City’s pornography archive disappears

By Calvin Palmer

The pornography archive belonging to the Dutch city of Leeuwarden has gone missing.

The municipal archive, which contained photographs, drawings and erotic texts with a connection to the city, may have been taken home “accidentally” by an employee or visitor, said Erik Krikke, a spokesman for the city’s historical center.

“We’re hoping that someone will say ‘Hey, I have that in my attic’ and bring it back, no questions asked,” he said today.

Krikke said the bulk of the archive had been assembled by a “fanatic” curator at the historical center, mostly during the 1960s and 1970s. Items such as pictures by local photographers and artists would be difficult or impossible to replace.

The collection included a copy of the rare February 1998 edition of Dutch Playboy, Krikke said. It featured girls from each of 11 Dutch cities along the route of the country’s most beloved ice skating race, the Elfstedentocht. One of those girls was from Leeuwarden.

Krikke agreed that it was unusual for a city to have a pornography archive and that made the loss even greater.

Ferd Crone, the Mayor of Leeuwarden, which lies 87 miles north of Amsterdam, said he had been unaware of the collection’s existence and was surprised it was gone.

[Based on a report by newsday.com.]

Gregg cites ‘irresolvable conflicts’ with Obama and withdraws nomination

By Calvin Palmer

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire today withdrew his nomination as Commerce Secretary, citing “irresolvable conflicts” with President Barack Obama’s handling of the economic stimulus and plans to revamp the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department.

“This was a great honour and I had felt that I could bring some views and ideas that would assist in governing during this difficult time. I especially admire his willingness to reach across the aisle,” Gregg said.

“However, it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me.

“Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy.”

Gregg, 61, is a former New Hampshire governor who previously served in the House. He has been in the Senate since 1993 and currently serves as the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, where he is known as a crusader against big spending.

[Based on reports by the Associated Press and The Times.]

U.S. regulators investigate Stanford’s investment firm and bank

By Calvin Palmer

Texan billionaire and cricket enthusiast Sir Allen Stanford appears to be on the back foot. A U.S. official revealed today that Stanford’s investment firm and Caribbean bank, which have delivered higher-than-average returns to investors and depositors despite the global financial meltdown, are being investigated by U.S. financial regulators.

Yesterday, Stanford  announced his $20 million (£14 million) showpiece Twenty20 cricket match will not be staged again, although he is in the advanced stages of negotiating a new three-year deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board for an annual quadrangular tournament at Lord’s featuring his Stanford Superstars XI.

The U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity said investigators visited Florida offices of the Houston-based Stanford Group Co. in January as part of a investigation that dates back at least three months.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation are trying to determine if the investment company and bank violated financial regulations or laws as they prospered and maintained high rates of return on certificates of deposit in recent years, the official said.

A spokeswoman for the Florida agency, Holly Hinson, confirmed its investigation but said she could not disclose details.

A Stanford spokesman denied anything was unusual about the regulators’ visit last month to company offices in Florida.

“We were informed by the three agencies that this was a routine examination,” said spokesman Brian Bertsch.

Stanford, 58, is one of the most prominent businessmen in the Caribbean, with investment advisers around the world helping him grow a personal fortune estimated at $2.2 billion (£1.4 billion) by Forbes magazine, which ranks him as America’s 205th richest man.

He holds dual citizenship having become a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda 10 years ago.  He became the first American to be knighted by that Commonwealth nation, in 2006 ,in a ceremony conducted by Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex.

Stanford International Bank Ltd., said deposits grew from $624 million (£437 million) in 1999 to $8.4 billion (£5.8 billion) in December. The bank is based in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which has carved out a niche as a tax haven and offshore base for Internet gambling.

The bank says on its Web site it is able to pay higher interest to depositors “by channeling available resources into profitable activity” through investing and by having lower administrative costs by relying on “services and support of wholly owned Stanford affiliates located throughout the world”.

Some analysts say that its performance has raised concern.

L. Burke Files, president of a Tempe, Arizona-based due diligence firm that specializes in offshore financial organizations, said he steered a client away from Stanford in part because the bank’s CD rates were two to five times higher than the competition, and because the returns seemed to avoid the market swings that show up in the accounts of even the best investors.

“The consistency of returns gave me significant pause,” Files said. “How is this guy smarter than the very smart people at other big-name financial institutions?”

The investigation of his financial group was reported earlier today by Business Week and Bloomberg News.

The SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority declined to comment as a matter of policy.

The U.S. official said the Stanford probe predates the investigation of money manager Bernard Madoff, who was arrested in December after allegedly confessing to his sons that he had swindled investors out of $50 billion (£35 billion) in a Ponzi scheme.

Stanford International Bank recently told depositors in a letter posted on its Web site that it had no exposure to Madoff funds and that it was in compliance with financial regulators in Antigua.

Independent Florida-based analyst Alex Dalmady recently raised questions about Stanford in a financial journal, saying its returns appear too good to be true.

Bertsch said the Stanford Group disputes Dalmady’s findings: “We see this report as the opinion of an isolated analyst. We obviously disagree with him.”

[Based on reports by the Associated Press, The Daily Telegraph and The Times.]

Police identify man dragged by van as 26-year-old immigrant from Ecuador

By Calvin Palmer

The pedestrian dragged 17 miles through the streets of New York City by a van after he was hit by an SUV was identified today as a 26-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant recently laid off from a construction job.

A cousin identified the man as Guido Salvador Carabajo-Jara, police said.

Officers had found only a business card, Western Union receipt and iPhone in his pockets after his battered body was discovered in Brooklyn yesterday morning.

Police said the gruesome death was accidental and that they have no plans to charge the two drivers, who both have clean driving records.

An autopsy is due to be carried out today to determine when Carabajo-Jara died. The miles of being dragged wore off the hair on the back of his head, his clothing, and skin on his legs and buttocks.

Carabajo-Jara was apparently unmarried and shared an apartment in Queens with his cousin and sister, police said.

A relative, Ignacio Quintero, said Carabajo-Jara had a 4-year-old daughter in Ecuador and sent money back to his family there to care for the girl. He described Carabajo-Jara as a hard worker whose mission was to provide for his child and save enough money to build a home in Ecuador.

He was hit yesterday morning by a sports utility vehicle in the Corona section of Queens, while apparently crossing against the light. The driver, Gustavo Acosta, called police, who arrived to find the victim of the accident gone.

About two vehicles behind Manual Lituma Sanchez ran over Carabajo-Jara with his van, and Carabajo-Jara became hooked to the underside of the vehicle. Unaware of anything wrong, Lituma Sanchez drove to Brooklyn, ending up in Brighton Beach, where he worked as a delivery man, police said.

At one point, he even suspected something was wrong, pulled over and checked under the hood. But he did not look under the car.

The van traveled for nearly an hour before a pedestrian alerted Lituma Sanchez to something dragging under his van. It was only then that he saw the body and called authorities.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Britain bars Dutch MP because of his anti-Islamic views

By Calvin Palmer

Britain today barred far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders from entering the country because of his anti-Islamic views.

Wilders had been invited by a member of the House of Lords, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, to show his 15-minute film Fitna, which criticizes the Koran as “fascist book”.

On Tuesday Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary refused Wilders entry because his opinions “would threaten community security and therefore public security” in the United Kingdom.

Wilders went ahead with his trip anyway, and flew from Amsterdam to London on a British Midland flight. When he arrived at Heathrow airport he was met by two plain clothed officers from the U.K .Border Agency.

As he was being led away, Wilders said: “I am not nervous but is this how Great Britain welcomes a democrat?”

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said Holland would press for a reversal of the travel ban.

Earlier on the flight, Wilders said the British Government was “the biggest bunch of cowards in Europe”.

“It is easy to invite people you agree with, it is more difficult to invite people you disagree with and this is the proof of the pudding,” he said.

“I am going to Great Britain because I was invited by another politician I am a democrat, I am serving freedom of speech. They are not only being nasty to me they are being nasty to freedom of speech.”

He added: “They (the British government) are more Chamberlain than Churchill.” 

Yesterday, Lord Pearson said the screening of the film would go ahead with or without Wilders.

In a joint statement, he and cross-bench peer Baroness Cox said they were “promoting freedom of speech” and accused the Government of “appeasing” militant Islam.

They added: “Geert Wilders’ Fitna film, available on the Web, is not a threat to anyone. It merely suggests how the Koran has been used by militant Islamists to promote and justify their violence.

“They react in fury and menace to our intention to show the film and have boasted that their threats of aggressive demonstrations prevented its previous showing in the Mother of Parliaments.”

When accused of appeasment, Home Office minister Lord West of Spithead said: “I certainly don’t think we are guilty of appeasement in any way whatsoever. The Government and I are great believers in freedom of expression.

“This is based not purely on Fitna, on that particular film. It is based on a range of factors, including prosecution in the Netherlands for incitement and discrimination and for other statements as well.”

The National Secular Society said the Home Secretary had made a mistake in denying an application by a “democratically-elected politician from a sovereign state who wants to come and express an opinion”.

The ban was supported by the Muslim Council of Great Britain. A spokesman said: “Geert Wilders has been an open and relentless preacher of hate — there is little difference between his views and those of the far right.”

But the Quilliam Foundation, a Muslim think tank devoted to fighting extremism, said he should have been allowed into the country so that his views could be challenged “through debate and argument”.

“Freedom of speech should be protected — so long as people do not use this freedom to call for violence against others,” the foundation said in a statement.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph, The Times and Associated Press.]

Court throws out parents’ claims that MMR vaccines cause autism

By Calvin Palmer

A special court ruled today that vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) are not to blame for autism in children, as some parents claimed.

Judges said the evidence was overwhelmingly contrary to the parents’ claims and backed by years of science that found no risk.

“It was abundantly clear that petitioners’ theories of causation were speculative and unpersuasive,” the court concluded in one of a trio of cases ruled on today.

More than 5,500 claims have been filed by families seeking compensation through the government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The claims are reviewed by special masters serving on the U.S. Court of Claims.

“Hopefully, the determination by the special masters will help reassure parents that vaccines do not cause autism,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

The head of one consumer group, the National Vaccine Information Center, said the court’s ruling will do little to change the minds of most parents who suspect a link between vaccines and autism and called for more studies.

Well, that is perfectly understandable as a great many Americans do not believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.  And a great many Americans swallow every piece of junk science that is carried by the media.

“I think it is a mistake to conclude that, because these few test cases were denied compensation, it’s been decided vaccines don’t play any role in regressive autism,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, the center’s president.

The parents’ claims stem from a study published 11 years ago in the British medical journal The Lancet that linked the MMR vaccine to autism.

On Sunday, The Times newspaper ran a story questioning the veracity of the data behind that study. Other stories have disputed the original vaccine claims and repeated studies of MMR have shown no link of the vaccine to autism.

Just how many studies will it take to convince Loe Fisher.  Or is it a case that she will never learn what she doesn’t want to know?

To win the case, the attorneys of parents had to show that it was more likely than not that the autism symptoms in the children were directly related to a combination of the measles-mumps-rubella shots and other shots that at the time carried a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal.

But the court concluded that “the weight of scientific research and authority” was “simply more persuasive on nearly every point in contention.”

“It’s a great day for science, it’s a great day for America’s children when the court rules in favor of science.” said Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The court still has to rule on separate claims from other families who contend that, rather than a specific vaccine combination, the lone culprit could be thimerosal, a preservative that is no longer in most routine children’s vaccines. But in today’s rulings, the court may have sent a signal on those cases, too.

“The petitioners have failed to demonstrate that thimerosal-containing vaccines can contribute to causing immune dysfunction,” a judge wrote about one theory that the families proposed to explain how autism might be linked.

In 2001, parents began filing petitions for compensation through the vaccine compensation program.

The petitioners originally sought to present three different theories of how vaccines could cause autism. For each theory, there were to be three test cases.

[Based on reports by the Houston Chronicle and The Washington Post.]

Police release photo-fit of arson suspect as Aussie stars help raise A$20m

By Calvin Palmer

Victoria Police today released a photo-fit image of a suspected arsonist who is believed to have started a fire in Ivanhoe, northeast of Melbourne.

He was apparently seen in the area wearing black trousers, a polo shirt and yellow sunglasses and carrying a black rucksack.

Photo-fit released by Victoria Police.

The release of the photo-fit came after last night’s fund-raising telethon on Channel 9,  where a galaxy of Australian stars helped to raise funds for the victims of Australia’s worst ever bushfires.

Police are also searching for another suspect believed to have started a fire in Churchill, in the Gipplsand area, that killed 21 people and destroyed more than 100 homes.

Christine Nixon, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, said today that arsonists may have also been responsible for the fire that virtually wiped out the town of Marysville.

John Brumby, the Premier of Victoria, added a fire at Mansfield to the list of those being blamed on arsonists.

“There would seem to be no doubt at all that that fire’s been deliberately lit. It’s devastating,” Mr Brumby said. “I think words escape us all when it comes to describing that deliberate arson.”

Two men were taken into custody today after reports of suspicious behavior near Yea, 12 miles north of Marysville, where up to 100 people may have died. They were released without charge.

Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister, today announced a national day of mourning.

Last night, Australia’s highest profile stars helped raise more than A$20 million ($13 million, £9 million) in the Australia Unites telethon.

The televisions show saw the likes of Russell Crowe, Shane Warne, Rove McManus, Kate Ritchie, Megan Gale, Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom help raise much-needed funds.

Other stars including Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman, Rachel Griffiths, Naomi Watts, Anthony LaPlagia and Simon Baker could not get back from the United  States in time but recorded messages of support that were played throughout the night.

Channel 9 executive director Jeff Browne said the Australia Unites appeal had been an incredible undertaking.

“We have been overwhelmed at Channel 9 by the generosity of people wanting to donate money, goods and services to assist Victoria’s bushfire victims,” he said.

“We are humbled by all that and only hope that Australia Unites provides not only some tangible assistance to those in need but also some comfort to those who are grieving by demonstrating solidarity and good old Australian mateship.”

Sony Music last night launched a fund-raising album, Bushfire Aid: Artists for the Bushfire Appeal.

The album features tracks by Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Midnight Oil, John Butler Trio, Hoodoo Gurus, Delta Goodrem, John Farnham, Jessica Mauboy and Wes Carr.

Proceeds from sales of the album will go to the Salvation Army Bushfire Relief Appeal.

[Based on reports by The Times, The Daily Telegraph and Melbourne Herald Sun.]

Topless protesters expose ‘naked cruelty’ of foie gras

By Calvin Palmer

Animal rights protesters braved cool conditions in London today to go topless and lay bare what they say is the “naked cruelty” involved in creating foie gras.

Topless girls from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) waved heart-shaped signs, with the slogan “Have a heart – drop foie gras” outside Selfridges on Oxford Street in temperatures of no more than 43 degrees.

Peta protesters outside Selfridges, London. Picture courtesy of The Independent.

They said the store should follow Waitrose, House of Fraser, Sainsbury’s and other British grocery chains that have stopped stocking foie gras.

Peta Europe director Robbie LeBlanc said: “Peta supporters are quite willing to go ‘starkers’ to expose the naked cruelty behind this ‘torture in a tin’.

“Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for Selfridges to show geese a little love by ending foie gras sales.”

Foie gras is a pate typically created by force-feeding ducks and geese, which the group claims makes the birds’ livers become diseased and expand to up to 10 times their normal size, leaving the ducks and geese sick and many unable to move.

It said some bleed to death after their throats are punctured by the feeding pipe and the death rate for force-fed birds is more than 1,000 times higher.

Peta said polls show nearly two-thirds of Britons believe that foie gras sales should be banned.

[Based on a report by The Independent.]

Pornography smuggled into prison in the guise of legal letters

By Calvin Palmer

Letters from legal advisers have been used to smuggle hard-core pornography into a British prison that specializes in housing prisoners serving five years or more for sexual offences.

Police have been alerted after such material was sent to inmates at Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire in envelopes bearing the franking marks of law firms.

According to regulations known as Rule 39, authorities are not routinely allowed to open, read or stop legally privileged correspondence.

In a letter obtained by the Yorkshire Post, head of the prison’s security Bruce Stevens stated: “On several occasions prisoners have received, or attempted to receive, mail that is an abuse of the Rule 39 provisions.

“These abuses include the trafficking of hard-core pornography and other illicit items. I should stress that we do not suspect any law firm is involved in this matter. The abuse has involved the production of envelopes bearing law firms’ franking marks. The matter has been passed to the police.”

The letter was written in November last year. West Yorkshire Police today said no investigations were ongoing.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “We take these incidents seriously and investigate any allegations of breaches.

“We have established processes in place for dealing with Rule 39 to ensure that the confidential legal relationships between solicitors and their clients are maintained while also ensuring security is not compromised.”

Wakefield Prison, said by the Prison Service to hold prisoners “serving over five years primarily for sexual offences or those who have previously committed sexual offences”, housed 751 inmates as of November 2007, including around 100 Category A and 10 High Risk Category A prisoners.

Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, called for a shake-up of the rules, warning that security loopholes could have serious consequences.

Mr Caton, who worked in Wakefield Prison for 20 years, said: “We really need to look at the rules governing what can be transmitted to prisoners without it being looked at.

“I’m not for any kind of interference at all in prisoners’ ability to receive legal documents. But what is clear is that if prisoners can receive pornographic material through the post, they can receive other materials that could be more dangerous.”

He said it used to be common for prison officers to open and check post received from legal advisers without reading the contents, but the practice had become rarer due to time constraints on staff.

[Based on a report by The Independent.]