When a trailer carrying six tons of machinery fell onto his right foot in a remote Colorado forest, John Hutt realized he didn’t have 127 hours—or 127 minutes—to decide what to do. After cutting away his boot to survey the damage to his foot, the 61-year-old semi-retired logger…
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Couple who supplied women for prime minister’s parties said to have been paid to do a deal with prosecutors to avoid trial Two people alleged to have blackmailed Silvio Berlusconi were arrested in Rome on Thursday, in a move that further embarrassed Italy’s embattled prime minister. Giampaola Tarantini, who was arrested at dawn at his flat near Via Veneto – one of Rome’s most expensive streets – was a central figure in a sex scandal that threatened to bring down Berlusconi two years ago. In a statement to police published in September 2009, the businessman, from Bari in southern Italy, acknowledged supplying some 30 women for parties and dinners at the prime minister’s Roman palazzo . He said at least six women had spent the night there. Tarantini’s wife, 34-year-old Angela Vevenuto, was also taken into custody and a warrant was issued for the arrest of a third person believed not to be in Italy. According to Italian media reports, they are accused of receiving €500,000 (nearly £441,000) from Berlusconi along with benefits in kind including the rent on the Tarantinis’ Rome flat. Details of the investigation were leaked last month in a news magazine belonging to Berlusconi. The magazine, Panorama, claimed the prosecutors believed Tarantini was being paid to stop him contradicting the prime minister’s claim that he was unaware that any of the women who visited his home were prostitutes. Berlusconi, who turns 75 later this month, has made much over the years of his talents as a playboy. And he has repeatedly insisted he would never wish – or need – to pay a woman for sex. Panorama said that, in telephone conversations secretly intercepted by police, Tarantini had repeatedly said Berlusconi was indeed oblivious of the payments the women were receiving. The magazine claimed that the main reason why the prime minister was passing money to the businessman was to ensure he did a deal with the prosecutors to avoid a trial and the disclosure of “telephone wiretaps held to be embarrassing”. It is hard to imagine, however, what could be more compromising than the details that have already emerged. One of his guests has given an account of four-in-a-bed sex, while another said she had used a mobile phone to record her pillow talk with the prime minister. Two years ago, recordings were posted to the web in which she and someone sounding like Berlusconi discussed, among other things, male orgasms and female masturbation. The prime minister’s lawyers denied the recordings were genuine. Silvio Berlusconi Europe Italy John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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Sentencing concerns raised again as justice ministry figures show two-thirds of defendants remanded in custody More than 1,560 suspects have been brought before the courts for riot-related offences, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Justice. Of those appearing at magistrates courts since disturbances erupted in early August, 66% have been remanded in custody – a far higher rate than normal and a reflection of continuing police and judicial concern about the seriousness of offences. Only 10% of those attending magistrates courts last year were remanded in custody. Sentencing in magistrates courts reveals a similar disparity: 45% of those convicted following the riots have been jailed against 12% for comparable offences such as affray, assault, burglary and violent disorder last year. The latest figures show that nearly 100 people have been brought before the courts in the past week as more suspects are identified and tracked down. Of the 1,566 total so far, more than 1,000 were in London, nearly 200 in Manchester, and about 130 in the West Midlands. One in five (22%) were youths, aged 10 to 17, and nine out of 10 (91%) were male. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, accused the government of depriving the police of sufficient resources to tackle the consequences of the violence and looting. Talking to local residents in Clapham, south London, Cooper said ministers were backing away from their pledge to meet extra policing costs. “It is shocking that at a time like this the prime minister and the home secretary are leaving police forces across the country in limbo, seriously concerned that the cuts they are already struggling with have been made even worse. “Now when the Metropolitan police has a minimum £34m bill in extra policing costs, at a time when they are already set to lose nearly 2,000 officers, the government has abandoned them. “We contacted the home secretary two weeks ago to ask if the prime minister’s pledge to stand behind the extra costs for police forces was going to be met, but the only response has been stony silence. “David Cameron must urgently clarify where forces stand, and reopen the police spending review which is resulting in the loss of over 16,000 officers nationwide.” Earlier this week, the Magistrates’ Association chairman John Thornhill rejected claims that there had been a “feeding frenzy” in sentencing after the recent riots. Eoin McLennan-Murray, president of the Prison Governors Association (PGA), had claimed that magistrates had lost all sense of proportion “This kind of speedy across-the-board justice probably means a number of people are dealt with unfairly,” he said. Thornhill said: “The sentencing guidelines are very clear. Let’s remember that these are serious offences. In most cases people are charged with burglary and in some cases aggravated burglary”. Most of the sentences had been imposed by full-time district judges rather than the lay magistracy, he added. Criticism of magistrates was “unreasonable and unfounded”. UK riots Crime Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …How would the nation’s school system be different if teachers were paid like engineers? Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proposed last month that a significant boost in teacher salaries could transform public schools for the better by luring the country’s brightest college graduates into the profession. Teachers should be paid a starting salary of $60,000,
Continue reading …Chalk up another one for the Republicans. In the standoff over President Obama’s schedule for his urgent jobs speech, Obama blinked. He has agreed to switch the date a day later to next Thursday, the same time as the NFL season opener. House Speaker John Boehner complained about the first…
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Archaeologists believe key figure involved in construction of Wiltshire ancient monument is buried at Preseli mountains site Archaeologists are researching the grave of an important figure they believe may have played a crucial role in the construction of Stonehenge. The burial chamber is sited above a ceremonial stone circle in the Preseli hills in west Wales, where it is believed bluestone was quarried before being taken to Stonehenge. More research will be done to establish if the important person buried there played a role in the moving of bluestone 190 miles from west Wales to the Wiltshire monument. The find has been made by professors Tim Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright, who have spent the last 10 years trying to establish how and why the bluestones – or spotted dolerite – were transported from the Preseli hills to Stonehenge. In 2008, following the first excavation at Stonehenge in more than 40 years , the professors said they had established that the bluestones – the size of a man or smaller – arrived at Stonehenge about 4,500 years ago. Their hypothesis was that the bluestones – rather than the much larger sarsen stones that give Stonehenge its familiar shape – were the real draw because they were believed to have healing powers. Wainwright said: “We went back to the Preselis and started doing excavations up there. The first site we explored was a big burial cairn in the shadow of Carn Menyn, where the Stonehenge bluestones come from.” The team found a circle underneath the cairn built of bluestone, the same material taken to Stonehenge, and work is being carried out to date this. But Wainwright said he would be surprised if the circle had not been created at about the same time that the bluestones were taken to Stonehenge, strengthening the link between west Wales and Stonehenge in the theory. “Then this stone circle was covered with the huge burial cairn with a chamber in the middle. The space turned from a public ceremonial space defined by the stone circle into the burial spot of a very important person.” Wainwright said it was a “jump” to claim the person buried there was an architect of Stonehenge. “It’s a hypothesis but it could well be true. There is certainly something very significant about the grave.” Stonehenge Archaeology Heritage Wales Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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Test case bought by dinner ladies and care workers against Sheffield city council to be heard next month Tens of thousands of women who claim they are paid less than men doing comparable jobs could benefit when the supreme court examines a test case next month. The battle for equal pay led by dinner ladies and care workers in dispute with their employer, Sheffield city council, will be heard in an attempt to clarify the complex law on what amounts to indirect sex discrimination in pay. The three-day hearing before five justices in mid-October is the first time the supreme court – established two years ago – has looked at the issue of equal pay, an area complicated by the existence of contradictory legal precedents. The outcome could affect wages paid to workers, particularly in local authorities and the NHS where some specialised roles – such as road sweepers or carers – have traditionally been performed almost exclusively by separate groups of men or women. The trade union Unison, which is supporting the Sheffield employees, said it had up to 40,000 cases that could be affected by the court’s ruling. The Sheffield council case, Gibson and others v Sheffield city council, started in an employment tribunal and has been working its way up the appeals process. The court of appeal last year found for the dinner ladies and carers, ruling that productivity bonuses granted to male street cleaners and gardeners, which were subsequently incorporated into their salaries, were discriminatory against women doing work of equal value. In its ruling the court of appeal held that the men were being paid between 33.3% and 38% more than women for occupations that the council agreed were comparable. Sheffield council had argued that an earlier decision, Armstrong v Newcastle upon Tyne NHS hospital trust, set a precedent that bonuses had nothing to do with gender but were paid to boost productivity. It claimed that the predominantly female jobs could not be measured or rewarded in a similar way and therefore the differences in pay did not need to be objectively justified. The women, however, maintained that the European court of justice case of Enderby v Frenchay health authority, dating back to 1993, was the relevant authority and that the council had a legal responsibility to provide an objective and gender-free reason why dinner ladies and carers were paid less. The judges agreed. Giving his ruling in the appeal court, Lord Justice Pill said: “The impossibility of applying the productivity bonus to women’s work, carefully reasoned by the [employment] tribunal, is genuine enough but that does not remove the sexual taint from the operation of the scheme. “The scheme has a disparately adverse effect on women’s work as compared with men’s work and the sexual taint is present. It must be justified objectively if the employers are to succeed. The opportunity to justify is a sufficient protection for employers.” Lady Justice Smith agreed, pointing out that: “Where the statistics show that the pay practice has produced an adverse impact on women over a long period and where the statistics are convincing, it will generally be difficult for an employer to show that the adverse impact had nothing to do with sex.” Sheffield council has now taken the case to the supreme court. Ben Patrick, Unison’s in-house solicitor who is preparing the case for next month’s hearing, said: “The central issue is whether the council should be required to justify differences in pay. “It’s an indirect discrimination argument based on statistical comparisons. The question in the supreme court is whether given a statistical case of discriminatory pay the employer is required to objectively justify the differences in pay between men and women. “We are saying that Armstrong is inconsistent with Enderby. The indirect discrimination pay cases being considered are virtually indistinguishable from each other so it could have the effect of forcing a large number of local authorities to reconsider their defences.” Most of the outstanding equal pay cases date back to a period before the introduction of the Equality Act in 2010, which essentially removed the employers’ ability to rely on the Armstrong defence. “There are still tens and tens of thousands of cases coming through the tribunal system,” Patrick added. “Unison is running equal pay claims for about 40,000 of its members. Most are in the health sector or local authorities.” Sheffield city council was said to be facing compensation payments of £20m following last year’s judgment. Pay Equality Equality Act 2010 Public sector pay Work & careers Discrimination at work Employment tribunals Women Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Welcome to Fist Look, our daily roundup of early-bird news: • More than four days after Hurricane Irene struck, many northeast residents, including 300,000 people in Connecticut, still don’t have power. (The New York Times) • A billing dispute playing out in an upstate New York county courtroom has revealed details about the CIA’s secret renditions
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Jamaican gangster, whose manhunt sparked Kingston gun battle that left 76 dead, accused of trafficking drugs and weapons Accused Jamaican drug gang leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke pleaded guilty in a New York court to racketeering charges more than a year after a manhunt that sparked deadly gun battles. Coke, 42, was arrested in Jamaica in June last year after a five-week manhunt that began when police and soldiers stormed slums in the country’s capital, Kingston, in an attempt to take him into custody. Seventy-six people were killed over four days of gun battles sparked by the raids. Coke was a strong supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour party and wielded powerful influence in the west Kingston slums. Jamaica initially refused to extradite him and the case had strained relations with the United States. He was extradited to New York in June last year on marijuana, cocaine and firearms trafficking charges and pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one racketeering conspiracy count and one count of conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering. Coke, in a blue prison uniform, admitted to running the Presidential Click, a Kingston-based crime group that trafficked guns, cocaine and marijuana between Jamaica and the United States. “I also ordered the purchase of firearms and the importation of those firearms into Jamaica in furtherance of this conspiracy,” Coke told US district judge Robert Patterson. Coke faces up to 23 years in prison at his sentencing on 8 December. Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke Drugs trade Jamaica United States guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jamaican gangster, whose manhunt sparked Kingston gun battle that left 76 dead, accused of trafficking drugs and weapons Accused Jamaican drug gang leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke pleaded guilty in a New York court to racketeering charges more than a year after a manhunt that sparked deadly gun battles. Coke, 42, was arrested in Jamaica in June last year after a five-week manhunt that began when police and soldiers stormed slums in the country’s capital, Kingston, in an attempt to take him into custody. Seventy-six people were killed over four days of gun battles sparked by the raids. Coke was a strong supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour party and wielded powerful influence in the west Kingston slums. Jamaica initially refused to extradite him and the case had strained relations with the United States. He was extradited to New York in June last year on marijuana, cocaine and firearms trafficking charges and pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one racketeering conspiracy count and one count of conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering. Coke, in a blue prison uniform, admitted to running the Presidential Click, a Kingston-based crime group that trafficked guns, cocaine and marijuana between Jamaica and the United States. “I also ordered the purchase of firearms and the importation of those firearms into Jamaica in furtherance of this conspiracy,” Coke told US district judge Robert Patterson. Coke faces up to 23 years in prison at his sentencing on 8 December. Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke Drugs trade Jamaica United States guardian.co.uk
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