From a bed at his Tripoli home, a frail-looking Abdel Basset al-Megrahi insisted to Reuters that his role in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing was smaller than people think. “The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks, or months” to live, said…
Continue reading …Melissa McCarthy is on top of the world, and now that she’s won an Emmy and won over SNL viewers , what’s next? The Bridesmaids star, who wanted to be a fashion designer before she ended up in comedy, is launching her own plus-size fashion line. “Trying to find stuff that’s…
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Ecstatic delight and furious protests after judges upheld appeal by the American student and her Italian former boyfriend There were scenes of delight inside and protests outside an Italian courtroom after judges upheld the appeal by the American student, Amanda Knox, against a 26-year sentence for killing her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher. The judges also overturned a 25-year sentence imposed on her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. A sobbing and stumbling Knox was hustled from the courtroom by police officers as members of her family embraced and wept. Sollecito hugged his lead counsel, Giulia Bongiorno. Across the courtroom, the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, stood alone while Stephanie Kercher, the victim’s sister, consoled her mother, Arline. Outside, several hundred mainly young people had been gathering since late afternoon. As news of the verdict swept through the crowd, whistles erupted and then a chant went up of “Vergogna. Vergogna” – “Disgrace. Disgrace.” As defence lawyers emerged from the courthouse, they were greeted with roars of disapproval from the mob, interspersed with the odd cheer. One of Knox’s lawyers, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said his client would be released from prison immediately and spend the night with her family at a guesthouse outside Perugia. She is expected to leave for her home city of Seattle on Tuesday. The first person to reach her after the verdict was announced was Dalla Vedova’s junior, Maria del Grosso. “She was terror-struck”, Del Grosso said. “If I had not held her, she would have fallen.” The judges confirmed Knox’s conviction for slandering her former employer, Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, whom she initially accused of the murder, and increased her sentence from one to three years. But since she has already spent four years in jail, Knox was able to walk free. The tension in court as the verdict was delivered exploded into gasps when the presiding judge, Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, began by declaring that the American student’s appeal had been rejected, before adding that the rejection only applied to the slander charge. Hellmann, who has a distinctively metallic voice, read out the verdict in the vaulted and frescoed 14th-century courtroom that has been the scene of an appeal swept by emotion, high tension and furious dispute. The two professional and six lay judges reached their decision after 11 hours of deliberation having earlier heard final pleas from the two appellants. Moments after the verdict was announced Knox’s sister Deanna Knox gave a brief statement outside court. “We’re thankful that Amanda’s nightmare is over,” she said. “She has suffered for four years for a crime that she did not commit.” Deanna paid tribute to her sister’s legal team. “Not only did they defend her brilliantly, but they also loved her. We are thankful for all the support we have received from all over the world – people who took the time to research the case and could see that Amanda and Raffaele were innocent. And last, we are thankful to the court for having the courage to look for the truth and to overturn this conviction.” Francesco Sollecito, Raffaele Sollecito’s father said he had “allowed himself some tears”. Of Meredith Kercher, he said: “We will remember her with affection. I would have liked to talk to her relatives as well, as they have lost a daughter in a very cruel way. “But tonight, they [the court] have given me back my son.” Earlier, in her final statement to the court, Knox, her voice quavering and never far from breaking down, said: “I want to go home, to my life. I don’t want to be deprived of my life, my future for something I have not done.” Though the judges did not immediately disclose their reasoning, they are likely to have been heavily influenced by the report of experts appointed by the court to review the forensic evidence. In June, the independent experts decided that two pillars of the prosecution case were not reliably founded. One was a trace of Sollecito’s DNA on Meredith Kercher’s bra clasp, which was found more than six weeks after the discovery of her body, and which the young Italian’s lawyer implied last week might have been planted. The experts said the DNA could have got there by contamination. The second key item of evidence was a kitchen knife, bearing Sollecito’s and Knox’s DNA, that the prosecution claimed was used to slash Kercher’s throat. The experts said a third sample of DNA was not necessarily that of the victim. The Kerchers’ legal representative had earlier said the family would accept the ruling of the appeal court, as they had accepted that at the original trial. But speaking at a press conference in a Perugia hotel, they said the “brutal death” of the British student had been overlooked. “I think Meredith has been hugely forgotten,” said Kercher’s sister, Stephanie, sitting alongside Kercher’s mother Arline and brother Lyle. “It is very hard to find forgiveness at this time,” said Lyle Kercher. “Four years is a very long time but on the other hand it is still raw. Within 90 days, the judges must submit their written verdict and the various parties will then have 45 days in which to take the case to Italy’s highest appeals court, the court of cassation. Under Italian law, the prosecution can lodge an appeal in the same way as the defence. But it was expected that Knox would leave immediately for the US, and if the court of cassation were to reinstate the decision of the lower court, the authorities would have to seek her extradition. The prosecutor who oversaw the inquiry, Giuliano Mignini, hinted more than once before the outcome that he might not seek a further ruling. The defence argument was, from the beginning that the murder was committed during a break-in by a third person, Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast. Guede has also been convicted, but is serving a lighter, 16-year sentence after opting for a fast-track trial. Amanda Knox Meredith Kercher Italy Europe United States John Hooper Tom Kington guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …ABC News and Yahoo! announced a major new alliance today that will make ABC the “premier news provider” for Yahoo’s news sites. “Teaming with Yahoo will transform the future of ABC News by distributing your journalism to a vast new audience,” ABC News President Ben Sherwood wrote in his announcement…
Continue reading …Tobacco companies were well aware that their products contained radiation—and they discovered this decades ago, UCLA researchers studying 27 historical documents have found. The firms learned of the presence of polonium-210 in cigarettes in 1959, and they examined the radioactive material’s effects during the 1960s, documents show. They found…
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Exiled Boris Berezovsky sues former friend Roman Abramovich over business deal gone sour It was the clash of the oligarchs. On one side of the courtroom was Boris Berezovsky, Kremlin critic, political exile, and sworn enemy of Vladimir Putin. On the other, Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, and a man known for his fondness for yachts. In the middle a lot of bodyguards wearing very dark shades. Once close friends, and alleged beneficiaries of Russia’s controversial privatisation programme, the two men have been locked in an ugly public feud for more than a decade and have steadfastly avoided each other. But on Monday they came face to face at the high court in London in a case that could set a multibillion-pound record for private litigation in the UK. The court heard that Abramovich “blackmailed and betrayed” Berezovsky, his former mentor, and put “wealth and influence” above “loyalty and friendship”. Berezovsky claims Abramovich “intimidated” him into selling his shares in the Russian oil company Sibneft at a fraction of their true value. Berezovsky is claiming in excess of $5bn (£3.2bn) in damages from Abramovich over the Sibneft deal, his barrister Laurence Rabinowitz QC said. Berezovsky, who fled Russia in 2000 after falling out with Putin, who was then president, also wants at least $564m in compensation for another deal involving the Russian aluminium company Rusal. The case was being heard in the gleaming new Rolls building of the commercial court in Fetter Lane, before Mrs Justice Gloster. Both Russians sat at opposite ends of the packed courtroom number 26, with Abramovich listening to the proceedings in Russian via headphones. They ignored each other. Their entourages included supporters in shiny suits, Russian assistants dressed in black, relatives, friends, and so many lawyers that some were forced to sit at the back of the court. Scheduled to last 12 weeks, the case has attracted some of the bar’s biggest names, including Jonathan Sumption QC, acting for Abramovich. Berezovsky is likely to give evidence on Thursday. Abramovich will take the stand, speaking in Russian, in early November. The case promises to shed light on Russia’s murky privatisation programme in the 1990s, during which a small group of well-connected businessmen – subsequently dubbed oligarchs – became fantastically rich. It is also likely to illuminate the opaque connection between money, politics and power in Russia, both in the court of former president Boris Yeltsin, and in the more sinister era of Putin, the current prime minister who now looks set to return to the Kremlin next year. Rabinowitz told the judge that both men had worked together to create Sibneft in 1995 and they had become good friends. The partnership had also included the businessman Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili, Georgia’s wealthiest man. “This is a case about two men who, and this is common ground, worked together to acquire an asset – that is Sibneft – that would make them wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most people,” Rabinowitz said. The relationship continued until Putin, whom Berezovsky helped propel into the Kremlin, became Russia’s leader. In the process they became and remained good friends, said Rabinowitz, until “Berezovsky, who had adopted a high political profile in Russia, not least through his control of certain media outlets, fell out with those in the Kremlin and was forced to leave his home and create a new life abroad.” The barrister said Abramovich was left with the choice of remaining loyal to his old friend or seeking to “profit from his difficulties”. He said that Abramovich picked the latter route, and told Berezovsky that he had to sell his interests in Sibneft at a knockdown price. If he refused, people in the Kremlin led by Putin would expropriate them, Abramovich allegedly warned. “Mr Putin had come to regard Mr Berezovsky as an enemy,” Rabinowitz said. Abramovich denies that Berezovsky or Patarkatsishvili were ever his business partners. He insists that he was the sole owner of Sibneft, plus had a sole share of Rusal, subsequently sold on to another Russian tycoon, Oleg Deripaska. He says he merely “hired” Berezovsky, a key figure in Yeltsin’s entourage, to provide political cover – known by the Russian word krysha (roof) – essential to any businessman wishing to survive in the lawless 1990s. Berezovsky provided services “basically criminal in nature”, Abramovich’s lawyers allege. These included “corrupt political patronage” and protection from “Chechen criminal gangs”. Berezovsky’s barrister conceded that the case was “incredibly complex”. He said that many of the crucial agreements had been made verbally – the preferred method, he said, for blackmailers. Another layer of difficulty stems from the fact that several of the protagonists are dead. Patarkatishvili died of a heart attack in 2008, prompting a bitter continuing legal battle between his relatives and Berezovsky. The British lawyer Stephen Smith, meanwhile, who took notes of a crucial business meeting in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, died in a mysterious helicopter crash in 2004. There was enough material, however, to illustrate that Abramovich had “whitewashed” Berezovsky from the picture, the barrister said. He added: “The case is rather lacking in contemporanous documents. But some documents stand out like a beacon.” Russia Europe Boris Berezovsky Roman Abramovich Luke Harding guardian.co.uk
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Chancellor to announce novel ‘credit easing’ plan to help struggling businesses and avoid the risk of a second credit crunch Growing fears that the euro crisis will prompt a second British banking seizure have led George Osborne to announce unprecedented plans for the Treasury to supply a multibillion credit line direct to British firms, starting with small and medium-sized businesses. Under the novel “credit easing” plan, the Treasury will buy company bonds in an attempt to cut the cost of credit for struggling firms and boost the supply of credit. A Treasury official said: “An aim is to avoid a second credit crunch because of the risks of sorting out the euro crisis affecting the operations of the bond market.” The Treasury is aware of the extent to which the UK banks are exposed if the euro crisis deepens. The chancellor, due to attend a meeting of European finance ministers on Tuesday, has warned of the dangers should the crisis not be resolved during the G20 summit in Cannes, which ends on 4 November. In Osborne’s sometimes grim speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester, he admitted that difficult days lay ahead but insisted Britain could weather the storm if it stuck to its deficit plan. Borrowing too much was the cause of Britain’s problems – not the solution – he said, rejecting rightwing calls for tax cuts and social democrat pleas for a Keynesian demand boost. Osborne also used his speech to say Britain was abandoning its leadership role on climate change in Europe. Britain will press ahead with plans to cut carbon emissions by 30% by 2020 only if the rest of the EU adopted the targets, he said. He also upset the unions by announcing plans to charge fees of £150-250 for every employment tribunal application, and a further £1,000 if the case reaches the tribunal. The credit easing plan, due to be fleshed out in the budget in November, stops short of a state investment bank but is an implicit admission that commercial banks are unwilling or incapable of supplying credit to British business. Desperate to find new weapons to combat a second credit crunch, Osborne felt forced to propose that the Treasury intervene directly partly because the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, has refused to take the step, insisting the Bank cannot take on the risk. “Because banks are damaged they won’t lend at current rates,” Osborne said. “Everyone knows Britain’s small firms are struggling to get credit and banks are weak. So as part of my determination to get the economy moving I have set the Treasury to work on ways to inject money directly into parts of the economy that need it, such as small businesses.” Under the plan, already attempted successfully in the US, Treasury officials said the Bank is nevertheless likely to act as the agent buying the corporate bonds for the Treasury, but the money will appear on the Treasury balance sheet as a contingent liability similar to the way in which the credit guarantee scheme was set up in the 2008 crisis. Treasury officials said the cost of buying the corporate bonds would not add to the deficit because the government will be obtaining assets in return for its investment. Since the Treasury would be funding, but not directly administering, the scheme ministers would not be directly involved in “picking winners”, the Treasury said. Osborne’s aides denied the proposal could be billed as plan B, but questions remain how the Treasury recovers loans if firms are unable to repay. Opposition politicians said the move represents an admission that the Project Merlin deal between government and banks designed to increase lending to business had failed. Under Merlin the banks said they would increase lending to SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) to £76bn this year, which equates to £19bn in the first quarter. Ruling out a fiscal stimulus, Osborne argued the world was facing a “debt crisis” that means fiscal expansion carries more risks than potential benefits. “Borrowing too much is the cause of Britain’s problems, not the solution,” he said, adding the bond markets were “ready to pick off the next country that lacks the will to deal with its debts”. Deviation from his programme would “be abandoning the deficit plan that has brought us the stability other nations today crave”. Lord Oakeshott, the Lib Dem peer who resigned as a party Treasury spokesman in February over the Merlin deal, said this was proof the pact with the banking industry had failed. “George Osborne is right to say Britain’s small firms are still struggling to get credit and banks are weak. Everyone knows that, so why won’t the Treasury accept that Project Merlin has failed and we must impose tough new net small business lending targets on the banks. “We taxpayers control RBS and Lloyds with 60% of the SME market – so we must act directly, starting with them, to end the loan famine and let small businesses grow. The top priority is to pull the levers sitting under our noses now to make the banks lend.” Bankers pointed out that government already had a means to buy corporate debt. Labour set up an Asset Purchase Facility in January 2009 that was able to buy commercial paper and corporate bonds but it has not been very active. Recent data from the Bank of England shows it bought less than £100m of commercial paper and £1.3bn of corporate bonds. This compares with almost £200bn of government bonds. In a sign of jitters Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, predicted at a Financial Times fringe meeting at conference that Greece would default within four to six weeks whilst Henry Bellingham, a Foreign Office minister, said it would be within six months. Economic policy Conservative conference 2011 George Osborne Banking Bonds Euro European Union Patrick Wintour Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Amanda Knox collapsed in tears moments ago after an Italian appeals court announced it was acquitting the U.S. citizen of the 2007 murder of her roommate. Knox’s then-boyfriend, Rafaele Sollecito, was also acquitted. Knox, a 24-year old Seattle native, and Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British
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