Yahoo: Campaign launches to educate youths about First Amendment
A nationwide campaign is launching Thursday to promote the First Amendment to young Americans through education and advertising.
1 for All, a nonpartisan effort, has the support of celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, John Mellencamp and NBC "Meet the Press" host David Gregory — as well as Yahoo! News and more than 1,000 other organizations committed to helping publicize the campaign.
1 for All founder Ken Paulson, president of the Newseum and the First Amendment Center and former editor of USA Today, said the initiative is aimed at people ages 8 to 22 as well as those who teach them. It is designed to apply First Amendment freedoms to modern technologies and concepts.
The First Amendment "protects all those things that give life flavor," he said. "You are free to tweet, you are free to sing, you are free to dance. It protects all those things that make life special."
WORLD
CBS: Cuba: We Will Free 52 Political Prisoners
Cuba's Roman Catholic Church said Wednesday that the communist government has agreed to free 52 political prisoners and allow them to leave the country in what would be the island's largest mass liberation of prisoners of conscience in decades.
The deal was announced following a meeting between President Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the archbishop of Havana. Also participating was visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez.
In a statement, Ortega's office said that those offered freedom were members of a group of 75 leading political opposition activists, community organizers and journalists who report on Cuba in defiance of state controls on media. They were rounded up in a crackdown on dissent in March 2003.
Some had previously been freed for health reasons or after completing their terms, or were allowed into exile in Spain. But 52 have remained behind bars - most serving lengthy prison terms on charges of conspiring with Washington to destabilize Cuba's political system.
Yahoo: Russian spy claims swap in works for spies in US
The Cold War-style intrigue over a reputed spy ring nabbed in the United States deepened Wednesday as word emerged of a possible scheme to swap Russians who hid in American suburbia for an imprisoned arms-control researcher and others who passed secrets to the U.S.
Dmitry Sutyagin says his brother Igor, who is serving a 14-year prison term, was told he is among convicted spies who are to be exchanged for Russians arrested by the FBI.
Officials from both the United States and Russia refused to comment on the claim, but Dmitry Sutyagin said his brother could be whisked off to Vienna and then to London for a planned exchange as early as Thursday.
In the U.S., American officials met with the Russian ambassador in Washington and a hearing for three alleged spies was canceled in Virginia. They were ordered to New York along with two other alleged spies who waived their right to a local hearing in Boston.
New York Times: NATO Airstrike Accidentally Kills Afghan Troops
In a devastating case of friendly fire, NATO pilots who did not realize that Afghan soldiers had laid a trap for Taliban militants on the ground beneath them mistakenly attacked the soldiers as they lay in wait, killing at least five of them, Afghan officials said.
The attack in the Andor District of Ghazni Province, about 100 miles southwest of Kabul, suggested a lack of communication between NATO troops giving orders to the aircraft and Afghan forces on the ground who were trying to capture or kill militants who hold sway in part of the district known as Rahim Khiel.
The Afghan soldiers "had made an ambush for the enemy" when they were attacked early Wednesday morning, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense.
General Azimi said the "air force" had "bombarded" the Afghan soldiers; a NATO official later said a helicopter had fired a single rocket into the formation of Afghan troops.
BBC: Suicide bomber kills Iraqi Shia pilgrims
More than 40 people have died and some 100 have been wounded in bomb attacks on Shia pilgrims converging on a shrine in northern Baghdad, say police.
At least 30 died when a suicide bomber targeted a crowd walking through the predominantly Sunni Adhamiya district to the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim mosque.
Eleven pilgrims were killed in other bombings across the capital.
Security had been stepped up to protect the thousands of pilgrims attending a festival that culminates on Thursday.
Google: Yemen sentences two Al-Qaeda suspects to death
A court in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday sentenced to death two young men suspected of being Al-Qaeda members for a series of lethal attacks.
The men, Mansour Saleh Salem Daleel, 18, and Mubarak Ali Hadi al-Shabwani, 23, who denied the charges, were arrested on December 11 in the Marib province of eastern Yemen.
The pair were accused of "participating in an armed gang which carried out criminal actions against military and security officials and members of the armed forces," according to the list of charges.
Daleel said he will appeal against the verdict, which Mubarak called "unjust, null and void," rejecting the legitimacy of the Sanaa court specially set up to try terrorism cases.
CBS: Manuel Noriega Gets 7-Year Prison Term in France
Paris court on Wednesday convicted former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega of laundering drug money in France in the 1980s and ordered him to spend seven years behind bars - a sentence that comes on top of his two decades already spent in a U.S. prison.
The three-judge panel also ordered the seizure of euro2.3 million ($2.89 million) that has long been frozen in Noriega's accounts.
It's a new defeat for the longtime strongman and CIA asset, who was accused of joining forces with drug traffickers - but his lawyers hope it may be a brief one, and predict he could be eligible for parole within a year.
His lawyers were deciding whether to appeal, and have 10 days to do so.
AFP: Correa seeks favourable terms for contracts
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said he hopes by the end of the year to renegotiate unfavourable oil contracts that have allowed some foreign companies to keep as much as 80% of the crude they have extracted from his country.
Correa told AFP in an interview that he is seeking more favourable terms from companies drilling for oil in his country.
"All the companies say that's fine, but they've made us lose time and our patience is running out," said the leftist president during a visit to Venezuela, urging a conclusion of all deals by December.
Ecuador is offering deals under which Quito will pay operating expenses and set the profits foreign companies receive. The companies will also be required to invest in exploration.
Yahoo: US: NYC subway bomb plot linked to British cell
A failed plot to set off bombs in the New York subway system last year was part of a larger al-Qaida terrorist conspiracy that included a similar attack planned in England, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday.
In an indictment unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, prosecutors added several al-Qaida figures to the case, including Adnan Shukrijumah, an FBI most-wanted terrorist.
Shukrijumah, one of the al-Qaida leaders in charge of plotting attacks worldwide, was directly involved in recruiting and plotting the New York attack, prosecutors said. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that plot one of the most dangerous since since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The indictment added new terrorism charges against Adis Medunjanin, who already was awaiting trial in the subway case. It also named three other men — Abid Naseer, Tariq Ur Rehman and an alleged al-Qaida operative in Pakistan known only as "Ahmad" — and linked them to a previously undisclosed companion plot in England.
New York: Japan's 'slave labour' interns die after 16 hour days
The Japanese government has been accused of running slave labour working conditions after 27 foreign interns died in one year following months of working more than 16 hours a day.
The majority of the victims were in their 20s or 30s and were among an estimated 200,000 trainees from developing countries that are working here under the Japanese International Training Corporation Organisation.
Many were working 100 hours of overtime on top of regular working hours of 350 hours per month.
Human rights organisations and a group of lawyers representing dozens of interns seeking compensation from their former employers say the state-run scheme has become open to abuses that make it a form of slave labour and that victims have few rights.
New York Times: Psychologists Face Guantanamo Abuse Claim
Two Army psychologists helped perpetrate abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay including sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation, according to complaints filed Wednesday by human rights groups trying to have the psychologists' state licenses revoked.
The San Francisco-based Center for Justice & Accountability filed a complaint against Dr. John Leso with the New York Office of the Professions, alleging professional misconduct. Leso led a behavioral science consultation team at Guantanamo in 2002 and 2003.
The complaint said Leso developed abusive interrogation techniques based on Army survival methods. Those methods, ''Survive Evade Rescue and Escape'' or SERE, teach soldiers how to withstand physical and psychological abuse they might face if captured by the enemy, according to the complaint against Leso.
UNITED STATES
New York Times: Obama Asks Court to Reinstate Ban on Deepwater Drilling
The Obama administration has asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the moratorium was a rational response to the unprecedented emergency of the BP oil spill.
In a court filing late Tuesday, the Interior Department said that the six-month ban on drilling in more than 500 feet of water, imposed in late May, was necessary to allow time to adopt stricter safety and environmental regulation of deepwater wells.
The action has put hundreds of people who operate and service deepwater wells out of work and brought long-term uncertainty to the Gulf Coast economy. Politicians all along the coast have called the moratorium a case of federal overkill that threatens the livelihood of the region.
The moratorium was challenged in court by Hornbeck Offshore Services, a Louisiana firm that provides goods and services to offshore drilling and pumping platforms. Judge Martin L. C. Feldman of the United States District Court in New Orleans agreed with the company and on June 22 issued an order blocking implementation of the moratorium. He said the Obama administration had failed to justify the need for "a blanket, generic, indeed punitive, moratorium" on deepwater oil and gas drilling.
Detroit Free Press: BP gas station owners switching brands as customers boycott
The BP oil spill is hitting close to home for dozens of metro Detroit BP station owners, with many trying to switch brands as angry consumers boycott their businesses.
Abdel Berry, owner of three BP stations, has already converted his Ypsilanti and Detroit stores to the Sunoco brand. "It's either change or go out of business," said the retail gasoline veteran.
At his Ypsilanti location, which faces fierce competition from a Marathon station next door, gasoline sales are down from 500 gallons to 800 gallons a day. Berry hopes that the changeover to Sunoco will bring business back to normal.
ABC: Study Finds Bank Bailouts Profitable for U.S.
A government program to bail out banks at the height of the financial crisis has so far turned a profit, according to a report by investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc.
The Capital Purchase Program, part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, has generated an average return of 10 percent on the initial investment in 61 banks that have fully repaid the aid, said the report, issued on Wednesday.
"Its pretty clear that unless the economy just craters, the bank portion of TARP will be profitable," said Fred Cannon, bank analyst with Keefe, Bruyette and Woods.
About $137 billion, or two-thirds of the initial government investment, has been paid back, with $65 billion still to be repaid, the report said.
CNN: 2 people missing after tourist boat overturns in Philadelphia
A tourist boat with more than 30 people on board overturned on the Delaware River at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday after it was hit by a barge, Philadelphia police and the Coast Guard said.
"We confirmed that there were 37 people on board, 35 passengers and two crew. As of right now, we have confirmed that 35 people have been recovered. There are two people missing," David Umberger, the Coast Guard's civilian search and rescue controller for the area, said about 3:30 p.m.
"We are continuing our search, and we have all of our port partners engaged in that search-and-rescue case, including the state police, Philly police, fire department, good samaritans and the Coast Guard," Umberger said.
He did not know the condition of any of the people pulled from the water. It wasn't clear whether the two missing people are the crew members or passengers.
Denver Post: Company threatens to pull woman's health coverage over 1 cent
La Rosa Carrington has more than enough to worry about. She's a single mother with two teenage daughters, she's fighting a type of leukemia that requires five days of chemo a month for four months, and she lost her job in May.
...
"My medical bills are coming in like locusts, and you're holding up my benefits because of one red cent?" an incredulous Carrington said from her hospital bed last week as she recalled her conversation with a customer service rep at Discovery Benefits, an employee benefits administrator based in North Dakota.
Carrington said she talked twice to a customer service representative, who told her it was policy that the penny be received before the benefits could be reinstated. Write a check or send a money order, Carrington said the representative told her.
Carrington then asked to speak to a supervisor, who reiterated the company's policy and wouldn't budge on the penny. Carrington also threatened to take her case to the media, and that's why she thinks the supervisor called her back with some good news: The supervisor had pulled out her own calculator, done the math — and determined that Carrington was correct.
Excite News: Imperial Sugar agrees to $4M fine for Ga. blast
Imperial Sugar has agreed to pay more than $6 million in fines for safety violations at two of its U.S. plants, including the Georgia refinery where a dust explosion killed 14 workers in 2008, federal regulators said Wednesday.
The settlement with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration comes nearly two years after regulators first sought to penalize the Texas-based company for allowing combustible sugar dust to accumulate in dangerous amounts inside its plants despite prior warnings.
"Clearly, health and safety must become this company's top priorities," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a statement. "This agreement requires Imperial Sugar to make extensive changes to its safety practices, and it underscores the importance of proactively addressing workplace safety and health hazards."
OSHA had originally sought to fine Imperial Sugar $8.7 million for 221 safety violations at the nation's second-largest sugar refinery near Savannah and its plant in Gramercy, La. The company contested the fines to an administrative law judge, leading to lengthy settlement talks that resulted in an agreement to pay 70 percent of the originally proposed amount.
New York Times: Wal-Mart Fighting $7,000 Fine in Trampling Case
Wal-Mart Stores has spent a year and more than a million dollars in legal fees battling a $7,000 fine that federal safety officials assessed after shoppers trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death at a store on Long Island on the day after Thanksgiving in 2008.
The mystery, federal officials say, is why Wal-Mart is fighting so hard against such a modest fine.
It is not as if Wal-Mart has not already taken action to address any missteps and prevent another such accident. Three weeks before the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered the fine, Wal-Mart, seeking to avoid criminal charges, reached a settlement with the Nassau County, N.Y., district attorney that called for the company to adopt new crowd management techniques in all 92 of its stores in New York State. At the time, Wal-Mart also agreed to create a $400,000 fund for customers injured in the stampede and to donate $1.5 million to various community programs in Nassau County.
More recently, the company announced improved crowd-control policies for all its United States stores to try to prevent such an accident from happening again.
Detroit Free Press: Ex-Michigan congressman Mark Siljander pleads to obstruction
A former Michigan congressman and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations pleaded guilty today to charges related to work he did for an Islamic charity linked to terrorist groups including al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Mark Siljander, a conservative Republican who represented a southwest Michigan district from 1981 to 1987, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and to acting as an unregistered foreign agent and could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and fined up to $500,000.
Siljander, 59, entered his plea before a U.S. District Court judge in Missouri, where the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) was based.
IARA was closed in October 2004 after the U.S. Treasury Department designated it as a global terrorist organization for the support its international office in Sudan provided to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and the Taliban.
New York Times Media Decoder Blog: Michael Moore Added to Oscar Board
So now it’s Gov. Michael Moore. Mr. Moore, the intrepid documentarian behind "Capitalism: A Love Story" and other films, were among the new governors elected to the board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the academy said on Wednesday. Mr. Moore joined the director Kathryn Bigelow and the film editor Anne Coates among those joining the board for the first time.
Others re-elected to positions on the board, whose members serve for three-year terms, were Curt Behlmer, Rosemary Brandenburg, Richard Edlund, Leonard Engelman, Charles Fox, Jim Gianopulos, Hawk Koch, Marvin Levy and Frank Pierson. John Bailey, Ed Begley Jr. and Jon Bloom were also elected to positions, after having taken a hiatus after serving earlier. About one-third of the academy’s 43 governors stand for election each year.