MI5 'cleared' over torture claims

11 January 2012 Last updated at 23:00 ET

Binyam Mohamed accused MI5 of complicity in his torture.

British spies will be cleared in a number of cases of alleged complicity in the torture of detainees abroad, the BBC understands.

Scotland Yard and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are to issue a joint statement on Thursday.

It follows an investigation into the conduct of officers from MI5 and MI6.

Although it is expected that no charges will be brought in some cases it is understood the statement will contain other significant information.

The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw says the fact that the statement has been prepared by the DPP, together with Scotland Yard, is highly significant.

He says it raises the prospect that police investigations are not yet over.

The investigation, which began in March 2009, was sparked by allegations that MI5 was complicit in the torture of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Binyam Mohamed.

It was alleged an MI5 officer - known as Witness B - was aware of and colluded in Mr Mohamed's mistreatment while he was held in Pakistan.

The DPP, Kier Starmer, eventually concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge Witness B.

But he decided that a "wider" investigation would continue into "other potential criminal conduct".

An inquiry has also examined allegations against an officer from MI6.

Continue Reading... Labels: 'cleared', Claims, torture

MPs attack rising whiplash claims

11 January 2012 Last updated at 19:00 ET

Whiplash claims should be supported by evidence of injury and inconvenience, the MPs say

The cost of car insurance could be cut if the government restricted the huge number of subjective whiplash injury claims, a committee of MPs says.

The Transport Select Committee says claimants should have to prove they have suffered a whiplash injury.

The MPs also want insurers to be banned from selling any form of customer information.

The government intends to ban them from receiving referral fees for this data, but only for personal injury claims.

Louise Ellman, chair of the Transport Committee, said: "Insurers, solicitors and claims management companies have themselves driven up the cost of motor premiums by encouraging people caught up in road accidents they did not cause to claim for personal injury, car hire, and other legal costs."

"The insurance industry must abandon sharp practices that push up premiums such as passing drivers' personal data to other parties or taking secretive referral fees from solicitors, garages and car hire firms," she added.

'Subjective and costly'

The committee pointed out that there has been a 70% rise in motor insurance claims in the past six years, despite a 23% drop in the number of casualties actual caused by road accidents.

Louise Ellman said the increase in claims for personal injuries was the main reason for the rise in claims overall.

And that whiplash, in turn, accounted for 70% of all personal injury claims.

"Many of these claims are for whiplash, an injury where diagnosis is often subjective and therefore very costly for insurers to challenge," she said.

"The threshold for receiving compensation in whiplash cases should be raised and, if the number of such claims does not fall significantly, the government should bring forward primary legislation to require objective evidence - both of a whiplash injury and of it having a significant effect on the claimant's life - before compensation is paid," she added.

'Epidemic'

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) agreed that the payment of referral fees should be banned altogether, but to all organisations and not just to insurers.

And it backed the call for action to restrict whiplash claims.

"It is absolutely critical that Britain's whiplash epidemic is tackled once and for all and the select committee's acknowledgment that the bar to receiving compensation for whiplash is too low is a step in the right direction," said Nick Starling of the ABI.

"Our customers are fed up of getting text messages, fed up of the compensation culture and have had enough of paying higher car insurance premiums to line the pockets of ambulance chasing lawyers and claims management companies," he added.

'Dirty secret'

In the past year the insurance industry and its fast rising motor premiums have come under increasing scrutiny.

• In March 2011, the Transport Select Committee accused the insurance industry of encouraging claims through the payment and acceptance of referral fees
• In June, the former Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, described this system as a "dirty secret" and a "racket", in which insurers sell information about customers who have been involved in accidents to solicitors who then encouraged them to make claims
• In September, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) started looking at why motor premiums have been rising fast
• That month the government agreed to change the law to ban referral fees in personal injury claims
• In October, the Parliamentary Justice Committee of MPs said the payment of such fees encouraged organisations to sell data without permission, and said the impending ban should apply to all referral fees paid by lawyers to third parties
• In December, the OFT launched a full investigation into car insurance costs, including the cost of accident repairs and replacement cars.

The renewed emphasis by the Parliamentary transport committee on dealing with spurious whiplash claims was welcomed by the motoring organisation the AA.

"A claims culture has developed to the extent that it has become accepted that if another vehicle hits your car, you should make an injury claim," said Simon Douglas of AA Insurance.

"That's regardless of how serious the injury is, or even if no injury has actually been suffered," he added.

Legal changes

The AA acknowledged that the steep rise in premiums recorded in the past few years had levelled off in the past nine months.

Currently, the Lords are scrutinising the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which has been amended to put in place the ban on referral fees relating to personal injury cases.

"Once the Bill is enacted, we call on the government to... prohibit insurers from receiving referral fees across the board rather than only in relation to legal action," said the Transport Committee's report.

"We recommend that the government send a clear message to the insurance industry that it expects the data protection legislation to be fully respected and we echo the recommendation of the Justice Committee that the stricter penalties for breaching the [Data Protection] Act, passed by Parliament in 2008, should be brought into force," the MPs added.

Have you suffered a whiplash injury and made an insurance claim? What do you think of the proposals? Send us your comments using the form below.

Continue Reading... Labels: attack, Claims, Rising, whiplash

Ruling party claims NZ poll win

26 Novembre 2011 Mise à jour à 07:02 ET

PM John Key célèbre victoire et un second mandat en bureau

Nouvelle-Zélande décision du que Parti National a revendiqué la victoire à l'élection générale du pays.

« Pendant encore trois ans il y aura un gouvernement National en Nouvelle-Zélande,"PM John Key a dit un rassemblement des partisans à Auckland.

Le parti du travail de l'opposition a vu son affaissement de vote et a admis la défaite.

Avec tous les résultats maintenant dans la décision que Parti National était sur le point de remporter 60 de 121 sièges au Parlement, les chiffres officiels ont montré.

« Les gens ont pris leur décision et nous traitons leur décision avec humilité et respect, », a déclaré le leader du parti travailliste Phil Goff.

Le jeu de regards Parti National continuer régissant avec l'aide des parties Loi et United Future, qui ont remporté un siège chaque.

« Nous allons travailler sur des accords formels avec ces parties au cours des prochains jours, mais je peux confirmer ce - leur volonté de faire partie d'un gouvernement fort et stable dirigée par National », a déclaré M. Key, l'Agence de presse Reuters.

M. Key est dit également planifier des pourparlers avec le parti Maori, qui a remporté trois sièges.

Le parti Maori a toutefois exprimé son opposition aux plans de M. Key de vendre des biens de l'État.

Pendant ce temps, le Parti vert a connu sa meilleure performance à ce jour dans une élection parlementaire, avec le soutien aux alentours de 11 %.

Le parti populiste de New Zealand First étonne également beaucoup d'observateurs, de retour au Parlement avec 7 % des voix.

L'économie a dominé la campagne électorale, avec M. clé prometteuses pour s'attaquer à la dette nationale en vendant des participations dans des sociétés d'État.

Mais l'attention du public plus axée sur une ligne au cours de l'enregistrement d'un soldat conversation entre M. Key et un collègue après un événement médiatique. Le contenu de l'enregistrement n'ont pas été divulgué.

Observateurs dire électeurs se sont réchauffées à M. clé au cours de son traitement de l'explosion meurtrière à la mine de la rivière aux Brochets et les tremblements de terre de Christchurch en novembre 2010.

Victoire des All Blacks en Coupe du monde de Rugby a également joué en sa faveur, analystes croient.

Néo-zélandais ont également voté sur l'opportunité de garder la représentation proportionnelle pour les élections du pays.

Les premiers résultats indiquent que la plupart des électeurs ont choisi de ne pas pour changer le système.

Est-ce que vous a fait voter aux élections ? Quelle est votre réaction au résultat ? Vous pouvez obtenir en contact en utilisant le formulaire ci-dessous :

Continue Reading... Labels: Claims, party, Ruling

Woman Claims She Heard Natalie Wood’s Cries for Help on Night Actress Died

ABC News’ Suzan Clarke and Sheila Marikar report:

Police have reopened the investigation into the drowning death of actress Natalie Wood, and a witness has now come forward to say she heard the actress screaming for help on the night she died.

Wood died Nov. 29, 1981 while she was boating with her husband, Robert Wagner, and actor Christopher Walken, off Catalina Island in California.

Even though the couple had reportedly argued that night, there was no determination of foul play following Wood’s death. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said the actress could have slipped and fallen into the water while trying to secure a dinghy to the boat.

The official cause of death was determined to be accidental drowning, but because there has been little concrete information about the circumstances surrounding the events of that night, speculation has been rife and the case remains one of Hollywood’s longest-running mysteries.

But now California resident Marilyn Wayne, who was boating in the same area that night — approximately 40 yards away from the Splendour, the yacht upon which the actors were staying — said she heard a woman’s cries for help.

In a sworn statement to investigators, Wayne said she and her boyfriend, John Payne, were sleeping aboard a sailboat, the Capricorn, on Nov. 28, 1981. The window of the cabin was open.

“A woman’s voice, crying for help from drowning awakened John, and he awakened me. ‘Help me, someone please help me, I’m drowning’ we heard repeatedly. Alarmed, I called out to my son, who also heard the cries, and looked at his new digital watch: it was just minutes after 11:00 P.M.,” she said in her statement.

According to Wayne’s statement, Payne turned on the sailboat’s beam light and played it over the area while she went up onto the deck, though it was dark and damp and she says that she was unable to see anything.

“While listening to the cries, we called the harbor patrol but no one answered. Then we called the sheriff’s office in Avalon, 12 miles away, and whoever answered told us a helicopter would be sent, but it did not come. We heard loud music coming from somewhere, so thought there was a party on a nearby boat,” the statement said. “Then I heard a man’s voice, slurred, and in aggravated tone, say something to the effect of, “Oh, hold on, we’re coming to get you,” and not long after, the cries for help subsided, but we heard the cries for up to 15 minutes. We returned to bed, terribly disturbed.”

When she woke up the next morning, she says, she saw police at the boat located near the Capricorn, and learned that Wood, a passenger on that board, had drowned.

Wayne, a former stockbroker, said in the statement that she doesn’t believe the initial investigation was thorough enough, that police never interviewed her and that she received a threatening note cautioning her to keep quiet about what she knew.

“After all I’ve learned since my own direct experience with the death of Natalie, I am stunned that Robert Wagner has never been properly interrogated in regards to Natalie Wood’s death. In my opinion, Natalie Wood’s case is one of the top most botched cases of the 20th century, and I am still willing to offer my assistance should you finally realize that this case needs what every death case deserves: a full and proper investigation,” her statement said.

Wagner has never been charged, and police plan to reach out to him as part of the re-opened investigation, but they say he is not a suspect.

The “Hart to Hart” actor — who is now 81 — has always maintained that there was no foul play involved in his wife’s death.

Wagner and Wood had been married to each other twice, and reportedly had a volatile relationship.

Police have said media interest sparked the renewed interest in the case. A Vanity Fair/CBS’ “48 Hours” special about the case aired on Saturday.

The captain of the Splendour, Dennis Davern, said that he believes that Wagner is to blame for Woods’ death.

“Yes I would say so,” Davern said on NBC’s “Today” last week when he was asked if Wagner was responsible. He admitted that he may have been at fault as well, saying, “We didn’t take any steps to see if we could locate her. It was a matter of don’t look too hard, don’t turn on search light, don’t call anyone.”

Davern also said that he lied to officials in the initial police report. Corina declined to comment on whether Davern could face charges if that’s true.

Davern and Marti Rulli co-authored the 2009 book “Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour,” about the circumstances surrounding the actress’ death. He and Lana Wood, Natalie Wood’s sister, asked authorities to reopen the case last year.

Wood’s body was found floating in the water about a mile away from the yacht. According to police reports, she was found wearing a long nightgown, socks, and a down jacket. She had dozens of bruises on her body, according to the autopsy report, including injuries to her face and arms.

Wood appeared in more than 56 films, including “West Side Story” and notably as James Dean’s love interest in “Rebel Without a Cause.”

Wagner and Wood married in 1957, divorced about five years later and remarried in 1972.

Wagner and Walken, who was filming “Brainstorm” with Wood at the time, reportedly got into an alcohol-fueled argument prior to her death. Wood is believed to have gone into the master cabin bathroom while they were arguing, but as Wagner was going to bed, he noticed Wood wasn’t there.

Wood’s aversion to water was famous. She couldn’t swim and once said in a TV interview that her greatest fear was of dark seawater.

The investigation has the support of the Wagner family.

“Although no one in the Wagner family has heard from the L.A. County Sheriff’s department about this matter, they fully support the efforts of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. and trust they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30-year anniversary of her tragic death,” Robert Wagner’s publicist Alan Nierob said in a statement.

Walken, who has hired an attorney, is not considered a suspect, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Continue Reading... Labels: Actress, Claims, Cries, Heard, Natalie, Night, Woman, Wood’s