Public Relations Case Study

Two official investigations into a former senior childcare lecturer convicted of attempted indecent assault have been completed, it emerged tonight.The gardaí have sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions after its inquiry into Athlone Institute of Technology ex-lecturer Dr Niall McElwee.Separately, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said it is considering whether to publish its own probe into the circumstances surrounding the case.Dr McElwee resigned from the third-level college last year over his prosecution in the Netherlands of attempted indecent assault on two young women in an Amsterdam hotel room.Children's Minister Brendan Smith ordered an independent review of the the case last July while the gardaí were investigating if Dr McElwee broke sex laws in the Republic.Individuals are obliged under the Sexual Offenders Act 2001 to inform authorities here of any prosecution abroad for an offence also deemed criminal in Ireland.A garda spokesman said: "The investigation is complete and the file is with the Director of Public Prosecutions."Separately, lawyers are to decide whether the HSE probe will be published after health chiefs receive the findings in the coming days.Independent management consultant Conal Devine - a former Director of Industrial Relations at the Irish Medical Organisation - was appointed to carry out the HSE inquiry last July.Child protection experts were to be brought in from outside the State to help Mr Devine with his investigation, it was announced at the time.The report is now understood to be concluded and will be handed to the Assistant National Director of Primary Community and Continuing Care (PCCC) services in the HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster Area before the end of the week.A HSE spokesman said its lawyers will study the findings before a decision is taken on whether or not to make them public."The HSE is committed to establishing the full facts of what information was available to the health services in relation to Dr McElwee," he said.A review inquiry team headed up by Mr Devine was charged with looking at concerns about child protection relating to the incident.It was expected to investigate:::Documents from State agencies, including the gardaí, government departments and Athlone IT relating to Dr McElwee and child protection issues.

Medvedev insists on rule of law

The firm favourite to win Russia's presidential election, Dmitry Medvedev, says the state should train employees better to consolidate the rule of law.

Mr Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister, told lawyers it was "necessary to give state employees more thorough and better legal training".

President Vladimir Putin has named Mr Medvedev as his preferred successor. The election will be held on 2 March.

Mr Medvedev has refused to take part in live TV debates with rival candidates.

The BBC's Russia analyst Steven Eke says a powerful public relations machine has been set in motion to groom Mr Medvedev as the nation's next leader. He is also chairman of the state energy giant Gazprom.

He is getting extensive coverage on Russian television - one day pledging huge sums of money to provide housing for war veterans, the next, opening a new hospital or touring Russia's regions, our analyst reports.

State of the Union: One last time

The unspoken message: Government isn't the answer.

“In all we do, we must trust in the ability of free people to make wise decisions, and empower them to improve their lives and their futures," Bush said.

A major challenge for Bush in his address was simply being heard when many Americans already are looking beyond him to the next president.

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A time of split-screen politics

At the weekend the journalist Christopher Caldwell asked why it was that presidential candidates posed more for photos with factory workers than ballet troupes, pointing out that in real America there were now more choreographers than metal-casters. Yet the image most constantly associated with US economics during the election is the ordinary guy on the line, not the ordinary gal in the office. And while the candidates hit each other over the heads with their own economic rescue plans, traders in Congress and the White House, make bargains over what the real recovery package will look like.

This upper and lower story division is not just an American phenomenon. It is rather wonderful that poor old Peter Hain should have been told to quit - in advance of his actual departure - on the basis that his short campaign to be Labour deputy leader (which he never became) had proved that he was somehow too incompetent to be a Cabinet minister (which he had been for years).

Chinese rights activists put the law on trial

Gao Zhisheng's detention is certainly a warning".

But campaigners told Reuters their strategy of steadily pressing rights through courtroom skirmishes and Internet-driven publicity remained the best way to encourage broader change.

"There's still space to expand individual rights through the law," said Teng. "The government itself says it supports rule by law, so it can only go so far in openly opposing us." Band of activists:Over the past five or so years, a band of lawyers, academics and campaigners has rewritten the rules of political dissent in China by turning to litigation and campaigns for legislative reform, rather than underground political parties and street protest.

In 2003, Xu and several other young law graduates took up the case of Sun Zhigang, a young migrant who died in custody in the southern city of Guangzhou.