The Bahrain government continues its crackdown on dissidents and the opposition, as eight Shiite activists were sentenced to life in prison today on charges of plotting to overthrow the Sunni royal family during protests earlier this year, reports CNN . Thirteen other protesters received sentences of two to 15 years. Upon…
Continue reading …Tom Hanks went on Univision’s Despierta America ostensibly to promote his upcoming film Larry Crowne. But things took a turn for the wacky when he got involved with the weather report, PopEater reports. Hanks and co-host Chiquinquira Delgado spent most of the time dancing around as Delgado tried to give…
Continue reading …A street sign in Brooklyn honoring seven firefighters who died on 9/11 has gotten the thumbs down from a New York atheist group, reports the Village Voice . The problem? The sign ceremonially renames Richards Street “Seven in Heaven Way,” and the NYC Atheists say that any reference to heaven on…
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Business secretary hits out at City’s ‘ethics of wild east’ and sets out plans for consultation on tougher stance Vince Cable is to hold top-level talks with the City grandees who set boardroom pay in order to thrash out ways to end the “ridiculous” and “outrageous” levels of executive bonuses. The business secretary is also to demand more disclosure about bonuses and their link to company performance after hitting out at the “ethics of the wild east” in the City, which he said damaged the reputation of the UK. He set out plans to launch a consultation proposing a tougher stance on executive pay and will also convene talks with the directors who set pay and bonuses for top executives to seek ways to “intervene sensibly” to end the culture of “rewards for failures”. New research published by Merrill Lynch shows that the number of wealthy individuals in the world has reached 10.9 million – more than existed before the 2008 banking crisis. Their collective wealth, $42.7bn, has also topped the levels it reached in 2007, before the crash and recession sparked by the crisis. In a speech to an audience of leading City investors, the business secretary said: “It is actually outrageous that last year median earnings for FTSE 100 chief executives rose 32%, whereas the share index rose only 7% – and average employee pay rose by less than 2%, barely half the rate of inflation.” Average pay for the bosses of the top 100 companies has leaped to 120 times that received by an average UK employee from 45 times in 1998, Cable said. While he did not set out the proposals that will be published in next month’s consultation, among the ideas he is thought likely to be considering is a requirement that companies publish the multiple of the pay of its chief executive to the average worker. Cable also hinted that he was considering whether new rules to make public the size of pay deals awarded to bankers outside the boardroom – whose pay was hidden until this year – should be adopted more widely. In a sideswipe at his audience, comprising some of the City’s biggest investors, he said: “Ridiculous levels of remuneration are going unchallenged as the norm, when there is no clear evidence of a correlation with performance.” He criticised shareholders, who he said had not been challenging top pay, and companies which had not attempted to restrain pay. “Ultimately, there is no substitute for leadership from companies themselves and their owners … to be frank, I don’t see much evidence that remuneration committees have been living up to their responsibilities, or that major shareholders have been holding them to account,” he said. Risking a row with coalition partners in the Conservative party for proposing a more interventionist stance, the Liberal Democrat minister immediately faced criticism from Labour. John Denham, the shadow business secretary, said: “Vince Cable is finally responding to the issue that Ed Miliband has been raising for the past year. But Cable has a record of talking tough and failing to deliver on bank bonuses and excessive pay.” Ed Miliband, the party leader, has said a Labour government would require companies to publish the pay gap between their boardrooms and the average earnings of their workers. Labour introduced a vote on remuneration reports – the first one to be voted down was GlaxoSmithKline in 2003 – but, as the votes are not binding on companies, they are able to ignore them. Tesco, for instance, endured a 47% revolt against its pay deals last year, and is facing another rebellion at its annual meeting next week. The Association of British Insurers – whose event Cable had been speaking at – said: “As institutional investors we agree that good results should be rewarded, but we agree that it cannot be right to reward failure. This is why we have been tackling this issue. Investors have been tough on soft targets or shifting goalposts but we accept that this needs continued focus. We look forward to talking more to the government about this important issue.” Executive pay and bonuses Pay Economic policy Vince Cable Banking Work & careers Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Did you launch a racist, antisemitic rant? I can’t remember, Galliano tells French court
June 22, 2011 No Comment
Shocking nature of alleged outburst captivates France as fashion designer could face six months in jail The British designer John Galliano told a Paris court he remembered nothing of an alleged antisemitic, racist rant in a bar because of his triple addiction to alcohol, valium and sleeping pills. The flamboyant couturier, who faces up to six months in jail and €22,500 in fines, told the court he had been “pushed to the edge” by financial and emotional pressures. The case has captured France’s imagination, both because it involved a fallen British fashion star – Galliano was immediately sacked from the top job as creative director of Paris fashion house Dior – and because of the shocking nature of the alleged racist and antisemitic ravings by a supposedly inclusive designer in the heart of Paris’s historic Jewish district. Galliano, 50, was dressed in billowing black satin trousers, a black waistcoat, jacket and silk scarf, but no shirt as he arrived in court to face the charges of making “public insults” based on origin, religion, race or ethnicity . He stared determinedly ahead, composing himself, swallowing hard and clenching his jaw during evidence, but he looked frail after two months in an Arizona rehab centre. He is currently attending a daycare centre for recovering addicts in Switzerland. Under French law Galliano is not required to enter a plea. The judge asked Galliano about the incident on 24 February when a French couple having a beer outside a bar in Paris’s Marais district claimed he repeatedly insulted them with lines including “dirty Jewish face”, “fucking ugly Jewish bitch” and “fucking Asian bastard” . He replied “I have no recollection.” Asked why he couldn’t remember, he said had a three-fold addiction to alcohol, sleeping tablets and valium. He said there were many reasons for his addiction, including the success of Dior. He started drinking “in a cyclical way” in 2007. “After every creative high I would crash and the drink would help me to escape. At this point I had managed to turn creativity into a billion dollar business at Dior. Then the financial crash happened,” he said. He described having “two children”: Dior and his own label Galliano, owned by same group. To save them from the financial crisis, he had to sign deals with “businessmen” and branch out into a bewildering list of new lines, including menswear, kidswear, beachwear and perfumes. He described a manic schedule of working through the night then going directly to early morning starts on shoots, meetings and endless haute-couture fittings. In 2007, his assistant and closest friend, Steven Robinson, died and he lost a kind of “protection”. Galliano said: “With his parents, I buried him … then I went back to do my fittings. The same happened with my father’s death, I had to bury him and then come back that very night and work on the haute couture … I really didn’t take time to mourn.” Galliano said his body became so used to prescription pills, he increased his intake. “I actually can’t remember how many I was taking”. He said he needed sleeping pills to sleep but took them in the day, too. He went into rehab at the end of February after he was arrested by police following the alleged bar altercation. He said his reasons for rehab were various: “I started having panic attacks, I couldn’t go to work unless I had taken some valium.” Geraldine Bloch told the court she was sitting on a terrace at La Perle bar in February when Galliano sat a table near them, drinking a mojito, and quickly said: “Could you shut up please, I can’t stand your voice, fucking bitch,” before insulting her clothes, hair, thighs and make-up. She said he used the word “Jewish at least 30 times” including calling her a “fucking Jewish bitch” and “Jewish cunt”. She argued back at Galliano and refused to move table. Galliano’s driver came over and gave her a mobile, saying it was the designer’s lawyer trying to defuse the situation, but she refused to talk to him. She said Galliano had not seemed drunk but was acting weirdly. Her friend, Philippe Virgitti, told the court Galliano called him a “fucking Asian bastard” and threatened to kill him. He thought the designer used the world “Jewish” 10 times while insulting Bloch. He admitted threatening Galliano with a chair. The court also heard the case of another women who claimed that in the same bar in October 2010, Galliano had called her a “fucking ugly Jewish bitch.” Asked in court about a separate video in which he insulted a bar client and said “I love Hitler”, Galliano replied: “These are not views that I hold or believe in … I see someone who needs help, who’s vulnerable. It’s the shell of John Galliano. I see someone pushed to the edge.” The judges are expected to deliver a verdict at a later date. Several French anti-racist associations have also lodged civil complaints against the designer. John Galliano France Europe Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The human eye may be an even more amazing thing than we realize, capable of acting as a compass by sensing the Earth’s magnetic field, new research suggests. Cryptochrome, a protein believed to give animals like migratory birds and sea turtles their ability to navigate, is present in the human…
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• Transport secretary says deal ‘sticks in the gullet’ • Departed chief executive warned over pay last year Transport secretary Philip Hammond has condemned Network Rail for handing former chief executive Iain Coucher a £1m payoff, warning that it will “stick in the gullet” of taxpayers and farepayers. The government-backed owner of Britain’s rail tracks and stations will stoke the row over public sector pay by announcing a payoff of more than £1m for Coucher on Thursday. Coucher stepped down as chief executive last year after a three-year reign that was peppered with complaints from trade unions and politicians about the company’s remuneration regime. Network Rail’s annual report, published on Thursday, will reveal that Coucher received just over £1m as part of a package that included a year’s pay in lieu of notice and a settlement related to the company’s long-term incentive plan. Fellow executives are also expected to receive sizeable payments under the plan. Hammond weighed into the debate on Wednesday in apparent fury that his public warnings last year over Network Rail bonuses had been ignored. He said: “This payoff will stick in the gullet of every farepayer and taxpayer who think they pay too much to use our railway. The payoff is based on his contractual rights but most people will feel it doesn’t sit well given the difficult times most families are facing. “I will be seeking assurances that this is the last chapter in the sorry saga of the old Network Rail as set up by Gordon Brown. We have made clear that any future incentive system should focus on rewarding exceptional and sustained long-term outperformance and be based on the principle that bonuses are not an automatic right.” Network Rail relies on the taxpayer for its funding and received £3.7bn from the Department for Transport last year in a financial arrangement that regularly exposes its executive team to pay rows. In 2010, Coucher received a salary and bonus package worth £1.25m, drawing an intervention from Hammond, who questioned whether it was “appropriate” for Network Rail executives to share more than £2m in bonuses when the rest of the population was entering a period of austerity. However, Coucher has consistently argued that Network Rail needed to reward managers charged with turning round a railway system that was on its knees when the company inherited Railtrack’s responsibilities in 2002 following the botched privatisation of the rail network. The announcement comes a month after Coucher was cleared of misusing public funds following an independent investigation. Antony White QC, an expert in asset tracing and employment law, was appointed by the company to investigate allegations that public money had been spent illicitly on perks. White severely criticised the “astonishing” behaviour of Peter Bennett, Network Rail’s head of human resources, who called an employee complaining of sex discrimination a “silly cow”. Network Rail’s chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, has moved to answer concerns over the company’s governance by requesting another review. The review’s author, Saratha Rajeswaran, a former adviser to rail minister Theresa Villiers, said the company had a “real problem” with accountability to the rail industry and government, adding: “Network Rail has been insulated from real-time economic and political concerns – leading to criticisms that it is arrogant or out-of-touch with the reality for the industry, passengers, the government and taxpayers.” However, the review does not recommend radical changes to the governance of Network Rail, which is technically a private business as a company limited by guarantee, meaning that it has no share capital or shareholders. The role of the latter is performed by Network Rail’s 92 “members”, who are drawn from the transport industry and the public. The Rajeswaran review does not call for an enhancement of members’ powers over pay, instead leaving their role as a purely symbolic one with a vote on the remuneration report at the annual meeting. Nonetheless, the review warns that bonuses will continue to be a “contentious” issue. Meanwhile, Network Rail is now beginning formal discussions over its next funding settlement under its new chief executive, Sir David Higgins, former chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority. The company is under pressure to reduce costs following an independent report into rail industry expenditure by Sir Roy McNulty, former chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, who has recommended cutting £1bn from the sector’s annual expenditure by the end of the decade. Nonetheless, Network Rail is optimistic that it can secure a funding settlement for 2014-2019 that is similar to the £30bn it won for 2009-2014 at the height of the previous government’s public spending largesse. Network Rail Executive pay and bonuses Travel & leisure Transport Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Coalition forces in Afghanistan say their efforts to avoid collateral damage are paying off. Insurgents, by their estimates, are now responsible for 85% of civilian deaths and injuries in the war, up from 75% of deaths and 78% of injuries last year. “The vast majority of civilian casualties are caused…
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China’s best known artist, looking thinner after 81 days in detention, says ‘I’m fine … I’m on bail. Please understand’ After 81 days in detention, China’s best-known artist, Ai Weiwei, returned home a considerably thinner and noticeably quieter man. “I’m fine. I’m out,” the 54-year-old artist told the Guardian in a telephone call shortly after his release on bail. “I’m back with my family. I’m very happy.” The state news agency, Xinhua, said police had released him “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes” and a chronic illness. Speaking from his home in north Beijing, the usually outspoken artist said he could not comment any further, adding: “I’m on bail. Please understand.” Ai’s sister Gao Ge said: “I’m very, very happy … we thank everyone, including our media friends, for all their help and support so far.” His mother, Gao Ying, told NPR that the family “won’t sleep tonight”. The artist’s disappearance on 3 April sparked international condemnation, with political leaders calling for his release and sustained protests throughout the art world. He vanished after he was stopped by officials at Beijing airport, where he was due to board a flight to Hong Kong. Officials later said police were investigating him on suspicion of economic crimes, although police never formally notified his family of his detention, which they are supposed to do within a day of seizing a suspect. The Xinhua report on Ai’s release said: “The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said. The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a company Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents, police said.” Ai’s works include helping design the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing and last year’s Sunflower Seeds installation in Tate Modern’s turbine hall. But he has become as well known for his activism as for his art – although he suggested it was not easy to draw a line between the two. He is the most high profile of dozens of activists and dissidents arrested, detained or harassed in recent months in what campaigners called China’s most severe crackdown on human rights in over a decade. Several are still held and many of those who have been freed are understood to have been released under strict conditions. The decision to bail Ai comes days before Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visits Europe, where leaders were expected to press the case for the release. It is impossible to know whether the events are connected. Although China has often released dissidents on the eve of major political visits, it has not done so recently. A message on the official Twitter feed for the EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, read: “Happy to learn that Ai Weiwei has been released.” Ai’s only contact with the outside world during his detention – a brief 20-minute visit by his wife Lu Qing – was arranged by police on the eve of Van Rompuy’s visit to China last month. At the time Lu said he had looked mentally conflicted and tense despite appearing to be in good physical health and receiving treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure. Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, welcomed Ai’s release. “His detention was political and his release is political. It is the result of a huge domestic and international outcry that forced the government to this resolution … I think Beijing realised how damaging it was to hold China’s most famous artist in detention,” he said. Although in theory police are able to take further action on a case for up to a year after a suspect is bailed, in practice detainees who are released do not usually face trial unless they are judged to have reoffended. Bequelin said Ai would probably have to report to police and would probably not be allowed to travel abroad without official permission. US state department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told a news conference: “It’s always a good thing when an individual who is only in prison for exercising his internationally recognised human rights is released.” Speaking before Ai’s release, Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said it “would be a big relief for the artist and his family, even though the reported circumstances of his release on bail continue to appear depressing”. Patrick Poon, executive secretary of the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, tweeted: “It’s ‘good news’ for Ai Weiwei and for all of us who support Ai Weiwei and other human rights defenders, but the Chinese government’s handling of Ai Weiwei’s case once again proves that China is miles away from the real ‘rule of law’.” The Chinese government has said Ai’s case was nothing to do with human rights, while his family believed it was retaliation for his social and political activism. But some human rights campaigners thought the economic allegations offered officials room for manoeuvre, whereas they would not have felt able to drop political charges. Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director, said: “Ai Weiwei must now be granted his full liberty, and not be held in illegal house arrest as has been the pattern with so many others recently released from arbitrary detention.” She also called for the immediate release of his four associates – Wen Tao, one of his friends, Zhang Jinsong, his driver and cousin, Hu Mingfen, an accountant, and Liu Zhenggang, a designer – who went missing shortly after him . Wen’s girlfriend Shi Jing, who had volunteered at Ai’s studio, said: “For both [Ai's] friends and family, it is positive news. “As for Wen Tao, his family hasn’t got any information so far … I still feel anxious, but since Ai is going to be bailed, there will probably be information about the others. They got into this because of Ai’s case, so there should also be news about them.” Ai Weiwei China Human rights Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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China’s best known artist, looking thinner after 81 days in detention, says ‘I’m fine … I’m on bail. Please understand’ After 81 days in detention, China’s best-known artist, Ai Weiwei, returned home a considerably thinner and noticeably quieter man. “I’m fine. I’m out,” the 54-year-old artist told the Guardian in a telephone call shortly after his release on bail. “I’m back with my family. I’m very happy.” The state news agency, Xinhua, said police had released him “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes” and a chronic illness. Speaking from his home in north Beijing, the usually outspoken artist said he could not comment any further, adding: “I’m on bail. Please understand.” Ai’s sister Gao Ge said: “I’m very, very happy … we thank everyone, including our media friends, for all their help and support so far.” His mother, Gao Ying, told NPR that the family “won’t sleep tonight”. The artist’s disappearance on 3 April sparked international condemnation, with political leaders calling for his release and sustained protests throughout the art world. He vanished after he was stopped by officials at Beijing airport, where he was due to board a flight to Hong Kong. Officials later said police were investigating him on suspicion of economic crimes, although police never formally notified his family of his detention, which they are supposed to do within a day of seizing a suspect. The Xinhua report on Ai’s release said: “The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said. The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a company Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents, police said.” Ai’s works include helping design the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing and last year’s Sunflower Seeds installation in Tate Modern’s turbine hall. But he has become as well known for his activism as for his art – although he suggested it was not easy to draw a line between the two. He is the most high profile of dozens of activists and dissidents arrested, detained or harassed in recent months in what campaigners called China’s most severe crackdown on human rights in over a decade. Several are still held and many of those who have been freed are understood to have been released under strict conditions. The decision to bail Ai comes days before Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visits Europe, where leaders were expected to press the case for the release. It is impossible to know whether the events are connected. Although China has often released dissidents on the eve of major political visits, it has not done so recently. A message on the official Twitter feed for the EU president, Herman Van Rompuy, read: “Happy to learn that Ai Weiwei has been released.” Ai’s only contact with the outside world during his detention – a brief 20-minute visit by his wife Lu Qing – was arranged by police on the eve of Van Rompuy’s visit to China last month. At the time Lu said he had looked mentally conflicted and tense despite appearing to be in good physical health and receiving treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure. Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, welcomed Ai’s release. “His detention was political and his release is political. It is the result of a huge domestic and international outcry that forced the government to this resolution … I think Beijing realised how damaging it was to hold China’s most famous artist in detention,” he said. Although in theory police are able to take further action on a case for up to a year after a suspect is bailed, in practice detainees who are released do not usually face trial unless they are judged to have reoffended. Bequelin said Ai would probably have to report to police and would probably not be allowed to travel abroad without official permission. US state department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told a news conference: “It’s always a good thing when an individual who is only in prison for exercising his internationally recognised human rights is released.” Speaking before Ai’s release, Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said it “would be a big relief for the artist and his family, even though the reported circumstances of his release on bail continue to appear depressing”. Patrick Poon, executive secretary of the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, tweeted: “It’s ‘good news’ for Ai Weiwei and for all of us who support Ai Weiwei and other human rights defenders, but the Chinese government’s handling of Ai Weiwei’s case once again proves that China is miles away from the real ‘rule of law’.” The Chinese government has said Ai’s case was nothing to do with human rights, while his family believed it was retaliation for his social and political activism. But some human rights campaigners thought the economic allegations offered officials room for manoeuvre, whereas they would not have felt able to drop political charges. Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director, said: “Ai Weiwei must now be granted his full liberty, and not be held in illegal house arrest as has been the pattern with so many others recently released from arbitrary detention.” She also called for the immediate release of his four associates – Wen Tao, one of his friends, Zhang Jinsong, his driver and cousin, Hu Mingfen, an accountant, and Liu Zhenggang, a designer – who went missing shortly after him . Wen’s girlfriend Shi Jing, who had volunteered at Ai’s studio, said: “For both [Ai's] friends and family, it is positive news. “As for Wen Tao, his family hasn’t got any information so far … I still feel anxious, but since Ai is going to be bailed, there will probably be information about the others. They got into this because of Ai’s case, so there should also be news about them.” Ai Weiwei China Human rights Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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