theSun | WEDNESDAY JULY 29 2009 5

news without borders

British legislators want
bribery law toughened
LONDON: British lawmakers
called yesterday for a proposed
new law against bribery to be
toughened by making it easier to
prosecute a company for failing to
prevent a bribe being paid.
The British government put
forward a draft law in March that
would make it a criminal offence
for British-based companies or
people to offer or accept a bribe
anywhere in the world, including
attempts to bribe foreign public
officials.
The proposed new law follows
criticism by the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) that exist-
ing British law could not prevent
corporate bribery abroad and fell
short of international standards.
A committee of legislators from
the main political parties and
from both houses of the British
parliament, set up to examine the
draft law, said the legislation was
overdue.
The law creates a new corpo-
rate offence of failing to prevent
bribery. For a company to be found
guilty, prosecutors would have to
show that a “responsible” person
working for the company had been
negligent by failing to prevent a
bribe being paid.
The committee called for the
removal of the need to prove neg-
ligence, saying the focus should be
on a company’s collective failure
to stop bribery rather than on an
individual. The law would still
allow a company to defend itself
by showing it had adequate anti-
bribery procedures.
The committee urged the gov-
ernment to tackle the “injustice”
that, under existing British law, a
company convicted of corruption
is automatically barred from com-
peting for public contracts forever.
Lawyers told the committee
that losing government contracts
could cause some companies’ busi-
nesses to collapse overnight and
gave firms no incentive to uncover
bribery. The committee urged the
government to scrap a proposal to
exempt British intelligence services
from the anti-bribery law.
“We heard no persuasive
evidence that the domestic intel-
ligence agencies needed an au-
thorisation to bribe, and we also
question whether the proposals are
compliant with the UK’s interna-
tional obligations,” it said.
Rees Ward, director-general of
the Defence Manufacturers’ As-
sociation, said the draft law was
welcome. “It will hopefully give a
clearer legal base for tackling cor-
ruption both at home and abroad,”
he said in a statement.
The government says Britain is
one of the least corrupt countries
in the world, standing third among
G8 countries, behind Canada and
Germany. But Britain achieves far
fewer prosecutions for bribery than
the United States and Europe.
One of the highest-profile recent
fraud investigations in Britain, into
an arms deal between Saudi Ara-
bia and Europe’s biggest defence
company BAE Systems, was halted
by then Prime Minister Tony Blair
in 2006. Blair said pursuing the
inquiry could have jeopardised na-
tional security, bringing criticism
by rights groups and the OECD,
which said authorities could and
should have done more to investi-
gate. – Reuters
UK lawmakers
get new tax-payer
funded allowance
LONDON: British lawmak-
ers have introduced new
rules allowing them to claim
£9,000 (RM52,110) a year
without receipts despite pub-
lic outrage over an expenses
scandal, a newspaper said
yesterday.
Prime Minister Gordon
Brown pledged to clean up
the tax-payer funded system
after revelations in June some
Megawati lawmakers were claiming for
challenges everything from sink plugs to
vote result moat cleaning, pest control
and a duck island.
pg 8 The scandal rocked
British politics, claimed
several scalps and sparked
widespread public anger at
a time when the country was
struggling through the worst
recession in decades.
The Daily Telegraph said
lawmakers have now agreed
a scheme allowing them to
claim £25 (RM289) a night,
or up to £9,125 (RM52,833)
a year, when staying away
from their designated main
home on parliamentary busi-
ness.
The allowance, which is
almost double the previous
£4,800 (RM27,792) a year
limit for unreceipted claims,
would be paid on top of other
expenses, the newspaper
said.
The scheme was approved
by a committee of lawmakers
without debate in parliament
or public announcement, as
lawmakers prepared to leave
Westminster for the summer
recess.
Revelations of the new
scheme are likely to rekindle
public resentment of politi-
cians ahead of a general elec-
tion that must be held by mid
next year.
After 10 years in power,
Brown’s ruling Labour party
is widely tipped to lose the
election to the main opposi-
tion Conservatives, led by
David Cameron.
Brown’s struggling
government has seen its
popularity hit hard by the
expenses row, although the
Conservatives have also
been heavily implicated in
the scandal.
The Daily Telegraph
published weeks of leaked
material showing MPs
claiming for a range of lavish
expenses. Some 20 MPs and
ministers quit over the row.
– AFP

Serial bigamist given

suspended sentence
LONDON: A former model who
wed five men without divorcing
any of them was handed a sus-
pended jail sentence on Monday by
a British court after being charged
with bigamy.
Emily Horne (pix), 30, mar-
ried four men by the age of 23,
changing her name on marriage
certificates to avoid detection, a
court in Manchester heard.
Horne, a former glamour model
who had roles in adult movies, only
told husband number five that she
was already married when they set
off on their honeymoon in 2007.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar de-
scribed Horne as a “manipulative
woman” who had “undermined
the institution of marriage”.
But the judge said he had de-
cided not to jail her because she
had made progress in the last six
months since being prescribed
medication for a personality dis-
order.
Horne, who has bipolar dis-
order, was handed a 10-month
suspended prison sentence, after
admitting to bigamy at an earlier
court hearing.
“I am feeling great. I have been
vindicated,” Horne, who has a new
partner, said outside court. She
added: “I think next time I should
get a divorce.”
Her lawyer, Paul Hodgkinson,
told the court that Horne was
sorry for the hurt she had caused
her husbands, but that her mental
health had impaired her decision
making.
“She is an attention seeker
and she is a lady with emotional
problems but she has had to put
up with a great deal of trauma in
her life,” he said.
“She is sorry for what she has
done and she is sorry for the pain
she has caused to the men and
their families.”
The court heard Horne wed for
the first time in York in northern
England on her 18th birthday
in 1996, to a soldier who was
posted overseas. On his return
he discovered she had left him
for a banker, and married again
in 1999. But Horne left him for a
website designer and they tied the
knot in December 2000.
Police cautioned her for two
offences of bigamy in 2001. But
a year later she wed again. The
police were alerted and she was
given a six month sentence.
Horne, whom the court heard
had been physiologically affected
by the death of her sister, married
husband number five in Septem-
ber 2007 after knowing each other
for four months. Police were called
in after the couple split.
Detective Constable Colette
Kelleher, of Greater Manchester
police, said Horne had betrayed
the love and
honesty the
men be-
stowed
on her.
– AFP
briefs
Woman rescued after a
week trapped in toilet
MELBOURNE: An Australian woman
was stuck in her toilet for a week
before neighbours heard her cries for
help, officials said yesterday.
The 67-year-old Queensland woman
was found on Sunday, seven days after
she became trapped, the state com-
munity safety department said.
“Firefighters accessed the woman
and freed her. Paramedics treated
the woman and transported her to
Ipswich Hospital,” the department
said in a statement. A departmental
spokeswoman told Brisbane’s Courier
Mail newspaper that the rescuers had
trouble reaching the woman because
she was so tightly wedged by the lava-
tory, with a foot stuck on either side.
– AFP
Sri Lanka bans mobile
phones at schools
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has banned
students from taking mobile phones
to school following the suicide of a
teenager disciplined for using her
telephone, an education ministry
spokesman said yesterday.
All schools were ordered to
impose the ban after a 14-year-old
girl – reprimanded over telephone
contact with a boy during school
last week – hanged herself, the
spokesman said. Another student
from the same school in the capital
Colombo attempted suicide after re-
ceiving a similar reprimand. – AFP
New Zealand woos
wealthy migrants
WELLINGTON: New Zealand an-
nounced yesterday that it has relaxed
the rules on immigration in a bid to
attract more wealthy entrepreneurs
as the government tries to boost the
local economy. Economic Development
Minister Gerry Brownlee and Immigra-
tion Minister Jonathan Coleman said
previous rules had failed to attract
enough well-heeled foreigners to the
country.
“The last government’s business
migration policies have not attracted
investment,” Coleman said, adding only
23 migrants had come to New Zealand
through the business migration policy
since 2007. Under the new rules, Eng-
lish language, business experience and
minimum capital requirements have
been relaxed to attract more wealthy
people. Migrants with at least NZ$10
million (RM23 million) will now need
no English language skills, or business
experience and the maximum age limit
has been removed. – AFP
Parking wardens say
judo just the ticket
SYDNEY: Issuing parking tickets is
such a dangerous business that Aus-
tralia’s parking wardens yesterday
demanded self-defence training and
the right to carry pepper spray and
batons. Nearly half of Sydney’s park-
ing attendants have been assaulted
by irate motorists and one in 10 had
needed hospital treatment.
“About a fifth of the officers re-
ceived physical injuries that required
medical attention,” United Services
Union spokesman Ben Kruse said.
“Enough is enough ... there needs
to be a focus on personal protective
equipment.” – dpa
Three killed in
restive Thai south
PATTANI: Three people were shot dead
and three security officials wounded in
gun and bomb attacks by suspected
militants in Thailand’s troubled deep
south, police said yesterday. A Bud-
dhist rubber tapper and his wife were
ambushed and shot by gunmen armed
with assault rifles early yesterday as
they travelled to work in the province’s
Khok Pho district.
Two policemen and a soldier were
then wounded when a bomb was
detonated as they went to the scene
of the shooting.
On Monday, a Muslim man was shot
dead by drive-by attackers on motorcy-
cles while attending his son’s wedding
in Mayo district, police said. – Reuters
Japan executes three
for multiple murders
TOKYO: Japan yesterday hanged
three inmates convicted of multiple
murders including a Chinese national
and a middle-aged man who found
his victims through an internet
suicide site, the justice minister said.
The government identified the con-
demned as Hiroshi Maeue, 40, Yukio
Yamaji, 25, and Chinese national Chen
Detong, 41, who had killed three of
his compatriots and wounded three
more Chinese people.
Maeue killed three people includ-
ing a 14-year-old in 2005 after he got
to know them separately through
an internet website where people
contemplating ending their lives
meet to make suicide pacts.
Yamaji raped and then stabbed
to death two sisters, stole their
money and set fire to their apart-
ment in 2005. Chen, the Chinese
national, was executed in Tokyo for
killing three of his compatriots and
injuring three more in Kawasaki,
southwest of Tokyo, in 1999. – AFP
Pregnant drug trafficker
to serve term in UK
HANOI: An agreement signed in Laos
yesterday will allow a pregnant Brit-
ish heroin trafficker to be sent home
to serve her life sentence, British and
Laotian officials said.
The two sides signed a memoran-
dum of understanding to allow the
transfer of Samantha Orobator to a
British jail, said the officials.
A court in Vientiane convicted Oro-
bator, 20, in June of trafficking 680gm
of heroin almost a year ago, when she
was caught trying to board a plane to
Thailand. – AFP