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Barcelona’s Generalitat has fined the holiday rental site Airbnb €30,000€ after detecting that the site displayed advertising for more than 11,000 ‘irregular’ properties that are not registered with the government as official tourist accommodation. Launched in 2008, the site Airbnb is one of the most popular travel sites for holiday accommodation and short stays with listings in over 34,000 cities in 190 countries around the globe. The website also offers rooms in private homes, which is illegal under Catalan legislation. According to various sources, the government of Cataluñya is also considering blocking access to the site, should Airbnb not remove the ‘illegal’ property listings from their site. Airbnb has warned that the fine imposed by the government will only slow down Barcelona’s tourism, with the city currently in the top three most popular cities on the site, only after New York and Paris. In February, Airbnb announced that it had contributed 128 million Euros towards Barcelona’s economy, as well as boosted employment with over 4,000 jobs.
Tuesday 22 July 2014
After expressing misgivings about the wording of the UN resolution, the Russian ambassador ultimately raised his hand in favour.
After expressing misgivings about the wording of the UN resolution, the Russian ambassador ultimately raised his hand in favour. A veto from Moscow would have provoked even more of an international outcry. US ambassador Samantha Power said it would not have been necessary had Russia used its leverage to get the separatist rebels to let international experts visit the site sooner. Raising a hand in support of a resolution at the UN is different from lifting a finger to help, and the test of this resolution will come from its implementation on the ground. Not for the first time during this crisis, the chamber of the Security Council felt more like a courtroom, with Vladimir Putin still very much in the dock.
Friday 18 July 2014
Passenger on Malaysia Flight Shared Eerie Facebook Post Prior to Taking Off
Cor Pan probably didn't realize the effect his post would have when he shared it. The Dutch citizen was aboard the Malaysia Airlines plane that was carrying 295 people and was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday. But prior to taking off, Pan took a snapshot of the plane and posted the picture on his Facebook page with the caption that translates to, "If it disappears, this is what it looks like," poking fun at the Malaysia plane that went mysteriously missing in March. The aircraft, which was shot down near the Russian border, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it fell near the city of Donetsk in a war-torn area which has become a stronghold for pro-Russian rebels. All the passengers onboard were killed.
Incredible Map Shows Airplanes Getting The Heck Out Of Ukranian Airspace
On a normal travel day, the airspace over Ukraine is some of the most congested in the world. It serves as a major cross roads for flights connecting major hubs in Europe with megacities in Asia. However, after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was reportedly shot down earlier today, most of the world's major airlines have ordered their planes to avoid the area completely. The above map, which was tweeted by Newsweek, shows Ukranian airspace a few hours after MH17 lost contact with radar. Two of Europe's largest airlines, Lufthansa and British Airways, have both told Business Insider that they have ordered their planes away from the disputed region. To avoid the Russian-Ukraine conflict altogether, Lufthansa has specifically ordered their planes to take a southerly route over Romania.
Thursday 17 July 2014
REVEALED: Shocking failure to police drink-spiking in Spanish resorts
POLICE in Spain have apparently no official records for the crime of drink-spiking. Hospitals and town halls have also failed to give any indication of the severity of the problem, despite a terrifying 60% increase in sexual attacks in Spanish resorts last year. The shocking revelation comes as assaults from spiking begin to soar, with the summer season now well underway. “It is clearly becoming a bigger issue and particularly in the summer,” said a source at Marbella Town Hall.
Wednesday 16 July 2014
We cannot see our greatest selves beyond giant shame trees that provides shade for our demons of guilt
while we sweat in the harshness of the midday sun of our hang-ups, begging to believe we are worthy.
Released Alien from Border Crisis Arrested for Alleged Murder, Kidnapping in Texas
An illegal immigrant who was released by U.S. authorities with a Notice to Appear has been arrested for the alleged murder of a woman and kidnapping of children on U.S. soil. The alleged crimes occurred after the man was released. The man, Pedro Alberto Monterroso-Navas, entered the U.S. illegally with children and turned himself in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. He was processed and released, as are all illegal immigrants who come as unaccompanied minors or incomplete family units from Central America. The alien is from Honduras. The arrest was first reported by the Associated Press (AP), but Breitbart Texas has exclusively confirmed that the man was part of the Obama Administration’s catch and release policy for family groups from Central America. A U.S. Border Patrol source who spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity provided Breitbart Texas with the alien registration number for the man, and the event number for the man’s apprehension. He was processed in the McAllen station of the U.S. Border Patrol. The alien’s registration number is 202027386. The event number for his apprehension is MCS14061487. The “MCS” designates the McAllen station, the “1406” designates that the man was apprehended in June of 2014. A separate Border Patrol source confirmed that the man was apprehended on June 26, 2014 with two children he claimed were his own. He told U.S. authorities he had family in Metairie, Louisiana.
Shocking images showing two couples having sex outside nightclub sparks outrage online
This is the shocking photograph showing two couples having sex outside a nightclub. Two scantily clad girls are pictured sitting on boys’ laps in a car park outside Ed Divino in Belfast as other stunned revellers looked on. The jaw-dropping snap of the two couples, taken last Thursday, has gone viral with people posting their disgust online. One twitter post reads: “WTF is wrong with the young ones did they not learn after magaluf girl n slanegirl now another pic pops up :(.” Another posted: “People have no shame. This is traumatic.”
El Divino nightclub, Belfast: Picture of clubbers having sex in car park posted on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook sparks outrage
A picture of two female clubbers appearing to have sex with two men in a car park outside a nightclub has sparked outrage online. The image has been shared on thousands of social media accounts after being taken outside El Divino in Belfast after a student night last Thursday. It shows the two scantily-clad women on top of the men, with other revellers milling in the background, in scenes reminiscent of the recent video of a clubber giving oral sex to men in return for a drink in Magaluf.
British cyber-jihadist Babar Ahmad jailed in US
A British cyber-jihadist has been sentenced in a US court to 12-and-a-half years' imprisonment after admitting terrorism offences. Babar Ahmad, of Tooting, south London, had admitted conspiracy and providing material to support the Taliban. Ahmad has already spent almost 10 years in prison in the UK and US and his lawyer thinks he could be released in about seven-and-a-half months. He waived his right to an appeal as part of a plea agreement. The judge said she had to weigh the seriousness of the crime with Ahmad's good character, after reading thousands of letters of support and hearing from British prison officials who described him as an exemplary prisoner. The court in New Haven, Connecticut, handed down a sentence of 150 months, half of the 25 years the prosecution was seeking. Ahmad is expected to carry out the remainder of his sentence in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Being on the front line boosts our intelligence.
Current scientific research shows that danger stimulates brain power and inventiveness, and the benefits are lasting. Today’s buzz phrase is “transcranial magnetic stimulation” (TMS), the use of magnetic fields to improve soldiers’ powers of reasoning. I am much happier in my job than the equivalent civilian. My colleagues and I give it a 64 per cent satisfaction rating compared to barely 50 per cent in the general workforce. Among the things I like are the security of employment, the pension provision and the health care. Surprisingly, the “excitement of the job” is less appreciated, although 83 per cent of us agree that we are proud to be in the Service. Although much attention is paid to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the most common mental problems we face are alcoholism, loneliness and depression. Women, the lower ranks and those aged between 20-24 are most at risk. Research puts the PTSD rate for serving soldiers at four per cent, compared with three per cent in the general population. Almost 30 per cent of us smoke, well above the national average of 20 per cent, and the Army now has an annual No Smoking Day with a morale-raising song from the Army School of Physical Fitness.
Thursday 17 May 2012
Servicemen steal and sell nearly $2 million in guns
Investigators have tracked down around $1.8 million in missing US military weaponry, and no, the loot wasn’t just left behind in barracks and bunkers. Instead it went directly to street gangs. The results of a nearly two-year-old probe established to investigate missing military gear reveals that nearly $2 million worth of assault rifles, night-vision goggles and other guns and gadgets were pilfered by servicemen from within the Armed Forces and then sold illegally both through local outlets to gangs and on the Internet to residents of foreign countries. So far more than 60 people have been implicated in the undercover sting, which began nearly two years ago by officers with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Along the way, federal agencies as diverse as the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and even the FBI have been brought into the mix. The results of the investigation were unearthed on Tuesday this week by reporters at the Daily News in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Local agencies including the N.C. State Bureau of Investigations, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Police Department have been named in the probe as well. “The case is still active and ongoing in partnership with several other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies,” Ed Buice, a public affairs officer for NCIS in Quantico, Va., explains to the paper. “I can’t go into much detail.” And although information is sparse for now, those willing to speak say that it wasn’t just a vast, international conspiracy at play. For some, the whole exchange might have just been fun and games. “We’re talking about sophisticated, hi-tech flashlights that cost the government up to $800 per unit. The temptation and ease with which to steal and sell them, for some, is irresistible,” a government official familiar with the operations adds to the Daily News. Adding to the report, the NCIS’ Buice says that the results of the probe suggest that the under-the-radar weapons trade was becoming “a growing problem.” That problem, reveals the investigation, spread as far east as China. At other times, military personal were taking to eBay, Craiglist and yard sales to unload gear that either wasn’t sold overseas or pawned off on local gangs.
Sunday 13 May 2012
Two British servicemen shot dead by Afghan police they were training
The killing in Helmand province is the latest in a growing spree of Afghan personnel killing their Nato allies. The soldier from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and one airman from the Royal Air Force were shot dead on Saturday in Lashkar Gah district. One of the policemen was shot dead in an ensuing gunfight and the other fled and has yet to be caught. Fareed Ahmad, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial police, said the policemen opened fire at 3pm at a joint Afghan-coalition compound. He said a third Afghan policemen fired at the attackers, killing one and wounding the other, who escaped.
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Nine killed in Syria suicide blasts
In fresh attacks on symbols of state power, twin suicide bombs exploded near a government security compound in northern Syria and rockets struck the central bank in Damascus, killing nine people and wounding 100. The regime and the opposition traded blame, accusing each other of dooming a United Nations plan to calm violence that has largely failed so far. The head of the UN observer mission acknowledged that his force cannot solve the country's crisis alone and urged both sides to stop fighting. Monday's attacks were the latest in a series of suicide bombings that started in December and have mostly targeted Syrian military and intelligence positions. The regime routinely blames the opposition, which denies having a role or the capability to carry out such attacks. After other similar bombings, US officials suggested al-Qaida militants may be joining the fray, and an al-Qaida-inspired Islamist group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Syria. The powerful blasts, which blew two craters in the ground and ripped the facade off a multistorey building, came a day after Major General Robert Mood, the head of the observer mission, took up his post in Damascus. "Ten, 30, 300 or 1,000 observers will not solve all problems," he told reporters. "So everyone has to help us achieve this mission." More than 9,000 people have been killed in the 13-month crisis, according to the UN. An April 12 ceasefire agreement has helped reduce violence, but fighting persists, and UN officials have singled out the Syrian regime as the main aggressor. An advance team of 16 UN observers is on the ground to try to salvage the truce, which is part of a broader plan by special envoy Kofi Annan to launch talks between President Bashar Assad and his opponents. By mid-May, the team is to grow to 100, but UN officials have not said when a full 300-member contingent is to be deployed. Monday's bombs went off in the northern city of Idlib, an opposition stronghold that government troops recaptured in a military offensive earlier this year.
Tuesday 24 April 2012
Opiates Killed 8 Americans In Afghanistan, Army Records Show
Eight American soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates during deployments in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, according to U.S. Army investigative reports. The overdoses were revealed in documents detailing how the Army investigated a total of 56 soldiers, including the eight who fell victim to overdoses, on suspicion of possessing, using or distributing heroin and other opiates. At the same time, heroin use apparently is on the rise in the Army overall, as military statistics show that the number of soldiers testing positive for heroin has grown from 10 instances in fiscal year 2002 to 116 in fiscal year 2010. Army officials didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on Saturday. But records from the service's Criminal Investigation Command, obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, provided glimpses into how soldiers bought drugs from Afghan juveniles, an Afghan interpreter and in one case, an employee of a Defense Department contractor, who was eventually fired. The drug use is occurring in a country that is estimated to supply more than 90% of the world's opium, and the Taliban insurgency is believed to be stockpiling the drug to finance their activities, according to a 2009 U.N. study. While the records show some soldiers using heroin, much of the opiate abuse by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan involves prescription drugs such Percocet, the Army documents show. Judicial Watch obtained the documents under the Freedom of Information of Act and provided them to CNN. Spokesman Col. Gary Kolb of the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led command in Afghanistan, verified the documents to CNN on Saturday. One fatal overdose occurred in June 2010 at Forward Operating Base Blessing, after a soldier asked another soldier to buy black tar opium from a local Afghan outside the base's entry control point. The first soldier died after consuming the opium like chewing tobacco and smoking pieces of it in a cigarette, the documents show. The reports even show soldier lingo for the drug -- calling it "Afghani dip" in one case where three soldiers were accused of using the opiate, the Army investigative reports show. The United States has 89,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. death toll since the September 11, 2001, attacks that triggered the war has risen to more than 1,850, including 82 this year, according to the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said his group was interested in soldiers' drug use partly because the risk was present during the Vietnam War. "You never want to see news of soldiers dying of drug use in Afghanistan," Fitton said. "Our concern is, will the military treat this as the problem that it is, and are the families of the soldiers aware of the added risk in this drug-infested country? "There is a dotted line between the uses. Prescription abuse can easily veer into heroin drug use," Fitton added. "Afghanistan is the capital of this opiate production and the temptation is great there and the opportunity for drug use all the more." The group is concerned that "there hasn't been enough public discussion, and we would encourage the leadership to discuss or talk about this issue more openly," Fitton said. In one case, a soldier bought heroin and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax from five "local national juveniles at multiple locations on Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, and consumed them," one report states. Soldiers also distributed heroin, Percocet and other drugs among themselves, according to the reports. Another soldier fatally overdosed in December 2010 after taking several drugs, including morphine and codeine, though the drugs were not prescribed for him, the Army documents show. One female soldier broke into the Brigade Medical Supply Office at Forward Operating Base Shank and stole expired prescription narcotics including morphine, Percocet, Valium, fentanyl and lorazepam, the documents show. The investigative reports show soldiers using other drugs, including steroids and marijuana, and even hashish that was sold to U.S. servicemen by the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police personnel, the reports state.
Saturday 21 April 2012
Afghan Forces Seize 10 Tons of Explosives
Afghan security forces have detained five insurgents - three Pakistanis and two Afghans - with 10 tons of explosives authorities say the militants intended to use in attacks in the capital, Kabul. A National Directorate of Security spokesman, Shafiqullah Tahiri, said if the explosives had been used, the result would have been "large scale bloodshed." Tahiri said the explosives were brought into Afghanistan from Pakistan. He said they were found in Kabul in 400 bags under piles of potatoes in the back of a truck. Afghan officials have long accused Pakistan of harboring insurgent groups. Pakistan has denied supporting or giving sanctuary to insurgents on its territory. Afghan cities and the diplomatic and government areas of Kabul were hit by a wave of attacks Sunday in what the Taliban said was the start of its spring offensive. Afghan and U.S. officials have blamed the attacks on the Haqqani network, an insurgent group that is allied with the Taliban and al-Qaida, and has been described by American officials as the most dangerous militant force in the Afghan war.
Friday 20 April 2012
Ariell Taylor-Brown, Military Wife, Learned Of Husband's Death Through Facebook
Military wife Ariell Taylor-Brown always knew that her husband, Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown, might be killed in the line of duty. What she never expected was to find out through Facebook. Sgt. Brown, a native of Columbus, Ohio, was killed April 3 in Afghanistan by an insurgent bomb. He had just begun his fourth tour one week before he was killed, according to CBS Denver. When a tragedy like this occurs on the battlefield, military protocol is for the soldier's next of kin to be informed by messengers who come to the house. Taylor-Brown, who has two kids with Sgt. Brown and is 11 weeks pregnant with the couple's third child, didn't find out through those messengers. "It was a girl in his platoon. She wrote to me and told me to call her immediately," Taylor-Brown told NBC4i. Taylor-Brown, who was at her home with her children in Mobile, Ala., called the female soldier, who informed her of Sgt. Brown's death. "She told me over the phone, right in front of my kids, and I completely had a meltdown. She wasn't supposed to but I guess she took it on her own power to do it," she said. Officials at Fort Carson, Colo., where Brown was stationed, investigated the breach of protocol and said a total of three soldiers were involved in spreading the information, according to the Republic in Columbus, Ind. Master Sgt. Craig Zentkovich told the paper that a soldier in Afghanistan sent a Facebook message to a soldier at Fort Carson, who passed it on to another soldier at the post, who passed it on to the widow. Although it's standard procedure before deployment for soldiers to be instructed not to discuss deaths or injuries until after the Department of Defense has notified the soldier's family, Zentkovich couldn't say whether the soldiers involved had been briefed on the issue. If commanders determine orders were broken there's a chance at least one of these soldiers could eventually face court martial, according to KKTV.
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Monday 16 April 2012
British terror supergrass sentence cut by two years
jailed British terrorist has had his sentence cut by two years in a supergrass deal after giving evidence about an al Qaeda-linked “martyrdom” plot in New York, it was revealed today. Former teacher Saajid Badat was jailed for 13 years in 2005 for plotting with shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow up a transatlantic airliner in 2001 in what an Old Bailey judge said was a “wicked and inhuman” plot. He has now had his term reduced by two years under the first “supergrass” deal involving a terror convict, after providing intelligence to US prosecutors investigating an alleged plot to blow up the New York subway on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attack. Details of the deal — kept secret for more than two years — were revealed today by the Crown Prosecution Service as a trial of the alleged al Qaeda plotters began in New York. Defendant Adis Medanjanin, a 27-year-old Bosnian-born US citizen, is charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing “material support” to al Qaeda. He is said to have had terrorist training in Pakistan in 2008 and then returned to begin a plot to use beauty parlour chemicals to blow up the subway. Badat, from Gloucester, joined Reid’s shoe bomb conspiracy but pulled out at the last minute.
Sunday 15 April 2012
Western embassies targeted in Afghanistan attacks
Gunmen have launched multiple attacks across the Afghan capital Kabul. Western embassies in the heavily-guarded, central diplomatic area are understood to be among the targets as well as the parliament building in the west. There are reports that up to seven different locations have been hit. The Taliban has admitted responsibility, saying their main targets were the British and German embassies. There is no word at this stage on any casualties.
BTricks
