Rabbit Thought of the Day

Afternoon on Monday and I have just been speaking with the security department and my security pass for the office has definitely been cancelled and my identity has been wiped from the system. Unfortunately it doesn’t mean I can go home (worse luck) it just means that I have to sign in at reception every day. Which is a bit of a bugger but I suppose it can’t be helped.

The Cabinet Office official who left top-secret documents on a train in June is to be charged under the Official Secrets Act, the BBC has learned. The man was on secondment from the Ministry of Defence when he left two highly classified documents on a train from Waterloo, London.  

The documents were passed to the BBC before being handed over to the police. The employee is being charged under clause 8.1 of the act, which deals with safeguarding information. It is the least sensitive charge under the act and there is no suggestion of criminal intent.

BBC defence correspondent Frank Gardner said the move would have come as a surprise to many in Whitehall. "They will have thought this was being dealt with internally at the MoD and Cabinet Office," he said.

The Crown Prosecution Service recommended the official should be charged by the Metropolitan Police due to the highly sensitive nature of his work on the Joint Intelligence Committee. The documents the individual, who cannot be named, misplaced contained classified assessments about al-Qaeda and the capabilities of Iraq's security forces.

He was informed of the decision on Monday morning and was moved from his home to an undisclosed location.

It’s about time that something was done about these security cock ups by so called Government, hopefully people will learn from this episode and it won’t happen again, however, I doubt that will happen, some idiot will always lose sensitive data when he or she (but more than likely he) takes it out the office.

After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H&J Leather & Firearms, intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter.  

Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced 'hold-up' and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol.  The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire and several customers also drew their guns and fired.  The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. Crime Scene Investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop.  

The autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds.  Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt.  

A prolific burglar who studied crime shows on television to learn police forensic techniques has been jailed for 12 years.

Glyn Brookes, 34, targeted homes with security lights and burglar alarms in the well-to-do suburbs of Nottingham because he saw them as "puzzles to be solved".

Brookes, who was described as a "one-man crimewave", was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court after admitting 398 burglaries across the city.

He obviously didn’t study hard enough because he got caught, thankfully. But how realistic are these shows, I must admit I do watch and enjoy them. But do criminal gleam any useful information from them.

A 71-year-old grandfather treated in a US hospital was informed that he was suffering abdominal pains because he was pregnant. John Grady Pippen was given a bulletin, saying: "Based on your visit today, we know you are pregnant."

The staff at Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach, Oregon, gave the retired mechanic and logger the happy news this month, along with some pain pills. Hospital administrator William McMillan said an errant keystroke caused the hospital's computer to spit out the wrong discharge instructions for the grandfather

 LONDON (Reuters) - Fire crews were tackling a blaze at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in central London on Monday, emergency services said.

About 35 fire fighters and six engines were called to the hospital at 8:35 a.m., a London Fire Brigade spokeswoman said. There were no further details.

Aerial television pictures showed dozens of people who had been evacuated from the building, although there were no signs of smoke or flames.

A Sky News reporter at the scene said some hospital workers heard an explosion before the alarm was raised.

At least one road outside the hospital was closed and police and ambulances were on standby, he added. No one from the hospital could be reached for comment.

Great Ormond Street was opened in 1852 with the help of patrons including Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria. With about 400 beds, it is famous around the world for its specialist care and research.

Lets hope every thing is ok and no serious or injuries have occurred

It’s another beautiful out there again, but the weather forecasters don’t think it will last and they have predicated rain for tomorrow, which is great because I am out of the office in Watford. Why can’t it stay sunny for just one day, well two more days because I am in London on Wednesday?

I have just been to the post office to send off my security forms to my new employer I did email them but they need the original and scanned copies are not allowed so it was a quick trip to the post and send them special delivery, so they should have them tomorrow morning.  

A senior Army officer has said he was "humbled" by the bravery of the 21st Century British soldier. As members of the 3rd Battalion returned from a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Huw Williams, commander of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, said modern paratroopers were a match for any British soldiers who had gone before them.

He said teenage boys volunteer for service knowing they would be fighting in foreign fields and facing death.

"They are a match for anybody who has gone before them in this regiment," said Lt Col Williams. "The Parachute Regiment has a 60-year history and the soldiers we have got today are as good as any generation. They are as good as the soldiers who fought at Arnhem or in the Falklands."

He added: "They are not angels. These men are an element of society that does a very dangerous job and it is humbling to be with them and in command of them.

"I have never once had to worry about them being scared. I know they are scared sometimes but that never prevents them going forward.

"These are young men of 18 and 19 going into situations where bullets are flying at them but they do not hesitate.

"They go into situations where other people would not go and they do that because they are disciplined and proud of their regiment."

Members of the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, were welcomed back to their base in Colchester, Essex, after the tour of duty. Some 120 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the American government launched a war on terror following the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001.

Europe's biggest, most sophisticated spaceship is about to bring its six-month mission to an end by plunging into the Pacific in a ball of flames. The "Jules Verne" freighter undocked from the space station three weeks ago packed with rubbish and will take its unwanted cargo into a destructive dive.

Most of vehicle is expected to burn up in the atmosphere; only fragments will make it down to the ocean water. Two engine firings should bring the ship out of the sky on Monday. Events will be overseen from the European Space Agency's (Esa) freighter control centre in Toulouse, France. Mike Steinkopf, the mission director for re-entry, says a "safety zone" has been drawn in the south Pacific some 2,700km long by 200km wide.

"We issue a notification to the air traffic and maritime authorities to make sure there are no planes or boats going through that zone during our re-entry time," he told BBC News.

Astronauts on the overflying International Space Station (ISS) and scientists in two chase planes will take pictures as the disintegrating mass of metal streaks through the morning Pacific darkness. "Visually, we will see what appears to be a very bright meteor," explained Jason Hatton from the chase team set by Esa and the US space agency (Nasa). "It will start as a point of light with a trail, and then as it comes apart, we will see fragments."

Good morning fellow bloggers and welcome to Monday the beginning of a brand new working work. I wonder what is in store for us this week; well I already know what Tuesday and Wednesday will bring. Tuesday I have to go to the Building Research Establishment (BRE in Watford) and Wednesday I will have to attend a meeting in central London.

It was great fun this morning trying to get into the office, the company as cancelled my security pass already I don’t finish here until the 17 October, I did wonder if I should go home and say I couldn’t get into the building but I just got a visitors pass and the guy on the desk will revalidate. I did wonder while climbing the stairs if they had cancelled my email and computer access as well but they are still active at least for now.