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UK Council Plans to Use Crematorium to Heat Pool

Manpreet Romana
Agence France-Presse
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:36 UTC
swimming pool
© unknown
A British local council is planning to use excess energy from a crematorium incinerator to heat one of its swimming pools, it emerged Tuesday, but critics slammed the proposals as "sick"
A British local council is planning to use excess energy from a crematorium incinerator to heat one of its swimming pools, it emerged Tuesday, but critics slammed the proposals as "sick".

The council in Redditch, a town near Birmingham in central England, said the measure would help reduce its carbon footprint.

"Redditch Borough Council, with a commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, is considering proposals to re-use energy at its crematorium to heat a nearby leisure centre," a spokesman said.

"The heat would otherwise be exhausted into the atmosphere."

However, the Unison trade union has condemned the plans, which are due to be discussed at a full meeting of the council on February 7.
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Crusader

US: Woman Hanged Nephew's 'Devil Dog' from Tree Before Burning it After it Chewed Her Bible


The Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 06:01 UTC
Image
© unknown
Miriam Smith told officers she killed the female pit bull named Diamond because it was a 'devil dog'
A US woman has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly hanging her nephew's pit bull from a tree with an electrical cord and burning its body after it chewed on her Bible.

Animal control officers said that 65-year-old Miriam Smith told them she killed a female dog named Diamond because it was a 'devil dog' and she worried it could harm neighbourhood children.

Smith's nephew left the one-year-old animal at the home he shared with his aunt during the recent winter weather while he went away.

When he returned, he could find no trace of the dog and assumed she had broken the chain where she was usually tied at the front porch of the house.
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Ambulance

Germany: UK Pensioners Drive into German Church Directed By GPS

Eric Kelsey
Reuters
Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:20 UTC
GPS system
© unknown
Two British pensioners landed in hospital in southern Germany after their car's global positioning system directed them to drive into a church.

While driving their Renault in the evening on a back road near the Austrian border, the navigation system instructed the couple to turn right where there was no road.

"They were confused and didn't notice that the navigation system was faulty," a police spokeswoman said.
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Hardhat

Najib Mikati appointed new PM of Lebanon


Press TV
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:23 UTC
Image

Lebanon's incoming Prime Minister Najib Mikati
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has issued a decree appointing Hezbollah-backed candidate Najib Mikati as the country's new prime minister.

Mikati won 68 votes out of the parliament's 128 seats to be poised as the new prime minister following two days of discussions between lawmakers and Sleiman.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri had also nominated himself for the post.

His government collapsed nearly two weeks ago following the resignation of 11 ministers from the coalition cabinet in a dispute over a US-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former Premier Rafiq Hariri.

In a televised speech shortly after his installation, Mikati reached out for all Lebanese factions and called on them to overcome differences and participate in an inclusive unity government.

"Nothing justifies the refusal of any political party to participate" in the next government, he added. "My hand is extended to all Lebanese."

He called for an end to all political divisions in the country and the establishment of mutual trust "based on national dialogue whereby we can discuss all issues of difference far away from any insult."
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Light Sabers

2 protesters, 1 policeman killed in Egypt as demonstrations spread across Middle East


Press TV
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:16 UTC
Image
© Adam Makary
Protesters gather in Tahrir square in downtown Cairo, Egypt.
Two protesters and a police officer have been killed in Egypt as anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets to demand political and economic reforms.

The protesters were killed in clashes with security forces in the city of Suez on Tuesday, and the police officer was killed in a demonstration in Cairo on the same day, AFP reported.

On Tuesday, the opposition called on political activists to hold nationwide demonstrations against the government.

The protesters say it's a day of revolt against torture, poverty, corruption, and unemployment. Some have gathered outside the Supreme Court and the parliament building, calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.

The police have fired tear gas to disperse the protesters in Cairo, injuring several people.

Over 30,000 police officers have been deployed to the city center to crack down on the demonstrators.

Demonstrations have also been held in Alexandria and other parts of the country.
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Light Sabers

Lebanon breaks out in protests as Hezbollah-backed candidate wins PM vote


al-Jazeera
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:10 UTC
Pro-Hariri supporters hold rallies on "day of rage", as lawmakers vote to back Hezbollah's candidate for prime minister.


Supporters of Saad Hariri, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, have held violent demonstrations in protest against Hezbollah's nomination of a candidate for the post of prime minister, a move that brings the group one step closer to controlling the government.

Lawmakers in Beirut voted on Tuesday to back Najib Mikati, the candidate Hezbollah had proposed, as a prime minister. He gained 68 votes to Hariri's 60, putting the Hezbollah-led opposition in a position to form a government.

Demonstrations were called across the country, with thousands gathering in the northern city of Tripoli, and on the highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon. Hariri, the caretaker prime minister, held a national address after the protests calling for calm and rejecting violence in the public demonstrations.

Rula Amin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Beirut, reported that the protests were "angry", and that journalists were being targeted by the crowds.
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Family

Black Mother Jailed For Sending Kids to 'Wrong' School District

Dr. Boyce Watkins
Dr. Boyce Watkins
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:18 UTC
Image
© unk
An Ohio mother of two was sentenced to 10 days in jail and placed on three years probation after sending her kids to a school district in which they did not live. Kelly Williams-Bolar was sentenced by Judge Patricia Cosgrove on Tuesday and will begin serving her sentence immediately.

The jury deliberated for seven hours and the courtroom was packed as the sentence was handed down. She was convicted on two counts of tampering with court records after registering her two girls as living with Williams Bolar's father when they actually lived with her. The family lived in the housing projects in Akron, Ohio, and the father's address was in nearby Copley Township.

Additionally, Williams-Bolar's father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with a fourth-degree felony of grand theft, in which he and his daughter are charged with defrauding the school system for two years of educational services for their girls. The court determined that sending their children to the wrong school was worth $30,500 in tuition.
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Pumpkin

Huh? Jared Loughner pleads NOT guilty to Arizona shootings

Richard Adams
The Guardian
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:04 UTC
Image
© EPA
Jared Lee Loughner, Greenbaumed?
Witnesses reported Loughner smiled broadly throughout the hearing, including moment when his lawyer entered plea of not guilty

Jared Loughner, the suspect in the shooting of Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, pleaded not guilty in court, in his first response to the charges.

Silent but displaying the grin that has become his trademark, Loughner made his second appearance in public since the attacks on 8 January at the federal courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona.

He is alleged to have killed six people and injured a further 13, including Giffords, during a deadly shooting rampage at a public meeting at a supermarket car park in Tucson.

Witnesses inside the courtroom reported that Loughner - shackled and dressed in an orange jump suit - smiled broadly throughout the hearing, including the moment when his lawyer entered his plea of not guilty.
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Bad Guys

New Zealand: Seal-Attack Duo to be Charged

Amelia Wade
New Zealand Herald
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:30 UTC
Baby Seal
© Auckland Zoo
The baby seal being tube-fed liquids at Auckland Zoo after it was brutally beaten and found by a DOC ranger in a west Auckland stream.

The Department of Conservation will lay charges against two men who admitted beating a seal pup with a boat oar and left the bloodied mammal to float down a West Auckland creek.

Two men, a 39-year-old from Massey and a 22-year-old from Henderson, were seen bashing the 1m fur seal at Henderson Creek at around 8pm on Monday night. Witnesses reported the attack to police who yesterday questioned the pair.

The 1-year-old seal's head was swollen on one side and its nose and muzzle bleeding after the attack.

"We're hoping the injuries are fairly superficial. One of our rangers picked it up from police [on Monday night] after they were looking after it at the water's edge," DoC biodiversity programme manager Phil Brown said.

The seal is now being treated at the New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine at Auckland Zoo.
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Che Guevara

Egypt Simmering as Protests Spread; Regime Takes Down Twitter

Dan Murphy
Christian Science Monitor
Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:33 UTC
Angry Coptic Christians protest
© Press TV
Angry Coptic Christians protest earlier this month in Cairo.
Egypt's protests today appear to be the largest public call for democratic reform and an end to the Mubarak regime for years.

The scope of Egypt's protests today, calling for greater freedom and downfall of strongman President Hosni Mubarak, is unprecedented.

Though tens of thousands took to the streets of Cairo in 2005 calling for democratic reform, today's protests are far beyond the action in the capital. Reporters and activists on the scene in Cairo say there was a spirit of anger and defiance in the crowds and there were protests of varying sizes in at least a half-dozen Egyptian cities.

By late afternoon, thousands of protesters converged in Tahrir Square, not far from the US embassy, the Interior Ministry and the five-star hotels looming over the Nile. Police water cannons and tear gas barrages did little to deter them.

For now, it's hard to imagine the aging Mr. Mubarak and the apparatus of the state being swept from power in the same way that President Ben Ali was chased from Tunis. Egyptian military spending is much higher than in Tunisia and the circle of people who have everything to lose if the system is upended much wider.
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