Monday, December 2, 2019

On Friday, 28-year-old Usman Khan stabbed reportedly several people at Fishmongers’ Hall in London with a large knife, then fled up London Bridge. Members of the public confronted him; one man sprayed Khan with a fire extinguisher, others struck him with their fists and took his knife, and another, a Polish chef named ?ukasz, harried him with a five-foot narwhal tusk. Khan was pinned to the ground. Police arrived and shot him dead. By reports on Saturday, two of Khan’s victims died, and three others were seriously injured.

According to police, they received the first call about the attack at Fishmongers’ Hall around 2:00 p.m. local time. Khan reportedly started attacking people there, and one of them died inside of the hall, according to The Times. Police reported the attacker exited the Hall and continued to attack others.

At the London Bridge, members of the public stopped Khan. According to videos posted on social media, people approached Khan armed with the fire extinguisher and the narwhal tusk and forced him to lie on the ground, after which a third person removed his knife. According to these videos and NPR, the police then surrounded the attacker aiming at him with their guns, moved a last bystander out of the way, and shot Khan.

The University of Cambridge had been hosting a program about criminal rehabilitation at Fishmongers’ Hall called “Learning Together”. According to a Twitter post by Amy Cook, director of the Learning Together event, the five-foot (one and two thirds meters) marine mammal tusk came from the wall in Fishmongers’ Hall. ?ukasz, who reportedly works at Fishmongers’ Hall as a chef, having thus armed himself, participated in the chase and sustained a stabbing injury to his hand before the police arrived. Broadcaster Piers Morgan commented, “The guy with the whale tusk is a Polish chef named Luckasz. Worth noting this for the next time someone says, ‘we’ve let too many Eastern Europeans into this country’.”

Police also said Khan had appeared to be wearing a suicide vest, though it was later found to be a harmless fake.

One of the men who held Khan down was James Ford, 42, a convicted murderer approaching the end of his sentence at an open prison. Another was tour manager Thomas Gray, 24, who cited only his experience with the sport of rugby: “‘one in, all in’. I did what any Londoner would do and tried to put a stop to it.”

“I am in awe of the people who ran towards danger to keep us all safe” tweeted Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (no relation). “The bravery of the emergency services and ordinary Londoners is incredible.”

Khan was convicted of terrorism years ago for his participation in a London Stock Exchange bomb plan and served eight years of a sixteen-year sentence. He was released in 2018 and has been out on license, also called parole, and living in Staffordshire.

Lucy Fischer of The Times told NPR, “[Khan] had been released a year ago on the provision that he had agreed to wear an electronic tag, submit to curfews and restrictions to his movements”.

“In the US there is a phenomenon ‘suicide by cop'”, Birmingham City University criminology professor David Wilson told the press. “[I]ncreasingly what we are seeing is some attackers wear pretend suicide vests as they prefer martyrdom than getting a sentence. I wonder if what we are seeing is another version of suicide by cop.”

Thursday, July 7, 2005

A Florida man is being charged with 3rd degree felony for logging into a private Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Internet access point without permission. Benjamin Smith III, 41, is set for a pre-trial hearing this month in the first case of its kind in the United States.

This kind of activity occurs frequently, but often goes undetected by the owners of these wireless access points (WAPs). Unauthorized users range from casual Web browsers, to users sending e-mails, to users involved in pornography or even illegal endeavours.

According to Richard Dinon, owner of the WAP Smith allegedly broke into, Smith was using a laptop in an automobile while parked outside Dinon’s residence.

There are many steps an owner of one of these access points can take to secure them from outside users. Dinon reportedly knew how to take these steps, but had not bothered because his “neighbors are older.”

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Japan, which accounts for 7% of world output, has entered a recession after posting two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The Japanese economy contracted by 0.9% between April and June and a further 0.1% since September.

Kaoru Yosano, the Japanese minister of fiscal policy, said “The downtrend in the economy will continue for the time being as global growth slows down. We need to bear in mind that economic conditions could worsen further as the US and European financial crisis deepens, worries of economic downturn heighten and stock and foreign exchange markets make big swings.”

The Nikkei 225 stock index has fallen 40% since the beginning of the year, and has lost a quarter of its value during this month. After the news was announced the index dipped, then rose to close up 0.7%.

Japanese companies lose large sums whenever the yen’s value surges. With the yen viewed as relatively stable during financial turmoil, the value against the US dollar has risen greatly.

JPMorgan Chase economist Masamichi Adachi said, “It’s only going to get worse. Japan may be entering its deepest recession in a decade as the global financial crisis cools demand.” Japan has not been in recession since 2001.