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The “plan B” drill has been at work since late August One of three shafts being drilling down to the 33 men trapped in a mine in Chile should reach them by Saturday, the country’s mining minister has said.
Laurence Golborne said the T-130 drill, known as “plan B”, had already carved through 535m (1,755ft) of rock and had only 90m to go.
Once complete, engineers will assess how safe the shaft is before they can begin winching the men to the surface.
Mr Golborne said the miners should have to wait 10 days at most to be rescued.
“We expect to break through around Saturday,” Mr Golborne told reporters, but warned the process could be slower if any of the drilling equipment needed to be changed.
The drill was briefly stopped on Wednesday so the mine hammer could be replaced.
Mr Golborne said the operation to winch the men out could not begin as soon as the shaft was complete.
Engineers would first need to assess whether it had to be coated with metal or was secure enough by itself for rescue capsules to be lowered down.
Health Minister Jaime Manalich called on the Chilean public to be patient while the complex process was carried out.
“All the drilling gear on top has to be removed, cranes installed, and the final rescue equipment has to be set up,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
“At least three or four more days will be needed, not counting the probable need of reinforcing all or part of the tunnel.”
Mr Manalich also praised the “maturity and manhood” of the miners.
The capsules which will haul the miners out have arrived at the rescue site “They are more relaxed and in control of the situation than we are on the surface,” he said.
The men were trapped by a rockfall at the mine on 5 August.
Rescuers had almost given up hope of finding the men alive until they made contact with the miners 17 days after the accident and found they had sought refuge in a shelter some 700m underground.
The miners have now been underground longer than any group before.
When the time comes for them to be hauled out, rescue workers will go down into the mine to help them use the rescue capsules.
It is expected to take at least an hour to pull each of the trapped men to the surface – they will each be given sunglasses to protect them from the light, after spending two months with no natural light.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The two firms will retain their separate branding Thomas Cook and the Co-operative Group are to merge their High Street travel businesses to create the largest such network in the UK.
The move will bring together 1,204 stores, but both Thomas Cook and Co-operative Travel will retain their separate branding.
They will create a new joint subsidiary company to be 70%-owned by Thomas Cook, with 30% held by the Co-operative.
Thomas Cook’s online operation is not included in the deal.
The merger will see the Co-operative Travel shops start to sell Thomas Cook products, which the two firms said in a joint statement would “provide significant opportunity to drive additional sales”.
While the two businesses will retain their separate branding, 70 outlets of Thomas Cook subsidiary Going Places will take up the Co-operative Travel brand.
Thomas Cook and Co-operative Group said they hoped the merger would create annual savings of more than £35m across the two firms.
The coming together of the two travel shop networks will also create the UK’s second-largest foreign currency exchange business.
Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: “Today’s announcement, together with our plans to cut costs and streamline the rest of our UK business, will put us in a much stronger position, should market conditions in the UK remain weak, and will build a firm foundation for the future.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been named the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
The award, announced in Norway’s capital Oslo, is certain to anger Beijing, which had earlier warned against the move.
Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said Mr Liu was “the foremost symbol of the wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China”.
Mr Jagland earlier admitted he knew the choice would be controversial.
He told local television before the announcement: “You’ll understand when you hear the name.”
Mr Jagland said during the announcement of the award that China’s new status in the world “must have increased responsibility”.
He said that in practice the freedoms enshrined in China’s constitution had been “distinctly curtailed for many of China’s citizens”.
Mr Jagland said the choice had become clear early in the process.
Mr Liu, 54, was jailed for 11 years on Christmas Day last year for drafting Charter 08, which called for multiparty democracy and respect for human rights in China.
Last month, the Chinese foreign ministry warned the Nobel committee not to award him the prize, saying it would be against Nobel principles.
No candidates are announced ahead of the Peace Prize but others mentioned in the media included Afghan women’s rights activist Sima Samar, Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina, former German chancellor Helmut Kohl and Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Nobel committee had to defend last year’s controversial Peace Prize choice of US President Barack Obama.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The clean-up of the sludge continues in Kolontar, Hungary Experts tackling the toxic red sludge from a spill at an industrial plant in Hungary say Friday will be crucial in preventing the spread of pollution.
The alkali sludge reached the Danube on Thursday and emergency workers are pouring huge quantities of clay and acid into streams to neutralise it.
There are now fears toxins from drying sludge could be spread through the air.
A million cubic metres (35m cu ft) of sludge spilled from a reservoir at an alumina plant in Ajka, western Hungary.
Four people were killed and about 100 injured. Three more are still missing.
Countries downstream from Hungary, including Croatia, Serbia and Romania, are drawing up emergency plans.
The chief of Hungary’s disaster relief services, Tibor Dobson, said it should become clear in the first half of Friday whether the alkaline solution and heavy metals, which started to reach the Danube on Thursday, had continued to rise or started to fall.
For five days, clay and acid have been poured into affected rivers around the clock to try to soak up the toxic waste.
Hourly checks
The BBC’s Duncan Kennedy in Hungary says officials are checking the alkali level hour by hour. It is currently at pH8.5 and they want to get it to below pH8 by lunchtime on Friday.
He says if that level can be achieved, the emergency effort will have turned a corner, if not the whole clean-up operation will have to expand.
Water is pH7 when neutral, with the safety levels ranging from pH6.5 to pH8.5.
Our correspondent says officials think that they may have done enough to keep the Danube safe, but they are holding on for a few hours to check further.
But he adds that there is an additional concern – the weather.
Recent days of rain have kept the sludge wet and officials now fear that warmer and sunnier weather will create dust and powder that could spread toxins – and possibly low-level radioactive materials – into the atmosphere.
If that happens, our correspondent says, the authorities will have to decide whether to evacuate more areas to keep people away from the dust.
Environment Minister Zoltan Illes confirmed the sludge, which now covers a 41 sq km (16 sq mile) area, had a “high content of heavy metals”, including carcinogens.
“If that [were to] dry out then the wind can blow that heavy metal contamination through the respiratory system,” he said.
The company responsible for the alumina plant, MAL Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade Company, has offered its condolences to the families of the bereaved but insisted it had done nothing wrong.
It said it was devoting “all its energies and efforts” to tackling the spill.
The firm says it has released 110,000 euros ($150,000) so far to help the clean-up.
Officials in Croatia, Serbia and Romania are monitoring the Danube but hope the sheer volume of water will dissipate pollutants.
The mud has caused massive damage to Hungarian villages and towns close to the plant, as well as a wide swathe of farmland.
Mr Dobson said all life in the Marcal river, which feeds the Danube, had been “extinguished”.
Those who lost their lives were believed to have drowned, with the depth of the fast-moving flood reaching 2m (6.5ft) in places, but many of those injured suffered chemical burns.
PM Viktor Orban has called the spill an “ecological tragedy”.
On Thursday he visited the village of Kolontar, the worst-affected settlement, and said some areas would have to be abandoned.
“Hungary is strong enough to be able to combat the effects of such a catastrophe. But we’re still open to any expertise which will help us combat the pollution effects,” he added.
Herwit Schuster, a spokesman for Greenpeace International, described the spill as “one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years”.
Land had been “polluted and destroyed for a long time”, he told AP.
“If there are substances like arsenic and mercury, that would affect river systems and ground water on long-term basis.”
Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or 0044 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Pakistan’s army chief orders an inquiry into a video that showed the killing of six unarmed men by what appeared to be an army firing squad.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A fuel tanker is in trouble in the English Channel after colliding with another ship but its crew were all safely evacuated, reports say.
The YM Uranus was carrying a cargo of heavy Pygas, a type of gasoline, when it hit a Panamanian bulk tanker off the Brittany coast overnight.
It was still afloat, but listing badly to port, as of Friday morning.
A French frigate and a tug are close by and engineers are assessing if it can be towed to port without any spillage.
There were no immediate reports of pollution in the Channel.
A French helicopter evacuated the crew of 13 to a military base south of Brest, the ship’s Glasgow-based operator said.
Peter Bullard from Falmouth Coastguards in the UK said no pollution had been reported.
“There’s certainly no imminent threat,” he told BBC Radio Cornwall.
“It’d be foolish of me to say that pollution would never reach us, but there’s certainly no imminent threat. And that’s not our concern at the moment.”
Mr Bullard said the UK Coastguards’ role at this stage was chiefly to assist their French colleagues.
“But obviously, the environment is of interest to all of us whether it’s the French coast or ours,” he added.
Heavy Pygas (pyrolysis gasoline), a product of ethylene manufacturing, contains a large amount of the industrial solvent benzene.
Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or 0044 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Four teachers have been suspended from a primary school in Cardiff.
The city council said they are off work at Danescourt Primary School while an investigation into “personnel matters” is conducted.
It has stressed there are no child protection issues involved and it was working to ensure cover was in place.
The school, formed by a merger of Danescourt junior and infant schools in 2008, has 348 pupils according to its last inspection report.
Cover arrangements
A council spokesperson said: “We are able to confirm that a number of staff have been suspended whilst investigations into personnel matters within the school are ongoing.
“Whilst it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage, we are able to confirm that there are no child protection issues involved.
“The council is working with the governing body to ensure that appropriate cover arrangements are in place.”
An Estyn report said including the headteacher, there were nine full-time and ten part-time teachers at the school.
There were also 10 full-time and two part-time classroom support staff.
Teaching unions are meeting later and are expected to release a statement.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A murder investigation is under way on the south side of Glasgow following the death of a teenager.
Strathclyde Police said a 17-year-old man was found near the entrance to Pollok Park in Pollokshaws Road.
It is understood he had been chased by a gang before the attack, which happened shortly after midnight.
Forensic officers are still at the scene and the area has been cordoned off. Diversions have also been set up around the park.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The smartphone and spectacles combine to overlay the world with useful information A lightweight pair of augmented reality glasses that overlay the world with digital content, such as directions or a travel guide, has debuted in Japan.
The headset, created by Olympus and phone-maker NTT Docomo, uses augmented reality software on an attached phone.
A virtual tour of Kyoto was used as the first demonstration of the technology.
While AR glasses are nothing new, these are among the first to add a miniature projecting display without too causing much encumbrance to the wearer.
Researchers at the two companies said they had managed to whittle an earlier “AV Walker” prototype down from 91g to no more than 20g.
One arm of the spectacles frame holds a tiny retinal display.
The retinal display projects text and images directly into the user’s peripheral vision, allowing the wearer to maintain eye contact with whatever they are observing normally.
“the Docomo demo was more circus side-show than cutting edge”
Steve Nagata Tech analyst
As the glasses are attached to a smartphone with AR software, an acceleration sensor and a direction sensor, the AR Walker knows approximately what you are looking at and provides augmented information relevant to where you may be.
In the mock-up shown off at Japan’s annual tech show Ceatec, a virtual Kyoto cityscape was created where a character, not unlike Window’s animated paperclip, pops up to guide a person around the city; introducing temples, restaurants and shops as a tourist moves around.
The display can also be used to give directions with arrows and if a person lifts their head up to the sky a weather forecast is automatically protected into their peripheral vision.
Tokyo-based technology analyst Steven Nagata praised the “cool” and light good looks of AV Walker but said he felt the technology needed refinement.
“The promise of a walking, heads up display that would be able to provide important and relevant information about your environment with minimal interaction is the holy grail of mobile technology,” he said.
“And while the Docomo demo was more circus side-show than cutting edge technology, it may help inspire real innovation in the future.”
Augmented reality apps for smartphones such as Laya and Wikitude are already having some success as guides to our immediate surroundings.
But as this usually involves holding up and pointing the mobile’s camera in the direction you are looking AV Walker and its like have the added benefit of accessing information about your surroundings without altering your natural behaviour.
According to the developers a release date for the AR glasses has yet to be determined.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Asbestos victims face more delays after appeal judges referred their claims for compensation to the Supreme Court.
The judges could not agree on a High Court ruling that insurers are liable for damages from when the victims were exposed to asbestos.
Insurers argued it should be from the onset of symptoms, while victims’ lawyers said it should be from the time of exposure.
The lawyers said their clients faced “more confusion and uncertainty”.
The 2008 High Court verdict was hailed as a victory for the victims. It stated employers’ insurers at the time of exposure were liable to pay out on claims for mesothelioma caused by exposure to lethal asbestos in the workplace.
But instead, three Court of Appeal judges on Friday found in some cases the responsibility lay with the employers’ insurers at the onset of symptoms, which in some cases is 50 or 60 years later.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Israeli forces have killed two alleged Hamas militants during a shootout at a house in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, local reports say.
It is reported the killings took place during a raid in the south-east of the city, which is under Israeli control.
On the eve of re-launched peace talks last month four Israeli settlers were killed when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on their car near Hebron.
There has been an increase in violence since the resumption of the talks.
According to Israeli media, the pair opened fire when police surrounded the home and tried to arrest them as part of an early morning operation in the city.
The men’s identities were not immediately clear, but residents said the owner of the house did not belong to any Palestinian militant faction and was not wanted by the army.
The Israeli military said only that troops were operating in the town.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, announces the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Party leaders, from left, Geert Wilders, Mark Rutte and Maxime Verhagen, have reached agreement Dutch Queen Beatrix has asked the leader of the Liberal VVD party to form a cabinet backed by the party of anti-Islamist populist Geert Wilders.
Mark Rutte will now head a centre-right coalition with the Christian Democrats (CDA).
The minority cabinet will have support of Mr Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV), which will remain outside the government.
The government says it plans to ban the full Islamic veil in the Netherlands.
It also wants to cut the budget by 18bn euros ($24bn; £15bn) by 2015, imposes curbs on immigration and increase the number of police officers.
The Liberals (VVD) and CDA hold 52 seats in the 150-member parliament and will have to rely on the PVV’s 24 MPs to get legislation passed.
The coalition deal has angered some CDA MPs who do not want to work with Mr Wilders.
Earlier this week, he went on trial in Amsterdam on Monday on charges of inciting hatred with his film Fitna (Division).
The film juxtaposes the Muslim holy book, the Koran, with the 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people in the US were killed in 2001.
The Netherlands has been run by a caretaker government since February when a coalition led by the CDA’s former leader, Jan Peter Balkenende, collapsed after a row over military involvement in Afghanistan.
June’s general election delivered a surge of support for the Freedom Party, which won the third biggest share of seats in parliament.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel says the next two races in Japan and South Korea will be decisive in the title chase.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Football banning orders impose severe restrictions on the movements of potential hooligans Incidents of football hooliganism involving young people have almost trebled in the last three years, according to police figures.
Association of Chief Police Officers statistics seen by BBC Radio 5 live show there are now 290 teenagers across the UK banned from football grounds.
Officers are concerned there is a new generation of football hooligans.
Police say trouble is more focused on the lower leagues where there are fewer resources to control matches.
Internal police figures seen by the BBC show incidents of football disorder involving young people have increased from 38 in 2007 to 103 last season.
While the violence is not at the levels of the 1970s and 1980s, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) says it is seeing disturbing evidence of younger fans becoming involved.
Figures show that almost half (47%) of incidents of disorder last season in England, Wales and Northern Ireland involved youths.
Andy Holt, who speaks for Acpo on football policing, said: “If they’re engaging in football-related disorder at an earlier age then we’re going to be stuck with that sort of behaviour potentially for some while.
“So it is something that we are acutely aware of. People are coming through and engaging in football disorder who perhaps weren’t around in the heyday of football violence 15-20 years ago.
“So it is a worrying trend that the younger element are starting to pick up on this sort of behaviour.”
One of the key tools used to try to tackle the problem are football banning orders.
The orders allow the courts across the UK to impose severe restrictions on the movements of potential hooligans around matches.
They will be banned from all football grounds, and can also be stopped from using trains or entering city centres on match days.
Official statistics for the current football season will be published in the Autumn but BBC Radio 5 Live has seen figures showing that in September there were 3,211 bans in place across the UK. Some 290 of them were for teenagers, and the youngest was aged just 13.
“Phil” and his brother “John” are both in their early 20s. John got his first football banning order when he was 17.
Tom is 19. He first became involved in football hooliganism in his early teens. He is banned from going near any football ground in the UK.
“You bump into people or you arrange things (violence) if it’s a big day and you see how things go through the day. If you don’t get nothing you go back to the pub and everything’s sweet, you’re out for a drink anyway with the lads.
“If something happens it happens, if it don’t it don’t. It don’t make a difference to your day, but having a row (fight) does tend to make the day better. It’s something to talk about.
“I’ve seen knives involved, pool cues, chairs, everything. Anything, any weapon you could think of. Anything that you could pick up on a Saturday. It happens. There is a buzz to it.
“I’m not allowed near the football stadium 4 hours before, 6 hours after the match. I have to hand my passport in every time England play away and hand my passport in a week before the World Cup so it affects you going on holiday.
“Most people I know have got season tickets – everyone in Derby loves football. So I regret it for that, but it was still part of growing up. It happened. I don’t regret nothing in my life so that’s how it goes.”
Despite being Coventry City fans, neither of them will be able to go to a football match until they are almost 30.
“Phil” has been banned for eight years and “John” for 10. They were both convicted of football-related violence after being involved in a fight involving up to 100 Coventry and Leicester fans in 2008.
Proud members of the club’s hooligan “firm”, the Coventry Legion, they got involved in football violence when they were 14.
Despite the damage they have done to the reputation of Coventry City they see themselves as the true fans of the club.
“Football hooligans may not be true fans to you, we’re there every game. What are you doing? ‘Oh lets sit at home on the chat boards slagging off how bad Coventry City are doing.’ Come back when you know what you are talking about.”
“We’re prepared to fight whether it’s windy, snowy, rainy, we’re prepared to fight every weekend through the football season for Coventry City and for everything they represent.”
“I definitely think we’re treated worse than paedophiles. Okay, paedophiles have to sign a register for so long, but they don’t have to go through what we have to go through.
“They don’t have to go down the police station at eight o’clock at night after working a 12 hour shift to go sign their football banning card.”
Officers say they have seen a shift in the way football violence takes place, with trouble more focused on the lower leagues where ticket prices are cheaper and there may be fewer resources to steward and police games.
On Saturday, trouble broke out after Southampton’s League One match against Bournemouth. Six people were arrested after violent clashes between supporters outside the ground and in the city centre.
Match commander Supt Rick Burrows said of the trouble: “Southampton’s a lovely town and the club’s a great club, and the majority don’t want to see that. It’s the reality of modern day football.
“Football hooliganism doesn’t go away. It morphs and it comes back in different forms and the police have to be switched on to that and respond accordingly.”
The cost of policing games has become a point of tension between the football leagues and the police.
Acpo estimates it costs up them up to £25m to deal with football matches, but last season they only recovered £12-15m of that from the clubs.
The rest of the price is being borne by the police, and ultimately, taxpayers.
In response, the clubs say they are not legally liable for trouble happening away from their grounds and should not be expected to pay for it.
The Football League says it is not complacent about the problem of hooliganism but the figures need to be seen in context. They say the scale of the rise is not significant.
A spokesman said: “We are very surprised and disappointed that wider assumptions are being made about an increase of 65 incidents, some of which would not have been serious enough to merit an arrest, across a season that encompassed 2,000 football matches watched by more than 30 million people.”
“There is a constant dialogue between the football authorities and the police service. If the police have some new issues of concern they should raise them at the appropriate forum.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.