US environmental bureau denies claim that Charles Monnett’s suspension is linked to his work with polar bears The official overseeing offshore oil drilling in Alaska said that a top Arctic scientist was suspended for “integrity issues” outside his work on polar bears. Charles Monnett, a US government wildlife biologist who first exposed the threat to polar bears posed by melting sea ice, was suspended on 18 July. His defence team – which was not told of the specific allegations against Monnett – said his suspension may be linked to a months-old investigation into potential scientific misconduct in his work on polar
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Private investigator denies acting on his own as Sara Payne admits phone hacking link left her ‘very distressed and upset’ The private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal denied suggestions he acted without orders from the newspaper. In an attack on the News International, Glenn Mulcaire said he was “effectively employed” by the tabloid publisher from 2002 as a private investigator and had not acted “unilaterally” when he intercepted voicemails. “As an employee he acted on the instructions of others,” a statement issued by his lawyers said. His comments came 24 hours after it emerged that Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was abducted and murdered in 2000, learned Mulcaire may have targeted her phone . Hours after his statement, Sara Payne made her first public comments, saying she was “very distressed and upset” that details relating to her may have been found in Mulcaire’s files. “I can confirm reports that I was given a phone by the campaign team [for the NoW's Sarah's Law campaign] and that my voicemail was only activated after my first aneurysm,” she said. This relates to a report on Thursday that she had not turned her voicemail on the phone until 2009, the year of her first aneurysm. She was given the phone by NoW in 2000. In a statement that indicated she still appreciated her work on Sarah’s Law with the NoW, she said: “Notwithstanding the bad apples involved here, my faith remains solidly behind all the good people who have supported me over the last 11 years. I will never lose my faith in them. My way would be to challenge the bad apples head-on, learn from the facts of the matter, and be a proactive part of stopping this from happening again.” Brooks said the allegations about Payne were “abhorrent”, and that it was “unthinkable” “anyone on the newspaper knew Sara or the campaign team were targeted by Mulcaire”. The private investigator’s statement challenges News International’s central defence since Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, the paper’s former royal editor, were jailed in 2007 for hacking into Prince William’s phone. The company claimed that one “rogue reporter” was responsible. Mulcaire’s statement from his lawyers said: “There were also occasions when he [Mulcaire] understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes. Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue. In the light of the ongoing police investigation, he cannot say any more.” His statement focuses attention back on News International executives, who face another grilling by MPs on the Commons culture select committee. James Murdoch is likely to be summoned to appear before MPs for a second time after Colin Myler, the NoW’s former editor, and Tom Crone, the paper’s former head of legal affairs, challenged his evidence to the select committee on 19 July. Crone and Myler accused Murdoch of being “mistaken” when he told the committee that he had no knowledge of an email that implicated a member of the News of the World staff in Mulcaire’s activities. The pair said they had shown Murdoch the so-called “for Neville” email, which raised the possibility that the paper’s former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck knew about phone hacking at the time that the BSkyB chairman approved payments to victims of phone hacking. Murdoch said earlier this month that he did not have a “complete picture” when he approved the payments. Committee chair John Whittingdale, who said he wanted to hear from the pair and James Murdoch in writing first, is expected to summon them next month. He would also be asking Myler and Crone to exlain why they now think the “for Neville” email is so significant after they played down its significance when they appeared before the committee in July 2009. “Tom Crone and Colin Myler … told us they had discovered no evidence suggesting that anybody else beyond Clive Goodman had been involved,” Whittingdale said. “We are now told, we understand from the statement they issued to the media, that they had drawn James Murdoch’s attention to the significance of the ‘for Neville’ email. It appeared, when they came before us, that they did not regard that it was significant. But clearly they are now suggesting it is.” The committee is also writing to Jon Chapman, a former director of legal affairs at News International, who challenged Rupert Murdoch’s claim to the culture committee that he had a copy of a report “for a number of years” which showed evidence of illegality. Chapman said he was responsible for corporate and legal matters at News International and did not have responsibility for dealing with allegations about phone hacking. Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to charges of phone interception and is currently appealing against a High Court order that would force him to give more information about hacking to his alleged victims. Glenn Mulcaire had claimed the privilege of self-incrimination but lost a High Court battle against comedian Steve Coogan and football pundit Andy Gray. There is now a prospect that this appeal against the order arising from this case is abandoned after News International announced it was ceasing to cover Mulcaire’s legal fees with “immediate effect”. Mulcaire’s solictors wrote to News International earlier this week warning the publisher they were still legally liable to indemnify him against legal costs until the appeal case was resolved. Glenn Mulcaire Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Lisa O’Carroll Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Now the ball is in the Senate Democrats' court. Unfortunately for them, they don't even have a written bill yet. Will the media put the onus back on Democrats who are split between tax hikers and non-tax hikers? List of GOP “no” votes follows below the break… House Republicans voting against increase Amash-MI Bachmann-MN Broun-GA Chaffetz-UT Cravaak-MN Desjarlais-TN Duncan-SC Gowdy-SC Graves-GA Huelskamp-KS Johnson-IL Jordan-OH King-IA Latham-IA Mack-FL McClintock-CA Mulvaney-SC Paul-TX Scott-SC Southerland-FL Walsh-IL Wilson-SC
Continue reading …While our media is focusing on this debt ceiling debacle and debating whether our politicians might willingly default on America’s debt through this crisis of their own making, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was on the Senate floor this week discussing the real crisis in America — the jobs crisis. With Release of New Study Showing Record Concern Over State of the Manufacturing Industry, Brown Sends Letter to President Obama Urging Greater Focus on Needs of Domestic Manufacturers : Focus Groups Show Americans Want Washington to Focus on Bringing Back Manufacturing Jobs, See Manufacturing as Key to Economic Strength, and Strongly Support the Implementation of a National Manufacturing Strategy July 28, 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the release of new poll today showing that Americans believe that the strength of the economy is strongly tied to the strength of our manufacturing industry, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to devote greater attention to the needs of domestic manufacturers as he spearheads a consolidation and reorganization of the Administration’s trade agencies. The study, conducted for the Alliance for American Manufacturing, showed that Americans want Washington to focus on bringing back manufacturing jobs; that they see manufacturing as key to our nation’s economic strength; and that they strongly support the implementation of a National Manufacturing Strategy. Brown is the author of the bipartisan National Manufacturing Strategy Act of 2011, legislation aimed at bolstering the competitiveness of the American manufacturing industry. The goals of the Strategy are to increase manufacturing jobs, identify emerging technologies to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and strengthen the manufacturing sectors in which the U.S. is most competitive. “The recovery of our manufacturing industry is critical to our country’s economic recovery. Historically, the manufacturing sector has provided Americans with good-paying, stable jobs—a reliable pathway to the middle class. It’s no wonder that with factories closing down and jobs going to China and Mexico that Americans think that Washington isn’t doing enough to save this vital industry,” Brown said. “But the good news is that we can work to reverse the damage—by closing loopholes for companies that ship jobs abroad and giving businesses strong incentives to Make It In America. We should be vigorously enforcing our trade laws—particularly with countries like China—and cracking down on currency manipulation and duty evasion. And finally, as one of the only developed nations without one, we must implement a National Manufacturing Strategy. A complete economic recovery requires a sustained strategy to ensure long-term job growth and job creation.” According to the American Alliance for Manufacturing, the study included eight focus groups nationwide, as well as a random national survey of 1,202 likely voters. The study found that across the partisan spectrum, Democratic and Republican voters ranked job creation and rebuilding the nation’s manufacturing base at the top of their list of priorities. In addition, 94% of voters say creating manufacturing jobs is either “one of the most important” things government can do or “very important;” 90% support Buy American policies “to ensure that taxpayer-funded government projects use only U.S.-made goods and supplies wherever possible;” and 95% favor keeping “America’s trade laws strong and strictly enforced to provide a level playing field for our workers and businesses.” Earlier this month, GAO released a report—requested by Brown and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) — entitled Office of Manufacturing and Services Could Better Measure and Communicate Its Contributions to Trade Policy . At the time of requesting the report, Brown was serving as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking, House, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy, where he chaired nine hearings on the state of American manufacturing industry. A copy of the GAO report can be found here . A full copy of the letter to the President is below. Dear Mr. President: In your State of the Union address, you called for consolidating and reorganizing the Administration’s trade agencies. To that end, you tasked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to examine the consolidation of export and trade offices managed primarily by the Office of U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department. During this process, I urge you to ensure that this reorganization focuses not only upon export-related efforts but also the non-export policy needs of domestic manufacturers. Currently, the Office of Manufacturing and Services (MAS) is the designated office for supporting the Secretary of Commerce in his role as the federal government’s chief advocate for American manufacturing. This office is within the International Trade Administration (ITA) and primarily supports sectors that have a direct connection to exports or impact trade flows. With more than 90 percent of the world’s customers outside the United States, this focus on exports is clearly a central plank in a national manufacturing strategy and efforts. However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a report I requested, found that MAS set an internal goal for 75 percent of its resources to support the National Export Initiative (NEI). This singular focus upon exports is of great concern, especially when greater challenges face the manufacturing sector than export barriers, including: tax issues; access to credit and financing for viable producers; workforce training; and regulations. These challenges take on new urgency considering that from 2000-2009, fifteen of the nineteen aggregate-level U.S. manufacturing sectors shrank in output while manufacturing jobs fell by 6.1 million, or 34 percent. You have given manufacturing policy significant attention, as outlined in the December 2010 “Framework to Revitalize American Manufacturing” and as evident in your recently announced Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. Further, your efforts to restructure the auto industry have saved thousands of jobs in my state and throughout the country, and now we are seeing new jobs created in the auto sector. I fully support and encourage your efforts, but request that you consider a comprehensive and sustainable structure within the Commerce Department to serve as the voice for domestic manufacturers and the integrator of Federal agency manufacturing efforts within yours and future Administrations. I have proposed legislation that will help to achieve these goals, which with your support has the potential to create a more cohesive and coordinated approach to promoting U.S. manufacturers.
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Oh, hi! How are you? It’s been so long! We know, we’ve been busy, but we’re going to be in town soon. Very soon! In less than a month we’ll be having a get-together for lots and lots (and lots) of our closest friends — and yes, you’re totally invited. We’ll be hosting the event on the evening of August 25th and it takes place at Guastavino’s , a top-shelf venue on 59th Street in New York City . It’ll be an all-ages gig where you and your friends can try out some of the hottest tech you’ve read about here, debate with the editors about Windows Phone vs. Android vs. iOS vs. RIM vs. whatever, and maybe go home with one of the many, many great prizes we’ll be giving away. We’ll have more posts with more details in the coming weeks as we get closer to the day in question, but if you’re a member of the media who would like to attend, an exhibitor who wants to show something off to the fans, or a sponsor who wants to be a part of the insanity, please e-mail us at meetup at engadget dot com . Until then! Engadget’s next reader meetup happens in NYC on August 25th! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Sportsmen and women are known to be weighed down by the pressure and expectation heaped upon them by coaches, fans and the media. But eventual success in next year’s Olympics could result in a different kind altogether. It’s been revealed that those large Olympic medals, which the thousands of athletes will be competing for in
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Click here to view this media The man who confessed to killing 68 people in Norway last week says he bought the ammunition clips used in his shooting spree from the U.S by mail order. Anders Behring Breivik wrote in his 1,500-page manifesto that he spent $500 for 10 30-round clips. Clips with more than three rounds are banned from sale in Norway. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), who introduced legislation to limit high-capacity ammunition clips following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), told Politico that U.S. lawmakers should be ashamed. “We’re sending a death warrant to other parts of the world,” she said. “Unfortunately now, internationally, it’s known that you can get here, buy your guns, buy your large magazines, and you’re not going to have any problem”
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Judge describes Bilal Zaheer Ahmad as a viper in our midst before jailing him for 12 years for threats on websites An IT graduate who wrote messages on an Islamic extremist website calling on Muslims to “raise the knife of jihad” and attack and kill British MPs who voted in favour of the war in Iraq has been jailed for 12 years. Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, 24, posted the threats on the US-based RevolutionMuslim.com website with a full list of all MPs who had voted in the House of Commons in favour of the war and links providing personal contact details. He called on them to emulate Roshonara Choudhry , who had attempted to murder the Labour MP Stephen Timms with a knife at his East Ham constituency surgery six months previously, Bristol crown court heard. Ahmad, who worked for an insurance company in Telford, Shropshire, also posted a link to the Tesco website listing cheap knives, urging would-be fanatics to use them to carry out attacks. Jailing him for 12 years, with an additional five years’ extended period on licence, Mr Justice Royce said: “You became a viper in our midst willing to go as far as possible to strike at the heart of our system.” Ahmad, who holds British and Pakistani passports, had purported to be a British citizen, said Royce. “But what you stand for is totally alien to what we stand for in our country.” He added that his views were “corrosively dangerous”. “It’s important MPs can hold constituency surgeries without the threat of someone pulling out a knife and trying to kill them. You were intent on striking at the heart of our democracy and if our politicians are to be at risk from those like you, then the message must go out loud and clear that this country will not tolerate such threats to its democratic processes.” Ahmad posted his threat on 3 November, the day after Choudhry, a 21-year-old university student, was jailed for life for the knife attack on Timms in May last year. She stabbed him twice with a six-inch knife, damaging his liver and perforating his stomach. She later said she had been influenced by the radical sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based preacher and al-Qaida leader. Police arrested Ahmad, at the time living in Dunstall, Wolverhampton, on 10
Continue reading …Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall’s ‘other’ royal wedding to be a humble affair
July 29, 2011 No Comment
Couple decide against lucrative magazine deal for relatively small ceremony to be held at Edinburgh’s Canongate Kirk As a “private family occasion”, even one closing part of Edinburgh and costing taxpayers up to £500,000 in security, Saturday’s royal wedding is likely to reveal only the briefest public glimpses of bride and groom, Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall. Unlike the wedding, beamed across the globe three months ago, international TV anchors are not camping outside Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile, as the Queen’s eldest granddaughter and 13th in line, marries the England rugby captain. “There doesn’t seem to be any American interest,” said Dickie Arbiter, formerly palace press officer now a royal pundit for Sky News. “Zara’s so far down the pecking order. She’s a Miss, not a princess. And Americans just don’t get rugby!” And unlike another “private family occasion”, the 2008 wedding of Phillips’s brother, Peter, to Autumn Kelly, there will be no pictures of the royals – such as Sophie Wessex, “getting it down” on the dancefloor – appearing in a £500,000 Hello! magazine exclusive deal. At the time some newspapers lambasted the “vulgarity” of it all, while simultaneously drooling over the magazine’s sales-boosting shots of princes William and Harry’s then girlfriends, Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy, across 20 glossy pages. No such blatant commercialisation this time: though reports that the Queen had stamped a regal foot and forbidden her granddaughter from similarly cashing in seem wide of the mark. Phillips and Tindall made it plain from the moment of their engagement that there would be no magazine deal, one impeccably placed source stressed. “I’m not surprised,” said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. “After all that damage, Peter Phillips will forever be known as the chap who sold his wedding to Hello! for half-a-million and upset the rest of the family. “Saturday’s going to be very different. Not sure what we’ll be allowed to see,
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London mayor joins mounting opposition to proposed £32bn route linking London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds Boris Johnson, the London mayor, has become embroiled in a new row with David Cameron after government sources accused him of “overstepping the mark” by attacking plans for the £32bn north-south high-speed rail link. The prime minister has identified the 250mph route linking London to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester as a potential vote winner in the north but Johnson has joined mounting opposition. In his submission to a public consultation on the High Speed Two (HS2) project, Johnson said aspects of the route were unacceptable while warning that it did not solve UK airport capacity problems. He said: “These proposals need to give consideration to their impact on residents in London. There is a great case for investing in a high-speed rail network but that must also be supported by the infrastructure to handle the extra passengers.” Johnson is calling for a new tube link at Euston station, the project’s proposed London terminus, amid fears that existing lines will be flooded with passengers. A senior government source said Johnson, whose interventions on spending cuts and a ban on airport expansion have angered the cabinet, had “overstepped the line in his opposition to HS2.” It is understood that Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, has dismissed Johnson’s request for more investment in London’s transport, on top of funding for the £16bn Crossrail project and a multibillion-pound tube upgrade. The source said: “Philip Hammond thinks high-speed rail is crucial for bridging the north-south divide. London did very well in the spending settlement and there is no case for the capital having even more major transport projects.” Rail companies have been asked to contribute £10,000 each to a pro-HS2 campaign amid fears the government will be outgunned by a well-funded opposition. The “no” camp is strongest in the home counties, where residents are angry about the London-to-Birmingham phase, which is due to open in 2026. The newly established Campaign for High Speed Rail accused Johnson of “hijacking” a national policy to secure more funding for London. “The government is busy trying to address the north-south divide, so it’s outrageous that Boris is trying to hijack this progress purely to secure more transport spending for London,” said Professor David Begg, the group’s director. “London already receives more transport spending per resident than anywhere else in the country, and the HS2 scheme as it stands will benefit London hugely in terms of jobs and transport infrastructure.” Once the London-to-Birmingham route is completed, a Y-shaped extension opening in 2032 will take the line to Manchester and Leeds. The full route is forecast to produce a £44bn boost to the UK economy with the first phase generating an estimated 40,000 jobs, as well as freeing up capacity on the west coast rail line for more commuter and freight services. However, opponents argue that the line will scar the landscape of Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire as well as the Chiltern Hills – all home to key Conservative constituencies. The no campaign also believes that taxpayer funds would be better spent on a cheaper upgrade of the rail network. Rail transport Transport Boris Johnson David Cameron Conservatives Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
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