Tuesday, 15 August 2017

A married City trader has jumped to his death from the seventh floor of the London Stock Exchange today.
Witnesses have said the man, who has not been named but is described as a middle-aged Londoner landed in the lobby of the building, which has been screened off.
The finance worker is believed to work on the first floor but climbed up to the seventh floor at around 9.45am, clambered over a glass barrier and jumped.
Police were called at 9.58am and the man was pronounced dead at 10.10am - the Paternoster Square entrance of the LSE is shut and police and ambulance staff are at the scene.
Officers say his death is not suspicious and are desperately trying to contact his wife and family today. A fellow broker explained: 'I came in this morning and there was a screen up in the reception lobby area and ambulances and police.
'There was an internal memo saying there had been an incident and then we have found out that a man has jumped from the seventh floor.
'The building has walkways on each floor and near the lifts there is a gap and you can see all the way up and down.
'Apparently he jumped from there.'
A student, who was waiting in security, told the Evening Standard: 'My friends inside told me they heard a lot of shouting and then they heard a thud. It's awful.'
The financier is believed to have been working on the first floor before heading up to the seventh floor.
The man, believed to be London-based and middle aged, threw himself from an internal walkway.
A witness said: ''When he hit the floor it was terrifying'. His colleagues were said to be devastated this morning, with several having been sent home.
Police are desperately trying to contact the man's wife to inform her of the incident.  Workers said that the 7th floor was full of conference rooms and no firm was based there.
A City of London Police spokesman added: 'We were called to the London Stock Exchange in Paternoster Square on Tuesday, 15 August at 9.58am to a report of a man who had fallen from an upper floor in the building to the ground.
'London Ambulance Service attended and the man was pronounced dead at 10.10am.
'The City of London Police is currently investigating the circumstances around the death and the incident is being treated as non-suspicious.
'We are now working to inform the man's next of kin.' 
A London Stock Exchange Group spokesman added: 'We can confirm an incident this morning where a London Stock Exchange Group colleague fell from an upper floor balcony and died.
'The emergency services were called immediately and are dealing with the incident. We will continue to offer them every support and cooperation possible.
'Our thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of our dear colleague.

At least 309 police officers and police community support officers in the UK have been convicted of offences in the last three years, figures show.
The offences that led to convictions include sex crimes, assaults and possessing indecent images of children. 
However, only 25 of the 45 forces gave figures to the Press Association after a Freedom of Information request.
A Home Office spokesman said measures had been introduced to improve standards of behaviour in the police.
The 20 forces that did not provide information either said they could not reveal the number of convictions because of the cost of retrieving the information, or did not respond to the request.
Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland were among those not to provide the information.
Separate figures obtained from 18 forces showed that there are at least 295 officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) with convictions who are currently serving with the police.

'Appropriate action' 

The Home Office spokesman said: "The vast majority of police officers in this country do their job honestly and with integrity. They put themselves in harm's way to protect the public. 
"But the good work of the majority threatens to be damaged by a continuing series of events and revelations relating to police conduct.
"Over the last two years the Home Office has introduced a programme of measures to improve standards of behaviour in the police, including making the disciplinary system more independent and transparent through introducing hearings in public, preventing officers resigning or retiring to avoid dismissal, and - from next year - introducing legally qualified, independent chairs on misconduct hearing panels."
Police forces did not tell the Press Association the names of officers who had been involved in crimes, saying that it would breach data protection laws to identify them. What the figures demonstrate is that, proportionately, the number of "rotten apples" in the police barrel is very small. 
You might expect that, given that police are meant to enforce the law rather than break it, but sometimes newspaper headlines suggest the opposite. 
However, the refusal of so many police forces to provide conviction data is more troubling. Surely it's in each constabulary's interest to keep tabs on employees with a criminal record - and surely it's in the public interest for us to know, for, as Home Secretary Theresa May has recently reminded us, the police are the public and the public are the police. 
The College of Policing has begun releasing details of the number of officers who leave the service for disciplinary reasons. Perhaps the College, the body which sets ethical standards for the service, should start collecting and publishing conviction data too. 


A line

Among the forces to provide figures to the Press Association:

    A factory worker now earns £5,000 a year from social media work after Kim Kardashian tweeted him four years ago.
    Jerome Billingham packed laundry for a living when he tweeted Kim the innnocent tweet. 
    He replied to one of her posts, saying: 'Do you notice your fans? I love you loads! #hotlove' to which she replied: 'Love you too!' Within a week, his 200 followers had surged by 20,000 and he now has more than half a million on his two Twitter accounts. His main account gets six million views a month.
    Clothing companies began sending him free clothes at his family home in Louth, Lincolnshire, and dozens of other businesses begged him to promote their goods.
    He estimates he now makes £5,000 a year tweeting about high street companies, such as Primark, to his 269,000 followers as well as promotional work for E4. 'I didn't think anything of it and was walking to work and then my phone just started going ping ping ping and going crazy.
    'I thought: "What the hell's happened?" and actually wondered if there had been a technological fault with my phone but then I saw hundreds and thousands of replies saying: "Congratulations, well done son".
    'Kim had tweeted me back saying: "Love you too". 
    The social media star also has another account where he has 274,000 followers, meaning his total followers on the social media site is more than half a million followers. In addition to his clothing plugs, he gets into clubs and given alcohol for free for tweeting about them. 
    Kim has a staggering 54 million followers and her single tweet to the starstruck man has allowed him to forge a new career.
    Although he now works for Haven Holidays he soon hopes to concentrate full time on social media. 
    His celebrity followers include boxer Tyson Fury, 29, and X Factor winner Sam Bailey, 40.
    He got into Keeping Up With The Kardashians five years ago and has always fancied social media star Kim, 36.
    He said: 'I have had so many people reach out and offer sponsorship.
    'Lad Bible and Boohooman wanted me to work for them. 
    'I did campaigns for E4's Tattoo Fixers, Primark's Christmas range, they'd sent me stuff and pay me almost £100 a tweet.
    The Holborn Underground station has been evacuated after a 'loud bang' and smoke filled the platform today.
    Witnesses described people running in fear after hearing the 'bang' around 9am at the central London tube station. 
    The incident happened due to a 'faulty' Central Line train and emergency services were called to the scene.
    An evacuation was ordered with a tannoy repeatedly stating: 'Would Inspector Sands please go to the operations room immediately' – the code phrase to alert staff that there is an emergency. 
    It comes just four days after two people were taken to hospital following a fire on a train at Oxford Circus. 'All of a sudden everyone came running out saying 'they've evacuated the station'.
    'You don't know if it's terrorist-related. You're just like 'oh my God, get out of here'. There was panic down there. People were screaming,' he said.
    A member of staff outside the station said there had been a problem with a train and emergency services were investigating.
    A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade told MailOnline that the incident was caused due to 'an overheated compressor underneath a carriage on the train'.
    Two fire engines, a police van and an emergency response unit were parked outside the station. 
    Passenger Sarah Marshall told The Telegraphs : 'There was smoke at one end of the station, a high pitched bang and a smell.
    'Lots of people ran but others encouraged people to walk and situation was calm. I was towards back of crowd.' 
    Nigel Holness, London Underground's Director of Network Operations said: 'At around 9.10am our staff were alerted to reports of smoke under a Central line train at Holborn. 
    'Our staff immediately contacted the emergency services, who attended and investigated the incident. The cause of the smoke was a fault on one of our trains and it has now been taken out of service. 
    'I apologise for the concern this would have caused our customers at Holborn this morning and for the disruption. The station reopened at around 10.05am and trains have been stopping there since.' 
    The families of the 22 people killed in the Manchester Arena bombing are set to each receive £250,000 from money donated by the public.
    Those bereaved have already been able to claim £70,000 from the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, set up in the wake of the attack at the Ariana Grande concert on May 22.
    The charity's trustees have now announced they will be eligible for a further £180,000, which they should receive in the coming weeks. 
    The latest round of payments from the fund will mean more than half of the £18m raised will have been distributed, including £3.5m to those injured in the atrocity.
    Trustees of the fund, which has provided access to free financial counselling for the bereaved families, will next decide how and when to distribute the rest of the money. This is in contrast to the families of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire disaster. 
    Only a portion of the £18.9million raised for survivors has been distributed so far, according to Charity Commission figures.  
    Councillor Sue Murphy, chair of the trustees of the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, said: 'The city and the world responded with such extreme kindness, generosity and solidarity in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack. 'Thanks to this we have raised more than £18m and we were conscious that we had to get some of swiftly this to those with immediate needs.
    'We have therefore given a around third of the total to the bereaved families and £3.5m to those who were hospitalised after the attack.
    'In total this means we have allocated over half of the existing money already. We will now spend some time looking at how we will distribute the rest of the funds.
    'This will be a complex and sensitive process as we will need to assess the long-term impacts of the attack. We will issue an update as soon as we know more.'
    Eleven people are still in hospital following the arena attack and the fund has yet to decide whether those injured should receive more money to cope with life-changing injuries.
    Any payments from the We Love Manchester fund are separate from compensation from the government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. 
    Ms Murphy said the Department for Work and Pensions had assured her anyone in receipt of money from the Manchester fund would not have their benefits cut. 
    The grandmother who infamously tried to claim a £33million lottery jackpot by alleging she had put the ticket in the washing machine has died aged 49.
    'Lotto gran' Susanne Hinte is believed to have had a heart attack at her home in Worcester yesterday afternoon.
    The grandmother-of-four contacted Camelot last year after claiming she found the winning ticket in her jeans which had been damaged in the wash.
    Ms Hinte, known to friends as Sanne, alleged she had won half the £66million jackpot from the draw in January 2016 after it was revealed the winning ticket was bought in her hometown.
    But when German-born Ms Hinte sent in the crumpled ticket, investigators from Camelot's security team soon determined the ticket was not correct.
    Neighbours described how police and an ambulance crew suddenly raced to Ms Hinte's home yesterday afternoon. Speaking outside the family home, Miss Hinte's daughter Natasha Douglas, 29, said: 'I'm too upset to talk - my mum only died yesterday.' 
    One neighbour, who asked not to be named, told the Worcester News he thought Ms Hinte's daughter had raised the alarm after her mother did not answer the door.
    He said: 'It was about 6pm last night. The ambulance came quite quickly about three or four minutes. They were only in there 90 seconds. I just knew she had died. 
    'Another car came racing up – then a saw a guy run up – the person was in no rush. I thought it can't have just happened - she must have been gone.'
    Another neighbour added: 'The family have been there all day and they are in bits. 
    'She was a controversial woman but she had a very loving family. Even though she had this heart condition, everyone is in deep shock. 

    Monday, 14 August 2017

    A jealous thug repeatedly smashed a glass tumbler into a clubber's face after wrongly accusing her of kissing her ex-boyfriend.
    Aspiring model Marta Bugalska, 24, was left with a three-inch cut to her head and covered in blood after being battered unconscious at Opal Lounge in Edinburgh.
    Her 23-year-old attacker Ashley Katsande hit receptionist Ms Bugalska with a glass before striking her twice more on her lip and then again on her head. Katsande had seen her partner with another woman, and later tried to apologise to Ms Bugalska via a friend on Facebook upon realising she attacked the wrong person.
    The attacker has now admitted assault but was spared jail at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this month and told to pay her victim £800 in compensation.
    Ms Bugalska told The sun reporter Ben Archibald: 'I was standing by the DJ booth and felt a hand on my arm. Then I got hit in the face by a glass and blacked out.
    'She hit me twice more on my lip and again on the head. One blow could've taken my eye out. The glass didn't break, or I may have been killed or disfigured. 'She fell to the ground injured and was struck on the forehead and the mouth.'
    Paul Dunne, defending, said Katsande did not know her boyfriend would be at the club that night, adding: 'She was confronted with her partner's infidelity.
    'He [also] did not know she was going to be there. She went into the pub and witnessed the embrace and was concerned by this. She took great umbrage at this.' 
    Sheriff Frank Crowe said: 'You do have a previous conviction for assault and this was a very nasty assault where the girl was left disfigured.
    'But you do have a good job and you have supportive friends. I am prepared to give you an opportunity.'
    Ms Bugalska has now moved from Livingston to London to work on a catwalk career.
    Scientists have successfully reversed aging in rats' hearts - paving the way to a treatment for humans. 
    Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute injected fresh cardiac cells from newborn lab rats into old rats.
    Previously, this experimental method has only been used as a way to repair damage after a heart attack.
    But in this study, the American team - who performed the world's first cardiac stem cell infusion in 2009 - have demonstrated it can also reverse aging.
    Experts say the breakthrough could revolutionize medicine. In the study, 22-month-old rats - who were considered old - received stem cells from four-month-old rats. 
    Across the board, all of them experienced improved heart function, improved their exercise capacity by an average of 20 percent, and regrew hair faster than rats that didn't receive the cells.
    They also demonstrated longer heart cell telomeres - compound structures located at the ends of chromosomes that shrink with age. 'Our previous lab studies and human clinical trials have shown promise in treating heart failure using cardiac stem cell infusions,' said lead author Dr Eduardo Marbán, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. 
    'Now we find that these specialized stem cells could turn out to reverse problems associated with aging of the heart.' 
    Stem cells are a basic type of cell that can change into another type of more specialized cell through a process known as differentiation.
    Similar to a fresh ball of clay, they can be shaped and morphed into any cell in the body.
    They grow in embryos as embryonic stem cells, used to help the rapidly growing baby form the millions of different cell types it needs to grow before birth.
    A mum has issued a warning after her seven-year-old son suffered a potentially fatal allergic reaction to a temporary hennah tattoo on holiday.
    Little Theo Luckett could be scarred for life after what was supposed to be a treat during a family trip abroad ended in disaster.
    He had queued up excitedly for the procedure on his arm at a market stall in Bulgaria with dozens of other children.
    But shortly after having the substantial inking done, Theo started to get blisters which swelled to be yellow and oozing overnight.
    His panic-stricken parents rushed him to the nearest pharmacy in the seaside town of Sozopol where they were told he was suffering an allergic reaction.
    Mum Alexandra, 41, who lives with husband Jonathan, 39, and their daughter Charlotte, nine, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, said: 'Straight away I feared the worst.
    'It brought it all back as Theo has an egg allergy and a few times we have had to get ambulances as he has been close to anaphylactic shock.
    'His arm looked terrible. The other night he woke up crying as it was so itchy. 'I just want to warn parents of the dangers.'
    Theo picked the substantial sleeve design from a book on the seller's stand while his sister had a little inking at the one next door.
    But while hers has faded since the family returned from their two week break more than a week ago her brother is still in lots of pain.
    Alexandra is now applying strong steroid cream on the skin as prescribed by the doctor.
    The doctor says that if he goes near the henna tattoo chemical para-phenylene diamine (PPD) again, it could be deadly as it can cause people to stop breathing.
    Alexandra added: 'Theo's skin is very inflamed and angry looking now but we have been very lucky and it is starting to heal.
    'It's not infected- the doctor said he was lucky. The PPD can cause the anaphylactic shock.' 
    A British cyber security expert credited with stopping the ransomware attack on the NHS today pleaded not guilty to US charges that he creating malicious software to steal banking information.
    Marcus Hutchins - who entered the plea at a court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - and a co-defendant face charges of conspiring to commit computer fraud in the state and elsewhere in 2014. 
    The 23-year-old was arrested on August 2 at Las Vegas Airport on his way home to Ilfracombe in Devon after a cyber security convention in the US. 
    Hutchins, also known as MalwareTech, was hailed a hero in May this year when he found a 'kill-switch' that slowed the effects of the WannaCry 'ransomware' virus that crippled the NHS and hit more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries. 
    But the charges relate to alleged conduct occurring between July 2014 and July 2015, long before he found a way to stop the WannaCry ransomware virus.
    In his first public comments since his arrest, Hutchens revealed that he will be able to go online once more and that he plans to write a blog as a result of relaxed bail conditions.
    On his Twitter account he wrote: 'There's a lot of people I'd like to thank for amazing support over the past 11 days, which I will do when I get a chance to publish my blog.
    'I'm still on trial, still not allowed to go home, still on house arrest; but now I am allowed online. Will get my computers back soon. The list included partying, renting supercars, visiting Red Rock Canyon - and being 'indicted by the FBI'. 
    Prosecutors allege that before Hutchins won acclaim he created and distributed a malicious software called Kronos to steal banking passwords from unsuspecting computer users. 
    In addition to computer fraud, the indictment lists five other charges, including attempting to intercept electronic communications and trying to access a computer without authorisation.
    The indictment says the crimes happened between July 2014 and July 2015, but the court document doesn't offer any details about the number of victims. 
    Prosecutors have not said why the case was filed in Wisconsin. The name of Hutchins's co-defendant is redacted from the indictment.
    Hutchins has been granted computer access for work while his case is pending. It was not clear from today's brief hearing what that work would entail.

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