CIA allowed access to bin Laden house

The Unites States' premier intelligence agency, the CIA has been granted permission by Pakistan to examine the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed. The CIA will send a forensics team, using sophisticated equipment, to search for al Qaeda materials that might have been hidden inside walls or
buried at the site, US officials said.

The CIA will now be able to examine the complex up close as opposed to using satellites, stealth drones and spies operating from a nearby safe house that was shuttered when bin Laden was killed.

US officials said the CIA team will scour the site for information and objects that may have been overlooked by American commandos during the raid or Pakistani security forces who secured the facility in the aftermath. "The assault team was there for only 40 minutes," a US official said.

CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell negotiated access to the Abbottabad site during a trip to Islamabad last week, when he met with the head of Pakistan's main intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, officials said.

The agreement is being viewed as a return to normalcy of relations between the CIA and ISI, strained since the American operation to kill bin Laden, and a series of recent ruptures between the CIA and its Pakistani counterpart.

Pakistan has also agreed to allow the CIA to examine materials that Pakistan's security forces have recovered from the compound, officials said. The agency has also asked Pakistan's spy agency, known as the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, for assistance in analyzing some of the records that were seized in the raid and brought to a CIA document exploitation facility in Northern Virginia.

In particular, US officials said that the CIA is seeking help in deciphering references to names of individuals and places. The intelligence gathered from the bin Laden compound is being billed as the the largest stash ever recovered relating to al Qaeda or any other terrorist network.

The data includes dozens of computer storage devices as well as huge piles of notes.

Even so, US officials said they want to be sure that other material has not been overlooked. The CIA plans involve the use of infrared cameras and other devices capable of identifying materials embedded behind walls, inside safes or underground.

One reason why Pakistan may have allowed the CIA access is because of lack of such high grade equipmen.

The agency also has equipment that could be used to recover information that has been burned or otherwise damaged.

The CIA has already been given access to three of bin Laden's wives who were taken into custody by Pakistan after the raid. But officials said none of them has been cooperative with US interrogators or provided meaningful intelligence.

Source:http://www.hindustantimes.com

News and jubilation spread fast after Bin Laden's death

Reporting from New York— 

"Justice served."

"We got him!"

"I don't believe it."

"I'm glad he's dead."

There were joyful cries of victory. There was skepticism from those who demanded to see a corpse. There were huge crowds waving U.S. flags outside the White House, and people erupting into chants of "USA!" on the dark streets around the former World Trade Center in New York. And there were the bitter words of a mother still mourning the son lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

There was no shortage of reaction across the nation to the news late Sunday of Osama bin Laden's death, but in the city hit hardest by the attacks, joy at the news was tempered with anguish over the loved ones lost a decade ago, and the time it took to end the reign of the world's most wanted terrorist.

There was also a tacit acknowledgment that the killing of Bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan could have repercussions.

In the minutes after the announcement came from the White House, though, there were few signs of worry — not even inTimes Square, where exactly one year earlier a Pakistani-born immigrant angered over the U.S. war in Afghanistan had tried to blow up a car bomb. On this night, passersby clambered atop a New York fire truck as the news blazed in giant letters across the neon billboards surrounding the square.

A few miles south, the darkened streets around the former World Trade Center came to life as crowds surged toward the massive construction site, blasting horns and singing "God Bless America." It began as a slow trickle, then grew to hundreds. Some men shimmied up a light pole and popped corks from champagne bottles over the swelling crowd. Police blared sirens and blasted bagpipes through loudspeakers.

"There's no better place in the country to be right now," said David Polyansky, 40, who rejoined the Marines after the Sept. 11 attacks and served a year in Iraq. He now lives near the former World Trade Center.

The news triggered a massive emotional release in Washington, where a spontaneous celebration erupted on Pennsylvania Avenue along the White House fence. A mostly young crowd ecstatically waved flags, cheered and sang the national anthem, its numbers growing from dozens to hundreds and beyond as midnight passed.

People sprinted from around the downtown Washington area to join in the jubilation, which took on the air of a city celebrating a professional sports championship.

"I was watching on CNN and just the excitement, I couldn't miss it," said Derek Guizado, 25, aGeorgetown law student originally from Los Alamitos. "I had to come down here for this. This is such a big moment."

Participants and commentators could not avoid the comparison to the scene 10 years ago, when the same streets were gripped in fear as the terrorist attacks unfolded.

It also was impossible not to contrast the jubilation in the streets with the quiet contemplation expressed by relatives of those who lost their lives in the attacks, such as Jay Winuk, whose brother, Glenn, died at the World Trade Center.

"I don't know if we'll ever quite feel closure," Winuk said. "It's hard when you think about it. I don't know what my brothers' last moments were like. We only got partial remains back. How does that bring closure?"

"There's no such thing as closure," said Rosemary Cain, whose firefighter son, George C. Cain, died that day while doing his job. "There would be closure if my doorbell would ring and my son would be standing at my front door," she told NY1, the city's all-news channel, making no attempt to hide the bitterness at her loss. "I'm glad he's dead," she said of Bin Laden.

Paula Berry, whose husband died at the World Trade Center, said her 17-year-old son, Reed, put it beautifully when he said that Bin Laden's death would not bring his father back or restore their lost years. "But it does ensure that [Bin Laden] will never play a role in taking the life away from an innocent person," Reed told his mother.

Most family members reached said they were still too stunned to fully absorb the news. Some, like Winuk, said they looked forward to hearing more details of the terrorist leader's death. Others, like Pat Shanower, whose son, Navy Cmdr. Dan F. Shanower, 40, was killed in the Pentagon, said relief at Bin Laden's death was tinged with worry for the future.

"It's one step, I hope, for an eventual peace for our country," she said, adding, "I don't think this is the end. … I'm sure there are people that are going to fill Bin Laden's shoes now."

Others said it would take time to feel true relief.

Outside the homes of those still mourning the loss of loved ones, though, nobody needed time to start celebrating.

In Tuscaloosa, Ala., a man drove through the parking lot of the Wal-Mart with his window down, shouting at strangers. "Osama bin laden's dead!" he yelled, a huge smile on his face. "We got him!"

In Los Angeles, about 25 USC students were just finishing a ceremonial dinner at the campus Chabad House when whispers began making their way around the table and diners became focused on their phones. "Osama bin Laden is dead! It's on Twitter," one student finally said out loud. The room erupted in cheers and high fives.

To the south in Long Beach, Del Warren, whose 28-year-old son, Kyle, was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan in July, said he started tearing up when his son's widow texted him with the news. "It's fabulous," Warren said, glued to the TV. "That's the reason my son was over there. This is just huge."

At an upscale Italian restaurant in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., a party asked its waitress whether she'd heard the news of Bin Laden's death.

"I thought we killed him a long time ago," she said, and glanced at her note pad. The diners chuckled. "We should have strung him up," one of them said.
Source:http://www.latimes.com

Tenth set of human remains in New York point to serial killer

New York - Police investigators found two new sets of human bones and a skull as they were investigating the deaths of up to nine people whose remains were found along a beach on New York's Long Island, news reports said Tuesday.

The investigators suspected a serial killer or killers who were targetting prostitutes because at least four of the dead were known as 'escorts.'

News reports said the discoveries could lead to one of the biggest cases of homicide in New York after David Berkowitz, dubbed Son of Sam, killed six people in 1977 and Joel Rifkin, who confessed to 17 killings in 1993.

The investigators found the ninth and tenth remains and a skull on Monday as they were combing a stretch of Jones Beach waterfront on Long Island. The gruesome discoveries began in December.

'We have eight sets of (bones) in Suffolk County, we have two more now in Nassau,' Police spokesman Lieutenant Kevin Smith was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying. 'It's all startling. We have a lot of work to do.'

The previous eight remains were found under thick underbrush along the Oak Beach waterfront, which is situated on the Ocean leading to the popular Jones Beach where crowds of sunbathers converge during summer.

Source:http://www.monstersandcritics.com

Chemical plant blaze at Moerdijk sparks Dutch alert

Carcinogenic chemical material is said to be stored at the Chemie-Pack plant

Southern areas of the Netherlands are on the top state of alert after a blaze at a chemical plant near Rotterdam sent out a thick plume of smoke.

The cloud from the fire at Moerdijk was floating north and had reached the city of Dordrecht, Dutch media said.

Some 400,000 litres of carcinogenic material are stored at the Chemie-Pack plant, De Telegraaf says.

There were no reports of casualties and officials said it was unclear if toxic fumes had been released.

The flames were said to be up to 40m (131ft) high and there were reports of repeated, loud explosions.

Residents in Dordrecht were being warned to keep windows and doors shut.

Sarah Raymond, a BBC News website reader who lives in Dordrecht, said people in the area were frightened as they were unsure about any potential risks to their health.

"It is quite scary. The sky is thick with black smoke and we still don't know if it is toxic or not.

"There is a very unpleasant, chemical smell in the air. I could see the chemical site from my window at work this afternoon across the water and I only live two miles from there.

"But we have not been given any information from the authorities and there is no number to call to find out more. It is frightening."

The Dutch government set up a co-ordination centre for emergency services and southern areas of the province of South Holland were placed on their highest state of alert.

Chemie-Pack, which is about 40km (25 miles) south of the port of Rotterdam, processes and packs products for the chemical industry, the company says on its website.

All 50 Chemie-Pack staff were safe, according to local officials.

A Shell refinery in the Moerdijk industrial zone was not affected by the fire, a spokesman told Reuters news agency.

Discovery gunman shot, in custody

(Explosive detonates; three hostages safe, Maryland police say)

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Police shot a gunman who held three hostages for several hours Wednesday at the Discovery Communications building in Silver Spring, Md., authorities said. They said the hostages were safe and the gunman was in custody.

James J. Lee is seen in a booking mugshot from 2008 on disorderly conduct in Montgomery County, Md.

Police said the gunman’s condition was unknown. At least one explosive device went off when he was shot, and other explosive devices could still be in the building in Montgomery County in suburban Washington, D.C., they said.

Montgomery County police Chief Thomas Manger said no one was believed to have been injured beyond the gunman.

People on the eighth and ninth floors of the building in the close-in suburb of Washington were safely evacuated, as were children in the Discovery Kids Place day care center, police said, adding that nobody was known to have been injured.

Law enforcement authorities told NBC News they believed the man was James Jay Lee or James Jae Lee, 43, a longtime protester at the building who was sentenced to six months of supervised probation for disorderly conduct in March 2008.

“The good thing is we have the outside of the building secure, we’re talking with him, and he wants to talk with us,” Montgomery County police Capt. Paul Starks said.

Source:http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Presidential hopeful Wyclef Jean 'in hiding' after death threats

Wyclef Jean has gone into hiding following alleged death threats as he awaits an official announcement on whether he can run in Haiti’s November’s presidential election.

The ex—Fugees star said he was at a secret location in Haiti in defiance of threats to leave the country but revealed few details about who may be responsible for the intimidation.

Jean’s presidential hopes hang in the balance as electoral officials prepare to announce whether he is eligible to run in what promises to be a tumultuous contest with dozens of candidates.

A list of candidates who meet constitutional requirements to lead the earthquake-hit country - requirements that could disqualify Jean - was due to be published on Tuesday but officials said several unnamed candidates remained under review and that the announcement would not be made until Friday (20AUG).

In a series of emails to the Associated Press, the 40-year-old rapper said he did not know whether the electoral commission, known as the CEP, would approve his candidacy but that there had been questions about whether he met residency requirements: “We await the CEP decision but the laws of the Haitian constitution must be respected.” His lawyers were at the commission’s headquarters seeking to argue his case, he said. In the same emails he announced he was in hiding but did not elaborate on the nature of the threats.

If approved, Jean will be a frontrunner, but the fact he has lived in the US since he was a boy could put a premature end to a campaign launched two weeks ago with fanfare, dancers and hype.

Legal requirements and political intrigue - few believe the decision will be based on entirely technical reasons - could sink his hopes of swapping a recording studio for power in a broken country.

Jean was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, outside the capital, Port-au-Prince. At the age of nine he moved with his family to New York, then New Jersey, and made only fleeting return visits to the Caribbean.

Opponents said his history violated constitutional requirements that a candidate must have his or her “habitual residence” in Haiti and have resided in the country for at least five consecutive years before election day. Jean said his appointment as a roving ambassador by President Rene Preval in 2007 exempted him from residency requirements.

The race has drawn 34 candidates from diverse backgrounds, including veteran political operators and one-man band neophytes.

“This is a very volatile situation. The easiest thing they can say is ‘You are all candidates’ But I don’t know if they will do that,” Robert Fatton, a Haiti-—born political expert at the University of Virginia, told the news website Haitian Truth. “It’s going to be fascinating to see how many are in the race after 17 August.” The Unity party of Preval, who is stepping down as president, has backed Jude Celestin, head of the government’s primary construction firm, as his successor.

The party had been expected to back a former prime minister, Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who instead registered with a different party, the Mobilisation for Haitian Progress. The horse-trading suggested that murky deals as much as votes could determine the election outcome.

The musician, himself, has batted away doubts about his suitability for office. “Celebrity has taught me that politics is politricks. The fact that I’m coming with this with fresh eyes but not naive ears, I think that’s a good start.”

Source:http://www.thehindu.com

275 fires registered in Luhansk region over a week.

Luhansk, August 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Over the past week, a total of 275 fires of various types have broken out in Luhansk region, head of Regional Governor Valeriy Holenko has said.

"In these extreme conditions, our main goal is to prevent the situation developing into a state of emergency," the press service of Luhansk regional administration quoted Holenko as saying.

To prevent the emergence of wildfires, mobile teams of law enforcers and environmental officials will be monitoring the situation and will conduct checks on compliance with fire safety regulations in the region, the press service said.

As reported, Luhansk region has sent 27 rescuers to Russia to help battle forest fire s in Voronezh region.
Source: http://www.kyivpost.com

Skepticism widens over Wyclef Jean’s presidential run

By Liz Goodwin

Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean officially launched his bid to run Haiti only a day ago, but he's already facing criticism from a fellow celebrity-activist — and he's facing a onetime bandmate's embarrassing endorsement of Jean's chief rival, too.

Actor Sean Penn, whose charity has been running a Haitian survivor camp of 50,000 since the killer earthquake, said on CNN that he's "suspicious" of Jean's bid.

"This is somebody who's going to receive an enormous amount of support from the United States, and I have to say I'm very suspicious of it, simply because he, as an ambassador at large, has been virtually silent. For those of us in Haiti, he has been a nonpresence," he said.

Penn also brought up allegations that Jean mishandled $400,000 of the $9 million he raised for his charity, Yele Haiti, after the quake, and mentioned the "vulgar entourage of vehicles" in which Jean traveled in the country.

Jean stepped down from the foundation before announcing his run in a glitch-filled interview Thursday night with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He told CNN the youth of Haiti want him to run.

"I just want Sean Penn to fully understand that I am a Haitian, born in Haiti, and I've been coming to my country ever since a child," Jean told the Associated Press in an interview (the Penn section comes about half a minute in, at the 0:36 mark)

According to the AP story, Jean continued: "He might just want to pick up the phone and meet, so he fully understands the man."

The Smoking Gun uncovered this week that Jean owes over $2 million in back taxes to the IRS. (The Upshot has a guide to the many financial scandals dogging Jean.)

Meanwhile, Jean's own former bandmate Pras, who was in the Fugees with Jean and Lauryn Hill, endorsed Jean's opponent in a stone-cold statement. "I endorse Michel Martell as the next president of Haiti because he is the most competent candidate for the job," Pras said.

But before voters weigh in on questions of relative competence, Haiti's election board will have to decide whether Jean qualifies for the job. To run for president, you must have lived in Haiti for the five consecutive years before the election and never have held foreign citizenship. Jean moved to the United States when he was 9, and the AP says that by most accounts he has not fulfilled the residency requirement.

Jean's wealth — regardless of any financial improprieties — could either be a boon for his campaign in the poverty-stricken country or a reminder of how different, and possibly out of touch, he is compared with the average Haitian. "His estimated annual income of up to $18 million is more than 13,000 times more than the average Haitian sees in a year — assuming that person even has a job," the Associated Press points out.

The election is scheduled for November.

Source:http://news.yahoo.com

Plane Crash in Pakistan Kills All 152 On Board

By MUNIR AHMED and ASIF SHAHZAD, Associated Press Writers 

ISLAMABAD – A passenger jet crashed into the hills surrounding Pakistan's capital amid poor weather Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board and blazing a path of devastation strewn with body parts and twisted metal wreckage.
Initial Interior Ministry reports that five people survived the Airblue crash were wrong, said Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of the Capital Development Authority, which deals with emergencies and reports to the ministry.
"The situation at the site of the crash is heartbreaking," Elahi told The Associated Press. "It is a great tragedy, and I confirm it with pain that there are no survivors."

Local TV footage showed twisted metal wreckage hanging from trees and scattered across the ground on a bed of broken branches. Fire was visible and smoke rose from the scene as a helicopter hovered above. The army said it was sending special troops to aid the search.
"I'm seeing only body parts," Dawar Adnan, a rescue worker with the Pakistan Red Crescent, told the AP by telephone from the crash site. "This is a very horrible scene. We have scanned almost all the area, but there is no chance of any survivors."
The search effort was hampered by muddy conditions and smoldering wreckage that authorities were having trouble extinguishing by helicopter, Adnan said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said the government does not suspect terrorism.
The plane left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for a two-hour scheduled flight to Islamabad and was trying to land during cloudy and rainy weather, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official.
Airblue is a private service based in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, and Wednesday's flight was believed to be carrying mostly Pakistanis.
Rescue workers scouring the heavily forested hills recovered 50 bodies from the wreckage, said Ramzan Sajid, spokesman for the Capital Development Authority.
"The plane was about to land at the Islamabad airport when it lost contact with the control tower, and later we learned that the plane had crashed," said George, adding the model was an Airbus 321 and the flight number was ED202.
Rescue workers scouring the heavily forested hills recovered 50 bodies from the wreckage, said Ramzan Sajid, spokesman for the Capital Development Authority.
The crash site covered a large area on both sides of the hills, including a section behind Faisal Mosque, one of Islamabad's most prominent landmarks, and not far from the Daman-e-Koh resort.
At the Islamabad airport, hundreds of friends and relatives of those on board the flight swarmed ticket counters desperately seeking information. A large cluster of people also surrounded a passenger list posted near the Airblue ticket counter.
"We don't know who survived, who died, who is injured," said Zulfikar Ghazi, who was waiting to receive four relatives. "We are in shock."
Saqlain Altaf told Pakistan's ARY news channel he was on a family outing in the hills when he saw the plane looking unsteady in the air. "The plane had lost balance, and then we saw it going down," he said, adding he heard the crash.
Officials at first thought it was a small plane, but later revised that. George said 146 passengers were on the flight along with six crew members.
The Pakistan Airline Pilot Association said the plane appeared to have strayed off course, possibly because of the poor weather.
Raheel Ahmed, a spokesman for the airline, said an investigation would be launched into the cause of the crash. The plane had no known technical issues, and the pilots did not send any emergency signals, Ahmed said.
Airbus said it would provide technical assistance to Pakistani authorities responsible for the investigation. The aircraft was initially delivered in 2000, and was leased to Airblue in January 2006. It accumulated about 34,000 flight hours during some 13,500 flights, it said.
The last major plane crash in Pakistan was in July 2006 when a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan International Airlines slammed into a wheat field on the outskirts of the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing all 45 people on board.
Airblue flies within Pakistan as well as internationally to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United Kingdom.

The only previous recorded accident for Airblue, a carrier that began flying in 2004, was a tail-strike in May 2008 at Quetta airport by one of the airline's Airbus 321 jets. There were no casualties and damage was minimal, according to the U.S.-based Aviation Safety Network.
The Airbus 320 family of medium-range jets, which includes the 321 model that crashed Wednesday, is one of the most popular in the world, with about 4,000 jets delivered since deliveries began in 1988.
Twenty-one of the aircraft have been lost in accidents since then, according to the Aviation Safety Network's database. The deadliest was a 2007 crash at landing in Sao Paolo by Brazil's TAM airline, in which all 187 people on board perished, along with 12 others on the ground.
Source:http://news.yahoo.com

'US more likely to attack Iran'

Former CIA head Hayden says military action could be justifiable.

A US military strike on Iran has become more likely and could be justifiable in the future, former CIA chief Michael Hayden said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union.

“My personal view is that Iran left to its own devices will get itself to that step right below a nuclear weapon," said Hayden, "and frankly that will be as destabilizing as their actually having a weapon.”

The former CIA director stated that an attack on Iran had not originally been a serious option, but in light of Iran's intensified pursuit of nuclear materials, the military option "may not be the worst of all possible outcomes.”

The UN, US and EU all recently passed sanctions against Iran in an attempt to deter the Islamic Republic from continuing to enrich uranium. The Western powers fear Teheran will use the enriched uranium to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran insists that the program's aims are peaceful.

US officials have said military action remains an option if sanctions fail to deter Iran. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday after a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, that Iran might hold talks on the country's nuclear program with the EU in early September. Davutoglu called the news a positive step forward in solving the crisis diplomatically.

Source:http://www.jpost.com

White baby born to black Nigerian parents

A blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girl born to two black parents with no known white ancestry will undergo full genetic tests.

UK-born Nmachi Ihegboro was born on Sunday with a full head of blonde-hair and white skin, despite having no known Caucasian ancestry from her Nigerian-born parents, the Sun reported.

The devout Christian couple were astonished to discover they had given birth to a daughter of Caucasian appearance, describing her as a "miracle baby".

Geneticist Dr Mark Thomas said the odds of the couple giving birth to a white, non-albino baby were between "many millions to one and a million to one".

"I suspect there's been a mixture of a mutation, like albinism, combined with a dormant white gene," he said.

Genetic experts are now studying Nmachi to determine why she has such European features but her father Ben said it doesn't quite matter how the baby came about.

BP chokes off the oil leak; now begins the wait

By COLLEEN LONG and HARRY R. WEBER

NEW ORLEANS – BP finally choked off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday — 85 days and up to 184 million gallons after the crisis unfolded — then began a tense 48 hours of watching to see whether the capped-off well would hold or blow a new leak.
To the relief of millions of people along the Gulf Coast, the big, billowing brown cloud of crude at the bottom of the sea disappeared from the underwater video feed for the first time since the disaster began in April, as BP closed the last of three openings in the 75-ton cap lowered onto the well earlier this week.
"Finally!" said Renee Brown, a school guidance counselor visiting Pensacola Beach, Fla., from London, Ky. "Honestly, I'm surprised that they haven't been able to do something sooner, though."
But the company stopped far short of declaring victory over the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and one of the nation's worst environmental disasters, a catastrophe that has killed wildlife and threatened the livelihoods of fishermen, restaurateurs, and oil industry workers from Texas to Florida.
Now begins a waiting period during which engineers will monitor pressure gauges and watch for signs of leaks elsewhere in the well. The biggest risk: Pressure from the oil gushing out of the ground could fracture the well and make the leak even worse, causing oil to spill from other spots on the sea floor.
Ultimately, the cap may have to be opened up, allowing oil to spill into the sea again.
"For the people living on the Gulf, I'm certainly not going to guess their emotions," BP vice president Kent Wells said. "I hope they're encouraged there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. But we have to be careful. Depending on what the test shows us, we may need to open this well back up."
The news elicited joy mixed with skepticism from wary Gulf Coast residents following months of false starts, setbacks and failed attempts. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley's face lit up when he heard the oil flow had stopped.
"That's great. I think a lot of prayers were answered today," he said.
"I don't believe that. That's a lie. It's a (expletive) lie," said Stephon LaFrance, an oysterman in Louisiana's oil-stained Plaquemines Parish who has been out of work for weeks. "I don't believe they stopped that leak. BP's trying to make their self look good."
President Barack Obama called it a positive sign, but cautioned: "We're still in the testing phase."
The stoppage came 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes after the first report April 20 of an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers. Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons spilled into the Gulf, according to government estimates.
The skepticism comes after a string of failed attempts by BP to contain the leak, including the use of a giant concrete-and-steel box that became clogged with ice-like crystals; a colossal stopper and siphon tube that trapped very little oil; and an effort to jam the well by pumping in mud and shredded rubber.
Wells said the oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT after engineers gradually dialed back the amount of crude escaping through the last of three vents in the cap, an 18-foot-high metal stack of pipes and valves.
On the video feed, the violently churning cloud of oil and gas coming out of a narrow tube thinned, and tapered off. Suddenly, there were a few puffs of oil, surrounded by cloudy dispersant BP was pumping on top. Then, there was nothing.
"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.
The cap is designed to stop oil from flowing into the sea, either by bottling it up inside the well, or capturing it and piping it to ships on the surface. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the disaster, said if the cap holds, it will probably be used to pipe oil to the surface, with the option of employing it to shut the well completely if a hurricane threatens.
Even if it works, the cap is not a permanent fix, and not the end of the crisis by any means. BP is drilling two relief wells so it can pump mud and cement into the leaking well in hopes of plugging it permanently by mid-August. After that, the Gulf Coast faces a monumental cleanup and restoration that could take years.
BP stock, which has mainly tumbled since the spill began, closed nearly 8 percent higher on the New York Stock Exchange after the news.
Steve Shepard, Gulf Coast chairman of the Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club, said: "I think it's a little premature to say it's definitely over. They've gotten our hopes up so many times before that in my mind I don't think it's going to be over until Christmas."
Nine-year-old Lena Durden threw up her hands in jubilation when her mother told her the oil was stopped.
"God, that's wonderful," said Yvonne Durden, a Mobile-area native who now lives in Seattle and brought her daughter to the coast for a visit. "We came here so she could swim in the water and see it in case it's not here next time."
Randall Luthi, president of the Washington-based National Ocean Industries Association, a national trade group representing the offshore oil industry, said: "This is by far the best news we've heard in 86 days. You can bet that industry officials and their families are taking a big sigh here."
Source:http://news.yahoo.com

G20 arrests now tally 550

Toronto endures 2nd day of summit tensions

Police fired at least half a dozen rubber bullets at protesters in Toronto's east end on Sunday afternoon, arresting several people as the city remained on edge a day after a downtown rampage by militant activists.

By early afternoon Sunday, 550 people had been arrested over the two days, 480 of them during the most violent protests on Saturday.

A group of protesters moves along Queen Street East in Toronto, heading for the police detention centre nearby. (Cheryl Krawchuk/CBC)

The police action in the east end began after about 150 protesters started staging a peaceful gathering outside the makeshift G20 police detention centre at Eastern and Pape avenues, while police in riot gear looked on.

At one point, plainclothes police arrived, entered the crowd and began to arrest several people.

"They knew who they were looking for," said the CBC's Bill Gillespie. "These are trained police snatch squads using intelligence on finding suspected troublemakers."

At the same time, police formed a line in front of the crowd, urging the protesters to "move back." They then opened fire with rubber bullets, Gillespie said. The crowd began to move away from the detention centre area, returning north to Queen Steet East, he said.

Meanwhile, downtown traffic was tied up in the heart of the city for a time as a group of cyclists staged a protest, moving through normally busy arteries such as Yonge Street in the downtown core. The rally, promoted as a "festive parade" in support of rights for cyclists, was one of several afternoon anti-G20 events.

Tim Middleton and his wife were seen towing their children, Emeth, 3, and Istra, 5, in carts behind their bikes. Middleton told CBC News that a police officer had warned his family to "stay back" in case of tear gas, but he and his wife thought the situation was safe and decided to ride on.

Other gatherings included a prayer vigil at St. James Anglican Cathedral at King and Church streets, and a demonstration at Bruce Mackey Park in the east end, not far from Jimmy Simpson Park where a morning rally was held.

Earlier in the day, dozens of people were arrested at the University of Toronto.

Black clothing, weapons found

About 70 people were rounded up in the morning after police found street-type weapons and black clothing hidden in bushes. It's believed the bricks were to be used by anarchists who caused widespread damage on Saturday.

Several handcuffed people were seen being taken into waiting police buses or, in at least one instance, a court services vehicle.

One man dressed in black told CBC News: "I was there to peacefully protest."

"We were sleeping," another man said as he was escorted into a police bus.

Const. Rob McDonald told reporters it was his understanding that people from various places across Canada have been arrested.

"They were found in possession of bricks and other items that could compromise the safety of the citizens of Toronto."

Four other people were arrested in the early morning after they were caught coming out of a city sewer in the financial district on Queen Street West between Yonge and Bay streets.

Toronto police spokesman Sgt. Tim Burrows told CBC News that the four were arrested 2:25 a.m. ET "while leaving a maintenance hole cover, after being in the underground infrastructure of the tunnels."

Burrows said no explosives were found and "the security plan is well intact."

Elsewhere, a heavy police presence continued in the downtown area near the convention centre, a day after dozens of businesses, as well as police cars and other vehicles, were damaged.

In many parts of the downtown core, stores remain completely boarded up. Many of them on Yonge Street, including several jewelry stores, were deserted and covered up with plywood after being vandalized in Saturday's melee.

Most of the people walking around in the morning seemed to be tourists trying to understand what had happened, and police, CBC News Natasha Fatah reported.

The demonstration Saturday split into two parts, as protesters from a variety of causes marched while so-called Black Bloc anarchists — known for violent confrontation with authorities — tried repeatedly to break into the secure zone where leaders of the G20 are meeting.

Police moved to block the militants, who then smashed windows and spray-painted walls. Four police cars were set alight and hospitals and the Eaton Centre shopping mall were locked down.

Public transit bus, streetcar and subway service, along with the GO commuter train system, resumed normal operations on Sunday, after being partially closed down a day earlier due to the violence.

Source:http://www.cbc.ca

Swedish princess weds amid controversy

The world's biggest international news agencies declined to cover the wedding of Sweden's crown princess and her fitness trainer Saturday after a dispute over the release of television images of the event.

The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters argued that restrictions by Sweden's national broadcaster would mean many viewers in Europe and North America would not see video images of the wedding until many hours — for some an entire day — after Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling took their vows.

The three agencies jointly issued a protest to the royal household and broadcaster SVT, calling the access restrictions unreasonable. When no resolution was reached on the video issue, the three agencies decided to withdraw coverage altogether.

"The restrictions of this newsworthy event apply only to video, but if our video coverage is unreasonably restricted, we cannot cover the event in any format," said Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor of AP. "No text stories and no photographs."

A press statement from Reuters said it was withdrawing from coverage due to the dispute. "Reuters regrets this course of action. However, Reuters remains committed to press freedom and protecting the interests and coverage rights of our global client base," the statement said.

In an advisory to clients several hours before the ceremony, AFP said it would not cover the event "due to restrictions by Swedish public television SVT."

The Swedish news agency TT quoted SVT's Director of Communications Helga Baagoes as saying, "They've got a nerve." Baagoes could not be reached for further comment.

The wedding was the biggest story of the day in Nordic countries, where it dominated several channels.

The decision not to cover it has been noted by regional news agencies, on the radio, and on media websites, which point out that it will limit dissemination of the news outside Europe.

SVT was given exclusive access to the wedding itself and imposed tight limits on allowing video of the vows to be distributed outside of Sweden. The agencies argued that the wedding is a state event of national and social significance, and should be treated as a news event — with access afforded on reasonable and timely terms.

"The royal wedding does not fall into the category of sport or entertainment. It is an event of historical importance and coverage of it should not be made subject to restrictions and commercial charges more commonly associated with private, sponsor-controlled events of that nature," said Nicole Courtney-Leaver, an executive for Reuters, in a letter on behalf of the agencies to the royal court.

SVT barred the agencies from immediately sending any video to commercial channels around Europe and North America and told them they could make use of a brief edited segment of the ceremony only for 48 hours.

Victoria, 32, and Westling, 36, exchanged vows in Stockholm Cathedral on Saturday — the same date the princess' father King Carl XVI Gustaf wed Queen Silvia 34 years ago — in front of nearly 1,000 royals and dignitaries from across the world.

It was the first royal wedding in Europe since 2008, when Denmark's Prince Joachim wed Marie Cavallier of France.

Source:http://news.yahoo.com

N.Korea warns it could turn Seoul into 'sea of flame'

By Park Chan-Kyong (AFP)

SEOUL — North Korea Saturday threatened to attack loudspeakers set up to broadcast South Korean propaganda and said it could turn Seoul "into a sea of flame" as tensions flared over the sinking of a warship.
The North's General Staff of the Korean People's Army made the threat in response to Seoul setting up the speakers at 11 locations along the tense border to resume anti-Pyongyang broadcasts which have been suspended since 2004.
"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK (North Korea) will launch an all-out military strike to blow up the group's means for the psychological warfare," it said in a statement.
"It should bear in mind that the military retaliation of the DPRK is a merciless strike foreseeing even the turn of Seoul, the stronghold of the group of traitors, into a sea of flame," it said.

S.Korea recently put up loudspeakers in 11 locations along the tense border to resume broadcasts

Tensions are high after a multinational investigation said last month a submarine from the North torpedoed a 1,200-tonne South Korean corvette near the disputed sea border in the Yellow Sea, with Pyongyang angrily denying responsibility.
The installation of the loudspeakers amounted to "a direct declaration of a war" and a "flagrant violation" of the inter-Korean declaration for peace and reconciliation signed in 2000, the North's statement went on.
"Therefore, the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will launch an all-out military strike to blow up the group's means for the psychological warfare," it said.
The North has repeatedly threatened to strike down the loudspeakers if Seoul goes ahead with the broadcasts.
The statement, published by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, described the loudspeakers as "a hideous provocative act of infringing upon the dignity and supreme interests of the DPRK".
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told parliament Friday that Seoul and Washington had agreed that the broadcasts should not be resumed before the UN Security Council discusses the sinking.
A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman told AFP there was no unusual movement of North Korean troops deployed along the border despite the threat.

N.Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (centre) is pictured during a recent visit to a fruit farm near Pyongyang

Another Joint Chiefs of Staff official told Yonhap news agency that South Korean soldiers were on alert against possible provocation.
The two Koreas stopped decades of propaganda warfare in 2004 as relations thawed following the first summit of their leaders in 2000.
They agreed in 2004 to halt the official propaganda to ease relations, although the North still complains strongly about private Seoul groups which launch anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the tightly guarded frontier.
On Friday, the North warned of "merciless" measures against the South for referring to the UN Security Council to censure the communist state over the sinking.
A spokesman from its powerful National Defence Commission, chaired by leader Kim Jong-Il, warned the UN of "serious" consequences for peace if it debates the sinking without letting the North's investigators examine the evidence.
North Korea accuses Washington and Seoul of a "smear campaign" to fake evidence of its involvement and says reprisals already announced by the South, including a trade suspension, could spark war.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the end of the 1950-1953 conflict, and each waged a cross-border propaganda campaign during and after the Cold War.
Source:http://www.google.com

Mandela relative killed after World Cup concert

By DONNA BRYSON Associated Press Writer 

JOHANNESBURG — Nelson Mandela's 13-year-old great-granddaughter was killed in a car crash on the way home from a concert in Soweto on the eve of the World Cup, his office said Friday.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said Zenani Mandela died in a one-car accident after attending the World Cup kickoff concert at the Orlando Stadium.

The foundation said later Mandela would not attend Friday's World Cup opening ceremony in Johannesburg, dashing South Africans' hopes the frail 91-year-old former president would make a rare appearance. Mandela was "torn up" by the accident, the foundation added.

Source:http://www.chron.com

This Shoe Had Prada Beat by 5,500 Years

Think of it as a kind of prehistoric Prada: Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the world’s oldest known leather shoe.
Perfectly preserved under layers of sheep dung (who needs cedar closets?), the shoe, made of cowhide and tanned with oil from a plant or vegetable, is about 5,500 years old, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, scientists say. Leather laces crisscross through numerous leather eyelets, and it was worn on the right foot; there is no word on the left shoe.

The perfectly preserved 5,500-year-old shoe that was discovered in a cave in Armenia

While the shoe more closely resembles an L. L.Bean-type soft-soled walking shoe than anything by Jimmy Choo, “these were probably quite expensive shoes, made of leather, very high quality,” said one of the lead scientists, Gregory Areshian, of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

It could have fit a small man or a teenager, but was most likely worn by a woman with roughly size 7 feet. (According to the Web site www.celebrityshoesize.com, that would be slightly roomy for Sarah Jessica Parker, whose Manolo Blahniks are size 6 ½, and a tad tight for Sarah Palin, who, during the 2008 campaign, wore red Double Dare pumps by Naughty Monkey, size 7 ½.)

The shoe was discovered by scientists excavating in a huge cave in Armenia, part of a treasure trove of artifacts they found that experts say provide unprecedented information about an important and sparsely documented era: the Chalcolithic period or Copper Age, when humans are believed to have invented the wheel, domesticated horses and produced other innovations.

Along with the shoe, the cave, designated Areni-1, has yielded evidence of an ancient winemaking operation, and caches of what may be the oldest known intentionally dried fruits: apricots, grapes, prunes. The scientists, financed by the National Geographic Society and other institutions, also found skulls of three adolescents (“subadults,” in archaeology-speak) in ceramic vessels, suggesting ritualistic or religious practice; one skull, Dr. Areshian said, even contained desiccated brain tissue older than the shoe, about 6,000 years old.

“It’s sort of a Pompeii moment, except without the burning,” said Mitchell Rothman, an anthropologist and Chalcolithic expert at Widener University who is not involved in the expedition. “The shoe is really cool, and it’s certainly something that highlights the unbelievable kinds of discoveries at this site. The larger importance, though, is where the site itself becomes significant. You have the transition really into the modern world, the precursor to the kings and queens and bureaucrats and pretty much the whole nine yards.”

Previously, the oldest known leather shoe belonged to Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy found 19 years ago in the Alps near the Italian-Austrian border. His shoes, about 300 years younger than the Armenian shoe, had bearskin soles, deerskin panels, tree-bark netting and grass socks. Footwear even older than the leather shoe includes examples found in Missouri and Oregon, made mostly from plant fibers.

The Armenian shoe discovery, published Wednesday in PLoS One, an online journal, was made beneath one of several cave chambers, when an Armenian doctoral student, Diana Zardaryan, noticed a small pit of weeds. Reaching down, she touched two sheep horns, then an upside-down broken bowl. Under that was what felt like “an ear of a cow,” she said. “But when I took it out, I thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s a shoe.’ To find a shoe has always been my dream.”

Because the cave was also used by later civilizations, most recently by 14th-century Mongols, “my assumption was the shoe would be 600 to 700 years old,” Dr. Areshian said, adding that “a Mongol shoe would have been really great.” When separate laboratories dated the leather to 3653 to 3627 B.C., he said, “we just couldn’t believe that a shoe could be so ancient.”

The shoe was not tossed devil-may-care, but was, for unclear reasons, placed deliberately in the pit, which was carefully lined with yellow clay. While scientists say the shoe was stuffed with grass, acting like a shoe tree to hold its shape, it had been worn.

“You can see the imprints of the big toe,” said another team leader, Ron Pinhasi, an archaeologist at University College Cork in Ireland, who said the shoe resembled old Irish pampooties, rawhide slippers. “As the person was wearing and lacing it, some of the eyelets had been torn and repaired.”

Dr. Pinhasi said the cave, discovered in 1997, appeared to be mainly used by “high-status people, people who had power,” for storing the Chalcolithic community’s harvest and ritual objects. But some people lived up front, probably caretakers providing, Dr. Areshian said, the Chalcolithic equivalent of valet parking.

Many tools found were of obsidian, whose closest source was a 60-mile trek away. (Perhaps why they needed shoes, Dr. Areshian suggested.)

“It’s an embarrassment of riches because the preservation is so remarkable,” said Adam T. Smith, an anthropologist at the University of Chicago who has visited the cave. He said that distinguishing Chalcolithic objects from later civilizations’ artifacts in the cave had been complicated, and that “we’re still not entirely clear what the chronology is” of every discovery.

“The shoe,” he said, “is in a sense just the tip of the iceberg.” (He probably meant to say wingtip.)
Source:http://www.nytimes.com