Relatives and charity say Viswalingam Gopithas has suffered a stroke and is being held without charge under terror legislation The British government and a legal charity have expressed concerns about the plight of an ill British Tamil who has been held in Sri Lanka for almost four-and-a-half years without charge or trial under controversial anti-terror legislation. Viswalingam Gopithas, a father of two from south London, was arrested in Colombo in April 2007 on suspicion of seeking to provide support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) . The 41-year-old shopowner denies the that he was trying to supply the LTTE with night vision equipment, and says he was in fact bringing mobile phones and global positioning systems back to the UK to be used in a friend’s minicab business. Gopithas also points out that he never brought the equipment into Sri Lanka – leaving it bonded at customs in the airport while he visited his family – and that in any case, it was not prohibited material at the time. Shortly before he was due to return to the UK, he went back to customs to check that his packages would be ready for him to take home. It was then that he was arrested by officers attached to the terrorist investigation department, where he was held for almost a month. After being made to sign a statement in Sinhalese – a language he does not understand – he spent a year-and-a-half in police custody. He was then moved to the New Magazine prison in Colombo, where he has been held for three years without charge or trial. Gopithas is understood to be the only British national held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act , which has been criticised for its provisions allowing people to be held indefinitely without trial. Its continuing use has come under renewed scrutiny since the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war in 2009 and the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. Gopithas, who had a stroke in 2007 and suffers from heart problems and high blood pressure, says that conditions in the overcrowded prison are affecting his health and that he is not getting proper access to medical treatment. “He sleeps on a concrete floor with no mattress and there’s no ventilation or fans or anything,” a relative told the Guardian. “Sanitation-wise, it’s full of cockroaches and bedbugs and a lot of things. It’s not a sanitary place. They have to queue for the toilets: there are two toilets for 80-100 people.” Gopithas has also told his family that he would rather die than face indefinite detention as he knows he is not the only one suffering. “He says it would be better if he died or if they shot him because it would stop his suffering and the family’s suffering,” said another relative. “He says everyone’s suffering because of him, including his father, who’s 80 years old and comes every day to bring his food.” The Foreign Office says it has pressed the Sri Lankan authorities to expedite their investigation since 2007 and would continue to do so, adding that Gopithas was receiving regular consular visits. A spokesman said: “FCO minister Alistair Burt raised Mr Gopithas’s continued detention without charge with the Sri Lankan foreign minister, [G L] Peiris in June this year … [and] more broadly, the UK has regularly expressed its concern about legislation in Sri Lanka that allows for prolonged detention without charge.” The Guardian also understands that there is frustration within the British government that Gopithas has neither been tried nor released. A debate on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka will be held Thursday afternoon. The charity Fair Trials International has filed an application before the UN human rights committee challenging Gopithas’s indefinite detention under the PTA , and asked the British government to raise the matter with Colombo. “The Sri Lankan conflict ended years ago but thousands of people, including Mr Gopithas, still languish under so-called ‘emergency laws’ with no trial and no end date to their detention,” said Jago Russell, the charity’s chief executive. “British authorities must pressure the Sri Lankan authorities to either try Mr Gopithas fairly or put an end to his arbitrary detention, and allow him to return home to his wife and two young daughters in London.” Lee Scott , the Conservative MP for Ilford North and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Tamils , said it was time Gopithas’s case was dealt with. “I have called for a fair trial with full evidence to be brought forward,” he said. “After this length of time this should now be resolved urgently and fairly.” Father S J Emmanuel, president of the Global Tamil Forum, said: “Whilst we welcome the withdrawal of the emergency laws, we are even more concerned about the current trend in which suppressive laws such as the PTA and the most recent law are being legislated. Previously, emergency rule extensions had to be passed through parliament on a monthly basis, however by legislating these same kinds of laws, the government is avoiding all checks and balances.” Sri Lanka Human rights Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
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Kweku Adoboli, a UBS investment bank trader remains in police custody amid allegations that he cost the Swiss bank £1.2bn Pressure to accelerate reform of the banking industry is mounting as a star trader at the UBS investment bank remained in police custody in London amid allegations that he was at the heart of a rogue trading incident that has cost the Swiss bank about $2bn (£1.2bn). Kweku Adoboli, 31, faced a night of questioning by officers from City of London police after being arrested at 3.30am when his managers became suspicious about his trading activities and alerted police and financial regulators. Police said he was being held on suspicion of “fraud by abuse of position”. Adoboli’s father, a retired United Nations employee from Ghana, told Reuters in Accra that his “Godfearing family” was “heartbroken because fraud is not our way of life”. John Adoboli, who had worked in trouble spots around the world, said his son’s girlfriend had confirmed his arrest. Adoboli Sr said he was calling his son’s phone and he hoped he would “be granted bail soon so I can hear his side of the story”. The Nottingham University graduate’s arrest coincided with the third anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and sparked a 10% fall in UBS’s shares as it warned it might make a third-quarter loss. Days after the government pledged to endorse ringfencing ideas put forward by Sir John Vickers’s Independent Commission on Banking, senior political figures used the UBS incident as ammunition to encourage reform. Lord Oakeshott, the former Lib Dem Treasury spokesman in the Lords, said it exposed the “toxic banking risk” still in the system. Lord Myners, Labour’s City minister during the banking crisis, warned taxpayers were still on the hook should a UK bank fail. UBS, which had been fighting to restore its reputation after it became one of the biggest continental European casualties of the 2008 banking crisis, alerted City of London police at 1am on Thursday after it uncovering alleged “unauthorised trading” in the late afternoon and embarked on a wide-ranging internal investigation. City of London police arrested Adoboli at the sprawling UBS office complex near Liverpool Street in central London, where around 6,000 people are employed. “The man was taken to a City of London police station for questioning and he remains in custody while officers are continuing to investigate this matter,” police said. The allegations facing Adoboli follow a series of rogue trading incidents in the financial markets. Nick Leeson is perhaps the highest profile after he was jailed in Singapore for bringing down Barings Bank in 1995 but there have been many others, including Yasuo “Mr Copper” Hamanaka and Jérôme Kerviel, a trader at Société Générale, whom the French authorities sentenced to three years in prison last year after he ran up losses of €4.9bn. Kerviel is appealing against the sentence. Adoboli now risks entering that list if charges are brought against him. The bank would not confirm his position at the bank but his entry on LinkedIn, the social networking site, described him as director of exchange traded funds (ETF) and delta one trading at UBS. This operation, in the equities division on the third floor of the UBS head office, was known internally as a profitable – and risk free – area of business. But it is understood that the trading desk was largely silent on Thursday Staff were said to be stunned as Adoboli and his colleagues were regarded as “stars” by their colleagues and top management.ETFs are complex financial instruments that comprise a basket of investments intended to mimic a market’s movements. They have become an area into which firms have expanded since the subprime mortgage crisis. Traders on so-called delta one desks try to make huge profits on tiny differences between prices. The Financial Services Authority, the City regulator, is understood to have been alerted in the early hours and Swiss regulators were watching the situation closely. The Serious Fraud Office may also become involved after it said it was “seeking discussions” with the bank, the City of London police and the FSA about how to proceed if fraud needed to be investigated. The SFO had already issued a warning about the “inherent dangers” of ETFs because of their complexity. UBS is expected to reveal more details on Friday about the allegations facing Adoboli but the City was rife with speculation that he had been caught out by the sudden move by the Swiss National Bank last week to lower the rate of exchange of the Swiss franc. On 6 September, the Swiss National Bank warned that it would no longer allow one Swiss franc to be worth more than €0.83 – equivalent to SFr1.20 to the euro. “The Swiss currency moved by 8% straight away which is a huge move for foreign exchange markets. Probably a good guess as to where the loss came from, but at the moment we do not know,” said Louise Cooper, analyst at BGC Partners. Amid concerns about the health of Europe’s banking system, Oakeshott told a debate on the Vickers reforms in the Lords that “this reminds us how much toxic banking risk remains in the system, and how urgent radical reform is”. He added: “The problem is that big investment banks are full of rogue traders: it is what they do.” Lord Myners, Labour’s City minister at the time of the banking crisis, told the Guardian: “Until this government does something – either Vickers or Vickers ‘plus’ – the taxpayers remain on the hook.” UBS Banking European banks Financial Services Authority (FSA) Regulators Financial sector Europe Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
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Lawyers for death row inmate sentenced on basis of racist testimony in eleventh-hour in plea to Texas governor Duane Buck’s lawyers’ letter to Rick Perry Lawyers for a death row inmate in Texas who was sentenced to death on the basis of testimony from a psychologist who argued he was a risk to the public because he is black are making frantic eleventh-hour efforts to spare him from the execution chamber on Thursday. If their pleading fails to sway the Texas authorities, Duane Buck, 48, will be put to death by lethal injection at 6pm local time. His lawyers are appealing to the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, to use his powers to delay the execution to allow for the case to go to resentencing given the racially tainted nature of the original punishment. Lawyers are also calling on the district attorney in Buck’s local area to postpone the execution date, and are filing for a stay of execution to the Texas appeals court. Should these attempts fail, Buck would become the second death row inmate in Texas to be executed this week, with two more scheduled to die next week. The issue of capital punishment has entered into the national political debate surrounding Perry’s bid to become the Republican candidate in next year’s presidential election. Last week Perry, who is emerging as the frontrunner to take on Barack Obama in the November 2012 election, was quizzed about his enthusiasm for the death penalty in a TV debate. Perry said he had no qualms at all about any of the executions that have taken place on his watch, which include those of mentally ill prisoners, women, almost certainly innocent individuals and juveniles. The Republican audience cheered when they heard that 234 people had been put to death during Perry’s term in office – the highest number of any US governor in modern history. On Tuesday night, the first of four death row inmates scheduled to die in an eight-day period in Texas was administered the lethal injection. Steven Woods professed his innocence up to the minute of his death. His last words were: “You’re not about to witness an execution, you’re about to witness a murder … I’ve never killed anybody, never. This whole thing is wrong.” Woods was convicted of killing Ronald Whitehead and Bethena Brosz in a drugs dispute in May 2001. His alleged accomplice later confessed to having pulled the trigger and, in a plea bargain, was given a life sentence while Woods was put on death row. Death row campaigners are even more exercised about the case of Buck. Although there is no dispute over his guilt in a double murder in 1995 of his former girlfriend and a man, the jury at his sentencing hearing were presented with racist testimony. Under cross-examination from the prosecution, a psychologist was pressed to say that black people presented a greater risk of violent reoffending when released back into the community. Buck is African-American. Perry does not have the power to commute the death sentence, following the decision of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to dismiss an appeal for clemency. However, the governor does have the power to order a 30-day reprieve. Buck’s lawyer, Kate Black, told the Guardian such a reprieve would “allow time for the parties to come to an agreement that would afford Duane Buck a new sentencing hearing, untainted by race”. Phyllis Taylor, a friend of Buck’s victims who was wounded in the shooting, has come out in his support and called for the death sentence to be commuted to life in prison. “Through everything that has happened, I have found forgiveness in my heart. I forgave him because I know for a fact that he wasn’t in his right mind,” she said. Texas executes more people than any other state in the nation, with 10 put to death so far this year. Seventeen executions were held in 2010. Texas United States Rick Perry Human rights Capital punishment Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Deadbeat Dad Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) Ordered To Prove He Doesn’t Owe $100,000 in Child Support
September 15, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Sure there is a presumption of innocence and all that, but the courts and society take a dim view of fathers who fail to pay child support. “Family Values” candidate Lying hypocrite and once tea party favorite Joe Walsh looks to be toxic for everyone at this point. The news video is from late July by CBS Chicago. The story below is from earlier today. CHICAGO (CBS) – A Cook County judge ruled Wednesday that Congressman Joe Walsh must prove that he made nearly $100,000 in child-support payments as part of his ongoing legal dispute with his ex-wife, Laura Walsh. Earlier this year, Laura Walsh sued the Republican congressman from McHenry $117,000 in unpaid child support. Rep. Walsh, a Tea Party favorite, has disputed that he owes that much in child support. Laura Walsh was at Wednesday’s hearing before Cook County Judge Raul Vega, but the congressman was not, prompting the judge to ask Rep. Walsh’s attorney why he wasn’t there. Walsh’s new attorney, Janet Boyle, asked Vega “for what purpose” he wanted the congressman in court. Vega gave her a puzzled look. To which Boyle responded: “Mr. Walsh is a U.S. congressman.” “Well, he’s no different than anyone else,” the judge said. Vega said he expects Rep. Walsh to show up at the next hearing, in November. But Laura Walsh’s attorney later said the congressman probably wouldn’t have to come to court for the next hearing after all. Meantime, Vega said he was going to issue a “rule to show cause” why Walsh shouldn’t be held in contempt for falling behind on child support over the past five years. The effect of that ruling is that, instead of Laura Walsh having to prove the congressman owes the money, the burden shifts to the congressman to prove that he doesn’t owe money, according to attorneys for both Walshes.
Continue reading …Peter King Praises Gitmo As Better Than Any US Prison and Justifies Torture to Parliament
September 15, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Rep. Peter King was asked by the UK Parliament what kind of facility Guantanamo Bay is. This was after describing it as a vacation destination for prisoners. He was asked to justify how America could torture them and then call enhanced interrogation. It was just a little bit uncomfortable. He shrugged it off and said it wasn’t really that bad because our military trains with it and hey, if torture saved lives it was all worth it. Usually that’s the type of justification that you might hear someone from the Pinochet regime i nvoke. You can see why he was so eager to go to the UK and impart his wisdom on how we combat Muslim radicalization. King: I’ve Been to Guantanamo, it’s it’s modern facility. There’s one medical person for every two prisoners. (Gitmo has an excellent health plan) King: They are taught language, arts… (Forget about getting student loans for college, Gitmo has an education system that Michele Rhee would be proud of.) King: They are out playing soccer or football as you call it. (The MLS might find some untapped talent there) Have you visited? On how many occasions? King: Once. (That many?) Q: As you’re concerned the treatment is appropriate? King: Better than almost any American prison. Certainly better than any Army or Marine Corp training facility. MP Winnick: Water-boarding one hundred and sixty times of one prisoner. One hundred and sixty times. If that’s not torture Congressman King, what on earth is it? (After the first 150 times, what’s a few more?) King: To me it’s enhanced interrogation. I’ve Khalid Sheik Mohammad in person since then and he’s not all the worse for wear over it and he did provide information. Again, if you’re’ talking about moral equivalency here, you’re talking about a type of interrogation which was extremely uncomfortable, painful, I wouldn’t want to go through it. No permanent damage, at the same time if that led to the savings of 5, 6, 700 hundred people that didn’t have to jump through buildings or were burning to death, it’s a price I’ll pay. Enhanced interrogation isn’t torture to the Liz Cheney torture apologists because I guess they weren’t given the Children of Mengele treatment or weren’t just killed. No, it’s a price the prisoner paid and there is no evidence that they got any useful intelligence from the dissolving of our moral fiber, Congressman.
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• Hit F5 for the latest or use the auto-refresh button below • Follow all tonight’s European action on our live scoreboard • And email your thoughts to john.ashdown@guardian.co.uk Half-time email dept. “John, did you make it home in time to clean up before your girlfriend got home the other night, after the tennis?” wonders Eliot Crowe. “And, given that Spurs themselves aren’t even interested in this match, is there any chance you can entertain us readers by telling what happened on Top of the Pops ?” In answer to your first question, yes. In answer to the second, I think that particular story deserves better than this slightly underwhelming contest. Tell, you want – if there’s six or more goals in the second half I’ll spill the beans. If not, no deal. Half-time snack dept. Just a tea for me. White, no sugar. Peeeep! And the referee brings the opening 45 to a close. 45 min: Athanasiadis, whose name is causing me a few typing issues, does well to send a shot at goal under pressure from Corluka. It’s straight into Cudicini’s bread-basket. 43 min: Livermore, impressive thus far, is cynically chopped down by Pablo Garcia and picks up a booking. 42 min: “Thought I might tell you that Rubin Kazan just had a penalty brilliantly saved but, just before they got it, down at the other end Ryzhikov picked up the ball outside the box and it was ignored,” writes Brynmoor Pattison. “Interesting match underway in Tallaght! 0-1 to Rubin so far.” 41 min: Lovely work down the right from Spurs – Walker, Giovani and Falque combining to pick open the PAOK defence. The Spaniard dinks the ball back in and Pavlyuchenko whelps it off towards Macedonia. 40 min: … which Pavlyuchenko thumps into the roof of the net. On the outside of the goal. It was dipping, see. Cracking effort. 38 min: Bassong finds Pavlyuchenko with a lovely ball into the inside-left channel. The Russian gets the benefit of some Keystone Cops defending, cuts inside and wins a very dangerous free-kick … 36 min: Tottenham’s back four play a bit of keep-ball, before Giovani hops and pops forward once more and draws a free-kick. Arias gets a booking for his trouble. 34 min: The referee is doing his best to make this interesting – Tottenham concede a free-kick outside the PAOK area, but Livermore spanks a shot at goal. He gets a stern talking to from the man in yellow, who seems to fancy placing himself at the centre of proceedings. 33 min: And from the retake he drags it wide of Cudicini’s left-hand post! GO … NO! The Brazilian scoops it past Cudicini, runs off to celebrate … but the referee has ordered a retake! 29 min: PENALTY! And not to Spurs, but to PAOK! Cudicini pretty unnecessarily drags down Athanasiadis. 27 min: Giovani robs Vieirinha 30 yards from goal – the PAOK whistle their disgust. Kane goes down in the area … it looks like a penalty and quacks like a penalty … but it’s not a penalty. Kane gets a booking for simulation and replays show it wasn’t particularly deserved. It certainly looked like Contreras caught him. 25 min: … cleared away with little fuss. And on the break Giovani skitters and skips away from a couple of defenders, raising the pulse for just about the first time in this opening half. The move breaks down soon enough, but at least it was a brief injection of pace into a game that’s being played veerrrryyy slllooooowwwwllllllyyyyy. 24 min: Salpingidis wins a corner … 22 min: Former Uruguay international Pablo Garcia is the pivot in midfield for PAOK, but he’s operating in areas deeper than the Mariana Trench so struggling to cause any damage. 20 min: Townsend dinks in a cross, Kane heads straight at the keeper. It’s been a low key, middling-quality start here. And the match hasn’t been much better. 19 min: Vieirinha again causes trouble, shimmying his way into a shooting position, but then blazing over 18 min: … whipped in, but well held by Cudicini. 17 min: Vierienha again gets a little space, 25 yards from goal. Decent effort, deflected over. Corner … 16 min: Vierinha pokes a through-ball into the box, but it’s too heavy for his team-mate. 14 min: Tremendous atmosphere at the Toumba Stadium, despite Spurs monopolising possession. Kane gets down to the byline, but can’t work space for the cross. 13 min: “I wonder if a team from that Welsh railway station, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch will ever get a team in the Europa league?” writes Ben Bamford. “That would give these Greek chaps something to think about …” They’d have to go some to beat Bangkok Bravo (full name: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit Bravo Association Football Club ), though I suppose they’d have to meet in the World Club Championship. 11 min: CLEARED OFF THE LINE! Livermore does superbly to wriggle his way in to the box, lays the ball off to Falque who manages to find the only PAOK defender on the line. 10 min: With Andros Townsend struggling, Etto gets clear down the right and drags in a low cross that reaches a PAOK shirt in the box. The shot is well blocked at close quarters. 8 min: The Greek side have definitely upped their work-rate and are snapping at Tottenham heels higher up the pitch now. And in doing so giving away a couple of free-kicks. 7 min: Salpingidis, a veteran of 50 caps for Greece, whups another ball into the penalty area, but this time it’s aimless. 6 min: Dangerous cross into the box from Salpingidis, after nice work from Etto, but there’s not a black and white shirt in the box. 4 min: Falque picks the pocket of a PAOK defender but his attempted one-two doesn’t come off. Plenty of eyes on 21-year-old Spaniard tonight. 3 min: Shamrock Rovers are already 0-1 down at home to Rubin Kazan. 2 min: Free-kick to Spurs over on the right, whipped in left-footed by Tom Carroll (whose team-mates presumably call Christmas. Or Lewis. Or Andy). Straight into the meaty paws of Kresic in the PAOK goal. 1 min: Bassong does a little tidying up at the back as PAOK break forward, but then there’s some early pass, pass, pass from the visitors. Peep! Off we go then. Spurs, all in what Dulux or Crown might call Space Lilac, kicking from right to left. Click-clack, click-clack … The teams are in the tunnel. Something that could be Highway to Hell belts out from the Tannoy. 5.57pm: An alternative view dept. “Last season Harry ran his top players ragged, playing them every game and giving little opportunity to younger players,” writes Martin Wills. “Maybe he’s learned something from that.” 5.55pm: PAOK Salonika’s full and proper name is Panthessaloníkios Athlitikós Ómilos Konstantinoupolitón. A mouthful, that’s for sure. But not quite Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorzetten Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning Combinatie Breda ( otherwise known as NAC Breda ). 5.52pm: Harsh words dept. “I think this team selection, and Harry’s attitude towards this competition, betrays a real arrogance,” writes William Hardy. “They obviously think of themselves as a Champions League club, but they’re not going to be getting back in it any time soon, and they could win this if they took it seriously. Harry has only won one trophy in his whole career, and they could get a big draw if they stay in. One of Man City’s group will be entering, imagine Spurs getting Bayern, or Villareal or Napoli? Arrogance, that’s what I put it down to. Misplaced arrogance at that as well.” 5.49pm: Quite enjoying the fact that PAOK have got a Lino in there first XI. He’s a Brazilian – slightly disappointingly his first name isn’t “Oi!” and his surname isn’t “Getyourflagup”. He’s Dorvalino Alves Maciel. And it’s probably pronounced “Leeno” if we’re being honest with ourselves. Preamble: Evening all. Are we well? I’m dandy thanks, basking in the warm glow of a day’s work well done. Today I scrubbed the flagstones on my balcony and then re-pebbled the gutters – and, no, neither of those are euphemisms. And if that were not enough, there’s an evening of Europa League action to look forward to. Unlike many, I really like the Europa League. It’s full of big, old teams – names from the past that modern football has left behind: Anderlecht, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Lazio, Dynamo Kiev, Besiktas, Paris St Germain, Malmo, Austria Vienna, Club Brugge, Celtic, Rennes, Atletico Madrid, Steaua Bucharest, AEK Athens … and plenty more. Tottenham don’t seem quite so enamoured. What makes me say that? Here are the teams: PAOK Salonika: Kresic, Malezas, Contreras, Lino, Etto, Pablo Garcia, Fotakis, Arias, Vieirinha, Athanasiadis, Salpingidis. Subs: Chalkias, Balafas, Robert, Papazoglou, Ivic, Sznaucner, Tsoukalas. Tottenham: Cudicini, Bassong, Corluka, Walker, Livermore, Townsend, Carroll, Pavlyuchenko, Giovani, Falque, Kane. Subs: Gomes, Fredericks, Nicholson, Pritchard, Parrett, Stewart, Barthram. Referee: Milorad Mazic (Serbia) Europa League 2011-12 PAOK Salonika Tottenham Hotspur Europa League John Ashdown guardian.co.uk
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South Korea’s Kolon found to have stolen trade secrets of fibre in largest ever settlement in intellectual property trial The industrial conglomerate DuPont has won $920m (£583m) in damages after a US jury ruled that a South Korean firm had stolen trade secrets about the high-strength fibres used in its Kevlar body armour. Kolon Industries mounted a “concerted, orchestrated and persistent effort” to steal confidential information, DuPont’s lawyer Thomas Sager said. The Korean firm said it would appeal and was “confident that a fair and favourable decision will be reached on appeal”. The firm is also countersuing DuPont. The jury in Richmond, Virginia, took two days to find in favour of the US firm, which sued Kolon two years ago. DuPont argued that Kolon had conspired with a group of former employees to steal the secrets of its top-selling fibre. Michael Mitchell, a former employee whom the US authorities said gave Kolon proprietary information about Kevlar, is now in prison. The US firm alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) after learning Mitchell, a former DuPont engineer and Kevlar marketing executive, had confidential information on his home computer. The FBI searched his house and found DuPont documents and confidential information belonging to DuPont, federal prosecutors said last year. Mitchell was sentenced to 18 months in prison last March after pleading guilty to theft of trade secrets and obstruction of justice. Kolon recruited other former DuPont workers, from both the US firm and its Japanese subsidiary, as part of a “concerted effort” to obtain information about Kevlar, according to court filings. Kevlar, created by DuPont in 1965 and originally used in racing car tyres, now accounts for $1.4bn of DuPont’s sales and is used in bullet-proof vests, army helmets, snare drums, suspension bridge ropes and fibre-optic cable. “DuPont’s investment in developing this information, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars over many years, was thereby essentially lost,” the company said in a court filing in October. “Kolon is now able to compete against DuPont in the aramid [the class of synthetic fibres that includes Kevlar] marketing using DuPont’s own information against it.” The “jury decision is an enormous victory for global intellectual property protection”, Sager said. “It also sends a message to potential thieves of intellectual property that DuPont will pursue all legal remedies to protect our significant investment in research and development.” Kolon’s rival product is called Heracron. The Korean firm accuses DuPont of creating unfair competition by requiring customers to buy 80% to 100% of their Kevlar or equivalent fibres from the company. The case is set to go to trial next March. A Kolon spokesman said the verdict was: “The result of a multi-year campaign by DuPont aimed at forcing Kolon out of the aramid fibre market. Kolon had no need for and did not solicit any trade secrets or proprietary information of DuPont, and had no reason to believe that the consultants it engaged were providing such information. Indeed, many of the ‘secrets’ alleged in this case are public knowledge.” Press Millen, an expert on trade secrets cases and attorney at Womble Carlyle, said it was the largest settlement in a trade secrets case he could recall. “In order to get a settlement this large there has to be a real sense of egregiousness and the jury has to buy into that,” he said. He noted similarities to the last big trade secrets lawsuit in which the Barbie toy firm Mattel was ordered to pay $310m to a rival, MGA, in a dispute over the origins of the Bratz doll range. He said the jury’s familiarity with Kevlar may have contributed to their willingness to reach such a large settlement. “Kevlar is also a well-known product, bought in civilian as well as military contexts. It’s a brand name and a lot less abstract than a formula,” he said. The appliance of science Best known for bullet-proof vests and army helmets, and found in a range of sports equipment – such as bicycles, snowboards, rackets and hiking boots – Kevlar has also been to Mars on the Pathfinder spacecraft and used by drug-traffickers for the hulls of submarines. Discovered in 1965 by Stephanie Kwolek, a DuPont scientist, Kevlar is a light and flexible aramid fibre five times stronger than steel. It is also found in military vehicle armour, oil and gas pipes, aeroplane wings and helicopter blades. Oren Gruenbaum DuPont Manufacturing sector Intellectual property United States South Korea Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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New commissioner of Metropolitan police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, calls in force to examine evidence from Operation Weeting Durham police have been called in by the new commissioner of the Metropolitan force to review the ongoing phone-hacking inquiry, Scotland Yard confirmed on Wednesday. Bernard Hogan-Howe made the decision to ask for another force to examine the evidence gathered in Operation Weeting when he was appointed acting deputy commissioner of the Met in the summer following the departure of assistant commissioner John Yates and commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson. His role on this appointment was to take charge of the Operation Weeting inquiry and it was revealed on Wednesday that he had decided as a result of the sensitive nature of the investigation that a review should be carried out. The Guardian understands the review was not commissioned as a result of the arrest of a 51-year-old officer on the inquiry on suspicion of leaking details. The officer remains on police bail on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. Talking to the Evening Standard on Wednesday Hogan-Howe said: “I have asked another force to have a look at the inquiry to reassure us we are going in the right direction and I think we are.” Scotland Yard added: “We can confirm that the Metropolitan police service has asked an outside police force to conduct a review of Operation Weeting. A review of this kind is considered best practice in a sensitive inquiry of this nature and was instigated by Bernard Hogan-Howe as acting deputy commissioner during the summer. The review team is led by Durham chief constable Jon Stoddart who will report to the Metropolitan police service in due course.” A spokesman for Durham police said: “The Metropolitan Police Service has requested that an independent review of Operation Weeting be undertaken and we can confirm that Jon Stoddart, chief constable of Durham constabulary, has agreed to undertake the review. The review team will be taken from a number of forces outside the MPS.” Operation Weeing was begun in January and is investigating claims into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. The senior detective leading the phone-hacking inquiry, deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, told the home affairs select committee in July that there were 4,000 possible victims of phone hacking listed in the pages of private eye Glenn Muclaire’s notebooks. She said these individuals were being contacted “as quickly as possible”. Akers’s investigation team consists of 45 officers, many of whom have been seconded from homicide teams. Akers is also overseeing a separate investigation into alleged bribes of police officers. This is being shared with the Met’s directorate of professional standards and overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World Police Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk
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• Protests against criminalisation of squatting expected in London • Campaigners target justice secretary’s home • “Cardboard city” flashmob expected outside DCLG 2.55pm: Journalist Diane Taylor has just sent this through on the protest on top of Ken Clarke’s roof. It seems small, 10 people so far, but they are expected to join up with flashmobbers later in the day: Two of them clambered onto the porch roof of Clarke’s terraced house in a quiet residential street a stone’s throw from parliament just before 1.30pm to draw attention to the government’s plans to criminalise squatters. They unfurled banners declaring ‘housing is a human right’ and served a mock six-month eviction notice on him. There was no sign of any police officers while the activists protested on Clarke’s porch roof. Phoenix, one of the activists involved in today’s protest, is a veteran squatter. He has been involved in hundreds of direct action protests, beginning with the anti-roads protest in Twyford Down in 1992 and has lost count of how many buildings he has scaled to draw attention to a variety of causes. The activists barged into a TV interview with Alastair Darling on College Green and demanded to know whether or not he was backing the government’s proposals to toughen up anti-squatting legislation. He declined to respond. They then visited the recently vacated Lib Dem HQ and made a failed attempt to squat it. “It’s now an empty property. It would make a perfect community centre,” said Phoenix. 2.33pm: We’re already getting a report from journalist Diane Taylor that activists have target the house of justice secretary Ken Clarke. They climbed on to his roof of his house in Oval an hour-and-a-half ago with one activist giving him a mocked up six month eviction notice.The crowd has now moved on to another target and it was all over very quickly. A full update and pictures are expected soon. 2.06pm: Welcome this afternoon to our live blog on housing protests which are due to take place around London today. We understand that various campaign groups are going to hold protests outside of government buildings including the Department of Communities and Local Government which has responsibility for housing. It’s still a little hush hush but we will update as events come through. They are making noise about a number of issues. The first is the imminent eviction of Dale Farm in Essex in which travellers are expected to be removed in the coming week from a plot of land which they own but do not have planning permission to erect dwellings on. The second issue is the criminalisation of squatting . After after a spate of vacant central London town houses were squatted, including that of Guy Ritchie , the justice secretary Ken Clarke, along with housing minister Grant Schapps decided to make squatting a criminal offence. Currently if you enter a house which has been abandoned and unsecured and claim it as your abode, it is treated by courts as a civil offence. The third issue is that of council’s planned evictions of tenants whose family members were involved in last August’s riots. The first known example of this was Wandsworth council , in London who have already served one family with a notice of planned eviction. And finally, there are of course the cuts to housing benefits. What has most riled activists are the shift from so called subsidised rents which housing associations currently provided when compared to the full market value. The £500 a week housing benefit cap is also a source of concern in London where rent is especially high. Stay tuned for further updates this afternoon. Housing Housing benefit Communities Crime Protest Dale Farm Shiv Malik guardian.co.uk
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Police say three men escaped to the surface but four remain trapped after incident at Gleision colliery, near Swansea A major rescue operation is underway after four people were feared to be trapped in a coalmine in Wales. South Wales police said officers, with fire and ambulance crews, were called to the Gleision colliery in Pontardawe, Swansea, at 9.20am. The small hillside mine, near Cilybebyll, has been in operation since 1993. A police spokesman said: “Seven people were initially in the mine at the time. Three of them got out, with one taken to hospital. His condition is currently unknown. “It is believed the other four remain inside. A rescue operation is under way. As you can imagine, it is quite a dynamic situation.” Local councillor Arthur Threlfall, who serves on Cilybebyll community council, described the situation as very worrying. He said: “I understand the injured man was taken to hospital via helicopter. The mine is in quite a remote spot. At the moment, you cannot go anywhere near it because a large area around it has been cordoned off by the police. “Gleision is one of those collieries that has open and shut many times, and they tend to work on the basis of when coal is found. However, it has recently been extended. “This is the first mining disaster I have known for many years. There are not many collieries left like there used to be. However, it is a very worrying situation and it has shocked a lot of people.” The Neath MP and shadow Welsh secretary, Peter Hain, also expressed his concern. He said: “I am immediately seeking information on the miners’ predicament. “I am asking what action needs to be taken urgently by all relevant authorities to secure their safety.” Mining Wales Steven Morris Stephen Morris guardian.co.uk
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