Lesbian 'raped by rickshaw driver' as she made her way home after night in gay club

By Alanah Eriksen
A lesbian doctor was raped by a rickshaw driver after a night out in London, a court has heard.

The woman, in her 20s, was attacked after she was left alone with Turkish-born Murat Durmus, 23, during the early hours on February 5.
She had kept her sexuality a secret but was forced to come out to her family because of her ordeal, the Old Bailey was told.

The doctor and her gay friend had been drinking at bars in Soho and unsuccessfully tried to find a black cab home.

They walked around the road closures near Tottenham Court Road and decided to catch a pedal rickshaw, which ply for trade in the West End, to their homes near Tower Bridge.

Her friend got out of the rickshaw on the way to her house and the woman doesn't remember what happened next.
The woman said: 'Things got a bit hazy. I honestly don't remember how it all started.
'My next memory is simply buzzing the buzzer and going into my flatmate's bedroom. I was hysterical and crying. Because of my orientation, I was outraged. I was angry.'

A passer-by noticed Durmus arguing with the doctor, telling her to get back inside the rickshaw.
She was telling him to leave her alone, the court heard.

When the passer-by intervened, the doctor grabbed his arm and said she wanted to go with him. But Durmus insisted he was owed money.

The Good Samaritan accompanied the pair to a cashpoint. He left when the doctor walked away and Durmus rode off.

Lisa Matthews, prosecuting, said: 'The CCTV shows the defendant picking her up and putting her into the rickshaw and then driving around.'
The jury were shown CCTV footage of Durmus as he cycled through the deserted streets sometimes doubling back on himself.
Ms Matthews added: 'Her next memory was being raped by him. That happened she thought in the rickshaw.
'Because she had been drinking she remembers something of standing up and then lying down.
'She said she was crying and saying 'no' and he put his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming.'
After raping her, Durmus then cycled off leaving the woman to make her way home, the court was told.
Ms Matthews said: 'She was very distressed by what had happened and told her flatmate that she had been raped.
'She then also told her brother who was staying with her. Her family at that stage did not know that she was gay and she found it very difficult to tell them what had happened.'
The doctor was able to give police a description of her alleged attacker and his rickshaw and 13 days later he was tracked down and arrested.

The court heard Durmus' DNA was found inside his alleged victim.

Durmus, of Walthamstow, denies two counts of rape and claimed the sex was consensual.
He said he had cycled away but saw her 'standing in a dark corner'.
She approached him, took his hand and went back into the corner and kissed him. 
'They returned to the rickshaw and went to a garage area. He said she initiated the approach.'
The trial, expected to last two weeks, continues.

High blood pressure to be tested 'at home'

“Patients thought to have high blood pressure should have the diagnosis confirmed at home,” reported BBC News. Many newspapers covered the introduction of a new, more accurate way of diagnosing people with hypertension (high blood pressure).
The Daily Telegraph said that current diagnostic methods result in millions of people being misdiagnosed every year. The newspaper said that “about a quarter of people become anxious while they have their blood pressure taken in the surgery, meaning they potentially give a misleading reading”.
The news stories are of new guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), which recommends that new technology is used to confirm a diagnosis of high blood pressure.
The technology, known as Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) automatically measures a person’s blood pressure throughout the course of a day. It has been evaluated as more accurate and better value-for-money compared to clinic-based measurements or home-based measurements for which the person must remember to measure their own blood pressure.
NICE has produced guidance for people with high blood pressure and their carers. People currently taking treatment for high blood pressure should consult their GP before making any changes to their treatment plan.

What are the news stories based on?

These news stories are based on updated NICE guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure. The guidelines not only suggest the introduction of ABPM but also make several other recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of blood pressure, details of which can be found within the guidelines themselves.
The guidance was put together using evidence from many studies, including data from a cost effectiveness study published this week in The Lancet, which assessed the value-for-money of three types of confirmatory diagnostic tests: clinic-based, home-based and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. This study found that not only did ABPM result in cost savings, but also provided better value for money in terms of health outcomes.

What is the new technique for measuring blood pressure?

NICE recommends the introduction of a system called ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). This involves a device that is given to patients who have been given an initial high blood pressure reading at the clinic. The patient then wears the device for the following 24 hours, during which it  monitors their blood pressure in non-clinical settings, such as at home.
People who find ABPM too uncomfortable or inconvenient may be offered home blood pressure monitoring instead, which involves a different device.

Why is the new technique being introduced?

ABPM aims to provide a more accurate measurement of a person’s blood pressure, as it takes measurements throughout the day in normal settings. It is thought that many people (up to a quarter) who are diagnosed with high blood pressure in a clinical setting do not actually meet the definition of hypertension. Instead, the high reading is the result of the temporary stress of visiting the doctor (called ‘white coat’ hypertension). By confirming the diagnosis of high blood pressure with ABPM, the idea is that only those who truly need treatment will be offered it.

What does the monitoring device involve?

Following an initial high blood pressure reading at the clinic, a person with suspected hypertension will be given the ABPM device to take away with them. The device will involve an arm cuff that is fitted to the person’s arm and attached to a monitoring device worn at the waist. The doctor or nurse will make sure the device is fitted to your arm correctly. The device automatically takes BP measurements every 30 minutes, for 24 hours. An average of at least 14 of these measurements taken during normal waking hours is then used to provide a general measurement of a person’s blood pressure.
The home blood pressure monitoring device is similar to the one that the doctor or nurse uses to take blood pressure at the surgery. Using this technique, two measurements are taken a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Your GP will make sure that the device fits your arm correctly, and they will instruct you on how to use the device.

How is high blood pressure currently diagnosed?

Currently, high blood pressure is diagnosed in a clinical setting, such as a doctor’s surgery. After an initial high blood pressure reading, patients have their BP taken again at two subsequent doctor visits. If these readings are also high, the person is diagnosed with high blood pressure.
It is thought that about a quarter of these diagnoses are inaccurate, and the result of ‘the white coat effect’. This effect is seen when people who do not exhibit high blood pressure in their daily lives have high readings due to the stress of visiting the GP (see box below).
Evidence shows that confirming clinical BP measurements with ABPM improves the accuracy of the diagnosis.

What are the benefits of the new method?

The authors of the cost effectiveness study say that benefits of the use of ABPM in the diagnosis of high blood pressure include quicker and more accurate diagnosis, fewer patients taking unnecessary medication, improved health outcomes and health-related quality of life, and reduced prescription drug costs for both individuals and the NHS.
The NICE Cost Report says that in addition to reductions in money spent on drugs, additional resources, such as physician time, will be saved, as fewer appointments will be required for diagnosis and treatment.
In addition to quicker diagnosis and avoidance of unnecessary medication and side effects, the use of ABPM is predicted to lead to financial savings. The cost effectiveness study and the NICE guideline development group predicted that the costs of changing the way that blood pressure is diagnosed would be returned in a few years.
Much of the estimated cost savings are the result of avoiding unnecessary drug treatments due to the improved accuracy of ABPM. The NICE Cost Report, which accompanies the new guideline, estimates the total national cost for England to be £5.1m per year. By the fifth year of full implementation, they estimate annual savings of £10.5m. These are estimates based on the best available data, and are not considered to be conclusive.
Additionally, these savings are based on the current proportion of people in the country with suspected high blood pressure. If that proportion continues to increase, due to the ageing population and lifestyle factors, the total cost of diagnosing and treating hypertension will increase as well. The Cost Report takes care to point out that this would occur if current diagnostic practices were to continue, and that use of ABPM should still result in cost savings over clinic-based blood pressure monitoring.

Who will be given the new type of BP monitoring?

The guidelines recommend that people who have blood pressure readings of 140/90 mmHg or higher should be offered ABPM in order to confirm the diagnosis. If ABPM does not confirm the diagnosis, the guidelines suggest that the person’s blood pressure is checked again at least every five years. People should have their blood pressure checked more often if their ABPM indicates that their blood pressure is close to the 140/90 mmHg threshold.

When will the new monitoring start?

It is up to individual surgeries to decide when they introduce the NICE guideline. Sufficient supplies of the monitoring devices will need to be ordered, and GP surgeries will need to ensure that adequate training is completed before offering the monitoring to their patients.
NICE provides support information for GPs to help them implement the guideline. Newspapers suggest that this may take up to a year to implement nationwide, and that individual patients currently being treated for high blood pressure will be offered ABPM during their regular check-up.

Where can I get more information?

Additional information of this new guideline can be found in the NICE guidance written for patients and carers.
In addition, people currently receiving treatment for high blood pressure who think that the reading may have been inaccurate should consult their GP before making any changes to their treatment plan.
More information on the management and treatment of high blood pressure can be found in the Health A-Z.
Source http://www.nhs.uk/

Octomom Nadya Suleman claims she's penniless, but 'sends all 14 kids to private school at a cost of $75,000 a year'

By Daily Mail Reporter

Octomom Nadya Suleman better hope her 14 children gain a greater understanding of maths than she has managed.
Because despite falling behind on rent, and claiming that she's broke, Octomom is stumping up around $75,000 a year to send all her offspring to an expensive private school.
And that includes the eight youngest who are not even old enough yet.

'She was bragging about having all of her kids in private school, even though the eight youngest are only two-and-a-half years old!' a source close to 36-year-old Octomom told RadarOnline.com.
'She can't even pay the mortgage on her house, but she doesn't seem to care. She doesn't think about the future.'
The Los Angeles County school where Octomom's children attend is more than $6,000 per year, per child, for the eight youngest who are in pre-school, RadarOnline.com reported.
The world's most infamous single mother gets a 25 per cent discount on the tuition fees of her six oldest children, which still leaves her with a bill of nearly $25,000 per year.
In all, the cost comes to at least $75,000 per year.
It is a bizarre decision for a mother who recently revealed that she was behind on her rent and was close to having her home foreclosed upon.
'My bank account is overdrawn by $300 and I have no money to pay for the children's school, food or the mortgage,' she confessed to In Touch Weekly.
But the insider told RadarOnline.com: 'Nadya thinks that by shoving her kids in school, it will free her up and give her time to make money doing something.

'She told me she'd rather have her kids educated than worry about her bills. But I have no idea how she's paying for their education!
'She's working on becoming a personal trainer, but for now she does the boxing stuff to make money.'
Only two months ago, Octomom was behind in the rent on her La Habra home in California, with her landlord saying the banks were going to move forward with a foreclosure.
'She's behind this month for payment on the house,' the home's owner, Amer Haddadin, told RadarOnline.com in June.

'The bank has been calling me and they're telling me that we're behind in the payments and if we don't pay by today, they're going to move forward with the foreclosure.'
However, TMZ.com recently reported that Octomom made $28,000 in the month of June alone.
According to the gossip site, the money stems from various projects based on her infamy as one of the world's most unusual mothers.

Indian River County foreclosed properties among the nation's best bargains

By Paul Ivice

Foreclosed properties in Indian River County were among the best bargains in the nation during the second quarter of this year, RealtyTrac said in a report released Thursday.
A total of 268 Indian River County homes in some phase of foreclosure were purchased by third parties during the quarter at an average price of $97,175, or 53 percent below the average sales price of homes not in foreclosure, California-based RealtyTrac said in its second-quarter foreclosure sales report.
Of those sales, 140 were bank-owned repossessions (REOs), for which the average discount was 58 percent. The 128 pre-foreclosure sales, mostly short sales, had an average discount of 47 percent.
The average discount in Indian River County in both the previous quarter and a year ago was about 46 percent.
Among metropolitan statistical areas with at least 100 foreclosure-related sales during the second quarter, only Louisville, Ky., posted a higher foreclosure discount at 54 percent, said RealtyTrac, a leading online marketplace for foreclosure homes.
Adam Preuss, owner of Adam Preuss Appraisal Services Inc. in Sebastian, said, "My dad always told me that you make money in real estate when you buy, not when you sell.
"There's no doubt that now is the time to buy," said Preuss, who also is president of the Indian River County Realtors Association. "Someday, the economy will improve and some will have prospered from investing when the market was low and others will wish they would have."
W.D. "Chic" Acosta, Seacoast National Bank's executive vice president for mortgage banking, said, "Indian River County was clearly the last of the three (Treasure Coast) counties where homeowners capitulated, but you're seeing that process speed up now as part of the economic process we're going through."
Acosta said the average home price in Indian River County is higher, so struggling homeowners did not capitulate as quickly.
"Martin and St. Lucie counties have been bouncing on the bottom, but maybe Indian River County is now finding that bottom," Acosta said. "Now they are finally capitulating, so there are bigger drops."
The discount on foreclosure sales in St. Lucie County averaged 25 percent; in Martin County it was 20 percent. Statewide, the average discount was 33 percent, slightly higher than the national average discount of 32 percent.
The volume of Indian River County foreclosure sales in the second quarter was generally slower, down 9 percent from the first quarter of 2011 and 11 percent (about the national average) from a year ago.
Those sales constituted 30 percent of all home sales, slightly higher than the 26 percent from last year but down from 36 percent last quarter.
In contrast, foreclosure sales in St. Lucie County were 44 percent of all home sales, while in Martin County they were 19 percent. Statewide, they were 35 percent of all home sales, slightly above the 31 percent national average.
"With average prices on distressed real estate trending down and average discounts trending up, this report is clearly good news for well-positioned buyers and investors looking for bargain real estate that will build them wealth in the long term and often cash flow as rental real estate in the short term," RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said in a news release.
Less evident, is the good news in the report for distressed homeowners looking to sell and lenders with large portfolios of delinquent loans, Saccacio said.
"The jump in pre-foreclosure sales volume coupled with bigger discounts on pre-foreclosures and a shorter average time to sell pre-foreclosures all point to a housing market that is starting to focus on more efficiently clearing distressed inventory through more streamlined short sales — at least in some areas," Saccacio said. "This gives distressed homeowners who do not qualify for loan modification or refinancing — or who are not interested in those options and want to sell — a better chance of completing a short sale to avoid foreclosure."
SECOND-QUARTER FORECLOSURES
2nd quarter sales Percent change Percent change Percent of Average
in foreclosure from Q1 2011 from Q2 2010 all sales discount
Indian River 268 -8.8 -10.7 29.9 53.2
Martin 162 -13.4 -19.4 19.1 19.6
St. Lucie 701 22.1 -33.9 43.6 25.3
Florida 34,558 -5.0 -22.5 35.1 33.4
United States 265,087 6.5 -11.1 31.3 32.1
Source: RealtyTrac Second Quarter 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report.

Could savings accounts help thrifty Brits?

By Mark Warner

 Savings accounts might be one way to help Britons make their money go further as research has revealed that many are relying on deals and bargains to get by.

The study, conducted by Halifax, found that 42 per cent of those surveyed rely on bargains because money is tighter. As a result, the country is saving around £51 billion a year by economising in this way.

Indeed, 90 per cent of people turn to money-off vouchers, special deals and freebies, with the average adult saving around £1,196 a year in this way. Some of this cash could then be put towards a savings account in order to make things easier in the future.

The main area in which people look for savings is meals, with 53 per cent keen to save on restaurants, take-aways and fast food.

Lindsay Forster, director for Halifax Home Insurance, commented: “The recent downturn has made us more careful about what we spend and more savvy in searching for savings and getting a good deal matters.

“People now quite rightly expect a good deal and feel comfortable shopping and even bartering to make sure they get the best price whether for a meal, a flight or even insurance.”

Life's too short for the young to own a home

By Rosamund Urwin

 It is probably lucky that the TV in our flat doesn't work. For if I switched it on to see yet another set of smug fortysomethings building a new home from scratch or choosing between a charming cottage in Cornwall and a house on the beach in Spain, I would probably weep.

As a member of Generation Rent (distinguishing characteristics: no mortgage, no hope but an abundance of cardboard boxes ready for the next time we're turfed out), these shows make me feel like an alien, peering in at a world I can't understand. The recession should have killed them off, Kirstie Allsopp should have had to get a new gig. At the very least, it should have spawned a spin-off show: Repossession, Repossession, obviously.
Yet property porn persists, I suspect because the housing market - though it has slowed - has escaped relatively lightly from the downturn. I had thought that one of the few positive side-effects of recession for us young 'uns - the hope in the Pandora's Box of pain - would be that house prices would plummet. Instead, in London, they are not far from their peak, aided by a paucity of homes coming to the market.
With youth unemployment close to a record and employers seeing little cause to give anyone a pay rise, the idea of holding the keys to a place you own is a fantasy for many of us twentysomethings.
A survey this week suggested that more than half of potential first-time buyers have given up the dream of owning a property altogether. But why is it our dream? The worst thing that the baby-boomers did for us wasn't the years they spent driving up prices, it was infecting us with their obsession. In Britain, we equate renting with flushing money down the loo. Our parents - many of whose wealth stems in large part from the property boom - have drilled it into us. "You are paying off someone else's mortgage!" they opine. And most of us nod.
We shouldn't. We need a new approach to housing and can look to much of the continent - where renting is the norm - to find it. Renting in London is exorbitant, but it needn't be. Rather than buying into the cult of home ownership - a cult which has surely been shown to be bogus - we should be building more properties specifically for the young to rent.
Renting has its advantages. The leaking ceiling, the shower piped backwards, that bust television: none of it is my responsibility. And as the US sub-prime crisis proved, the safest investments do not have picket fences wrapped around them.
We have been handed a miserable property legacy; why repeat our parents' mistakes? It would have the added bonus of clearing a little space on the TV schedules.

French get a fashion lesson

It is fashion transfer season and the style-obsessed are currently gripped by whispers of who is going where. Marc Jacobs is tipped to be made creative director of Christian Dior, a spot sitting empty after the sacking of John Galliano in March. In this game of modish musical chairs, this would leave a vacancy at Louis Vuitton, where British designer Phoebe Philo is being mooted as Jacobs's successor.
The ultra-cool Philo, who still lives and works in London, has already led two French fashion houses. First she helped to turn around Chloe, now she has made Celine ultra-covetable again. She is not perhaps an obvious fit with Louis Vuitton - Philo has made Celine the epitome of stealth wealth style, while LV is all about ostentation and glitz - but we should be proud that a former party-girl from Harrow is showing the French how to do fashion.

Upstairs to a great hive of creativity

The Royal Court's theatre upstairs has enjoyed an impressive run of late. The Acid Test, by the depressingly-young Anya Reiss, was even smarter than her first play, Spur of the Moment. Romola Garai, from BBC2's The Hour, was hilarious in The Village Bike as a pregnant woman who craved sex while her preachy husband fretted about all things bump-related.
Last week, I went there to see part of the theatre's Rough Cuts season where works-in-progress and experimental pieces are put on. The biannual performances are intended to help writers to develop their ideas (Laura Wade's Bullingdon Club-inspired Posh was spawned there) but they can also be treats for the audience. For only £8 - just a penny more than I pay on a Saturday in my local cinema in Peckham - we saw God Bless the Child, a play by Molly Davies about a behavioural expert sent to deal with a difficult primary school pupil.
The stage was bare, the actors read from scripts and occasionally stumbled over their words but Davies's wit meant that none of that mattered. When the play returns in a fuller form, as I am sure it must, I would advise booking swiftly.

Lend me your stilettos, Posh

Amid all the Libyan coverage there was a danger that we might miss the really important story of the week: woman with back pain wears ballet pumps. Victoria Beckham is suffering from a slipped disc following her pregnancy and has been instructed by doctors to swap the stilettos for flat shoes. But since the main attraction of ankle-endangerers is that they make you look slimmer, Mrs B was the last woman alive to need them anyway. Now, if she fancies doing a wardrobe clear-out...
Source http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/

Hollifield: Make money with Thurm

By: SCOTT HOLLIFIELD | For the Stafford County Sun
Meet my new pen pal. His name is Thurm.
We became acquainted online when Thurm inquired about placing a classified ad in our newspaper. Every day, I wade through a swamp of classified ad requests — people selling puppies, employers seeking employees, work-at-home offers — that don’t pass the smell test.
"These unscrupulous individuals with a shaky command of English are trying to separate our upstanding readers from their hard-earned money," I say, ever the vigilant consumer advocate. "Not on my watch."
Delete.
Thurm, though, seemed like an honest sort who was not out for our readers’ identities or bank account numbers. It must have been his way with words. Here are his actual unedited e-mails, though I did lowercase from all-caps, fix a few spacing problems and delete his last name and e-mail address:
"Hello. My name is Thurm (last name). I will like to place an advert with your paper so kindly get back to with cost to run my ad for two weeks in your print and online category and below is the ad text. Full ad text: accounting rep agents needed for our clients on behalf of our company. Ability to do multi-tasking and willing to work long hours. And you must have computer skills. Any job experience needed. You will be making reasonable amount monthly. Interested applicants should send their updated resumes to (e-mail address) for more details. I await to read from you with the cost."
In these tough economic times, who would not want to make reasonable amount monthly? I might even want the job myself. Being Thurm’s accounting rep agent had to beat wading daily through swamps of classified ad requests that don’t pass the smell test.
I replied to Thurm’s e-mail thusly:
"Will payment be achieved with credit card or livestock? Please advise."
Thurm answered quickly.
"Hi, give me the total cost for just two weeks to run my ad, let me know if you are in the office so i could forward you my credit card charger your full billing. Thanks."
I informed Thurm there would be a slight delay.
"I am currently not in the office due to fumigation but hope to return tomorrow or shortly thereof. In addition to print and online we offer radio, telegrams and whispering for adverts all for the same price if you are desirous of such servicing."
Thurm replied.
"Okay, as soon as you are in the office tomrrow get back to me. so i could forward you my credit card info. Yes, the payment will be made by my credit card for the full billing."
The next day, I e-mailed Thurm.
"I am in the process of returning to my office space department within the day and will process your request via my corporate overlords."
Thurm was eager to get the deal done.
"Okay, let me know the total cost of my ad for two weeks. kindly get back to me if you could run my ad today or monday, so i could mail you my credit card info asap. Thanks."
I had good news and bad news for Thurm.
"My corporate overlords have affirmated the request notice. The advert cannot begin today due to advert space consumed by our village's annual idiot rodeo, but we can launch Monday if so desired. The cost is 208 dollars 15 cents for two weeks. Very reasonable, according to corporate overlords."
Thurm was agreeable.
"Okay."
As of this writing, we are still negotiating the deal. A volcanic eruption has damaged my village’s printing press and my assitant was bitten by a rabid grasshopper, so there will be further delay on my end. Thurm will understand.
He’s a heck of a pen pal.