Italy PM in teenage dancer probe

"Ruby" at a party in Genoa, 11/11“Ruby” apparently attended parties held by Silvio Berlusconi

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is being investigated over his dealings with a teenage nightclub dancer, prosecutors say.

Mr Berlusconi is suspected of abusing his power by trying to have the Moroccan girl – known as Ruby – released from a police cell.

Some reports say the probe includes allegations of underage prostitution. The girl was 17 at the time.

Supporters of Mr Berlusconi, 74, say the claims are unfounded.

The prime minister has admitted calling the police on her behalf, but says he did nothing wrong.

His office has not yet commented on the prosecutors’ latest move.

The dancer, who reportedly attended parties held by Mr Berlusconi last year, has denied suggestions that she had sex with him.

Prosecutors have not given details of the underage prostitution allegations.

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JP Morgan reports 47% profit jump

JP Morgan signJP Morgan did not make a loss even during the depths of the financial crisis

JP Morgan Chase is expected to report a record annual profit of about $16.7bn (£10.5bn) when it kicks off the US banking season later.

Much speculation is turning to whether Wall Street banks will increase their dividends.

JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon has already said that he would like to raise its payments to shareholders.

Analysts are also keen to see what JP Morgan says about the US economy and how much it has been lending.

“I think JP Morgan are going to report a really strong number but the market is going to look for revenue growth to really drive the stock higher,” said David Konrad from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

“We think revenues will be down probably 2% this quarter, but this will be the trough quarter, and we expect growth thereafter for JP Morgan.”

JP Morgan is the only major Wall Street firm to have made profits in every quarter, even in the recession.

However, like other banks, it slashed its dividend from $1.52 a share before the financial crisis to 20 cents per share now.

But it has built up a lot of “excess capital”, according to Mr Dimon.

The bank put aside money to cover losses from the bad loans that fuelled the financial crisis, says the BBC’s Caroline Hepker in New York.

However the losses have not been as large as the contingency fund allowed for, so the money is being freed up.

But while the majority of concern in the UK about bank profits relates to the bonuses they pay their staff, this was not the case in the US, said Bill Cohan, a Wall Street banker of 17 years and a former managing director at JP Morgan.

“[Barclays chief executive] Bob Diamond is asking people in the UK to lay off the bankers. I think that in this country people have already decided to move on,” he told the BBC.

“For some reason the UK is quite ahead of the curve on this issue and the US seems to have retreated back into a comatose state on the issue of bankers’ pay and compensation.”

Mr Cohan also questioned who the banks really benefited.

“They’re public companies. They should be in business to make money for their shareholders. But my experience on Wall Street is that these firms exist more for the benefit of their employees than their shareholders,” he said.

“What other business on the face of the earth pays out between 40 and 50 cents on every dollar of revenue to employees in the form of compensation?”

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Tunis protests urge leader’s exit

Security forces in Tunis after the president's speech (13 January 2011)Tunisia’s president made it clear his forces would no longer use lethal force against demonstrators
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Demonstrators are gathering for a march through the centre of the Tunisian capital, Tunis, as pressure mounts on President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

On Thursday night, Mr Ben Ali – who has governed Tunisia since 1987 – announced he would stand down in 2014.

His speech came after weeks of protests which have left at least 23 dead.

Opposition parties gave a cautious welcome to the news. Trade unions have called on people to observe a general strike on Friday.

Human rights groups say more than 60 people have died in weeks of unrest across the country, as security forces responded to people protesting over corruption, unemployment levels and high food prices.

The BBC’s Adam Mynott in Tunis says early indications are that many people in Tunis have heeded the unions’ call to protest.

In his speech on Thursday night, Mr Ben Ali said there was “no presidency for life” in Tunisia.

However, our correspondent says there is a degree of scepticism as to whether deeds will follow on from words.

Mr Ben Ali, 74, is only Tunisia’s second president since independence from France in 1956. He was last re-elected in 2009 with 89.62% of the vote.

In his speech, he said he did not intend to amend the constitution to remove the upper age limit for presidential candidates, which would have allowed him to stand for a further term in 2014.

The president, who earlier this week had blamed the unrest on “terrorists”, also said he felt “very, very deep and massive regret” over the deaths of civilians in the protests.

Tunisia"s President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali addresses the nation in this still image taken from video, January 13, 2011. Mr Ben Ali pledged to take action on food prices and end internet censorship

He said he had ordered troops to stop firing on protesters except in self defence, and pledged to take action on food prices, which have gone up fourfold in recent weeks.

Afterwards, Mr Ben Ali’s supporters took to the streets of Tunis, cheering and sounding car horns.

In a further overture, foreign minister Kamel Mourjane said it would be possible to form a government of national unity involving the opposition.

Speaking to France’s Europe 1 radio on Friday, he also held out the possibility of early parliamentary elections.

Tunisia’s main opposition leader, Najib Chebbi, called the president’s announcement “very good”, but said he was awaiting “concrete details”.

Mustapha Ben Jaafar, head of the Democratic Forum for Work and Liberties, said the speech “opens up possibilities”.

But human rights activist Mohamed Abbou said he believed President Ben Ali was “fooling the Tunisians with promises that have no tomorrow”.

The protests began in mid-December in the southern town of Sidi Bouzid, after an unemployed graduate set himself on fire when police tried to prevent him from selling vegetables without a permit. He died a few weeks later.

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Ripper loses life term appeal bid

Peter SutcliffePeter Sutcliffe is detained at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital
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Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has lost his appeal over a ruling that he should never be released from prison.

Sutcliffe received 20 life sentences in 1981 for murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

The 64-year-old applied for permission to challenge a High Court order in 2009 that he must serve a “whole life” tariff.

But it was rejected by three judges at the Court of Appeal on Friday.

The serial killer is detained at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital after being transferred from prison in 1984, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

When he was jailed, a judge recommended that he served a minimum of 30 years behind bars.

He used a hammer to attack his first victim on 5 July 1975.

Sutcliffe is said to have believed he was on a “mission from God” to kill prostitutes – although not all his victims were sex workers.

He was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated his victims’ bodies using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife.

“Each of the attempted murders, as well as each of the murder offences, taken on its own was a dreadful crime of utmost brutality”

Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge

During a hearing last year his QC argued that Sutcliffe’s mental disorder justified a minimum jail term of a “finite” number of years.

Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, one of the three Court of Appeal judges at Friday’s hearing, said an examination of the “entire catalogue of the offences as a whole demonstrates that this was criminal conduct at the extreme end of horror”.

He said: “We are not, of course, suggesting that the man who perpetrated these crimes was in any ordinary sense of the words ‘normal’ or ‘average’.”

The “sheer abnormality of his actions themselves suggest some element of mental disorder”, he said.

But he added: “There is, however, no reason to conclude that the appellant’s claim that he genuinely believed that he was acting under divine instruction to fulfil God’s will carries any greater conviction now than it did when it was rejected by the jury.”

Lord Judge, together with Mr Justice Calvert-Smith and Mr Justice Griffith Williams ruled that the interests of justice required “nothing less” than a whole life order.

Lord Judge said: “Each of the attempted murders, as well as each of the murder offences, taken on its own was a dreadful crime of utmost brutality: taking all the offences together, we have been considering an accumulation of criminality of exceptional magnitude which went far beyond the legislative criteria for a whole-life order.

“Even accepting that an element of mental disturbance was intrinsic to the commission of these crimes, the interests of justice require nothing less than a whole-life order.

“That is the only available punishment proportionate to these crimes.”

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Murder conviction appeal rejected

Simon and Stephanie HallHall’s wife Stephanie has been fighting to clear his name
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A man’s appeal against his conviction for murdering an elderly woman in Ipswich has been rejected.

Simon Hall, 33, of Ipswich, was found guilty in 2003 of stabbing Joan Albert, 79, after a jury heard fibres found at her home linked him to the scene.

A Court of Appeal hearing in December 2010 heard conflicting evidence over the reliability of key evidence.

Three appeal court judges rejected an appeal, adding there was “no reason” to doubt the conviction’s safety.

Lord Justice Pitchford, Mrs Justice Dobbs and Mr Justice Kenneth Parker had been urged to overturn the conviction as “unsafe” in the light of “fresh” scientific evidence relating to fibres.

Hall, a power company office worker from Ipswich, was 25 when he was jailed for life after a trial at Norwich Crown Court for killing Joan Albert. He denied murder and has continued to protest his innocence.

Joan AlbertJoan Albert was found dead in the hallway of her home

Mrs Albert’s blood-stained body was found in the hallway of her home in Capel St Mary, near Ipswich, in December 2001. She had been stabbed five times.

The appeal judges ruled: “We have no reason to doubt the safety of the jury’s verdict and the appeal is dismissed.”

The judges stated in a written ruling said they accepted the fibre evidence at the trial was “incomplete”.

But added they were still “quite satisfied that the scientific support for the assertion that the appellant was the source of the fibres found at the crime scene is compelling”.

Following the judgement Hall’s wife Stephanie said in a statement: “I am angry with the justice system.

“We will not rest until the whole truth of this case has been made public.”

Later Hall’s solicitor Correna Platt, of Stephensons Solicitors, said Mr Hall and his family were “devastated”.

“His legal team are concerned by the approach taken by the (appeal) court in coming to this decision,” she said.

“It was agreed by all that his conviction rested entirely on expert evidence relating to fibre evidence, and there is much other evidence that pointed away from Simon’s guilt.”

Ms Platt said the “right and proper” outcome would have been for the appeal judges to have sent the case back, with the new evidence to a jury “as the jury are the final arbiters of disputes of this kind and not the Court of Appeal”.

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Vatican to beatify John Paul II

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Pope Benedict XVI has formally approved a miracle attributed to his late predecessor, paving the way to John Paul’s beatification on 1 May.

The process of beatification, or declaring the late pontiff to be “blessed”, is a crucial step towards making him a saint.

John Paul died in 2005 after a papacy of nearly 27 years.

The Vatican credits him with the miraculous cure of a nun said to have had Parkinson’s Disease.

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