Women who can meet requirements will be allowed into positions such as infantry and clearance diving Australia has announced it will remove all gender barriers in its military over the next five years, opening up positions that had previously been considered too dangerous for women. The defence minister, Stephen Smith, said Australia would follow Canada and New Zealand in allowing women who meet physical and psychological criteria to perform any role. The reform will be phased in. Women can currently serve in 93% of employment categories in the Australian Defence Force, which includes the army, navy and air force. But some roles have been reserved for men, including infantry, artillery and naval clearance diving. “This is a significant and major cultural change,” Smith said. “That is why we’d rather err on the side of caution in expressing a five-year period.” The cabinet agreed to the change on Monday with the support of defence chiefs, Smith said. The Australian Defence Association, an influential security thinktank, had previously warned it could lead to heavy casualties. The association argued that biomechanical differences between the sexes differences in muscle distribution, centres of gravity and rate of recovery from physical exertion made even physically strong women more vulnerable than men in combat. Smith said the change would not affect the Australian military’s interoperability and personnel exchanges with its foremost ally, the US. “We will present our soldiers as potential embeds or potential third-party or third-country deployees on the basis of their capacity and their ability, not on the basis of their sex,” he said. Australia Gender guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …AP’s Delays Dedicating a Story to Cain’s Fla. Victory Until ‘Today’ Puts Him on the Defensive
September 26, 2011 No Comment
Herman Cain's victory in Saturday's GOP straw poll in Florida didn't become headline news at the Associated Press until after the candidate's Monday morning “Today Show” interview. Earlier today at NewsBusters , Kyle Drennen noted how “Today's” Ann Curry tried to frame the result as some kind of “protest vote.” Having delayed dedicating a story to Cain's victory for roughly 36 hours, the headline in AP's unbylined story this morning was: “GOP's Cain says win in Fla. straw poll not a fluke.” In other words, it didn't become news at the wire service until someone else in the media put the candidate on the defensive about the significance of his win, thus avoiding giving him any moment of unvarnished recognition for the good old-fashioned butt-kicking he delivered (37% Cain, 15% Perry, 14% Romney, 11% Santorum, all others under 10%). How convenient. A more detailed rendition: Saturday night (at NewsBusters ; at BizzyBlog ), I noted that the AP's Philip Elliott and Kasie Hunt did not even deign to devote a story to Cain's victory. The only Cain-related activity on Sunday was what was from all appearances a slight update of the Saturday evening story which relegated the details of Cain's victory to Paragraph 12, while burning most of the first eleven paragraphs with Rick Perry's situation and the supposed interest in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's possible candidacy. This morning's unbylined six-paragraph AP report made sure to plant seeds of doubt before telling readers what actually happened on Saturday: GOP's Cain says win in Fla. straw poll not a fluke Businessman Herman Cain says his victory in the Florida Republican straw poll was authentic and wasn't a statement by voters against Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Cain tells NBC's “Today” show the weekend test balloting was “not a protest vote.” Cain says his performance shows “the voice of the people is more powerful than the voice of the media.” … Cain says the straw poll illustrates that “people are listening to the message and not just, with all due respect, to the media.” Two reports at Pajamas Media, one by Kyle-Anne Shiver and the other by Myra Adams, reinforce the notion that Cain's win was far from flukey, and far from insignificant. First, Ms. Shiver : The first time I heard Herman Cain refer to himself as “the dark-horse candidate,” I knew that man had the kind of character and wisdom which smart people look for when picking a leader. Cain has risen so far above the superficiality of racialist, skin-color thinking that he makes those who pander to it or run from it look like a bunch of kindergarteners hurling spitballs. … For one thing, the Presidency 5 isn’t run like Iowa’s straw poll. In Florida, the state party leaders take their swing-state significance and their 29 large-share electoral votes very seriously. Not just anyone who shows up at Presidency 5 gets to vote in the election (and they call it an “election,” not a “straw poll”). … Every person casting a vote in Florida’s poll has been active in party politics and earned their spot, which makes Florida’s pre-election poll much more significant than Iowa’s… … No matter how the pundits slice, dice, or try to puree Cain’s phenomenal victory this weekend in Florida, this shakes up the presidential race in much the same way that the Tea Party has been doing since the spring of 2009. Cain’s win might not signal an earthquake yet, but it helps him in some very significant ways. For one thing, the Florida Republican Party delegates have sent a very loud message to the high-rolling insiders in D.C. The conservative party base has grown very weary of its step-child status among the GOP establishment and are signaling that they might not just go along to get along this time around. … Herman Cain was on the ground in Orlando by Friday morning, just after a sterling debate performance in Tampa the night before. Cain, the nomination underdog, worked hard Friday and Saturday, speaking extemporaneously to small groups of delegates — groups that reportedly grew larger and larger as the weekend progressed. And Cain was evidently winning voters over one at a time the way candidates used to do it — in person. They call it “retail politics.” … Floridian delegates got over their “not electable” reticence and took a chance with Cain. Cain says this is what you call “momentum,” and he’s turned around failing businesses enough to know momentum by its scent. Ms. Adams doesn't believe that Cain's performance was necessarily a game-changer, but came away duly impressed: Herman Cain showered the delegates with lots of love, inspiration, and political wisdom. The delegates, in turn, received his love. In fact, they were positively smitten, and rewarded Cain with their votes. This blossoming love affair unfolded slowly and built up to a frenzy right before the straw poll votes were cast. … So what happened between Thursday night and late Saturday afternoon that enabled Cain to win over the hearts and minds of 37% of the delegates, with Perry receiving 15.4% and Romney 14%? As one of the delegates succinctly said to me shortly after Cain’s victory was announced, “Cain is a businessman; he groomed us, he entertained us, and he closed the sale.” Another delegate leaned first towards Perry, then after the debate towards Romney, and ended up voting for Cain, because he said “Romney ignored us” and “his organization was poor.” … (At CPAC’s Friday night “Reagan Reception”) Cain mesmerized the crowd with what I call a cross between a Tony Robbins-style motivational speech and a Sunday morning church sermon in a slow, deep, voice that sounded like the movie voice of God. Furthermore, Cain was always present when the other frontrunners had either left the state (Romney especially) or were otherwise too busy or too uppity to socialize freely with “the folks.” Cain showed he cared enough to send his very best — himself. Instead of taking the event seriously, as those who attended clearly did, Elliott and Hunt on Saturday night dismissed the event as “mostly a popularity contest among the delegates selected by local party organizations.” It's almost enough to make you wonder if anyone at AP was actually there to see any of what went on, or even to interview people who could have relayed what was really going on. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .
Continue reading …Bloomberg Blames Lack of Confidence on the Threat of Bankers Going to Prison
September 26, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media (h/t Heather at VideoCafe) Can I just state for the record that I’m sick and tired of this oligarchal fetish of the establishment media to ask people to opine on the economy simply because they’re wealthy. Seriously. Does anyone think that Michael Bloomberg (the 12th most wealthy American according to Forbes) really feels the pinch of the economy? Hell no, his standing has gone up a notch from the Forbes 400 in 2010. So where is Bloomberg’s priority, improving the economy for the little guys or protecting the status quo? If you haven’t guessed the answer by now, Bloomberg’s rationalization for the fact that bankers–despite getting bailed out by U.S. taxpayers AND offering record bonuses to executives–aren’t loaning money should clue you in: Well, nobody has any confidence. If you’re a bank and you have money, would you make a loan when people are talking about putting you in jail for what happened in the mortgage crisis three, four years ago? You hunker down. Wait….who is talking about putting bankers in jail–other than the protestors of OccupyWallStreet, who the media studiously ignores? And I love the dismissive way that Bloomberg refers to that silly little mortgage crisis three, four years ago….like it didn’t bring the entire world to the brink of financial collapse. How nitpicky to want anyone to be held accountable. If you’re a business, would you go take a loan and expand and hire more people when every day there’s talk about different regulation, different tax policy? Business has to know what it’s going to be in the future to plan because hiring people is a long-term commitment. Damnit, now I KNOW Bloomberg is full of crap. Repeat after me: businesses are not hiring because there’s not enough demand. It has NOTHING to do with regulations (help me, which regulations are these–the ones that limit your ability to sell off portions of mortgages as credit default swaps or the ones that try to protect the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf from another oil spill? Oh wait….) or taxes, which haven’t been raised on anyone. This shows how blind to the demand side Bloomberg and the elite class are in their continual grasping of even more of the nation’s wealth. If you’re an individual, would you go take that extra vacation, buy a new house and that sort of thing when you’re not sure whether Washington is going to do what’s right to keep job creation going in America? That’s the–in the end, it is confidence, confidence, confidence. Extra vacation? New house? Dude, those 50 percent of Americans who are not paying federal income taxes don’t know if they can pay rent AND buy groceries. There’s no confidence that the uber-wealthy won’t make things even more unequal, because without those regulations you fear-monger, there’s little stopping them. That’s where the lack of confidence comes from. But hey, let’s get another billionaire on television to grouse about the uncertainty of regulations and taxes being the cause of problems. I’m sure that’s EXACTLY what the corporate media wants you to believe.
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Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Monday that it would be “foolish” to normalize trade with Cuba because Hezbollah could soon have “missile sites” there. “Why would you normalize trade with a country that sponsors terror?” the candidate asked a crowd of supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “There is reports that have come out that Cuba has been working with another terrorist organization called Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran and, of course, when you are 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don’t want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah could have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba. ” Bachmann was most likely basing her fear on an unsubstantiated report from the Italian publican Corriere della Sera , which was picked up by numerous conservative websites earlier this month (see here , here , here and here .) Even if that report were true, it makes absolutely no mention of “missile sites.” Bachmann then pivoted to explain that Republicans didn’t need to worry about picking the most electable nominee because the country had already decided not to re-elect President Barack Obama. “I’m just here to tell you, Barack Obama will be a one-term president,” she said. “The country has already made up it’s decision. I am convinced of it. The issue is who will be our nominee? Will it be someone who understands these issues so they will go and fight for them or will we have a compromise candidate?” “Because we have candidates that have said that when it comes to Obamacare that their plan is to issue an executive order or to issue a waiver. I’m here to tell you, I get this bill. I fought it. I am the chief author against it. I was called Barack Obama’s chief critic. That’s my badge of honor, to be his chief critic. Because I understand what some of the other candidates do not… We can’t settle, and 2012 is it. We will have socialized medicine for ever and ever and ever in this country unless we get it out in 2012.”
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Typhoon Nesat reaches land, leading to power cuts and travel disruption A powerful typhoon slammed ashore on Tuesday in the eastern Philippines where authorities ordered more than 100,000 people to seek shelter. Heavy rains and winds of up to 106 miles (170km) per hour resulted from Typhoon Nesat as it made landfall before dawn over the mountainous eastern provinces of Isabela and Aurora which face the Pacific Ocean. With its immense 400-mile cloud band, the typhoon threatened the entire main Luzon Island on its path across the Philippines. It is expected to reach the South China Sea late on Wednesday or early on Thursday and then head toward southern China. Heavy downpours and wind prompted the closure of schools and universities in the capital, Manila, while scores of domestic flights were cancelled and ferries were grounded, stranding thousands. One person was injured in a tornado and more than 50 fishermen had to be rescued along eastern shores when their boats overturned in choppy seas, the government disaster agency reported. Forecasters warned of waves measuring 12ft high. Power was cut in many parts of Luzon, including in Manila, where hospitals, hotels and emergency services used generators. Branches and torn tarpaulins littered the flooded streets. About 112,000 people were ordered to leave their homes in five towns prone to flash floods and landslides in central Albay province. By Monday, more than 50,000 had moved to government-run evacuation centres and the homes of relatives, officials said. “We can’t manage typhoons, but we can manage their effects,” Albay governor Joey Salceda said. Authorities were monitoring farming communities at the base of Mayon volcano in Albay. Tons of ash have been deposited on Mayon’s slopes by past eruptions, and mudslides caused by a typhoon in 2006 buried entire villages, leaving about 1,600 people dead and missing. The typhoon bore down on the Philippines exactly two years after nearly 500 people died in the worst flooding in decades in Manila, a city of 12 million people, when a tropical storm hit. Residents commemorated the anniversary on Monday by offering prayers and planting trees. Philippines Natural disasters and extreme weather guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media The small town of Bay Minette, Alabama is telling people convicted of small crimes to choose Jesus or choose jail. Starting this week, the city judge will implement Operation Restore Our Community (ROC), which gives misdemeanor offenders a choice between fines and jail or a year of Sunday church services. “Operation ROC resulted from meetings with church leaders,” Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland told the Alabama Press-Register . “It was agreed by all the pastors that at the core of the crime problem was the erosion of family values and morals. We have children raising children and parents not instilling values in young people.” Critics charge that the program is unfair to some minority religious groups because of the 56 participating churches, none are mosques or synagogues. And Atheists have no choice but compromise their beliefs or go to jail. Pastor Robert Gates told WRKG that the program was a win-win for everyone involved. “You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I’ll show you a person who won’t be a problem to society,” he said. ACLU of Alabama director Olivia Turner called the policy “blatantly unconstitutional.” “It violates one basic tenet of the Constitution, namely that government can’t force participation in religious activity,” she said, adding that the ACLU is “considering options for response.” Think Progress’ Ian Millhiser noted that the program would even be considered illegal under conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s view of the Constitution. “In his dissenting opinion in Lee v. Weisman , Scalia wrote that the state may not use the ‘threat of penalty’ to ‘coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise,’” Millhiser wrote. “Telling someone — even someone convicted of a crime — that they must participate in a religious service or go to jail clearly fails Justice Scalia’s test.” Earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court suspended Mississippi Justice Court Judge Theresa Brown Dearman for 30 days for forcing people charged with crimes to attend church as a condition of bail.
Continue reading …British army will never again be among military superpowers, report claims
September 26, 2011 No Comment
Thinktank says cuts and Trident plan will leave black hole in finances, but UK will still be able to assist in operations like Libya Britain’s shrinking military will “never again be among the global superpowers” but will have enough capability to assist in operations such as Libya and Afghanistan in the future, a study said on Tuesday. However, the MoD’s finances will be capsized and its resources further diminished unless there is a substantial increase in defence spending to cover the “looming” costs of the replacement for the Trident nuclear deterrent. The warning comes from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) thinktank in a tough report which questions whether Britain’s defence crisis is really over. Last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review led to sweeping redundancies across all three services, and the early mothballing of, among others, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and the fleet of Harrier jets. In a brutally frank assessment of the British military, the report states: “The UK will never again be a member of the select club of global superpowers. Indeed it has not been one for decades. “But currently planned levels of defence spending should be enough for it to maintain its position as one of the world’s five second-rank military powers (with only the US in the first rank).” Many in the military are likely to bridle at the analysis; last week the former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, struck a completely different tone, causing a furore when he said the UK should not consider itself a second-tier power like “bloody Belgium or Denmark” . The RUSI study, though, says that coalition-imposed funding cuts on the MoD have made drastic action inevitable. The report, titled Looking into the Black Hole, states that the MoD appears to have taken the necessary, painful action to achieve a near 8% reduction in spending, and fend off the immediate budget crisis. But it warns that further “hard battles” lie ahead to bring down costs “in areas as diverse as equipment programmes, pay levels, service accommodation, boarding school allowances and regimental identities”. The report’s author, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, writes that the future of the services now depends to a large extent on the MoD’s ability to “control the costs of its largest programmes, which have historically been the most technologically challenging and the most subject to cost increases.” He identifies three key projects – the successor to Trident, the new Joint Strike Fighter, and the Type 26-frigate, and says any one of them could pose substantial financial risks to the MoD. “There continues to be a risk that the MoD’s plans could be blown off course if the cost of major programmes increases more sharply than planned … the largest, and politically most difficult, procurement programme over the next two decades will be the construction of a successor to the Trident nuclear deterrent submarines.” Because the government has insisted that the cost of Trident will come from the MoD budget, there will have to be a big increase in defence spending beyond 2020 – when most of the nuclear deterrent costs will be incurred. Without it, spending on other new equipment “will fall back sharply after 2020″. The report also warns that the drawdown from Afghanistan, which has already begun, “could weaken the MoD’s bargaining position, especially if current efforts to reduce the nation’s fiscal deficit have not yet fully succeeded”. Chalmers says, however, that “it is important not to overstate the extent to which long-term military capability has been damaged” by the recent cuts, and those still in the pipeline. The Libya operation has revealed capability gaps, the repair of which will be made more difficult by the spending squeeze,” the report says. “But, on current plans, the UK should still be able to maintain a wide spectrum of capability, albeit at a reduced scale than in the past.” In a further blow to defence, the British arms giant BAE Systems is expected to announce around 3,000 job cuts on Tuesday, mainly at sites in its military aircraft division in Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire, and Brough, East Yorkshire. In a statement the company said: “BAE Systems has informed its staff that we are reviewing our operations across various businesses to make sure the company is performing as effectively and efficiently as possible, both in delivering our commitments to existing customers and ensuring the company is best placed to secure future business. “Whilst there has been a lot of media speculation it has always been our intention to communicate the results of the review to employees as a priority, and this will take place on Tuesday 27 September.” Military Ministry of Defence Defence policy Public sector cuts Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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Former IMF chief claims diplomatic immunity from lawsuit brought by hotel maid over sexual assault allegation Dominique Strauss-Kahn has asked a New York judge to dismiss a civil suit filed by the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault. The high-profile criminal case against Strauss-Kahn collapsed last month after prosecutors told the court they could not trust hotel worker Nafissatou Diallo’s testimony beyond reasonable doubt. Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign as managing director of the IMF after he was arrested in May while trying to board a plane to Europe and charged with the sexual assault and attempted rape of Diallo in his suite at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan. Diallo had filed a civil law suit against the ex-IMF boss before the criminal case collapsed. While the criminal case continued, judge Douglas McKeon gave the one-time French presidential candidate until 26 September to respond. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers are arguing that their client was immune to such suits under international law. McKeon will now now consider the application. Diallo, a 32-year-old Guinean immigrant, maintains in her civil suit against Strauss-Kahn that she was subjected to a “sadistic” attack. She is seeking unspecified damages from the millionaire economist. DNA evidence of a sexual encounter was recovered by the police, and Strauss-Kahn has argued that he had consensual sex with Diallo. Earlier this month, in his first interview since the trial collapsed, Strauss-Kahn said there was no “aggression or constraint” involved, but admitted he was guilty of a “moral fault” . Strauss-Kahn faces legal woes on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the collapse of the criminal case. This week he is expected to meet Tristane Banon , a French writer who has accused him of attacking her during an interview him in 2003, when he was a senior figure in the opposition Socialist party. He has strenuously denied the accusations. French prosecutors are deciding whether to bring charges against Strauss-Kahn and the meeting is set to take place before a judge. Dominique Strauss-Kahn New York United States France IMF Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Galaxy Tab 8.9 hits pre-order, ships October 2nd in US; Galaxy Player 5.0 and 4.0 shipping October 16th
September 26, 2011 No Comment
Hot on the heels of a UK release , Samsung has just announced that its long-awaited (and long-delayed ) Galaxy Player 4.0 ($229) and 5.0 ($269) will be available for pre-order starting September 27th, with US availability pegged for October 16th. Oddly enough, Samsung gave no reason behind the once-spring, now-autumn pushback, but at least we can finally stop wondering and instead start enjoying the spoils of an (almost) Galaxy Note -sans-phone . (Not like we haven’t heard a similar tune before). All that aside, the Player 5.0 and 4.0 weigh in at 6.4 and 4.2 ounces, respectively, and both are powered by Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread); other specs include 802.11b/g/n, WVGA Super Clear LCDs (800 x 480), Bluetooth 3.0, 8GB of onboard storage, a microSD expansion slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, voice recorder, mini-USB connectivity, front and rear cameras and support for Sammy’s Media Hub content service. The big fellow gets a 2,500mAh battery, whereas its little(r) brother is equipped with a 1,200mAh cell. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is available for pre-sale right now , with shipments to hit retail on October 2nd. Developing… Continue reading Galaxy Tab 8.9 hits pre-order, ships October 2nd in US; Galaxy Player 5.0 and 4.0 shipping October 16th Galaxy Tab 8.9 hits pre-order, ships October 2nd in US; Galaxy Player 5.0 and 4.0 shipping October 16th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The low-cost airline’s founder accuses his old company of smear tactics against him and violating agreements The long-running feud between Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and easyJet has reached new heights of bitterness with the entrepreneur threatening to launch a rival airline and accusing the management of the company he founded of orchestrating a smear campaign against him. Haji-Ioannou, who gave up day-to-day control of the company more than 10 years ago, has repeatedly clashed with easyJet’s board in recent years over the way it was being run. But in what appeared to be a pre-emptive strike against the new venture, easyJet said on Monday that Haji-Ioannou “intends to set up an airline branded Fastjet”. The tycoon has already set up a website, fastjet.com. The new website says only: “Fastjet.com by Stelios. Coming soon!” against a vivid red background. Haji-Ioannou declined to give more details of the launch on Monday, saying only that he will not now abide by the terms of an agreement last October not to launch a rival, instead accusing easyJet of breaching its provisions by smearing him in off-the-record briefings to journalists. Set up by Haji-Ioannou in 1995 with a £5m loan from his shipping tycoon father, easyJet helped to pioneer low-cost air travel in Britain and challenge the stranglehold of national carriers such as British Airways. After the business floated in 2000, netting him a £280m fortune, he took his ideas into a host of other consumer ventures, launching, among other things, internet cafes, pizzas and hire cars all branded “easy”. Under the terms of its flotation in 2000, easyJet licensed the brand from Haji-Ioannou’s company easyGroup. The terms of the transaction meant easyJet could only use the brand for its core activity – running an airline – and limited any revenues it made from other activities to no more than a quarter of total sales. But following a boom in budget travel and new revenue lines such as baggage check-in fees, Haji-Ioannou went to court to argue that the agreement had been breached. The row was resolved in October of last year , with easyJet increasing the annual royalty it paid to easyGroup. Instead of getting nominal £1 a year easyGroup now receives a percentage of easyJet’s revenues, amounting to almost £9m for the first two years alone, and a possible £65m over 10 years. Under the terms of that agreement Haji-Ioannou, who remained on the board until last year, separately agreed “not to use his own name or a derivation of it to brand any other airline which flies to or from any country in Europe for a period of five years”. Nor is he allowed to hold a stake larger than 10% in another European airline. EasyJet agreed to pay him £300,000 a year in return for those commitments. Haji-Ioannou said that the non-compete agreement had been invalidated because a clause committing both parties to enhance the reputation of the easyJet brand as well as his personal reputation had been breached. A statement on his behalf said: “Sir Stelios strongly believes that the directors of easyJet, via a smear campaign conducted by off-the-record briefings to journalists, have repeatedly breached the clause, so he has terminated the effect of the letter for repudiatory breach and has rejected all payments offered under this letter since May 2011.” Easyjet, whose chief executive is former Guardian Media Group boss Carolyn McCall, said it would do whatever it could to protect itself and its shareholders, though it is unclear what they can do to prevent Haji-Ioannou’s plan. Since the signing of October’s agreement there have been signs that all was not well between Haji-Ioannou and the airline. He had been campaigning for the airline to make dividend payouts to shareholders, a wish that was granted by the company’s management last week. He has also disagreed with the company over the size of its aircraft fleet, believing it should not be expanded further without evidence that the new planes will make good profits. One immediate difficulty Haji-Ioannou faces in launching a rival is that he continues to own 26% stake in easyJet, while family members have an 11% stake through a company called Polys Holdings. The Haji-Ioannou family’s combined holding was worth around £550m at Monday’sclosing share price. There were reports that other shareholders were calling for him to sell immediately. It may not be easy, either, for Haji-Ioannou to achieve the success he had with easyJet when setting up a new airline. “When easyJet and Ryanair were established the market was very different. Ticket sales went through travel agents, the whole concept was quite new. They developed new routes and created new demand. Any newcomer is going to struggle. The low-hanging fruit is gone,” said Gert Zonneveld, an airlines analyst at City broker Panmure Gordon. Easyjet shares closed on Monday up 1p at 353p. Easyjet Airline industry Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
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