Author Archives for Helen Pidgeon
May 16, 2014 3:56 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Fears for public safety as ministers admit one in 10 criminals kept in minimum security open prisons is a convicted murderer
Revelations about the UK prison system have come to light after Michael ‘Skull Cracker’ Wheatley escaped jail while on day release. In a Parliamentary Written Answer the Coalition said more than 350 murderers and 70 people serving sentences for manslaughter are in open prisons, which have minimal supervision.
Harry Fletcher, an adviser to the probation union Napo, insisted that ‘open jails are needed to help rehabilitation’. He said: ‘However, prisoners should only be allocated following a full risk assessment. In this case staff seem to have been worried about further offending and absconding. There is a history of running away while on day release. The issue is a failure of government to provide enough secure places and pressure on staff to move prisoners through the system.’
Kenya fuming after warnings from The West drive away tourists.
Britain, The United States and France, among others issued warnings about traveling to Kenya on Thursday. Reportedly at least 400 guests checked out of hotels along the Indian Ocean Coast.
Kenya called the alerts “unfriendly”, saying they would increase panic and play into the hands of those behind the gun and grenade assaults that have hit the capital Nairobi and the coastal resort of Mombasa.
Tags: Kenya, Prison
Categorised in: Uncategorized
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
May 15, 2014 3:53 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Brazil’s world cup security
Sao Paulo police have been issuing leaflets to world cup fans in Brazil. They are warned to not ‘react, scream or argue with robbers’.
Robberies that lead to homicide have hit a nine year high in Sao Paulo. One cannot help but wonder if Brazil ready for the games.
Solange ‘attacks’ Jay Z: Hotel fires security employee who reportedly sold lift video for $250,000 after five day bidding war
The standard hotel has sacked the security guard who sold the infamous video footage of Solange attacking Jay Z to TMZ for a reported fee of $250,000 (£149,022). The management of the hotel stated his employment contract had been terminated for “breaching security polices of the hotel and recording the confidential CCTV video”.
They added that they would be turning over “all available information to criminal authorities”. But anyway, some real news…
Bank of England security alert: police search for man who dumped car and ‘walked off’
Bank underground station was closed and the roads sealed off after a car was abandoned in the middle of the street outside The Bank of England. A bomb disposal robot was used to check the vehicle.
Lexi Boddy posted on Twitter: “Guy in car with music blaring. Runs red light. Stops car in intersection & walks off. Police everywhere. Bank station. I called it in to police to describe him. When I left they were creating road block and putting up tape to stop people walking by!”
Tags: Bank of England, Bomb, Brazil, Jay Z, London, Police, Rio, Robocop, Solange, Wold Cup
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
May 12, 2014 3:52 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Boko Haram will only release girls if imprisoned militants are freed
A video has emerged showing around 130 kidnapped girls. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has said that the girls will not be freed unless all imprisoned militants are freed. Minister Abba Moro rejected the deal.
It is thought the majority of the abducted girls are Christians, although there are a number of Muslims among them. The video is thought to show around 130 of the 276 pupils abducted. I’t possible they have been split in to smaller groups to try and avoid detection.
China tightens security in Beijing
China has deployed armed police patrol vehicles in Beijing after three attacks at transport hubs around the country. The vehicles are tasked with: “countering street terrorism and fighting severe violence”, according to a state run news agency.
Officers will be stationed on road junctions and would cover an area of 1.8 miles within the capital.
Tags: Beijing, Boko Haram, China
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
May 9, 2014 3:53 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Convicted sex offender worked as a security guard at Manchester Airport
James Burns was hired as an aviation security officer at Manchester Airport after checks failed to find his criminal history. The 56 year old was convicted of four counts of sexual assault on a boy, 16. He has been suspended without pay from the airport, but not sacked.
James’ duties included frisking passengers before they boarded flights.
The court was told that between August and December in 2007, Burns assaulted a victim, telling him that he was gay, despite the fact he was married with a wife and children. Burns also bombarded the teenager with sexually explicit and suggestive text messages, telling him that no one would believe him if he told anyone about the abuse.
Reduction in security staff at Cardiff Airport will cause huge delays, critics claim
It is believed that 13 security workers at Cardiff Airport are to be made redundant.
A source close to the issue said: “I know for a fact that the passengers are fed up because they have to wait a very long time to get through security because there are very few trained staff. This will bring huge delays for the passengers and there will be a loss of trade for the businesses in the terminal because they haven’t got time to wait around.”
Leader of the Welsh Conservatives and Andrew RT Davies AM, said: “This news is obviously very troubling for the staff affected and I sincerely hope that this is not a pre-cursor to widespread redundancies at the Airport.”
Tags: Airport, Cardiff, Manchester
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
May 8, 2014 3:58 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Rio boosts World Cup security amid crime rise
Extra police are patrolling the streets a favela near the England World Cup team hotel after a shootout took place there.
One person was killed as police clashed with drug traffickers over the May day weekend Rocinha.
Coordinator at the University Candido Mendes Center for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship, Silvia Ramos told Sky News: “What we are seeing (in Rio today) is a crisis in security and safety and this has been growing since 2013. There is also not just an increase in criminality but also more people are going round the city armed. And the official security forces have been slow to respond to this.”
Hapless IT specialist arrested after tailing the first daughters’ motorcade
Mathew Evan Goldstein, 55, was arrested after he passed the security checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania in his Honda Civic. Police then checked the car for explosives.
Pictures of the car showed it traveled about 50 yards down Pennsylvania Avenue past the security barrier but it remained outside the main gate of the White House.
Security guard orders mother to stop breastfeeding after one cafe customer complains
Film maker and journalist Jenny Kleeman was asked to stop breastfeeding her son at the Apostrophe cafe in North London as the security guard claimed it was “not allowed”.
In an email, Deborah Jones, retail operations director for Land Securities which owns the O2 Center, told her: “On behalf of The O2 Center I would like to apologise personally for the situation you encountered when feeding your son. I want to assure you that it is not our policy to prevent breast feeding anywhere within the O2 Center, or indeed any of our shopping centers, and the security guard who spoke to you did not act in line with our policy. I assure you that we will be working with all staff in all of our centers to ensure they are fully aware of our policy.”
Tags: Rio, White House, World Cup
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
May 2, 2014 3:52 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
G4S tells Manus staff to stop leaking information
G4S employees who were working at the Manus Detention Center during the trouble in February have been warned not to leak information to the media, according to the Australian edition of the guardian.
The email says “many” G4S employees acted with “exceptional discipline and professionalism on the nights of 16 and 17 February”.
A number of G4S employees have blown the whistle on conditions at the center. In an interview with The Guardian Australia; Martin Appleby, a former guard, said that guards were given just 10 days training.
Libyan gunmen storm Benghazi security headquarters
5 people have been killed and at least 10 others wounded in a raid on a security HQ in Benghazi in the early hours of this morning. Army officials believe that the attack was carried out by members of an Islamist militia.
Armed men also attacked the home of Benghazi’s security chief, Col Ramadan al-Wahishi however he was unharmed according to security officials.
Microsoft fixes flaw in Internet Explorer on XP
Microsoft group manager of response communications Dustin Childs said: “We have made the decision to issue a security update for Windows XP users. Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, and we continue to encourage customers to migrate to a modern operating system, such as Windows 7 or 8.1. Additionally, customers are encouraged to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer, IE 11.”
Microsoft decided to issue the update “based on the proximity to the end of support for Windows XP,” wrote Adrienne Hall, Microsoft’s general manager for Trustworthy Computing in a blogpost. “The reality is there have been a very small number of attacks based on this particular vulnerability and concerns were, frankly, overblown.”
However, security company FireEye disagree. “In addition to previously observed attacks against the Defense and Financial sectors, organization in the Government- and Energy-sector are now also facing attack,” said Dan Caselden and Xiaobo Chen.
Tags: FireEye, G4S, Libya, Manus, Microsoft, XP
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
May 1, 2014 3:53 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Burnei to impose extremely harsh punishments
Capital punishment is a difficult subject and there are cases for both sides of the arugment but most people would agree that The Sultan of Brunei is going a step to far.
Theft will be punished by amputation and adultery by stoning to death. The laws are set to be phased in over 3 years from today.
The AFP news agency quoted the 67 year-old Sultan as announcing: “Today… I place my faith in and am grateful to Allah the almighty to announce that tomorrow, Thursday 1 May 2014, will see the enforcement of Sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases.”
Phase one will include much lighter punishments such as fines and prison sentences. With the later phase punishments being much more brutal.
Mayday celebrators prevented from practicing tradition of jumping off bridge by security guards
Thousands of students gathering to celebrate mayday were prevented from jumping off Magdalen Bridge by guards in Oxford.
To be fair there have been several cases of broken and sprained limbs in previous years, although many would argue students should be free to jump if they are that way inclined. Or is it just a silly tradition? What do you think?
Bomb disposal robot arrives in Canary Wharf as streets are locked down in terrorist attack scare
Police officers were called to London’s financial district this morning as a package was allegedly found. Streets were cordoned off and a supposed bomb disposal robot was seen by a witness.
The incident is still being investigated by officers.
Tags: Bomb, Burnei, Canary Wharf, May day, Oxford
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
April 29, 2014 3:56 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Barclays bank heist ring leader jailed for 5 and a half years.
The leader of a gang that was responsible for a number of thefts from UK banks, including the theft of an unbelievable £1.25 million in just one day, has be sentenced to over 5 years. The man is 48 year old Tony Colston-Hayter. He has been described as an ‘Acid House King’ due to his involvement in the dance music scene in the 80’s.
He was involved in multiple fraud and theft operations which involved attaching KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) kits to bank computers, allowing users to access them remotely.
Experts warn to ditch Internet Explorer on XP due to security issues.
Microsoft warned that it was “aware of limited, targeted attacks” and every active version of Internet Explorer is at risk. The security issue is caused by a bug which could allow hackers to hijack windows computers.
The flaw was originally found by security company FireEye. Microsoft has said it will take “appropriate action to protect our customers”.
Tags: Barclays, FireEye, Heist, Internet Explorer, Microsoft
Categorised in: Uncategorized
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
April 28, 2014 3:59 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
One Direction Have Security Team “Bigger than President Obama’s” for Columbia Concert.
Boy band One Direction had a security team “bigger than President Obama’s” to keep the 1Der’s at bay in Columbia (is that a thing now? Probably.)
They reportedly had a small army (200 police officers and bodyguards) and were given ‘hostile environment’ training ahead of their visit.
According to the Daily Mail an insider said: “No risks are being taken. The dangers in some of these countries are very real and that’s why management have arranged the world’s best security teams. There will be no wandering into the city for partying or sightseeing anywhere deemed dangerous – and Colombia is definitely dangerous.”
The terrifying moment when a security officer turns a Zaglebie Lubin fan into a human fireball.
Your standing around, minding your own business, waving a flare around watching you favourite football team when all of a sudden a security guard sprays you with tear gas and sets you on fire. What? That never happened to you?
Well it happened to this unlucky fella while he was watching a Polish top division match between Śląsk Wrocław and Zagłębie Lubin. Amazingly he escaped the incident seemingly unharmed. Check out the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Iw8_ywFbnO0
Security chains foil burglars in Laindon.
Ah the front door security chain, you have saved the day again. The humble chain prevented burglars breaking in to a house on Markhams Chase at about 2.20am and about an hour later, at 3.15am in Nursery Gardens.
Angie Torrance, station sergeant at Basildon Police Station, said: “The person responsible for these offences was unsuccessful due to the occupants use of security door chains. This simple crime prevention measure has proved to be effective in stopping this offender in their tracks.”
Tags: Chain, Columbia, One Direction
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
April 25, 2014 3:57 pm
Published by Helen Pidgeon
Obama seeks to reassure Japan on security.
Barack Obama has assured China that it could count on help from the US to deal with an increasingly assertive China.
Opening a four-country swing through the Asia-Pacific region, Obama is aiming to promote the U.S. as a committed economic, military and political partner, but the West’s dispute with Russia over Ukraine threatens to cast a shadow over the president’s sales mission.
“Our treaty commitment to Japan is absolute,” he said on Thursday at a joint news conference with Mr Abe, Japan’s prime minister.
Amnesty International: Ukraine security operation must respect international standards on use of force.
Amnesty International has urged that the operation to restore security in Eastern Ukraine must adhere to international standards on the use of force and firearms.
The Ukrainian authorities say five people were killed in a security operation in eastern Ukraine.
“International standards on the use of force and firearms are clear – law enforcement officials should resort to the use of firearms only in defence against an imminent threat of death or serious injury. They should apply other non-violent means before resorting to the use of force, and the use of firearms must always be the last resort. When the use of force and firearms is unavoidable they must exercise restraint and take steps to minimize damage and injury and preserve life,” said Heather McGill, Ukraine Researcher at Amnesty International.
Categorised in: Latest News
This post was written by Helen Pidgeon
