Lion Air's slogan "We make you fly" came a bit too close to home this weekend when one of the Indonesian airline's pilots tested positive for crystal meth after being arrested just hours before he was due to take off. The 44-year-old pilot for Indonesia's largest domestic airline by passenger volume was arrested in a hotel on Saturday in Surabaya, Indonesia's second city, Sumirat Dwiyanto, spokesperson for the National Narcotics Agency, told Reuters.
He was due to head to fly to Makassar on Sulawesi island, Balikpapan on Borneo and back to Surabaya, Dwiyanto said.
"The pilot ... was arrested (on Saturday) at 3.30 am with 0.04 grams of crystal meth slipped in an envelope and he was later tested positive for the drug," Dwiyanto said.
He is the second pilot to test positive for Lion Air in 2012. Crystal meth is known as "shabu-shabu" in Indonesia and between 2010 and 2011 it overtook marijuana as the number one drug in the country of 240 million people, a senior narcotics agency official said.
Budget Airline Lion Air serves domestic flights and routes from Indonesian cities to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh. A spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
In November it placed a $21.7 billion order with Boeing, its biggest commercial order on record. The 230 short-haul 737 jets deal takes Lion Air's orderbook to more than 400 planes.
The government now will require pilots and cabin crew to undergo drug and alcohol tests before boarding a plane, Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told Reuters by telephone.
Indonesia is struggling to upgrade its civil air safety after a series of deadly accidents that led the European Union in 2007 to ban all Indonesian airlines from its airspace. The ban was lifted progressively starting in 2009.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Greece publishes tax dodger list to name and shame
A famous singer and a retired basketball star were on a list of 4,000 top tax dodgers released by the Greek government as part of a name-and-shame policy to get evaders to pay up. Tax evasion is endemic in Greece and its international lenders, the EU and the IMF, have insisted Athens improve tax collection if they are to continue bankrolling the debt-laden country.
The list released late Sunday includes a host of convicted tax frauds and failed businessmen, a prominent singer, the husband of a former government minister as well as a retired basketball star who was recently released from a two-year jail term for illegally owning an arms cache.
Athens has been threatening to publish the list for months and had to change privacy laws to follow through on the threat. It had been kept in a safe in parliament, where lawmakers were allowed to read it without taking notes.
Greek authorities have stepped up the prosecution of tax sinners since Lucas Papademos, a technocrat banker, was named prime minister in November with a mandate to push through budget cuts and economic reforms demanded by the country's lenders.
Police have already detained a string of businessmen for tax arrears and most of them will face trial over the coming months.
Lifting the veil of secrecy that has so far protected tax dodgers will convey a sense of justice to honest taxpayers squeezed by an unprecedented tax onslaught as part of EU/IMF-imposed austerity policies, analysts said.
"It will also protect honest people from doing business with unreliable partners," said Dimitris Mardas, an economics professor at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece's second-biggest city, which was rocked by revelations last week that a top local tax official was part of an extortion racket.
The 4,000 people featured in the list owed Greece about 15 billion euros in total, but publishing it may be largely symbolic. Much of that money cannot be recovered, Mardas said. "Many just can't pay -- some are even owed money by the government itself," he said.
Topping the list with arrears of 952 million euros is a convicted tax fraud who is already serving a 504-year prison sentence for issuing fake receipts to companies that wanted to lower their tax bill.
Greece has about 60 billion euros ($77.52 billion) in unpaid taxes, a figure equivalent to about a quarter of its economy, according to an EU report published in November.
Just 8 billion euros of that amount can be quickly recovered, the EU said, though even that is a sum big enough to cut the country's budget deficit by half.
The list released late Sunday includes a host of convicted tax frauds and failed businessmen, a prominent singer, the husband of a former government minister as well as a retired basketball star who was recently released from a two-year jail term for illegally owning an arms cache.
Athens has been threatening to publish the list for months and had to change privacy laws to follow through on the threat. It had been kept in a safe in parliament, where lawmakers were allowed to read it without taking notes.
Greek authorities have stepped up the prosecution of tax sinners since Lucas Papademos, a technocrat banker, was named prime minister in November with a mandate to push through budget cuts and economic reforms demanded by the country's lenders.
Police have already detained a string of businessmen for tax arrears and most of them will face trial over the coming months.
Lifting the veil of secrecy that has so far protected tax dodgers will convey a sense of justice to honest taxpayers squeezed by an unprecedented tax onslaught as part of EU/IMF-imposed austerity policies, analysts said.
"It will also protect honest people from doing business with unreliable partners," said Dimitris Mardas, an economics professor at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece's second-biggest city, which was rocked by revelations last week that a top local tax official was part of an extortion racket.
The 4,000 people featured in the list owed Greece about 15 billion euros in total, but publishing it may be largely symbolic. Much of that money cannot be recovered, Mardas said. "Many just can't pay -- some are even owed money by the government itself," he said.
Topping the list with arrears of 952 million euros is a convicted tax fraud who is already serving a 504-year prison sentence for issuing fake receipts to companies that wanted to lower their tax bill.
Greece has about 60 billion euros ($77.52 billion) in unpaid taxes, a figure equivalent to about a quarter of its economy, according to an EU report published in November.
Just 8 billion euros of that amount can be quickly recovered, the EU said, though even that is a sum big enough to cut the country's budget deficit by half.
London's Big Ben is leaning, parliament sinking: reports
The landmark clock tower containing Big Ben at Britain's Palace of Westminster, is tilting, while media reports Monday said the mother of all parliaments was slipping into the River Thames, raising fears over its future. The House of Commons commission, which is responsible for the upkeep of the 19th century neo-Gothic parliamentary estate popular with tourist photographs, was due to meet Monday.
Media reports said it would discuss a surveyor's report which could recommend lawmakers move out for repairs costing up to one billion pounds, while the Daily Telegraph said another proposal might be to sell to Russian or Chinese developers for about 500 million pounds ($779.7 million).
But a commission spokesman said there was no surveyor's report, and members were only meeting to discuss setting up a group to look at general long-term renovation of the grade 1-listed building designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin.
"I think there's been twos and twos added together and come up with we are selling to the Russians, but they won't be talking about anything like that," the spokesman said.
The 96-metre tall clock tower, which houses the bell originally nicknamed Big Ben, leans about 46 cm to the left of its peak.
A construction expert who worked on the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy and a multi-storey carpark under the houses of parliament in central London, said there was nothing to worry about, and it would take 10,000 years to reach an angle of concern.
Professor John Burland of Imperial College London also said work on the underground Jubilee train line in the 1990s had not caused dramatic movement, while a spokesman for the commission said the tilt could have existed since its construction in 1859.
The lean which is just visible to the naked eye had "been there for years," Burland said.
"When I first started work on the car park it was obvious that it was leaning," he told BBC radio.
"It was probably developed at a very early stage because there's no cracking in the cladding and we think it probably leant while they were building it and before they put the cladding on.
"That was a long time ago and buildings do lean a little bit."
He also dismissed concern in the media that parliament was slipping into the Thames, while the commission's spokesman denied the walls around the palace were suffering from a particularly bad subsidence problem causing Big Ben to lean.
The current building, which houses the upper and lower chambers as well as the offices of some lawmakers, was built after its medieval predecessor was largely destroyed by fire in 1834 and has required constant maintenance.
"There's no such thing as an old building that isn't cracked," he said.
"In fact they're beneficial because the building moves thermally more than is caused by the Jubilee Line and the movements concentrated around the cracks and, if they didn't, there'd be cracking elsewhere.
"So these have been there for years and they're certainly not caused by the Jubilee Line or the car park."
Media reports said it would discuss a surveyor's report which could recommend lawmakers move out for repairs costing up to one billion pounds, while the Daily Telegraph said another proposal might be to sell to Russian or Chinese developers for about 500 million pounds ($779.7 million).
But a commission spokesman said there was no surveyor's report, and members were only meeting to discuss setting up a group to look at general long-term renovation of the grade 1-listed building designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin.
"I think there's been twos and twos added together and come up with we are selling to the Russians, but they won't be talking about anything like that," the spokesman said.
The 96-metre tall clock tower, which houses the bell originally nicknamed Big Ben, leans about 46 cm to the left of its peak.
A construction expert who worked on the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy and a multi-storey carpark under the houses of parliament in central London, said there was nothing to worry about, and it would take 10,000 years to reach an angle of concern.
Professor John Burland of Imperial College London also said work on the underground Jubilee train line in the 1990s had not caused dramatic movement, while a spokesman for the commission said the tilt could have existed since its construction in 1859.
The lean which is just visible to the naked eye had "been there for years," Burland said.
"When I first started work on the car park it was obvious that it was leaning," he told BBC radio.
"It was probably developed at a very early stage because there's no cracking in the cladding and we think it probably leant while they were building it and before they put the cladding on.
"That was a long time ago and buildings do lean a little bit."
He also dismissed concern in the media that parliament was slipping into the Thames, while the commission's spokesman denied the walls around the palace were suffering from a particularly bad subsidence problem causing Big Ben to lean.
The current building, which houses the upper and lower chambers as well as the offices of some lawmakers, was built after its medieval predecessor was largely destroyed by fire in 1834 and has required constant maintenance.
"There's no such thing as an old building that isn't cracked," he said.
"In fact they're beneficial because the building moves thermally more than is caused by the Jubilee Line and the movements concentrated around the cracks and, if they didn't, there'd be cracking elsewhere.
"So these have been there for years and they're certainly not caused by the Jubilee Line or the car park."
$5 here, $37 there: Americans' indulgences add up
Those venti lattes add up.
U.S. workers spend more than $1,000 a year on coffee and another $2,000 on lunch, with men and young workers more willing to indulge in a $5 coffee than women or older colleagues, according to a survey of Americans' workplace spending habits.
The survey, by Accounting Principals, a unit of staffing services company Adecco SA, found that U.S. workers, on average, spend $37 per week for lunch, but men spend more: $47 a week, versus $27 for women. Men also pay more for coffee -- $26 a week is typical -- and are more likely to complain about the selection of office vending machines.
One of the sharpest differences is between young workers and older ones. Professionals between 18 and 34 spend almost $25 a week on coffee, $11 more than co-workers over age 45, Accounting Principals said. Such free-spending ways may be changing. Nearly half of the young vow to save this year by bringing lunch to the office.
Americans' total annual bill for coffee and lunch is double the $1,500 a year spent on commuting to work, said the poll, which surveyed 1,000 currently employed Americans and was conducted last month.
Office workers are not clamoring for change, however. Asked whether their bosses should upgrade the lunch room or buy better coffee, workers said comfortable chairs and better computer equipment are bigger priorities.
U.S. workers spend more than $1,000 a year on coffee and another $2,000 on lunch, with men and young workers more willing to indulge in a $5 coffee than women or older colleagues, according to a survey of Americans' workplace spending habits.
The survey, by Accounting Principals, a unit of staffing services company Adecco SA, found that U.S. workers, on average, spend $37 per week for lunch, but men spend more: $47 a week, versus $27 for women. Men also pay more for coffee -- $26 a week is typical -- and are more likely to complain about the selection of office vending machines.
One of the sharpest differences is between young workers and older ones. Professionals between 18 and 34 spend almost $25 a week on coffee, $11 more than co-workers over age 45, Accounting Principals said. Such free-spending ways may be changing. Nearly half of the young vow to save this year by bringing lunch to the office.
Americans' total annual bill for coffee and lunch is double the $1,500 a year spent on commuting to work, said the poll, which surveyed 1,000 currently employed Americans and was conducted last month.
Office workers are not clamoring for change, however. Asked whether their bosses should upgrade the lunch room or buy better coffee, workers said comfortable chairs and better computer equipment are bigger priorities.
Four-year-old U.S. boy pulls out marijuana at school
A four-year-old U.S. boy who announced to his teacher at school snack time that he wanted to share pulled nine bags of marijuana out of his jacket pocket, police said on Wednesday. Police in Meriden, Connecticut were called to Hanover Elementary School Tuesday afternoon after the young special needs student displayed the drugs, authorities said.
Meriden police said the nine individually wrapped bags of marijuana appeared prepared for sale.
Hanover Elementary School principal Miguel Cardona called it an "extremely unfortunate" and "isolated" incident that was not witnessed by any other students.
"What's so disheartening is this is really an adult issue and problem and adult behavior put a student at risk," Meriden schools superintendent Mark Benigni told Reuters.
"This student had no idea what he brought to school or what the substance was," he added.
Authorities are not releasing the names of the student or parents and police said there is a possibility for arrests pending the outcome of the investigation.
The Department of Children and Families is also looking into the incident.
Meriden police said the nine individually wrapped bags of marijuana appeared prepared for sale.
Hanover Elementary School principal Miguel Cardona called it an "extremely unfortunate" and "isolated" incident that was not witnessed by any other students.
"What's so disheartening is this is really an adult issue and problem and adult behavior put a student at risk," Meriden schools superintendent Mark Benigni told Reuters.
"This student had no idea what he brought to school or what the substance was," he added.
Authorities are not releasing the names of the student or parents and police said there is a possibility for arrests pending the outcome of the investigation.
The Department of Children and Families is also looking into the incident.
Revealed: Famous names who snubbed UK queen's honors
Receiving an honor from Britain's Queen Elizabeth marks the pinnacle of many careers. But for more than 250 people named in a once-secret official document, the idea was so unappealing that they turned down the monarch's offer. Artist Lucian Freud, sculptor Henry Moore and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" author Roald Dahl all rejected honors, according to papers released by the British government on Thursday.
"Psycho" film director Alfred Hitchcock also refused an award in 1962, only to accept a knighthood shortly before his death in 1980.
Other public figures named on the official list include painters Francis Bacon and L.S. Lowry and the "Brave New World" novelist Aldous Huxley.
The British government was forced to publish the document after repeated requests under freedom of information laws.
Previously, rejected honors only came to light through unofficial leaks or if the person involved chose to spoke about their decision to snub the twice-yearly "gongs."
Several well-known writers appeared on the list, which only includes people who are no longer alive.
Poet Philip Larkin refused the chance in 1968 to become an OBE, or Officer of the Order of the British Empire, one of the five classes of the chivalric order set up by King George V in 1917 to recognize service in the arts, science, charities and public bodies. Larkin later accepted a higher ranking CBE, or Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Eveyln Waugh, who wrote "Brideshead Revisited" and "Scoop," rejected an offer in 1959 to become a CBE.
Graham Greene, author of "Our Man in Havana" and "The Quiet American," turned down the same honor three years earlier, only to accept honors later in life. "The Chronicles of Narnia" creator C.S. Lewis also said no to a CBE.
The government gave no details of why people rejected their honors.
In the past, "refuseniks" have cited a range of reasons, from antipathy to the monarchy and Britain's colonial past, to a general lack of interest in prizes or a fear of perpetuating snobbery.
The late J.G. Ballard, whose books include "Crash" and "Empire of the Sun," said he turned down an honor for services to literature in 2003.
"The whole thing is a preposterous charade," he was once quoted as saying in the Sunday Times newspaper. "Thousands of medals are given out in the name of a non-existent empire. It makes us look like a laughing stock."
"Psycho" film director Alfred Hitchcock also refused an award in 1962, only to accept a knighthood shortly before his death in 1980.
Other public figures named on the official list include painters Francis Bacon and L.S. Lowry and the "Brave New World" novelist Aldous Huxley.
The British government was forced to publish the document after repeated requests under freedom of information laws.
Previously, rejected honors only came to light through unofficial leaks or if the person involved chose to spoke about their decision to snub the twice-yearly "gongs."
Several well-known writers appeared on the list, which only includes people who are no longer alive.
Poet Philip Larkin refused the chance in 1968 to become an OBE, or Officer of the Order of the British Empire, one of the five classes of the chivalric order set up by King George V in 1917 to recognize service in the arts, science, charities and public bodies. Larkin later accepted a higher ranking CBE, or Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Eveyln Waugh, who wrote "Brideshead Revisited" and "Scoop," rejected an offer in 1959 to become a CBE.
Graham Greene, author of "Our Man in Havana" and "The Quiet American," turned down the same honor three years earlier, only to accept honors later in life. "The Chronicles of Narnia" creator C.S. Lewis also said no to a CBE.
The government gave no details of why people rejected their honors.
In the past, "refuseniks" have cited a range of reasons, from antipathy to the monarchy and Britain's colonial past, to a general lack of interest in prizes or a fear of perpetuating snobbery.
The late J.G. Ballard, whose books include "Crash" and "Empire of the Sun," said he turned down an honor for services to literature in 2003.
"The whole thing is a preposterous charade," he was once quoted as saying in the Sunday Times newspaper. "Thousands of medals are given out in the name of a non-existent empire. It makes us look like a laughing stock."
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