Morning Shinbun Friday December 10

Goldman has an unexpected ally in court: federal prosecutors

The banking giant, which has been under relentless scrutiny for its role in the financial crisis, relies on the U.S. government to protect its trade secrets in a trial of a former worker accused of stealing valuable computer code.

By Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from New York – Goldman Sachs, the most powerful firm on Wall Street, makes an unlikely victim.

That, however, is the role that the bank has played over the last two weeks in a Manhattan courtroom, where prosecutors have argued that Sergei Aleynikov, a skinny, bespectacled former computer programmer at Goldman, stole valuable computer code from the bank before moving to a start-up firm that was trying to build its own trading operations.

Although the code in question was a mere 32 megabytes – less than a 10th of what fits on a data CD – Goldman executives have said it was a central cog in their high-frequency trading operations, a lucrative division at one of the most profitable companies in the world.

An empty chair, but Nobel jury makes its point

Paul Vallely explains why Beijing should be rattled by today’s award ceremony

Friday, 10 December 2010

China’s heavy-handed reaction to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to pro-democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo may have reaped some short-term rewards. But although 19 nations have now capitulated to pressure from Beijing to boycott tomorrow’s ceremony – where the recipient’s place will be taken by an empty chair – human rights advocates yesterday predicted that the government’s behaviour would ultimately help the Nobel committee to energise China’s human rights movement.

USA

Obama Weighs Tax Overhaul in Bid to Address Debt

 

By JACKIE CALMES Published: December 9, 2010

WASHINGTON – President Obama is considering whether to push early next year for an overhaul of the income tax code to lower rates and raise revenues in what would be his first major effort to begin addressing the long-term growth of the national debt.

While administration officials cautioned on Thursday that no decisions have been made and that any debate in Congress could take years, Mr. Obama has directed his economic team and Treasury Department analysts to review options for closing loopholes and simplifying income taxes for corporations and individuals, though the study of the corporate tax system is farther along, officials said.

Looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right

Coalescing behind a single 2012 presidential candidate is going to be tricky for the ever-fractured conservative Christians of the GOP.  

Newsweek

Surveying the cropof would-be Republican presidential contenders in 2012, some Christian leaders can’t muster much enthusiasm.

“The supposed frontrunners have all got problems,” says Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and a prominent leader of the religious right. Mitt Romney? “He put ‘Obamacare Light’ in place in Massachusetts,” says Land. “It’s going to be awfully difficult for him to surmount that.” Sarah Palin? “Her problem is her very high negatives. Evangelicals want somebody they like, but they also want somebody who can beat Barack Obama.” Mike Huckabee? “The problem Mike’s got is that he and Sarah Palin are appealing to the same base, and Sarah has stronger appeal to that base.” And Newt Gingrich? “Two ex-wives is one ex-wife too many for most evangelicals.”

Europe

Commission dismisses petition on GM foods ban

The Irish Times – Friday, December 10, 2010

ARTHUR BEESLEY, European Correspondent  

The EU Commission has dismissed on procedural grounds the first attempt to activate rules in the Lisbon Treaty which compel it to consider making a law if asked to by one million people.

Campaign groups Avaaz and Greenpeace delivered 1.03 million signatures to health commissioner John Dalli yesterday in which people called on the EU executive to ban genetically modified (GM) crops until an “independent ethical, scientific body” was established to assess their impact. The submission includes 8,434 Irish signatures.

Anger at ‘slave trader’ Assange: WikiLeaks loyalists decide to break away  



Asher Moses December 10, 2010  

A number of WikiLeaks defectors, including founder Julian Assange’s former right-hand man, plan to launch a rival site on Monday after accusing Mr Assange of behaving like “some kind of emperor or slave trader”.

With WikiLeaks itself vowing to press on with its leaking regardless of the fate of Mr Assange, it seems that any attempts by US politicians to stop the leaks will be futile.

The new site, Openleaks, will launch on Monday, respected Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported. Like WikiLeaks, it will allow whistleblowers to leak information to the public anonymously.

Middle East

Iranian woman threatened with being stoned to death ‘is freed’

Reports suggest death sentence threat has been lifted after international outcry

By Kim Sengupta, Diplomatic Correspondent

Friday, 10 December 2010

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after she was convicted of adultery has been released from jail, a human rights group claimed last night.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose plight became an international cause célèbre, was said to have been released along with her son, Sajad, her lawyer and two German journalists who were arrested over the case.

Turkey and Israel continuing talks on Gaza boat deal  

The Irish Times – Friday, December 10, 2010

MARK WEISS in Jerusalem  

CONTACTS ARE continuing between Israel and Turkey over a compensation deal for the nine Turkish activists killed in clashes when Israeli commandos intercepted the Gaza-bound international aid flotilla in May.

Israel is also likely to express “regret” and “sorrow” over the incident, even though Ankara is insisting on a formal apology to the Turkish people.

Turkey, once Israel’s closest ally in the region, withdrew its ambassador following the deadly maritime raid, and has since taken steps to improve ties with Syria and Iran, Israel’s regional rivals.

Asia

Broadside fired at al-Qaeda leaders  



By Syed Saleem Shahzad  

ISLAMABAD – A number of senior al-Qaeda members who had earlier opposed the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and some of whom were recently released from detention in Iran, have produced an electronic book critical of al-Qaeda’s leadership vision and strategy.

The book, the first of its kind to publicly show collective dissent within al-Qaeda, was released last month. It urges the self-acclaimed global Muslim resistance against Western hegemony to open itself to the Muslim intelligentsia for advice and to harmonize its strategy with mainstream Islamic movements.

Shanghai test scores have everyone asking: How did students do it?  

Shanghai, China, trounced the competition in an international test of 15-year-olds. The Programme for International Student Assessment measures skills in math, science, and reading.

By Ariel Zirulnick, Correspondent  

When the resultsof an international education assessment put Shanghai and several other Asian participants ahead of the US and much of Western Europe, many Americans were shocked. “Top test scores from Shanghai stun educators” read the headline in The New York Times.

Meanwhile, many education and Asia experts felt vindicated. After years of saying that China was rapidly catching up or surpassing the US and the rest of the West in education, here was hard proof.

Africa

Kenya old guard ‘continues to resist fundamental change’



LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM  

Michael Ranneberger, the US ambassador to Kenya, reported in a dispatch in January that the “old guard” at the highest levels of the political elite was hindering progress.

“While some positive reform steps have been taken, the old guard associated with the culture of impunity continues to resist fundamental change,” he wrote in the cable, revealed in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

“Most key reforms are yet to be carried out, and the future of the constitutional review process is uncertain.”

Mugabe elite ‘enriched by illicit diamond trade’



Dec 10, 2010 12:19 AM | By Reuters, Sapa-AFP



“In a country filled with corrupt schemes, the diamond business in Zimbabwe is one of the dirtiest,” according to a classified document dated in November 2008 from the US embassy in the country, released this week on WikiLeaks.

Mugabe was forced into a unity government with long-time rivals nearly two years ago and the state has been trying to boost the economy by winning approval for diamond sales through the Kimberley Process, a world monitor of the diamond trade.

Latin America

Haiti to ‘review’ election results  

Election officials order recount of disputed presidential election ahead of runoff, hoping to defuse furore over poll.

Last Modified: 10 Dec 2010  

Election officials in Haiti have said they will review the disputed results of last month’s presidential election to try to defuse violence and nationwide protests over the polls.

There will be an immediate vote recount in the presence of the top three candidates – Mirlande Manigat, Jude Celestin and Michel Martelly and international observers.

Thursday’s announcement follows violent demonstrations by supporters of Martelly, the third-placed candidate, who charge that the initial results were rigged in favour of Celestin, the ruling party’s candidate.

Martelly alleges the count was rigged to deny him a second-round runoff place.

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