Saturday, October 22, 2011

120 years after it was founded, the University of Wales (UoW) will shut down. Already comprised of several institutions, two will merge fully while two more will become independent universities.

With a charter from 1893 and the Prince of Wales as its chancellor, problems began at UoW last year after concerns the head of a Malaysian partner institution, a local pop artist, had non-legitimate qualifications. This was followed by Thailand’s authorities denouncing another UoW partner as illegal, then an investigation in the UK into all the UoW’s foreign ties.

The Quality Assurance Agency said UoW’s overseas checks on foreign institutions were inadequate. The UK Border Agency is investigating a possible visa scam whereby foreign students were sold exam answers for a qualification leading to UoW entry and British visas. Two colleges — Rayat London College and Lampton College — are suspended over the claims.

Trinity St David and Swansea Metropolitan universities are to merge, forming University of Wales: Trinity St David. It is to use the latter’s own royal charter, which is itself 190 years old. Newport and Glyndwr are set to become universities in their own right. The dissolution follows calls from the leaders of rival universities for the end of UoW.

“I warmly welcome the historic decision taken today by the University of Wales Council,” said UoW Vice-Chancellor Professor Medwin Hughes, who will fill the same role for the new University of Wales: Trinity St David. “The transformed University will serve and deliver for Wales.” His counterpart for Newport, Dr Peter Noyes, said “The inevitable end to the story of the University of Wales should not detract from a distinguished history lasting 12 decades. Wales should be sad that this day has come[.]” UoW chairmain Hugh Thomas has resigned.

The Prince of Wales is among past students, having spent a 1969 term there. The institution’s various member organisations at one point included the now-separate Cardiff University.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The San Diego, California suburb of Chula Vista has responded to the recent housing crisis with an aggressive blight control ordinance that compels lenders to maintain the appearance of vacant homes. As foreclosures increase both locally and throughout the United States, the one year old ordinance has become a model for other cities overwhelmed by the problem of abandoned homes that decay into neighborhood eyesores.

Chula Vista city code enforcement manager Doug Leeper told the San Diego Union Tribune that over 300 jurisdictions have contacted his office during the past year with inquiries about the city’s tough local ordinance. Coral Springs, Florida, and California towns Stockton, Santee, Riverside County, and Murietta have all modeled recently enacted anti-blight measures after Chula Vista’s. On Wednesday, 8 October, the Escondido City Council also voted to tighten local measures making lenders more accountable for maintenance of empty homes.

Under the Chula Vista ordinance lenders become legally responsible for upkeep as soon as a notice of mortgage default gets filed on a vacant dwelling, before actual ownership of the dwelling returns to the lender. Leeper regards that as “the cutting-edge part of our ordinance”. Chula Vista also requires prompt registration of vacant homes and applies stiff fines as high as US$1000 per day for failure to maintain a property. Since foreclosed properties are subject to frequent resale between mortgage brokers, city officials enforce the fines by sending notices to every name on title documents and placing a lien on the property, which prevents further resale until outstanding fines have been paid. In the year since the ordinance went into effect the city has applied $850,000 in fines and penalties, of which it has collected $200,000 to date. The city has collected an additional $77,000 in registration fees on vacant homes.

Jolie Houston, an attorney in San Jose, believes “Lenders will respond when it costs them less to maintain the property than to ignore local agency requirements.” Traditionally, local governments have resorted to addressing blight problems on abandoned properties with public funds, mowing overgrown lawns and performing other vital functions, then seeking repayment afterward. Chula Vista has moved that responsibility to an upfront obligation upon lenders.

As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States during recent years, Chula Vista saw 22.6% growth between 2000 and 2006, which brought the city’s population from 173,556 in the 2000 census to an estimated 212,756, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Chula Vista placed among the nation’s 20 fastest growing cities in 2004. A large proportion of local homes were purchased during the recent housing boom using creative financing options that purchasers did not understand were beyond their means. Average home prices in San Diego County declined by 25% in the last year, which is the steepest drop on record. Many homeowners in the region currently owe more than their homes are worth and confront rising balloon payment mortgages that they had expected to afford by refinancing new equity that either vanished or never materialized. In August 2008, Chula Vista’s eastern 91913 zip code had the highest home mortgage default rate in the county with 154 filings and 94 foreclosures, an increase of 154% over one year previously. Regionally, the county saw 1,979 foreclosures in August.

Professionals from the real estate and mortgage industries object to Chula Vista’s response to the crisis for the additional burdens it places on their struggling finances. Said San Diego real estate agent Marc Carpenter, “that kind of measure will add additional costs to banks that have been hit really hard already and ultimately the cost will be transferred down to consumers and investors.” Yet city councils in many communities have been under pressure to do something about increasing numbers of vacant properties. Concentrations of abandoned and neglected homes can attract vandals who hasten the decline of struggling neighborhoods. Jolie Houston explained that city officials “can’t fix the lending problem, but they can try to prevent neighborhoods from becoming blighted.”

CEO Robert Klein of Safeguard, a property management firm, told the Union Tribune that his industry is having difficulty adapting to the rapidly changing local ordinances. “Every day we discover a new ordinance coming out of somewhere”, he complained. Dustin Hobbs, a spokesman from the California Association of Mortgage Bankers agreed that uneven local ordinances are likely to increase the costs of lending. Hobbs advised that local legislation is unnecessary due to California State Senate Bill 1137, which was recently approved to address blight. Yet according to Houston, the statewide measure falls short because it fails to address upkeep needs during the months between the time when foreclosure begins and when the lender takes title.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

24-year-old Aman Kassaye, of no fixed abode, is to face a charge of attempted murder for his alleged role in an armed robbery that netted £40 million ($65 million) worth of jewelry from a London store.

Kassaye is the seventh man to be charged, and is also facing prosecution for conspiracy to rob the Graff store in New Bond Street, false imprisonment, and using a handgun to resist arrest. He will appear at Wimbledon magistrates court on Monday.

The other six men have already been remanded in custody until October 23, when they will appear at Kingston Crown Court. All are facing charges of conspiracy to rob, and two of them are also charged with a firearms offense.

43 diamond rings, watches, and bracelets were taken from the store. The theft occurred when two armed and suited men walked in and took an employee hostage. It has been reported they used prosthetic masks made from liquid latex but police have not confirmed this. Amateur footage also shows a shot was fired. No-one was injured.

The robbery is one of the biggest the United Kingdom has seen. After the crime a string of getaway vehicles was used, with police believing several more offenders assisted with this stage of the plan. Although The Telegraph claims no stolen property has yet been recovered, this is also unconfirmed by police.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

On this day twenty years ago, a transatlantic airliner broke up in midair and came down onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103, and eleven people on the ground, lost their lives in what remains the worst air disaster in British history.

The disaster was an act of terrorism, caused by a bomb loaded on board. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, an intelligence officer from Libya, was convicted of 270 counts of murder for the bombing in 2001. Libya has since paid US$1.5 billion in compensation to the victims.

Today, Megrahi’s legal campaign for freedom continues. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission granted him a second appeal, saying there may have been a miscarriage of justice. The terminally ill man will begin that appeal next year. Wikinews wrote to Mr Megrahi in prison but he did not respond.

One who does not believe in Megrahi’s innocence is Kara Weipz. Her brother Richard Monetti lost his life in the bombing. Weipz, who now heads the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group, says she represents the large majority of victims’ families from the United States when she says that they “believe that there were others who acted with Mr. Megrahi and should be held accountable also,” when asked if she felt there was much still to learn about the events twenty years ago.

They have, she says, no sense at all that Megrahi may have been wrongly convicted; to the contrary she now has some closure from the trial. “The conviction has brought a sense of justice to the families. No we do not agree with the convict at all. We support the Crown office and the decisions of the Court,” she told Wikinews.

We asked her if there were any differences between her version of events, and about her thoughts on potential issues with the investigation. “There is no difference between the truth as we see it and the official version of events. The facts are the facts, Mr. Megrahi is guilty,” Weipz told Wikinews. “I don’t believe there were any issues with the investigation. What bothers me is people with conspiracy theories that spew them as truths. The programs that have been run on TV recently call them conspiracy theories as well.” Did the authorities let her down? “Not one bit. I am thankful for the Scottish Police and the FBI.”

She also revealed that she was not concerned that people might have viewed compensation for the bombing, granted from Libya, as ‘blood money’. “Calling it blood money is a misnomer. We entered into a civil trial. The outcome of a civil trial is a monetary one. We knew that since Libya was guilty that the outcome would be that they compensate the families. The only part that bothered me was [that] it was connected to the lifting of sanctions and removal from the State Sponsors Terrorism List. Our goal was to deter terrorism by making it expensive to kill innocent people.”

One of the aims stated by the website of her victims’ group is to maintain the memory of her loved ones; this she felt was still being done – “Absolutely!!!!” was what she told us. She says that the last twenty years have been hard, however: “While I miss my brother [every day], I live a healthy and productive life in his honor. Hard – yes, productive – yes.”

Megrahi has not been in touch with Weipz, or with any of the other victims, she tells us. Refusing to be drawn into speculation, she tells us she has “no idea” what secret documents Megrahi’s defense has been refused permission to see might contain – she has “never seen them” herself, so she does not know what they are.

She also did not feel that Megrahi should have been released upon his recent request on compassionate grounds owing to his terminal cancer, as “he is receiving the same medical treatment in prison as he would outside of prison. The Court didn’t feel it was appropriate either.” Wikinews also asked her if she believes the legal process generally has been fair to him over the years – “Yes, I believe it has been fair.”

VictimsofPanAmFlight103.org states “we are committed to seeking the truth about this tragedy and keeping the memory of our loved ones alive.” The final question Wikinews put to Kara Weipz was this: “Do you think we will ever know the truth?”

“I would love to say yes, but I don’t think we will ever know the whole truth,” she told us.