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By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY
Dinner's on George Clooney! One group of diners at the Grill Royal restaurant in Berlin?were treated to a free meal because the actor was worried that he and his friends at a nearby table were making too much noise, Clooney's representative has confirmed to TODAY.
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
According to English-language publication The Local, German newspaper Bild reported that Clooney and Co. weren't disturbing the others in any way.
"They had behaved in a very cultivated manner," one man in the group told the paper, "I was stunned."
According to The Local, the man never recognized Clooney, even when he stopped by the star's table to leave a business card in hopes he could repay the gesture some day.
The newspaper reported that the dinner bill was around 100 Euros, or $135 U.S.
It's far from Clooney's first generous gesture. Back in October, paparazzi captured a photo of the actor giving money to a man sitting on a New York street wearing military dog tags.
Clooney is in Germany to direct and star in "Monuments Men," an upcoming big-screen drama also starring Daniel Craig and Cate Blanchett. Based on Robert M. Edsel's book, the film is about a group of Allied art experts racing to save priceless artworks from destruction by the Nazis.
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Jeremy Cowart / A&E
Dave Hester in "Storage Wars."
By Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter
How does a TV network respond to a reality TV show participant who files a bombshell lawsuit that claims a series is fixed and that the network has "committed a fraud on the public"?
If it's A&E, confronting "Storage Wars'" David Hester, the answer is admitting there's a bit of dress-up happening but that it's emanating from the other side.
"In a transparent attempt to distract from the issues -- and maximize any potential recovery -- Plaintiff's Complaint tries to convert a garden-variety breach of contract claim into a tabloid-worthy drama, in which Hester portrays himself as a crusading whistleblower," the cable network says in legal papers filed last week in L.A. Superior Court.
A&E continues, "But setting aside the notable inconsistencies in his exaggerated self-portrait, the law does not permit such sophistry."
In his lawsuit filed in December, Hester discussed "Storage Wars," ?a series featuring the auctioning of storage-unit contents based on a few minutes of inspection by buyers like himself. He alleged that A&E has planted items of memorabilia, that interviews with castmembers were scripted in advance and that producers have shot footage when no real auctions are taking place.
Hester further claimed that he was fired after complaining to producers that A&E's "fraudulent conduct of salting and staging the storage lockers was possibly illegal." He based his allegations of illegality on the Communications Act of 1934, which makes it illegal for broadcasters to rig a contest of intellectual skill with the intent to deceive the viewing public.
A&E presents a different picture of what happened.
According to the network, A&E complained first -- about Hester's ?"improper use of AETN's trademarks." (The two sides have been fighting at the U.S. Trademark Office over marks like "Storage Warrior.")
Hester also demanded to renegotiate his agreement for "Storage Wars," says A&E. Only then did Hester raise concerns about authenticity, it adds.
But now that he has, A&E spells out in a footnote in its legal papers why Hester is not the crusading whistleblower he claims to be: "Among other things, Plaintiff says that he participated in the very conduct he simultaneously claims was 'fraudulent' and 'illegal,' namely, the purported 'salting' of storage lockers with valuable items and the 'scripting' of some portions of the reality television program."
The legal papers come in the form or an anti-SLAPP challenge to Hester's lawsuit. The network seeks to strike certain causes of action made by Hester as an impingement of its own First Amendment free speech rights.
A&E believes "Storage Wars" qualifies for the California law that protects against litigation being used as a sword to interfere with those rights. And as such, the network says the burden should shift to Hester to demonstrate why he has a likelihood of succeeding before it goes any further.
The network says that Hester can't do that.
Among the reasons given by A&E:
Here's A&E's motion to strike, written by Kelli Sager at Davis Wright Tremaine, who among other things, describes "Storage Wars" as a matter of public interest because it "has captured the public's interest by combining elements of competition and business strategy with the mystery of discovering what surprises may be found in an abandoned storage unit."
Replace "abandoned storage unit" with "courtroom," and the description is an apt summary of this dispute too.
Who do you think is in the right here, David Hester or the network? Let us know what you think on Facebook!
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CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's army chief said political strife was pushing the state to the brink of collapse - a stark warning from the institution that ran the country until last year, as Cairo's first elected leader struggles to contain bloody street violence.
General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, appointed by President Mohamed Mursi last year to head the military, added in a statement on Tuesday that one of the primary goals of deploying troops in cities on the Suez Canal was to protect the waterway that is vital for Egypt's economy and world trade.
Sisi's comments, published on an official army Facebook page, followed 52 deaths in the past week of disorder and highlighted the mounting sense of crisis facing Egypt and its Islamist head of state who is struggling to fix a teetering economy and needs to prepare Egypt for a parliamentary election in a few months that is meant to cement the new democracy.
The comments are unlikely to mean the army wants to take back the power it held, in effect, for six decades since the end of the colonial period and in the interim period after the overthrow of former general Hosni Mubarak two years ago.
But it sends a powerful message that the Egypt's biggest institution, with a huge economic as well as security role and a recipient of massive direct U.S. subsidies, is worried about the fate of the nation after five days of turmoil in major cities.
"The continuation of the struggle of the different political forces ... over the management of state affairs could lead to the collapse of the state," said General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also defense minister in the government Mursi appointed.
He said the economic, political and social challenges facing the country represented "a real threat to the security of Egypt and the cohesiveness of the Egyptian state" and the army would remain "the solid and cohesive block" on which the state rests.
Sisi was appointed by Mursi after the army handed over power to the new president in June. Mursi sacked Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who had been in charge of Egypt during the transition and who had also been Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years.
Political opponents spurned a call by Mursi for talks on Monday to try to end the violence. Instead, huge crowds of protesters took to the streets in Cairo and Alexandria, and in the three Suez Canal cities - Port Said, Ismailia and Suez - where Mursi on Sunday imposed emergency rule and a curfew.
"DOWN, DOWN MURSI"
Residents in the three canal cities demonstrated overnight in defiance of the curfew. At least two men died in fighting in Port Said, raising to at least 42 people who have now been killed there, most of them by gunshot wounds.
Protests first flared to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later. They have been exacerbated by riots in Port Said by residents enraged by a court ruling sentencing several people from the city to death over deadly soccer violence last year.
"Down, down with Mohamed Mursi! Down, down with the state of emergency!" crowds shouted in Ismailia. In Cairo, flames lit up the night sky as protesters set vehicles ablaze.
The demonstrators accuse Mursi of betraying the two-year-old revolution. Mursi and his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood accuse the protesters of seeking to overthrow Egypt's first ever democratically elected leader by undemocratic means.
Debris from days of unrest was strewn on the streets around Cairo's Tahrir Square, cauldron of the anti-Mubarak uprising.
Youths clambered over a burned-out police van. But unlike on previous mornings in the past few days, there was no early sign of renewed clashes with police.
Since the 2011 revolt, Islamists who Mubarak spent his 30-year rule suppressing have won two referendums, two parliamentary elections and a presidential vote.
But that legitimacy has been challenged by an opposition that accuses Mursi of imposing a new form of authoritarianism, and punctuated by repeated waves of unrest that have prevented a return to stability in the most populous Arab state.
U.S. UNEASE
The army has already been deployed in Port Said and Suez and the government agreed a measure to let soldiers arrest civilians as part of the state of emergency.
The instability has provoked unease in Western capitals, where officials worry about the direction of a powerful regional player that has a peace deal with Israel. The United States condemned the bloodshed and called on Egyptian leaders to make clear violence is not acceptable.
Mursi's invitation to rivals to hold a national dialogue with Islamists on Monday was spurned by the main opposition National Salvation Front coalition, which described it as "cosmetic".
The only liberal politician who attended, Ayman Nour, told Egypt's al-Hayat channel after the meeting ended late on Monday that attendees agreed to meet again in a week.
He said Mursi had promised to look at changes to the constitution requested by the opposition but did not consider the opposition's request for a government of national unity. Mursi's pushing through last month of a new constitution which critics see as too Islamic remains a bone of contention.
The president announced the emergency measures on television on Sunday. "The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law," Mursi said.
His demeanor infuriated his opponents, not least when he wagged a finger, imperiously, at the camera.
Some activists said Mursi's measures to try to impose control on the turbulent streets could backfire.
"Martial law, state of emergency and army arrests of civilians are not a solution to the crisis," said Ahmed Maher of the April 6 movement that helped galvanize the 2011 uprising. "All this will do is further provoke the youth. The solution has to be a political one that addresses the roots of the problem."
(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia and Abdelrahman Youssef in Alexandria; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egyptian-protesters-defy-curfew-attack-police-stations-074130394.html
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NEW YORK ? Small business owners may be closer to losing an advantage they?ve enjoyed during the e-commerce boom ? being exempt from collecting sales tax in states where they?re not located. And they?re worried they will have to spend more money in the process.
Under federal law, a state or local government cannot force a company to collect sales tax on a purchase unless the business has a physical presence in that state. The physical presence could range from an actual store to an office, warehouse or distribution center. The sale could be conducted online, over the phone or through mail-order.
The arrangement saves money for shoppers who use price comparison websites or mobile apps, and those who spend time surfing for the best overall deal.
But Washington lawmakers currently have several bills in the works that would end all that by forcing companies to collect the tax. Businesses are split over the issue.
On one side are small retailers who say they wouldn?t be able to bear the costs of collecting the tax and filing reports and tax returns the states and local governments require. They?re worried that they?ll have to buy software, hire staffers and deal with the continual hassle of keeping up with collecting tax from states and thousands of municipalities.
Headsets.com, for instance, might have to hire two staffers to handle the administrative work if what?s called remote tax collection becomes law, says CEO Mike Faith. The company has operations in California and Tennessee, but sells to all 50 states. Currently, federal law only requires the company to collect tax in those two states.
Faith expects the law would force him to hire workers to help his San Francisco-based company comply with it.
?It?s useless employment. It doesn?t add value to the company,? he says. ?It?s just another cost burden.?
On the other side are in-state sellers and larger retailers with physical locations dotted across the country who sometimes lose business to competitors who don?t have to collect the tax. Even if two retailers charge the same amount price for an item, many shoppers choose the seller that doesn?t collect taxes to reduce their overall cost.
?It?s a problem that needs to be addressed. It?s an un-level playing field,? says David French, a lobbyist for the National Retail Federation.
And on yet another side are the state and local governments that stand to collect billions in uncollected revenue if a bill makes it through Congress. States have wanted the tax money for decades and are particularly anxious for it now because their tax revenue is down following the recession and the housing crisis. The payoff could be substantial. In 2012, there was much as $11.4 billion in uncollected taxes on Internet sales alone, according to an estimate by researchers at the University of Tennessee.
Desire for change
State and local government officials have wanted to change the law for years, even before the catalog boom of the 1980s and the Internet boom of the ?90s.
Small business owners have resisted along the way. They argue that the burden of keeping up with the estimated 15,000 different sales tax rates charged by the 7,500 to 9,600 jurisdictions made up of states, counties, cities and towns is just too much.
They have a point. Knowing how much to tax, and where, can be complicated. For example, Elgin, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, is located in two counties, Cook and Kane. In Cook County, Elgin?s sales tax on general merchandise is 9.25 percent. In Kane, it?s 8.25 percent. The state?s base sales tax is 6.25 percent.
What is taxed also varies widely. In Massachusetts, baby oil is tax-free, but baby lotion and powder aren?t. In states including New York, there?s a tax on shipping charges on items. Others, including California, don?t charge if you get merchandise delivered by the U.S. Postal Service or delivery services like UPS and FedEx.
The effort to change the law intensified as the growth of the Internet increased and companies? out-of-state sales volume swelled. Many sellers felt protected by a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states could not force out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax. But the court, in effect, invited Congress to create a law that would give the states the authority to require that taxes be collected.
States have a lot of incentive to go after the revenue. The combined budgets of all the states had deficits of more than $100 billion a year from 2009 through 2012, primarily because of the drop in tax receipts during and after the recession, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an organization that studies tax issues.
Three bills introduced
Three separate bills were introduced in the last Congress that would authorize the states to require remote sellers to collect taxes. In the Senate, the Marketplace Fairness Act had bipartisan support but did not come to a vote. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the bill?s sponsors, has told The Associated Press the bill was tabled because of concerns by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., about the burdens tax collection would place on companies in his state, where there is no sales tax.
But the burden small business owners fear may not be as bad as they think. The government would likely require that states make the process easier for small companies. And the smallest of these businesses are expected to be exempt. The proposed Marketplace Fairness Act exempts businesses that have $500,000 or less in sales from remote states. But Durbin says that number is open to negotiation.
?That?s not set in stone,? Durbin says. ?I want to come up with a number that spares anyone from concern.?
He also says that the tax computation software will have to be user friendly.
?This is the only way we can sell this,? he says.
There?s already some precedent ? and a process ?for making sales tax collection less burdensome. In 1999, the National Governor?s Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures created the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement to make taxes easier to collect. The Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, or SSTGB, was formed to carry out the agreement. To help reduce the hassle of tax collection, the SSTGB has contracted with software developers to come up with programs designed to compute the correct tax.
One such program, TaxCloud, is designed to keep track of changes in state and local tax laws and will file sales tax returns on behalf of sellers, according to David Campbell, CEO of The Federal Tax Authority, one of the SSTGB?s developers.
Never that simple
Laura Zander, a retailer of yarn and sewing suppliers, is skeptical. She also has a background in software development.
?It?s really easy, free software, but it?s never that simple,? says Zander, owner of Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nev. ?You just can?t program it as easily as they say you can.?
Zander, who had $6.5 million in sales last year, believes that compliance with the law would be expensive.
?Think about the complications ? on a monthly or quarterly basis, filing and tracking payments,? she says. ?That?s an extra $50,000 or $75,000 a year in programming fees, bookkeeping, management. That?s a lot.?
The Electronic Retailing Association, a trade group that?s fighting the legislation in Congress, also says that it will be expensive for sellers to comply.
?Even if you have software that?s good, to integrate the coding on the (seller?s) end of these elaborate sales systems is a pretty big thing ? even for an Amazon,? says Bill McClellan, vice president for government affairs for the ERA. ?That will leave these little guys out in the lurch.?
Other companies are taking the prospect of implementing new software and collecting the tax in stride.
?If it?s imposed on us, it?s something we have to deal with. It?s not going to break us,? says Henry Posner, a spokesman for B&H Photo, a New York retailer of photo and electronic equipment that has a large online business. Posner declined to reveal the company?s sales figures.
But Dean Davis, who sells trucks, back hoes and other big machinery, says that because he?s not a typical Internet seller who could benefit from software programs, his company couldn?t take advantage of the streamlined tax collection process. His Narrows, Va., business, Affordable Trucks & Equipment, advertises online but closes deals over the phone and via email.
?Even if it?s a streamlined procedure, it would still be extra work,? he says. ?You have to file a report, whether it?s monthly, quarterly or annually.?
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Jan. 28, 2013 ? Nationwide, more than one-quarter of hospital-based general practitioners who take over for patients' primary care doctors to manage inpatient care say their average patient load exceeds safe levels multiple times per month, according to a new Johns Hopkins study. Moreover, the study found that one in five of these physicians, known as hospitalists, reports that their workload puts patients at risk for serious complications, or even death.
The research, reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, comes as health care systems anticipate an influx of new patients generated by the Affordable Care Act over the next few years; as restrictions on resident-physicians limit their duty hours; and as one in three physicians is expected to retire or otherwise leave medicine over the next 10 years, cumulatively resulting in increased patient care needs coupled with stressed staffing demands.
"As perceived by physicians, workload issues have the significant potential to do harm and decrease quality," says study leader Henry J. Michtalik, M.D., M.P.H., M.H.S., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It is the elephant in the room that cannot be ignored. We have to find that balance between safety, quality and efficiency."
The Johns Hopkins study comprised a survey of 890 hospitalists across the United States, 506 of whom responded. Twenty-two percent of the respondents reported ordering costly and potentially unnecessary tests, procedures or consults because they didn't have time to properly assess patients assigned to their care.
"If a hospitalist is short on time and a patient is having chest pains, for example, the doctor may be more likely to order additional tests, prescribe aspirin and call a cardiologist -- all because there isn't adequate time to immediately and fully evaluate the patient," Michtalik says.
For the study, Michtalik, a hospitalist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and his colleagues electronically surveyed self-identified hospitalists enrolled in an online physician community, QuantiaMD.com. Of those who responded over the course of four weeks in November 2010, the average age was 38 years and more than half worked in community hospitals. Among other questions, physicians were asked to report what they felt was a safe number of patients to see in a typical shift. Most physicians reported that they could safely see 15 patients in a shift if they could focus 100 percent on clinical matters. When the average actual workload was compared to the perceived safe workload, 40 percent of physicians exceeded their own reported safe level.
Michtalik says that JHH's hospitalists typically stay below that number, while hospitalists at community hospitals often see more than 15 patients per shift.
"Hospitals need to evaluate workloads of attending physicians, create standards for safe levels of work and develop mechanisms to maintain workload at safe levels," he adds.
The study was supported by National Institutes of Health grant T32 HP10025-17-00, the NIH/Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research KL2 Award 5KL2RR025006 and the Johns Hopkins Hospitalist Scholars Program.
Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in the study include Hsin-Chieh "Jessica" Yeh, Ph.D.; Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D.; and Daniel J. Brotman, M.D.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/9LhIrMIRPJ4/130128163331.htm
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DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has denied media reports of a major explosion at one of its uranium enrichment sites, describing them as "Western propaganda" designed to influence upcoming nuclear negotiations.
Reuters has been unable to verify reports since Friday of an explosion at the underground Fordow bunker, near the religious city of Qom, that some Israeli and Western media have said caused significant damage.
Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of being behind cyber attacks and the assassination of its nuclear scientists, aiming to sabotage a nuclear program which the West suspects hides an attempt to develop nuclear weapons.
"The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome," state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Saeed Shamseddin Bar Broudi, as saying late on Sunday.
The IRNA report also quoted the head of parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, strongly denying there had been an explosion.
The plant at Fordow in late 2011 began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, compared with the 3.5 percent level needed for nuclear energy plants, and has been operating 700 centrifuges there since January this year, according to Western diplomats.
Western governments are concerned that high-grade enrichment is a significant step towards developing a nuclear weapons capability.
Iran maintains its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it began producing high-enriched uranium that it was no longer able to obtain from abroad for medical use.
The two sides are set to resume negotiations in coming weeks but the talks have been beset by delays and wrangling over dates and location.
(Reporting by Marcus George; editing by Patrick Graham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-denies-explosion-underground-uranium-facility-071928837.html
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RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - A nightclub fire that killed 231 people is prompting Brazilians to worry that a culture of haphazard regulation and lax accountability stand in the way of achieving the country's lofty, first-world ambitions.
Brazil, Latin America's biggest country, has been praised by economists and investors over the past decade during a boom that made it one of the world's most promising emerging markets. That promise raised Brazil's profile in global trade and diplomacy and even helped it secure the 2014 World Cup of soccer and 2016 Olympics, major sporting events for which security and order are paramount.
President Dilma Rousseff, who wept at the impromptu morgue set up near the devastated nightclub in southern Brazil on Sunday, is fond of reaffirming Brazil's march toward the developed world. "Our country today not only has international recognition," she said in a speech last year, but also "the confidence of growing self-esteem of us Brazilians that we can transform it into a developed nation."
But for many living the day-to-day reality of Brazil's chaotic cities, crumbling roads and lawless hinterlands, the country's coming of age often seems elusive.
As Brazilians digested details of a blocked exit and other safety violations at the nightclub, fingers began pointing at lawmakers, regulators and an overall culture that critics say has long tolerated the bare minimum of compliance for everything from the rules of the road to building codes.
"The cause of those deaths wasn't anything complex," said Moacyr Duarte, an emergency management and disaster specialist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. "They were simple elements - administrative flaws, regulatory flaws, inspection flaws, planning flaws. They all led to tragedy."
The sentiment is echoed by everyday Brazilians.
"A tolerance of not following the rules exists here," said Flavia Rodrigues, a 34-year-old attorney in Brasilia, the capital. "This tragedy could have been avoided if only there were enough care."
To be sure, Brazil has no monopoly on accidents.
An eerily similar tragedy killed 100 people at a U.S. nightclub a decade ago and another, the following year, killed 194 in Argentina.
But Sunday's deaths, most of them university students, add to a tally of grim statistics that paint Brazil as a particularly dangerous country, even compared with many of its Latin American neighbors.
During the recent decade of economic growth, which led to a building boom, labor unions and human rights groups lambasted the government and construction companies for a spike in deaths and accidents at poorly regulated job sites. Nearly 40,000 people died at building sites in 2011, according to government data, compared with 35,000 in 2009.
And consider deaths on Brazil's crowded and poorly maintained roads. The country averages more than 18 highway deaths per 100,000 people per year, compared with only about 10 in high-income countries, according to a report by the Inter-American Development Bank. The tolls in nearby Argentina, Colombia and Chile average only about 13.
Most troubling, perhaps, are the country's high murder rates. According to United Nations data, Brazil averaged 21.7 homicides per 100,000 people in 2009. Although lower than some Latin American countries with longstanding social conflicts, the rate is multiples higher than in Russia (11.2), India (3.4), or China (1.0), other emerging economies with which it is often grouped.
After a recent surge of violence in Sao Paulo, the result of a turf war between gangs and police in Brazil's biggest city, 91 percent of those surveyed there feel unsafe, according to a recent report by the Ibope polling institute.
CULTURE OF IMPUNITY
Making matters worse, murders, like many crimes in a country with a slow judicial system, routinely go unpunished.
A 2012 report by Brazil's federal public prosecutor compared the number of homicides that are solved in the country to those in developed nations. While only about 8 percent of Brazil's murders get resolved, the figure reaches 65 percent in the United States, 90 percent in Britain, and 80 percent in France.
The lapses underscore what is widely perceived to be a lack of accountability, even when deaths result.
"There is an overall culture of impunity," says Julio Jacobo Waiselfiz, a sociologist who keeps the "Map of Violence," an annual tally of crime statistics in Brazil. "That means murderers get away, that roads don't get fixed, and that rules and enforcement still don't keep up with the promise of economic growth."
On Monday, the debate took center stage as Brazilian media, local governments, and even foreign officials weighed in.
"In Sao Paulo, city hall lacks the resources to inspect major events," read a headline in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, citing a study by the state legislature. The state government issued a press release touting ongoing training by local security forces for search and rescue operations.
Jerome Valcke, the secretary general of FIFA, soccer's governing body, on a Monday visit to Brasilia sought to dispel talk that the nightclub tragedy raised safety concerns for stadiums and World Cup planning already subject to heavy criticism because of widespread delays and cost overruns.
The fire "has nothing to do with soccer, has nothing to do with stadiums," he told reporters. Routine security rules for World Cup events, he added, would ensure "we can empty the stadiums in less than a few minutes."
Brazilians certainly hope so. Many recall the partial collapse of a stadium in Salvador, a World Cup venue in Brazil's northeast, caused by jumping by fans in 2007, killing seven and injuring scores. Or how three tall buildings in Rio de Janeiro crumbled one night last year, killing five people and scarring the center of Brazil's most popular city for tourism.
In a letter to O Globo newspaper, a geotechnical engineer recently warned that downpours during the ongoing rainy season could cause a repeat of cataclysmic flooding and mudslides in nearby mountains that killed more than 900 people in 2011. Though the regional and federal governments have invested in technology to alert residents of pending rains, he warned that little has been done to keep people from staying or building anew on steep hillsides dotted with shoddy housing.
"There is nothing natural about these disasters," wrote Alberto Say?o, the engineer. "The country can no longer bear the impunity caused by the leniency, omission and incompetence of the authorities."
(Additional reporting by Eduardo Sim?es in S?o Paulo; Editing by Brian Winter, Todd Benson and Cynthia Osterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-nightclub-fire-exposes-faults-brazils-big-ambitions-202359152.html
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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? The World Bank announced a long-awaited deal to allow Myanmar to clear part of its huge decades-old foreign debt, opening the door for new much-needed lending to jumpstart its lagging economy.
The bank's Washington headquarters said in a statement Sunday that the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the country's overseas development bank, will provide a bridge loan to Myanmar to cover outstanding debt to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which totals about $900 million.
Myanmar stopped payments on its old loans about 1987, making it ineligible for new development lending.
The deal is a major breakthrough for Myanmar, with loans likely to go to upgrading its dilapidated infrastructure, including electricity and ports. The knock-on effect would be to bring in more foreign direct investment, already attracted by the country's relatively low-cost economy.
"We have not been allowed financial assistance for more than 20 years and the clearing of foreign debts will help bring fresh new loans for Myanmar," said Maung Aung, a researcher and economist at the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. "We welcome the deal because the country's infrastructure development can be carried out only with the financial assistance from the big financial institutions like the World Bank and ADB."
The debt deal clears the way for Japan to push ahead with plans for a $12.3 billion plan to build a special economic zone near the capital which is being developed by a consortium including Japanese trading firms Mitsubishi Corp., Marubeni Corp. and Sumitomo Corp.
The deal is also likely to draw criticism, because it comes as Myanmar's army is pushing hard against ethnic Kachin rebels in the country's north, in an echo of the notorious counterinsurgency campaigns of previous military regimes.
A former general, Thein Sein, became the country's elected president in 2011 and began reversing almost five decades of military repression by instituting political and economic reforms.
He won the substantial easing of economic and political sanctions imposed against the junta by the United States and other nations. But some pro-democracy activists say his administration has been rewarded too much, too fast, allowing some abuses to continue, such as repression of ethnic minorities.
The World Bank had already made some exceptions to providing new aid.
In November, it approved an $80 million project to provide $25,000 grants to villages in 15 townships across the country, where community councils will identify the kind of help they want, such as roads, bridges, irrigation systems, schools, health clinics or rural markets. The bank reopened its office in Myanmar in August last year.
The bank was able to act because President Barack Obama lifted a long-standing U.S. restriction on international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, lending to Myanmar after Congress passed legislation enabling that step. It was one in a series of steps by Washington to reward the Southeast Asian country for its democratic reforms.
The World Bank statement did not detail the mechanics of the new deal to clear the debt arrears.
It did say the bank's board on Jan. 22 approved a $440 million "Reengagement and Reform Support Credit to Myanmar."
It said the credit would support "critical reforms being implemented by the Government to strengthen macroeconomic stability, improve public financial management and improve the investment climate."
It added that its proceeds would "also help the Government meet its foreign exchange needs, including repaying (the) bridge loan" and that there are currently discussions with the government to identify priority needs.
Separately, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank announced it would extend a $512 million loan to Myanmar under the same sort of arrangement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation ,
"Myanmar has come a long way in its economic transformation, undertaking unprecedented reforms to improve people's lives, especially the poor and vulnerable," the statement quoted the World Bank's Myanmar Country Director Annette Dixon as saying.
"Much work remains to be done. We are committed to helping the government accelerate poverty reduction and build shared prosperity. The Bank's engagement, together with the ADB, the Government of Japan and other partners, will help attract investment, spur growth and create jobs."
Myanmar ran up $8.4 billion in debt during the socialist regime of the late Gen. Ne Win between 1962 and 1988, and $2.61 billion of debt after a new military junta took over in 1988, making for a total of just more than $11 billion.
The largest creditor before 1988 was Japan, with loans of $6.39 billion, and the biggest post-1988 creditor was China, with $2.13 billion.
According to the Japan External Trade Organization, Myanmar's exports to Japan totaled 1.73 billion kyat ($2 million) in 2011, while its imports from Japan were 2.7 billion kyat ($3.1 million).
___
Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok and AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deal-signed-clear-myanmar-debt-allow-loans-031353064--finance.html
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Source: http://modordukan.blogspot.com/2013/01/topballerz-wealth-health-and-fitness.html
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DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Indonesia may hold the key to a $1 trillion injection into the global economy.
That's how much the World Trade Organization believes is riding on talks later this year in Bali, when trade ministers hope to cut through some of the red tape that slows global commerce.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The Associated Press that failure is not an option and that a strong effort is being put in to ensure that the WTO meeting in Bali is "crowned with success."
Trade ministers agreed Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Davos that some of the key elements of a global trade deal can be fleshed out by summer, in preparation for ministerial talks in December.
The current trade talks, known as the Doha Round, began in 2001,
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indonesia-readies-1-trillion-trade-talks-173735474--finance.html
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NEW YORK -- The legal challenges over religious freedom and the birth control coverage requirement in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul appear to be moving toward the U.S. Supreme Court.
Faith-affiliated charities, hospitals and universities have filed dozens of lawsuits against the mandate, which requires employers to provide insurance that covers contraception for free. However, many for-profit business owners are also suing, claiming a violation of their religious beliefs.
The religious lawsuits have largely stalled, as the Department of Health and Human Services tries to develop an accommodation for faith groups. However, no such offer will be made to individual business owners. And their lawsuits are yielding conflicting rulings in appeals courts around the country.
"The circuits have split. You're getting different, conflicting interpretations of law, so the line of cases will have to go to the Supreme Court, `' said Carl Esbeck, a professor at the University of Missouri Law School who specializes in religious liberty issues.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that Obama's fiercely contested health care overhaul, known as the Affordable Care Act, was constitutional. But differences over the birth control provision in the law have yet to be resolved.
Under the requirement, most employers, including faith-affiliated hospitals and nonprofits, have to provide health insurance that includes artificial contraception, including sterilization, as a free preventive service. The goal, in part, is to help women space pregnancies as a way to promote health.
Religious groups who employ and serve people of their own faith ? such as churches ? are exempt. But other religiously affiliated groups, such as Catholic Charities, must comply.
Roman Catholic bishops, evangelicals and some religious leaders who have generally been supportive of Obama's policies have lobbied fiercely for a broader exemption. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of artificial contraception. Evangelicals generally permit the use of birth control, but they object to specific methods such as the morning-after contraceptive pill, which they argue is tantamount to abortion.
Obama promised to change the birth control requirement so insurance companies and not faith-affiliated employers would pay for the coverage, but religious leaders said more changes were needed to make the plan work.
The Health and Human Services Department said it could not comment on litigation. A spokeswoman also did not respond to a question about when the latest revisions in the birth control rule would be made public.
However, government attorneys responding to a lawsuit said an announcement was expected by the end of March. In the suit filed by the evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois and Catholic Belmont Abbey in North Carolina, the court ordered government attorneys to provide a progress report on the new rule every 60 days. Whatever its final form, the mandate will take effect for religious groups in August.
At the center of the cases is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the 1993 law that bars the government from imposing a substantial burden on the exercise of religion for anything other than a compelling government interest pursued in the least restrictive way. The question of how or whether these criteria apply when owners of for-profit businesses have a religious objection to a government policy hasn't been fully tested.
"It's more natural for people to say Notre Dame exercises religion, but when you say this power tool company exercises religion, you have to explain it little more, I think the claims are really the same," said Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents many of the plaintiffs.
Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, argued the business owners are trying to use a religious liberty claim to deny benefits to someone else.
"We don't think that religious liberty claims can be used as a way to discriminate against women employees ? using those claims to take away someone else's benefits and services," Amiri said.
In the lawsuits from faith-affiliated groups, such as the University of Notre Dame, judges around the country have generally said it would be premature to decide the legal issues until the federal rule for religiously affiliated organizations is finalized.
In the cases involving business owners, judges have granted temporary injunctions to businesses in nine of 14 cases they've heard, while questions about for-profit employers and religious rights are decided, according to a tally by the Becket Fund.
In a case brought by Cyril and Jane Korte, Catholic owners of Korte & Luitjohan Contractors in Illinois, a three-judge panel granted a temporary injunction, ruling 2-1 that providing employees insurance coverage that includes birth control would violate the Kortes' faith.
"It is a family-run business, and they manage the company in accordance with their religious beliefs," the judges wrote.
The dissenting judge argued that the company will not be paying directly for contraception but instead will purchase insurance that covers a wide range of health care that could include birth control, if the woman decides with her physician that she needs it.
"What the Kortes wish to do is to preemptively declare that their company need not pay for insurance which covers particular types of medical care to which they object," the dissenting judge wrote.
Similar reasoning was used by courts denying an injunction requested by the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby and religious book-seller Mardel Inc., which are owned by the same evangelical family. Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby calls itself a "biblically founded business" and is closed on Sundays.
The U.S. district judge who first considered the request said, "Hobby Lobby and Mardel are not religious organizations."
"Plaintiffs have not cited, and the court has not found, any case concluding that secular, for-profit corporations such as Hobby Lobby and Mardel have a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion," the ruling said.
Related on HuffPost:
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/birth-control-lawsuits_n_2559773.html
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament passed a law on Saturday intended to block Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki from a third term, as the Shi'ite premier faced growing pressure from mass Sunni street protests.
Lawmakers from Sunni, Kurdish and Shi'ite parties voted for the law, but the legislation still needs the president's approval and will face challenges in federal court after Maliki's supporters rejected it as illegal.
The law, restricting the posts of prime minister, parliament speaker and president to two four-year terms, was approved as the Shi'ite premier tried to end weeks of protests by Sunni demonstrators against his government.
"Parliament succeeded today in passing an important law to limit the terms of three posts, including the prime minister's," said Khalid Shwani, head of the legal panel of parliament.
Parliamentary elections are due early in 2014. First elected in 2005, Maliki was re-elected in 2010 in an indecisive ballot that lead to the formation of a fragile power-sharing government split among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.
Kurdish parties, the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and even some rivals in Maliki's own Shi'ite coalition failed last year to trigger a vote of no confidence against a prime minister they accuse of accumulating power at their expense.
Since the last American troops left Iraq a year ago, Shi'ite, Sunni Muslim and ethnic Kurdish parties have been caught in a power-sharing stalemate that has left key legislation on oil and investment paralyzed in parliament.
(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; editing by Patrick Markey and Andrew Roche)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-lawmakers-pass-law-block-maliki-third-term-134245570.html
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After January 26, mobile phone owners will no longer be able to buy a new, locked phone and unlock it.?The law doesn't apply if you purchased your phone before January 26, thanks to a grace period built into the law.
There are two reasons why consumers typically want to unlock phones: to switch carriers or to temporarily use an international carrier while traveling abroad and save money on global roaming charges.
It's perfectly legal to buy a new, unlocked phone. For example, you'll?still be able to buy Verizon's iPhone 5, which already comes unlocked, thanks to a complex regulatory concession Verizon made when it bought spectrum for high-speed data in 2008.
AT&T will continue to unlock phones once they're out of contract. It no longer sells unlocked iPhones, though you can buy an AT&T-compatible model through Apple. With a two-year wireless contract, the iPhone 5 costs $199 and up; without one, it costs $649.
Back in October, the U.S. Copyright Office, which implements rules around circumventing software protections, decided that unlocking new mobile phones would no longer be allowed.
"In?light of carriers' current unlocking policies and the ready availability of new unlocked phones in the marketplace, the record did not support an exemption for newly purchased phones," the decision stated.
It offered a 90-day grace period which expires Saturday, January 26.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/unlocking-ban-goes-into-effect-2013-1
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Italian Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, speaks during a session at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone, Jean-Christophe Bott)
Italian Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, speaks during a session at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone, Jean-Christophe Bott)
A member of Swiss special police forces stands on the roof of the Kongress Hotel next to the Congress Center, during the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Philipp Roesler, Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economics of Germany, speaks during a panel session at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Keystone, Jean-Christophe Bott)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Is the euro crisis over? A leading U.S. economist says not by a long shot.
Even as the head of the European Central Bank talked Friday of "positive contagion" in the markets and predicted an economic recovery for the recession-hit eurozone later this year, economist Barry Eichengreen warned that the debt crisis that has shaken Europe to its core could easily erupt again this year unless European leaders move faster to solve their problems.
While European governments and markets have been breathing easier in recent months after years of turmoil, it's no time for complacency, said Eichengreen, who has chronicled the Great Depression and explored the consequences of a breakup of the euro currency used by 17 nations.
"Nothing has been resolved in the eurozone, where markets have swung from undue pessimism to undue optimism," Eichengreen told The Associated Press in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "They said all the right things last year ... and they've been backtracking ever since."
He warns that the crisis over too much debt burdening governments and banks in the 17-country currency group "is going to heat up again in 2013."
He urged eurozone leaders follow up on its proposals to steady its banking system and keep failed banks from adding to government debt through expensive bailouts.
European leaders in Davos this week are seeking to reassure investors and corporate leaders that the continent is on the mend after its punishing debt crises.
European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi on Friday forecast a recovery in the eurozone economy in the second half of the year, and spoke of "a new restored sense of relative tranquility" and "positive contagion on the financial markets."
But he acknowledged "we don't see this being transmitted into the real economy yet."
Draghi said governments need to move ahead with structural reforms to make their economies grow faster, which will help reduce government debt.
Heavily indebted countries such as Spain and Italy faced alarmingly high borrowing costs on bond markets last year, as investors wondered whether they would be able to keep paying their debts. Those bond market rates fell after key steps by European leaders. One was the European Central Bank's offer to purchase bonds issued by indebted countries if they promise to reduce their deficits. Another was a proposal to set up a so-called banking union that would keep failed banks from bankrupting any one country by transferring the supervision of bank behavior and finances to a single, central EU supervisor at the ECB.
The banking union decision was key. Meanwhile, Europe is in a recession that is putting added pressure on government finances.
"Europeans will be shocked out of their complacency, I think, soon enough," Eichengreen said. "There will be a relapse to the greater volatility of the first half of last year."
"None of the underlying problems have been solved. There is no economic growth in Europe. Germany itself is on the verge of recession. The banking union doesn't exist. There's less consensus on completing it than we thought last year, so the markets are going to lose patience at some point and the crisis will be back. "
Eichengreen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, studied the possibility of a eurozone breakup long before the crisis that started in late 2009 forced other people to consider what was once unthinkable. He concluded that leaving the euro would be disastrously expensive and cause widespread chaos for any country that tries it.
Political leaders are aware of those high costs, which means a country such as debt-strapped Greece leaving the eurozone "is off the table for the moment," he said.
Concerns about Europe's economic future ? and the threat that Britain could one day pull out of the European Union, whose 27 members together make up the world's largest economy ? clouded this year's gathering in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos.
The forum pulls together corporate and political leaders who strike business deals, strategize about world problems and attend lavish parties ? and comes under regular criticism from activists and workers who say the elite event is disconnected from the world's economic realities.
Activists at Davos took over a Shell station Friday to protest drilling for oil in the Arctic.
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Companies have grown to embrace the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, new research has found. (more)
CIO Magazine Blackstone spent a lot of time and energy finding ways to secure confidential documents on BYOD iPads, even looking at possibly purchasing iPads for employees. The company leveraged two main technologies-MobileIron and WatchDox-to solve the ? (more)
Computerworld Australia Compassion Australia has saved thousands of dollars since shifting to a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) mobile strategy, according to the non-profit organisation?s systems administrator of projects, Blessing Matore. Compassion is a Christian non-profit ? (more)
Defense Systems The Defense Department?s game plan of allowing mobile devices in the workplace includes exploring mobile device management (MDM), a strategy that could potentially turn some defense employees off to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) concept, DOD ? (more)
By Heather Leonard
What You Need To Know About BYOD (Dell) How does bring your own device (BYOD) work best? How can companies ensure that their employees are happy and working productively on their own devices? To answer these questions, Dell ? (more)
By Steve Weissman
Much time and effort has been spent over the years improving the quality of the information we use to get our work done: we?ve invested in the deskewing and despeckling of images, subjected documents to version control, and striven to ? (more)
iTWire Enterprises are cutting business costs and increasing efficiency through the continued use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs, according to secure enterprise mobility vendor, Good Technology, which says there is an increasing adoption and support ? (more)
CIO With BYOD iPad security under control, financial services firm Blackstone looks toward tough challenges ahead, including the possibility of company-owned iPads and opening up its BYOD program to Android and Windows 8 devices. By Tom Kaneshige ? (more)
Mondaq News Alerts (registration) The rising use of personal technologies for work-related activities has coined the phrase Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD). It is a trend that has potential to bring substantial benefits to enterprises, but can equally present considerable risks and ? (more)
***Editor?s Note*** RIM is really big on pushing the concept of mobile computing. So much so in fact, that the author of this post, @Lombaki, has been requested ? (more)
Hi, I?m currently looking at all the manufacturers high performance laptops as a desktop replacement / mobile workstation. I?m looking at machine with ? (more)
InformationWeek As the BYOD movement infiltrates the enterprise, IT managers have more to worry about than ever. The latest challenge: Employees who use apps to send messages that ?self-destruct.? The possibility of employees dropping company secrets into Dropbox ? (more)
Business Insider Eighty-nine percent of IT departments worldwide support bring your own device (BYOD) practices, according to a Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group survey on mobile device usage. Overall, BYOD tends to be a more popular trend in Asia, Latin America ? (more)
CRN Employees are buying smartphones and tablets in record numbers and in some cases are insisting that they can use their personal devices to connect to corporate systems. According to the federal government?s HealthIT.gov website, healthcare ? (more)
Computer Business Review Good Technology?s Bring Your Own Device survey revealed that BYOD continues to gain traction. Companies not supporting a BYOD scheme are increasingly becoming a minority. ?This is no surprise to us since we hear every day from our customers how ? (more)
DABCC.com Looking to support bring your own device within your company? You?re not alone. Today over 65% of organizations are exploring how to embrace BYOD. In fact, it seems as though most customers I talk to have some sort of BYOD initiative in play or at the ? (more)
DABCC.com Whether you believe BYOD is headed to its death or not, the current market is still investing a great deal into this consumer-driven trend. The droves of iPads carried into the office, under the arms of executives and sales teams alike, has created ? (more)
UCStrategies According to a Dell Quest Software survey, IT executives are able to gauge the level of organizational maturity with BYOD strategies already being used, and are also able to realize and plan for problems and benefits. The findings from the survey ? (more)
CIO It?s as if a voice boomed down from the mountain ordering all of the employees you support to procure as many devices as possible and connect them to corporate services en masse. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) was born and employees followed with ? (more)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to its lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession, a hopeful sign for the sluggish labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
"The economy's doing better," said Michael Strauss, an economist at Commonfund in Wilton, Connecticut.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to rise to 355,000 last week.
Economists have cautioned about reading too deeply into this month's figures, as claims tend to be volatile around this time of the year. This is because of large swings in the model used by the department to iron out seasonal fluctuations.
A measure of labor market trends nonetheless pointed to an improvement in the labor market's health. The four-week moving average for new claims fell 8,250 to 351,750, the lowest since March 2008.
U.S. Treasury debt prices pared gains after the data, while the dollar extended gains versus the yen. U.S. stock futures were lower on disappointment over Apple's earnings.
Claims have now fallen for two straight weeks, suggesting employers do not yet see tax hikes enacted this month as a big threat to consumer demand.
A Labor Department analyst said claims data were estimated for three states last week, but there was nothing unusual in the state level data.
Claims are now at roughly the same level they were in much of 2006 and 2007. Claims started trending higher around December 2007, the month that the country's recession began.
However, while employers have pulled back on layoffs, they have only added jobs to the economy at a lackluster pace.
"The jobs market is just treading water at this point," Stephen Stanley, an economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Connecticut.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect an employment report due on February 1 will show 165,000 jobs were added to payrolls this month, up from 155,000 new positions in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 7.8 percent.
Job gains averaged 153,000 jobs per month in 2012, little changed from 2011. The sluggish labor market and subdued inflation pressures appear likely to keep the Federal Reserve on its ultra easy monetary policy course.
The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid dropped 71,000 to 3.16 million in the week ended January 12.
(Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jobless-claims-drop-five-low-labor-market-healing-133257002--business.html
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(Reuters) - Netflix Inc wants to bid for movies from Sony Corp to add to its online streaming service alongside films from Walt Disney Co, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said on Wednesday.
Speaking to analysts after the company's quarterly earnings report, Hastings said his appetite for securing exclusive rights to Sony movies after they leave theaters was "just like it was for Disney. It's strong."
"We're interested. We'll see how it works out," Hastings said.
In December, Netflix reached a deal to stream new Disney movies starting in 2016.
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Gary Hill)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/netflix-ceo-interested-adding-sony-movie-content-000640858--finance.html
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AP:
A prominent Thai activist and magazine editor was sentenced to a decade in prison Wednesday for defaming Thailand?s monarchy, a verdict rights groups condemned as the latest affront to freedom of expression in the Southeast Asian country.
Somyot Pruksakasemsuk was convicted of publishing two articles in an anti-establishment magazine that made negative references to the crown.
The verdict came despite repeated calls by rights groups to free Somyot, who has been jailed since 2011. It also underscored the harsh nature of Thailand?s lese majeste laws, which critics say have frequently been used by politicians to silence rivals.
The articles in question were published under a pseudonym in Somyot?s now-defunct Voice of Taksin magazine, which he launched in 2009 to compile political news and anti-establishment articles from writers and contributors.
Judges found both pieces contained content that defamed the royal family and argued that Somyot, as a veteran editor, knew that and chose to print them anyway. The court announced two five-year jail terms ? one for each story.
?(Somyot) should have better judgment than ordinary journalists. He must have understood that the articles contained lese majeste content, but chose to publish them anyway,? one of judges said in the sentence.
Somyot said he would appeal the verdict but would not seek a royal pardon [BP: Interesting he won't seek a pardon...].
?.
The European Union also weighed in on the verdict, saying it ?seriously undermines the right to freedom of expression and press freedom? and ?affects Thailand?s image as a free and democratic society.?
Human Rights Watch:
?The courts seem to have adopted the role of chief protector of the monarchy at the expense of free expression rights,? said?Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ?The court?s ruling appears to be more about Somyot?s strong support for amending the?lese majeste?law than about any harm incurred by the monarchy.?
Somyot was first arrested during the street protests by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) ?Red Shirts? against the government of then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. On April 26, 2010, the government?s Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situations (CRES) put Somyot and his magazine on a chart containing names of individuals and groups whom it accused of being ?anti-monarchy.? The CRES never offered any credible evidence to substantiate this allegation. On May 24, 2010, Somyot was arrested by the CRES, which detained him without charge for 19 days in an army camp under state of emergency rules then in effect. He was released on June 13, 2010. Somyot then changed the name of his magazine from?Voice of Taksin?to?Red Power. The Abhisit government forced the shutdown of?Red Power?in September 2010.
Police arrested Somyot again on April 30, 2011, and charged him under article 112 of Thailand?s penal code, which states that ?whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.? The two articles for which Somyot was charged were written by Jit Pollachan, the pseudonym of Jakrapob Penkair, the exiled former spokesman of Thaksin. Jakrapob, now living in Cambodia, has never been charged with any crime for what he wrote.
Somyot was arrested five days after launching a campaign to collect 10,000?signatures?calling for the amendment of article 112. On May 29, 2012, the Camping Committee for the Amendment of Article 112 submitted a proposed amendment along with 30,383 signatures to the parliament. However, in November 2012, Parliament Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranond dismissed the proposed amendment, saying that the constitution prohibits any law reform related to the institution of the monarchy.
While Thailand?s Printing Act protects editors from being held accountable for the content of others, the Constitutional Court ruled on October 10, 2012, that the restrictions on freedom of expression and the criminal penalties for?lese majeste?offenses were constitutional, because breaches of?lese majeste?are considered threats to national security.
BP: There is a pattern of behavior of targeting Somyot?
Bloomberg:
?The articles accused the king of having power over all past governments and being behind most crackdowns against demonstrators,? Bangkok?s?Criminal Court?said in a statement. ?The information in those articles was incorrect. And as the editor of the publication, the defendant should take extreme caution in publishing.?
The editor, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, is the third person convicted in the last month for insulting the royal family as calls grow within Thailand to change laws used to shield the monarchy from criticism. He was arrested in April 2011, five days after helping start a campaign to change the lese-majeste law.
Thomas Fuller in NYT:
Similar to a decision last week, where an anti-government protester was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the king, the articles never mentioned the king?s name.
The first article is a jumbled tale about a family that plots to kill millions of people to maintain its power and quash democracy. The court ruled on Wednesday that the writer was describing the Chakri dynasty of Thailand?s current King, Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The second article is a fictional tale about a ghost who haunts Thailand and plots massacres. The court ruled that the author was comparing the ghost to King Bhumibol.
?There is no content identifying an individual,? the court said. ?But the writing conveyed connection to historical events.?
Reuters:
The articles criticized the role of a fictional character meant to represent the king, public prosecutors said in a July 2011 report. Discussions about the role of the monarchy are forbidden.
?The accused is a journalist who had a duty to check the facts in these articles before publishing them. He knew the content defamed the monarchy but allowed their publication anyway,? a judge said in passing sentence.
??The lese-majeste law works against the long-term interests of the Thai monarchy,? said David Streckfuss, a Thailand-based independent scholar and lese-majeste expert. ?To a society that is becoming ever more politically conscious, the holding and trying of defendants seems arbitrary, petty and a clear violation of human rights.?
WSJ:
Mr. Somyot has been refused bail 12 times and denies breaking any laws. His lawyer, Karom Polpornklang, said his client would again seek bail while he appeals Wednesday?s ruling. He was also sentenced to an additional year in prison on an unrelated defamation charge.
?.
Legal experts say lese majeste cases are highly charged-affairs in Thailand and few defendants are acquitted, largely because of the strong political overtones which frequently accompany prosecutions. Mr. Somyot?s arrest in 2011, for instance, came after a period of extreme turmoil in Thailand. The previous year, tens of thousands of ?red shirt? protesters besieged a large swath of central Bangkok in a bid to force the collapse of the then government and pave the way for the return of Mr. Thaksin, a populist leader whose election successes had challenged the power of this Southeast Asian nation?s traditional bureaucratic and military elites.
AFP:
Amnesty International, which considers Somyot to be a ?prisoner of conscience?, described the Bangkok Criminal Court ruling as ?a serious setback for freedom of expression in Thailand?.
?
At a press conference last year, Somyot?s wife Sukanya said the legislation was futile. ?You can physically put them in prison, but you cannot jail their thoughts,? she said.
Finally, VOA:
David Streckfuss is a Thailand-based academic and author who has written extensively on Lese Majeste.? He says most of the recent prosecutions are not surprising as they were initiated during the previous government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, a staunch monarchist.
?What is surprising is, as you say, the Pheu Thai government came in promising to at least to look into the law and to have academics and legal experts look at it.? Since that time, I think probably for what they perceive as their own political survival, they?ve retreated from doing anything with the law,? said Streckfuss.
Nonetheless, Streckfuss says, there do appear to be significantly fewer new cases of Lese Majeste, so Thailand could, in the future, see less prosecutions and convictions.
The Independent:
However, persistent fears that the army might try and stage another coup or that so-called Yellow Shirt opponents might take over the streets in mass protests, appears to have persuaded Ms Yingluck that reforming the law is not a priority for her. Last year, a government advisor told The Independent that they had decided to leave the issue alone.
?Unfortunately, the failure of this government to review the lese majeste law is entirely predictable,? said Duncan Duncan McCargo, an expert on South East Asian politics at Leeds University. ?Yingluck Shinawatra is performing a delicate balancing act to preserve the political deal which keeps her in office ? and doing so involves keeping the country?s conservative institutions, including the palace, the judiciary and the military onside.?
BP: Well, despite the fewer cases and last year being a relatively ?good? year in regards to the number of people receiving custodial sentences for lese majeste offences, this is the 3rd conviction in the last month (per Bloomberg). Lese majeste is back on the agenda for now (at least). This is a lese majeste conviction for an insult or defamatory statement and not a threat (contrast with Uncle SMS case).
There have been changing attitudes towards lese majeste over the past five years.?However, as seen with another delay to constitutional reform, the government is sidelining all issues that could lead to confrontation. The confrontation on lese majeste reform you ask? At the end of 2001, Panitan Wattanayagorn, former secretary-general to ex-premier Abhisit Vejjajiva,? stated ?The army chief [Prayuth Chan-ocha] has made things clear concerning lese majeste [that the army will fight to the end]?. Due to this fear of confrontation, as also noted by Streckfuss and McCargo above,?BP?sees little hope?of lese majeste reform for now ?(Thaksin has thrown the?reform ball?to the Privy Council).
However, as noted in March last year:
Fortunately, for the government, the NHRC later?said?they will need the rest of the year to review the issue so the government has some leeway. However, once the report comes out, BP is very skeptical there will be any reform although the pressure for reform would start building unless there is a major change in the enforcement of the law. BP doesn?t imagine street protests, but within a group of progressive voters (i.e Matichon readers), they will be upset. While we are talking about small numbers, they will matter during an election. They are unlikely to vote Democrat, but they may vote for someone else or not vote. This is a?problem for the future for?Puea Thai, but it will become a problem.
BP: So when will this NHRC report come out? (a Google search sheds no light). The government can?t sideline the lese majeste issue forever. We are still probably a few years away from where the ?do nothing? approach by the government on?lese majeste becomes a political problem (i.e. will cost it votes), but it will eventually become one. There are other things the government can do aside from amending lese majeste. As noted in May 2012:
Nevertheless, his death places the spotlight clearly on?lese majeste?law and what the government will do. The government can?t just release those convicted from jail tomorrow, but it can provide them with better treatment ? as of?last report?they hadn?t been moved to the new facility* ? and make more progress on limiting the number of prosecutions ? still no word on what the?committee?is doing. Economic concerns, particularly over the cost of living, is the most pressing issue facing the government, but can?t ignore other issues including?lese majeste.
BP: The committee seems have had some influence, as noted by Streckfuss on the drop in the number of prosecutions, but?what is the government doing to ensure better conditions for the lese majeste prisoners?
*Have searched and tried to find if the lese majeste prisoners have been moved to Laksi but can find nothing to suggest they?have been.
btw, if?time permits will also blog on Thai media stories on Somyot?s conviction?
*Made some slight changes to a few sentences within a few minutes of publishing to correct some errors and so sentences read more smoothly.
Source: http://asiancorrespondent.com/96063/thai-magazine-editor-get-10-year-sentence-for-royal-insult/
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