Wednesday
17th
February
2010
Courts overhaul planned to help UK juries baffled by judges
The Ministry of Justice study found that jurors were quite often confused
by verbal directions from judges
Frances Gibb - The Times
Two thirds of jurors do not understand what judges tell them about the law when they retire to consider their verdicts, according to a ground-breaking study into the secrets of the jury room. The findings will trigger an overhaul of the courts.
The investigation found that jurors frequently used the internet to read about trials on which they were sitting, risking miscarriages of justice. In 2008, juries in three Crown Court trials had to be discharged because they used the internet inappropriately.
The study, to be published today by the Ministry of Justice, found that:
• all-white juries do not
discriminate against black defendants;
• juries convict more often than they acquit in rape cases;
• men sitting on juries are less likely than women to listen to arguments and change their minds;
• conviction rates in Crown Courts varied from 53 per cent to 69 per cent.
• juries convict more often than they acquit in rape cases;
• men sitting on juries are less likely than women to listen to arguments and change their minds;
• conviction rates in Crown Courts varied from 53 per cent to 69 per cent.
The study was carried out by Professor Cheryl Thomas, of University College London, and is based on 69,000 verdicts across 18 months.
It concludes that juries are fair and efficient but that more could be done to help them to perform their task.
Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice, recently raised concerns that in the internet age jurors will increasingly have difficulty in listening to evidence and receiving oral instructions.
Judges are likely now to look at how they can simplify the way they sum up and give directions and ensure that more juries get written aides-mémoire.
Lord Justice Thomas, deputy head of criminal justice, said that work was under way to ensure that more written material was available, and that judges were being urged to give written directions in all but the simplest cases.
Judge Keith Cutler, a senior circuit judge, said that the study vindicated juries and laid to rest several myths, such as their alleged failure to convict in rape cases. He said that written instructions may be extended to smaller trials.
“It may worry people that if jurors don’t understand then innocent people are being convicted,” he said.
“But there is always the lee-way of the majority verdict.” He added that there was far more interaction between juries and judges now and that jurors felt able to ask questions when they needed clarification.
Saudi prince held over murder in five star London hotel room
Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
A member of the Saudi Arabian royal family is being questioned over the suspected murder of a guest at a five-star London hotel.
A 32-year-old Saudi man was discovered dead in his room having suffered severe head injuries at the £520-a-night Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, central London.
Police sources confirmed that a man in his 30s arrested over the death is a Saudi prince.
It is understood that the two men, who have not been named, were associates and that the victim may worked for the prince or been a business contact.
It is believed that the prince was not at the scene when he was arrested in Westminster five hours after staff at the hotel had discovered the dead body.
The royal family, known as the House of Saud, has over 6,000 members, with the most power and influence being wielded by the 200 of them closest to King Abdullah.
Wealthy Saudis often visit London and Prince al-Waleed bin Tahal, the nephew of King Abdullah, bought the Savoy Hotel five years ago for an estimated £250 million.
The Saudi Embassy and representatives in the Middle Eastern country were unavailable to comment last night.
Scotland Yard murder squad detectives were called in to the eight-storey Marylebone hotel, a favourite with celebrities, after the victim's body was found in a third-floor room shortly before 5pm on Monday.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the man suffered head injuries.
A post mortem was being carried out last night. The death is being treated as "suspicious" until a post mortem examination takes place.
The hotel's general manager Francis Green said: "Unfortunately, the Landmark Hotel can confirm the death of a guest on Monday who was staying at the hotel.
"Police were informed immediately and have launched an investigation surrounding this incident and we are co-operating fully with them and are therefore unable to comment further.
"This is an isolated incident and our thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased."
Rooms at the grade two listed Landmark hotel, built in 1899, cost from up to £520 a night and the largest suite is offered at £2,400-a-night.
Its website says: “We invite you to experience our beautifully distinctive style and ambience combining classic British elegance and grandeur with deluxe facilities.”
Recent guests include television presenter Myleene Klass. Liam Gallagher, the Oasis singer, held his wedding reception there after marrying Nicole Appleton.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police were called to reports of the body of a man found in a third-floor room at a hotel in Marylebone Road, at 4.50pm on Monday.
"Officers and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service attended the address and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
"The death is being treated as suspicious and is being investigated by officers from the Met Police's Homicide and Serious Crime Command.
"Officers believe they know the identity of the deceased, who is from Saudi Arabia, but await formal identification before releasing his name. Inquiries to trace his next of kin are under way.
"It is believed the victim had suffered head injuries and officers await the results of a post mortem examination, which is taking place on Tuesday.
"At 9.07pm, a man in his thirties was arrested in Westminster in connection with the death and was taken to a central London police station where he remains in custody."
Google in privacy row over new social network
Stephen Foley - The Independent
Google is being threatened with legal action
over the launch of its new
social network, Google Buzz,
amid furious claims that the service
breaches users' privacy.A week after launching the service with great fanfare and with high hopes that it could lure internet users' attention away from Facebook and Twitter, Google has found itself embroiled in a technical and public relations nightmare.
The pioneering internet company again apologised to users yesterday, and said it was working round the clock to roll out additional alterations to Buzz, on top of emergency changes imposed late last week and over the weekend.
Google said last Tuesday it was creating a vast social network from scratch by harnessing the 180 million users of its Gmail email service, converting parts of their contacts lists into Facebook-style "friends" who could share status updates, pictures and links.
But users revolted when they realised that their contacts could now see who they had been emailing – something that could reveal everything from private business relationships to romantic affairs.
Angry users have deluged Google with complaints and conversation in company chatrooms has turned to legal action. In Israel, one Gmail account holder has already reportedly launched a lawsuit that she hopes can be joined by other users. Amal Jaraisy said she had lodged the suit on behalf of people who "woke up one morning and found that the details of the people with whom they have open or covert contact are exposed to the entire world", according to the daily newspaper Haaretz.
Google had bypassed the careful testing that it usually insists upon for new products, trialling Buzz only using internal staff. Shelly Palmer, technology and media consultant and founder of Advanced Media Ventures, said the company had been caught unawares by the reaction of its public users.
"Anyone who understands the Google mindset could not have expected them to get this right," he said. "Everywhere they go, they try to apply mechanistic efficiency. They looked at Facebook and said, 'You have to invite people? How ridiculous! We'll just look at who you email most and hook up those people right now.' This wasn't a malicious attack on your privacy. It was just Google's attempt to create a social network with no fuss."
Google has issued repeated apologies to Gmail customers as the débâcle has unfolded and now makes it easier for users to keep their contacts private, to block certain people from following them and to unsubscribe from Buzz all together.
Todd Jackson, the Google product manager who a week ago had expressed his enthusiasm for the new service by declaring "Woohoo, Google Buzz launched!" was taking a different tone yesterday, saying the company was "Very, very sorry". In his latest blog post, he said: "We quickly realized that we didn't get everything quite right. We have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We'll continue to do so."
Further changes under consideration include setting up Google Buzz as a standalone website, to further untangle it from Gmail. But, even as it was dealing with its public relations nightmare, Google was trying to look on the bright side. At least many of the Buzz users who were venting their fury were doing so on the new social network.
"We've been getting feedback via the Gmail help forums," said Mr Jackson, "and we've also been able to do something new: read the buzz about Buzz itself."
Argentina to blockade Falkland waters in dispute over oil rights
Hannah Strange and Frank Pope - The Times
Argentina has declared that it is taking control over all shipping between its coast and the Falklands, in effect awarding itself the power to blockade the disputed islands.
According to a decree issued by President Kirchner last night, all ships sailing through the waters claimed by Argentina must hold a permit. The measure seems likely to deepen a row over conflicting claims to oil beds lying inside the Falkland Islands’ territorial waters.
Argentina still claims sovereignty over the islands it calls “Las Malvinas” nearly three decades after the end of the Falklands conflict in which more than 1,000 people died. Tensions over the islands remained buried until the discovery of potentially rich energy reserves in the Falklands’ seabed. Argentina protested to Britain this month over plans to begin offshore drilling near the islands.
Yesterday’s decree amounts to an Argentine move to control all traffic from South America towards the islands, including an oil rig due to ar- rive today and start drilling next year.
“Any boat that wants to travel between ports on the Argentine mainland to the Islas Malvinas, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. . . must first ask for permission from the Argentine Government,” Aníbal Fernández, the Cabinet chief, said.
He added that the decree would force all ships bound for the islands or travelling through waters claimed by Argentina to obtain the new permit.
Argentina is trying to prevent British companies exploiting what experts say could be substantial oil reserves. Buenos Aires is enraged by Britain’s refusal to stop explorations in the face of its long-standing sovereignty claim. Last week it detained a ship, the Thor Leader, which it said had been illegally transporting pipes to the Falklands.
The impending arrival of the Ocean Guardian rig has increased tensions, amid reports from waiting crew members on the islands that it had been shadowed by Argentine jets during the final stage of its journey from the Scottish Highlands.
Last week Argentina vowed to take its complaint against Britain to the United Nations. Jorge Taiana, the Foreign Minister, warned that his Government would take “all necessary steps” to defend its claim on the islands, 300 miles from the coastline.
Geological studies estimate that up to 60 billion barrels of oil could be buried in the seabed around the Falklands, making it a reserve on the scale of the North Sea, which has so far produced 40 billion barrels. The majority of the exploration rights have been awarded to London-based Desire Petroleum, which will drill in the area for the first time since Royal Dutch Shell abandoned its bid in 1998.
The islanders have tried to shrug off the prospect of a new conflict. “There has been an economic blockade of the Falklands from Argentina for many years,” Roger Spink, the director of the Falkland Islands Company, said. “It’s something we’ve come to expect.”
Britain has more than 1,000 military personnel on land and more than 300 at sea around the Falklands, as well as four Typhoon jets, a destroyer and a patrol boat.
The Falklands War
Argentina's claim on the Falklands is still a good one
25 years on, our imperial grandeur has sailed away
BBC presenter admits 'mercy killing' of lover
• Veteran broadcaster tells of pact with lover he suffocated
• TV presenter resigned to possibility of jail sentence
Robert Booth - The Guardian
Ray Gosling, the veteran TV presenter who confessed
on television to
suffocating a gay lover in a mercy killing, said today he would refuse
to answer police questions – "even under torture" – about whom he
killed, when and where.As detectives from Nottinghamshire police's homicide unit launched an investigation into his claims, the award-winning 71-year-old presenter said he killed the young man, who had Aids and whom he described as "a bit on the side", with the tacit consent of a doctor after the two men had made a pact.
Officers today interviewed BBC staff who were involved in the production of BBC East Midlands' Inside Out programme, which featured Gosling's apparent confession during an item intended as a personal and "quirky" look at death. Police visited the BBC's studios in Nottingham and are expected to interview Gosling soon.
"We are now liaising with the BBC and will investigate the matter," said a spokesman for the force. "Our detectives have been at the BBC in Nottingham to speak with those involved in the making of the programme. We fully intend to speak to Mr Gosling."
Today, Gosling was at the sheltered accommodation centre in Nottingham where he lives as pressure on him grew to justify his claims, with former colleagues questioning his grounds for the claim.
"I am not going to tell, no way," he said. "That was the pact. That was part of the story. That was how we agreed. It is nobody's business." He said the pact was that if his lover "got into terrible pain and nothing can be done I would end it".
He said he had no regrets about killing the man and admitted he was resigned to the possibility that he could face a jail term if found guilty of murder or assisting suicide, which is punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
The BBC today said it had no further information that could help identify the supposed victim or his family.
"Ray didn't provide any further details over and above what has been broadcast and these weren't sufficient to identify those affected," a spokesman said. "The first the BBC knew of this incident was during filming for the programme that was broadcast on 15 February 2010."
Gosling claimed the doctor treating the man had deliberately given him time to kill his lover. "The doctor had said to me: 'I am going to pop out, have a fag or go to the canteen or go round another ward.' I have forgotten what the exact words were," he said. "In my mind its almost as though it was an invitation. He was in a situation of almost terminal pain."
The Crown Prosecution Service said Gosling was within his rights to maintain his silence during the investigation. But it is unheard of to carry out a prosection for murder without a body and a name for the victim, and opponents of euthanasia last night called for Gosling to come clean.
"This is very different from helping someone to go to Dignitas for an assisted suicide – this is smothering someone with a pillow," said Alistair Thompson, of Care Not Killing, an alliance of organisations opposed to the legalisation of assisted dying. "Here is someone who has admitted murdering someone else. That is pretty damning evidence. There needs to be a proper and thorough police investigation."
In response to Gosling's claim that the details of the case are "nobody's business", Thompson said the police and criminal prosecutors had a right to know the details. "We don't know whether there was a pact, we don't know whether he actually was terminally ill," he said.
Gosling, an award-winning programme maker for both the BBC and ITV, has a history as an eccentric, former colleagues said. According to the BBC, when he stood for Nottingham council in the 1960s his party affiliation on voting papers was "madman".
Last night, some TV executives who knew and worked with him said the absence of details about the case raised doubts over whether Gosling's story was true.
"I would question it," said Paul Watson, a documentary maker who knows Gosling and last year made a film about the euthanasia of an Alzheimer's sufferer. "I think it is desperate seeking of attention. He is a lovely man, but he does know how to manipulate the media."
Ray Fitzwater, an independent producer who worked with Gosling, said: "I wouldn't put it past him to do something to make a stir. He was extremely eccentric. But it would be a dreadful thing to do."
Gosling could not be contacted to respond to the claims
Pakistani militants threaten Commonwealth Games
Jeremy Page - The Times
A Pakistan-based militant group has reportedly warned foreigners not to attend three upcoming international sporting events in India, while another one has claimed responsibility for a deadly weekend bomb attack on a city in western India.
Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged al-Qaeda operative who heads the notorious militant 313 Brigade, contacted the Asia Times Online to warn foreigners not to come to the Hockey World Cup this month, the Indian Premier League in March, and the Commonwealth Games in October.
"We warn the international community not to send their people to the 2010 Hockey World Cup, IPL and Commonwealth Games," said an emailed message to Asia Times Online's Islamabad office.
"Nor should their people visit India - if they do, they will be responsible for the consequences."
A previously unknown group calling itself Lashkar-e-Taiba al-Almi also telephoned the Islamabad bureau of India's Hindu newspaper to say it carried out Saturday's bombing at a German bakery in Poona, which killed ten people, including two foreigners.
It claimed to have split from the larger Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant organization blamed for the Mumbai attack of November 2008, because LeT "took its orders from Pakistan's intelligence agency", according to The Hindu.
Both messages said they were motivated by Indian policies in the disputed region of Kashmir, which is claimed in entirety by both India and Pakistan and has sparked three wars between them since they won independence from Britain in 1947.
The two messages, which could not immediately be verified independently, are likely to place further strain on scheduled talks between the Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries in Islamabad next week - the first such talks since the Mumbai attacks.
They are also sure to heighten fears of further militant attacks in India, especially among British and other Western athletes who are due to attend the three upcoming sports events.
Following the Mumbai attacks, last year's IPL had to be staged in South Africa and Australia pulled out of a tennis Davis Cup tie in India.
New Zealand has already responded by announcing that its men's hockey team will delay travelling to the World Cup, which is due to start in Delhi, the Indian capital, on February 28.
"While Hockey New Zealand still plans for the Black Sticks men's team to attend the Hockey World Cup in Delhi, it has decided to keep the team in Perth until further notice," Hockey New Zealand chief executive Hilary Poole said.
Traffic chaos as Russian hacker beams pornographic film onto billboard
Russian police have arrested a prankster who hacked into a computer system to beam a pornographic movie on a giant advertising screen, causing havoc on a busy Moscow thoroughfare.
The two-minute clip, which was displayed on a video screen above a main road south of the Kremlin, caused midnight traffic jams and a frenzy of excitement across the Russian blogosphere.
Police said the hacker gained control of the screen by breaking into an online company's server in the volatile southern region of Chechnya as "he didn't think the police would go looking for him there".
"(The hacker) is a highly-educated, temporarily unemployed and extremely advanced internet user," police said. "The scandalous film was the talk of the town."
Police would not release the man's name but said he had been hacking into computers out of "curiosity" and to "sharpen his skills."
The 40-year-old man said he wanted to "give people a laugh", the popular daily Kommersant reported.
The suspect claimed that he intended to show the video not on the billboard, but at a Moscow store, the Interior Ministry statement said.
If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison.
Rossiya-24 television said an elderly motorist suffered a heart attack at the wheel after seeing the scenes.
Malawi launches operation against high-profile gay and lesbian people
Fears of backlash across Africa as US evangelists accused of spreading religious zeal behind homophobic campaigns
David Smith and agencies - The Guardian
Police in Malawi have launched an operation to hunt down and arrest high-profile gays and lesbians in the southern African state.
Fears of an anti-gay backlash across Africa are intensifying after the prosecution of the first gay couple to seek marriage in Malawi, and thousands of Ugandans demonstrated this week in support of a bill proposing the death penalty for some offences involving homosexual acts. Last week five men were arrested at an alleged gay wedding in Kenya.
Dave Chingwalu, a spokesman for police in Malawi, said a 60-year-old man was arrested yesterday and charged with sodomy. Chingwalu said he received a complaint from a young man that he had been asked to undress by the older man and was then sodomised. Police investigations had uncovered a network of high-profile people involved homosexual acts, investigations were under way "and we will arrest them all", Chingwalu said.
Malawi has been criticised by international groups for the prosecution of Steven Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, jailed in December for holding a wedding ceremony. The men were charged with unnatural acts and gross indecency and could be imprisoned for up to 14 years if found guilty.
A 21-year-old man was recently sentenced to two months' community service for putting up pro-gay rights posters, and a senior minister expelled a woman from her town even after a court acquitted her on charges of having sex with two girls.
Campaigners in Malawi say homophobic legislation is driving gays and lesbians underground, making them hard to reach with information that could protect them from Aids."In Malawi it's a complete witch-hunt that denies the people the right to self-determination," said Phumi Mtetwa, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, based in South Africa. "We are deeply concerned about this spate of homophobia across the continent."
Mtetwa said the recent series of incidents was no accident but rather the work of US evangelical Christian groups. "It's very well calculated. It's exploding at the moment but it's been happening for a year and a half. We have proof of American evangelical churches driving the religious fundamentalism in Uganda."
The Ugandan parliament is considering a bill that would impose life imprisonment as the minimum punishment for anyone convicted of having gay sex. If the accused person is HIV positive or a serial offender, or a "person of authority" over the other partner, or if the "victim" is under 18, a conviction will result in the death penalty.
Members of the public are obliged to report any homosexual activity to police within 24 hours or risk up to three years in jail.
The legislation has earned international condemnation - Barack Obama described it as "odious" - but has received vocal backing within Uganda. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Jinja, about 40 miles east of the capital, Kampala, in the biggest demonstration against homosexuals since the bill was introduced.
Okware Romano, a protester, said: "I have a verse in the bible in Leviticus 20 verse 13. It says that homosexuals should be put to death ... yes."
Last week police in Kenya said they had arrested five men whom they believed were homosexual in Kikambala beach resort near Mombasa. District officer George Matandura said two of the men had been found with wedding rings, attempting to get married.
"It is an offence, an unnatural offence, and also their behaviour is repugnant to the morality of the people," Matandura said.
The other three men were turned in to the police by members of the public. Two of them had reportedly been beaten.
Gay sex is illegal in 36 countries in Africa. Only South Africa has legalised same sex marriage, and even there campaigners say the fight against bigotry is far from over.
JFK letters to Swedish lover up for auction
Tom Leonard - Telegraph
Secret love letters written by John F Kennedy to a Swedish lover
before
and during his marriage have been revealed for the first time after she
put them up for sale.The correspondence – 11 handwritten letters and three telegrams – to Gunilla von Post strike a romantic tone that presaged a life of aggressive womanising in which the future president was linked with Marilyn Monroe and a string of other lovers.
Kennedy was 36 and the blonde Swede 21 when they met on the Cote d'Azur in August 1953. Although it was only a month before he was due to marry Jacqueline Bouvier, she said they danced all night and parted with a passionate kiss.
In June the following year, having tracked down her address in Stockholm, Kennedy wrote to her saying: "I might get a boat and sail around the Mediterranean for two weeks –with you as crew."
Kennedy changed tack in November 1954 when he underwent major surgery on his back and wrote from a New York hospital to ask if there was "any chance" she could come to America instead.
"I was terribly disappointed that at the last moment I was not able to come to Europe, especially when you were going to be in Paris and we could have had such a good time," he wrote.
In his next letter he writes wistfully about "that beautiful, controlled face that still haunts me" of the lover he nicknamed "Gorilla".
The pair secretly met at an old castle in Sweden in 1955. "I borrowed him for a week, a beautiful week that no one can take away from me," Miss von Post told ABC News.
Miss von
Post, who first revealed the affair in a book published in
1997, has described their relationship as "electrical".However, in his last letter, dated August 1955, Kennedy was already injecting a note of realism about their affair.
"I just got word today – that my wife and sister are coming here. It will all be complicated the way I feel now – my Swedish flicka (girl)," he wrote.
"All I have done is sit in the sun and look at the ocean and think of Gunilla. All Love, Jack."
The letters are being auctioned on the website Legendaryauctions.com. Doug Allen, the auction house's president, said he believed the letters could fetch as much as $100,000 (£64,000).
Did Castro order JFK's murder?
Mary Jo Kopechne
Conspiracy theory
Cat meat menu unleashes Italian outrage
Nick Squires - Telegraph
An Italian television chef has caused outrage in Italy by suggesting that people should eat cats.
Beppe
Bigazzi, a food expert on La Prova del Cuoco (The Cooks'
Challenge), was suspended indefinitely after extolling the delights of
"tender, white cat meat" on a national television channel.Mr Bigazzi, 77, recommended that the best way to prepare a cat was to leave it under running water for three days in order to tenderise the meat and then cook it in a stew.
The suggestion enraged animal rights groups, with the Italian Animal Protection Agency calling for him to be sacked.
"Anyone who goes on television to promote the taste of cat meat is guilty of instigating viewers to commit an act of cruelty to animals, a crime punishable by up to 18 months in prison." Mr Bigazzi claimed on the programme that eating cats was a long-held tradition in Valdarno, a town near Florence.
"Leave it for three days under a stream or running water and you end up with a delight, I've eaten its delicious white meat many times," he said.
Mr Bigazzi later claimed that he had seen people eat cats in Tuscany in the 1930s and 1940s, during wartime food shortages, but that he was not recommending that cat should still be eaten. "I was just talking about an old tradition," he said.
Francesca Martini, a health minister, condemned the remarks as "offensive to the growing number of people who care about the way we treat animals."
Killing and cooking cats was illegal and "despicable", she said.
Italians own about eight million pet cats, and a further 50,000 strays have to be sterilized or put down by local authorities each year.
While eating cats is illegal in Italy, it is popular in China and parts of Southeast Asia.
The Food We Eat
300 Nigeriens Repatriated
Three hundred persons believed to be Nigeriens were yesterday repatriated by men of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Taraba State Command, for lack of valid traveling documents and residence permit.
The State Comptroller of Immigration Services, Abdulkadir Ahmed, who confirmed the development to newsmen in his office said the command embarked on an intensive arrest of immigrants within Jalingo, the state capital a few days ago to sieve the legal from the illegal immigrants.
According to him, over 700 persons were arrested, most of them Nigeriens among which 300 were discovered to be residing in the country illegally. “Among those arrested and repatriated were seven under-aged children and their parents.”
Ahmed said the number was alarming, considering the fact that the arrest was conducted only within Jalingo metropolis. He noted that those arrested do not have genuine business document and came in through illegal routes.
He attributed the problem to the porous nature of Nigeria’s borders and that the command intends to extend the surveillance to other parts of the state to fish out such persons.
He then called on members of the public to report suspected persons their neighborhood because they are a threat to national security.
This
report
is
in
part
summarised
from Radio
Netherlands.
Visit their site to enjoy further informative writing and multimedia
Visit their site to enjoy further informative writing and multimedia
Readers
please
email
comments to: editorial AT
martinfrost.ws including full name
Return to Home Page
Return to Home Page