Police yesterday helped one of convict Warren Jeffs’ numerous wives flee the polygamous community on the Utah-Arizona border that he still leads from behind bars . The woman, 25, “asked for assistance in leaving the community, and a deputy responded and facilitated that request,” said a spokesman for Utah’s Washington County…
Continue reading …At least 50 people were injured when a powerful earthquake shook Bali this morning. The 6.0 quake caused widespread panic on the Indonesian resort island, and witnesses say the roofs of some homes collapsed, AP reports. The quake, centered 60 miles southwest of the island, was not strong enough…
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Health secretary sets out ‘national ambition’ to cut the equivalent of 16.9m cheeseburgers from Britons’ daily diet The nation needs to slash five billion calories from its daily diet – the equivalent of 16.9m cheeseburgers – according to the health secretary, Andrew Lansley. Faced with an obesity crisis that a succession of initiatives on exercise have failed to turn around, Lansley and the chief medical officer, Sally Davies, have issued a call to action on diet, urging people to act responsibly and reduce the food and drink they consume. Alcohol, they said, was part of the problem – responsible for 10% of our calorie intake. Lansley framed the new plan not as a strategy but as a “national ambition” in which, he said, the food and drink industry had a major part to play. As part of the responsibility deal with food and beverage companies , Lansley will be asking the industry to reduce the calories in their products. A 3% to 5% reduction in the calorie content in an average shopping basket would cut obesity without the consumer even noticing any change in the food they eat, experts say. “We have already seen how we can move further, faster, through the responsibility deal and I am now challenging business to help us make even greater progress,” said Lansley. “Reducing the number of calories we consume is essential.” Most people in the UK – 60% – are obese or overweight, and so are a third of children. Lansley believes the new “national ambition” – which he compared to Michelle Obama’s campaign in the US – can finally turn the figures around, and reverse the upward trend by 2020. He proposes to invest in the social marketing campaign Change 4 Life, which not long ago was facing cuts , and he will urge local authorities to do more. Obesity Health Health policy Andrew Lansley Public services policy Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Health secretary sets out ‘national ambition’ to cut the equivalent of 16.9m cheeseburgers from Britons’ daily diet The nation needs to slash five billion calories from its daily diet – the equivalent of 16.9m cheeseburgers – according to the health secretary, Andrew Lansley. Faced with an obesity crisis that a succession of initiatives on exercise have failed to turn around, Lansley and the chief medical officer, Sally Davies, have issued a call to action on diet, urging people to act responsibly and reduce the food and drink they consume. Alcohol, they said, was part of the problem – responsible for 10% of our calorie intake. Lansley framed the new plan not as a strategy but as a “national ambition” in which, he said, the food and drink industry had a major part to play. As part of the responsibility deal with food and beverage companies , Lansley will be asking the industry to reduce the calories in their products. A 3% to 5% reduction in the calorie content in an average shopping basket would cut obesity without the consumer even noticing any change in the food they eat, experts say. “We have already seen how we can move further, faster, through the responsibility deal and I am now challenging business to help us make even greater progress,” said Lansley. “Reducing the number of calories we consume is essential.” Most people in the UK – 60% – are obese or overweight, and so are a third of children. Lansley believes the new “national ambition” – which he compared to Michelle Obama’s campaign in the US – can finally turn the figures around, and reverse the upward trend by 2020. He proposes to invest in the social marketing campaign Change 4 Life, which not long ago was facing cuts , and he will urge local authorities to do more. Obesity Health Health policy Andrew Lansley Public services policy Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The economic crunch is sprouting vacant lots across the nation—and some communities think that’s a good thing. Banks, encouraged by government officials, are changing the US landscape by bulldozing scores of foreclosed homes—at a cost of some $7,500 a pop—and donating them to communities, reports the…
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PCC’s new chairman is Conservative peer, and former MP, with experience in regulatory affairs Lord Hunt of Wirral, who served in government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, has been named as the next chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). The 69-year-old Conservative peer and former MP will take over from Baroness Buscombe on 17 October. Hunt is also a lawyer specialising in regulatory affairs, with political links and specialist expertise deemed attractive for the £170,000 a year job. Lord Hunt signalled that his chairmanship would not just amount to business as usual. He said that he hoped to lead “wholesale regeneration and renewal of the system of independent self-regulation of the press”. Critics have argued that the PCC is a better mediator rather than an effective regulator. He added: “There is a real appetite for change, however, and it is my intention to drive forward the creation of a reinvigorated and respected standards body, funded by the industry but operationally independent from both the industry and the state.” Interviews were held by the Press Standards Board of Finance, which is chaired by Lord Black of Brentwood, the former spokesman for Michael Howard when he was leader of the Conservative party – who now works for the publishers of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. Lord Black said: “David Hunt’s wide-ranging experience in politics, in the law and in regulation and above all his unshakeable commitment to the principles of press freedom and self-regulation make him the ideal person to lead the process of renewal and regeneration which is now essential.” David Hunt was a member of the Thatcher and Major cabinets for five years from 1990, as Welsh secretary, then employment secretary and finally chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, where he co-ordinated government policy. He stepped down in 1995 and lost his Wirral West seat in 1997. He rejoined the Conservative front bench to shadow Lord Mandelson in the upper house, but did not get a government appointment when the coalition was formed, and returned to legal practice. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Press Complaints Commission Newspapers & magazines Press freedom National newspapers Newspapers Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …PCC’s new chairman is Conservative peer, and former MP, with experience in regulatory affairs Lord Hunt of Wirral, who served in government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, has been named as the next chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). The 69-year-old Conservative peer and former MP will take over from Baroness Buscombe on 17 October. Hunt is also a lawyer specialising in regulatory affairs, with political links and specialist expertise deemed attractive for the £170,000 a year job. Lord Hunt signalled that his chairmanship would not just amount to business as usual. He said that he hoped to lead “wholesale regeneration and renewal of the system of independent self-regulation of the press”. Critics have argued that the PCC is a better mediator rather than an effective regulator. He added: “There is a real appetite for change, however, and it is my intention to drive forward the creation of a reinvigorated and respected standards body, funded by the industry but operationally independent from both the industry and the state.” Interviews were held by the Press Standards Board of Finance, which is chaired by Lord Black of Brentwood, the former spokesman for Michael Howard when he was leader of the Conservative party – who now works for the publishers of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. Lord Black said: “David Hunt’s wide-ranging experience in politics, in the law and in regulation and above all his unshakeable commitment to the principles of press freedom and self-regulation make him the ideal person to lead the process of renewal and regeneration which is now essential.” David Hunt was a member of the Thatcher and Major cabinets for five years from 1990, as Welsh secretary, then employment secretary and finally chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, where he co-ordinated government policy. He stepped down in 1995 and lost his Wirral West seat in 1997. He rejoined the Conservative front bench to shadow Lord Mandelson in the upper house, but did not get a government appointment when the coalition was formed, and returned to legal practice. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Press Complaints Commission Newspapers & magazines Press freedom National newspapers Newspapers Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …PCC’s new chairman is Conservative peer, and former MP, with experience in regulatory affairs Lord Hunt of Wirral, who served in government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, has been named as the next chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). The 69-year-old Conservative peer and former MP will take over from Baroness Buscombe on 17 October. Hunt is also a lawyer specialising in regulatory affairs, with political links and specialist expertise deemed attractive for the £170,000 a year job. Lord Hunt signalled that his chairmanship would not just amount to business as usual. He said that he hoped to lead “wholesale regeneration and renewal of the system of independent self-regulation of the press”. Critics have argued that the PCC is a better mediator rather than an effective regulator. He added: “There is a real appetite for change, however, and it is my intention to drive forward the creation of a reinvigorated and respected standards body, funded by the industry but operationally independent from both the industry and the state.” Interviews were held by the Press Standards Board of Finance, which is chaired by Lord Black of Brentwood, the former spokesman for Michael Howard when he was leader of the Conservative party – who now works for the publishers of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. Lord Black said: “David Hunt’s wide-ranging experience in politics, in the law and in regulation and above all his unshakeable commitment to the principles of press freedom and self-regulation make him the ideal person to lead the process of renewal and regeneration which is now essential.” David Hunt was a member of the Thatcher and Major cabinets for five years from 1990, as Welsh secretary, then employment secretary and finally chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, where he co-ordinated government policy. He stepped down in 1995 and lost his Wirral West seat in 1997. He rejoined the Conservative front bench to shadow Lord Mandelson in the upper house, but did not get a government appointment when the coalition was formed, and returned to legal practice. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Press Complaints Commission Newspapers & magazines Press freedom National newspapers Newspapers Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk
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Friends of landscape architect killed by Vincent Tabak tell murder trial jury how Yeates planned to spend weekend baking Joanna Yeates had been her usual “jovial” self on the night she was allegedly murdered by her next door neighbour, Vincent Tabak, friends have told a jury. The Bristol landscape architect visited a pub in the early evening, where she told one work colleague she planned to spend the weekend baking and had a jokey bet with a second over who would win the TV programme The Apprentice. She then walked home and was allegedly murdered by Tabak, her next door neighbour, shortly after getting back to her flat in Clifton, Bristol. Tabak, 33, denies murder but has admitted manslaughter. The first witnesses to give evidence at Tabak’s trial told how Yeates spent the early part of the evening of 17 December in the Ram pub on Park Street, near Bristol city centre. Darragh Bellew, a colleague, said Yeates bought him a pint of beer at the Ram and told him she was planning to bake cakes and bread over the weekend. Bellew said Yeates had been in good spirits. When the prosecution barrister Nicholas Rowland asked him whether she was drunk, Bellew told the jury: “Not at all, just jovial, her usual self.” Bellew told how colleagues and friends from an Irish Gaelic football team were joining them in the pub, which was packed with Christmas revellers. When asked whether she left before other drinkers, Bellew said: “She would always leave before most of us – when we would go on drinking she would go to be with Greg [Reardon, her boyfriend] really.” Bellew said he had asked her what she had planned for the weekend. “She replied that she was going to bake some cakes and bread over the weekend because Greg was away,” he told the court. “We had a joke and said she was going to bring them into the office on Monday morning.” In a written statement, Michael Brown, who also worked with Yeates, said he had spoken to her in the Ram about her plans for Christmas and about who would win the final of The Apprentice, which was being aired on the Sunday night. In a statement read to the jury, the architect Samuel Huscroft said he had planned to go to the Ram but he was not feeling well and went home. He said that later on he received a text from Yeates, which said: “Where are you this fine evening?” Huscroft texted back but did not receive a reply. The trial continues. Joanna Yeates Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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Friends of landscape architect killed by Vincent Tabak tell murder trial jury how Yeates planned to spend weekend baking Joanna Yeates had been her usual “jovial” self on the night she was allegedly murdered by her next door neighbour, Vincent Tabak, friends have told a jury. The Bristol landscape architect visited a pub in the early evening, where she told one work colleague she planned to spend the weekend baking and had a jokey bet with a second over who would win the TV programme The Apprentice. She then walked home and was allegedly murdered by Tabak, her next door neighbour, shortly after getting back to her flat in Clifton, Bristol. Tabak, 33, denies murder but has admitted manslaughter. The first witnesses to give evidence at Tabak’s trial told how Yeates spent the early part of the evening of 17 December in the Ram pub on Park Street, near Bristol city centre. Darragh Bellew, a colleague, said Yeates bought him a pint of beer at the Ram and told him she was planning to bake cakes and bread over the weekend. Bellew said Yeates had been in good spirits. When the prosecution barrister Nicholas Rowland asked him whether she was drunk, Bellew told the jury: “Not at all, just jovial, her usual self.” Bellew told how colleagues and friends from an Irish Gaelic football team were joining them in the pub, which was packed with Christmas revellers. When asked whether she left before other drinkers, Bellew said: “She would always leave before most of us – when we would go on drinking she would go to be with Greg [Reardon, her boyfriend] really.” Bellew said he had asked her what she had planned for the weekend. “She replied that she was going to bake some cakes and bread over the weekend because Greg was away,” he told the court. “We had a joke and said she was going to bring them into the office on Monday morning.” In a written statement, Michael Brown, who also worked with Yeates, said he had spoken to her in the Ram about her plans for Christmas and about who would win the final of The Apprentice, which was being aired on the Sunday night. In a statement read to the jury, the architect Samuel Huscroft said he had planned to go to the Ram but he was not feeling well and went home. He said that later on he received a text from Yeates, which said: “Where are you this fine evening?” Huscroft texted back but did not receive a reply. The trial continues. Joanna Yeates Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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