Diocese to settle sex-abuse claims for $660 million

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a settlement agreement Saturday with more than 500 people who allege they were sexually abused by clergy, the main plaintiff's attorney told The Associated Press

Attorneys for the archdiocese, the nation's largest, and the plaintiffs will release a joint statement Sunday morning and hold a news conference Monday, said plaintiff's attorney Ray Boucher. The deal is valued at $660 million, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement had not been officially announced.

It is by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal, and it exceeded earlier reports from sources that the settlement would be between $600 million and $650 million -- between $1.2 million and $1.3 million per plaintiff.

It wasn't immediately clear how the payout would be split among the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement.

Tod Tamberg, archdiocese spokesman, declined to comment on any settlement details.

"The archdiocese will be in court Monday morning," he said.

Steven Sanchez, 47, was one of the plaintiffs set to go to trial Monday. He was expected to testify in the trial involving the late Rev. Clinton Hagenbach. Sanchez, a financial adviser, said the past few months have been especially difficult because he had to repeat his story of abuse for depositions with his attorneys and archdiocese attorneys in preparation for trial.

"We're 48 hours away from starting the trial, and I've been spending a lot of time getting emotionally prepared to take them on, but I'm glad," he said. "It's been a long five years."

A spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said at a news conference outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Saturday afternoon that the group had not been apprised of any settlement.

"No matter what happens, no resolution, guilty verdict or settlement magically takes away the pain of having been raped or molested by Catholic priests in this archdiocese," said Mary Grant, the group's regional director.

The settlement would be the largest by a Roman Catholic archdiocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002.

Among the largest total payouts was $100 million in 2004 by the Diocese of Orange, California, to settle 90 claims. The Diocese of Boston agreed in 2003 to pay $84 million for 552 cases, the same figure the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky, agreed last year to pay to settle about 360 claims. Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses -- Tucson, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego, California -- sought bankruptcy protection.

Last month, the Archdiocese of Portland agreed to pay about $52 million to 175 victims, while setting aside another $20 million for anyone who comes forward in the future.

The Diocese of Spokane, Washington, also recently emerged from bankruptcy protection after agreeing to pay $48 million to settle about 150 claims. The Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders have paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims so far.

The largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a $60 million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the mid-1950s and after 1987 -- periods when it had little or no sexual abuse insurance. Several religious orders in California have also reached multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

The resolution of more than 500 other lawsuits against the archdiocese, however, had remained elusive despite years of legal wrangling. Most of the outstanding lawsuits were generated by a 2002 state law that revoked for one year the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse.

Cardinal Roger Mahony recently told parishioners in an open letter that the archdiocese was selling its high-rise administrative building and considering the sale of about 50 other nonessential church properties to raise funds for a settlement.

Still, church attorneys had been preparing for 15 trials involving 172 people, with jury selection in the first case to begin Monday. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing the cases recently ruled that Mahony could be called to testify in the second scheduled trial, and attorneys for plaintiffs wanted to call him in many more.

The same judge also cleared the way for four people to seek punitive damages from the archdiocese -- something that could have opened the church to tens of millions of dollars in payouts if the ruling had been expanded to other cases

Wall Street ends wild week with another record

Investors seem upbeat about earnings, takeover activity

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended an extraordinary and record-setting week Friday by surging higher again, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 index past a trading high set in March 2000 and thrusting the Dow Jones industrial past 13,900 for the first time.

Both the S&P and the Dow logged record closes for the second straight day and the Dow’s gains put the blue chip index within about 70 points of 14,000. But the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index lagged both in Friday’s session as it has in the broader recovery from the dot-com collapse at the start of the decade.

In a week that saw the Dow swing more than 450 points and rise 283 points in Thursday’s session alone, investors grappled with unease over soured subprime loans and the broader economy before casting off such concerns and bidding stocks higher amid signs consumers might yet again pull through and give Wall Street reason to climb higher

Manyi Typhoon !!!

Typhoon batters southern Japan A powerful tropical storm, Typhoon Man-Yi, has struck Japan's southern islands, injuring at least seven people and packing winds up to 252 kilometres an hour.The category-four storm pounded Okinawa early on Friday bringing torrential rains and flooding and triggering alerts for gales and high waves.

Tens of thousands of households experienced power cuts and almost 150 flights to and from Okinawa were grounded on Friday.Weather forecasters predict the storm which was headed northward will hit western Japan on Saturday. The storm is the fourth typhoon this season. The Meteorological Agency said Man-Yi clocked sustained wind speeds of up to 180 kilometres per hour as it slammed into Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa.

Tomoko Sunagawa, an official of Okinawa Electric Power Co, said about 60,000 households, or 11 per cent of all households in Okinawa, were without power. It was not immediately clear when power would be restored. More than 300 flights in and out of Okinawa and Kyushu were also cancelled, according to Kyodo news agency.Japan Airlines grounded 59 flights while All Nippon Airlines cancelled 110.

On Tuesday, a Chinese vessel capsized 600 kilometers northwest of Guam in rough seas due to Typhoon Man-Yi, China's state news agency Xinhua reported. Ten people were rescued on Wednesday but a dozen crew members were still missing, officials at the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles were quoted as saying

Iran agrees to nuclear inspection

Iran has agreed to allow inspectors to visit its Arak nuclear plant after talks on how to resolve questions about Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, the UN's nuclear watchdog said.

Senior Iranian and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials held talks this week in Tehran on an "action plan" to address doubts about its nuclear work.Tehran rejects charges that it is not co-operating fully with UN inspectors.Iran says it has no atomic secrets and that its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful ends.

The IAEA on Friday said in a statement it had also agreed with Tehran to finalise in early August a plan for monitoring the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and to clear up all its questions about the country's past plutonium experiments

Iran agrees to nuclear inspection

Iran has agreed to allow inspectors to visit its Arak nuclear plant after talks on how to resolve questions about Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, the UN's nuclear watchdog said.

Senior Iranian and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials held talks this week in Tehran on an "action plan" to address doubts about its nuclear work.Tehran rejects charges that it is not co-operating fully with UN inspectors.Iran says it has no atomic secrets and that its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful ends.

The IAEA on Friday said in a statement it had also agreed with Tehran to finalise in early August a plan for monitoring the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and to clear up all its questions about the country's past plutonium experiments

Huge squid washes up on beach

HOBART, Australia (AP) -- A squid as long as a bus and weighing 550 pounds washed up on an Australian beach, officials said Wednesday

"It is a whopper," said Genefor Walker-Smith, a zoologist who studies invertebrates at the Tasmanian Museum.

Giant squid live in waters off southern Australia and New Zealand -- where a half-ton colossus, believed to be the world's largest, was caught in February. They attract the sperm whales that feed on them.

The dead squid, measuring 3 feet across at its widest point and 26 feet from the tip of its body to the end of its tentacles, was found early Wednesday by a beachcomber at Ocean Beach on the island state of Tasmania's west coast, the museum said.

The squid was expected to be taken to the museum, where DNA and other scientific tests would be carried out before it is preserved and possibly put on public display.

For anyone thinking of a calamari feast, Walker-Smith said giant squid contain high levels of ammonia in their bodies as a buoyancy aid.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal prosecutor wants a Georgia district attorney to stop giving out copies of a videotape used as evidence in a teenage sex case that has drawn national attention. The tape was used in the prosecution of Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia man serving a 10-year prison sentence for a consensual sexual encounter he had as a teenager.

Wilson, now 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17 during a New Year's Eve party in Douglas County, Georgia, just west of Atlanta. The sex act was videotaped by another partygoer -- and that tape shows the faces of several underage girls. Douglas County District Attorney David McDade has estimated he has given the tape to about three dozen people -- including reporters, lawmakers and members of the public -- after receiving open records requests, according to The Associated Press.

He told the AP Georgia's open records law requires him to do so. That stance is supported by the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, which in response to a query from McDade issued a July 5 memo concluding, "[I]f no one has filed for a protection order ... claiming that disclosure of the video tape would invade individual privacy, we can find no reason why disclosure of the video tape is not required under ... the Open Records Act." The council said in the memo, which it provided to CNN, that Georgia's open records law contains no exemption for material considered child pornography. However, David Nahmias, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said earlier this week:

"We have advised that the videotape at issue constitutes child pornography under federal law and should not be knowingly distributed, received or possessed outside of law enforcement and judicial proceedings."

Nahmias said Tuesday that federal laws prohibiting the distribution or possession of child pornography "are intended to protect the children depicted in such images from the ongoing victimization of having their sexual activity viewed by others, potentially for years to come. ... These federal laws trump any contrary requirement of the state's open records act that may exist." Nahmias' office encouraged those in possession of the tapes to return or destroy them. A spokeswoman in McDade's office, asked by CNN whether the office has stopped providing the tape, referred questions to him Friday but said he was unavailable for comment.

CNN has requested the tape under the open records act but has not received a copy. A Georgia state senator, meanwhile, told CNN on Friday he aims to close any loophole in the state law that would allow the distribution of the videotape. "We have to protect our children from district attorneys," Sen. Emanuel Jones said Friday. If state law allows the distribution of the tape, he said, it or similar material could be available to anyone who filed a public records request -- even if they wanted the material for nefarious purposes. "I believe state laws have been violated," Jones said. "I believe federal laws have been violated." He said he plans to call the legislation, which he will introduce next year, the McDade Act. Jones said he has asked Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker to investigate the matter and issue an opinion.

Baker spokesman Russ Willard told CNN that Jones' request has been received, but he declined to comment further. Wilson's case and sentence have created controversy in Georgia and beyond, drawing commentary from civil rights activist Al Sharpton and others. Under a state law in effect at the time, Wilson received a mandatory 10-year sentence, of which he has already served more than two years. Partly as a result of his conviction, state lawmakers changed the statute to make consensual sexual conduct between teenagers a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

But the change was not made retroactive and so did not affect Wilson. Acting on a petition filed by Genarlow Wilson's attorneys, Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson last month voided his sentence on constitutional grounds, saying it was cruel and unusual punishment.

The judge reduced the sentence to one year and said Wilson should not be required to register as a sex offender, as required by the old Georgia law. But shortly after the ruling was issued, Baker announced he would appeal the decision. Wilson's attorney, B.J. Bernstein, asked that Wilson, now 21, be released on bond during the appeals, but last month, a Douglas County Superior Court judge refused.

Bernstein filed an appeal of that decision

The 2006 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index

1	Finland					9.60
2	Iceland					9.60
3	New Zealand					9.60
4	Denmark					9.50
5	Singapore					9.40
6	Sweden					9.20
7	Switzerland					9.10
8	Norway					8.80
9	Australia					8.70
10	Netherlands					8.70
11	Austria					8.60
12	Luxembourg					8.60
13	United Kingdom					8.60
14	Canada					8.50
15	Hong Kong					8.30
16	Germany					8.00
17	Japan					7.60
18	France					7.40
19	Ireland					7.40
20	Belgium					7.30
21	Chile					7.30
22	USA					7.30
23	Spain					6.80
24	Barbados					6.70
25	Estonia					6.70
26	Macao					6.60
27	Portugal					6.60
28	Malta					6.40
29	Slovenia					6.40
30	Uruguay					6.40
31	United Arab Emirates					6.20
32	Bhutan					6.00
33	Qatar					6.00
34	Israel					5.90
35	Taiwan					5.90
36	Bahrain					5.70
37	Botswana					5.60
38	Cyprus					5.60
39	Oman					5.40
40	Jordan					5.30
41	Hungary					5.20
42	Mauritius					5.10
43	South Korea					5.10
44	Malaysia					5.00
45	Italy					4.90
46	Czech Republic					4.80
47	Kuwait					4.80
48	Lithuania					4.80
49	Latvia					4.70
50	Slovakia					4.70
51	South Africa					4.60
52	Tunisia					4.60
53	Dominica					4.50
54	Greece					4.40
55	Costa Rica					4.10
56	Namibia					4.10
57	Bulgaria					4.00
58	El Salvador					4.00
59	Colombia					3.90
60	Turkey					3.80
61	Jamaica					3.70
62	Poland					3.70
63	Lebanon					3.60
64	Seychelles					3.60
65	Thailand					3.60
66	Belize					3.50
67	Cuba					3.50
68	Grenada					3.50
69	Croatia					3.40
70	Brazil					3.30
71	China					3.30
72	Egypt					3.30
73	Ghana					3.30
74	India					3.30
75	Mexico					3.30
76	Peru					3.30
77	Saudi Arabia					3.30
78	Senegal					3.30
79	Burkina Faso					3.20
80	Lesotho					3.20
81	Moldova					3.20
82	Morocco					3.20
83	Trinidad and Tobago					3.20
84	Algeria					3.10
85	Madagascar					3.10
86	Mauritania					3.10
87	Panama					3.10
88	Romania					3.10
89	Sri Lanka					3.10
90	Gabon					3.00
91	Serbia					3.00
92	Suriname					3.00
93	Argentina					2.90
94	Armenia					2.90
95	Bosnia and Herzgegovina					2.90
96	Eritrea					2.90
97	Syria					2.90
98	Tanzania					2.90
99	Dominican Republic					2.80
100	Georgia					2.80
101	Mali					2.80
102	Mongolia					2.80
103	Mozambique					2.80
104	Ukraine					2.80
105	Bolivia					2.70
106	Iran					2.70
107	Libya					2.70
108	Macedonia					2.70
109	Malawi					2.70
110	Uganda					2.70
111	Albania					2.60
112	Guatemala					2.60
113	Kazakhstan					2.60
114	Laos					2.60
115	Nicaragua					2.60
116	Paraguay					2.60
117	Timor-Leste					2.60
118	Viet Nam					2.60
119	Yemen					2.60
120	Zambia					2.60
121	Benin					2.50
122	Gambia					2.50
123	Guyana					2.50
124	Honduras					2.50
125	Nepal					2.50
126	Phillipines					2.50
127	Russia					2.50
128	Rwanda					2.50
129	Swaziland					2.50
130	Azerbaijan					2.40
131	Burundi					2.40
132	Central African Republic					2.40
133	Ethiopia					2.40
134	Indonesia					2.40
135	Papua New Guinea					2.40
136	Togo					2.40
137	Zimbabwe					2.40
138	Cameroon					2.30
139	Ecuador					2.30
140	Niger					2.30
141	Venezuela					2.30
142	Angola					2.20
143	Congo, Republic					2.20
144	Kenya					2.20
145	Kyrgyzstan					2.20
146	Nigeria					2.20
147	Pakistan					2.20
148	Sierra Leone					2.20
149	Tajikistan					2.20
150	Turkmenistan					2.20
151	Belarus					2.10
152	Cambodia					2.10
153	C0‹0te d0…7Ivoire					2.10
154	Equatorial Guinea					2.10
155	Uzbekistan					2.10
156	Bangladesh					2.00
157	Chad					2.00
158	Congo, Democratic Republic					2.00
159	Sudan					2.00
160	Guinea					1.90
161	Iraq					1.90
162	Myanmar					1.90
163	Haiti					1.80

Source from Transparency International, 2006. Web: www.transparency.org .