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Kreatov blog SUBOTA, 06.06.2009.
Paterson and Unions Agree on Limits for New Pensions Sviđa mi se
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lipanj, 2009
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Lipanj 2009 (8)
David A. Paterson and the state’s public employee unions announced an agreement on Friday that would reduce pension benefits for future public employees and save the state billions of dollars in an attempt to control ballooning costs for retirees. Enlarge This Image Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Gov. David A. Paterson, arriving at a news conference on Friday, called a pension deal “a huge win” for state taxpayers.
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To win their support for the deal, the governor provided the unions with significant incentives and backed off earlier demands for concessions from current employees. Opis bloga
Mr. Paterson will shelve his plan to lay off 8,700 workers and will drop a proposal to require existing workers to give up their 3 percent annual pay raise this year and to defer a week’s pay. In addition, 4,500 workers will be offered $20,000 buyouts. Paterson administration officials said the agreement would save the state $30 billion over 30 years, but much of the savings will not be realized for another decade. “This agreement is a huge win for New York’s taxpayers and will lead to the most significant reform of our public pension system in decades,” the governor said in a statement. “This is real reform to the pension system, which will substantially reduce costs to the taxpayers of New York State.” The agreement will raise the retirement age for future employees from 55 to 62, and require them to contribute 3 percent of their salaries to their pensions for their entire careers, instead of for their first decade of service, which is the current requirement. New workers will not become vested in the pension plan until they reach 10 years of service, rather than the current five. The deal will also limit the amount of overtime that employees can use in their last years of work to increase their pension benefits. The agreement requires legislative approval, though endorsements by the governor and the labor unions virtually assure its success. The deal covers state workers and local governments outside New York City; the Paterson administration hopes to negotiate a similar agreement for New York City employees, but city unions are adamantly opposed to doing so. New York City has its own retirement system. The deal also does not affect police officers, correction officers, teachers and firefighters. The urgency of the need for changes in retirement benefits was underscored last week when the state comptroller’s office reported that the pension fund, hobbled by losses amid the market’s collapse, had shrunk to $109.9 billion at the end of March from $153.9 billion a year earlier. The deal comes days after Mr. Paterson shocked and angered police and fire union leaders by refusing to allow new officers and firefighters across the state to continue to enroll in enviable pension benefits that were phased out in the 1970s for other public employees. The governor vetoed routine legislation that would have extended the benefits — similar bills have been signed by a series of governors going back to 1981. While his veto was praised by budget watchdogs as a sign of rare resolve from the governor, his latest labor deal received mixed reviews. - 09:23 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
Pakistan Swat leader aides killed Sviđa mi se
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Fighters in Pakistan have killed two aides of a Muslim religious leader as they were being transported to Peshawar by a military convoy, Pakistani army reports say. The convoy was ambushed by fighters on Saturday as it was carrying the two men from Malakand town to Peshawar in the country's northwest. One soldier was also killed in the attack. The two detained men were aides to Sufi Muhammad, the Swat religious leader who had negotiated a failed peace agreement between the government and the Taliban in Swat. "Spokesman Ameer Izzat and Mohammad Alam, a deputy of Islamist cleric Sufi Muhammad, died in the terrorist attack," a military statement said. The dead men had been arrested by the military on Thursday, along with three Afghan nationals. Sufi Muhammad had brokered a deal that allowed the Taliban to enforce its strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, in Malakand district, in return for its fighter laying down their arms, but the deal fell apart in April, soon after it was instated. Suicide blast The convoy attack comes just one day after a suicide bombing at a mosque in Upper Dir, which borders Swat, killed at least 30 people. "People tried to intercept him because he looked like an outsider, someone who does not belong to this area,'' Khan said. The incident was the latest in a surge of violent episodes thought to be in response to the military's campaign against the Taliban in Swat. Since late April, the military has focused a concerted air and ground assault against Taliban fighters in Swat. General Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistan army chief, was quoted in a statement as saying the military had succeeded in clearing much of the area. "The tide in Swat has decisively turned . Major population centres and roads leading to the valley have been largely cleared of organised resistance by the terrorists," he said. But his words come against a backdrop of attacks on civilian targets in retaliation for the military offensive. Pakistan has been rocked by more than a dozen bomb blasts that have killed over 100 people since the end of April, with Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, and the cultural capital, Lahore, both hit. The United States has strongly supported the Pakistani military operation. Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was in Islamabad on Friday to consult the country's leaders on what needs to be done after confronting the Taliban in the Swat valley. - 09:17 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
Brown refuses to resign amid crisis Sviđa mi se
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Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister, has reshuffled his government and refused to resign amid a leadership crisis sparked by the resignation of several of his cabinet ministers. Brown told a news conference in London following his changes that he was determined to take the country through difficult economic times and said: "I will get on with the job and I will finish the work." The reshuffle comes a day after Britain went to the polls in European and local elections, in which voters were expected to express their anger over a scandal regarding the expenses of several politicians. The main change in government saw Alan Johnson, widely seen as a rival to Brown's position, promoted from health to interior minister, while Alistair Darling, finance minister, retained his role despite rumours he would lose his job. Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera's correspondent in London, said the prime minister's decision not to resign was not a surprise given how much Brown had craved the job in the first place. Fisher said Brown faced an uphill battle to win the next election and that "he has a lot of work to do to reconnect with the public". - 09:04 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
Solicitor jailed for inciting murder Sviđa mi se
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A solicitor caught inciting murder when police bed his conversations with a suspected terrorist client inside a police station was jailed for 10 years today.
Manmohan "Johnny" Sandhu, 44, from Colby Street, Londonderry, had changed his plea to guilty of inciting loyalist paramilitaries for murder on the third day of his trial last week. The Indian-born lawyer also pleaded guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice and another of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. He was given three years on each count, to run concurrently with a ten-year sentence. The lawyer stood head bowed in the dock at Belfast Crown Court when the Judge Mr Justice Deeny told him: "It was a wicked thing to incite men of violence to murder an innocent man. "This was all the more so when you were a solicitor and he was already a victim and a potential witness in a forthcoming trial. "Such conduct must be deserving of a severe sentence." The judge said: "There was a very grave breach of trust by the accused as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland given privileged access to his clients in a police station." He added: "That abusive trust took place not on a single occasion but on a number of occasions over a period of months in 2005." The Law Society swiftly suspended Sandhu after he pleaded guilty. The judge said they would now have to consider his future membership of the profession in accordance with laid-down procedures. But he said: "It seems to me quite unrealistic to expect that a man who has offended in this way could possibly be allowed to practice as a solicitor again." Sandhu was arrested in January 2006 on the basis of his taped conversations with loyalist paramilitary clients at the serious crime suite in Antrim police station during 2005 and 2006. He denied the charges and fought to prevent the evidence being used against him until his trial last week when, on day three of what was expected to be a six-week trial, he pleaded guilty. The charges against Sandhu, who arrived in Northern Ireland with his parents from India at the age of four, arose from the attempted murder of a taxi driver and the murders of two men during a power strle between the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force and Loyalist Volunteer Force in 2005. As well as incitement to murder, he was accused of attempting to frustrate police investigations into the UVF murders of Jameson Lockhart and Andrew Cully and using his role as a solicitor to keep members of a terrorist organisation informed of the progress of police investigations. Police used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to record the lawyer-client conversations. The use of the law was challenged as far as the House of Lords which ruled in March that it did allow for the surveillance of privileged communications. It was the first such conviction of a lawyer in Northern Ireland and Mr Justice Deeny said: "The needs of an orderly and civilised society demands that persons charged with serious criminal offences should be able to avail of legal advice. "The public have an interest in the acquittal of the innocent as well as the conviction of the guilty. "On foot of such a need, the legislature and the courts have enshrined the rights of suspects to consult with their solicitors in these circumstances. "It is a pernicious and dangerous abuse of that right for a solicitor to go beyond the role of legal adviser in the way that this accused has done. "It is a grave breach of trust. Reading the interviews the picture is not that of an officer of the court discharging his duty to his client but of an enthusiastic gang member." The Law Society of Northern Ireland said Sandhu's actions were a betrayal of his profession. Society president Barry Finlay said: "The profession regards Mr Manmohan Sandhu's behaviour as totally deplorable. This morning's sentence is entirely appropriate and reflects the gravity of his offences. "Every solicitor's duty is to uncompromisingly uphold the rule of law. Mr Sandhu has betrayed his duty to do so and in so doing he has betrayed his profession and his professional colleagues. "On the same day that Mr Sandhu pleaded guilty last week, the Law Society met in emergency special council, suspended him from practice forthwith and resolved to refer him to the independent Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for further action." Meanwhile, the Public Prosecution Service said the conviction of the solicitor had raised important issues with regard to legal professional privilege. Pamela Atchison, a senior lawyer with the PPS, said the right of a person detained in police custody to consult privately with a solicitor was an important safeguard which was recognised in domestic law and European jurisprudence. Such consultations were usually subject to legal professional privilege - meaning their content could not be used as evidence in any criminal prosecution against either solicitor or his client, she said. However, she added: "Legal professional privilege does not include communications which are made for the purpose of obtaining advice on the commission of a future crime, or communications which are part of a crime." - 09:02 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
Public urged to back sexual health campaign Sviđa mi se
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People in the UK are being urged to sign a petition calling on governments in 179 countries to improve the sexual and reproductive health of young people across the world.
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is asking people in the UK and worldwide to sign the Count Me In: Sexual Rights For All petition, as part of its 15andCounting campaign, launched this week. The charity is aiming to collect a million signatures, which they will present to the United Nations (UN) in New York on October 12. This year is the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development where 179 governments agreed on a 20 year programme of action to improve the sexual and reproductive health of everyone - forming part of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. IPPF said that with only five years remaining to meet their commitments, many governments are failing to make progress against these goals, particularly in meeting the needs of young people. According to the IPPF more than 200 million young women worldwide still do not have access to the contraceptives they require and only 17% of sexually active young people use contraceptives. Although young people in the UK have access to safe abortion, contraception and maternal health services, the country has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe and STIs are widespread, the IPPF said. Paul Bell from the 15andCounting campaign, said: "While the UK has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe, the UK Government has made a commitment to making sex and relationships education a statutory subject in the national curriculum, long the missing link in the teenage and sexual health strategies. This can only be good news in improving the long-term health and wellbeing of our children and young people. "Yet around the world the health and wellbeing of more than 1.5 billion young people is being jeopardised for want of political and financial commitment to young people's sexual health. "This is completely unacceptable and we urge people across Britain, as well as the rest of the world, to join our campaign and sign the 15andCounting petition, which will be presented to the UN in October to pursued governments to deliver on their promises." The IPPF's campaign is aiming to help people like Johanna, a 15 year old Bolivian prostitute. She said: "It is not good living in the streets but I would rather be here then at a government institution, where I wouldn't get to see my friends. I know all about STIs and HIV - Tina (a nurse from CIES, IPPF's Bolivian affiliate) talks a lot about it. I don't have a boyfriend but if I did I would try to make him use a condom but that's not an easy thing to do. I don't always use a condom with my clients because they don't want to use one. They pay less if they are made to use one and my boss doesn't let me either." A Department of Health spokesperson said: "The department, working with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, is undertaking an extensive programme of work to improve sexual health, particularly targeting those groups at highest risk including young people. Progress is being made, there has been a 10.7% fall in the under-18 conception rate since 1998 reversing the previous upward trend. - 08:58 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
D-Day hero gets his due Sviđa mi se
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Sixty-five years after he stormed a small, bloody section of Omaha Beach in the early overcast hours of D-Day, retired Boston firefighter James Garabee and his unheralded group of Army Rangers are receiving their long-overdue moment in the sun. “I’m going back,” said Gabaree, 84, of Newburyport, before boarding his flight to France this week. His unit, the Army’s 5th Ranger Battalion - which fought beside the storied 2nd Ranger Battalion, featured in the film “Saving Private Ryan” and highlighted by history - will be recognized today for the lives they lost on the beach, in a battle that was one of the turning points of World War II.
“This time they’re finally going to acknowledge some of 5th Rangers,” said Gabaree, who added his unit has been overshadowed in the public eye by the 2nd Rangers. “This time they’re going to acknowledge us. There’s a great honor in that.” Gabaree hit Omaha Beach the morning of June 6, 1944, and snaked through enemy fire with three mine-clearing Bangalore torpedoes on his back, knowing any one of the thousands of German bullets that rained on them could detonate the 5-pound explosives, killing him and likely anyone nearby. He placed one near a wire barricade and blasted it clear. His unit moved through the smoky chasm, dodging machine gun and sniper fire, pushing on to a rendezvous point. When his group of 23 arrived at the area where they expected to meet 500 others and join the push to Pointe Du Hoc, they were the only ones there. “We didn’t know whether the invasion failed, or if everyone had been killed,” he recalled. “We just kept on going. That’s how we were trained.” Later in the day, while his unit was sky-lined against a cliff’s edge, some German bullets found their mark. “We were getting annihilated,” Gabaree said. “The first scout was shot and I got shot in the back . . . They pulled me into a defilated area and I put on the bandage.” Gabaree’s unit kept moving forward, while he languished for two days before American soldiers found him and took him to an aid station. Lying alone, he said he battled fatigue, thirst and hallucinations, and also shot a German who tried to kill him. Of the nearly 200,000 Allied troops who made good the largest amphibious invasion in history, Gabaree is one of the few who still remain. He spent 20 years as a Boston firefighter in Hyde Park and Charlestown and also created a successful career in real estate before retiring. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government last year, that nation’s highest civilian or military honor. As time passes and the current generation recalls D-Day only through movies and video games, Gabaree said some French still recall the real blood spilled that day. - 08:56 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
Penguins shift quick Sviđa mi se
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Two games into the Stanley Cup championship series, all signs pointed to a Red Wings redux. They may be older and more worn-down than the youthful and energized Pittsburgh Penguins, but experience, guile and winning history seemed more than enough to carry Detroit to a repeat. That’s how it played out last year. The Red Wings won the first two games in Detroit, split the next two in Pittsburgh, then wrapped up their 11th championship in six games.
Why would this time be different? A 5-minute stretch in the second period of Game 4 on Thursday turned around the series, and the opinions of many watching it. Instead of carrying a 3-1 lead back to Hockeytown, the defending champions are locked in a 2-2 fight. Game 5 is tonight in Detroit, and a return to Pittsburgh for Game 6 is a sure thing. “If you listen to what people on the outside say, Pittsburgh was done after two games. I don’t think anybody in our locker room thought that,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said yesterday. “Now if you listen to what people on the outside say, the Red Wings are done after two games. I don’t think that’s what we think. “What we think is that we’ve got a best-of-three, with two in our building, and we’re going to come here and play well.” After the NHL crammed the first five games into an eight-day stretch, including back-to-back contests to start the series, there will be two days off before Games 6 and two more before 7, should it go the distance. That could be what the Red Wings need to get their legs back. The return of leading scorer Pavel Datsyuk, who has missed seven games because of a foot injury, would provide a major boost. Babcock said yesterday that Datsyuk will play. The Russian forward nearly got back in the lineup Thursday, after skating in the pregame warmup, but was ruled out again. While the Penguins felt better about the first two games than they did a year ago when they failed to score, much of the talk was about missed opportunities and bad breaks. Now, after two 4-2 triumphs in front of a white-clad crowd yearning for Pittsburgh’s first hockey championship since 1992, the Penguins suddenly look like the favorites. “As a team, we’re always focused on what we need to do,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “Hopefully we bring that levelheaded approach, whether it’s a loss or whether it’s a win. We’re no closer to the end than they are.” Elsewhere in the NHL - A Toronto-based group has come forward with a proposal to launch a second NHL franchise in the city in time for the 2012-13 season. The Toronto Legacy Group sested during a news conference that about $900 million in financing already is in place for the proposed expansion team. - 08:53 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
Air France replacing sensors in response to crash Sviđa mi se
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Days after Air France Flight 447 vanished, an intensive international effort has failed to recover any confirmed wreckage and concern grew today about whether searchers were even looking in the right place. Air France, meanwhile, told its pilots in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that it is replacing instruments that affect flight speed in all its bigger jets. Investigators have focused on the equipment’s possible role in the disaster. Brazilian officials first reported Tuesday that military pilots had spotted wreckage from Flight 447 scattered across the ocean’s surface, but pieces pulled out Thursday turned out to be unrelated to the plane.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Ramon Cardoso insisted Friday that at least some of the debris spotted from the air — an airplane seat, a slick of kerosene and other pieces — are from the plane that vanished Sunday with 228 people on board. The Brazilian air force also distributed images pinpointing where the material was found. "This is the material that we’ve seen that really was part of the plane," Cardoso said. But officials said extremely poor visibility has hampered efforts to guide ships to the spot where the debris was sighted, and France’s Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau said his own country’s searchers have found no signs of the Airbus A330. "French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent," Bussereau told France’s RTL radio. "Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing." A French Defense Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, also questioned the Brazilian claims, saying French teams "cannot precisely confirm the zone where the plane went down." Aviation officials have said the crash investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane’s speed too fast or slow — a potentially deadly mistake in severe turbulence. Airbus has said the French agency investigating the crash found the doomed flight received inconsistent airspeed readings by different instruments as it strled with severe turbulence in a massive thunderstorm. The Air France memo says the company will finish replacing the instruments — known as Pitot tubes — in "coming weeks." It does not say when the replacement process started and the company declined to comment on the advisory, saying it was meant for pilots only. The L-shaped metal Pitot tubes jut from the wing or fuselage of a plane, and are heated to prevent icing. The pressure of air entering the tubes lets sensors measure the speed and angle of flight. An iced-over, blocked or malfunctioning Pitot tube could cause an airspeed sensor to fail, and lead the computer controlling the plane to accelerate or decelerate in a potentially dangerous fashion. Questions about speed sensors are only one of many factors investigators are considering. Automatic transmissions from the plane showed a chain of computer system failures that indicate the plane broke apart in midair. The cause may be hidden on "black box" voice and data recorders that could lie miles deep on the ocean floor. But with satellites blocked by thick clouds and heavy rain reducing visibility in an ocean full of floating garbage, searchers have so far been unable to find any confirmed wreckage from the plane. - 08:07 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #
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