New BBC chairman says number of highly-paid executives at the corporation is to be cut back Lord Patten, the new BBC chairman, has admitted that some of the BBC’s executives are still paid too highly and that not being able to pay top dollar for talent is something the corporation “has to live with” in return for not having to “flog advertising and subscriptions”. Speaking on Radio 4′s Today programme, Patten said that the corporation was working through a series of cuts that would scale back the number of senior executives by about a quarter. “In some circumstances, yes [pay is too high],” he said. He also said that some talent was paid too highly but admitted that it would “probably be inflationary” to look to publish the bands of pay stars fall into, as has been done with executive pay. “You don’t have to pay 50% more on an individual than you do on the [BBC] Proms, to put it bluntly,” he said. He added that in such a hotly-contested, talent-driven market, “talent drain” is “something you live with” that needs to be balances against the fact the licence-fee funded BBC doesn’t have to “flog ads and subscriptions up and down the street”. Lord Patten said that an important part of the BBC’s raison d’etre is to “discover, train and employ [talent] for a few seasons”. And if then they are “snapped up by competitors [the BBC] shouldn’t feel to bad about that”. He refused to categorically rule out certain BBC services being reduced as the BBC deals with a budget cutback of about 16%. “I hope it can make these choices without hitting services,” he said. “I hope we can avoid cutting services but we can’t avoid making tough choices.” He said he wished that the BBC wasn’t taking over the World Service – from 2014 – “with substantial cuts in the system”, but he felt that it was “safer in the hands of the BBC than the Foreign Office, frankly”. He said that it was important that the BBC Trust, which governs the corporation, be “part of the public realm of this country, not the political”. BBC BBC Trust BBC World Service Radio industry Lord Patten Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Man’s body was nailed to wooden cross with crown of thorns and other signs mimicking crucifixion of Jesus Christ The body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned South Korean stone quarry. The body had a wound to the side of the torso and nylon strings tied around the neck, arms and stomach, and was clad only in underpants, police said. It was found on Sunday in Mungyong, about 115 miles (190km) south-east of Seoul, said Chung Ji-chun, the provincial chief for violent crime. Two smaller crosses were erected on each side, Chung said. Police found nails, a hammer, an electric drill, pieces of wood and instructions on how to build crosses inside a tent near the scene, Chung said. An SUV belonging to the dead man was found nearby. Police were awaiting a forensics report to determine the cause of death and whether it was a homicide or suicide. Chung identified the man as a 58-year old with the surname Kim. Popular representations of the death of Jesus Christ depict him crucified between the crosses of two thieves, wearing a crown of thorns, a white cloth over his loins, with a wound on his side from a Roman soldier’s spear. South Korea guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Man’s body was nailed to wooden cross with crown of thorns and other signs mimicking crucifixion of Jesus Christ The body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned South Korean stone quarry. The body had a wound to the side of the torso and nylon strings tied around the neck, arms and stomach, and was clad only in underpants, police said. It was found on Sunday in Mungyong, about 115 miles (190km) south-east of Seoul, said Chung Ji-chun, the provincial chief for violent crime. Two smaller crosses were erected on each side, Chung said. Police found nails, a hammer, an electric drill, pieces of wood and instructions on how to build crosses inside a tent near the scene, Chung said. An SUV belonging to the dead man was found nearby. Police were awaiting a forensics report to determine the cause of death and whether it was a homicide or suicide. Chung identified the man as a 58-year old with the surname Kim. Popular representations of the death of Jesus Christ depict him crucified between the crosses of two thieves, wearing a crown of thorns, a white cloth over his loins, with a wound on his side from a Roman soldier’s spear. South Korea guardian.co.uk
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Pakistan says raid on Bin Laden’s house was ‘unauthorised’ while CIA director defends decision not to inform Islamabad The war of words between Pakistan and the US in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s killing has intensified as senior officials on both sides traded barbs that underlined their mutual mistrust, and the White House reversed its position on key details of the raid. In Islamabad the Pakistani foreign ministry issued a hard-worded statement condemning the raid on Bin Laden’s house as an “unauthorised unilateral action”, and warned that it would not be tolerated in future. In Washington, the CIA chief Leon Panetta said Pakistan was not informed of the assault on Abbottabad, a military garrison town, because US officials feared the al-Qaida leader could have been warned in advance. “It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardise the mission. They might alert the targets,” he told Time. Pakistan’s foreign secretary Salman Bashir described the American attitude as “disquieting”, asserting that Pakistan had played a key role in the fight against Islamist militancy. “Most of these things that have happened in terms of global anti-terror, Pakistan has played a pivotal role,” said he said. “So it’s a little disquieting when we have comments like this.” Earlier, President Asif Ali Zardari said American claims were “baseless speculation … that doesn’t reflect fact”. Meanwhile, American accounts of Bin Laden’s death have come under intense scrutiny following White House admissions that early official reports claiming Bin Laden had been armed and cowered behind his wife during the assault were false. Bin Laden’s wife, earlier said to have been killed, in fact survived and is currently in Pakistani custody. Pakistani television station Geo published a copy of her passport, naming her as Yemeni citizen Amal Ahmed Abdel Fatteh. The Obama administration is still mulling how to release gory photos of Bin Laden’s body to counter claims in the region that he had not been killed at all. “There are sensitivities about the appropriateness,” said spokesman Jay Carney. “It is fair to say it is a gruesome photograph.” Panetta told NBC news: “I don’t think there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public.” Pakistan’s military, the brunt of much of the speculation, has been largely quiet, although officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence have released some details about the raid based on interviews with Bin Laden relatives left behind by the US Navy Seal team. A senior ISI official said that Bin Laden’s 12-year-old daughter had witnessed her father being killed and confirmed his death. “She said she saw him being shot,” said the official. The official did not know the name of the girl, adding that between 18 and 19 people were present in the compound at the time of the attack. He said the ISI had raided the Abbottabad house as it was under construction in 2003 in search of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, an al-Qaida lieutenant who was eventually captured two years later. But satellite imagery from 2004 shows an empty field on the site of the present house, and later images suggest that construction started a year later, shortly before US officials say in Laden and his family moved in. Pakistan’s role is coming under intense fire in the US Congress. Patrick Meehan, chair of a House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, expressed frustration, wondering aloud if the country was driven by “divided loyalty, complicity [or] incompetence”. Democrat Jackie Speier called it “the elephant in the room”. Inside Pakistan, media coverage has focused on whether Pakistan’s government or military had advance knowledge of the raid – a sensitive issue given widespread anti-American sentiment and worries about breaches of sovereignty. The foreign office statement said reports that US helicopters had taken off from Ghazi airbase inside Pakistan were “absolutely false and incorrect”. It continued: “Neither any base or facility inside Pakistan was used by the US Forces.” There have also been questions about how US helicopters managed to enter Pakistani airspace, conduct a violent raid lasting 40 minutes, then return unhindered to Afghanistan. The foreign office said the US choppers “made use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to hilly terrain”, facilitated by “mountainous terrain, efficacious use of latest technology and ‘nap of the earth’ flying techniques”. Osama bin Laden Pakistan United States Obama administration US politics US Congress Global terrorism US military Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Pakistan says raid on Bin Laden’s house was ‘unauthorised’ while CIA director defends decision not to inform Islamabad The war of words between Pakistan and the US in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s killing has intensified as senior officials on both sides traded barbs that underlined their mutual mistrust, and the White House reversed its position on key details of the raid. In Islamabad the Pakistani foreign ministry issued a hard-worded statement condemning the raid on Bin Laden’s house as an “unauthorised unilateral action”, and warned that it would not be tolerated in future. In Washington, the CIA chief Leon Panetta said Pakistan was not informed of the assault on Abbottabad, a military garrison town, because US officials feared the al-Qaida leader could have been warned in advance. “It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardise the mission. They might alert the targets,” he told Time. Pakistan’s foreign secretary Salman Bashir described the American attitude as “disquieting”, asserting that Pakistan had played a key role in the fight against Islamist militancy. “Most of these things that have happened in terms of global anti-terror, Pakistan has played a pivotal role,” said he said. “So it’s a little disquieting when we have comments like this.” Earlier, President Asif Ali Zardari said American claims were “baseless speculation … that doesn’t reflect fact”. Meanwhile, American accounts of Bin Laden’s death have come under intense scrutiny following White House admissions that early official reports claiming Bin Laden had been armed and cowered behind his wife during the assault were false. Bin Laden’s wife, earlier said to have been killed, in fact survived and is currently in Pakistani custody. Pakistani television station Geo published a copy of her passport, naming her as Yemeni citizen Amal Ahmed Abdel Fatteh. The Obama administration is still mulling how to release gory photos of Bin Laden’s body to counter claims in the region that he had not been killed at all. “There are sensitivities about the appropriateness,” said spokesman Jay Carney. “It is fair to say it is a gruesome photograph.” Panetta told NBC news: “I don’t think there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public.” Pakistan’s military, the brunt of much of the speculation, has been largely quiet, although officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence have released some details about the raid based on interviews with Bin Laden relatives left behind by the US Navy Seal team. A senior ISI official said that Bin Laden’s 12-year-old daughter had witnessed her father being killed and confirmed his death. “She said she saw him being shot,” said the official. The official did not know the name of the girl, adding that between 18 and 19 people were present in the compound at the time of the attack. He said the ISI had raided the Abbottabad house as it was under construction in 2003 in search of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, an al-Qaida lieutenant who was eventually captured two years later. But satellite imagery from 2004 shows an empty field on the site of the present house, and later images suggest that construction started a year later, shortly before US officials say in Laden and his family moved in. Pakistan’s role is coming under intense fire in the US Congress. Patrick Meehan, chair of a House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, expressed frustration, wondering aloud if the country was driven by “divided loyalty, complicity [or] incompetence”. Democrat Jackie Speier called it “the elephant in the room”. Inside Pakistan, media coverage has focused on whether Pakistan’s government or military had advance knowledge of the raid – a sensitive issue given widespread anti-American sentiment and worries about breaches of sovereignty. The foreign office statement said reports that US helicopters had taken off from Ghazi airbase inside Pakistan were “absolutely false and incorrect”. It continued: “Neither any base or facility inside Pakistan was used by the US Forces.” There have also been questions about how US helicopters managed to enter Pakistani airspace, conduct a violent raid lasting 40 minutes, then return unhindered to Afghanistan. The foreign office said the US choppers “made use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to hilly terrain”, facilitated by “mountainous terrain, efficacious use of latest technology and ‘nap of the earth’ flying techniques”. Osama bin Laden Pakistan United States Obama administration US politics US Congress Global terrorism US military Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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New application will synch tracks from computers to iPods, iPhones and Androids and allow users to buy MP3 bundles If you hate using Apple’s iTunes to synchronise songs on your iPod or iPhone, the music streaming service Spotify would like your attention. It is rolling out a new version of its desktop and mobile application for all of its users, including the ad-supported “free” users, which will synchronise tracks from their computer to iPods, iPhones and Android phones. It is also introducing its own music store, which will allow users to buy “bundles” to pay for MP3-encoded songs from the catalogue, in which buying a bigger bundle effectively gives a discount on the songs. Thus a “bundle” of 10 tracks costs £7.99, effectively costing 80p each, while a bundle of 100 costs £50. The company says the synchronisation – which also works over Wi-Fi, something iTunes doesn’t do – has been the top most requested feature from its users for a considerable time. It has taken more than a year of programming to implement it, and led to other projects being put on hold while the engineers figured out the plumbing of the iPod to ensure seamless functioning. While the new version will not completely replace iTunes for people with iPhone or iPod Touches – which will still need them for synchronising apps and doing software updates – and will also not change calendars, photos, videos or other content on lower-end iPods, chief product officer Gustav Soderstrom told the Guardian that Spotify saw it as important to reach more users of its free service. Premium users can already synchronise content from Spotify playlists on iPod Touches, iPhones and Android phones, but free users were limited to the desktop version. “There are studies which say that the iPod is the biggest music device in terms of hours listened,” Soderstrom said. “Perhaps after the car, because people listen to a lot of radio in cars. But the iPod is certainly second, and the desktop comes a long way behind.” Spotify reckons that if it extends its functionality to the iPod, more people will eventually upgrade to its service. The company said at the beginning of March it has a million subscribers and 10m registered users ; no further update was provided this week. There was also no announcement on when Spotify might reach the US: “We’re still working hard on that. We’re getting closer,” said a spokesman. Asked how he thought Apple would react to the news, Soderstrom said he thought it would be happy: “They have encouraged third-party services through the App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch and more recently the Mac platform. They believe that having a third-party ecosystem really drives hardware sales.” In the past, Apple has blocked companies it thought were trying to unravel the digital protections around music on the iPod. But Soderstrom said Spotify is not doing that: it will not try to remove songs put on the device by iTunes, and will not try to synchronise DRM-protected songs, although he said that only a “small percentage” of people have such music. Apple stopped selling DRM-protected songs through its iTunes Music Store in January 2009, though some songs have not been updated. The Spotify sync puts the music on the device a second time, though Soderstrom said that most Premium users remove the iTunes music and synchronise their playlists from Spotify directly. At present Spotify can only synchronise “static” playlists from iTunes, and not “smart” playlists which are updated in iTunes when new songs are added to the library. Soderstrom said that functionality was being worked on both for synchronisation and for Spotify playlists generally. • Amazon has cut the prices of MP3 downloads in the US, reducing them to 69 cents, compared to the $1.29 that some songs in Apple’s iTunes Store sell at. Amazon has about 10% of the music download market in the US but is now looking to expand. Spotify Internet Digital music and audio iTunes Apple Software iPhone Mobile phones Telecoms iPod Android Google Wi-Fi Media business Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New application will synch tracks from computers to iPods, iPhones and Androids and allow users to buy MP3 bundles If you hate using Apple’s iTunes to synchronise songs on your iPod or iPhone, the music streaming service Spotify would like your attention. It is rolling out a new version of its desktop and mobile application for all of its users, including the ad-supported “free” users, which will synchronise tracks from their computer to iPods, iPhones and Android phones. It is also introducing its own music store, which will allow users to buy “bundles” to pay for MP3-encoded songs from the catalogue, in which buying a bigger bundle effectively gives a discount on the songs. Thus a “bundle” of 10 tracks costs £7.99, effectively costing 80p each, while a bundle of 100 costs £50. The company says the synchronisation – which also works over Wi-Fi, something iTunes doesn’t do – has been the top most requested feature from its users for a considerable time. It has taken more than a year of programming to implement it, and led to other projects being put on hold while the engineers figured out the plumbing of the iPod to ensure seamless functioning. While the new version will not completely replace iTunes for people with iPhone or iPod Touches – which will still need them for synchronising apps and doing software updates – and will also not change calendars, photos, videos or other content on lower-end iPods, chief product officer Gustav Soderstrom told the Guardian that Spotify saw it as important to reach more users of its free service. Premium users can already synchronise content from Spotify playlists on iPod Touches, iPhones and Android phones, but free users were limited to the desktop version. “There are studies which say that the iPod is the biggest music device in terms of hours listened,” Soderstrom said. “Perhaps after the car, because people listen to a lot of radio in cars. But the iPod is certainly second, and the desktop comes a long way behind.” Spotify reckons that if it extends its functionality to the iPod, more people will eventually upgrade to its service. The company said at the beginning of March it has a million subscribers and 10m registered users ; no further update was provided this week. There was also no announcement on when Spotify might reach the US: “We’re still working hard on that. We’re getting closer,” said a spokesman. Asked how he thought Apple would react to the news, Soderstrom said he thought it would be happy: “They have encouraged third-party services through the App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch and more recently the Mac platform. They believe that having a third-party ecosystem really drives hardware sales.” In the past, Apple has blocked companies it thought were trying to unravel the digital protections around music on the iPod. But Soderstrom said Spotify is not doing that: it will not try to remove songs put on the device by iTunes, and will not try to synchronise DRM-protected songs, although he said that only a “small percentage” of people have such music. Apple stopped selling DRM-protected songs through its iTunes Music Store in January 2009, though some songs have not been updated. The Spotify sync puts the music on the device a second time, though Soderstrom said that most Premium users remove the iTunes music and synchronise their playlists from Spotify directly. At present Spotify can only synchronise “static” playlists from iTunes, and not “smart” playlists which are updated in iTunes when new songs are added to the library. Soderstrom said that functionality was being worked on both for synchronisation and for Spotify playlists generally. • Amazon has cut the prices of MP3 downloads in the US, reducing them to 69 cents, compared to the $1.29 that some songs in Apple’s iTunes Store sell at. Amazon has about 10% of the music download market in the US but is now looking to expand. Spotify Internet Digital music and audio iTunes Apple Software iPhone Mobile phones Telecoms iPod Android Google Wi-Fi Media business Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Train drivers’ union RMT calls walkouts across two weeks, starting 16 May and 13 June, over sacking of two drivers London commuters face travel disruption in the coming weeks after it was announced that tube workers are to take strike action in an escalating row over the sacking of two drivers. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union has said its tube drivers will walk out for between nine and 24 hours from Monday 16 May to Friday 20 May; and again from Monday 13 June to Friday 17 June. The strikes will disrupt the underground network over a period of two weeks, with the union claiming the action will have a “major impact” on services. It follows a 2-1 vote in favour of industrial action by RMT members in protest at the dismissal of Northern line driver Eamon Lynch and Bakerloo line driver Arwyn Thomas. Both men have gone to an employment tribunal claiming unfair dismissal. RMT members held a 24-hour strike in January over their dismissal and there have been several other stoppages in recent months. In November RMT walked out in a dispute over staffing levels at ticket offices . On Boxing Day the other train drivers’ union, Aslef, went on strike over bank holiday pay. RMT claims Lynch and Thomas were sacked because of their trade union activities, although this has been denied by Transport for London. “It is absolute nonsense to suggest that these individuals were dismissed unfairly due to their union activities and it is disgraceful that the RMT leadership has chosen to ballot for strike action when both cases are still going through the employment tribunal process,” said TfL. “The threat of strike action will never resolve issues such as this.” TfL alleged one man breached safety rules while the other was abusive towards colleagues. But RMT said Lynch had an “unblemished” 15-year service record while Thomas had been an RMT member for 29 years and both were “clear-cut cases of victimisation on the grounds of trade union activity”. London Transport Trade unions Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
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Report by human rights group cites ex-inmates and defectors’ accounts of torture and executions in series of camps North Korea’s political prison camps have expanded substantially over the last decade and hold 200,000 people, according to Amnesty International. The human rights group says satellite imagery shows that locations identified as prison camps by defectors have grown rapidly in recent years. Former detainees and guards who subsequently escaped from the country described horrific conditions including torture and widespread malnutrition, Amnesty said, with every former inmate saying they had witnessed executions. Thousands of prisoners are thought to be held purely for guilt by association under a system of collective punishment that holds relatives responsible when an individual breaks the law. “Hundreds of thousands of people exist with virtually no rights, treated essentially as slaves, in some of the worst circumstances we’ve documented in the last 50 years,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty’s Asia Pacific director. “As North Korea seems to be moving towards a new leader in Kim Jong-un and a period of political instability, the big worry is that the prison camps appear to be growing in size.” Satellite images showed four of the six camps sprawling over large tracts of land in remote rural areas of South Pyongan, South Hamkyung and North Hamkyung provinces. A comparison with images taken 10 years ago showed that they had grown significantly, Amnesty said, with 15 more guardhouses at Yodok alone. It combined the evidence of additional buildings with former detainees’ descriptions of conditions at the camps to arrive at its estimate of political prisoner numbers. The South Korean human rights commission has also estimated a population of 200,000 while South Korean government sources have suggested around 150,000 people are held in the camps. North Korea has a population of around 24 million. According to defectors, the camps consist of two areas. No one is ever released from the total control zones, for those alleged to have committed serious crimes such as those against the regime. Those deemed to have committed less serious offences, such as being critical of government policy or illegally crossing the border, face sentences of between a few months and a decade in revolutionary zones. Amnesty says only three people are known to have escaped total control zones and managed to leave North Korea. Most of its interviewees had been held in the revolutionary zone at a camp in Yodok. A devastating famine in the mid-1990s killed hundreds of thousands in North Korea and the country has suffered food shortages ever since, but conditions appear to have been particularly gruelling in the camps. Former inmate Jeong Kyoungil, who was detained in Yodok from 2000 to 2003, told Amnesty that prisoners received three meals of 200g of corn gruel a day, with food withheld if they failed to finish their work. “Seeing people die happened frequently – every day. Frankly, unlike in a normal society, we would like it rather than feel sad because if you bring a dead body and bury it, you would be given another bowl of food. I used to take charge of burying dead people’s bodies,” he said. Others reported torture, with detainees forced to spend a week or more in a cube-shaped cell too small in which to stand or lie down. North Korea, which does not acknowledge it has political prison camps, has not responded to the report. North Korea Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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Building society’s new Save to Buy account will enable first-time home buyers to apply for 95% loan-to-value mortgages Latest news: House prices dip in roller coaster ride Nationwide building society is launching a savings account which enables first-time buyers to apply for a mortgage with just a 5% deposit. From Friday, those aspiring to buy their own home can open a Save to Buy regular savings account which pays interest of 2.5% gross on balances up to £20,000. After at least six months of saving a minimum of £50 a month, the saver is entitled to apply for one of the Nationwide’s 95% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio mortgages: until now these have only been available to existing Nationwide mortgage customers who want to move home. The Nationwide joins a very small band of lenders prepared to extend mortgages to those with a deposit of just 5% on a relatively straightforward basis. Most others require parents or other family members to act as guarantors on the loans, or to put their own money into savings accounts which can be set against the loans in case things go wrong. Nationwide currently offers a 95% loan fixed for three years at 6.29% and one fixed for five years at 6.89%, although the rates on offer will almost certainly have changed by the time first-time buyers qualify to apply. Those who go on to take out a Nationwide 95% LTV mortgage will also benefit from cash back ranging from £250 for those who save from £2,500 to £4,999, to £1,000 for those who save £10,000 or more. Save to Buy customers will also qualify for any Nationwide first-time buyer deals available at the time of application, such as the current offer of a £500 discount off the product fee. David Hollingworth of mortgage broker London & Country said aspiring buyers might be able to find better savings rates elsewhere, but added that the Nationwide’s entrance to the 95% LTV market was still very welcome. “The Nationwide is getting back to that old-fashioned condition of wanting to get some savings in and making sure the borrower is able to put money away each month. This is no bad thing,” he said. “The obvious downside is that saving in the Save to Buy account does not guarantee that you will get a mortgage. The Nationwide is simply saying that it will consider your application.” He said other lenders offering 95% LTV loans, including the Skipton building society and Yorkshire Bank , charge similar interest rates to the Nationwide, but he added that the lenders set strict criteria when considering applications. “It’s not easy to get one of these loans,” he said. First-time buyers are generally considered to be the driving force behind the housing market. Their buying of a property releases homeowners to buy bigger or more expensive property, and spurs a whole chain of shopping, from house paint to white goods, that helps support the economy. But their numbers have dropped over the past few years, as buyers have been forced out of the market by high house prices, low or non-existent salary increases and an unwillingness on the part of lenders to provide them with high LTV mortgages. The government has put pressure on lenders to increase the number of mortgages they are making available to first-time buyers, and launched a scheme to help such buyers in the Budget . The Firstbuy scheme is open to those with a household income of less than £60,000 a year who can put down a 5% deposit – but the catch is that the mortgage must be used to buy a new home. First-time buyers Mortgages House prices Consumer affairs Housing market Housing Jill Insley guardian.co.uk
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