The British government is reluctant to launch an investigation into a multi-million pounds bribery scandal involving a British defence firm and the Saudi royal family.
Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has revealed that a British defence firm deposited millions of pounds into a bank account in Switzerland belonging to one of the members of the Saudi royal family.
The deposit was made to ensure that British Ministry of Defence would grant a two-billion pounds contract to GPT, a British wing of EADS, the biggest aerospace defence company in Europe.
Under the contract, GPT was responsible for modernizing communications and cyberwarfare equipment of the Saudi royal palaces and National Guard, which helped the Bahraini regime to suppress the protesters in May.
In 2008, a whistleblower told senior staff at EADS about the bribery scandal saying the deposits “may be illegal… I am flagging up to you a possible illegal transaction and seeking your guidance.”
Furthermore, another whistleblower briefed SFO on the scandal telling them that 11.5 million pounds have been deposited into a Swiss bank account.
The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, who was informed about the scandal by SFO, is to decide whether to open an investigation into the alleged bribes made by GPT.
Nevertheless, he may decide to refrain from launching an inquiry for the sake of the British firm’s interests.
In a similar case in 2007, the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, decided to drop corruption charges against the arms company BAE after then-Prime Minister Tony Blair exerted pressure on him.
BAE had also bribed the then head of Saudi air force, Prince Turki-bin-Nasser, in order to secure a 40 billion pounds contract to sell jets to the Saudis.
The IT powering the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics has passed a major milestone with the formal opening of the Technology Operations Centre (TOC) at the Games’ headquarters in Canary Wharf.
The TOC will provide central monitoring and control for all the IT systems and telecoms supporting the Games, with 450 staff from the London Organising Committee’s IT team and key partners working around the clock, with up to 180 workers overseeing operations at any time.
The TOC is the “key control centre to make sure everything is going as we wish,” according to London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton.
The centre has been tested during the London Prepares series of sporting event designed to make sure all the venues and supporting technology are working as planned. During 79 days of competition so far, testing covered the set-up and take-down of 180 servers, 1,160 PCs and laptops, 190 network and security devices and more than 400 printers and copiers.
“Basically, things are performing as expected. We are where we need to be,” said London 2012 CIO Gerry Pennell.
A total of 200,000 hours of testing will be completed by summer 2012, with two “technical rehearsals” coming up in March and May to simulate “hundreds of scenarios,” said Pennell, including challenges such as cyber security and physical attacks on IT equipment.
During the Games, the TOC will oversee critical applications such as the Commentator Information System and the organisers’ intranet, as well as monitoring 900 servers, 1,000 network and security devices and 9,500 PCs. In total over 5,000 technology staff – including 2,500 volunteers – will be involved in the Olympics IT.
“The TOC is the decision-making centre for technology during the Games,” said Michele Hyron, chief integrator for London 2012 at Atos, worldwide IT partners for the Olympics. Other IT suppliers involved include BT, Cisco, Acer and Samsung.
Deighton added, Technology often goes unnoticed and yet is absolutely critical to our success in 2012. The Games cannot happen without technology.”
One of the new challenges for the London 2012 Games will be the amount of data generated from the results systems – 30% more than in the Beijing Olympics – providing real-time information to fans, commentators and broadcasters around the world.
“There are a number of familiar things from previous Games, but a number have moved along,” said Pennell, including “significantly enhanced” access to information from the public.
In anticipation of huge demand from event visitors using mobile devices, Pennell is working with BT and mobile network operators to ensure sufficient network capacity, including plans for an open Wi-Fi service for the Olympic Park in Stratford.
“We have worked very closely with BT and the mobile network operators to make sure there is enough infrastructure to provide a good level of [mobile] service during the Games,” said Pennell.
“But there will always be moments in any sporting event when demand is so huge that not everybody can get access.”
The IT team is also working on mobile apps for delivering event results and spectator information for fans at venues.
Anyone who’s holidayed in Turkey will know that a hammam — a large steam room used in the Middle East for communal cleansing and scrubbing of the skin — is a sure-fire way to give your body a boost.
And, thankfully, I didn’t have to board a stressful easyJet flight to indulge myself.
The elegant Bentley Hotel in London’s Chelsea is home to the Le Kalon Spa, with an authentic hammam constructed of grey marble imported from Istanbul.
Turkish delight: A hammam is a large steam room used in the Middle East for communal cleansing and scrubbing of the skin
I have booked it for a full, private skin MoT. I’m going to steam my skin, have an all-over exfoliation, a body mask and, finally, a massage — all in a balmy 38c temperature.
Marble benches flank the walls and deep basins of cold water are on hand. These benches conduct heat and lying on one feels gloriously warming. My pores open up and my skin starts to breathe. My muscles are warmed up and are ready to be pummelled.
Just as I’m getting comfortable, a therapist emerges through the steam and gets to work exfoliating my body using La Sultane De Saba’s black olive soap and a Turkish Delight body scrub.
If I get too warm, I give my therapist the nod and am soaked with bowls of cold water . . . It’s a perfect quick fix.
Once I’m sufficiently clean, there’s a honey-and-rose moisturising mask followed by a 30-minute relaxing massage. Again, I am drenched in cold water if I get too warm.
An hour later, I leave the spa feeling super soft, squeaky clean and totally relaxed. I will return.
The Combination Hammam lasts 60 minutes and costs £115. The Bentley London hotel, thebentley-hotel.com
via Treatment of the week: Get a Turkisk hammam without leaving the country | Mail Online.
Camp Bastion’s ‘Kill TV nights’ are intended to update troops on mission’s progress, says MoD
By Kunal Dutta
An image from the Channel 4 documentary showing soldiers preparing to watch videos of an Apache attack on a Taliban target
Disturbing footage of Apache attack helicopters killing people in Afghanistan is being shown to frontline British soldiers in “Kill TV nights” designed to boost morale, a television documentary will reveal.
The discovery of the practice comes in the wake of the damning verdict of the Baha Mousa inquiry into the conduct of some in the military. It casts fresh questions over the conduct of soldiers deployed abroad and has provoked a furious response from peace campaigners.
Andrew Burgin from Stop the War last night described it as the “ultimate degradation of British troops”, comparing it to the desensitisation to death of US soldiers in the final stages of the Vietnam War.
The footage, seen by The Independent on Sunday, shows ground troops at the British headquarters in Helmand province, Camp Bastion, gathered for a get-together said to be called “Kill TV night”.
Described as an effort to boost morale among soldiers, it shows an Apache helicopter commander admitting possible errors of judgement and warning colleagues not to disclose what they have seen. “This is not for discussion with anybody else; keep it quiet about what you see up here,” he says in the film. “It’s not because we’ve done anything wrong. But we might have done.”
Last night, the MoD confirmed the speaker to be Warrant Officer Class 2 Andy Farmer, who is based with the Apache squadron in Wattisham, Suffolk.
Much of the footage is along the lines of the now infamous video of a US Apache helicopter strike on civilians in Baghdad in 2007, first released on WikiLeaks last year. In one clip an Afghan woman is targeted after a radio dialogue between pilots refers to her as a “snake with tits”.
Another clip from a recent “Kill TV” night shows the cross-hair of an Apache helicopter taking aim at an insurgent. WOII Farmer gives a running commentary: “OK, so he’s walking along… then thinks… I’m gonna go off and get my 70 vessel [sic] virgins ’cause daylight’s coming quite quick.”
As the missile hits the target and kills the person, he says “Goodnight princess”, adding “this is where you see he’s actually had the clothes ripped off him by the blast”.
He defends the decision to celebrate the deaths of Afghans. “People look at it and say you know… young lads are laughing at the enemy being killed,” he says. “Well, I don’t know if the Taliban do something similar but I’m sure they rejoice when they kill one of us.”
When asked by the interviewer in the film what he thinks goes through the head of a Taliban fighter when they see an Apache coming, WOII Farmer replies: “Hopefully a 30mm bullet”.
Later in the film, he is defiant about the moral consequences of war: “We’re out there do to a job. We’re not there to tickle the Taliban, we’re out there to hurt them because they have no qualms about hurting us.
“Of the engagements that I’ve taken part in… I have absolutely no dramas with it. None at all. I don’t really care whether they think it’s a fair fight. If they’re [the Taliban] gonna pick up a weapon and take us on, then best of luck to them.”
But peace campaigners have a different view. Mr Burgin said: “The fact that British soldiers are reduced to watching what are effectively snuff movies shows the complete failure of the project in Afghanistan. It’s nothing to do with democracy, but a failure of war that is trickling down and resulting in a mental degradation among ground troops.
“Afghanistan is a dreadful situation and it is no better than it was a decade ago.”
The controversy is believed to have prompted a rethink of the way in which the MoD will limit access to soldiers by documentary makers in the future, according to senior sources.
Last night an MoD spokesman denied any wrongdoing. “Regular briefings occur within the Joint Helicopter Force to all their deployed personnel to provide an update on the operations that they have supported,” he said. “This in some cases shows footage taken from the Apache.”
The footage is included in a three-part series, ‘Fighting on the Frontline’, that starts on Channel 4 tonight
Turkey and the UK could cooperate in investing in third countries, the UK’s Business Secretary Vince Cable told journalists in Ankara on Monday. REUTERS photo
Turkey and the United Kingdom signed Monday an information partnership agreement in a bid to create new opportunities and develop new commercial ties between the two countries.
The agreement was signed between Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çaglayan and the U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable, following a meeting between Turkish and British delegations in Ankara.
“The information partnership agreement we signed today will create new opportunities and new commercial developments between Turkey and the U.K.,” Çaglayan said at the signing ceremony.
The target is to double the trade volume by 2015, he said. “More than 2,300 British firms have made investments worth $4.1 billion in Turkey while the number of Turkish firms investing in the United Kingdom has risen to 100.” The minister said trade volume between the two countries had reached $12 billion in 2010 and continued to rise in 2011. Turkey’s exports to the U.K. increased to $4.6 billion and imports totaled $3.4 billion in the period between January and July, Çağlayan said.
“Under the agreement, we will carry out several projects especially in energy and energy productivity [sectors]. Turkey is planning to make energy investments worth $120 billion in the next 10 years,” Çağlayan said.
Çağlayan also said Turkey and the U.K. would work on Turkey’s project to make Istanbul a regional finance center. “We want to benefit from the U.K.’s experiences in this regard.”
Cable said the U.K. considered Turkey a strategic partner. The U.K. wants to cooperate with Turkey especially in investing in third countries, he added.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading at an “alarming rate” in Europe, the World Health Organization said as it introduced a plan to fight the disease that may save 120,000 lives and as much as $12 billion.
Reported cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in the region tripled in 2009 from 2008 levels, and the six countries with the world’s highest rates of patients with the most dangerous drug-evading form are all in Europe, the WHO said in a statement yesterday.
The London borough of Brent, home to Wembley Stadium and the headquarters of brewer Diageo Plc, has become western Europe’s tuberculosis capital, with more new cases each year than Karonga district in Malawi, a rural area still battling leprosy, according to the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency.
“This problem is a man-made phenomenon resulting from inadequate treatment or poor airborne infection control,” Hans Kluge, a special representative on drug-resistant tuberculosis in the WHO’s European region, said in the statement. “We need wide involvement to tackle the damage that humankind has done.”
European nations aim to diagnose at least 85 percent of patients with multidrug-resistant TB in Europe, and treat at least 75 percent of them by 2015, the Geneva-based WHO said. They will commit to national action plans that include dedicated facilities and improved public awareness, according to the agency. Of about 81,000 cases in 2009, the WHO estimates 34 percent were diagnosed and 22 percent were treated adequately.
Achieving the goals may prevent as many as 263,000 cases of drug-resistant TB, saving 120,000 lives and $5 billion in lost productivity. A further $7 billion may be saved by averting future cases, the WHO said.
The British government is reluctant to launch an investigation into a multi-million pounds bribery scandal involving a British defence firm and the Saudi royal family.
