Arun Gawli gets life term for murdering Sena corporator

Arun Gawli gets life term for murdering Sena corporator


Gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli was on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment by a special MCOCA court in Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar murder case.

Special MCOCA court judge Prithviraj Chavan, while pronouncing the judgement here, also imposed a fine of Rs 17 lakhs on Gawli, failing which he will have to undergo an additional three-year imprisonment.

Ten others were also awarded life imprisonment in the case while accused Sunil Ghate was convicted only under Arms Act and has been sent to three years' rigorous imprisonment.

The court also sent Gawli to ten-year imprisonment each for being a member of the organised crime syndicate and extortion.

While pronouncing the sentence, judge Chavan said "Instead of death I am giving you life imprisonment."

During arguments on sentencing in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court, the once feared underworld don had told judge Chavan that there was no reason for him to kill the Sena corporator for a "paltry" amount of Rs 30 lakh.

"After 2007 BMC elections, when Shiv Sena was not in majority it was our Akhil Bharatiya Sena who gave them support of four corporators (to attain majority). At that time each of our corporator commanded very high monetary value (for providing support) and there was no reason for me to kill Jamsandekar for Rs 30 lakh," Gawli argued.

On August 24, the former MLA and 11 others were found guilty of murdering Jamsandekar in 2008. According to the chargesheet, a sum of Rs 30 lakh was paid to the Gawli gang for eliminating the Sena corporator over a land deal.

Earlier, Gawli's lawyer Sudeep Passbola had argued in the court that his client should not be given capital punishment, as demanded by the prosecution. "Give a dog a bad name and shoot it - that should not be the principle," Passbola had said.

What The Apollo Astronauts Did For Life Insurance

What The Apollo Astronauts Did For Life Insurance
This week, Americans have been remembering Neil Armstrong. But before he walked on the moon, he had to solve a much more prosaic problem.

"You're about to embark on a mission that's more dangerous than anything any human has ever done before," Robert Pearlman, a space historian and collector with collectspace.com, told me. "And you have a family that you're leaving behind on earth and there's a real chance you will not be returning."

Exactly the kind of situation a responsible person plans for by taking out a life insurance policy. Not surprisingly, a life insurance policy for somebody about to get on a rocket to the moon cost a fortune.


But Neil Armstrong had something going for him. He was famous, as was the whole Apollo 11 crew. People really wanted their autographs.

"These astronauts had been signing autographs since they day they were announced as astronauts and they knew even though ebay didn't exist back then that there was a market for such things," Pearlman said. "There was demand."

Especially for what were called covers -– envelopes signed by astronauts and postmarked on important dates.

About a month before Apollo 11 was set to launch, the three astronauts entered quarantine. And, during free moments in the following weeks, each of the astronauts signed hundreds of covers.

They gave them to a friend. And on important days — the day of the launch, the day the astronauts landed on the moon — their friend got them to the post office and got them postmarked, and then distributed them to the astronauts' families.

It was life insurance in the form of autographs.

"If they did not return from the moon their families could sell them — to not just fund their day-to-day lives, but also fund their kids' college education and other life needs," Pearlman said.

The life insurance autographs were not needed. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon and came home safely. They signed probably tens of thousands more autographs for free.

But then, in the 1990s, Robert Pearlman says the insurance autographs started showing up in space memorabilia auctions. Tn Apollo 11 insurance autograph can cost as much as 30 thousand dollars.

Republicans Nominate Romney as Wife Dispels Storybook Life

Republicans Nominate Romney as Wife Dispels Storybook Life


With New Jersey’s delegate vote count tonight, Mitt Romney surpassed the 1,144 votes he needed to become the 2012 Republican Party’s presidential nominee.
That moment during the roll call of states drew thunderous applause inside the Tampa Bay Forum, where the party opened its convention a day late after Hurricane Isaac passed the state yesterday on its way toward New Orleans.
Romney landed in Tampa, Florida, earlier in the day to be present for the speech of his wife, Ann Romney, later tonight. While flying into the convention city, one of Romney’s top advisers downplayed the importance of the national convention, saying he was unsure whether the gathering would prompt a surge of support for the Republican presidential candidate.
“I just think all bets are off about any past performance being a predictor of the future,” chief strategist Stuart Stevens told reporters on Romney’s campaign plane.
Ann Romney is seeking to counter her husband’s image as an aloof politician and profit-driven former private equity executive, in a convention speech that describes him as someone who has spent his life helping to “lift up others.”
“At every turn in his life, this man I met at a high school dance has helped lift up others,” Ann Romney, 63, will say in her speech, according to excerpts released by the campaign in advance. “This is the man who will wake up every day with the determination to solve the problems that others say can’t be solved, to fix what others say is beyond repair. This is the man who will work harder than anyone so that we can work a little less hard.”

Perfect Life

Ann Romney also will use her speech to try to puncture a widely held view that her husband and family have a perfect life without challenge or adversity, alluding to her 14-year battle with multiple sclerosis and a 2008 breast cancer diagnosis.
“I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a ‘storybook marriage,’” she plans to say. “Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. And those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or Breast Cancer.”
Mitt Romney, 65, will formally accept his party’s nomination in a speech Aug. 30.
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who when growing up worked in his family’s bar, in a speech to the convention tonight, attacked President Barack Obama’s economic record. He said if a guy would have walked into the bar and said the private sector is “doing fine,” they would “throw him out,” referring to a comment Obama made earlier this year.

Paul Chants

The convention proceedings got off to a rocky start when supporters of Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican who challenged Romney in the primary, began chanting his name when Paul arrived on the floor.
There also was some shouting over a proposed rule change related to Paul’s delegates from Maine being replaced with Romney backers.
Paul declined an invitation to address the convention after Romney’s campaign insisted on approving his remarks. His son, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, is scheduled to speak tomorrow.
The conventions provide an opportunity for each party to make their case to voters who are starting to pay attention to the presidential race.
Romney’s speech later this week will present a “clear vision” of his presidency, said Stevens, laying out his argument against Obama, his reasons for running, and proposals to improve the U.S. economy.

Foreign Policy

He also plans to address foreign policy and the storm hitting the Gulf Coast in his appearance before his party’s delegates. Romney has been thinking about the speech for months, said Stevens, making notes on broad themes and consulting with advisers and friends across many industries.
Obama, campaigning today at Iowa State University in Ames, said the Republican convention “should be a pretty entertaining show.”
“What you won’t hear from them is a path forward that meets the challenge of our time,” Obama told supporters.
Democrats hold their convention starting Sept. 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

'Life After Top Chef' to follow Spike, Fabio, Richard and Jen

'Life After Top Chef' to follow Spike, Fabio, Richard and Jen


Ever wonder what happened to the "Top Chef" second-rans after a season ends? Bravo intends to tell you about at least a few of them with “Life After Top Chef,” premiering Wed. Oct. 3 at 10 p.m. ET. The show follows Richard Blais in Atlanta, Jen Carroll in Philadelphia, Spike Mendelsohn in D.C., and Fabio Viviani in Los Angeles as they continue to heat things up, from opening their own restaurants to expanding franchises and establishing their brands. For a sneak peek visit http://www.bravotv.com/life-after-top-chef/season-1/videos/the-insane-life-of-a-chef. Below, keep reading for a refresher on who you'll be seeing -- and what they'll be doing.

After losing "Top Chef" season 4, Richard Blais ultimately won "Top Chef All Stars."  He owns a four-star burger eatery with multiple locations and runs a creative culinary company that works with three and four-star restaurants. Richard wants to invest his winnings to finally succeed in opening a fine dining restaurant in Atlanta. Unfortunately, he struggles between his ambitions in the kitchen and being there for his family at home.

If there’s one female chef who can intimidate the guys, it’s Jen Carroll.  As the bright and shining star of chef Eric Ripert’s restaurant empire, she left her most recent post as Executive Chef at 10 Arts in Philadelphia to head out on her own. She sets out to open Concrete Blonde and must overcome some hurdles before realizing that it takes more than raw talent to achieve your goals. In her personal life, Jen helps care for her sick mother and is coming to terms with being 37-years-old and newly single.

Spike Mendelsohn competed on "Top Chef" to gain notoriety, and quickly got it. Being the baby of a food industry family, he was encouraged to associate his name with the family business to drive its success. While Spike wants to please his family, he also wants to succeed in opening a restaurant of his own. He struggles with his strong desire to venture on his own while avoiding ruffling feathers with the Mendelsohn clan.
Fan favorite Fabio Viviani won over fans in "Top Chef" season five with his thick Italian accent, and suave yet gregarious nature.  He hopes to build his empire and become the “male Martha Stewart.” The chef and owner of two Los Angeles restaurants, Fabio is going non-stop and it starts to take a toll on him, both physically and emotionally.

Opinion: UT life analogous to South China Sea

Opinion: UT life analogous to South China Sea


Across the world, in the South China Sea, lay eight uninhabited islands that will have a lot in common with our own UT campus in the coming months. China and Japan (and peripherally, Taiwan) have been locked in a territorial dispute over the islands since the 1970s. China claims the islands are part of their ancient heritage and have always been Chinese. The Japanese claim to have found them uninhabited. After ten years of exploration, they claimed sovereignty over them in 1895. They have different names for the little archipelago—Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Why do they matter to the Chinese and Japanese? They offer access to key shipping routes and natural resources.

But what on earth do they have to do with life at Tennessee? If, since your arrival on campus you have tried to return to an old favorite spot, you already know. The window tables at the Golden Roast cafe have been occupied by incoming freshman "hipsters" and their parents. Sorority women inhabit most of the study rooms on campus. Your favorite corner in Hodges is a construction site, and your usual computer is now downstairs in the cold and practically silent reference room. The Class of 2015 has already said their goodbyes to Presidential Court, but little did they realize that they were the last class to eat waffles at two a.m. at Ihop. Come mid-October and the first round of tests this semester, your favorite table on the third floor of the library will likely be occupied by someone else actively Facebooking on their laptop.

Over the next few weeks, our campus community will be making adjustments similar to those which the Chinese and Japanese have been avoiding for forty years. This adjustment will be most acutely felt by the sophomore class. Last year, we had a foolproof excuse for our strange behavior. Our obnoxiously large groups carrying huge backpacks and spouting pseudo-intellectual mumbo jumbo in the Morrill cafeteria were unapologetically claiming someone else's favorite place as our own. As freshman, we were the Japanese. We found these campus corners uninhabited and claimed them as our own. Now we return as the Chinese, with a new perspective informed by our whole year of experience. Upon our return to school, those places felt like they were always ours.

So many of our memories from the last year are of our first time doing something quintessentially collegiate. It's about the moments when you realized you were finally dipping into the adult world. The first sentences of the next chapters of our lives were (melodramatically), written in those old haunts. The best way to take ownership of the new experience was to subconsciously claim space as our own—it made this campus home.

For the dispute in the East China Sea, there are plenty of activists boating to the islands to claim a series of barren rocks. Superficially, the issue is about access to key resources. The root of the dispute is an old battle for primacy between two economic powerhouses.

Since we recognize our territorial claims as sophomoric at best, at UT the role of activists is hospitality. Sure, we will return to our favorite places and reminisce with our friends. Though we might silently chastise the Class of 2016 for being overly enthusiastic, pathetically confused, or for simply just being naive, we should recognize it as their privilege. They are claiming whatever spaces we have abandoned and making them their own. Instead of working to make this campus home, this fall the rest of us have the privilege of simply returning to it. Welcome back to Rocky Top, ya'll.

Real-life "Contagion" uses DNA to halt outbreak

Real-life "Contagion" uses DNA to halt outbreak


If Hollywood needs a plot for a medical thriller, scientists at the National Institutes of Health have one: Doctors, using cutting-edge technology called whole-genome sequencing, trace an outbreak of a deadly bacterial infection, identify precisely how it's spreading - and in the final minutes sic poison-spewing robots on the rampaging microbes.

That's essentially what scientists did when Klebsiella pneumoniae, an often-lethal bacterium, spread through NIH's research hospital in Bethesda, Maryland last year, as described in a study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"With whole-genome sequencing," said microbial geneticist Julie Segre of NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute, who led the study, "we were able to understand how the outbreak was moving through the hospital and identify weaknesses" in infection-control practices, finally halting the outbreak.

The unprecedented effort to use genome sequencing to save patients from an infectious outbreak offers hope that the technique could fight other hospital-acquired infections. These infections kill some 99,000 people die from such infections in the United States every year, estimates the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The added health-care costs, according to the CDC: $4.5 billion a year.

Calling it a "compelling story," virologist and microbe hunter Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York City said the NIH scientists' feat shows what ultra-fast whole-genome sequencing can accomplish in so-called microbial forensics. In whole-genome sequencing, machines identify the DNA units that make up an organism's entire genome.

Researchers were able "to implicate 'Patient Zero,' track transmission of a drug-resistant bacterium over the course of an important outbreak and provide insights that will inform infection control and patient care," said Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health and a scientific adviser on the 2011 film "Contagion."

PATIENT ZERO

The outbreak at NIH's hospital began last summer. In June a 43-year-old patient with antibiotic-resistant K. pneumoniae, which infects the urinary tract and bloodstream and can cause sepsis, a blood infection, was transferred to its intensive-care unit from a New York City hospital. "Patient Zero" was put in an isolation room; staff and visitors had to wear gowns, masks and gloves to enter.

Three weeks after she was cured and discharged in July, a second patient was found to be infected with K. pneumoniae. Since he had not been on the same ward at the same time as Patient Zero, physicians believed he probably acquired it elsewhere.

New cases began appearing at a rate of one a week, and soon there were 17. Eleven patients died.

DNA fingerprinting, the 30-year-old technique that identifies a handful of genes, was too crude to reveal whether these infections were identical to Patient Zero's. If they were, something had gone badly wrong with the 243-bed hospital's infection control. If they weren't, a second source had to be identified.

"If we had a second, separate introduction, then the isolation procedures for the first patient had worked," said Segre. "But if we had transmission in the hospital, then they didn't, plus our surveillance (which had not detected any K. pneumoniae before another patient was found to be infected) failed to detect that pneumoniae was spreading and silently colonizing patients."

Segre and her colleagues began sequencing the genomes of bacteria collected from patients, using technology from 454 Life Sciences, part of Roche Holding AG (which also made a cameo in "Contagion").

The bacterium was evolving like a nightmarish sci-fi bug, acquiring about one new mutation a week, estimates Segre. With $40,000 worth of whole-genome sequencing, she and her team were able to compare each patient's bacteria to others', eventually inferring the outbreak route.

Verdict: All 17 patients acquired their infection from Patient Zero, either directly or indirectly.

"The genomic data is indisputable," said Segre. "There were weaknesses in the infection-control system." The deadly microbe had traveled from Patient Zero to the others, via hospital staff or equipment (on which it could survive, the scientists discovered, even after the equipment that had been thoroughly cleaned).

Some possible routes of transmission were absolved: The microbe was not spreading via wound care, so the staff did not have to make changes there.

The hospital did make radical changes in other practices, though. "Equipment used in the isolation ward was no longer used elsewhere, and staff who worked there didn't work anywhere else," said Segre.

After a patient infected with K. pneumoniae vacated his room, because he was cured or died, a robot blasted the space with a vapor of bacteria-killing hydrogen peroxide. The maintenance department ripped out sinks and drains that could have harbored the bug.

Hospitals and long-term-care facilities, which also often experience infectious outbreaks, could become significant markets for sequencing companies. Roche, in a statement to Reuters, says "an obvious application" of DNA sequencing is "to define transmission pathways of pathogens and to support outbreak investigations."

DNA sequencing could be a $1 billion market in the United States alone, estimated Pathogenica, a privately owned Cambridge, Massachusetts company founded in 2009. Its first product is the $2,950 HAI (Hospital Acquired Infection) BioDetection Kit. It can test 48 samples for the presence of 12 pathogens (including K. pneumoniae), using telltale genomic regions.

Might cash-strapped hospitals and nursing homes balk at the cost? "When you have patients in your ICU who just paid $100,000 for an organ transplant," said Segre, spending a few thousand dollars to protect them from an outbreak of deadly bacterial infections "doesn't seem like too much to ask."

Olivia Chow reflects on life without Jack

Olivia Chow reflects on life without Jack


Forced to grieve the loss of her life mate in the public eye, Olivia Chow has done it with immense grace and strength.

But when the time comes Wednesday to inter her beloved Jack Layton’s ashes during a private ceremony at a downtown Toronto cemetery where the former NDP leader once gave tours, she knows it won’t be easy.

“People tell me because it’s so final, it’s very difficult,” she says with her usual nonchalance. “But whatever, we will take it a step at a time.”

Speaking with Postmedia News before Canadians coast to coast mark the one year anniversary Wednesday of the popular leader’s failed fight with cancer, Chow admits this summer has been a struggle.

More specifically, the approach to his July 18 birthday was “very very difficult,” says Chow who used the opportunity to escape to the Northwest Territories on an organized whitewater canoe trip well out of range of BlackBerry service.

It’s an activity she and Layton once enjoyed and she knew staying in town the day her husband was supposed to turn 62 was a bad idea.

“It was very difficult for the first few days up to his birthday . . . but I turned a corner,” she says, adding a day later, she found some eagle feathers not unlike the one that fell from the sky during a 2006 kayak trip only to be dubbed a leadership feather by a Haida elder.

She gave that leadership feather to former interim leader Nycole Turmel during the party’s strategy session last fall in Quebec City.

“The day after I felt much better and I really enjoyed the river trip a lot more,” Chow says.

While it’s been a tough year both personally and professionally, she says in many ways it’s also been a good one.

The party’s found a “good leader” in Tom Mulcair, membership is up and the NDP’s crop of young and new MPs are “speaking up, representing their constituents well and presenting a different vision of how the country could be,” she says, adding that’s “quite comforting.”

She’s “grateful” to Quebecers for “putting their trust” in the party, a move that ultimately launched the NDP into official Opposition status for the first time following the last election, and is “comforted” by the public’s embrace of her husband’s dying message to be loving, hopeful and optimistic.

Chow says one woman in her 80s captured the message in needlepoint — a labour of love that took six hours a day over five months to complete. Meanwhile on YouTube, she discovered some 20 original scores written to his last words. It’s also reflected in the letters, poems, artwork, mosaics and paintings she continues to receive from strangers.

“It’s not just about me. It’s not just about Jack. It’s about people responding to his call out to make a difference,” she says. “I just want to extend my gratitude to everyone that has expressed themselves.”

As for her political resolve, Chow insists that hasn’t changed. Having soared to 102 seats from 36, caucus dynamics have changed. And while she certainly feels Layton’s absence on the political stage — they served together for years both as Toronto city councillors and MPs — she remains as dedicated as ever to the promotion of a national transit strategy given her role as transportation critic.

Reflecting back a year to when an ever more feeble Layton returned home to live out his remaining days with loved ones who helped him respond to letters, plan his funeral and pen that now famous letter to Canadians all the while holding out hope that his health might improve, Chow branched off on yet another political tangent.

“We had good palliative care. A lot of people don’t receive good palliative care. If we happened to live in Scarborough, there wouldn’t be a palliative care doctor on hand so he probably wouldn’t have been able to be at home,” she says, adding she’s spent a lot of time this year speaking publicly about her experience with stakeholders in the health sector.

In fact, it’s why she remains convinced she made the right decision to not reveal the type of cancer that ultimately claimed her husband’s life.

“People who have that cancer will be devastated to think that wow, it could be that deadly that fast, that quick but there are people who have that kind of cancer where those cancer cells don’t behave that way,” she says.

“I’m even more convinced after speaking to a lot of people this year including cancer network survivors (and) counselling folks.”

As for the future, Chow has much to look forward to.

Just as Layton’s tragic death was followed up months later with the joyous birth of his second granddaughter, the family is bracing for yet another happy milestone just days after the anniversary of his death.

“Mike’s getting married. Yeah, the 25th. Three days after (the anniversary) so it’ll be a roller-coaster,” Chow exclaims of her stepson and Toronto city councillor Mike Layton’s pending nuptials.

“I just bought a dress for the wedding. Woo hoo! (It’s the) circle of life.”

Memorials to Jack Layton are taking place across the country on Aug. 22, the anniversary of his death, and in the days surrounding it. Here’s a look at what’s happening:

Aug. 22:

• At 6 p.m. friends and relatives, including widow Olivia Chow, will gather at Nathan Phillips Square for a celebration of life. Special guests include Jason Collett, Ron Sexsmith, Eric Peterson, Richard Underhill, Raffi, Lorraine Segato, Wendy Crewson and Chalkmaster Dave.

• A private ceremony for family and close friends will take place in the morning at Toronto’s Necropolis cemetery in Cabbagetown where Layton’s ashes will be buried and his bronze-bust adorned gravestone unveiled.

• Calgary will host a tribute dubbed “Carrying Jack’s Legacy Forward” that will take place at Melrose Cafe and Bar — “the spot where people spontaneously gathered to mourn Jack last year,” according to the Facebook invite.

• Ottawa will host a “Picnic in Hintonburg Park in Memory of Jack Layton” at 6 p.m. at the park on Fairmont Ave. There will also be a “Vigil for Jack” on Parliament Hill at the Eternal Flame at 11 a.m.

• Regina will celebrate with a “Toast to Jack Layton” at 5:30 p.m. at the Bushwakker Brew Pub hosted by Regina-area New Democrats.

• Oshawa will host “Dear Jack: An Oshawa celebration of Jack Layton’s message of love, hope and optimism at 6 p.m. at outside Oshawa City Hall. The event will include a candlelight vigil followed by drinks at the Thirsty Monk starting at 7 p.m.

• Montreal will host a memorial to Layton at what’s been dubbed one of his favourite Montreal bars, Les Bobards, at 6 p.m.

• Quebec City will commemorate the late leader at 6 p.m. at La Ninkasi du Faubourg.

• Sherbrooke will commemorate the Layton legacy at 6 p.m. at Siboire.

• Saskatoon will also host a “Toast to Jack Layton” at 5:30 p.m. at the Amigos Cantina.

• Sudbury will “Raise a Glass to Jack” at 7 p.m. at the Laughing Buddha. Special pint classes will be on hand for the event.

• St. John’s will celebrate Layton’s message at 6 p.m. at Harbourside Park. The community event will include music by Valerie Long and members of the Holy Heart Alumni Choir.

• Winnipeg will celebrate Layton’s life at 7 p.m. at Lo Pub. MP Pat Martin and MLA Rob Altemeyer will be on hand to deliver speeches.

• Vancouver will host an informal gathering to remember Layton and “recommit” to his message to be “loving, hopeful and optimistic” at 6 p.m. at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Con: Every life touches people in ways we can't imagine

Con: Every life touches people in ways we can't imagine



Every life has a purpose. Sometimes it is really hard to see the purpose: the handicapped person, the mongoloid child, the person who survives an automobile accident, left maimed for life while everyone else dies.

Why?

The child who is drowning underwater for 10 minutes and survives with no damage while the next child is under for just three minutes and dies?

Why?

We don’t know, and because we don’t know, we have to trust in God or however our higher power is called that there is purpose in everything — even suffering.

We don’t know.

The mystery of life
And just because we don’t know, we have to accept the cards that are dealt to us and play them until the last card.

A person who chooses to kill himself sends a ripple.

It is just like the man who is contemplating death because he cannot see further than the pain and suffering he is enduring and the pain and suffering he is forcing upon others unless he stops to consider the influence and impact he or she may have upon other lives and not even know it.

We are a delicate and intricate web of life.

Our decisions have impact just as in this imaginary letter written to a man who wants to take his own life.

Dear son,

Wow. I can see what you are going through, and I am so sad. The pain is unbearable, I know. The expenses are ridiculous, I know.

I took the same out as you are planning, thinking it would be the best all around. But what I have found is that I didn’t have a clue.

That sweet nurse that came by my bed every morning said that I was her reason to go on. Four kids — no husband bills out the wazoo — but I still inspired her somehow.

I didn’t believe her. So I made the same decision you are planning.

When she found me it was more than she could bear, and she killed herself, too.

I not only have the pain of my death but that of this poor young woman. And now those kids who have been remanded to the state — they have no future.

There was a plan for me — God’s plan — but I thought I knew better, just like you think you know better.

But you are wrong. The old saying — there is a time and a purpose to everything — well, it’s true.

Allow your life to play out as God planned. You don’t have to use extraordinary measures to prolong your life. Let God come and get you. I wish I had.

Why Brady owes his life to Brussels

Why Brady owes his life to Brussels

Labour’s former deputy leader, Roy Hattersley, says public interest in the Moors Murders is, in part, ‘simple prurience’.

The five children killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, four of whom were buried on Saddleworth Moor, also remind him of the bleak stories and locations of Arthur Conan Doyle and Emily Bronte.

Hattersley hopes that if the body of the Moors Murderers’ final victim, Keith Bennett, is found, and  re-interred in consecrated ground, the story ‘will cease to be a national pre-occupation’.

Not until Ian Brady dies, surely. And is fascination with the case due entirely to ‘simple prurience’ and the enjoyment of gothic crime?

We’ve watched in horror for decades as those responsible for the Moors Murders became the laboratory specimens of prison psychiatrists, criminologists, sociologists and assorted freaks such as the late Lord Longford.

Although they were considered sane at their trial, Hindley and Brady avoided punishment-that-fits-the-crime penalties.

Younger readers may wonder why. In part because Britain wanted to join the Common Market — now the European Union — at the time.  How so?
Convicted in 1966, Brady and Hindley might have been hanged — as were some convicted of single homicides, even in the Sixties. But the Moors killers were saved by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965.

This had a so-called ‘sunset’ clause, saying the Act would be repealed unless renewed by Parliament within five years. It was renewed in 1969 and the Act became permanent.

MPs were not following the will of the people but a growing modern sentiment among the ‘thinking classes’ that capital punishment was insupportable.

And was there another, unspoken political motive? Among bien pensant folk seeking abolition were many who wanted us to join the Common Market, as it was then called. But the European Union, as it became, was — and remains — unequivocally committed to ridding the world of capital punishment.

We cleared this Eurohurdle in 1969 with our renewed abolition Act and joined the Common Market in 1973.

The EU, which campaigns for capital punishment abolition worldwide, now boasts: ‘Since the end of the 1960s, all EU member states have absolutely abandoned the death penalty in law.’

Even if Britain returned to the death penalty tomorrow, it’s too late for Ian Brady. Considered sane at his trial for killing five children for kicks, he was re-categorised as insane so he could be studied by experts. What have we learned? Nothing, so far as I know.

Deciding that killers are insane is one way of justifying the removal of the death penalty. Studying them in prison, or a secure mental unit, provides a justification for locking them up for life.
There are good arguments made by decent people against the state taking human life. If there was a vote on the subject tomorrow I am not sure they wouldn’t win. But do some murders — the torture and killing of children among them — demand more than lifetime incarceration?

They tear at the fabric of civilisation. Ignoring this diminishes us. They merit condign punishment —  i.e. fitting, appropriate, deserving, merited retribution. But perhaps we’re not sure enough of ourselves any more to return to such ‘barbaric’ punishment. The Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov wrote: ‘For a Christian, no Beyond is acceptable or imaginable without the participation of God in our eternal destiny, and this in turn implies a condign punishment for every sin, great and small.’

The Duke of Edinburgh’s incarceration in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary fascinates the BBC. They report a lack of family members visiting him but say they’ve been advised by the palace ‘not to read anything into this’.

They also mention that the Queen was out gallivanting in a car from Balmoral — driving it herself, and confidently, the saints be preserved! — without motoring the 120 miles to Aberdeen and back to see him. Nothing to be read into that, either.

If nothing’s to be read into it, why bother? Leave the old boy alone — and his family — until there’s something to report.

Comedian John Cleese, 72, says he was reluctant to sign a pre-nuptial agreement on the occasion of his fourth wedding, but his bride, 41-year-old Jennifer Wade, insisted, saying: ‘I want a pre-nup so people know I’m not going to take you to the cleaners.’ As if anyone would think such a thing!

Ms Wade is said to have obtained a ‘hefty’ settlement from her previous husband, Harrow-educated businessman Richard Norris. She is described as a ‘jewellery designer’, which always suggests great wealth.
(Wasn’t Jade Jagger a jewellery designer?) Perhaps she’s wise to have a pre-nup.

God willing, they’ll be so happy that they’re buried alongside each other.
But wouldn’t it be a shame if he scarpered with her specially-designed rings, necklaces and tiaras?

Reliance Capital completes MF arm stake sale to Nippon Life

Reliance Capital completes MF arm stake sale to Nippon Life

Reliance Capital today said it has completed the sale of 26 per cent stake in its asset management and mutual fund unit to Japanese financial services giant Nippon Life for Rs 1,450 crore.

All the necessary regulatory approvals have been received for the deal and the entire transaction proceeds of Rs 1,450 crore have been received from Nippon Life Insurance, Reliance Capital (R-Cap) said in a statement.


Following completion of the deal, R-Cap also announced the induction of Yutaka Ideguchi as a non-executive Director and Nippon Life nominee on the board of Reliance Capital Asset Management (RCAM), the mutual fund and asset management arm of R-Cap.

Nippon Life manages over $600 billion in assets—highest in the world for any life insurer.

R-Cap is financial services arm of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group and is present in businesses like asset management, mutual fund, insurance, brokerage and various other segments of the financial services sector.

Commenting on the development, R-Cap chief executive Sam Ghosh said it welcomes Nippon Life as its valued partner in the asset management business.

Welcoming Ideguchi on the board, Ghosh said: "His contribution and vast experience will certainly help us accelerate the growth of the company in India and overseas."

Ideguchi is the general manager, international planning and operations department of Nippon Life Insurance. He joined Nippon Life in 1986 and has held various senior positions within the company and serves as director in many overseas subsidiaries and affiliates of Nippon Life Insurance.

"I strongly believe that Reliance Group and Nippon Life will build closer and more cooperative relationship for long time to come," Ideguchi said in a statement.

The regulatory approval process for the deal got over with the final approval from Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) recently.

The deal has also been approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Competition Commission of India (CCI), the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), Financial Services Authority (FSA) UK, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

RCAM is India's largest and most profitable AMC and manages approximately Rs 1,40,000 crore, across mutual funds, government sponsored public funds, managed accounts and hedge funds.

Nippon Life is already a strategic partner in Reliance Life Insurance with a 26 per cent stake, which it purchased for Rs 3,062 crore.

Qualcomm Life Announces Availability of the 2net App SDK and Initiation of the 2net App Developer Challenge

Qualcomm Life Announces Availability of the 2net App SDK and Initiation of the 2net App Developer Challenge


Qualcomm Life Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), today announced the availability of its new 2net™ App Software Development Kit (SDK) on QDevNet. The SDK provides a consolidated data stream via 2net Connect Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from the 2net Ecosystem, one of the most comprehensive and non-exclusive wireless health ecosystems in the world, making it available across different radio technologies, device types, applications and services. The APIs are available to developers on multiple data-enabled platforms, including Android, iOS and Microsoft platforms.

"The health and wellness market is ripe for engaging mobile applications that make self-care fun, and actually motivate positive health behavior change," said Rick Valencia, vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Life. "We have a group of 2net Ecosystem collaborators that are as eager as we are to encourage development of innovative apps that will add value to their existing devices and data, and will ultimately empower consumers to better manage their own care."

Qualcomm Life has teamed up with multiple like-minded and strategic 2net Ecosystem collaborators who have the right set of users, developer opportunities and data streams to encourage app development leveraging biometric data from their devices, including:


•A&D Medical Blood Pressure Monitor
•A&D Medical Weight Scale
•Asthmapolis
•BodyMedia FIT LINK Armband
•Entra Health Systems MyGlucoHealth® Glucose Meter
•Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale
•Fitbit Ultra Wireless Tracker
•FitLinxx Pebble™
•RunKeeper
•MapMyFitness®
•Nonin Medical's Onyx® II 9560 Bluetooth® Wireless Pulse Oximeter
•Noom Weight Loss Coach & CardioTrainer
•Withings Smart Blood Pressure Monitor
•Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale

Happtique CEO, Ben Choder said, "The goal of all mHealth innovation is to connect patients and providers, and with the release of 2net, Qualcomm Life allows mHealth to reach that full potential. By enabling the secure collection and sharing of patient data, Happtique certainly sees 2net as a 'game changer' in the world of app certification and prescribing — moving health apps from a means of patient engagement to tools for diagnosis and treatment. As providers and payers develop app formularies, I see them demanding this level of secure connectivity and data access. Any developer who wants a serious stake in the future of mHealth should 2net-enable their apps."

The 2net Connect APIs are for consumer-facing application use only. An example of an application that uses 2net Connect APIs can be found in the Macaw™ application launched by U.S. Preventive Medicine, Inc. on the iOS and Android platforms.

In conjunction with the availability of the APIs, Qualcomm Life has established the 2net App Developer Challenge to identify the best 2net-enabled applications. Submissions will be accepted from September 1, 2012 – October 1, 2012. Cash and other prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place winners, including: $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000, respectively. Winners will be announced at the 3rd Annual Wireless Health Conference, hosted by the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA), on October 23 in San Diego, California. The first place winner will be invited to join Qualcomm Life at its mHealth Pavilion where the winning app will be showcased. Eligibility, submission guidelines and evaluation criteria will be made available on QDevNet.

About Qualcomm Life

Qualcomm Life is defining and connecting the wireless health network to improve lives and advance the capabilities of medical devices. Qualcomm Life is focused on device connectivity and data management and empowers medical device manufacturers to deliver wireless health quickly and easily to those who need it. The Qualcomm Life team has the experience and the wireless know-how to make the enormous complexities of a wireless connection look simple.  We draw from our parent company's more than 25 years of wireless connectivity experience, know-how and universal interoperability to enable unified machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. To learn more, please visit www.qualcommlife.com.

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) is the world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies. For more than 25 years, Qualcomm ideas and inventions have driven the evolution of digital communications, linking people everywhere more closely to information, entertainment and each other. For more information, visit Qualcomm's website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.

Qualcomm is a registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. 2net and Qualcomm Life are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Pro-Life VP Pick Paul Ryan a Great Reason to Defeat Obama

Pro-Life VP Pick Paul Ryan a Great Reason to Defeat Obama

Mitt Romney demonstrated his determination to have a pro-life Administration with his selection of Paul Ryan as his Vice President. Now it’s up to us as citizens to demonstrate OUR determination to give America a pro-life Administration by doing everything in our power to elect Romney/Ryan and defeat Obama/Biden on November 6th.

The differences between Obama and Romney, between Biden and Ryan, couldn’t be more stark. This series of Reasons to Defeat Barack Obama (available at www.nrlvictoryfund.org) has shown how extreme Obama has been in his support of abortion. Reason #19 highlighted Biden’s extremism.

In contrast, Romney chose, as the first appointment of his new Administration, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a man who not only has a 100% pro-life voting record on abortion and the life issues, but who has been bold in speaking up on the issue. His vocal defense of the rights of the unborn has long been appreciated by pro-lifers.

But there’s something more: The themes of the new Romney/Ryan campaign, themes Paul Ryan has articulated so well in his first days on the campaign stump, speak every bit as much to what pro-lifers yearn for as the economic issues they also address.

“The Courage to Speak the Truth” is one of those themes. With Paul Ryan, this will be an Administration that will say where America has gone off the rails and will work to get us back on track.

When Mitt Romney introduced his new Vice President on Saturday, he said “Paul believes in the worth and dignity of every human life.” He added “Today is a good day for America and there are better days ahead.”

Both men will fight to preserve the traditional virtues that make America exceptional. Mitt Romney said in his speech introducing Paul Ryan, “I want to keep America the hope of the earth by staying America.” Ryan said he wants to “preserve and strengthen the idea of America.”

You and I understand the “idea” of America includes protection for the rights stated at our founding: The Right to Life; to Liberty; and to the Pursuit of Happiness.

With Romney and Ryan, we now have a ticket that will fight for those rights promised to all of us in the Declaration of Independence. Obama has shown only contempt for the right to life and is arrogantly ignoring the concept of liberty as it applies to religious freedom.

Atlanta panhandler gets life for tourist's slaying

Atlanta panhandler gets life for tourist's slaying

A judge has sentenced an Atlanta panhandler to life in prison plus 25 years for fatally shooting a tourist who had refused his demand for a quarter.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports ( http://bit.ly/OVnIWF) that 29-year-old Wanique Odwin received the sentence Monday after a jury convicted him of murder and numerous other offenses in the September, 2008 death of 48-year-old Kashma Avery of Michigan.

Prosecutors said Odwin asked for a quarter after Avery and a friend had stopped at a Midtown Atlanta gas station to ask for directions. When Avery refused, Odwin became hostile and pulled out a .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun. The friend tried to grab the gun, but Odwin shot and wounded Avery, who later died at a downtown hospital.

Odwin fled but was arrested afterward at a homeless camping area.

Reliance Life Insurance net profit doubles in Q1

Reliance Life Insurance net profit doubles in Q1

Reliance Life Insurance has recorded a whopping 140 per cent jump in the first quarter net profit to Rs 19 crore in the current financial year.

In the three-month period ended June 30, 2012, the company recorded a net profit of Rs 19 crore, as against Rs 8 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Reliance Life is part of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group's financial services arm Reliance Capital Ltd.

Reliance Life's total premium (net of reinsurance) in the last quarter was Rs 810 crore, while total funds under management stood at Rs 18,586 crore as on June 30, 2012, its parent company said, while announcing its quarterly results.

Reliance Life recorded its first full-year net profit at Rs 373 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, 2012. It had sold over one million policies in 2011-12 and garnered a total premium of Rs 5,498 crore in that year.

The total number of insurance agents at Reliance Life stood at about 1.2 lakh, a decline of one- hird from the year-ago levels, as part of the company's focus on improving productivity and performance of agents.

Reliance Life also helped Reliance Capital post a consolidated net profit of Rs 45 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, representing an increase of 30 per cent.

Reliance Capital's consolidated total income rose 12 per cent to Rs 1,676 crore in the quarter, which was also helped by increase in topline for commercial finance and general insurance businesses.

Nippon Life, Asia's largest private life insurer and seventh biggest globally with an asset size of USD 650 billion, has acquired a 26 per cent stake in Reliance Life for Rs 3,000 crore.

Manulife, Sun Life blame volatile markets and low interest rates for big losses

Manulife, Sun Life blame volatile markets and low interest rates for big losses


The bad times keep coming for Canada’s insurance industry.

As expected, industry giants, Manulife Financial Corp. and Sun Life Financial Inc. both reported big losses in the second quarter.

Both blamed volatile stock markets and low interest rates – factors that are unlikely to change any time soon.

They also warned that more losses are likely to come as accounting adjustments separately take big bites out of their bottom lines.

But industry observers say that it’s also important for investors to understand the companies’ core operations and take a long-term view.

Investors shrugged off the losses. Shares of Manulife gained 6 cents to close at $10.89 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday. Sun Life stock dropped 14 cents to end the day at $21.63 per share.

“It was pretty much what was expected. We knew the second quarter wasn’t good for equity markets or interest rates. Both companies are affected by that,” said John Kinsey, portfolio manager at Caldwell Securities Ltd.

“That seems to be what the market is saying.”

Manulife, Canada’s biggest insurer, said Thursday that the direct impact of equity markets and interest rates cost the company $727 million.

It posted a second-quarter loss of $300 million for the April to June period, compared with a year-earlier profit of $490 million. That’s its third loss in four quarters.

The company also said that it could take a charge of as much as $1 billion in the third quarter as part of its annual review of actuarial assumptions.

In late 2010, Manulife said it was aiming for a nearly threefold increase in net profit to $4 billion by 2015.

The company said it is now reviewing those targets.

“We would like to remind investors that due to the unfavourable economic conditions we increasingly view our goal…as a stretch target,” Steve Roder, Manulife’s chief financial officer, said.

That goal assumed that financial markets would rebound from the global crisis. Instead, the European debt crisis and uncertainty over global growth have hurt equities and sent bond yields lower as investors flee to safe havens.

“It’s not a fault of management. I view it more than they were more optimistic on the outlook for markets than what has actually occurred,” said John Aiken, an analyst at Barclays Capital.

The losses come the day after Sun Life reported second-quarter profit of $51 million, down from $408 million a year earlier.

Exposure to the stock market cost Sun Life $131 million in the quarter, and interest rates cost it another $196 million, the company said. It also warned that persistently low interest rates could cause a further $600 million hit to its earnings by 2015.

On the plus side, Manulife’s Canadian division reported higher profits. The company also had record insurance sales in Asia during the second quarter.

Overall, insurance sales jumped 61 per cent to $1 billion, while insurance premiums and deposits climbed 16 per cent to $6.3 billion.

Still, analysts expected a difficult quarter because under International Financial Reporting Standards, life insurers must use mark-to-market reporting, which values assets at today’s prices, regardless of liabilities that may not come due for decades.

“When you have liabilities that are out 30 years and you have to adjust them on a quarterly basis, that’s just insane,” Kinsey said.

“I think for these companies, you have to use some common sense and look at their main business and how it did. How are they doing in Asia and with their core business? Is it competitive? Have costs gone up? Eventually the equity and interest rate factors will just settle out.”

Three Deeper Life Church attack suspects held in Edo

Three Deeper Life Church attack suspects held in Edo


Three people, including a woman, who are believed to be the prime suspects in the killing of 20 worshippers in a church in Okene, Kogi State on Monday, have been arrested, the police said yesterday.

The Deeper Christian Life Ministry yesterday began the grim but inescapable task of burying the dead. The burial continues today in Okene, where a dusk-to-dawn curfew has paralysed business and social lives.

Governor Idris Wada imposed a curfew on the town on Tuesday after another attack which led to the death of two soldiers.

Some prominent Okene politicians have also been arrested and taken to Lokoja, the state capital for interrogation in connection with the killings.

The church’s General Superintendent, Pastor William Kumuyi, described the killings  as “not only wicked, but utterly premeditated”.

Police commissioner Mohammed Musa Katsina said the three suspects were arrested in Eika Dagun,  Okehi Local Government Area.

Parading the suspects, the commissioner said they were arrested at Ibillo in Edo State after a gun duel.

The Police chief said the woman suspect is an accomplice who (at night) aided the transfer of the ring leader, who allegedly killed two soldiers, to Ibillo.

The commissioner declined to mention the names of the suspects, but said more arrests had been made.

“I cannot give their names or accurate number of those arrested, for now. They are in our custody and we have already commenced investigation to ascertain their involvement so as to deal with the situation once and for all. More arrests would be made in due course,” he said.

Katsina warned hospitals and traditional bullet extractors to inform the police if any person with bullet wound comes to them or face being treated as an accomplice.

“Whoever conspires with criminals to inflict pains on the people will be dealt with by the law. The campaign to rid the state of crime and criminality holds no bound,” he warned.

The police chief said they recovered one of the rifles used in the attack.

According to him, the police will enforce the curfew imposed in Okene and the restriction of commercial motorcyclists from 6pm to 6am.

The Nation learnt that some of the politicians being interrogated by the security agents in Lokoja are former officials of the Okene Local Government Council.

The politicians, besides the three other suspects that were paraded by the police in Lokoja, a source said, were picked up following the suspicion that Tuesday’s shooting was allegedly targeted at the caretaker chairman of the council.

He said: “The gunmen did not attack the Central Mosque. Some people in the Mosque were injured as a result of stampede when they heard the shootings.

“The chairman was said to have been in the office when the gunmen arrived and started shooting. After the killing of the two soldiers who were deployed to protect the area, the gunmen fired bullets at the office of the caretaker chairman, apparently to kill him.

“He was said to have lay flat on the ground in his office while the shooting lasted.

“A former chairman of the council, who is believed to be planning a comeback is said to be among those picked in connection with the shooting.”

Members of the Deeper Christian Life Church who lost loved ones have begun the burial of the dead.

An unspecified number of the victims was buried on Tuesday; three were said to have been buried yesterday.

More are also likely to be buried today, according to a pastor of the church who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The source said: “Many families said they want to bury their dead. So, the church had to grant their request.

“The church also believes that burying the dead would help grieving family members to come to terms with the reality and facilitate the healing process.”

The source added: “We have no intention to carry out a revenge because it would be totally against the biblical injunction, which stipulates that vengeance belongs to God.

“Again, since nobody knows those who carried out the attack, where do you direct your anger? So, we have decided to leave everything to God.”

Additional troops were drafted to Okene yesterday to strengthen security.

Pastor Kumuyi expressed deep sadness and sorrow over Monday night’s attack on members of the church.

Pastor Kumuyi, in a statement by the Church’s Secretary, Jerry Asemota, said: “It is hard to reconcile that peace-loving people, sitting in their church, and listening to Bible Study were gunned down in cold blood by people they had done nothing to provoke.”

He urged the government to come to terms with the fact that a large swathe of people are being sent to the grave early, even as law enforcement agents seem unable to provide the required protection for all law abiding citizens.

All these, he said, have implications for the progress, development and well-being of the nation.

He noted that these killings and destruction have been going on, particularly in the northern part of our country, for too long.

Each time they occurred, he observed, the usual condemnations are made, but thereafter, the people are left without any assurance of their security and safety.

No nation can continue this way, Pastor Kumuyi said, and called for more prayers by Christians across the nation.

The preacher said he firmly believed that when Christians pray, the Almighty God in heaven answers.

“If the body of Christians would rise up and pray, and the law enforcement agencies would intensify their efforts to combat this creeping instability, the killings and destruction in our country would be stemmed,” he said.

Pastor Kumuyi urged all Christians not to despair, adding: “In times like these, when there is so much fear across the land, all Christians must see it as an opportunity to serve God more fervently.”

He sent his condolences to the families of all those who were killed in the attack, and prayed for the quick recovery of those injured.

Pastor Kumuyi assured them that he would continue to pray for them.

“The blessings of God are not all fulfilled in 99 days, but they never fail.

“The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former. Keep faith aglow,” the statement said.

Life in prison what Loughner deserves

Life in prison what Loughner deserves


On Jan. 8, 2011 a psychotic and insane Jared Loughner terrorized this community, killing six and wounding 14. A year and a half later, his saner self saved this community further harm by admitting to what he did and agreeing to spend the rest of his life in prison.

The agreement was a bargain with prosecutors – in exchange for his guilty pleas to murder and other charges, prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty against him.

By avoiding a trial, the victims, their families and Tucson avoid being forced to relive that awful day over and over again as prosecutors recreate for a jury the minute-by-minute horrors of the shooting through the testimony of victims, through a video of the shooting as it happened and through grisly photos of the crime scene.

In the end, the sane (or mostly sane) Loughner did what his insane self couldn’t – the right thing.

Yet the decision by prosecutors and Loughner is not without some controversy. Some in this community want to see Loughner put to death for his crimes.

For them, that’s justice.

But it’s not justice. It’s not even punishment. It’s revenge.

Putting a killer to death accomplishes little for the victims of crime or their families. It doesn’t bring the dead back to life, make the scars from bullet wounds disappear, regenerate severed nerves or wash away memories of the terror, pain and sorrow of that horrible day.

Not that the death of a killer doesn’t bring about some primordial sense of satisfaction. It does. But that’s not what justice is about. Our justice system is about punishment for crimes, not retribution for victims. While the blood feud, vendetta, or eye-for-an-eye mentalities were part of archaic justice systems, civilization has outgrown them.

A civil society doesn’t kill its citizens, even if they’ve committed horrendous acts of violence.

If we are to say that killing is wrong, we can’t turn around and say, “except for when the state does it.” If a person has no right to kill another, except in extreme instances in which he is in mortal peril and it’s the only way for him to save himself, then it’s wrong for the state to do it absent any mortal peril.

The state, though, is only in mortal peril at times of war.

Certainly a person in the act of killing others may have to be killed by the state’s law enforcement officers in the interest of saving lives. But if that person is captured instead, as Loughner was, the peril is over. The state has no right to take his life.

Loughner, by his crimes and despite his mental illness, has lost his right to liberty, to walk amongst us in peace. We have every right to be afraid of him, to protect ourselves from the psychotic malevolence that dwells inside of him, and to punish him for the lives he destroyed, even if that destruction was the result of mental illness.

He will deserve every day he spends in prison.

But just like he had no right to kill John Roll, Christina Taylor-Green, Gabe Zimmerman, Dorothy Morris, Phyllis Schneck and Dorwan Stoddard we have no right to kill him, even if it would be oddly satisfying.

Phelps Wants to Enjoy Life After Olympic Glory

Phelps Wants to Enjoy Life After Olympic Glory

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever, said Monday that he has accomplished all his goals and dreams in competitive swimming and now he wants to enjoy life.

Phelps now has three Olympic records - for winning the most overall medals with 22, for winning the most gold medals with 18, and for the most gold medals in a single Olympics with eight, which he won in Beijing in 2008.

When asked at a news conference in London which medal meant the most to him, Phelps said it was the gold medal he won in Athens for the 400 meter individual medley.

“That' so hard. I'll probably say that it's my first Olympic gold in 2004 in the 400 I.M," said Phelps. "You know being able to, you know, sort of train your whole life to achieve something and finally getting the gold medal and standing at the top of the podium listening to the national anthem play, it was one of the coolest moments of my life.”

Phelps said his goal in London was to break the all-time record for career Olympic medals but he was initially frustrated after finishing fourth in the 400 meter individual medley. However he regained his confidence after winning his first individual gold medal in the 200 meter medley.

At 27-years-old, Phelps is now retired from competitive swimming. He said he intends to stay involved with his foundation that promotes water safety and encourages young people to swim. Beyond that, he said he just wants to have fun.

“And I don't have any fears about the sort of next stage of my life. This is something that is going to be enjoyable," he said. "I've been able to, I've swam for 20 years and I've been able to put my mind to something and achieve everything I ever wanted, and there are a lot of goals that I have, and I have the confidence now that I can achieve anything I put my mind to.”

Phelps said right now he is a bit overwhelmed and needs time to come to terms with the significance of his Olympic achievements before moving on to the next stage of his life.

Life in a low-inflation climate, carbon tax and all

Life in a low-inflation climate, carbon tax and all

If anyone was still listening to federal Labor, there could be a small voice somewhere saying “I told you so” over the first benign reading of the carbon tax's impact on inflation. Unfortunately for the government, the game has already moved on, while investors are increasingly thinking about life in a low inflation climate.

TD Securities monthly inflation measure for July incorporates a 14.9 per cent electricity price rise and a 10.3 per cent increase for other fuel prices – and still comes up with an overall headline gain of just 0.2 per cent for the month and 1.5 per cent for the year.

More importantly, TD's guess of “trimmed mean” inflation was negative 0.1 per cent for the month and just 1.4 per cent for the year. On that basis, we'd almost be fortunate to have the carbon tax impact to keep inflation out of the danger zone.

In any event, this very early reading suggests Treasury estimate of the carbon price having a 0.7 per cent impact on the CPI is not a problem. And therefore there's no strain at all for the RBA to keep its promise of ignoring the carbon price effect, just as it did the introduction of the GST.


Aside from some ACCC sabre rattling over the odd silly business talking up a carbon price impact, it seems Labor's hopes were well founded that the introduction of the tax would prove something of non-event after all the scare-mongering leading up to it. (And, seriously, just how dumb and/or politically motivated would a business be to even draw attention to a 10 or 20 cent price rise in a loaf of bread?)

But such is the state of the political divide that it doesn't seem to matter how low the impact might be. The July Westpac/Melbourne Institute consumer confidence survey showed an even greater blowout in the difference between coalition and ALP voters: an optimistic 124.1 for Labor voters and a very pessimistic 79.5 for coalition supporters – and there are considerably more of the latter than the former. The perception gap appears so large now as to be unbridgeable.

For investors, there is a bigger global game steadily playing out with the acceptance of a low inflation and subdued growth outlook. As demonstrated by a Greenwich Associates survey of Fidelity Worldwide Investment institutional investors, it's all about income first and possible capital appreciation second – the reverse of international institutional behavior over the past few decades.

Australia's franking credit system has ensured local investors didn't lose sight of the importance of dividends. As the game has turned out, chasing sustainable dividend streams has been the most successful strategy, but plenty of funds managers had been lured down the capital growth first path during the long bull market. According to the Fidelity study, the search for income has a lot further to run:

“Low interest rates and bond yields are encouraging a search for yield that forces investors – institutional, wholesale and retail - to look towards assets with more attractive risk-reward characteristics.

“The search for income – already a powerful investment theme - is set to grow in importance over the next decade and beyond.”

The study reports the asset classes being favoured by institutional investors over the next five years are Investment-grade bonds (both developed and emerging markets) and high-yield bonds, equity dividend income, and real estate strategies.

Life as an expat shouldn't be this hard

Life as an expat shouldn't be this hard


Ever since the beginning of the financial crisis, the press has been full of stories of expats being made homeless, forced to sleep on the streets, of pensioners "trapped" in a country they would leave if only they could, of expat businesses going bust on a daily basis.

Even those who have been sent abroad by their companies are fearful for their futures; distanced from their head office and the ability to play the necessary corporate politics, they feel removed from the real decision-making and are simply waiting for the redundancy notice to come through the letterbox.

Without a doubt the worldwide economic slowdown has contributed significantly to expats' woes, in many cases through little fault of their own. I know a couple who were doing very well in the expat lifestyle, both wife and husband having nice new expat careers and enjoying the work-to-life balance that so many find impossible to achieve in the UK.

Then all of a sudden their security net was whipped away, when they lost the tenant in their UK property (essentially their nest egg) and the much-needed rent to cover the mortgage. Without this, they were forced back to the UK to secure an income to pay the mortgage. I say "they", but unfortunately the husband has stayed working away, sleeping on friends' sofas as his work is more in demand in Spain than in the UK: not how they envisaged spending their semi-retirement years!

But is it the recession? Another friend opted for the expat lifestyle several years ago with their wife, to enjoy their retirement. They invested in a business for their daughter so she could live close to them and share their adopted country. Of course, she fell in love and moved back to the UK. My friend is left running the business, and because of the current climate, is working twice as hard as he ever did in his prime for about 20 per cent of his former income. As if that wasn't enough, the daughter has now produced grandchildren, so his wife is spending month on end back in the UK with the family, leaving him stranded abroad running a business he doesn't want but can't get rid of.

When I think about this kind of story, I struggle to blame the current financial situation. Yes, it has contributed, but to allocate it sole responsibility I feel misses the point. Even before the crisis hit many an expat figured out the hard way that living abroad wasn't for them. I have seen many return home having blown the cash from a property sale on a 12-month long party; I have seen many expat golfers reluctantly pack up their clubs and head home under orders from a wife that just couldn't handle being a golf widow in a foreign country; and an unbelievable amount return back home because grandchildren have appeared on the scene.

You see, the events affecting expats are often no different than those affecting the rest of the world. The challenges of making a living, sustaining relationships and dealing with the odd crisis are all the same. So if you haven't planned your move carefully, and made provision for trouble, it's no wonder you'll find yourself in a sticky siutation.

One of the main problems, I think, is that too many expats feel that their move abroad is permanent. The probability is that you will return home: the career move that brought you over will take you away as you progress up the slippery pole, illness in old age or an ageing parent will force you home. If you simply accept that living abroad is a temporary thing, life as an expat shouldn't be too hard.

So why do expats insist on establishing so many roots, of replicating what they had at home? Why buy a property and tie up you cash when you can rent and remain flexible? Why buy a business when you might not always want to be running it? Why put all your eggs in one basket, have no Plan B, assume that life won't change for the worse?

I have sympathy of course for those that are struggling, but I'm afraid it is limited. I have simply seen too many expats make life as an expat far harder than it needs to be.

Life term upheld for Indiana teen who strangled his 10-year-old brother

Life term upheld for Indiana teen who strangled his 10-year-old brother

The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a sentence of life without parole for a teenager who said he wanted to be like the fictional television serial killer Dexter a few weeks before strangling his 10-year-old brother.

Andrew Conley was 17 in November 2009 when he killed his brother, Conner, while wrestling in their home near Rising Sun and dumped the boy’s body in a park. He unexpectedly pleaded guilty in September 2010, averting a murder trial.
In the 3-2 ruling, the justices said Conley acted “as if nothing was out of the ordinary” after the killing. According to testimony during the five-day sentencing hearing, Conley joked with his mother and watched football the day after he killed Conner.
Conley told police he had fantasized about killing people since he was in eighth grade. A few weeks before the killing, Conley told his girlfriend that he wanted to be just like the TV serial killer as they walked on the trail where he later disposed of his brother’s body.
Three psychological experts who interviewed Conley all said he was seriously mentally ill, but his appellate lawyer, Leanna Weissmann, said the judge gave too much credence to a psychologist’s testimony that the teen could be a psychopath.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June threw out mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for juveniles but left open the possibility that individual judges could issue such sentences in individual cases of murder.
The Indiana justices noted that the federal high court’s decision dealt only with mandatory sentences, not those issued at a judge’s discretion. They found “no abuse of discretion” in Ohio County Circuit Judge James Humphrey decision.
“The heinous facts of this crime are difficult to comprehend,” they said.
Conley told police he held his brother in a choke hold while wrestling at their rural home and dragged him into the kitchen after he passed out, where he strangled him for 20 minutes. He then wrapped the boy’s head in two plastic bags.
A coroner testified that Conner may have still been alive for minutes or hours after that point, but the bags helped suffocate him, and Conley repeatedly banged the boy’s head on the ground to make sure he was dead before loading him in the trunk of his car. He then drove to his girlfriend’s home and gave her a promise ring, while Conner’s body was still in the trunk.
The two justices who dissented in Tuesday’s ruling, Robert Rucker and Frank Sullivan, cited the teen’s age when arguing that he shouldn’t have been sentenced to die in prison.
“There is no question that juveniles have developmental issues that reduce their culpability for crimes,” Rucker wrote.
Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard, who handled the case, said the high court made the right decision.
“It is the just result given the nature of the crime that he committed,” Negangard said.

Life's Outtakes – Sisterly Love

Life's Outtakes – Sisterly Love


Trissa stomped into our bedroom. “Make her leave Toby alone!”

Toby was Trissa’s special Teddy bear. He was a perfect size and very soft. But most importantly, he only had one eye. Trissa had endured many eye surgeries when she was only four years old, and was very attached to her one-eyed bear.

I pulled Trissa up close to me. “Who would be bothering Toby?” I asked. “Everybody knows he is your bear.”

“It’s Jenna,” she complained. “She keeps taking him out of my room and won’t give him back.”

I smiled. Jenna was only two years old, and was just at that age where she thought everything belonged to her. She couldn’t understand why Toby should be any different.

What I didn’t understand was why Jenna would want him. He was worn from the constant love he had received and given over the years. We had many stuffed animals that were far nicer and newer.

I chose the best one from our stuffed animal stash, and went with Trissa to try to persuade Jenna to relinquish her claim on Toby.

I held it out to her. “Here, Sweety. Why don’t you take this one and give Toby back to Trissa.”

In response, Jenna hid Toby behind her back to keep him away from us. No amount of coaxing or bribing could persuade her to give him up. Finally, Trissa grabbed Toby from Jenna and took off running to her room with Jenna squealing close behind.

This same scene occurred day after day until a few months later. Jenna became very sick and had a high fever. We took her to the doctor and he told us she had a bad infection. He prescribed a strong antibiotic for her. But each time we gave her the medicine, she would immediately throw it up. We called the doctor, and he told us to keep trying for 24 hours, but if she still couldn’t keep it down by then, we should bring her in.

But after a few hours of cuddling her, listening to her breathe harder and harder, and watching her fever continue to climb, I decided I wasn’t going to wait. At the hospital they immediately put her on an IV with the antibiotic flowing in, and an intense battle began for her life. The doctor told me I was lucky I didn’t wait longer, but he was still concerned whether we had come in time.

I stayed up the whole night, checking on her, helping to cool her with ice packs, and comforting her. I was exhausted the next morning when the rest of the family came for a visit. Jenna was still breathing hard, but lay otherwise motionless on the big bed. It was hard for the family to see her little body with the many tubes and wires attached to her.

Trissa went over and gently placed Toby next to her. Jenna’s eyes fluttered open, and she smiled a weak smile of recognition. Trissa smiled in return. “He’ll help you get better,” she said to her little sister.

Jenna’s fever finally broke, and the day eventually arrived when, still pale and weak, she was able to return home. She continued to snuggle Toby as she grew stronger every day. Once she had finally recovered completely, I felt it was time to broach the subject of giving Toby back to Trissa. But when I did, Jenna just held him tighter.

Trissa heard me, and came over to us. “Don’t worry about it, Dad. When Jenna was really sick, I promised God that if he would help her get better, I would never ask for Toby back again.”

I smiled. Toby, the one-eyed bear who had become a symbol of Trissa’s courage to face the challenges of surgery, now became the symbol of her love for her little sister, and now he would also watch over a second little girl and help her through her challenges.