Ex-South African president Thabo Mbeki helps secure agreement which will allow Ethiopian peacekeeping force role Leaders from north and south Sudan signed an agreement in Ethiopia on Monday to demilitarise the disputed central region of Abyei and allow an Ethiopian peacekeeping force to move in. The former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who is helping to lead peace talks, said the agreement provided for the full demilitarisation of the fertile region near oilfields that both north and south claim as their own. Troops from northern Sudan moved into the region last month, resulting in the exodus of tens of thousands of people aligned with the south. “The Sudan armed forces will pull out and will be deployed outside Abyei,” said Mbeki. The agreement comes three weeks before the south is set to secede from the north and create the world’s newest country. Heavy violence has broken out along the north-south border in the runup to the south’s independence declaration. The United Nations security council will decide at a meeting in New York what the size of the Ethiopian force will be and what action it will be mandated to take. Shortly after the agreement was reached, Mbeki told the UN in a video conference that both parties wanted the UN to move quickly to see the agreement implemented. Mbeki said urgent action would allow the displaced people of Abyei to return after military forces left, allowing the humanitarian situation to be addressed. Mbeki said: “It will also bring to an end this threat of violence, and actual violence in the area, so we are really hoping that [the] security council will look at this agreement as early as possible and take all the necessary decisions so that the various provisions in the agreement can be implemented.” Tens of thousands of people fled Abyei after northern troops moved in last month. More recently, tens of thousands of people aligned with the south have fled attacks by the northern military in the state of South Kordofan. Talks on the violence in that region are set to begin on Tuesday. The civil war in Sudan lasted decades and resulted in about two million deaths. It ended with a 2005 peace deal that gave the south the right to hold a self-determination vote. The region voted overwhelmingly in January to secede, but the north and south have yet to work out all the details. Pagan Amam, the leader of the southern delegation, said the south was happy with the agreement, particularly the part calling for the withdrawal of northern forces from Abyei. Sudan Africa Ethiopia Thabo Mbeki guardian.co.uk
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New duty of candour to be written into third-party NHS provider contracts following government’s ‘listening exercise’ The Department of Health has published its full response to last week’s NHS Future Forum report , accepting many of the forum’s recommendations and introducing a drive for transparency that will require hospitals to admit errors. A written ministerial statement said hospitals would have a new “duty of candour”, requiring them to tell patients when they had made mistakes – a key demand from the “listening exercise”. Providers of NHS services would have the duty written into their contracts in a drive to increase transparency. The government has moved to eliminate the chances for “cherry-picking”, whereby private providers seek to take on the most profitable operations. Royal colleges – professional bodies for health professionals – would be enlisted to develop safeguards to eliminate this. The document added to the modifications the government had already said it would make to the controversial health and social care bill, including watering down requirements on competition . Having resolved major differences between the coalition partners, the government hopes the bill will clear the House of Commons before the summer recess, and go to the Lords early in the autumn. High profile Liberal Democrats, such as former MP Dr Evan Harris, have voiced continuing concerns about the new direction of the bill. They have three concerns that could threaten a new rebellion like the one that saw the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, forced to insist on a pause in the bill’s progress. Harris has highlighted the danger of essential NHS services being undermined by large numbers of more straightforward cases – and the income that goes with them – being farmed out to private or third sector providers, leaving more expensive A&E or intensive care units unviable. “The NHS doesn’t need any favours on a level playing field, but in the end it has to provide these emergency and rescue services and it can’t do that in a free market,” Harris said. A second concern is the potential for clinical commissioning groups to outsource work to private companies with vested interests, beyond the scope of full public scrutiny. Harris is also concerned that the government is still only placing a responsibility on the secretary of state to have a “duty to promote” rather than the stronger duty to “provide or secure the provision of” a comprehensive NHS service. The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, said the response to the report built on changes already agreed to the health bill. The government has said doctors and nurses will be involved in planning and buying care, while a 2013 deadline for commissioning consortiums to take on budgets has been scrapped and the NHS regulator, Monitor, now has a duty to promote the interest of patients when it comes to competition. Explaining the “duty of candour” principle, the response statement says: “We heard through the listening exercise the suggestion that we could strengthen transparency of organisations and increase patient confidence by introducing a ‘duty of candour’: a new contractual requirement on providers to be open and transparent in admitting mistakes. “We agree. This will be enacted through contractual mechanisms and therefore does not require amendments to the bill. We will set out more details about this shortly.” The “candour” pledge comes as new research suggested basic failures in co-ordinating care led to errors in medication and other forms of treatment. The study, published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice, included 1,434 British patients. Some 9% reported medication or medical errors, with 23% saying poorly co-ordinated care was involved – increasing the likelihood of error by 160%. Lansley said: “We want to deliver continuous improvements in the quality of NHS care. Too often, data about what goes wrong in the NHS is not used to drive improvements. That’s why we are introducing a requirement on providers to be open and transparent in admitting mistakes. “In addition, we are asking foundation trusts to hold their board meetings in public. This will help to foster a culture of openness in the NHS and improve patient confidence. A transparent NHS is a safer NHS.” Have your say on our NHS reforms coverage Health policy NHS Health Andrew Lansley Public services policy Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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Retail giant victorious in gender bias case as US supreme court rules against 1.6m workers’ collective claims The US supreme court has rejected the biggest sex discrimination case in history, ruling it was too large to bring to trial. The massive gender bias case against retail giant Walmart claimed that 1.6 million of the firm’s current and former employees were subject to discrimination. The suit began nearly 10 years ago when it was originally filed on behalf of employee Betty Dukes and five of her co-workers. The women claimed they had been passed over for promotions and paid less than male employees. After a lower US court said the case could go to trial, Walmart appealed to the supreme court. The case could have cost the firm billions of dollars and would have set a precedent for gender discrimination at many corporations. Companies including Microsoft and General Electric wrote to the court expressing concern about the case. The court rejected arguments that there was a common policy of discrimination against women at Walmart. The plaintiffs had provided statistical evidence that women earned less money and were promoted less often across the company. But Walmart argued there was no discrimination at the firm. Its lawyers argued that a class action representing women from across the country would imply a uniform policy of discrimination, but as individual managers made hiring and promoting decisions independently there was no class-action case to answer. Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion for the court’s conservative majority sided with Walmart. He said there needed to be common elements tying together “literally millions of employment decisions at once”. He said that such a common element was “entirely absent here”. TDukes and the handful of women who brought the original lawsuit may now pursue their claims on their own. Legal expert Stuart Slotnick of New York law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney said: “This changes everything in Walmart’s favour.” Slotnick added that large-scale class actions would now be far harder to bring against other companies, and that greater proof of system-wide discrimination would be needed before a major class-action lawsuit could be brought. Often such proof is only available after a case has been granted class-action status and the process of discovery – where lawyers can demand access to sensitive internal documents – begins. “Walmart was facing tremendous pressure from a case where so many claims were being made against it in one case before one judge,” said Slotnick. “Now each individual will have to find a lawyer to fight their case and I would question whether most individuals will want to do that,” he said. Walmart Gender Retail industry Discrimination at work Work & careers United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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UK Border Agency launches inquiry after man cuts himself on Jamaica-bound 747 jet An illegal immigrant slashed his throat as he was being deported from London on a plane. The man is receiving treatment in hospital after the Virgin Atlantic flight from London Gatwick to Kingston, Jamaica, was postponed. A UK Border Agency spokesman said an investigation was being launched into how the man was able to inflict the “superficial injuries” on himself. The airline has offered counselling to passengers, who looked on in horror as the incident took place on Monday. Emergency services prevented more serious injury by “glueing” his throat together, a source said. A spokeswoman for the airline said: “Virgin Atlantic confirms that flight VS69 from London Gatwick to Kingston has been delayed until 12.45 on 21 June following a passenger incident. “Virgin Atlantic is cooperating with the authorities in their investigation of the incident and is offering counselling support to passengers and crew. “All passengers on board the plane have been provided with hotel accommodation, refreshments and meals until the flight departs tomorrow. Any passengers who wish to change their flights will be able to do so.” The Boeing 747-400 aircraft was carrying 449 passengers and 17 crew. Immigration and asylum Jamaica Air transport Boeing Virgin Group Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …If Chris Wallace is Looking for Evidence of ‘Liberal Media Bias’ He Needs Some Better Examples Than Jon Stewart
June 20, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media As was already posted here at Crooks and Liars, Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace decided to bring in Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and grill him about how his comedy show and his criticism of their network which apparently doesn’t live up to the fine journalistic standards at Fox, even though he hosts… you know… a comedy show and that fact that it’s a joke that Fox should not be considered a “news network” didn’t seem to hamper the irony of Wallace doing this interview in the first place. I think Steve Benen hit the nail on the head with this criticism of the portion of interview which is shown above. “The Daily Show” host argued that bias may exist in media, but it’s towards “sensationalism, conflict, and laziness.” His host didn’t see it that way . Host Chris Wallace pressed Stewart on why he didn’t consider the New York Times and the Washington Post biased for asking readers to help read Sarah Palin’s email trove. “They never said ‘help us go through the 2000 pages of the Obama health care bill,’” Wallace noted. “I think their bias is towards sensationalism and laziness. I wouldn’t say it’s towards a liberal agenda. It’s light fluff so it’s absolutely within the wheelhouse,” said Stewart. I had no idea the Palin email thing was seen as evidence of a “liberal media” in Republican circles. I thought it was evidence of “ridiculous media,” and certainly “lazy media,” not to mention “a misguided media lacking in editorial judgment and a sense of priorities,” but not “liberal.” Indeed, the very idea strikes me as self-defeating. If major news outlets are obsessed with combing through emails of a former half-term governor turned right-wing media personality, isn’t that evidence that the media isn’t liberal? Wouldn’t an actually liberal media be more inclined to ignore the emails? As for the fact that major outlets didn’t try to crowd-source the Affordable Care Act’s legislative language, the comparison seems bizarre. For one thing, the bill had far fewer pages, and had been scrutinized over the course of months as it worked its way through the committee process. For another, legislation and emails aren’t similar — filled with technical and legal jargon, bills aren’t written in a way to be read by a general lay audience. If Wallace is looking for evidence of media “bias,” he’ll need to come up with some far better examples. If Fox News Sunday wasn’t desperate for some better ratings, I can’t imagine another scenario of why they’d allow Stewart on one of their shows in the first place to make a fool out of Chris Wallace. Full transcript below the fold. WALLACE: Even you make fun of the fact that “The New York Times” and the “Washington Post” when this document dump of 24,000 e-mails of Sarah Palin was released, and they got so excited about it, they asked their readers, can you help us go through these 24,00 documents? STEWART: Right. WALLACE: How do you explain the fact that they would do that? They would ask the readers to help them go through the Palin e-mails — inconsequential as they turned out to be — STEWART: Right. WALLACE: — but they never said help us go through the 2,000 pages of the Obama health care bill? STEWART: Because I think their bias is towards sensationalism and laziness. I wouldn’t say it’s towards a liberal agenda. It’s light fluff. So, it’s absolutely within the wheelhouse. I mean, if your suggestion is that they are relentlessly partisan and why haven’t they gone and backed away from Weiner? Now, they’ve dove, they’ve jumped into the Weiner pool — so, with such delight and relish, because the bias — WALLACE: Some things are indefensible. STEWART: — the bias of the mainstream media — oh, I’m not saying it’s defensible, but the bias of the mainstream media is toward sensationalism, conflict and laziness.
Continue reading …MRC’s Gainor to NBC: Fire Employees Responsible for Removing ‘Under God’ From Pledge of Allegiance
June 20, 2011 No CommentNBC has unquestionably committed an act of religious bigotry designed to offend Christians. Removing ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance in a piece they aired yesterday during the U.S. Open – not once, but twice – was absolutely not accidental. It was brazenly deliberate. NBC's pathetic apology did nothing but compound the offense by refusing to admit what they had done. Either NBC identifies and fires the employee or employees responsible for this act or the network is guilty of deliberately giving aid and comfort to religious bigots. The Media Research Center will be sending letters to leaders of the top Christian denominations in the country, calling on them to hold NBC’s feet to the fire and demand the network fire those responsible. We are urging religious leaders to educate their congregations to NBC's attack on faith and join us in publicly denouncing the network. Dan Gainor is the Media Research Center Vice President for Business & Culture.
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New medical report cited before August trial shows ex-Egyptian president has tumours in the gall bladder and pancreas Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak has cancer, his defence lawyer has said , citing a medical report to assess whether the former leader is fit to face trial. “Mubarak has cancer and this was included in the last medical report,” said lawyer Farid el-Deeb. Mubarak, 83, was forced from office in February during Egypt’s uprising. He is due to stand trial on 3 August over the killing of protesters and abuse of power, charges he denies. He has been detained in hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since mid-April after officials claimed he had heart problems during initial questioning. The timing of Mubarak’s illness means he has been spared jail, fuelling claims that he is receiving special treatment from the Egyptian army, which took power following his ousting. A committee of doctors appointed to assess Mubarak’s state of health said in late May that he should not be moved to a prison hospital because he was depressed, had poor blood circulation and was at risk of a sudden heart attack. The medical team also said he had tumours in his gall bladder and pancreas, for which he had operations in the past. Rumours over Mubarak’s health circulated for years before he was ousted from power but government officials always denied any life-threatening illness including cancer. Hosni Mubarak Egypt Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa guardian.co.uk
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Former Cherie Blair ‘lifestyle guru’ seeks damages of £250,000 over alleged claims she could sell details of ex-PM’s marriage • Read the judgment in full Carole Caplin, the former “lifestyle guru” to Cherie Blair, has been given the green light to sue the Daily Mail for libel over her alleged portrayal as “some sort of sexpot or randy masseuse”. Caplin, 48, is seeking damages of up to £250,000 from the Associated Newspapers title after a September 2010 article which allegedly suggested that she would disclose “sex secrets” about former prime minister Tony Blair’s wife for £1m. Judge Mrs Justice Sharp on Monday concluded that the article, headlined “Will Carole Caplin lift the lid on Blairs’ marriage?”, was capable of giving rise to the suspicion that she would sell her story for a substantial fee. “It seems to me that an ordinary sensible reader could conclude both that Caplin now has a financial motive to spill the beans, and that she may do so, even though she has said nothing up until now,” Sharp said. “I have concluded that read as a whole, and applying the relevant principles to the issue as it arises now, the article is capable of conveying the suspicion that the claimant will ‘lift the lid on the Blairs’ marriage’ and their ‘sex secrets” for substantial financial reward.” Sharp said it would be for a trial tribunal to conclude what inference is to be drawn from these words. David Price QC, acting for Caplin, told the high court in London in May that the newspaper portrayed his client as a “Svengali or Rasputin figure” in the marriage of Tony and Cherie Blair. Associated Newspapers accepted that, taken on their own, the headlines could foster a suspicion that Caplin was intending to “lift the lid” on the Blairs. However, the publisher argued that the article as a whole was not defamatory. Caplin acted as a “lifestyle adviser” to Cherie Blair during her time at Downing Street. She has given numerous newspaper and magazine interviews about her relationship with the Blairs since leaving to set up a gym. The Daily Mail claimed Caplin had previously turned down an offer of £1m to sell her story, but that she “might now be forced to think again” following the alleged financial failure of her gym. The article also alleged that Caplin had “insisted” Cherie Blair disclose all about her private life. Price told the court that this would lead readers to suspect that Caplin could reveal all for a financial reward. Price argued the article implied that Caplin gave the former prime minister massages of a sexual nature during her time at Downing Street, allegations he described as completely false. He added: “My client’s business involves respect for confidential information – it’s at the heart of what she does, at the heart of this relationship.” • 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 . Media law Daily Mail Newspapers & magazines Associated Newspapers Daily Mail & General Trust National newspapers Privacy & the media Cherie Blair Tony Blair Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Justice Clarence Thomas Should Resign For His Egregious Conflicts of Interest and Unethical Behavior
June 20, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Has this country become so corrupt that our elected officials and the media will simply look the other way while Clarence Thomas makes a mockery of judicial impartiality? How nice that he has rich friends who do such nice favors — I’m sure it doesn’t influence him in the least: Justice Clarence Thomas is an ethics problem in a black robe. Just eight months after ThinkProgress broke the story of Thomas’ attendance at a Koch-sponsored political fundraiser , we learn that Thomas doesn’t just do unethical favors for wealthy right-wing donors — they also do expensive favors for him . Leading conservative donor Harlan Crow, whose company often litigates in federal court, donated $500,000 to allow Thomas’s wife to start a Tea Party group and he once gave Thomas a $19,000 Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass. The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank which frequently files briefs in Thomas’ Court, also gave Thomas a $15,000 gift.If this sounds familiar, it’s because America has seen this movie before. Indeed, the Thomas scandal is little more than a remake of the forty year-old gifting scandal that brought down Justice Abe Fortas. Like Thomas, Fortas liked to associate with wealthy individuals with potential business before his Court. And like Thomas, Fortas took inappropriate gifts from his wealthy benefactors. It is difficult to distinguish Fortas’ scandal from Thomas’. Like Fortas, Thomas accepted several very valuable gifts from parties who are frequently interested in the outcome of federal court cases. One of Thomas’ benefactors has even filed briefs in his Court since giving Thomas a $15,000 gift, and Thomas has not recused himself from each of these cases. Of course, Thomas is also the least likely Justice to actually follow the command of precedent. Thomas embraces a discredited theory of the Constitution which would return America to a time when federal child labor laws were considered unconstitutional . His fellow justices criticize him for showing “ utter disregard for our precedent and Congress’ intent.” Even ultra-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia finds Thomas’ approach to the law too extreme — in Scalia’s words “I am a textualist. I am an originalist. I am not a nut.” But Thomas’ disregard for what has come before him changes nothing about the precedent he faces. If Abe Fortas had to resign his seat, so too should Clarence Thomas.
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‘Mossbourne two’ would meet demands of parents who beg for a place at academy in east London, says headteacher One of Labour’s first academies – which replaced a school described by the government as the “worst school in Britain” – is planning to take advantage of a flagship Tory policy by opening a free school to cope with demand from parents. Mossbourne academy, in Hackney, east London, wants to set up a free school at which 70% of children would take the “English baccalaureate”, a set of five core academic subjects at GCSE. The move was announced as the education secretary, Michael Gove, confirmed the government had received 281 applications to open free schools from September 2012. These included a proposal from Everton FC to open a school that would use sport to engage children at risk of exclusion. The most recent applications included 20 schools for children with special needs and 65 characterising themselves as faith schools among the applications to open a free school this September. Speaking at the Policy Exchange thinktank in London on Monday, Gove said: “Even when there are places at local schools, they’re not necessarily the type of school places parents are happy with. A choice between two things you don’t want is hardly a choice at all. Free schools offer a genuine alternative – and they have the freedom to be different.” Like academies, free schools can set aside the national curriculum and vary teachers’ pay and conditions; many propose to extend teachers’ hours to give children a longer school day. Gove was accompanied at the speech by Michael Wilshaw, headteacher of Mossbourne, who said his proposal for a new school would answer demands of parents who “buttonholed” him outside the academy pleading for a place for their child. Wilshaw said: “We turn away over 1,000 children every year. It will be a Mossbourne two, in the south of the borough, where provision is not that good, offering a balanced and broad curriculum. Our aim is that 70% will do the English baccalaureate.” Free school groups seeking to open next year praised the “Mossbourne model”, which includes a longer day; in some cases children work until 8pm and have their evening meals at the school. Tom Shinner, a history teacher working on a free school proposal for Greenwich, south London, said: “Like Mossbourne we’ll have high expectations, a ‘no excuses’ approach. There will be an extended day, from 8am to 5.30pm, and a broad range of extra-curricular activities which every single one of our kids will have to take part in: debating, competitive sport, a model United Nations. We’ll have more teachers and fewer non-teaching adults in school, fewer teaching assistants and fewer admin staff.” Edward Fidoe, an education consultant and a member of the team behind a proposed school for Newham, east London, called Newham 21 – which would have Tony Blair’s former speechwriter Peter Hyman as its head – said the school would focus on instilling personal qualities such as leadership and creativity as well as an academic education. The Newham free school is proposingto assess children on their “leadership capability” as well as standard academic tests. Other free school proposals have been aimed at meeting local demand in areas short of places. Kerstyn Comley, a parent involved in a free school proposal for Wapping, east London, said: “There’s a huge shortage of places borough-wide: by 2014 we will be 240 places short. We decided that we had to do something about this as a parents’ group.” The Wapping group advocates an extended school day with compulsory afterschool activities, including setting up a newspaper, playing football and polo classes. Comley said: “It will be quite a small school, with 81 students per year. The schools in Tower Hamlets are all pretty large.” She added: “We’re not political. We just want a school that’s good for our kids.” Like many free school backers, the Wapping group faces a challenge in finding a suitable venue. Comley said: “Where we are is next to the City of London, and if you’re looking at private property it’s City of London prices.” Rachel Wolf, director of the New Schools Network, said her group had been “inundated” with applications. A hundred free schools could be created by 2012, and several hundred by 2015, she said. Free schools Academies Education policy Michael Gove Schools Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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