There’s a whole lot of evidence that the US’ economic recovery isn’t going well—unemployment remains too high, consumer lending too low, and consumer confidence in shambles—but one place you won’t find that evidence is on corporate balance sheets. US companies are poised to post big profits in the…
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Florida jury acquits mother of killing 2-year-old toddler who went missing in 2008 and was found dead six months later A Florida jury has cleared a young mother, Casey Anthony, of murdering her two-year-old daughter, rejecting the prosecution’s portrayal of her as “a lying, no-good slut” who would rather go nightclubbing than rear her child. The jury unanimously found Anthony, 25, not guilty on murder, manslaughter and child abuse charges in a case that has gripped US talkshows and cable news television. She was, however, convicted on charges of lying to the police after claiming that her daughter, Caylee, had been abducted by a nanny when Anthony was driving around with the body of her child in the boot of her car. Anthony would have faced a possible death sentence had she been convicted of first-degree murder but will serve no more than four years in prison when she is sentenced on Thursday. Prosecutors had alleged that Anthony murdered Caylee because she stood in the way of her party lifestyle and interest in men. Prosecutors told the jury that Anthony killed her daughter with chloroform in 2008 and then buried her body in woods near the family home in Orlando several weeks later. Caylee’s corpse was found with three strips of duct tape over her mouth and nose. Anthony’s father, George, told the court that his daughter left home in June 2008, taking Caylee with her, and did not return for a month. Anthony’s parents asked repeatedly to see the child but their daughter told them she was too busy with work. Anthony also claimed that Caylee was being looked after by a nanny. It was later established that the nanny did not exist. Anthony maintained that claim until her parents received a notice that their daughter’s car had been towed. When they went to pick it up, George Anthony said he noticed a strong odour from the boot that he and a worker in the tow yard told the court smelled like a decomposing body. Anthony’s mother, Cindy, then called the police and reported Caylee missing. “There is something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car,” she told the emergency operator. The prosecution homed in on Anthony’s failure to report her daughter missing during those 31 days. “Responses to grief are as varied as the day is long, but responses to guilt are oh so predictable,” the lead prosecutor, Linda Drane Burdick, said. “What do guilty people do? They lie. They avoid. They run. They mislead, not just to their family, but the police. They divert attention away from themselves and they act like nothing is wrong. That’s why you heard about what happened in those 31 days.” The defence said Caylee had accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that her mother then panicked. It claimed that Anthony’s father knew about the accident and helped his daughter dispose of the body. It said George Anthony, a former police office, placed the tape over the dead girl’s face to make it look like murder in an attempt to cover up the failure to report the death. The man denied his daughter’s account. The defence also claimed that Casey Anthony had been sexually abused by her father and brother and that was a factor in her erratic behaviour. Anthony’s lawyer, Jose Baez, said the prosecution had attempted to portray his client as “a lying, no-good slut” who murdered her daughter in order to go nightclubbing when in fact Caylee’s death was “an accident that snowballed out of control”. Another prosecutor, Jeff Ashton, said the defence failed to present any real evidence to back any of its claims and, in closing arguments, said the claim that George Anthony staged a murder to cover up a lesser crime made no sense. “That’s absurd. Nothing has been presented to you to make that any less absurd,” he said. But the jury was not persuaded that Anthony killed her daughter either deliberately or by accident. After the verdict, one of Anthony’s lawyers, Cheney Mason, condemned the “media assassination” of his client since her arrest, including by other lawyers who appeared on television talkshows to pronounce her guilty before the trial was over. United States Florida Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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Channel 4 says News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was challenged by police in 2002 over claims that News of the World had a senior Metropolitan police detective under surveillance. 8.37pm: More on advertisers reviewing their links to the News of the World. My colleagues Sam Jones and Mark Sweney report that mobile phone firms Orange and T-Mobile are joining Ford, nPower and Halifax in considering their position. A spokesman for T-Mobile said: “We’re currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation.” Orange put out a similar statement, saying: “We’re currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation.” The latest advertising boycotts came as companies including Co-operative, WH Smith, EasyJet, Butlins and Renault came under heavy pressure from internet campaigners to sever their links with the Sunday tabloid. A one-stop page has been set up to allow people to automatically tweet their concerns. 8.15pm: More details from the Channel 4 News website on claims that Met detective Dave Cook was placed under surveillance by News of the World. The report quotes Alistair Morgan, brother of Daniel Morgan, whose murder Cook had been investigating at the time of the alleged surveillance. “Dave told me about it, he told me about it then but I didn’t realise who the newspaper was at that point. … “Dave told me that he was out walking his dog, he was taking his dog for a walk one evening when he noticed a van in an odd location. I think he said behind some trees near his house. The following morning he noticed he was being followed.” 8.04pm: Back to the Milly Dowler Case. Press Association reports Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, has written to Brooks and Scotland Yard acting commissioner John Yates asking what prior knowledge there had been of hacking in the Milly Dowler case. This is what Vaz says on the matter: These allegations are extremely shocking. It is now essential that any parties involved criminally are prosecuted and that we uncover who knew what at which point in time at both the Metropolitan Police and at the News of the World. The committee will be raising this issue with police officers involved in the current and previous investigations. We will also seek to clarify why a significant variance of action was taken by mobile phone companies in the aftermath of the phone hacking revelations. 7.44pm: Channel 4 News has made claims about how the News of the World placed senior Metropolitan police detective under surveillance at a time he was investigating the murder of a private eye with links to individuals who worked for the paper. Here’s an outline of its report : It said a Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, a senior police officer who appeared on Crimewatch, claimed he was told by colleagues that he was under surveillance by News of the World when he was investigating the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator. The C4 report said police discovered that vans leased to News of the World had been witnessed tailing Cook. It said NoW was investigating whether Cook was having an affair with Jackie Haynes, a Crimewatch presenter who was in fact his wife. C4 says the timing of the NoW surveillance was disturbing because suspects in a case being investigated by Cook were private investigators with close links to NoW. C4 added that Brooks was challenged by police over this at a meeting in 2002. News International was quoted saying it was not aware of the claims but would investigate. It said it could not confirm or deny Brooks’ meeting with police. It said Cook and Haynes were informed two months ago about documentation of surveillance found among notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire. It said they were both considering legal action. 7.14pm: News International’s Simon Greenberg said he is confident the company can come through the phone hacking scandal. Speaking on Sky News he said: “We’ve found some new information that helps us get closer to the facts of the case about who is involved.” He added: “I’m not going to be naming individuals. We’re liaising with the police. We met with the police this morning… It was a routine meeting… It is going to get us closer to establishing the facts.” Greenberg said he was not aware of any claims of phone hacking in the case of Sarah Payne. “We’ve not shied away from the fact that when the allegations were made, Rebekah (Brooks) was editor of the NoW… and she’s going to lead us through this investigation.” He said: “There are things in the past that are highly regretful,” and described the Milly Dowler incident as an “appalling shocking case”. He said during his time at the News of the World he had no idea where the phone-hacked stories were coming from. 7.00pm: Simon Greenberg, News International’s director of corporate affairs, is appearing on Sky News to talk about phone hacking. 6.52pm: Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News tweets: Did News of the World team up with Sara Payne to campaign for Sarah’s Law – and then have her phone hacked? Watch C4News at 7 6.28pm: Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the scandal, has issued a public apology to those upset by his activity . The statement, released exclusively to the Guardian, makes no reference to hacking Milly Dowler’s phone, but says he never intended to interfere with police inquiries. He said he had been operating under a “constant demand for results”. I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. Much has been published in the media about me. Up to now, I have not responded publicly in any way to all the stories but in the light of the publicity over the last 24 hours, I feel I must break my silence. I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. I’ve been to court. I’ve pleaded guilty. And I’ve gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution. Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn’t understand that I had broken the law at all. A lot of information I obtained was simply tittle-tattle, of no great importance to anyone, but sometimes what I did was for what I thought was the greater good, to carry out investigative journalism. I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into any crime. I know I have brought the vilification I am experiencing upon myself, but I do ask the media to leave my family and my children, who are all blameless, alone. 6.21pm: Some companies say they will continue advertising with the News of the World pending police investigations into the voicemail hacking. Tesco, responding to customers on Facebook and Twitter, said: “We know that you have a lot of questions surrounding recent News of the World allegations. “These latest allegations will cause huge distress to a family which has suffered enough. “It’s now a matter for the police. Like everyone, we await the outcome of their investigation.” A Virgin Media spokeswoman said: “We’re not taking any action at this point. We’re just waiting for the outcome of any investigation and then we will look into what to do.” 6.00pm: Good evening and welcome to our live blog on the latest developments and fallout from the Guardian’s revelations about how the News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance. • The stakes have been dramatically upped in the last number of hours after the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, suggested that Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, should resign . • Labour are also demanding an public inquiry into illegality in the newspaper industry, while John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, has approved an emergency three-hour debate on phone hacking in the Commons tomorrow. David Cameron has meanwhile criticised the News of the World – “this is a truly dreadful act”, he said. • Brooks has told employees it is “inconceivable” she knew that the News of the World hacked into Milly Dowler’s mobile phone. The News International chief executive said she was “sickened” by the events, but insisted she was “determined to lead the company” – despite calls for her to resign. • Press Complaints Commission chairman Baroness Buscombe has meanwhile said that she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking. She said she did not know the extent of the scandal when she came on board the PCC in 2009, but admitted she had been “misled by the News of the World” – after she had previously concluded just the opposite. • Separately from the political fallout, Cambridgeshire police have said that the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the two children murdered by Ian Huntley, were contacted by Scotland Yard detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World. • Ford has pulled ads, reports the BBC, and the energy firm Npower said it is “reviewing” its advertising in the News of the World following the Milly Dowler revelations. According to Sky News, Halifax are also considering withdrawing advertising from the paper. Phone hacking News of the World News International Rebekah Brooks Newspapers & magazines Barry Neild guardian.co.uk
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The lead attorney for Casey Anthony says his client did not murder her daughter, Caylee Anthony, and that the not guilty verdicts shows the country’s justice system still works. (July 5)
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A coroner says that a badly decomposed body found in an Indianapolis river isn’t that of a missing Indiana University student or a great-grandmother from a nearby suburb. (July 5)
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Italian historian Silvano Vincenti, known for his scheme to dig up the bones of Lisa Gherardini, the presumed model for the Mona Lisa, is trying to bring the iconic painting to Florence in 2013. While no official request has yet been made — Vincenti is hoping to get 100,000 people to sign his petition and to marshal the support of the Italian parliament — the Louvre has already refused, with painting department director Vincent Pomarède telling AFP that the Mona Lisa is “extremely fragile and travel risks causing irreversible damage.” Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” While its potential trip to Florence has been nixed, the Mona Lisa has traveled in the past, and ARTINFO France has compiled a list of its journeys — both authorized and unauthorized. 1911 – 1913 The Mona Lisa — which Leonardo da Vinci began painting in Florence in 1503 and took with him to France, where it entered the collection of French king François I — made an illicit trip to its hometown four centuries later. In 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre by Vincenzo Peruggia, a museum employee who kept the masterpiece under his bed for two years before taking it to Florence and trying to sell it. Silvano Vincenti’s current request for a loan of the Mona Lisa in 2013 is intended to commemorate the centennial of the painting’s recovery in 1913. One of the stranger episodes in French cultural history, the theft of the painting caused a huge scandal, especially since no one at the museum noticed that it was missing until an artist planning on sketching the portrait found a blank space on the wall. Initially, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire was accused of the crime and arrested. After questioning him, French police also held Pablo Picasso, who was a friend of Apollinaire’s, but ended up releasing both men after a few days. When caught two years later, Peruggia said that he wanted to return the painting to its country of origin, and got off with a very light sentence in an Italian court. 1938 – 1945 With the possibility of war with Germany looming in 1938, French officials hid the Mona Lisa for three days before returning it to the Louvre when the Munich Agreement seemed to lessen the danger. When France declared war in 1939, museum officials packed up the painting in a double-walled crate and moved it to various secure underground locations in the Château de Chambord, the Château d’Amboise, the abbey of Loc-Dieu, and the Ingres Museum in Montauban. The painting then migrated to a spot under the Louvre conservator’s bed before hiding out in the Château de Montal in southern France. Finally, after the war’s end, la Joconde returned to the Louvre in June 1945. 1963 In January, French culture minister André Malraux accompanied the Mona Lisa to the United States. The loan was made directly to then-president John F. Kennedy and a special viewing was held at the National Gallery for the president and his cabinet, the Supreme Court, the Congress, and the diplomatic corps. At the National Gallery, the painting was guarded around the clock by U.S. Marines and over 500,000 people came to see it over 27 days. The Mona Lisa was then shown at the Met, where it attracted 1.2 million visitors. Just two years ago, former Met director Thomas Hoving revealed in his memoirs that a faulty sprinkler system sprayed water onto the painting when it was locked up in a secure storeroom in the museum at night. No damage was done thanks to the protective glass. 1974 The last time it was on loan, the Mona Lisa headed to the Tokyo National Museum and to Moscow’s Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Over 1.5 million people saw the painting in Tokyo, which is still a record for exhibition attendance at a Japanese museum. The triplex glass box that now houses the Mona Lisa was a thank-you gift from the Japanese. Click below for a video of Mona Lisa’s arrival in the U.S. and its reception by President Kennedy: -ARTINFO France, ARTINFO More of Today’s News from ARTINFO: Van Gogh, or No?: Art Historians Shoot Down Dubious New “Discovery” of Theo Van Gogh Portrait Art-Market Kick Flip?: Damien Hirst Cashes in on His Skater Cred, Ramping Up Prices on His Novelty Skateboards Is Italy on the Brink of an Arts Rebellion? The 20 Greatest Westerns: A List to Get Ornery About Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibition Displays the Designer’s Fashionable Provocations in Montreal Like what you see? Sign up for ARTINFO’s daily newsletter to get the latest on the market, emerging artists, auctions, galleries, museums, and more.
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After 33 days of testimony, 400 pieces of evidence and more than 90 witnesses, the jury in the Casey Anthony case has reached a verdict. After just a day of deliberation, jurors informed the court at midday that they had reached a decision, and both sides in the case were ordered to assemble in the courtroom. Anthony has been found not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. She was also found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. But she was convicted on charges of misleading law enforcement. The case against Anthony was mostly circumstantial, but as it unfolded she was portrayed in the trial as a promiscuous, self-centered woman who became a cold-blooded killer. The motive, prosecutors alleged, was to allow her to live a carefree life without her daughter. The state’s case theory was that a desperate Anthony used chloroform to subdue her daughter and then suffocated her with duct tape. Anthony then fabricated fantastic lies to cover up her deeds, they said. Anthony’s attorney Jose Baez told the jury his client was the victim of an abusive upbringing. According to Baez, Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, were home alone on June 16, 2008, when they noticed Caylee was missing. They began a frantic search, looking under beds and in the garage. Then George Anthony took the search outside to the above-ground pool where they found a lifeless Caylee floating in the water, Baez said. For six weeks, the jury listened to arguments from both sides. “The best ‘evidence’ of reasonable doubt is the worldwide interest in this case. Clearly, if conviction appeared to be a foregone conclusion, the interest would not be so extraordinary and clearly would have waned in any event,” famed Seattle attorney Anne Bremner said in an interview with The Huffington Post. From the trial’s start, Bremner has followed the case as a legal analyst for CNN’s Nancy Grace and for other news networks. “Jose Baez sowed the seeds of reasonable doubt in this case,” Bremner continued. “There was no cause of death, no direct evidence of Casey’s guilt and no evidence that this wasn’t an accident. While Casey has been demonized by many, we have seen here that the highest calling of citizenship is jury duty, and these jurors did their duty despite tremendous public pressure to rush to judgment. Justice requires that we respect and accept their decision.” The acquittal of Casey Anthony will go down in history as a stunning victory for the defense in what has been called the latest “trial of the century.” If convicted of murder, Anthony, 25, could have faced the death penalty. CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL PHOTOS : CASEY ANTHONY PERSONAL PHOTOS:
Continue reading …Jake Tapper Concedes Media’s Bias on Obama Medal of Honor Gaffe, Double Standard on Bachmann
July 5, 2011 No CommentABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper appeared on the June 27 edition of Dennis Miller's radio show and conceded to a media blackout of Barack Obama's Medal of Honor gaffe. (The President confused a living recipient with the deceased Jared Monti who died in combat.) Tapper admitted that the President made “a big uncomfortable mistake.” He added, ” And I don't think that that got the same kind of coverage as, you know, when Sarah Palin got Paul Revere's ride. ” Tapper's right. His own network, ABC, as well as CBS and NBC have skipped the Monti story . Tapper was on vacation when the Medal of Honor story broke, but he, thus far, has ignored it (although he did cover it online ). Additionally, while the journalist had generic criticism for “the media,” he certainly didn't take ABC specifically to task. Miller critiqued, “Well, you guys gotta work that out in house. But, I will tell you, you're not- the herd's not fooling anybody out here.” Tapper at one point seemed on the verge of admitting to liberal media bias. He allowed, “But the question is, okay, and removing the ideological bias, and I don't- do not generally disagree that there is-” Unfortunately, Miller interrupted him. The White House correspondent attempted to shift the issue to one of sexism, suggesting that Hillary Clinton dealt with much harsher criticism than Obama. However, Good Morning America, where Tapper frequently appears, fawned over both. On the January 18, 2007 edition of that show, Clare Shipman summed up the Democratic battle as one between Clinton's “hot factor” and Obama's “fluid poetry.” An August 29, 2007, a Media Research Center study found Tapper to be wrong on this larger point of anti-Hillary bias. The MRC's Rich Noyes wrote : The top Democratic candidates received much more favorable coverage than their GOP counterparts, with Senator Clinton cast as “unbeatable” and Illinois Senator Barack Obama tagged as a “rock star.” The most prominent Republican, Arizona Senator John McCain, was portrayed as a loser because of his support for staying the course in Iraq. A transcript of Tapper's June 27 appearance on Dennis Miller can be found below: [Tapper moving off a question about Chris Wallace and the “flake” comment JAKE TAPPER: I do think that there is a question, and we were talking about this in our newsroom earlier today, I think there is a question about whether we are tougher, we meaning the media writ large, the Borg, that we are tougher on women candidates than we are on men, because I have to say, you know, anytime Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann, you know, misplaces an adjective- DENNIS MILLER: Sure. TAPPER: – we know about it and we cover it in the media. And, you know, this thing that the President did, and, obviously it was a mistake and he didn't mean to, but last week when he misidentified- he's given two Medals of Honor. And he was at the 10th Mountain at Fort Drum and he mistakenly said that he had given one to Sargent First Class Jared Monti when actually Monti was the one of the two Medals of Honor he's given that was given posthumously. Monti died in Gowardesh, northeast Afghanistan in 2006. That's a big, uncomfortable mistake. MILLER: Huge. Yeah, yeah. TAPPER:
Continue reading …Netflix bringing instant streaming Latin America, global domination plan on track
July 5, 2011 No Comment
Soon enough, most of the western hemisphere will be able to enjoy Netflix Watch Instantly without the need for proxies and work-arounds. Later this year the company will add 43 countries in Central and South America, and the Caribbean to its list of supported locales. It will also wrap up its North American expansion by streaming flicks into the heart of Mexico. When exactly folks in Brazil and Trinidad will be able to sign up, and how much it will cost when it launches are still up in the air at the moment. One thing is certain though — while Hulu is striking deals with the likes of Miramax and the Criterion Collection to bolster its library of feature length films, Netflix is building a global empire. Netflix bringing instant streaming Latin America, global domination plan on track originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …How’s this for irony: Google+ is a Facebook competitor … but its most popular user is none other than Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck hasn’t even posted to Google+ yet, the Atlantic notes, but according to tracking service Social Statistics , he has amassed the most followers; in second is Larry Page. A peek…
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