Feb 09 2011

Our Global Elites

Italian prosecutors push for speedy trial in Berlusconi prostitution case

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has weathered many scandals during his career, could be in court within weeks to face charges related to underage prostitution.

By Nick Squires, Correspondent, The Christian Science Monitor

February 9, 2011

The prosecutors in Milan said they had “sufficient evidence” for the case to be sent to trial without the need for preliminary hearings, meaning the prime minister could face court within weeks.

…

Prosecutors have accused Berlusconi of paying to have sexual relations with a 17-year-old nightclub dancer, Karima el-Mahroug. Investigators also allege that the prime minister abused his office by putting pressure on police in Milan to have the Moroccan-born teenager released from custody after she was arrested on suspicion of theft – an allegation that carries a maximum 12-year prison term.

Berlusconi has admitted personally calling a police station in Milan to intervene in the case, justifying his actions by saying that he believed Ms. Mahroug’s claim that she was the granddaughter of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

More from The Guardian.

Of course he still fucked her, even though he believed that.  That’s kind of disrespectful to Muslims don’t you think?

And in other news showing how utterly corrupt our Global Elites are-

Nicolas Sarkozy orders ministers to holiday in France

President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ordered ministers to pay the ultimate price after two scandals over hospitality from disputed North African leaders and take all their holidays in France.

By Henry Samuel, The Telegraph

5:52PM GMT 09 Feb 2011

The presidential order came a day after François Fillon, the prime minister, admitted taking a holiday in Egypt with his family paid for by President Hosni Mubarak’s government.

His admission came as Michèle Alliot-Marie, the foreign minister, fended off calls to resign for taking a hospitality jet while on holiday in Tunisia over Christmas and with unrest under way. The plane belonged to a Tunisian billionaire close to the country’s ousted president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

…

“The crumbling of the public spirit has reached the very top of the state,” said Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Socialist parliamentary leader who had led calls for Mrs Alliot-Marie to resign. Mr Fillon pledged to propose a law to curb conflicts of interest “in the coming weeks”.

Feb 09 2011

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Frances Fox Piven: The real threat of Glenn Beck’s fantasies

It’s harm not to myself, but to American democracy that I fear from the Fox News host’s paranoid theories of social collapse

When the process of governing is incomprehensible, manipulation and propaganda thrives. The strange stories that Glenn Beck creates with his chalkboard gain traction with Americans, who are made anxious by the large changes that have overtaken the United States, including the election of a black president and the increasing racial diversity of the population, deindustrialisation and the decline of American power abroad, as well as cultural changes in sexual and family norms.

By telling simple fairy tales that trace these big and complex changes to the machinations of particular people, Beck makes the changes comprehensible in a way, and also makes the people who are presumably responsible the targets of his listeners’ frustration and outrage. Partly because it is utterly irrational, and partly because it is an effort to bully and intimidate his political opponents, this is dangerous for democratic politics.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Needed: New national security thinking

The popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen reveal some uncomfortable truths about this country’s foreign policy. The Obama administration – caught between not wanting to abandon Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, a cruel dictator who has been a loyal ally, and wanting to guide or support a popular uprising that will define the future – is caught in a replay of a scene we see over and over again.

America unfurls the flag of democracy and human rights rhetorically, but we ally ourselves with “stability” – that is, all too often, with dictatorship: Cuba’s Batista, Nicaragua’s Somoza, Chile’s Pinochet, South Africa’s apartheid regime, Egypt’s Mubarak, Iran’s shah, Indonesia’s Suharto, the Philippines’ Marcos and many more. When the people finally revolt, we flounder, usually concerned more about shoring up the existing regime than supporting democracy.

Katherine Gallagher: George Bush: no escaping torture charges

Sooner or later, Bush will step into a country where he will be prosecuted for authorising the abuses of the ‘war on terror’

Late last year, former US President George W Bush recounted in his memoir, Decision Points, that when he was asked in 2002 if it was permissible to waterboard a detainee held in secret CIA custody outside the United States, answered “damn right”. This “decision point” led to the waterboarding of that person 183 times in one month. Others were waterboarded, as well.

Waterboarding is torture. In the past, the US prosecuted and convicted Japanese officials who waterboarded US and allied prisoners. US Attorney General Eric Holder has unequivocally stated that waterboarding is torture.

The United States is under an absolute obligation under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) to investigate, prosecute and punish torturers. And yet, here was the former president of the United States admitting he authorised torture. And nothing.

Jim Hightower: Obama, Inc.

With Daley and Immelt on board, our president is waltzing with the devil.

When you dance with the devil, never fool yourself into thinking that you’re leading.

That would be my 50-cents-worth of advice to President Barack Obama as he remakes his presidency into a Clintonesque corporate enterprise. Following last fall’s congressional elections, he immediately began blowing kisses to CEOs and big business lobbyists, and he’s now filled his White House dance card with them.

First came Bill Daley, the Wall Street banker and longtime corporate lobbyist. In early January, Obama brought him to the White House ball to be his chief-of-staff, gatekeeper, and policy coordinator.

Then Obama tapped Jeffery Immelt to lead his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which is supposed to “encourage the private sector to hire [Americans] and invest in American competitiveness.” This is a bizarre coupling, for as General Electric’s CEO, Immelt was a leader in shipping American factories and jobs to Asia and elsewhere. Today, fewer than half of GE’s workers are in our country.

Amy Goodman: Egypt’s Youth Will Not Be Silenced

“In memoriam, Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl” reads the banner at the top of Kareem Amer’s popular Egyptian dissident blog. “Beheaded on Feb. 22, 1943, for daring to say no to Hitler, and yes to freedom and justice for all.” The young blogger’s banner recalls the courageous group of anti-Nazi pamphleteers who called themselves the White Rose Collective. They secretly produced and distributed six pamphlets denouncing Nazi atrocities, proclaiming, in one, “We will not be silent.” Sophie and her brother Hans Scholl were captured by the Nazis, tried, convicted and beheaded.

Kareem Amer, who spent four years in prison in Egypt for his blogging, has disappeared off the streets of Cairo after leaving Tahrir Square with a friend, according to cyberdissidents.org. The group assumes Amer is now among the hundreds of journalists and human-rights activists snatched by the regime of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, and has launched a campaign to demand his release.

Dana Milbank: Arianna Huffington’s ideological transformation

Did Arianna Huffington just sell out her fellow progressives?

In the literal sense, she undoubtedly has: The sale of Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million (including a large pile of cash going to Huffington herself) means this powerful liberal voice is formally joining the “corporate media” its writers have long disparaged.

There are also some indications that she has sold out in the ideological sense and committed the Huffington Post to joining the mainstream media – the evil “MSM” of “HuffPo” blogger ire. Announcing the deal, she and her new boss went out of their way to say that the new Huffington Post would emphasize things other than the liberal politics on which the brand was built.

Jason Linkins: New Jersey Legislature To Join The New Trend Of Dismantling Successful Education Programs

If you are a habitual watcher of the Colbert Report, you probably caught the segment a few weeks ago where he ridiculed the recent decision of the Wake County, N.C. school board to dismantle a successful school program that had achieved schools of high performance, high economic diversity, and high parent satisfaction, because…well, because they are idiots, mainly. But now they have some compatriots in the New Jersey state legislature who want to do similar damage to their own school system. Over at Wonk Room, Pat Garofalo runs down the gory details:

According to a report in the Newark Star-Ledger, Republicans in the New Jersey legislature want to cut New Jersey’s preschool program from a full day to a half day, and send the money they save to richer, suburban school districts

Feb 09 2011

Tip of the Iceberg

Banks face $60 billion mortgage hit: S&P

Cleaning up the mortgage mess isn’t getting any cheaper.

Posted by Colin Barr, Fortune

February 8, 2011 12:48 pm

The banking industry could find itself picking up a $60 billion tab for souring home loans, Standard & Poor’s Ratings says in its latest report on so-called mortgage putbacks.

When S&P last looked at the issue in November, it said the six biggest U.S. lenders faced $43 billion in mortgage-repurchase costs. That was itself up from July’s estimate, which held that the leading banks would have to build their reserves to the tune of $24 billion.

…

February’s estimate stems largely from rising projected costs to settle claims by private mortgage securities investors and monoline insurers.

…

S&P has been raising its forecasts for the costs of settling disputes with private investors and monoline insurers who promised to pay when borrowers fell behind. The rating agency now estimates the cost of settling those cases at $29 billion, evenly split between the two categories.

…

Rising projected costs for settling the private label and monoline claims could hit bank earnings at a time when tighter rules and slow economic growth are already weighing on profits. What’s more, the report highlights the risk that the banks could yet take more lumps, depending on how various cases turn out and whether investors become more aggressive in pressing their grievances.

The world’s dumbest banks

Ireland’s disastrous banks continue to punch above their weight.

Posted by Colin Barr

February 9, 2011 6:36 am

(A) list of the most reckless banks wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Merrill Lynch, which was sold in distress to Bank of America (BAC) with $668 billion in assets just before Lehman Brothers failed, or Wachovia, which was raffled off to Wells Fargo (WFC) a couple weeks later with $764 billion worth.

…

The good news is that one of the guys who made out like a bandit while running into the ground, former CEO Sean FitzPatrick (of Anglo Irish Bank), has already reached this acceptance state. This after he took 80 million euros in loans from the bank without telling shareholders, then declared he had frittered it all away.

“I am very happy to put my hands up,” he told the Irish Sunday Times last month. “I am very happy to apologize to all my creditors. I don’t feel ashamed, but I do feel regret, very serious regret, and I am sorry that it is going to cause people losses.” Talk about an understatement.

I repeat my offer to lose $24 Billion for a much more reasonable rate than 80 Million Euros.  I bet I could manage to do it for a mere Million or 2 a year.

Feb 09 2011

On This Day in History February 9

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 325 days remaining until the end of the year (326 in leap years).

On this day in 1950, Joseph Raymond McCarthy, a relatively obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, accuses State Department of being infiltrated by communists. McCarthy announces during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he has in his hand a list of 205 communists who have infiltrated the U.S. State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a publicity stunt, suddenly thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight.

Asked to reveal the names on the list, the reckless and opportunistic senator named officials he determined guilty by association, such as Owen Lattimore, an expert on Chinese culture and affairs who had advised the State Department. McCarthy described Lattimore as the “top Russian spy” in America.

These and other equally shocking accusations prompted the Senate to form a special committee, headed by Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, to investigate the matter. The committee found little to substantiate McCarthy’s charges, but McCarthy nevertheless touched a nerve in the American public, and during the next two years he made increasingly sensational charges, even attacking President Harry S. Truman’s respected former secretary of state, George C. Marshall.

Wheeling speech

McCarthy experienced a meteoric rise in national profile on February 9, 1950, when he gave a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. His words in the speech are a matter of some debate, as no audio recording was saved. However, it is generally agreed that he produced a piece of paper that he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is usually quoted to have said: “The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205-a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

There is some dispute about whether or not McCarthy actually gave the number of people on the list as being “205” or “57”. In a later telegram to President Truman, and when entering the speech into the Congressional Record, he used the number 57. The origin of the number 205 can be traced: In later debates on the Senate floor, McCarthy referred to a 1946 letter that then-Secretary of State James Byrnes sent to Congressman Adolph J. Sabath. In that letter, Byrnes said State Department security investigations had resulted in “recommendation against permanent employment” for 284 persons, and that 79 of these had been removed from their jobs; this left 205 still on the State Department’s payroll. In fact, by the time of McCarthy’s speech only about 65 of the employees mentioned in the Byrnes letter were still with the State Department, and all of these had undergone further security checks.

At the time of McCarthy’s speech, communism was a growing concern in the United States. This concern was exacerbated by the actions of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, the fall of China to the communists, the Soviets’ development of the atomic bomb the year before, and by the contemporary controversy surrounding Alger Hiss and the confession of Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs. With this background and due to the sensational nature of McCarthy’s charge against the State Department, the Wheeling speech soon attracted a flood of press interest in McCarthy.

 474 – Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1555 – Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake.

1621 – Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.

1788 – The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp.

1825 – After no presidential candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams President of the United States.

1849 – New Roman Republic established

1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.

1870 – The U.S. Weather Bureau is established.

1885 – The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrive in Hawaii.

1889 – The United States Department of Agriculture is established as a Cabinet-level agency.

1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.

1900 – The Davis Cup competition is established.

1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Port Arthur concludes.

1913 – A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

1920 – Under the terms of the Spitsbergen Treaty, international diplomacy recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designates it as demilitarized.

1922 – Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.

1934 – The Balkan Entente is formed.

1942 – World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss Aerican military strategy in the war.

1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.

1943 – World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.

1945 – World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic – HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.

1945 – World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a German destroyer in Førdefjorden, Norway.

1950 – Second Red Scare: Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.

1959 – The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, USSR.

1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers.

1965 – Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam.

1969 – First test flight of the Boeing 747.

1971 – The 6.4 on the Richter Scale Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.

1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing.

1973 – Biju Patnaik of the Pragati Legislature Party is elected leader of the opposition in the state assembly in Orissa, India.

1975 – The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.

1991 – Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.

1995 – Space Shuttle astronauts Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale become the first African American and first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.

1996 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18 month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London’s Canary Wharf.

2001 – The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School.

Holidays_and_observances Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Anne Catherine Emmerich

         o Ansbert of Rouen

         o Apollonia

         o Maron (Lebanon)

         o Teilo (Wales)

         o February 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Earliest day on which Clean Monday can fall, while March 15 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday before Easter. (Eastern Christianity)

   * Earliest day on which People’s Sunday can fall, while March 15 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday before Easter. (Malta)

Feb 09 2011

Patriot Act Extension FAILS!!! Up Date

(Breaking! – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The Patriot act Extension has FAILED to pass in the House!

House rejects measure that would extend key Patriot Act provisions through December

A measure to extend key provisions of the Patriot Act counterterrorism surveillance law through December failed the House Tuesday night, with more than two-dozen Republicans bucking their party to oppose the measure.

The House measure, which was sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and required a two-thirds majority for passage, failed on a 277-to-148 vote. Twenty-six Republicans voted with 122 Democrats to oppose the measure, while 67 Democrats voted with 210 Republicans to back it. Ten members did not vote.

The measure would have extended three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire on Monday, Feb. 28, unless Congress moves to reauthorize them. One of the provisions authorizes the FBI to continue using roving wiretaps on surveillance targets; the second allows the government to access “any tangible items,” such as library records, in the course of surveillance; and the third is a “lone wolf” provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act that allows for the surveillance of targets who are not connected to an identified terrorist group.

The vote came as several tea party-aligned members of the new freshman class had been expressing doubts about the measure.

Primary those Democrats that voted for “Yes”. This is the second issue that I have to agree with Sen. Rand Paul and the Tea Party Republicans. The second issue: cutting defense spending not Social Security or Medicare. Paul has said that he would vote against extension next month when the bill comes before the Senate.

Up Date: This is the statement from Rep. Dennis Kucinich:

“The defeat of the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, under the suspension of the rules, signals the potential for a new coalition. Twenty-six Republicans joined one hundred and twenty-two Democrats to block passage, forcing a new debate on these critical questions of privacy and civil liberties. It was thought that reauthorization would be non-controversial, which is why it was placed under a suspension of the rules, but the fact that it failed to get the two-thirds vote required indicates that it is controversial. This is a surprising development and it will lead to more debate about the PATRIOT Act. I credit Conservative Republicans, Libertarians and members of the Tea Party for standing by their beliefs and thank my fellow Democrats for providing one of the first major challenges to the PATRIOT Act.

“It is expected that the bill will be brought up again, but the opposition has now surfaced. I look forward to working with this new coalition to continue to rally support to defeat the PATRIOT Act,”

Feb 09 2011

Prime Time

Solid premiers again.  New V and NCIS for those who care about such things.  Traffic Light is a Series Premier.

He’s all wrong for us, baby. I saw you beat that man like I never saw no man get beat before, and the man kept coming after you. Now we don’t need no man like that in our lives.

You’re the Man. You’re number one. The Champ, the best of all time. Girls love you – Men, old people love you. Young people love you. You’re the best. You’re the Man, and he’s yours. He’s yours, he’s yours. This bum shouldn’t be in the same ring with you. I want you to show him who you are tonight. Show him who you are tonight. Stick him!

Later-

Good morning gentlemen, I am Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. I am your commanding officer. It is a great pleasure to see you all here today. It is my hope that the same courage, spirit, and honor, which has brought us together, will one day restore this Union. May God bless us all.

Dave hosts Adam Sandler, Chris Colfer, and Gang of Four.  Jon and Stephen are in repeats from 1/27.

Can’t I? I’m a colonel, you nasty little cuss! You think you can keep 700 Union soldiers without proper shoes because you think it’s *funny*? Now, where would that power come from?

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Feb 09 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 54 Top Stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Egypt protests draw biggest crowd yet

by Sara Hussein, AFP

1 hr 13 mins ago

CAIRO (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flooded Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square and towns across Egypt on Tuesday, in the biggest show of defiance towards President Hosni Mubarak since the revolt began.

In Cairo, the immense crowd hailed as a hero a charismatic cyberactivist and Google executive whose Facebook site helped kickstart the protests on January 25 and who was released after being detained and blindfolded for 12 days.

AFP journalists overlooking the square confirmed it was the biggest gathering yet in a movement which began last month. Witnesses in Egypt’s second city Alexandria said a march there also attracted record numbers.

2 French PM says Mubarak paid for his family’s Egypt holiday

by Rory Mulholland, AFP

Tue Feb 8, 1:24 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – French Prime Minister Francois Fillon admitted Tuesday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak paid for his and his family’s New Year holiday on the Nile and lent them a plane to go sightseeing.

The shock revelation came as France’s foreign minister battled calls for her resignation over a New Year holiday in Tunisia during which she used a private jet owned by a tycoon allegedly close to the country’s ousted dictator.

Fillon’s office rushed out a statement after the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine broke the story about his trip to Egypt, where 300 people have been killed in massive street protests seeking to oust Mubarak.

3 Egypt protests enter third week

by Jailan Zayan, AFP

Tue Feb 8, 6:49 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian protesters massed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square Tuesday amid calls for renewed nationwide street action to mark two weeks of anti-government rallies that have rattled the regime.

Several thousand were already occupying the square — the focal point of protests calling for the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule — sleeping under tents or rolled up in blankets at the foot of army tanks.

A massive banner that reads “The people want the end of the regime” hangs over Tahrir, but the 82-year-old president has ploughed on regardless, reshuffling his cabinet and offering reform but refusing to step down.

4 Charles Taylor shuns war crimes trial

by Mariette le Roux, AFP

Tue Feb 8, 12:07 pm ET

LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands (AFP) – Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor shunned his war crimes trial Tuesday and was absent when the prosecution wrapped up its case that he fuelled war in Sierra Leone in exchange for diamonds.

“Charles Taylor was profiting from the diamonds and the blood of the people of Sierra Leone,” co-prosecutor Nicolas Koumjian told judges of the Special Court for Sierra Leone as the three-year-long trial entered its final phase with the prosecution’s oral closing arguments.

“It is because of the diamonds that the war was sponsored,” said Koumjian. “The diamonds were going to Charles Taylor and Charles Taylor was fuelling the atrocities that were committed.”

5 Charles Taylor blamed for "terror campaign"

by Mariette le Roux, AFP

Tue Feb 8, 6:20 am ET

LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands (AFP) – Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor was accused by prosecutors Tuesday of warmongering in Sierra Leone, in the absence of his lawyer who stormed out of court in a showdown with judges.

“Charles Taylor bears the greatest responsibility for the horrific crimes committed against the people of Sierra Leone through the campaign of terror inflicted on them,” prosecutor Brenda Hollis said in closing arguments before the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

He “was in charge of, put in place, directed, nurtured and supported the campaign of terror,” said Hollis, all “to forcibly control the people and territory of Sierra Leone… and to pillage the resources, in particular the diamonds.”

6 Chechen warlord claims Moscow airport attack

by Maria Antonova and Laetitia Peron, AFP

2 hrs 49 mins ago

MOSCOW (AFP) – The leader of Islamist militants in Russia’s North Caucasus on Tuesday claimed last month’s bombing of Moscow’s main airport as President Dmitry Medvedev fired a raft of security officers over the attack.

Doku Umarov, the head of a Chechnya-based rebel group that aims to enforce Islamic rule, also issued a chilling warning of more suicide strikes in a video two weeks after the attack at Domodedovo airport which killed 36 people.

“This special operation was carried out on my orders,” said the bearded militant in a video posted on the Kavkaz Centre website which is the main channel for messages by North Caucasus rebels.

7 Russia scraps winter time to cut stress

by Stuart Williams, AFP

Tue Feb 8, 12:56 pm ET

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia will from next autumn stop putting its clocks back in winter, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday, in a move aimed at sparing Russians the stress of the annual time change.

The move means that Moscow will be four hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) all year round but one prominent analyst said it was a worrying sign Medvedev appeared more interested in window-dressing than real change.

“I have taken a decision to cancel the move to ‘winter’ time starting from autumn of the current year,” Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as telling a meeting in the Kremlin.

8 Cyber-activist’s release galvanises Egypt revolt

by Guillaume Lavallee, AFP

Tue Feb 8, 12:41 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square on Tuesday, hailing a freed cyber activist as their revolt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak raged into a third week.

The embattled strongman took a step earlier in the day towards democratic reform, authorising a committee to pursue constitutional change, a gesture that failed to appease the crowds who noisily demanded his immediate overthrow.

Protesters who arrived in the square, past a cordon of troops and tanks that searched them for weapons but made no attempt to halt the demonstration, were greeted by huge new posters of the “martyrs” of their revolt.

9 Junk food diet linked to lower IQ – study

AFP

Tue Feb 8, 5:10 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – Toddlers who have a diet high in processed foods may have a slightly lower IQ in later life, according to a British study described as the biggest research of its kind.

The conclusion, published on Monday, comes from a long-term investigation into 14,000 people born in western England in 1991 and 1992 whose health and well-being were monitored at the ages of three, four, seven and eight and a half.

Parents of the children were asked to fill out questionnaires that, among other things, detailed the kind of food and drink their children consumed.

10 Muslim mob burns, ransacks churches in Indonesia

AFP

Tue Feb 8, 3:18 am ET

TEMANGGUNG, Indonesia (AFP) – A Muslim mob burned churches and clashed with police in Indonesia on Tuesday as they demanded the death penalty for a Christian man convicted of blaspheming against Islam, police said.

Two days after a Muslim lynch mob killed three members of a minority Islamic sect, crowds of furious Muslims set two churches alight as they rampaged in anger over the prison sentence imposed on defendant Antonius Bawengan, 58.

A court in the Central Java town had earlier sentenced the man to five years in jail, the maximum allowable, for distributing leaflets insulting Islam.

11 Egypt’s Brotherhood warns it could quit talks with government

By Yasmine Saleh and Andrew Hammond, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 3:15 pm ET

CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday talks to resolve Egypt’s crisis were making progress, but the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo said it could quit the process if opposition demands were not met.

Obama’s comments seemed to contradict those by Egyptian opposition figures who reported little progress in the talks over demands that include a call for the immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak.

“Obviously, Egypt has to negotiate a path and they’re making progress,” Obama told reporters in Washington.

12 Ex-SAC Capital employees charged in trading probe

By Matthew Goldstein and Grant McCool, Reuters

1 hr 15 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A investigation into allegations of insider trading in the hedge fund industry for the first time reached former employees of billionaire trader Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Two of four people charged on Tuesday with insider trading worked for Cohen’s $12 billion Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund during the period that U.S. authorities allege the men received confidential corporate information.

One of the former SAC Capital employees, Noah Freeman, has agreed to plead guilty and is cooperating with the investigation, according to prosecutors.

13 U.S. starts new amnesty for offshore tax cheats

By Kim Dixon, Reuters

24 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wealthy tax evaders with assets stashed offshore can come clean with U.S. authorities under a new amnesty program with reduced penalties, the government said on Tuesday.

“It gives people a chance to come in before we find them,” Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman said.

The new effort follows a 2009 amnesty program, which lured 15,000 taxpayers with hidden accounts.

14 China raises rates to battle stubbornly high inflation

By Aileen Wang and Ben Blanchard, Reuters

1 hr 12 mins ago

BEIJING (Reuters) – China raised interest rates on Tuesday for the second time in just over six weeks, intensifying a battle in the fast-expanding economy against stubbornly high inflation that threatens to unsettle global markets.

The timing was a surprise, coming on the final day of China’s Lunar New Year holiday, but investors have long expected more monetary tightening as Beijing struggles to rein in price pressures and ward off a property bubble in an economy that grew at a double-digit pace last year.

Benchmark one-year deposit rates will be lifted by 25 basis points to 3 percent, while one-year lending rates will also be raised by 25 basis points to 6.06 percent, the People’s Bank of China said. The changes go into effect on Wednesday.

15 Special Report: The man who sold the sky

By Tim Hepher, Reuters

Tue Feb 8, 4:52 am ET

PARIS (Reuters) – One warm July evening three years ago, John Leahy set off along London’s river Thames in an electric punt. With Leahy, a sharp and energetic New Yorker who has been Airbus sales chief since 1994, were the company’s Middle East president Habib Fekih and Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airlines, one of the fastest-growing airlines in the world.

Dubai-based Emirates was the largest customer for Airbus’s A380 superjumbo but Leahy wanted Clark to confirm his support for the A350, Airbus’s bid to compete with Boeing’s hot-selling 787 Dreamliner.

The three men inched their boat along a secluded stretch of the river six miles west of Windsor Castle. There were others out enjoying the last few hours of sun. As the evening wore on, the punt became more difficult to steer and the men narrowly avoided a fracas with members of the local rowing club.

16 Obama tries to woo business, slams "burdensome" tax

By Alister Bull and David Morgan, Reuters

Tue Feb 8, 8:39 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama stepped up efforts to woo the U.S. business community on Monday, seeking its help to tackle “burdensome” corporate taxes in a speech to a business group that has long been a fierce critic.

Obama, on a drive to win over business and independent voters before the 2012 presidential election, also repeated a promise to advance trade deals with Panama and Colombia that would help U.S. companies, but he did not lay out a timetable for getting the pacts passed.

“I understand the challenges you face. I understand you are under incredible pressure to cut costs and keep your margins up. I understand the significance of your obligations to your shareholders and the pressures that are created by quarterly reports. I get it,” Obama told the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has often opposed the president for what it sees as his “big government” agenda.

17 Debt rating agencies sending right message… at wrong time

By Stanley White and Walter Brandimarte, Reuters

Tue Feb 8, 4:09 am ET

TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The heightened sense of scrutiny surrounding many heavily-indebted rich nations is sending the right message about fiscal discipline but is coming at the wrong point in the recovery cycle for many countries, and could do more harm than it’s worth to the global economy.

That many countries need to lower outstanding debt and trim budget deficits for the long-term stability of their own economies is hardly disputable.

However, Japan, the United States, Britain and peripheral Europe still harbor economic problems that make drastic spending cuts difficult to stomach. Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Japan last month raises questions about who will be next.

18 U.S official’s fate may threaten U.S., Pakistan ties: diplomat

By Missy Ryan, Reuters

Tue Feb 8, 1:21 am ET

KABUL, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Pakistan is working feverishly to defray tensions over the fate of a U.S. official who killed two men in Pakistan in a case that threatens billions of dollars in U.S. aid and could further damage an already strained alliance, a Pakistani diplomatic source said.

The diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Pakistani officials in Washington are talking to officials from across the U.S. government in a bid to avoid a serious rupture, but said that American government had put at least some bilateral engagements on hold over the issue.

“This is going to be a big issue and the American side is taking it very seriously,” the source said. “The message from Washington to our government is very strong. We all need to do something about it or it will affect our relationship very badly.”

19 Regulators seek to foil moves to undermine pay reform

By Dave Clarke, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 9:58 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Regulators began their most forceful attempt yet to clamp down on bank bonuses since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and warned firms they would seek to counter attempts to circumvent the reforms.

While the proposals pale in comparison to similar restrictions in Europe, the talk of keeping a keen eye on loopholes indicates regulators want to get tough on banks that make symbolic pay changes while finding ways to gut the intent of reforms.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp endorsed on Monday a proposal that executives at the largest financial institutions, such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, have half of their bonuses deferred for at least three years.

20 Geithner pledges to work with Brazil on China

By Raymond Colitt and Ana Nicolaci da Costa, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 6:27 pm ET

BRASILIA (Reuters) – The United States and Brazil will pressure countries that keep their currencies undervalued, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday, reinforcing an emerging alliance between the Western Hemisphere’s two biggest economies at the expense of China.

Geithner cast his one-day visit to Brazil as part of a broader effort by Washington to work with allies to eliminate economic distortions left over from the 2008-09 financial crisis. Both sides also used the occasion to forge a common stance on a French proposal to regulate commodity prices that Washington and Brasilia view with skepticism.

Geithner avoided mentioning China in public. Yet in private he urged Brazil to do more to lobby China to let its currency appreciate, arguing that a weak yuan was just as much a problem for Brazil as it is for the United States, according to a Brazilian official with direct knowledge of the discussions.

21 U.S. fast food caught in immigration crosshairs

By Lisa Baertlein, Mary Milliken and Ed Stoddard, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 5:25 pm ET

LOS ANGELES/DALLAS (Reuters) – Chipotle Mexican Grill has a lot going for it — an upscale burrito concept, a hip and eco-friendly image, expansion plans galore and a 500 percent-plus stock price gain in just over two years.

And then it has something not going its way — a federal crackdown on its immigrant labor force that has so far forced Chipotle to fire hundreds of allegedly illegal workers in the state of Minnesota, perhaps more than half its staff there.

The probe is widening. Co-Chief Executive Monty Moran told Reuters on Friday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also issued “notices of inspection” for restaurants in Washington D.C. and Virginia.

22 Bush to face torture case whenever abroad: activists

By Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

Mon Feb 7, 2:47 pm ET

GENEVA (Reuters) – Activists vowed on Monday that former U.S. President George W. Bush will face a torture case against him wherever he travels outside the United States.

Human rights groups had planned to lodge a Swiss criminal case against Bush on Monday, before his address to a Jewish charity in Geneva on February 12. Organisers canceled his speech last weekend, invoking security concerns.

But the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights issued what they called a preliminary “indictment” to prosecute Bush abroad for the alleged torture of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody.

23 Violence continues in Iraq as US mission changes

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press

1 hr 38 mins ago

BAGHDAD – The White House says the U.S. combat mission in Iraq is over, but Army Lt. Daniel McCord and his fellow American soldiers feel anything but safe.

Their base has been shelled 28 times since Sept. 1, the day after President Barack Obama officially ended Operation Iraqi Freedom. They carefully watch cars that speed too close to their convoy on highways, wary of suicide bombers who might try to penetrate their armored trucks. Even an Iraqi kid carrying a pellet gun is seen as a threat.

With daily shootings and deadly bombings, it’s clear there’s still a simmering fight in Iraq as the U.S. military prepares to leave after nearly eight years, more than 4,400 U.S. troops killed and at least $750 billion spent.

24 Government: No electronic flaws in Toyotas

By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

1 hr 46 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration’s investigation into Toyota safety problems found no electronic flaws to account for reports of sudden, unintentional acceleration and other safety problems. Government investigators said Tuesday the only known cause of the problems are mechanical defects that were fixed in previous recalls.

The Transportation Department, assisted by engineers with NASA, said its 10-month study of Toyota vehicles concluded there was no electronic cause of unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. The study, which was launched at the request of Congress, responded to consumer complaints that flawed electronics could be the culprit behind Toyota’s spate of recalls.

“We feel that Toyota vehicles are safe to drive,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

25 Rumsfeld reveals pre-war Iraq strike plan

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer

1 hr 10 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Former Pentagon chief Donald H. Rumsfeld reveals in his new book that he urged a U.S. military strike on a suspected chemical weapons site in northern Iraq in 2003, and that he wanted the attack timed to coincide with Colin Powell’s address to the U.N. Security Council making the case for war.

In his memoir, “Known and Unknown,” Rumsfeld wrote that the Joint Chiefs supported a strike, based on what Rumsfeld called extensive but not conclusive CIA evidence that the site housed an underground facility for testing chemical weapons. He called it a “fairly sizeable terrorist operation.”

The prewar attack never happened, although the site was struck in the opening days of the war that President George W. Bush launched in March 2003, about six weeks after Powell’s U.N. speech. The U.S. never found substantial evidence of an active Iraqi program to produce weapons of mass destruction, but Rumsfeld believed that the site near the Iranian border presented the best chance to prove they existed before the war began.

26 Ex-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann heads to Current TV

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

Tue Feb 8, 2:20 pm ET

NEW YORK – Less than a month after leaving MSNBC, liberal lightning rod Keith Olbermann said Tuesday he’s headed to Current TV, the public affairs channel launched six years ago by former Vice President Al Gore.

Olbermann will start this spring with a prime-time talk show on Current. He was also named chief news officer at Current, which is available in 60 million homes in the U.S., a little more than half the nation’s homes with television.

Financial terms were not divulged, although Current said Olbermann will get an equity stake in the company.

27 Fans celebrate Packers win with final tailgate

By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press

11 mins ago

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers fans chanted and cheered as the Super Bowl winning team walked onto Lambeau Field for welcome-home ceremony.

The 50,000 tickets for Tuesday’s “Return to Titletown” celebration sold out in a matter of hours. Fans from across Wisconsin jammed into the stadium, waving Super Bowl champion flags.

They exploded in a chant of “Go Pack Go” as the players emerged from the locker room and walked on to the field. The players high-fived fans in the first row and shot video with their cell phones.

28 Freed young leader energizes Egyptian protests

By SARAH EL DEEB and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press

7 mins ago

CAIRO – A young Google executive who helped ignite Egypt’s uprising energized a cheering crowd of hundreds of thousands Tuesday with his first appearance in their midst after being released from 12 days in secret detention. “We won’t give up,” he promised at one of the biggest protests yet in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Once a behind-the-scenes Internet activist, 30-year-old Wael Ghonim has emerged as an inspiring voice for a movement that has taken pride in being a leaderless “people’s revolution.” Now, the various activists behind it – including Ghonim – are working to coalesce into representatives to push their demands for President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.

With protests invigorated, Vice President Omar Suleiman issued a sharply worded warning, saying of the protests in Tahrir, “We can’t bear this for a long time, and there must be an end to this crisis as soon as possible,” in a sign of growinig impatience with 16 days of mass demonstrations.

29 Romania may get even tougher on witches

By ALISON MUTLER, Associated Press

Tue Feb 8, 1:40 pm ET

BUCHAREST, Romania – There’s more bad news in the cards for Romania’s beleaguered witches.

A month after Romanian authorities began taxing them for their trade, the country’s soothsayers and fortune tellers are cursing a new bill that threatens fines or even prison if their predictions don’t come true.

Superstition is a serious matter in the land of Dracula, and officials have turned to witches to help the recession-hit country collect more money and crack down on tax evasion.

30 Judge tours new Calif. lethal injection chamber

PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer

3 mins ago

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. – A federal judge convened a most unusual hearing Tuesday at San Quentin Prison.

Nearly all the routine court trappings were missing as U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel toured the state’s new, $900,000 death chamber as part of proceedings aimed at helping him decide whether to restart lethal injections in California – a procedure he put on hold five years ago.

The judge was 70 miles from his regular courtroom in San Jose and wore a business suit as he and two dozen lawyers, prison officials and other observers took a one-hour tour of the chamber.

31 Obama to CEOs: Ask what you can do for America

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 5:31 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Echoing John F. Kennedy, President Barack Obama prodded business leaders Monday to “ask yourselves what you can do for America,” not just for company bottom lines, even as he sought to smooth his uneasy relations with the nation’s corporate executives.

Speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the president urged the business community to help accelerate the slow economic recovery by increasing hiring and unleashing some of the $2 trillion piling up on their balance sheets.

“I want to encourage you to get in the game,” Obama said.

32 Charles Taylor’s boycotts end of war crimes trial

By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press

Tue Feb 8, 2:29 pm ET

LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands – Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial is ending the way it began – with the former Liberian president boycotting proceedings and claiming they are politically motivated and unfair.

Taylor’s British attorney Courtenay Griffiths stormed out of the courtroom Tuesday after judges at the Special Tribunal for Sierra Leone refused to accept his 600-page summary of the case – a key document that distills three years of testimony from the defense’s perspective.

Taylor briefly stayed in his seat but later refused to return to the courtroom after a break. Griffiths said it would have been “unseemly” if Taylor had tried to walk out with his lawyer and had struggled with his U.N. guards.

33 Afghan, NATO forces brace for spring offensive

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 10:53 pm ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Ten loud explosions that rocked Kandahar one day last week actually signaled good news on the front line of the war against the Taliban.

The blasts – one every 30 minutes from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. – were from Afghan and coalition forces blowing up more than 6,000 pounds of Taliban AK-47s, bomb-making equipment, homemade explosives and rocket-propelled grenades.

Finding and destroying the insurgents’ weapons in Kandahar province, the ancestral home of President Hamid Karzai and the birthplace of the Taliban, is just one way Afghan and coalition forces are trying to make it difficult for the militants to launch a strong offensive in the spring.

34 Afghan leader: NATO reconstruction bases must go

By ADAM SCHRECK, Associated Press

Tue Feb 8, 3:04 pm ET

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s president pushed his case for greater sovereignty Tuesday, saying he wants international bases that run reconstruction and development programs to shut down as Afghan forces start to take the lead in securing the country.

The announcement is the latest attempt by President Hamid Karzai to assert his power in the face of Western allies, following efforts to curtail the reach of private security companies and limit the visibility and intensity of U.S.-led military operations.

He has repeatedly criticized the so-called provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs, for undermining the Afghan central government by offering alternative sources of funding and public works.

35 Cavs lose 25th straight, another NBA futility mark

By JAIME ARON, AP Sports Writer

Tue Feb 8, 12:19 am ET

DALLAS – Over one season or two, no team in NBA history has lost as many games in a row as these Cleveland Cavaliers.

The surging Dallas Mavericks beat Cleveland 99-96 on Monday night, making it 25 straight losses for the Cavs.

Cleveland already held the record for the most losses in a single season, but the league also keeps a record for losses spread over two seasons. This topped that one, too, making it the most consecutive losses in league history, period.

36 Job openings fall for second straight month

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

2 hrs 14 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Employers posted fewer jobs in December, the latest evidence that businesses are not ready to step up hiring.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that employers advertised nearly 3.1 million jobs in December, a drop of almost 140,000 from November and the second straight monthly decline. That’s the lowest total since September.

The report provides an indication of future hiring patterns because it can take several months to fill many jobs.

37 States may find targeting workers isn’t easy

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS and MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press

9 mins ago

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – New Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has all but declared war on government employees and their unions – or as he calls them, the “haves” in an economy full of “have nots.”

In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich says state law should be changed to weaken unions in contract negotiations. And Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams wants to cut pension benefits.

But state officials trying to close crippling budget deficits may find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to translate their words into action.

38 AP Interview: Polish FM: Belarusians want freedom

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI and VANESSA GERA, Associated Press

Thu Feb 3, 10:13 am ET

WARSAW, Poland – Belarus is “Europe’s Cuba” and its people are yearning for freedom just like the tens of thousands who have taken to the streets in Tunis and Cairo, Poland’s foreign minister said Thursday.

Radek Sikorski warned that the same sudden leadership change that hit Tunisia – whose dictator was ousted in January after 23 years in power – could happen in Belarus, Poland’s neighbor to the east.

Poland is taking the lead in organizing the European Union to support democratic change in Belarus, a country of 10 million that held widely disputed elections in December which kept strongman President Alexander Lukashenko in power.

39 Prosecutor: Ex-judge took kickbacks, extorted cash

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press

13 mins ago

SCRANTON, Pa. – A northeastern Pennsylvania judge accepted kickbacks and extorted money in a $2.8 million scheme to turn the courthouse into a “cash cow” by locking up juvenile offenders in privately run detention facilities, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday as the former judge’s trial began.

Lawyers delivered opening statements in the case of one-time Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, who has denied authorities’ allegations of a racketeering plot. His attorney called the government’s case “ludicrous” and said that while Ciavarella may have exercised poor judgment, he did not break the law.

In a courtroom scandal known as “kids for cash,” the government has charged Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, with orchestrating a scheme to shut down the county-run detention center and arrange for a private facility to be built and run by cronies. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, is accused of stocking the private jail with young offenders whose crimes were often minor.

40 DA: NYC mayor testified in probe into politico

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

15 mins ago

NEW YORK – A grand jury that indicted a political operative on charges of fleecing Mayor Michael Bloomberg out of more than $1 million got part of the story directly from the highest source – the mayor himself, prosecutors said Tuesday. But at least for now, no one’s disclosing what Bloomberg had to say.

John Haggerty was indicted last year, but mention of the mayor’s testimony emerged for the first time in a court hearing Tuesday as prosecutors and Haggerty’s lawyers fleshed out their sides of the complex case involving the billionaire mayor, a state political party, a well-regarded political consultant and big money that passed among them.

Haggerty, 42, has pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and other charges. Tuesday’s hearing was technically about his bid to get the case thrown out; a judge is due to rule next month. But Tuesday’s session turned into a lengthy airing of allegations, counterarguments and evidence, complete with more of a peek into what the grand jury saw than typically would be made public at this stage in a case.

41 Navy employee, Ga. contractor accused of kickbacks

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

20 mins ago

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A civilian employee of the Navy and the founder of a Georgia-based technology services company with more than $120 million in Navy contracts have been charged in a $10 million kickback and bribery scheme, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The scheme dates back more than 10 years and involved bogus and inflated invoices and work that was paid for but never performed, prosecutors said.

Anjan Dutta-Gupta, 58, of Roswell, Ga., and Ralph M. Mariano, 52, of Arlington, Va., are charged in a criminal complaint with bribery of a public official. They were both released on bond following court appearances Monday.

42 Vt. lawmakers reconsider moose pardon measure

By JOHN CURRAN, The Associated Press

29 mins ago

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Pete the Moose’s pardon may be short-lived after all, now that state lawmakers are being urged to reconsider it. Or he may just have to find a new home.

The 700-pound moose became a cause celebre last year after Vermont wildlife officials said he may have to be euthanized to avoid the spread of disease from a northern Vermont game preserve where he lives.

In an eleventh-hour compromise by the Vermont Legislature, Big Rack Ridge owner Doug Nelson was allowed in May to keep the deer, moose and elk on his fenced-in 700-acre captive hunting facility by a measure that designed them a “special purpose herd” and gave him ownership of the animals.

43 More charges announced in NY insider trading probe

By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

43 mins ago

NEW YORK – Federal authorities revealed charges Tuesday against three hedge fund portfolio managers and a hedge fund analyst, describing a paper-shredding, flash drive-destroying panic that ensued when they thought they faced the scrutiny of investigators.

The two new arrests and the announcement of two guilty pleas expanded a federal crackdown on insider trading that masks itself as legitimate market research. The case raised the number charged in the probe to 12. The Securities and Exchange Commission said the conspiracy earned more than $30 million in illegal profits.

“Shred as much as u can,” one of the men wrote to another in a string of electronic messages that were traded after they saw news reports describing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s assault on Wall Street insider trading, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. One of the four told investigators he even destroyed computer drives and scattered the pieces in several garbage trucks.

44 US ups pressure on Pakistan over detained American

By MATTHEW LEE and NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press

1 hr 1 min ago

WASHINGTON – In a sign of new and serious tensions between the United States and a key counterterror ally, the Obama administration has suspended some high-level contacts with Pakistan and may downgrade the status of an upcoming meeting to boost pressure on the government to release a U.S. Embassy employee who killed two Pakistanis, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The dispute over the arrest of the man has become a crisis in U.S.-Pakistan relations and officials said they feared it could threaten future cooperation in a critical theater of the war against extremists and al-Qaida unless it is resolved quickly. Two top Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee said U.S. aid to Pakistan is in jeopardy if the American is not released.

The detainee case has clouded prospects for three-way strategic talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. that are set for Feb. 24 in Washington.

45 IRS reduces penalties if tax cheats come clean

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

1 hr 6 mins ago

WASHINGTON – International tax evaders who come clean will be able to avoid jail and pay reduced fines under a new voluntary disclosure program announced Tuesday by the Internal Revenue Service.

Tax cheats will have until Aug. 31 to settle up with the IRS or face an ongoing crackdown against Americans who hide assets overseas, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said.

“If we find you, you face harsher penalties and the possibility of jail time,” Shulman said. “If you come in voluntarily, you pay a steep price but avoid going to jail.”

46 Biden asks Egyptian counterpart for fast progress

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

2 hrs 23 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the demands of the Egyptian opposition can be met through “meaningful negotiations” with the government of President Hosni Mubarak. That contradicts the position of many protesters who say no real progress can happen unless Mubarak resigns.

Biden made his comments in a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart Omar Suleiman, according to a White House statement. Suleiman is a longtime ally of Mubarak who was recently appointed vice president and is now undertaking some incremental reform steps that are increasingly gaining U.S. support even though many protesters view them as little better than cosmetic.

Mubarak has said he will not seek re-election in September after 30 years of authoritarian rule. But he is resisting stepping down before then despite two weeks of dramatic street protests aimed at forcing him to do so.

47 Cubans’ testimony delayed in trial of ex-CIA agent

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

2 hrs 25 mins ago

EL PASO, Texas – A Cuban medical examiner and an Interior Ministry investigator set to take the stand in the perjury trial of an elderly ex-CIA agent and anti-communist militant had their testimonies delayed at least one day after the defense raised a series of complex objections Tuesday.

Luis Posada Carriles, 82, is accused of lying to federal authorities during immigration hearings in El Paso and faces 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud. Prosecutors say he made false statements about how he sneaked into the U.S. in March 2005, and also failed to acknowledge planning a series of bombings of Havana hotels and a top tourist restaurant between April and October 1997 that killed an Italian national and wounded about a dozen other people.

Cuban medical examiner Ilena Vizcano Dime and Lt. Col. Roberto Hernandez Caballero of the island’s powerful Interior Ministry are ready to testify about the death of Fabio di Celmo, the Italian tourist killed when a bomb tore through the lobby bar at the Copacabana Hotel in Havana’s spiffy Miramar neighborhood.

48 Judge rules landmark Camden building may be razed

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press

2 hrs 27 mins ago

CAMDEN, N.J. – A judge ruled Tuesday that Camden officials can move ahead with a plan to take ownership of a landmark former Sears building, then raze it to make way for an office park being developed by the Campbell Soup Co.

The ruling is a boost to Campbell’s development plans and a blow to activists who have been trying for years to keep the building up – even coming up with an alternate plan to give it a new life.

But both sides recognize that the fight’s not over.

49 Family of AWOL Marine renews interest in book deal

By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press

2 hrs 48 mins ago

SALT LAKE CITY – More than six years after a Marine corporal was charged with desertion for allegedly faking his own kidnapping in Iraq, his family is once again making rumblings about clearing his name.

The effort, however, wouldn’t play out in military court. Instead, the Utah family of Wassef Ali Hassoun contacted a Los Angeles publicist in search of a $1 million book and movie deal.

“Our purpose from the book and the movie is to tell the public what really happened in year 2004 and clear Wassef’s name once and for all,” Hassoun’s brother, Sami Hassoun, wrote in e-mails to Los Angeles publicist Michael Sands that were provided to The Associated Press.

50 Calif. city official testifies in corruption case

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press

Tue Feb 8, 3:04 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – The only Bell city councilman not charged with looting the working-class Los Angeles suburb has testified that he doesn’t recall taking part in any meetings of four committees for which the other council members collected tens of thousands of dollars.

Councilman Lorenzo Velez testified Tuesday during the second day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to have the mayor of Bell and five other past and present members of the City Council stand trial on dozens of fraud charges.

Deputy District attorney Edward Miller questioned Velez about the four committees.

51 White House: Jobless aid plan forces tough calls

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

Tue Feb 8, 2:54 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The White House said Tuesday an Obama administration proposal that gives states a chance to raise more unemployment insurance taxes from businesses will force states to make tough decisions between lower assistance for the jobless or higher taxes on employers.

In its budget proposal next week, the administration plans to recommend short-term relief to states saddled with unemployment insurance debt, together with a delayed increase in the income level that is subject to state jobless insurance taxes paid by employers. The plan would raise that income level from $7,000 to $15,000 in 2014.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration’s plan “would help states make up for the shortfalls they have, and give them time, as I said, to rationalize what they offer and how they pay for it.”

52 In NH, tea party mixes a strange political brew

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press

Tue Feb 8, 3:05 am ET

CONCORD, N.H. – The tea party movement is mixing a strange political brew in famously independent New Hampshire, complicating the first-in-the-nation primary strategy for the growing number of potential Republican presidential hopefuls.

Tea party activists have made significant inroads in a state that typically prefers GOP moderates and establishment candidates when choosing White House nominees. The grass-roots movement has claimed leadership posts at the local and county level, and in a stunning development last month, tea party-backed Jack Kimball edged out businesswoman Juliana Bergeron for state party chairman.

Would-be White House contenders like Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, who as recently as four years ago would have focused on wooing GOP establishment figures, now are making quiet overtures to activists in this early voting state. Tea partiers are ready to push presidential contenders to embrace their outsider rhetoric and punish candidates who espouse moderate policies. Scores of new voters have become engaged in politics and they could rewrite the traditional rules of the primary, which in past cycles rewarded early groundwork and establishment support.

53 Super Bowl ad sends shivers through Motor City

By JEFF KAROUB and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER, Associated Press

Tue Feb 8, 12:32 am ET

DETROIT – To a pulsating beat, hip-hop star Eminem drives a sleek Chrysler through the streets of Detroit, proudly cruising by the city’s landmarks, towering skyscrapers and the hopeful faces of its people. His journey ends with an unapologetic message: “This is the Motor City, and this is what we do.”

A day after it aired, one of the most-talked about Super Bowl ads sent shivers of pride through the battered city, which hopes car buyers are willing to look past Chrysler’s billion-dollar bailout and embrace the idea that if a vehicle is “Imported from Detroit,” that’s reason enough to buy it.

“It’s like an anthem or rallying cry for Detroit,” Aaron Morrison of Mason City, Iowa, told The Associated Press via Facebook. “It makes me want to buy my next car made in America.”

54 Feds settle case of woman fired over Facebook site

By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press

Mon Feb 7, 8:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Employers should think twice before trying to restrict workers from talking about their jobs on Facebook or other social media.

That’s the message the government sent on Monday as it settled a closely watched lawsuit against a Connecticut ambulance company that fired an employee after she went on Facebook to criticize her boss.

The National Labor Relations Board sued the company last year, arguing the worker’s negative comments were protected speech under federal labor laws. The company claimed it fired the emergency medical technician because of complaints about her work.

Feb 08 2011

from firefly-dreaming 8.2.11

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Regular Daily Features:

Essays Featured Tuesday, February 8th:

come firefly-dreaming with me….

Feb 08 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for February 8, 2011-

DocuDharma

Feb 08 2011

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Bob Herbert A Terrible Divide

The Ronald Reagan crowd loved to talk about morning in America. For millions of individuals and families, perhaps the majority, it’s more like twilight – with nighttime coming on fast.

Look out the window. More and more Americans are being left behind in an economy that is being divided ever more starkly between the haves and the have-nots. Not only are millions of people jobless and millions more underemployed, but more and more of the so-called fringe benefits and public services that help make life livable, or even bearable, in a modern society are being put to the torch.

Dana Milbank: Obama makes corporate America his business

Conservatives seemed as irked by Obama’s trip to the U.S. Chamber as liberals.

“I strolled over from across the street,” the president said of his trek from the White House across Lafayette Square to the Chamber’s H Street palace. “And look, maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start.”

When the laughter ended, Obama departed from his prepared text to add: “But I’m going to make up for it.”

He sure is – and if the list of goodies he read out Monday is any indication, he would have found it easier to deliver the fruitcake.

Eugene Robinson: The GOP’s selective memory on Ronald Reagan

As we mark the centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth, one of our major political parties has become imbued with the Gipper’s political philosophy and governing style. I mean the Democrats, of course.

The Republican Party tries to claim the Reagan mantle but has moved so far to the right that it now inhabits its own parallel universe. On the planet that today’s GOP leaders call home, Reagan would qualify as one of those big-government, tax-and-spend liberals who are trying so hard to destroy the American way of life.

Dennis Kucinich: The Tea Party’s First Test?

The House may vote tomorrow to extend three provisions of the PATRIOT Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act that allow the government to conduct domestic surveillance of Americans.

The 112th Congress began with a historic reading of the U.S. Constitution. Will anyone subscribe to the First and Fourth Amendments tomorrow when the PATRIOT Act is up for a vote? I am hopeful that members of the Tea Party who came to Congress to defend the Constitution will join me in challenging the reauthorization.

Dean Baker: If Progressives Wanted to Win

As we mark the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, his most important legacy has gone largely overlooked. Reagan helped to put a caricature of politics at the center of the national debate, and it remains there to this day. In Reagan’s caricature, the central divide between progressives and conservatives is that progressives trust the government to make key decisions on production and distribution, while conservatives trust the market.

This framing of the debate is advantageous for the right since people, especially in the United States, tend to be suspicious of an overly powerful government. They also like the idea of leaving important decisions to the seemingly natural workings of the market.

It is therefore understandable that the right likes to frame its agenda this way. However, since the right has no greater commitment to the market than the left, it is incredible that progressives are so foolish as to accept this framing.

Robert Kuttner: Business Doesn’t Need American Workers

Once again, the job numbers are dismal. In January, the U.S. economy created just 36,000 domestic jobs, far below the roughly 145,000 that economists had forecast. The unemployment rate fell, to 9 percent, but only because more and more discouraged workers are giving up and leaving the workforce.

The U.S. still has a jobs gap of about 14 million jobs, and that number is increasing as the labor force grows. Counting people who’ve given up, or who are working part time when they want full time jobs, the real unemployment number is around 17 percent. America now has about 25 million people either out of work or underemployed.

Meanwhile, corporate profits continue to set records. Profits in the third quarter of 2010 were 1.659 trillion, about 28 percent higher than a year before, and the highest year-to-year increase on record.

What’s going on? Very simply, America’s corporations no longer need America’s workers.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Banking for the People

When you read the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report released last week, it’s hard to believe that not so long ago banks were downright boring. Citigroups, JP Morgans, Bank of Americas, and Morgan Stanleys weren’t peddling worthless mortgage-backed securities so that Masters of the Universe could collect obscene bonuses. Instead-in response to the Great Depression and some common sense regulations-banks were mostly local, single outlets that collected deposits and made sensible loans.

But beginning in the 1970s, bipartisan public policy ushered in a new era of deregulation and consolidation. The argument was that behemoth banks would be safer, more sophisticated and efficient, save consumers money and support economic growth.

For the most damning evidence of just how wrong that argument is check out the lost wealth and wrecked lives of this Great Recession. The statistics on the size and wealth of today’s banks are also very revealing: in 1995, small and mid-sized banks with assets up to $10 billion held 61 percent of all US deposits, today they hold only one-third.  The Giant Banks-with over $100B in assets-had just 7 percent of US deposits in 1995, but today hold 44 percent. And despite the fact that small and mid-sized banks possess just 22 percent of all bank assets today, they nevertheless make a dramatic 54 percent of all small business loans. (In contrast, the largest 20 banks average $380 billion in assets and yet do just 28 percent of small business lending.)

Robert Dreyfuss: Obama Must Reject Neocon ‘Freedom Agenda’

Could Obama have handled the uprising in Egypt better? Yes. Should Obama call for the ouster of Mubarak? No. And does it matter? No. The era of American domination of the Middle East has unraveled, and neither the Egyptian military nor the protesters look to the United States to carry their banner.

However the intense drama in Cairo unfolds-and it may take months, or years, to reach its conclusion- there’s no reason for Obama to embrace the discredited Freedom Agenda of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives. It’s only a matter of time before the authoritarian regime collapses in Cairo, and the revolutionaries don’t need the White House’s help.

Not that the road ahead will be easy.

Laura Flanders: Media Miss the Al Jazeera Story

One of the biggest stories of the past few weeks has been the story of Americans discovering Al Jazeera English. It shouldn’t have been so hard.

As the protest movement in Egypt grew, Americans found that Al Jazeera had what no US network has any more: fully staffed reporting teams working round the clock in Cairo. But other than in a handful of pockets across the United States-including Ohio, Vermont and Washington, DC-cable viewers couldn’t watch Al Jazeera. Some cable operators have blamed political pressure. Others have said they had little time for it.

Ari Melber: Democracy vs. Autocracy in Egypt: Which Side Is the Obama Administration On?

“Now means now,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said when asked about the Obama Administration’s position that the transition to democracy in Egypt must begin immediately.

But over the weekend, “now” turned into some unspecified date in the future, as the Obama Administration backed away from its stance that Hosni Mubarak should resign and Egyptian pro-democracy activists should formally be brought into a transition government.

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