U.S. Sues BP and Other Companies Over Gulf Spill

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday suedBP and eight other companies in the Gulf oil spill disaster in an effort to recover billions of dollars from the largest offshore spill in U.S. history.

The Obama administration's lawsuit asks that the companies be held liable without limitation under the Oil Pollution Act for all removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill, including damages to natural resources. The lawsuit also seeks civil penalties under the Clean Water Act.

"We intend to prove these violations caused or contributed to the massive oil spill," Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference.

The amount of damages and the extent of injuries sustained by the United States as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Spill are not yet fully known, the lawsuit states.

An explosion that killed 11 workers at BP's Macondo well last April led to oil spewing from the company's undersea well — more than 200 million gallons in all by the government's estimate. BP disputes the figure.

The department filed the suit in federal court in New Orleans.

The other defendants in the case are Anadarko Exploration & Production LP andAnadarko Petroleum Corp.; MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC; Triton Asset Leasing GMBH;Transocean Holdings LLC and Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc. and Transocean Deepwater Inc.; and BP's insurer, QBE Underwriting Ltd./Lloyd's Syndicate 1036.

Anadarko and MOEX are minority owners of the well that blew out. Transocean owned the rig that BP was leasing.

U.S. Sues BP and Other Companies Over Gulf Spill - NYTimes.com

Color E-Readers Open Way for Picture Books

Millions of consumers have embraced black-and-white e-readers like the Kindle for reading simple novels or nonfiction — but books with color illustrations have generally remained better read in print.

Some of the most popular children’s picture books of all time will be available, including some of the “Olivia” picture books, published by Simon & Schuster. Other titles are “Ad Hoc at Home,” a lavish cookbook by the chefThomas Keller; “Beginnings,” by the photographer Anne Geddes and “In the National Parks,” a photograph collection by Ansel AdamsNow publishers are making headway in converting their enormous libraries of illustrated titles to e-books, hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Apple iPad and the Nook Color and their ability to showcase books with color photographs and illustrations.

Apple said Tuesday that it was set to make a major push into illustrated books on Wednesday, introducing more than 100 titles to its iBookstore, an assortment of children’s books, photography books and cookbooks.

.Color E-Readers Open Way for Picture Books - NYTimes.com

Rival Accepts Deal, Clearing Path for Maliki to Rule in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Ayad Allawi, who years ago fought off ax-wielding assassins dispatched to London by Saddam Hussein’s secret police, is not a man to concede defeat easily. And he still would not — exactly — on Wednesday.Mr. Allawi did so grudgingly and with conditions, warning that an agreement brokered by the United States to form a broad power-sharing coalition government under Mr. Maliki’s leadership could still unravel.Defeat has come nevertheless, and so has acceptance, perhaps inevitably.

More than nine months after Iraq’s election propelled him to the brink of toppling his main political rival, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and a month after he vowed he would not join Mr. Maliki’s new government, Mr. Allawi indicated on Wednesday that he would join it after all. That appeared to remove the last major obstacle to Mr. Maliki’s formation of a new government, something he must do by law before Dec. 25.

Rival Accepts Deal, Clearing Path for Maliki to Rule in Iraq - NYTimes.com

'King's Speech' scores 7 Golden Globe nods

"(CNN) -- The critically acclaimed film 'The King's Speech' led the 68th Annual Golden Globe nominations Tuesday morning.
The film starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush scored seven nominations including best film -- drama, best performance by an actor in a motion picture -- drama for Firth, best supporting actress in a motion picture for Carter and best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture for Rush.
'I'm truly grateful to be recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press for this film, and euphoric to be in the company of so many of my colleagues,' Firth said.
'The Social Network' and 'The Fighter' followed with six nominations each, including best film -- drama, joining 'Inception' and 'Black Swan.'
Actors Josh Duhamel, Katie Holmes and Blair Underwood joined Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk on Tuesday to announce the nominations."

'King's Speech' scores 7 Golden Globe nods - CNN.com:

Assange granted bail at London court hearing

London (CNN) -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Tuesday after a hearing at Westminster Magistrate's Court in London.

The 39-year-old Australian handed himself over to London police last week to answer a European arrest warrant over alleged sex crimes in Sweden.

Assange is facing accusations of rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force in separate incidents in August in Stockholm. He could be sentenced to two years in prison if convicted. His lawyers deny the allegations and have vowed to fight any attempts at extradition.

The magistrate agreed to grant bail Tuesday after Assange's team of attorneys reported that Vaughan Smith, a former British army officer who founded London's Frontline Club, had offered his mansion in Suffolk to Assange.

Smith will keep Assange "if not under house arrest, at least under mansion arrest," said defense attorney Geoffrey Robinson. At that, Assange, dressed in a white shirt and a blue jacket and sitting in a glassed-in corner of the court with three security guards, smiled wryly.

Assange granted bail at London court hearing - CNN.com

Ben Franklin’s Nation - NYT

"After you read this column, go to YouTube and search “Hans Rosling and 200 countries.” You’ll see a Swedish professor describe the growth of global wealth and well-being over the past 200 years."

He presents an animated time-lapse chart. It starts in 1810, when the nations of the world were clumped on the bottom left-hand side of the chart because they had low income and low life expectancy. Then the industrial revolution kicks in and the nations of the West surge upward and to the right as they get richer and healthier. By 1948, it’s like a race, with the United States out front and the other nations of the world stretched in a long tail behind.

Then, over the last few decades, the social structure of the world changes. The Asian and Latin American countries begin to catch up. With the exception of the African nations, living standards start to converge. Now most countries are clumped toward the top end of the chart, thanks to the incredible reductions in global poverty and improvements in health.

Ben Franklin’s Nation - NYTimes.com:

Central Provision of Health Care Law Is Ruled Unconstitutional -NYT

A federal judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that the keystone provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional, becoming the first judge to invalidate any part of the sprawling act and ensuring that appellate courts will receive contradictory opinions from below.

The judge, Henry E. Hudson of Federal District Court in Richmond, said the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance exceeded the regulatory authority granted to Congress under the Commerce Clause.

Judge Hudson, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, declined the plaintiff’s request to suspend the act’s implementation pending appeal, meaning there should be no immediate effect on its rollout.

But the ruling seemed likely to create confusion among the public and to further destabilize political support for a law that is under fierce attack from Republicans in Congress and in many statehouses. Party leaders, including the incoming House speaker, Representative John A. Boehnerof Ohio, quickly used the opinion to reiterate their call for repealing the law.

Central Provision of Health Care Law Is Ruled Unconstitutional - NYTimes.com

Party defection threatens Pakistan government

"ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ruling coalition was severely undermined Tuesday after a key member said it was joining the opposition because one of its ministers was fired over a corruption scandal.

The announcement by the Islamist party Jamiat Ulema Islam leaves the coalition with just a small majority in the National Assembly and threatens the stability of the weak civilian government whose cooperation is critical to America’s efforts in neighboring Afghanistan.

JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman said his party was leaving because one of its ministers was fired after a scandal involving government organized pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

“JUI is leaving the government from today ... our decision is final,” Rehman said.

That will leave President Asif Ali Zardari’s government with less leverage to push through key legislation. The JUI, for instance, said it will oppose a plan to pass a new sales tax that the government says would bring much needed revenue to the cash-strapped nation.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani fired two members of the Cabinet on Tuesday over the pilgrimage scandal. One was the religious affairs minister and the other, a member of JUI heading the ministry for science and technology."

Party defection threatens Pakistan government - Arab News

Kingdom praises Palestine’s recognition

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Monday praised the recognition of Palestine by Brazil and Argentina as an important development in international support for the legitimate rights of Palestinians.

The Council of Ministers, chaired by Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, also denounced the Israeli move to Judaize Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque’s surroundings. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay recognized Palestine recently as an independent state based on 1967 borders before the six-day war in which Israel seized Gaza and the West Bank. The Cabinet meeting at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh urged the Arab and Islamic Ummah to take a decisive stand to prevent Israel’s flagrant violations that would destabilize the region and the entire world.

The Cabinet reviewed the outcome of last week’s GCC summit in Abu Dhabi, saying the resolutions taken by the two-day conference reflected the hopes and aspirations of the GCC countries and people.

The Cabinet thanked summit leaders for the brotherly feelings they expressed about Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who is recuperating at a US hospital following back surgery.

Kingdom praises Palestine’s recognition - Arab News

10 injured, 1 seriously, in NY school bus accident

NEW YORK: Officials say an adult was seriously hurt and nine children suffered lesser injuries when a yellow school bus jumped a curb and crashed into the front of a New York City bank.

A spokesman for the fire department says the accident happened Tuesday morning in Brooklyn.

All those injured have been transferred to hospitals.

The spokesman did not know what caused the accident.

- Arab News

Bomb hits school bus in Pakistan

"PESHAWAR: A bomb hit a school bus in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday, killing a passerby and wounding two young girl students and two others, officials said.

Senior city administration official Siraj Ahmed said the bomb was placed in a dustbin on a roadside.

“When I saw the smoke, I ran toward my teachers at the back (of the bus). The teachers said ‘come, come’. So we got off the bus,” 6-year-old Eman, one of the wounded, said from a hospital where she was lying on a bed with her head bandaged.

The driver of the bus, who was also wounded said the bomb went off shortly after some of the teachers stepped off: “There was a sudden explosion. After that, I did not have my senses. I fell.”

Ahmed said one passerby was killed and the driver, two girl students and another passerby were wounded."

Bomb hits school bus in Pakistan - Arab News

Storms, snow, rains lash Mideast; Madinah valley being evacuated

JEDDAH/BEIRUT: Heavy rain, snow and fierce winds pummeled countries across the Middle East on Sunday for a second day, killing at least four people and wreaking havoc as a months-long drought came to a sudden, drastic end.

Saudi Arabia too braced for inclement weather as the Met office forecast heavy rains and thunderstorms in parts of the Kingdom.

Farm workers and company employees in Jazal Valley in Madinah’s Al-Ula principality have been asked to vacate the area immediately to ensure their safety following heavy rains there.

The Civil Defense gave the warning on Sunday after water levels rose at Jazal Dam. The Presidency for Meteorology and Environment (PME) predicted the possibility of heavy downpours, accompanied by lightning in many parts of the Kingdom on Monday, especially in the southwestern areas of Abha and Baha.

Hussein Al-Qahtani, spokesman for PME, said low temperatures were expected in the eastern and northern parts of the Kingdom, adding that surface winds in these areas would reduce visibility to less than three km, especially in areas between Hafr Al-Baten, Qassim and Rafha.

“We expect the speed of surface winds in the northern and central parts of Red Sea to reach 50 km an hour and waves to reach more than two meters high. It will be the same conditions in the northern part of Arabian Gulf,” the spokesman said.

Security authorities in the northern parts of the Kingdom have taken precautionary measures in anticipation of any incidents due to heavy rains and duststorms. Poor visibility is expected in Tabuk, Al-Jouf, Hail, and Northern Border Province as well as in the Kingdom’s northern, western, central and eastern parts, Al-Qahtani said.

Storms, snow, rains lash Mideast; Madinah valley being evacuated - Arab News

Summer weather for a winter festival

"A blinding winter sun and clear blue skies melted five-decade-old records around Los Angeles on Sunday, driving people to beaches and parks to soak up a winter heat wave that pushed temperatures into the upper 80s.

Thermometers at Los Angeles International Airport and UCLA broke records set in 1952. Long Beach, Burbank, Oxnard and Camarillo broke record highs set in the 1980s. In downtown Los Angeles, temperatures scraped a 115-year-old high of 86, but fell a degree short.

Revelers at the annual Winter Holiday Festival in downtown's Pershing Square were in blissful denial as scores of children lined up to sled down a 12-foot, 100-ton hill of snow, albeit the man-made version."

Summer weather for a winter festival - latimes.com

In Tax Benefits to the Middle, Political Lift for Obama

WASHINGTON — With the Senate poised to hold a key vote on Monday on the tax cut deal between President Obama and Republicans, the political jousting has focused on what the agreement does for the wealthy by extending all of the Bush-era tax rates, and for the unemployed, by continuing jobless aid.

But a hefty portion of the $858 billion tax package will benefit middle- and upper-middle-income Americans — precisely the demographic that felt neglected the last two years as the White House and Congress focused on the major health care law and on helping the unemployed and people facing foreclosure.

These new tax breaks are in addition to the cuts Mr. Obama had always planned to maintain on all but the highest incomes, and they could pay big political dividends to Mr. Obama and other Democrats in 2012 — a point that the president and some senior advisers are counting on, and one reason that they were willing to give in to Republican demands to extend all Bush-era tax rates.

In Tax Benefits to the Middle, Political Lift for Obama - NYTimes.com

I have got records, I did speak to Karkare: Digvijay

GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who created a flutter by stating that slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare was under threat from right-wing groups, today insisted that he has spoken to the police officer a few hours before the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008 and he has proof of this.

"I have got records for that. Absolutely, I am firm on this. I did speak to him and I have stated that already," he told reporters in Guwahati.

"I am sure those who are saying that I did not talk to Karkare would be proved wrong," he later said.

Digvijay's remarks came following a media report which said that call records of Karkare's cell phone showed that he had neither called nor received a call from the Congress general secretary during that period.

As he came under fire, Digvijay had yesterday stuck to his stand that Karkare had spoken about threats from right-wing groups during the telephonic conversation with him.

I have got records, I did speak to Karkare: Digvijay - The Times of India

Fifa-South Africa

Johannesburg - Following a meeting with President Jacob Zuma, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter presented the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust at Soccer City in Johannesburg. This trust will support a wide range of public benefit initiatives in the areas of football development, education, health and humanitarian activities in South Africa. The trust forms part of FIFA’s 2010 FIFA World Cup related legacy programmes and delivers on FIFA’s pledge to ensure that South Africans will continue to benefit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The trust amounts to USD 100 million, USD 80 million of which is being allocated directly to social community projects. The remaining USD 20 million was already provided to the South African Football Association (SAFA) in the build-up to the event for preparations and for the construction of SAFA House. As a first project financed by the trust, FIFA purchased 35 of the team buses and a fleet of 52 cars, which were handed over to SAFA today for transport of their regional teams.

The trust will be administered by international auditing company Ernst and Young while the trustees, consisting of a representative each from FIFA, SAFA, the government and the private sector, will evaluate into which public-benefit projects the money is invested. All projects must be submitted to the trustees for review with one of the decisive conditions being that they must be for public benefit only.


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Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Contraband Phones to Coordinate Protest - NYTimes.com

"Inmates in at least seven Georgia prisons have used contraband cellphones to coordinate a nonviolent strike this weekend, saying they want better living conditions and to be paid for work they do in the prisons.

Inmates said they would not perform chores, work for the Corrections Department’s industrial arm or shop at prison commissaries until a list of demands are addressed, including compensation for their work, more educational opportunities, better food and sentencing rules changes."

Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Contraband Phones to Coordinate Protest - NYTimes.com:

Iran’s Foreign Minister Is Abruptly Fired While Abroad

"TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the country’s long-time foreign minister on Monday, a sudden move that caught many here by surprise and appeared to reflect a strengthening of the president’s power.
Enlarge This Image

Hasan Sarbakhshian/Associated Press
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran in 2008.
Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a presidential order that he had dismissed the minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who was currently traveling on an official trip in Senegal. The overseas location of Mr. Mottaki at the time of his dismissal made the announcement even more intriguing.

It has been well known that the Iranian leader had long sought to replace Mr. Mottaki but had been prevented from doing so until now by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in appointing the heads of several key ministries."

Iran’s Foreign Minister Is Abruptly Fired While Abroad - NYTimes.com:

End of Privacy: The Web knows Poppy Harlow's personal data

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two simple pieces of data -- your name and e-mail address -- can unlock a shocking number of details about you, even if you consider yourself to be a very private person who carefully guards your online identity.

Just ask CNNMoney anchor Poppy Harlow. She doesn't have a personal Facebook profile. She doesn't have a LinkedIn account. She is on Twitter, but she typically limits her tweets to links for CNNMoney stories and videos."

End of Privacy: The Web knows Poppy Harlow's personal data - Dec. 13, 2010:

Twitter co-founder goes unrecognized

"Washington (CNN) -- He has approximately 1.6 million Twitter followers, but does that make Twitter co-founder Biz Stone a recognizable celebrity wherever he goes? Stone laughed when answering that question during an interview Sunday on CNN's 'Reliable Sources' with Howard Kurtz.
'No, no, I don't think internet dorks are necessarily the kind of people that get stopped in restaurants,' he said. 'They get me in little 140-character bursts of information.'
The Twitter co-founder also brushed off any notion that Twitter was stealing thunder from the popular social-networking site, Facebook.
'It doesn't feel like that for us, at least internally,' said Stone. 'I feel like we're adding to, you know, this sort of brave new world of information where we get what we need when we need it.'"

Twitter co-founder goes unrecognized - CNN.com