Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Coretta Scott King, wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. has died at the age of 78. Coretta King, tireless crusader for civil rights, died in her sleep.

Mrs. King, who had been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, died late on Monday in Mexico, where she had been seeking treatment, a spokeswoman for the family told Reuters.

“Mrs. King was in Mexico for observation and consideration of treatment for ovarian cancer,” the spokeswoman said. “She was considered terminal by physicians in the United States. She and the family wanted to explore other options.” King died at Hospital Santa Monica, a holistic health center in Mexico.

News of her death led to tributes across Atlanta, including a moment of silence in the Georgia Capitol and piles of flowers at the tomb of her slain husband. Flags at the King Center – the institute devoted to the civil rights leader’s legacy – were lowered to half-staff.

Dubbed the “first lady of the civil rights movement,” Mrs King suffered a debilitating stroke and heart attack in August. She was last seen on January 14 at a dinner marking the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, where she received a standing ovation.

As she recalled in her autobiography My Life With Martin Luther King Jr., Mrs. King felt she had to step fully into the civil rights movement after her husband’s assassination.

After graduating from Antioch College in Ohio in 1951, she enrolled in the graduate program at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. It was there she met her future husband, a young preacher and doctoral student at Boston University. They were married in 1953.

Mrs. King had an influence on the civil rights movement for over half a century. She pushed and goaded politicians to have her husband’s birthday observed as a national holiday. Following her husband’s assassination in 1968, she fought to bring national recognition to King Jr. For over a decade, she lobbied to make King’s birthday a federal holiday, and in 1983 the bill was signed into law. Three years later, the USA observed the first King holiday.

She created a memorial and a forum in the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. The center has archives containing more than 2,000 King speeches.

Coretta Scott was born April 27, 1927, near Marion, Alabama. “It was awful,” she said of living in Marion. “Every Saturday we would hear about some black man getting beat up and nothing was done about it.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who in 1968 broke the news of King’s death to Coretta, described her as a “freedom fighter”. “She walked with her husband during the ordeal of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Their home was bombed, she endured the hate and violent anger toward their family. And she had to endure the constant knowledge that each time he left their home, he might never return,” said Jackson. “She was the part of him that made him complete.”

In 1969 she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and used it to confront hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism. “The centre enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society,” she often said.

She also accused movie and TV companies, video arcades, gun manufacturers and toy makers of promoting violence. Coretta King has became a symbol in her own right of her husband’s struggle for peace and brotherhood.

In his State of the Union Address, US President George W Bush remembered Mrs King, saying her “lasting contributions to freedom and equality have made America a better and more compassionate nation.”

Mrs. King is survived by her four children, Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice. The family issued a statement thanking the public for an outpouring of support.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Kentucky State Police said yesterday that the September 12 death of census worker Bill Sparkman was suicide. His body was found naked in a Clay County, Kentucky cemetery, with “Fed” written on his chest and his census identification taped to his neck. This prompted widespread speculation that anti-government sentiment was responsible. However, police now believe that Sparkman deliberately killed himself, and tried to make it look like murder so his son could receive an insurance payout. Trooper Don Trosper, a Kentucky State Police spokesman, said, “[w]e believe this was an intentional act. We believe the aim was to take his own life.”

This conclusion is based on the police’s analysis of several elements of the crime scene; Sparkman was not hanged in the typical manner; his knees were less than six inches off the ground, and he could have avoided death simply by standing up before he suffocated. Captain Lisa Rudzinski, a leader of the investigation stated, “We do not believe he was placed in that position.” The letters of the word “Fed” were written bottom first, which is unlikely if they had been written by an attacker. The rag found in his mouth contained only Sparkman’s DNA. Police also believed he left glasses taped to his head so he could see while preparing.

Police suspect Sparkman’s motives included debt, failure to find a full-time job, and a desire to provide for his son through his life insurance.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The sole United States manufacturer of a key component of lethal injections announced Friday that it will cease production of the drug, contributing to shortages and delaying executions.

Sodium thiopental, the first of a three drug cocktail used in 34 states to render the prisoner to be executed unconscious, was manufactured in Italy until Italian authorities stated that they would only license the manufacture if it was used for medical purposes and not, crucially, for executions.

In a statement, the company, Hospira, said that they have never condoned the use of their drug, marketed as ‘Pentothal’, in executions, and that they could not “prevent the drug from being diverted to departments of corrections for use in capital punishment procedures”.

The move means that the United States is without a viable supplier for sodium thiopental. Although many European countries manufacture the drug, which is primarily used in Europe as an anæsthetic, no manufacturer has been found that is willing to supply it for use in conjunction with the death penalty, the abolition of which has been lobbied by the EU since 2008.

The shortage means that executions in California and Oklahoma have been delayed, with Texas’ last remaining stocks of the drug due to expire in March, weeks before two scheduled executions. These delays are likely to be prolonged as the legal process of drawing up new drugs to be used for injections is lengthy. Pentobarbital, an alternative which used at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, is used for lethal injections in Oregon, and has started to be used by Oklahoma.

Hospira’s decision caused mixed reactions throughout the medical community, with the American Society of Anesthesiologists stating Monday that sodium thiopental is an “important and medically necessary anesthetic agent” that is a “first-line anesthetic in many cases”, citing geriatric and cardiovascular conditions, among others. It said that, although they disagree with the death penalty, “we also do not condone using the issue as the basis to place undue burdens on the distribution of this critical drug to the United States. It is an unfortunate irony that many more lives will be lost or put in jeopardy as a result of not having the drug available for its legitimate medical use.”

[edit]

Saturday, October 6, 2007

More than 50 people have been killed after a plane crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, causing president Joseph Kabila to fire his transport minister.

The Russian-built Antonov An-26 twin-turboprop cargo plane went down into a market in the African nation’s capital, Kinshasa, killing 51 and injuring at least 25, mostly on the ground. Of the plane’s crew, only the Congolese flight engineer survived the accident.

The Congolese air safety record is one of the worst in the world, and this is the latest and deadliest in a string of recent aviation accidents and incidents. According to presidential spokesman Kudura Kasongo, the reason behind the sacking of transport minister Remy Henri Kuseyo Gatanga is “for being incapable of organising the aviation sector”.

Transport Minister Rémy Kuseyo had previously said the aircraft should never have taken off due to a ban imposed three weeks ago on the use of Antonov aircraft in the country due to safety concerns. He feels his dismissal is unjust, saying “Measures had been taken… “I had taken measures, but I am not the one who was to have put the measures in place on the ground.”

Saleh Kinyongo of the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry revised previous information that the entire flight crew had been killed, saying to reporters “We now know there is a survivor in hospital. He’s the mechanic (of the plane)… He’s alive and well. He’s talking and he’s even been on TV.” His name was given as Dede Ngama and he is receiving treatment at the Roi Baudouin hospital in Kinshasa. Previously, Russia’s foreign ministry had reported that all three of the flight crew were Russian nationals and were killed in the crash. This has, however, been confirmed as accurate for the pilot and co-pilot.

It is known that shortly after takeoff, the plane experienced technical difficulties and initiated fuel dumping, then contacted air traffic control to request an emergency landing. Aircraft often dump fuel prior to emergency landings shortly after takeoff, as the aircraft are too heavy to land safely with full fuel loads. However, after about ten minutes, the plane suddenly plunged down into a market and houses in a residential area. The Russian Foreign ministry reported that upon takeoff the plane lost a propeller, and that a wing sheared off when the plane impacted a bank of trees.

An emergency meeting of Congo’s cabinet was held yesterday to investigate how existing air safety regulations could be improved, including possibilities of better inspections and tougher penalties for non-conformers.

The crash site has proved difficult to secure from onlookers and petty criminals. Local police have already arrested several people attempting to steal scrap metal, engine parts and any other valuables from the fire-scorched wreckage.

The crash has provoked national outrage, with local newspapers using headlines such as “Another flying coffin kills again,” and “Congo’s killer skies,”. The government had promised to improve poor safety standards.

The plane belonged to Africa One, but had been leased to Manilla Airlift. The aircraft had undergone a safety inspection prior to it’s departure from nearby Ndjili international airport.

The International Air Transport Association has described Congo’s aviation safety record as ‘an embarrassment’, while all Congolese airlines except Hewa Bora Airways are on the List of air carriers banned in the EU.

[edit]