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Outrage Over Barrister's 'Appalling' Rape Post

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 08 Februari 2015 | 00.57

A top barrister has been criticised for claiming men should be cleared of rape if the victim was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Writing on his blog, David Osborne said "consent is consent, blind drunk or otherwise", and "regret after the event cannot make it rape".

His comments have been condemned by campaign groups as "ridiculous" and "appalling".

In a post entitled "She was gagging for it", Mr Osborne, a married father-of-four, said: "I have a very simple solution which I hope you will agree is fair.

"If the complainant (I do not refer to her as the victim) was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, when she was 'raped', this provides the accused with a complete defence. 

"End of story and a victory for fairness, moderation and common sense!"

Mr Osborne, who was called to the criminal Bar in 1974, said recent guidelines on rape accusations have "serious consequences for all red-bloodied males who are out on the rut".

The guidelines issued to police and prosecutors mean people accused of rape will increasingly be expected to prove they obtained consent.

Mr Osborne also used the post to criticise Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders.

"She has decided, or rather it has been decided for her, that anybody who makes an allegation of rape must be believed, and everything possible in the trial process must be bent towards the conviction of the accused," he writes.

"Rape trials from now on are no longer to be prosecution led, but conviction led, and when you add into the mix that prison sentences for rape are getting longer and longer, the opportunities for a serious miscarriage of justice are self-evident."

Sarah Green, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said she thought the remarks were a "sick joke".

"This is a legal professional indulging in the oldest stereotypes about rape, probably for attention-seeking purposes, and appearing to condone the predatory behaviour of men who target vulnerable girls," she said.

"I suggest he takes time to look at the impact of rape on survivors and how the situation is made worse by being told by people like David Osborne that it is their fault."

Clare Jones from WomenCentre was quoted by the Daily Mirror and The Independent as saying: "It's appalling.

"We are deeply shocked that even today, in 2015, someone can seriously suggest that the violent crime of rape could be provided with a complete defence if a woman was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time."

After the blog post came to light, Mr Osborne told the Daily Mirror that women would still have protection in law under his "solution".

He told the newspaper: "The protection in law that they have got seems to me to be twofold.

"Number One: Don't go out in the first place.

"Or Number Two: If you do go out don't get rat-a***d. If you get rat a***d, I'm sorry, you are asking for trouble."

He later added: "I tell you what would drop the rape statistics would be if girls covered up, dressed appropriately and stopped drinking themselves legless."


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Extra Tests For Pilots After Taiwan Crash

All TransAsia Airways pilots who fly ATR propeller jets are taking proficiency tests after one of the carrier's planes crashed in Taiwan, killing at least 39 people.

The airline said it had cancelled 90 flights over the next three days to accommodate the tests, which have been ordered by Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration.

A total of 71 TransAsia pilots are involved in the programme.

Investigators believe the two pilots of the ATR-72 that went down in Taipei on Wednesday switched off a running engine after the other one went idle.

Experts say this was not part of the accepted procedure under such circumstances.

"It's a mistake," said John Cox, a former US Airways pilot and now head of a safety-consulting company.

"There are procedures that pilots go through - safeguards - when you're going to shut down an engine, particularly close to the ground. Why that didn't occur here, I don't know."

Local prosecutors have said they will be looking into the possibility of "professional error".

Moments before the plane banked sharply and hurtled into the Keelung River, one of the pilots reportedly told air traffic controllers: "Mayday, mayday, engine flameout."

Fifteen people survived the accident, which happened shortly after take-off and was captured on video by a passing motorist's dashboard camera.

Four more bodies were recovered on Saturday morning as grieving relatives looked on, taking the number of dead to 39.

Four of the 58 people on board the flight, bound for the island of Kinmen, are still missing.

The dead include the pilots, whose actions suggest they followed the line of the river to avoid high-rise buildings and banked sharply to bring the plane down in the water rather than crash on land.

Both have been hailed as heroes.


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Woah Baby! Newborn Weighs 14.1 Pounds

A woman in the US has given birth to a baby weighing 14.1 pounds (6.4kg) - and he is already eating double the amount of an average-sized newborn.

Maxxzandra Ford's son Avery is the heaviest ever baby to be born at St Joseph's Women's Hospital in Tampa, Florida.

Avery, who was delivered in a natural birth lasting 18 hours, is one of the largest-ever born in the state.

Ms Ford did not know she was pregnant until about 35 weeks in, according to media reports in the US.

She told television stations WFLA and WFTS that after she rapidly gained weight last autumn, doctors confirmed she was pregnant.

Ms Ford said she thought she was having twins at first.

Debbie Moore, a registered nurse at the hospital, said they would "definitely not" have recommended a natural birth if they had known how much Avery weighed, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Avery's father, Allen Denton, told the newspaper: "I got a linebacker now instead of a fullback."

Avery remains in neonatal intensive care after his 29 January birth, but he is expected to go home soon.

Ms Ford, who already has a one-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter, said she "just melted" when she finally held Avery.


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Hunt For Man Who Stole Dying Pensioner's Purse

Police are hunting a man who stole an elderly woman's purse as she lay dying in the road.

Greater Manchester Police were called to Leigh Road, Leigh, following reports an 82-year-old had been hit by a lorry at 11:45am on 4 February.

When they arrived they found the woman dead at the scene, and witnesses reported seeing a man steal her purse before fleeing.

They are now appealing for information to help catch the thief. 

Detective Sergeant Neil Lawless said: "This is one of the most disgusting crimes I have ever investigated and I find it hard to believe someone could stoop so low to commit such a horrific offence.

"This man has taken what he sees as an easy opportunity by stealing a purse from a dying woman.

"I am sure the community will be equally disgusted and I appeal to anyone who may have seen this man take the purse and walk off on Leigh Road."

The woman has now been identified and her family have been informed.

The suspect is described as white, 6ft (1.8m) tall, between 30 and 40 years old, of medium build and with a dark brown beard.

He was wearing a light grey hooded top with the hood pulled over his head, light blue jeans and black boot style training shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Sgt Lawless said: "If you have any information, no matter how insignificant you think it may be, please call us as soon as possible."


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Keep Daffodils Away From Food, Stores Told

Supermarkets have been told to make sure daffodils are kept separate from fruit and vegetables to prevent customers eating the poisonous plants by mistake.

Public Health England (PHE) said people have been known to mistake daffodil bulbs for onions and the stems of a popular Chinese vegetable.

PHE has sent a letter to stores advising them on how to avoid this happening as the flower comes into season.

If eaten, daffodils can cause vomiting and diarrhoea and irritation to the mouth and throat, according to the British Columbia Drug and Poison Information Centre, which said symptoms can last anywhere from four to 24 hours.

Figures from PHE show that doctors and nurses have sought advice on poisonings linked to eating daffodils 27 times in the last year.

For each year that figures are held, the rate of poisonings goes up in spring and peaks in March.

Professor Paul Cosford, head of Health Protection at Public Health England, said: "We can't hope to stop every possible incident but I would hope that by ensuring that daffodils are not displayed alongside fruit and vegetables, we can reduce the number of people accidentally buying them as food."

In the letter, entitled "Steps to avoid daffodil poisonings this spring", Prof Cosford, said: "Each spring stores such as yours provide a wide selection of flowers, particularly cut daffodils and daffodil bulbs.

"Unfortunately there are rare occasions when the bulbs are mistaken for onions, and the stems or leaves are mistaken for a type of vegetable popular in China.

"As I'm sure you are aware, daffodils are dangerous if eaten and poisoning can occur as a result."

"We are asking you, along with all other major supermarkets, to ensure that daffodils, both the bulbs from which they sprout and the cut variety too, are displayed well away from the produce or fruit and vegetable area."


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Family Of IS Hostage Hopeful She Is Still Alive

The family of US hostage Kayla Jean Mueller say they are hopeful she is still alive, despite Islamic State claims that she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike.

In a statement released by a family representative, Ms Mueller's parents Marsha and Carl Mueller made a personal appeal to IS.    

"You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest, as your guest her safety and well-being remains your responsibility," they said, addressing "those in positions of responsibility for holding Kayla".

The statement asked IS to contact the family privately.

According to the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors extremists, IS said the 26-year-old aid worker died on Friday after Jordanian warplanes struck the building where she was being held.

The terrorist group said no IS fighters died in the raids in their de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria.

It released images showing a damaged building it said had been targeted in airstrikes, but no photos to back their claims Ms Mueller had been killed.

The White House, State Department and Pentagon have said they can't confirm the unsubstantiated report.

"We are obviously deeply concerned by these reports," said Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, in a statement.

"We have not at this time seen any evidence that corroborates ISIL's claim."

Jordan has also dismissed the IS claim as "criminal propaganda" and an "old and sick trick", but said its jets did carry out a second consecutive day of strikes on IS sites on Friday.

It has stepped up its operations against IS since the militants burned to death a captured Jordanian pilot.

On Saturday, Jordan carried out a third straight day of airstrikes on IS targets.

"Sorties of air force fighters today bombed bases of the Daesh terror gang," state television said, using a derogatory Arabic name for the group.

It said some of the targets were in Raqqa, but gave no other details.

Ms Mueller, of Prescott, Arizona, disappeared in August 2013 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

A media blackout on her abduction was recently broken by President Barack Obama, when he confirmed IS still had at least one US hostage.

He said the US was "deploying all the assets that we can" to find Ms Mueller.

Her name had not been made public due to fears for her safety.

The group has already executed three American hostages: James Foley, Peter Kassig and Steven Sotloff.

Two British hostages, David Haines and Alan Henning, and two Japanese hostages, Kenjo Goto and Haruna Yukawa, have also been killed.

British reporter John Cantlie is still being held captive. 


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Ukraine Desperation As Vital Supplies Run Dry

In Luhansk, one of the areas to suffer most in the conflict, there is a growing humanitarian crisis as food and medical shortages render the population powerless.

The streets of central Luhansk are punctuated by shell damage. Shop after shop has closed down.

There has been periodic fighting nearby, but people have been living like this for eight months now.

Beyond the immediate conflict, is a growing humanitarian crisis.

Pensions here haven't been paid since September, so many people are now dependent on public canteens.

In one centre we visited staff were giving out a daily meal of soup, fruit juice, and two pieces of bread, but increasingly they find they are having to turn people away.

Social worker Igor Chaika said: "There are really a lot of people coming here, but we can only make 100 litres, which is 300 portions.

"We can't make more, some people are obviously upset by that - there is not enough for everyone."

Some of those left homeless by the conflict are living in university dorms.

We met a mother who had fled the shelling with her six-year-old son last summer. She said he still wakes up in fear at night.

Anna Kuznetsova told us: "He wakes up crying, and dresses himself up. He got used to doing that.

"A psychologist comes into the kindergarten, but he is afraid - as soon as it's loud he is afraid."

The water is off for most of the day, when it comes back on there's a long queue to fill up containers, and the water pressure is weak.

On the floor above, 77-year-old Nina Nikolayevna showed us where she is living.

She had her own flat this time last year, but now she's sharing a room with two other elderly ladies.

She said Doctors Without Borders had given them blankets and sheets, but they had seen no other humanitarian aid.

"We go to the social canteen, it starts at 11 and they feed us once, but you know what kind of food it is there," Ms Nikolayevna explained.

"They don't give us anything on Sunday, there's nothing."

One of her roommates, 64-year-old Nina Shershen, added: "No one helps us, we are people as well.

"It's not we who created this war, it is them who came here and destroyed everything - how can we live like this?"

At the city's cancer hospital, the head doctor, Dr Alexander Torba, showed us where their buildings had been shelled.

As a result, one of their nurses was killed last year.

Staff are now working without salaries and they have no running water, but their biggest concern is chemotherapy drugs.

Dr Torba says they have around one week's supply left: "The big problem is with the anti-tumour medicines. There is not enough in the pharmacies and it's expensive. People don't have money to buy it."

Irina Timachuk, 54, has stage one ovarian cancer and needs to start her next chemotherapy cycle in 20 days.

She said: "We need treatment and we want to live. We are not old yet; my life is not over yet. I want to live, that's it. If I don't receive treatment it's over."

Valentina Gukosen, 51, who has stage three ovarian cancer, added: "I want to ask for help. I want to live. I'm not that old, but what shall I do?"


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Miliband Threatens To Blacklist Tax Havens

By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent

Tax havens such as Bermuda, Jersey and Guernsey will have six months to open their books or face international blacklisting if Labour wins the General Election in May, Ed Miliband has vowed.

The Labour leader has accused David Cameron of failing to follow through on demands that all overseas territories and crown dependencies adopt transparency measures being introduced in the UK.

Agreement on action to expose the owners of "shell companies" used to evade tax was hailed by Mr Cameron as a key achievement of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland in 2013.

He said then: "The UK is today leading the way by committing to create a central registry of company ownership.

"Each and every one of our overseas territories and crown dependencies has agreed to sign up to the multi-lateral convention on information exchange to exchange information automatically with the UK and to produce action plans on beneficial ownership."

But so far, according to Mr Miliband, none of the countries around the world over which Britain retains sovereignty has accepted the Prime Minister's appeal to them to "move forward together in raising standards of transparency" and some have ruled out reform.

Among the 10 countries whose leaders were called to No 10, Bermuda has rejected calls to make public the companies registered there.

So too have the Cayman Islands. Gibraltar has taken no further action. Neither has Guernsey or the Isle of Man.

In a letter to the leaders of the overseas territories and crown dependencies, Mr Miliband put them "on notice" that, if elected in May, his government would refer any that failed to produce publicly accessible central registers of beneficial ownership - who profits from a company - to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

"I am writing to put you on notice that a Labour government will not allow this situation of delay and secrecy to continue," he wrote.

"Labour will act on tax avoidance where the Tories will not," he added, ending protection from international scrutiny and requesting OECD blacklisting.

Mr Miliband, accused this week of being anti-business, told a conference of Labour councillors in Nottingham: "The current Conservative leadership have become the political wing of offshore hedge funds.

"Unlike them, we will not stand by. We will ensure a country where everyone plays by the rules, from top to bottom."

But a Conservative Party spokesman said: "People should judge Ed Miliband by his record, not his rhetoric.

"For 13 years - including when he was an adviser in the Treasury - Labour did absolutely nothing to tackle tax avoidance. This shows that Ed Miliband is simply too weak to deliver on what he promises.

"In contrast, we are tackling the problem head-on. David Cameron put tax dodging at the top of the global agenda at the UK's G8 summit, securing major new international rules to ensure that companies pay what they owe."


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Merkel 'Uncertain' About Ukraine Peace Bid

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said a bid to resolve the Ukrainian conflict is "uncertain but worth trying", as the French President warned it was "one of the last chances" for peace.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Mrs Merkel also said Russia "needs to do its bit" to resolve the crisis.

She accused Moscow of showing "territorial disrespect" for its neighbour, and said international law had been violated.

Her comments come after she and the French President Francois Hollande met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow, in what was widely seen as a last-ditch attempt to thrash out a deal to end fighting which has claimed the lives of more than 5,300 people.

Mr Hollande said the agreement could include a demilitarised zone and greater autonomy for the separatist eastern region.

Mrs Merkel said of the peace efforts: "It is uncertain whether it will lead to success, but from my point of view and that of the French President (Francois Hollande) it is definitely worth trying."

Mr Hollande told reporters: "I think this is one of the last chances, that's why we took this initiative."

Asked at the Munich talks whether he thought the peace proposal could work, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko replied: "Yes."

However, he rejected any changes to territorial lines set out in a peace deal agreed in Minsk last September.

The rebels have made big gains since then raising doubts over whether they will respect the pact in its existing form.

Mr Putin said Russia does not want war, but was scathing of Western sanctions over Ukraine.

He told trade union members in Moscow: "There's no war, thank God.

"But there is definitely an attempt to curb our development."

He added: "But we don't plan to fight a war with anyone, we plan to cooperate with everyone."

But US Vice President Joe Biden called on Mr Biden to demonstrate this by his actions.

The West accuses Russia of sending troops and weapons across the border although Moscow has consistently denied backing the rebels.

"Given Russia's recent history we need to judge its deeds not its words. Don't tell us, show us, President Putin," Mr Biden told the conference.

Addressing the conference, Mr Poroshenko brandished several passports taken from Russian soldiers in what he claimed was proof of Moscow's "presence" in his country.

"This is the best evidence for the aggression and for the presence of Russian troops," he said.

Amid a debate in Washington over whether to send weapons to help the Kiev government fight pro-Russian rebels, the German Chancellor argued this would not help end the crisis.

But NATO's top military commander has said this should not be ruled out.

US Air Force General Philip Breedlove told reporters at the Munich conference: "I don't think we should preclude out of hand the possibility of the military option."

Clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in the east of the country have escalated in recent weeks, despite the Minsk pact.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian military said five soldiers had been killed in the last 24 hours alone, while separatists appeared to be amassing for new offensives on the key railway town of Debaltseve and the coastal city of Mariupol.

There are also fears of a growing humanitarian crisis in the country.

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  1. Gallery: Civilians Flee Besieged Ukrainian Town

    A member of the Ukrainian armed forces assists local residents onto a bus to flee fighting in Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine

Two dozen buses escorted civilians out of the town after separatist rebels and government forces agreed a brief truce to allow civilians to be evacuated. Click through for more images ...

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Kenya: Politician Shot Dead By Masked Attackers

Masked men armed with AK-47s have killed a prominent Kenyan MP and his two bodyguards in a "well-planned" attack.

George Muchai was shot dead as he travelled home from a family gathering in Nairobi. His four-wheel drive had been rammed by another car moments before the assault began.

The assailants stole his briefcase and two pistols belonging to the security guards, then sped off in a getaway car which had its licence plate concealed.

A police spokesman said: "This defies the norms of ordinary crime. It has every characteristic of a premeditated murder and assassination, and we are saying we cannot let this one go."

President Uhuru Kenyatta described Mr Muchai as "a diligent gentleman".

He added: "I expect the police to mobilise all resources to ensure the criminals are speedily apprehended and made to pay."

Kenya has been rocked by several terror attacks in recent years, many of them orchestrated by militant group Al Shabaab. This latest killing has led to renewed safey and security fears nationwide.

In a statement, former prime minister Raila Odinga said: "Our country is bleeding and an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness is spreading.

"Our citizens need reassurance that they can go about their daily routines without fear, and that the government has the will and ability to provide protection."

Police are yet to arrest any suspects following Saturday's attack.


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