Vatican acts after reports of monks staging concerts featuring a lap dancer and running hotel service It sounds like something out of Father Ted: a renowned monastery in Rome where monks staged concerts featuring a lap-dancer-turned-nun and opened a hotel with a 24-hour limousine service has been shut down by the pope. As part of Benedict XVI’s crackdown on “loose living” within the Catholic church, 20 or so Cistercian monks are now being evicted from the monastery at the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which hosts some of the church’s holiest relics. “An inquiry found evidence of liturgical and financial irregularities as well as lifestyles that were probably not in keeping with that of a monk,” said Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman. “The church remains open but the monks are awaiting transfer.” Reports saying the monks amassed large debts have also emerged, but Benedettini declined to give further details of the Vatican report, which was signed off in March. The monks’ days have been numbered since 2009, when the Vatican sacked their flamboyant abbot, Father Simone Fioraso, a former fashion designer who built up a cult following among Rome’s fashionable aristocratic crowd as well as show business worshippers such as Madonna, who prayed at the church in 2008. In 2009 Anna Nobili, a nightclub dancer who became a nun, was invited to perform her “holy dance” before an audience including archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican’s cultural department. For her performance Nobili, who says she uses dance as a form of prayer, lies spread-eagled in front of the altar clutching a crucifix or twists and turns as in pole-dancing routines. Dating back to the 4th century, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was built to house relics brought back from the Holy Land by the mother of Emperor Constantine. They include items described as nails and splinters from the cross, thorns from Jesus’s crown, and a bone from the finger St Thomas pushed into the wounds of Christ. The monks living there now had opened a shop selling organic produce from their kitchen garden, but this was shut down in 2009 amid accusations of their having secretly stocked the shelves from a neighbourhood grocery. The Italian newspaper La Stampa said that VIP guests were also encouraged to stay at a hotel opened at the Santa Croce monastery which offered a 24-hour limousine airport service. In 2008 Fioraso hosted a week-long, televised, reading of the bible with religious figures, politicians and celebrities reading tracts, starting with Pope Benedict himself. But a year later Fioraso was ousted, despite protests from parishioners who defended his “patience, dedication, sacrifice and passion”. The Vatican’s removal of the monks to other monasteries, ending their 500-year presence at the basilica, follows Benedict’s hard line with other wayward orders, including the Legionaries of Christ, run by the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel Degollado, who fathered numerous children, was disciplined over sexual abuse allegations and was banished to a life of penitence. The basilica was supported by the Friends of Santa Croce, a who’s who of Roman society run by a Italian claiming descent from Charlemagne. Italian press reports have speculated that the inspectors from the Vatican suspected homosexual relations between monks at the monastery. Pope Benedict XVI Catholicism Vatican Italy Religion Tom Kington guardian.co.uk
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Former US Democratic candidate alleged to have used more than $1m in illegal contributions to conceal affair in 2008 The disgraced former US vice-presidential contender John Edwards is to be charged for allegedly using more than $1m in illegal campaign contributions to hide an affair that destroyed his presidential ambitions. The justice department is to accuse Edwards, once a rising star of the Democratic party as its 2004 vice-presidential candidate, of accepting substantial donations to his 2008 campaign from two wealthy supporters in order to cover up the relationship with his campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter, and the fact that they had a child together. The charges come out of a grand jury investigation which heard from more than a dozen witnesses including Edwards’s former chief aide, Andrew Young, who at one time covered up for his boss by falsely claiming paternity of the child and then writing a book about it. Last year, Young discovered a video tape of Edwards having sex with Hunter among a box of personal possessions left at his home by his former boss’s mistress. A judge ordered the tape to be turned over to the court as part of an investigation into whether cash given to Hunter by Edwards was in effect hush money. Edwards is to be accused of using the campaign donations to support and seclude Hunter. Edwards now faces the choice of attempting to reach a plea bargain which would result in him being struck off as a lawyer or taking his chances on a trial and the prospect of prison time. The charges are only the latest in a string of public humiliations and exposures which have some of Edwards’s former supporters saying that because of his actions and lies they now regard his political persona as a fabrication and that he was unfit for public office. After his 2008 campaign for his party’s presidential nomination faltered in the face of competition from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Edwards was once again considered a likely vice-presidential nominee. But revelations about his affair began to appear in the tabloid press. He initially denied them but they killed off his chances of higher office and later that year he admitted to the relationship with Hunter. However, it was another two years before he admitted to paternity of the child. Further revelations about the true nature of John and Elizabeth Edwards’s marriage emerged. She was regarded as her husband’s closest adviser and strategist who was instrumental in selecting his staff and directing his campaign. But she was later revealed to be an “abusive” individual who left creepy voicemails and terrified her husband’s campaign staff. Elizabeth Edwards had known about the affair for months before it was made public, but her husband assured her it was just a one-night stand. Later she released a book that detailed her struggle with her husband’s infidelity. The couple split up after he admitted the affair with Hunter and she died in December of cancer. John Edwards US politics United States Democrats US elections 2008 Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The death toll in the violent storms slamming Oklahoma is up to eight. The state medical examiner’s office said this morning that one of the victims is a child. Other severe storms raked the central US last night and early today, ripping the roof off a fire station and killing…
Continue reading …Pre-teens have a lot to gain from social media sites, says Mark Zuckerberg, and he tells an education summit that he’d like under-13s to be able to use Facebook. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act bans websites that collect information about users from signing up users under 13, reports the…
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Contaminated waste is expected to be transported to the landfill site at King’s Cliffe by road from Harwell in Oxfordshire The government has over-ridden local planning objections and pushed through a controversial scheme to allow 250,000 tonnes a year of nuclear waste to be dumped in a traditional landfill site in a Northants village. Residents said they were “shocked” that such a groundbreaking decision could be taken before the conclusions of a wide-ranging debate about radioactive safety after the Fukushima atomic plant crisis. But Eric Pickles, the secretary of state for communities and local government said that “the risk of actual harm from the development would be very low” and it should therefore be given the go-ahead. The decision at the site at King’s Cliffe, a village near Peterborough, could have significant implications for other areas where landfill is needed to deal with the large volumes of low level waste from the UK’s atomic industry. Britain’s only purpose-built low level waste depositary at Drigg in Cumbria is rapidly filling up and ministers decided last year that the law should be changed to allow traditional landfill sites to be used in some circumstances. There is another row in Cumbria after the Environment Agency gave the go-ahead last month for a permit to dispose radioactive waste at the Lillyhall landfill site, from the Sellafield nuclear complex. Augean, the waste management outfit, is expected to bring waste in to the East Northamptonshire site at King’s Cliffe by road from Harwell in Oxfordshire, which was established in 1946 as Britain’s first atomic energy research establishment. But local fears that the facility could also be used for waste created at other nuclear plants such as Bradwell in Essex. Planning permission had been denied by Northamptonshire councy council and a local referendum had damned the scheme but Augean appealed to the secretary of state saying the 250,000 tonnes would be mainly made up of relatively uncontaminated rubble and other debris. It argued that the facility has accepted hazardous waste without harmful effect on the environment or local economy. In a statement Augean said: “We are very pleased that our planning application has withstood the close examination of the inquiry and that the secretary of state has upheld our proposals for East Northamptonshire Resource Management Facility (ENRMF) His support joins that of the Environment Agency in allowing this important scheme to go ahead.” The company, with no prior experience of handling nuclear waste and which has been fined by the Environment Agency for past breaches of regulations, said it would work with local residents to further allay any concerns. But Clare Langan, a local resident and member of the campaign group King’s Cliffe Waste Watchers, said she was bitterly disappointed that the green light had been given to Augean. “In a post-Fukushima environment where nuclear planning is being halted in Germany and Japan it seems bizarre that the (UK) government is blundering ahead with disposing of nuclear waste in the most absurdly inappropriate place,” she argued. Louise Bagshaw, MP for nearby Corby told the BBC the decision undermined the government’s professed commitment to localism. “We had a local referendum at the ballot box, not a petition, actual votes cast and 96% of people were against this dump. I will be asking the secretary of state why his department has taken this appalling decision.” The decision got the thumbs up from the City though. Edison Investment Research put out a note on Augean saying this potentially lucrative waste business could “transform the economics within the group.” The decision by the Environment Agency to agree to radioactive dumping at Lillyhall by the Waste Recycling Group and its partner Energy Solutions has angered local residents and authorities there. Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council all objected to the scheme. “My fear is that this decision opens up the market for this waste to be disposed of wherever the best deal on costs is on offer, rather than factoring in the wider environmental and economic concerns,” said Tim Knowles, the councillor responsible for the environment at the County Council. debate about whether the region should host a national high level waste dump. The government desperately needs a solution to the high waste stored at plants around the country as it proceeds with plans for new nuclear facilities to generate low carbon electricity. Nuclear waste Energy Energy industry Nuclear power Waste Eric Pickles Local politics Local government Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
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Social network will attempt to protect users’ right to defend themselves in legal case brought by footballer Twitter will notify its users before handing their personal information to UK authorities seeking to prosecute them over alleged breaches of privacy injunctions, a senior executive at the company said on Thursday. Asked about the escalating dispute over gagging orders in Britain, Twitter’s general manager of European operations, Tony Wang, said: “Platforms should have responsibility not to defend the user, but to protect that user’s right to defend him or herself.” Twitter was thrown into the centre of the storm over privacy injunctions on Friday when it emerged a footballer launched legal action against the social network in connection with an alleged affair with the former Big Brother contestant, Imogen Thomas. This prompted the player to be named by even more Twitter users and on Monday Lib Dem MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to name Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs as the footballer behind the high-profile privacy injunction. The injunction remains in place . Speaking at the eG8 internet forum in Paris on Wednesday, Wang said he could not comment specifically on the ongoing UK legal action. “If we’re legally required to turn over user information, to the extent that we can, we want to notify the user involved, let them know and let them exercise their rights under their own jurisdiction,” he added. “That’s not to say that they will ultimately prevail, that’s not to say that law enforcement doesn’t get the information they need, but what it does do is take that process into the court of law and let it play out there.” Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter’s general counsel, later clarified the social network’s privacy policy. Macgillvray said on Twitter: “Our policy is notify users & we have fought to ensure user rights. Sadly, some more interested in headlines than accuracy. Twitter declined to comment further. Schillings, the law firm acting for the footballer, filed the legal action against Twitter and its users on Friday, after tens of thousands of internet users allegedly exposed details of his alleged extra-marital affair. The court order – known as a Norwich Pharmacal order – could force Twitter to hand over the name, email address and IP address of the person behind the account. Earlier this month, an unknown person or individuals published on a Twitter account the names of various people who had allegedly taken out gagging orders to conceal sexual indiscretions. The account rapidly attracted more than 100,000 followers. An injunction preventing the naming of the player still stands. Rejecting a third attempt by the Sun newspaper to lift the gagging order in the high court on Monday, after the player had been named in the Commons, Mr Justice Tugendhat said: “It is obvious that if the purpose [of the injunction] was to protect a secret then it would have now failed – but as it is to do with harassment it has not failed.” Privacy & the media Digital media Twitter Internet Blogging Superinjunctions Injunctions Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sorry, Kirstie Alley fans: On last night’s season finale of Dancing With the Stars , the mirrorball trophy went to football star Hines Ward. But Alley came in second, above Disney Channel actress Chelsea Kane, PopEater reports. Click here to see the winning moment, or check out Alley’s impressive aerial stunts…
Continue reading …French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, considered the frontrunner to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF, announced today she does in fact want the job. Lagarde is backed by many European countries including Germany and Britain . Yesterday, developing nations issued a statement urging the IMF to abandon its longtime…
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Levi Bellfield’s former partner tells murder trial of bouncer’s behaviour on day 13-year-old Surrey girl was snatched The man accused of murdering Milly Dowler disappeared on the day the schoolgirl was kidnapped, the Old Bailey has been told. Levi Bellfield’s former partner Emma Mills said she had tried to get hold of the 43-year-old nightclub bouncer but could not get through to his mobile phone. Mills, 33, said: “He disappeared. His mobile was off. I was trying to get in touch with him because I didn’t have any money and I needed to get some bits from the shop. Normally he would ring me or I would ring him, on and off during the day, to see what I was doing. He didn’t ring me at all until later on. I didn’t see him past lunchtime.” She said it was unusual for her not to be in contact with Bellfield, who was not working during the day at the time. She had a 40-second conversation with him at 5.38pm and a longer call later that evening, she said. “I don’t remember the actual conversation but I know how it probably went with me asking where he was all that time and when he was coming back.” Bellfield denies abducting and murdering 13-year-old Dowler and attempting to kidnap 11-year-old Rachel Cowles in March 2002. Dowler disappeared after leaving Walton-on-Thames railway station in Surrey to walk home along Station Avenue. The prosecution claims Bellfield was living yards away and murdered the girl in his flat before dumping the body. Six months later, her remains were found in woods 25 miles away. Bellfield, who also worked as a wheel clamper, was convicted in 2008 of murdering Marsha McDonnell, 19, and Amelie Delagrange, 22, and attempting to murder Kate Sheedy, 18. Mills said she met Bellfield at a club in Surrey when she was 18 and he was working on the door. She had moved into a flat in Collingwood Place in Walton-on-Thames with their two small children in 2001 and Bellfield had moved in by Christmas. The week Dowler vanished, the family were house-sitting for a friend in west London. Mills gave evidence from behind a curtain shielding her from the defendant in the dock. The court was adjourned briefly when she began crying after hearing Bellfield clear his throat twice. She told the court he returned to the friend’s house between 10 or 11 that night. He was wearing different clothes from those he had on in the morning. “I think he got a takeaway and some lagers. He had had a drink but he was not drunk,” she said. Asked if she had questioned him, Mills answered: “I did but I would never get a straight answer – and even if he did tell me something, I would never know if it was the truth.” When the pair returned to Collingwood Place the following day, Mills noticed something unusual in the bedroom: “There were no sheets or pillow cases on the bed. No duvet cover. I rang him. He said the dog had had an accident on the bed. I didn’t believe him for a second. I said, ‘Why would she do that, when did it happen?’ “He said he put the sheets in the rubbish because they could not be washed.” Mills said Bellfield’s Staffordshire bull terrier, Shy, would never have soiled the bed. When she looked in the bins outside the flat, she could see nothing, she said. The case continues. Milly Dowler Crime David Sharrock guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Copper heiress Huguette Clark, a fixture of society pages in the 1920s, has died some 80 years after she turned her back on high society. Clark died at age 104 in a Manhattan hospital where she had spent more than 20 years despite being in good health, the Wall Street…
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