Will American-Style Prenups Bind England?

12:07am UK, Saturday January 08, 2011

Tessa Chapman, Sky News reporter

American-style prenuptial agreements could become legally binding in England.

he independent Law Commission is looking into ways to reform the current system, and is due to publish its findings early next week.

Many experts are predicting an overhaul of current marriage and divorce laws which have been in force for centuries.

Judges have tended to disregard contracts signed before marriage.

But, last year, the German heiress Katrin Radmacher won a landmark case against her former husband Nicolas Granatino.

Ms Radmacher, who is worth around £100m, signed a prenuptial with her ex-husband in 1998 in which both sides said they would not claim against each other if they divorced.

The Supreme Court ordered the deal should be honoured.

Katrin Radmacher and Nicolas Granatino

Family lawyer Karen Moores told Sky News it inevitably sets a precedent.

She said: "What the Supreme Court said was, if two sensible adults have entered into an agreement, knowing the implications, without any undue duress or misrepresentation, the presumption will be that they will be held to it."

Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones have famously signed prenuptial agreements.

In reality, most couples would still be unaffected by any new legislation which, in any case, would need to be passed by Parliament.

Family lawyer Alan Kaufman told Sky News: "You're talking about people who, one or both, have got lots of money.

"They're trying to protect some assets, or they're trying to protect inheritances, or people who've been through marriage before.

"They've known what divorce has done before, and they want some sort of certainty."

For most people, wedding planning is a romantic venture. Signing an agreement about a possible marriage failure might not be top of the to-do list.

Newly-engaged Keesha from Cheshire said: "You marry someone because you love them and you don't think about all those complications really, because you're not planning to divorce them are you?"

But Kim, who got married three weeks ago, can understand the logic: "Why not? If someone's got a lot of money I can understand why they want to protect their finances."

Jailed Sisters Freed After Kidney Donor Deal

3:24am UK, Saturday January 08, 2011

Huw Borland, Sky News Online

Two sisters have been freed from a US prison where they were serving life sentences for armed robbery on the condition that one donates a kidney to the other.

Jamie Scott (L) and her sister Gladys in Jackson, Mississippi

The siblings, Gladys and Jamie Scott, smiled and waved as they emerged from Central Mississippi Correctional Facility after 16 years in jail.

"Thank you, thank you," the pair shouted as they were driven past crowds of supporters who came to witness the release after a long campaign for their freedom.

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour suspended the jail sentences on the condition that Gladys Scott, 36, gave a kidney to her ill sister, Jamie, 38, who requires dialysis.

"It's been a long, hard road but we made it," Gladys Scott told a news conference.

"There were times when we wanted to give up but I told my sister… 'We're going to make it, we're coming up out of here, we're not going to die (in prison).'

"We are not bitter. We never would have made it through 16 years behind bars if we were full of hate."

Gladys said she was a willing donor for her sister. The pair plan to move to Florida, according to their lawyer.

They were convicted of robbing two men at gunpoint in 1993. The victims had been driving the sisters to a nightclub in northern Mississippi.

The siblings had no prior criminal record. Each was sentenced to two life terms.

Civil rights activists said the severity of their punishment far exceeded the seriousness of the crime.

Mr Barbour is a Republican who is considering whether to run for US president in 2012.

He said one reason for his decision to order their release was that Jamie's kidney dialysis and treatment was a financial burden on the state.

Michael Shapiro, at Hackensack University Medical Centre in New Jersey, has criticised imposing a condition for the release as unethical and possibly illegal.

Bristol Murder: Cops 'To Quiz Sex Offenders'

4:26am UK, Saturday January 08, 2011

Huw Borland, Sky News Online

Police investigating the murder of Joanna Yeates are reportedly preparing to investigate the movements of registered sex offenders on the night she went missing.

Murder victim Joanna Yeates

Up to 20 men who have a history of attacking women are expected to be interviewed by officers, as part of inquiries into the 25-year-old’s death, according to the Daily Mail.

The paper quoted an unnamed police source as saying: "As the inquiry continues, it will be necessary for officers to eliminate who might fall into a category of potential killer."

Avon and Somerset Police have said there was no evidence Miss Yeates had been sexually assaulted, but they have not ruled out a sexual motive.

On Friday night, officers retraced Miss Yeates' journey after she was last seen alive and questioned hundreds of witnesses in an attempt to find further information.

Joanna Yeates Murder

See all the key locations in the case

They spoke to customers in the pub where she went for a Christmas drink, talked to people in the streets close to her Bristol home and stopped cars where her body was found.

After leaving work on December 17, the landscape architect went to the Ram pub in Bristol city centre with her colleagues from BDP.

Miss Yeates spent around two hours socialising before leaving at about 8pm to make the 30-minute walk home to her flat in Canynge Road, Clifton.

She was spotted on CCTV in a Waitrose supermarket, at the Clifton Triangle, and then went to a Tesco Express in Clifton village, where she bought a pizza.

How Events Have Unfolded:

:: Dec 17: Miss Yeates leaves the Ram pub at 8pm to walk home.

:: Dec 20: Police make first appeal over Miss Yeates' disappearance.

:: Dec 26: Police confirm a body found on Christmas Day is that of Miss Yeates.

:: Full timeline of events.

Detectives said Miss Yeates had made it home because her shoes, coat, mobile phone, purse and keys were found there - although the pizza, the wrapping and its box are still missing.

Her snow-covered remains were found on Christmas morning along Longland Lane, in Failand, North Somerset. She had been strangled.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones, during the operation on Friday night, said: "We are hoping this high-profile activity will jog people's memories and may prompt more members of the public to contact us."

The police investigation was first launched after Miss Yeates' boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27, returned to Bristol from a weekend in Sheffield on December 19 and reported her missing.

US market slips on bank worries, lackluster jobs data

2011-01-08 02:00:40 GMT2011-01-08 10:00:40 (Beijing Time) SINA.com

Stocks fell on Friday after a court ruling in a key foreclosure case prompted investors to pull out of bank stocks, adding to weakness after a lackluster jobs report.

Even with the decline, however, the S&P 500 and Dow recorded their sixth straight week of advances. The market has proved resilient despite expectations that stocks were due for a pullback.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and US Bancorp (USB.N) lost a ruling by Massachusetts' top court, which said the banks failed to show they held the mortgages at the time they foreclosed.

The court decision is the latest on the validity of foreclosures conducted without full documentation, and the ongoing mortgage fiasco could prove costly for the banks. The news turned the market lower but some said the reaction was overdone.

"Financials have really been a leader in the market in recent weeks -- this could close that sector out," said Nick Kalivas, senior equity index analyst at MF Global in Chicago.

Wells Fargo shares gave up 2 percent at $31.50 and US Bancorp eased 0.8 percent to $25.09. The KBW Bank index (.BKX) lost 0.9 percent.

The S&P financial index (.GSPF) rallied more than 10 percent in December as investors searched for bargains at the end of the year.

On Friday the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) slipped 22.55 points, or 0.19 percent, to 11,674.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was off 2.35 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,271.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) declined 6.72 points, or 0.25 percent, to 2,703.17.

For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent, the Dow gained 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.9 percent.

Investors treaded lightly after the employment report, which showed non-farm payrolls rose a less-than-expected 103,000. But overall employment for October and November was revised upward to show 70,000 more job gains than previously reported.

The Labor Department report showed a surprisingly large number of people gave up searching for work, tempering the positive news of a big drop in the unemployment rate.

Analysts said that while the data showed steady, if slow, progress, it did not meet expectations that had risen through the week.

The mortgage issue has been overhanging banks, prompting an uproar last year that led lenders such as Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Ally Financial Inc to temporarily stop seizing homes.

On the upside, the energy sector capped declines as Diamond Offshore (DO.N) rose 4.9 percent to $70.57 after Goldman Sachs upgraded the driller. Goldman also upgraded Baker Hughes Inc (BHI.N) , sending its shares up 3.2 percent at $56.60.

The S&P 500 found support at its 14-day moving average, which is around 1,262. The index briefly broke below that before popping back up.

On Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounded cautiously more upbeat than in the recent past, citing improvements in consumer spending and a drop in claims for jobless benefits as hopeful signs for the recovery.

About 8.72 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, above last year's estimated daily average of 8.47 billion. Volume was strong throughout the first trading week of the year.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,661 to 1,303, while on the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers 1,644 to 968.

(Agencies)

Big push to unlock affordable housing

2011-01-08 02:21:04 GMT2011-01-08 10:21:04 (Beijing Time) China Daily

More land will be made available as ministry fights to keep down prices

BEIJING - The man in charge of China's top land watchdog pledged on Friday to continue to carefully manage the availability of building plots in an effort to curb soaring property prices.

Xu Shaoshi, the minister of land and resources, said at the ministry's annual working conference in Beijing that the strengthening of control over the property market was top of his agenda.

According to the latest statistics from the ministry, property developers spent 2.7 trillion yuan ($407 billion) on land transactions in 2010 - a year-on-year increase of 70 percent.

"That figure suggests urban development is becoming more dependant on land transactions, which has triggered an uneven allocation of benefits - and social conflicts," Xu said.

The Ministry of Land and Resources will try to mitigate the problem by making more land available through the reclamation of idle land. It will also name and shame developers who engage in illegal behavior, such as land hoarding. Xu said such illegal activity will be subject to stricter punishments this year.

Planned land supply in 2010 reached 180,000 hectares on the mainland, up 80 percent from actual supply in 2009.

Xu said the ministry will guarantee that there will be enough land available in 2011 for the construction of 10 million affordable homes.

He said land set aside for affordable housing, for the rebuilding of shanty areas and for owner-occupied small- and medium-sized homes will account for at least 70 percent of the total land supplied.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), more than 2.2 million hectares was earmarked for construction, including 45,333 hectares of land for affordable housing. During that period, the country's land transfer fees reached more than 7 trillion yuan, according to statistics from the ministry.

The minister added that China will further improve its land auction mechanism and find other ways to transfer the ownership of land as well as expand the catalogue of land.

Although the government took several steps to cool the housing market in recent months, it has remained hot throughout the past year.

Xu said land supply was increasing during the first three quarters of 2010 and the cost of land had been holding steady. However, in the last quarter, both the cost of land and supply were increasing, challenging the government's housing control policy.

House prices in first-tier cities increased dramatically, with Beijing topping the list of cities with the fastest-increasing housing prices. The cost of real estate in the capital rose by about 42 percent on the price in 2009, according to the latest statistics from the China Real Estate Information Corporation on Wednesday.

The average housing price in Beijing reached 26,599 yuan per square meter in December, which was about 12.6 percent more than it was in November, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development.

Land transfers in Beijing alone reached about 163.67 billion yuan in 2010.

In light of the fast-rising property prices, some developers have been bracing for stricter measures to cool the real estate market.

Ren Zhiqiang, chairman of the Beijing-based Huayuan Real Estate Co Ltd, said on his blog that the strict control of the real estate market will continue in 2011 because public welfare, including the construction of affordable housing, is part of the central government's agenda.

Premier Wen Jiabao said in November that the government was determined to pull housing prices back to a reasonable level.

Film by 14-year-old director from Okinawa to hit cinemas

TOKYO —

A film directed by a 14-year-old boy has gained such popularity in his native Okinawa Prefecture that it will be commercially screened at theaters on the mainland beginning with three cinemas in Tokyo and Yokohama this weekend.

The feature film titled ‘‘Yagi no Boken’’ (adventure of a goat) by Ryugo Nakamura, a third-year student at Okinawa Higashi Junior High School in Okinawa City, has drawn 40,000 viewers during screenings at community centers in the prefecture last year, leading to the upcoming theatrical release.

The film depicts lives of local boys and other people in the Yambaru area in the northern part of Okinawa Island through the escape of a goat kept for food.

‘‘Goats are food in Okinawa,’’ Nakamura said. ‘‘Many films portray Okinawa like a tropical paradise. I hope people will know about its real culture and tradition.’‘

Producer Yuichi Ide said, ‘‘I would like people across the country to see this film because of its quality. You would not believe it was shot by a junior high school student.’‘

Nakamura, who will turn 15 on Monday, began shooting independent movies when he was eight with the video camera of his father who died in an accident. He has created more than 30 short films thus far.

Critics raved about his short film ‘‘Yagi no Sampo’’ (a goat on a walk), which served as the groundwork for the latest feature, at the Okinawa tourism drama competition in 2009.

For the latest movie, most actors and crew members were chosen from top local professionals, and Cocco, a renowned female singer born and raised in Okinawa, sings the theme song of the movie.

Nakamura wrote a letter to Cocco asking her to provide the song for the film.

The film is scheduled to hit theaters in many parts of Japan after being released in Tokyo and Yokohama on Saturday.

Tablets crowd gadget show, chasing iPad's tail

Saturday 08th January, 07:30 AM JST

LAS VEGAS —

Big tablets and small tablets, white ones and black ones. Cheap ones and expensive ones. Brand names famous and obscure at the starting line of a race where the iPad is already a speeding dot near the horizon.

It’s impossible to walk the floor at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show without stumbling across a multitude of keyboard-less touch-screen computers expected to hit the market in the coming months. With Apple estimated to have sold more than 13 million iPads last year alone, the competition is clearly for second place, but even that prize is worth pursuing.

Technology research firm Gartner Inc expects that 55 million tablet computers will be shipped this year, most of them still iPads, but there will be room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.

A bevy of consumer electronics makers, including major names such as Motorola Mobility Inc, Toshiba Corp and Dell Inc, showed off their tablets in Las Vegas at CES, betting 2011 will be the year the gadgets finally take off.

Companies tried for years to popularize tablets, but the frenzy began only with the release of the iPad in April. Now companies whose names don’t include the word “Apple” are doing everything they can to differentiate themselves from the tablet front-runner.

They’re adding bells and whistles the iPad doesn’t yet have—such as front and back cameras for video chatting and picture taking and the ability to work over next-generation 4G data networks—in hopes of taking on the iPad, or at least carving out a niche.

Motorola’s Xoom sports a screen that measures 10.1 inches (25 centimeters) diagonally—slightly larger than the iPad’s—and dual cameras for video chatting and taking high-definition videos.

It will also include the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc’s Android software. Honeycomb has been designed for the larger touch screens on tablets; current versions of Android, used in many of the tablets at CES, are meant more for the smaller touch screens on smart phones.

For example, Gmail on a Honeycomb tablet shows a list of e-mails in one column and the body of the one you’re reading in a second column. On a current Android phone, you’d only see one column at a time.

Motorola, at least, is confident that its offering is more full-featured than the iPad.

“A lot of people have been waiting for the definitive tablet,” said Paul Nicholson, Motorola’s marketing director. “This is the definitive tablet.”

The tablet, which will start selling in March for an as-yet-unknown price, will also work on Verizon Wireless’ existing, 3G network at first and later be upgradeable to work on its faster 4G network.

Tablets that work with a wireless carrier’s high-speed data network may be a key to success in the tablet space, said Ross Rubin, an analyst for NPD Group, a market research firm. While a version of the iPad can use AT&T Inc’s 3G network, Apple has not yet announced a plan for it to use any of the new 4G networks.

“Today we see a lot of tablet usage in the home. Perhaps tying it to a faster network can really expand the on-the-go use case for these products,” Rubin said.

No matter how well any of the new contenders are received, though, analysts expect Apple to dominate in the tablet market for at least two years. With Apple’s habit of annually refreshing its products, chances are the iPad will gain new features early this year that could launch it even further ahead of the competition.

And the company has something no one else has been able to match: mind share. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said consumers are buying the iPad because they see their friends and colleagues with it, not because of its specific features.

“Just because Android tablets may have more features doesn’t guarantee they will sell,” Rotman Epps said.

But if the market opened up by Apple’s other mobile triumph, the iPhone, is any indication, they will. Since its 2007 debut the iPhone has been immensely popular, but it also sparked increased consumer demand for other smart phones—eventually including those running Android.

For AsusTek Computer Inc, the most important focus right now appears to be hardware and software diversification. The Taiwanese computer maker unveiled a number of tablets at the show, including the Eee pad Transformer, which is a laptop that splits in two to function as a tablet, and the Eee Pad Slider, a tablet with a keyboard that slides out of its left side.

The Transformer is set to begin selling in April for $399 to $699, depending on its configuration. And the Slider is set to be sold starting in May for $499 to $799.

This puts its cheapest Transformer $100 below the most inexpensive iPad, which sells for $499 to $829, depending on its configuration. Several other companies unveiled even cheaper tablets at CES, which could pique consumer interest, though lower prices could come with less-vivid screens and older software.

Richard Shim, a DisplaySearch analyst, said Asus’ tactics point to a wider trend in tablets: The market is branching out extremely quickly in an effort to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

This extends to operating software, too: Some tablets shown ran Microsoft Corp’s PC software, Windows 7. Research In Motion Ltd, the maker of BlackBerry phones, demonstrated its forthcoming PlayBook tablet, which is geared toward business users and runs new software built by QNX Software Systems, which RIM took over in 2010.

RIM plans to start selling a Wi-Fi version of the PlayBook early this year, and a version that operates on Sprint Nextel Corp’s 4G network is due to arrive in the summer.

Android was clearly the software of choice at CES, though, and Honeycomb in particular. Rotman Epps sees this as the software for the first “real” Android tablet, despite the arrival of several non-Honeycomb Android tablets such as Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy Tab last year. She thinks Honeycomb will help new tablets make their mark.

That’s hard to judge now, however: Honeycomb hasn’t been released yet. Many tablets at CES that will be released with that software were not showing off live versions of it at the show.

Several analysts said software—and the apps developed for it—are what will set winning tablets apart from the pack, but for now it’s too soon to tell how compelling they will be.

“At the end of the day, that’s what’s going to sell the device,” Shim said.