All the 13 people who were onboard the rig at the time were rescued from the sea by an  offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, and then taken to a nearby platform after evacuating as the fire onboard took hold. It’s thought that one of the crew members were hurt however its not yet clear to what extent. The men were flown from the platform and taken to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma to be checked out.

Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said: “Thirteen people were seen huddled together in the water wearing gumby suits or immersion suits, water protection suits, so we were able to confirm that all people were accounted for, these guys had the presence of mind, used their training to get into those gumby suits before they entered the water. It speaks volumes to safety training and the importance of it because, beyond getting off the rig, there are all the hazards of the water such as hypothermia.”

The platform, which produces 1,400 barrels of oil a day and900, 000 cubic litres of natural gas, is known as Vermilion Oil Platform 380 and was owned by Mariner Energy of Houston.

Picture courtesy of kenhodge 13

Lee had entered the building via the main entrance at around 1pm brandishing a gun as well as wearing what looked like metallic canisters strapped to his front and back, bomb technicians were rushed to the scene in Silver Springs, Maryland, which is a suburb of Washington, DC. At the time there were around 1,900 people working in the building, including children and babies who were in the company’s daycare facility, with most of the workers and the infants able to escape safely.

Before he was shot police officers were negotiating with Lee and watching him on CCTV, however the three hostages he had decided not to wait and made a run for it the two Discovery employees and a security guard as they did officers moved in on Lee as they did they thought they heard a pop which could have been one of his bombs. Police then stepped out from behind a wall and shot him dead, ending the siege after around four hours of negotiations.

According to police they also found and detonated four more devices at a home where Lee had been staying after the owner alerted authorities. Speaking about the situation Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said: “For most of the time, the hostages were laying on the ground, and he didn’t engage them much other than saying on the phone, ‘I don’t care about these people, I believe he was not intending to come out of there alive. … He told us many times over the course of hours that he was ready to die.”

It wasn’t the first time Lee had been in trouble at the Discovery HQ he had previously been arrested in 2008 after a protest there where he threw thousands of dollars in the air.

The problem was caused by vehicles mostly lorries bound for Beijing being held up for at least 100km because of heavy traffic, road works and breakdowns, this has highlighted China’s growing congestion problems and although they are quickly building new roads traffic is increasing quicker than the roads can be built.

The roadwork’s that are being carried out on the motorway which is part of the Beijing-Tibet expressway are necessary to repair damage caused by an increase in cargo lorries carrying coal from Inner Mongolia which use the highway. There may still be many congestion problems to come on this stretch of road as the road project will not be finished until mid-September.

Many drivers however who have were stuck in the jam complained about the locals who seem to have created a mini economy by capitalising on the stranded drivers’ predicament by over-charging them for food and drink while they were stuck.

Picture courtesy of poeloq

The situation soon escalated when police closed in on the bus causing Mendoza to spray the hostages with bullets, commandos then fired dozens of bullets into the bus and struck at its windows with sledgehammers as they tried to storm it however Mendoza used his hostages inside as human shields. However criticism about how the situation was handled by police came after revelations stated they had an ideal opportunity to take Mendoza down when he was stood outside the bus talking to negotiators before any shots were fired. However this did not happen which turned out to be a critical mistake.

Speaking about the incident President Aquino, who came to power two months ago said: “This tragedy highlights many flaws in the ability of Philippine security forces to hand hostage situations, there are a lot of things that resulted in a tragedy. Obviously we should be improving.” He also claimed that a main flaw in their actions was that the crises was played out through the media, with the gunman being allowed to speak on radio and watch events live on the bus’s TV, giving him insights into police actions. However the President insisted that waiting for more than 10 hours had been the right thing for the police to do. “Up to that point the police believed they could convince the gunman to stand down.”

Its believed that Mendoza had recently been sacked from his job as a policeman due to claims of extortion against him and he had seized the bus to make public his demands to be reinstated. Before the claims of extortion and his dismissal Rolando Mendoza, had been regarded as a model officer, once being named as among the top 10 policemen in the country.
After the incident relatives of the victims in Hong Kong expressed their anger over the way the situation was handled and how it ended, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said: “The way it was handled – particularly the outcome – is very disappointing.”

Two of the surviving tourists have also been confirmed as British nationals, according to the Foreign Office. An official from there has said: “We can confirm that two of the released hostages are British nationals. We have offered consular assistance and stand ready to provide it if requested. We are not aware of any other British nationals involved.”

Picture courtesy of Jun Acullador

Get this, that £10,000 underfloor heating system was actually installed in their kennels – yes, it was for their dogs! Crazy or what?  You know you’ve really made it when you can splash out a cool £10k on your pets hi tech heating system.

Ridiculous.

At least their pets will be kept out side and will be warm enough through winter but still have the freedom to run about.

I’m not sure who they bought the underfloor heating systems from, or who suggested it, it might have been Floor Heating Online – but I’m not sure.

Picture courtesy of gordonflood.com

Many local neighbors gathered to watch with amusement as events unfolded with one resident saying: “It was hilarious. All of the neighbours came outside to take a look at his legs and backside sticking out of the window.  He must have felt a right idiot. Most people wanted him to be left there. There is one neighbour who is a surgeon, and he told the emergency services he’d be able to get the burglar out without damaging the window. But they politely declined, saying they would rather get him out in one piece.”

The man was finally freed after 30 minutes, losing his tracksuit top in the process, then cuffed and led to a waiting ambulance where he was checked by paramedics then after he was given the all clear he was taken away in a police van.

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: “At 7.30am we were called to reports of a male found stuck in a downstairs window at a house in Tomlins Grove, Bow. It appears the resident had come down and found the man. He was stuck half in, half out. The man was eventually freed by London Fire Brigade who apparently removed the window frame. The man was left sore but otherwise uninjured. He did not require hospital treatment.”

A statement from Scotland Yard said that unemployed Paul Joseph Keenan, 36, of Rounton Road, Bow, had been charged with burglary. He will appear before Thames Magistrates’ Court today.

Amazed shoppers ran at the raining money and grabbed as much of it as they could before disappearing, the police said only £300 of the money had been handed back and they urge others to do the same and ‘do the decent thing’.

Detective Inspector Andy Symes, of Hampshire Police admitted he was ‘not optimistic’ that much more will be returned. He said: ‘I’m hopeful some members of the public will do the decent thing but in all honesty I can’t see much more as a result of this appeal.’

Speaking about the event the Detective described it as ‘bizarre’ and said: “A man entered the bank and threatened staff into giving him approximately £1,600 in cash. He claimed he was armed, but a subsequent search after arrest proved he had no weapon on him.”

The Police are yet to determine why the man did it however he did say: “We would ask any members of the public who have found money in Jewry Street – or surrounding streets – to please hand the money into their nearest police station. This money is evidence in our investigation. We would like to thank the members of the public who have already come forward and handed in money they have found to us. This was understandably upsetting for the people in the bank at the time, but this kind of incident is thankfully very rare, and in this case a man was arrested quickly and nobody was harmed.”

Picture courtesy of WebWallpapers

One passenger who was trapped on the train is now in intensive care in a critical condition after suffering severe abdominal injuries and another five passengers were also kept in hospital overnight with fractures and cuts, as well as anther fifteen passengers who received treatment for minor injuries. The driver of the train suffered a suspected fractured vertebra and is being treated at Colchester General Hospital.

Witnesses close to the scene spoke of hearing a bomb like noise when the train struck the tanker, and reported seeing passengers wandering around the track dazed and bleeding after.

Jack Barnett, 65, a retiree who lives about 100 yards from the scene of the crash, said:”We were sitting having our tea. There was a very, very loud bang. I’ve never heard anything like it. I thought it was an aeroplane crash or a bomb going off. The train was upright but the passengers had been knocked about. They had cuts and bruises.”

The driver of the ranker has been arrested on suspicion of several railway safety offences after he failed to contact rail authorities to inform them he was using the crossing, a spokesman for network rail said: “The crossing is a user-worked crossing with gates and a telephone. The Network Rail signaler did not receive a phone call from the user of the crossing.”

Incident commander Karl Rolfe of Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said: “We have handed the incident over to British Transport Police and the Rail Accident Investigation Board. All the serious casualties are off the train and have been conveyed to hospital by land or air ambulance. We assisted with stabilising the train which had derailed. The train came to rest over a small bridge and is at an unstable angle facing down the embankment. The railway authorities are dealing with the recovery of the carriages but that will obviously be a secondary consideration.  It’s being treated as a crime scene and the relevant authorities are gathering all the detail they need.”

The train service which runs from Sudbury to Marks Tey has been replaced by a bus service and the route is not expected to re-open before Friday.

Witnesses who saw the accident unfold said the accident left ‘bodies everywhere’. It was so quick that the victims had no time to save themselves after the truck became airborne and landed upside down on top of some spectators just after the start of the race. One of the witnesses who didn’t want to be named said: “When [the vehicle] came up, it like caught air and flew sideways, and I just saw people started scrambling at that point. As soon as it hit, it rolled right on top and it just hit people and people flew, went in all kinds of directions. People were scattering, people were running and trying to help people.”

Another witness, photographer David Conklin said the car sped over a jump known on the course as “the rockpile” and went out of sight. “I saw one woman with a major head wound lying in a pool of blood. Someone else was crushed beneath the car,” he said.

Because the race is held in such a remote spot it took rescue workers, police and ambulance teams more than half an hour to reach the site, which meant many of the spectators had to tend to the dying and wounded on their own. There were six people killed in the crash and then two more died after being airlifted to hospital as well as another twelve more being treated for their injuries.

The local Police have said that the driver Mr Sloppy would not be charged, Joaquin Zubieta, of the California Highway Patrol, said: “State vehicle laws did not apply because it was a sanctioned racing event held with the approval of the federal Bureau of Land Management.”

Picture courtesy of  PS-OV-ART Patty Sue O’Hair-Vicknair

It began to move from Archway station on the Northern line just before 7am, just as thousands of commuters started filling the stations it then passed through Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Camden Town, Mornington Crescent and Euston before coming to a stop at Warren Street. Many passenger trains were diverted to another branch of the Northern Line out of the trains possible path, as well as trains being cleared from the Charing Cross branch.

The incident cause disruption on the tubes this morning as well as worrying passenger’s there at the time, one passenger said: “I was on the Tube ahead of the runaway train and we jumped seven stops. The driver told us that we had to move at the front of the carriage immediately as we had an emergency”.

An investigation has now been launched to find out how the incident occurred, it’s thought that at about 0525 BST, the engineering train, became defective as it approached Archway, engineers had begun to move the defective train northbound by coupling it to an out of service Northern Line train. However at 0644 BST, the engineering train became detached from the out of service train and began to move southbound.

A spokesman said: “Staff undertook a swift assessment of the incident and an operational decision was made to allow the train to continue, until it came to a stand at Warren Street on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line, which it did at 6.57am. Throughout the incident, LU staff monitored the situation, including the position of passenger trains. LU staff moved to divert passenger trains to the City branch, and direct the engineering train to the Charing Cross branch where passenger trains had been cleared. Services on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line were then suspended”.

Picture courtesy of davidhc

However after multiple biopsies, doctors diagnosed that it was not a tumour on his collapsed lung but instead a pea which had sprouted which was about half an inch tall much to Sveden. The former teacher, had seen his health deteriorate recently was relieved at the news, after all he was suffering from emphysema.

Ron Sveden’s pulmonologist, who practices out of a private office in Hyannis, said: “He thought he was going to have lung cancer, and this would have been his last six months, but instead he has this new lease on life. It’s not often that things end so happy like this”.

Ron Sveden is not recovering well at home has been joking about the whole incident, stating One of the first meals I had in the hospital after the surgery had peas for the vegetable. I laughed to myself and ate them. Whether this would have gone full-term and I’d be working for the Jolly Green Giant, I don’t know. I think the thing that finally dawned on me is that it wasn’t the cancer”.

Doctors believe that Mr Sveden ate the pea at some point, however presume it must have ‘gone down the wrong way’ to get stuck in his lung and sprouted.

Korkuc was allegedly marinating his cat with the intention to eat it, he was arrested on charges of animal cruelty, when police found the cat it had the marinade stuck all in its fur and appeared to be in a distressed state. When question by the police Korkuc then reportedly told officers he was punishing his cat for being ill tempered and that he planned to cook the cat.

Police then took Navarro to a local SPCA branch where he was cleaned up, one his arrival SPCA spokesman Gina Browning said that staff at the shelter were shocked to see the poor cat covered in oils and spices, she said: ‘He was covered in oil, he was covered in salt, a few different kinds of peppers, some hot peppers, so his eyes were watering…who knows what he was facing,’

It took two baths before Navarro was finally cleaned up and he has also been able to find a new home and has also been given a new name – Oliver. Korkuc has now been banned by the SPCA for owning an animal in future, as well as facing animal cruelty charges.

Picture courtesy of theseanster93

After he was caught speeding on the the A12 highway between Bern and Lausanne on Friday, a police spokesman said: ‘we have no record of anyone being caught travelling faster in the country.’ The unnamed man was arrested shortly after when he stopped in a lay by and he was released after questioning. It is believed that he was collecting the brand new car from a seller in Germany.

Benoît Dumas, a police officer in the area where the SLS six-litre-engine car was impounded, said: ‘He needed over half-a-kilometre of road to come to a halt.’ It’s thought that the driver had not been caught on other speed cameras on his journey because he was going too fast and the instruments were incapable of clocking any speed beyond 200kph, the reason he was finally caught is because he passed a new generation of radar machines.

After he was caught the driver told police: ‘I think the Speedo on the car, which is new, is faulty.’ It’s thought that he is unlikely to go to jail but he is expected to be hit with the landmark fine because of the way speeding fines are administered in Switzerland. There his case will be judged by a magistrate and the fine will be based on his income and the ‘extraordinary speed’ at which he was travelling, in both Switzerland and Germany it is common for fines to be levied in such a way. Its normal in Switzerland for a fine to be dependent on a person‘s income and in this case the suspect is very rich indeed.

The Swedish driver is now facing the highest possible penalty of 300 days of fines at 3,600 Swiss francs a day which comes out to close to 650,000 Euros, his car will also now undergo a technical inspection to see if his tale of a faulty odometer holds up.

Picture courtesy of RUD66

He then shot by police in the ensuing gun battle along Lenox Avenue and 143rd Street, at 3am on Sunday, 50 shots were fired with 46 of them coming from police weapons and Alvarez was hit at least 21 times. Officer Michael Tedeschi hit in the chest by a stray bullet and suffered bruising to his chest however police said his life had been saved by his vest, the other officer injured only suffered grazing to his hand.

Police initially claimed that Alvarez killed Mr Soto dead before shooting at officers however tests have now proved that Mr Soto was killed by a bullet fired from a police gun, as well as the officer injured, three bystanders also suffered injury, witnesses said: ‘People were running everywhere, grabbing kids and tripping over each other.’

Angel Alvarez is currently in a critical condition in hospital but is expected to live, doctors treating him have said that the bullets fired by police officers had missed his vital organs but he was shot in the arms, legs, abdomen and jaw but is able to talk.

Forensic pathologist Dr Vincent DiMaio said: “Alvarez’s survival against a hail of bullets was unprecedented. I would say more than 20 gunshot wounds is a record, of course, the real issue is where you get shot. One bullet can kill you, but believe it or not, a body can survive a lot of bullet wounds.”

Speaking about the shooting and the dangers of illegal guns New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said:” How much longer are we as a nation going to wait before we get serious about stopping illegal guns from getting into the hands of people who mean to do harm to others?”

A statement from the Police stated that Alvarez had been arrested eight times before for violent offences, and New York police chief Ray Kelly supports his officers saying they had been justified in using deadly force.

Picture courtesy of wilhelmja

The events chief organiser Ossi Arvela said: “All the rules were followed and there were enough first aid personnel. All the competitors needed to sign in to the competition with a doctor’s certificate. Half a litre of water was added to the stove inside the sauna every 30 seconds, and the last person remaining was the winner. There was no prize other than “some small things”. I know this is very hard to understand to people outside Finland who are not familiar with the sauna habit. It is not so unusual to have 110 degrees in a sauna. A lot of competitors before have sat in higher temperatures than that.”

Although Mr Kaukonen, the defending world champion appeared to be sick, he apparently refused to leave the sauna during the final, he is now said to be in a stable condition in hospital, police are now investigating Mr Ladyzhensky’s death which has left organisers grief-stricken. The World Sauna Championships which had over 130 participants from 15 countries, had been held since 1999, will now never be held again after this tragic death.

Picture courtesy of thomaswanhoff