He must also claim at least partial responsibility for the carrier's net loss of customers in 2011, with a total of 802, 000 subscribers jumping ship in Q4 alone.

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Under the changes, the partial murder defence of diminished responsibility has been replaced with "a modernised definition", based on the concept of "an abnormality of mental functioning which arose from a recognised medical condition", the ministry said.

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Of course the pilots, who accepted a 25% pay cut in 1994 in exchange for partial ownership, deny any responsibility for the slowdown, saying they warned management of an impending pilot shortage 18 months before the trouble started.

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Two other partial defences - provocation and diminished responsibility - reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter.

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