U.S. monsignor found guilty on one count in church abuse case

Chicago Tribune,  Reuters,  Dave Warner, June 22, 2012

Monsignor Lynn returns to the courthouse after lunch recess on the opening
 day of his child sex abuse trial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(Tim Shaffer Reuters, REUTERS / March 26, 2012) 

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A monsignor who oversaw hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was found guilty on Friday of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, making him the first senior U.S. Roman Catholic Church official to be convicted for covering up child sex abuse.

The jury acquitted Monsignor William Lynn on two other counts - conspiracy and another charge of child endangerment.

Lynn was accused of what prosecutors said was an effort to cover up child sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.

Removing his black clerical jacket but leaving on his collar, a stoic Lynn, 61, was led out of the courtroom and into custody by deputy sheriffs as his family members wept.

"Every juror there wanted to do justice... we wanted to do what was right," jury foreman Isa Logan, 35, a customer service representative at a local bank told reporters outside the courtroom.

Sentencing for Lynn, who faces up to seven years in prison, was set for August 13 by Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

While prosecutors argued that Lynn should immediately be jailed, the judge said she would consider house arrest if the defense asked for it.

The jury deliberated 13 days before reaching the mixed decision in the trial of Lynn, who for 12 years served as secretary of the clergy.

"This is a strong message, and we're grateful for that message that kids' safety has to come first," said Barbara Dorris, outreach director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

It puts the church on notice that it can no longer "shield and protect" abusive priests and expect to get away with it, Dorris said.

The case against Lynn was part of a broader indictment against clergy in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. One of the priests, Reverend William Brennan, was tried along with Lynn and faced charges of attempted rape and child endangerment. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the counts against Brennan.

A third priest who was scheduled to go on trial with Lynn and Brennan pleaded guilty at the last minute to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy at church in 1999.

The jury began deliberating earlier this month after hearing 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that re-focused attention on the broader sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church, costing billions in settlements, driving prominent U.S. dioceses into bankruptcy and testing the faith of Roman Catholics.

In this case, Lynn's job was supervising 800 priests, including investigating sex abuse claims from 1992 to 2004, in the nation's sixth largest archdiocese, with 1.5 million members.

At the trial, prosecutors argued that Lynn chose to protect the church at the expense of children, in an effort to avoid scandal and potential loss of financial support for the church.

The defense said Lynn tried to address cases of pedophile priests, compiling a list in 1994 of 35 accused predators and writing memos to suggest treatment and suspensions.

He was hampered because he could merely make recommendations to his boss, the head of the archdiocese, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the defense said. Bevilacqua died in January at age 88.

LYNN'S TESTIMONY KEY TO VERDICT

According to Lynn's testimony, which the jury foreman said was key to reaching a verdict, the cardinal said any mention of an accused priest's move from a parish should cite health reasons, never the accusations. Testimony also showed Bevilacqua ordered the list of accused priests be destroyed, although a lone copy was found in an Archdiocese safe.

Prosecutors used that list to show the church was well aware of predatory priests and covered up their existence, while the defense used the same list to argue it showed Lynn attempting to stop the problem.

The U.S. scandal erupted in 1992 with a series of sex abuse cases uncovered in the Archdiocese of Boston that helped encourage other victims of abuse to come forward.

Some 3,000 civil lawsuits alleging abuse were filed in the United States between 1984 and 2009. An unknown number of complaints - believed to be vastly more - were settled privately, often with confidentiality agreements, experts say.

The church has paid out some $2 billion in settlements to victims, bankrupting a handful of dioceses. Hefty multi-million sums were paid out by Catholic Archdiocese in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, declared bankruptcy in 2009, and the Diocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, did so in 2011.

Lynn's trial was noteworthy because of its focus on the role of a church official accused not of molestation but of covering it up. It raises questions of personal responsibility and how far someone such as Lynn could or should have stepped outside the rigors of the church hierarchy and whether strict obedience to church elders is defensible, experts said.

The decision comes as another jury in Pennsylvania is deciding an even higher-profile child sex abuse case, that one against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

In that case, Sandusky is charged with 48 counts of child sex abuse and jurors began deliberations on Thursday.

The scandal resulted in the firing of legendary football coach Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spanier for failing to do more when alerted to suspicions about Sandusky. Paterno, 85, died in January.

(Reporting by Dave Warner; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Vicki Allen)

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How advisers to stars lobbied MPs to make it a human right to avoid tax

Comedian Jimmy Carr was one of over 500 directors of tax shelter firm whose founders tried to prevent parliament closing loopholes

guardian.co.uk, Jamie Doward and Caroline Mortimer , Saturday 23 June 2012

Comedian Jimmy Carr is said to have used an aggressive - but legal -
tax-avoidance scheme. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Poor Jimmy Carr. If the comedian who likes to joke that he is "literally the biggest face in television" had not been so famous he would not be making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

And if a promoter of K2, one of the tax avoidance schemes Carr had signed up to, had not boasted about the comic's involvement to undercover reporters, his financial affairs, and those of many others, would have remained secret.

So, too, would the strange story of how a consultancy that devised another of Carr's tax shelters sought Tory support for a campaign that tried to turn tax avoidance into a human rights issue.

Records at Companies House show Carr was once one of 518 directors of Romangate, a company set up in 2009 to facilitate what at the time was believed to be a legitimate tax avoidance scheme.

Other directors included Coronation Street star William Roache, footballer Chris Sutton and Coleen Nolan, until recently a presenter on ITV's Loose Women. Stephen Lambert, the television producer behind hits such as Secret Millionaire, was also a director.

The majority of Romangate's directors, all of whom have now resigned, were contract workers and foreign nationals. A vast number were doctors, dentists, bankers, accountants, engineers and oil traders. One listed his profession as a watchmaker while another said he was a butcher. The aristocracy was represented by the socialite Lady Rona Delves Broughton and Lady Caroline Harrowby, an interior designer.

Romangate was part of a tax avoidance strategy called Rushmore that was closed down in 2009 without any financial benefit to its members amid claims in parliament that it could end up depriving the Exchequer of £200m. Introducing legislation to close the scheme down, the Labour Treasury secretary, Stephen Timms, explained: "We are preventing exploitation of the tax system by the schemes of a small number of wealthy people. Honest taxpayers rightly expect the government to identify such schemes quickly and block them effectively."

The diverse backgrounds of those who sought to benefit from the strategy suggests tax avoidance trusts are not simply vehicles for the super-rich. Romangate, which is owned by a Jersey trust called Plectron, is just one of a range of companies founded by financial consultants Matthew Jenner and Anthony Mehigan to help a multitude of clients avoid tax.

The two men, who declined to return calls from the Observer, run a tax consultancy called NT Advisors that lists an office in London's West End. The consultancy was behind a major lobbying campaign to wreck aspects of the previous government's 2008 Finance Act, which closed a number of tax loopholes.

NT Advisors hired a lobbying firm, the Whitehouse Consultancy, and briefed officials and politicians to press for parts of the bill to be dropped, arguing it would unfairly affect 600 individuals who benefited from legitimate tax avoidance schemes. "The introduction by stealth of retrospective legislation is an affront to the democratic process and seriously undermines the reputation of the UK as a good place to do business," Mehigan declared at the time.

NT Advisors wrote to politicians threatening to seek a judicial review of the act which they claimed breached Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions.

In June 2009, the Tories tabled an amendment to prevent a retrospective clause of the act being extended. David Gauke, the Treasury minister, declared "the risks of retrospective legislation are very considerable" because "it damages stability and certainty in the UK tax system". The Tories' opposition delighted NT Advisors .

Gauke confirmed to the Observer: "We tabled an amendment on the retrospective element of this clause which closed down an avoidance scheme" but he stressed it was simply a parliamentary manoeuvre to gain clarification. He said the Tories had "enthusiastically supported" the Labour government's efforts to close tax avoidance schemes and the amendment was never pushed to a vote.

A campaign to overturn the retrospective elements of the act continues with some of the affected claiming financial hardship as a result of its introduction. But their cause will not have been helped by the revelation that among their ranks were a multi-millionaire comic, TV stars, City traders and super wealthy financiers.

Financial expert Richard Murphy said Carr's travails had catapulted the issue of tax avoidance to the top of the political agenda. "The public mood is moving against tax avoidance," Murphy said. "People really do want every one to be in this together."

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CIA Wanted 'Torture' Cage for Secret Prison: Official

ABC News, by Randy Kreider, June 22, 2012

A Polish official says that prosecutors have a construction order that proves the CIA wanted a cage for terror suspects built at a secret 'black site' prison inside Poland.

Senator Jozef Pinior claims Krakow prosecutors have a document that shows a local contractor was asked to build a cage at Stare Kiekuty, a Polish army based used as a CIA prison for al Qaeda terror suspects in 2002 and 2003.

"In a state with rights," Pinior told the Polish paper Gazeta Wyborcza, "people in prison are not kept in cages." He said a cage was "non-standard equipment" for a prison, but standard "if torture was used there."

In this Dec. 16, 2005 file photo a 
watch tower overlooks the area 
near the Polish intelligence school
just outside  of Stare Kiejkuty, Poland. 
(Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo)

Asked if he was sure the cage was for humans, he said, "What was it for? Exotic birds?" He said he has not seen the construction order, but that the Krakow prosecutor's office, which is investigating the prison, has a copy of it.

This week Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the prosecutor's office also allegedly has a signed order from Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, the then-head of Polish intelligence, authorizing the creation of the black site. A source told the paper that the agreement has a space intended for an American signature, but that the Americans did not sign the document "because they do not want to sign documents inconsistent with their own Constitution and international law."

Siemiatkowski did not confirm or deny the existence of the agreement, but said he could not discuss anything he might have signed because it would be classified.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported in March that Siemiatkowski had been charged with permitting the corporal punishment of prisoners of war. Siematkowski has acknowledged publicly that he is under investigation.

Alexander Kwasniewski and Leszek Miller, who were president and prime minister at the time it was allegedly used as a CIA prison, have denied the existence of the Stare Kiekuty black site.  Sen. Pinior said he presented his evidence "with regret, because I always valued [Kwasniewski's] presidency."

Several terror suspects, including Abu Zubaydah, have said they were tortured at the Polish site prior to their relocation to Guantanamo. One suspect claims a gun and a power drill were pointed at his head during his interrogation.

After Poland launched its official investigation of the Stare Kiekuty site, President Bronislaw Komorowski said the probe was needed because "the reputation of Poland is at stake."

ABC News previously revealed the location of another CIA prison at a former riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2006, President Bush acknowledged that the U.S. had used "black site" prisons in foreign countries, and said many of the suspects who had been detained there were then moved to Guantanamo Bay. While denying that the U.S. employed torture, he said that the U.S. had used an "alternative set of procedures" to interrogate prisoners.

The CIA declined to comment to ABC News on the reported black site in Poland or on Senator Pinior's allegations about a cage.

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EU court: Workers sick on leave can get extra time off

BBC News, 21 June 2012

Related Stories 

• UK in EU working time deal talks
• Ministers to review doctor hours

Workers' rights are protected by the
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Workers who fall sick during their annual leave are entitled to take corresponding paid leave at a later date, the EU's top court has ruled.

The European Court of Justice ruling is legally binding throughout the EU.

Thursday's ruling was prompted by a Spanish trade union case against a group of department stores.

"The right to paid annual leave cannot be interpreted restrictively," the court says. The UK does not have an opt-out in this area of EU labour law.

The court in Luxembourg said the EU Working Time Directive grants workers a right to at least four weeks' paid annual leave "even where such leave coincides with periods of sick leave".

The ECJ says "the point at which the temporary incapacity arose is irrelevant".

"Consequently, a worker is entitled to take paid annual leave, which coincides with a period of sick leave, at a later point in time, irrespective of the point at which the incapacity for work arose."

According to an earlier ECJ ruling, workers who fall sick before a period of annual leave can also reschedule that leave period so that it does not clash with their sick leave.

The UK's opt-out from the Working Time Directive only applies to the directive's clause setting a 48-hour limit on the working week.

The UK government says "no-one can opt out of any other part of the Directive".

The UK and at least 14 other countries use the opt-out, which enables workers voluntarily to work more than 48 hours a week.

Irish deserters get justice 70 years after WWII

Deutsche Welle, 21 June 2012

Ireland was neutral in the war. But nearly 5,000 Irishmen deserted to fight against Hitler’s Germany. Upon their return they suffered discrimination. Some 70 years later, the Irish government is rehabilitating them.

On June 12, 2012, the Irish Minister of Defense, Alan Shatter, issued a statement: "On behalf of the State, the Government apologizes for the manner in which those members of the Defence Forces who left to fight on the Allied side during World War II, 1939 to 1945, were treated after the War by the State." 

Philipp Farrington, left, is still afraid
of the Irish authorities

These are words Patrick Martin and his family were waiting for for a long time. The statement means that Patrick Martin's grandfather gets justice at last. Time was running out: Philip Farrington is over 90 years old. He fought with the British army against Nazi Germany. He even took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy, a bloody battle that claimed thousands of lives. He had just got married and wanted to make a difference, says his grandson. "When he came back he suffered, but he still worked all his life to provide for his wife and his seven children and then his grandchildren when he got older."

Trauma remains with him

Even today, Philipp Farrington never shows off the medals for bravery that he received from the British army. Nearly 70 years later, he's still afraid of the Irish authorities. Philip Farrington deserted the Irish army to fight for the British. That led to his being sent to prison when he returned to Ireland.

The trauma has remained with him. Strangers make him nervous, confirms his grandson. For decades now, his grandfather has been afraid that someone from the government would come knocking on the door again and punish him some more. "I want just something to make up for that," says Patrick Martin.

The statement by the Irish government comes a year after families of Irish soldiers who fought with the British forces launched a petition calling for a pardon for the veterans; among the signatories was Pat Cox, the former president of the European Parliament.

Officers were spared 

Paddy Reid senior, center,
fought against Japan in India

Only ordinary soldiers were punished, however. Officers who did the same were quietly re-integrated into the Irish forces after the war - a blatant injustice, according to Paddy Reid. His father was among the first to desert and join the British army. He spent four years in India fighting the Japanese and was highly decorated.

But after Reid's father came back to Ireland, the family had to live in poverty. In reality a war hero, Paddy Reid senior was suddenly treated as an outcast. Nobody would hire him - the big local companies, the transport companies, the dock, shipping companies. "I am the oldest in the family and my early memories of growing up were not enough food, no money coming in," recalls his son. "He wasn't able to work because he just couldn't get a job."

He couldn't find a job because his name was on a list which the Irish government published in 1945 as the Emergency Powers (No. 362) Order 1945. Its aim was to penalize named deserters from Ireland's armed forces who went to fight with the Allies - principally with the British army. The list came to be known as the "Starvation Order" in Ireland.

Name on list = no job, no money 

5,000 Irish deserters were listed
in the 'Starvation Order'

Almost five thousand names were on the list. There was a copy to be found in all government and personnel offices, and anyone on it would not be given a job. Patrick Reid was on the list with his full name, his date of birth, and the last address the Irish authorities had been able to find. "Psychologically for the family, for my mother, it was very difficult", recalls his son, who spent a lot of time as a child going to the pawn shop. His mother would send him with whatever she could get, he says. "She would send me around to the pawn shop with a pair of shoes or something, and that would be food for a day or two."

Ireland had gained its independence from Britain two decades before. It did not want its men fighting for the former colonial overlords. For centuries the Irish had rebelled against British rule. There is even a monument in Dublin to remember those who died in the struggle.

The Starvation Order "was one of the most vindictive measures ever introduced by any Irish government," says Gerald Nash, a Member of the Irish Parliament for the country's Labour Party. He says it's important to keep in mind that "the relationship between Britain and Ireland when the state was formed in the 1920s to the recent times was quite tense." 

Relations between England and
Ireland were tense until recently

Today, relations between Ireland and England have improved. For many, the pardoning of the onetime deserters is a further step in the right direction. And advocates of the pardon stress that deserters actually joined the war for the right reasons, while their own country remained neutral, and many Irish even sympathized with Germany.

But there are also some who still oppose the pardon, claiming it cannot be in Ireland's national interest. Eunan O'Halpin is a historian at Trinity College in Dublin and says states have to look after their own interests and think of the people who didn't desert. "Even though they would have made more money and might have got a medal, they still did their duty by the state. And I think to honor deserters is to insult the people who didn't desert."

Reconciliation at last 

The petition to pardon Irish soldiers
has at last been successful

Harry Callan, for instance, did not desert. As a member of the Irish Merchant Navy, he was captured by German forces and was sent to the Farge concentration camp outside Bremen. He experienced many horrors there, but he survived. Today, only one thing matters for him - reconciliation, and that includes the deserters. "Politics is very hard for us to understand", he says. The Irish are known to like their fight, "and that was a fight for the Irish and they were there and they fought, that was that. I hope they'll get their pardon very soon, if not sooner."

Now the Irish government has officially apologized, and the defense minister has pledged to pardon all deserters officially this year. At last, after 67 years, Irish war veterans like Philip Farrington no longer need to be afraid.

Author: Veit-Ulrich Braun / nh

Editor: Michael Lawton

Swiss bankers drop holiday plans on fear of arrest

Reuters, by Martin de Sa'Pinto and Emma Farge, ZURICH/GENEVA, Thu Jun 14, 2012

(Reuters) - Browsing glossy brochures in search of an exotic and relaxing summer holiday is the norm for Swiss private bankers at this time of year.

But many will be going no further than the Alps, fretting that Switzerland's tax disputes with the United States and other nations could leave them open to arrest and extradition if they leave the country and are suspected of aiding tax cheats.

Even secretaries working on U.S. accounts at the banks are reckoned to be at risk, while one banker rang an advice hotline because he was worried about nipping over the French border to buy groceries.

All this comes as Switzerland negotiates to get U.S. probes against 11 banks dropped in return for payment of fines and the transfer of names of thousands of U.S. clients. It also wants a deal to shield the rest of its 300 or so banks from prosecution.

Several Swiss bank employees have been arrested or indicted in the U.S. since the long-running tax dispute broke.

Banks including HSBC and Credit Suisse have given about 10,000 employee names to U.S. authorities in an attempt to avoid the fate of private bank Wegelin, which broke up in January under threat of indictment, bank employees and lawyers said.

A middle office worker, who attended a Geneva advice seminar organized by The Association of Swiss Bank Employees (SBPV), and whose bank sent her name to U.S. authorities, cancelled plans to attend a school reunion in the States in July.

"I recently went to London but I had my radar on the whole time. I am very uncomfortable when I travel," she said.

Former UBS banker Renzo Gadola, who received five months' probation after co-operating with U.S. authorities, and Credit Suisse's Christos Bagios, yet to be charged since his January 2011 arrest, are among Swiss bank staff to have been arrested in the States.

"Partners of the bank prefer to spend their holidays in Switzerland," said a spokeswoman for Wegelin, which is contesting summons to face U.S. criminal charges that it conspired to help wealthy Americans evade taxes.

The SBPV set up a hotline this month and organized events in Geneva and Zurich to advise bankers about overseas travel.

Rudolf Wyss, former deputy director of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice, told Geneva-based bankers that if they had advised clients on U.S. soil or taken on a U.S. client from Swiss bank UBS, they should cancel all travel plans.

"If the banker goes to the States there is a real risk of arrest. I would advise not to leave Switzerland," he told a tense SBPV meeting in Geneva on Tuesday.

"If there is an international arrest warrant you could be arrested, for instance, in France or Italy and then extradited to the States."

And secretaries working on U.S. accounts could be summoned as witnesses if they travel to the States, he added.

An SBPV official said it has received several phone calls a day on the travel hotline, adding one member was even worried enough to call about crossing the French border for groceries.

In January, a finance ministry spokesman said Swiss banks had handed tens of thousands of pages of data to U.S. authorities, including names of client advisers, as part of an effort to reach a deal over the dispute.

And Swiss finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf remains hopeful of a deal before November's U.S. presidential elections.

WARNED OFF

Yet some bankers have also been warned off going to Germany, where a deal to tax undeclared assets and shield banks from prosecution has yet to be ratified.

One asset manager said he uses a small family car for trips to Germany to avoid detection as a financial adviser.

Even banks not targeted by foreign tax probes have advised employees to think carefully before travelling.

"We have asked them to let us know if they are going to the United States because we do not want to risk them running into a situation," said Bernard Kobler, CEO of Luzerner Kantonalbank.

One Geneva-based private banker who requested anonymity said bankers holidaying abroad should not carry client documentation, to avoid being accused of conducting business.

"Bankers are going for chartered holidays to avoid the risk of being accused of looking for business while they are on holiday," said the chief executive of another Geneva-based private bank, who also asked not to be quoted by name.

"In December, I visited my wife and daughter in America and I told immigration I was a mortgage broker - I did not say banker," joked Pierin Vincenz, chief executive of Swiss cooperative bank Raiffeisen at a recent conference in Zurich.

Bankers who really can't go without sea and sun could choose from such places such as Tunisia, the Maldives or Vanuatu, where there is no extradition treaty with the U.S. - though to be truly safe, they must ensure the flight does not involve a stopover in countries with U.S. treaties.

(Additional reporting by Emma Thomasson, Katharina Bart and Rupert Pretterklieber; Editing by David Hulmes)

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How Wealth Reduces Compassion

Peer-to-peer lending via the internet hits £250m

BBC News, By Simon Gompertz, Personal finance correspondent, 8 June 2012

Savings and Investment 

• Will investment charges become clearer?
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Lynne Martin's money is spread
 among hundreds of borrowers, thus
reducing risk

Lending via three websites that link savers with borrowers - bypassing the banking system - has topped £250m.

The "new age" finance carries no protection for deposits, but is being tipped as a serious threat to traditional banks.

The peer-to-peer sites are led by Zopa, which has lent more than £200m since it started in 2005.

Funding Circle, specialising in business loans, has topped £34m, and RateSetter has reached £24m.

Last month the government said it would lend these sort of firms £100m to help expand their own lending to businesses.

"It's a marketplace, the eBay for money," says Lynne Martin from Hertfordshire, a foot technician in her late 50s who has been using Zopa to build up a nest egg for retirement.

Higher returns

Lynne was fed up with the returns she was getting from banks and pension plans.

So she has lent a substantial part of her savings via the website, spreading it between hundreds of borrowers and by-passing the banking system.

The interest from the latest £5,000 is 7.4% a year before tax but after taking into account Zopa's 1% charge.

That is substantially more than is available on a typical savings account at a bank.

On the other side of the ledger, Jamie Hirst from Chippenham in Wiltshire has borrowed £4,500 through Zopa to cover the cost of a revamp of his kitchen and bathroom.

The 8.4% APR he is paying is 5% less than he was quoted by his bank.

"I thought it was brilliant," he told the BBC's Your Money.

"The fact that there wasn't some fat cat taking the profits, just some guy investing 50 or a hundred quid to get a little return and doing something good for someone else."

The drawbacks

There is a significant drawback for savers: the lack of any guarantee that you will get your money back.

Peer-to-peer lending, as it is known, does not qualify for protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which provides security up to £85,000 per bank, for each saver.

The peer-to-peer sites put their loan applicants through credit checks and Zopa says it divides people's savings into £10 chunks which are spread between borrowers, to minimise any risk.

On average, so far, its lenders have lost 0.5% of their money as a result of borrowers defaulting.

But Lynne Martin predicts the concept is bound to catch on more widely.

"Necessity is the mother of invention," she says.

"This is a new asset class. It's not a share and it's not a bank account."

Official support?

Lynne has support from a director of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, who suggested in March that peer-to-peer lenders could replace High Street banks. 

Jamie Hirst has been able to borrow
 money at a cheaper rate than from
his bank

"There is no reason why end-savers and end-investors cannot connect directly," he explained.

"The banking middle men may in time become the surplus links in the chain."

Lynne is hoping the interest she is earning will help pay for her to retire to the West Country, a hope which highlights an interesting feature of peer-to-peer lending.

Much of the money has been moving across generations, from older people looking for a decent income to younger borrowers setting up in life and desperate to keep down the cost of taking a loan.

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"The New Paradigm of Reality" Part I/II – Feb 12, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)

G20 summit: Barroso blames eurozone crisis on US banks

EC president says European leaders have not come to Mexico to receive lessons on how to handle the economy

guardian.co.uk, Patrick Wintour in Los Cabos, Ian Traynor in Brussels and Helena Smith in Athens, Monday 18 June 2012

José Manuel Barroso at the G20 summit. Photograph: Bertrand Langlois/AFP
/Getty Images

The opening day of the G20 summit was threatening to deteriorate into a fractious row between eurozone countries and other non-European members of the G20, notably the US, as EU commission president José Manuel Barroso insisted the origins of the eurozone crisis lay in the unorthodox policies of American capitalism.

As Europe's leaders came under intense pressure to act decisively to cure the euro's ills, and a campaign gathered pace to relax some of the austerity programmes laying waste to countries burdened with unsustainable debt levels, Barroso insisted that Europe had not come to the G20 summit in Mexico to receive lessons on how to handle the economy.

When asked by a Canadian journalist "why should North Americans risk their assets to help Europe?" he replied: "Frankly, we are not here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to handle the economy.

"By the way this crisis was not originated in Europe … seeing as you mention North America, this crisis originated in North America and much of our financial sector was contaminated by, how can I put it, unorthodox practices, from some sectors of the financial market."

After the Greek election at the weekend, which may have shifted the terms of the debate over how to shore up the euro, world leaders meeting in Mexico focused on the European crisis amid strong signs of big trouble brewing in Spain.

Madrid's 10-year cost of borrowing went through the 7% barrier on the bond markets for the first time in the single currency era, the level at which borrowing becomes unaffordable. The Spanish government demanded intervention from the European Central Bank.

Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, is expected to ask for up to €100bn in eurozone bailout funds for Spain's stricken banks at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, senior Eurogroup sources said. Voicing exasperation with the European response to the debt crisis, Robert Zoellick, the outgoing American head of the World Bank, warned the G20 summit in Mexico of a growing rift between the Europeans in charge of the bailouts and the IMF.

"The world's waiting for the Europeans to say what they want to do," said Zoellick. He predicted a showdown between the IMF and Europe by the end of the summer in the absence of any decisive action.

Barack Obama was expected to press Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Mexico on Monday night on the issue of eurobonds – the pooling of liability for single currency countries' debt. But there is no chance of Merkel agreeing to underwrite the debt of other European countries for the foreseeable future.

Fresh from his victory in the Greek election, the centre-right leader, Antonis Samaras, promptly tabled demands for a softening of the draconian austerity programme that Greece has to implement for the eurozone bailout.

Samaras, the prime minister-designate pledged to stick broadly to the Greek bailout terms but added: "We will simultaneously have to make some necessary amendments to the bailout agreement, in order to relieve the people of crippling unemployment and huge hardships."

Politicians and officials in Brussels and Germany appeared to suggest that the new Greek leader's demands could be at least partly satisfied by extending the repayment schedule on the bailout loans or lengthening the target deadlines for cutting the budget deficit.

There were also reports that the terms underpinning Ireland's bailout could also be relaxed, giving Dublin a much longer repayment schedule on the loans. The talk of rescheduling the Greek bailout terms surfaced quickly on Sunday night, with the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, suggesting the Europeans could alter the timings. That triggered a row in Germany among the political class over the pros and cons of going easier on Greece.

In Brussels, the respected Bruegel thinktank said: "It is now increasingly clear that the [Greek] programme is severely off track. The [Samaras] victory doesn't change this fact and it has become unavoidable to open a discussion about the shape and form of a new Greek programme. This is a fact now broadly acknowledged by policymakers and in particular by German officials who have openly discussed the possibility of stretching fiscal targets."

Martin Schulz, the German social democrat who presides over the European parliament, added: "The new Greek government will be able to count on our constructive cooperation in possible fine-tuning of its reform strategy and economic targets. If Greece sticks to its commitments, the EU can examine what could be done further to solve the crisis."

From Mexico, however, Merkel appeared to dismiss any easing of the Greek conditions. "The new Greek government has to implement the commitments entered into by the country. The programme framework has to be kept."

The eurogroup source said that Samaras was expected to show up in Luxembourg on Thursday for the meeting of eurozone finance ministers which will grapple with Spain and how to respond to the Greek election results.

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Arms and oil bosses refuse to attend corporate responsibility inquiry

Firms including BAE Systems, which have benefited from UK's export credit agency, fail to attend to inquiry into its work

guardian.co.uk, Rupert Neate, Sunday 17 June 2012

Among the loans underwritten by the Export Credits Guarantee Department
 was one for £35m to Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe for the purchase of five
of BAE Systems' Hawk fighter jets. Photograph: PA

The bosses of some of Britain's biggest arms and oil companies have refused to attend a parliamentary inquiry into the use of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to help dictators build arsenals and facilitate environmental and human rights abuses.

The businessmen, including Ian King, chief executive of BAE Systems, had been invited to an all-party investigation into the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD)'s underwriting of loans, including £35m to Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe to buy five Hawk fighter jets.

The all-party parliamentary group on international corporate responsibility is examining more than 40 years of ECGD operations overseas which have led to it being dubbed the "department for dodgy deals" by the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

Arms and oil companies are the biggest users of ECGD underwriting because traditional lenders are often reluctant to support projects that have the potential to lead to environmental or human rights abuses.

The companies were asked to attend the hearing to offer their views on how best to reform the role of the ECGD, which is part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and has changed its operating name to UK Export Finance (UKEF).

Other companies that decided not to send representatives include Thales, a French-owned arms group, and Carillion, a FTSE 250 construction company and the largest provider of outsourced management of defence facilities. Graham Farley, Carillion's director of export finance, pulled out the night before he was due to give evidence, according to Lisa Nandy, the Labour MP for Wigan and chair of the inquiry.

At the time of publication, Carillion had has not responded to Guardian inquiries as to the reason for Farley's withdrawal. Thales said in statement it did not believe "there was any specific aspect that was particularly pertinent" to the company and so declined to participate.

BAE Systems, the ECGD's biggest customer, said last week that it would not send King or any other representative to the inquiry. In a one-page letter to Nandy, the company said: "As you will know, there are already strict controls on defence exports in place, with which BAE Systems fully complies. Any item exported from the UK, which is subject to export control, needs a licence. The Export Control Organisation hold this responsibility and BAE Systems works closely with them to ensure compliance.

"We await the results of your inquiry with interest. However, BAE Systems does not intend to contribute further written or oral evidence."

BAE used ECGD funding to support the notorious al-Yamamah "oil for arms" deal with Saudi Arabia, involving Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. BAE was investigated by the Serious Fraud Office amid allegations of bribery and corruption. The inquiry was dropped following the intervention of the then prime minister, Tony Blair.

The ECGD also loaned £35m to Zimbabwe to buy five Hawk fighter jets from BAE between 1989 and 1992. Zimbabwe, which was already heavily indebted at the time of the loans, spent £49m repaying the cost of the Hawks, according to a response to a freedom of information request from the Jubilee Debt Campaign. Mugabe's government deployed the jets in the 1998-2002 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa's most deadly conflict in modern history, which led to 5.4m deaths.

BP has used ECGD support for a 1,760km joint venture oil pipeline through the Caucasus, the construction which has allegedly led to a catalogue of human rights abuses, but it also declined to send a representative to the inquiry. The company said it has submitted written evidence, but Nandy said she was disappointed that recipients of funding had declined to send representatives.

"This is the first of its kind, looking not just through the lens of economic growth or sustainability, but how the two can be successfully combined. In the wake of the financial crisis there is a widely recognised responsibility on business to help develop sustainable growth and uphold high ethical standards. This inquiry is an opportunity to do so," she said.

It was revealed at the inquiry that the ECGD's independent advisory body, the Export Guarantees Advisory Council, has never advised the business secretary Vince Cable, who is ultimately responsible for the loans, to withdraw support from a project. The chair of the EGAC, Andrew Wiseman, a partner at the law firm Stephenson Harwood, also disclosed that the oversight body meets Cable only once a year.

Nick Dearden, the director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said: "There's a huge amount of evidence which shows that neither UKEF nor its advisory council are able to hold the companies they support to human rights or environmental obligations.

"What standards do exist are applied to less than half of UKEF's current portfolio, are discretionary in any case and give no formal mechanism for complaint or evaluation. Most worrying of all, those affected by UKEF-supported projects have no right to redress.

"In recent years companies with allegations of corruption against them have been given support, while campaigners have had to use separate channels to hold companies to account for failing their human rights obligations. The case for binding, mandatory rules has clearly been made. Parliament needs to act."