Paper argues ‘sunlight should be shed’ on former RBS chief’s conduct before bailout of bank The Sun has applied to partially lift the gagging order obtained by former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, arguing that “sunlight should be shed” on the crisis that left the bank majority-owned by UK taxpayers. Goodwin was granted a wide-ranging privacy injunction earlier this year preventing reporting of the details of his alleged extra-marital affair with a female colleague. Lawyers acting for News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the Sun, appealed to the high court in London on Wednesday to relax the injunction so as to allow reporting of the details of the RBS job held by the woman involved, as well as the duration of the alleged affair. Mr Justice Tugendhat reserved judgment. Richard Spearman QC, acting on behalf of News Group, told the court the public has a right to know “what – if any – part this affair may or may not have played in the collapse of the bank” and “leading to [the public] having to put up money for this bank”. He added: “It is plainly a matter of real genuine public interest. Sunlight should be shed on dark corners of this case.” Spearman said that the paper had “no wish” to publish “salacious or intimate sexual details” about the alleged affair, but just “work-related details”. He added that the paper was not necessarily intending to name the woman involved. However, Hugh Tomlinson QC, acting for Goodwin and the woman involved, argued that if the injunction was partially lifted for a second time, the woman would be “subject to large numbers of journalists camped outside her house” and would suffer “very serious levels of intrusion into her life”. The gagging order was partially lifted by Tugendhat last month , with the injunction varied to allow publication of Goodwin’s name, but not details of the alleged relationship and the name of the woman said to be involved. “There is no cogent reason of any kind why the identification of this woman would advance any public interest debate,” he said. “It is not good enough to say that there are all kind of questions to be asked [about RBS], therefore we should be able to invade the woman’s private life. [The Sun] doesn’t need to identify this person to ask these questions.” The government owns 83% of RBS after being forced to bail out the bank when its share price slumped following losses incurred in the 2007-08 financial crash. •
Continue reading …Air-rage fight over reclining seat forces United Airlines flight to return home
June 1, 2011 No Comment
F-16 fighter jets escort Ghana-bound US aircraft back to Dulles airport after fight between two passengers It is a minor annoyance familiar to air passengers: you take your seat in the cramped cabin, only to have your knees bashed when the person in front reclines his or her chair. At worst, it usually leads to little more than an exchange of words, but the passengers on a flight from Washington DC discovered just how things can escalate, when a fist fight broke out between two men, forcing the plane to return to Dulles airport, escorted by F-16 fighter jets. As the 144 passengers on the United Airlines jet bound for Ghana from Washington on Sunday settled in for the overnight flight tempers boiled over when one man reclined his seat into the lap of the other. According to witnesses a fight broke out not long after the 10:44pm takeoff, forcing a flight attendant and another passenger to jump in between the men. The pilot took the decision to return to Dulles, because of fears about terrorism, it is believed. The plane was escorted by a pair of F-16 fighter jets, and was forced to circle Dulles for 25 minutes to burn off fuel and decrease its weight – jets can take off with a full tank, but not land. Audio transmissions, which can be heard on the Washington Post website, reveal the two US air force fighters took off from Andrews airbase at 11.03pm, just as the airliner re-entered Washington DC airspace. On the recordings, the pilot of Flight 990 is heard telling the control tower that an assault had taken place. Asked about the passenger who had hit the person in front, the pilot replied: “The passenger is not secured at this time; the passenger has settled down, though, but an assault has taken place, but at this time he is not secured.” Police met the flight at the gate but charges were not pressed, said the Washington airports authority. The unruly passengers are likely to have cost the airline a significant amount of money, and delayed the flight until Tuesday. It is not known if the two men were aboard that flight, or more pertinently, where they were sat. Air transport United States Ghana Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Chris Hayes: Why is a Serial Manipulator of the Media Like Breitbart Allowed to Come on and Spout Off?
June 1, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media From Raw Story — Chris Hayes: Breitbart ‘a serial manipulator of the media’ On MSNBC’s The Last Word Tuesday night, Chris Hayes questioned why conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart was allowed to “spout off” on CNN about Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Breitbart implied Tuesday that Weiner had been engaged in inappropriate relationships with multiple young women. “Am I wrong in my level of outrage that this person who has been so discredited, so many times, is such a serial manipulator of the media is allowed to just come on and spout off like this?” he asked. “Andrew Breitbart is not known to be the most self-reflective, remorseful person,” his guest, Huffington Post’s Alex Wagner added. “I think in that same interview he talked about the Shirley Sherrod story being a liberal attack on him.” As they also noted, Wagner didn’t think Rep. Weiner did himself any favors by refusing to answer direct questions during his press conference today and I agree. That said, it was pretty astounding to see CNN going after him the way they did on the word of a known liar like Breitbart and allowing Breitbart on the air earlier today to attack him , where even their legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin called out his own network for their behavior. Following Breitbart’s interview, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told host Randi Kaye that he regretted the network allowed Breitbart to make those claims. “What Andrew Breitbart was insinuating about [Weiner] with young girls and stuff is outrageous,” Toobin said. “And frankly, it’s too bad that he got to say that stuff on CNN.” Media Matters has more on CNN’s hackery here — One Year After Debunking Breitbart’s “Slander,” CNN Welcomes Him Back As Newsmaker .
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Social care minister asks regulator to investigate after BBC programme revealed systematic abuse at Winterbrook View unit in Bristol The government has ordered a review of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) failure to investigate a whistleblower’s account of the systematic abuse that left vulnerable people to face months of physical and verbal abuse at a Bristol care home. Paul Burstow, the social care minister, has asked the regulator to investigate similar services to the Winterbourne View unit, in Hambrook, near Bristol, where a culture of abuse prevailed despite tip-offs from staff and repeated inspections – the role of the CQC, which is the sector regulator, and the local authority. A committee of MPs will also question CQC chiefs over their responsibilities. Stephen Dorrell, the chair of the Commons health committee, said a scheduled hearing with CQC bosses on 22 June will now focus on the organisation’s failings in the case. The systematic abuse of residents in the unit was documented by an undercover cameraman and broadcast on the BBC’s Panorama on Tuesday. Staff pinned residents to the floor and forced one into the shower fully dressed and then outside until she shook from cold. Residents were slapped and taunted, and one was teased about a suicide attempt. Experts told the programme what they had seen amounted to “torture”. Immediately after the broadcast, four of the staff were arrested. The Commons health committee will also launch a more wide-ranging inquiry into the commissioning of social care in the autumn. The inquiry will examine how the state provides care facilities for the elderly and vulnerable adults, including the current crisis with major care provider Southern Cross , which has slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. The future care of 31,000 elderly residents is in jeopardy if the firm collapses. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We are talking about a specific case that is clearly very shocking. Paul Burstow has asked the regulator to undertake a series of inspections of similar services and a thorough examination of the roles of both the CQC and local authorities in this case. “What we need to do is look at the circumstances surrounding this particular case. Clearly, there have been failures in this case, and we need to look at that before drawing any conclusions.” He added that the government was “monitoring very carefully” the situation with Southern Cross. Dorrell told the Guardian that the inquiry would look broadly at the commissioning process, saying: “The questions will be about how can these stories of abuse arise. “There was Panorama yesterday, but also the report last week on care of the elderly in NHS hospitals, all the issues around Southern Cross and the CQC in particular. “We are talking about 70% of patient load of the health service that is people with long-term needs and conditions, and so often we focus on waiting times for elective operations. This is a far bigger issue.” Responding specifically to the situation at the Bristol care home, he said: “I do think, in general, these services are better than they were a generation ago. “But there are still far too many failures. We have to address the reason for those failures. 30 years ago, the majority of this care was provided in large long-stay institutions which were themselves open to incidences of abuse. The vast majority are better now, but there are too many cases where it falls down.” Dorrell said he would be asking how the commissioning of such services worked. Castlebeck, the firm behind Winterbourne View, was charging more than £3,000 per resident a week. “One of the groups of people with difficult questions to answer arising out of the specifics of this situation is the people who authorised the expenditure of that money,” he added. “Someone had to sign the cheque that the care home operator was being paid to provide a service of £3,000 per week. I presume the majority of those cases were paid for with public funds. The people who signed the cheque have a duty to make certain that standards are of an adequate nature.” The CQC and Castlebeck both issued full apologies for their respective failings over the Winterbourne View unit. The government has commissioned the economist and broadcaster Andrew Dilnot to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into the funding of care and support for elderly and disabled adults. He is due to report in July. The autumn inquiry by the health committee in the Commons will focus on his findings as well as the specific cases highlighted by the Panorama programme, Southern Cross and the recent report by the CQC on the lack of care for the elderly in hospitals. The prime minister’s spokesman said there had been discussions between Southern Cross and the Department of Health “for some time” over contingency funding planning. Asked about financial support in the light of council funding constraints, the prime minister’s spokesman said Southern Cross, landlords and those with a stake in the business needed to put in place a plan to ensure the company was on a firm footing. “That process is happening,” he said. “Our role is to ensure we keep in close contact with what is going on and keep monitoring that situation, and we will do what we need to do to ensure there is protection for anyone affected by this.” On the issue of bailout, he insisted the government would make sure “there is protection in place”, adding: “It may well not be in the interest of residents to move them, it may well be in their interest to keep them in the same place. “But we have to look at that very carefully … our interest is to make sure these people are cared for effectively.” Health policy House of Commons Liberal-Conservative coalition Long-term care Social care Disability Health Polly Curtis Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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National disease control centre reports spike in cases of people suffering symptoms of bacterial contamination The number of people reported sick in Germany from a foodborne bacterial outbreak that has already killed 16 spiked over the last 24 hours, with nearly 100 more people suffering from severe and potentially fatal symptoms, according to the national disease control centre said. Agriculture minister Ilse Aigner said scientists were trying to find the source of the unusual strain of the E coli bacteria that is believed to have been spread in Europe on tainted vegetables – and where in the chain from farm to grocery store the contamination occurred. “Hundreds of tests have been done and the responsible agencies … have determined that most of the patients who have been sickened ate cucumbers, tomatoes and leaf lettuce and primarily in northern Germany,” Aigner said on ARD television. “The states that have conducted the tests must now follow back the delivery path to see how the cucumbers, or tomatoes or lettuce got here.” German authorities initially pointed to a few cucumbers from Spain, but further tests showed that those vegetables, while contaminated, did not cause the outbreak. Officials are still warning all Germans to avoid eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce. E coli is found in large quantities in the digestive systems of humans, cows and other mammals. It has been responsible for a large number of food contamination outbreaks in a wide variety of countries. In most cases, it causes non-lethal stomach ailments. But enterohemorrhagic E coli (EHEC), causes more severe symptoms, ranging from bloody diarrhea to the rare hemolytic uremic syndrome. Germany’s national health agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said 470 people are now suffering from the syndrome, or HUS, in which E coli infection attacks the kidneys, sometimes causing seizures, strokes and comas. That is up from 373 reported Tuesday. Germany typically sees a maximum of 50 to 60 HUS cases in a year. An additional 1,064 cases of EHEC have been reported in Germany since the beginning of May, up from 796 the day before, the Robert Koch Institute said. The World Health Organisation said cases of EHEC have been reported in nine European countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. All but two cases are either people in Germany, or people who had recently travelled to northern Germany, the organisation said. Robert Tauxe, a foodborne disease expert at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said it was extraordinary to see so many cases of the kidney complication from a foodborne illness. “There has not been such an outbreak before that we know of in the history of public health.” He added that the strain of E coli in the European outbreak has not been seen in the US, where there have been several high-profile foodborne outbreaks in recent years, but none with such a high death toll. There is little precedent in Europe, either. In 1996, an E coli outbreak in the UK caused 216 cases and 11 deaths. The WHO said 86% of those sickened in the current outbreak were adults, and two-thirds were women. It said it was unusual that more children were not affected. E coli Health Germany Europe Spain guardian.co.uk
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Fprty-one killed as divisions in military become more pronounced as government troops clash with defectors and rebels At least 41 people have been killed in shelling and street battles between government forces and opposition fighters, amid growing signs of disarray in President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s military. Fighting raged until 5 a.m, and witnesses said Presidential Guard units shelled the headquarters of an army brigade responsible for guarding sensitive government institutions. Army officers who have defected to the opposition say the government suspected the brigade commander was about to join forces with the movement to oust Saleh. Opposition army officers, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with army rules, said the armoured brigade commander, Brigadier-General Mohammed Khalil, was neutral and without political affiliation but had apparently angered Saleh. The 41 dead included combatants from both sides of the conflict, said the medical officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The fighting engulfed the Hassaba neighborhood that contains the family compound of influential opposition tribal leader Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar , and to the north of that district where Republican Guard units protect Saleh’s former residence. The units, led by one of Saleh’s sons, and special forces wearing uniforms of government security troops attacked but failed to recapture the Hassaba administrative building from tribal gunmen. On Tuesday, Saleh imposed collective punishment on the Hassaba neighborhood by cutting water supplies and electricity. A resident who lives close to the fighting and would only give his first name, Zaher, said columns of smoke and fire billowed from Khalil’s brigade headquarters and explosions could be heard. Several ambulances were seen ferrying injured people to the al-Gomhuria general hospital, Zaher said. Al-Ahmar tribesmen were seen on Wednesday morning around the office of the prosecutor general in the Shamlan neighborhood, west of the capital. They were accompanied by two armoured vehicles from the 1st Armored Division which defected to the opposition two months ago. There was also fighting for the first time in the Hada neighborhood, a stronghold for Saleh supporters in the south of the capital. The interior ministry said in a statement that tribesmen had taken over a five-story building there after clashing with the army. Yemen Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Haleh Sahabi, daughter of veteran dissident Ezatollah Sahabi, reportedly clashed with security forces The daughter of a prominent veteran Iranian dissident has died after reportedly scuffling with security forces at his funeral. Haleh Sahabi, 54, also an opposition activist and women’s rights campaigner, had been allowed out of prison to attend the funeral of her father, Ezatollah Sahabi, on Wednesday. She fell to the ground in the scuffle and died of a cardiac arrest, according to the opposition website Kaleme. The semi-official Fars news agency confirmed Sahabi’s death but denied there had been a clash with police and accused the opposition movement of seeking to politicise the incident. “Fars reporters present at the funeral service said there was no clash between the mourners and security forces,” it said. Alireza Janeh, head of security matters at the Tehran governor’s office, said there were no clashes and that Sahabi had died of heart problems exacerbated by stress and hot weather at his funeral. Sahabi’s death is likely to anger women’s rights campaigners and supporters of Iran’s opposition movement whose massive street protests after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 were crushed by the government and whose leaders have been put under house arrest. Sahabi was arrested during the post-election crackdown and was given a two-year jail sentence. “Security forces tried to interfere in the carrying of the body, she objected and security forces confronted her and other people present,” Kaleme said, adding that Sahabi was pushed to the ground. Another opposition site, Sahamnews, said security forces punched her in the stomach. Kaleme said she was holding a picture of her father to her chest and fell when security forces tried to take it from her. “She fell and did not get up,” it said. Prominent opposition figures and former moderate officials attended the ceremony in the north-eastern Tehran suburb of Lavasan for Ezatollah Sahabi, who was jailed both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution and spent a total of 15 years in prison. Iran Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Here are the shots that best capture May’s urban theme. Click through our gallery to see which photograph judge Natalie Mayer picked to win a £200 Point101 voucher, and a chance of winning the grand prize of a photographic safari to South Africa with &Beyond
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Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration The crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross has deepened after the company slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. Healthcare specialists warned on Wednesday that Southern Cross could collapse within months if it cannot hammer out a credible restructuring plan with its banks and landlords. The ongoing turmoil has left the company’s 31,000 elderly residents and their families facing an uncertain future , prompting fierce criticism of its management and strategy. “Southern Cross certainly could go under,” William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, speaking after Southern Cross unilaterally decided to hold back 30% of its rent payments over the next four months. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Laing believes that most of Southern Cross’s care homes would keep running if it slumped into administration, as they are more valuable as operating business than empty buildings. There is concern, though, that local authorities may struggle if they were suddenly handed control of the company’s sites. Peter Hay, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the situation at Southern Cross was extremely worrying, and suggested that a small number of its homes may have to close. However, he moved to reassure residents and their families. “Underneath there is a viable business that can be structured … there is no need to talk about mass closure, or the mass movement of people in these homes.” Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck. Laing criticised the company for effectively mortgaging itself to the hilt in the run-up to the financial crisis. “The company did make some strategic errors,” he said, while Hay claimed that the company had failed in the past to make the care and security of its residents its top priority. The GMB union has been a vocal critic of Southern Cross, and on Wednesday it said that the UK government must now step in. “These are not factories facing closure, they are a vital part of the social fabric of every community,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. Twenty four MPs have signed a recent early day motion urging ministers to get ready to intervene in the Southern Cross debacle. Rent payments deferral Southern Cross itself warned last month that it is now in a “critical financial position”, after seeing rent payments rise faster than its income. The firm, which leases most of its properties, estimated that the number of admissions from local authorities has dropped by 15% over the past year. On Tuesday it announced that it will defer 30% of its monthly cash rental payments from 1 June to 30 September 2011, creating what it called a “summer platform” during which it could agree a restructuring package. “The objective will be to emerge with a stable and sustainable business model for the continuing care of our residents. Our primary concern is the continuity of care to all our 31,000 residents,” said chairman Christopher Fisher. However, none of its landlords have yet said whether they back the plan. Southern Cross made a pre-tax loss of £310.9m in the six months to 31 March, and its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers recently warned there was “significant doubt” over its ability to keep running . Southern Cross Healthcare Healthcare industry Social care Long-term care Health Older people Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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