This week Pope Benedict XVI announced he would be stepping down in the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years. South African Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius, appeared in court to face charges that he murdered his model girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. The UK Chancellor George Osborne and his French and German counterparts are to call for global tax rules to clamp down on corporate tax avoidance. Former chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust has alleged he was forced out of his job because he put patient safety ahead of Whitehall targets and the Europewide scandal over the contamination of meat products shows no sign of abating.
1. Pope Benedict XVI to step down
Pope Benedict XVI is to resign at the end of February after nearly eight years as the head of the Catholic Church, saying he is too old to continue at the age of 85. Benedict, who became the 265th pope in 2005, was one of the oldest new popes in history when elected. Under the Catholic Church’s governing code, Canon Law, the only conditions for the validity of such a resignation are that it be made freely and be properly published. But resignation is extremely rare: the last Pope to step aside was Pope Gregory XII, who resigned in 1415 amid a schism within the Church.
A Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that even Pope Benedict’s closest aides did not know what he was planning to do and were left “incredulous”. He added that the decision showed “great courage” and “determination“. In a statement, the pontiff said: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry”. The Vatican says it expects a new Pope to be elected before Easter by members of a 117-strong nominating conclave held in the Sistine Chapel.
[pagebreak]
2. Oscar Pistorius rejects murder charges
South African Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius has strongly rejected the charge that he murdered his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. His arrest over her death has stunned the country where he is considered a national hero. Dubbed “blade runner“, he made history last summer by becoming the first double-amputee track athlete to run in an Olympic Games. “The alleged murder is disputed in the strongest terms“, said a statement released by Mr Pistorius’s family and management company after the court hearing this week.
Ms Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, was shot dead at Mr Pistorius’s home near Pretoria on Thursday. Police were called to his home on the outskirts of South Africa’s administrative capital where they found paramedics treating a 29-year-old woman with four gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. She died at the scene, and officers recovered a 9mm pistol.
If convicted of premeditated murder, the athlete will face a life term in prison. But his defence is seeking a lesser charge, possibly culpable homicide, which is defined in South African law as unlawful, negligent killing.
3. G20 summit to call for global rules to tackle corporate tax avoidance
The UK, Germany and France want to reform rules which let firms switch profits and costs between countries. The three will seek backing from other leaders at the G20 summit in Moscow. A survey carried out by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which was released earlier this year, found that multinational companies could exploit gaps between the tax rules in different countries they operated in.
Mr Osborne said the report “shows the global economy has changed massively over the last decade, but global tax rules have stood still for almost a century”.
The UK will chair a committee looking at transfer pricing – how international corporate empires calculate the payments passed between their subsidiaries in different countries, which can be used to shift profits from high-tax jurisdictions to lower-tax ones. Germany will head a panel looking at the ways in which companies have reduced their tax base – their taxable income and assets – while France and the US will jointly consider the problem of identifying the correct tax jurisdiction for business activities, particularly e-commerce.
[pagebreak]
4. Gagging order for NHS whistleblower
Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, was allegedly warned four years ago that patients were at risk at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust by its former chief executive Gary Walker. It was revealed last year that Mr Walker was paid more than £500,000 as part of a severance deal which prevented him from speaking out over concerns about patient safety. He was sacked from the Trust in February 2010. Officially, the reason for his dismissal was that he swore openly at meetings, but his supporters claimed this was a trumped-up charge.
Mr Walker’s comments come a week after Robert Francis QC, who led the Stafford inquiry, said whistleblowers within the NHS should be protected. The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has warned senior NHS executives there will be “consequences” if they have wrongly gagged a former manager from speaking out about concerns over patient safety. United Lincolnshire Hospitals is one of 14 trusts being investigated over fears that as many as 500 patients may have died needlessly because of poor care following the Mid Staffordshire scandal, where up to 1,200 patients died at Stafford Hospital because of failures in hospital care.
5. Horsemeat scandal
Justin King, of Sainsbury’s has stated that the horsemeat scandal is not “the tip of an iceberg“, after initial results of tests on processed beef revealed horsemeat was found in just over 1% of samples. The Food Standards Agency said that after 2,501 fresh tests, no new products have been identified as containing more than 1% horsemeat.
The horsemeat scandal began when the Food Safety Authority of Ireland tested a range of cheap frozen beefburgers and ready meals from supermarkets last November for the presence of DNA from other species, which were undeclared. It found horse DNA in over one-third of the beefburger samples, and pig in 85%. Once the Irish authorities had reported their findings, the UK FSA asked industry to test all its beef products for horse. The next round of tests found that the “beef” in frozen lasagna and spaghetti bolognese made from Tesco, Aldi and Findus by a French manufacturer, Comigel was up to 100% horse.
Three men arrested during the horsemeat adulteration probe have been bailed. The men, two aged 64 and 42 from the Aberystwyth area and one aged 63 from West Yorkshire, were arrested on 14 February on suspicion of fraud. Catering giant Compass Group and Whitbread, one of Britain’s largest hotel chains, have found horse DNA in products sold as beef, it emerged on Friday and horsemeat has also been found in cottage pies supplied to 47 schools in Lancashire, which have now been withdrawn. The National Farmers Union (NFU) has taken out adverts in 10 national newspapers, saying it is championing British produce as a direct response to the contamination and mislabelling of some beef products.
Image Credits: dailymail.com, bbc.co.uk, jeffreyhill.typepad.com