The Telegraph reports that there were probably translation errors that may account for discrepancies in the statements of the ‘Tapas Nine’.

“In the early days of the investigation there were dozens of statements being given at what was a very confusing time,” a police source said.

“Obviously the police acted in good faith in their selection of translators but given all that has been said about the various contradictions in the versions of events, detectives are now re-examining the possibility that there may have been some problems,” he said.

Apparently Robert Murat was one of the translators as well as a suspect (although it seems that, under Portuguese law, making someone a suspect does not necessarily mean the person is suspected of involvement in a crime).

Detectives are now said to be questioning the decision to use Robert Murat, 33, as an official police translator in the first crucial week after Madeleine disappeared.

The British ex-pat, who is bilingual, was made an arguido – or formal suspect – on May 14.

(I don’t wish to defend the McCanns, nor to imply that enough money will ever be put into court interpreting and translation to ensure that every case gets good translation)

Thanks to Derek at flefo.

This St. Martin doesn’t look as if he’s going to share his cloak with anyone.

Ratschläge für das Fuerthermare / Advice for visitors to the new thermal baths

Ich bin ganz begeistert, dass es jetzt ein Thermalbad gibt, das ich mit dem Bus in 8 Minuten erreichen kann. Ich möchte nur ein paar Tipps für die geben, die einen Besuch planen. Alle Tipps auf Deutsch in der Fortsetzung unten. Bitte nicht als Kritik auffassen, aber wegen der fehlenden Information vielleicht nützlich. Jedes Bad ist ja gewöhnungsbedürftig.

Das Deutsch ist teilweise korrigiert, auf ein Kommentar hin, enthält aber sicher noch Fehler. Wenn etwas unverständlich sein sollte, bitte fragen.

All the advice is in German in the extended entry. The new thermal baths are, or were, practically free of text and diagrams, so it’s worth understanding the design before you go in.

For pictures of the salt water grotto / Bilder der Lichtinstallation in der Solegrotte hier.

Weiterlesen …

Continue reading →

On November 6, the Jerusalem Post reported on what sounds like a major diplomatic incident arising from a machine-translated email. A group of Israeli journalists were invited by the Dutch foreign minister to visit the Netherlands, and the only journalist who did not speak English sent five questions by email, using Babelfish to translate Hebrew into English.

“Helloh bud, Enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian, and on relational Israel Holland,” began the e-mail. It continued with five nearly incomprehensible questions, and several other mentions of “mother.” …

As for the references to the foreign minister’s “mother” – the Babelfish Web site had translated the Hebrew word for “if” (ha’im) as the similar word for mother (ha’ima). Other mistakes included “bandages of the knitted domes” instead of “Dome of the Rock” and one question that read: “Why we did not heard on mutual visits of main the states of Israel and Holland, this is in the country of this.”

Was this reported in the Dutch press? It seems to have caused more problems than I would have expected:

The Dutch Foreign Ministry is considering canceling the entire trip and filling a formal complaint over the incident. The journalists, meanwhile, said that they were currently too embarrassed to continue with the planned visit.

(Via Vivendo y Traduzindo and itnews)

View from the office window on Friday: two people garrotting the recently installed tree with Christmas lights:

From The Times online:

But a spokesman for the Solicitors Regulation Authority said: “…while clients can sack solicitors at any time and for any reason, solicitors can only cease acting for a client with good reason, and usually with notice.”

One such reason, she said, would be if the client had evidently lost confidence in her lawyers, and continually defied their advice or broke legal instructions or agreements.

“Clients are free to say, ‘I don’t accept your advice.’ That alone is not sufficient to dump a client. But if a client has clearly lost faith in that he or she continually acts in a way that is contrary to what they believe is in her best interests, and particularly in breach of any agreements, then they could decline to act any more.”

This after Mishcon de Reya announced they are no longer acting for Heather Mills. They did not state why, but it seems she agreed not to make public comments about her marriage or her daughter. A transcript of a GMTV interview appeared on October 31.

See also an entry by John Bolch at Family Law. Quotes from the rules for solicitors and barristers in the extended entry. Continue reading →