Ex-Haitian dictator
faces accusations
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was hauled into court to answer questions Tuesday as a legal case was opened against him nearly 25 years after he was ousted from power in a popular uprising against what was widely regarded as a brutal and corrupt regime.
Defense attorney Gervais Charles said the former Haitian dictator known as “Baby Doc” is facing accusations of corruption and embezzlement for allegedly pilfering the treasury before his 1986 ouster.
Charles said the case is now in the hands of a judge of instruction who will decide whether there is enough evidence to go to trial. That process can take up to three months.
Duvalier spent much of the day in a closed-door in a court session before answering questions.
Haiti’s system allows for pretrial detention. But Mona Bernadeau, a Senate candidate from Duvalier’s political party, the former leader was expected to return to his hotel after the court session ended.
New era of civility
dawns in Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — Born of bloodshed, a self-proclaimed Age of Civility dawned in Congress on Tuesday. Republicans and Democrats of the House spoke without angry shouts and debated legislation to repeal the nation’s year-old health care law without rancor.
By unspoken agreement, manners mattered, although there were few overt references to the reason — the shooting rampage in Arizona 10 days ago that left six dead, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wounded and lawmakers of both parties stunned.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said no directives had gone out to rank-and-file lawmakers cautioning them about their behavior as the House convened to debate a highly controversial bill.
“We expect the debate to ensue along policy lines,” he said, suggesting one that did not stray from the merits of the legislation itself.
China’s Hu arrives;
Biden greets him
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese President Hu Jintao (hoo jihn-tow) has landed at Andrews Air Force base for a state visit to the United States. He was welcomed upon his arrival by Vice President Joe Biden and a military color guard.
Hu comes to the U.S. amid tensions between the two world powers over economic, trade and security issues. President Barack Obama has arranged for Hu to be greeted with full pomp, complete with a state dinner on Wednesday. That’s a change from Hu’s previous visit in 2006.
China is an emerging world power. It has strategic national security importance for the United States. Its trade and currency policies have frustrated the U.S. business community, which sees China as huge market for American exports.
Peace Corps director,
Sargent Shriver dies
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — R. Sargent Shriver, the Kennedy in-law whose career included directing the Peace Corps, fighting the War on Poverty and, less successfully, running for office, died Tuesday. He was 95.
Shriver, who announced in 2003 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, had been hospitalized for several days. The family said he died surrounded by those he loved.
His death came less than two years after his wife, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died Aug. 11, 2009, at age 88. The Kennedy family suffered a second blow that same month when Sen. Edward Kennedy died.
Tunisian ministers
quit new regime
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — At least four opposition ministers quit Tunisia’s day-old unity government Tuesday, aligning themselves with demonstrators who insist democratic change is impossible while so many supporters of the freshly ousted president are hoarding posts of power.
Police in riot gear forcefully put down a demonstration of the sort that toppled the North African country’s longtime autocratic leader last week, pummeling a demonstrator with batons and boot kicks — and highlighting a question on many minds: Is the new regime really much different?
As Tunisia struggles to move past the rioting, looting and score-settling that has marked the political transition, there was a growing sense Tuesday that it will be difficult for the interim government to hold together and pave the way toward elections expected within six to seven months.
After the initial exhilaration of last week, when a populist uprising ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years in power and sent him fleeing to Saudi Arabia — sounding a warning bell for other political strongmen in the region — many are fretting about what it ultimately meant.
“I am afraid that our revolution will be stolen from me and my people. The people are asking for freedoms and this new government is not. They are the ones who oppressed the people for 23 years,” said Ines Mawdud, a 22-year-old student who was among protesters at the demonstration.
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2 students wounded at Los Angeles school when gun in backpack discharges; student arrested
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A gun in a 10th-grader’s backpack accidentally discharged when he dropped the bag, wounding two students at a high school Tuesday, Los Angeles police and school authorities said.
A 15-year-old girl was in critical condition with a head wound and a 15-year-old boy suffered a neck wound, said Deputy Chief Patrick Gannon. Both were hit with the same bullet.
The student who brought the gun apologized before running to a classroom, Gannon said.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry,’ when the gun went off. It made it appear to the teacher that it was an accident,” Gannon said.
The shooting occurred in a classroom at Gardena High School, Officer Gus Villanueva said. Principal Rudy Mendoza said students were on a break at the time.
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Study shows limited learning in college, but studying alone and more reading and writing helps
You are told that to make it in life, you must go to college. You work hard to get there. You or your parents drain savings or take out huge loans to pay for it all.
And you end up learning … not much.
A study of more than 2,300 undergraduates found 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.
Not much is asked of students, either. Half did not take a single course requiring 20 pages of writing during their prior semester, and one-third did not take a single course requiring even 40 pages of reading per week.
The findings are in a new book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” by sociologists Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia. An accompanying report argues against federal mandates holding schools accountable, a prospect long feared in American higher education.
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2 charged with hacking ATT website, stealing information from more than 100,000 iPad users
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two men who authorities say were competing to impress their fellow hackers were arrested Tuesday on federal charges they stole the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 Apple iPad users, including politicians and media personalities.
The theft and the ATT security weakness that made it possible were revealed months ago, and U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said there was no evidence the men used the swiped information for criminal purposes. Authorities cautioned, however, that it could theoretically have wound up in the hands of spammers and scam artists.
Daniel Spitler, a 26-year-old bookstore security guard from San Francisco, and Andrew Auernheimer, 25, of Fayetteville, Ark., were charged with fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization.
Fishman said the men and their cohorts were engaged in “malicious one-upsmanship” as they sought to impress each other and others online.
“We don’t tolerate committing crimes for street cred,” Fishman said. “Computer hacking is not a competitive sport, and security breaches are not a game.”
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Regis Philbin’s decision to leave ‘Live!’ leaves viewers wondering who can take his place
NEW YORK (AP) — Within moments after Regis Philbin caught viewers off-guard with the news that he’ll be leaving his talk show, the guessing game had begun: Who will replace him?
Maybe “Survivor” host Jeff Probst? Mark Consuelos, hubby of Regis’ co-host, Kelly Ripa? Golden Globes bad boy Ricky Gervais? Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino from “Jersey Shore”?
You kidding? Who can ever replace Reege?
“I don’t want to alarm anybody,” he began on Tuesday before dropping the bomb: “This will be my last year on the show.”
More specifically, he meant he will be stepping down from “Live! With Regis and Kelly” sometime in late 2011, though he didn’t pin down a departure date.
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NFL players’ union files collusion claim against league owners
WASHINGTON (AP) — The NFL players’ union filed a collusion claim against the league’s owners, another move in the back-and-forth between the sides as they near the expiration of their labor contract.
The union originally had until December — 90 days after the start of the season — to accuse teams of conspiring to restrict players’ salaries last offseason, but the league agreed to extend that deadline.
“They have filed that claim. They filed it probably a week ago. There has been no activity at this point. But it’s something that was not unexpected,” the league’s lead labor negotiator, Jeff Pash, said Tuesday, when owners met in Atlanta. “It’s just another piece of litigation that we have to work our way through. So we will do that.”
The case is before Stephen Burbank, the same special master who is considering a complaint about the league’s TV contracts, which the union says were set up to guarantee the NFL money even if there were a lockout this year.
Union spokesman George Atallah said Tuesday he could not comment on the collusion case. Pash said no date has been scheduled for a hearing.
Article source: http://www.daily-jeff.com/news/article/4966613
Category: Government Security Watch