Housing agency upholds prevailing federal wage in Joplin
December 16th, 2011
Fresh business news
A former top lawyer for Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers insisted Wednesday that he told the mogul’s son there was evidence of widespread phone hacking at the now defunct News of The World tabloid.
Tom Crone questioned claims made by James Murdoch _ chairman of News International, the British arm of his father’s media empire _ that he had not been informed about an email indicating that hacking was rife.
For many months, News International insisted the illegal accessing of the cell phone voice messages of celebrities and crime victims was confined to reporter Clive Goodman who, along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was jailed in 2007.
But in July the company closed the 168-year-old tabloid, amid public outrage over the disclosure that reporters had hacked the phone of a missing schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.
Crone told Britain’s inquiry into media standards that during a meeting in June 2008, he showed Murdoch a printed copy of an email that included transcripts of illegally intercepted voice mail messages.
The document is considered a key piece of evidence in proving that News International had attempted to hide the extent of the scandal from the public.
Murdoch has previously told a parliamentary committee investigating phone hacking he hadn’t been told about the email.
“What was certainly discussed was the email … and what it meant in terms of further involvement in phone hacking beyond Goodman and Mulcaire,” Crone told the inquiry, referring to the June 2008 meeting.
“What was relayed to Mr. Murdoch was that this document clearly was direct and hard evidence of that being the case,” he said.
Crone said that he believed Murdoch had likely been made aware of the contents. “I am also pretty sure that he already knew about it _ in terms of it had been described to him already,” the lawyer said.
In evidence disclosed Tuesday, the junior Murdoch acknowledged that he had been sent some details in an email, but claimed not have read the message in full as it was sent to his BlackBerry over a weekend.
Separately, the parliamentary committee released a letter Wednesday in which Crone acknowledged the newspaper had checked electoral and birth records in a hunt for evidence that two lawyers acting for victims of phone hacking may have had an affair.
Lawyers Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris were both also put under surveillance by the newspaper, as was lawmaker Tom Watson _ a frequent critic of the senior Murdoch.
“Neither check provided any support for the suspicion that Mr. Lewis and Ms. Harris had had or were having a relationship,” Crone said in the letter, dated Dec. 11.
British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered judge Brian Leveson to head an inquiry into press standards following the disclosure that the News of the World had for years illegally eavesdropped on the voice mail messages of public figures.
Actors Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and singer Charlotte Church are among those who have given evidence on their experience of media abuses.
The website of Wind Concerns Ontario, which lobbies against wind energy, has suspended operations because of mysterious legal issues.
The website has posted an enigmatic note stating:
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Samsung Electronics Co. is free to sell its Galaxy tablet computers in Australia after the country’s highest court Friday dismissed rival Apple’s appeal in its global patent battle.
The High Court had temporarily banned sales of the Galaxy pending a final decision on whether to allow Apple Inc., creator of the iPad and iPhone, to appeal a lower court ruling in favor of Samsung.
Following the ruling, Samsung said in a statement that its Galaxy Tab 10.1 “will be available in stores in time for the Christmas shopping period.”
Apple took Samsung to court in Australia after accusing the South Korean company of copying its iPad and iPhone. In October, a judge ordered Samsung to halt sales of the Galaxy ahead of a trial. But Samsung went back to court, challenged the decision and won the right to resume sales.
But Apple immediately appealed that decision to the High Court, which granted a temporary injunction pending a final decision.
The battle began in April, when Cupertino, California-based Apple sued Samsung in the United States, alleging the product design, user interface and packaging of Samsung’s Galaxy devices “slavishly copy” the iPhone and iPad payday loan online.
Samsung responded by filing its own lawsuits that accused Apple of patent infringement of its wireless telecommunications technology.
The fight has spread to 10 countries, with courts in several nations _ including Germany and the Netherlands _ ruling in favor of Apple. It has highlighted the perception that Samsung _ the global No. 1 in TVs and No. 2 in smartphones by sales _ is more of an imitator of clever technologies than an innovator in its own right.
Apple, by contrast, is generally viewed by consumers as highly original and inventive.
Stocks wavered between small gains and losses in midday trading Tuesday after Standard & Poor’s expanded its downgrade threat against Europe to include the region’s bailout fund.
The credit rating agency warned late Monday that it might downgrade 15 countries that use the euro, even Germany, which has a perfect AAA rating and Europe’s strongest economy. On Tuesday, S&P said it might also cut the AAA rating of Europe’s bailout fund. The fund needs that top rating to cheaply raise money, and losing it would mean it would cost billions more to fund bailouts. European markets mostly fell on the news.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down less than a point at 1,256 just before noon Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10, or 0.4 percent, to 2,645.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 40 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,138. Among the Dow’s top performers was 3M Co., which rose 1.7 percent after the maker of Post-It notes forecast 2012 earnings that were stronger that many analysts were expecting.
Traders are looking ahead to a crucial summit of European leaders that wraps up Friday. They hope to see more concrete solutions to restore long-term confidence in the euro and rescue the region from the sovereign debt crisis that has roiled world markets for months.
“We are coming to a head in Europe, and it’s no longer about the small countries like Greece,” said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer at ING Investment Management. He said current stock prices reflect traders’ expectations of a rate cut from the European Central Bank on Thursday and strong political action on Friday. Any less that, he said, and “it’s anyone’s guess show bad things will get, but they’ll get pretty bad.”
The S&P warning left out only two of 17 countries that use the euro: Cyprus, which already is being reviewed for a downgrade from near-junk status, and Greece, whose low ratings already suggest it is likely to default soon anyway. Skepticism over a new plan to prevent a breakup of the common currency also dragged markets lower.
S&P’s announcement halted a rally in European markets. It came just hours after the leaders of Germany and France unveiled a series of proposals, including punishing governments for overspending, that they hope will persuade the European Central Bank or the International Monetary Fund to lend the euro zone more support. Germany’s DAX index fell 1 percent, while France’s CAC-40 fell 0.4 percent.
The warning also clipped an advance on Wall Street late Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average finished with a gain of 78 points. It had been up 167 points before reports of the S&P action emerged.
In corporate news:
_ Darden Restaurants Inc. slid 11.3 percent, the most in the S&P 500 index, after the company slashed its profit forecast for 2012. The company is trying to turn around its struggling Olive Garden restaurant chain and cope with rapidly rising food costs.
_ Leap Wireless International Inc. rose 2.7 percent after the prepaid mobile phone company said it is buying spectrum in Chicago from Verizon Wireless and sell it spectrum bandwidth nationwide.
Premier Mario Monti convened a Cabinet meeting in Rome on Sunday to discuss emergency austerity and growth measures aimed at saving the euro currency from collapse.
Monti is under extreme pressure to come up with speedy and credible measures that will persuade markets to stop betting against the common currency.
The Cabinet, which is expected to approve the measures, was originally scheduled to meet Monday, but was moved up following Monti’s weekend of meetings with political parties, unions, business groups and consumer lobbies.
The premier hasn’t disclosed details of his rescue plan, but has said it includes both austerity cuts and measures to boost growth in Italy’s anemic economy. He has promised it would be socially equitable, and that it would go after those who hadn’t paid their share of taxes before.
With the meeting still under way, Monti’s office issued a statement saying the package was still under discussion. The statement suggests that the Cabinet may be taking into consideration input from the various groups it met over the weekend.
The various parties briefed have said the package likely includes reinstating an unpopular home property tax abolished by Berlusconi, raising the sales tax and the income tax at the highest brackets by a few percentage points, and requiring Italians to work more than the 40 years now needed to receive a pension.
The head of Italy’s industrial lobby said Sunday that the survival of the common euro currency depends on Italy’s coming up with very strong austerity and growth measures _ followed by a concerted effort at the European level so that Italian sacrifices are not in vain.
Confindustria President Emma Marcegaglia told reporters after meeting with Monti that the measures are “very heavy.”
The coming days “will decided if the euro will survive or not. The first move to save the euro is in Italian hands, with a very strong measures,” Marcegaglia said. The measures will be “fundamental to saving Italy and to saving the euro.”
Italian borrowing costs have spiked, which could spell disaster if Italy is unable to keep up on payments to service its enormous debt of euro1.9 trillion ($2.57 trillion), or 120 percent of its GDP.
Unlike Greece, Portugal and Ireland, which got bailouts after their borrowing rates skyrocketed, the eurozone’s third-largest economy is considered to be too big to bail out. An Italian default would be disastrous for the 17-member eurozone and reverberate throughout the global economy.
Union head Raffaele Bonnani, however, urged Monti to reconsider raising the pension age across the board, saying that workers in hard labor should be allowed to retire without added requirements, and that women who join the work force after raising children might have to work well into old age if the 40-year seniority requirement were raised.
But he said he was against calling a general strike at this sensitive moment, and would instead pursue a policy of negotiation with the government.
Marcegaglia said the measures were concentrated on raising taxes _ and to balance that she called for an immediate look at ways to cut political and bureaucratic spending. “This kind of fiscal pressure is not sustainable,” she said.
Stocks are opening higher after a report showed improvement in the U.S. job market and Germany’s chancellor talked tough about fiscal discipline in the European Union.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 91 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,111 early Friday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 10, or 0.8 percent, to 1,255. The Nasdaq composite rose 23, or 0.9 percent, to 2,649.
The government said the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, the lowest in 2 1/2 years. Economists had expected the rate to stay at 9 percent.
Investors were encouraged by a speech by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said the 17 nations that use the euro currency must quickly restore market confidence by making financial controls stricter. Stocks in Germany are up 1.3 percent.
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Asian stock markets were mixed Friday, a day after rallying on news that six of the world’s central banks slashed borrowing costs for banks to shore up Europe’s financial system and prevent its debt crisis from getting worse.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.4 percent to 8,629.81, and Australia’s S&P ASX 200 gained 0.5 percent to 4,248.30. But South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.3 percent to 1,911.31 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent to 18,939.18. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and mainland China were also lower.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will speak before Germany’s parliament about Europe’s financial crisis and next Friday’s EU summit.
Hopes are that European leaders will deliver a long-term solution to the debt crisis at the summit.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland said they were working together to make it easier for banks to borrow dollars.
The coordinated effort was meant to prevent Europe’s debt crisis from exploding into a global panic. Should a European bank fail or if a country default on its debt, investors fear it could result in a freeze-up in global lending markets like the one that occurred in 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed check cash advance.
Another rise in applications for weekly U.S. unemployment benefits dampened the mood on Wall Street on Thursday. Traders took little encouragement from a better manufacturing report. The Institute for Supply Management said that manufacturing grew last month at the fastest pace since June.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.2 percent to close at 12,020.03. The S&P 500 index slipped 0.2 percent to 1,244.59. The tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 0.2 percent to 2,626.
The Labor Department said initial applications rose to 402,000 last week, the second weekly increase in a row. The figures didn’t change expectations for the government’s monthly labor report, which comes out Friday. Economists forecast that the unemployment rate will remain at 9 percent.