A homesick engineer leapt from a hotel balcony to his death after an argument with his wife during New Year's Eve celebrations, an inquest has been told. It wasn't a Rantburger. We all are accounted for.
Paul McDougall had been watching fireworks over Sydney harbour with his wife and friends when friends over heard him saying he wanted to return home to England with his wife "whether she liked it or not."
In a statement describing her husband's last words, Karen McDougall told the inquest in Trowbridge, Wilts., said: "Paul then said 'if I'm not here, they will kick you out. He was talking about permanent residency in Australia. He then ran through the open doors in the lounge room and jumped over the balcony." Bad and tragic choice.
The McDougalls, who had settled permanently in Western Australia, were visiting Sydney as part of plans to watch the Ashes Test Series with fellow English expats, David Carter and Lee Woolford.
On New Year's Eve 2007, the four gathered at Sydney's Lennon Bar at 6pm to ensure they had the best seats to view the fireworks display over the harbour. The group was treated to canapés and an endless supply of Champagne and spirits at the event. Which undoubtedly lubed up the judgement centres of the brain.
"He was probably on the same level as me. We'd go drink for drink every time. Every time someone wanted a drink we got a round in because it was free -- whisky and coke, Jack Daniels," said Mr Carter. And it is a sin to refuse a free drink.
The inquest was told that they left the bar after midnight and made their way back to the Oaks Harmony apartment in Quay Street.
Mr Woolford and Mrs McDougall arrived home first and as soon as Mr McDougall arrived, a row began. "He started on about my drinking. He said I drunk too much. I was an embarrassment. He poured a bottle of wine down the sink", said Mrs McDougall in a statement.
Mr Carter told the inquest that soon after he and Mr Woolford had left the room to go bed, Mrs McDougall called them back. "The next thing she said was 'come here'.
"I came out and she said he had gone over the balcony. I looked down and saw him in a starfish shape," he said.
The inquest heard Mr McDougall had run through the sliding doors to the balcony and mounted a chair which he used as a "springboard" to vault the glass safety balustrade to plunge from the 17th floor onto the balcony of the 13th floor. Jeeze Louise.
Paramedics rushed the victim to hospital, but he died later of multiple injuries. Tests found Mr McDougall had 183 millilitres of alcohol in 100 litres of blood and had 272 millilitres of alcohol in urine. That is 0.183% alcohol in the bloodstream, and a bunch in the bladder.
"He never intended to take his own life. He loved life," insisted Mr Carter, while Mr Woolford said in an earlier statement that Mr McDougall told him he was looking forward to meeting with his father for a holiday in Thailand.
Mrs McDougall had said: "I don't think it was deliberate. It may have been just to scare me." Chock this one up to inebriation and bad judgment.
Summing up, Wiltshire Coroner David Masters said there was insufficient evidence to prove that Mr McDougall, of Mullaoo, Western Australia, intended to kill himself and recorded an open verdict.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2009 13:25 ||
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This one is getting close to home --- we watch the fires in CA, but, nothing is like having it close to you.
Central Texas has bowed down to Global Warming. We are in a severe 15 month drought -- and just lost 27 houses --- Our fellow Americans on the Southeast coast, NC, GA, etc, are suffering under the cold-laden storms. Drought or cold, we got some Americans that are getting hurt..... stay close -- much will be needed.
BASTROP, Texas -- A wildfire fueled by grass, brush and trees has destroyed at least 25 homes and three businesses in central Texas.
Officials say two National Guard helicopters joined other aircraft Sunday in dropping water on the blaze near the towns of Bastrop and Smithville. Gov. Rick Perry has activated state resources, including four Blackhawk helicopters equipped to drop water and fire retardant, firefighters and equipment.
The wildfire has charred just over a square mile since it was started Saturday by a fallen power line.
Texas Forest Service spokesman Lewis Kearney says the fire is about 70 percent contained and that no additional structures are threatened. Residents who were evacuated during the night were being escorted back into the area Sunday to identify their property.
#3
First Coast of Florida under High Red Alert for fires. Dry as a bone. No smoking on the golf courses. One day shorts and T's the next day get your downhill racer clothes on. Where is Gore? Did he see his shadow?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/02/2009 9:51 Comments ||
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#4
On the other hand, it's raining cats and dogs in Israeli coastal plain---cold too (do you suppose Algore is on a secret visit to Israel?).
#5
We haven't had any significant rain/snow in Colorado yet this year. I doubt we've had a half-inch of moisture in Colorado Springs since the beginning of the year. Another drought zone...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2009 13:30 Comments ||
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#6
We got three inches of snow here in the Montgomery Alabama area, not exactly unheard of, but damn rare.
Posted by: The Holy reverend Redneck Jim ||
03/02/2009 13:35 Comments ||
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#8
Drought is over in southern California. We've already exceed our average yearly rainfall and the rainy season isn't over yet. But they're still talking about rationing water this summer and encouraging us to rat on our neighbors if they water their lawns too often.
#10
Aquifers need thousands of years of rain to replenish what California has drunk in the last century. When I visited my cousin in Palm Springs ten years ago, I decided that golf courses in that terrain were obscenities.
Trying to prepare our assorted international student friends for a Wisconsin winter has been interesting. The Senegalese were shivering in September already: cold in Senegal is 65F. Most of the Chinese have seen cold, but not this much snow.
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau -- Renegade soldiers assassinated the president of Guinea-Bissau in his palace Monday, hours after a bomb blast killed his rival, but the military said that no coup was in progress in the fragile West African nation.
The military statement broadcast on state radio attributed President Joao Bernardo Vieira's death to an "isolated" group of unidentified soldiers whom the military said it was now hunting down.
Luis Sanca, security adviser to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., confirmed the president had died but gave no details.
The military said the armed forces would respect the constitutional order, which calls for parliament chief Raimundo Pereira to succeed the president in the event of his death. It also dismissed claims that the armed forces headquarters was implicated in Vieira's killing as a retaliation for the assassination late Sunday of armed forces chief of staff Gen. Batiste Tagme na Waie at his headquarters in Bissau.
The Commission of Inquiry investigating last Novembers crisis in Jos has summoned officials of the state Ministry of Lands and Survey to clarify the ownership of a community adjacent the University of Jos.
The summon followed repeated mention of Angwan Rogo community by many of the witnesses that testified before the commission, with some of them calling for the relocation of the community as according to them, the land was originally given to the university. Angwan Rogo which lies just behind the Bauchi Road campus of the University of Jos is predominantly inhabited by Hausa Muslims.
Testifying before the commission, one Princess Hannah Jang who presented a memorandum on behalf of the Izere Concerned Daughters of Jos North and Jos East local government areas accused the Hausa whom she said they gave their land to of turning round to kill them. She lamented the plight of women as a result of the constant crises in the state, noting that women and children suffer most as they are rendered widows and orphans.
Another witness, Haruna Rwang viewed the crisis as a continuation of the 1884 Islamic Jihad, stressing that whatever solution would have to take this fact into consideration to achieve anything meaningful.
Commission Chairman, Prince Bola Ajibola while giving the directive said the ministry was in a better position to clarify the actual ownership of the land to guide the commission.
#1
Another witness, Haruna Rwang viewed the crisis as a continuation of the 1884 Islamic Jihad, stressing that whatever solution would have to take this fact into consideration to achieve anything meaningful.
Not much has changed since 1884, has it? Islam has declared war against everyone not a Muslim, and internally, between the different "flavors" of Islam. Islam is a cancer, and needs to be excised from the planet.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2009 13:33 Comments ||
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A Saudi religious scholar has issued an edict calling for the prosecution of a royal tycoon and another Saudi businessman, accusing the men of being as dangerous as drug dealers because the TV channels they own broadcast films. The edict issued by Youssef Al-Ahmed, a government employee, is unusual in that it publicly chastises two such prominent Saudi figures by name - Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Waleed Al-Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of the late King Fahad and owner of the Dubai-based MBC Group media conglomerate. It also comes about six months after the former head of the kingdom's highest tribunal said it was permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that show content deemed immoral. He did not name anyone specific.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It is long past time that wealthy Saudis should have discovered that "turbulent priests" are rarely missed.
#2
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal is hardly a holy man...he's the prince who's bin buying off America's leading universities. He owns Georgetown and Harvard outright - he has John Esposito's nvts in a jar over his fireplace and Noam Chomsky on speed dial.
He's one of the premier Da'wa specialists in the West, especially among the chattering classes, and it's interesting that Back Home in Ol' Araby may be souring on him.
#4
Y'know, I'm not sure. There may be some "restructuring" necessary in the global Dar-ul-Sunni, because lately the Dar-ul-Shia seem to be hogging the spotlight, and the Iranian mullacracy's Da'wa shock troops (Hamas and Hezb'Allah) are making their statement the old-fashioned, Big Mo-approved way - at the points of their swords.
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the following day after errors were noted in the text.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/02/2009 17:13 ||
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#1
Damn. Saw the headline and thought it was time to move...
#4
Seriously, more and more people that I talk to here in San Antonio are kicking around the notion... kind of half-joking, but kind of half-not.
There's a lot of details to be worked out, of course - a practically infinite list, like what would happen to all the federal military bases. And would we have to get passports to go to California to visit relatives?
The last time Texas had a go at secession, with that spot of bother after the 1860 election - that did not turn out at all well. Which is why it is half a joke. Whether it ever becomes serious matter for discussion depends upon how badly the One screws up the Federal government, of course
#10
This is what Texas looked when the treaty was signed. So if Texas went back to being its own Republic, would these other states be allowed to be a part of the Republic? I am sure most would. The "Disputed Area" was claimed by Mexico.
#11
Well, yes, TD - that is one of those myriad kinks that would have to be sorted out. And yes, Barbara - I'll put a dib on some nice property near Fredericksburg for you - although some of the other little towns are very pleasant, like Comfort and Stonewall.
Not this year, so much - it's been horribly dry this winter, and there is hardly any green at all. I don't see us getting much in the way of wildflowers, and many of the creeks were all but dry.
Twenty six year old Quratul Ain eloped from her house six months ago, marrying the person with whom she intended to spend her entire life with. However, her dreams fell short when she was shot thrice in the name of honour.
The rental house where the deceased along with her husband took shelter in is located in the Gulshan-e-Ghazi within the jurisdiction of Malir City Police Station. Quratul Ain was killed in this 'shelter' house at around 3:00 am on Sunday when two armed men knocked on her door. Her husband was in the shower at the time; hearing the knocking she opened the door. "She recognised them and tired to flee but the men shot her thrice in her back," SHO Jehangir Maher told Daily Times. The culprits easily fled the scene when the deceased's husband Sheraz came out from the bathroom after hearing the sound of bullets and Quratul Ain's screams.
Not only did her dreams come to an end but her husband's as well. He helplessly watched his wife take her last breaths in front of him. It is pertinent to mention here that this is the second incident of honour killing in the last seven days. Earlier, on February 22, Elahi Bux surrendered himself after brutally killing his elderly sister Shehla Bibi in the name of honour within the jurisdiction of Korangi Industrial Area Police Station.
Quratul Ain's body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, however her husband took it away without legal formalities and an FIR No 48/09 was registered against the two unidentified men on behalf of Sheraz. The couple were Iranian Balochis; they met a long time ago and gradually fell in love. The deceased used to visit her aunts house located in Salaar Goth, close to Sheraz's house. After Quratul Ain's family engaged her to a relative, the couple decided to elope and get married in court. Maher further said that it is clear that the killing of the woman was done in the name of honour and added that the couple was being threatened by relatives of the deceased, who had disowned her after she eloped. The officer also said that the woman was not pregnant and no arrests were made.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
No ID's on the shooters? That's a surprise. Usually they like to brag about it. Why do an honor killing if you can't brag about what a tough guy you are to all your friends? How they gonna know you got your "honor" back?
Forest officials have tranquillised and captured the Lakhimpur Kheri man-eating tiger at Maharajnagar village in Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday evening even while another feline, a leopard, struck yet again in Tehri in neighbouring Uttarakhand, leaving its fourth victim, a seven-year-old girl, grievously injured on Saturday night.
In Vigradi area of the Upper Yamuna Forest Division, another leopard was found dead, possibly due to wounds inflicted by poachers. Elsewhere in Uttarakhand, a man was arrested for killing a cheetal (spotted deer) at Kaladungi in Ramnagar Forest Division and then let go following payment of a compensation amount.
The three-year-old Lakhimpur Kheri tiger will be transported to Lucknow Zoo and is expected to reach here late on Sunday or Monday. The captured tiger was tranquillised by Ajan Mazumdar of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
The tiger had triggered panic among villagers of Kheri, preying upon unsuspecting workers in sugarcane fields. During the last one-and-a-half month, the tiger had claimed more than six lives, dragging some of the victims out of their huts.
Chief Wildlife Warden BK Patnaik confirmed that the tiger was tranquillised and captured. He said that there was no possibility of releasing the tiger. "This case will be seriously studied as the man-eater had claimed a number of lives. The tiger will, in all possibility, be kept in a zoo," Patnaik said.
This is the second case of a tiger on the loose in the State in recent times that has now been resolved. The Faizabad stray tigress was earlier shot dead. The only stray tiger yet to be caught is that of Ghazipur where the animal is causing problems for local residents and has sparked panic in adjoining areas.
Lakhimpur Kheri DFO KK Singh said that the tiger had come creeping to the bait before it was tranquillised and quickly captured. "As soon it was tranquillised, it was transferred into the cage. The tiger is possibly a three-year-old and has been very active in this region for quite some time," Singh said.
In neighbouring Uttarakhand's Rangad village in Tehri region, Nainita, daughter of Surendra Singh, was picked by a man-eater leopard in front of her family members. She was carried for 25-20 metres from her house and abandoned with serious bite wounds on her hands, chin and neck when villagers intervened, shouting and pelting the animal with stones. Nainita was taken to Doon District Hospital in the state Capital for treatment.
Anti-Poaching Cell director Paramjit Singh said a game hunter has been hired to shoot the big cat which has killed three villagers and injured as many in the past one-and-a-half months. Eventhough its man-eater status will be withdrawn if it is not shot down in the next 10-15 days, a senior forest officer informed that that the leopard in question may be declared "man-eater" again if the office of state chief wildlife warden thinks fit.
In another incident it was confirmed that the leopard found dead at Vigradi area of Upper Yamuna Forest Division died out of injury to its neck. Forest officials believe that female leopard was injured following an attack by a poacher. A search to arrest him is on. According to the source, the dead female leopard was brought to Barkot with the help of villagers on Saturday and a postmortem was ordered by the DFO Upper Yamuna Forest Division. The neck injury was established as the cause of its death.
Ramnagar Forest Division officials also arrested a man on Saturday for killing a cheetal (spotted deer) at Kaladungi. Poacher identified as Jeevan Singh killed the deer with the help of two dogs. Singh was spotted by three bird watchers who were passing through the area, Ravinder Kumar, Divisional Forest Officer of Ramnagar, said.
He was identified and arrested by the forest officials on Saturday morning. However he was let off after paying Rs 55,000 as compensation to the forest department.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
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As if parking at Logan wasn't expensive enough...
In the same month that Logan International Airport hiked its parking rates by $1, Governor Deval Patrick is asking for another $2 parking "carbon fee" as part of his transportation overhaul filed this week.
The carbon fee, described on page 137 of Patrick's 141-page bill, would that mean a 20- or 30-minute trip to pick up a relative at Logan could cost $6 in parking alone, not including tunnel tolls, which could rise to as much as $7 if legislators fail to pass Patrick's other proposal to raise the gas tax. Three hours in a Logan garage would cost $18; all-day parking in a garage would run $26.
Boston's short-term rates are currently higher than those in the nation's largest cities - from New York's LaGuardia to Los Angeles International, to Chicago's O'Hare.
"It makes me never want to park here," said Pam Nagy of Sutton, who was hauling luggage into Logan on Friday.
Patrick's transportation secretary, James A. Aloisi Jr., said he will be glad if people stop parking at the airport and use public transportation to get there, a sentiment that has led several environmental groups to endorse the parking fee. "It should not be inexpensive to park at convenient facilities in the middle of Logan Airport," Aloisi said. "We need people to understand that there are better ways to get to Logan."
Best way of all is to stay away from Boston. Stay home folks, Boston really doesn't want you there.
He wants the parking fee - which requires approval from the Legislature - to be used for improvements to airport-related transit projects, including a proposal to build a new tunnel under South Boston to speed up the Logan-bound Silver Line bus service, and the initial phases of a long-term plan to build a transit loop around the city. Based on Logan's most recent parking figures, the new fee would probably raise about $5.4 million per year.
Given that a tunnel in Boston costs oh, about $15 billion, I think they'll be scratching for more loose change ...
But many who travel to the airport come with bulky luggage or young children, making public transit a harder sell, if not an impossibility.
Ben Kaplan pulling a cart piled high with luggage and accompanied by his wife and two young sons, said taking public transit would be tough for his family. "We'd be more likely to take a cab," he said.
Cab rides to and from Boston usually cost a minimum of $20 to $30, depending on traffic, luggage, and tolls, which are higher for taxis. The rates are substantially higher for suburban trips.
Charge the cabbies a higher toll? Brilliant, simply brilliant ...
Aloisi's comments, and Patrick's proposal, represent a shift for Massachusetts, just 14 months after the state finished building a $15 billion tunnel project designed in large part to improve driving access to Logan. Aloisi said the plan is also designed to get the agency that runs Logan, the Massachusetts Port Authority, to do a better job of dealing with public transportation from the city to Logan, to grab some power for himself "to have some skin in the game." The plan takes the Tobin Bridge out of Massport's control, using the $10 million in toll profits it generates every year to fund statewide transportation. Rest at link. We're not called Taxachusetts for nothing...
#1
Anybody that parks at Logan is outta their friggin minds.
You either take the Logan Express bus or get a ride in for departures. Proper procedure for pickups is to orbit the airport until you get the cellphone call that your party has hit the street, thereby spewing carbon for the ten to twelve orbits before this happens.
The only "green" this corrupt little pygmy is worried about is the green it takes to keep some extra hack jobs around at Massport.
#2
I've actually taken the Silver line from Logan several times. Once it got stuck in traffic; the other two times everything went fine. The really annoying thing is that you have to take a shuttle to get to the red line.
#2
I wish Fox could come up with some better talent. This "recovering alcoholic" mantra of Beck and O'Reilly's "I'm a rich guy" does very, very little for me. Less O'Reilly and Beck, more Megan Kelly, Dagen McDowell, etc.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Commission of Inquiry investigating last Novembers crisis in Jos has summoned officials of the state Ministry of Lands and Survey to clarify the ownership of a community adjacent the University of Jos. 
A Saudi religious scholar has issued an edict calling for the prosecution of a royal tycoon and another Saudi businessman, accusing the men of being as dangerous as drug dealers because the TV channels they own broadcast films. The edict issued by Youssef Al-Ahmed, a government employee, is unusual in that it publicly chastises two such prominent Saudi figures by name - Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Waleed Al-Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of the late King Fahad and owner of the Dubai-based MBC Group media conglomerate. It also comes about six months after the former head of the kingdom's highest tribunal said it was permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV stations that show content deemed immoral. He did not name anyone specific.
