The five will be barred from saying Mass and all “public ministerial duties.” Three others have been reinstated, he told a press conference.

“Dealing with the sexual abuse and protecting children has been — and will remain — a top priority for me and for this Archdiocese,” Chaput said.

Those eight priests were among 27 suspended by Cardinal Justin Rigali after the release of a scathing grand jury report last year. The report, the third grand jury probe into the Philadelphia Archdiocese in a decade, criticized the church for failing to heed victims.

One of the priests has since died. The fates of the remaining priests remain undecided.

In some cases that is because law enforcement officials have not concluded their investigations and in other cases because Chaput has yet to decide.

Gina Maisto, a former sex crimes prosecutor hired to investigate the allegations, described a thorough investigation that reviewed 400,000 documents and interviewed 225 witnesses across the United States and abroad.

“I am optimistic that this process represents both a conclusion and a beginning for this archdiocese,” Maisto said.

The five priests will be monitored for the rest of their lives. Some may face church trial in which they could be de-frocked.

Chaput offered no timeline as to when rulings on the remaining priests will be made.

“Please don’t hold us to any schedules. The only schedule is a thorough review,’ Chaput said.

Chaput also promised a new church investigative structure that will refer claims of abuse immediately to law enforcement officials.

“Our actions, including these outcomes and the steps we have taken to improve our policies and procedures, show that we have learned from the past. No lesson from the sexual abuse scandal is more important than the understanding that the people who suffer most are the victims.”

The announcement comes as prosecutors in Philadelphia wrapped up the sixth week of testimony in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, the highest ranking US church official to face trial in the church’s roiling sex abuse scandal.

Lynn served as secretary of the clergy from 1994 to 2001 and is accused of covering up sexual abuse of minors by his subordinates.

Chaput cited that trial, a gag order, and sensitivity to victims in declining to discuss more details about the cases.

“I realize you would like me to provide considerable details about these cases. That I cannot do,” Chaput said.

But David Clohessy, director of the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said it did not violate victims’ privacy to explain to parishioners the number of allegations against the priest and the nature of those allegations. He said secrecy remains the church’s strategy.

“Chaput continues to do the absolute bare minimum,” Clohessy said.

Lynn is being tried with the Reverend James Brennan, who is accused of sexually abusing boys in the 1990′s. A second defendant, defrocked priest Edward Avery, pleaded guilty on the eve of trial.

About a dozen protesters stood outside the archdiocese’s office during the announcement. Neither Lynn nor Brennan are among the five barred clergymen.

Robert Hoatson, a former priest who says he was ostracized by the church after he went public as a victim of sex abuse, questioned the timing of the announcements by Chaput

“What this trial is uncovering are the inner secrets of the Roman Catholic church,” Hoatson said. “You can find the same structures in every diocese that have created this aberration.”

source from: yahoo

From William Randolph Hearst to Rupert Murdoch, many media barons’ stories follow a familiar arc.

“He’s one of a series,” said James Curran, a professor of communications at Goldsmiths University in London. “He seems to me to be in the same press baron tradition.”

Before Murdoch came Robert Maxwell and Conrad Black, both of whose careers at the top of the British media establishment ended in disgrace. Before those two came Lord Beaverbrook, the Daily Express owner whose excesses were lampooned by Evelyn Waugh in his 1938 novel “Scoop.”

Earlier still was the New York Journal’s William Randolph Hearst, who has become linked to the swashbuckling maverick at the center of Orson Wells’ 1941 classic “Citizen Kane.”

There are huge differences: Unlike Black and Maxwell, Hearst, Murdoch, and Beaverbrook stayed successful. The Hearst Corp. is 125 years old; News Corp. is worth $60 billion; there’s still a statue to Beaverbrook in the Canadian city of Fredericton, not far from where he was raised.

But there are important parallels, too.

Britain’s media tycoons came from abroad — Australia, Canada, or Eastern Europe — and rapidly became establishment figures, winning wealth, titles, and friends in high places.

Then, eventually, came the fall.

Beaverbrook’s attempt to create his own political party was knocked back in the 1930s, and he found himself cast adrift following the defeat of close ally Winston Churchill in 1945.

Black’s and Maxwell’s careers were blighted by criminality. Maxwell, having raided his newspaper’s pension fund, drowned under murky circumstances in 1991; Black was only released Friday from a U.S. prison following a 2007 conviction for cheating his shareholders.

Once one of the most powerful forces in British politics, courted by Labour and Conservative leaders alike, Murdoch also has seen his clout wither amid the scandal over illegal eavesdropping at his News of the World tabloid.

Revelations of widespread illegality there have led to the arrests of dozens of journalists and media executives, the resignations of high-flying political operatives and police leaders, and hundreds of millions of dollars in legal costs.

The narrative of the hacking scandal may echo earlier stories of overreach, but Murdoch’s story has little to do with those of Black or Maxwell, said Tom Bower, who has written biographies of the latter.

“There is a sharp difference,” said Bower, explaining that Murdoch built “a huge and successful business” based on hard work and sharp elbows, while his competitors failed because they had created “flimsy businesses based on fraud.”

Murdoch’s story bears a stronger resemblance to Beaverbrook, a turn-of-the-century entrepreneur who would help revolutionize London’s Fleet Street newspapers, according to Jacques Poitras, the author of “Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy.”

Born William Aitken in the small maritime province of New Brunswick, Beaverbrook had a modest start selling insurance and magazines door to door before moving on to bond promotion and striking it rich.

He moved to England, where he was knighted, invested in the populist Daily Express, and — with the help of innovations such as crossword puzzles, gossip columns and society pages — turned it into the biggest-selling paper in the English-speaking world. That title was later claimed by Murdoch’s News of the World.

“Both men published fabulously successful newspapers, and they were good at it,” Poitras said. “They knew what people wanted (and) they delivered it.”

Beaverbrook became fantastically influential, serving as a powerful Cabinet minister and Churchill adviser.

“His power in the 30s and 40s in London was unmatched,” said Poitras. “I don’t know if you could have someone of that clout now. … Murdoch is the only one who seems to have made waves in the same way.”

Compared to Beaverbrook and Murdoch, Maxwell and Black are a “second division of press baron,” said Curran, the professor of communications.

Black, a member of the Canadian elite, eventually came to own The Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, and a string of U.S. and Canadian newspapers before his embezzlement plunged his empire into crisis.

Maxwell’s rags-to-riches-to-ruin story is in some respects more compelling.

Born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the destitute Carpathian mountain region of what was then known as Czechoslovakia, Maxwell narrowly escaped a Nazi concentration camp to move to London. He set up a successful publishing company and moved into politics, throwing his support behind the left-wing Labour Party.

As early as 1969, there were signs of trouble. Britain’s trade department investigated Maxwell in the wake of a botched takeover deal, branding him unfit “to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company” — nearly the same language used by Labour lawmakers to condemn Murdoch in a critical report on phone hacking published last week.

Maxwell survived the trade investigation, spending the next two decades expanding his empire and racking up an enormous pile of debt. By the time his body was recovered from the waters off the Canary Islands — no one knows precisely how he died — his company was more than 2 billion pounds in the red.

Murdoch, who outmaneuvered Maxwell and Black to stay at the top of the British newspaper scene, has so far avoided falling into the same abyss that swallowed his competitors. Even his most strident critics don’t accuse him of anything worse than “willful blindness.” He remains at the head of a fabulously successful media company, responsible for record-smashing films like “Avatar” or TV hits such as “The Simpsons,” and News Corp.’s share price is riding high.

His influence in Britain, however, has undeniably suffered. Politicians who once scrambled to kiss his hand are now lining up to boast about how independent they were. Prime Minister David Cameron, who in 2008 flew out to the tycoon’s yacht to seek his blessing, acknowledged last week that “we all did too much cozying up to Rupert Murdoch.”

In that respect, Murdoch’s isolation — in Britain at least — seems redolent of the last scene of Citizen Kane: Successful, wealthy, but unloved.

source from: yahoo

A corruption probe into the activities of one of Asia’s richest families widened after Hong Kong authorities arrested the eldest sibling of the Kwok brothers at the centre of the scandal.

The family’s company, Sun Hung Kai Properties, was briefly suspended from trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange ahead of its announcement that anti-graft agents had arrested Walter Kwok over bribery allegations.

Kwok informed the board late Thursday that he had been arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), it said, adding that the arrest “will not affect the normal business” of the firm.

The watchdog arrested his two younger brothers, Sun Hung Kai co-chairmen Thomas and Raymond, in March while a fourth executive, Thomas Chan, was arrested earlier in one of the biggest corruption cases the city has seen.

Walter Kwok is a non-executive director of the company.

The Kwoks are among Hong Kong’s richest men and Sun Hung Kai Properties is the city’s biggest property developer by market capitalisation.

A former top official in the regional banking hub, Rafael Hui, has also been arrested over the allegations. Hui reportedly worked as a consultant for Sun Hung Kai, and is the most senior official ever arrested by the graft watchdog.

All of the suspects have been released on bail and none is believed to have been charged with any crime.

The ICAC has not released details of the bribery allegations but the arrests have sent shockwaves through the former British colony and raised questions about the cosy ties between its business elite and the government.

“While enquiries are continuing, no further comments will be made at this stage,” it said in a statement confirming that a “senior member of a listed company” had been arrested Thursday in relation to the corruption case.

The Kwok brothers have denied any wrongdoing. The case is believed to relate to Sun Hung Kai’s huge land holdings in the city of seven million people, where property prices have soared in recent years.

The Kwoks have an estimated family wealth of $18.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine, second only to the city’s richest man, 83-year-old Li Ka-shing, founder of rival developer Cheung Kong Holdings.

Sun Hung Kai has built some of the city’s most prominent landmarks including its tallest building, the International Commerce Centre.

The company’s share price has fallen more than 15 percent since the Kwoks’ arrest in March. It fell another 1.8 percent after it resumed trading on Friday, closing at HK$92.60.

Walter has been estranged from his two younger brothers since he was ousted as the company chairman and cut out of a family trust by their octogenarian mother two years ago.

source from: tuoitrenews

This file photo shows US Secret Service police standing guard on the North Lawn of the White House, in 2009.

The White House expressed confidence in the chief of the US Secret Service, as the elite bodyguard unit’s Colombian sex scandal deepened, with claims that 20 women were involved.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan is coming under increasing political pressure over allegations that agents sent to the Caribbean resort of Cartagena ahead of President Barack Obama’s weekend visit consorted with prostitutes.

“The president has confidence in the director of the Secret Service,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

“Secret Service Director Sullivan acted quickly in response to the incident and is overseeing an investigation as we speak into the matter,” Carney said.

But Obama’s spokesman did not directly respond to a question over whether Sullivan should step down if the probe finds Secret Service agents acted improperly ahead of the Summit of the Americas.

“I am not going to, as the president did not, speculate about conclusions the investigation might reach since it is ongoing,” said Carney.

Obama has said he would be “angry” if the allegations are proven true, and has stressed US officials of all levels had a duty to behave properly when abroad representing their country.

US Republican Senator Susan Collins, meanwhile offered new details after a briefing from Sullivan on the alleged incident, which became public soon after Obama arrived in Colombia for the summit.

“He told me that there are 11 Secret Service agents and officers involved,” she said in a statement.

“Some 20 women foreign nationals were brought to the hotel in (Colombia), but allegedly marines were involved with the rest.”

The Pentagon initially said that five military personnel were also under investigation, but officials told AFP on Tuesday that at least 10 American troops could be implicated.

The list of military suspects includes five Army special forces members, two members of a Navy bomb disposal unit, two Marine dog handlers and one Air Force member, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

All of the troops implicated were enlisted service members and not officers, officials said, adding that the list could change.

Collins said some of the Secret Service agents involved “were uniformed personnel who were assigned to building security. Others were these specialized agents who do security details.”

She warned that the security implications of the incident were “potentially extremely serious” amid fears the agents exposed themselves to blackmail.

“We don’t know who these women are. They could be spies, they could be associated with hostile forces, they could have disabled the agents’ weapons, or planted listening devices,” she said.

Collins, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said Sullivan told her that the 11 recalled Secret Service agents had been interviewed about the incident.

A government source said Sunday that the agents had seen their top secret security clearances suspended pending the result of the investigation.

The incident has revived questions about the leadership of the Secret Service, which has an official mandate to protect the president and his family, and also works to combat currency counterfeiting and fraud.

Sullivan earlier found himself on the hot spot in 2009 after socialite and reality star Michaele Salahi and her husband Tareq breezed through White House security at a state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He admitted mistakes were made over the security breach as he was grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Senator Joe Lieberman, chair of the Homeland Security committee, said Tuesday he would be prepared to hold a hearing if it would be productive.

“But I don’t want to just go ahead and do a hearing unless I think we can get something valuable out of it,” he told reporters.

Hundreds of Secret Service agents typically travel with, or before Obama when he goes abroad, in a huge security retinue.

The agency insists on high standards of training and discipline for both its iconic plain clothes, presidential protective and uniformed squads.

But the latest stories have revived questions about the culture in the service, and speculation about an alleged “wheels up, rings off” attitude of some traveling agents which officers say tarnishes the majority of the service.

The Secret Service has been responsive to such questions in the past, seeking to boost recruitment among women and ethnic minorities.

source from: thanhniennews

Chinese politician Bo Xilai, once a rising star, has been stripped of his elite Communist Party post and his wife is being investigated for the murder of a British national, state media said.

The shock announcements – made late Tuesday by the official Xinhua news agency – shed some light on a mysterious political scandal involving Bo and a reported attempt by his former righthand man to defect to the United States.

Analysts say the rare, public scandal has exposed deep rifts within the ruling party ahead of a key, once-in-a-decade leadership transition due to take place later this year.

Xinhua first issued a short report late Tuesday announcing Bo had been suspended from the party’s powerful 25-member Politburo and from the wider Central Committee, which consists of more than 300 top officials.

The report said “Comrade Bo Xilai” was suspected of being involved in “serious discipline violations”, which in China usually refers to corruption, but gave no details.

The People’s Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, on Wednesday said Bo had “seriously violated the party discipline, causing damage to the cause and the image of the party and state,”Xinhua reported.

Bo was one of China’s most high-profile politicians and a rising star in the party until he was sacked last month as party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing.

Before his downfall, the charismatic former commerce minister had been tipped to become a member of the party’s Standing Committee – the apex of political power in China – later this year.

The 62-year-old’s troubles started in February when Wang Lijun, his former police chief, fled to a US consulate and reportedly asked for asylum.

The scandal remained shrouded in mystery until news emerged late last month that London had asked China to reinvestigate the death of a British national in Chongqing in November amid rumours it might be linked to Bo’s family.

On Tuesday, in a second brief dispatch, Xinhua said police had reopened a probe into the death of Neil Heywood after finding evidence Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, may have been involved in his murder.

Gu has been “transferred to judicial authorities for the suspected crime of intentional homicide” of Heywood, the report said, adding Wang made allegations about the death of the British businessman when he visited the US consulate.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the news, saying he had taken a “personal interest” in the case.

“The Chinese are doing as we asked them to do, and we now look forward to seeing those investigations take place and in due course hearing the outcome of those investigations,” he told Sky News television.

Xinhua said that Gu and and her son had been on “good terms” with Heywood, but they fell out over “economic interests.”

According to results from the new probe, “the existing evidence indicated that Heywood died of homicide, of which Bogu Kailai (Gu Kailai) and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo’s home, are highly suspected,” it added.

The People’s Daily called for “firm support” for the suspension of Bo and probe of his wife, Xinhua reported.

“The Wang Lijun incident is a serious political event leaving very negative impacts at home and abroad, and the death of Neil Heywood is a serious criminal case involving the family and close staff of a party and state leader,” the paper said.

By suspending Bo and investigating his wife, the party had shown its “determination to keep its purity, and the clear stand of the party and government to safeguard party discipline and the laws of the state,” it added.

source from: tuoitrenews

A sex scandal involving Secret Service agents on US President Barack Obama’s trip to Colombia appeared to grow Sunday after visiting American soldiers were also linked to the use of prostitutes.

Eleven members of the service, known for their robust handling of security for senior members of the US government, were suspended and sent home following allegations of misconduct in the resort city of Cartagena.

Five US military personnel are also being investigated for behavior said to have taken place at the same hotel where the Secret Service staff were staying, and they have been taken off duty and confined to barracks.

Obama arrived late Friday in the Caribbean port of Cartagena, under security lockdown for the Summit of the Americas, but the allegations against the Secret Service and military completely overshadowed the gathering of regional leaders.

The misconduct claims were made on Thursday against the Secret Service personnel, who included both special agents and uniformed division officers, though none of them was assigned to Obama’s personal security detail.

Secret Service Assistant Director Paul Morrissey said “the nature of the allegations, coupled with a zero tolerance policy on personal misconduct,” led to the “decisive action to relieve these individuals of their assignment.”

Having been sent back to the United States, the personnel involved were taken to the service’s Washington headquarters for interviews on Saturday as part of the agency’s internal affairs division’s investigation.

“As a result, all 11 employees have been placed on administrative leave. This is standard procedure and allows us the opportunity to conduct a full, thorough and fair investigation into the allegations,” Morrissey said.

The Washington Post, quoting Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, reported that at least one agent had been involved with prostitutes in Cartagena.

Ronald Kessler, a former Post reporter and author of a book on the Secret Service, told CNN the scandal erupted when one of the agents “did not pay one of the prostitutes, and she complained to the police.”

Meanwhile, Republican Representative Peter King, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, told The New York Times that the 11 agents were suspected of bringing women back to their rooms.

While prostitution is legal in designated areas in Colombia, such behavior would violate agency rules of conduct, in part because it could expose the agents to blackmail, facilitate espionage and help an enemy get inside a security perimeter, said King, according to The Times.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Obama had full confidence in the Secret Service.

Shortly after, a statement released by the US military’s Southern Command, tasked with planning and operations in Central and Southern America, said five of its staff had been linked to the same misconduct claims in Cartagena.

Its commander, General Douglas Fraser, was quoted to be “disappointed by the entire incident and that this behavior is not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military.”

He went on to say that “after a thorough investigation, punishment, if appropriate, will take place,” in accordance with military justice.

The revelations came as two small bombs exploded in the capital Bogota, near the US embassy, and another two in Cartagena, though no one was hurt and there was no damage.

The Secret Service, which employs some 3,200 agents and 1,300 uniformed police, has been in the spotlight for a number of notable incidents since Obama took office three years ago.

In late 2009 investigations were launched after an uninvited couple — both aspiring reality TV stars — gatecrashed Obama’s first state dinner at the White House, gaining access to the party and even getting photographed with the president.

The couple from Virginia, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, made headlines after attending the early part of the dinner honoring visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh despite lacking an invitation or Secret Service clearance.

In November last year an agent was charged with second-degree murder after an incident in Hawaii in November ahead of an APEC summit, The Washington Post reported, while another was charged with drunk driving last August while helping to arrange security for an Obama bus-trip in Iowa.

source from: tuoitrenews

The 9 former top executives of the giant shipbuilder Vinashin went on the trial opened in Hai Phong northern city on Tuesday for ‘deliberately violating State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences’.

More than 30 reporters were taken into a private room to follow the trial through a TV with no cameras or tape recorders permitted inside.

At 8:00am, defendant Pham Thanh Binh, former chairman of Vinashin, raised his hands to greet his acquaintances at the court.

At 8:10am, all defendants stood before the court.

As many as 21 attorneys were appointed to denfend the offenders in the court led by  Tran Van Nhien.

According to an indictment announced on the trial, Binh and his accomplices disregarded State laws and regulations on investment, management and use of State capital in the purchase of Hoa Sen ship, investment in construction of the Song Hong thermal power plant in Nam Dinh province and the Cai Lan diesel thermal power plant in Quang Ninh province, sale of a ship named Bach Dang Giang and the financial lease of Binh Dinh Star Ship.

The trial on Vinashin case will last from March 27-30.

File photo of Pham Thanh Binh – former chairman of Vinashin.

Vinashin’s Bach Dang Giang Ship pictured before being sold.

The indictment also showed the economic scandal has caused a total debt of VND910 billion (US$43.54 million) to the state budget.

Pham Thanh Binh and his subordinate To Nghiem were the first questioned by the court.

Nghiem said he ‘basically agreed with the accusations’ while Binh admitted that he “was wrong in the losses” but added “they were results of objective conditions”.

The trial is expected to conclude on March 30.

Vinashin was established in 1996 to develop shipbuilding industry, but suffered financial problems in 2009. The country’s government later introduced reforms to get the embattled shipbuilder back on track.

source from: tuoitrenews

“I have today, upon request from Sten Tolgfors, decided to relieve him (of his duties),” the head of Sweden’s centre-right government told a news conference, hailing the departing minister for his five years on the job.

Reinfeldt stressed that Tolgfors had begun hinting months ago he wanted to leave soon, but acknowledged that media focus on the ongoing scandal had hastened his exit.

“The probe and the questions around this issue will continue… and that is of course a good thing,” Reinfeldt said, adding that Tolgfors would maintain his seat in parliament while Infrastructure Minister Catharina Elmsaeter-Svaerd would temporarily take over the defence portfolio.

Earlier this month public broadcaster Swedish Radio said the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) had secret plans since 2007 to help Saudi Arabia build a plant for the production of anti-tank weapons.

The radio said part of the so-called Project Simoom involved the creation of a shell company called SSTI to handle dealings with Saudi Arabia, in order to avoid any direct links to FOI and the government.

FOI director general Jan-Olof Lind said last week he had reported “a suspected crime” following an internal review, and Swedish prosecutor Agneta Hilding Qvarnstroem opened a preliminary investigation into the affair.

Sweden has in the past sold weapons to Saudi Arabia, but classified government documents state that Project Simoom “pushes the boundaries of what is possible for a Swedish authority,” the radio said when it broke the story on March 6.

The story has dominated Swedish headlines since then, with numerous politicians and public figures critical of Sweden’s plans to provide weapons help to a country they describe as a “dictatorship,” and calls for Tolgfors to resign.

Under pressure to come clean, Tolgfors admitted on March 9 he knew of FOI’s plans to help Riyadh build the factory and of the shell company, but has stressed that no Swedish laws had been broken — something he also reiterated Thursday.

“When it comes to the past weeks’ debate on Saudi Arabia, I have nothing more to add,” Tolgfors told the news conference.

The 45-year-old father of two young children insisted he had already planned to resign, among other things for family reasons, but that “media attention in recent weeks has facilitated and accelerated my decision.”

“I had planned to leave in a few months but it came now instead,” he said.

Opposition parties were quick Thursday to hail Tolgfors’s exit.

“I expect that Sten Tolgfors despite his resignation will take part in questioning by parliament’s constitutional committee to help cast light on what has happened,” Urban Ahlin, a spokesman for the main opposition Social Democrats, told the TT news agency.

Last year, Sweden exported defence material worth a total of 13.9 billion kronor ($2.05 billion, 1.56 billion euros), and Saudi Arabia was the second-biggest buyer, according to TT.

source from: yahoo

Dick Fedorcio stood down a week after the Metropolitan Police said it would start proceedings against him for hiringNeil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the now-closed paper, as a media consultant.

It is the third major resignation from Scotland Yard, after the head of the force and another senior policeman stood down in July last year at the height of the scandal.

“I have today been notified that Dick Fedorcio, the Metropolitan Police Service Director of Public Affairs, has resigned,” Deborah Glass, the deputy head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said in a statement.

She said the watchdog had been investigating the hiring by Scotland Yard of Wallis’s company Chamy Media for media consultancy work, despite the fact that the force was itself probing wrongdoing at the News International tabloid.

Glass said the IPCC sent a report to Scotland Yard’s Directorate of Professional Standards in January recommending that Fedorcio “has a case to answer”.

“Last week the Metropolitan Police Service proposed to initiate proceedings for gross misconduct and I agreed with that proposal.

“In light of Mr Fedorcio’s resignation today, those proceedings cannot now take place and I propose to publish our investigation report detailing our findings in the next few days.”

Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson resigned in July amid reports of own his close ties with Wallis, including allegations that he accepted a free stay at a health spa following an illness, though he denied any wrongdoing.

Another senior police officer John Yates, who oversaw a botched investigation into hacking in 2009, resigned shortly after Stephenson.

An initial 2006 police investigation into hacking led to the jailing of a News of the World journalist and a private detective, but the tabloid insisted it was a one-off.

Allegations emerged in 2009 that the practice was widespread, but police only reopened a full investigation in January 2011.

Since then, dozens of people have been arrested and News International has compensated numerous victims.

source from: yahoo

By Sunday morning, four National Football League teams were linked to a “pay for pain” scandal that came to light in Friday’s NFL announcement that New Orleans Saintsdefensive players were paid for “big hits” that took opponents out of play.

Over the weekend, reports of bounty programs at the Washington Redskins, Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans emerged in The Washington Post, the Buffalo News and The New York Times.

Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, said by the NFL to have orchestrated the Saints scheme, was on the coaching staff at each of the four teams.

The NFL, which is trying to improve its image in the face of

lawsuits by former players over concussion injuries, is likely to mete out its own punishment against teams involved in making bounty payments, which could include suspensions, fines and restrictions on player recruitment.

But pieces of the scandal could well end up in the courts, say legal experts.

CRIMINAL CHARGES

Criminal charges of assault and battery against the teams, including Williams, are possible, said Ryan Rodenberg, an attorney and a sports management professor at Florida State University.

Rodenberg said that in 2000, Canadian prosecutors brought assault charges against Boston Bruins hockey player Marty McSorley for smashing Vancouver Canucks player Donald Brashear in the head with a hockey stick. As a result of the blow, Brashear struck his head on the ice, lost consciousness and suffered memory lapses. McSorley was sentenced to 18 months probation and banned from playing for that period.

Although the case did not involve bounty payments, it illustrates the willingness of prosecutors to get involved in situations involving intentional hits, Rodenberg said. Criminal charges related to the bounty scandal could arise from the various jurisdictions where injuries occurred.

Federal prosecutors could also bring charges, said Paul Callan, a former New York City prosecutor who is an attorney at New York’s Callan, Koster, Brady & Brennan. If bounties were paid for games played outside a team’s home state, then interstate telephone calls, computer use and travel could trigger federal charges, he said.

Possible charges could include wire fraud, conspiracy and racketeering, Callan said. Tax evasion charges were another possibility for the money that players earned for making big hits.

“Things could get interesting,” Callan said.

EXTENT OF WRONGDOING

Both Rodenberg and Callan said the extent of the wrongdoing would determine if battery, conspiracy and racketeering charges would ensue. The more likely scenario at this point, they said, was for state and federal authorities to let the NFL deal with the problem.

Messages seeking comments for this story from the four NFL teams were not returned.

In a statement on Friday, Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, confirmed that the system had been in place at the Saints.

“It was a terrible mistake and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it. Instead of getting caught up in it, I should have stopped it,” he said.

“I take full responsibility for my role”.

Bills CEO Russ Brandon denied knowledge of any such payment system while Williams was head coach, telling the Buffalo News, “We would not have tolerated that type of behavior.”

On the civil side of the law, one possibility is a class action, Callan said.

Fans who had tickets to games involving bounty payments could assert they paid to watch games based solely on athletic ability, not on side bets for taking players out, Callan said. Damages likely would be limited to the price of the tickets, but considering the value of those tickets and the thousands of fans who attend, the damages could add up quickly, he said.

The claims could be similar to those made in a 2007 lawsuit seeking class-action status. In that case, a New York Jets season ticketholder sued the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick. The lawsuit claimed that the Patriots deceived fans by secretly videotaping the Jets coaches making hand signals. In 2010, a federal appeals court threw out the case, ruling that attending an “honest” game was not a viable claim.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to hear the case.

A NEW PRECEDENT?

Ticketholders considering class actions against the Saints and other teams should note that the appeals court in 2010 wrote in its ruling that the case was unlike others it had considered, which could leave room for subsequent cases. The appeals court limited its ruling to the contractual relationship between team and ticketholder.

Other civil claims could include battery and conspiracy made by injured players. In their defense, the Saints and other teams likely would argue that even if bounty payments had occurred, the opposing players assumed the risk of injury and could not recover for them, said Kenneth Shropshire, an attorney at law firm Duane Morris in Philadelphia and professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. That defense could be persuasive to a court, he said.

“This is a violent sport that they volunteer to participate in. That’s just the mentality of the game,” he said.

Linda Greene, professor at University of Wisconsin Law School, said that the assumption-of-the-risk defense could fail if the bounty payments had so changed the terms of play that the hits were beyond what was normal.

Proving damages under any battery claims would take a meticulous analysis of the particular hits in question to determine if they were beyond the usual bounds of play, Greene said.

Any claims or charges would be subject to statutes of limitations, legal experts said. Determining which jurisdictions’ laws applied and when the alleged conduct began and ended likely would be major points of contention.

source from: yahoo