Ministers mad at new lobbying scandal

Three Labour former cupboard ministers face a sleaze review after being filmed charity to feat their supervision connectors for money. Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon were held by an clandestine contributor posing as a US association comparison manager recruiting MPs for lobbying work. Mr Byers, a former Trade and Industry Secretary, was available describing himself as a "sort of taxi for hire" with rates of up to �5,000 a day.

John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner, will currently be asked to inspect probable breaches of manners ruling MPs" conduct. The former ministers, who are all stepping down at the election, could all additionally be investigated for violation the ministerial code. They all strongly repudiate any wrong-doing or that they have breached any rules.

Privately ministers are livid at the purported control of the 3 Blairite ministers and fright it could criticise Mr Browns chances in the stirring election. The Conservatives will currently list parliamentary questions in to claims by Mr Byers that he successfully shabby dual stream cupboard ministers over policy. David Cameron, the Tory leader, described the allegations as shocking. He added: The House of Commons needs to control a consummate review in to these [former] Labour ministers, but additionally the Prime Minister would wish to get to the bottom of the allegations being finished about his government.

The Government was hugely broke by the claims, with ministers describing the poise of their former cupboard colleagues as abominable and ridiculous. In an try to extent the fall-out from the income for entrance allegations, Labour was forced to pour out brazen the proclamation of plans for a crackdown on lobbying by former ministers.

According to Channel 4s Dispatches, that worked on the corner review with The Sunday Times, Mr Byers told an clandestine contributor he had cumulative tip deals with ministers, could get trusted inform from Number 10 and was means to assistance firms concerned in price-fixing get spin the law. It pronounced Mr Byers boasted he had struck a tip understanding with Lord Adonis, the TransportSecretary, to cancel a rail authorization stipulate for a client, National Express.

Video: Ex-MPs in lobbying row He additionally claimed to have helped to convince Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, to rectify regulations on food marked down on interest of Tesco. But the day after he was filmed, Mr Byers retracted his claims, insisting he had never lobbied ministers on interest of blurb interests and had farfetched his influence. Lord Mandelson and Lord Adonis strongly denied Mr Byers" assertions.

Mr Byers, who served as Transport Secretary and Trade and Industry Secretary underneath Tony Blair, pronounced he was assured he would be absolved by any investigation. He said: I have never lobbied ministers on interest of blurb organisations and have regularly entirely disclosed my outward interests.

Channel 4 pronounced Ms Hewitt, a former Health Secretary, claimed to have performed a chair on a supervision advisory organisation for a customer profitable her �3,000 a day. She pronounced she utterly deserted the inform and combined that she was usually deliberating work that she would have finished after she left the Commons.

Mr Hoon, a former Defence Secretary and Chief Whip, was reported to have longed for a �3,000-a-day price for work that would concede him to spin his domestic believe and contacts in to something that honestly creates money. He pronounced later: At no theatre did I offer, nor would I try to, sell trusted or absolved inform outset from my time in government.

Of twenty politicians contacted by the programme-makers, fifteen concluded to encounter and 10 were invited for interviews. Nine of those were stealthily filmed, of whom 6 are in the documentary. One is the Labour MP Margaret Moran, the MP forced to pay off �22,500 she claimed in losses to yield dry debase at a residence 100 miles from her Luton constituency. She reportedly pronounced she could ring a girls" squad of Labour colleagues together with the partys Deputy Leader Harriet Harman on interest of colleagues. The alternative dual are Labour counterpart Baroness Morgan and the Conservative MP Sir John Butterfill.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, pronounced it was silly that the former ministers had depressed for the sting. He told BBC1: The most appropriate answer when you get a call similar to that is to put the receiver behind down again. Its obvious. Really, what on earth did they think they were doing? And similarly for a company, you dont need a lobbyist. If you"ve got something to say, go without delay to the Government dialect and have your case.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, pronounced he was appalled. He added: There is positively no room for any one to traffic on their ministerial office.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: Its only very, really cheap and I think people are so fed up with the approach in that income and fervour is guileful the politics. Its because I have regularly argued that we need to go far serve than reforming MPs" expenses; we need to remodel the total decaying complement from tip to toe.

Labour sources pronounced there was no justification that any of the filmed MPs was guilty of indiscretion and difficult movement would be taken opposite any MP abusing their position. They combined that the celebration declaration would underline proposals to emanate a Statutory Register of Lobbyists. A intentional formula is already in place.

The rules: Whats allowed, whats not

*Sitting MPs are not criminialized from operative for corporate clients. But they contingency acknowledgement any remuneration in the register of Members" interests

*Any paid work taken by a former apportion inside of dual years of withdrawal bureau contingency be absolved by a row of MPs, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments *MPs cannot list amendments or opinion on Bills in sell for remuneration and are routinely criminialized for twelve months from apropos lobbyists in the fields in that they served as ministers

*All 3 main parties contend they wish the manners tightened to forestall ex-ministers exploiting their contacts for personal benefit

"Cabs for hire" Ex-Cabinet ministers and their in isolation consultancy work

*Stephen Byers

Mr Byers is non-executive authority of ACWA Services a H2O diagnosis organisation formed in North Yorkshire, and binds the same on all sides at Yalta European Strategy, a association directed at compelling closer ties in between Ukraine and the EU. The former traffic and ride cabinet part of was paid a price of up to �5,000 for vocalization at last years Ukrainian Investment Summit the same total he is purported to assign for lobbying the Government on interest of clients. Byers additionally acts as a expert to Consolidated Contractors International, a building a whole association formed in Athens.

*Geoff Hoon

The former counterclaim cabinet part of stood down from Cabinet last year when it was suggested that he had avoided profitable collateral gains taxation on his second homes. Mr Hoon, who built up a �1.7m skill portfolio during his time as an MP, is reported to have been offering a highly-paid on all sides as the authority of a unfamiliar counterclaim firm. Mr Hoon lectured in law at Leeds University the University of Louisville, Kentucky in the 1980s, prior to returning to Nottingham to use as a barrister. He became an MEP in 1984 and an MP in 1992.

*Patricia Hewitt

The former health cabinet part of was paid up to �50,000 by Alliance Boots owners of the high travel pharmacy sequence Boots to yield recommendation and attend meetings as a special consultant. Ms Hewitt warranted an one more �59,475 from her purpose as a comparison eccentric executive and chair of BTs Remuneration Committee and Pensions Review Group, and was paid up to �60,000 as a comparison confidant to buy-out organisation Cinven. She is additionally a part of an advisory cabinet at Barclays Capital.

The Philippines triples the rice yield

Despite being criticized as a bad rice writer given of the standing as the worldbiggest rice importer, the Philippines has essentially finished in couple of instances well in raising the rice yields from 1.16 tons per hectare in 1960 (according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) to 3.59 tons per hectare in 2009 (according to the Republic of the Philippines, Department of Agriculture).

In 2009, Philippine rice yields were essentially reduce than the prior dual years due to the repairs finished by the pleasant storms Ondoy and Pepeng. In 2007, normal rice yields surfaced 3.8 tons per hectare and in 2008 they were 3.77 tons per hectare.

Rice yields in the Philippines are additionally higher than those in Thailand, the worldbiggest exporter of rice, where yields over the last couple of years have been around 3 tons per hectare.

The Philippines has enthusiastically taken up rice scholarship technologies that have helped farmers dramatically enlarge their yields, pronounced Dr. William Padolina, emissary executive ubiquitous for operations at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Filipino farmers have adopted some-more than 75 IRRI-bred high-yielding rice varieties given 1960, have severely softened their manure and harassment supervision strategies, and are implementing water-saving technologies, he added.

IRRI was determined in the Philippines in 1960 following a track via Middle East that identified Los Baños in Laguna as the majority fitting place for an rural investigate module to enhance food prolongation in Asia. Los Baños was seen as an rising heart of rural scholarship and economics and the supervision of the Republic of the Philippines was understanding of research, teaching, and prolongation programs to urge plantation management.

This year, IRRI is celebrating the 50th anniversary, pronounced Dr Padolina. During the 50 years we have determined a little critical and prolific partnerships with institutions such as the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the University of the Philippines Los Baños that share the idea to assistance assuage misery by softened rice production.

According to estimates from the United States Department of Agriculture, the normal universe rice produce in 1960 was 1.84 tons per hectare and in 2009 it was foresee at 4.24 tons per hectare.

Dr. Padolina acknowledges that the Philippines could urge the rice yields even some-more and pronounced that he was assured that the Philippines will go on to await rice investigate as a approach of ensuring food security for Filipinos, to assistance lift internal rice farmers and consumers out of poverty, and in spin urge the complete economy of the country.

IRRI is additionally dedicated to delivering rice scholarship innovations privately matched to Philippine conditions that are of unsentimental have use of and worth to Filipino farmers, he added.

In May 2008, the Philippine Department of Agriculture and IRRI sealed a Memorandum of Agreement on Accelerating Rice Production in the Philippines.

Last year, IRRI expelled eight new rice varieties in the Philippines as well as Nutrient Manager for Rice, a Web-based apparatus that helps farmers have correct manure decisions. Also, in the International Rice Genebank housed at IRRI, 4,670 rice samples from the Philippines are conserved, together with 4,070 normal varieties, 485 complicated varieties, and 115 wild kin -- all are accessible to share with Filipino farmers and scientists.

Nouns and Verbs Learned in Different Brain Regions LiveScience

Nouns and verbs might go palm and palm in a sentence, but theyare schooled in opposite regions of the brains, a new investigate suggests.

The work could insist because young kids sense nouns prior to verbs,and adults additionally perform improved and conflict faster to nouns during cognitivetests.

The researchers used organic captivating inflection imaging,or fMRI, to see at the brainactivity of twenty-one people as they schooled 160 new nouns and verbs.

The subjects had to work out the definition of a new tenure basedon the context supposing in dual sentences. For example, in the phrases "Thegirl got a jat for Christmas" and "The most appropriate man was so shaken heforgot the jat," the noun jat equates to "ring." Similarly, with"The tyro is nising noodles for breakfast," and "The mannised a tasty dish for her," the made-up noun �would meant "to cook."

The charge was meant to copy how we take newvocabulary over the march of the lives, pronounced investigate writer Rodr�guez-Fornells,a clergyman at the University of Barcelona.

The brain imagingshowed that when participants were guidance new nouns, the left fusiform gyrus,which is compared with visible and intent processing, was activated. New verbsactivated piece of the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (associated withsemantic and unpractical aspects) and the left defective frontal gyrus (involvedin estimate grammar).

In addition, activation of alternative specific tools of the brainwas compared with how well people schooled new nouns, but not verbs.

The formula were published this month in the journalNeuroimage. �

Top 5 Ways to Beef Up Your Brain Speed of Thought-to-Speech Traced in Brain Top 10 Things You Didnt Know About You

Gospel sadness artist Marva Wright passed at 62

March 23, 2010, 4:21 PM EST

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- New Orleans sadness and gospel thespian Marva Wright died Tuesday at age 62, her former physical education instructor said.

Adam Shipley reliable that Wright died of complications from a cadence she suffered last year.

She sang normal jazz and gospel standards but was improved well well known for sultry, infrequently ribald sadness songs. Among her most appropriate well well known songs were "Heartbreakin" Woman" and "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean."

She expelled a array of albums on internal and general jot down labels, and often achieved in Europe and at sadness festivals around the country. With her band, the BMWs, she drew large crowds for performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

As a child, Wright listened to her mom sing and fool around piano at church. Among her childhood memories were visits to Chicago, the adopted home of New Orleans gospel good Mahalia Jackson, who had grown up with Wright"s mother.

"My mom would go to the inhabitant Baptist convention," Ms. Wright once said, according to an comment in The Times-Picayune newspaper. "When it convened in Chicago, Mahalia would say, "Girl, you don"t need to get no hotel. Stay with me." That"s what my mom would do. I met Mahalia when I was 9 years old, but I never satisfied she was that renouned until I got older."

But Wright didn"t begin singing professionally until she was roughly 40, according to a autobiography on her Web site.

Wright was hospitalized last Jun after pang a critical cadence following a gig at the CoCo Club on Bourbon Street. Relatives pronounced afterwards that she had only recovered from an earlier, less critical stroke.

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On the Net:

http://www.marvawright.com

,,,

Suicide bomber kills eleven in Pakistans Swat

Hazrat Ali Bacha MINGORA, Pakistan Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:45am EST Related Video Bomber hits Pakistan military Sat, Mar 13 2010 < 1 / 5 >

GE could sell Garanti shares in open offering: inform

ISTANBUL Thu Mar 4, 2010 2:45am EST Stocks & &

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A block sale or a partial block sale and a second public offering are options for General Electric Co"s (GE.N) divestment of its 20.85 percent stake in Turkey"s Garanti bank, Milliyet newspaper reported on Thursday.

Deals

Last week, GE sources said the conglomerate wished to sell its stake in Garanti, worth $3.3 billion.

Milliyet said 10-15 percent of Garanti could be offered as a block sale with the remainder of GE"s stake sold as a public offering. The paper said there were eight interested parties.

Garanti declined to comment on the report.

"A lot of investors would be interested in acquiring stocks via a public offering. The bank"s value has risen a lot. A lead stake could be given to one buyer and a certain amount of shares could be offered to the public," Milliyet quoted an unspecified source as saying.

JP Morgan has been mandated for the sale, an investment banking source told Reuters last week.

Spanish bank Banco Santander (SAN.MC) has been named as a potential buyer. Milliyet said Spain"s BBVA (BBVA.MC) was also interested and also Italy"s Intesa.

Turkish conglomerate Dogus Group owns a 30.5 percent stake in the bank, while 48.6 percent is publically owned.

(Writing by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Deals

Knitting helped me tarry the anguish of divorce

When I was at junior school, we learned how to knit in home economics while the boys took woodwork down the hall.

My mum helped me practise my plain knit and my purl, and I remember creating a rather lopsided teddy bear out of chocolate brown yarn.

By the time I reached my teens, I wouldn"t have dreamed of admitting that I knew what to do with a pair of size 5s and a 50g ball of extra chunky.

Therapy: Rin Simpson yarned her way through a break-up

Knitting was something old ladies did and not something I"d have any more to do with until I got my bus pass and my pension book.

So if you"d told me, as I headed into my 30s, that knitting would become so much more than a hobby to me - that it would be a kind of therapy as I faced the heartbreak of divorce - I never would have believed you.

I got married young, straight out of university, and for the first few years all was well. My husband and I fought sometimes, but who doesn"t? For the most part, we were the couple everyone said would make it: passionate and the best of friends.

But change, as they say, is the only constant in life and change came into our marriage. Suddenly, the fights weren"t occasional, they were joined by periods of angry silence. Worse, there was a growing distance between us that I couldn"t change.

My husband took a job in Pembrokeshire, more than 100 miles away from our home in Bristol. Having never lived on my own, I was faced with an empty house from Sunday to Friday.

More...Everyone"s doing it: Knitting in pubs

Not one to mope about, I threw myself into socialising, started no end of projects, made lists of chores to get through so that the house would be a haven for him to come home to. But there was always a moment when the friends were gone and the carpets vacuumed, when the silence would descend.

I"d pour myself a glass of wine, shut myself in the living room and stick on a DVD. I got through hundreds of DVDs in those last few months of so-called married life.

And then one night, I decided I would start to knit. And something strange happened. As I cast on and began the repetitive process of layering up row upon row of stitches, I began to relax.

My ears on the TV, my hands on my work and my eyes flicking between the two, I found that I could pass hours in this way without dwelling on why my husband hadn"t called, or whether we"d manage to get through the coming weekend without a row.

That first project - a cheerful scarf in all the colours of the rainbow - was followed by a second and a third.

"Now I don"t dread the odd evening when I"m not seeing friends or doing chores"

All fairly basic, I simply chose yarns I thought were pretty, picked a likely looking pair of needles from a bundle I inherited from my grandmother, and set to work.

But the feeling of control over even this small thing, the satisfaction of creating something, was captivating.

Not surprising, given how many experts agree knitting is good for you. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, U.S., found that knitting can delay memory loss, while a study at the Mind/Body Centre for Women"s Health at Harvard Medical School showed that the repetitive motion of knitting elicits a relaxation response, lowering blood pressure by creating a feeling of serenity.

Sometimes, a complicated pattern demands every ounce of concentration, making it the perfect distraction from life.

Other times, knitting is a mindless task that allows you to think. And these days, there"s even a social aspect, as women get together for Stitch "n" Bitch sessions that encourage friendships and sharing.

Sadly, even as my new hobby went from strength to strength, my marriage was getting weaker. Something had to change. Two months later, in May last year, my husband finally left.

Though there was relief that such an unhappy situation was at an end, there was also sadness like I had never known before.

The life we"d built, the future we had dreamed of, the many happy moments we had shared were all gone.

Friends, family and my faith conspired to keep me going through those initial weeks as I learned for the first time how to be an adult - how to pay bills and get the car MOT"d, and even how to unblock a toilet.

But there were still plenty of long, lonely evenings when it would have been easy to let a glass of wine become a bottle of wine.

Luckily, it"s difficult to hold a glass when you"ve got your hands full of needles and yarn. The list of completed projects grew, from scarves and hats to baby jumpers and a cardigan for myself.

With my hands busy, my mind was free to wander, and in this safe, relaxed way I began to process, to work through some of the hurt and the heartbreak.

It"s been more than nine months since my husband left, and my life is looking very different from what it was.

For one thing, I don"t dread the odd evening when I"m not seeing friends or doing chores - in fact, I can"t wait for those times when I can snuggle up on my sofa and get a few more rows of my latest project done.

I"ve also started a job as an art and craft teacher with young offenders in a local prison. I"m hoping to find a way to bring knitting into my lessons before long. After all, I know first hand how therapeutic it can be.