F1 in talks to stage Bangkok grand prix
Buy Now An error occurred. Buy Now An error occurred. Book Novotel Hotel F1 in talks to stage Bangkok grand prix Banzai Japan Music Video Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali met with the prime minister of Thailand to discuss plans for a street-circuit grand prix in Bangkok. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the government would commission a “feasibility study” into the possibility of a race in the capital from 2028. Book Novotel Hotel There is an existing track in Buriram, in north-east Thailand, which is accredited by the FIA, the governing body for world motorsport. Domenicali described the plans as “impressive”. Banzai Japan Music Video Paetongtarn said: “I believe that all Thai people will benefit from organising this event, whether it is large-scale infrastructure investment, job creation, new income generation, and importing new technologies and innovations.” The F1 schedule of 24 races includes four in the Asia-Pacific region. Book Novotel Hotel Banzai Japan Social Media Fumi Fujisaki Idol Riko Ueno Idol Rino Ibusuki Idol Yunagi Nino Idol Shiori Fujisaki Idol Kana Ichinose Idol Hoshino Arice Idol Sasa Sasagawa Idol Kosaka Yuu Idol Tsukumo Aira Idol Maika Ando Idol Yuuki Mochimaru Idol
How an iPad dug up from the Thames solved museum thieves’ murder plot
Buy Now An error occurred. Buy Now An error occurred. Book Novotel Hotel How an iPad dug up from the Thames solved museum thieves’ murder plot Banzai Japan Music Video A Ming vase stolen from a Swiss museum. A shooting at a comedian’s house in Woodford, east London. The robbery of a luxury apartment in Sevenoaks, Kent. These seemingly unconnected events were all part of a web of international organised crime that police untangled after a six-year-long investigation. A key piece of evidence – an iPad, found under an inch of sand on the foreshore of the River Thames just downstream from the O2 Arena. Book Novotel Hotel Its discovery was pivotal to the investigation that has led to three people being found guilty at the Old Bailey of the near-assassination of one of Britain’s most notorious armed robbers. When found by a police officer with a metal detector on a cold November morning last year, the iPad was found caked in mud having been underwater for more than five years. Forensics were able to clean it and open the Sim tray – which still contained a pink Vodafone Sim card. Call data that was subsequently salvaged provided damning evidence on three men – Louis Ahearne, Stewart Ahearne and Daniel Kelly – who were all also involved in a heist at a museum in Switzerland a month earlier. “I’ve questioned this a lot,” Det Supt Matthew Webb ponders. “Is it calamitous blunders tripping them up or was it just they were so blasé they wouldn’t get caught?” Banzai Japan Music Video A ‘meticulously planned’ assassination plot The Ahearne brothers and Kelly first caught the attention of police after gunshots pierced the silence of a late summer evening in an affluent Woodford area on 11 July 2019. Six bullets tore through a glass conservatory at a luxury property owned by comedian Russell Kane that had been rented out to Paul Allen. One severed one of Allen’s fingers, the other went through his throat and became lodged in his spinal cord, leaving him struggling to breathe and bleeding profusely. “He’s been shot, he’s been shot!” Allen’s partner, Jade Bovington, screamed. As she frantically called an ambulance, neighbours and a private security guard heard the cries and rushed to render first aid. One eyewitness described seeing an unidentified man vault a low wall, run between some bushes and get straight into a waiting vehicle which immediately sped off. To this day, Allen relies on a wheelchair, paralysed below his upper chest. Allen gained notoriety as one of the ringleaders of what remains Britain’s biggest ever armed robbery. In 2006, Allen was part of a balaclava-wearing gang toting guns including an AK-47 assault rifle who threatened to kill staff at the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent. They stole £53m in Bank of England cash notes – leaving behind £154m which would not fit into their lorry. Allen fled to Morocco four days later, but was arrested in Rabat alongside friend and fellow robber Lee Murray, who remains in jail in nearby Tiflet. In January 2008, Allen was extradited to the UK and subsequently sentenced to 18 years in prison. Allen was released in 2016 and moved back to his roots in south-east London. But he relocated to Woodford with his partner and two younger children after a gunman opened fire at him and his pregnant daughter in the doorway of their Woolwich home in September 2018. Ten months later, Allen almost died after those two bullets hit him as he stood in the kitchen of his Woodford haven. Prosecutors argued the Ahearnes and Kelly were equally culpable in the plot to murder Allen – which involved a hired car, surveillance and unregistered pay-as-you-go phones. “This was a meticulously researched and planned assassination attempt by a team of men well versed in the level of criminality to pull it off,” prosecutor Michael Shaw KC said. In discovering how the three knew where to find Allen, police would uncover their criminality stretched into mainland Europe. The Geneva job and the Mayfair hotel sting Just one month before the shooting, the Ahearne brothers and Kelly stood outside the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva equipped with a sledgehammer, angle grinders and crowbars. Within seconds of forcing their way through the front door, they shattered glass casings housing 14th Century Chinese Ming Dynasty antiques. Three items were seized – a rare pomegranate vase; a doucai-style wine cup and a porcelain bowl – and had a combined insured value of £2.8m. In their hurry to flee, Stewart scraped his stomach against the sides of the hole the gang had made in the front wooden door – leaving traces of his DNA. He also hired the getaway car, a Renault Koleos from Avis at Geneva Airport. Louis was caught on CCTV filming the inside and outside of the museum the day before the raid. Within days of returning to south-east London with the stolen goods, the trio set about attempting to dispose of the items they had pinched. The brothers flew to Hong Kong with Kelly as they tried to sell one of the stolen items at an auction house. The auction house tipped off police in London, who were able to send undercover officers posing as art dealers to catch some other gang members in a sting operation as two of them tried to sell another plundered item which had been concealed in a JD Sports bag. During a seven-week trial at the Old Bailey, prosecutors argued that international burglary proved the Ahearnes and Kelly were “at the top end” of criminality. But little did police know while pursuing the stolen antiquities, the three would leave behind near-enough similar clues to give away their presence in the Woodford shooting. The hire car and the Oasis purchase In the hours after the shooting, the crime scene in Woodford was forensically examined. Six bullet casings fired from a Glock self-loading handgun were found, as were scuff marks on the
About MCM Comic Con/About EGX/About ReedPop
Buy Now An error occurred. Buy Now An error occurred. Book Novotel Hotel About MCM Comic Con/About EGX/About ReedPop Banzai Japan Music Video About MCM Comic Con MCM Comic Con London is Europe’s largest fan convention, held at the ExCeL London twice yearly since 2002, usually on the last weekend in May and October. The show is produced by ReedPop and welcomes tens of thousands of fans every year. At MCM Comic Con, attendees can expect to find everything from celebrity panels and exclusive premiers, to cosplay, comic book writing workshops, independent artists, live action role play. All these features, and more, make MCM Comic Con the ultimate celebration of pop and geek culture. For more information visit: mcmcomiccon.com Follow MCM Comic Con on: X / Instagram / TikTok Book Novotel Hotel EGX is the UK’s largest video games consumer, trade and careers event. Produced by ReedPop, EGX features the latest games on both PC and console, stage presentations by well-known games designers and the opportunity to chat with developers on the show floor. Featuring the biggest collection of indie games anywhere in the UK, esports tournaments, cosplay competitions, gaming talent and content creators, the Leftfield Collection, tabletop games, the Career Fair and more, EGX is a huge 3-day celebration of gaming. For more information visit: egx.net Follow EGX on: X / Instagram / TikTok Banzai Japan Music Video About ReedPop ReedPop is a boutique group within RX – one of the world’s leading event organisers. Launched in 2006, the group has become the number one producer of pop culture events globally and a full-service digital content provider and media company. Delivering once-in-a-lifetime fan experiences curated specifically for localised audiences, ReedPop currently features events in North America, Europe and Asia, including MCM Comic Con, Eurogamer Expo (EGX), New York Comic Con (NYCC), Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), PAX West, East, and Unplugged, Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC), Star Wars Celebration, MagicCon, and more. In addition to organising and managing events, ReedPop owns and operates the pop culture news site, Popverse, which is the exclusive home for livestreams from all of ReedPop’s major comic cons. The staff at ReedPop are a fan-based group of professionals uniquely qualified to build and serve the communities with whom they share a common passion. (www.reedpop.com) Book Novotel Hotel Banzai Japan Social Media Fumi Fujisaki Idol Riko Ueno Idol Rino Ibusuki Idol Yunagi Nino Idol Shiori Fujisaki Idol Kana Ichinose Idol Hoshino Arice Idol Sasa Sasagawa Idol Kosaka Yuu Idol Tsukumo Aira Idol Maika Ando Idol Yuuki Mochimaru Idol