Docudharma Times Monday February 1

Officials OKd Miranda warning for accused airline plotter

At least four U.S. agencies were involved in a decision to read Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his rights, sources say, after it was clear that he had stopped sharing information.

By Richard A. Serrano and David G. Savage

February 1, 2010

Reporting from Washington – The decision to advise the accused Christmas Day attacker of his right to remain silent was made after teleconferences involving at least four government agencies — and only after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had stopped talking to authorities, according to knowledgeable law enforcement officials.

Among those involved in the hastily called teleconferences were representatives from the Justice Department and the FBI, along with officials from the State Department and the CIA.

“It was a [law enforcement] community-wide conference, and they discussed a number of things,” one source said on condition of anonymity. “That’s when decisions were made on which course was going to proceed, to Mirandize him or otherwise.”

‘Climate emails hacked by spies’

Interception bore hallmarks of foreign intelligence agency, says expert

By Steve Connor, Science Editor Monday, 1 February 2010

A highly sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia was probably carried out by a foreign intelligence agency, according to the Government’s former chief scientist. Sir David King, who was Tony Blair’s chief scientific adviser for seven years until 2007, said that the hacking and selective leaking of the unit’s emails, going back 13 years, bore all the hallmarks of a co-ordinated intelligence operation – especially given their release just before the Copenhagen climate conference in December.

The emails were stolen from a backup computer server used by the University of East Anglia.

USA

$100 Billion Increase in Deficit Is Forecast



By JACKIE CALMES

Published: February 1, 2010

WASHINGTON – The additional tax cuts and public works spending that President Obama has proposed to spur job creation would add $100 billion to this year’s deficit, bringing it to nearly $1.6 trillion, according to an administration official.

A deficit of that size for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 would be about $150 billion greater than last year’s deficit, which was the highest since World War II.

Measured against the size of the economy, a $1.6 trillion shortfall would equal almost 11 percent of the gross domestic product. Economists generally consider annual deficits above 3 percent to be unsustainable.

Silverdome’s bargain price reflects financial woes in Detroit suburb of Pontiac



By Dana Hedgpeth

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, February 1, 2010

PONTIAC, MICH. — Once this city had its own car, 23,000 busy factory workers and the $55.7 million Silverdome, a storied Teflon-coated stadium where the Detroit Lions played, Elvis Presley sang, WrestleMania’s Hulk Hogan stalked and Pope John Paul II prayed.

Today, Pontiac is in such bad shape — a $7 million deficit, roughly $100 million in debt — that the state has declared a financial emergency and sent in a turnaround expert to oversee finances. The car is gone — General Motors is killing off its Pontiac brand. Most of the factories are deserted — GM has only 3,882 employees here now.

Middle East

Mahmoud Abbas: Israel’s West Bank occupation leading to one-state solution

Exclusive interview: Palestinian president hints at mediated talks to restart moribund peace process

Seumas Milne

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 January 2010 20.00 GMT

Israel’s continuing colonisation of the West Bank is leading to a “one-state solution”, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has told the Guardian, while indicating that he may be poised this week to accept a US proposal for “proximity talks” with Israel through American mediators.

In an exclusive interview, the Palestinian Authority president also insisted he would not allow any return to armed resistance; offered direct negotiations with Israel in exchange for a complete three-month settlement freeze; claimed he had come close to a comprehensive agreement with former Israeli leader Ehud Olmert that went beyond anything negotiated by Yasser Arafat under President Bill Clinton; and defended Egypt’s construction of an underground wall to prevent smuggling into the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip.

Yemen Seems to Reject Cease-Fire With Rebels



 By ROBERT F. WORTH

Published: January 31, 2010

SANA, Yemen – Yemen on Sunday appeared to reject a cease-fire offer from the leader of the Houthi rebels, raising fresh questions about a festering conflict that has diluted the government’s ability to deal with a growing insurgency by Al Qaeda.

The leader of the rebels, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, issued a statement on Saturday accepting the government’s terms for a cease-fire. But on Sunday, Yemen’s National Defense Council said it would cease military operations only after the rebels had complied with those terms, which include disarming, releasing captured soldiers and property, removing roadblocks and withdrawing from strategic positions.

Asia

Sri Lankan government ‘settling scores’ in media crackdown

Monday, 1 February 2010

By Andrew Buncombe in Colombo  

The newly re-elected government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has been accused of orchestrating a fresh crackdown on the media after a series of websites were blocked and at least one reporter detained after raising questions about the conduct of the election. One journalist is missing, one has been assaulted and others have received death threats.

In what campaigners claimed was a “settling of scores”, around half-a-dozen websites has been blocked and the offices of one of them sealed. A foreign journalist who had been ordered from the country after asking a question about the president’s brother was subsequently told she could stay after her case received international attention.

Feng Zhenghu, the Chinese dissident living in airport limbo, set to return home

From Times Online

February 1, 2010

Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo

A Chinese dissident who has spent the past three months living off biscuits and tap water in the immigration area of Tokyo’s airport intends to abandon his protest and return home after an apparent climb down by the Chinese government.

Feng Zhenghu, an economist who has been repeatedly questioned and jailed for his human rights activities over the past 20 years, says that he will return to his home town of Shanghai before the Chinese New Year on February 14, after being repeatedly refused entry by Chinese immigration last summer and autumn.

After his last rebuff in November, during which he was physically manhandled onto a flight back to Tokyo, he refused to go through Japanese passport control and simply sat down on a bench opposite the immigration desks in Tokyo’s Narita Airport. There he has been ever since.

Africa

Nigeria militants call off truce in oil-rich Niger Delta

‘All companies related to the oil industry in the Niger Delta should prepare for an all-out onslaught,’ said rebel spokesman Jomo Gbomo in a statement Saturday announcing, an end to a three-month-old cease-fire.

 By Scott Baldauf Staff writer / January 31, 2010

Lagos, Nigeria

The tentative peace in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region appears to have finally ended this weekend, sparking fears of a return to the violence that has cut output of the No. 3 crude oil supplier to the United States by more than 25 percent in recent years.

“All companies related to the oil industry in the Niger Delta should prepare for an all-out onslaught,” said Jomo Gbomo, a spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, in a statement announcing an end to the cease-fire MEND had declared in October. “Nothing will be spared,” he added, saying that the companies themselves would “bear the guilt” if their staffs were harmed.

UNECA Official Expects “Consultative” AU Leadership Approach from Mutharika

The director of governance at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa says he expects a change in approach following Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika’s election as chairman of the African Union over the weekend.

Peter Clottey | Washington, DC

The director of governance at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa says he expects a change in approach following Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika’s election as chairman of the African Union over the weekend.

Okey Onyejekwe expressed the hope that President Mutharika will be “consultative” in leading the continental body.

“My initial reaction was that we had averted what was being speculated, which was the fact that the incumbent chairman was not going to relinquish his post, and it would have become very troublesome for the institution itself.  So I’m quite glad that the transition went on smoothly, irrespective of attempts to perpetuate the former chairmanship,” he said.

Latin America

American church group arrested on Haitian border accused of abducting children

From The Times

February 1, 2010

Will Pavia in Port au Prince

Ten members of an American Baptist Church are to appear in a Haitian court this morning after being accused of running an illegal adoption scheme.

The group from Idaho said that they were carrying out a rescue mission and had accompanied more than 30 children as part of a plan to take at least 100 orphans out of Port-au-Prince to an orphanage that they run in the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

It was claimed last night that most of the children had living relatives and did not appear to know where they were going.

A government official described the group’s action as an “abduction”.The controversy came as the UN mounted a massive food distribution effort to feed two million people in Port-au-Prince. Nearly three weeks after the earthquake, the World Food Programme said that it would open 16 fixed collection sites, with only women allowed access.

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