‘Hundreds’ killed by Haiti storm

Floods in Gonaives left people stranded and in desperate need of help

Almost 500 bodies have been found in the port city of Gonaives, Haiti, after floodwaters caused by recent storms receded, according to reports.

Polie commissioner Ernst Dorfeuille said 495 bodies had been found and the toll could get higher.

A ship carrying 33 tons of UN aid arrived in Haiti on Friday to help an estimated 600,000 people struggling in the wake of tropical storm Hanna.

The storm is heading for the US, while Hurricane Ike threatens the Bahamas.

See Ike’s predicted path

The US National Hurricane Center says Ike is a Category Three hurricane, with winds of up to 185 km/h (115mph).

The smell of the dead is very unpleasant in Gonaives Commissioner Ernst Dorfeuille

It is expected to pass near or over the Turks and Caicos Islands and south-eastern Bahamas late on Saturday or early Sunday.

By then it could be a major hurricane, forecasters say.

Tropical storm Hanna is causing heavy squalls off the coasts of North and South Carolina and tropical storm warnings are in force along the Atlantic coast from Georgia to New Jersey.

In Haiti, the devastation from the storm in Gonaives has been described as catastrophic.

Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis said her newly-installed government would take the necessary measures to help victims.

Stench of death

Commissioner Dorfeuille told Reuters new agency: “The weather is calm now and we are discovering more bodies. We have found 495 bodies so far and there are 13 people missing.

“The smell of the dead is very unpleasant in Gonaives. The death toll could be even higher.”

Hanna dumped massive amounts of rain on the country over four days, blowing down fruit trees and swamping tin-roofed houses.

The port city of Gonaives bore the brunt of the storm, forcing thousands of people to seek shelter on rooftops and balconies as flood waters rose.

The UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Haiti, Joel Boutrioue, told the it was still difficult to get aid to thousands of people. Roads are cut off and access to some areas is only possible by air – which is limited by the available number of helicopters.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also launched an appeal, asking for $3.4m in aid.

Haiti was first drenched by Tropical Storm Fay, before Hurricane Gustav wreaked havoc last week, with torrential rainfall over heavily deforested and hilly terrain causing floods and mudslides.

Earlier, Hanna was also blamed for two deaths in Puerto Rico.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, there have been no reports of major damage.

However, preparations are under way for the arrival of Hurricane Ike.

“The ground is saturated and some of the dams in the south-east region are fairly close to their maximum capacity,” said meteorological official Gloria Ceballos.

Civil defense director Colonel Juan Manuel Mendez said Dominican troops had been put on alert.

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Are you in Haiti? Have you been affected by the storms? Are you based elsewhere in the region? What preparations have you made to deal with the adverse weather? Send us your comments and experiences

Hacker loses extradition appeal

Gary McKinnon could face a long prison sentence

A Briton accused of hacking into secret military computers has lost his appeal against extradition to the US.

Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon was said to be “distraught” after losing the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. He faces extradition within two weeks.

The unemployed man could face life in jail if convicted of accessing 97 US military and Nasa computers.

The 42-year-old admitted breaking into the computers from his London home but said he sought information on UFOs.

Mr McKinnon asked the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to delay his extradition pending a full appeal to the court against his extradition but his application was refused.

He claimed the extradition would breach his human rights.

‘Absolutely devastated’

His solicitor Karen Todner said this had been her client’s “last chance” and appealed to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to intervene.

Our client now faces the prospect of prosecution and imprisonment thousands of miles away from his family in a country in which he has never set foot Solicitor Karen Todner

“He is absolutely devastated by the decision,” she said. “He and his family are distraught.

“They are completely beside themselves. He is terrified by the prospect of going to America.”

She added Mr McKinnon had recently been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and would ask for the case to be tried in this country.

“The offences for which our client’s extradition is sought were committed on British soil and we maintain that any prosecution ought to be carried out by the appropriate British authorities,” she added.

“Our client now faces the prospect of prosecution and imprisonment thousands of miles away from his family in a country in which he has never set foot.”

Mr McKinnon, from Wood Green, north London, was arrested in 2002 but never charged in the UK.

He first lost his case at the High Court in 2006 before taking it to the highest court in the UK, the House of Lords.

Computer nerd

The US government claims he committed a malicious crime – the biggest military computer hack ever.

The authorities have warned that without his co-operation and a guilty plea the case could be treated as terrorism and he could face a long jail sentence.

The former systems analyst is accused of hacking into the computers with the intention of intimidating the US government.

It alleges that between February 2001 and March 2002, he hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers, as well as 16 Nasa computers.

Prosecutors say he altered and deleted files at a naval air station not long after the 11 September attacks in 2001, rendering critical systems inoperable.

However, Mr McKinnon has said his motives were harmless and innocent. He denies any attempts at sabotage.

He said he wanted to find evidence of UFOs he thought was being held by the US authorities, and to expose what he believed was a cover-up.

Spector retrial set for October

Phil Spector has worked with some of the biggest names in music

A murder retrial for music producer Phil Spector can go ahead in October despite defence attempts to stop it, an appeals court in California has ruled.

The court rejected a call for a stay of the trial so the defense could appeal on the grounds of double jeopardy.

Also dismissed was an assurance that prosecutors would not ask jurors to convict Spector of lesser offences.

Mr Spector is charged with killing actress Lana Clarkson. The jury in the first trial failed to reach a verdict.

The trial collapsed at the end of September 2007 after 12 days of deliberation.

A decision on a second trial has taken until now due to the commitments of the last member of his legal team.

Christopher Plourd has been involved in two death penalty cases.

Most of Mr Spector’s legal team resigned or were dispensed with after the mistrial was declared, with only Mr Plourd remaining in place.

The music producer, 68, denies murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his Los Angeles mansion.

The actress was found with a gunshot wound in her mouth after a night out. During the four-month trial, defense lawyers argued it was suicide.

Mr Spector, 68, was charged with second degree murder. It falls between first degree murder – which requires proof of pre-meditation – and manslaughter.

Forensic evidence

Ms Clarkson, 40, had been working as a hostess at the House of Blues venue in Los Angeles, where she met Mr Spector on the night of her death.

The actress accompanied the producer to his mansion in the early hours of the morning but was later found in his foyer.

Lana Clarkson was said to have been depressed about her career

A holster matching the snub-nosed Colt Cobra revolver that killed Ms Clarkson was found in a drawer in the foyer.

Ms Clarkson had been working at the nightclub after struggling to find acting roles, and the trial had heard how she was despondent about her career in the months before her death.

One of the crucial questions was whether the forensic evidence proved Mr Spector was close enough to the victim to have been able to shoot her in the mouth.

Mr Spector’s lawyer Linda Kenney-Baden told jurors the absence of gunshot residue and blood from his sleeves showed he had not fired the fatal shot.

The producer never took to the stand but told Esquire magazine in 2003 that Ms Clarkson had committed suicide and he had “no idea why”.

Mr Spector has worked with some of the biggest names in the music business, including The Beatles, and is famous for pioneering the “Wall of Sound” recording technique in the 1960s.