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News, Politics, Government

Bernie Ecclestone — indispensable F1 supremo

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Bernie Ecclestone started out as a simple second-hand car salesman and went on to transform Formula One motor-racing into one of the most profitable sports the world.

German prosecutors on Wednesday indicted the British magnate on a bribery charge, but the 82-year-old has refused to resign as Formula One boss, despite facing a trial and a possible prison sentence.

However, the prospect of having to find a replacement for Ecclestone, on whose F1 decisions hang billion of dollars, sent shivers through the motor racing fraternity.

“F1 is what it is thanks to Bernie Ecclestone, to the way he has built this sport over the past 35 years,” said his compatriot Christian Horner, team principal at world champions Red Bull, when asked about a possible succession.

“Everything we see here is based on what he did and succeeded in doing. I think that without him we would have big problems.”

Despite his age, Ecclestone has brushed off suggestions that he is soon to retire and has insisted that his legal woes will not lead him to resign.

“I don’t see why I should do that, I will do what I have always done: keep working and do my job,” Ecclestone told German newspaper Bild.

Ecclestone has been charged by Munich prosecutors in relation to a $44 million (33.6 million euro) payment he made to German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky which was linked to the sale of the Formula One rights in 2006.

Dubbed “Napoleon” due to his 1.63-metre (five foot, four inch) stature and firm control over Formula One, Ecclestone was valued by Forbes magazine at $3.8 billion in March 2013, making him one of the richest 500 people in the world.

He is no stranger to controversy.

He was in the spotlight in late 1997 owing to a donation of 1.5 million pounds ($2.3 million, 1.75 million euros) to the Labour Party of then prime minister Tony Blair, which subsequently authorised the continued use of tobacco advertising by the sport.

Holder of a degree from Woolwich Polytechnic in southeast London, Ecclestone, known for his trademark white shirt and black trousers, began his career selling cars and motorcycles in the capital, and also briefly drove race cars himself.

However, his career was cut short by an accident.

In the early 1970s, Ecclestone set up the Brabham team.

Then, with competitors, he established the Formula One Constructors Association, gathering around him the other chiefs of motor racing stables to defend their interests against what became the International Automobile Federation (FIA).

One of the first to recognise the potential in sponsorship, he became the exclusive manager of F1 rights, taking the helm of Formula One Management, negotiating with circuits, advertisers and television stations.

“The contracts he negotiated, the circuits and the countries to which he brought F1, are remarkable. As long as he has the passion and enthusiasm to continue it is in our interests that he does it as long as possible,” Horner said.

“The day he is no longer there our sport will go much less well,” said the man some see as a potential successor to Ecclestone.

Ecclestone’s fortune …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

New Zealand lawmakers approve gay-marriage bill

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Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand‘s Parliament on Wednesday as the country became the 13th in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage.

Lawmakers voted 77 to 44 in favor of the gay-marriage bill on its third and final reading.

People watching from the public gallery and some lawmakers immediately broke into song after the result was announced, singing the New Zealand love song “Pokarekare Ana” in the indigenous Maori language.

“For us, we can now feel equal to everyone else,” said Tania Penafiel Bermudez, a bank teller who said she already considers herself married to partner Sonja Fry but now can get a certificate to prove it. “This means we can feel safe and fair and right in calling each other wife and wife.”

In one of several speeches that ended in a standing ovation, bill sponsor Louisa Wall told lawmakers the change was “our road toward healing.”

“In our society, the meaning of marriage is universal — it’s a declaration of love and commitment to a special person,” she said. She added that “nothing could make me more proud to be a New Zealander than passing this bill.”

Lawmakers from most political parties were encouraged by their leaders to vote as their conscience dictated rather than along party lines. Although Wall is from the opposition Labour Party, the bill also was supported by center-right Prime Minister John Key.

“In my view, marriage is a very personal thing between two individuals,” Key said. “And, in the end, this is part of equality in modern-day New Zealand.”

Since 2005, New Zealand has allowed civil unions, which confer many legal rights to gay couples. The new law will allow gay couples to jointly adopt children for the first time and will also allow their marriages to be recognized in other countries. The law will take effect in late August.

“This is really, really huge,” said Jills Angus Burney, a lawyer who drove about 90 minutes to Parliament to watch the vote with her partner, Deborah Hambly, who had flown in from farther afield. “It’s really important to me. It’s just unbelievable.”

Burney, a Presbyterian, said she and Hambly want to celebrate

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/jnImSCfRp-M/

News, Politics, Government

World mourns Thatcher, 'a great Briton'

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Global leaders expressed praise and admiration Monday for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as news spread of her death. Today’s British leader, David Cameron, summed up the consensus from friend and foe alike that the Iron Lady was “a great Briton.”

“As our first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds,” Cameron said in Madrid as he cut short a trip to Spain and canceled a visit to France to return home to lead funeral preparations for the longtime leader of his Conservative Party.

“The real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn’t just lead our country, she saved our country,” Cameron said, “and I believe she’ll go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister.”

As flags across the United Kingdom were lowered to half mast, Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II would send a private message of sympathy to the Thatcher family.

Across Europe and the world, leaders lauded Thatcher for her steely determination to modernize Britain’s industrial landscape — even at the cost of violent strikes and riots — and to stand beside the United States as the west triumphed in the Cold War versus the Soviet Union.

In Poland, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said his country should erect a statue of the British leader. In a tweet he praised Thatcher as “a fearless champion of liberty, stood up for captive nations, helped free world win the Cold War.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who ousted the Conservatives from power seven years after Thatcher’s resignation, conceded that Thatcher had been right to challenge labor union power — the traditional bedrock for Blair’s own Labour Party.

“Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast,” said Blair, who credited Thatcher with being “immensely supportive” despite their opposing views on many issues.

“You could not disrespect her character or her contribution to Britain’s national life,” Blair said.

Discordant notes came from Northern Ireland and Argentina, where Thatcher’s reputation for unbending determination received early tests — when breaking an Irish Republican Army prison hunger strike in 1981, then leading Britain into a 1982 war to reclaim the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Leading figure in Labour Party quits Parliament

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Former U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, a leading figure in Britain’s opposition Labour Party, is stepping down as a lawmaker to head the International Rescue Committee in New York.

Miliband had long been considered a possible front-runner for prime minister, but in 2010 lost the party leadership contest to his brother, Ed. Since then, he has stayed out of the limelight as his brother works to unseat the Conservative-led coalition government.

Miliband says it is time to resign from his Parliamentary seat and take the opportunity to lead the charity. The committee was set up in the 1930s to help those fleeing the Nazis, and responds to humanitarian crises in 40 countries.

Ed Miliband said Wednesday that British politics will be “a poorer place” without his brother.

…read more
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News, Politics, Government

UK lawmakers to vote on gay marriage bill

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Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior British officials threw their support behind a gay marriage bill Tuesday ahead of a key Parliament vote on the divisive topic.

If entered into law, the bill would enable same-sex couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies, provided that the religious institution consents. The proposals have divided opinion among members of Cameron’s Conservative Party and dozens of them are expected to vote against the bill later Tuesday.

In a last-minute statement, Cameron — who did not attend the debate — said passing the bill is “an important step forward” for Britain.

“I am a strong believer in marriage. It helps people commit to each other and I think it is right that gay people should be able to get married too,” he said. “This is, yes, about equality. But it is also about making our society stronger.”

Despite stronger-than-expected opposition within the Conservative ranks, the bill is expected to pass with support from most lawmakers in the left-leaning Labour Party and Liberal Democrats party.

Officials have stressed that all religious organizations can decide for themselves if they want to “opt in” to holding gay weddings. However, the Church of England, the country’s official faith, is barred from performing such ceremonies unless it changes its laws.

The bill would also allow couples who had previously entered into civil partnerships to convert their relationship into a marriage.

Critics say the proposals would change long-standing views about the meaning of marriage. Some Conservatives also fear the proposals would cost the party a significant number of votes in the next election.

“Marriage is the union between a man and a woman, has been historically, remains so. It is Alice in Wonderland territory, Orwellian almost, for any government of any political persuasion to seek to come along and try to re-write the lexicon,” Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale said.

In a letter published Tuesday in the Daily Telegraph, senior Conservatives including Foreign Secretary William Hague and Home Secretary Theresa May urged fellow party members to support the proposal.

“Marriage has evolved over time. We believe that opening it up to same-sex couples will strengthen, not weaken, the institution,” they wrote. “This is the right thing to do at the right time.”

If passed, the bill’s provisions would come into effect in 2015, ahead of the next British general election

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

UK police open historic child abuse probe

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British police have launched an official probe into claims that senior politicians had links to a pedophile gang during the 1980s.

Scotland Yard says the investigation is looking into historic child abuse allegations at a London guest house.

Thursday’s announcement came after opposition Labour Party lawmaker Tom Watson claimed last year that there was evidence that a member of a pedophile ring boasted about his connections with a “senior aide to a former prime minister.”

Watson suggested that at the time there was a “pedophile network linked to Parliament” and Downing Street. He urged police to reopen evidence files to reexamine and follow up the leads.

Police said that initial findings have turned up enough to begin a criminal investigation.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News