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A TV advert which jokes about spotting "transgendered ladies" at Cheltenham Festival is being investigated.

In the advert, bookmaker Paddy Power invites viewers to "spot the stallions from the mares" at Ladies' Day.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received almost 500 complaints the ad was "offensive, transphobic and derogatory towards transgender people".

A spokesman for Paddy Power said it was "simply a bit of mild-mannered fun" in the run up to the festival in March.

According to the bookmaker, the advert had been produced in response to comments received about beautiful women attending Cheltenham's Ladies' Day.

"It proceeds to show Paddy Power upping the ante by sending transgender ladies into Ladies' Day, adding to the excitement of the day," the spokesman said.

The ASA said some 470 complaints had been received, a "significant volume", and it had launched a formal investigation in response.

The bookmaker said the television campaign had generated plenty of public response which had been "healthily mixed".

It added several members of the UK transgender community had been cast in the ad which had been cleared by Clearcast, which vets adverts before airing.

In a statement on its website, Clearcast said: "Ads cannot be approved if they are felt likely to cause widespread general offence.

"In this case Clearcast took the view that the humour, while not to everyone's taste, fell short of causing such offence.

"In reaching this view Clearcast took into account the fact that the advertiser had sought a view from the Beaumont Society (a body run by and for those who cross dress or are transsexual) which did not find the script idea offensive.

"We regret any offence that may have been caused by this ad."

Jennie Kermode, chair of charity Trans Media Watch, said: "This is clearly an attempt to offend in an effort to generate publicity, but at the same time it's a real problem.

"We feel it could put trans women and other women at risk because any woman who looks slightly masculine might be threatened as a result of this advert."

Sharjah Police have arrested three young men who allegedly broke into a number of homes and also raped a housemaid.

The three Emirati suspects were arrested within hours of the rape, a Sharjah Police official confirmed,

“
The victim was crying and in extreme distress and when her employer calmed her down, she explained that three unknown men entered the house and that two of them raped her

Sharjah Police spokesman

An official at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sharjah Police said the housemaid’s sponsor was taken aback when he returned home and found the Sri Lankan housemaid in a state of extreme panic and fear.

Extreme distress

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Diversity is a key feature of South Africa, where 11 languages are recognised as official, where community leaders include rabbis and chieftains, rugby players and returned exiles, where traditional healers ply their trade around the corner from stockbrokers and where housing ranges from mud huts to palatial homes with swimming pools.

The white government which came to power in 1948 enforced a separation of races with its policy called apartheid. It dictated that black and white communities should live in separate areas, travel in different buses and stand in their own queues.

The government introduced grand social engineering schemes such as the forced resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people. It poisoned and bombed opponents and encouraged trouble in neighbouring countries.

The apartheid government eventually negotiated itself out of power, and the new leadership encouraged reconciliation. But the cost of the years of conflict will be paid for a long time yet, not least in terms of lawlessness, social disruption and lost education.

South Africa faces major problems, but having held four successful national elections as well as local polls since the end of white rule, a democratic culture appears to be taking hold, allowing people at least some say in the search for solutions.

Very much Africa's superpower, South Africa has the continent's biggest economy, though this went into recession in May 2009 following a sharp slowdown in the mining and manufacturing sectors. The construction industry, on the other hand, benefited from a huge programme of government investment ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

South Africa is, along with China, Brazil, Russia and India, a member of the BRICS club of emerging world economic powerhouses.

Many South Africans remain poor and unemployment is high – a factor blamed for a wave of violent attacks against migrant workers from other African countries in 2008 and protests by township residents over poor living conditions during the summer of 2009.

Land redistribution is an ongoing issue. Most farmland is still white-owned. Having so far acquired land on a "willing buyer, willing seller" basis, officials have signalled that large-scale expropriations are on the cards. The government aims to transfer 30% of farmland to black South Africans by 2014.

South Africa has the second-highest number of HIV/Aids patients in the world. Around one in seven of its citizens is infected with HIV. Free anti-retroviral drugs are available under a state-funded scheme.

Release Date: 02/13/2012Contact Information: Larisa Romanowski, (518) 747-4389, romanowski.larisa@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has completed the cleanup of the Hiteman Leather Superfund site, a former tannery in West Winfield, New York, and deleted it from the Superfund National Priorities List of the county’s most hazardous waste sites. Soil and sediment on the site was contaminated with chromium, a dangerous metal that can cause serious health effects. After a review of conditions at the site, the EPA has determined that the cleanup continues to protect people’s health and the environment.
The Hiteman Leather Company operated as a tannery on the 12-acre site from 1820 to 1968. By 1964, approximately 180,000 gallons of treated industrial wastewater was being dumped each day from the tannery into three unlined lagoons. The lagoons discharged into the Unadilla River and a nearby wetland. The company was closed in 1968 because it could not meet requirements for the proper management of wastewater. The EPA added the Hiteman Leather site to the Superfund list in 1999 after finding high levels of chromium in the soil on the site and in sediments in the adjacent wetland and river.
The EPA first demolished the contaminated, structurally unsound buildings on the site and fenced the property to restrict access. The contaminated soil from the site and contaminated sediment from the wetland and the river were excavated and consolidated on-site. A soil cover was then installed over the entire site.
The EPA finished the cleanup work in 2008 and has continued to monitor the site. Based on the monitoring results, EPA proposed to remove the site from the NPL in December 2011 and received no comments on its proposal. The EPA will continue to assess conditions at the site every five years to ensure that the cleanup continues to be protective of human health and the environment.
In 2003, the EPA awarded a $100,000 grant to the Village of West Winfield to develop a Reuse Assessment and Redevelopment Plan for the Hiteman Leather site as part of the EPA’s Superfund Redevelopment Initiative. The plan calls for the construction of a community center, development of recreational facilities, consolidation and modernization of the existing Department of Public Works facility, and commercial development. With the deletion of the site from the Superfund list, West Winfield can now redevelop the site consistent with the Reuse Assessment and Redevelopment Plan.
Follow the EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.
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Qatar’s banking sector is in rude health, as evidenced by the Gulf emirate’s position as the regional leader in terms of bank lending growth. According to the Qatar Central Bank, overall bank credit rose to QR368.9bn as of end-November 2011, representing a 23.5% year-on-year increase.

The average rate of increase in the three months to end-November 2011 was an impressive 22.3%, while private sector credit growth in November reached QR227.85bn, up 22.3% year-on-year, and public sector credit rose by an astonishing 28.6% year-on-year to QR141bn. Particularly telling is the growing role of the national banking sector in funding public sector projects and other activities: according to Central Bank statistics, around 38% of overall bank credit is disbursed for these purposes.

Such activity is unlikely to dim in 2012. According to Dubai-based Rasmala Investment Bank, the Qatari banking sector is likely to grow at a rate of as much as 20% in 2012-14, with underlying returns on total capital of around the same level. The investment bank believes that the sector’s medium-term dynamics are solid, although it does warn that eventually there could be concerns regarding where capital will be deployed.

For now, however, the prospect of contracts being awarded for 2022 projects leads analysts to forecast broad-based growth for 2012. With tenders for World Cup 2022 projects nearing the award stage, the public sector is poised to begin disbursing funding and contracts, and is also likely to allow the private corporate sector to contribute more heavily towards loan growth.

According to Rasmala, the announcement in September 2011 that the government had raised public sector pay by 60%, and the salaries of defence personnel of officer rank by 120%, is likely to fuel retail sector growth, in turn providing headroom for future consumer credit expansion. These enormous rises have presumably been matched by banks in the Gulf state, as well as many other industries; banks will be paying their Qatari employees more, so costs in the sector will likely rise.

Nevertheless, while the oversupplied and over-priced property market had led to a dip in consumer lending, consumer lending portfolios are likely to continue their rebound in 2012.
Rasmala does warn that in 2012, a potential risk to banks in Qatar will be the new Islamic Banking regulations, which rocked the state’s financial sector when they were announced in January 2011.

The Central Bank ordered conventional banks to close their Islamic finance operations by end-2011, arguing that with the pending implementation of tailored Islamic banking regulations and capital adequacy regimes, commercial banks with both conventional and Islamic operations would struggle to follow the rules. The Islamic banking regulations, which were based on guidelines by the Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board, an industry standards body, were formally introduced last year.

For the nation’s four Islamic banks — Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar International Islamic Bank, Masraf Al-Rayan and Barwa Bank – it’s very much business as usual; their conventional peers, however, are having to learn to cope with life after shariah-compliant finance.
At the Qatar Exchange, meanwhile, 2012 ended on a bittersweet note. The bourse broke back into positive territory, ending with a 1.1% gain for the year, and maintaining its position as the best performing market in the GCC and Arab region for the second consecutive year.

It was the only market in the Arab region with positive price return, and the exchange’s year-end market capitalization of more than QR457bn represented an increase of almost 1.6% from end-2010. In a year which saw the exchange extend its opening hours and implement a Delivery Versus Payment model to speed up settlement times, the bourse also saw the launch of its first new brokerages since 2006, and listed short-term T-bills.

However, it lost out on the big prize: along with the UAE, Qatar was denied a much-anticipated boost when index manager MSCI declined to upgrade the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) from ‘frontier’ to ‘emerging market’ status.

The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai is delighted to appoint Alfonso Crescenzo as the new chef de cuisine for their Italian restaurant, Splendido. His key responsibility will be to create exceptional culinary experiences for its dining guests.

“Chef Crescenzo joining our culinary team is of great importance to our hotel,h said Executive Chef Stephane Puverel. ”By working in many different regions of Italy he has gained extensive knowledge of the different techniques and flavours within this specialist culinary tradition. With these skills, he will certainly delight our guests in Splendido with fresh new flavors and offer them a whole different perspective on Italian dining.”

Since 1998, Alfonso, a native of Naples, has held positions in the kitchens of many leading four and five star hotels throughout Italy, gaining valuable experience and knowledge at each and every one. In 2008, he collaborated with the executive chef of the first 7-star hotel in Milan, Gallery Milano and has also worked at the 2-star Michelin establishment, Restaurant Rossellini and the 1-star San Pietro in Positano.

He moved to the Middle East in January 2011 as Chef de Cuisine of a large international hotel before taking the opportunity to join The Ritz-Carlton, Dubaifs culinary team. His vision for Splendido, is to create a restaurant where you can find a little piece of Italia in Dubai by introducing specialties from many regions of Italy and creatively present them with the class, elegance and taste that is the hallmark of The Ritz-Carlton.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A placid Pekingese slowly trotted to victory on Tuesday at the 136th Westminster Kennel Club dog show, beating a Dalmatian, a German Shepherd, a Dachshund and three other canines to become the first of his breed to win the prestigious annual event since 1990.

Malachy, a four-year-old dog formally known as Ch. Palacegarden Malachy, charmed the packed Madison Square Garden arena crowd, who roared their approval when his win was announced.

Judge Cindy Vogels, who was sequestered from the two-day competition until she entered the ring for the best-in-show finale, described the 11-pound Malachy as “a super dog who had a stupendous night.”

“He was spectacular,” she said of the dog who has been number-one in the toy group for the past two years and has won 115 best-in-show titles.

“He conforms to the (breed’s) standard so magnificently … tonight, he was flawless,” she said.

The Pekingese, who drew a fair amount of affectionate laughter from the crowd with his mop of highly fluffed hair, won them over with soulful glances up at handler David Fitzpatrick, as he strode about the ring at a deliberate pace that contrasted with the other dogs’ trotting gates.

“Their gate should be slow and dignified,” Fitzpatrick said of the toy breed. Earlier in the day, he added, the dog had been “very quiet and relaxed,” although he noted “he’s an extrovert in the ring.”

The other dogs competing in the best-in-show round included an Irish setter, a Kerry blue terrier and a Doberman pinscher. No Irish setter, Dalmatian or Dachshund has ever won best in show at Westminster, the nation’s second-oldest sporting event behind only the Kentucky Derby race for thoroughbred horses.

Fitzpatrick said Malachy, owned by Iris Love and Sandra Middlebrooks as well as himself, would now retire to the life of a house pet. “He won’t be doing commercials, he’s been working hard enough for the past two years,” Fitzpatrick said.

But first, the nation’s newest top dog will embark upon a string of television appearances on news and talk shows befitting other celebrities with one name, such as Madonna and Cher.

The handler promised the dog would soon be back to “running around the house and chasing squirrels outside — all the normal things.”

Describing Malachy’s nature, Fitzpatrick said “he’s dignified, devoted, and a wonderful companion. He’s charming.”

(Editing by Greg McCune)

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) – The New Hope Baptist Church, where pop star Whitney Houston first sang and family and friends will gather on Saturday to pay her a final tribute, sits in a hardscrabble corner of Newark, New Jersey. Its well-maintained red-brick facade seems at odds with the dusty parking lot and derelict housing projects around it.

But to hear the gospel choir sing on Sundays, which once featured teenager Houston and her mom Cissy, was to be briefly transported to a faraway, trouble-free world, its patrons say.

“You ain’t never heard anything so beautiful in your whole life,” Adgelean Thomas, 75, said on Friday after looking at some of the flowers, balloons and other tributes left in Houston’s memory at one corner of the church.

Houston died late last week at age 48 in a Beverly Hills hotel room on the eve of the music industry’s Grammy Awards. She was found underwater and unconscious in the room’s bathtub, but a cause of death has yet to be determined pending toxicology tests that could take weeks.

The shocking news of her demise led to an outpouring of grief by family, friends and fans, and earlier this week, her body was returned to Newark from Los Angeles for Saturday’s memorial service and burial.

Stephannie Miller, 54, was a little older than Houston when she first joined the New Hope choir as a teenager, but she knew from the start her own voice could not compete with Houston, who would go on to claim pop superstar status with hits such as “I Will Always Love You.”

Miller said that, on special occasions, Charles Thomas, then the church’s pastor, would ask Houston to lead the choir in one of his favorite songs: “He Would Not Come Down From the Cross.”

“She would do the solo,” recalled Miller, who now lives in South Carolina. “Every time she hit that special note the church would be knocked out, the spirit was so heavy, so strong.”

POLITE, DOWN-TO-EARTH KID

Besides her exceptional voice and looks that would earn her teenage modeling gigs in New York City, Houston was remembered as a polite, down-to-earth kid.

“She was not a teenager that hung out. She was very conservative,” Miller said, adding that the Houston family was fairly low-key and private.

The old, Houston family home is situated in East Orange, New Jersey, a quiet suburb outside Newark that became a magnet for a wave of middle-class families, including the Houstons, who left the city in the wake of 1967′s six-day riots.

The white clapboard house is one of the smaller properties along the street, with a small front yard and no sign that its most celebrated resident ever lived there.

“It was a good city then, the cleanest city in the country,” said William Nicholas, who has worked at a diner only a short walk from the Houston home for more than 50 years. He said the Houston family frequently ate there during the 1970s and 1980s.

“It was always a neighborhood that was family oriented and very safe,” Diamond Walker, 37, said outside Houston’s old elementary school, now a performing arts school known as the Whitney E. Houston Academy, a short walk down a tree-lined street past neat clapboard houses and handsome stone churches.

Although Walker was a neighbor of Houston for awhile, they only met after she was cast as a dancer for one of Houston’s music videos. She went on to perform with Houston on several other occasions, she said.

“She was very down to earth,” Walker said about Houston. “If she slept in a hotel, she made sure her dancers slept in the same hotel she was in. She made sure everyone was fed. She never made herself seem separate.”

The Houstons left their East Orange home in 1986, according to Lewis Hogans, whose family moved into the property afterward and has lived there since.

Not long before that, Williams, Houston’s former choir-mate, recalls watching television and seeing the debut music video from a then young, unknown singer.

“Oh my god,” she remembers screaming out to her husband, “that’s Whitney!”

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte)

Dubai The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) recently held a workshop to discuss Rotavirus gastroenteritis and the introduction of a new vaccine in the national immunisation programme.

The workshop was organised by the Public Health and Safety Department of the Health Policy and Strategy sector at the DHA .

Laila Yousuf Al Jasmi, CEO of Health Policy and Strategy at DHA, said immunisation, together with improvements in hygiene and sanitation, has revolutionised child health care in countries throughout the world, preventing millions of deaths every year in addition to reducing the risk of disability caused by infectious diseases.

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A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) has criticised substandard levels of care at NHS Lanarkshire which led to the deaths of three people.

The inquiry heard that Mrs Nicol died at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 10 March 2006 from multiple organ failure after developing septicaemia following surgery at Wishaw General Hospital the previous December.

The complications arose after a staff grade surgeon wrongly cut Mrs Nicol's common bile duct and right hepatic artery, cutting off 80% of the blood supply to her liver.

These mistakes were not discovered until Mrs Nicol was transferred to the liver unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Mr Johnstone died in Monklands District General Hospital on 11 May 2006 from multiple organ failure.

This was due to a biliary leak after a consultant general surgeon cut or damaged the main bile duct during a procedure two days earlier.

Mr Ritchie died at Wishaw General Hospital on 23 June 2006 from internal bleeding.

The FAI heard this was caused after a consultant general surgeon botched his procedure the previous week.

The inquiry found that all three deaths were down to errors made in surgery and in particular the standard of post-operative care.

Although different surgeons were involved, no evidence was found of a lack of training or experience.

In his determination following the FAI, Sheriff Robert Dickson said that at least two, if not all three, deaths had certain factors in common.

One of the main failures was that each of the surgeons did not consider the possibility that they had made mistakes.

The inquiry said this was the cause, or a significant factor, in why each patient failed to recover.

It also identified failures to ensure the filing of all reports within the hospital records and failures to match patients with consultants who had the greatest expertise or experience in the relevant field of surgery.

NHS Lanarkshire said: "We did fall below the high standards of care we aim to maintain in these cases and this has been extremely distressing for the patients' families.

"We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to them.

"We have made significant improvements to the management of these types of cases and have also made significant changes to documentation and the way in which case notes are managed.

"However, we will study the determination in detail to identify if there are any further areas where we can improve, to ensure that similar mistakes do not happen again."