Former RBS boss Fred Goodwin stripped of knighthood

Mr Goodwin, who was heavily criticised over his role in the bank's near-collapse in 2008, was given the honour by the Labour government in 2004.

The Queen cancelled and annulled the title following Whitehall advice.

Party leaders, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, welcomed the decision. In the past, only convicted criminals or people struck off professional bodies have had knighthoods taken away.

Mr Goodwin oversaw the multi-billion-pound deal to buy Dutch rival ABN Amro at the height of the financial crisis in 2007, which led to RBS having to be bailed out to the tune of £45bn by taxpayers.

There had been a growing clamour for Mr Goodwin to be stripped of his honour following thousands of job losses at RBS and in the banking industry since then, and the impact on the wider economy.

'Exceptional case'

After the removal of the knighthood, a Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The scale and severity of the impact of his actions as CEO of RBS made this an exceptional case."

He added: "Both the Financial Services Authority and the Treasury Select Committee have investigated the reasons for this failure and its consequences.

"They are clear that the failure of RBS played an important role in the financial crisis of 2008/9 which, together with other macroeconomic factors, triggered the worst recession in the UK since the Second World War and imposed significant direct costs on British taxpayers and businesses.

"Fred Goodwin was the dominant decision-maker at RBS at the time. In reaching this decision, it was recognised that widespread concern about Fred Goodwin's decisions meant that the retention of a knighthood for 'services to banking' could not be sustained."

'Proper process'

The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said Mr Goodwin was in a "class of his own" in terms of the risks that he took at RBS - reflected in the size of the bailout required to rescue the company.

In 2009, Mr Goodwin, who received an annual pension of £650,000 - later reduced to £342,500 - after leaving the bank, told a committee of MPs he "could not be more sorry" for what had happened.

Both Mr Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband welcomed the decision.

"The FSA report into what went wrong at RBS made clear where the failures lay and who was responsible," Mr Cameron said. "The proper process has been followed and I think we have ended up with the right decision."

And Mr Miliband said the public wanted to see further sweeping changes to boardroom culture and remuneration.

"It is right that Fred Goodwin lost his knighthood but I think it is only the start of the change we need in our boardrooms.

"We need to change the bonus culture and we need real responsibility right across the board."

'Public opprobrium'

Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said Tuesday's announcement was the "right decision" while Chancellor George Osborne described the decision as "appropriate".

"RBS came to symbolise everything that went wrong in the British economy in the last decade," he said.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said it was the "correct decision", since the knighthood "was for services to banking which could not therefore be sustained".

The Unite union also welcomed the move, with senior official David Fleming saying it was "a token gesture... but one which will be well received by the thousands of workers who lost their jobs during his rule".

Conservative MP David Ruffley, a member of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, said Mr Goodwin had acted "recklessly" and the public wanted him to be "held to account".

He told Sky News "there was a sense that this guy had got away scot-free and the only thing left really to show the public opprobrium was for the knighthood to be stripped".

'Politicising honours'

However, the move was not welcomed by all. Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors, did not approve of the honour withdrawal, saying he was concerned there was "a hysteria about the whole situation".

While he said that the system of stripping an honour for criminal offences was "appropriate", he added: "To do it because you don't like someone, you don't approve of someone, you think they have done things that are wrong but actually there is no criminality alleged or charged, I think is inappropriate and politicises the whole honours system."

The forfeiture committee - whose members include the cabinet secretary, the top civil servant at the Home Office, the top lawyer at the Treasury and the top official in the Scottish government - made the decision to recommend he lose the honour.

The Queen has the sole authority to rescind a knighthood, after taking advice from the government.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16821650

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'Strict Muslim' raped four women at knifepoint to 'punish them for being on the streets at night' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091669/Sunny-Islam-Strict-Muslim-raped-4-women-knifepoint-punish-them.html#ixzz1ka73AgdB

A Muslim man who raped women to 'teach them a lesson' for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely today because of the danger he poses to women.

Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strict Muslim family, dragged his terrified victims - including a 15-year-old - from the street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign of terror.

Police fear that Islam may have attacked many more.

Three of the assaults took place close to his home in Barking, east London, while a fourth occurred in nearby Forest Gate.

Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing him to a minimum of 11 years, said: 'The harm you have done to your victims is incalculable.

'The nature and extent of these offences drives me to the conclusion that you represent an extreme and continuing danger to women, particularly those out at night.'

He was traced through the number plate of his girlfriend's car after he kidnapped and raped the 15-year-old in September 2010.

He grabbed her from behind as she walked home with a friend and bundled her into the car at knifepoint before driving to a secluded spot where he raped her twice despite her claiming she was only 11 years old.

Judge Lees said: 'You told her you were going to "teach her a lesson", and similar things were said to the other women. 

'Those words are a chilling indictment of your very troubling attitude towards all of these victims.

'You seem to observe women out at night as not deserving respect or protection.

'I have no doubt that you were out that night looking for a victim, as you were on each of these occasions.' 

The teen, who feared she would be murdered, was in court and smiled as her attacker was jailed.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: 'No one will ever understand the flashbacks - they are so real. At night, I lay in my bed and it is like I am there.

'It is like a screen in my mind forcing me to relive that night again and again.

'People will say time will heal, but I think time has helped me accept the truth - that I will never escape what has happened to me.'

After his arrest, Islam's DNA was linked with three other attacks near his home in Barking, prosecutor Sara Lawson told Woolwich Crown Court.

The judge said on July 8, 2010 he subjected a 20-year-old prostitute to 'his trademark double rape' and then tied her up, repeatedly punched her in the face and stole her wallet.

She said: 'He treated me like an animal and made me feel worthless - I thought I was going to die.'

Six days later, in Forest Gate, he struck again on a 28-year-old when he dragged her into his car and forced her to commit a sex act. 

She managed to kick out the back window of his car and escape despite being throttled.

His fourth victim, also attacked in September, did not come forward until police found the 31-year-old's blood in the back of the car along with a knife he used to threaten his victims and plastic ties he bound them with.

She was repeatedly repeatedly punched in the face until she was bleeding and then tied up and raped twice.

Islam, who told the jury he was a practising Muslim, was convicted of seven charges of rape, one of sexual assault and one of kidnap.

Tana Adkin, defending, said: 'The only piece of mitigation is his age. He was 21 at the time of these offences and comes from something of a strict background.' 

His mother, in religious dress, sat with her covered head bowed throughout and wept as her son was jailed.

Judge Lees said: 'The fact that you have attacked these women not withstanding your background must represent your own wholly warped personality.'

After the trial, Det Chief Insp John Sandlin, of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command who investigated the offences, said they believed there may be other victims who had not come forward, but Islam has not been charged with any further offences.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091669/Sunny-Islam-Strict-Muslim-raped-4-women-knifepoint-punish-them.html

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Four French soldiers die in Afghanistan shooting

Four French soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan after a serviceman from the Afghan National Army opened fire, officials say.

Another 16 French soldiers were injured, some seriously, in the incident in Kapisa province.

An official told the BBC that an Afghan non-commissioned officer got into a "verbal clash" and opened fire.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was suspending its training programmes in Afghanistan following the attack.

He was sending his defence minister, Gerard Longuet, to the country immediately, he said.

Mr Sarkozy said that the question of an early French withdrawal from Afghanistan would arise if security conditions were not re-established.

He said it was unacceptable for French troops to be fired on by their allies.

Mr Longuet said that the French soldiers shot dead were unarmed and were "literally murdered".

He said he did not know if the attack was carried out by a "Taliban who infiltrated" or if it was someone who decided to act for reasons as yet unknown, AFP reports.

Thursday's incident, in the Tagab district, took place at 08:00 local time (03:30 GMT), according to French media reports.

A French security official quoted by AFP said the soldiers were attacked as they ended a sports session at their base.

It brings to 82 the total number of French personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

An Afghan official told the BBC: "This is a tragic incident, a sad and tragic day for us and for Nato." The Afghan soldier was arrested by the French, he said.

Nato confirmed in a statement that four of its personnel had been killed, and that a suspect had been apprehended, but gave no further details.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai released a statement conveying "his deepest condolences and sympathy to the French president, families of the victims and to the French people".

The relationship between the two countries was "historic" and "honest," and a source of happiness, he said. President Karzai is due to meet Mr Sarkozy in Paris next week.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says there has been an increasing number of incidents involving Afghan soldiers turning their weapons on Nato forces.

The Afghan government has failed to come up with a solution or a strategy to prevent such attacks, he says.

Three weeks ago two members of the French Foreign Legion were shot dead by an Afghan National Army soldier, also in Kapisa province.

Five French soldiers were killed by a suicide bomb while on patrol in the Tagab district of Kapisa in July 2011.

That was the heaviest loss of French life in Afghanistan since 10 soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush in the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, in August 2008.

2011 was France's bloodiest year in Afghanistan with the loss of 26 personnel. The risks faced by French forces have increased as the areas of the country where they are stationed have become less stable.

'Difficult decision'

French troops have been part of the Nato-led operation in Afghanistan since 2001, and the country currently has 3,600 troops there.

President Sarkozy announced in July that 1,000 troops would be withdrawn from the country by the end of 2012, ahead of full Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.

Mr Sarkozy faces re-election this year and the loss of French life in Afghanistan is a highly politically sensitive issue in France.

The socialist challenger for the presidency, Francois Hollande - who is ahead of Mr Sarkozy in opinion polls - has reiterated his position that he would withdraw French troops by the end of the year, if elected.

A senior commander with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Kabul said he was speechless at the prospect of a potential French withdrawal. France is one of the few members of Isaf to have more than 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.

In a separate development, a Nato helicopter has crashed in southern Afghanistan killing six soldiers. The nationalities of those killed has not been disclosed but they are believed to be American.

The Taliban said they killed the soldiers, but an Isaf spokesman said there was no enemy activity in the area at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16645251

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Israeli 'Rosa Parks' causes storm by refusing to go to the back of the bus

Tanya Rosenblit is a 28 year old TV producer, the daughter of Russian immigrants who lives in the coastal town of Ashdod. Last month, she caught a bus to Jerusalem where she had a medical appointment. She made an effort to dress modestly, as her doctor was in an ultra-Orthodox area of the city.

The ultra-Orthodox are a small group of extremely religious and theologically rigid Jews. They wear black, the men have long side curls, and every aspect of their lives is governed by the Old Testament.

Rosenblit was the first passenger to board. She sat in the front of the bus so the driver could tell her when she reached her stop. Ultra-Orthodox men who boarded after her were uncomfortable when they saw her. Then one insisted he would not travel unless she moved to the back of the bus.

"He started shouting, 'This is our bus they're not welcome here, if they want to come on, they have to respect us,'" said Tanya Rosenblit. "He said, 'Jewish men don't sit behind women!' And that was the statement that made me stay put."

Ultra-Orthodox beliefs

In buses which go to ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods men and women sit separately, to satisfy their beliefs about modesty. It's an unwritten rule, but the Ultra-Orthodox are becoming aggressive about enforcing it, as Rosenblit discovered.

She said the man never spoke to her directly, shouting his complaints at the bus driver instead. He also refused to get on or off. The driver stopped the bus and called the police. The disgruntled passenger called for reinforcements.

"And then he shouted, 'Jews, Jews, protest, protest!' and 20 men assembled outside the bus. They were all wearing black. And I was just sitting there frozen, not panicked, just as if I was watching a movie or a play - what's going on???" Rosenblit told Deutsche Welle.

Police intervention

A policeman arrived and spoke to the driver, to the complainant and finally to Tanya Rosenblit. He asked if she would be prepared to respect the Ultra-Orthodox man and move to the back of the bus. Once again, she refused.

"I said I thought I had respected them enough by how I'd dressed. I said I didn't think that humiliating myself would be respecting anybody. I'm not the kind of person to give into bullying," she explained.

Tanya Rosenblit won. The complainant agreed to step down, and the bus continued on its journey. But when she posted pictures of the incident on the Internet, all hell broke loose. She said she was surprised at the national and international reaction and how the issue climbed to the top of Israel's agenda.

Public outrage

But her story didn't happen in isolation. In the same week, an eight year old girl was filmed by Israeli TV, terrified to walk to school in the town of Bet Shemesh near Jerusalem. Ultra-Orthodox men spat on her because they disapproved of her clothing. They also demanded that women walk separately on the opposite side of the road.

The two incidents together outraged the Israeli public. They followed months of reports of discrimination against women, following pressure from ultra-Orthodox communities. Women were not to sing or speak at Israeli army ceremonies; women were not to deliver a eulogy at a funeral; women were not to be seen on any bill board in Jerusalem.

There was no law to that effect, but every time a picture of a woman appeared on a billboard, ultra-Orthodox extremists would deface it or tear it down. Advertisers simply gave in and there are no pictures of women in Jerusalem any longer.

According to Tanya Rosendblit, this escalation was the work of extremists – and not the majority. She stressed that she was not 'anti' the ultra-Orthodox.

"I don't want it to sound like it's us and them. In the end normal people on both sides believe we have to coexist because it's one country, we cannot divide it," she told Deutsche Welle. "Well, we will divide it and give part to the Palestinians, but we can't give part to the ultra-Orthodox as well, it's absurd. We have to coexist. The question is how and I don't have the answer to that yet."

Author: Irris Makler, Jerusalem
Editor: Rob Turner

 

 

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15668900,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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Flexing Muscle, Baghdad Detains U.S. Contractors

BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities have detained a few hundred foreign contractors in recent weeks, industry officials say, including many Americans who work for the United States Embassy, in one of the first major signs of the Iraqi government’s asserting its sovereignty after the American troop withdrawal last month.

The detentions have occurred largely at the airport in Baghdad and at checkpoints around the capital after the Iraqi authorities raised questions about the contractors’ documents, including visas, weapons permits and authorizations to drive certain routes. Although no formal charges have been filed, the detentions have lasted from a few hours to nearly three weeks.

The crackdown comes amid other moves by the Iraqi government to take over functions that had been performed by the United States military and to claim areas of the country it had controlled. In the final weeks of the military withdrawal, the son of Iraq’s prime minister began evicting Western companies and contractors from the heavily fortified Green Zone, which had been the heart of the United States military operation for much of the war.

Just after the last American troops left in December, the Iraqis stopped issuing and renewing many weapons licenses and other authorizations. The restrictions created a sequence of events in which contractors were being detained for having expired documents that the government would not renew.

The Iraqi authorities have also imposed new limitations on visas. In some recent cases, contractors have been told they have 10 days to leave Iraq or face arrest in what some industry officials call a form of controlled harassment.

Latif Rashid, a senior adviser to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, and a former minister of water, said in an interview that the Iraqis’ deep mistrust of security contractors had led the government to strictly monitor them. “We have to apply our own rules now,” he said.

This month, Iraqi authorities kept scores of contractors penned up at Baghdad’s international airport for nearly a week until their visa disputes were resolved. Industry officials said more than 100 foreigners were detained; American officials acknowledged the detainments but would not put a number on them.

Private contractors are integral to postwar Iraq’s economic development and security, foreign businessmen and American officials say, but they remain a powerful symbol of American might, with some Iraqis accusing them of running roughshod over the country.

An image of contractors as trigger-happy mercenaries who were above the law was seared into the minds of Iraqis after several violent episodes involving private sector workers, chief among them the 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisour Square when military contractors for Blackwater killed 17 civilians.

Iraq’s oil sector alone, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the government’s budget, relies heavily on tens of thousands of foreign employees. The United States Embassy employs 5,000 contractors to protect its 11,000 employees and to train the Iraqi military to operate tanks, helicopters and weapons systems that the United States has sold them.

The United States had been providing much of the accreditation for contractors to work in Iraq. But after the military withdrawal, contractors had to deal with a Iraqi bureaucracy at a time when the government was engulfed in a political crisis and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, fearing a coup, was moving tanks into the Green Zone.

The delays for visa approvals have disrupted the daily movement of supplies and personnel around Iraq, prompting formal protests from dozens of companies operating in Iraq. And they have raised deeper questions about how the Maliki government intends to treat foreign workers and how willing foreign companies will be to invest here.

“While private organizations are often able to resolve low-level disputes and irregularities, this issue is beyond our ability to resolve,” the International Stability Operations Association, a Washington-based group that represents more than 50 companies and aid organizations that work in conflict, post-conflict and disaster relief zones, said in a letter on Sunday to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Doug Brooks, president of the organization, said in a telephone interview that the number of civilian contractors who have been detained was in the “low hundreds.” He added in an e-mail on Sunday, “Everyone is impacted, but the roots have more to do with political infighting than any hostility to the U.S.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/world/middleeast/asserting-its-sovereignty-iraq-detains-american-contractors.html?_r=1

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Mob burns elderly couple

Instead of joining the thousands of pupils who returned to school yesterday, a seven-year-old boy was left traumatised after watching a mob burn his grandparents to death at Lindelani, near Ntuzuma, early on Wednesday.

Elsa Dubazane, and Rafael Zukhulu, both 63, were accused of practising witchcraft.

According to Dubazane’s tenant Simphiwe Dlamini, the mob arrived at about 12.30am yesterday.

“I was asleep and my boyfriend woke me up after he heard loud screams,” she said.

“We went outside and saw that the granny’s house had caught fire and a mob was standing outside.”

Dlamini said the mob had snatched the boy from the burning house, but left his grandparents inside.

“The grandfather managed to escape, but they chased and caught him on the road. The mob then set a tyre alight and hung it around his neck while his grandson watched.”

She said the boy had yelled and cried out repeatedly, but the mob did nothing as Duba-zane remained inside the burning house, probably fearing that the mob would kill her if she got out.

Ward councillor Mbuyiselwa Sibiya said he received a call about the incident at 1.30am and called 10111 and an officer who lives in the area.

However, the officer feared for his life and would not go to the scene.

“I then called 10111 again and told the police to rush to the scene with firemen.”

Sibiya said the police arrived to find the bedroom and kitchen burnt to ashes.

The boy was taken away by the police.

On Friday, Dubazane and Zukhulu were attacked and assaulted by a mob which accused them of killing their granddaughter and burying her in their yard.

The couple told The Mercury at the time how a mob, wielding axes, had ransacked and searched the house, looking for a baboon which they alleged the family used for witchcraft.

Their granddaughter, Zakude Shozi, 16, died at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, Phoe-nix on January 3.

Dubazane had told the crowd that the girl had been buried, and showed them the death certificate and a receipt from a funeral parlour.

However, the community was outraged that they had not seen a funeral and assaulted her nevertheless.

Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said Dubazane’s body was found in her bedroom, while Zukhulu was found on the road.

The police were investigating two cases of murder and one of arson, but no arrests had been made.

Sazi Mhlongo, chairman of Traditional Healers in KZN, was outraged by the incident.

“This irritates me because people are killed without any proof or evidence that they practised witchcraft,” he said.

“The mob that committed these crimes should be arrested.”

He said people could have started rumours about the family because of jealousy over their large compound.

http://www.iol.co.za/mercury/mob-burns-elderly-couple-1.1211397?showComments=true

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Children 'dumped in streets by Greek parents who can't afford to look after them any more

Children are being abandoned on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them any more.

Youngsters are being dumped by their parents who are struggling to make ends meet in what is fast becoming the most tragic human consequence of the Euro crisis.

It comes as pharmacists revealed the country had almost run out of aspirin, as multi-billion euro austerity measures filter their way through society.

Athens' Ark of the World youth centre said four children, including a newborn baby, had been left on its doorstep in recent months.

One mother, it said, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter Natasha.

Four-year-old Anna was found by a teacher clutching a note that read: 'I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.'

And another desperate mother, Maria, was forced to give up her eight-year-old daughter Anastasia after losing her job.

She looked for work for more than a  year, having to leave her child at home for hours at a time, and lived off food handouts from the local church.

She said: 'Every night I cry alone at home, but what can I do? It hurt my heart, but I didn’t have a choice.' She now works in a cafe but only make £16 per day and so cannot afford to take her daughter back.

Centre founder Fr Antonios Papanikolaou told the Mirror: 'Over the last year we've had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us.

'They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need.'

Further evidence of Greeks feeling the pinch of austerity measures is the lack of aspirin and other medicines now available in the country.

Pharmacists are struggling to stock their shelves as the Greek government, which sets the prices for drugs, keeps them artificially low.

This means that firms are turning to sell the drugs outside of the country for a higher price - leading to stock depletion for Greeks.

Mina Mavrou, who runs one of the country's 12,000 pharmacies, said she spent hours each day pleading with drug makers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients.

And she said that even when drugs were available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.

Meanwhile, talks about private sector creditors paying for part of a second Greek bailout are going badly, senior European bankers said tonight.

That raises the prospect that euro zone governments will have to increase their contribution to the aid package.

'Governments are mulling an increase of their share of the burden,' said one banker, while another said 'Nothing is decided yet, but the bigger the imposed haircut the less appetite there is for voluntary conversion.'    

A third senior banker told Associated Press: 'Private sector involvement is going badly.'    

There are suggestions in euro zone government circles that ministers are coming to the realisation they may need to bolster Greece's planned second bailout worth 130 billion euros if the voluntary bond swap scheme, which is a key part of the overall package, falls short of expectations. 

Stumping up yet more money would be politically difficult in Germany and other countries in the northern part of the currency bloc.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085163/Children-dumped-streets-Greek-parents-afford-them.html

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Iran car explosion kills nuclear scientist in Tehran

Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an academic who also worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, and the driver of the car were killed in the attack.

The blast happened after a motorcyclist stuck an apparent bomb to the car.

Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years, with Iran blaming Israel and the US. Both countries deny the accusations.

The US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters she did not have "any information to share one way or the other" on the latest attack.

Iran's Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told state television that the attack against Mr Ahmadi-Roshan would not stop "progress" in the country's nuclear programme.

He called the killing "evidence of [foreign] government-sponsored terrorism".

Local sources said Wednesday's blast took place at a faculty of Iran's Allameh Tabatai university.

Two others were reportedly also injured in the blast, which took place near Gol Nabi Street, in the north of the capital.

'Magnetic bomb'

Mr Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, was a graduate of Sharif University and supervised a department at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province, semi-official news agency Fars reported.

"The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists [Israelis]," deputy Tehran governor Safarali Baratloo said.

Witnesses said they had seen two people on the motorbike fix the bomb to the car, reported to be a Peugeot 405. The driver died of his wounds after the attack though the car itself remained virtually intact.

The BBC's Mohsen Asgari, in Tehran, says that the explosion was caused by a targeted, focused device intended to kill one or two people and small enough not to be heard from far away.

The latest attack comes almost two years to the day since Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a 50-year-old university lecturer at Tehran University, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb as he left his home in Tehran on 12 January 2010.

Nuclear suspicions

Reports at the time described Dr Mohammadi as a nuclear physicist, but it later appeared that he was an expert in another branch of physics.

There was also confusion as to whether the attack had any domestic political overtones because of reports about his apparent links to an opposition presidential candidate.

However, in August 2011, an Iranian man - Majid Jamali Fashi - was sentenced to death for the killing, with state authorities saying he was paid by Israel's Mossad spy agency. Israel does not comment on such claims.

Of the latest attack, Fars reports that the bombing method appears similar to another 2010 bombing which injured former university professor Fereydun Abbasi-Davani, now the head of the country's atomic energy organisation.

There has been much controversy over Iran's nuclear activities.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy purposes, but the US and other Western nations suspect it of seeking to build nuclear weapons.

In a statement quoted on Iranian television on Wednesday, the country's atomic energy agency said its nuclear path was "irreversible", despite mounting international pressure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16501566

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Fukushima nuclear plant worker in coma after collapsing at site

A worker in his 60s at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is in a coma after collapsing at the site, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has announced.

The man, an employee of a company cooperating with TEPCO, has been in a state of cardiac and respiratory arrest, the utility said on Jan. 9. The worker had been exposed to 52 microsieverts of radiation on Jan. 9 before collapsing and losing consciousness at the crippled plant that day. TEPCO is trying to confirm how long he has been working at nuclear plants and how much accumulated radiation doses he has been exposed to so far.

According to TEPCO, the man had been pouring concrete since the morning of Jan. 9 in order to manufacture a tank to hold radioactive materials following the treatment of contaminated water emanating from the cooling of nuclear reactors at the plant.

At around 2:20 p.m., the worker complained of sickness and was treated at the plant's medical office. However, he did not recover and was later transferred to a hospital in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, at around 4:30 p.m.

Since the outbreak of the nuclear crisis in March last year, three workers have died of sickness and other causes at the disaster-stricken plant.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120110p2a00m0na018000c.html

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U.S. moves toward legal action against Swiss bank: sources

(Reuters) - U.S. authorities are moving toward taking legal action against Wegelin & Co, which could lead to an indictment of one of Switzerland's last pure private banks, on charges that it enabled wealthy Americans to evade taxes, according to two persons with knowledge of the case.

Negotiations in the case have reached a critical stage, with an indictment possible though the bank is seeking a deferred prosecution agreement, which would be less damaging. The outcome depends on how prosecutors, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Treasury Department agree to treat the matter, the sources said.

Founded in 1741, Wegelin is one of Switzerland's oldest banks. An indictment of it would be a blow to a national tradition of banking secrecy that dates back to the Middle Ages. It would be a step forward for a U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion by Americans through Swiss banks.

The crackdown started around 2007 with an investigation of UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank. It has since spread to the entire Swiss banking industry. Dozens of U.S. clients and at least two dozen Swiss bankers have been charged, in moves that have strained U.S.-Swiss relations.

Albena Bjorck, a spokeswoman for Wegelin, declined to comment on Friday when asked whether the bank was considering the possibility of being indicted. Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment.

The latest turn in the Wegelin case comes amid a broad criminal probe by the U.S. Justice Department of 11 Swiss and Swiss-style banks, including Wegelin, suspected of selling offshore tax evasion services to tens of thousands of wealthy Americans. Inquiries, growing out of scrutiny of UBS, are focused on Credit Suisse AG and Basler Kantonalbank among others.

Basler Kantonalbank confirmed a year ago that it was under investigation and in contact with U.S. authorities. Credit Suisse said in July its offshore private banking practices were under investigation and that it would "continue to cooperate with the U.S. authorities."

On a parallel track, Swiss government officials and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service are trying to negotiate a civil settlement for more than 300 other Swiss banks - the remainder of the Swiss banking industry - on the matter of private banking services that may have enabled tax evasion.

THREE BANKERS INDICTED

Wegelin confirmed on Wednesday that three of its employees had been indicted by U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan for selling tax evasion services to wealthy Americans. The charges outlined the sales role of senior unnamed partners at the bank.

The office of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney said on Tuesday that the indictment of the three bankers charged them with trying to "capture business lost by UBS AG and another large international Swiss bank in the wake of widespread news reports that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating UBS" in 2008 and 2009.

In 2009, UBS paid $780 million to settle Justice Department criminal charges that it helped thousands of U.S. clients hide $20 billion. UBS later turned over 4,450 American client names, on top of an initial 255 at the time of the settlement. It was a watershed breach in Swiss bank secrecy, which protects client confidentiality under law and does not consider tax evasion a crime.

If Wegelin could negotiate a deferred prosecution deal, it could resemble the one struck by U.S. authorities with UBS. Under such an arrangement, Wegelin would admit to criminal wrongdoing with its offshore private banking services, pay an undisclosed fine and agree to be monitored for a period of time.

Bjorck said in an emailed statement on Thursday that "Wegelin & Co. acknowledges the U.S. justice authorities' decision to press charges against three of its employees. Since April 2011, both external and bank internal experts have, in minute detail, examined its entire banking business with U.S. clients over the last 10 years.

"The bank and its U.S. lawyers have prepared their legal assessment of the matter in anticipation of the expected proceedings."

She declined on Friday to elaborate what she meant by "expected proceedings." Wegelin is based in St. Gallen, in northeastern Switzerland.

NO U.S. OFFICES

Wegelin is a small bank where eight partners hold unlimited liability for its operations. It has no U.S. offices or branches and it conducted its tax evasion business in part through correspondent banking accounts at UBS in Stamford, Conn., according to the indictment of the three Wegelin bankers.

One of Wegelin's eight top managing partners, Konrad Hummler, a leader in Swiss financial circles, has publicly lambasted the U.S. crackdown on Swiss private banking.

In a 2009 "investment commentary" entitled "Farewell America", which is on Wegelin's website, Hummler chastised the United States for "breathtaking moral duplicity in maintaining enormous offshore tax havens in Delaware, Florida and others of its states" and "for waging wars" in foreign countries "and at home (according to reliable sources, the tentacles of the narcotics mafia now reach well into political circles)."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/us-swiss-bank-wegelin-idUSTRE80808X20120109

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