Rigrodsky & Long, P.A. Investigates Eclipsys Corporation Merger

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WILMINGTON, Del.–(Business Wire)–
Rigrodsky & Long, P.A. announces that it is investigating potential claims
against the board of directors of Eclipsys Corporation (“Eclipsys” or the
“Company”) (Nasdaq: ECLP) concerning possible breaches of fiduciary duty and
other violations of law related to the Company`s entry into an agreement to be
acquired by Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (“Allscripts”) in a
transaction valued at approximately $1.3 billion
(http://www.rigrodskylong.com/news/Eclipsys-ECLP).

Under the proposed agreement, Eclipsys shareholders will receive 1.2 shares of
Allscripts for each share of Eclipsys they own, or approximately $22.10 per
share based on Allscripts` June 8, 2010 closing stock price. In addition, the
transaction is subject to the completion of a secondary offering of Allscripts
shares owned by Misys plc (“Misys”), currently the majority stockholder of
Allscripts, and the completion of the Allscripts buyback from Misys of
additional Allscripts shares owned by Misys, which will substantially reduce
Misys` share ownership of Allscripts prior to the closing of the merger.

Misys will sell to the public in the secondary offering a minimum of
approximately 36 million of its Allscripts shares. Additionally, Allscripts will
buy back from Misys, concurrent with the closing of the secondary offering,
approximately 24.4 million of its Allscripts shares at a price of $18.82 per
share, or $460 million in total, plus a payment of a premium of $117.4 million
in connection with the sale by Misys of its controlling interest, for a total of
$577.4 million. The secondary offering and share buyback transactions will be
subject to Misys shareholder approval, and will be subject to other conditions
precedent, including: (i) Misys obtaining a price per share in the secondary
offering of no less than $16.50; and (ii) Allscripts obtaining debt financing
sufficient to complete the share buyback.

After the closing of the merger, Misys will have a right to require Allscripts
to repurchase an additional 5.3 million Allscripts shares for $100 million at a
price of $18.82 per share, and an additional $1.6 million premium, all of which
will be funded through cash reserves of the combined company. Misys must elect
to exercise its right to require Allscripts to repurchase these shares within 10
days after closing of the merger. If it does exercise the buy-back option,
Misys’s equity stake in the combined company is expected to be approximately 8%
and Eclipsys` shareholders will own approximately 37% of the combined company.

The investigation concerns whether Eclipsys` board of directors failed to
adequately shop the Company and obtain the best price possible for Eclipsys`
shareholders before entering into the agreement with Allscripts.

As recent as May 4, 2010, Eclipsys announced its first quarter 2010 financial
results wherein the Company`s President and CEO, Philip M. Pead, commented: “We
started 2010 with strong earnings and strong new client bookings[.] With the
recent release of Sunrise Enterprise 5.5, we have significantly improved our
competitive position and our ability to win new business in front of the growing
market opportunity resulting from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”
Indeed, according to Yahoo! Finance, at least one analyst has set a price target
for Eclipsys of $26.00 per share.

If you own the common stock of Eclipsys and purchased your shares before June 9,
2010, if you have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or
if you wish to discuss these matters or have any questions concerning this
announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please
contact Seth D. Rigrodsky, Esquire or Noah R. Wortman, Case Development
Director, of Rigrodsky & Long, P.A., 919 N. Market Street, Suite 980,
Wilmington, Delaware, by telephone at (888) 969-4242, or by e-mail to
info@rigrodskylong.com.

Rigrodsky & Long, P.A., with offices in Wilmington, Delaware and Garden City,
New York, regularly litigates securities class, derivative and direct actions,
shareholder rights litigation and corporate governance litigation, including
claims for breach of fiduciary duty and proxy violations in the Delaware Court
of Chancery and in state and federal courts throughout the United States.

Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Rigrodsky & Long, P.A.
Seth D. Rigrodsky, Esquire
Noah R. Wortman, Case Development Director
(888) 969-4242
(302) 295-5310
Fax: (302) 654-9430
info@rigrodskylong.com

http://www.rigrodskylong.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Bull & Lifshitz, LLP Announces Investigation of the Acquisition of Ev3 Inc. by Covidien

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NEW YORK–(Business Wire)–
Bull & Lifshitz, LLP announces an investigation into possible breaches of
fiduciary duty in connection with the proposed acquisition of Ev3 Inc.(NASDAQ:
EVVV) (referred to as “ev3″ or the “Company”) by Covidien (NYSE: COV) (referred
to as “Covidien”) in a cash transaction with an enterprise value of
approximately $2.6 Billion.

Under the terms and conditions of the merger agreement, Covidien will acquire
all of the outstanding common stock of ev3 for $22.50 per share in cash..

Bull & Lifshitz, LLP’s investigation is focused on whether the proposed deal
provides adequate value to the Company`s shareholders.

If you are a holder of ev3 stock and want to discuss your legal rights, you may
e-mail or call Bull & Lifshitz, LLP who will, without obligation or cost to you,
attempt to answer your questions.

If you are a shareholder of ev3 and would like more information about our
investigation, please contact Joshua M. Lifshitz, Esq. by telephone at (866)
313-6222 or by sending an e-mail including your contact information to:
counsel@nyclasslaw.com. All e-mail correspondence should make reference to ev3.

Bull & Lifshitz, LLP is a New York City-based law firm with significant
experience representing investors in merger-related shareholder class actions,
shareholder derivative actions, and securities fraud class actions. For more
information about the firm, please visit our website at www.nyclasslaw.com.

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING. © 2010 Bull & Lifshitz, LLP. The law firm responsible for
this advertisement is Bull & Lifshitz, LLP, 18 East 41st Street, New York, New
York 10017, (212) 213-6222. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar
outcome with respect to any future matter.

Bull & Lifshitz, LLP
Joshua M. Lifshitz, Esq.
Phone: 212-213-6222
Fax: 212-213-9405
Email: counsel@nyclasslaw.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Australian police investigate Google over privacy issues

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Australian police have been asked to investigate internet giant Google over possible breaches of telecommunications privacy laws, Attorney General Robert McClelland said on Sunday.

The investigation follows complaints from members of the public about activities of Google employees while taking photographs for Google Maps, the search engine’s maps page. It comes amid a wave of criticism over the use of personal information by the internet giants.

The matter was referred to the Australian Federal Police on Friday after complaints from members of the public, McClelland told journalists in Melbourne at the start of a forum on internet security.

“On Friday the attorney-general’s department did refer those allegations and those reports to the Australian Federal Police,” McClelland said.

“They relate in substantial part to possible breaches of the Telecommunications Interceptions Act, which prevents people accessing electronic communications other than for authorised purposes.”

A police spokeswoman confirmed a referral had been received.

A Google spokesman in Australia could not be immediately contacted for comment on Sunday. (Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Google confesses collecting private data from unprotected wi-fi networks

May 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 15 (ANI): Google has confessed that it has wrongly collected people’s data sent via unencrypted wi-fi networks in the past three years.

Google’s privacy breach came to the fore after German authorities asked to audit the data the company”s Street View cars gathered as they took photos viewed on Google maps.

Google said that during a review it found it had “been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open networks”.

The admission will increase concerns about potential privacy breaches.

And the data could include parts of an email, text or photograph or even the website someone may be viewing.

However, Google, in a blogpost, said that as soon as it became aware of the problem it grounded its Street View cars from collecting wi-fi information and segregated the data on its network.

And now, the company is asking for a third party to review the software that caused the problem and examine precisely what data had been gathered.

“Maintaining people”s trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short,” the BBC quoted Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research, as saying.

“The engineering team at Google works hard to earn your trust – and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here,” he added.

Google said that the problem dated back to 2006 when “an engineer working on an experimental wi-fi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast wi-fi data.

“That code was included in the software the Street View cars used and “quite simply, it was a mistake”, said Eustace.

“This incident highlights just how publicly accessible, open, non-password protected wi-fi networks are today,” he added.

However, Dan Kaminsky, director of penetration testing for security firm Ioactive, said that Google collected the data unintentionally.

“This information was leaking out and they picked it up. If you are going to broadcast your email on an open wi-fi, don”t be surprised if someone picks it up,” he said. (ANI)

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Facebook fixes security flaw that exposes personal chats

May 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 6 (ANI): Social networking site Facebook has made haste to fix a security flaw that allowed its users to view the live chats of their friends and also see their pending friend requests.

All one needed to do to spy on their friends’ personal chat messages and see who requested to join their network, was use the site’s privacy setting to expose the personal information.

Facebook is said to have temporarily removed the chat facility while it fixed the flaw.

The exploit, originally reported by the blog TechCrunch, worked via an option in privacy settings that allows people to preview their profiles, as it would appear to their friends.

But it was never intended to show others what their friends were actually doing.

“For a limited period of time, a bug permitted some users’ chat messages and pending friend requests to be made visible to their friends by manipulating the ‘preview my profile’ feature of Facebook privacy settings,” the BBC quoted Facebook as saying in a statement.

“When we received reports of the problem, our engineers promptly diagnosed it and temporarily disabled the chat function.

“We also pushed out a fix to take care of the visible friend requests which is now complete,” it stated, adding that the chat function will be turned back on shortly.

Candid Wueest, security expert at Symantec, said that it is a matter of concern when an organisation is not able to provide security.

“For any organisation, whether you are a social networking site or not, privacy breaches are worrying,” Wueest said.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t the first privacy breach of its kind to plague a social networking site – other high-profile sites have also been affected with similar problems,” he revealed.

But he also praised Facebook’s quick response to the issue.

“Facebook has acted quickly in fixing the alleged flaw, whereas some social networking sites have been known to take days to fix issues reported,” he added. (ANI)

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Zoo music debacle lands organiser in court

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A man has told a court a disastrous music festival spiralled him into debt and he will struggle to pay any fine imposed on him.

The managing director of the Live at the Zoo festival held at Monarto Zoo is facing proceedings in Adelaide.

Peter Rowe and his company Avalon Events are being prosecuted for breaches of the liquor licensing laws in light of problems at the event, near Murray Bridge, a year ago.

The licensing court heard there were significant breaches of the liquor act and substantial safety risks.

It heard cars were driven over tents and alcohol was consumed in prohibited areas.

At the time, ambulance officials said at least four people were taken to hospital due to suspected ecstasy overdoses.

A headline band was axed after the crowd surged through a security fence.

Rowe told the court his company was in voluntary administration and he personally had lost more than $700,000.

The judge will rule on a penalty later in the month.

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Mines fined for water discharge

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Three coal mines have been fined for discharging water into river systems in central Queensland during heavy rain earlier this year.

Queensland Sustainability Minister Kate Jones says the Moranbah North mine has been fined $4,000 and the Rolleston and Callide Mines each fined $2,000.

Ms Jones says there were breaches of new discharge guidelines but no environmental damage.

“The reasons why the fines are so low is because what it’s based on whether there’s been any substantial environmental harm or any evidence of environmental harm,” she said.

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Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Investigates Possible Breach of Fiduciary Duty by the Board of Mirant Corporation- MIR

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

NEW YORK–(Business Wire)–
Levi & Korsinsky is investigating the Board of Directors of Mirant
Corporation(“Mirant” or the “Company”) (NYSE: MIR) for possible breaches of
fiduciary duty and other violations of state law in connection with their
attempt to sell the Company to RRI Energy, Inc. (“RRI”) (NYSE: RRI). Under the
terms of the transaction, Mirant shareholders will receive 2.835 RRI shares for
each Mirant share they own. Based on the previous day’s closing prices, the
proposed transaction values Mirant stock at approximately $11.20 per share for a
total transaction value of approximately $1.61 billion.

The investigation concerns whether the Mirant Board of Directors breached their
fiduciary duties to Mirant stockholders by failing to adequately shop the
Company before entering into this transaction and whether RRI is underpaying for
Mirant shares, thus unlawfully harming Mirant stockholders. In particular, (i)
Mirant stock traded in excess of $17.00 per share as recently as January 7,
2010; (ii) the Company has a book value of $29.77 per share; and (iv) at least
one analyst set a price target for Mirant stock at $19.00 per share.

If you own common stock in Mirant and wish to obtain additional information,
please contact us at the number listed below or visit

http://www.zlk.com/mirant-corporation-mir.html.

Levi & Korsinsky has expertise in prosecuting investor securities litigation and
extensive experience in actions involving financial fraud and represents
investors throughout the nation, concentrating its practice in securities and
shareholder litigation.

Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
Joseph Levi, Esq.
Eduard Korsinsky, Esq.
Tel: 212-363-7500
Fax: 212-363-7171
www.zlk.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Law falling behind cyber bullying trend

April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The former chief justice of the Family Court, Alistair Nicholson, says the law has failed to deal with the growing problem of cyber bullying.

The call comes after a landmark prosecution of cyber-bullying offences in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

A 21-year-old man was yesterday sentenced to community service under Victoria’s stalking laws for sending sent threatening text messages to a 17-year-old boy who days later committed suicide.

The father of the 17-year-old, Ali Halkich, made an emotional plea for tough new laws following the sentencing.

“We set out to prove that our boy was just a beautiful, healthy child and fell in a dark moment that he couldn’t really understand and believed all the threats, if they were real or not,” Mr Halkich said.

“Unfortunately it only took that brief lapse of concentration and he is no longer here with us.”

Mr Nicholson, now the chair of the National Centre Against Bullying, which is convening a conference on bullying in Melbourne, says there needs to be more specific cyber-bullying laws.

“There is a very strong argument that it should be considered a specific offence,” he said.

“You need to have some firm framework in which people can operate and know what they can and can’t do.

“In the state system, you tend to get it in the stalking area and you may also with some of the sexually explicit communications get into breaches of pornography laws.

“[This leads] to children, quite young people, being placed on sexual offences registers when yet it is some stupid piece of adolescent behaviour that has nothing to do with the sort of behaviour that those registers are aimed at.”

Education Minister Julia Gillard has conceded Federal Government responses to school bullying are not working.

Addressing the cyber-bullying conference, Ms Gillard said one in four children were targets of bullying and in 50 per cent of cases the response by schools was ineffective.

She said there were several areas in need of attention.

“These include empowering students about how to become part of the solution to bullying, and also empowering teachers to help them respond to bullying behaviour, how to intervene when they witness bullying rather than just standing by, and how to report it,” Ms Gillard said.

On the rise

Child psychologist Andrew Fuller regularly sees the effects of cyber bullying on young victims at his private practice.

“It really is the same as somebody who has witnessed a really awful kind of event,” he said.

“They are agitated, they are fearful and they are not sure who is on their side and who’s not.”

He says there is a common belief among cyber bullies that they are legally immune.

Professor of child and adolescent health at Edith Cowan University, Donna Cross, has been researching cyber bullying for three years.

She says the number of children who report being cyber bullied has increased from 15 to 25 per cent over that time.

“About 10 per cent of young people tell us that they are cyber bullied,” Professor Cross said.

“But if we ask them have you ever had somebody send you a nasty picture or a nasty message over the internet or your mobile phone, up to 25 per cent of young people indicate that they have had this behaviour.”

Professor Cross says she believes the solution to cyber bullying will come from schools, but she says legislation is also important.

“Our laws are miles behind the behaviours that young people are engaged in so if people are relying on regulations or a regulatory environment to stop this behaviour, I think that it will be very ineffective in the short term,” she said.

Psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg also wants specific cyber-bullying laws, but in the meantime he says that children need to be taught good cyber citizenship.

“Many young people hide behind a keyboard and there is this phenomenon of digital Dutch courage, where kids will say and do things online that they’d never do in real life,” he said.

One of the key messages that will be delivered at the bullying summit is that educators need to better involve children and teenagers when developing policies to deal with the problem.

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RSPCA backs push for koala removal inquiry

April 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The RSPCA says an Upper House inquiry would give it the opportunity to tell its side of the story about the removal of eight koalas from Gunnedah’s Waterways Wildlife Park in north-west New South Wales.

The NSW Coalition has announced it will support the Greens’ push for a parliamentary investigation into why the animals were removed.

The park’s owners have disputed claims that the animals were malnourished and dehydrated and have accused the RSPCA of ignoring its own guidelines.

The inquiry would also examine the organisation’s relationship with a reality TV show that filmed the removal.

RSPCA CEO Steve Coleman says his organisation has done nothing wrong.

“The RSPCA welcomes the inquiry, why wouldn’t we?” he said.

“It provides an opportunity for the RSPCA to tell the other side of the story. It’s then and only then a point in time when people can make an informed judgment about what has or hasn’t occurred.

“We would hope to be able to tell the whole story without fear or favour, we have been unable to do that up until know due to issues around fairness and it being potentially material that might be considered defamatory.

“If via a parliamentary inquiry there is the opportunity without those issues being on foot to provide simply the facts, absolutely we welcome that opportunity.”

The Minister for Primary Industries, Steve Whan, says an independent veterinary report into the condition of the animals that were removed from the park appears to support the RSPCA’s actions.

He says Industry and Investment NSW is currently considering options in relation to various alleged breaches of the Exhibited Animals Protection Act by the park’s owners.

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Bouncers miss out on pay

April 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Random audits of 16 Tasmanian security companies have revealed 62 per cent are not complying with workplace laws.

The nation’s Fair Work Ombudsman found four Tasmanian businesses had breaches for underpayment of staff totalling $40,000.

Six had record-keeping and pay-slip breaches.

The Ombudsman conducted 256 audits nationally and found just under half of all security companies audited were non-compliant.

The Fair Work Ombudsman executive director, Michael Campbell, has urged employers to ensure workers are properly paid.

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Parole office closures not considered safety risk

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The New South Wales Department of Corrective Services says the closure of two local parole offices will not put the public at risk.

The Deniliquin probation and parole office will close in months and the department will merge its Junee and Wagga Wagga offices.

The Public Service Association says the changes will reduce supervision, meaning more breaches of parole and less protection for the community.

The union also says parolees will have to travel further to report.

But the department’s spokeswoman, Lee Downes, says there will be no cut to supervision.

“The workload down there is so low that we can afford to close the office because offenders are not being sentenced to community sentences in Deniliquin, so the caseload has been decreasing seriously over the last few years,” she said.

“We’ve actually had to transfer some work from other offices just to keep it viable.”

Ms Downes rejects claims there will be reduced supervision for parolees after the office closures.

“The offenders are not actually all living in Deniliquin town. They’re actually scattered around the region … so it’s actually easier for many of them to go to Griffith, to go to Albury. It’s equally easy for our staff members to drive from Griffith to their homes to do their home visits,” she said.

“For those offenders who are too far from Griffith or Albury, we’ll have a reporting centre.

“We’ll maintain a reporting centre in Deniliquin where on a certain day we’ll have a probation and parole officer attend and those offenders who can’t travel to Griffith or Albury will be able to attend in Griffith itself.

“We’re going to maintain the same level of service, the same level of intervention and and in some instances more intervention for offenders as a result of these mergers with other district offices,” she said.

“We actually have supervision standards for all of our offenders which dictate the amount of contact that an officer is to have with an offender according to an assessed risk level. That’s not going to change.

“In fact, we’ll actually be provide offending behaviour programs for the offenders that are being supervised because it was such a small case load that we weren’t actually able to offer those programs.

“We’ll be able to assign offenders to those offending behaviour programs … and keeping people out of jail it’s those programs which address the causes of behaviour that are the key strategy.”

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WorkSafe warns of more meatworks prosecutions

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WorkSafe expects to prosecute more abattoirs for unsafe work practices this year.

On Monday, Ararat Abattoirs and its cleaning company, Western Contractors, were fined $75,000 for a 2008 incident in which a worker’s arm was caught in machinery.

In February, Warrnambool’s Midfield Meat and the cleaning company Hygiene Control were ordered to pay $60,000 over a similar incident in 2007.

WorkSafe’s Stan Krapan says it will not tolerate safety breaches in the meat processing industry.

“This is just unacceptable in this day and age and the law is very serious, these are criminal offences and we’ve been prosecuting them,” he said.

“We’re in fact doing more prosecutions this year than we have over the last few. We intend to increase that again next year and the costs are significant. The costs to small businesses in particular are crushing.”

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Carey collapse hurts home builders, creditors

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A building company in Alice Springs that went into liquidation at the start of March has left a dozen homes unfinished and many contractors with outstanding bills.

The liquidator of builder Randal Carey’s company, Carey Builders, says creditors’ claims now exceed half a million dollars.

The liquidator, Alan Scott says the amount the company owes will continue to grow.

“The amount owed at the moment as best we can work out is about $550,000,” Mr Scott said.

“But there are still further creditors coming to light, including a claim from the Tax Office, which we are not quite sure of the quantum of that yet.

“But it will certainly be a reasonably large number, but I would anticipate over $100,000.”

The company’s sole director is Randal Carey’s wife Bronwyn Carey.

Mr Scott said his team was formulating claims against the director, and analysing the company’s transactions to track any transfer of assets.

“Most of the claims we will have will be against the director for breaches of director’s duties in some way,” Mr Scott said.

“That is probably the only result we will end up getting for the creditors.

“Now whether that is going to give a return to the creditors or not I am not really sure at this time.”

Alice Springs resident Rebekah Axe has been left with an unfinished home and no money to pay for its completion.

She wants the Territory Government to introduce an insurance scheme to cover non-completion to protect people building homes.

Territorians need protection just as much as anybody else in Australia.

Real Estate agent Andrew Doyle says the scheme was proposed more than three years ago.

“If the NT government had that insurance in place we would not be having this discussion,” Mr Doyle said.

The Government says it is committed to introducing the scheme but wants to learn from the mistakes of other jurisdictions.

A spokesman said the Government was helping creditors to find alternative contractors to complete their homes.

The Opposition’s Adam Giles said the Labor Government promised home warranty insurance in 2001.

“Contractors are still going without money, employees are suffering in those companies,” Mr Giles said.

“This is just another failure that’s been 10 years in the making and people who are trying to build their pride and joy in a new home are left suffering.”

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U.N. panel suspends 2 more carbon emissions auditors

March 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The reputation of a Kyoto Protocol carbon finance scheme was dealt another blow after a UN climate panel late on Friday suspended the third emissions cut verifier in 15 months, and partially suspended a fourth.

The scheme’s executive board suspended emissions auditors TUEV SUED and partially suspended Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) after spot checks at the companies’ offices revealed procedural breaches.

The board, an arm of the UN’s climate change secretariat, said it will work with TUEV SUED and KEMCO to ensure timely resolution of the issues.

Under Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), companies can invest in greenhouse gas cuts in developing countries and in return receive carbon offsets which they can sell for profit.

In the tightly regulated $33 billion market, clean energy projects need to be validated by private sector certification firms called designated operational entities (DOEs). DOEs also verify the emissions cuts before projects can receive offsets from the UN.

Germany’s TUEV SUED is the second largest CDM validator having approved 1,147 projects or nearly one fifth of all validated to the end of February.

The firm is also a major emissions cuts verifier, confirming from some 100 projects reductions of nearly 84 million tonnes of CO2, or 21 percent of the 395 million tonnes verified to date.

By contrast, KEMCO is much smaller, validating only 0.8 percent of all projects so far and verifying the cuts for a single project.

The CDM’s executive board said it suspended TUEV SUED for not following procedures and for giving “a positive validation opinion to some projects even though it had concerns about additionality.”

Additionality refers to projects needing to prove they are are financially unviable without the prospect of receiving funding through the CDM.

The board said it also had concerns over the qualifications of some of TUEV SUED’s personnel.

The board rejected KEMCO’s re-accreditation application due to issues also including employee qualifications.

Both firms can continue with existing work but are barred from taking on new validations or verifications, the board said.

“There’s such a backlog of offset issuances (at the UN) that a suspension merely means TUEV SUED’s issuances will be replaced by other ones,” said Alessandro Vitelli of IDEAcarbon, adding that it likely will not immediately affect offset prices.

The CDM’s board suspended DOEs SGS UK last September and DNV in Dec. 2008. Both have since been reinstated, but analysts said the effects of the suspensions on offset supplies have not yet been fully felt by the market.

The board also confirmed on Friday the accreditation of another DOE, TUEV NORD, after it passed a similar spot check.

PROJECTS

The board registered around 40 projects, mainly in China, including some 24 hydroelectric dams and six wind farms.

It rejected registration requests from three projects in China, two cement plant waste heat recovery projects and a hydroelectric dam, collectively expected to generate over 500,000 tonnes in carbon cuts by 2012, according to UN data.

Britain’s Climate Change Capital and Dutch bank Rabobank [RABN.UL] were listed as offset buyers for the projects.

The board’s meeting report can be read at http://cdm.unfccc.int/EB/index.html. The board’s next meeting is scheduled for May 24-28.

(Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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Premier League fine adds to Pompey’s woes

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Cash-strapped crisis club Portsmouth was fined a reported seven-figure sum by the English Premier League (EPL) overnight for several rule breaches this season.

Bottom of the Premier League, Portsmouth, was effectively condemned to relegation last week when the EPL imposed a nine-point penalty for the south coast club’s entry into administration.

The fine has been reported as being around one million pounds and is understood to relate to the club’s late payment of wages to playing staff – something that has happened four times since August – and late payment of outstanding transfer cash.

The fine will be paid to the EPL out of Portsmouth’s share of television money.

Despite debts of some 65 million pounds, Portsmouth is still in the semi-finals of this season’s FA Cup – a tournament it won in 2008 – where it will face either Fulham or Tottenham, while on Saturday it defeated fellow struggler Hull City 3-2 at Fratton Park.

But even after that win, Portsmouth was still 11 points behind second-bottom Hull with just eight league matches left this season.

-AFP

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Qld police inspector suspended

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has suspended an operations support command Inspector while he is being investigated.

The ethical standards command is looking into possible breaches of the Weapons Act and the Customs Act.

The Inspector was stood down from operational duty in November last year.

He has been on sick leave since the investigation started in September.

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Surfers Paradise nightclub wins ‘touting’ court case

March 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Court of Appeal in Brisbane has ruled in favour of a Gold Coast night club in case over what is or is not “touting” for the adult entertainment business.

In November 2006 an investigator from the Liquor Licensing Division and a police officer were handed a flier by a woman working for a Surfers Paradise night club.

It offered private lap-dances and strip-teases with the inducement of half-price entry before midnight.

The nightclub and its manager were charged with two alleged breaches of licensing regulations.

The Court of Appeal on Friday found that while the ad implied a sexually explicit performance it did not contain a description of such an act.

The court dismissed the case ruling the woman was not “touting” and described her behaviour as well-mannered.

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Survival International appeals to UN to stop bauxite mine in Orissa

July 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 15 (ANI): Survival International lodged two urgent appeals today to stop a controversial bauxite mine in Orissa,India.

It called on both the UN and India’s National Human Rights Commission to stop the Vedanta Resources’ mine in the Niyamgiri Hills, Orissa.

It claimed that the mine would destroy the sacred mountain of the Dongria Kondh tribe, and threaten the abundant forests in which they live.

It also claimed that the tribe have never been consulted about the project, jointly run by the Orissa Government and Vedanta.

It said that the rissa Government appears to have decided to violate the rights of the Dongria Kondh in the name of ‘development’.

Survival International asked the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to investigate the case urgently and to invoke interim measures to stop the mine before the Dongria Kondh are irreparably harmed.

The appeals join a raft of complaints, investigations, and condemnations surrounding the project. Activists in India have been protesting against the mine for years and Survival, Amnesty International, ActionAid, and War on Want have all condemned it.

The British government is investigating a complaint that Vedanta Resources’ treatment of the Dongria Kondh breaches guidelines set by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Last year Martin Currie Investments sold their shares in the company over concerns about the project, and last month an environmental award for Vedanta was withheld at the last minute after demonstrators highlighted the company’s appalling track record in Orissa.

The Dongria Kondh are also actively opposing the mine, holding regular protests and blocking the roads being built into their forests.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, “The Orissa government and Vedanta Resources have been shirking their basic responsibilities toward the Dongria Kondh for too long. It’s time the international community took a stand – government has a duty to protect its citizens, not to strip them of their land and religion.” (ANI)

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Over 300,00 stranded as Assam flood situation turns grim

July 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Guwahati/Majuli (Assam), July 4 (ANI): Incessant rains in Assam’s catchment areas have left over 300,000 people stranded.

Reports said that most of the state’s rivers are in spate and flowing above the danger level.

Official sources described the flood situation in the state as very grim on Friday.

The Brahmaputra river is flowing above the danger level at several places, including Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Guwahati. Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Jorhat have been described as the worst-hit districts.

Vast tracts of land have been submerged by breaches in river embankments.

In Majuli, the world’s largest inhabited river island, a breach in the embankment, has left over 100,000 people stranded in Jengraimukh, Nayabazar, Fuloni, Halodiati and Kherakotaunkh areas.

Personnel of the National Disaster Rescue Force have arrived in the area to rescue the affected people.

The situation in lower Assam districts of Baksa, Barpeta and Udalguri is also grim following release of water from the Kurishu dam in Bhutan. In Dhemaji, the Semen river has inundated vast tracts in Jonai sub-division while the River Gai and Jiadhol are also in spate.(ANI)

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