Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs among those questioned by attorney general Eric Schneiderman Wall Street banks are facing fresh high-level scrutiny of their role in the credit crunch as New York’s attorney general opens an investigation into the packaging of mortgage loans into securities. Eric Schneiderman has called for meetings with several major institutions including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to reports in the US. The attorney general is not commenting on the investigation, which is believed to be in its very early stages. The banks and others have been blamed by politicians for worsening the financial crisis by encouraging the sale of high-risk financial instruments tied to mortgages. Schneiderman is reportedly interested in discussing the securitisation of mortgage loans and other mortgage related practices with the bankers. Schneiderman was appointed attorney general last November and follows Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer, both of whom led crackdowns on Wall Street. This month he reached a $90.8m (£55.9m) settlement with UBS over the “fraudulent and anti-competitive” sale of municipal bonds. The inquiry comes as banks continue to struggle with the legal fallout from the credit crisis. Civil suits have been filed by federal and state regulators since the financial crisis erupted in 2008 and private shareholders have also filed cases against the banks. In a sign of ongoing public anger towards the industry, eight people were arrested during protests outside JP Morgan Chase’s annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, where demonstrators, greeted by a heavy police presence, chanted “make banks pay” and wielded placards with slogans such as “Chase gets rich, we lose homes, jobs and services”. Last year the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial regulator, levied a $550m on Goldman Sachs over claims the investment bank misled investors in collateralised debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages. It was the largest ever fine on a Wall Street bank. Banks packaged thousands of home loans into bonds known as mortgage-backed securities during the housing boom and sold them to investors around the world. Many of these bonds were given triple-A credit ratings, a grade supposedly denoting a safe investment, even though they were backed by high risk loans. The collapse of the US property market triggered a massive collapse in the value of the bonds, often to junk status. US officials have alleged banks, including Goldman Sachs, deliberately misled investors by encouraging them to invest in mortgage-backed securities they knew to be junk. The allegations are also being investigated by the SEC and the Justice Department. Schneiderman, like his predecessors, has a powerful legal tool at his disposal: the 1921 Martin Act. The act gives the prosecutor sweeping powers of investigation, allows him to subpoena any document he wants, and makes it easier for the attorney general to bring prosecutions. It was most extensively used by Spitzer after the stock market crash at the turn of the millennium. During his election campaign Schneiderman pledged to tackle Wall Street over the credit crisis. “The mortgage fraud crisis is devastating working families in every corner of New York State – it’s upending our economic recovery upstate and downstate,” he said. The broad nature of Schneiderman’s investigative powers make it uncertain where his investigations may lead but the attorney general has said he is interested in scam lenders and foreclosure practices as well as Wall Street investments. According to the New York Times, Schneiderman recently issued subpoenas to two investment firms linked to a paperwork-processing firm. The firm, Pillar Holdings, handled nearly 40% of all foreclosure cases filed in New York. The inquiry is believed to be unrelated to efforts by attorneys-general from all 50 states to reach a multibillion-dollar settlement with banks over allegations of improper foreclosure practices. Securities and Exchange Commission Banking Financial crisis Morgan Stanley Bank of America Goldman Sachs Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs among those questioned by attorney general Eric Schneiderman Wall Street banks are facing fresh high-level scrutiny of their role in the credit crunch as New York’s attorney general opens an investigation into the packaging of mortgage loans into securities. Eric Schneiderman has called for meetings with several major institutions including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to reports in the US. The attorney general is not commenting on the investigation, which is believed to be in its very early stages. The banks and others have been blamed by politicians for worsening the financial crisis by encouraging the sale of high-risk financial instruments tied to mortgages. Schneiderman is reportedly interested in discussing the securitisation of mortgage loans and other mortgage related practices with the bankers. Schneiderman was appointed attorney general last November and follows Andrew Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer, both of whom led crackdowns on Wall Street. This month he reached a $90.8m (£55.9m) settlement with UBS over the “fraudulent and anti-competitive” sale of municipal bonds. The inquiry comes as banks continue to struggle with the legal fallout from the credit crisis. Civil suits have been filed by federal and state regulators since the financial crisis erupted in 2008 and private shareholders have also filed cases against the banks. In a sign of ongoing public anger towards the industry, eight people were arrested during protests outside JP Morgan Chase’s annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, where demonstrators, greeted by a heavy police presence, chanted “make banks pay” and wielded placards with slogans such as “Chase gets rich, we lose homes, jobs and services”. Last year the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial regulator, levied a $550m on Goldman Sachs over claims the investment bank misled investors in collateralised debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages. It was the largest ever fine on a Wall Street bank. Banks packaged thousands of home loans into bonds known as mortgage-backed securities during the housing boom and sold them to investors around the world. Many of these bonds were given triple-A credit ratings, a grade supposedly denoting a safe investment, even though they were backed by high risk loans. The collapse of the US property market triggered a massive collapse in the value of the bonds, often to junk status. US officials have alleged banks, including Goldman Sachs, deliberately misled investors by encouraging them to invest in mortgage-backed securities they knew to be junk. The allegations are also being investigated by the SEC and the Justice Department. Schneiderman, like his predecessors, has a powerful legal tool at his disposal: the 1921 Martin Act. The act gives the prosecutor sweeping powers of investigation, allows him to subpoena any document he wants, and makes it easier for the attorney general to bring prosecutions. It was most extensively used by Spitzer after the stock market crash at the turn of the millennium. During his election campaign Schneiderman pledged to tackle Wall Street over the credit crisis. “The mortgage fraud crisis is devastating working families in every corner of New York State – it’s upending our economic recovery upstate and downstate,” he said. The broad nature of Schneiderman’s investigative powers make it uncertain where his investigations may lead but the attorney general has said he is interested in scam lenders and foreclosure practices as well as Wall Street investments. According to the New York Times, Schneiderman recently issued subpoenas to two investment firms linked to a paperwork-processing firm. The firm, Pillar Holdings, handled nearly 40% of all foreclosure cases filed in New York. The inquiry is believed to be unrelated to efforts by attorneys-general from all 50 states to reach a multibillion-dollar settlement with banks over allegations of improper foreclosure practices. Securities and Exchange Commission Banking Financial crisis Morgan Stanley Bank of America Goldman Sachs Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Inquest hears police officers were open to corruption, sometimes lacked commitment and were high on drugs while on duty A rogue Afghan police officer opened fire on British soldiers, killing five and injuring six, after a row over a hat he turned up in for duty, an inquest heard. The man, known only as Gulbuddin, shot soldiers who were mentoring Afghan police officers at a checkpoint in Helmand province. Earlier in the day he had turned up in a “brown Afghan hat” and went off “in a strop” after being told by a British soldier to wear his police issue headgear. The inquest heard claims that Afghan police officers were open to corruption, sometimes lacked commitment and were high on drugs while on duty. In one episode outlined during the hearing an Afghan police officer gave ammunition to the Taliban in exchange for narcotics. It also emerged that the British men were posted at the checkpoint after a “blood feud” between an Afghan police officer and a local Taliban commander. Lance Corporal Liam Culverhouse, who was shot in the eye in the attack, told the inquest at Trowbridge in Wiltshire that he was reading a magazine when the shooting began and saw a “flash of red”. “I realised I’d been shot. I heard a rifle going off in automatic bursts and Gulbuddin shouting something that was like a war cry. I felt the pain and my eye was blind.” “Gulbuddin was screaming. I decided it was time to get out of there so I crawled around the corner and I decided to play dead, close my eyes and hold my breath. All I could hear inside was gunfire, scream, gunfire, scream. From then on I fell unconscious for a period of time. What woke me up was a helicopter going past.” Gulbuddin fled and his motives remain unclear, but Culverhouse described how on one occasion the Afghan police officer had grabbed him by the head and on another had “barged” him off a platform. “It wasn’t just me. He was always trying to wind up members of the platoon and he had been warned about his behaviour,” Culverhouse said. “The police at the checkpoint were a ragged bunch.” On the morning of the shooting he turned up for a patrol not wearing his police hat. He was told to wear his uniform. “He went off with a little strop on, rifle over his shoulder,” said Culverhouse. Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford and Guardsman James Major, all of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith from the Royal Military police on 3 November 2009. The men were “relaxing in the sun” at Blue 25 checkpoint in the Nad-e-Ali district and were not wearing body armour or carrying weapons. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Walker, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, insisted the Afghan police force was full of men determined to do good for their country. But he said that Blue 25 had been beset by problems when his troops arrived in the area. A shura – meeting – was arranged with village elders and it was discovered that there was a blood feud between the local police officer in charge of Blue 25 and a Taliban commander. Walker decided to use his own security detachment – which usually helped guard him as he moved around the area – to mentor the local police at the checkpoint. Questioned by the Wiltshire and Swindon coroner, David Ridley, Walker accepted there were problems within the Afghan police force, giving the example of a checkpoint commander who traded ammunition for drugs with the Taliban. He said some of the officers later got high on the drugs and their police station was attacked by the Taliban that day. Walker said such a series of events was “not untypical”. He said Afghan police officers were poorly paid and so were “susceptible to the influence of money”. Walker told the inquest that after the shooting he made a number of recommendations including setting up separate recreation areas for British and Afghan men and making sure rest areas were better protected. He also suggested that sidearms were carried as a deterrent against “irrational action”. The inquest continues. Afghanistan Military Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Inquest hears police officers were open to corruption, sometimes lacked commitment and were high on drugs while on duty A rogue Afghan police officer opened fire on British soldiers, killing five and injuring six, after a row over a hat he turned up in for duty, an inquest heard. The man, known only as Gulbuddin, shot soldiers who were mentoring Afghan police officers at a checkpoint in Helmand province. Earlier in the day he had turned up in a “brown Afghan hat” and went off “in a strop” after being told by a British soldier to wear his police issue headgear. The inquest heard claims that Afghan police officers were open to corruption, sometimes lacked commitment and were high on drugs while on duty. In one episode outlined during the hearing an Afghan police officer gave ammunition to the Taliban in exchange for narcotics. It also emerged that the British men were posted at the checkpoint after a “blood feud” between an Afghan police officer and a local Taliban commander. Lance Corporal Liam Culverhouse, who was shot in the eye in the attack, told the inquest at Trowbridge in Wiltshire that he was reading a magazine when the shooting began and saw a “flash of red”. “I realised I’d been shot. I heard a rifle going off in automatic bursts and Gulbuddin shouting something that was like a war cry. I felt the pain and my eye was blind.” “Gulbuddin was screaming. I decided it was time to get out of there so I crawled around the corner and I decided to play dead, close my eyes and hold my breath. All I could hear inside was gunfire, scream, gunfire, scream. From then on I fell unconscious for a period of time. What woke me up was a helicopter going past.” Gulbuddin fled and his motives remain unclear, but Culverhouse described how on one occasion the Afghan police officer had grabbed him by the head and on another had “barged” him off a platform. “It wasn’t just me. He was always trying to wind up members of the platoon and he had been warned about his behaviour,” Culverhouse said. “The police at the checkpoint were a ragged bunch.” On the morning of the shooting he turned up for a patrol not wearing his police hat. He was told to wear his uniform. “He went off with a little strop on, rifle over his shoulder,” said Culverhouse. Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, Sergeant Matthew Telford and Guardsman James Major, all of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith from the Royal Military police on 3 November 2009. The men were “relaxing in the sun” at Blue 25 checkpoint in the Nad-e-Ali district and were not wearing body armour or carrying weapons. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Walker, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, insisted the Afghan police force was full of men determined to do good for their country. But he said that Blue 25 had been beset by problems when his troops arrived in the area. A shura – meeting – was arranged with village elders and it was discovered that there was a blood feud between the local police officer in charge of Blue 25 and a Taliban commander. Walker decided to use his own security detachment – which usually helped guard him as he moved around the area – to mentor the local police at the checkpoint. Questioned by the Wiltshire and Swindon coroner, David Ridley, Walker accepted there were problems within the Afghan police force, giving the example of a checkpoint commander who traded ammunition for drugs with the Taliban. He said some of the officers later got high on the drugs and their police station was attacked by the Taliban that day. Walker said such a series of events was “not untypical”. He said Afghan police officers were poorly paid and so were “susceptible to the influence of money”. Walker told the inquest that after the shooting he made a number of recommendations including setting up separate recreation areas for British and Afghan men and making sure rest areas were better protected. He also suggested that sidearms were carried as a deterrent against “irrational action”. The inquest continues. Afghanistan Military Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Barnardo’s warns government plan to tackle abuse and trafficking ‘needs to be enforced’ The sexual grooming of children in the UK is a much bigger problem than has previously been recognised, the government has said. The children’s minister, Tim Loughton, announced that an action plan will be launched to tackle child sexual exploitation, which experts say involves British children as young as 10 being trafficked for sex around the UK. “This isn’t something that has just appeared, but the extent of it hasn’t been recognised and we are underestimating the problem,” Loughton said on Tuesday. “The cleverer we are about it, the more horrified we are likely to be by what we discover.” People sometimes struggled to believe that such cruelty could exist in the UK, he said. But he added: “Exploitation is happening here and it is happening now.” The government has launched an investigation into the extent of the problem and would use its findings to devise a plan to tackle it, which is due for publication in the autumn, he said. Loughton said he could not give precise details of what it would include, but gathering data and evidence would be a “first major step” to tackling child sexual exploitation and putting it at the heart of policing. He added: “Sexual exploitation has not been fully understood by the judiciary and justice system.” The UK’s biggest children’s charity, Barnardo’s, welcomed the move but said the government had to “pick up the pace” as it examines better ways to protect children. The profile of domestic child grooming and trafficking was raised in January after the jailing of a gang of Asian men in Derby who had been grooming girls as young as 12 for sex. The same month nine men in Rochdale were arrested under suspicion of rape, inciting child prostitution, allowing a premises to be used for prostitution and sexual activity with a child. The action plan is likely to look at how police rely on evidence from children, who are often threatened with physical or sexual violence if they talk to authorities, to bring the abusers to justice. It is also likely to look at the intimidating and aggressive nature of court cases which can see children who have been abused by a number of men questioned by several barristers. “What makes this crime doubly difficult to prosecute is that even if children do get over the huge hurdle and want to bring their abuser to justice, they then have to face a judicial process which sometimes treats them as though they were somehow complicit in their abuse,” said Loughton. The government would not shy away from looking at whether certain ethnic groups in specific areas were more likely to be involved in sexual exploitation, he said. “If there has been a reluctance to [look at the problem] because of a fear of opening a can of worms, then we have to expose that. I don’t care who the perpetrators are, they have to be exposed and brought to justice.” But he stressed that sexual exploitation was not confined to one ethnic group. “Operation Retriever [in Derby] centred on one specific ethnic group but in other areas there are different abusers of different ethnic groups. They can be white, middle-class abusers online – exploitation is not a BME [black and minority ethnic] monopoly,” he said. Following the Derby case the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is to investigate “on-street” grooming, and establish whether there are patterns of offending, victimisation, or vulnerability. That report is due next month. Anne Marie Carrie, chief executive of Barnardo’s, welcomed the promise of a child sexual exploitation action plan but said it had to have the tools to change the situation. “It’s the first step in the right direction but it needs more pace and needs to be enforced,” she said. Barnardo’s had dealt with 417 children who had been exploited on the day of the announcement, she added. “Those 417 children can’t wait, their lives are being trashed while we are devising an action plan,” she said. Children Human trafficking Child protection Crime Social care Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil group, seeks Arctic alliance with BP rival after collapse of deal with British company The Russian oil and gas group Rosneft is ready to ditch BP and look elsewhere for an alliance with a foreign competitor following the collapse of the two companies’ proposed alliance. The Rosneft-BP deal, announced in January, would have paved the way for joint exploration of parts of the Arctic where there may be 60bn barrels of oil in an area the size of the North Sea. Its collapse is a severe blow for the British firm’s chief executive, Bob Dudley. Dudley’s move was viewed as a way for BP to ensure long term growth and revive its reputation after the explosion on its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico last year, leading to the worst oil spill in US history. The disaster off the coast of Louisiana has cost BP more than $41bn (£25bn) and has forced it to sell assets to raise $24bn. The Russian deal, which also involved a $16bn share swap between BP and Rosneft, is in tatters after Dudley failed to overcome legal opposition from AAR, a consortium of Russian billionaires that is the British company’s existing partner in the country. Rosneft refused to extend a deadline of midnight on Tuesday for the dispute to be settled. Sources close to the Moscow-based company said it was seeking an Arctic alliance with one of BP’s rivals, which include Shell, US companies ExxonMobil and Chevron, and Total of France. One of BP’s City shareholders said: “The collapse of BP’s pact with Rosneft will be a serious disappointment for Dudley as it was the only deal on the table that offered the prospect of future production on a grand scale.” Despite the breakdown of the alliance between BP and Rosneft, as well as the ending of negotiations with AAR, all three parties held out hope that an agreement could still be reached. “Talks will continue in the days ahead, and it’s possible that something can be salvaged,” said one source. A senior oil executive said: “Don’t exaggerate what has happened, I’m not sure this is the end of the story.” Rosneft’s deputy chairman Andrey Kostin was reported as saying he thought there may be scope for an accord after meetings scheduled in the days ahead. But most analysts said the agreement that had been envisaged in January appeared “dead in the water”. BP said it had tried to break the deadlock but that “a solution has not been found at this time, although talks continue”. The oligarchs behind AAR had blocked the Rosneft/BP alliance in the courts on the basis that it breached a shareholder agreement that provided for TNK-BP, the name of AAR’s joint venture with BP, to have pre-emption rights on any business opportunities in Russia. The various parties had reached an agreement that would have allowed BP and Rosneft to buy out AAR’s oligarchs, led by Mikhail Fridman, for $32bn. But Rosneft was reluctant to sign a binding agreement. For its part, AAR balked at signing an agreement to sell to BP and Rosneft unless the sale was also underpinned by a three-way oil and gas exploration alliance. A source close to the talks said: “These were complex negotiations and in the end, there wasn’t enough time to clinch an agreement.” Without a deal Rosneft decided to pull out of the pact with BP and look for new partners. Sources close to Rosneft accused the oligarchs of making “unacceptable demands”. But Fridman struck a conciliatory tone: “AAR sees significant benefit to developing co-operation with Rosneft within the framework of the TNK-BP shareholder agreement.” It is thought the AAR partners are keen to get Arctic exposure since the joint venture with BP has limited growth prospects owing to a mainly mature onshore portfolio. The failure to shore up the deal to explore the Arctic’s oil-rich Kara Sea is an embarrassing setback for Dudley. His idea was to cement BP’s move forward from the Gulf spill and show it no longer needed to rely so heavily on the United States, where it is still barred from drilling in the Gulf. Dudley, who took over from gaffe-prone Tony Hayward, had proclaimed the deal “historic” and “groundbreaking”. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Russia Europe Richard Wachman guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Yemeni Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Suhaib al-Makki, said to have worked directly under al-Qaida leadership Pakistani security forces arrested a senior al-Qaida operative in Karachi on Tuesday, signalling the first major move against Osama bin Laden’s network inside Pakistan since his death on 2 May. Security agencies in the port city of Karachi apprehended Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Suhaib al-Makki, a Yemeni said to have worked directly under the al-Qaida leadership along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The army described the arrest as a “major development in unravelling the al-Qaida network operating in the region” – triggering speculation it may signal the start of a wider heave against Bin Laden’s top lieutenants. However, Makki’s seniority in al-Qaida was not immediately known. In the past both the US and Pakistan have retrospectively attributed seniority to previously unknown al-Qaida militants. Since Bin Laden’s death the US has put pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militants believed to be sheltering in Pakistan, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Senator John Kerry, visiting Islamabad for the Obama administration, on Monday presented a list of demands to the Pakistani government – but refused to say what they were. US officials are frantically sorting through a treasure trove of intelligence captured from Bin Laden’s house including hundreds of computer disks. It was not immediately clear whether Makki’s arrest came from Pakistani or US intelligence. The arrest offered a glimmer of hope in another gloomy day for Pakistan-American relations. Earlier there was an exchange of fire between Nato and Pakistani forces along the Afghan border that injured two Pakistani soldiers. Two Nato helicopters opened fire on a Pakistani military post in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, after coming under fire. Pakistan’s army condemned the incident as a “violation of Pakistan air space”. Nato said the helicopters scrambled after a Nato base came under fire from the Pakistani side of the border. al-Qaida Osama bin Laden Pakistan Yemen Global terrorism Afghanistan US foreign policy Middle East Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Justice secretary says he will consider legislation, but admits there may be quicker, less controversial ways of tackling issue A privacy law could provide judges with clearer guidance when deciding whether to grant gagging orders, the justice secretary has told the Commons. In the clearest signal yet that the government is considering legislation to resolve the controversy over superinjunctions and anonymised court orders, Ken Clarke appeared to accept the necessity of drafting a bill. But, he cautioned, the difficulty of deciding in individual cases where freedom of speech justifies publication means there will never be a simple, legal solution. Referring to the recent spate of gagging orders taken about by Premier League footballers, Clarke said he did not “necessarily need to know about the sex life of each of the players” every time he watched a match. At Commons question time, the Clarke was asked by his Labour counterpart, Sadiq Khan, to provide “clarity and guidance” to British judges. There have been complaints that the judiciary is introducing a privacy law without reference to parliament through their interpretation of the European convention on human rights in granting injunctions. The names of some of those said to have obtained privacy injunctions have this month been posted on Twitter and other social networking sites in defiance of court contempt orders. “We will consider these matters,” Clarke told MPs, “and indeed it is probably right to say that parliament passing a privacy act might well be the best way of resolving it. “But I think we need to get somewhat nearer to a consensus and one needs to know exactly how you’re trying to strike this balance before something is submitted to the judgment of parliament. “It may well be that we don’t have to wait for a long controversial process like that, we can find some other way of tackling it. We are considering this issue and we’ll come back in due course.” Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, said there was growing “public disquiet about the use of the anonymity injunction and the superinjunction – both its abuse or alleged abuse – but also the circumvention by use of, for example, Twitter. The current situation is not satisfactory.” On Friday, Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls, will issue a report by a committee of legal experts on the use injunctions. It is expected to recommend procedural changes but not call for fresh legislation. “The government is going to have to study it,” Clarke said, “and decide whether or not there is a case for intervening. “There’ll never be unanimity on all these judgments, precisely because it is so difficult to balance the competing parts of the convention on human rights [freedom of speech and a right to privacy] and the competing interests involved.” “There have been cases where we certainly need to know, where people are disposing of waste material that they’re dumping off the coast of Africa, which is easy in one direction. “On the other, every time I watch a football team I don’t think I necessarily need to know about the sex life of each of the players.” Clarke’s comments suggest there may have been second thoughts in cabinet over the need for a privacy law. Earlier this month the prime minister, David Cameron, told Radio 4′s Today programme : “By all means let’s debate it, but I think there is still more to be done through the Press Complaints Commission.” John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, had earlier in Tuesday’s Commons debate warned that the courts were not doing enough to protect the freedom of the press. He asked Clarke: “Are you concerned that the very large number of injunctions that appear to be granted on a routine basis might suggest that the courts are paying insufficient regard to section 12 of the Human Rights Act, which was supposed to protect press freedom? “Given this and the huge speculation on the internet about the identities of those who have obtained injunctions, do you feel that the time is approaching when parliament might need to revisit this area?” Clarke said it was unclear whether the number of injunctions was increasing. The Ministry of Justice has said it is researching the frequency of their use. “As far as I’m aware, there have been two superinjunctions since the John Terry case but the word ‘superinjunction’ gets used very widely,” the justice secretary said. (“Superinjunction”, used correctly, refers only to those few cases where it has been illegal even to report the existence of a court order). However, Clarke said he recognised that there was mounting concern about their use. “I believe in the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech in this country, even when sometimes it’s exercised provocatively, as it’s supposed to be in a free country. But I also think there are areas of privacy where an individual is entitled to have it protected.” The Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who represents Birmingham Yardley, said some injunctions prevented people from passing information to the police or other regulators. He asked: “Do you believe that the law should be changed so that regulators should always have information?” Clarke replied: “That’s one of the arguments that no doubt the judge who decides whether to grant the injunction or not has in mind.” But in his judgment on a privacy case involved the Big Brother star Imogen Thomas and an anonymous footballer published on Monday, the judge, Mr Justice Eady, made it clear that legislation might not make much difference. “One can rarely arrive at the answer in any given case merely by reference to generalities,” he declared. “It must all depend upon the particular facts of the case. “It follows too that there can be no automatic priority accorded to freedom of speech. The relative importance of the competing values must be weighed by reference to the individual set of circumstances confronting the court.” •
Continue reading …
Staff stoic in face of deficit-busting ‘caffeine cuts’ at Whitehall headquarters to save £0.5m a year It has lost warships and aircraft over recent months, and is poised to axe thousands of soldiers, sailors and civilian staff. Now yet more indignity has befallen the Ministry of Defence, where cost-cutting is biting deep. Defying Napoleon’s maxim that an army marches on its stomach, the department has got rid of most of the coffee and food vending machines from its Whitehall headquarters, leaving staff with a yomp across the building to those that remain, or a time-consuming (and costly) trip to one of the cafes along the Embankment. Withdrawal of the machines has hardly lifted the mood within the MoD, which is having to juggle fighting conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya, as well as the redundancy programmes for all three services, without the reviving qualities of easy access to caffeine, chocolate and crisps. “It will be the loo roll next,” said one MoD insider, who said that queues were now common around the few machines that survived the cull. In the grand scheme of things, staff recognise the disappearance of the machines is hardly significant, but it does underline the parlous state of the MoD’s finances, which came under renewed scrutiny this week when it emerged the department may have to announce further cuts in personnel and equipment unless it can find ways of curbing spending. Hard choices may have to be made over the summer when findings of the three-month study are expected. A complete withdrawal of machine-made cappuccinos and cafe lattes is now feared, a possibility that will make late-night military planning even more arduous than before. “You only miss these things when they are gone,” said the worker. “I’ve thought about bringing in a flask but that might look a bit desperate. It hasn’t got to that stage yet.” Unions say morale within the building can be judged by the number of civilian staff who applied for voluntary redundancy this year – 16,000, four times greater than the number the department can pay for in this year’s programme. But military types are not the sort to moan, and most are stoic about the “caffeine cuts”, with at least one general reporting a significant and pleasing drop in weight since the crisp machine disappeared. The MoD admitted the contract for vending machines had been changed and that it was part of a cost-cutting exercise. “As part of a package of measures to reduce the costs of catering provision in the MoD head office, the number of vending machines has been radically reduced,” said a spokesman. “Overall savings are in the order of £0.5m per annum.” Public sector cuts Civil service Defence policy Military Public services policy Public finance Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Dominique Strauss-Kahn under pressure to resign to protect integrity of organisation before crucial European summit Pressure is building for Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund following his arrest on charges of attempted rape. Strauss-Kahn, who is being held at Rikers Island penal complex in New York, was denied bail on Monday at a court appearance where prosecutors successfully argued he was a flight risk. The IMF head was arrested on Sunday and charged with the attempted rape of a 32-year old chambermaid. While he has denied all charges, some of those he was due to meet are now calling for him to consider his position. The Austrian finance minister, Maria Fekter, said he was hurting the IMF, while her Spainish counterpart, Elana Salgado, said her sympathies were with the alleged victim. “Considering the situation, that bail was denied, he has to figure out for himself, that he is hurting the institution,” Fekter told journalists as she arrived at a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels. Salgado said the offences he was accused of were “extraordinarily serious”. She said he needed to decide for himself if he should step down. “If I had to show my solidarity and support for someone it would be toward the woman who has been assaulted, if that is really the case that she has been,” she said. Other European officials were more supportive. “I’m very sad and upset. And he’s a good friend of mine,” the Luxembourg prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, said on Monday. “I didn’t like the pictures I’ve seen on television,” he added, referring to footage that showed Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs being escorted by police outside a New York police station. Strauss-Kahn was arrested on a flight back to Europe where he had been due to host a series of high-level meetings about Europe’s debt crisis. The case has rocked the financial world as the IMF grapples with the European debt crisis. The institution has led the bailouts of Greece, Portugal and Ireland and Strauss-Kahn has been one of the bailout packages’ greatest supporters. After his arrest the IMF’s second-in-command, John Lipsky, was named acting managing director. Prof Tom Cooley, former dean of Stern school of business at New York University, said: “It is a blow to the IMF at a time when they have begun to define a new and important role for the institution in the modern global economy.” But Cooley added that the IMF was “an organisation of consummate professionals with deep professional leadership – so I am sure they will carry on just fine”. The IMF’s board met on Monday to discuss the crisis but made no announcement. Among those being mentioned as possible successors to Strauss-Kahn are Gordon Brown, French finance minister Christine Lagarde, Kemal Dervis, a former finance minister for Turkey who is now at the US public policy thinktank the Brookings Institution, and Mohammad El-Erian, an Egyptian award-winning author who heads the Pimco bond fund. El-Erian is a former IMF staffer. Strauss-Kahn is due back in court on Friday and is expected to plead not guilty. After his hearing on Monday, Benjamin Brafman, the IMF’s boss’s lawyer, said: “This battle has just begun. Mr Strauss-Kahn is innocent of these charges.” Dominique Strauss-Kahn IMF Economics Global economy European Union Euro Euro United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …