Their encounter occurred while Rice was in Anchorage attending a basketball tournament and Palin apparently covered the event. Quoting from the book, the tabloid said that at the time, the 23-year-old Palin had a “fetish” about black men.
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Appeal to businesses follows coalition push to finds ways to regain lost women voters The home secretary, Theresa May, has appealed to firms to publish information on pay-gaps and promotion rates across the gender divide, as part of a coalition drive to attract more women voters. May gave a speech on pay inequality and appeared on BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour on Wednesday, while David Cameron hinted in the Commons that the government will introduce further measures to improve female representation in boardrooms and Westminster as part of a charm offensive to win back women’s support. It came a day after the Guardian revealed a leaked government policy memo exposing anxiety at the heart of the coalition over their poor polling with women voters and setting out ideas to reach out to them, including shortening the school holidays, frontloading child benefit and banning advertising to children. It is now understood that the document was commissioned by the Liberal Democrats. However, the Tories are also deeply concerned at their polling with women. May announced that Tesco, BT and the law firm Eversheds have signed up to the voluntary reporting scheme and will publish equality data on their staffing on their websites, in some cases including full pay audits. She said it was wrong that among full time workers a gender pay gap of more than 10% had persisted. Asked on Woman’s Hour why existing laws that would make gender auditing mandatory had not been enacted, she said: “The mandatory power is still available in the Act but I think if you make something mandatory they do it but only to the point at which they have to do it. We’re encouraging companies to look more widely at their equality issues in their workplace.” She confirmed that the government is looking “across the board” at how its policies affect women and appeared to recognise that women are bearing the brunt of the economic strategy to cut the deficit. “It is very tough out there for a lot of people at the moment,” she said. “I know that and obviously we are hearing figures on the economy that show that things are choppy and difficult for people. I recognise that. “I think women will look at a variety of issues. They will look at their own personal circumstances, what the government is doing to help them back into the work place, but they will also look at what we’re doing for their families.” The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women’s rights, welcomed May’s recognition of the problem but said that the government was failing to acknowledge the full impact of its cuts on women. Anna Bird, acting chief executive, said: “Sadly it appears the government thinks the problem is one of perception not reality. In response to a 23-year high in women’s unemployment the government seems to think an exercise in spin or at best a few cheap wins is called for.” Anne Longfield, director of the charity 4 Children, said the government should take note of the Unicef report this week which found that children are stuck in a “materialistic trap” because their parents use gifts to try to appease their guilt over struggling to spend time with them. She said: “The pressure on mothers especially – to give children the time they know they need and deliver everything else and enough money – leaves many feeling a real sense of constant under-performing and guilt. Under the current economic plans of course people start to blame the government. The government has got to take the prime minister’s promise to family-proof its policies more seriously.” At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday Cameron said that more changes could be introduced to encourage more women to become MPs and join company boards. “Only 14% of FTSE 100 company directors are women. We should do far better,” he said. “We need to take much more proactive action to make sure we have a much better balance at the top of politics. We need a much better balance at the top of our boardrooms as well.” Four of the 49 female Tory MPs were positioned directly behind him throughout the session. Grandparents’ role Shadow cabinet minister Tessa Jowell is proposing that Labour recognise the role grandparents play in raising children. Jowell has lead Labour’s Family Life Policy Review over the last year and one of her major conclusions is that with half of all grandparents under the age of 65, increasing numbers are involved in childcare. Jowell says 35% of grandparents are doing so while remaining in work. Jowell said in a speech on Wednesday: “[A grandmother] will be giving much more time than her own mother would have done, helping her grandchildren. Not as a treat, but absolutely integral to the pattern of her grandchildren. In Germany and Portugal, she said, grandparents have the right to parental leave when parents are unable to take it. “In Germany, grandparents can take up to 10 days of paid leave to care for a grandchild in a medical emergency, and in Portugal grandparents are allowed to take 30 days of paid leave a year to care for a sick grandchild if parents can’t.” She pointed to employees at ASDA, where they are entitled to 5 days’ unpaid leave at the birth of a grandchild, or for a child’s first day at school or religious festivals. They may also apply to take up to 12 weeks leave which grandparents often use to look after children during the summer holidays. Gender Women in politics Theresa May Liberal-Conservative coalition Pay Work & careers Conservatives Liberal Democrats Polly Curtis Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Human rights lawyer who defended protesters has had her prison sentence cut from 11 years to six, her husband says An appeals court in Iran has reduced the prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh’s jail sentence to six years, her husband said. The 45-year-old lawyer, who has represented several political activists and protesters arrested in recent years, has been kept in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since last September. In Evin, she is spending time with some of the prisoners she defended in court. She was originally sentenced in January to 11 years in jail and banned for 20 years from working as a lawyer or travelling abroad, for the offences of “acting against the national security”, “propaganda against the regime” and “membership of Human Rights Defenders Centre” – a rights organisation presided over by the Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi. Speaking by phone from Tehran, Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan said that his wife’s ban from working as a lawyer had been reduced to 10 years. Sotoudeh, a mother of two children aged three and 11, fell foul of the authorities after highlighting juvenile executions in Iran and representing activists caught in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections in 2009. According to Human Rights Watch, Iran executed at least one juvenile offender in 2010, and five in 2009. The lawyer’s supporters describe the charges against her as bogus and insubstantial. They said recently that she has refused to accept visits from her children because her son and daughter were traumatised each time they saw her in prison. Sotoudeh has repeatedly gone on hunger strike in protest at her arrest and being deprived of her rights while in jail, such as access to her lawyer and family. In reaction to the new development in Sotoudeh’s case, Shadi Sadr, an award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer, said the reduction in her sentence showed “Iran cares about the international attention”. Sadr was briefly arrested in Iran herself and now lives in exile in London. Sotoudeh’s case has drawn widespread international condemnation for the Iranian regime and the British foreign secretary, William Hague, highlighted her case in a speech on Tuesday. “It is sad to see that activists are arrested, their lawyers are arrested and the lawyers of the lawyers have also been arrested,” said Sadr in an interview with the Guardian. One of Sotoudeh’s lawyers, Abdolfattah Soltani has also been arrested. In January, the Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, joined international organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to urge Iran to release Sotoudeh . Iran Middle East Human rights Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
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• Email your thoughts to rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk • Hit F5 for the latest or use our auto-refresh button below • Click here for all tonight’s live scores • Click here for our live stats centre • Follow Manchester City v Napoli with Paul Doyle Half time: Benfica 1-1 Manchester United Two classy goals have embellished a fairly underwhelming game. See you in 10 minutes. 44 min Luisao does very well to head an excellent cross from Giggs behind for a corner. Had he not done so, Park would have had a straightforward headed chance. GOAL! Benfica 1-1 Manchester United (Giggs 42) Where did that come from? United have been largely hopeless, but Ryan Giggs has equalised with a storming goal. He collected a pass from Valencia, ran smoothly to within 20 yards of goal and then blasted a beautiful left-footed shot into the top corner. Pick that out. Giggs has now scored in 22 consecutive seasons. 41 min Aimar, booked a minute earlier, has a naive hack at Fletcher from behind. Some referees would have sent him off for that, although in truth there wasn’t that much in it. 40 min Aimar is booked for a cynical foul on Rooney. 38 min Hernandez for Giggs or Fletcher is the obvious substitution to make at half-time, although I suspect Sir Alex Ferguson will leave it until the hour. 36 min Giggs faffs about in midfield, allowing Garcia to break towards the United defence. He has Gaitan in space to the left side of the box, but underhits his pass to such an extent that Valencia can clear for a corner. Eventually Luisao’s volley is blocked for another corner, and that comes to nothing. United have had 62 per cent of the possession, surprisingly, but Benfica have done more with their 38 per cent. 34 min “You can see now what the new signings + Cleverley have have brought to United watching this game,” says Andy Butler. “This is lethargic team of last year, reckon we’ll see at least two subs at half time.” I think it’s partly that, but also it’s just an intractable mindset United have away from home in Europe – and one, you have to say, that has been incredibly successful. I’m not a big fan of Rooney up top on his own, though. 33 min “Surely the only proper course of action open to you would be to change tipple altogether,” says David Horn. “The twin horns of your dilemma effectively blunted by a simple switch to gin. Nothing says uncomplicated alcoholism like neat gin.” 32 min Evans gets away with a handball on the edge of his own area. 31 min Aimar clips an overambitious shot high and wide from 25 yards. Benfica are much the beter side. 30 min Rooney heads Fabio’s flat cross over the bar from 15 yards. It was no sort of chance. 29 min “Surely it’d be simpler to use hooliganese and simply point and grunt at a beer tap within your field of vision?” says James Tyler. “Failing that, headbutt the barkeep and steal a bottle of Peach Schnapps.” 28 min United haven’t got going in attack. They are, in approach and effectiveness, unrecognisable from the side that has charmed the pants off English football in the last month. It’s all very laboured and cautious. In fact, they look like the 2010-11 United. 27 min Rooney is booked for challenging the goalkeeper after the whistle had gone. I’m not sure he heard the whistle, and that seems a bit harsh. 26 min “I was told the correct pronunciation of Hoegaarden involved a throat-clearing noise in the first syllable that should have barstaff ducking for cover to avoid the incoming phlegm-ball, followed by the ‘g’ being pronounced ‘h’, leading to ‘I’d like a throaty cough hardon please’, which is unlikely to endear anyone to people behind the counter,” says Robin Hazlehurst. “Or maybe that was a practical joke by those Dutch speakers…” GOAL! Benfica 1-0 Manchester United (Cardozo 24) This is a magnificent goal. Gaitan, on the left wing near the halfway line, curved a long angled pass with the outside of his left foot, a glorious pass. Cardozo took it on his chest by the D, dragged the ball past the last defender Evans and then stabbed a right-footed shot across Lindegaard and into the far corner. That was such an emphatic goal. 23 min “Surely its the Moet thing again,” says Michael Hunt. “You wait till someone else has ordered it for you (always wait till your drink has been ordered), then correct the orderer loudly and watch as the ladies in the bar migrate adoringly towards you, amazed by your education. It hasn’t really worked for me yet, but its quite difficult to mispronounce Fosters.” 22 min United’s lack of match fitness (more than half the team have not started a league game this season) could be a factor. Benfica do look a little sharper. 21 min Evans does well to cut out a sly through ball from Aimar, and the ball runs loose to Cardozo, 20 yards from goal. He sweeps it towards goal with his right foot, and Lindegaard plunges to his right to make an ultimately comfortable save. 20 min This game is pretty boring. 18 min Maxi Pereira’s bobbling cross from the right is miscontrolled by Cardozo, but it falls nicely for Gaitan, charging onto the ball at the edge of the box. He thrashes a first-time half volley that flies just wide of the far post. 17 min “To be even more potably pedantic, The “G” in Hoegaarden is pronounced as if one is clearing one’s throat after chain smoking a pack of Capstan Full Strength,” says Paul McCormick. “I got this news from a barmaid in Amsterdam, who should know. By the way, do they still make Capstan Full Strength?” 16 min Rooney has been a little isolated. It’s rare these days for him to play as a No9 rather than a No10, and it doesn’t look quite right. 15 min Aimar is starting to influence the game. He sparks an attack that eventually ends with Gaitan thrashing over the bar from 25 yards. 13 min “RE pronunciation,” begins Stuart Steel. “Get a Carling instead, pronounced Car-ling.” A foolproof plan apart from one very, very, very minor detail: it necessitates drinking a pint of Car-ling. 12 min Nothing much has happened so far. United generally like to play cagily away from home in Europe and it’s the same tonight. Giggs and Park have swapped, so now Park is playing behind Rooney. 10 min “Not touched a drop myself in four years (after a trip to The Priory) but: surely “pedantic alcoholic” is an oxymoron?” hics Ryan Dunne. “Someone so fastidious that they care about the correct pronunciation of their booze is surely a long way off the Own Brand Vodka with Windowlene Chaser indignities of genuine alcoholism (although, for the record, I pronounced it “Ho Garden”, which sounds like something an outdoorsy gangsta rapper might have).” 9 min Valencia spanks high and wide at the near post from a prohibitive angle. His absolute shocker in last year’s final was one of the more inexplicable occurrences of the 2010-11 season. 8 min A neat one-two between Gaitan and Cardozo ends with Smalling conceding the first corner of the game, on the left-hand side. It’s taken by whatever happened to Pablo Aimar, and claimed by Lindegaard. 5 min “Go for the correct pronunciation,” says Rai Skrupskis. “At least you’ll sound like a sophisticated, educated alcoholic.” 4 min A quiet start. United are good at silencing a home crowd in Europe, although it will take them a while to do that tonight. Valencia skins Emerson thrillingly down the right before chipping over a cross that is claimed by the diving Artur. 3 min United’s formation is more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3, with Giggs playing behind Rooney. Benfica looks more like a 4-2-3-1 as well, with Aimar behind Cardozo. So apart from getting both formations wrong, I’m flying. 2 min “I can totally sympathise with your predicament: since living in Germany and learning the language I have a similar problem in the UK with Löwenbräu,” says Adam Lord. “Do I say Low-en-brow, which is just wrong, or the proper word Loer-ven-broi – which as you said sounds snobbish!?! Would also be grateful for any tips that other OBOers can come up with!” Watch those exclamation marks, kid. 1 min There is a storming atmosphere in the Stadium of Light. Benfica kick off from left to right. They are in red; United are in blue-and-black hoops. Prediction Benfica 2-1 United. A question Last night, while having one of my five-a-day, I found out that Hoegaarden is actually pronounced Who-gar-den. So now, when I order it, do I ask for Hoegaarden or Whogarden? The former is incorrect, the latter makes you sound like a diabolical snob. What’s a pedantic alcoholic to do? You don’t have to be Father Jack Hackett to appreciate the value of ladies playing football. Especially when they are doing it for a good cause. Eleanor Ward is part The Sonics, who are doing just that next Tuesday. If you’re feeling generous/pervy you can donate here . Nobody effs with the Jesus Benfica’s manager is called Jorge Jesus, which is as good a reason as any to link to this . Team news United make eight changes from the team that defenestrated Bolton on Saturday. David De Gea is omitted amid fears that he can’t handle a dry, still night in Lisbon. Rumours that Dimitar Berbatov accidentally stubbed a pencil-thin cigarette in the eye of Sir Alex Ferguson’s favourite cat, killing him instantly, are unconfirmed. Benfica (4-3-3) Artur; Maxi Pereira, Luisao, Garay, Emerson; Ruben Amorim, Javi Garcia, Witsel; Aimar, Cardozo, Gaitan. Substitutes Eduardo, Bruno Cesar, Nolito, Rodrigo, Matic, Saviola, Jardel. Manchester United (4-3-3) Lindegaard; Fabio, Smalling, Evans, Evra; Fletcher, Carrick, Giggs; Valencia, Rooney, Park. Substitutes De Gea, Jones, Owen, Anderson, Berbatov, Hernandez, Nani. Preamble Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Benfica v Manchester United. It’s a fixture that evokes the faded glamour of the old European Cup, thanks to a couple of meetings in the 1960s. In the first, George Best brought Beatlemania to football with a performance of stunning audacity ; in the second, at Wembley in 1968, United reached the promised land by becoming the first English team to win the European Cup. There will be no such excitement tonight, not even if the game ends 14-14 and Sir Alex Ferguson comes out for the second half dressed in a jaunty lycra all-in-one, although it is still the heavyweight clash of a fairly weak group that also includes Basle and Galati. Not that these two sides come together as equals. Benfica have only reached the Champions League knockout stages once since 1994-95; United have only been eliminated in the group stages once since 1994-95. Both instances occurred in 2005-06, when Benfica put United out with a 2-1 win in the final group game, with Phil Brown’s Geovanni scoring one of the goals. Many people felt that Ferguson was finished. In fact he was just starting on his third great United side, the first to achieve sustained success in Europe. In five seasons since that Benfica defeat they have reached three finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final. The road to Munich, where next May’s final will be played, starts here. Champions League 2011-12 Benfica Manchester United Champions League Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ambassadors to Syria unite in public solidarity at vigil for murdered activist
September 14, 2011 No Comment
Prominent human rights activist and non-violent protester is believed to have been tortured and killed by security forces In an unprecedented gesture of solidarity with Syria’s protest movement,
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Tory peer has already served a term in prison for expenses fraud and was released five days before his rearrest on fresh charges Lord Hanningfield, the Tory peer jailed for fiddling his expenses, has been arrested on suspicion of making fraudulent expenses claims from Essex county council. Essex police would not confirm Hanningfield had been brought in for questioning but sources confirmed to the Press Association that the peer had been arrested. His arrest came five days after he was released from his prison term. A spokesman for the Essex force would only confirm that a 70-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of fraud as part of an investigation into expenses claimed at Essex county council. He has been bailed to return in January 2012. Hanningfield, the former leader of Essex county council, was jailed for nine months in July for fiddling his parliamentary expenses. The former Lords opposition frontbencher claimed £13,379 for overnight stays in London when he was not there. On Friday, after his release from prison, he was spotted by a local newspaper walking his dog near his home in West Hanningfield, near Chelmsford, Essex. He told the Colchester Gazette after his release thathe was relieved his ordeal was over but said there was more to tell. “There is much more to my side of the story, which will be revealed when I am ready,” he said. “This expenses situation has been going on for two and a half years and I am glad it is all over. “I am feeling OK about things at the moment but I just want a couple of weeks to myself to relax and let everything settle down.” He said of his time at a minimum-security prison in Kent: “Some of the people who were in prison were better than some of the people I have met on the outside.” A former pig farmer, Hanningfield – who was tried under his name, Paul White – was found guilty of six counts of false accounting following an eight-day trial at Chelmsford crown court in May. The judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said that when it came to sentencing the case was distinguished from other expenses cases because of Hanningfield’s poor health. The anxiety and depression he suffered over the case “goes well beyond the level of depression suffered by many people of good character who find themselves for the first time before the courts”, said Saunders, sitting at Maidstone crown court. “He has been diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression and he is being treated for that condition. The bringing of these charges brought about the end of his work which was very important to him. “He is 70 and his physical health is not good. Imprisonment will be harder for him than for others who are mentally and physically fitter. Also, while others convicted in this series of prosecutions will have some chance to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of the public, Lord Hanningfield is less likely to be able to do that because of his age, but it is not impossible that he will.” MPs’ expenses House of Commons Conservatives Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
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Institute of Directors, the Prince’s Trust and the TUC join the opposition in demanding action to boost the flagging economy David Cameron is under growing pressure to soften his hardline deficit reduction strategy after a wave of redundancies in central and local government sent unemployment surging beyond 2.5m. With the City predicting joblessness would hit 2.75m next year, the Institute of Directors, the Prince’s Trust and the TUC joined the opposition in demanding urgent action to boost the flagging economy. Cameron admitted the official figures – which included the highest female unemployment in 23 years and almost a million young people shut out of the labour market – were “disappointing”. But he insisted that the coalition would not do a U-turn as it attempted to repair Britain’s public finances over the course of the current parliament. He said: “All governments are having to take difficult decisions about cutting public spending. Anyone standing here would have to make those decisions. This government is reducing the welfare bill and reforming public sector pensions. If we weren’t taking those steps you would have to make deeper cuts in the rest of the public sector.” Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said the government’s plan for an expanding private sector to replace jobs lost as a result of the austerity programme was not working after the Office for National Statistics reported on Tuesday that 111,000 jobs were lost in the public sector in the three months to June 2011, against 41,000 created in the rest of the economy. “The message to all those people who have lost their jobs is the prime minister is not going to change course,” he said. “For every two jobs being cut in the public sector, less than one is being created in the private sector. Isn’t that the clearest sign yet that your policy just isn’t working?” Ministers had been preparing for poor unemployment figures after evidence emerged in recent months to show the economy’s recovery from the deep recession of 2008-09 had almost stalled. The ONS said joblessness was rising on both measures used by the government, the internationally agreed Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the more narrowly based claimant count. Using the LFS yardstick, unemployment stood at 7.9% in the three months to July, while a 20,300 jump to 1.58m in August left the claimant count jobless rate at 4.9%. Unemployment among the under-25s rose by 77,000 in the three months to July, taking the total of unemployed 16-24 year olds to 972,000. A spokeswoman from The Prince’s Trust youth charity said: “It is deeply concerning that youth unemployment has risen sharply, with young people hit hardest and those out of work for more than a year increasing by nearly a fifth. To tackle this downward spiral of youth unemployment, government, businesses and charities need to work together on schemes that work. More than three in four young people supported by The Prince’s Trust last year moved into work, education or training.” Scotland was the one region of the UK to see a fall in unemployment between May and July. Alex Salmond, the first minister, said the decline was due to extra spending on infrastructure projects and support for small and medium sized companies. Analysts said the weakness of the labour market was highlighted by a fall in vacancies, a 40% jump in redundancies and a record number of people working part-time but in search of full-time jobs. Scott Corfe, senior economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research, said: “The UK government will now be under immense pressure to deal with unemployment, especially given President Obama’s announcement of a $450bn (£280bn) job creation package in the US last week. The focus of a UK jobs creation package would almost certainly be on private sector deregulation and measures aimed at reducing the risk associated with hiring new workers – rather than a slowdown in the pace of deficit reduction – given the political costs of moving away from plan A.” Graeme Leach, chief economist at the IoD, said it was time for the Bank of England to announce a second round of quantitative easing (QE), with the Bank of England buying bonds in order to create money. He said: “The storm clouds are gathering, with falling employment and rising unemployment at a time when it is difficult to see how this might reverse. Today’s figures reinforce our belief that we need to launch QE2 as soon as possible.” The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “These are terrible figures. They are further evidence that the recovery has been choked off by a self-defeating rush to austerity. Government policies are hurting, but they aren’t working.” Nigel Meager, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said: “”It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that policy-makers now need to stop sitting on their hands and start looking for ways to get spending power into the economy quickly.” Economic policy Unemployment and employment statistics Banking Budget deficit Economics David Cameron Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
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Rebecca Leighton, cleared over saline contamination, but who admitted stealing hospital drugs, could be reinstated under restrictions Rebecca Leighton, who was suspended after being charged with contaminating saline at Stepping Hill hospital, has had her nursing registration reinstated with certain conditions. Leighton, 27, could practise again at the Stockport hospital if senior hospital management agree. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in London had earlier heard that Leighton, from Heaviley, Stockport, had admitted to police when she was being interviewed that she had stolen prescription drugs from the hospital where she worked. She was released from Styal prison in Cheshire, where she spent six weeks on remand, on 2 September, after the Crown Prosecution Service dropped all the charges against her. The NMC which reviewed the interim suspension of her registration following her arrest, ruled on Wednesday that they would lift the ban on practising and panel chairman Dr John Unsworth said: “We would be minded to impose conditions of practice on her.” The panel reached its decision after hearing how Leighton had admitted stealing opiate-based drugs. The restrictions are likely to prevent her carrying keys to the hospital’s drug store, the panel said. Leighton could also be subject to geographical limitations that mean she is only able to work within a designated area, the NMC added. Leighton, who was supported by her parents and fiance, smiled at her lawyer as the panel set out its decision. Earlier Salim Hafejee, for the NMC, outlining the case against her, told the panel she had admitted stealing drugs and the “reasonable inference” was that she was taking them for her own use. However, Leighton’s lawyer Paul Rooney said there was no evidence that the drugs were for personal use. Rooney told the panel that maintaining the restriction on his client working would be “disproportionate and devastating” for her professional reputation and her financial situation. “She has had her liberty restored and she expects to be afforded the opportunity to return to the profession she loves and has worked hard to be part of.” He told the panel it was a “leap too far” to state she had taken drugs from the hospital for her personal use. “Whilst remanded in custody, the registrant was unable to work. The financial implications of having her liberty taken from her have been huge.” The panel was told of a letter from her GP that said that “from a mental health point of view” she was fit to work. A consultant at the hospital described her as “one of the best staff nurses” he had worked with, who was caring, hard-working and committed to her job. In a statement read by Richmond, the nurse said she had been “living in hell” since her arrest. She had suffered verbal abuse while on remand from other prisoners because of the charges she had faced. “All I ever wanted to do was pursue a profession in nursing, and care for my patients,” she said. “I think it unbelievable that anyone in the medical profession would ever put their patients’ lives at risk.” Greater Manchester police is still investigating allegations of tampering with saline solution at the hospital and are looking at the suspicious deaths of Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Alfred Derek Weaver, 83, who it has established were all given insulin. All three, who had been patients at Stepping Hill, died in July this year. A spokesman for the force said they had been “unlawfully administered insulin” but officers had yet to establish if that was a significant contributing factor to each of their deaths. On Monday, the force said it had ruled out six deaths that had formed part of their investigation. In a statement, Greater Manchester police said there could be up to 30 people affected by insulin. Further tests are expected to take several weeks to complete. Officers are continuing to work closely with medical experts to scrutinise post-mortem reports, medical histories and records of any drugs that patients received while they were in the hospital. It also emerged on Monday that a bottle of milk at Stepping Hill had become contaminated with bleach. Police said they were investigating but it was not connected with the wider inquiry. NHS Nursing Health Crime Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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Amid fresh setbacks in politicians’ struggle to rescue Greece, the US treasury secretary is set to take part in meetings in Poland Europe’s struggle to come good on pledges to rescue Greece from bankruptcy and save its single currency has descended into confusion amid political feuding and parliamentary setbacks across the eurozone. Angela Merkel’s coalition in Germany was embroiled in rows about whether Greece should be allowed to fail; a parliamentary committee in Austria delayed a vote to ratify plans for a strengthened bailout fund; and in Slovakia the eurosceptic parliament speaker demanded that Greece be allowed to go bust, making clear that he would seek to undermine the plan hatched at a eurozone summit in July in Brussels. Amid the cacophony, José Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, voiced exasperation at the failure of EU national leaders to keep their promises and talked up the benefits of eurobonds, a pooling of eurozone government debt. The Polish finance minister said the survival of the EU was at stake. “Europe is in danger,” Jacek Rostowski told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “If the euro area breaks up, the European Union will not be able to survive.” Poland currently holds the EU presidency and Rostowski faces a tough challenge on Friday when he chairs a meeting of EU finance ministers in Wroclaw which will now be consumed by the crisis. International pressure on Merkel and other European leaders surged, with the US, China, Russia and others demanding they get a grip. In a display of Washington’s alarm, the US Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, is to take part in the EU meetings in Wroclaw. The American fear is that a Greek collapse would trigger a renewed European banking crisis which would spill over into the US, a reverse of what happened in 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers was exported across the Atlantic. A fresh crisis could plunge America back into recession and damage Barack Obama’s re-election hopes. Similar fears are gripping the Elysée Palace in Paris. A Greek collapse would impact severely on French banks eight months before Nicolas Sarkozy faces a second-term presidential election. Another leader under pressure, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has won a vote of confidence, paving the way for its austerity package to be voted through. The governing coalition has been fighting over the details of the fiscal consolidation plan for weeks but Berlusconi mustered enough of a majority to win the vote. At a teleconference Greek prime minister George Papandreou told Merkel and Sarkozy his country was determined to meet all obligations agreed with international lenders in exchange for an EU/IMF bailout. Officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund returned to Athens to try to get the Greek rescue package back on track. All three leaders have a vested interest in playing for time over Greece despite the sense that time is running out. “The President and the Prime Minister have repeated in unison France’s determination to do whatever it takes to rescue Greece,” said the French government spokeswoman, Valérie Pécresse. According to senior EU diplomats, this month the three officials departed from Athens “in despair” at the Greek government’s failure to honour the stiff terms of the bailout deal. In July, eurozone leaders pledged a second €109bn bailout for Greece, to boost the funding of the bailout pot, the European Financial Stability Facility, and to empower it to replace the ECB in buying up stricken government bonds. But the plans have run into several problems. The level of involvement by Greece’s private creditors in rolling over debt remains lower than foreseen. The 17 countries of the eurozone have to ratify the new scheme promptly, but ratification has been delayed in Austria, Slovakia, Finland and possibly Slovenia, and run into rebellion among Merkel’s coalition partners. While Barroso talked up the prospect of eurobonds yesterday, Germany’s economics minister and liberals’ leader, Philipp Roesler, ruled them out. Pécresse in Paris said they would not be a quick fix. “Eurobonds are for us the end of a process of consolidation in the eurozone because sharing debt also requires the convergence of our budget policies.” In Bratislava, Richard Sulik, the eurosceptic parliament speaker and leader of one of four parties in the ruling coalition, said the bailout fund was a bigger threat to the euro than Greece. “It has often happened that a city within a country goes bankrupt, and that does not have consequences for the currency. We must let Greece go into bankruptcy,” he told Austrian radio. “The rescue plan tries to overcome the debt crisis with new debt. We are saying that this is equally a threat to the euro.” That echoed growing calls among political leaders across eurozone creditor countries. The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, was the first eurozone head of government formally to propose recentlynew arrangements enabling fiscal recalcitrants to be expelled from the single currency. Barroso said: “Solid, feasible and concrete proposals have been made. They have been agreed upon. But they have taken too long and have not yet been fully delivered.” European debt crisis European banks Angela Merkel US economy Silvio Berlusconi Euro European Union Economics Greece Europe Economic policy Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media The only thing Rick Perry has ever done right is mandate that girls in Texas get vaccinated against HPV. I don’t care what his motives were. I don’t care how much money Merck made. I don’t care what craven conspiracy cackle-bots like Jenny McCarthy and Michele Bachmann claim. I don’t care if Perry is a parody of a caricature of a cartoon character of Dubya, I agree with what the Governor did. It was the right thing to do. Even though he’s squirming away from it now . Even Bush did one thing right. He did right in Africa with AIDS funding . One thing. Perry also has one thing. All states should mandate that girls get an HPV inoculation. Several strains of HPV, in case you don’t know, cause cervical cancer . Cervical cancer is the second leading cancer killer of women worldwide. In the United States, nearly 10,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and 3,700 women die. Here’s the thing: we could be the last generation to ever lose a friend, mother or sister to cervical cancer. This cancer, like small pox can be eradicated by a simple vaccination. Will being vaccinated cause promiscuity? There’s as much evidence of that as Bachmann’s claim that it will cause mental retardation. Meaning: Zero. There’s the same prejudice from the right-wing about this vaccination as their was about AIDS in the ’90s. It’s was dubbed a “gay disease” and so they kind of deserved it. It’s a sexually transmitted disease so don’t have sex and you won’t get it. What about the girls who get raped? You are vulnerable to cervical cancer if you have a cervix. End of story. Every girl should be able to get this vaccination. No one should ever have to die from cancer when it’s optional. That’s sick. I wrote about vaccinations and how kids are dying now from antique diseases because of hysteria. You can read it here . After the jump is a breakdown about state laws so you can contact your legislators : The Michigan Senate was the first to introduce legislation (S.B. 1416) in September of 2006 to require the HPV vaccine for girls entering sixth grade, but the bill was not enacted. Ohio also considered legislation in late 2006 to require the vaccine (H.B. 703), which also failed. Since 2006, legislators in at least 41 states and D.C. have introduced legislation to require the vaccine, fund or educate the public about the HPV Vaccine and at least 20 states have enacted legislation, including Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. The CDC announced that The New Hampshire Health Department announced in 2006 that it will provide the vaccine at no cost to girls under age 18. As of May 2007, the department reports they have distributed over 14,000 doses in the state. South Dakota’s governor also announced a similar plan in January 2007 that combines $7.5 million in federal vaccine funds and $1.7 million from the state’s general fund. As of May 2007, the department reports distributing over 20,000 doses of the vaccine. The Washington legislature approved spending $10 million to voluntarily vaccinate 94,000 girls in the next two years. On February 2, 2007, Texas became the first state to enact a mandate-by executive order from the governor-that all females entering the sixth grade receive the vaccine, with some exceptions. Legislators in Texas passed H.B. 1098 to override the executive order and the governor withheld his veto. The Virginia legislature passed a school vaccine requirement in 2007 and considered a bill that would delay that requirement but it was passed by indefinitely by the Senate Committee. In 2007, at least 24 states and D.C. introduced legislation to specifically mandate the HPV vaccine for school (California and Maryland withdrew their bills). DC’s bill was enacted and requirement started 30 days after Congressional Review Period expired.
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