Monday, February 8, 2010

Commander Ali Dizaei of London’s Metropolitan Police Service today became the most senior officer anywhere in the United Kingdom to be convicted of offences by a court. Dizaei, who was branded a “criminal in uniform” by Independent Police Complaints Commission chair Nick Hardwick, has been jailed for four years after he attempted to frame an Iraqi businessman.

It took a Southwark Crown Court jury under three hours to find Dizaei guilty of misconduct in a public office and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The charges carried a maximum of life imprisonment.

Dizaei, 47, who is head of the National Black Police Association, had gone to the Yas Persian restaurant, run by one of his friends, and taken his wife Shy with him. They then went to their car and struck up a conversation through its open window with the restaurant’s manager. During this conversation they were approached by Waad al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi website designer in his twenties. He requested that Dizaei pay £600 that he owed Baghdadi, who had constructed his website.

According to the Crown, this dispute had been ongoing for months and Dizaei had been attempting to intimidate Baghdadi. He told the Iraqi to depart when he entered the restaurant; although the businessman did, he stayed nearby and rang the 999 emergency number.

The exact content of the argument that led up to this is unclear. Dizaei and his wife testified that Baghdadi was abusive and threatening, telling the officer he would “extract the money out of your throat” while the owner of the Yas said he was “a crook basically… His history … everybody knows he’s not a good gentleman,” said owner Sohrab Eshragi. Eshragi said that the request Baghdadi leave the premises was due to concerns of trouble, claiming Baghdadi had been in a previous fight. Baghdadi denied the allegations and the court rejected Dizaei’s version of events.

While Baghdadi was making his emergency call, Dizaei arrested him and made a 999 call of his own. He requested assistence from other officers, and said that Baghdadi had assaulted him by stabbing his stomach with a shisha pipe. He maintained this account when police arrived and kept it up in written statements, but although Baghdadi was found to be carrying such a pipe examination of Dizaei’s wounds by a police doctor concluded he had inflicted them upon himself.

A Home Office pathologist questioned this finding for the defence. Dr. Nat Cary said it was based on a “fundamentally flawed approach,” and that the injuries were consistent with Dizaei’s version of events. He has helped investigate the assassination of former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto, and the death newspaper seller Ian Thomlinson, the latter of whom died during a G20 protest.

The Crown further alleged that Dizaei told Baghdadi “I’ll fuck your life… You think I don’t know what you do in London… I’ll find every single detail of your life in London.” The prosecution case was presented by Peter Wright QC, who has prosecuted in trials over serial murders of Suffolk sex workers and a plot to bomb transatlantic airliners. He said that Dizaei’s actions were a “wholesale abuse of power by a senior police officer for entirely personal and oblique motives.”

Judge Justice Simon said that Dizaei had committed a “grave breach of public trust” and told him “This sentence needs to send a clear message that police officers of whatever rank are not above the law.” A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said outside the court that “He abused his power and ignored his responsibility,” and that while corruption was unacceptable in any police officer it was particularly so in a senior member of the forces. “The public should have confidence that we will prosecute anyone, regardless of their position, if they commit serious offences. We believe justice has been served for the victim and the public.”

“[I]f he [Dizaei] had been successful, Mr al-Baghdadi may have been sent to prison,” noted Hardwick. “Mr al-Baghdadi has shown tremendous strength of character throughout this case ? from the moment he was confronted by Ali Dizaei, throughout our investigation, and finally when giving evidence at court. We are grateful for the confidence he placed in the IPCC and, as a result of that, justice has been done today.”

Dizaei has been a policeman for 24 years, and at one stage was rumoured to be destined to take control of the Metropolitan Police, although the Metropolitan Police Authority may now choose to end this career. His trial, which began this month, is his second this decade. He was prosecuted in 2003 but cleared of any wrongdoing. The incident with Baghdadi was in June 2008 and Dizaei has been suspended on full pay since September of that year. Hardwick said that “The greatest threat to the reputation of the police service is criminals in uniform like Dizaei.”

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Kensington Palace announced on Monday that Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant with a second child after the onset of acute morning sickness led to her cancelling an engagement at Oxford University, where the couple were due to open a new centre for the study of China.

Prime Minister David Cameron expressed his congratulations: “Many congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I’m delighted by the happy news that they’re expecting another baby.”

Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband also congratulated the couple: “Fantastic to hear that Prince George will soon be a big brother. Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their happy news.”

A number of media outlets speculate the announcement of the Royal baby may influence the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum later this month, suggesting it may encourage people to vote to stay in the Union.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Apple Inc. today has introduced the much-anticipated iPhone at the Macworld Conference in San Francisco.

The iPhone is claimed to be “a revolutionary mobile phone” as stated on the Apple website. The device appears to be running a mobile version of the Apple operating system Mac OSX. It is approximately the same size as a 5th generation iPod, it has a 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen display that is used to access all features of the phone including number dial, as well as making phone calls. The iPhone plays music, movies, displays pictures and is able to connect to a wireless network.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the device by walking onto the stage and taking the iPhone out of his jeans pocket. During his 2 hour speech he stated that “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone, We are going to make history today”.

Today Apple also released their Media Center device – Apple TV. It will directly compete with Microsoft’s Media Center operating system. Apple has taken a different approach to the media center market; rather than storing content (such as movies, music and photos) on the device, Apple TV connects to a computer (Mac and Windows) over a wirless network connection and plays all content stored on that computer. This makes it substantially easier for users to organize their media content.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Rapper Proof, born Deshaun Holton, was shot and killed on April 11, 2006, at approximately 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 UTC) at the Triple C Club on 8 Mile Road in Detroit.

Proof was known for his work together with his good friend Eminem and his group D12.

Another man was shot shortly afterward, and was taken to St. John Hospital.

On April 12, 2006, Mario Etheridge, 28, of Detroit turned himself in to the police, having been named by several witnesses. Mario was allegedly a bouncer at the club. “Police said he is a cousin of Keith Bender Jr., the bouncer who was allegedly shot by Proof during the fight.” The fight that started inside the club was reported to be over a pool game. The argument was taken outside where, “A shot was fired in the air, Proof allegedly pistol-whipped Bender, knocked him to the ground and then shot him. Etheridge then allegedly opened fire on the rapper, striking him four times in the head and chest. One week later, Keith Bender Jr. died of his injuries on April 18, 2006.

Official Police reports are yet to determine the series of events which left Proof and Keith Bender, 35, deceased. Bender died 8 days later on April 18, 2006. Following Proof’s death, rapper Snoop Dogg called on fellow musicians to unite, describing the incident as “a loss to the hip-hop community”.

The tributes were led by fellow rapper The Game who was first to comment on the tragedy. The Game remembers how he and Proof became ‘real cool and real homies’ and that ‘Proof will always be remembered and I as well as the Black Wall Street family will keep his memory & his family in our prayers 1’. The second to comment on Proof was long time friend Royce da 5’9″ who was deeply saddened by the death of his good friend. Royce had been a friend of Proof for over 9 years and the two had recently reconciled. Royce echoed the music community, saying ‘He is such loss for the hip hop community…I hope that he will be remembered for the talented artist and great person that he was, and not the tragedy that he fell victim to’.

Eminem was the third to discuss Proof’s death days after his passing, clearly affected by the tragedy. Eminem described Proof as “funny, smart and charming” and said that he would be sorely missed and described him as “the heart and ambassador of Detroit hip-hop”. Eminem said that Proof was, and always will be, his best friend.

Tributes poured out of the UK with Vm2k6 leading the remembrance. Proof’s demise which was mainly overlooked by the UK media was documented and reflected by VM2k6 in which he calls Proof ‘fresh, talented and meaningful, a rarity in Hip Hop today’. He continues saying that Proof had ‘the greatest ability to transfer his experiences and most of all feelings into words’ and finished with the heartfelt line- ‘I guess its only in Death you really begin to shine’.

Several fan videos were released in tribute to Proof, including the hit “Good Die Young” music video which used D12’s 2004 single, which is currently one of the highest discussed and viewed videos on YouTube.com. Many other “slide show” flicks were created, which are appearing all over the internet. The “Good Die Young” clip was produced by RYKE Video Productions.

Proof stated how he wanted to be remembered in an interview with Sohh.com shortly after his album release; ‘I want people to say that I was a true artist’, ‘ That I did it best and stayed true to Hip Hop roots’ and ‘I’d want people to understand I did it for the love not for the charts.’

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

An Amtrak passenger train de-railed after hitting a pickup truck in Plant City, Florida, in the United States. The driver of the pickup truck was killed on impact. The crash occurred at a marked railroad crossing inside of an industrial area, according to an Amtrak spokesperson.

None of the 133 passengers were seriously hurt, however, the train’s engineer and five passengers were taken to a local hospital after suffering minor injuries. The remaining passengers were taken to a local bowling alley. Although the train’s two locomotives and nine cars de-railed, they remained upright.

Witnesses report the train sounded its horns at the appropriate times. It was reported the pickup truck simply drove in front of the train.

The crash is the second to occur this week with a train; on Monday, a driver in a Pontiac Grand Am deliberately ignored the lights and crossing arms at another railroad crossing in the area, and drove around them, into the path of a different Amtrak train on the same route. The impact caused the car to go airborne. All four people in the car were killed; no one on the train was injured.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

On the back of new restrictions being imposed on eBay users in the United Kingdom requiring that sellers offer PayPal payments for all sales, eBay Australia is mandating that only PayPal payments will be acceptable as of June 17. PayPal is a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay, and charges a 30¢ transaction fee, plus a commission between 1.1% for high volume traders, and 2.4% for low value or low volume traders. These higher costs will be passed onto buyers.

Cash payment on pick up will be the only other payment option, and it may only be offered in conjunction with PayPal.

eBay has brought in this restriction under the guise of improving customer protection, bolstering its “Paypal Buyer Protection” insurance programme to allow claims up to A$20,000 instead of the previous maximum of $3,000, however as of June 17 many of the items which would exceed $3,000 are no longer covered by the programme, such as services, vehicles, real estate and businesses.

eBay Trust and Safety director Alastair MacGibbon said this change was not in response to the once-off fund established in March to refund eBay buyers who lost their non-existent holiday accommodation packages from the Melbourne eBay seller Robert Kobis. Mr MacGibbon said “It is part of a much larger initiative”.

In addition to these measures, Paypal will be withholding funds from some sellers for 21 days

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has held discussion with eBay, but declined to comment. The Australian Consumers Association spokesman Christopher Zinn said the unique use of PayPal could give rise to competition issues, however if the costs charged stayed as they were, they had no further concerns.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Penske Automotive Group, Inc., an Ohio-based investment group and Telesto Ventures have indicated separately that they are interested in purchasing the Saturn auto brand from General Motors (GM).

According to The Wall Street Journal, Nissan-Renault is interested in purchasing Saturn. Bloomberg, however, indicated that Nissan-Renault may be a partner of Penske’s potential bid. If Penske acquired the brand, they would distribute Saturn vehicles and outsource the assembly.

GM revealed that the Saturn brand along with Saab and Hummer were up for sale when unveiling their restructuring plans to Congress for governmental loans. While the Pontiac brand was originally to be a niche brand, GM had changed their plans recently and decided to eliminate the brand.

Telesto Ventures is an investment group that includes private equity firm Black Oak Partners LLC of Oklahoma City and several Saturn dealerships. Initially, Telesto will purchase Saturn branded cars from GM then act as a general retailer for foreign brands. Telesto is in talks with several foreign manufacturers.

The Ohio group includes many former senior auto company managers plus private financial backers, chemists and engineers who live in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Florida. This group plans to initially purchase cars from GM then purchase existing but closed plants due to automaker restructuring. Additionally, one of the partners indicated a willingness to accept some “legacy” cost in relation to the United Auto Workers. The Ohio group is also pursuing possible loans or other support from national and state governments.

GM is reviewing several offers for Saturn. GM has contracted with S.J. Girsky & Co. to advise them on the sale.