"Former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim denies war crimes accusations"

This is an unpublished story which I wrote for an in-class exercise from some old wire copy about war crimes accusations against former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim.  This is written in broadsheet style.

ON Wednesday in Austria, a panel of historians accused the Austrian President, Kurt Waldheim, of being involved in war crimes and helping to pave the way for Nazi atrocities during World War 2.

In a 202-page report, the historians claim that their findings disprove a number of statements that Waldheim – also the former Secretary-General of the United Nations – had made in earlier defences against the allegations.

On 16 March 1986, in the Yugoslavian daily newspaper, Večernje Novosti, Waldheim declared: “I swear by all that is most scared in this world that I did not know about the deportation of Greek Jews.”

Prior to this, Waldheim had already defended himself against specific accusations that he was a member of the Nazi students’ union or an equestrian group attached to the Nazi SA (Brownshirts) – a paramilitary organisation of the party.

“I was never a member of these organisations,” Waldheim stated in an interview with Austrian television on 4 March 1986.

In response, the report is said to state that that Waldheim was unquestionably a member of the SA group and that the document proves Kurt Waldheim’s membership of the Nazi student federation.

The panel’s findings also apparently include evidence to suggest that the specific army group in which Waldheim had served was involved in the deportation of Jews.

As part of the work by the International Historians’ Commission that carried out the investigation, Waldheim was supposedly asked whether it would have been possible to resist orders leading to war crimes.

In response to this, Waldheim is alleged to have described any such action as “suicide from the outset’’, which the historians counter in the report by stating that they had found no evidence of a soldier refusing to take part in the murder of civilians and being punished for doing so.

One of the panel’s members, Manfred Messerschmidt, declared that Kurt Waldheim fell into a “trap of his own making” with his earlier denials.

"Tragedies of non-Irish murder victims in the State revealed"

An unpublished story I wrote for an in-class exercise about former BCFE student Ali Bracken and the publication of her first crime book, Passport to Murder.  This is written in a style leaning towards broadsheet.

IN her new book, Ali Bracken takes an in-depth look at 22 murders of non-Irish nationals that have been brutally slain in the country.

Passport to Murder is the former Ballyfermot College student’s first foray into publishing.

Bracken, who also works as a crime correspondent for the Sunday Tribune, focuses heavily on the human stories behind the tragedies and vividly brings to life the emotional toll each death takes on their friends and family.

One case examined in the book includes that of Swiss student Manuela Riedo, whose killer had a history of sexual violence against women.

Another example is the case of Paiche Onyemaechi, a Malawian mother-of-two who was beheaded in a ritual murder. She was working as a prostitute, and her on-the-run husband is the chief suspect.

In an extract from her book published in the Sunday Tribune, Bracken tells Onyemaechi’s story.

“For three days, she was simply an unidentified female body, cruelly decapitated and discarded. Her decomposing remains were discovered in bin bags on the banks of a river in Kilkenny in 2004, shocking and scaring the community in equal measure,” writes Bracken.

“To her two young sons, she was a loving mother. To her father, the chief justice of Malawi, she was a wayward, strong-willed child. To TJ Carroll, then one of Ireland's wealthiest pimps, she was an extremely lucrative prostitute,” Bracken goes on to say.

So where did this well-regarded author of so many crime investigations learn her trade and what sort of personality is she?

One of her former lecturers, Jan Redmond, fondly remembers teaching Bracken as a first-year HND Print Journalism student in 2000.

“She was a very good student – she was always in,” says Redmond. 

“Ali looked very young and the boys where always teasing her that she looked about 14 and wouldn’t be able to buy drinks in the pub,” Redmond reminisced with a smile.

Interestingly, Bracken’s interest in crime wasn’t readily apparent during her early college days.

“She was not remotely into crime back then; she was more into mainstream news,” Redmond remembers.

Another former tutor has similar positive memories of Bracken.

Ballyfermot Media Law lecturer Jan Colwell described Bracken as a “great student” and commended her for being “very resourceful”. 

“She didn’t let go of ideas and always pushed forward in class. I could tell she had potential to be a journalist” Colwell says.

Again, Bracken’s foray into crime correspondence wasn’t readily apparent to Jan Redmond at the time.

“She didn’t show much favouritism for a particular area.  She did her MJH course and went on to do the degree [BA (Hons) Media Production Management].

“I don’t remember that she was [interested in crime reporting] so I was very surprised to see the book,” says Colwell.

When asked if she heard much about Bracken following her graduation, Colwell said that she remembered seeing a “byline in the Irish Times [very soon afterwards], so she went straight out to work.”

Another person impressed with Ali Bracken is Gill & Macmillan’s PR & Media advisor Teresa Daly.

When asked what Bracken was like to work with, Daly commented: “She was great and I can tell that she is highly respected by her colleagues in the media, many of whom know her through her reporting in the Tribune.”

Passport to Murder was released by Gill & Macmillan on 29 October 2010 and is available at a 20% discount from the website (www.gillmacmillan.ie).

Pay gap widening to Victorian levels

High pay commission forecasts top earners' slice of national income will rise from current 5% to 14% by 2030. 

Link 

The Big Society in crisis: Are the wheels coming off the PM's Big Idea?

I didn't realise that Big Society was still knocking around, but I'm looking forward to seeing the success stories.

Link:  The Big Society in crisis: Are the wheels coming off the PM's Big Idea?

Germany's labor agency warns of massive shortage of skilled workers

...and despite Germans migrating to China, a skills shortage in the state is predicted.

Link:  Germany's labor agency warns of massive shortage of skilled workers

Junge Deutsche gehen trotz Niedriglohn nach China (Young Germans moving to China despite low wages)

This is very interesting and news to me.

More and more Germans are migrating to China for better job prospects and "faster" career progression.  And this is from Germany where the economy is doing reasonably well.  Watch this space.

Link:  Junge Deutsche gehen trotz Niedriglohn nach China

Irish property falls 40% since peak

Long may it continue.

Link:  Property falls 40% since peak

British woman beheaded in Tenerife supermarket

Link:  British woman beheaded in Tenerife supermarket

Europe moves to end passport-free travel in migrant row

Passport controls in the Schengen area on the way back, perhaps.

Link:  Europe moves to end passport-free travel in migrant row

Mississippi Waters Roll into Louisiana, Bearing the Ghosts of Katrina

This doesn't look good.

Link:  Mississippi Waters Roll into Louisiana, Bearing the Ghosts of Katrina