Welcome Back Jay (and an update)

Good to read that Jay is back in town...I'm looking forward to a catch-up session over quickly scarfed dinner before our volunteer meeting. Due to many hours logged travelling up and down the island (less dramatic truth - only the most southern portion), I have proven that I can eat sushi while driving - using chopsticks no less - and probably carry on a conversation at the same time because I have been singing to my mix tape while eating. All in all, Jay if you are reading this, look forward to a drive out to Royal Roads reminiscent of the old Dukes of Hazzard road trips. My apologies ahead of time...

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An update that is not as current as the 'real' news services provide but nonetheless important to include here because I have been posting bits and pieces on the London bombings.

From the BBC:
Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder, at Stockwell Tube station, south London, on Friday.

From the Globe and Mail:
As Londoners struggled to go about their business amid screaming sirens, constant rumours of new attacks and seemingly random shutdowns of stations and entire neighbourhoods, there was a new sense of fear — fear of fellow passengers since the images of the alleged bombers revealed their entirely prosaic nature, but also fear of a police operation that seems to be moving so quickly that some innocent people are almost bound to be caught in its web…

“I saw an Asian guy. He ran onto the train. He was hotly pursued by three plainclothes officers. One of them was wielding a black handgun,” said Mark Whitby, a passenger who had been sitting on the train.

“As he got onto the train I looked at his face, he looked sort of left and right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified. They couldn't have been any more than two or three feet behind him at this time, and he half-tripped and was half-pushed to the floor, and the policeman nearest to me had a black automatic pistol in his left hand. He held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him.”

The Explanation:
Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for the police killing of a Brazilian electrician mistaken for a terrorist.

“We are all desperately sorry for the death of an innocent person, and I understand entirely the feelings of the young man's family, but we also have to understand the police are doing their job in very, very difficult circumstances,” Mr. Blair said.

“Had the circumstances been different and had this turned out to be a terrorist, and they had failed to take that action, they would have been criticized the other way.”

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the visa of electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, had expired, suggesting that that may have been why he ran from police Friday before being shot. Mr. Menezes's cousin, however, said the visa was still valid.

Mr. Menezes was followed by plainclothes officers after he left an apartment bloc in Tulse Hill that was under surveillance. Wearing a padded jacket, he boarded a bus and travelled to the nearby Stockwell subway station. According to officials, his clothing and behaviour aroused the suspicions of the police who ordered him to stop.

Witnesses said Mr. Menezes then ran into a subway car, where officers shot him. It was unclear why Mr. Menezes, who spoke English, did not stop…

"Somebody else could be shot. But everything is done to make it right," he [Sir Ian Blair] said.

"This is a terrifying set of circumstances for individuals to make decisions."

If officers are dealing with someone suspected of carrying a bomb, they must be lethal, Sir Ian added. "The only way to deal with this is to shoot to the head. There is no point in shooting at someone's chest because that is where the bomb is likely to be."