Adrian Law found guilty of injuring Abdul Alfadley’s lower body and genitals by flinging liquid through door hatch A civilian police worker has been jailed for three years for throwing scalding water over a prisoner in a police station cell. Adrian Law, 45, was accused of “gross abuse and wickedness” by a judge and condemned by senior police for letting down his force and colleagues. He was taken from the dock at Leeds crown court by security officers, a job he did himself before transferring to work as a detention officer at Barnsley police station in South Yorkshire. He had denied causing grievous bodily harm to Abdul Aziz Alfadley, 26, but, after deliberating for nine hours, a jury found him guilty. He was cleared of an additional, more serious charge of GBH with intent. The court heard that Alfadley suffered serious injuries to his lower body and genitals after Law showered him with a cupful of water taken from a boiler. Tests later suggested its temperature was 94.7C. Alfadley had been “agitated and disruptive” after being arrested in Barnsley centre for a public order offence, and had persisted in shouting and banging on his door. Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Law flinging the water through the cell’s door hatch. In spite of this, he denied the charge and claimed he was trying to pass a cup of cold water to the prisoner. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Spenser told Law he had acted cynically and brought South Yorkshire police service into disrepute. Accepting that Alfasley had been a very disruptive prisoner, and that a detention officer’s job was challenging, the judge said: “None of that is any excuse for what you did. The public has to trust police officers and detention officers at a police station to treat detainees fairly and humanely. It is the mark of a civilised society.” Relatives of Law, who lived at Goldthorpe, near Barnsley, were in tears as he was taken from court. A former miner, he worked for Group 4 as a prison escort before the move to Barnsley police station. He had an exemplary discipline record and no previous convictions. South Yorkshire’s deputy chief constable, Bob Dyson, said: “The actions of Adrian Law on that day fell far below the standards that we expect. He let down the public and let down his colleagues. On behalf of the force, I apologise to Mr Abdul Alfadley for the injuries he received.” Nicholas Long, a member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said Law’s actions had been compounded by an experienced custody sergeant whose only action after the assault was to turn off the water supply. The sergeant has been given a written warning after an internal misconduct hearing. Crime Police Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk
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Military the target of Egyptian demonstrations as people demand more prosecutions against Hosni Mubarak-era ministers Protesters have packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square, piling pressure on the ruling military council to meet demands including the prosecution of Hosni Mubarak in one of the biggest demonstrations since he was ousted. By early afternoon the protest had swollen to more than 100,000. Thousands waved red, white and black Egyptian flags in scenes reminiscent of the height of the protests that toppled Mubarak and helped ignite revolts in other Arab countries. “Oh field marshal, we’ve been very patient!” chanted some of the protesters, gathered in the square that was the hub of protests that toppled Mubarak from the presidency and left the army, led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, in charge. “Tantawi, Tantawi get your act together or do you want a pool of blood?” chanted some of the protesters. The military has enjoyed broad support since it took control of the country on 11 February but frustrations have grown over the pace of reform. Attention is now focused on the perceived tardiness of legal steps against Mubarak and his entourage. Mubarak and his family have been living in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since he left Cairo on 11 February. The public prosecutor, who has filed charges against some but not all of the Mubarak-era officials, was also the focus of anger during a demonstration which one activist group declared “The Friday of Purification and Accountability”. A military helicopter hovered over the city centre as protesters poured into the square after Friday prayers to support demands including the removal of remaining Mubarak-era officials, such as the powerful provincial governors. Banners included economic demands, such as the imposition of minimum and maximum wages. “The revolution is continuing until democracy is achieved,” read one banner. “It’s a strong message that the revolution is not over yet and is still going on and will not quieten down before its goals are realised,” said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science and a prominent figure in the reform movement. Street action remained “the real guarantee to the success of the revolution,” a coalition of youth activists said in a statement. “There has to be continued pressure for the quick and effective realisation of the demands of the revolution,” it said. “Oh field marshal, oh field marshal, we are staying in Tahrir,” read one of the banners directed at Tantawi, who served as defence minister in Mubarak’s administration from 1991 until he was ousted from the presidency. The military has scheduled a parliamentary election for September. It has said a presidential election will be held in either October or November, until when the army will hold presidential powers. At one point eight young men in military uniform appeared on stage, calling for Tantawi’s removal. It was not possible to verify whether they were serving in the military. “The people want the field marshal to fall,” one shouted over loudspeakers. Some in the crowd applauded and repeated the refrain. Others declared them imposters seeking to create trouble between the army and the reform movement and urged them to get off the stage. “We are calling on the field marshal to meet the demands of the people,” said Ibrahim Ahmed, a 20-year old student. “Enough collusion in not carrying out prosecutions,” he said. The interim government installed by the military council has set up a new committee to uncover corruption from Mubarak’s 30-year rule. The illicit gains panel is set to question Gamal Mubarak, the president’s son, next week. “If Mubarak is not prosecuted, we will go to Sharm el-Sheikh,” read another banner held aloft by the protesters. The military has said the 82-year-old president, himself a former military officer, is banned from leaving the country. The campaign against Mubarak-era figures has resulted in the arrest of once untouchable figures including the former interior minister and other ministers who held economic portfolios and are accused of corruption. Zakaria Azmi, a leading Mubarak aide, was the latest high-profile figure to be arrested. He was detained on Thursday on accusations of illegal gains. Reformists questioned why it had taken so long. “There is a feeling that the military council faces many restrictions,” Nafaa, the political science professor, said. “The aim of the protest isn’t to criticise or revolt, but to express a sense of frustration because of the tardiness in bringing to trial those responsible for corruption,” he said. Egypt Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Hosni Mubarak guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A popular priest who leads a worldwide TV ministry is taking a leave from his California diocese duties after revealing an affair with a second cousin. Michael Manning ‘fessed up after a local newspaper received a series of intimate notes between Manning and his former lover, a schools superintendent from…
Continue reading …A House hearing on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” didn’t have quite the outcome some Republicans were apparently hoping for. Military chiefs testified before the House Armed Services Committee that training is going better than expected, and gays should be able to serve openly by this summer, reports…
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Nicki Durbin’s son Luke disappeared in 2006. What more can be done to help her and others left behind by missing people? It was one of the shortest but most poignant messages posted by old friends of Becky Godden-Edwards on an online tribute page: “I love u Becky. Why did u lose contact?” The discovery of Godden-Edwards’s remains in a farmer’s field in Gloucestershire by police investigating the murder of the Swindon nightclubber Sian O’Callaghan has prompted many to ask the same sort of question. Why do so many people – at least 200,000 a year in Britain – simply vanish, and can more be done to try to find them and to support people they leave behind? Nicki Durbin’s son, Luke , a bright, sociable 19-year-old, disappeared in May 2006 after going out clubbing with friends in Ipswich. “I know families always say that not one day goes by without them thinking about their loved one. But if I’m very honest there’s not an hour goes by without me thinking about Luke,” she says. “Certain times are very difficult. Anniversaries, or when the season changes. It’s another spring or winter that he’s not here. I hope I’ll see him again but I know it’s not a very realistic hope. I can be working and hear a song in the background and I’m thinking of Luke and I have to keep functioning somehow.” Durbin, a charity fundraiser, says she finds herself glued to the television when a big missing persons story is in the news. She feels relief when a newly found body turns out to be a woman’s – then something like envy that at least the family knows what happened to their loved one. She says her confidence in the police has been eroded over the years. At times she has felt they were not listening to her and Luke’s friends. She has had to “basically scream” to get her son’s case taken on by Suffolk’s major investigation team. According to the National Police Improvement Agency, which runs the national Missing Persons Bureau , police in Britain record about 1,000 missing reports every day, although some refer to the same person. It estimates that 200,000 people went missing in 2009/10. Most return or are found quickly but almost 2,000 people a year remain outstanding and around 20 people a week are found dead after being reported missing. The numbers could be bigger; the NPIA accepts that its data is not complete, partly because not all forces (including Wiltshire, the force investigating the deaths of Godden-Edwards and O’Callaghan) handed in their figures. A study by researchers at the University of York estimated that two thirds of those who go missing decide to go. A fifth “drift” away. Most of the rest are unintentionally absent – for example, they have mental health problems – and 1% are “forced”. The charity Missing People is campaigning for legislation to enshrine the rights of those who have vanished and those left behind. It is calling for every region to have a local missing persons co-ordinator who will hold local services to account, and for every family to have a single point of contact in the police force dealing with their case. It also wants a network of counsellors to be developed to help people whose loved ones have gone missing. Martin Houghton-Brown, chief executive of Missing People, said: “It is incredible that in England and Wales we have no legislation relating to missing people. It is an issue that has been hidden for a long time. We are so far behind places like the US.” Missing People wants families of people who have disappeared to be given the same rights as victims of crime. “If your DVD player is stolen from your house, you’ll get a letter from the police detailing all the help you can get. If your child goes missing you may get nothing,” Houghton-Brown said. Rachel Elias, the sister of the Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards who vanished in 1995, said there was a lack of sympathy and understanding when it came to missing adults. “I think it’s because of the sheer number of adults who go missing,” she said. “There’s also the feeling that many people choose to go missing and should be allowed to.” There was also a lack of consistency over how missing people cases are handled, Elias said. “I think there should be a single contact with the police. We didn’t have that. Different forces seem to do it all in different ways, which is frustrating.” Peter Lawrence, the father of the chef Claudia Lawrence who went missing from York in 2009, said he was “totally amazed” at the problems facing families of missing people. “If you’re the subject of a minor crime, even a minor theft, the state gives you victim support, all sorts of things. If someone goes missing there’s absolutely nothing there at all.” It remains unclear what contact the family of Godden-Edwards – who went missing from Swindon in about 2003 when she was in her early 20s after struggling with drug addiction – had with the police and other agencies. Initially, well-placed sources said that when police broke the news to them that her body had been found, her family said they had reported her missing to officers. But the police have been unable to find any such record and are continuing to investigate whether such a report was made. Her family’s wait for news is over. Not so for Nicki Durbin, who accepts it is likely Luke is dead. “If that is the case, please let it have been an accident. If someone else is involved it’s just too horrifying,” she says. The best scenario for her is that Luke went off and is living a “fantastic life” somewhere. “And if he ever comes home he’ll get the biggest slap of his life – and then the biggest hug.” Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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NoW publisher admits liability for hacking into phones of eight public figures and offers to set up compensation fund News International is to apologise and offer to pay damages to eight News of the World phone-hacking victims who are currently suing the paper, including actor Sienna Miller, former culture secretary Tessa Jowell and ex Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray. In one of the most dramatic apologies in the history of Fleet Street, Rupert Murdoch’s News International said its previous inquiries into phone-hacking were “not sufficiently robust” and issued an “unreserved apology” for the fact hacking took place at the News of the World. The others who will be offered apologies and damages are Jowell’s former husband David Mills, football agent Sky Andrew, publicist Nicola Phillips, Joan Hammell, an former aide to former deputy prime minister John Prescott, and interior designer Kelly Hoppen. News International will offer to pay damages and legal fees. In the Hoppen case, News International is admitting her phone was hacked into on several occasions from 2004 to 2006. It still contests her claim that her phone was hacked in 2009. News International is likely to offer to settle more cases. A total of 24 people have begun legal actions but the company believes that in many of the cases too little evidence has so far been produced to judge whether or not it was culpable. Others taking legal action including actors Steve Coogan and Leslie Ash. It will propose next week to Justice Vos, the high court judge in charge of all the hacking cases, that all the cases should be heard together. The publisher said: “Following an extensive internal investigation and disclosures through civil legal cases, News International has decided to approach some civil litigants with an unreserved apology and an admission of liability in cases meeting specific criteria. “We have also asked our lawyers to establish a compensation scheme with a view to dealing with justifiable claims fairly and efficiently.” It added: “We will, however, continue to contest cases that we believe are without merit or where we are not responsible.” No executives are expected to resign as a result of the apology. The Guardian revealed in July 2009 that News International had made secret payments totalling £1m to settle cases involving three people including Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the PFA. News International claimed hacking at the paper was carried out by a “rogue reporter”, former royal editor Clive Goodman. He was jailed in January 2007 along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for illegally intercepting voicemail messages left on mobile phones belonging to members of the royal household. Andrew Neil, a former Murdoch executive and former Sunday Times editor, told BBC News: “I don’t think NI had anywhere else to go. The evidence was piling up against them. It may cost them a lot more than they think. There are plenty of other people involved. They are trying to close it down with their chequebook but I don’t think they’re going to succeed.” He added that settling civil actions would have no bearing on the criminal investigation currently being carried out by the Metropolitan police. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook James Robinson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rarely one to hold his tongue, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has now been accused of a real doozie of a verbal assault—aimed at a journalist. He threatened to “smash” the face of an editor who called Sarkozy’s future First Lady Carla Bruni a “man eater.” The revelation is in…
Continue reading …Out of the $1.5 billion in civilian aid the US is sending to Pakistan this year, $20 million is being used to enlist Elmo in the fight against Islamic extremism. USAid is funding a Pakistani remake of Sesame Street in an effort to educate children in deprived areas, the…
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Ditching one toxic host is welcome, but Fox now has a choice to make between serious journalism and poisonous partisanship This week, we heard the welcome – and overdue – news that toxic host Glenn Beck will be leaving his Fox News programme later this year . It shouldn’t have taken so long for News Corp to realise that Beck was bad for business – that a million lost viewers, more than 300 lost advertisers and widespread criticism all added up to a disastrous business model. And it should have been clear from the moment in 2009 that Beck called President Obama a “racist” who “has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” that he wasn’t an appropriate host for a responsible journalistic outlet to put on the air. But Fox News is not a responsible journalistic outlet, and we shouldn’t think for a minute that Beck’s departure means Fox News has suddenly embraced accountability and restored credibility. One of the biggest of the many falsehoods repeatedly pushed on the network is not about any specific policy issue, but about Fox News itself: the continued insistence that the network is a “fair and balanced” source of news. The truth is that, even without Beck’s hour of hate, lies, extremism and paranoia, Fox News will remain a Republican political operation masquerading as a news network. Its executives and personalities insist there’s a clear line between its “straight news” programming and its “opinion” programming. But the research and investigation we’ve done have shown that claim to be laughably hollow. Those looking to see how the “straight news” portion of Fox’s programming works need look no further than Fox News’s DC managing editor, Bill Sammon. In numerous emails leaked to Media Matters for America , Sammon has passed down the order to slant news coverage of Barack Obama and of issues like healthcare, the environment and the Middle East. In audio uncovered by Media Matters , Sammon let slip his lack of journalistic ethics to attendees on a high-priced cruise for donors to a conservative college. In front of the friendly crowd, here’s how Sammon gloated about pushing lies about Obama on air: “Last year, candidate Barack Obama stood on a sidewalk in Toledo, Ohio, and first let it slip to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to, quote, ‘spread the wealth around.’ At that time, I have to admit, that I went on TV on Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched.” The effort to push this lie wasn’t just a passing fancy for Sammon: he sent an internal email to Fox News staff pressuring them to push it, and Fox employees responded by linking Obama to socialism on air 35 times in the final days before the 2008 election. Sammon, an ideologue who has hosted fundraisers for conservative candidates, drives the network’s “news” coverage. And the evidence shows he asks his “news” staff to cast doubt on climate science, use poll-tested GOP language to talk about policy and promote attacks on President Obama. And Fox has made no effort to hold Sammon accountable. That’s because, for Fox News, promoting political smears instead of truth is a feature, not a bug. If Fox’s spread of misinformation is prescribed at the institutional level, it is also contagious from Beck to other hosts: Beck’s brand of extremism runs through the network. Numerous Fox personalities, including Sean Hannity and Sammon, have, like Beck, insisted that the president has a problem with race. Beyond Beck, the network has spread race-baiting conspiracy theories, from attempting to link Obama to the New Black Panther party to the smears of Shirley Sherrod. Recently, Fox has increasingly highlighted delusional, discredited accusations about Obama’s birth certificate. With Beck on his way out, Fox News has a choice to make. Getting rid of one person does not stem the flow of extreme rhetoric, wilful dishonesty, conspiracy theories and outright political attacks from Fox. And as Glenn Beck proves, this behaviour not only harms the institution of journalism, but News Corp’s bottom line as well. News Corp learned the hard way with Beck’s show that extremism and misinformation are bad for business. Will the company treat this moment as an opportunity to make Fox a responsible news network, or will it continue to ignore any semblance of journalistic integrity, making Beck the first in a line of exits of a flawed business model? Glenn Beck Fox News Fox News Corporation United States US politics US television US television industry The far right David Brock guardian.co.uk
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Hopes fade of a deal in Durban later this year as deep divisions continue over the fate of the Kyoto protocol The deep divisions apparently bridged by last December’s climate deal in Cancún were reopened this week at UN talks in Bangkok , undermining the chance of any agreement on the shape of a broader pact by the end of this year. The talks, being held in the Thai capital from 3-8 April, stalled on disagreement over an agenda for negotiations through the year ahead of a late November meeting in Durban, South Africa. Developing nations in Bangkok pushed for a sharper focus on the fate of the Kyoto protocol – rich nations’ pledges to cut emissions and climate finance for the poor – issues that Cancún did not fully address. The United States and others wanted to focus only on the less contentious Cancún agreements. Christiana Figueres, head of the UN talks, said that while constructive, the meeting had also highlighted continuing divisions between governments, with a central issue being future of Kyoto, the world’s main climate change treaty . “Echoes of previous battles have come back to haunt us but a lot of countries do want to see progress and there are some positive signals,” said Tim Gore, climate change policy adviser for Oxfam. A series of agreements reached at Cancún included a fund to channel $100bn a year to poor nations by 2020, a scheme to transfer clean energy technology and to hold a rise in global average temperatures below 2C. These steps and others were widely seen as saving the UN climate process from collapse. But in Bangkok differences emerged on how to move ahead and tackle harder issues, particularly the fate of Kyoto. “There’s a bit of buyers’ regret going on here by developing nations. Except this time there’s no refund,” a rich nation delegate told Reuters, referring to the view that some poorer nations felt they had conceded too much in Cancún. Kyoto legally binds about 40 industrialised nations to emissions cuts during its 2008-12 first phase. Poorer nations only have to take voluntary steps and are keen to keep this formulation in future, saying hard targets could harm their economic development. The pact was originally meant to be extended into a second period from 2013 with deeper emissions cuts from rich nations. But no successor to Kyoto or another broader pact that binds all major economies is in sight. Agreement in the debate is critical to stepping up the fight against climate change by limiting the rise in global temperatures and reducing the risk of more extreme weather, crop failures and rising seas levels. A tougher climate pact is also crucial in shaping global energy policies and giving investors in low-carbon infrastructure more certainty. It would additionally fuel growth in carbon markets now worth more than $120bn. Many rich nations say Kyoto no longer reflects the reality that developing nations are now the largest, and rapidly growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. They must be brought into a broader pact. Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States, which never ratified Kyoto, are all firmly opposed to extending Kyoto and want a new agreement. India, China and other developing nations disagree, saying Kyoto must remain and that rich nations need to do more to cut emissions. “A second commitment period and the Kyoto protocol is a must. There is no room to make any compromise from my side,” senior Chinese delegate Huang Huikang said on Thursday. Analysts saw the fight over Kyoto as far from over. “Emerging economies do not appear close to abandoning Kyoto and any that backs away from the protocol risks a backlash from the rest of the group, reducing the likelihood that any individual country would unilaterally shift its position,” said Divya Reddy of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Some nations say any backsliding from Kyoto endangered the climate fight. “We haven’t got an alternative and an alternative isn’t going to happen quick enough. We have to accept that the Kyoto protocol, at least for the next commitment period, is a bridge towards a broader agreement,” Ian Fry, the lead delegate from the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu, told Reuters. The United States has been accused of being a roadblock in the talks because of its failure to pass a climate bill and a resurgent Republican party means it cannot boost its pledge to cut carbon by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020. Global climate talks Climate change Kyoto protocol Thailand United Nations guardian.co.uk
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