http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jY_D37owGdGzacsiLjTxllExwNiA
The body of a British yachtsman allegedly murdered by three pirates has been found, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said.
Three Burmese migrants have been accused of slitting the throat of 64-year-old Malcolm Robertson and throwing his body overboard when they raided his yacht as he sailed with wife Linda off the Andaman sea coast off Thailand last week.
A spokeswoman for the FCO confirmed a body found on Monday has been confirmed as that of businessman Mr Robertson, from Hastings, East Sussex.
Reports in Thailand said his body was recovered by fishermen about 10 nautical miles north of Satun's Lipeh Island.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "A body recovered by the Thai authorities on Monday has been identified as Mr Robertson. Our thoughts are with Mrs Robertson and her family at this difficult time. The embassy team with them is providing consular support."
The discovery ends a week of anxiety for Mr Robertson's family, who had to endure several false reports of his body being found.
Three migrant workers from neighbouring Burma who were arrested on a raft about half a mile from the couple's 44ft yacht were charged with kidnap, assault and theft.
But Thai authorities said they could not bring a murder charge until they found Mr Robertson's body.
He owned a chain of coffee shops in and around his home town of Hastings and St Leonards but passed the running of the business to his children in recent years and was semi-retired.
He was fulfilling a lifelong dream by spending the winter months sailing around warmer climes in his yacht, named Mr Bean, with his wife. They were both qualified yacht masters who had sailed round the world.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Fishermen find killed Briton's body
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
US and British diplomats frequent visitors to Myanmar opposition
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/258830,us-and-british-diplomats-frequent-visitors-to-myanmar-opposition.html
Posted : Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:23:52 GMT
Author : DPA
Yangon - Myanmar's state-run media on Saturday accused the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) of taking instructions from the United States and Britain, noting that the countries' embassy officials had visited the party's Yangon headquarters 21 times last month. "During their visits, they met with central executive committee members of the party and gave large and small envelops and parcels to the latter," said The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece of Myanmar's military-run government.
Washington and London have made no secret of their support for the NLD, which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked by the military junta from taking power for the past 19 years.
The two governments have also been among the most outspoken in calling for the release of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May 2003 and has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.
Western diplomats based in Yangon, Myanmar's former capital and largest city, have difficulty obtaining permission to visit Myanmar government officials, most of whom are now based in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital, 350 kilometres north of Yangon.
To date, no embassies have moved to Naypyitaw.
Access to NLD headquarters, is considerably easier.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi is kept under house arrest in Yangon in her family compound a few kilometres from from the US embassy.
She has been detained in near-complete isolation for nearly six years with occasional visits from her private doctor.
On Thursday, Suu Kyi was allowed a visit by her regular doctor, Tin Myo Win, and an eye specialist, who declared her in good health, officials said.
Tin Myo Win was last permitted to visit Suu Kyi on January 1.
Copyright, respective author or news agency
Friday, October 3, 2008
Mizzima News - Llyod's writes to all agents to 'reconsider' business deals with Burma
by Solomon
Thursday, 02 October 2008 20:48
New Delhi - UK's leading insurance marketplace, Lloyd's of London, said it has written to all its managing agents to reconsider their business involvement with Burma's military junta.
Louise Shield, Head of Communications of Lloyd's, told Mizzima that the marketplace' s chairman has received a letter from the British Government's Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) stating its disapproval over the market's involvement with Burma.
"We have been asking the government for guidance on doing business in Burma, and now we have received a letter. And we are writing to all our managing agents," Shield said.
But Shield said, the market's businesses in Burma are not significant and pulling out of the country will not have much impact on the market.
"We have very small amount of insurance business [in Burma]," said Shield. "Probably there is no significant effect in our business."
The response of Lloyd's of London, a leading marketplace in England dealing in reinsurance business, came after campaigners urged several insurance companies across the world to stop dealing with the Burmese military junta, as the regime is profiting from them.
Burma Campaign UK, a group advocating for human rights and democracy in Burma, has named 16 insurance companies including Lloyd's of London, Hannover Re, Catlin, Atrium, XL, Tokio Marine, Sompo Japan and Mitsui Sumitomo as groups having business dealings with the junta.
BCUK, in its report 'Insuring the generals' released in July said, these companies and insurers are providing billions of dollars to the Burmese military regime that is infamously known for repressing its citizens.
Johnny Chatterton, Campaigns Officer of BCUK said, "We welcome the impact of the government's letter, they [Lloyd's of London] now have to write to the entire marketplace. "
Chatterton said, while a few other leading insurance companies of the world have pulled out of Burma, Lloyd's has turned a deaf ear to the call made by him and his colleagues to cut all business ties with Burma's military regime.
In August, two of the world's leading insurance companies Chubb and XL capitals announced a stop to all business deals with Burma's military government in response to the BUCK's campaign.
"The British government clearly wants them to pull out, we want them to pull out," said Chatterton adding that the Burmese regime could lose tens of millions of Dollars if the Lloyd's stop insuring oil and natural gas in the Southeast Asian nation.
BCUK, however, said Lloyd's refusal to reveal the contents of the FCO's letter indicates that it wants to hide its involvement in Burma.
While admitting that Lloyd's has received a letter from the FCO, Shield said they cannot reveal the contents as it is "Private".
BCUK warned that avoiding to act in accordance with the letter would be breaking the government's guidelines and damaging their own reputation.
"If they don't end their involvement in Burma soon they will be branded by Burma in the same way that Barclays was in Apartheid South Africa and Exxon with climate change," Chatterton said in a press statement released on Monday.
"We warmly welcome the government's firm stand against Lloyd's, they should continue their leading role by pushing for targeted EU sanctions banning the provision of insurance services to Burma," Chatterton added.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Top Barclays exec murdered while helping homeless man
LONDON (AFP) - A top Barclays executive was beaten to death by a group of youths in Norwich as he tried to stop them attacking a homeless man, Norfolk police said on Tuesday.
Frank McGarahan, 45, was standing at a taxi rank in central Norwich in the early hours of Sunday morning when the incident occurred.
Detective superintendent Chris Hobley who is leading the murder inquiry, said McGarahan had seen a group of four youths assaulting a homeless Lithuanian man who was walking a dog with his girlfriend.
There was an "exchange of words" and moments later, the youths attacked McGarahan who was knocked unconscious, Hobley said.
His brother and a cousin, who were with him at the time, also got dragged into the brawl.
McGarahan was rushed to Norwich University Hospital with a head injury, then transferred to Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge, but he never regained consciousness and died later in the day.
The father-of-two who came from Much Hadham near Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire, had spent a "quiet night" enjoying a meal with his family, police said.
McGarahan's cousin was also injured in the brawl, and a bouncer from a local nightclub who came to their aid also suffered a fractured jaw. The homeless man also received medical attention but his injuries were not said to be serious.
Hobley said the family were "very distressed" at the brutal murder of McGarahan, who was chief operating officer at Barclays Wealth which employs 7,700 staff in 20 countries.
Speaking to reporters outside the family home in Much Hadham, Tony McGarahan, one of the banker's brothers, said it was a "mindless malicious murder" and that the family would "never truly recover" from their loss.
"This tragedy, a vicious wicked murder, ruins the life and lives of so many people who must eventually pick up the pieces and carry on. And we will try to do that but without Frank in our family and in our lives," he said.
"We will never understand how or why anyone could murder such a decent, caring and loving man," he said.
"Frank has paid the ultimate price of life for being a good citizen."
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