Justin Bieber’s German TV Appearance Cancelled

Posted on December 6, 2010 by James Wood

Justin Bieber was forced to cancel his appearing on German TV show “Weeten, das…?” after one of the other guests was seriously injured during a stunt gone wrong on the show.

Serious back and spinal injuries were suffered by Samuel Koch as he attempted to jump over an approaching car using specially designed spring powered stilt shoes. As a result of the incident the remainder of the show was cancelled prompting Bieber to announce on Twitter:  “we all don’t think it is right to continue. Please pray for Samuel Koch & his family as we wait and hope for his health and safety.”

Bieber later added to his comment by saying “Germany I’m sorry we couldn’t perform tonight but some things are more important than putting on a show. We will be back I promise. Thank u.”

Koch’s tragic accident happened in front of more than 8 million TV viewers as well as a live studio audience. Koch had surgery on Sunday and was put into an artificial coma.

This is the first serious injury in more than 29 years of shows for “Wetten, dass…?.”

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2000 Concorde Crash Verdict Reached

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Chris Taylor

A French court has ruled that Continental Airlines and a mechanic are to blame for the crash that bought down a Concorde jet in 2000 killing 113 people.

A fine of $268,400 was handed out to Continental Airlines and made to pay one million Euros to Air France who operated the flight.

The mechanic also blamed for the crash, John Taylor, received a fine of $2656 and a suspended 15 month prison sentence.

In addition to John Taylor and Continental airlines, the Concorde’s manufacturer (EADS) was also ordered to pay 30% of damages to victims involved in the case.

Taylor’s lawyer Francois Esclatine said. “I haven’t had a chance to speak with my client yet, but I will tell him that he should appeal”

Air Continental’s lawyers added that saying that the airline and Taylor were “the sole guilty parties shows the determination of the French authorities to shift attention and blame away from Air France”.

“To find that any crime was committed in this tragic accident is not supported either by the evidence at trial or by aviation authorities and experts around the world,” the statement said.

Air France stopped flying the supersonic jets in 2003.

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Pietersen Hits Double Century As England Take Advantage

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Roberto Rembado

An unbeaten 213 from Kevin Pietersen helped England move to an impressive 306 run lead on the third day of the second Ashes test against Australia in Adelaide.

As rain arrived at tea England had hit 551-4 including Pietersen’s impressive knock.

Pietersen’s double century was only the seventh by an English batsmen in Australia and a fantastic return to form from the 30 year old who has been struggling with the bat recently. In Pietersen’s last test series for England he managed a low average of just 23 runs.

Pietersen wasn’t the only batsmen to stand out though. Alistair Cook hit 148 before being dismissed by Ryan Harris to an inside edge.

Cook’s dismissal didn’t slow the flow of runs however and eventually Ricky Ponting was forced to try a 7-2 split in his off-side field. This didn’t work however as Pietersen continued to dominate the Australian bowlers.

An indifferent weather forecast for the remainder of the match may influence Strauss’s decision on when to declare but the English are now in a solid position and will be confident they can move into a 1-0 lead heading into the third test.

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US Unemployment At 7 Month High

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Carolina Hunt

Unemployment levels in the USA are currently at a 7 month high (the highest since April 2010) with a rate of 9.8% according to the US Labor department.

In November just 39,000 jobs were created, falling short of expectations and well short of the 172,000 created in October.

Analysts are concerned that the high unemployment rate in the USA are stifling the economic recovery.

When the figures were announced, Wall Streets Dow Jones indexed dropped slightly before recovering later in the day to end up closing slightly higher while the Euro strengthened by an entire cent against the US dollars.

According to the US Labor department there are currently 15.1 million unemployed people in the USA. The sectors creating most jobs over the previous months are business services, healthcare and mining. Jobs in retail and manufacturing decreased.

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Spam Email Marketer Held

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Alice Morgan

23 year old Russian, Oleg Nikolaenko, is being held without bail on charges that may add up to one third of the globes spam email.

He is a citizen and resident of Russia and the government believes if released he would seek to return there and the government wouldn’t be able to prosecute him,” argued prosecutor Erica O’Neil.

Nikolaenko’s lawyer argued that his client had no criminal record and no intention of fleeing to Russia.

Nikolaenko was arrested in Las Vegas in November and was reported to have been carrying US$4000 in cash.

He was charged under an anti-spam law for running an international network reported to have infected over 500,000 computers by sending out billions of emails.

Documents showed that when the operation was at its peak, it accounted for approximately one third of international spam.

The maximum penalty for Oleg Nikolaenko is three years in prison and $250,000 if convicted.

Due to the mammoth amounts of computed related evidence, Nikolaenko’s trial may still be months away reported prosecutor O’Neil.

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