The new Arianna Huffington-run AOL news operation has fired scores of AOL business and finance freelancers, and is offering them the opportunity to work again—for free, according to reports from contributors. The popular liberal’s controversial labor practices are triggering another uproar over AOL’s multi-million-dollar acquisition of the Huffington Post,…
Continue reading …Gamers— including some reviewers —who have tried out Nintendo’s new 3D-effect console say it has left them feeling distinctly woozy. Customers complain that the Nintendo 3DS, which flashes separate images into each eye, has caused headaches and nausea, and now they’rehaving trouble getting full refunds from retailers, the Telegraph reports.
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Marbella University offers ‘Green MBA’ highlighting ‘lies, deceit and hype’ of business world Let’s play a little game. Please read the following quote and try to guess who said it: Lies, cheat, deceit, distortion, hype, and a blind pursuit of profit have poisoned the business world. The price of this has been the destruction of the planet, its ecosystems and the alienation of humans from their soul and genuine inner needs. Pollution, contamination, climate change, poverty, rising sea level, unemployment, financial crisis, social unrest, war, and a general lack of trust has taken over as a result. Strong stuff. I’m fairly confident that you currently have the image of an angry environmental campaigner in your head. Or, perhaps, a far-left politician waving their fist at the world’s multiple injustices. Well, these are both wrong: the right answer is these words come from the press release of a new MBA course now being offered at Marbella University in southern Spain. Yes, an MBA course: that rarefied habitat that has long been the butt of jokes due to the air of self-importance and unworldliness nurtured within. (The same is often said of the environmental movement, of course!) Perhaps this common perception is unfair, but MBA courses are not usually associated with environmental tub-thumping. Rather, they are often seen as little more than finishing schools for the “corporate leaders” who will go on to pillage the earth in the name of “shareholder dividends” and “quarterly results”. So it comes as something of a shock to see an MBA course being advertised in such a way. Marbella University, the only English-speaking university in southern Spain, was founded in 2009 and, in addition to its MBA, offers courses on communication & public relations, tourism, journalism and psychology. But, for our purposes, it is the ” Green MBA ” that catches the eye. For those still rubbing their eyes in amazement, here’s some more from the press release: The world needs new managers and CEOs; new MBAs. The state of humanity and the planet clearly shows: politics has failed, corporations have failed, and most disturbingly even education has failed. Humanity and the world need new leaders and experts to resolve the global problems. The MBA programs at Marbella University entail a vanguard approach to international business with a strong focus on “human factors” and the complexity of today’s global business world… In the words of the President of Marbella University: “The state of humanity and the planet clearly shows: most Masters programs are unusable, elitist, soulless products, made by people that don’t understand anything about human beings and the values of being human!” Dr Schellhammer adds: “All solutions start with a vanguard education, based on a new understanding of humans and life.” Look at the ” Green MBA ” course description and you can see that issues such as population growth, climate change and “limited resources and raw materials” are all prominently discussed – even if there is still a tendency to slip effortlessly into management speak: “The business world must become aware of such developments and use all vanguard tools to efficiently navigate in such a challenging business environment.” (I’m curious: can business executives get belts to strap around their waists to hold all their vanguard tools?) Is this evidence of enlightenment and hope in the world of big business? Or a desperate attempt by a new university to court attention in the super competitive world of MBA courses? And for those who have actually completed an MBA: how often did these issues ever get discussed on your own course? MBAs Leo Hickman guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The woman who attacked a Paul Gauguin painting in Washington’s National Gallery believed the painting of two topless Tahitian women was both “evil” and “homosexual,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Smoking Gun . “I feel that Gauguin is evil. He has nudity and is bad for the children….
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While the world’s eyes are elsewhere, a wave of oppression is engulfing China’s activists – is the time for EU dialogue over? On Thursday MEPs will hold an emergency debate on the arrest of Ai Weiwei , the brilliant Chinese artist and political activist, as well as other victims of Beijing’s new crackdown. His is the highest-profile case since Liu Xiabao was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion – and won the 2010 Nobel peace prize for his leading role in the Charter 08 movement. With the world’s attention on the uprisings in the Middle East, Chinese authorities are reacting to the widespread rumblings since mid-February, when a “jasmine revolution” was called across China, and a few brave souls dared to express their protest. Ai, who is best known for creating the sunflower seed installation in London’s Tate Modern and his work on Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium , is the highest-profile victim in the heavy-handed suppression of political dissidents by Chinese officials. The Beijing regime has detained or arrested dozens of human rights activists from lawyers to bloggers in what appears to be a pre-emptive strike against what they “might” do. The process resembles the pre-Olympic Games crackdown in 2008 . The police are again regularly putting activists and their families under house arrest, depriving them of their rights without any hint of due process. In the past few days four veteran activists – Liu Xianbin , Ran Yunfei , Ding Mao and Chen Wei – were all formally charged with inciting subversion of state power. Instead of the routine three-year sentences, 10 years is now normal. China’s treatment of dissidents is no longer a hidden process. There are increasing accounts of torture and abuse such as the case of the Christian human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng . Gao was sentenced for subversion after he wrote open letters to the European parliament and then to the US Congress calling for reform. His torture has been so severe that he has twice tried to kill himself. I know that when he came to, he was surrounded by medics. The intention of the authorities was to give him a “living death”. After briefly resurfacing, he has now been missing for a year. Between 7 and 8 million Chinese are held in prisons or camps, many suffering torture or enduring forced labour. More suffer the death penalty each year – about 5,000 – than the rest of the world put together. I met Ai last October at the preview of his Tate Modern exhibition. When I asked him to record some remarks about the future of the Beijing regime he said: “It’s come to a point where everyone in society understands that China cannot continue in the same way. The game is over.” An outspoken critic of the government, he called Gao’s disappearance “impossible” in a civilised society. His activism after the Sichuan earthquake earned him respect across China – and the free world. China has been a “strategic partner” of the EU since the mid-90s, when I wrote a report for the European parliament calling for increased trade, but also for a human rights dialogue. My watchword was “not just business as usual, but also politics as usual”. In the 14 years of the dialogue’s existence it has yielded no tangible results and it provides a fig leaf for the most arbitrary, brutal and murderous regime in world history. The UN human rights council is now supposed to be a reformed process. When I last went to Geneva, Libya was in the chair. Now Libya has rightly been suspended: by any normal standards China too should be expelled. As the Nobel peace prize was awarded to Liu Xiabao’s empty chair last December, the audience of diplomats, civil servants, politicians and NGOs rose spontaneously in a prolonged standing ovation. There was a palpable sense of solidarity with Liu’s work and grief at our inability to help him. Ai was prevented by Beijing from attending. But he will be part of China’s political future, as will Liu, Gao and the hundreds of reformists across China. The Arab Spring is spreading: China will change too. In the runup to the EU-China human rights dialogue at the end of May – which Beijing, angry that the 2010 Nobel peace prize was awarded to Liu – cancelled last December – the EU should press the Chinese authorities to end the disappearances, release political prisoners and begin the political “reforms” hinted at recently by Wen Jiabao, China’s premier. If there is no response, the EU should suspend the dialogue. China Ai Weiwei European Union Europe Human rights Edward McMillan-Scott guardian.co.uk
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Transcript of conversation said to be between Italian PM and Nicole Minetti published ahead of his underage prostitution trial Silvio Berlusconi planned to make his alleged “madam” a member of Italy’s national parliament, according to wiretap transcripts published a day before the start of the most lurid trial he has faced so far. The transcripts emerged against a background of rising tension over the case. Adversaries of the prime minister were planning demonstrations in Rome as the parliament braced for a vote on whether to ask the constitutional court to scrap the trial, in which Berlusconi is accused of paying an underage prostitute and then abusing his position to cover up the alleged offence. One of the transcripts is a conversation said to be between him and Nicole Minetti, an Anglo-Italian former showgirl who emerged from obscurity as a dental hygienist to become a member of Lombard regional assembly representing Berlusconi’s party. She is currently under investigation along with two other people on suspicion of aiding and abetting prostitution, including juvenile prostitution . Documents sent to parliament by the prosecutors earlier this year suggested that the three procured a stream of young women for dinners at Berlusconi’s mansion near Milan followed by so-called “bunga bunga” sessions. According to the prosecutors, the women – some masked, others wearing police officers’ or nurses’ uniforms – performed erotic dances, at the end of which Berlusconi chose “one or more” with whom to spend the night. According to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera last August, Berlusconi was recorded by police as telling Minetti: “Everyone is speaking so well of you, darling. Everyone. The [Northern] League people. Our people … So then, when there are elections, you’ll come into parliament.” The wiretaps, published by the newspaper, also contained evidence that Berlusconi secured auditions for his young guests. On 4 October, he is alleged to have taken a call at his Rome residence from María Ester García Polanco, an aspiring Dominican showgirl. “I’m in Rome”, she tells him. “Lord! I’ve come to do the audition with [a noted TV, film and theatre director]. You remember?” “Yes”, Berlusconi replies, according to the transcript. “The one I got for you. No?” “Yes, darling”, says García Polanco, laughing. Berlusconi remarks that he has been asked – it is unclear by whom – whether she could “do a few numbers” for his own channels, which are managed by his son by his first marriage, Pier Silvio. “I’m trying to convince my son,” the prime minister adds. Showgirls are not the only purported beneficiaries of Berlusconi’s charity. According to another daily, La Repubblica, the prosecutors will also submit evidence to show that a 28-year-old television reporter on one of Berlusconi’s channels was paid more than €500,000 (£440,000) from accounts registered in the name of either the TV magnate or his accountant. Police allegedly established that the reporter, who is well known to Italian viewers, was a guest at the prime minister’s home on at least one occasion in 2010. Publication of the wiretaps is bound to prompt a storm of protest from Berlusconi’s followers, one of whom has tabled a bill to prevent transcripts being included in court papers. Even under present legislation, however, conversations involving a member of parliament ought not to have been inserted in the prosecution’s submission, which becomes publicly accessible once an inquiry is closed. Berlusconi denies all wrongdoing. Silvio Berlusconi Italy Europe John Hooper guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Giant Google could soon be the target of a federal antitrust probe. Officials with the Federal Trade Commission will hold off on a decision until after the Justice Department determines whether or not it will block Google’s planned acquisition of ITA Software Inc., sources tell Bloomberg .That purchase has been…
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Deputy prime minister says body will monitor this and future governments in attempts to increase social mobility in UK and reduce child poverty Nick Clegg has sought to ease fears that he is downgrading child poverty targets by announcing the establishment of a child poverty and social mobility commission – a measure charities feared had been shelved. The commission, which will be set on a legal footing, will monitor the government and future governments in their attempts to increase social mobility in the UK and reduce child poverty. The statutory body will be headed by the government’s adviser on social mobility, the former Labour MP Alan Milburn. The official launch of the social mobility strategy was delayed by an hour after Clegg was summoned to the Commons by Labour’s deputy leader, Harriet Harman, to make an urgent statement. Harman claimed Clegg “gave up the right” to launch a social mobility strategy when he “betrayed a generation of young people” and told MPs that, for many young people, mobility now meant a “bus down to the job centre”. She said: “I’m afraid you gave up the right to pontificate on social mobility when you abolished Educational Maintenance Allowance [EMA], trebled tuition fees and betrayed a generation of young people.” The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) charity is considering launching a judicial review as targets for reducing the number of children living in poverty set by previous governments are missed. CPAG has been disappointed that the commission of experts the government had been legally obliged to set up had not so far been established. Such a commission is intended to draw up the child poverty reduction strategy and set out how targets could be reached. Though the focus is intended to be the government’s strategy to uncouple the link between a child’s life chances and the social class into which they are born, the government has also had to defend itself against charges that reducing child poverty has become a lesser political priority for it. Charities have voiced fears that a new emphasis on social mobility meant a downgrading of existing child poverty figures, with the government newly concerned with improving relative life chances for the poor but bright, suggesting a reduced concern with levels of absolute child poverty. Government officials hope the new commission “more than alleviates” those fears. The bid to put the body on a statutory footing met resistance inside Whitehall, with some in the Cabinet cautious about creating a new legal monitor at a time when it was trying to reduce the numbers of such bodies, but Clegg insisted on the legal standing. The Labour government committed to reducing the numbers of children living in poverty to 10% by 2010. In the last year for which figures were available, 2008-09, 22% – 2.8 million children – were living in poverty, defined as those living in homes where income is 60% less than the median in the UK before taking into account housing costs. In December, the Institute of Fiscal Studies predicted that changes to the welfare system would increase relative child poverty figures by 200,000 in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Justin Forsyth, the chief executive of Save the Children, said: “Save the Children strongly welcomes the government’s new move to create a severe child poverty measure, but there won’t be social mobility for the poorest children without urgent action to provide extra childcare support, to get their parents Clegg also said the government will aim to end the culture of people being given internships because of “who they know, rather than what they know”. He admitted that improving social mobility was not going to happen “in a few months or a few years”, but stressed that he wanted the present government, and future governments, to be held to account over their attempts to “make Britain a fairer and more socially mobile place”. The push to open up internships is one of the measures outlined to ensure career progression is less dependent on “who your father’s friends are”. The national internship scheme will ask firms to pay young people doing work experience and warn that they could otherwise risk a legal challenge under the national minimum wage legislation. As part of a multi-pronged effort to narrow differences in achievement between social groups, a number of firms have been enlisted to give people without family connections experience in competitive fields of work. The government will encourage firms to use name blank and school blank applications, and will signal that legislation on the payment of the national minimum wage should be taken more seriously. People will be encouraged to blow the whistle on unpaid internships. Clegg and Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said in a joint article in Tuesday’s Telegraph that many families are seeing their aspirations for their children dashed because private education is out of their reach and they lack the right connections. Denying suggestions that the strategy would involve “social engineering”, they cast their drive to open up internships as a way of preventing “the lucky few grabbing all the best chances”. “This is mobility for the middle, not just the bottom,” they wrote. Social mobility Social exclusion Children Nick Clegg Iain Duncan Smith Harriet Harman Alan Milburn Hélène Mulholland Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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High court told recently imposed controls on judicial review funding would have prevented courts hearing torture allegations The Ministry of Defence lobbied behind closed doors to restrict the provision of legal aid to claimants questioning the treatment of military detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, the high court has heard. At a hearing challenging changes to legal aid made last year, Tim Otty QC said tighter controls on funding judicial reviews now imposed by the Ministry of Justice would have prevented courts hearing torture allegations and the creation of extra safeguards to protect suspects. Repeated representations by the former defence minister, Bob Ainsworth, to the Ministry of Justice during 2008 and 2009 were not disclosed during a public consultation exercise on changing legal aid entitlements, he said. The changes came at a time when the government was suffering successive political embarrassments over claims that al-Qaida suspects had been subjected to torture overseas while being questioned by the intelligence services. There was “no candid disclosure” of the real reasons for restricting funding and the process was therefore “legally flawed”, Otty added. “The Ministry of Justice treated the MoD’s concerns as central to its approach.” In one email sent in June 2009, the high court heard, “there was an express indication that the MoJ ‘supported’ the concerns raised” and would act on them speedily. “The genesis for these [changes to legal aid] rest solely in concerns expressed by the MoD … and in terms of the cost burdens from judicial reviews relating to Afghanistan and Iraq.” The MoD was particularly concerned about a judicial review brought by one claimant, Maya Evans, who had no direct personal involvement in the treatment of detainees. The new legal aid rules introduced following the Ministry of Justice’s consultation process specified that funding would only be provided to claimants who might receive “real benefits”, personally or for the environment. Tuesday’s challenge has been brought on her behalf. The MoD insists that the new provisions introduced by the Legal Services Commission do not prevent judicial reviews being taken by claimants who are personally affected. Sam Grodzinski, counsel for the MoD, argued that there was no general obligation for public bodies to disclose to those being consulted the arguments submitted by other groups or to explain why it started any review of policy. The UK’s obligation to prohibit torture, he said, did not require public funding of cases where “extra-territorial torture by third country authorities is alleged and where the claim is brought by a person wholly unconnected to the individuals said to be at risk of torture”. Judgement is expected to be reserved. Legal aid Military Defence policy Iraq Afghanistan Global terrorism UK security and terrorism Terrorism policy Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered emergency inspections of 80 older Boeing 737s similar to the Southwest plane that suddenly cracked open last week during a flight. The order covers aircraft built with a specific process in the ’80s and ’90s and those that have more than 30,000 flight…
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