped for sex video at Canada WWI memorial

Canada World War I memorial

A French couple were given a four-month suspended sentence and made to pay one euro in damages to the Canadian state for making a porn video at a World War I memorial, officials said Wednesday.

The verdict came just six months after another couple were fined for taking nude photographs of themselves at the same memorial at Vimy in northern France, which pays tribute to the 60,000 Canadians who died in the Great War.

In the latest ruling Tuesday by a court in the town of Arras, the married couple in their thirties, who put the video on a paying website, were also fined 500 euros each after they were found guilty of exhibitionism.

The symbolic one euro in damages was ordered because the Canadian state was a civil plaintiff in the case.

"The memorial has been known for a long time as a place where exhibitionism and voyeurism is common," prosecutor Elise Bozzolo told AFP.

The memorial, two huge pylons that can be seen for miles around, was created in memory of the April 1917 battle of Vimy Ridge, a costly victory for Canada.

The site draws around half a million visitors each year.

Agence France-Presse - 7/23/2008