Nick Clegg: 'Phone hacking must not happen again

LONDON — Police on Thursday arrested another former News of the World executive in connection with the phone hacking scandal at the tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, police and reports said.

Several British media outlets identified the arrested man as Neil Wallis, 60, the former executive editor and deputy editor of the News of the World, who left the paper in 2009.

Scotland Yard would not confirm his identity but said a 60-year-old man was arrested by officers at a residential address in London early on Thursday "on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications".

He was in custody at a west London police station, it said in a statement.

A spokesman at London-based public relations company Outside Organisation, where Wallis is managing director, could not confirm the reports.

"We don't know actually know anything for sure," the spokeswoman told AFP, without elaborating.

Murdoch shut the News of the World last week amid public outrage over allegations that Britain's biggest selling Sunday newspaper hacked the phones of a teenage murder victim and the families of dead soldiers.

Wallis was deputy editor at the 168-year-old title from 2003 to 2007 under editor Andy Coulson. Coulson quit the paper in 2007 after its royal reporter and a private investigator were jailed for hacking mobile phone voicemails.

Wallis went on to become executive editor at the paper and left two years ago.

Before his spell at the News of the World he was editor of The People, another British Sunday tabloid.

Also:Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said: "For the first time in days, it feels like we have a chance to catch our breath and ask, 'what next?'"

"Is it enough to clean up the current mess or are we going to go further?"

Mr Clegg said that the media should be run on the three principles of "freedom, accountability, and plurality".

The Liberal Democrat leader insisted “big questions” needed to be answered about the News Corporation chairman’s fitness to own media outlets in Britain.

Andrew Lovett

Andrew Lovett, born 11 November 1982 is an Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL) for Essendon between 2005 and 2009. He was drafted by St Kilda at the end of the 2009 season, but was sacked in early 2010 without playing a match with the Saints after rape charges were laid against him. He was then recruited by former club East Perth.

AFL career

Lovett was selected by Essendon in 2003 in the Rookie Draft. He remained a rookie, playing for the Bendigo Bombers, until he made his AFL debut against Hawthorn.

Lovett was a member of the Australian team that won the Cormac McAnallen Cup during the 2005 International Rules Series. He also won the Anzac Day Medal in 2005.

At the end of the 2008 season, Lovett was mentioned as a potential trade for Essendon due to the off-field problems he had been having at the club. The Geelong Football Club were said to be the most interested in securing the lively forward who still had one year to run on his contract at Essendon. Although a trade did not eventuate, his form in the 2009 season saw another offer - this time from St Kilda, who traded their first round pick (#16). Lovett accepted the move despite other offers (from the Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide) to remain in Melbourne with his family and friends whilst having the prospects of being involved in a premiership team. He was later given the number 9 guernsey, which was last worn by goalkicker Fraser Gehrig.

In December 2009 Lovett was suspended indefinitely by the Saints following allegations of being involved in a sexual assault. He had previously been issued with a court intervention order following an assault on his girlfriend in 2006 as well as being fined for driving without a licence and arrested for being drunk in public. On 16 February 2010 Lovett was sacked by St Kilda following confirmation that rape charges were laid.

Early life

Lovett has Indigenous Australian heritage and his tribal ancestry can be traced to the Gunditjmara.He is the cousin of Nathan Lovett-Murray who also plays AFL football.

After not being drafted in 2002, Lovett was advised to remain with his team, the Northern Knights. He then began playing for North Heidelberg in Melbourne's Diamond Valley league before relocating to Western Australia to play for East Perth in the WAFL, where he believed he had a greater chance of making it into the AFL.

Lovett's alleged victim tells court

St Kilda player Jason Gram today told Lovett's rape trial that he and his housemate Sam Fisher, another Saint, confronted Lovett after the alleged sex assault.

It is alleged Lovett raped a model on Gram's bed after she and a female friend and the two footballers returned to Gram and Fisher's apartment after a night of drinking at a hotel.

The jury was told Fisher arrived home after the alleged assault to find the woman crying.

In evidence, Gram said he followed the distraught woman outside. ''(She) was still crying so I pretty much just grabbed her and said, `What's going on? What's wrong? What happened'?'' Gram told the jury.

''And that's when she said, I said who and then she said, `The dark guy'.''

A shocked Gram informed Lovett of the accusation. ''He just didn't believe me,'' Gram told the court. ''He said, `What, are you serious? This is bull----', and he kind of collapsed on the ground and he was in tears.''

Gram admitted Lovett was called a 'dog.It was either me or Sam, I can't remember,'' Gram told the court. ''He (Lovett) just said he didn't do it. He wouldn't do that.''

The alleged victim and her female friend met Lovett and Gram at the Royal Saxon Hotel on the night of December 23, 2009.

Admitting her memory was patchy, she told the court she could not remember the cab ride to Gram's Port Melbourne apartment, but recalled being put to bed to sober up by Gram and her friend.

Prosecutor Michael Tovey QC told the court Gram will testify he stayed in the room with her for a time, something she does not remember.

She recalled her friend trying to wake her, but said she could not move and drifted back to sleep.

"Then I remember feeling someone on top of me, and I thought I was dreaming it, or imagining it, [because] I was so in and out," she testified.

"Then, I remember realising that someone was having sex, and I scrambled away, and said no, grabbed my phone, and I texted for help."

She told the court she clearly saw Andrew Lovett's face, and he did not stop having sex with her after she said "no" and squirmed away.

The court heard the woman then fled to the bathroom and remembers Lovett asking her if she was okay.

She was later found collapsed by the entrance to the apartment.

"I remember seeing a door and I was confused and scared and I just fell on the ground into a heap and started crying my eyes out," she said.

She then ran from the building.

"I was in absolute shock, and horrified, and still drunk and confused," she testified.

Under cross-examination she was asked by Lovett's defence lawyer, David Grace QC, if she had dressed up that night to make herself look attractive.

"I always take pride in the way I look, so yes," she replied.

She said she did not go out purposely to meet men, and had not known Reiwoldt, Gram and Lovett were footballers at the time.

Lovett has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape.

Mumbai blasts prompt further questions over Indian intelligence Authorities

In India have stepped up security in all major cities after three deadly bomb blasts.

The bombs killed 17 people and injured 131 in the commercial capital, Mumbai.

So far no-one has claimed responsibility, but terrorists trained in Pakistan are the prime suspects.

Our correspondent Richard Lindell is in the capital, New Delhi and he joins me on the line now.

Richard, the Indian home affairs minister has recently given a briefing on this issue. Can you update us on the latest please?

RICHARD LINDELL: Yes the Indian home affairs minister has actually updated the number of dead and he's updated that to 18 confirmed killed now. One-hundred-and-thirty-one people were injured and sent to hospital; of those 23 are seriously injured and some of those remain in a critical condition.

He also spoke more about the kinds of explosives used and they do appear like they were homemade bombs - ammonium nitrate which is a common fertiliser. Two were very high intensity bombs; one was a relatively lower one. No triggers were found at the scene, suggesting they were set off at each site.

So all in all he's sort of pointing to the fact that these were homemade basic devises.

Maharashtra's chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan, also maintained that CCTV cameras had "got a lot of useful footage" of the attacks, but explained away the failure to upgrade the system by saying that "Mumbai wants quick progress … but procurement (of equipment) is a difficult process."

Even the ruling Congress party leader, Rahul Gandhi, joined the official chorus and declared that "99% of terror attacks have been stopped" by the authorities. Indian newspapers, however, carried long lists of terror strikes in Mumbai and other cities during the last decade, including several that remain unsolved.

"It is very difficult to stop every single terror attack," Gandhi added. "We've improved in leaps and bounds, but terrorism is something that is also increasing in leaps and bounds."

Many businesses at the gold, diamond and jewellery centres in Mumbai that were hit by the blasts remained closed on Thursday, but a few traders and workers who were around expressed anger and frustration at the fact that Mumbai had again become a target for terrorists.

"Terrorist attacks on Mumbai have become an annual event, the city has become an easy target, as the government cannot do anything," a businessman in Zaveri Bazaar said on a TV news channel. "So we've no choice but to keep working."

Even as politicians resorted to tired clichés about the "resilience of the people of Mumbai", a young man at the third bomb site in Dadar spoke of ordinary people's helplessness in the face of the attacks.

He said: "The relatives of the injured and dead are faced with one kind of tension today, whereas others like me have another kind of tension – the daily tension of filling our stomach. Inflation has gone out of hand, so we've to work in order to survive."

A lot of the anger was directed against politicians touring the bomb sites with TV crews. Meanwhile, relatives of the dead stood patiently outside the city coroner's office in the monsoon rain hoping to collect the bodies of their loved ones.

Parry stepping up in Senate

You have to feel sorry for the Senate. It has its fancy Latin name, sure. And there's all that la de da reviewing of legislation. But the Senate is often seen as the scrawnier, poorer cousin of the House. Its ruby hues paling in comparison to the big green behemoth across the parquetry.

Yesterday it was the Senate's time to twinkle a little. With 12 new members and a power balance shake-up, it was the parliamentary equivalent of a new pair or shoes and a new haircut.

To boost the star power, the Governor-General turned up first thing to swear in the new guys, throwing colour-clashes to the wind in a bright pink coat.

Oaths of allegiance sworn and done, it was time to elect a president and deputy president. With Labor nominating Bob Hogg for another term in the high chair, this should have been a mere formality. However, Bob Brown attempted an upset by nominating fellow Green senator Scott Ludlam for the post. It didn't work, with Hogg taking it out 62 to nine (there are nine Greens in the Senate). Nor did it work for the deputy position, when Liberal Stephen Parry beat Ludlam 61 to nine. Still, it sent a loud, clear message to the Old Way of Doing Things. Don't get too comfy, Old Way. We've got nine votes and we're not afraid to use them.

Senator Parry, a former funeral director and police officer who was elected to the Senate in 2004, said it was an honour and a privilege to be elected.

While the role includes a new office that boasts a courtyard it will also require Senator Parry to ensure committees are functioning properly, and to fill the president's role when required.

Senator Parry's duties also will demand that he is "more bipartisan".

"I can still have my strong affiliation and strong views as a Liberal member, but I have to ensure a more fair view," he said. "Coming from the position of Whip, where I was focusing on one side, it will be a challenge, but all other deputy presidents have managed so I'm confident I will, too."

Senator Parry's appointment follows a greening of the Senate, with the Greens now holding sway in the Upper House whenever there is a disagreement between the Gillard Government and the opposition Coalition.

Senator Parry said there had already been a notable difference, with the Greens earning more questions in Question Time yesterday.

Cattle trade

Idea of driving Texas longhorn cattle from Texas to railheads in Kansas originated in the late 1850s but was cut short by the Civil War. In 1866, the first Texas cattle started arriving in Baxter Springs in southeastern Kansas by way of the Shawnee Trail. However, Texas longhorn cattle carried a tick that spread splenic fever, known locally as Texas Fever, among other breeds of cattle. Alarmed Kansas farmers persuaded the Kansas State Legislature to establish a quarantine line in central Kansas. The quarantine prohibited Texas longhorns from the heavily settled, eastern portion of the state.

With the cattle trade forced west, Texas longhorns began moving north along the Chisholm Trail. In 1867, the main Cow Town was Abilene, Kansas. Profits were high, and other towns quickly joined in the cattle boom. Newton in 1871; Ellsworth in 1872; and Wichita in 1872. However, in 1876 the Kansas State Legislature responded to pressure from farmers settling in central Kansas and once again shifted the quarantine line westward, which essentially eliminated Abilene and the other Cow Towns from the cattle trade. With no place else to go, Dodge City suddenly became Queen of the Cow Towns.

A new route, known as the Great Western Cattle Trail, or Western Trail, branched off from the Chisholm Trail to lead cattle into Dodge City. Dodge City became a boomtown, with thousands of cattle passing annually through its stockyards. The peak years of the cattle trade in Dodge City were from 1883 to 1884, and during that time the town grew tremendously. In 1880, Dodge City got a new competitor for the cattle trade from the border town of Caldwell. 

For a few years the competition between the towns was fierce, but there were enough cattle for both towns to prosper. Nevertheless, it was Dodge City that became famous, and rightly so because no town could match Dodge City's reputation as a true frontier settlement of the Old West. Dodge City had more famous (and infamous) gunfighters working at one time or another than any other town in the West, many of whom participated in the Dodge City War of 1883. It also boasted the usual array of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels established to separate a lonely cowboy from his hard-earned cash, including the famous Long Branch Saloon and China Doll brothel. For a time in 1884, Dodge City even had a bullfighting ring where Mexican bullfighters imported from Mexico would put on a show with specially chosen longhorn bulls.

As more agricultural settlers moved into western Kansas, pressure on the Kansas State Legislature to do something about splenic fever increased. Consequently, in 1885 the quarantine line was extended across the state and the Western Trail was all but shut down. By 1886, the cowboys, saloon keepers, gamblers, and brothel owners moved west to greener pastures, and Dodge City became a sleepy little town much like other communities in western Kansas.

New Jakarta ban shuts down live cattle trade

Federal government insists Indonesia's decision not to reissue import permits for live Australian cattle is not a permanent roadblock.

Indonesia last week delayed granting new licences for the July-to-September quarter given Australia's own suspension on exports, which could potentially last until November.

These moves have prompted fears within the industry that Indonesia could withhold the permits and use this as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Australia.

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The two countries are yet to agree on mutual slaughter standards which, along with a tracking system, are needed to get the $320 million trade up and running again.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists there is nothing stopping Indonesia from reissuing the permits as soon as an agreement is reached.

"[Does] this definitely mean that Australia won't be in that market for three months? That's not true," Ms Gillard told parliament during question time on Monday.

"There is no technical impediment to Indonesia granting permits in the forthcoming three-month period."

Australia's suspension could last anywhere up to six months, although the coalition is demanding that trade resume immediately to a handful of abattoirs that abide by international standards.

The memo to 23 beef importers was copied to the Indonesian Agriculture Minister, the secretary-general of the Agriculture Ministry, the head of its quarantine division and divisional heads covering animal husbandry.

It signals that a resolution does not just depend on an Australian decision, and that the Indonesian government will have to now give the go-ahead to the resumption of the trade by issuing new import permits.

The government last week moved to ease the crisis in the beef industry by announcing that affected producers would each be eligible for up to $25,000 in financial assistance. Speaking on the ABC's Insiders program yesterday, Julia Gillard said it was her objective to resume the trade, but the animal welfare issues had to be addressed. "We won't wait one extra day, we are absolutely working full-bore on that," she said. "In the meantime we are providing some short-term assistance to people in the industry who need that assistance right now."

The opposition has been calling on the Prime Minister to visit Indonesia personally to resolve the issue.

NSW Liberal senator Bill Heffernan said the Indonesian memo showed "the ball is clearly in our court and the government has to show leadership".

Senator Heffernan said the government should immediately publish and implement an industry plan presented to it some weeks ago.

He said under the plan, the industry had agreed to the full tracing of cattle exported from Australia. He said exporting cattle to Indonesia abattoirs with proper standards would allow 40 to 50 per cent of the export capacity to be immediately resumed. "There is no excuse not to start issuing export authorisations. The looming industry catastrophe will cost billions of dollars," he said.

The internal Australian government assessment shows that producers will lose between $42m and $62m from the initial "first-round" impact of the ban.

The briefing estimates the full impact of the ban on "gross value of production" of the industry ranges from $99m if trade were reopened in July to $154m if the ban continued until December. "The impact on farm gate gross value of product of those selling into the live trade is even worse - it ranges from losses of $153m (about 30 per cent) to losses of $240m (almost 50 per cent)," it says.

Charges after police raid homes over shootings

Three men have been arrested by police investigating a series of violent incidents between feuding families in Melbourne's north in the past few weeks.

Santiago Taskforce detectives assisted by the Special Operations Group and the dog squad swooped on the northern suburbs at dawn, arresting the men and executing two search warrants.

The arrests and search warrants were executed in St Albans and Coolaroo "in relation to an ongoing investigation into a series of incidents in the northern suburbs in the last couple of weeks", a police spokesman said.

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Two men, aged 31 and 18, were arrested in St Albans and a 19-year-old man was arrested in Coolaroo.

The men are assisting police with their inquiries but no charges have yet been laid.

Witness Liz told ABC Radio the arrest of the 19-year-old man at Coolaroo was at the same house that has been shot at several times and fire bombed in recent weeks.

The charges follow raids by heavily armed police on a house in St Albans and a house in Coolaroo after 6am today.

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The 19-year-old was arrested outside a home in Guildford Avenue, Coolaroo, that was firebombed and targeted in a series of early-morning drive-by shootings late last month.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said Santiago taskforce detectives were assisted by state operations group and dog squad police.

The most recent outbreak of violence was on June 28, when a gunman in a car fired at another vehicle during a wild pursuit near the intersection of Hilda Street and Justin Avenue in Glenroy around 3.15pm.

At least one shot hit a nearby home.

A day earlier, two vehicles were involved in an early-morning gunfight in nearby Jacana.

On June 23, two shots were fired at a home in Sunset Boulevarde, Jacana, just hours before a light truck was crashed into the Guildford Avenue house, which was also sprayed with gunfire.

The day before, a petrol bomb was thrown through the front window of the same Guildford Avenue home.

No one has been injured in the attacks, which have terrified nearby residents.