March 3, 2010 3:47 pm
Times Online, “Pakistan’s Army takes control of al-Qaeda cave network on Afghan border”
by Zahid Hussain
Pakistani forces have taken control of a warren of caves that served until recently as the nerve centre of the Taleban and al-Qaeda and sheltered Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to Osama bin Laden.
“It was the main hub of militancy where al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely,” Major-General Tariq Khan, the Pakistan regional commander, said as he gave journalists a tour of Damadola yesterday.
The village, nestling among snow-capped peaks in the Bajaur region along the Afghan border, has been fought over for 16 months. It is the first time that the Pakistani Army has set foot in the village, which had long been dominated by the insurgents operating on the both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Times Online article continues here.
February 24, 2010 9:27 pm
Times Online, “Stafford Hospital caused ‘unimaginable suffering’”
by David Rose
Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.
An independent inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government targets and cutting costs.
The inquiry report, published yesterday by Robert Francis, QC, included proposals for tough new regulations that could lead to managers at failing NHS trusts being struck off.
Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash, others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did their best but the attitude of some nurses “left a lot to be desired”.
Times Online article continues here.
February 17, 2010 10:56 am
Times Online, “Google forced into Buzz revamp over privacy row”
by Murad Ahmed
Google has been forced into a hasty revamp of its social networking service Buzz after the new feature was met with a storm of criticism because of gaping privacy flaws.
The company today announced it will introduce a prominent “kill button” that will allow people to turn off Buzz altogether.
Central to the row is a feature that automatically enrolled Gmail users to the service but also revealed the identities of the people they e-mailed most frequently. The blunder was met with a torrent of complaints, including one woman who said that an abusive ex-husband could now follow her every move.
Google has now apologised, announcing it will fix Buzz so that Gmail users can now choose who they want as their “friends” under the system. Sources at the company said today that the new changes will be implemented in “the next couple of days”.
Times Online article continues here.
February 10, 2010 10:15 am
Times Online, “Hugo Chávez takes to the airwaves – 24/7”
by Hannah Strange
Hugo Chávez has launched his latest radio venture, a programme called Suddenly with Chavez in which he can take to the airwaves any time of the day or night.
Heralded by the Venezuelan Government as a “communicational guerrilla” in its battle to advance the country’s Bolivarian revolution, the new show on state radio has no schedule and can be broadcast whenever Mr Chávez desires.
Inaugurating the new show yesterday, the President said that the programme could surprise viewers “at midnight or at dawn”, because “we have many things to report”.
The first edition took in Venezuelan-Argentinian relations, the World Boxing championship, the upcoming 200th anniversary of Latin American independence and the launch of a new state supermarket chain using stores expropriated from the French chain Exito.
Times Online article continues here.
February 3, 2010 9:56 pm
Times Online, “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plays game of cat-and-mouse with West over nuclear deal”
by James Bone and Catherine Philp
President Ahmadinejad demonstrated yesterday that he has become a master of playing cat and mouse with the West — and this time the mouse was real.
Once again, the Iranian leader offered a last-minute concession to head off the West’s drive for new sanctions against the Islamic republic. At the same time, Iran thumbed its nose at UN restrictions on its ballistic missiles programme by sending a rocket into space carrying a mouse, two turtles and some worms.
In an interview on state television, Mr Ahmadinejad said that Iran had no problem shipping enriched uranium abroad in a deal that Tehran had resisted for months. The surprise announcement came as the West prepared to ask Russia and China to back UN sanctions on the Iranian energy sector, central bank and Revolutionary Guards — the first UN sanctions since March 2008.
Times Online article continues here.
