Gair Rhydd

Your life in their hands

As the streets of Cardiff become littered by end-of-term clearouts, gair rhydd

Thousands of Cardiff students are putting themselves at risk of becoming victims of identity theft, gair rhydd can reveal.

By not destroying personal information, failing to redirect mail to new addresses and having their mail accessed by others in halls of residences, students risk having their personal details accessed and used in what latest figures reveal to be one of the UK’s fastest-growing crimes.

“It may not prove possible to catch up on marking”

Strike ends but Cardiff students might not receive

Graduation ceremonies will go ahead as planned this summer, but the University has warned that there is a chance that not all students will receive their degree classification before the event.

They believe that some examination boards may be unable to deal with the marking backlog created by the lecturers’ assessment boycott that ended last week.

Chinese dam blasted

Three Gorges takes the strain as engineers blow protective dam and $100 billion project moves step closer to completion

China moved another step closer to completing the controversial Three Gorges hydro-electric project when they destroyed the temporary barrier behind the main dam.

The barrier, known as a ‘cofferdam’, was used to contain the Yangtze River on which the Three Gorges Dam was built while construction was underway.

Funds injected

New Medic centre opens after gair rhydd calls for more facilities at the Heath

A new Undergraduate centre has been opened for medical students one year after gair rhydd’s Inject the Funds campaign called for better facilities at the Heath after medics branded them ‘horrendous’.

The £250,000 centre, which is located on the ground floor of Block C in the main hospital building, provides a common room, IT facilities and a locker room for their belongings.

New University College Union President linked to G8 disruption

University employee elected as president was outed as anti-globalisation activist last year

A Cardiff University employee, who was last year revealed to be implicated in the G8 disruptions, has been elected as the new University College Union’s president.

The Union, which is a new amalgamation of the former Association of University Teachers (AUT) and National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), elected long-serving vice-president Mark Aston as their new president in an unopposed vote at the Union’s AGM last month.

Cardiff lecturers slam pay settlement

Cardiff lecturers demand resignation of national executive in last week’s meeting

Cardiff members of the lecturers’ union (UCU) have asked the national leaders to resign immediately following their decision to suspend industrial strike action.

Their request for resignation was reached following a unanimous vote made at a packed emergency meeting on June 6.

Welsh CJD deaths

An investigation into the CJD deaths of three Welsh people has re-opened after an unpublished report offered clues about how school meals in west Wales may have been infected with the human form of mad cow disease.

An investigation by Wales This Week has revealed that that meat deemed unfit for human consumption could have been processed in the same area in which meat was being prepared for shipment to schools.

International students vote Cardiff top

Cardiff Students’ Union has been named the number one Students’ Union for international students in the country in a recent poll.

More than 43,000 international students from institutions around the UK took part in the International Student Barometer poll, where they were asked questions about their experience of their Students’ Union.

Uni go green with car share scheme

Cardiff University is launching a new on line car-share scheme for staff and students in an effort to ease traffic congestion and pollution.

The Cardiff University Liftshare Scheme, launched on June 14, will mean members can find colleagues living near them who are willing to share the daily commute to work and lectures.

Case resolved

After a prolonged disciplinary hearing, the case against Gemma Long, the presidential candidate caught up in the controversy of re-sold gratis Come Play tickets, has been dismissed because ‘the panel could not regard Miss Long as personally responsible’.

The resolution was reached by a University Senate Disciplinary Panel, the offence having been considered too serious for the Union Disciplinary Committee.

University considers options for new Union

An Extensive consultation project has begun to consider the possibilities for re-developing the Students’ Union, following a meeting the University’s Strategy and Resources Committee last Wednesday, it can be revealed.

This comes after a joint University and Students’ Union Project Group was launched by this years Sabbatical Officers, to look into the future of the Students’ Union building.

Tackling drink driving

With the World Cup in full-swing, Welsh police crackdown on drink drivers

Students are being warned not to drink and drive during the World Cup as Welsh Police forces are launching a crackdown on drink drivers during the tournament.

Superintendent Geraint Anwyl said: “Any amount of alcohol or drugs in the body can affect a person’s driving ability and judgement.

Welsh vision

A Welsh language vision test that has been developed by two Cardiff students is to be adopted across Wales after winning a prestigious healthcare award.

Optometry students Amy Carew, 21, and Richard Davies, 21, devised the test as part of a final-year project after learning that there was no Welsh equivalent of the test available in England.

Benefits for councillors

Cardiff councillors are receiving free trips to the theatre, going to cocktail parties and attending top Welsh rugby matches as part of their hospitality benefits, it has been revealed.

Councillors have received gifts from the Welsh Rugby Union, the Football Association of Wales, the BBC and the Royal Mail among others, and the full details have now been published on the internet for taxpayers to see.

Boris lobbied by Cardiff President

Boris Johnson, shadow Minister for Higher Education, met with Cardiff Students’ Union President Pete Goodman in his London office last week.

Goodman, who was joined by two representatives from the University of Nottingham, met with the former shadow Minister for the Arts and spent 45 minutes debating student issues such as the assessment boycott and top-up fees.

Pioneering research

Cardiff University’s scientific prestige continues to grow as yet another academic receives an international award, this time for linking stress to fertility problems.

Dr Jacky Boivin, a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology, has won this year’s award from the Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology, an organisation that promotes the scientific study of human reproduction.

7/7 survivor forgets compensation

The Cardiff professor who survived the London bombings has revealed how memory loss, as a result of his injuries, made him forget that he had received a £2,500 compensation cheque.

Last month John Tulloch claimed that he received just ten pounds from the government for the injuries he suffered in the bombing at Edgware Road in July 2005.

Extra tickets for graduation

A hotline allowing graduands to request spare tickets for graduation award ceremonies has been announced following a backlash over the new ticket rules.

The University will now be allocating the extra tickets on a first-come, first-served basis to students via the new hotline. Phone lines will be open from 10am to 4pm on Wednesday 14 and Thursday 15 June.

Snake charmer

Indian woman ‘marries’ snake

A woman from the state of Orissa, Eastern India has fallen in love and married a King Cobra, according to the Press Trust of India.

2,000 guests are reported to have watched priests chant sacred mantras to seal the Hindu marital ceremony between Bimbala Das and the largest, most venomous snake in the world.

Earthquake rocks Indonesia

Two weeks after an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck Indonesia, the death toll has reached over 6,200, while thousands more have sustained serious injuries and lost their homes.

The earthquake hit early on Saturday May 29 and the area to suffer the worst was the southern coast of Indonesia’s largest island, Java. The region is near Mount Merapi, Java’s most active volcano, which has been spewing ash and lava for a number of weeks and seismologists fear may still pose a hazard.

Renewed hope for Somalia

The recent bloodshed in Somalia has possibly come to an end as Islamist militias seized control over the country’s capital, Mogadishu, last Monday.

The Union of Islamic Courts declared that the reign of the warlords, who have fought for power since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, is over in Mogadishu.