Prime minister's own office broke expense rules

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's own department has repeatedly broken the government's tough rules for hospitality spending.

An internal report on how the Privy Council Office spent $340,000 on hospitality found widespread flouting of a basic rule — that is, public servants must get prior approval from a supervisor before spending the cash.

The review of 2,100 hospitality claims over 13 months, ending last June, found employees repeatedly failed to get a green light before racking up expenses.

The average claim was for about $160, for drinks, meals and other largesse.

The survey examined expense claims in the Prime Minister's Office as well those run up by the Privy Council Office, Harper's own department and the central organ of the Canadian government.

Auditors initially found several instances in which hospitality expenses were incurred without pre-authorization. But they were assured by senior managers that the problem had since been corrected.

So auditors randomly selected 20 more-recent hospitality claims — and found only half had been authorized in advance, clear evidence that the rules continued to be flouted, despite the protestations of senior management.

Money spent without prior approval

"For the majority of hospitality expenditures, Accounting Operations receives the pre-authorization form after the expenditure has been incurred," says the internal report.

The practice is specifically banned by the Financial Administration Act, and since coming to power in 2006, the Conservatives have further tightened spending on hospitality to curtail alleged abuses.

Last Nov. 24, Stockwell Day — then Treasury Board president — announced another crackdown on hospitality, citing as an example of abuse a $31,700 reception thrown by Statistics Canada for 400 people in 2005.

Day said the event "was not a good signal to be sending" as Canadians tighten their belts — and that a more restrictive policy would kick in on Jan. 1.

The Canadian Press later reported Harper had personally approved a $47,000 event for 600 employees in Privy Council Office.

Hospitality was budgeted at $7,400 for the PCO event, held three months before Day's tough-talking announcement and roughly equivalent in value to the Statistics Canada reception.

A spokesman for the Privy Council Office says that since Jan. 1, managers who fail to pre-authorize hospitality tabs are required to explain why and what they're doing to stop the problem.

Raymond Rivet also says they are including a reminder about pre-authorization in training sessions that began in February.

The so-called assurance review was completed in early March, but only recently released. The report does not provide any details of the offending hospitality claims.

The 2009 federal budget imposed a two-year freeze on spending for travel, conference and hospitality government wide. Privy Council Office reduced its bill for those items to $3 million in 2010-2011, down from $3.8 million in 2009-2010, and $4.1 million the previous year, Rivet said.

United Airlines hit by computer glitches

United Airlines is reporting computer problems that are affecting flights nationwide.

On its Twitter page, United reported late Friday the computer outage was interrupting departures, airport processing and reservations. Attempts to access the airline's website are also being stymied.

The computer problems apparently started a little after 7 p.m., resulting in long lines of passengers at check-in counters at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of United's largest hubs.

United says it is attempting to resolve the issue.

Telephone calls to United for further information were not immediately returned.

Denise Richards

Denise Richards

Denise Lee Richards (born February 17, 1971)[1] is an American actress and former fashion model. She has appeared in films including Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and The World Is Not Enough. She appeared on the reality TV show, Denise Richards: It's Complicated, which was carried by American cable channel E!.

Early life

Richards was born in Downers Grove, Illinois,[2] the daughter of Joni, a coffee shop owner, and Irv Richards, a telephone engineer. She has one sister, Michelle, and grew up in both Mokena and Downers Grove, Illinois. She graduated in 1989 from El Camino High School in Oceanside, California. As a child, she was the "only girl on the baseball team.

Before she was an actress, Richards was signed by the Judith Fontaine Modeling & Talent Agency as a model.

Career

In 1986, Richards appeared in the music video "The Captain of Her Heart" by Double. She spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in lower-budget films and TV shows such as Saved by the Bell, television movies, and guest starring in episodes of several television shows such as Married with Children (1991), a 5 second walk through. Her first starring role in a wide theatrical release was Starship Troopers in 1997, which was followed by her role in Wild Things in 1998.[4] In 1998, she appeared in the music video for the Blues Traveler song Canadian Rose.

Richards was cast as the nuclear-physicist Christmas Jones in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). Though she considered her role "brainy", "athletic", and having depth of character,[6] she was criticized as not credible in the role.[7][8] Her outfit, which often comprised a low-cut tank top and tight shorts, elicited comments.[9] She was ranked as one of the worst Bond girls of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008,[10] and was chosen as "Worst Supporting Actress" at the 1999 Razzie Awards for the role.

In addition to her film work, Richards has made appearances in the situation comedies Spin City, Two and a Half Men, Friends and Seinfeld. She also starred in the short-lived UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets in 2005.

Richards appeared in Valentine, Undercover Brother and Scary Movie 3. In December 2004, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine, five months after giving birth.[12] Richards also posed semi-nude for the July 2006 issue of Jane magazine to raise money for the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. In 1999, she ranked 9th in Maxim's 50 Sexiest Women and in 2001 she was voted 2nd in FHM's USA 100 Sexiest Women, 5th in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women and 19th in AskMen.com's 50 Most Beautiful Women.

Richards appeared on the 8th season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy. She was eliminated second on March 24, 2009. Richards sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field on May 1, 2009.

Personal life

On November 8, 2006, officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were called to the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., where Richards was making a movie. After seeing two photographers taking her picture from a nearby balcony, she confronted them, and threw their two laptop computers over the balcony. One laptop struck an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair. The other laptop grazed the arm of a 91-year-old woman. Neither woman suffered serious injury, and no charges were pressed against Richards.

On December 1, 2007, it was announced that Richards' mother, Joni, died from cancer.

In a May 18, 2008 interview with Larry King on Larry King Live, when asked about her Catholicism, Richards claimed, "I do have faith.

Marriage to Charlie Sheen

In 2002, Richards married actor Charlie Sheen, with whom she appeared in Good Advice and then Scary Movie 3, in which she played his character's wife who was pinned to a tree in a car accident. They have two daughters, Sam J. Sheen (born March 9, 2004).[18] and Lola Rose Sheen (born June 1, 2005).Of her mothers side she is of Croatian descent.

In March 2005, Richards filed for a divorce from Sheen.[21] The couple briefly reconciled and were seeking marriage counseling to mend their relationship. However, on January 4, 2006, Richards' representative announced that she was continuing with the divorce, and she later sought a restraining order against Sheen, citing his alleged death threats against her.

On April 19, 2006, Richards filed formal legal papers asking for a divorce from Sheen under the laws of the state of California.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Sheen described Richards' actions as a "smear campaign"

In 2008, Richards decided to include her two daughters with Charlie Sheen in her confessional reality program on E!, Denise Richards: It's Complicated, which premiered on May 26, 2008. He deemed her plans "greedy, vain and exploitative".[25] On January 25, 2008, Richards won a court case against Sheen so that she can include her daughters in the show.[26] When a judge rejected Sheen's request to block it,[27] Sheen urged fans to boycott it.[28]

An agreement was reached between Sheen and Richards regarding the custody of the children, with Sheen stating in April 2009 that “we had to do what’s best for the girls.”[29]

Rare suicide attack in Pakistani capital kills 1

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a busy market in the Pakistani capital on Monday, killing at least one person in the first bombing in Islamabad in a year and a half, police said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the Pakistani Taliban have pledged to carry out attacks in retaliation for the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month in an army town not far from Islamabad.

The suicide bomber tried to enter a bank in the market but was stopped by a security guard, said Islamabad police chief Wajid Durrani. The bomber then detonated his explosives, killing the guard and wounding four others, Durrani said.

The blast ripped through the ground floor of the bank, scattering body parts and pieces of broken glass on the pavement outside. Police worked to keep people from gathering at the scene for fear that there might be a second blast.

Mohammad Shafi, a 45-year-old employee of a nearby marriage hall, said he was on his way to work when he heard a loud explosion. The blast knocked him over, and he quickly jumped up and ran to some bushes for safety.

"There was smoke everywhere," said Shafi.

Ehsan Masih, a 36-year-old security guard at a nearby office, said the blast rattled the windows and doors of his building. "Broken glass hit me and several others," he said.

The last bombing in Islamabad was in December 2009, when a suicide bomber set off explosives hidden under his jacket outside the entrance of Pakistan's navy headquarters, killing one security guard and wounding 11 other people.

But there have been two high-profile assassinations in Islamabad in the past six months. Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, was shot by his bodyguard outside a cafe in January. Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's federal minister for religious minorities, was gunned down outside his house in March.

Authorities have set up multiple police checkpoints throughout Islamabad in an attempt to prevent attacks. Analysts have said army operations targeting militant sanctuaries in the northwest have also helped reduce attacks in Islamabad by disrupting the Taliban operations. But other cities throughout Pakistan have suffered frequent attacks in recent years.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a commercial and residential area of the northwestern city of Peshawar around midnight on Saturday, killing 34 people and wounding more than 100 others. Many of the people killed and wounded were police and rescue workers who rushed to the scene in response to a smaller blast minutes earlier.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb struck a military convoy in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border, killing three soldiers and wounding four others, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

South Waziristan was the main sanctuary for the Pakistani Taliban before the military launched a large ground offensive in October 2009. But attacks against security forces have continued in the area.