Rebekah Brooks quits over hacking scandal

Rebekah Brooks, a loyal lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch, resigned on Friday as chief executive of his embattled British newspapers, becoming the biggest casualty so far in the phone hacking scandal at a now-defunct Sunday tabloid.

Murdoch had defended Brooks in the face of demands from politicians that she step down, and had previously refused to accept her resignation. He made an abrupt switch, however, as his News Corp company struggled to contain a UK crisis that is threatening his entire global media empire.

Brooks was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003, including the time when the paper's employees allegedly hacked into the telephone of 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler when police were searching for her.

That allegation last week provoked outrage far beyond previous revelations of snooping on celebrities, politicians and top athletes, knocking billions off the value of News Corp. In quick succession, Murdoch closed News of the World tabloid, abandoned his attempt to take full control of the lucrative British Sky Broadcasting and Prime Minister David Cameron appointed a judge to conduct a sweeping inquiry into criminal activity at the paper and in the media.

Brooks said the debate over her position was now too much of a distraction for her company.

"I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate," Brooks said in an email Friday to colleagues that was released by News International. "This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past."

Tom Mockridge, currently chief executive of News Corp's Sky Italia television unit but who happened to be in London Friday, was appointed to succeed Brooks immediately. Mockridge began his career at a paper in New Zealand and then served as a spokesman for the Australian government before joining News Corp in 1991, the company said.

News Corp also announced on Friday it would run advertisements in all of Britain's national papers this week to "apologise to the nation for what has happened".

"We will follow this up in the future with communications about the actions we have taken to address the wrongdoing that occurred," said James Murdoch, who heads the international operations of the New York-based News Corp and has been considered to be his father's heir apparent.

He said News Corp had set up an independent Management & Standards Committee to establish and enforce clear standards of operation.

That was an abrupt shift in tone from Rupert Murdoch's comments to The Wall Street Journal - one of his own papers - on Thursday saying that News Corp management had handled the crisis "extremely well in every way possible" with just a few "minor mistakes".

Brooks has been in charge of News International's four British newspapers since 2007, following a four-year stint as editor of the market-leading daily tabloid, The Sun. Just a week ago, she faced 200 angry employees of News of the World who had lost their jobs when Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old paper amid the scandal.

The news of her resignation was greeted with relief.

"It is right that Rebekah Brooks has finally taken responsibility for the terrible events that happened on her watch, like the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone," said opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who had been demanding that she quit. "No-one in this country should exercise power without responsibility."

Brooks agreed on Thursday to answer questions next week from a UK parliamentary committee. Rupert and James Murdoch initially resisted, but also agreed to appear after the committee raised the stakes by issuing formal summonses.

Murdoch flew into London last weekend to take charge of the response to the mushrooming phone scandal. Asked by reporters what his priority was, Murdoch gestured to Brooks and said, "This one."

In her statement, Brooks thanked the Murdochs for their support.

"Rupert's wisdom, kindness and incisive advice has guided me throughout my career and James is an inspirational leader who has shown me great loyalty and friendship," she said.

James Murdoch praised Brooks as "one of the outstanding editors of her generation and she can be proud of many accomplishments as an executive".

"We support her as she takes this step to clear her name," she said.

On Thursday, police arrested Neil Wallis, former deputy editor and then executive editor of News of the World, in the investigation of phone hacking. A parallel criminal investigating is probing charges that News of the World had bribed police officers.

In the United States, meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation of claims that News Corp journalists may have sought to hack into the phones of September 11 victims in its quest for sensational scoops.

Those developments deepened the crisis for News Corp, which has seen its stock price sink as investors ask whether the scandal could drag down the whole company.

While largely still on the defensive, another one of Murdoch's British papers, The Sun tabloid, scored one point on Friday against former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had accused the paper of obtaining confidential medical files on his younger son, who has cystic fibrosis.

The Sun had vigorously rebutted the claim, saying it got its information from another parent, so far unidentified, who was said to be motivated by a hope of raising awareness of the disease.

On Friday, The Guardian newspaper apologised for accepting Brown's version of events.

"Articles in the Guardian of Tuesday 12 July incorrectly reported that the Sun newspaper had obtained information on the medical condition of Gordon Brown's son from his medical records," the newspaper said in its corrections column. "In fact, the information came from a different source and the Guardian apologises for its error."

Liberal organization links Wisconsin bills to Koch-funded group

In the midst of trying to balance the state's multibillion-dollar budget, who had time to debate the state tax on moist tobacco products?

The American Legislative Exchange Council's allies in the Wisconsin Legislature did.

Late in the budget debate, six Republican lawmakers - including four currently facing recall elections - sponsored a proposal to lower the overall price of moist snuff like Copenhagen and Skoal. Specifically, the provision would have altered the tax on smokeless tobacco products from one based on the price of the tobacco to one based on weight.

That stance on this obscure subject matches a model resolution approved by ALEC, a conservative outfit that brings corporations and lawmakers together to draw up draft legislation.

Gov. Scott Walker eventually vetoed the item before signing the 2011-'13 budget.

Mary Bottari, spokeswoman for the left-wing Center for Media and Democracy, said the moist tobacco proposal illustrates the influence the relatively obscure conservative outfit has on the legislative process in Wisconsin and other states.

"These are very specific, ideological agenda items," said Bottari, whose group is making available online800-plus of ALEC's draft bills and resolutions that it obtained from a whistleblower. "It's deserving of some scrutiny."

Overall, her media research group has identified about 20 ALEC proposals that it says have been introduced or approved by Wisconsin lawmakers this year.

For instance, the center finds strong parallels between nine ALEC measures and the tort-reform law introduced by Walker and approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature in a special session in January.

But a Walker spokesman says the first-term Republican didn't rely on any draft legislation from ALEC when putting together the tort-reform law or any other bill he's introduced this year.

"Absolutely not," said Walker aide Cullen Werwie.

Walker listed himself as a member of the conservative group on his official biography when in the Legislature during the 1990s.

State Rep. Robin Vos, state chairman for ALEC, said he's unaware of any model ALEC bills or resolutions that have made it through the state Legislature so far this year, though he acknowledged that he could have missed one.

Vos said the group - which receives funding from the Koch brothers and the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation - simply provides a way for state lawmakers to share ideas from other states.

Even if someone introduces a model ALEC bill, Vos said, it still must be vetted via the committee process.

"This is a made-up issue," Vos said.

Still, the similarities between some Wisconsin legislation and ALEC draft bills are striking.

On the moist tobacco proposal, an ALEC staffer even wrote to the governor to ask him not to veto the item after it was inserted in the budget bill.

"The amendment will create a fairer tax system that reduces market distortions and encourages fiscal stability," wrote Courtney O'Brien, director of the Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development & Public Safety and Elections Task Forces at ALEC.

She did not return calls or emails. The measure was pushed by Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, which would have benefited from it because it manufactures smokeless tobacco products that are far lighter than those of other manufacturers.

Two of the four Republican senators targeted for recalls who sponsored the provision - Luther Olsen of Ripon and Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls - distanced themselves from the issue.

"We do not interact with them at all," Olsen aide Tara Baxter said of ALEC. She said her boss had never been a member of the organization and "never will be."

Sens. Alberta Darling of River Hills and Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac didn't return calls.

As it turns out, the proposal was ordered up by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, a Juneau Republican. He has received about $3,000 in reimbursements from ALEC to attend conferences in the past two years, according to his ethics statements.

Fitzgerald spokesman Andrew Welhouse said his boss pushed the moist tobacco proposal because it is the fair thing to do. Federal officials, he said, already tax snuff, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco based on weight.

Welhouse said it's not surprising that GOP legislators and ALEC agree on a tax issue.

"Lately, it feels like the Democrats are trying to create this ALEC boogeyman, but we didn't make this change because it's an ALEC bill - we made it because it's a tax fairness issue," Welhouse said. "ALEC supports organ donation and drug-free schools, too. Sometimes good ideas are just good ideas."

That's not the only proposal with strong similarities to ALEC's draft legislation.

Vos fought to insert a provision in the state budget to bring for-profit bail bondsmen back to Wisconsin.

But the co-chairman of the powerful Joint Finance Committee said he couldn't have used the model ALEC bills on this issue because Wisconsin's statutes are so unusual on this issue.

Sen. Leah Vukmir - voted national "Legislator of the Year" at ALEC's 2009 annual meeting - has introduced a bill that would give scholarships to handicapped students so they could attend private schools enrolled in the state's choice program. The name of her bill, the Special Needs Scholarship Program Act, is verbatim as the model bill from ALEC.

That's also true of her Patient's Right to Know Act, a bill she sponsored in 2009 that would allow patients to ask health care providers and insurers about the cost and coverage for specific medical procedures.

Vukmir aide Jason Rostan said the scholarship bill actually came from a proposal in Florida. He said he thought the idea may have originally come from school choice proponents.

As for the health care legislation, he said, Vukmir took the proposal to ALEC after she introduced it here. Members of the conservative group then signed off on the plan, adopting it as a model bill.

"We actually gave it to ALEC," Rostan said.

Bottari, the critic of ALEC, said she's not buying the denials from the governor and top Wisconsin legislators that they're not using material from the national group when crafting their bills.

Her group maintains that ALEC allows corporations and conservative lawmakers to work in secret to draw up bills that benefit specific business interests. By pushing the model legislation and resolutions, the group is trying to bring greater scrutiny to ALEC's influence.

"When you consider the 20 ALEC bills we identified and the ideas that keep coming out of this (Walker) administration," Bottari said, "it just defies belief that there's no relationship between these bills and ALEC."

Ex-mental health leader Chianelli pitches ex-boss despite rule

One month after resigning in disgrace, John Chianelli pitched his old Milwaukee County boss with a proposal to privatize more mental health services so his new firm could oversee them.

Records show Chianelli and Peg DuBord of Transitional Living Services urged a top county official to let their private agency - which already has several county contracts - provide services to patients with developmental disabilities or mental health problems if the 72-bed Hilltop unit at the Mental Health Complex is downsized. The firm also wants to begin caring for children with serious emotional issues.

The pair met with Geri Lyday, interim administrator of the county's Department of Health and Human Services, on March 10. Chianelli had submitted his resignation to Lyday on Feb. 11.

County ethics rules say former staffers must wait at least a year before contacting anyone in their former agency on behalf of a private business or individual.

"That's very disconcerting," said County Supervisor Lynne De Bruin. "He's not allowed to lobby her on any contract, period."

In making its pitch for further privatization, the proposal from Chianelli's new firm cited the county's extensive troubles in treating mentally ill patients in recent years, problems documented by the Journal Sentinel.

"In 2010, there were a number of articles outlining issues related to individual (mental illness and developmental disorder) difficulties in receiving safe and effective treatment in the Adult Mental Health System," says a copy of the five-page proposal.

That doesn't sound so bad, right?

Well, here's what really went on at the Mental Health Complex under Chianelli's watch:

The newspaper's investigation showed hospital administrators and staff botched numerous cases by doing everything from ignoring medical orders to falsifying documents to hide their mistakes.

One patient, who was supposed to be on birth control, became pregnant after having sex with a fellow patient who had a history of violence and sexual assault. That man was allowed to roam freely through the ward - and at times leave it - even as the staff stated on documents he was being checked every 10 minutes. Once staff learned the woman was pregnant, they waited at least two weeks to notify her guardian, and she remained on medications potentially harmful to the fetus.

Last year, Chianelli was demoted from his post in charge of the Mental Health Complex, and he left county government earlier this year.

He did not return calls to his work or cell phone.

In an interview, Lyday downplayed the significance of the Hilltop proposal offered by the two officers of the nonprofit firm back in March.

She said she filed it away with all of the other proposals she has received from vendors. She noted that her agency has not solicited bids on the projects that Transitional Living is interested in working on.

"I didn't look at it real closely," Lyday said of Chianelli's proposal. "I have people calling me all the time with ideals, particularly as they've heard about the Behavioral Health Division, just coming to talk."

One reason nothing has been done with the pitch may be that the county has launched a wide-ranging effort to overhaul its mental health system. Several committees and task forces are examining community treatment alternatives, building a new and smaller Mental Health Complex and figuring out how to pay for the reforms.

County Board members will be voting this week on a proposal to give Transitional Living a $272,000 county grant to help with the cost of constructing Highland Commons, a 50-unit housing development in West Allis for mentally ill individuals.

De Bruin, chairwoman of the board's Economic and Community Development Committee, said she has been assured that Chianelli and DuBord did not discuss their request for these funds during their meeting with Lyday. A spokeswoman for Transitional Living offered the same assurances.

But that still doesn't address the possible problem with the county ethics rules.

The aim of the ethics rule is that ex-county workers shouldn't use their old connections to try to gain taxpayer-funded deals for a private interest.

But that's exactly what it looks like happened here.

"We really should not have been meeting," Lyday acknowledged late last week.

In a stunning admission, the department head said she really wasn't acquainted with the specifics of the county ethics policy. The penalty for violating the no-contact provision is a civil forfeiture of up to $1,000.

"I certainly didn't know there was a prohibition in terms of contact," Lyday said. "Had I really known the gravity of that, I certainly wouldn't have met with him."

But she's been boning up on it since No Quarter first inquired about the meeting. Lyday repeatedly emphasized that it would be Chianelli, not Lyday, who might be in trouble because of the meeting.

DuBord, chief executive officer of TLS, referred questions to a spokesman but first said she and Chianelli acted innocently.

"There was no intent to do that," she said of a possible violation of county ethics rules.

De Bruin said she has been generally impressed with Lyday's work but was surprised by her handling of this situation.

Not only do county department heads have to follow the ethics rules, De Bruin said, but they also are supposed to be enforcing them. It's hard to enforce rules that you don't know or understand.

Qscience set to connect research with the world

"We use latest technologies in Qscience to collaborate with scientific researchers in other parts of the world," said Arend Kuster, Managing Director, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals.
"It is done as a part of connecting Qatar with the international research community," he said.
QScience.com's advanced technology makes research findings readily accessible and searchable. It is also the first scholarly research platform to make journal abstracts available in both English and Arabic.
The website will soon introduce new features to attract more researchers and readers.
In the coming months it will have video articles; make facilities for the readers to leave comments about the articles and work with stakeholders to make the site more interactive and make it a knowledge sharing platform.
"We want to have many more articles and be innovative. We want to have more video articles. One more upgrade  will enable people to leave comments on the articles," said Kuster.
"We need to attract researchers so we like to push the boundaries," he said.
Qscience, is also looking for future collaborations with Qatar University, Hamad Medical Corporation and Qatar National Research Survey (QNRS). With QNRS, Qscience will seek permission to publish full text of studies done by Qatari academics.
"It's the most innovative thing we are doing here; we are marrying up an institutional repository with an existing journals programme. We are clearing the rights to have full text access to search done by Qatari researchers and funded by Qatar, which will be great repository of the growing rich tapestry of research for Qatar," said Kuster.

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals launched its own open access platform, QScience.com, in December 2010 to bring high quality scholarly communication and academic publishing to the Middle East. The online journal is  trying to address the challenges of the international research community and reflect those in the development of new scholarly journals and information routes.

?What is marketing

The very definition of marketing is the techniques you use to get people interested in what you are selling. With Internet marketing, your whole efforts should be focused on bringing down the cost of acquiring a new customers and getting the most out of your existing ones. Keeping the customers you have is just as critical as finding more. .

Before you launch your Internet marketing techniques, try to make sure you're only promoting high quality products. It makes no difference whether it's a product you created or if you're promoting an affiliate products, you need to make sure your customers are receiving value for money. Offering good quality products means you'll receive far less complaints and much fewer refunds. Another consideration is that promoting sub-standard quality products could develop a bad reputation for you, which could mean your visitors will head over to buy from your competition instead of you. In order to reap the rewards of a profitable marketing campaign, you'll need to begin by choosing great products. A successful Internet marketer knows the value of words. Choosing the right words could mean increased profits and higher sales conversions, but choosing the wrong words can give you the opposite effect. Your internet marketing efforts are heavily dependent on the words you select when you're crafting your sales copy. The better people understand the benefits of your products, the higher your profits will be. Essentially, it's all about ensuring you convey your meaning with clarity. A high converting copy can be your secret weapon against the competition, so make sure you focus on it before you begin your campaign.

Another idea is to start a forum or online community of your own, which you can then create exactly as you want. If you are involved in the weight loss niche, for example, you can create a forum on this topic and get people with this interest to join and participate. Remember that if you have your own forum, you will have a group of people who are interested in your niche, who you can target for your own offers. If your forum gets popular, you'll start to get a lot more traffic from word of mouth, and you as the owner will become the authority in your niche.

In general, it takes time and effort to succeed at internet marketing. If you don't stay focused, you won't make progress. Internet marketing also rewards those who are not afraid to try new and creative ideas. All of these tactics will help your business grow, so remember to network whenever you can, send out press releases and join (or start) various online forums. It's important to always approach internet marketing as a serious business. If you want to succeed, you have to be completely committed to this goal and also not be afraid to take a few risks.

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With the price of petrol beginning to slowly increase and the economy appearing to overcome the recession, we thought we were back in business. , we thought we were overcoming the recession and back in business. However, for many retailers, this has not been the case.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), ‘the number of people unemployed fell by 88,000 in three months to April taking it up to 2.43 million people – the largest drop since summer 2000.'
The ONS Labour market statistics continues to say that: ‘The number of employees and self-employed people working part-time because they could not find a full-time job increased by 80,000 on the quarter to reach 1.25 million, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1992.'
Retail is the largest private sector employer with a third of the workforce being under 25. This cut in retail jobs is going to have a long downturn effect on the younger public who already struggle for work.
Lloyds banking is one organisation implementing cuts. They plan to shed 15,000 jobs, equivalent to 14% of the workforce due to a strategic review that targets £1.5bn in annual savings by 2014. The new Chief Executive for Lloyds bank, Antonio Horta-Osorio says: "Our aim is to become the best bank for customers."
HMV,one of the leading music and games retailers, has recently struggled due to the growth in games and cd sales in supermarkets and online. They almost faced administration, but luckily escaped after securing a two year £220 million refinancing deal with its tenders taking a 5% stake in the firm. The pressure had been increasing on HMV to restructure after they had been issued three profit warnings and last month announced the sale of Waterstones bookshops to the Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53m. There is however no evidence of job cuts as yet but with this new management, there may be a possibility of cuts being on the cards.
TJ Hughes, an organisation founded in Liverpool, announced that jobs were at risk and its large department store in Bradford is due to close down. The company intends to appoint an administrator soon, which may result in 4,000 jobs being put at risk throughout the country.
Thorntons, renowned for its high quality chocolate luxuries, have announced plan to close up to 180 stores across the country, which means 10,000 people could lose their jobs. Thorntons hope to focus on internet sales, as they feel this would be more beneficial and have a bigger scope for growth financially rather than through the stores.
Jane Norman, a woman's clothing fashion retailer suffering from the after effects of the recession, has recently shown signs of recovering from near bankruptcy by selling 33 of their stores, along with all their stock, to Edinburgh Woollen Mill. However consequently, Jane Norman has had to make 390 redundancies, with a further 740 employees at risk.
Not only is this change being implemented in the Retail sector, the Public sector are also suffering. The new Government changes in policies and the significant cuts throughout the year have meant job cuts. More than 50,000 jobs will or have already disappeared from the NHS. Up to 24,000 posts from hospitals; 10,000 from primary care trusts and 6,000 from mental health trusts, according to the survey by the union funded website – ‘false economy.'
Although Retailers are facing a difficult time, there is still hope for the sector and the British jobs market. The British Retail Consortium Online state that: ‘the number of retail outlets have grown by 5.3%...food retailers are the most confident about investing and creating jobs, especially Sainsbury's, the Co-op and Waitrose, who all plan for major expansions and store openings in 2011.'
John Lewis plans to open a number of new home stores later this year which will create ample job opportunities for the public. However, the British Retail Consortium online does state that the outlook for the rest of the year will remain tough for retailers.
The BRC statistics state that 63% of retailers are determined to keep their staffing levels the same in the next quarter; the remaining 24% of retailers plan to reduce their workforce due to financial cuts. Statistics show that, in that last year, only 8% of retailers expected to reduce their workforce. (brc online)
In a climate of high interest rests, increased inflation and endless government cuts, the future for the retail sector and its jobs is not promising.

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Yesterday reporters from faw group that China faw and China mobile signed the strategic cooperative agreement, will be to build a Chinese car networking products and service base, wireless digital urban products and services base. According to information, both sides in the cooperation, will combine to car networking services, and enterprise production base management information construction.

Yesterday, reporters from China telecom (the Po) company to realize, China telecom will on August 1, mobile phone call forwarding business starting the fees standard structure.

According to information, after the adjustment the standard structure in charges, mobile phone call forwarding business charges will no longer distinguish whether the user is in the ownership or roaming to (not including international and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions roaming), are no longer the classification of various types (unconditional turn out in turn out, etc) called busy turn, this means that, mobile phone call forwarding business items of a standard structure simplified. In the price structure adjustment, if after users will be transferred to the call number where, the basic occupied for $0.1 / minute; If the user will turn to the call number where, according to the basic combined (0.1 yuan/minutes) + ChangTuFei (highest 0.06 yuan / 6 seconds) charge.

Yesterday, in the media about China telecom (the Po) will be before the end of the year into CDMA version of the iPhone reports, China telecom, said foreign to apple's negotiations was still underway, there is no specific timetable.

It is understood that this year may, China telecom chairman wang xiaochu foreign revealed, the company has made contact with apple, discuss the problem of CDMA version of the iPhone launch. And recent media quoted sources saying says, China telecom introduce CDMA version of the iPhone in the technical preparations have completed, and apple only exists between the contract on the details of difference, and this year in November, China telecom is likely to be successful into CDMA version of the iPhone. This statement, China telecom investor relations representative said, China telecom is working with apple in the Chinese market for mobile phone sales iPhone related consultation, but the negotiations are continuing, no specific timetable.