Top law official agrees to discuss progress of FBI investigation into allegations against journalists working for News Corp Relatives of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York are to meet with America’s top law enforcement official to discuss allegations that journalists working for News Corporation tried to gain access to the phone records of the dead. The US attorney general Eric Holder has agreed to see a group of family members and their legal representative to discuss the progress of an FBI investigation. A date for the meeting has yet to be set, but the agreement to hold it is a sign of how seriously the inquiry is being taken. Norman Siegel, a New York-based lawyer who represents 20 families who lost loved ones on 11 September 2001, confirmed the meeting and said he intended to take as many of the relatives as possible to see Holder in Washington. “We are hoping the allegations of hacking prove to be untrue but we want a thorough investigation to determine what happened,” he said. The allegation that News of the World reporters attempted to gain unauthorised access to victims’ voicemails was made in an article in the Mirror earlier this month. The paper said the journalists had approached a former New York police officer working as a private detective and asked him to do the hacking, which he declined to do. So far no evidence has emerged to corroborate the Mirror’s story but, should the allegations firm up, News Corp could face a rash of civil litigation from family members. Lawyers have begun preliminary discussions with relatives pointing out their legal options. “If there is something to the story, then there are a number of different claims that people could file,” said Mark Vlasic, a Washington-based lawyer and professor at Georgetown University. Vlasic said one possible legal recourse open to families would be to sue under the electronic communications and privacy act. Title 18 USC section 2701, which carries a minimum fine of $1,000 (£612) for every event proved, makes it unlawful to obtain unauthorised access to stored communications, including voicemail. Title 18 USC section 1030, barring unauthorised access to protected computers, could also be invoked in relation to the mainframe computers on which the phone companies store voicemails. Siegel said that he had pointed out to the families he represents that civil legal action could be open to them. Any attempt by News of the World reporters to gain access to voicemails, even if such an attempt were unsuccessful, could be liable to penalties. But Siegel said that the priority at this stage was to find out whether the allegations were true. “Family members are painfully going back to the period of 9/11 and trying to recall whether there were articles about their loved ones that could only have been written on the basis of hacking of calls or computers.” Sally Regenhard, who lost her firefighter son Christian at the World Trade Centre, said families were adopting a wait-and-see policy: “We just want to know what’s happening with the investigation.” Another victim’s relative, who asked not to be named, said she had been talking to a lawyer about a possible lawsuit. “Between Osama bin Laden’s death and the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in September, this is a very stressful time for us. If the phone-hacking allegations turn out to be true it would be very upsetting for us – it would be such a violation.” During his testimony to the UK parliament earlier this month Rupert Murdoch referred to the 9/11 phone-hacking claim and said “we have seen no evidence at all and as far as we know the FBI haven’t either”. But he added that he did not know whether News of the World employees or the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire could have taken it upon themselves to do the hacking. On Wednesday Piers Morgan, the former editor of the Daily Mirror, denied for the second time in a week that he printed stories obtained through phone hacking. CNN, which employs him as a chatshow host, issued the latest denial over comments Morgan made when he was on Radio 4′s Desert Island Discs. FBI United States Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World News Corporation Media business Daily Mirror Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Mystery solved: Utah’s “John Doe” inmate is a man who had gone missing from New Mexico. Phillip T. Beavers has been locked up for more than three weeks and has barely said a word to authorities, but after his case got more publicity his brother identified him, the AP reports….
Continue reading …The good news: Al-Qaeda is on the verge of total collapse, thanks to the killing of Osama bin Laden and punishing drone attacks that have killed more than 1,200 militants in Pakistan since 2004, reports the Washington Post . “We are within reach of rendering them … largely incapable of catastrophic…
Continue reading …
Business secretary Vince Cable announces first phase of bureaucracy tidy-up aimed at helping high street stores Retailers will no longer have to hand over addresses of TV buyers to the television licensing authorities as part of a red-tape overhaul. Nearly two-thirds of regulations specifically aimed at shop owners will be scrapped or reformed, as part of a bureaucratic tidying-up exercise by ministers. The business secretary, Vince Cable, announced the first phase of the government’s “Red Tape Challenge” and expressed hopes that lowering the age at which one can buy Christmas crackers, among other regulatory tweaks, would help restore confidence on the high street. “There is a very serious confidence problem on the high street. Making the business environment more friendly will hopefully make a difference,” said Cable. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said that 160 out of 257 regulations for retailers would disappear or be changed, including an amendment to the Wireless Telegraphy Act that obliges retailers to notify TV Licensing of any sales or rentals of television sets – the bane of generations of students. However, the changes must go to a public consultation first. Asda was among the retailers which called for the rule to be scrapped, because it forces staff to concentrate on form-filling rather than the shop floor. The BBC, which relies on the licence fee for most of its income, has not not objected. Asked to nominate the worst regulations he had come across, Cable said rules on sales of poisons, including fly spray and toilet cleaner, were subject to an overly strict regime. “All sales of acids are based on the impression that we are all Dr Crippens wanting to dispose of bodies,” said Cable. Cable’s department has pledged to look at simplifying guidelines for selling poisons. Shopkeepers agitating to mount a Valentine’s Day window display featuring lingerie and liqueur chocolates will no longer require an alcohol licence to do so under the proposals. Marks & Spencer complained that restrictions on liqueur chocolate sales had stymied a romantic display idea at one of its stores, helping persuade BIS officials that retailers should not have to apply for an alcohol licence before stocking cognac-infused truffles. The move will require a consultation because it is covered by the 2003 Alcohol Licensing Act, but ministers are confident it will be pushed through. Mark Prisk, the business minister, said: “The idea that we have to protect younger people from liqueur chocolates in this country is one that has to be got rid of.” Age restrictions also feature in the BIS proposals and include a planned reduction in the minimum age for acquiring Christmas crackers. The current limit of 16 years of age will be reduced to the European Union limit of 12. That proposal will also have to go to public consultation. The department is also looking at standard ID requirements for purchasing alcohol and cigarettes, such as in Scotland where proof of age has to come from either a passport, a driver’s licence or a government-approved proof-of-age card. Many regulations will be swept away in the repeals bill, which is due to enter parliament early next year. Those include the Trading with the Enemy Act, which contains provisions that bar UK companies from trading with states that the country is at war with. Nearly 100 amendments to the act that are still on the statute books that permit UK businesses to trade with countries that no longer exist, such as Yugoslavia, Siam and French Indo-China. Cable said the Red Tape Challenge would be extended to 25 more themes and sectors, including employment law, by next summer. Retail industry Vince Cable Asda Marks & Spencer Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
• Default could cost America triple-A credit rating • Barack Obama warns of economic ‘Armageddon’ • Threat grows of government shutdown next week Congress remained deadlocked over the debt crisis on Wednesday, with House Republicans unable to muster the votes needed to pass emergency legislation before next week’s deadline. Faced with a revolt by hardline members of his own party, House leader John Boehner was having to hastily rewrite a bill he proposed earlier in the week to cut $3 trillion (£1.83tn) in federal government spending. Boehner hopes to put his new bill to the vote on Thursday after being forced to cancel a planned vote because of lack of numbers. Although the Treasury may be able to conjure up a short-term solution to prevent default on Tuesday, the row and the failure of America to tackle its burgeoning debt problem could now lose the US its triple-A credit rating, a move that could have damaging consequences for the US economy and beyond. The country’s national debt reached its congressionally set $14.3tn ceiling on 16 May and Washington has since been forced to use spending and accounting adjustments, as well as higher-than-expected tax receipts, to continue operating normally, but it can only do so until 2 August. Without agreement, the US will probably become unable to pay all its bills some time the following week. Federal spending would have to be reduced by as much as 44% for the remainder of the month, forcing the treasury to decide whether to suspend social security benefits, defence spending or stop paying government employees. Finance and business leaders have warned that failure to raise the US debt ceiling by then would send shockwaves through the fragile world economy, while President Barack Obama has predicted that a default would trigger economic “Armageddon”. Boehner needs to secure 217 votes to get his bill through, a job made more difficult by a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) saying that the Republican leader’s bill would only reduce the deficit initially by $850bn, not the $1.2tn that Boehner had claimed. Hardline conservatives are demanding still bigger spending cuts. However, even if the bill were to be passed, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, promised that the Senate would kill it and Obama has said that he would veto it. A solution is most likely to come from negotiations between Reid and the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. Reid is proposing raising the debt ceiling from $14.3tn until after the 2012 elections, in return for immediate spending cuts of $1.7tn. But the CBO has also challenged Reid’s budget cuts. The office concluded that his plan would deliver $500bn less in deficit reduction than the $2.7tn Democratic lawmakers had said it would save over 10
Continue reading …There isn’t enough evidence linking working at Ground Zero to cancer to justify compensating 9/11 responders for cancer treatments, a federal review has concluded. The benefits-providing Zadroga Act that was signed into law earlier this year requires periodic reviews of any evidence of cancer, the New York Times reports. But…
Continue reading …‘Oldest bird’ Archaeopteryx knocked off its perch in controversial new study
July 27, 2011 No Comment
The fossil Archaeopteryx may not have been one of the earliest birds but just another feathered dinosaur, claim scientists Archaeopteryx, the famous icon of evolution and supposedly the oldest, most primitive bird on Earth, might not have been a bird after all, scientists say. The controversial claim, if confirmed, is something of a bombshell for researchers, who have viewed the evolution of birds and feathered flight through the lens of the species since it was discovered 150 years ago. The finding leaves palaeontologists in the awkward position of having to identify another creature as the oldest and original avian on which to base the story of birdlife. Archaeopteryx was discovered in 1861, just two years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. The spectacular fossils of an animal with the feathered wings of a bird, but the teeth and tail of a dinosaur, caused an immediate sensation in Victorian England where society was wrestling with the consequences of evolution through natural selection. Though descriptions of Archaeopteryx as a “missing link” are widely frowned upon by scientists, the creature became renowned as the most primitive bird on the planet. That view has now been challenged by researchers in China, who have tried to knock the feathered fossil off its perch in a reassessment of the bird-dinosaur family tree. Xing Xu at Linyi University and colleagues ran the fresh analysis after studying a new Archaeopteryx-like fossil bought from a dealer by the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, the world’s largest dinosaur museum . The fossil was likely excavated from the 155 million-year-old Tiaojishan Formation in eastern China. The chicken-sized creature, named Xiaotingia zhengi in honour of the scientist who established the museum as a repository for vertebrate fossils, shared several features with Archaeopteryx, including long, sturdy forelimbs that presumably allowed it to fly. But when Xu’s team reconstructed family trees to include Xiaotingia , they found the creature belonged not in the lineage of birds, but to a group of dinosaurs called deinonychosaurs. More strikingly, Archaeopteryx appeared in the same group, according to the study in Nature . Deinonychosaurs, such as the velociraptor, walked on two legs, ate meat and had viscious, retractable claws. The finding is tentative, but builds on doubts that have emerged over the special status of Archaeopteryx following the discovery of other bird-like dinosaurs and dinosaur-like birds over the past decade or so. In an accompanying article, Lawrence Witmer at Ohio University wrote: “There has been growing unease about the avian status of Archaeopteryx as, one by one, its ‘avian’ attributes (feathers, wishbone, three-fingered hand) started showing up in non-avian dinosaurs. Perhaps the time has come to finally accept that Archaeopteryx was just another small, feathered, bird-like theropod fluttering around in the Jurassic.” If Archaeopteryx was a dinosaur, this means flight evolved at least four times in vertebrates: in reptiles, birds, dinosaurs, and most recently in bats. Witmer adds that with Archaeopteryx dethroned, more recently discovered fossils, including Epidexipteryx , Jeholornis and Sapeornis , become candidates for the world’s oldest bird. On a cautionary note, he adds that the next feathered fossil unearthed in China could easily restore the premier status of Archaeopteryx. Paul Barrett, a dinosaur researcher at the Natural History Museum in London , said: “The overall picture of birds being descended from meat-eating dinosaurs is now very firmly established. This is an argument over a relatively small rearrangement of some of the twigs on the evolutionary tree close to the origin of birds. It doesn’t affect much of our big picture view of how birds came from dinosaurs, but some of the minutiae: the small changes that are important to the biology of the animals. “This part of the evolutionary tree is very sensitive to small changes in how we interpret the anatomy and the combination of anatomical features we see in these animals as they are discovered. As a result, the structure of that evolutionary tree is very unstable and can flip around. Maybe Archaeopteryx wasn’t on the direct ancestral line to birds, but was part of an early experimentation in how to build a bird-like body.” Dinosaurs Fossils Evolution Zoology Controversies in science Birds Animals China Ian Sample guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
John Boehner, leader of the House of Representatives, rewrites bill as America slides closer towards default territory The US Congress remained deadlocked over the debt crisis on Wednesday with Republicans in the House of Representatives unable to muster the votes needed to pass emergency legislation ahead of the deadline of Tuesday 2 August. House leader, John Boehner, faced with a revolt by hardline members of his own party, was having to hastily rewrite a bill he proposed earlier in the week to cut $3tn (£1.8tn) in federal government spending. He is hoping to put his new bill to the vote on Thursday after being forced to cancel a planned vote on Wednesday because of lack of numbers. The deepening internal divisions within Republican ranks add another layer to the uncertainty in Washington. Democratic and Republican leaders have so far been unable to reach any agreement on a deal to prevent America joining Ecuador, Ukraine and a handful of other countries that have defaulted in the last decade. Although the US treasury may be able to conjure up a short-term solution to prevent default on Tuesday, the row and the failure of the US to tackle its burgeoning debt problem could lose the US its triple-A credit rating, which would have damaging consequences for the country’s economy. Boehner needs to secure 217 votes to get his bill through, a job made more difficult by a report by the congressional budget office on Tuesday night that said his proposal would only reduce the deficit initially by $850bn, not $1.2tn as he had claimed. Hardline conservatives are demanding bigger cuts. Even if the bill was passed, the Democratic Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, promised the upper house would kill it and Barack Obama said he would veto it. A solution is likeliest to come from negotiations between Reid and the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. Reid is proposing raising the debt ceiling from $14.3tn until after the 2012 presidential elections in return for spending cuts of $1.7tn. John Boehner US Congress Barack Obama Republicans Democrats US politics United States US economy Global economy Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Lockerbie bomber has been spotted at a rally for Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi two years after he was freed from a Scottish prison because he was supposedly on the brink of death. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi can be seen seated in a wheelchair on a broadcast of the rally aired by…
Continue reading …What may have been the largest incursion by foreign troops onto US soil since the Japanese invasion of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands occurred in Texas yesterday. Four Humvees carrying a total of 33 Mexican soldiers accidentally strayed into US territory, crossing the boundary line on a bridge across the Rio Grande…
Continue reading …