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HOME FIRE EXTINGUISHERS BANNED IN SOME BRITISH BUILDINGS

LONDON TIMES Fire extinguishers may be removed from blocks of flats across Britain after they were deemed dangerous by buildings risk assessors at two blocks on the South Coast. Many residents regard the distinctive red extinguishers as the first response to fire, giving vital time until professional firefighters arrive.
But a review of two residential blocks in Bournemouth has raised concerns that householders could delay their escape to tackle a blaze. There is also concern that the use of extinguishers by untrained people could add to the danger. The report has the backing of Dorset Fire and Rescue Service and extinguishers have already been removed from the two . . . Residents of Admirals Walk were informed in a letter from their managing agents that "unless all residents are trained to operate the fire extinguishers, there is no legal requirement to maintain these in communal areas of residential blocks".

Residents described the ban as ridiculous. Mike Edwards, a 61-year-old retired printer who lives in Avon House, said: "I was absolutely staggered to discover the fire extinguishers were to be taken out. How can removing fire extinguishers be a safe decision?

"The risk assessor said an extinguisher could cause a hazard if the person using it has not been trained. They are worried they will point it in the wrong direction or use the wrong extinguishers on a certain type of fire but if you are trapped in a burning building, you will certainly work out how to use an extinguisher.

"Our eldest resident is 103 but even she said she could quickly work out how to use an extinguisher in an emergency." He added: "Our block is very high and there is one fire extinguisher in the communal area on every floor. People feel safe knowing they are there. The fire service can't quickly get their equipment above the eighth floor. If someone is trapped above that level, are they just expected to sit and burn?"

BREVITAS

FREEDOM BEAT

BBC The US state department has released its annual report on human rights around the world, detailing abuses in China, Russia, Syria and Zimbabwe. . . Unlike in previous years, China, which will be hosting this summer's Olympic Games, was not grouped with the world's most systematic human rights violators. Instead, it was described as an authoritarian regime undergoing rapid economic and social change, which had "not undertaken democratic political reform".. . . Countries listed as the most systematic human rights violators with power "concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers" included North Korea, which was called an absolute dictatorship with repressive policies. Burma was also criticised for having an "abysmal" record. Iran, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Sudan and Uzbekistan remained on the list, while Syria was added because of its worsening record.

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT GAZETTE Hour after hour, for four full days, Adriana Torres-Flores was locked away and forgotten in 8 1/2-by-9 1/2-foot cell in the Washington County Courthouse, with only a metal table, two benches and a light bulb that never went out. She had nothing to eat or drink. There was no toilet. Thursday passed. Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday - although Torres-Flores had no watch to tell the time. She slept on the floor with her head on a shoe. She drank her own urine, she said. Panicked and afraid she would die, Torres-Flores pounded on the steel door with her hands and feet, and yelled. No one heard her. The threat of snow had thinned the courthouse staff Friday. The building was closed all weekend. It was Monday morning before the bailiff who had put her in the holding cell, intending to have her taken to jail, opened the door and realized his mistake.

THE WORLD

AP A city police chief who led an investigation into charges that Britain cooperated with secret CIA flights to transport terrorism suspects without formal proceedings has been found dead, his deputy said. Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd, 50, was found dead in Snowdonia, about 240 miles northwest of London, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said. He had been missing since going out for a walk Monday during his day off. Whatton said the body, which was found Tuesday afternoon, had not yet been formally identified but he believed it was Todd. . . Todd was elected vice president of the Association of Chief Police Officers of England and Wales in 2006. . . The association gave him the task of looking into accusations that Britain allowed the CIA to use the country's airports to fly terrorism suspects to other countries without any extradition hearings, a clandestine procedure known as "extraordinary rendition." Todd's investigation concluded last June that there was no evidence to back the claim. Last month, however, Britain admitted one of its remote outposts in the Indian Ocean had twice been used by the United States as a refueling stop for the secret transfer of two terrorism suspects.

OUTLYING PRECINCTS

DC STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY President Mike Gravel announced that he has decided to support the campaign of Green Party Candidate Jesse Johnson running for the nomination on the Green Party Ticket.
After a meeting between the two in Washington DC Friday, Gravel stated, "My political party long ago walked away from taking the necessary steps that will safeguard our nation's and our children's futures."

ECONOMY & LABOR

INVESTMENT OUTLOOKS - Our modern shadow banking system craftily dodges the reserve requirements of traditional institutions and promotes a chain letter, pyramid scheme of leverage, based in many cases on no reserve cushion whatsoever. Financial derivatives of all descriptions are involved but credit default swaps are perhaps the most egregious offenders.

LOANING $200 BILLION TO BACK BANK'S COUNTERFEIT MONEY

SPITZER

JUSTIN ROOD, ABC NEWS The alleged leader of the prostitution ring that tripped up Eliot Spitzer is credentialed to represent clients before the Internal Revenue Service, an IRS spokesman confirmed. According to prosecutors, Mark "Michael" Brener, 62, had "ultimate decision-making authority" over the Emperor's Club VIP prostitution service. They say he recruited "prospective prostitutes," handled the group's marketing, and settled disputes between prostitutes and their clients.

He is also a licensed "enrolled agent" of the IRS, spokesman Rob Marvin confirmed. That means Brener was allowed to prepare and submit other people's taxes, represent others in tax court and in negotiations with the IRS, and receive information directly from the IRS on behalf of others. According to the IRS Web site, you can become an enrolled agent by passing a written examination, or by having previously worked for the IRS. Marvin said he could not confirm whether or not Brener had ever worked for the IRS.

MEDIA

JOAN FLEISCHMAN, MIAMI HERALD South Florida attorney Kendall Coffey appeared live Tuesday on CNN Newsroom as a guest legal analyst on the sex scandal involving New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Coffey, 55, Miami's former U.S. Attorney, talked about federal law, Justice Department guidelines and political ramifications. What didn't come up: Coffey's own 1996 imbroglio with a topless dancer at the club Lipstik. Coffey resigned from his prosecutor post the day after The Miami Herald broke that story. Coffey sees no connection between Spitzer's mess and his own. ''The situations are light years apart.'' His, he says, was a ''single drinking episode'' -- and he quit drinking after it happened. When CNN asked him to do analysis on the Spitzer story, he said sure. "I made no association between a personal indiscretion and a serious, ongoing federal investigation.''

BUSH NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME WATCH

WASH POST After Philadelphia's housing director refused a demand by President Bush's housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director. "Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?" Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene. "Take away all of his Federal dollars?" responded Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing. She typed symbols for a smiley-face, ":-D," at the end of her January 2007 note. Cabrera wrote back a few minutes later: "Let me look into that possibility." The e-mails, obtained by The Washington Post, came to light as a result of a lawsuit provoked by HUD's decision last September to strip the Philadelphia Housing Authority of as much as $50 million in federal funds. In December, it declared the agency in violation of rules that underpin its ability to decide precisely how it will spend federal housing funds. Kendrick was the official who formally notified the authority that she had found it in violation. HUD has argued publicly that this decision was not related to the demands by HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson that Greene turn over a $2 million vacant city lot to Kenny Gamble, a friend of Jackson's. HUD officials have said that Greene was not punished for his defiance. But Greene and the Philadelphia authority have accused HUD and Jackson in a lawsuit of fabricating problems in the authority's performance as a way to retaliate against Greene. The e-mails suggest that HUD leadership sought to punish Greene by threatening the authority's funding. What is not explicitly said in the e-mails is why.

WAR DEPARTMENT

WARREN P. STROBEL MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network. The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, U.S. officials told McClatchy Newspapers. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

FURTHERMORE. . .

RULES OF THUMB If you find 3 or more typos in the menu, ask for bottled water; 6 or more, consume only that water; 9 or more, take the menu home as a souvenir

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