The City had been using £1.4bn a starting point for any bidders for Northern Rock, but this has now fallen to £1.1bn Ron Sandler, chairman of Northern Rock, insisted taxpayers would eventually be “well rewarded” for bailing out the Newscastle lender even if the current sales process fails to achieve a £1.4bn price tag for the nationalised lender. The taxpayer lent Northern Rock £27bn in the “dark days” of the 2008 banking crisis, when Sandler was parachuted in by the government as it was nationalised . It has since been split into two: Northern Rock plc which is now up for sale; and Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) , the “bad” bank that holds the bulk of the taxpayer loan. Some £1.4bn of the total £27bn loan was used to support Northern Rock plc, and turned into equity after the split last year, and its first half figures published on Wednesday show that this has now fallen in value to £1.1bn. The City had been using £1.4bn a starting point for any bidders but Sandler stressed that the price fetched from the sale could not be looked at in isolation in assessing returns to the taxpayer and that the repayment of the rest of loan by NRAM needed to be considered. “If I’m a taxpayer and I’m asking the question ‘was the support appropriately rewarded’, it is the bigger question I would ask you to focus on,” Sandler said. “I am confident the taxpayer will be well rewarded,” he added. The deadline for bids was last week and Sandler refused to identify the potential buyers and stressed that there was no timetable in place to complete a deal. “I am pleased with the level of interest that has been received,” Sandler said. He also said that while a sale was being pursued, other options – a flotation or remutualisation – had not been ruled out. For the first time, he has set a target for a return to profitability in the second half of 2012 – some four years after it was nationalised – as the lender reported a loss of £78.8m in the first six months of 2011. This was in line with expectations and “significantly reduced” on the loss of £140m in the first half of 2010. The bank was allowed to resume lending last year but its mortgage book has grown only slowly from £12.2bn at the end of 2010 to £12.5bn at the end of June. Gross mortgage lending in the first half of 2011 was £1.5bn, including mortgage retention business of £0.3bn. “The lending profile has been managed for value rather than volume, which resulted in a reduction in completions in the first half compared with the same period in 2010,” Northern Rock said. The number of arrears cases has continued to gradually increase over the first half of the year but remains below the industry average. In March, Northern Rock announced 680 job cuts . Half of those affected have left, with the rest expected to go in the remaining part of the year. More jobs could be lost, Sandler admitted. UK Asset Resolution – the “bad” part of Northern Rock that has been merged with the Bradford & Bingley mortgage book that was nationalised in September 2008 – has already returned to profit. Last week it reported an increase in profits to £344m in the first six months of 2011 . The Unite union said Northern Rock had shed thousands of workers since it was brought to the brink of collapse by the financial crisis. “The reality behind these results is that over the last four years the staff who in no way brought the bank to near collapse, have paid with changes to their pensions and the loss of over 3,000 colleagues. Yet the greedy management under Adam Applegarth [the former chief executive] have sailed away in their multi-million pound yachts,” said Brian Cole, Unite officer. “It should be recognised that while Northern Rock made a loss, NRAM which split from the bank, has paid £2.1bn in the last 18 months, and has made a pre-tax profit of £344m for the first half of this year. Unite continues to question the rationale behind the split of the Northern Rock business,” he added. Northern Rock Banking Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
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1.2 tonnes of drug found hidden inside yacht at Southampton docks and six members of suspected international gang arrested A record £300m haul of cocaine has been seized and six alleged members of an international drug gang arrested, officials have said. A total of 1.2 tonnes of cocaine was found hidden inside a 65ft pleasure cruiser at Southampton docks in June. It is the biggest haul of class-A drugs ever found in the UK, officials from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said. French authorities were alerted to the suspicious £1m craft, named Louise, while it was in the Caribbean in May and it was then tracked to Southampton, on its way to the Netherlands. Officials spent six days searching the vessel and found the drugs packed in a specially designed compartment beneath the boat’s bathing platform. It is understood the cocaine, which originated in South America, was packed inside the boat while it was in Venezuela. The drug was 90% pure, while the average purity of cocaine seized at the UK border is 63%, officials said. The haul is estimated to be worth between £50m wholesale and £300m on the streets. Since the drugs were found in June, the UKBA has helped Dutch police track members of the gang and six men were arrested during early morning raids on Tuesday – two 44-year-olds in Amsterdam, a 60-year-old in Meppel, two, aged 32 and 34, in Heusden, and a 27-year-old in Waalwijk. A total of €100,000 (£87,300), two Harley Davidson motorcycles, two firearms, a silencer and ecstasy were also seized. The immigration minister, Damian Green, said: “This was a significant drugs seizure which was made possible by the co-operation of our international partners. “Our efforts have helped bring an international crime gang to book and the message is clear: we will investigate and prosecute anyone who tries to smuggle banned substances through UK borders. “By keeping the border secure we play a key role in stopping drugs entering the UK and in reducing the harm they do to our communities.” The Dutch police were acting on intelligence provided by Soca’s international network and the French customs investigation service Drugs trade Drugs Crime Health Netherlands Europe guardian.co.uk
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Chile’s government has released more footage of the men who’d been trapped underground for months last year, days ahead of the anniversary of the blast that collapsed the mine they were working in. (Aug. 3)
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Oil giant faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars following class action suit brought on behalf of communities in Bodo, Ogoniland Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that have devastated a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may take at least 20 years to clean up. Oil spill experts who have studied video footage of the spills at Bodo in Ogoniland say the spills could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disater in Alaska when 10m gallons of oil was spilt. Until now, Shell has claimed that less than 40,000 gallons were spilt. Papers seen by the Guardian show that following a class action suit in London over the past four months, the company has accepted responsibility for the double rupture in 2008 of the 50-year-old Bodo-Bonny trans-Niger pipeline that pumps 120,000 barrels of oil a day though the community. Ogoniland is the small region of the Niger delta which threw out Shell in 1994 for its pollution but then saw eight of its leaders, including the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa , executed by the goverment. The crude oil that gushed unchecked from the two Bodo spills which occurred within months of each other in 2008 has clearly devastated the 20 sq km network of creeks and inlets on which Bodo and as many as 30 other smaller settlements depend for food, water and fuel. No attempt has been made to clean up the oil, which has collected on the creek sides, washes in and out on the tides and has seeped deep into the water table and farmland. According to the communities in Bodo, in two years the company has only offered £3,500 together with 50 bags of rice, 50 bags of beans and a few cartons of sugar, tomatoes and groundnut oil. The offers were rejected as “insulting, provocative and beggarly” by the chiefs of Bodo, but later accepted on legal advice. Shell’s acceptance of full liability for the spills follows a class action suit bought on behalf of communities by London law firm Leigh Day and Co , which represented the Ivory Coast community that suffered health damage following the dumping of toxic waste by a ship leased to multinational oil company Trafigura in 2006. Many other impoverished communities in the delta are now expected to seek damages for oil pollution against Shell in the British courts. On average, there are three oil spills a day by Shell and other companies working in the delta. Shell consistently blames the spills on local youths who, they argue, sabotage their network of pipelines. “The news that Shell has accepted liability in Britain will be greeted with joy in the delta. The British courts may now be inundated with legitimate complaints,” said Patrick Naagbartonm, corordinator for the Centre of Environment and Human Rights in Port Harcourt. Later this week the company will be heavily implicated by the UN for the environmental disaster in the Niger delta which has seen more than 7,000 oil spills in the low lying swamps and farmland since 1989. Shell first discovered oil in the Niger delta in 1956. According to Amnesty International, more than 13m barrels of oil have been spilt in the delta, twice as much as by BP in last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill . The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, funded by Shell, will be presented to president Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday and is expected to be released on Friday in London. UNEP’s report, the first peer-reviewed scientific study of more than 60 spills, is expected to to say that oil pollution in Ogoniland is much worse than previously believed, having sunk deep into the water table. Many spills have not been cleared up since 1970 and the effects on the local economy, health and development have been severe. The report will not apportion blame for individual spills. International oil spill asessment experts who have seen the Bodo spill believe that it could cost the company more than $100m to clean up properly and restore the devastated mangrove forests that used to line the creeks and rivers but which have been killed by the oil. Proceedings against Royal Dutch Shell and Shell petroleum development company (SPDC) Nigeria began in the high court on 6 April 2011. Last week Shell Nigeria said: “SPDC accepts responsibility under the Oil Pipelines Act for the two oil spills both of which were due to equipment failure. SPDC acknowledges that it is liable to pay compensation -to those who are entitled to receive such compensation.” Oil spills Oil Energy Royal Dutch Shell Oil Oil and gas companies Nigeria Africa John Vidal guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Oil giant faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars following class action suit brought on behalf of communities in Bodo, Ogoniland Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that have devastated a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may take at least 20 years to clean up. Oil spill experts who have studied video footage of the spills at Bodo in Ogoniland say the spills could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disater in Alaska when 10m gallons of oil was spilt. Until now, Shell has claimed that less than 40,000 gallons were spilt. Papers seen by the Guardian show that following a class action suit in London over the past four months, the company has accepted responsibility for the double rupture in 2008 of the 50-year-old Bodo-Bonny trans-Niger pipeline that pumps 120,000 barrels of oil a day though the community. Ogoniland is the small region of the Niger delta which threw out Shell in 1994 for its pollution but then saw eight of its leaders, including the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa , executed by the goverment. The crude oil that gushed unchecked from the two Bodo spills which occurred within months of each other in 2008 has clearly devastated the 20 sq km network of creeks and inlets on which Bodo and as many as 30 other smaller settlements depend for food, water and fuel. No attempt has been made to clean up the oil, which has collected on the creek sides, washes in and out on the tides and has seeped deep into the water table and farmland. According to the communities in Bodo, in two years the company has only offered £3,500 together with 50 bags of rice, 50 bags of beans and a few cartons of sugar, tomatoes and groundnut oil. The offers were rejected as “insulting, provocative and beggarly” by the chiefs of Bodo, but later accepted on legal advice. Shell’s acceptance of full liability for the spills follows a class action suit bought on behalf of communities by London law firm Leigh Day and Co , which represented the Ivory Coast community that suffered health damage following the dumping of toxic waste by a ship leased to multinational oil company Trafigura in 2006. Many other impoverished communities in the delta are now expected to seek damages for oil pollution against Shell in the British courts. On average, there are three oil spills a day by Shell and other companies working in the delta. Shell consistently blames the spills on local youths who, they argue, sabotage their network of pipelines. “The news that Shell has accepted liability in Britain will be greeted with joy in the delta. The British courts may now be inundated with legitimate complaints,” said Patrick Naagbartonm, corordinator for the Centre of Environment and Human Rights in Port Harcourt. Later this week the company will be heavily implicated by the UN for the environmental disaster in the Niger delta which has seen more than 7,000 oil spills in the low lying swamps and farmland since 1989. Shell first discovered oil in the Niger delta in 1956. According to Amnesty International, more than 13m barrels of oil have been spilt in the delta, twice as much as by BP in last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill . The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, funded by Shell, will be presented to president Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday and is expected to be released on Friday in London. UNEP’s report, the first peer-reviewed scientific study of more than 60 spills, is expected to to say that oil pollution in Ogoniland is much worse than previously believed, having sunk deep into the water table. Many spills have not been cleared up since 1970 and the effects on the local economy, health and development have been severe. The report will not apportion blame for individual spills. International oil spill asessment experts who have seen the Bodo spill believe that it could cost the company more than $100m to clean up properly and restore the devastated mangrove forests that used to line the creeks and rivers but which have been killed by the oil. Proceedings against Royal Dutch Shell and Shell petroleum development company (SPDC) Nigeria began in the high court on 6 April 2011. Last week Shell Nigeria said: “SPDC accepts responsibility under the Oil Pipelines Act for the two oil spills both of which were due to equipment failure. SPDC acknowledges that it is liable to pay compensation -to those who are entitled to receive such compensation.” Oil spills Oil Energy Royal Dutch Shell Oil Oil and gas companies Nigeria Africa John Vidal guardian.co.uk
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Business secretary Vince Cable says site blocking is too cumbersome and unworkable, and work is being done on other ways to tackle online copyright infringement Vince Cable on Wednesday scrapped plans to introduce the blocking of illegal filesharing websites, arguing the a scheme proposed by last year’s Digital Economy Act is too cumbersome and unworkable, but said that some form of plan to bring down piracy sites is still being worked on. A consultation document, launched by Cable, said that ministers intend to do more work on what other measures can be pursued to tackle online copyright infringement in an effort to stop widespread music piracy, which is increasingly spreading to television and film. The business secretary said that people will also be able make copies of music and other media for personal use, confirming well-leaked plans to relax the current law that makes it illegal to copy the contents of a CD they own onto an iPod or other digital device. “This brings the law into line with, frankly, comon sense,” said Cable, responding to the Hargreaves report on the future of UK copyright law, which recommended the changes back in May 2011. “A lot of this has to do with consumer freeedom. We need to have a legal framework that supports consumer use rather than treat it as regrettable. We can’t say that businesses should embrace technology but say to consumers they can’t use technology for products they have paid for.” However ,Cable was not able to give detail on whether the new rules would apply to consumers using cloud services to store digital content on their portable media players, such as those launched by Google and Amazon in the US, adding that it would only apply for devices on a limited basis without infringing European law. Cable recognised that more needs to be done to crack down on illegal filesharing to protect the copyright holders, but nevertheless backed down on introducing site blocking legislation to the DEA. “Music and film makers have to be able to take effective and justified measures,” he said. “The basic philosophy is we do recognise the need for protection, but it has to be protection that’s proportionate to needs and based on evidence.” Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, said that the existing measures were too cumbersome and unworkable to have a real impact. He said that a specially commmissioned Ofcom report into the feasibility of site blocking legislation proved that it was too elaborate and complicated to go through, adding: “We haven’t said no to site blocking per se, forever.” Rights holders have heavily lobbied for the introduction of site-blocking legislation to curb digital piracy. However, Vaizey said that last week’s landmark high court ruling, which forced BT to cut off access to mass-piracy site Newzbin2, showed that there is a route forward if rights holders want to take it. But he acknowledged that the court process can take a long time, pointing out that the system can never cope with an illegal website launching on a Friday to cash in on a live sport event and then disappearing on Sunday. “One of the things that is frustrating for rights holders is the length of time it takes for a court process,” he conceded. Vaizey has been aiming to broker a fast-track legal process for site blocking by holding a series of meetings between rights holders. The talks aim to find common ground so both sides can agree in advance if a website is in fact infringing copyright – as well as protect ISPs from any repercussions if rights holders are wrong in their allegations – so that long-winded and costly court cases can be avoided. “One of the things I’ve enabled is conversations between ISPs and rights holders,” he said. “I want to see if ISPs and rights holders can come to agree a process to get facts together before going to court. The key point is up to court to make a [final] decision”. Ministers still have available the ultimate sanction of disconnecting serial pirates, although under the DEA, they have to examine a variety of less penalties before they can introduce disconnection. Initially, alleged pirates will be sent warning letters that identify them as being serial illegal downloaders from the second half of 2012 – more than a year later than originally anticipated. Fearful that there could be thousands of time-consuming appeals by receipients of the letters, ministers said that consumers who wish to appeal will have to pay £20, in an effort to deter frivilous claims. The amount will be refundable if somebody receiveing a letter can prove their innocence. The government has also asked Ofcom to begin establishing benchmarks and data on trends in online infringement as soon as possible. Cable also said that plans for an Amazon-style digital copyright exchange, to create a kind of one-stop-shop for easily buying and selling rights, have been accepted in principle. The government has launched a feasibility study to see how the exchange will work. “[It will] serve as a genuine marketplace independent of sellers and purchasers, for example on the model of independent traders using Amazon.co.uk to sell goods, rather than simply being an aggregated rights database,” the government said in its response to Hargreaves’ recommendations. The government allayed a number of the fears that rights holders have raised, such as that forcing them to join may break European regulations, saying that it will be a compelling proposition to rights holders but not compulsory. Intellectual property laws around parody, which are considerably more stringent than in countries such as the US, have also been relaxed to allow comedians, broadcasters and other content creators more scope – ensuring that spoofs such as the YouTube hit Newport State of Mind are no longer removed. Filesharing Internet Computing Piracy Piracy Digital media Vince Cable Digital Economy Act Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Business secretary Vince Cable says site blocking is too cumbersome and unworkable, and work is being done on other ways to tackle online copyright infringement Vince Cable on Wednesday scrapped plans to introduce the blocking of illegal filesharing websites, arguing the a scheme proposed by last year’s Digital Economy Act is too cumbersome and unworkable, but said that some form of plan to bring down piracy sites is still being worked on. A consultation document, launched by Cable, said that ministers intend to do more work on what other measures can be pursued to tackle online copyright infringement in an effort to stop widespread music piracy, which is increasingly spreading to television and film. The business secretary said that people will also be able make copies of music and other media for personal use, confirming well-leaked plans to relax the current law that makes it illegal to copy the contents of a CD they own onto an iPod or other digital device. “This brings the law into line with, frankly, comon sense,” said Cable, responding to the Hargreaves report on the future of UK copyright law, which recommended the changes back in May 2011. “A lot of this has to do with consumer freeedom. We need to have a legal framework that supports consumer use rather than treat it as regrettable. We can’t say that businesses should embrace technology but say to consumers they can’t use technology for products they have paid for.” However ,Cable was not able to give detail on whether the new rules would apply to consumers using cloud services to store digital content on their portable media players, such as those launched by Google and Amazon in the US, adding that it would only apply for devices on a limited basis without infringing European law. Cable recognised that more needs to be done to crack down on illegal filesharing to protect the copyright holders, but nevertheless backed down on introducing site blocking legislation to the DEA. “Music and film makers have to be able to take effective and justified measures,” he said. “The basic philosophy is we do recognise the need for protection, but it has to be protection that’s proportionate to needs and based on evidence.” Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, said that the existing measures were too cumbersome and unworkable to have a real impact. He said that a specially commmissioned Ofcom report into the feasibility of site blocking legislation proved that it was too elaborate and complicated to go through, adding: “We haven’t said no to site blocking per se, forever.” Rights holders have heavily lobbied for the introduction of site-blocking legislation to curb digital piracy. However, Vaizey said that last week’s landmark high court ruling, which forced BT to cut off access to mass-piracy site Newzbin2, showed that there is a route forward if rights holders want to take it. But he acknowledged that the court process can take a long time, pointing out that the system can never cope with an illegal website launching on a Friday to cash in on a live sport event and then disappearing on Sunday. “One of the things that is frustrating for rights holders is the length of time it takes for a court process,” he conceded. Vaizey has been aiming to broker a fast-track legal process for site blocking by holding a series of meetings between rights holders. The talks aim to find common ground so both sides can agree in advance if a website is in fact infringing copyright – as well as protect ISPs from any repercussions if rights holders are wrong in their allegations – so that long-winded and costly court cases can be avoided. “One of the things I’ve enabled is conversations between ISPs and rights holders,” he said. “I want to see if ISPs and rights holders can come to agree a process to get facts together before going to court. The key point is up to court to make a [final] decision”. Ministers still have available the ultimate sanction of disconnecting serial pirates, although under the DEA, they have to examine a variety of less penalties before they can introduce disconnection. Initially, alleged pirates will be sent warning letters that identify them as being serial illegal downloaders from the second half of 2012 – more than a year later than originally anticipated. Fearful that there could be thousands of time-consuming appeals by receipients of the letters, ministers said that consumers who wish to appeal will have to pay £20, in an effort to deter frivilous claims. The amount will be refundable if somebody receiveing a letter can prove their innocence. The government has also asked Ofcom to begin establishing benchmarks and data on trends in online infringement as soon as possible. Cable also said that plans for an Amazon-style digital copyright exchange, to create a kind of one-stop-shop for easily buying and selling rights, have been accepted in principle. The government has launched a feasibility study to see how the exchange will work. “[It will] serve as a genuine marketplace independent of sellers and purchasers, for example on the model of independent traders using Amazon.co.uk to sell goods, rather than simply being an aggregated rights database,” the government said in its response to Hargreaves’ recommendations. The government allayed a number of the fears that rights holders have raised, such as that forcing them to join may break European regulations, saying that it will be a compelling proposition to rights holders but not compulsory. Intellectual property laws around parody, which are considerably more stringent than in countries such as the US, have also been relaxed to allow comedians, broadcasters and other content creators more scope – ensuring that spoofs such as the YouTube hit Newport State of Mind are no longer removed. Filesharing Internet Computing Piracy Piracy Digital media Vince Cable Digital Economy Act Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk
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President Barack Obama celebrates a milestone birthday this week — turning 50 years old — having just come through yet another bruising political battle. (Aug. 3)
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President Barack Obama celebrates a milestone birthday this week — turning 50 years old — having just come through yet another bruising political battle. (Aug. 3)
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With the debt deal done, President Obama is returning to the campaign trail with two fundraisers in Chicago. AP correspondent Julie Pace reports. (Aug. 3)
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