Scottish Mines Rescue team praises heroic efforts in Chile

By Amanda MacMillan

A SCOTS based underground recovery team yesterday (thurs) lavished praise on the Camp Hope emergency teams in Chile – and vowed Britain’s own experts could rise to the same kind of challenge if ever needed.

Mines Rescue, based at Crossgates in Fife, are on constant stand-by for just such an emergency while offering expert solutions and preventions through mainly health and safety training.

But Brian West, 50, a rescue officer with Mines Rescue, said that Britain has all the necessary equipment to cope with such a drama if ever confronted with the same kind of trauma of the San Jose 33.

He said: “It was a fantastic job in Chile. Very well done and very well managed from start to finish.”

Scots quake couple tell of skyscraper trap terror

By Rory Reynolds

A SCOTS couple have spoken of their terror after being stuck at the top of one of Chile’s tallest buildings when last week’s devastating earthquake struck.

John and Beth Scott said they thought their “numbers were up” as they clung on to one another as the 35th floor of the Marriott Hotel in Santiago shook violently.

The couple, from Gifford, East Lothian, lay on the floor in darkness as objects flew around the room and the entire building rocked back and forth.

John said that the hotel swayed so much they thought it might collapse.

The 58-year-old said: “As the room began to move we rolled ourselves on to the floor and held onto each other while the room shook and swayed back and forth – the noise was horrible.

Robots mimic football’s worst cheats

By Michael MacLeod

FOOTBALL daft boffins were studying last night’s Champion’s League final for tips on teaching their robotic dream team on how to milk it like Messi or roll like Ronaldo to gain an advantage on the pitch.

Diving to con the referee is commonplace in football and now the robots are being shown how to copy the game’s biggest fakers.

The mechanical stars of this year’s RoboCup will be tumbling like Tevez to help ease their way to victory.

And their creators will have been glued to the Man Utd v Barcelona match while training for the annual RoboCup this summer, when 2,500 scientists from 36 countries will clash Austria.