Thursday, September 29, 2011

Royal Navy issuing redundancy notices.

HMS CumberlandHMS Cumberland was involved in the rescue of British citizens from Libya in February

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More than 1,000 Royal Navy staff will learn they are being made redundant later as part of a first round of military job cuts.

Of about 1,020 job losses, a third are compulsory. Some 810 sailors applied for redundancy and 670 were accepted.

The navy is cutting numbers by 5,000 to 30,000 by 2015, as part of 22,000 armed forces cuts designed to help save £5bn.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the MoD had to share the blame for the cuts having "helped create the problem".

Earlier this month about 920 soldiers and 930 RAF personnel were told they were being made redundant, in the first tranche of cuts announced in last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The next round of redundancies is due in March. The Ministry of Defence is also shedding 25,000 civilian staff over the next four years.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Dr Fox reflected on the actions of military chiefs under previous government, saying: "I think the MoD consistently dug a hole for itself that it eventually found that it could not climb out of.

"It is irritating to hear some of those who helped create the problem criticising us when we try to bring in a solution."

A "complete breakdown of trust" between the military and the government over ballooning costs reached its zenith towards the end of Gordon Brown's premiership, the defence secretary said.

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US condemns attack on envoy in Syria


Assad supporters assaulted Ford's convoy in July after he visited the flashpoint city of Hama [YouTube]

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has condemned an attack on US ambassador Robert Ford, after his convoy was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by supporters of the Syrian president as he and his colleagues met an opposition figure in Damascus.

"We condemn this unwarranted attack in the strongest possible term. Ambassador Ford and his aides were conducting normal embassy business and this attempt to intimidate our diplomats through violence is wholly unjustified," Clinton said on Thursday.

Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said the mob was violent and seriously damaged embassy vehicles, but that Ford was unharmed.

"This is clearly part of a campaign to intimidate dipilomats who are bearing witness to brutality of the Assad regime," Carney said.

He added that the US would not recall Ford and urged the senate to "show its support and confirm [Ford] so he can continue his work."

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reporting from Washington DC said that with a media blackout in Syria, the US government believes it is necessary for their staff to remain in the country.

"It is incumbent upon Robert Ford, the ambassador, and his staff to remain in Damascus, to move around the country, to see what is happening between the government and those who are opposed to the government of Bashar al-Assad," Jordan said.


Read more....

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Villagers capture world's largest crocodile

It weighs one ton and is believed responsible for eating at least one fisherman, but this monster crocodile has finally been caught by 100 very cautious men.

Measuring 21ft from snout to tail, the massive creature is the largest crocodile captured alive in recent years.

The beast was caught, after a three-week hunt, in a creek in the Philippines by villagers who had lived in fear of it for more than 20 years.

Its nearest rival in the monster stakes is Cassius, an Australian salt-water crocodile which measures a 'mere' 18ft - and which is still on the loose in the Northern Territory.

Scroll down to see a video of the captured beast

Giant catch: Mayor Cox Elorde of Bunawan township, Agusan del Sur Province, pretends to measure a huge crocodile which was captured by residents and crocodile farm staff along a creek in Bunawan

Giant catch: Mayor Cox Elorde of Bunawan township, Agusan del Sur Province, pretends to measure a huge crocodile which was captured by residents and crocodile farm staff along a creek in Bunawan

The Philippine crocodile's domain was a river system in Agusan, a poverty-stricken region 500 miles south east of Manila, but while it was a constant threat to villagers no one was brave enough to try to capture it.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034007/Worlds-largest-crocodile-captured-Philippines-villagers.html#ixzz1XHutyGvg

Price haul: Residents use their hands to measure the 21ft salt-water crocodile

Price haul: Residents use their hands to measure the 21ft salt-water crocodile


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034007/Worlds-largest-crocodile-captured-Philippines-villagers.html#ixzz1XHvIcErp

Long tail: Dozens of local residents gather around the animal, which is believed to have killed a fisherman

Long tail: Dozens of local residents gather around the animal, which is believed to have killed a fisherman


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034007/Worlds-largest-crocodile-captured-Philippines-villagers.html#ixzz1XHvOeW3N

Posing: One of the heavily armed captors touches the beast for the camera

Posing: One of the heavily armed captors touches the beast for the camera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iamtsPypgXQ&feature=player_embedded