Sunday, May 21, 2006

A missing 11-year-old girl was found safe on Thursday around 5 a.m. PDT after disappearing May 16 while riding her scooter to a local video store near the north Okanagan town of Armstrong, British Columbia. Carmen Kados left home on her regular two kilometer trip to the local store around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday. She wasn’t seen again after leaving the store around 7:15 p.m.

Carmen’s mother called authorities and reported the young girl missing around 8:45 p.m. — police located her scooter, a cell phone and the video she had rented in a parking lot near the store. Other possessions were found but exact details were not disclosed for investigative purposes, according to Corporal Henry Proce, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“The first 24 hours, the first 48 hours, are crucial and as more time elapses you become more and more fearful of a worst-case scenario,” Proce said.

A wide net was cast in hopes of locating Kados — police and as many as 65 search and rescue volunteers searched the largely rural area, scouring railroad tracks, streams, and parking lots. The girl and her alleged abductor were located separately around 5 a.m. Thursday. The suspect in the abduction was identified as a transient known to police. Police indicate that community involvement, including tips and a description of the abductor, were instrumental in locating the suspect.

Kados was brought to Vernon Jubilee Hospital, and her parents joined her there. Police reported she had been injured, but the injuries were not life threatening. Both Kados and her parents are traumatized by the incident; spokesman Proce did not expect they would be making a public statement soon.

“I think anybody that’s a parent can only begin to imagine how it must feel not to know where your child is,” said Proce. “This is a little 11-year-old girl and to not know where she is even for an hour, never mind 36 hours, would be something only a few of us can even imagine.”

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Australia’s Nine Network has issued an apology after the rival Seven Network caught Nine News fabricating live crosses to the search site for murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe. The network issued a statement after Saturday and Sunday’s Nine News bulletins in Brisbane, which featured presenter Eva Milic crossing “live” to the site with the caption: “Near Beerwah”.

The rival Seven Network, based nearby, lifted the lid on the scam after filming the Nine News chopper almost 100 kilometres south of Beerwah – on the helipad outside the studio, with lights on and blades in motion while Cameron Price reported from inside. Nine admitted to faking Sunday’s cross; issuing a statement on Monday blaming bad weather.

“Our chopper was forced to divert from Beerwah due to bad weather, and air control instructed them to touch down,” it read.

The network also told media industry website mUmBRELLA that “the producer was unaware until it was too late to abort or delay the cross”.

Doubts have been cast over the truth of this statement, however, as it has since emerged that the chopper was also absent from Beerwah on Saturday, and was in fact circling Brisbane’s western suburbs during Melissa Mallet’s report. Director of Queensland Seven News, Rob Raschke, questioned the merit of Nine’s claims, telling Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, “the idea of not knowing where a $3 million helicopter is defies belief”.

A revised statement yesterday announced a Nine investigation into why the location of the helicopter was misreported on both nights, describing the situation as “unacceptable”.

Friday, April 6, 2007

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned that limiting funding for the United States efforts in Iraq could lead to more bloodshed in the Middle Eastern country. In an interview with radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, he said it might even lead to ethnic cleansing in Bahgdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

Gates’ comment followed a proposal from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to end most spending on the Iraq war in 2008, limiting it to targeted operations against al Qaeda, training for Iraqi troops and U.S. force protection.

Sec. Gates also said that the duration of the troop increase is not clear and that evaluating whether the Administration’s new strategy was working will have to wait till mid-summer. The Army general charged with day-to-day operations has suggested that the increased deployment may extend to early next year.

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Allegations of paedophilia made against Indian guru, Sathya Sai Baba are back in the limelight again, after the UK’s Sai Youth movement was recognised as an accredited partner of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme.

The Baba’s followers deny the allegations, and the Sai Youth UK’s National Co-ordinator called them “totally unfounded”. Sai Baba attracts followers from many countries around the world who revere him as a “living god”.

Around 200 youth are due to fly to India on November 13th after receiving a “divine commandment” to carry out a month-long “humanitarian pilgrimage” that will coincide with the birthday celebrations of Sai Baba, who will be 81 on November 23rd.

Pressure has been mounting on the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme charity to break its association with the Baba’s organisation.

Friday, May 26, 2006

In February of 2006, the Savarino Services Construction Corp. proposed the construction of a seven million dollar hotel on Elmwood and Forest Avenues in Buffalo, New York. In order for the hotel to be built, at least five properties containing businesses and residents would have to be destroyed. It was not certain whether the properties were owned by Savarino or by the landlord Hans Mobius. The hotel was designed by Karl Frizlen of the Frizlen Group, and is planned to be a franchise of the Wyndham Hotels group.

Elmwood Avenue is known by the community as a popular shopping center, and Nancy Pollina of Don Apparel (who is “utterly against” the construction) claims it’s the only reason why students from Buffalo State College leave campus. Additionally, Michael Faust of Mondo Video said he did not want to “get kicked out of here [his video store property].”

In 1995, a Walgreens was proposed to be built on the same land, but Walgreens later withdrew its request for a variance because of pressure from the community. More recently, Pano Georgiadis tried to get the rights to demolish the Atwater House next to his restaurant on Elmwood Avenue, but was denied a permit due to the property’s historical value. He has since been an opponent to the hotel construction.

In the process of debating the hotel, it was thought that a hotel had previously existed on the proposed site, however; research done at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society had shown that no hotel had previously existed on the site.