Court hears that Richard Kwakye flagged down a bus en route to King’s College hospital while bleeding from a head wound A man shot in the head flagged down a bus which took him to hospital, the Old Bailey heard on Monday. The driver, whose route took him past King’s College hospital, south London, stopped to let him off outside the accident and emergency department. “He was bleeding from a wound to his head and was evidently in considerable pain,” said Oliver Glasgow, prosecuting. “To the shock and amazement of the triage nurses, this man explained that he had just been shot in the head and had caught a bus to the hospital. He was rushed into theatre where the surgeons who operated upon him duly removed a bullet from his brain.” Richard Kwakye survived but the incident had made him “mortal enemies” with Rilwan Bankole, the man accused of shooting him. Bankole, 31, of Thornton Heath, south London, denies attempting to murder Kwakye in October 2003. Glasgow said Kwakye, who was 20 at the time, had refused to tell police who shot him until six years later. He said he had been driven to Goose Green park in East Dulwich where he alleged Bankole pointed the gun at his head and shot him as they sat in a car as fireworks were set off. Glasgow added: “When he came to, no one was there. Whilst he knew that he was hurt he had no idea how seriously he had been wounded. He managed to get to his feet and staggered into the road where he flagged down a passing bus. The driver, who fortuitously was en route to King’s College hospital, dropped Richard Kwakye at A&E.” Doctors then removed the .22 air pellet, fired from a modified blank firing gun. Kwakye would not have survived if the bullet had been larger, the court heard. Bankole, who was said to have suspected his former friend of stealing his property, later told police Kwakye had lied about who shot him because the two were involved in a custody battle over a child. But the “seven years of hatred” had led to more serious matters, said Glasgow. Kwakye was convicted last week of the murder of Bankole’s 19-month-old daughter Siariah Letang in an arson attack at the home of her mother in September last year. Glasgow told the jurors they would find it hard to warm to Kwakye, now a convicted murderer who, like Bankole, had previous convictions for robbery and drugs. The trial continues. Crime Gun crime London guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A suspected drug cartel leader arrested in Mexico has confessed to ordering the killings of 1,500 people, reports the BBC . Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, also known as El Diego, is the 33-year-old leader of the Juarez cartel La Linea, according to police. He’s also suspected of planning a notorious…
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Mitch Winehouse meets Home Office minister to discuss gap in residential treatment services for young drug addicts Amy Winehouse’s father, Mitch, is meeting the Home Office minister James Brokenshire to discuss plans to set up a drug rehabilitation centre in his daughter’s name. Winehouse is being joined by his daughter’s managers, Raye Cosbert and Trenton Harrison-Lee, and Sarah Graham, a former cocaine user and addiction expert, to highlight a gap in residential treatment services for young people who cannot afford private treatment. A family spokesman said Mitch Winehouse felt strongly about the fact that addicts can face a wait of up to two years for NHS treatment. “He realised that if the family didn’t have money for Priory-style treatment it would be difficult to get help,” the spokesman said. Graham said: “We didn’t know it [Amy's death] was going to happen but we hope it will show people that addiction is something that can kill people when they are very young and that we should not wait until it is too late.” She said most treatment was not residential but accessed in the community. “Rehabilitation is more expensive than treatment in the community but in reality most desperate young people cannot access it,” she said. “It might be because their dealer meets them at the school gates or it could be that they are getting abused at home.” Mitch Winehouse met Graham when they both gave evidence to the Commons home affairs committee in October 2009. Graham said Britain’s only NHS rehabilitation centre for young people – at Middlegate in Nettleton, Lincolnshire – closed last year. Winehouse said in his eulogy at his daughter’s funeral last week that Amy had just completed three weeks of abstinence and may have struggled to deal with the sudden withdrawal. A postmortem examination proved inconclusive and an inquest was open and adjourned with no cause of death given. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, who is also meeting Winehouse on Monday, said: “Mitch Winehouse gave powerful evidence to the home affairs select committee during our inquiry into drugs in 2009. Drawing on his personal experience he highlighted the long delay in accessing treatment for those with addiction. Two years on we need to revisit this issue to see if anything has improved. I am very happy to help Mitch in any way I can with his important campaign to help rehabilitate those most vulnerable in our society.” Paul Hayes, chief executive of the National Treatment Agency, has said the popular image of luxury rehab, beloved of celebrities and the tabloids, is not representative of the mainstream treatment and recovery services provided in Britain by the NHS and charities. “These services are widely available and for some years now official statistics have confirmed that more than nine out of 10 patients wait less than three weeks for treatment in England. There is an ongoing challenge for the system to respond flexibly to patient choice and ensure that people with drug problems are helped to become free of addiction in the most clinically appropriate way as quickly as they might wish,” said Hayes. He insisted there was a clear trend towards fewer young people needing treatment. But Simon Antrobus, of the treatment provider Addaction, said his organisation’s ability to provide support was at risk as funding for some community-based services had been cut by as much as 50%. “While it is good to see that fewer young people are using drugs and alcohol, we cannot become complacent. We need to ensure that specialist support remains available for everyone who encounters problems, whether it is the person themselves or the family around them,” Antrobus said. Amy Winehouse Drugs policy Drugs Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A Washington mom is horrified that her teenage sons will be living with a stepmother convicted of shooting to death her two young daughters. The boys will stay with their biological dad and his first wife, Kristine Cushing, convicted 20 years ago of killing their daughters, 7 and 8 years…
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Jake Davis, allegedly known online as ‘Topiary’, released on bail after being charged with five offences Jake Davis, an 18-year-old from the Shetland Islands, was released on bail on Monday after being charged with five offences relating to computer attacks and break-ins by the LulzSec and Anonymous hacking groups earlier this year. The black-haired Davis, wearing a black T-shirt under a blue denim shirt and holding a copy of a book called Free radicals: The Secret Anarchy of Science, showed little reaction as the charges were read out at the City of Westminster magistrates’ court in Horseferry Road, London. Davis was granted bail to stay with his mother at their new home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, on condition that he does not access the internet either directly or through anyone else. He also has to wear a tag to ensure a 10pm to 7am curfew. Davis, whom police believe used the online nickname “Topiary” and was a member of the LulzSec and Anonymous hacking groups, was arrested at 2.10pm last Wednesday in Mid Yell, an northern island of the Shetlands. He was charged on Sunday night with offences under the Computer Misuse Act, the Serious Crime Act, and the Criminal Law Act. Davis is accused of gathering data from National Health Service computers, being involved with attacks on News International and being part of an attack that caused the website for the Serious Organised Crime Agency to collapse. It is claimed that the hacking attacks compromised personal data for hundreds of thousands of people via the NHS, and the bank details of a large number of people when Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked. LulzSec Hacking Anonymous Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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• Scale of UK job cuts not revealed • HSBC awaiting results of banking commission • First-half profits up 3% to $11.5bn HSBC on Monday warned the coalition government that radical reform of the banking industry could put more UK jobs at risk as it confirmed 30,000 roles are to be lost across its global banking group over the next three years . The new chief executive Stuart Gulliver, who took the helm in January after 32 years at the bank, revealed that 5,000 roles had already gone so far this year and that another 25,000 would need to be removed from the 296,000 global workforce. Revealing the extent of the job cuts for the first time, Gulliver had signalled in May that roles would be shed as he set about achieving $3.5bn (£2.14bn) of savings within three years to bolster the bank’s return on equity to 12%-15% from 9.5% in 2010. He stressed that some of the reductions would come through natural staff turnover and that the bank would continue to hire in some of its faster growing markets. But the bank refused to be specific about how deeply the job axe would be wielded in the UK – where 700 roles were cut in June – and warned that no decision would be taken until the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) published its recommendations on 12 September. Gulliver said that the number of job cuts “did not take account of what the ICB might recommend” nor the impact of disposals of any businesses in the 20 countries – out of 87 where it has operations – where the retail business is earmarked for closure. David Fleming, Unite national officer, said: “It is now necessary for the bank to confirm to its UK workforce how this news will impact on them. The employees being hit by these extensive cuts were in no way responsible for the banking crisis, yet it is these staff, many of whom are low paid, who are having to pay for the bank’s recovery. Several UK banks, including HSBC, have lobbied against proposals that they should “ringfence” their high street operations away from their investment banking arms. HSBC’s chairman, Douglas Flint, would not specify what action the bank might make in response to the ICB but kept up his challenge to worldwide regulatory changes because of the impact they might have already on fragile developed economies. “The pace and quantum of regulatory reform continues to increase at the same time as the global economy appears to be losing momentum in its recovery,” Flint said. Profits beat forecasts The pair, who took the helm of the bank at the start of the year after messy boardroom reshuffle, were speaking as the bank reported better than expected first-half pre-tax profits of $11.5bn, up 3%, with the fastest growth coming from Asia and Latin America. The shares were among the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100, rising 4% to 612p by midday as the market digested the figures which were published at 9.15am and set a better than expected tone for the rest of the London-listed banks which report this week. Some $2.1bn of profits were made in Europe, although they were down 39%, with the majority now generated in Hong Kong – some $3bn – and the rest of Asia Pacific – $3.7bn – where profits are up 32%. The troubled North American business managed a 5% increase in profits to $606m, the smallest generator of profit, with the Middle East bringing in $747m and Latin America $1.1bn. The investment banking operations suffered a 12% fall in revenue as markets dried up during the eurozone and US debt crisis, but Gulliver said they had held up more strongly than rivals. Gulliver, who had announced in May after a day-long investor meeting that he had concluded that retail business in 39 out of 61 countries was “subscale”, said: “I am pleased with these results, which mark a first step in the right direction on what will be a long journey.” The loan impairment and other credit risk provisions were down 30% on the same period last year, reaching $5.3bn. A provision of £65m was made against HSBC’s holdings of Greek bonds but it has taken no fresh hits against its Irish or Portuguese debt. The second interim dividend for 2011 is $0.09 per ordinary share – the equivalent of $1.6bn. HSBC Banking Job losses Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The debt ceiling deal quickly helped calm hyperventilating markets, with S&P 500 stock futures up 1.5% on overnight trading, Asian stock markets up, and gold down, reports Reuters . But with the US dollar mostly unchanged, long-term US treasury bonds down, and the continued threat of a downgrade to the…
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HCL reveals News International’s various requests for deletion but tells MPs it knew of nothing untoward The technology firm HCL has told the home affairs select committee it was aware of the deletion of hundreds of thousands of emails at the request of News International between April 2010 and July 2011, but said it did not know of anything untoward behind the requests to delete them. HCL has sent the letter to the home affairs select committee chairman, Keith Vaz , revealing it had been involved in nine separate episodes of email deletion. HCL says it is not the company responsible for emails on the News International system that are older than a couple of weeks. It says another unnamed vendor is responsible, but confirms it has co-operated with this vendor in deleting material. Through a letter from HCL’s solicitors Stuart Benson, the firm says: “My client is aware of nothing which appeared abnormal, untoward or inconsistent with its contractual role.” It adds: “It is entirely for News International, the police and your committee as to whether there was any other agenda or subtext when issues of deletion arose and that is a matter on which my client cannot comment and something you will no doubt wish to explore direct with News International.” It stressed that since it was not the company that stored News International’s data “any suggestion or allegation that it has deleted material held on behalf of News International is without foundation”. HCL identified three sets of email deletions in April 2010, including a deletion of a public folder of a live email system that “was owned by a user who no longer needed the emails”. A further 200,000 emails stuck in an outbox were deleted in May 2010 to restore email functionality. In September 2010 a further pruning of historic emails occurred to help stabilise the email archival system, which had been having “frequent outages” since November 2009. In January 2011 HCL was asked about its ability to truncate a particular database in the email archival systems. HCL “answered in the negative and suggested assistance from the third party vendor”. HCL stated no reason as to why it was unable to assist. In February 2011 emails were deleted in an older version of Microsoft. Finally, in July 2011 HCL helped delete emails from the live system as relocation errors had occurred during migration from one system to the other. HCL said it did not have the resources to review every set of deletions. Separately, a firm of solicitors drawn into the News International phone-hacking scandal is expected to reply shortly to the home affairs select committee as to how it came to write a key letter to the newspaper group that was then used by the company to contend that phone hacking had not been widespread. The firm, Harbottle and Lewis, is consulting the Metropolitan police before deciding how to reply to requests from the select committee to spell out how it came to write a letter taken to mean that only one reporter was aware of phone hacking at the paper. The New York Times reported at the weekend that the letter sent by Harbottle and Lewis to the culture, media and sport select committee was redrafted more than once. The firm had been hired to review the email of the tabloid’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, who had pleaded guilty to hacking the mobile phone messages of royal household staff members. The letter said “no reasonable evidence” had been found that senior editors knew about the reporter’s “illegal actions”. The New York Times alleges that the letter sent to the culture select committee in May 2007 was constructed to give the company a clean bill of health over phone hacking, but was silent on the issue of payments to the police. The home affairs select committee asked: • “What was the exact remit given to Harbottle and Lewis when it was instructed by News International in 2007?” • “The contents of emails and information held in the file you mentioned in your letter.” • “What advice was provided from Harbottle and Lewis to News International in 2007 following examination of the emails and information?” • “Why the evidence you had in 2007 that was later examined by Lord McDonald in 2011 was not acted upon sooner?” Phone hacking News International Newspapers & magazines News of the World Newspapers Computing Email Media business Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Agreement criticised on both sides of the political divide, amid concern it may fail to be approved by Congress America has moved away from the brink of a catastrophic default after a deal was reached overnight to raise its debt ceiling. Stock markets around the world rallied on Monday, in relief that the world’s largest economy would probably avoid running out of cash this week. But the agreement, which includes around $2.5 trillion of spending cuts over the next decade, has been criticised by some on both sides of the political divide, and will probably not save America’s triple-A credit rating. There is also concern that the deal could still fail to be approved by Congress, which is due to vote on the package on Monday night. Some liberals are angry that the plan, which has been hailed as a triumph for the Tea Party movement, relies on spending reductions rather than tax rises to reduce the US budget deficit. The Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, has already warned that some Democrats may be unwilling to support the deal. Under the plan, announced by Barack Obama late on Sunday, the US debt ceiling will be raised by about $2.4tn, in two stages. In return, the US government deficit will be reduced by a similar amount over the next decade. “This process has been messy and taken too long,” said Obama, who also admitted that the weeks of frustratingly slow negotiations in Washington had not delivered the deal he wanted . “This compromise does make a serious down-payment on the deficit reduction we need, and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year,” Obama said. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, both indicated they were optimistic that Congress will approve the deal. McConnell, who will meet with Republican senators on Monday, said: “We can assure the American people … that the United States of America will not for the first time in our history default on its obligations.” The full details of the plan have not been released. However, a fact sheet released by the White House showed that spending would be capped by $900bn over the next ten years. A bi-partisan committee will then be set up to agree a further $1.5tn of deficit reduction measures, which could include tax rises. If this committee cannot agree a deal, then an “enforcement mechanism” will trigger around $1.3tn of spending reductions beginning in 2013. Paul Krugman, the Nobel prizewinning US economist, accused Obama of surrendering to Republican opponents. “The deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-term deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana republic status.” Markets rally, but AAA rating under threat Many economists believe that America could soon lose its triple-A credit rating, despite a deal being agreed. Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency, recently said that a credible fiscal plan would need to include $4tn of deficit reduction measures. “Avoiding the worst case scenario of a default on US Treasury obligations will not prevent a downgrade of the triple-A sovereign rating,” predicted Kevin Daly, emerging market debt portfolio manager at Aberdeen Asset Management. “So it’s time for us all to figure out just what it means when the US gets downgraded.” Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC, said the progress made over the US debt ceiling was “very welcome”, but also warned that America could see its credit rating cut. Wall Street is expected to open around 1% higher when trading begins on Monday. In London the FTSE 100 rallied by almost 1.5%, jumping 83 points to 5898, as traders welcomed the news that the US would probably not run out of cash. “Investors have breathed a collective sigh of relief that the risk of default has been avoided – albeit a few weeks ago nobody would have expected it to go down to the wire like this,” said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index. “It still has to be approved by Congress, so there is always the potential for a stumble here, but market reaction today seems confident that it will pass.” Most major commodities gained ground, pushing the cost of a barrel of Brent crude oil up by $2 to $119.40. Gold, which has benefited from the crisis as investors looked for safe havens, fell by 1%. Overnight, Asian stock markets rose strongly on the news. The Japanese Nikkei was up more than 2% at one stage, closing up 1.34% at 9,965 having broken through the 10,000 barrier earlier. United States Barack Obama US economy Republicans Democrats US politics Tea Party movement US economic growth and recession Ewen MacAskill Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Forty years later, the FBI just might be closer to nailing the bold hijacker who parachuted scot free from a hijacked plane with $200,000 in ransom. Officials say they have their “most promising” lead yet in the decades-long search for DB Cooper. A suspect’s name and an unrevealed piece…
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