British cities to host mass anti-rape demonstrations as part of global movement sparked by Canadian policeman’s remarks Thousands of women are set to take to the streets in cities across the UK after the remarks of a Canadian police officer, who advised women “to avoid dressing as sluts” if they did not want to be harassed, sparked a worldwide protest movement. Thousands of women are expected to descend on Trafalgar Square in central London for a SlutWalk on 4 June, with other events planned for Cardiff and Edinburgh, and possible meetings in other cities including Brighton and Birmingham. The movement, organised largely through Facebook and Twitter, was sparked by a police officer in Toronto , who paid a visit three months ago to Osgoode Hall Law School to advise students on how to stay safe. He told the 10 students present: “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.” The comments were posted online and have provoked outrage, leading to events in more than 20 US states, plus Argentina, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK. Organisers say they are protesting against a culture which puts the blame for rape and sexual assault on to the victim, makes women less likely to report rape and contributes to low conviction rates for those accused of rape and sexual assault. The Edinburgh SlutWalk – which archly campaigns for “the radical notion that nobody deserves to be raped” – will meet this Saturday at the National Gallery. Organisers have urged protesters to “bring placards and an attitude!”. The Cardiff SlutWalk event page on Facebook has attracted more than 260 supporters in a few days, who will – pending police approval – also march on 4 June from outside Cardiff University Students’ Union, through the city to St Mary’s Street. Almost 4,000 people say they plan to attend the London event, which has its own website which encourages protesters to explain why they will be marching. “Rape is never OK,” said organiser Anatasia Richardson, a 17-year-old student. “This is an issue that has resonated around the world with people who reject the idea of blaming a victim of sexual assault rather than the criminal.” Beccy Pert, the 20-year-old organiser of the Cardiff march, said the movement had struck a chord around the world. “People are fed up with the injustice of innocent people being blamed for rape and sexual assault. Comments like these only serve to shame victims into violence when they should feel no shame.” Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition , said the police officer’s comments were “deeply disturbing” but rife in society. “Polls show that this kind of victim-blaming attitude is prevalent throughout UK society, too. The appallingly low conviction rate of less than 7% of reported rapes indicates it is likely to pervade our criminal justice system as well,” she said. A 2009 Home Office report into violence against women in the UK found that 36% of people believed a woman should be held wholly or partly responsible for being sexually assaulted or raped if she was drunk , and 26% if she was in public wearing sexy or revealing clothes. The British Crime Survey showed a rise in the number of sexual offences recorded by police from 53,091 in 2009 to 54,602 , up 3%, in 2010 with a 6% increase in the number of most serious sexual crimes – up to 44,693 from 42,187 in 2009. Dianne Whitfield, manager of the Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre , welcomed the widespread campaign. “This relights my faith,” she said. “Women have rights and they will stand up, speak up and fight for those rights.” Feminism Gender Protest London Scotland Wales Edinburgh Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Universities shakeup could allow UK students to enrol in college of their choice as long as they pay vastly higher fees up front Teenagers from the wealthiest families would be able to pay for extra places at the most competitive universities under government proposals that could allow institutions to charge some British students the same high fees as overseas undergraduates. Candidates who take up the extra places would not be eligible for publicly funded loans to pay tuition fees or living costs, limiting this option to all but the most privileged households who could pay fees up front. Under the plans, the extra students may be charged as much as international undergraduates. At the most competitive universities, these students face fees ranging from £12,000 a year for arts subjects to £18,000 for sciences and more than £28,000 for medicine. Applicants would be required to meet the course entry requirements. The changes would give more students the chance to attend their first choice of university. At present, the government sets a quota of undergraduate places that English universities are allowed to offer each year. Employers and charities will also be encouraged to sponsor “off-quota” places under the plans to be outlined in a higher education white paper in the summer. Ministers argue that the creation of extra places will boost social mobility by freeing up more publicly subsidised places for undergraduates from poorer homes. But the proposals are likely to be criticised as a means for the wealthiest to “buy places” at a time when the government is to cut 10,000 publicly funded places. The universities minister, David Willetts, told the Guardian: “There are various important issues that need to be addressed around off-quota places, but I start from the view that an increase in the total number of higher education places could aid social mobility. “There would need to be arrangements to make sure any such system was fair and worked in the interests of students as well as institutions. But it is not clear what the benefit is of the current rules, which, for example, limit the ability of charities or social enterprises to sponsor students. “We are inviting ideas on the whole concept and we will listen very carefully to all the responses we receive.” The proposal is most likely to be taken up by highly selective institutions, which turn away thousands of qualified candidates a year. Oxford accepted slightly more than 3,000 British and EU undergraduates out of about 17,000 who applied for the current academic year. That demand is due to intensify as the latest application figures show the number of candidates for this autumn has risen by 2.1% to about 633,000 – another record high. The places may not be covered by access agreements, under which universities are required to outline how they will improve their proportion of students from state schools and deprived backgrounds. Under one version of the scheme, universities might operate a “needs-blind” admissions process, which assesses all candidates regardless of their ability to pay, but then offers places off-quota to candidates from the most privileged homes. The expansion of places will put greater pressure on less popular universities. Ministers have warned that undersubscribed institutions could have government-funded places withdrawn. In a speech last month, the business secretary, Vince Cable, said: “Institutions could very well find themselves in trouble if students can’t see value. In circumstances where places are unfilled, we might withdraw those places, and institutions should not assume they will easily get them back.” This is more likely to happen if more sought-after universities are free to expand in response to student demand. The government is also keen to encourage more corporate sponsorship of university places. The accountancy firm KPMG has unveiled a plan to pay fees for students at universities including Durham, in a training programme leading to an honours degree in accounting. These students also fall outside government restrictions on numbers, chiefly because they are on bespoke courses reserved for one firm’s employees. They do not need financial support as KPMG covers their fees and pays them a salary. The current version of the scheme is, in effect, an outsourcing of corporate training, but the range of education on offer could become more diverse in future. Asked if KPMG planned to extend the scheme to other degree subjects, Simon Haydn-Jones, an associate partner at the firm, said: “Yes we do, in due course – most likely by enabling students to take a range of subsidiary subjects such as geography in combination with an accountancy-related degree. “It is early days for our scheme, though, and we need to get it up and running first before we take any specific decisions on this.” The KPMG scheme begins at Durham and Exeter this autumn, and will be extended to Birmingham University next year. The firm ultimately expects to offer more than 400 places. A third option for expanding university places without cost to the public purse is by encouraging charities to sponsor students. At present, if a charity wished to fund a group of students from poor backgrounds, those places would have to come out of a university’s existing quota because of the risk that the students involved might need public support in future. The forthcoming white paper is expected to encourage charity sponsorship, possibly by enabling students to renounce entitlement to public support. Tuition fees David Willetts Education policy Higher education Oxbridge and elitism Access to university University of Cambridge University of Oxford Students University funding Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Alabama has moved to deny undocumented children a chance to participate in our state’s civic religion, i.e. football, but some things are still more sacred than our state’s responsibility to shun brown people. Like, say, the legislature’s duty to save their souls before we deport them. See how that works? Remember Alabama’s State Senator Scott Beason, who wants to ” empty the clip on illegal immigration “? Watch as he struggles to argue against modifying a provision that would put church deacons in prison for giving the undocumented a ride to church. Really! Much more after the jump… Going by the Orwellian title ” Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act ,” SB 256 is marginally worse than the bill crafted by House Majority Leader Mickey Hammon. But rather than fight as House Democrats have , Senate Dems have chosen to improve legislation, not oppose it outright. In the process, the cognitive dissonance behind omnibus immigration legislation has been laid bare. The Senate minority has fought on moral high ground and rhetoric — exactly what you are supposed to see in an “upper chamber,” or so I’m told. But I’d prefer wholesale resistance to piecemeal. My favorite part of the video above is when Scott Beason presents Roger Bedford with a hypothetical situation in which an Alabama judge is asked to dismiss charges against a terrorist caught riding shotgun in a mosque van. The internal narrative is clear: we must fear the world! Immigrants are bad, evil, unsafe, and must be cleansed from the Heart of Dixie. “Empty the clip,” indeed. Except it’s lunacy, because a terrorist will already be in federal custody by then. SB 256 is one of those bills where law enforcement agencies agree a law should exist, but ask that someone else be put in charge of enforcing it. Oddly enough, the bill’s extension of police powers to Alabama’s diminutive Department of Homeland Security (ALDHS) occasioned one of the more interesting moments in the debate. The incident presented below was listed in a press release I received from the Senate Democratic Caucus recently calling Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey “the most partisan Lieutenant Governor in history” with a “blatant disregard for rules and fairness.” Complaining that she tells minority members what to say, refuses to acknowledge them waiting for recognition, and has their microphones turned down, the PR went on to describe Tuesday’s debate of a Constitutional Amendment to strip racist language about poll taxes and segregation: Last night she had the public audio system shut down completely for several minutes to silence the Minority’s objections. She ignored the rules that allow the Minority to have a roll call vote, and she instructed the audio feed to be silenced as Senators called on her to enforce the rule. Rachel Maddow has lately struck on the theme of Big Government Republicans in Wisconsin, Michigan, and elsewhere. They have arrived in Alabama too, and the first to say so is a Republican. When Senator Paul Sanford (R-Madison) submitted an amendment to strip the expansion of ALDHS powers, it survived Beason’s tabling motion and was passed by roll-call vote. Majority leadership scrambled to get members back from a committee meeting and reconsider the amendment. Then Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey became combative with Sanford when he awaited recognition before a cloture vote. Remember: this is all about a bill crafted to make undocumented kids leave school and find some trouble to get into. The first GOP majority in Alabama’s state house since 1875 wants to create government jobs making sure those darn illegal alien kids don’t tear up the turf under Friday night lights instead. Maybe that’s what Scott Beason means when he calls SB 256 a “jobs bill,” eh? Call them “pigskin police.”
Continue reading …
Florida wants to ban sagging and Obama hates it too, but can anything stop blokes wearing their jeans below their pants we ask. Plus, some habitual ‘saggers’ tell us why they wear their trousers slow-slung Florida’s attempt to ban young men from “sagging” – wearing jeans so low they show their underpants – has plenty of precedents. In 2008, on the campaign trail, Barack Obama told MTV that “brothers should pull up their pants” . A year before, the mayor of Delcambre, Louisiana, threatened six months in jail and a $500 fine for any man allowing his jeans to slide down his buttocks . The sight of exposed boxer shorts has caused consternation this side of the pond too: last year, 18-year-old Ellis Drummond was threatened with an Asbo for wearing trousers so low that they were showing his underpants. In the end, the attempt had to be abandoned. The fact is that not only has the saggy jean proved impervious to attempts to drive it off the street, it has actually mutated to survive. While the look is most associated with hip-hop culture, where it originated in the early 90s, young indie kids not overly endowed in the arse department also tend to wear their jeans hanging low. The godfather of the skinny jean, Hedi Slimane, designed his denims for Dior Homme to sit well below the hip-bone, and plenty more brands have followed suit. A jean that’s tight in the leg and low-slung in the crotch is not easy to wear – climbing over anything is particularly challenging – but that hasn’t deterred the nation’s teenage boys, or the older hipsters, buying posher versions of the look. So why has the desire to expose one’s buttocks and boxers to the elements proved so enduring, and how come it unites fans of both These New Puritans and 50 Cent? The answer is, simply, rebellion. It’s well documented that the look comes from prisoners having their belts taken away in case they use them to hang themselves. Though showing your barely clad backside to an unsuspecting world carries only a dim echo of this lawless attitude, that echo is amplified when the authorities fall into the trap of trying to criminalise it. There’s also the fact that showing your arse is an insult that predates hip-hop by centuries – this is simply a muted version, hence its persistent popularity with teenage boys. Hip-hop has also permeated popular culture to such an extent that teenage boys aren’t bothered by accusations that a look which may seem threatening in South Central, LA, looks simply ridiculous in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The culture is global
Continue reading …
Minister’s tenure at Home Office was marked by blunders and clashes within Whitehall and in public Lady Neville-Jones has left her job as the Home Office minister for security and counter-terrorism amid repeated public gaffes and claims of private personality clashes. Neville-Jones, a former high-flying Foreign Office career diplomat who at one point chaired the Cabinet’s joint intelligence committee,said on Monday that she had told David Cameron at the start of the year that she wanted to “step down from the Home Office” around the time of the local elections. But her 12 months as security minister was marked by blunders and clashes within Whitehall and in public. One appearance before the Commons home affairs select committee when she gave the impression of being ill-briefed on the government’s replacement for control orders was regarded as particularly embarrassing. On another occasion she did not seem to know the name of a Home Office official advising her. When the Conservatives were in opposition, she was given the role of national security adviser to Cameron but missed out on the job in government when the national security council was created. In an exchange of letters with Cameron , Neville-Jones said that he could count on her support and she would “stand ready to take on assignments from you in the future”. Cameron paid tribute to her work in government and thanked her for her “wise advice over many years on national security issues”. The home secretary, Theresa May, announced that Lady Browning, who served in John Major’s government as a junior agriculture minister, had been appointed as Home Office minister in the Lords to replace Neville-Jones. It was not clear on Monday if Browning would take over her duties as counter-terrorism minister and it appears that May may have decided she does not need a separate security minister. “I am delighted to welcome Baroness Browning to the Home Office and look forward to working with her to deliver our key priorities,” said May. “I would like to thank Baroness Neville-Jones for her hard work, both in opposition and in government, contributing to the rebalancing of security and liberty as well as participating in the work of the National Security Council.” Neville-Jones has been appointed by Cameron to be a special representative to business on cyber security. Terrorism policy Conservatives Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Police evacuate residents as Mississippi river spreads to six times its usual span, threatening the city’s blues district The city of Memphis, Tennesee has been put on alert for record flooding as the waters of the Mississippi river reached a historic peak. Police went door-to-door to evacuate people from low-lying neighbourhoods after forecasters said the river could reach its peak of 14.6 metres (48ft) by Monday evening. Heavy winters in the upper midwest and an extremely wet April – with 600% more rain than normal in some southern states – have turned 2011 into a season of floods along the Mississippi’s 2,320-mile route. In Memphis, the river ran nearly three miles wide on Monday, about six times its usual span, with water lapping at Beale Street, the city’s blues district. Much of the city centre – including Elvis Presley’s Graceland – sits on high ground, but rising floodwaters from the Mississippi and its tributaries forced the evacuation of about 1,300 homes in outlying areas. City officials said 370 people were staying in shelters and more residents could be forced to flee their homes as the waters move on. Forecasters expect the waters to remain at record levels until Thursday, before a gradual fall. The flood-swollen waters still have 1,000 miles to go before they reach the Gulf of Mexico and forecasters warned there was considerable danger further down river in the days ahead, especially if there is more rain or if the levees fail. The river broke through one such temporary barrier in Memphis at the weekend, submerging an airport. Once Memphis is out of danger, the authorities will be braced for potential floods in the towns of Natchez and Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the river is expected to reach its peak on 19 May and in New Orleans on 23 May Tracey Howieson, a hydrologist in the southern division of the National Weather Service, said the record levels of the Mississippi could force a back-up of tributaries along its route, flooding rural areas. “The smaller rivers cannot flow into the Mississippi because the Mississippi is so high, so there are threats of land being inundated up near Vicksburg.” The authorities began deploying two flood diversion systems around the city of New Orleans on Monday to try to divert water in Lake Pontchartrain. This year’s floods are the worst since 1927. Army engineers last week resorted to blowing up flood levees to save the town of Cairo, Illinois. The decision drowned 130,000 acres of prime farmland. “It’s kind of a hydrological perfect storm,” said Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman at the national weather service headquarters in Washington. Forecasters had been predicting flooding since last November because of a combination of heavy snowfall in midwestern states such as Minnesota, the source of the Mississippi, and severe rain storms further south. “It’s too much precipitation in too short of a time and in the wrong places,” Vaccaro said. “It is the confluence of vast amounts of precipitation in terms of melting snowfall and rain, and then also the rain-swollen Ohio river flowing into the already swollen Mississippi.” American scientists have been warning for years that climate change is influencing extreme weather events. A US government report in 2009 predicted an increase in the number and severity of extreme weather events – heavy snows and rainfall in the mid-west and droughts in the south-west – due to climate change. North Dakota and Minnesota have seen record flooding for each of the last three years. Meanwhile, southern parts of the US, from Texas to New Mexico and California, are reporting intense droughts this year. The areas along the Mississippi have seen a marked increase in floods over the last 20 years, said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, who briefed Congress on the flooding on Monday. “All along the river, the Mississippi is reaching unprecedented flood levels,” Gleick said. “We are now moving into a situation where all weather and storm events are, to some degree, influenced by human-induced climate change. The links between climate change and extreme events can not be ignored.” In the case of the Mississippi, however, the flood risks are compounded by bad city planning and a century of trying to squeeze rivers into tighter spaces through the levee system. “Since 1993, we have seen huge numbers of new homes and business built on the flood plain despite recommendations never to do that again,” said Gleick. “I think what we are seeing along the Mississippi is all of those things: climate change, bad planning, bad development and inappropriate levees.” Flooding Tennessee United States Natural disasters and extreme weather Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Click here to view this media Another bitter old white guy trying to cling onto his short fame from the nineties is back in the race. FOX News leads all networks in preparing candidates for office and Newt has benefited from his time on FOX News maybe the most, but it won’t be enough for him. He’s changed religions almost as much as he’s changed wives and with the last game show FOX put on that masqueraded as a GOP debate, it’s no wonder he’s getting in now. He has been forced to delay some of his self-imposed deadlines for making decisions about a campaign as he unwinds himself from several of his businesses. He is in the top tier of prospective candidates but ranks below some of the other contenders. In the latest CNN/Opinion Research Poll taken between April 29 and May 1, 10 percent of Republicans picked Gingrich as their choice for the nomination in 2012, the same percentage as Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, real estate mogul Donald Trump and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ranked higher than Gingrich, although such surveys at this stage usually mostly gauge name recognition. He has as much chance as Rudy Giuliani does at winning the nomination. Here’s one of his lesser known, but equally outrageous rants on The Factor: Gingrich: We should have Singapore-style drug tests for Americans O’Reilly: I don’t know whether you know this, but I did one of my papers at Harvard on this — on how to reduce demand for drugs. But the United States has never figured it out. You can’t lock up drug users, I mean, that doesn’t work. And you can’t force them into rehab, you have to want rehab, and even if you want it, it’s very hard to get off hard drugs and alcohol. Very hard. What you can do, though, is sanction people along the way. And this is what they do in Singapore. If you’re caught possessing drugs — and that means drugs in your bloodstream, they have a little hair thing, and they put it in there — then you have to go to mandatory rehab. And they have centers where you go. Now, they have no drug problem in Singapore at all, number one, because they hang drug dealers — they execute them. And number two, the market is very thin, because when they catch you using, you go away with a mandatory rehab. You go to some rehab center, which they have, which the government has built. The United States does not have the stomach for that. We don’t have the stomach for that, Mr. Speaker. Gingrich: Well, I think it’s time we get the stomach for that, Bill. And I think we need a program — I would dramatically expand testing. I think we have — and I agree with you. I would try to use rehabilitation, I’d make it mandatory. And I think we have every right as a country to demand of our citizens that they quit doing illegal things which are funding, both in Afghanistan and in Mexico and in Colombia, people who are destroying civilization. Will this be one of his major campaign promises? “My administration will “test till the end” and hang them till they’re dry!” Aren’t these two guys always telling us that they want the government out of their lives? By the way, Meet The Press has already nabbed Gingrich for their May 9th show and are calling it an “Exclusive” interview. May 9, 2011 — Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who is expected to launch his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination this week, will join NBC’s “Meet the Press” for an exclusive interview with David Gregory on Sunday, May 15. The live, in-studio interview will be Gingrich’s first network appearance following his announcement. Do you think Gingrich will be able to beat the winner of the last GOP debate, Herman Cain? The results must be true because Frank Luntz’ focus group gave him the crown If Frank Luntz’s South Carolina focus group had their way, businessman and talk show host Herman Cain would be America’s next President. Cain’s honesty and candid answers won over a large number of those present. One man said he worked for Mitt Romney in the 2008 election, but would now campaign for Cain. I’ll take Tim Pawlenty for 200.00 please. Mr. Pawlenty, are you in favor of teaching creationism?
Continue reading …Howard Kurtz Uses Osama Death to Rerun Charge Media Was ‘Too Passive’ Toward Bush on Terror
May 9, 2011 No Comment
On Sunday's Reliable Sources, CNN host Howard Kurtz used the killing of Osama bin Laden to revisit how the media were too deferential to the Bush administration. Kurtz questioned the validity of the terror alerts in the years following 9/11 and wondered if they were used for political gain. Kurtz, comparing the press coverage of the bin Laden assassination and the War on Terror, pondered if there was a “climate of fear” post-9/11 and asked “did the media contribute to that?” “Is it possible that the Bush administration, for political reasons, chose to play up the War on Terror in a way that the Obama administration has chosen not to?” Kurtz asked guest Brian Ross of ABC News. Ross didn't see the same conspiracy theory on the Bush administration, simply saying that they had a “different mindset” in the matter than Obama. (Video after the break.)
Continue reading …
• Hit F5 or use the autorefresh tool for the latest updates • Email your wit and wisdom to john.ashdown@guardian.co.uk • Follow John on Twitter , if you’re one of those GOAL!!! Fulham 0-2 Liverpool (Rodriguez 6) Cripes!!! 5 min: “Just be sure to get it together by the second half, John,” writes Jason Graff. “I expect some pithy comment about how Thames canoeists are no longer safe because Bobby Zamora has entered the game.” 4 min: Spearing prods a shot at goal, but Schwarzer drops down to save at his near post. Liverpool have raced off the mark here. 1 min: Murphy goes into the book for a wild lunge on … somebody. Missed it while concentrating on the goal. This has been some start. GOAL!!! Fulham 0-1 Liverpool (Rodriguez 32sec) An unbelievable start! Lucas puts Suarez clear down the left, Hangeland (I think) having failed to intercept on halfway. His cross is bundled towards goal by a Fulham boot, Schwarzer desperately clears from near the post with his own boot (perhaps thinking it was some sort of idiotically ambitious backpass), and it drops out to Maxi, who lashes the ball home. Peep! Lee Mason gets things underway. Bloody hell! Team news! I’ve been a shambles from start to finish today. Forgot my wallet, brought a paint-strewn t-shirt to change into (meaning I’ve had to remain in mm sweaty cycling t-shirt all day), and now I’ve forgotten to give you the line-ups: Fulham: Schwarzer, Baird, Hughes, Hangeland, Salcido, Davies, Murphy, Gudjohnsen, Sidwell, Dempsey, Dembele. Subs: Stockdale, Johnson, Senderos, Etuhu, Kakuta, Zamora, Greening. Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Flanagan, Maxi, Spearing, Lucas, Meireles, Suarez, Kuyt. Subs: Gulacsi, Cole, Kyrgiakos, Wilson, Poulsen, Shelvey, Robinson. Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire) Andy Carroll has a knock, apparently, while Fulham have made three changes, recalling Clint Dempsey, Brede Hangeland and Mousa Dembele. Or Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen”? suggests Jon Millard. “Technically very good, but the experience rather bland and clearly manufactured?” Craven Cottage is a wonderful place for football and it’s barely changed since 1926: That video makes me yearn for two things: a hot dog and proper hats at the match. If United fans want to taunt their Liverpool counterparts wouldn’t getting this back to No1 be less controversial? [INSERT YOUR OWN JOKE ABOUT IT BEING OFTEN UNINSPIRED BUT SEEMINGLY UNSTOPPABLE HERE] Preamble: Evening all. Anyone fancy a bit of gentle end-of-season fare? If so, you’re in the wrong place, buddy. This is going to be a blood-and-guts, win-at-all-costs, never-say-die, pedal-to-the-metal, balls-to-the … ach, no one’s buying this are they? When the sun is out for an evening kick off down by the Thames it’s tough to get too wound up. This could end up 7-5 and there’d still be a mellow tinge to it. So. What else has been in the football news today? • Some hugely inappropriate inter-fan-baiting • Some really rubbish mickey-taking from Blackpool • And such and such. Premier League Fulham Liverpool John Ashdown guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Lawyers mystified as Svetlana Ražnatovic – who pleaded guilty to embezzling €2.3m in football transfer funds – fined €1.5m Serbia’s queen of kitsch, the warlord widow and bestselling pop singer known as Ceca, has been placed under house arrest and fined €1.5m (£1.3m) for embezzling football transfer funds, in Belgrade’s celebrity trial of the decade. The criminal case brought the biggest fine ever levied by a Belgrade court. It also proved, lawyers and human rights activists protest, that crime pays. They say the sentence shows that some are more equal than others before the law in Serbia. The glamorous celebrity, whose real name is Svetlana Ražnatovic but who is known by her stage name, pleaded guilty to embezzling millions from the transfers of players from the football club Obilic. The club was once a European contender when it was owned by her late husband, the gangster and warlord Željko Ražnatovic, aka Arkan. Now Obilic is floundering in the amateur league. Under a plea bargain, Ražnatovic was ordered to spend eight months under house arrest after charges that carry a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. Lawyers were mystified by the fine, which left her making a tidy profit. The charges had her embezzling €2.3m from foreign transfers; that leaves her with €800,000 as proceeds from the crime. Belgrade lawyer Slobodan Beljanski told the newspaper Blic: “A bad message has been sent to the public, that we are all not equal before the law.” The former judge Slobodan Batricevic added: “Ražnatovic has profited from committing a criminal offence.” But the judge, Sladjana Markovic, praised her “good character”. Ceca’s thumping Balkan “turbo-folk” tunes have made her Serbia’s biggest celebrity, and extremely wealthy. Serbia Celebrity Europe Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …