Dai Greene wins Britain’s first gold at world championships in 400m hurdles
September 1, 2011 No Comment
• Welsh hurdler leaves it late to seal victory in 400m hurdles • Puerto Rico’s Javier Culson takes silver, LJ van Zyl is third Dai Greene left it late in the 400m hurdles to seal Great Britain’s first gold of the world championships. The Welsh hurdler was fourth coming over the penultimate barrier of the race, but surged down the back straight to seal victory in the final few strides ahead of Javier Culson of Puerto Rico. South African LJ van Zyl was third. After a delayed start to the race in Daegu – the field were shown a green card due to a faulty start – Greene kept his cool and crossed the line in a time of 48.26sec. The 25-year-old adds the world title to his European and Commonwealth titles won in 2010, and could add more silverware to his collection in the 4x400m relay. Greene becomes Britain’s fifth medallist of the event, and his result lifts Team GB into fourth in the medals table behind the United States, Russia and Kenya. Mo Farah (10,000m), Jessica Ennis (Heptathlon) and Hannah England all secured silvers, while Andrew Turner took a bronze in the 110m hurdles, but on day six of the championships Britain finally struck gold for the first time. Men’s 400m hurdles result 1 Dai Greene GBR 48.26 2 Javier Culson PUR 48.44 3 L.J. van Zyl RSA 48.80 4 Felix Sánchez DOM 48.87 5 Cornel Fredericks RSA 49.12 6 Bershawn Jackson USA 49.24 7 Angelo Taylor USA 49.31 8 Aleksandr Derevyagin RUS World Athletics Championships 2011 Athletics World Athletics Championships John Ashdown guardian.co.uk
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Couple who supplied women for prime minister’s parties said to have been paid to do a deal with prosecutors to avoid trial Two people alleged to have blackmailed Silvio Berlusconi were arrested in Rome on Thursday, in a move that further embarrassed Italy’s embattled prime minister. Giampaola Tarantini, who was arrested at dawn at his flat near Via Veneto – one of Rome’s most expensive streets – was a central figure in a sex scandal that threatened to bring down Berlusconi two years ago. In a statement to police published in September 2009, the businessman, from Bari in southern Italy, acknowledged supplying some 30 women for parties and dinners at the prime minister’s Roman palazzo . He said at least six women had spent the night there. Tarantini’s wife, 34-year-old Angela Vevenuto, was also taken into custody and a warrant was issued for the arrest of a third person believed not to be in Italy. According to Italian media reports, they are accused of receiving €500,000 (nearly £441,000) from Berlusconi along with benefits in kind including the rent on the Tarantinis’ Rome flat. Details of the investigation were leaked last month in a news magazine belonging to Berlusconi. The magazine, Panorama, claimed the prosecutors believed Tarantini was being paid to stop him contradicting the prime minister’s claim that he was unaware that any of the women who visited his home were prostitutes. Berlusconi, who turns 75 later this month, has made much over the years of his talents as a playboy. And he has repeatedly insisted he would never wish – or need – to pay a woman for sex. Panorama said that, in telephone conversations secretly intercepted by police, Tarantini had repeatedly said Berlusconi was indeed oblivious of the payments the women were receiving. The magazine claimed that the main reason why the prime minister was passing money to the businessman was to ensure he did a deal with the prosecutors to avoid a trial and the disclosure of “telephone wiretaps held to be embarrassing”. It is hard to imagine, however, what could be more compromising than the details that have already emerged. One of his guests has given an account of four-in-a-bed sex, while another said she had used a mobile phone to record her pillow talk with the prime minister. Two years ago, recordings were posted to the web in which she and someone sounding like Berlusconi discussed, among other things, male orgasms and female masturbation. The prime minister’s lawyers denied the recordings were genuine. Silvio Berlusconi Europe Italy John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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Sentencing concerns raised again as justice ministry figures show two-thirds of defendants remanded in custody More than 1,560 suspects have been brought before the courts for riot-related offences, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Justice. Of those appearing at magistrates courts since disturbances erupted in early August, 66% have been remanded in custody – a far higher rate than normal and a reflection of continuing police and judicial concern about the seriousness of offences. Only 10% of those attending magistrates courts last year were remanded in custody. Sentencing in magistrates courts reveals a similar disparity: 45% of those convicted following the riots have been jailed against 12% for comparable offences such as affray, assault, burglary and violent disorder last year. The latest figures show that nearly 100 people have been brought before the courts in the past week as more suspects are identified and tracked down. Of the 1,566 total so far, more than 1,000 were in London, nearly 200 in Manchester, and about 130 in the West Midlands. One in five (22%) were youths, aged 10 to 17, and nine out of 10 (91%) were male. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, accused the government of depriving the police of sufficient resources to tackle the consequences of the violence and looting. Talking to local residents in Clapham, south London, Cooper said ministers were backing away from their pledge to meet extra policing costs. “It is shocking that at a time like this the prime minister and the home secretary are leaving police forces across the country in limbo, seriously concerned that the cuts they are already struggling with have been made even worse. “Now when the Metropolitan police has a minimum £34m bill in extra policing costs, at a time when they are already set to lose nearly 2,000 officers, the government has abandoned them. “We contacted the home secretary two weeks ago to ask if the prime minister’s pledge to stand behind the extra costs for police forces was going to be met, but the only response has been stony silence. “David Cameron must urgently clarify where forces stand, and reopen the police spending review which is resulting in the loss of over 16,000 officers nationwide.” Earlier this week, the Magistrates’ Association chairman John Thornhill rejected claims that there had been a “feeding frenzy” in sentencing after the recent riots. Eoin McLennan-Murray, president of the Prison Governors Association (PGA), had claimed that magistrates had lost all sense of proportion “This kind of speedy across-the-board justice probably means a number of people are dealt with unfairly,” he said. Thornhill said: “The sentencing guidelines are very clear. Let’s remember that these are serious offences. In most cases people are charged with burglary and in some cases aggravated burglary”. Most of the sentences had been imposed by full-time district judges rather than the lay magistracy, he added. Criticism of magistrates was “unreasonable and unfounded”. UK riots Crime Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Are you ready, class? Let us count the errors: (h/t Ministry of Truth at DKos ) ::head desk:: What the hell is that? Teh stoopid , it hurts. How does this woman find her way out the front door every morning? At risk of being pedantic, let’s break this down, shall we? We’re gonna continue the chain of freedom that was purchased for us at a very heavy price As the DKos diarist mentions , it might not be the best choice to use the phrase “chains of freedom” when referring to the Founding Fathers. Because we all know who were actually shackled at the end of those chains: That “chain of freedom” that was “purchased” had a slave on the end of it. Just saying. *cringe* But then again, Bachmann’s revisionist understanding of the horrors of slavery is legendary . It was a heavy price that was paid at Lexington and Concord with that shot that was heard fired around the world. I guess we should be thankful that she didn’t place Lexington and Concord in New Hampshire again. But for cryin’ out loud, how hard is it to retain the phrase correctly? ” The Shot Heard Round The World ” A shot fired around the world sounds overly hostile and not much reason to celebrate. There was a heavy prices that for five Aprils of war to secure our freedom. This one stuck me for a second. The phrase sounded familiar if overly poetic, but I also knew that the Revolutionary War lasted eight years . A little Google-fu identified it as the title of a Civil War historical novel, Across Five Aprils , frequently used as a reference in elementary schools. It’s also the name of a hardcore band , but I’m gonna assume they’re not on Bachmann’s iPod. So apparently she jumped wars for a moment, because then she’s back in Revolutionary War mode and then jumped again: There was a heavy price that was paid in the lead up to our country establishing itself, but the British came and attacked us again in the war of 1812. Wait, what? I’m sure that there were instances of British attacks in the war of 1812, but actually, it was the U.S. that declared war on Britain …mainly over our desire for expansion into the Northwest Territory. There was a heavy price that was paid to hold this country together in the Civil War… Oh we jumped in time again… …, when Abraham Lincoln just about lost his life just trying and help, trying to hold this country together and we were pulled apart at the seams. Hold on. Just about lost his life? Was he just sort of assassinated ? Did he only kinda die ? But we remain one nation under God, and the last act of President Abraham Lincoln when he was in office was to secure our national motto “In God We Trust” on a coin, his last act in Congress Oh god, this one gives me a headache. The first time the phrase “In God We Trust” appeared on an American coin did indeed occur during Lincoln’s term as President. However, it had been called for by citizens for years and the actual submission of designs was initiated and overseen by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P Chase and Director of the Philadelphia Mint James Pollock. Congress (a completely different branch of the government from the Office of the Presidency, which you’d think a Congressperson running for President would understand) passed the Act calling for the approved design in 1864 on the two cent coin. The motto appeared on and off various coins until 1957, where it was established on paper dollars as well. (source: U.S. Treasury ). Abraham Lincoln had little to nothing to do with it. In fact, there is some question that Abraham Lincoln would spearhead such a thing, as he was frequently derided as an infidel or atheist by contemporaries . I suspect it would horrify Prof. Bachmann to learn that Lincoln never became member of any specific church although there was a lot of posthumous attempts to whitewash his rejection of the strict Baptist teachings of his parents . We could go on and ask Bachmann which of our freedoms exactly our military was fighting for in Vietnam and both Gulf Wars, but frankly, I’m a little afraid of what the answer would be. There will be a quiz on this material later.
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Archaeologists believe key figure involved in construction of Wiltshire ancient monument is buried at Preseli mountains site Archaeologists are researching the grave of an important figure they believe may have played a crucial role in the construction of Stonehenge. The burial chamber is sited above a ceremonial stone circle in the Preseli hills in west Wales, where it is believed bluestone was quarried before being taken to Stonehenge. More research will be done to establish if the important person buried there played a role in the moving of bluestone 190 miles from west Wales to the Wiltshire monument. The find has been made by professors Tim Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright, who have spent the last 10 years trying to establish how and why the bluestones – or spotted dolerite – were transported from the Preseli hills to Stonehenge. In 2008, following the first excavation at Stonehenge in more than 40 years , the professors said they had established that the bluestones – the size of a man or smaller – arrived at Stonehenge about 4,500 years ago. Their hypothesis was that the bluestones – rather than the much larger sarsen stones that give Stonehenge its familiar shape – were the real draw because they were believed to have healing powers. Wainwright said: “We went back to the Preselis and started doing excavations up there. The first site we explored was a big burial cairn in the shadow of Carn Menyn, where the Stonehenge bluestones come from.” The team found a circle underneath the cairn built of bluestone, the same material taken to Stonehenge, and work is being carried out to date this. But Wainwright said he would be surprised if the circle had not been created at about the same time that the bluestones were taken to Stonehenge, strengthening the link between west Wales and Stonehenge in the theory. “Then this stone circle was covered with the huge burial cairn with a chamber in the middle. The space turned from a public ceremonial space defined by the stone circle into the burial spot of a very important person.” Wainwright said it was a “jump” to claim the person buried there was an architect of Stonehenge. “It’s a hypothesis but it could well be true. There is certainly something very significant about the grave.” Stonehenge Archaeology Heritage Wales Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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Test case bought by dinner ladies and care workers against Sheffield city council to be heard next month Tens of thousands of women who claim they are paid less than men doing comparable jobs could benefit when the supreme court examines a test case next month. The battle for equal pay led by dinner ladies and care workers in dispute with their employer, Sheffield city council, will be heard in an attempt to clarify the complex law on what amounts to indirect sex discrimination in pay. The three-day hearing before five justices in mid-October is the first time the supreme court – established two years ago – has looked at the issue of equal pay, an area complicated by the existence of contradictory legal precedents. The outcome could affect wages paid to workers, particularly in local authorities and the NHS where some specialised roles – such as road sweepers or carers – have traditionally been performed almost exclusively by separate groups of men or women. The trade union Unison, which is supporting the Sheffield employees, said it had up to 40,000 cases that could be affected by the court’s ruling. The Sheffield council case, Gibson and others v Sheffield city council, started in an employment tribunal and has been working its way up the appeals process. The court of appeal last year found for the dinner ladies and carers, ruling that productivity bonuses granted to male street cleaners and gardeners, which were subsequently incorporated into their salaries, were discriminatory against women doing work of equal value. In its ruling the court of appeal held that the men were being paid between 33.3% and 38% more than women for occupations that the council agreed were comparable. Sheffield council had argued that an earlier decision, Armstrong v Newcastle upon Tyne NHS hospital trust, set a precedent that bonuses had nothing to do with gender but were paid to boost productivity. It claimed that the predominantly female jobs could not be measured or rewarded in a similar way and therefore the differences in pay did not need to be objectively justified. The women, however, maintained that the European court of justice case of Enderby v Frenchay health authority, dating back to 1993, was the relevant authority and that the council had a legal responsibility to provide an objective and gender-free reason why dinner ladies and carers were paid less. The judges agreed. Giving his ruling in the appeal court, Lord Justice Pill said: “The impossibility of applying the productivity bonus to women’s work, carefully reasoned by the [employment] tribunal, is genuine enough but that does not remove the sexual taint from the operation of the scheme. “The scheme has a disparately adverse effect on women’s work as compared with men’s work and the sexual taint is present. It must be justified objectively if the employers are to succeed. The opportunity to justify is a sufficient protection for employers.” Lady Justice Smith agreed, pointing out that: “Where the statistics show that the pay practice has produced an adverse impact on women over a long period and where the statistics are convincing, it will generally be difficult for an employer to show that the adverse impact had nothing to do with sex.” Sheffield council has now taken the case to the supreme court. Ben Patrick, Unison’s in-house solicitor who is preparing the case for next month’s hearing, said: “The central issue is whether the council should be required to justify differences in pay. “It’s an indirect discrimination argument based on statistical comparisons. The question in the supreme court is whether given a statistical case of discriminatory pay the employer is required to objectively justify the differences in pay between men and women. “We are saying that Armstrong is inconsistent with Enderby. The indirect discrimination pay cases being considered are virtually indistinguishable from each other so it could have the effect of forcing a large number of local authorities to reconsider their defences.” Most of the outstanding equal pay cases date back to a period before the introduction of the Equality Act in 2010, which essentially removed the employers’ ability to rely on the Armstrong defence. “There are still tens and tens of thousands of cases coming through the tribunal system,” Patrick added. “Unison is running equal pay claims for about 40,000 of its members. Most are in the health sector or local authorities.” Sheffield city council was said to be facing compensation payments of £20m following last year’s judgment. Pay Equality Equality Act 2010 Public sector pay Work & careers Discrimination at work Employment tribunals Women Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
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On Wednesday evening, the NBC Nightly News devoted a segment to a recent study involving the World Health Organization asserting that infant mortality in the United States has fallen behind 40 other countries, including Cuba. NBC's Today show and ABC's Good Morning America also mentioned the study briefly earlier the same day. NBC's Snyderman on Nightly News even seemed to hint that universal health care in Vermont may play a role in that state's ranking that is relatively higher than other states, even though several other states she named as relatively higher do not have universal health care. After host Brian Williams asked her the reason for the lower number in the U.S., Snyderman responded: “It happened because I think we took our eye off the ball. If you look at newborn health, so much of it is intervention. If you look just in the United States, there are some states that are doing pretty well. For instance, Washington, Utah, Alaska, Iowa, Vermont – which has universal health care – New Hampshire, those are all states that are doing pretty well.” But, when similar studies have been released in the past, some have argued that other countries are less likely to report premature babies in their statistics. Below are the relevant transcripts from ABC and NBC from Wednesday, August 31: #From the August 31 Good Morning America on ABC: JOSH ELLIOTT: And a shocking new study about the infant mortality rate in this country. Researchers say that babies born in 40 different foreign countries now have a better chance of survival than American-born babies. Even those born in Malaysia and Cuba in fact have higher survival rates. Doctors say the U.S. isn't keeping pace with the progress being made in other countries. #From the August 31 Today show on NBC: NATALIE MORALES: A new study says infant mortality rates are now higher in the U.S. than they are in more than 40 other countries in the world. Researchers say Americans are not keeping up with progress being made in other countries. #From the August 31 NBC Nightly News: BRIAN WILLIAMS: There are new numbers to announce tonight, and they really are sad news for the country, not the kind of thing that instills great pride. These numbers have to do with infant mortality, and we've asked our chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, to join us tonight. What are the numbers all about? NANCY SNYDERMAN: Hi, Brian. You're right, this,the evidence tonight is in the numbers, and the numbers are not very pretty. expect developed countries to do well when it comes to infant morality, but not necessarily. Take a look at the countries that are usually at the top of the heap. They include Japan, Singapore, and France. They're always consistent in the top tier. But, now, look at this: Cuba, Malaysia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland, they are ahead of the United States, which now ranks 41st in infant mortality, and that's a real concern because really we spend more money per capita for health care in this country, and those are the results. And, Brian, no matter how you massage those numbers, we were ranked 29th five years ago. No way to paint this in a good way. WILLIAMS: It makes me look back at all the confidence of the World War II era, the post-war era, the Space Race, the confidence of America. How did this kind of thing happen? SNYDERMAN: It happened because I think we took our eye off the ball. If you look at newborn health, so much of it is intervention. If you look just in the United States, there are some states that are doing pretty well. For instance, Washington, Utah, Alaska, Iowa, Vermont – which has universal health care – New Hampshire, those are all states that are doing pretty well. But look at the states on the bottom of the list, the states that aren't doing as well: North Carolina, Maryland, Mississippi, Alabama, and, unfortunately, at the bottom of the heap, Washington, D.C. One little moment of perhaps brightness, South Carolina, which is always at the bottom of the list, they've put newborn health as an important benchmark. They're inching forward because they're putting people out in the field trying to get ahead of the problem and not just acting after, in fact, they already have a crisis. But we have a, this is dismal and, frankly, appalling. WILLIAMS: We got to hope this gets everybody's attention. SNYDERMAN: Yes. WILLIAMS: Nancy, thank you, as always.
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Jamaican gangster, whose manhunt sparked Kingston gun battle that left 76 dead, accused of trafficking drugs and weapons Accused Jamaican drug gang leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke pleaded guilty in a New York court to racketeering charges more than a year after a manhunt that sparked deadly gun battles. Coke, 42, was arrested in Jamaica in June last year after a five-week manhunt that began when police and soldiers stormed slums in the country’s capital, Kingston, in an attempt to take him into custody. Seventy-six people were killed over four days of gun battles sparked by the raids. Coke was a strong supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour party and wielded powerful influence in the west Kingston slums. Jamaica initially refused to extradite him and the case had strained relations with the United States. He was extradited to New York in June last year on marijuana, cocaine and firearms trafficking charges and pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one racketeering conspiracy count and one count of conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering. Coke, in a blue prison uniform, admitted to running the Presidential Click, a Kingston-based crime group that trafficked guns, cocaine and marijuana between Jamaica and the United States. “I also ordered the purchase of firearms and the importation of those firearms into Jamaica in furtherance of this conspiracy,” Coke told US district judge Robert Patterson. Coke faces up to 23 years in prison at his sentencing on 8 December. Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke Drugs trade Jamaica United States guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jamaican gangster, whose manhunt sparked Kingston gun battle that left 76 dead, accused of trafficking drugs and weapons Accused Jamaican drug gang leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke pleaded guilty in a New York court to racketeering charges more than a year after a manhunt that sparked deadly gun battles. Coke, 42, was arrested in Jamaica in June last year after a five-week manhunt that began when police and soldiers stormed slums in the country’s capital, Kingston, in an attempt to take him into custody. Seventy-six people were killed over four days of gun battles sparked by the raids. Coke was a strong supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour party and wielded powerful influence in the west Kingston slums. Jamaica initially refused to extradite him and the case had strained relations with the United States. He was extradited to New York in June last year on marijuana, cocaine and firearms trafficking charges and pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one racketeering conspiracy count and one count of conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering. Coke, in a blue prison uniform, admitted to running the Presidential Click, a Kingston-based crime group that trafficked guns, cocaine and marijuana between Jamaica and the United States. “I also ordered the purchase of firearms and the importation of those firearms into Jamaica in furtherance of this conspiracy,” Coke told US district judge Robert Patterson. Coke faces up to 23 years in prison at his sentencing on 8 December. Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke Drugs trade Jamaica United States guardian.co.uk
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Haroon Jahan, Shazad Ali and Abdul Musavir were struck by car during rioting in Winson Green area of Birmingham A 29-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murders of three men who were killed as they tried to protect shops and homes in Birmingham from looters. Haroon Jahan, 21, and brothers Shazad Ali, 30, and 31-year-old Abdul Musavir were struck by a car in the early hours of 10 August during riots in the Winson Green area of the city. They were pronounced dead in hospital. Everton Graham, of no fixed abode, spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth during a brief hearing at Birmingham magistrates court. Graham was remanded in custody to appear at Birmingham crown court on Friday. West Midlands police have arrested 11 men in connection with the killings. Ian Beckford, 30, Joshua Donald, 26, 23-year-old Adam King and a 17-year-old male who cannot be named have already been charged with murder and have been remanded in custody. Liam Young, 28, from Winson Green, was charged with perverting the course of justice. Five other males, aged 17, 23, 29, 32 and 33, have also been arrested and bailed pending further inquiries. UK riots Crime guardian.co.uk
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