General News
Home Office: 4,000 more unsolved rape & serious sex offence cases are to be reviewed as part of a £1m cold case project – Operation Advance. The project uses advances in DNA technology to re-analyse evidence from undetected cases committed up to 24 years ago and to compare the DNA profiles obtained against the National DNA Database (NDNAD) for possible matches.
Advance III will work with the Forensic Science Service (FSS) over the next six months to review around cases which date from 1991-1996. To date, the project has reviewed over 11,000 cases leading to the scientific re-analysis of 423 cases and 116 matches against the National DNA Database.
These have resulted in 30 convictions that together total sentences of over 150 years of imprisonment - in addition to four life sentences. A further seven cases are awaiting trial. Almost all of the offenders convicted so far have proved to be persistent & prolific violent criminals with offending histories that stretch from the present day, back over many years.
Press release ~ Operation Advance programme ~ Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) ~ Forensic Science Service DNA website ~ National DNA Database (NDNAD)
DH: NHS patients throughout England are being invited to take part in a multi-million pound medical project supported by the Department of Health, which will help find out much more about curing many life threatening and debilitating diseases.
UK Biobank is one of the biggest and most detailed public health research initiatives of our time, which will provide a valuable resource for research into a wide range of diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, mental illness, Parkinson's disease, joint & dental disease and many other life threatening and debilitating conditions.
UK Biobank is recruiting 500,000 people aged 40-69. With their permission, it will track their health over the course of the next 30 years or more. Recruitment is by invitation and the opportunity to take part will be available to people of different areas of the country as assessment centres are rolled out over the next few years across England, Wales and Scotland.
MoD: The impressive new Armed Forces Memorial (AFM) will be dedicated on 12 October 2007. The names of almost 16,000 service men and women (regular & reserve) who have been killed on duty since the end of WWII are engraved on the vast Portland Stone walls.
3,000 tickets are now available for the families, friends and colleagues of those named to attend the ceremony, which will be attended by VIPs including senior members of the Royal Family. Tickets are available by downloading an application form or by ringing the ticket hotline 08457 725725.
The dedication is a ticket-only event and to enable as many of those named to be represented as possible, tickets will be allocated proportionally across the six decades with a maximum of two tickets per family.
The AFM will not be open to the public until 0900 on 29 October 2007.
Press release ~ Armed Forces Memorial Appeal ~ Commonwealth War Graves Commission ~ Royal British Legion ~ The National Memorial Arboretum
ScotGov: Ministers yesterday granted consent for a windfarm at Harestanes, capable of generating power for around 120,000 homes, but at the same time they refused consent for windfarm applications at Clashindarroch near Huntly (129 MW) and Calliacher near Aberfeldy (62 MW).
Clashindarroch would have potentially harmful impacts on Deveron Valley landscape.
Press release ~ ScotGov energy consents ~ ScotGov – Renewable energy ~ Scottish Renewables ~ Sustainable Development Commission UK (SDC) Scotland
BGS: The British Geological Survey recorded an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 Mw at 11:10 GMT on the 12th of September 2007. The earthquake was located near the coast of Southern Sumatra, Indonesia and a tsunami warning was issued for the region as an earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a tsunami that can strike coastlines throughout the area.
Reports from the area suggest that buildings were damaged and there has been a loss of power throughout the region, which is located approximately 1,000 km SE of the magnitude 9.2 Mw earthquake that occurred on 26 December 2004 and generated a tsunami, which killed in the region of 300,000 people.
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