Gun-toting soccer mom, husband shot dead
(CNN) -- Soccer mom Melanie Hain, who made national headlines last year by having a loaded, holstered handgun at her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game, has been found shot dead in her home along with her husband, police said Thursday.
Melanie Hain was found shot dead in her home along with her husband Thursday.
Information from 911 calls shows that it took a SWAT team nearly an hour and a half to gain entry to the Lebanon, Pennsylvania, home Wednesday evening. Inside, they found the bodies of Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, police Capt. Daniel Wright said.
Police have avoided labeling the incident a murder-suicide. However, they do not believe that another person was involved, Wright said. A full investigation is under way, he added.
"Who [Melanie Hain] is does not change the course of this investigation," he said. The autopsies are scheduled for Friday.
Melanie Hain's attorney, Matthew B. Weisberg, said she told him a few months ago that she and her husband were separating. It was not immediately clear whether they were still living together.
The couple's three children were unharmed and took refuge at a neighbor's house before police arrived, Wright said, and the children remain in a neighbor's care.
During the incident, police told neighbor Ann DiJohnson to avoid rooms with windows in fear of a possible shootout.
"It was frightening," DiJohnson said. "I'm still shaking."
Thomas Shaak, who lives a block from the Hains, said the couple hardly socialized with neighbors. The avid gardener said he occasionally saw Scott Hain working on his yard, but the two did not greet each other. He said Hain worked as a security officer and often kept odd hours.
Melanie Hain became an overnight celebrity and, to some, a steward of Second Amendment rights when she carried a Glock strapped to her belt to her daughter's soccer game September 11, 2008.
Days later, on September 20, her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo, who claimed that she showed poor judgment at the child's game. County Judge Robert Eby later reinstated the permit.
Weisberg, Hain's attorney, said the sheriff's action violated Hain's First, Second, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.
A lawsuit was filed against DeLeo on Hain's behalf for compensatory damages. She sought punitive and statutory damages, Weisberg said, along with reimbursement of attorneys' fees and lost wages.
Although Weisberg called the Hains a "loving" and "unified" couple, he said that about four months ago, Melanie Hain told him that they were separating and that she wanted to remove his name from the $1 million lawsuit.
Although there was no indication of abuse, Weisberg said, Melanie Hain was contemplating getting a "stay-away order."
"It's shocking," Weisberg said of the shooting. "And sadly ironic."
Thứ Năm, 8 tháng 10, 2009
Researchers to animal-rights activists: We're not afraid
(CNN) -- Three research scientists have taken a rare public stand against animal-rights activists, describing them as terrorists for their threats and acts of violence in commentaries published in the latest issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
Three researchers say they are going to stand up against animal-rights activists who use extreme tactics.
Since 2003, "we have seen our cars and homes firebombed or flooded, and we have received letters packed with poisoned razors and death threats via e-mail and voice mail," wrote Dario L. Ringach, a professor of neurobiology and psychology, and J. David Jentsch, a professor of psychology. They work at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"Adding insult to injury, misguided animal-rights militants openly incite others to violence on the Internet, brag about the resulting crimes, and go as far as to call plots for our assassination 'morally justifiable,' " they wrote.
In telephone interviews with CNN, both men said they had been subject to harassment, threats and violence.
Last March, "they blew up my car while it was parked in front of my home at 4 a.m.," said Jentsch, who uses rodents and nonhuman primates in his research into how brain chemistry influences mental disorders. His 2006 Volvo was destroyed.
The Animal Liberation Brigade, which took responsibility for the attack in a Web site posting, announced "when we come back, it's not going to be the car, hint, hint," Jentsch said.
He said an FBI investigator described the incendiary device as "sophisticated."
"We have to take them on directly"
The practice long followed by many researchers of keeping quiet and hoping the activists will go away does not work, said the 37-year-old scientist. "We have to take them on directly; that's what we plan to do ... I'm not going to be afraid of these people; they're thugs."
Jentsch said the university has provided him with round-the-clock security, along with a handful of other researchers who have been threatened.
He acknowledged that having no children may make such a stand easier to take.
"People ask me all the time: 'What should people who have children do?' " he said. "My only answer is -- what a horrible position to put someone in where they have to choose between their family and their career, their desire to make the world a better place through their science."
That was the decision faced by Ringach, who previously worked with primates. Three years ago, when his 6-year-old and 2-year-old children were asleep, 30 to 40 masked activists arrived at their house and banged on the doors and windows, he said.
"I just called 911," he said. "I really was terrified; my kids were clinging to my wife."
Ringach gave up his work with animals.
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006
As a result of that incident, Congress passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006. It's a federal law that prohibits interference with animal enterprises, including research. But it is being challenged as unconstitutional and, "so far, I'm not sure it has had an effect on their activities," Ringach said.
The activists have not limited their attacks to primate researchers. Last year, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, a researcher who works with mice was awakened at dawn with his wife and their two children when their house was firebombed. They escaped.
That day, another researcher at the same school -- who works with flies and has not been identified publicly -- had his car set afire, said Ringach.
"They're really against all types of research," Ringach said.
The Foundation for Biomedical Research said it was aware of 317 incidents of extremist activity by animal rights activists from 1997 to 2008, including firebombings of researchers' homes and cars, breaking and entering, vandalism, stealing property and acts of intimidation.
Scientists bear part of the responsibility for not having explained to the public why their work is important, Ringach said.
"I would really like to have an honest and civil debate about animal research," he said. "The problem is it's very difficult to do when every day I have to look under my car and see if something is there."
Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, noted that rewards of up to $115,000 have been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the bombings.
She said law enforcement officials consider the attacks to be acts of domestic terrorism.
Taking it to the next level
Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a surgeon and spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, an animal-rights group, said it is the researchers who are the terrorists.
"They take these sentient and intelligent beings and lock them up in sealed cages ... and eventually kill them and chop them up in little pieces."
Asked whether he supports the use of violence in furthering his goals, he likened his mission to those of anti-apartheid and civil rights activists.
"I understand why they're willing to do things like that when all attempts at public discourse and reason and discussion have been quashed," he said. "I understand why people would take it to the next level."
In a separate commentary in The Journal of Neuroscience, the Society for Neuroscience's outgoing chairman of the Committee on Animals in Research, Jeffrey H. Kordower, called for the National Institutes of Health to ensure the safety of researchers against animal-rights activists.
The federal government requires recipients of NIH grants, primarily universities, to have plans to protect patients undergoing clinical trials and to protect animals used in research. But there is no plan to protect researchers, he said in a telephone interview.
The request "has fallen on deaf ears," said Kordower, a neurologist who directs the Research Center for Brain Repair at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Though no one has been hurt, "the ... potential is that someone will be hurt in the near future," he said.
Dr. Sally Rockey, acting NIH deputy director for extramural research, defended her organization's efforts.
"As we have previously stated, the NIH is extremely concerned about acts of domestic terrorism against biomedical researchers," she said in a written statement. "In collaboration with the biomedical community, we have developed resources to help our grantee institutions prepare for and manage crises. NIH will continue its commitment to this policy in the interests of the safety of the researchers whose work it supports."
The issue is a critical one if science is to advance, said Society for Neuroscience President Thomas J. Carew.
"Responsible animal research has played a vital role in nearly every major medical advance of the last century, from heart disease to polio, and is essential for future advances as well," he said in a written statement. "Today, it is unacceptable that, in the pursuit of better health and understanding of disease, researchers, their families and their communities face violence and intimidation by extremists."
Charges and countercharges
Vlasak said he had submitted a letter to the editor to The Journal of Neuroscience that said, "As unfortunate as it may be, all successful liberation struggles have had to incorporate the use of force in addition to rational and educated argument; after all, an oppressor never gives up his power until left with no alternative."
Vlasak said Journal editor John Maunsell rejected the letter, telling Vlasak in an e-mail, "We will not publish responses from commentators that appear to condone or encourage violence."
That sparked this missive from Vlasak back to Maunsell: "David Jentsch can torture and kill nonhuman primates year after year in his laboratory to allegedly study human addiction, but I refer to the historical use of force to overthrow oppression and you censor my letter?
"You wallow in hypocrisy, and refuse to acknowledge the suffering of any being besides those of your own species. Your attitudes and behavior will ensure the struggle continues, and hopefully escalates to encompass ever-more effective strategies."
Vlasak provided CNN with copies of his e-mail correspondence with Maunsell. A spokeswoman for the journal said it does not comment on potential submissions.
In a joint comment e-mailed to CNN, Jentsch and Ringach said, "It is not acceptable for Dr. Vlasak to talk about civilized public discourse out of one side of his mouth and describe violence against us as just and reasonable out of the other.
"People like him have deceived the public about the nature and benefits of biomedical research and, at the same time, we think his behavior has hindered the work of legitimate animal rights/welfare groups.
"It is critical that 'mainstream' groups sever their ties with violent individuals within their movement and publicly repudiate the acts of animal-right extremists and those that incite them from the sidelines. When that happens, scientists and animal advocates can get together to have a reasoned and civilized dialogue about these important issues."
The outspoken researchers are not alone. More than 10,000 people -- many of them scientists -- have signed a "Pro-Test Petition" that credits animal research with having "contributed ... to major advances in the length and quality of our lives."
It adds that "violence, intimidation and harassment of scientists and others involved in animal research is neither a legitimate means of protest, nor morally justified."
(CNN) -- Three research scientists have taken a rare public stand against animal-rights activists, describing them as terrorists for their threats and acts of violence in commentaries published in the latest issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
Three researchers say they are going to stand up against animal-rights activists who use extreme tactics.
Since 2003, "we have seen our cars and homes firebombed or flooded, and we have received letters packed with poisoned razors and death threats via e-mail and voice mail," wrote Dario L. Ringach, a professor of neurobiology and psychology, and J. David Jentsch, a professor of psychology. They work at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"Adding insult to injury, misguided animal-rights militants openly incite others to violence on the Internet, brag about the resulting crimes, and go as far as to call plots for our assassination 'morally justifiable,' " they wrote.
In telephone interviews with CNN, both men said they had been subject to harassment, threats and violence.
Last March, "they blew up my car while it was parked in front of my home at 4 a.m.," said Jentsch, who uses rodents and nonhuman primates in his research into how brain chemistry influences mental disorders. His 2006 Volvo was destroyed.
The Animal Liberation Brigade, which took responsibility for the attack in a Web site posting, announced "when we come back, it's not going to be the car, hint, hint," Jentsch said.
He said an FBI investigator described the incendiary device as "sophisticated."
"We have to take them on directly"
The practice long followed by many researchers of keeping quiet and hoping the activists will go away does not work, said the 37-year-old scientist. "We have to take them on directly; that's what we plan to do ... I'm not going to be afraid of these people; they're thugs."
Jentsch said the university has provided him with round-the-clock security, along with a handful of other researchers who have been threatened.
He acknowledged that having no children may make such a stand easier to take.
"People ask me all the time: 'What should people who have children do?' " he said. "My only answer is -- what a horrible position to put someone in where they have to choose between their family and their career, their desire to make the world a better place through their science."
That was the decision faced by Ringach, who previously worked with primates. Three years ago, when his 6-year-old and 2-year-old children were asleep, 30 to 40 masked activists arrived at their house and banged on the doors and windows, he said.
"I just called 911," he said. "I really was terrified; my kids were clinging to my wife."
Ringach gave up his work with animals.
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006
As a result of that incident, Congress passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006. It's a federal law that prohibits interference with animal enterprises, including research. But it is being challenged as unconstitutional and, "so far, I'm not sure it has had an effect on their activities," Ringach said.
The activists have not limited their attacks to primate researchers. Last year, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, a researcher who works with mice was awakened at dawn with his wife and their two children when their house was firebombed. They escaped.
That day, another researcher at the same school -- who works with flies and has not been identified publicly -- had his car set afire, said Ringach.
"They're really against all types of research," Ringach said.
The Foundation for Biomedical Research said it was aware of 317 incidents of extremist activity by animal rights activists from 1997 to 2008, including firebombings of researchers' homes and cars, breaking and entering, vandalism, stealing property and acts of intimidation.
Scientists bear part of the responsibility for not having explained to the public why their work is important, Ringach said.
"I would really like to have an honest and civil debate about animal research," he said. "The problem is it's very difficult to do when every day I have to look under my car and see if something is there."
Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, noted that rewards of up to $115,000 have been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the bombings.
She said law enforcement officials consider the attacks to be acts of domestic terrorism.
Taking it to the next level
Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a surgeon and spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, an animal-rights group, said it is the researchers who are the terrorists.
"They take these sentient and intelligent beings and lock them up in sealed cages ... and eventually kill them and chop them up in little pieces."
Asked whether he supports the use of violence in furthering his goals, he likened his mission to those of anti-apartheid and civil rights activists.
"I understand why they're willing to do things like that when all attempts at public discourse and reason and discussion have been quashed," he said. "I understand why people would take it to the next level."
In a separate commentary in The Journal of Neuroscience, the Society for Neuroscience's outgoing chairman of the Committee on Animals in Research, Jeffrey H. Kordower, called for the National Institutes of Health to ensure the safety of researchers against animal-rights activists.
The federal government requires recipients of NIH grants, primarily universities, to have plans to protect patients undergoing clinical trials and to protect animals used in research. But there is no plan to protect researchers, he said in a telephone interview.
The request "has fallen on deaf ears," said Kordower, a neurologist who directs the Research Center for Brain Repair at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Though no one has been hurt, "the ... potential is that someone will be hurt in the near future," he said.
Dr. Sally Rockey, acting NIH deputy director for extramural research, defended her organization's efforts.
"As we have previously stated, the NIH is extremely concerned about acts of domestic terrorism against biomedical researchers," she said in a written statement. "In collaboration with the biomedical community, we have developed resources to help our grantee institutions prepare for and manage crises. NIH will continue its commitment to this policy in the interests of the safety of the researchers whose work it supports."
The issue is a critical one if science is to advance, said Society for Neuroscience President Thomas J. Carew.
"Responsible animal research has played a vital role in nearly every major medical advance of the last century, from heart disease to polio, and is essential for future advances as well," he said in a written statement. "Today, it is unacceptable that, in the pursuit of better health and understanding of disease, researchers, their families and their communities face violence and intimidation by extremists."
Charges and countercharges
Vlasak said he had submitted a letter to the editor to The Journal of Neuroscience that said, "As unfortunate as it may be, all successful liberation struggles have had to incorporate the use of force in addition to rational and educated argument; after all, an oppressor never gives up his power until left with no alternative."
Vlasak said Journal editor John Maunsell rejected the letter, telling Vlasak in an e-mail, "We will not publish responses from commentators that appear to condone or encourage violence."
That sparked this missive from Vlasak back to Maunsell: "David Jentsch can torture and kill nonhuman primates year after year in his laboratory to allegedly study human addiction, but I refer to the historical use of force to overthrow oppression and you censor my letter?
"You wallow in hypocrisy, and refuse to acknowledge the suffering of any being besides those of your own species. Your attitudes and behavior will ensure the struggle continues, and hopefully escalates to encompass ever-more effective strategies."
Vlasak provided CNN with copies of his e-mail correspondence with Maunsell. A spokeswoman for the journal said it does not comment on potential submissions.
In a joint comment e-mailed to CNN, Jentsch and Ringach said, "It is not acceptable for Dr. Vlasak to talk about civilized public discourse out of one side of his mouth and describe violence against us as just and reasonable out of the other.
"People like him have deceived the public about the nature and benefits of biomedical research and, at the same time, we think his behavior has hindered the work of legitimate animal rights/welfare groups.
"It is critical that 'mainstream' groups sever their ties with violent individuals within their movement and publicly repudiate the acts of animal-right extremists and those that incite them from the sidelines. When that happens, scientists and animal advocates can get together to have a reasoned and civilized dialogue about these important issues."
The outspoken researchers are not alone. More than 10,000 people -- many of them scientists -- have signed a "Pro-Test Petition" that credits animal research with having "contributed ... to major advances in the length and quality of our lives."
It adds that "violence, intimidation and harassment of scientists and others involved in animal research is neither a legitimate means of protest, nor morally justified."
Police suspect 'Barefoot Burglar' is stealing, crashing planes
SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Who is stealing -- and crashing -- airplanes in Washington state?
Police say they found this self-portrait of Colton Harris-Moore in the deleted file of a stolen digital camera.
The 18-year-old man police call the prime suspect does not have a pilot's license. But he does have a nickname -- "The Barefoot Burglar" -- and a Facebook fan club, which compares him to Jesse James "without the murders" and exhorts: "Fly, Colt, Fly."
Police say Colton "Colt" Harris-Moore has been linked to crimes in five counties involving planes, luxury cars and boats. He's known to alternate between squatting in vacant vacation homes, which he allegedly burglarizes, and roughing it in the woods.
Since November, police say, at least three small, private planes have been stolen and flown away. The latest to go missing crash-landed last week in a clearing in Granite Falls, Washington, after running out of fuel, police said.
The rough landing damaged the Cessna 182, which along with its instruments is worth more than $500,000. But authorities said the plane's pilot appears to have walked away unhurt.
Harris-Moore has not been charged in any of the plane thefts. But authorities are testing vomit found in the cockpit of one plane to see whether they can place the teen inside.
Harris-Moore has been on authorities' radar for years. "Colt," as he is called, was first arrested for burglary at age 12, said Detective Ed Wallace, a spokesman for the Island County Sheriff's Office. The break-in at a local school earned Colton a few weeks in a juvenile facility, Wallace said.
Local media reports tally nine arrests for Harris-Moore before the age of 15. Now police in five counties in Washington state are looking for him.
Harris-Moore dropped out of high school and, according to Wallace, police believe he spent his teens burglarizing unoccupied homes on Camano Island, a vacation community of about 15,000 people off the Washington state coast. He became known as "the Barefoot Burglar," because, investigators say, he preferred to prowl shoeless.
Gradually, Wallace alleges, Harris-Moore moved onto more sophisticated crimes.
"He will typically break into a home or vehicle and copy down the credit card numbers," Wallace said. "He then leaves the credit cards behind so people don't realize they have been stolen."
Wallace said Harris-Moore has charged thousands of dollars worth of video games, GPS devices and police scanners online, using stolen credit cards.
When Harris-Moore wasn't squatting in homes, he took to the woods with survival gear to elude police. He's been known to hide in the trees. "He's almost like a feral child," Wallace said.
Harris-Moore's days of running from authorities on the 40-square-mile island appeared to end in 2007 when he was arrested and pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary. Wallace said some of the charges were dismissed as part of the guilty plea.
Less than a year later, Wallace said, Harris-Moore allegedly walked away from a juvenile halfway house.
Police on Camano Island again began receiving reports of thefts that fit Harris-Moore's profile, Wallace said. In 2008, a deputy said he spotted Harris-Moore in a stolen Mercedes-Benz, but he lost the suspect when he allegedly dove from the moving vehicle.
After the chase, police recovered a stolen digital camera from the car. Wallace said he found a deleted self-portrait of Harris-Moore, who posed in a shirt with a telltale Mercedes-Benz insignia. The shirt also belonged to the vehicle's owner.
Harris-Moore faces 10 counts in that case, as well as other thefts, Internet crimes and burglaries, Wallace said. Charges are expected soon in a dozen more cases.
Harris-Moore dropped from sight for a while when wanted posters of him went up around Camano Island. Soon, though, authorities in the San Juan Islands noticed a series of break-ins and wondered whether Harris-Moore was island-hopping.
The theft of a Cessna 182 from the San Juan Islands in November jogged Wallace's memory. He recalled what he had found on a computer he said Harris-Moore used. "He had looked at flight manuals and how to fly a plane," he said.
Another theft of a small experimental plane had been reported in September. John Zerby, undersheriff of San Juan County, said police don't think the two thefts are a coincidence. "This doesn't happen here, that's why we think they go together," he said.
Police consider Harris-Moore to be a fugitive. Even though Harris-Moore has no known flight training, Zerby said police are certain he is their mystery pilot.
Harris-Moore's mother doubts her son learned to fly on his own.
"Any time anything is stolen, they blame it on Colt," Pam Kohler told the Everett Herald newspaper. "Let's say you're the smartest person in the world. Wouldn't you need a little bit of training in flying a plane? They're not easy."
CNN attempted to contact Kohler, but her phone was disconnected. CNN also tried to reach a former attorney for Harris-Moore but the lawyer has not returned calls requesting comment.
Experts said that teaching oneself to fly is difficult but not impossible.
"It's been heard of," said flight instructor Devin Tolentino. "Let's face it, the Wright brothers were able to teach themselves. Landing would be the hardest part, but if you weren't too concerned about using the plane again, it could be done."
Meanwhile, authorities in Whatcom County are investigating whether Harris-Moore stole a boat and used it to reach Point Roberts, where burglaries at three vacation homes have recently been reported, Deputy Jeff Roberts said. Point Roberts, a small peninsula, is U.S. territory but is accessible only from the water or through Canada. From parts of Point Roberts, entering Canada is just a matter of crossing the street.
Last week, law enforcement agencies got a new lead when a private plane was stolen in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, just across the border from Canada. Residents noticed a plane flying at an altitude of 100 feet as it left the area on Tuesday, said Detective Dave McClelland.
The plane was found Thursday, crashed and out of fuel in a patch of cleared forest in Granite Falls, Washington. On Sunday, authorities say they received a report of a burglary. "Blankets, shoes and food [were] taken instead of big-ticket items like TVs," said sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Hover.
A gunshot rang out as deputies searched the woods and came across some of the stolen items, Hover said. No one was injured, but the SWAT team was called in.
Police searched the area, using a helicopter with an infrared heat detection scanner and another Blackhawk helicopter provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
Low-tech police work led to Harris-Moore's arrest in 2005. Police staked out his mother's house, waiting until someone inside ordered a pizza. Police rode in the delivery car to the house and waited for Harris-Moore to come to them.
SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Who is stealing -- and crashing -- airplanes in Washington state?
Police say they found this self-portrait of Colton Harris-Moore in the deleted file of a stolen digital camera.
The 18-year-old man police call the prime suspect does not have a pilot's license. But he does have a nickname -- "The Barefoot Burglar" -- and a Facebook fan club, which compares him to Jesse James "without the murders" and exhorts: "Fly, Colt, Fly."
Police say Colton "Colt" Harris-Moore has been linked to crimes in five counties involving planes, luxury cars and boats. He's known to alternate between squatting in vacant vacation homes, which he allegedly burglarizes, and roughing it in the woods.
Since November, police say, at least three small, private planes have been stolen and flown away. The latest to go missing crash-landed last week in a clearing in Granite Falls, Washington, after running out of fuel, police said.
The rough landing damaged the Cessna 182, which along with its instruments is worth more than $500,000. But authorities said the plane's pilot appears to have walked away unhurt.
Harris-Moore has not been charged in any of the plane thefts. But authorities are testing vomit found in the cockpit of one plane to see whether they can place the teen inside.
Harris-Moore has been on authorities' radar for years. "Colt," as he is called, was first arrested for burglary at age 12, said Detective Ed Wallace, a spokesman for the Island County Sheriff's Office. The break-in at a local school earned Colton a few weeks in a juvenile facility, Wallace said.
Local media reports tally nine arrests for Harris-Moore before the age of 15. Now police in five counties in Washington state are looking for him.
Harris-Moore dropped out of high school and, according to Wallace, police believe he spent his teens burglarizing unoccupied homes on Camano Island, a vacation community of about 15,000 people off the Washington state coast. He became known as "the Barefoot Burglar," because, investigators say, he preferred to prowl shoeless.
Gradually, Wallace alleges, Harris-Moore moved onto more sophisticated crimes.
"He will typically break into a home or vehicle and copy down the credit card numbers," Wallace said. "He then leaves the credit cards behind so people don't realize they have been stolen."
Wallace said Harris-Moore has charged thousands of dollars worth of video games, GPS devices and police scanners online, using stolen credit cards.
When Harris-Moore wasn't squatting in homes, he took to the woods with survival gear to elude police. He's been known to hide in the trees. "He's almost like a feral child," Wallace said.
Harris-Moore's days of running from authorities on the 40-square-mile island appeared to end in 2007 when he was arrested and pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary. Wallace said some of the charges were dismissed as part of the guilty plea.
Less than a year later, Wallace said, Harris-Moore allegedly walked away from a juvenile halfway house.
Police on Camano Island again began receiving reports of thefts that fit Harris-Moore's profile, Wallace said. In 2008, a deputy said he spotted Harris-Moore in a stolen Mercedes-Benz, but he lost the suspect when he allegedly dove from the moving vehicle.
After the chase, police recovered a stolen digital camera from the car. Wallace said he found a deleted self-portrait of Harris-Moore, who posed in a shirt with a telltale Mercedes-Benz insignia. The shirt also belonged to the vehicle's owner.
Harris-Moore faces 10 counts in that case, as well as other thefts, Internet crimes and burglaries, Wallace said. Charges are expected soon in a dozen more cases.
Harris-Moore dropped from sight for a while when wanted posters of him went up around Camano Island. Soon, though, authorities in the San Juan Islands noticed a series of break-ins and wondered whether Harris-Moore was island-hopping.
The theft of a Cessna 182 from the San Juan Islands in November jogged Wallace's memory. He recalled what he had found on a computer he said Harris-Moore used. "He had looked at flight manuals and how to fly a plane," he said.
Another theft of a small experimental plane had been reported in September. John Zerby, undersheriff of San Juan County, said police don't think the two thefts are a coincidence. "This doesn't happen here, that's why we think they go together," he said.
Police consider Harris-Moore to be a fugitive. Even though Harris-Moore has no known flight training, Zerby said police are certain he is their mystery pilot.
Harris-Moore's mother doubts her son learned to fly on his own.
"Any time anything is stolen, they blame it on Colt," Pam Kohler told the Everett Herald newspaper. "Let's say you're the smartest person in the world. Wouldn't you need a little bit of training in flying a plane? They're not easy."
CNN attempted to contact Kohler, but her phone was disconnected. CNN also tried to reach a former attorney for Harris-Moore but the lawyer has not returned calls requesting comment.
Experts said that teaching oneself to fly is difficult but not impossible.
"It's been heard of," said flight instructor Devin Tolentino. "Let's face it, the Wright brothers were able to teach themselves. Landing would be the hardest part, but if you weren't too concerned about using the plane again, it could be done."
Meanwhile, authorities in Whatcom County are investigating whether Harris-Moore stole a boat and used it to reach Point Roberts, where burglaries at three vacation homes have recently been reported, Deputy Jeff Roberts said. Point Roberts, a small peninsula, is U.S. territory but is accessible only from the water or through Canada. From parts of Point Roberts, entering Canada is just a matter of crossing the street.
Last week, law enforcement agencies got a new lead when a private plane was stolen in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, just across the border from Canada. Residents noticed a plane flying at an altitude of 100 feet as it left the area on Tuesday, said Detective Dave McClelland.
The plane was found Thursday, crashed and out of fuel in a patch of cleared forest in Granite Falls, Washington. On Sunday, authorities say they received a report of a burglary. "Blankets, shoes and food [were] taken instead of big-ticket items like TVs," said sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Hover.
A gunshot rang out as deputies searched the woods and came across some of the stolen items, Hover said. No one was injured, but the SWAT team was called in.
Police searched the area, using a helicopter with an infrared heat detection scanner and another Blackhawk helicopter provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
Low-tech police work led to Harris-Moore's arrest in 2005. Police staked out his mother's house, waiting until someone inside ordered a pizza. Police rode in the delivery car to the house and waited for Harris-Moore to come to them.
Dog handler appeals conviction in Abu Ghraib case
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- He's already served the time, but lawyers Thursday argued to clear his name as onetime U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Smith appeals a conviction for the torture of detainees once held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Abu Ghraib prison was taken over by the Iraqi government after claims of abuse by U.S. troops.
Disturbing snapshots and video portraying sexual humiliation and physical intimidation against the detainees tarnished the image of the United States as it fought to stabilize Iraq after the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
A military panel found Smith guilty in March 2006 on allegations that he used his military working dog to illegally "terrorize and frighten" detainees as part of interrogation techniques at the U.S.-managed facility in Baghdad.
But his lawyer, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Potter, told a military appeals court Thursday that the conviction was based on faulty instructions to the jury.
"Nowhere in this case did the government establish that the use of the dog was illegal," the defense counsel said, noting that Smith "was not trained in interrogation techniques."
The military's prosecutor, U.S. Army Maj. Karen Borgerding, argued that Smith "would know it's unlawful" to use his unmuzzled dog to snarl within inches of a detained prisoner's face.
Smith was originally sentenced to 179 days confinement and received a bad conduct discharge.
Smith was not in the courtroom for the proceedings. Potter told CNN that he was not authorized to disclose his whereabouts but confirmed that his client remains on "appeal release" status after completing a three-month sentence.
If the appeal fails, the discharge stands. If the appeals court overturns the conviction, Smith could return to the military and may receive back pay, pension and other benefits. The judges did not indicate when they may rule after each side presented oral arguments Thursday.
At the 2006 court-martial, the jury found Smith guilty of charges that he used his military dog, Marco, to terrify prisoners, allegedly for amusement and in competition with other soldiers.
Smith also was found guilty of an indecent act involving his dog.
A female soldier testified on the first day of the court-martial that she had allowed Smith's dog to lick peanut butter she had placed on her bare chest as part of a dare from another soldier, who videotaped the stunt.
"It was foolish, stupid and juvenile," Smith said of the incident, reading from a statement. "There's nothing I can do to take it back. If I could, I would."
Smith did not specifically express regret for the wrongdoing involving detainees.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- He's already served the time, but lawyers Thursday argued to clear his name as onetime U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Smith appeals a conviction for the torture of detainees once held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Abu Ghraib prison was taken over by the Iraqi government after claims of abuse by U.S. troops.
Disturbing snapshots and video portraying sexual humiliation and physical intimidation against the detainees tarnished the image of the United States as it fought to stabilize Iraq after the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
A military panel found Smith guilty in March 2006 on allegations that he used his military working dog to illegally "terrorize and frighten" detainees as part of interrogation techniques at the U.S.-managed facility in Baghdad.
But his lawyer, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Potter, told a military appeals court Thursday that the conviction was based on faulty instructions to the jury.
"Nowhere in this case did the government establish that the use of the dog was illegal," the defense counsel said, noting that Smith "was not trained in interrogation techniques."
The military's prosecutor, U.S. Army Maj. Karen Borgerding, argued that Smith "would know it's unlawful" to use his unmuzzled dog to snarl within inches of a detained prisoner's face.
Smith was originally sentenced to 179 days confinement and received a bad conduct discharge.
Smith was not in the courtroom for the proceedings. Potter told CNN that he was not authorized to disclose his whereabouts but confirmed that his client remains on "appeal release" status after completing a three-month sentence.
If the appeal fails, the discharge stands. If the appeals court overturns the conviction, Smith could return to the military and may receive back pay, pension and other benefits. The judges did not indicate when they may rule after each side presented oral arguments Thursday.
At the 2006 court-martial, the jury found Smith guilty of charges that he used his military dog, Marco, to terrify prisoners, allegedly for amusement and in competition with other soldiers.
Smith also was found guilty of an indecent act involving his dog.
A female soldier testified on the first day of the court-martial that she had allowed Smith's dog to lick peanut butter she had placed on her bare chest as part of a dare from another soldier, who videotaped the stunt.
"It was foolish, stupid and juvenile," Smith said of the incident, reading from a statement. "There's nothing I can do to take it back. If I could, I would."
Smith did not specifically express regret for the wrongdoing involving detainees.
Brooke Astor's son, his lawyer guilty of bilking estate
(CNN) -- A jury in Manhattan found the son of Brooke Astor and one of his lawyers guilty Thursday of scheming to bilk millions of dollars from the late philanthropist's estate.
Anthony Marshall was convicted of bilking millions of dollars from the estate of his mother, Brooke Astor.
The verdict, returned on the 12th day of deliberation, ended a six-month trial that featured as witnesses a Who's Who of New York's social elite.
Anthony Marshall showed no visible reaction as he was found guilty of 14 of the 16 counts against him. His wife, Charlene, who many believed fanned his greed and instigated his mistreatment of his elderly mother, also did not seem to react.
Marshall was convicted of the most serious charges -- first-degree grand larceny and scheming to defraud. One of the most serious convictions involved Marshall giving himself a $1 million-a-year raise for handling his mother's affairs, said Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann.
Marshall's former lawyer, Francis Morrissey, was convicted of all five counts against him, including forgery and scheming to defraud Astor. Watch Marshall's attorney vow to appeal »
"These defendants, two morally depraved individuals, preyed on a physically and mentally ill 101-year-old woman to steal millions of dollars -- dollars that she had intended to go to help the lives of ordinary New Yorkers," Seidemann said, echoing his closing argument to the jury.
Astor, who had Alzheimer's disease, was 105 when she died in August 2007.
The prosecution called nearly 70 witnesses -- Henry Kissinger, Graydon Carter, Barbara Walters, Vartan Gregorian and Annette de la Renta among them.
Prosecutor Seidemann called the case "disturbing," and said the trial told the story of "how a son, an only son, would stoop so low to steal from his own mother in the sunset years of her life in order to line his own pockets and the pockets of his wife."
Don't Miss
Trial would have mortified Brooke Astor
FindLaw: Read indictment
Marshall, who is free on $100,000 bail, faces a maximum 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on December 8. Morrissey faces up to seven years in prison.
Author Meryl Gordon, who has followed the Astor story for years, was in the courtroom when the jury returned its verdicts.
"It was an incredibly bad, intense time," she said from her cell phone before hopping on a subway. "I was a little surprised that Charlene did not get visibly teary. I guess she was braced for it."
Marshall, Astor's only child, was indicted on criminal charges in 2006. The case kicked off a tabloid feeding frenzy that fostered headlines such as "Bad heir day," "Mrs. Astor's disaster" and "DA's kick in the Astor."
Through her late husband's Vincent Astor Foundation, Brooke Astor is credited with giving New York, where the Astors made their fortune, about $200 million.
The Astor Foundation gave millions to New York cultural jewels -- including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library -- as well as lower-profile programs.
Astor was often quoted as saying, "Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around."
"Mrs. Astor stood in New York as a symbol of generosity. And this trial stands as a landmark for the nefarious impact of money and greed," said her longtime friend, Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
"It will in many ways tarnish her memory," he said. "It's a sad day, but at the same time, one good thing that will come out of this -- that Mrs. Astor would approve of -- is that the elderly cannot be abused."
The case began when Marshall's son, Philip, filed a petition in 2006 asking the court to appoint a guardian for his grandmother. The court documents alleged "elder abuse" and were intended to remove Anthony Marshall's control of her affairs and transfer care to Astor's dear friend Annette de la Renta.
He reacted to the verdict in an e-mail:
"I hope this brings some consolation and closure for the many people, including my grandmother's loyal staff, caregivers and friends, who helped when she was so vulnerable and so manipulated," Philip Marshall wrote. "I sincerely hope these sad circumstances contribute to the recognition of elder abuse and exploitation as a growing national problem."
(CNN) -- A jury in Manhattan found the son of Brooke Astor and one of his lawyers guilty Thursday of scheming to bilk millions of dollars from the late philanthropist's estate.
Anthony Marshall was convicted of bilking millions of dollars from the estate of his mother, Brooke Astor.
The verdict, returned on the 12th day of deliberation, ended a six-month trial that featured as witnesses a Who's Who of New York's social elite.
Anthony Marshall showed no visible reaction as he was found guilty of 14 of the 16 counts against him. His wife, Charlene, who many believed fanned his greed and instigated his mistreatment of his elderly mother, also did not seem to react.
Marshall was convicted of the most serious charges -- first-degree grand larceny and scheming to defraud. One of the most serious convictions involved Marshall giving himself a $1 million-a-year raise for handling his mother's affairs, said Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann.
Marshall's former lawyer, Francis Morrissey, was convicted of all five counts against him, including forgery and scheming to defraud Astor. Watch Marshall's attorney vow to appeal »
"These defendants, two morally depraved individuals, preyed on a physically and mentally ill 101-year-old woman to steal millions of dollars -- dollars that she had intended to go to help the lives of ordinary New Yorkers," Seidemann said, echoing his closing argument to the jury.
Astor, who had Alzheimer's disease, was 105 when she died in August 2007.
The prosecution called nearly 70 witnesses -- Henry Kissinger, Graydon Carter, Barbara Walters, Vartan Gregorian and Annette de la Renta among them.
Prosecutor Seidemann called the case "disturbing," and said the trial told the story of "how a son, an only son, would stoop so low to steal from his own mother in the sunset years of her life in order to line his own pockets and the pockets of his wife."
Don't Miss
Trial would have mortified Brooke Astor
FindLaw: Read indictment
Marshall, who is free on $100,000 bail, faces a maximum 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on December 8. Morrissey faces up to seven years in prison.
Author Meryl Gordon, who has followed the Astor story for years, was in the courtroom when the jury returned its verdicts.
"It was an incredibly bad, intense time," she said from her cell phone before hopping on a subway. "I was a little surprised that Charlene did not get visibly teary. I guess she was braced for it."
Marshall, Astor's only child, was indicted on criminal charges in 2006. The case kicked off a tabloid feeding frenzy that fostered headlines such as "Bad heir day," "Mrs. Astor's disaster" and "DA's kick in the Astor."
Through her late husband's Vincent Astor Foundation, Brooke Astor is credited with giving New York, where the Astors made their fortune, about $200 million.
The Astor Foundation gave millions to New York cultural jewels -- including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library -- as well as lower-profile programs.
Astor was often quoted as saying, "Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around."
"Mrs. Astor stood in New York as a symbol of generosity. And this trial stands as a landmark for the nefarious impact of money and greed," said her longtime friend, Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
"It will in many ways tarnish her memory," he said. "It's a sad day, but at the same time, one good thing that will come out of this -- that Mrs. Astor would approve of -- is that the elderly cannot be abused."
The case began when Marshall's son, Philip, filed a petition in 2006 asking the court to appoint a guardian for his grandmother. The court documents alleged "elder abuse" and were intended to remove Anthony Marshall's control of her affairs and transfer care to Astor's dear friend Annette de la Renta.
He reacted to the verdict in an e-mail:
"I hope this brings some consolation and closure for the many people, including my grandmother's loyal staff, caregivers and friends, who helped when she was so vulnerable and so manipulated," Philip Marshall wrote. "I sincerely hope these sad circumstances contribute to the recognition of elder abuse and exploitation as a growing national problem."
Nobel contenders await peace prize decision
(CNN) -- A controversial Colombian senator who has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by Marxist guerrillas is the leading candidate to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced Friday, said an independent research institute in Norway.
Sen. Piedad Cordoba, right, of Colombia reportedly is one of three top contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sen. Piedad Cordoba is the most likely recipient among three leading contenders, said the Oslo-based International Peace Research Institute. The others the institute named are Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Islamic faith at Jordan University, and Afghan physician and human rights activist Sima Samar.
Though the institute considers Cordoba the front-runner, no single candidate has emerged as the clear-cut favorite, as sometimes happens, said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the peace institute.
"It really is quite open this year," Harpviken said.
This year's peace prize nominees include 172 people and 33 organizations. The committee does not release the names of the nominees.
The 50-year-old peace institute, which is often called PRIO, has no connection with the Nobel committee that awards the peace prize.
Harpviken said he believes the prize will go to an individual or organization engaged in the resolution of a protracted armed conflict.
"This is a [Nobel] committee that will perhaps be more proactive and will award somebody involved in a standing process rather than rewarding someone for past accomplishments," he said.
Cordoba, 54, heads Colombians for Peace, a group trying to end to the 45-year-old war between the government and the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC.
Since 2007, she has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by the FARC and has gotten commitments from the rebels for the release of several more. Colombian officials have said the guerrillas are holding about 700 captives.
A government critic and longtime peace activist, Cordoba was kidnapped by a right-wing paramilitary group in 1999. She was released after several weeks and then fled to Canada with her family, where she stayed for 14 months before returning home. There have been at least two assassinations attempts against her.
"While it is the hostage releases that have brought Cordoba and her organization the most attention, her role as a principal proponent of peace negotiations and of long-term reconciliation is probably more important to her candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize," PRIO said in a release.
Harpviken said he had received many complaints because of his prediction about Cordoba, whom critics accuse of being too close to the rebels. "I do realize that this created some debate in Colombia," he said. "That's not terribly surprising."
Cordoba was nominated by Argentinean human rights activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, winner of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize.
Harpviken said Muhammad, an Islamic scholar known for trying to bridge gaps with other faiths, also is a leading candidate. "Certainly, the purpose ... he stands for makes him very strong," Harpviken said.
A member of the Jordanian royal family and educated at Princeton and Cambridge universities, where he received a doctorate, Muhammad, 42, "is playing an increasingly central role as an advocate of interfaith dialogue," PRIO said.
In 2005, the prince brought together 170 Islamic scholars from 40 countries for the Amman Initiative to work out what they called a "theological counter-attack against terrorism."
Two years later, Muhammad and other prominent Islamic scholars wrote a letter called "A Common Word Between Us and You" that urged mutual understanding and peace with Christians.
The letter, PRIO said, was partly a response to Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 lecture that many saw as an attack on Islam. Backing his words with his deeds, Muhammad gave what was considered a broadly accommodating welcoming speech when the pope visited Jordan this year.
"The importance of Prince Ghazi's initiatives to date lies first and foremost in the way he engages Islamic theology, institutions and leaders in a debate on the relationship between Islam and other faiths, thereby contributing a wider platform for interreligious dialogue for Muslims in general," PRIO said. "A prize to Prince Ghazi would also be recognition of the long-standing efforts of the Jordanian royal family, including King Abdullah, who have been long-standing proponents of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East."
If Muhammad does not win, Harpviken said, it could be because his work is not done.
"He still has a way to go so that his ideas have an impact," Harpviken said.
The third PRIO front-runner is Samar, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the U.N. special envoy to Darfur in Africa.
A medical doctor, Samar also established the Shuhada Organization, which focuses on health care, particularly for Afghan women.
After obtaining her medical degree in 1982, Samar and her son fled to Pakistan in 1984 when the communist regime then ruling Afghanistan arrested her husband.
Samar, 52, remained in exile until 2002 when she was appointed as a women's affairs minister in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's transitional administration.
"She has been under frequent attacks both from conservative religious leaders and from Islamist radicals, and she is a prominent voice for the rights of women," PRIO said, adding that she "does invite respect by being a principled and outspoken proponent of human rights and the need for a true reconciliatory process."
According to other published reports, another possible pick is monk Thich Quang Do, head of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He has been under house arrest since 2001 and has been in and out of jail since his first detention by communist authorities in 1977.
Quang Do, 80, was awarded the annual human rights prize by the Rafto Foundation of Norway in 2006.
Four recent Rafto winners have gone on to garner the Nobel Peace Prize: Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (also known as Burma), Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, Kim Dae-jung of South Korea and Shirin Ebadi of Iran.
Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activist Malahat Nasibova was awarded the Rafto this year and also is considered a possible Nobel prize winner.
Other observers said Chinese dissidents Hu Jia, Gao Zhisheng and Wei Jingsheng also are contenders.
Hu, 36, was arrested in December 2007 during a crackdown on dissidents and was sentenced to 3½ years in April 2008 for "inciting subversion of state power."
Gao, who was born in 1966, is a self-taught lawyer and People's Liberation Army veteran who was a Nobel Peace Prize candidate last year. He disappeared in February after being taken away by Chinese police. Fellow activists said he is believed to be alive.
Wei, 59, was first arrested in 1979 and sentenced to 15 years. He was released in 1993 but arrested again within six months and sentenced to 14 years. In 1997, Chinese authorities put him on a plane to the United States, where he has lived since.
Harpviken said he doubts the Nobel committee will choose any Chinese or Russian dissidents this year because they "don't want to anger powerful governments."
"Although the committee takes pride in being independent," he said, "there are certain limitations on their being independent."
That does not mean he doesn't expect the committee to "take daring decisions."
Harpviken said he believes that "the most likely expression of the committee's courage this year will be to award the prize either to an unconventional kind of candidate or to somebody whose work is likely to be directly helped by a prize award."
The peace prize is one of five awarded annually since 1901 by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The other four prizes are for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and literature. Starting in 1969, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel also has been awarded.
While the other prizes are awarded by committees based in Sweden, the peace prize is determined by a five-member panel appointed by the Norwegian parliament.
The Nobel recipient receives a prize of 10 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.4 million.
(CNN) -- A controversial Colombian senator who has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by Marxist guerrillas is the leading candidate to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced Friday, said an independent research institute in Norway.
Sen. Piedad Cordoba, right, of Colombia reportedly is one of three top contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sen. Piedad Cordoba is the most likely recipient among three leading contenders, said the Oslo-based International Peace Research Institute. The others the institute named are Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Islamic faith at Jordan University, and Afghan physician and human rights activist Sima Samar.
Though the institute considers Cordoba the front-runner, no single candidate has emerged as the clear-cut favorite, as sometimes happens, said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the peace institute.
"It really is quite open this year," Harpviken said.
This year's peace prize nominees include 172 people and 33 organizations. The committee does not release the names of the nominees.
The 50-year-old peace institute, which is often called PRIO, has no connection with the Nobel committee that awards the peace prize.
Harpviken said he believes the prize will go to an individual or organization engaged in the resolution of a protracted armed conflict.
"This is a [Nobel] committee that will perhaps be more proactive and will award somebody involved in a standing process rather than rewarding someone for past accomplishments," he said.
Cordoba, 54, heads Colombians for Peace, a group trying to end to the 45-year-old war between the government and the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC.
Since 2007, she has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by the FARC and has gotten commitments from the rebels for the release of several more. Colombian officials have said the guerrillas are holding about 700 captives.
A government critic and longtime peace activist, Cordoba was kidnapped by a right-wing paramilitary group in 1999. She was released after several weeks and then fled to Canada with her family, where she stayed for 14 months before returning home. There have been at least two assassinations attempts against her.
"While it is the hostage releases that have brought Cordoba and her organization the most attention, her role as a principal proponent of peace negotiations and of long-term reconciliation is probably more important to her candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize," PRIO said in a release.
Harpviken said he had received many complaints because of his prediction about Cordoba, whom critics accuse of being too close to the rebels. "I do realize that this created some debate in Colombia," he said. "That's not terribly surprising."
Cordoba was nominated by Argentinean human rights activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, winner of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize.
Harpviken said Muhammad, an Islamic scholar known for trying to bridge gaps with other faiths, also is a leading candidate. "Certainly, the purpose ... he stands for makes him very strong," Harpviken said.
A member of the Jordanian royal family and educated at Princeton and Cambridge universities, where he received a doctorate, Muhammad, 42, "is playing an increasingly central role as an advocate of interfaith dialogue," PRIO said.
In 2005, the prince brought together 170 Islamic scholars from 40 countries for the Amman Initiative to work out what they called a "theological counter-attack against terrorism."
Two years later, Muhammad and other prominent Islamic scholars wrote a letter called "A Common Word Between Us and You" that urged mutual understanding and peace with Christians.
The letter, PRIO said, was partly a response to Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 lecture that many saw as an attack on Islam. Backing his words with his deeds, Muhammad gave what was considered a broadly accommodating welcoming speech when the pope visited Jordan this year.
"The importance of Prince Ghazi's initiatives to date lies first and foremost in the way he engages Islamic theology, institutions and leaders in a debate on the relationship between Islam and other faiths, thereby contributing a wider platform for interreligious dialogue for Muslims in general," PRIO said. "A prize to Prince Ghazi would also be recognition of the long-standing efforts of the Jordanian royal family, including King Abdullah, who have been long-standing proponents of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East."
If Muhammad does not win, Harpviken said, it could be because his work is not done.
"He still has a way to go so that his ideas have an impact," Harpviken said.
The third PRIO front-runner is Samar, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the U.N. special envoy to Darfur in Africa.
A medical doctor, Samar also established the Shuhada Organization, which focuses on health care, particularly for Afghan women.
After obtaining her medical degree in 1982, Samar and her son fled to Pakistan in 1984 when the communist regime then ruling Afghanistan arrested her husband.
Samar, 52, remained in exile until 2002 when she was appointed as a women's affairs minister in Afghan President Hamid Karzai's transitional administration.
"She has been under frequent attacks both from conservative religious leaders and from Islamist radicals, and she is a prominent voice for the rights of women," PRIO said, adding that she "does invite respect by being a principled and outspoken proponent of human rights and the need for a true reconciliatory process."
According to other published reports, another possible pick is monk Thich Quang Do, head of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He has been under house arrest since 2001 and has been in and out of jail since his first detention by communist authorities in 1977.
Quang Do, 80, was awarded the annual human rights prize by the Rafto Foundation of Norway in 2006.
Four recent Rafto winners have gone on to garner the Nobel Peace Prize: Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (also known as Burma), Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, Kim Dae-jung of South Korea and Shirin Ebadi of Iran.
Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activist Malahat Nasibova was awarded the Rafto this year and also is considered a possible Nobel prize winner.
Other observers said Chinese dissidents Hu Jia, Gao Zhisheng and Wei Jingsheng also are contenders.
Hu, 36, was arrested in December 2007 during a crackdown on dissidents and was sentenced to 3½ years in April 2008 for "inciting subversion of state power."
Gao, who was born in 1966, is a self-taught lawyer and People's Liberation Army veteran who was a Nobel Peace Prize candidate last year. He disappeared in February after being taken away by Chinese police. Fellow activists said he is believed to be alive.
Wei, 59, was first arrested in 1979 and sentenced to 15 years. He was released in 1993 but arrested again within six months and sentenced to 14 years. In 1997, Chinese authorities put him on a plane to the United States, where he has lived since.
Harpviken said he doubts the Nobel committee will choose any Chinese or Russian dissidents this year because they "don't want to anger powerful governments."
"Although the committee takes pride in being independent," he said, "there are certain limitations on their being independent."
That does not mean he doesn't expect the committee to "take daring decisions."
Harpviken said he believes that "the most likely expression of the committee's courage this year will be to award the prize either to an unconventional kind of candidate or to somebody whose work is likely to be directly helped by a prize award."
The peace prize is one of five awarded annually since 1901 by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The other four prizes are for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and literature. Starting in 1969, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel also has been awarded.
While the other prizes are awarded by committees based in Sweden, the peace prize is determined by a five-member panel appointed by the Norwegian parliament.
The Nobel recipient receives a prize of 10 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.4 million.
French minister says he won't resign over sex with 'boys'
PARIS, France (CNN) -- French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Thursday he will not resign over his admission in a book that he paid to have sex with "boys" in Thailand.
Frederic Mitterrand admitted to paying for sex with "boys" in his 2005 autobiography, "The Bad Life."
In an interview with French television network TF1, Mitterrand said he "absolutely condemn[s] sexual tourism, which is a disgrace, and ... pedophilia," in which he insisted he has never participated.
The minister described his 2005 book, "The Bad Life," as a mix of autobiography and fiction. In one passage, published by the French newspaper Le Monde Thursday, Mitterrand describes in detail a sexual encounter with a "boy" he said was called Bird.
"My boy didn't say a word, he stood before me, immobile, his eyes still straight ahead and a half-smile on his lips. I wanted him so badly I was trembling," he wrote.
Despite the use of the French word "garcon" in his text, Mitterrand has previously said the term did not mean "little boys."
He said the males he paid for sex were his age, or maybe five years younger. It was not immediately clear how old he was at the time of the encounters he describes in his book.
"It was, without a doubt, an error; a crime, no," he told TF1 anchor Laurence Ferrari.
Mitterrand, who is openly gay, said he spoke with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday morning and said the president supports him.
In a July interview with the weekly French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Sarkozy said he had read Mitterrand's book, and found it "courageous and talented."
Mitterrand's book has sparked fresh controversy in the wake of his recent defense of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was jailed last month in Switzerland on a 31-year-old arrest warrant. Polanski had fled the United States for his native France in 1977 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The culture minister told TF1's Ferrari that he was "too emotional" when he denounced the filmmaker's arrest in Switzerland as "horrifying."
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Swiss fight Polanski's appeal against arrest
"To see him thrown to the lions for an old story that really has no meaning, and to see him alone, imprisoned, when he was going to attend a ceremony where he was to be honored, that is to say, he was trapped, it's absolutely horrifying," he said October 4, according to Agence France Presse.
The far-right National Front organized an anti-Mitterrand demonstration in Paris Thursday evening.
"Send this message on to everyone who will not put up with this indecency!" the party's Web site said.
The party's vice president, Marine Le Pen, has demanded Mitterrand's resignation for what she termed his sexually deviant acts. Mitterrand responded, saying, "It's an honor to be dragged through the mud by the National Front."
Mitterrand's acts of "sexual tourism" have left "a dark smudge" on the government, Le Pen said.
The group is also gathering signatures on a petition, online and on paper, from those who want Mitterrand to step down.
"We really hope he will resign," National Front communications director Julien Sanchez told CNN.
"It's an embarrassment for our country, that our culture minister has done this. It affects our international image. It's not right," he added. Watch report on the controversy surrounding French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand »
On the other side of the political spectrum, the left-leaning Socialist Party suggested Sarkozy should consider Mitterrand's position.
"It's up to President Sarkozy to decide whether or not we can be involved in the fight against child prostitution and sexual tourism, and whether or not the acts written in an autobiography -- written by a minister -- are acts of sexual commerce," said party spokesman Benoit Hamon.
"If everything is relative and Mr. Mitterrand can be excused because he's famous, well, I don't excuse his behavior," Hamon said.
Martine Aubry, the leader of the Socialist Party, said she would wait until she had read the book before making any judgment.
Mitterrand told an interviewer in 2005 that assertions that he liked "little boys" were untrue.
"It's because when people say 'boys' we imagine 'little boys,'" he said then. "How to explain that? It belongs to this general puritanism which surrounds us, which always makes us paint a black picture of the situation. It has nothing to do with that."
Mitterrand was a television personality, not a government minister, when the book was published. It caused a stir upon its publication, as well, and has been the subject of heated debate several times since then.
In the excerpt published by Le Monde newspaper Thursday, Mitterrand talks about visiting clubs to choose young male prostitutes in Thailand -- where prostitution is illegal and sexual intercourse with a minor is statutory rape and is punishable by imprisonment.
"Most of them are young, handsome, and apparently unaware of the devastation that their activities could bring them. I would learn later that they didn't come every night, that they were often students, had a girlfriend and sometimes even lived with their families, who pretended not to know the source of their breadwinner's earnings," the book said.
"Some of them were older and there was also a small contingent of heavier bruisers, who also had their fans. It was the artistic side of the exposition: Their presence made the youthful charm of the others stand out."
Mitterrand, the nephew of the Socialist former president Francois Mitterrand, joined Sarkozy's center-right government this summer.
Wikipedia, the user-edited online reference Web site, has locked down Frederic Mitterrand's entry, preventing changes to it.
NATO mandate in Afghanistan extended
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution extending the mandate of NATO-led military forces in Afghanistan for a year, hours after a deadly bombing near the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
The bomb exploded in the center of Kabul on the corner of Passport Lane and the Indian Embassy.
The suicide car bomb attack on Thursday left at least 17 people dead, most of them civilians, and 63 wounded.
"I think this is another reminder of the dangers that the Taliban pose to the Afghan population and to the international community in Afghanistan, and the importance of the continued international efforts there," said John Sawers, Britain's ambassador to the world body, after the resolution was passed.
The council provides international legal approval for the deployment of NATO troops to assist in the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
The resolution, however, did not address troop numbers, an issue that has generated controversy since the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, requested an additional 40,000 troops.
The Security Council also condemned the attack, calling for the "perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism" to be brought to justice.
In addition to extending the mandate, the resolution stressed the need to bolster Afghan security forces to help them become self-sufficient in protecting their country.
Don't Miss
Obama team tries to hash out new Afghanistan plan
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's new leader, recently announced that NATO forces would begin training Afghan police and increase training of the Afghan National Army.
Some 90,000 international forces are deployed in Afghanistan, with 35,000 serving with NATO and 65,000 with the United States.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Thursday bombing, saying an Afghan national in a sport utility vehicle carried out the attack.
The bomber had intended to strike the embassy, Indian officials said. Watch what a local shopkeeper says about the area »
"The suicide attack(er) ... attempted (to go) through one of the embassy gates," Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry, told CNN on Thursday. "The embassy was the target."
The bomb went off about 8:30 a.m., just as offices and shops were opening for the day. The force of the blast shattered some of the embassy's windows, according to Prakash.
The bombing came a year after a similar deadly attack outside the Indian Embassy.
The Thursday attack killed 17 -- most of them civilians -- and 63 were wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman Ezmary Bashary said.
The Taliban said the attack killed 35 people, including high-ranking Indian Embassy officials, as well as international and Afghan police officers.
The blast damaged a security checkpoint outside the the embassy, said staffer J.P. Singh, but "there were no casualties on the Indian side."
The embassy is in the center of Kabul, in a shop-lined street across from the Interior Ministry and several other government buildings.
The explosion shattered car windows and toppled restaurant walls. Paramedics dug through twisted metal and debris, looking for survivors.
A statement from President Hamid Karzai's office called the blast an obvious assault on civilians and said "the perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it were vicious terrorists who killed innocent people for their malicious goals."
About a year ago, another suicide car bomb detonated outside the embassy. Among the 58 people killed in the July 7, 2008, attack were two Indian diplomats and 14 students at a nearby school.
More than 100 were wounded in that blast.
Afghan and Indian officials accused Pakistan's spy agency of involvement in that attack. Pakistan denied the accusation.
India is the sixth largest donor to Afghanistan, providing millions of dollars to help with reconstruction efforts there.
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution extending the mandate of NATO-led military forces in Afghanistan for a year, hours after a deadly bombing near the Indian Embassy in Kabul.
The bomb exploded in the center of Kabul on the corner of Passport Lane and the Indian Embassy.
The suicide car bomb attack on Thursday left at least 17 people dead, most of them civilians, and 63 wounded.
"I think this is another reminder of the dangers that the Taliban pose to the Afghan population and to the international community in Afghanistan, and the importance of the continued international efforts there," said John Sawers, Britain's ambassador to the world body, after the resolution was passed.
The council provides international legal approval for the deployment of NATO troops to assist in the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
The resolution, however, did not address troop numbers, an issue that has generated controversy since the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, requested an additional 40,000 troops.
The Security Council also condemned the attack, calling for the "perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism" to be brought to justice.
In addition to extending the mandate, the resolution stressed the need to bolster Afghan security forces to help them become self-sufficient in protecting their country.
Don't Miss
Obama team tries to hash out new Afghanistan plan
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's new leader, recently announced that NATO forces would begin training Afghan police and increase training of the Afghan National Army.
Some 90,000 international forces are deployed in Afghanistan, with 35,000 serving with NATO and 65,000 with the United States.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Thursday bombing, saying an Afghan national in a sport utility vehicle carried out the attack.
The bomber had intended to strike the embassy, Indian officials said. Watch what a local shopkeeper says about the area »
"The suicide attack(er) ... attempted (to go) through one of the embassy gates," Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry, told CNN on Thursday. "The embassy was the target."
The bomb went off about 8:30 a.m., just as offices and shops were opening for the day. The force of the blast shattered some of the embassy's windows, according to Prakash.
The bombing came a year after a similar deadly attack outside the Indian Embassy.
The Thursday attack killed 17 -- most of them civilians -- and 63 were wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman Ezmary Bashary said.
The Taliban said the attack killed 35 people, including high-ranking Indian Embassy officials, as well as international and Afghan police officers.
The blast damaged a security checkpoint outside the the embassy, said staffer J.P. Singh, but "there were no casualties on the Indian side."
The embassy is in the center of Kabul, in a shop-lined street across from the Interior Ministry and several other government buildings.
The explosion shattered car windows and toppled restaurant walls. Paramedics dug through twisted metal and debris, looking for survivors.
A statement from President Hamid Karzai's office called the blast an obvious assault on civilians and said "the perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it were vicious terrorists who killed innocent people for their malicious goals."
About a year ago, another suicide car bomb detonated outside the embassy. Among the 58 people killed in the July 7, 2008, attack were two Indian diplomats and 14 students at a nearby school.
More than 100 were wounded in that blast.
Afghan and Indian officials accused Pakistan's spy agency of involvement in that attack. Pakistan denied the accusation.
India is the sixth largest donor to Afghanistan, providing millions of dollars to help with reconstruction efforts there.
NASA set to crash on the moon -- twice
(CNN) -- Two U.S. spacecraft are set to crash on the moon Friday. On purpose. And we're all invited to watch.
An artist's rendering shows the LCROSS spacecraft, left, separating from its Centaur rocket.
NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite is scheduled to drop its Centaur upper-stage rocket on the lunar surface at 7:31 a.m. ET.
NASA hopes the impact will kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS probe find the presence of water in the moon's soil. Four minutes later, the LCROSS will follow through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before crashing into the Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.
The LCROSS is carrying spectrometers, near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer. These instruments will help NASA scientists analyze the plume of dust -- more than 250 metric tons' worth -- for water vapor.
The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will watch, and photograph, the collisions. And hundreds of telescopes on Earth also will be focused on the two plumes. Watch animation of how the moon will be "bombed" »
NASA is encouraging amateur astronomers to join the watch party.
"We expect the debris plumes to be visible through midsized backyard telescopes -- 10 inches and larger," said Brian Day at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Day is an amateur astronomer who is leading education and public outreach for the LCROSS mission.
Ames will host "Impact Night," an event with music and food starting Thursday evening before a live transmission of the lunar impact will be shown around 4:30 a.m. PT Friday. Other science observatories and amateur astronomy clubs across the country will be hosting similar events. iReport: Are you planning to watch?
"The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth," Day said. The Cabeus crater lies in permanent shadow, making observations inside the crater difficult. Watch CNN's Jeanne Moos ask if lunacy is behind the moon "bombing" »
The impacts will not be visible to the naked eye or through binoculars. If you don't have a telescope, or you live in areas where daylight will obscure the viewing, NASA TV will broadcast the crashes live. Coverage begins at 6:15 a.m. ET Friday.
The two main components of the LCROSS mission are the shepherding spacecraft and the Centaur upper stage rocket. The spacecraft will guide the rocket to its crash site.
Data from previous space missions have revealed trace amounts of water in lunar soil. The LCROSS mission seeks a definitive answer to the question of how much water is present. NASA has said it believes water on the moon could be a valuable resource in the agency's quest to explore the solar system.
LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 18.
Friday's lunar impact will be visible best in areas that are still dark, particularly in the Western United States.
The Fremont Peak Observatory near Monterey, California, will open up its doors early Friday to allow people to watch the event through its 30-inch telescope. It's "the most accessible public telescope in the [San Francisco] Bay Area," said Dave Samuels, the observatory's vice president.
So far, at least 50 people have signed up, Samuels said, noting that number is "really phenomenal, especially on a school night [and] work night. It's really incredible."
Students, retirees and board members are among those scheduled to attend.
Samuels said a special low-light, infrared video camera will be hooked up to the telescope so that the audience can watch the rocket strike the moon. The observatory is in Fremont Peak State Park, which is on a list of California parks that could close because of recent budget cuts.
Samuels said he hopes Friday's event triggers more interest in astronomy, particularly among young children, and possibly help the park to stay open.
"It's things like this that get kids interested [in science]," he said. "It will probably be a defining moment for them."
Darrick Gray, who teaches atmospheric sciences at Ray-Pec High School near Kansas City, Missouri, said he's planning to take 17 students -- all juniors and seniors -- to watch the lunar impact .
"This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Gray said. He said he's arranged for a school bus to pick up the kids early Friday and take the class to the Powell Observatory in Louisburg, Kansas.
"It's weather-dependent; we've got rain right now," Gray said. "It's going to be a call I make at 5 a.m."
Gray, who is also the director of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, said his students will try to take photos of the impact through the eyepiece of their telescopes. He said he hopes the event will influence his students to pursue careers in science.
"Being as we do live here in Missouri, we're away from the hub [of astronomy]," Gray said. "We're not in Florida, we're not in Texas, we're not in Silicon Valley -- it's not something they're used to seeing.
"So any time you can show them something that's never been done, and they say, 'Oh this is pretty cool,' I think they buy into that."
(CNN) -- Two U.S. spacecraft are set to crash on the moon Friday. On purpose. And we're all invited to watch.
An artist's rendering shows the LCROSS spacecraft, left, separating from its Centaur rocket.
NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite is scheduled to drop its Centaur upper-stage rocket on the lunar surface at 7:31 a.m. ET.
NASA hopes the impact will kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS probe find the presence of water in the moon's soil. Four minutes later, the LCROSS will follow through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before crashing into the Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.
The LCROSS is carrying spectrometers, near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer. These instruments will help NASA scientists analyze the plume of dust -- more than 250 metric tons' worth -- for water vapor.
The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will watch, and photograph, the collisions. And hundreds of telescopes on Earth also will be focused on the two plumes. Watch animation of how the moon will be "bombed" »
NASA is encouraging amateur astronomers to join the watch party.
"We expect the debris plumes to be visible through midsized backyard telescopes -- 10 inches and larger," said Brian Day at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Day is an amateur astronomer who is leading education and public outreach for the LCROSS mission.
Ames will host "Impact Night," an event with music and food starting Thursday evening before a live transmission of the lunar impact will be shown around 4:30 a.m. PT Friday. Other science observatories and amateur astronomy clubs across the country will be hosting similar events. iReport: Are you planning to watch?
"The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth," Day said. The Cabeus crater lies in permanent shadow, making observations inside the crater difficult. Watch CNN's Jeanne Moos ask if lunacy is behind the moon "bombing" »
The impacts will not be visible to the naked eye or through binoculars. If you don't have a telescope, or you live in areas where daylight will obscure the viewing, NASA TV will broadcast the crashes live. Coverage begins at 6:15 a.m. ET Friday.
The two main components of the LCROSS mission are the shepherding spacecraft and the Centaur upper stage rocket. The spacecraft will guide the rocket to its crash site.
Data from previous space missions have revealed trace amounts of water in lunar soil. The LCROSS mission seeks a definitive answer to the question of how much water is present. NASA has said it believes water on the moon could be a valuable resource in the agency's quest to explore the solar system.
LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 18.
Friday's lunar impact will be visible best in areas that are still dark, particularly in the Western United States.
The Fremont Peak Observatory near Monterey, California, will open up its doors early Friday to allow people to watch the event through its 30-inch telescope. It's "the most accessible public telescope in the [San Francisco] Bay Area," said Dave Samuels, the observatory's vice president.
So far, at least 50 people have signed up, Samuels said, noting that number is "really phenomenal, especially on a school night [and] work night. It's really incredible."
Students, retirees and board members are among those scheduled to attend.
Samuels said a special low-light, infrared video camera will be hooked up to the telescope so that the audience can watch the rocket strike the moon. The observatory is in Fremont Peak State Park, which is on a list of California parks that could close because of recent budget cuts.
Samuels said he hopes Friday's event triggers more interest in astronomy, particularly among young children, and possibly help the park to stay open.
"It's things like this that get kids interested [in science]," he said. "It will probably be a defining moment for them."
Darrick Gray, who teaches atmospheric sciences at Ray-Pec High School near Kansas City, Missouri, said he's planning to take 17 students -- all juniors and seniors -- to watch the lunar impact .
"This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Gray said. He said he's arranged for a school bus to pick up the kids early Friday and take the class to the Powell Observatory in Louisburg, Kansas.
"It's weather-dependent; we've got rain right now," Gray said. "It's going to be a call I make at 5 a.m."
Gray, who is also the director of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, said his students will try to take photos of the impact through the eyepiece of their telescopes. He said he hopes the event will influence his students to pursue careers in science.
"Being as we do live here in Missouri, we're away from the hub [of astronomy]," Gray said. "We're not in Florida, we're not in Texas, we're not in Silicon Valley -- it's not something they're used to seeing.
"So any time you can show them something that's never been done, and they say, 'Oh this is pretty cool,' I think they buy into that."
Thứ Tư, 23 tháng 9, 2009
France passes tough anti-piracy measure
PARIS, France (CNN) -- French lawmakers passed a tough new measure to crack down on illegal downloading.
An MP3 music file gets downloaded through a peer-to-peer website.
The legislation would impose fines of up to 300,000 euros -- the equivalent of about $440,000 -- as well as possible prison terms for the illegal download of films or music.
The National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, passed the bill on Tuesday 258-131, a day after the Senate approved it.
The first e-mails to those who infringe the new law should go out starting in January 2010, according to the Minister of Culture.
The bill replaces a tougher version of the legislation that was rejected as being unconstitutional.
Internet piracy has become a global concern, with some musicians, authors, filmmakers and others who create content complaining that illegal downloading is essentially stealing their work.
A British government minister laid out the problem in a recent speech.
The digital age has made it easier to create content, but it's also made it easier to copy it -- and some people who do that do so without paying a royalty to authors or musicians, said David Lammy, Britain's minister for higher education and intellectual property in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
"The harsh reality is that not everyone recognizes that they have a moral and legal obligation to return some of the money they generate to those who created the work," he said in a recent speech.
Some have advocated strict government controls, backed up by sanctions, to limit online piracy, he said, while others have suggested different approaches.
PARIS, France (CNN) -- French lawmakers passed a tough new measure to crack down on illegal downloading.
An MP3 music file gets downloaded through a peer-to-peer website.
The legislation would impose fines of up to 300,000 euros -- the equivalent of about $440,000 -- as well as possible prison terms for the illegal download of films or music.
The National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, passed the bill on Tuesday 258-131, a day after the Senate approved it.
The first e-mails to those who infringe the new law should go out starting in January 2010, according to the Minister of Culture.
The bill replaces a tougher version of the legislation that was rejected as being unconstitutional.
Internet piracy has become a global concern, with some musicians, authors, filmmakers and others who create content complaining that illegal downloading is essentially stealing their work.
A British government minister laid out the problem in a recent speech.
The digital age has made it easier to create content, but it's also made it easier to copy it -- and some people who do that do so without paying a royalty to authors or musicians, said David Lammy, Britain's minister for higher education and intellectual property in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
"The harsh reality is that not everyone recognizes that they have a moral and legal obligation to return some of the money they generate to those who created the work," he said in a recent speech.
Some have advocated strict government controls, backed up by sanctions, to limit online piracy, he said, while others have suggested different approaches.
Simple Facebook question raises problems around the world
(CNN) -- "Where do you live?"
Facebook highlights territorial disputes, such as one between Israel and Syria over Golan Heights.
Seems like a simple question, doesn't it?
But the answer is not clear-cut for everyone. Take people who live in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, which is wedged between India, Pakistan and China. India and Pakistan have gone to war repeatedly over the disputed territory.
Technically, it's "Indian-administered."
But on Facebook, it's simply in India.
Shujaat Bukhari, a journalist in Srinagar, was slightly uncomfortable about the classification.
"As far as the traditions of the people are concerned, the political issues, it might not match with the people's mindset," he said, even while conceding it could be seen as accurate.
"It is administratively part of India, so as far as that is concerned, it is correct," he said. "But it doesn't gel with the mood of the people."
The Indian government is very sensitive about how international media organizations characterize Kashmir, he said by phone from Srinagar.
"If the Economist (magazine) publishes a map which is related to India or Kashmir, if that map is not acceptable to the Indian government, they put a stamp when (the magazine) reaches India saying these maps should not be treated as as authentic," he said.
Srinagar is just one of many examples of the diplomatic minefields social-networking sites can stray into when seeking basic information about their users.
Facebook recently changed its listing for the Golan Heights -- which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 -- so users there could choose to say whether they live in Israel or Syria.
It was responding to pressure from a pro-Israel group called HonestReporting -- and from Facebook users who set up a group on the site itself called "Facebook, Golan Residents Live in Israel, not Syria."
"It is not for Facebook to decide the national origin of Golan residents," the group says on its page.
Facebook may have pleased pro-Israel users there by giving them the choice to say where they live, but not all Syrians were happy about the change.
"I think Facebook sort of shot itself in the foot to make it optional for the Golan to say this is part of Israel," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian scholar based in the United States.
"This is against international law," he said.
And the Golan is only the tip of the iceberg.
Jerusalem, which remains hotly disputed between Israel and the Palestinians, is simply in Israel as far as Facebook is concerned.
Tibet's capital Lhasa is in China on Facebook, although many Tibetans and their supporters reject China's rule of Tibet. The "Free Tibet" group on Facebook has nearly 188,000 members.
Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia briefly went to war last summer over the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi is listed as being in Georgia on Facebook. Two pro-independence Abkhaz Facebook groups have about 1,200 members between them.
The social-networking site "deals with the listings for disputed territories on a case-by-case basis," Facebook representative Debbie Frost told CNN by e-mail.
She said the site -- which recently announced it has 300 million users -- consults the International Organization for Standardization, the United Nations and other global organizations.
"We also may consider other factors when trying to determine if dual listings would make sense for a given city or region. For example, Srinagar -- the example you gave -- is in the Indian-administered region, and has been since 1947," she said.
"We will continue to look at the listings we provide and may offer more dual listings in (the) future. We will also listen to requests from our users and in the cases of disputed territories we may try to come up with options that enable them to choose one of two countries," she added.
Bukhari, the journalist in disputed Srinagar, suggests that Facebook "should have a separate section for disputed areas."
That's a solution that Yahoo appears to have embraced -- up to a point.
It offers "disputed territory" as an option for users creating a new account, but won't actually register a new account if users choose that option.
It does allow users to say they are from Taiwan -- which China considers a renegade province and is not represented at the United Nations -- and the "Occupied Palestinian Territories." But it does not appear to allow users to create an account if they choose "Occupied Palestinian Territories."
It does not offer Tibet, Kashmir or Abkhazia.
Google, for its part, offers Taiwan and "Palestinian Territories," as well as Western Sahara, a breakaway region of Morocco that is not recognized internationally.
It does not offer Tibet, Kashmir or Abkhazia.
Neither Yahoo nor Google responded to repeated CNN requests for comment.
But if Facebook's experience with the Golan Heights is any indication, they may all be getting comments from users soon enough.
(CNN) -- "Where do you live?"
Facebook highlights territorial disputes, such as one between Israel and Syria over Golan Heights.
Seems like a simple question, doesn't it?
But the answer is not clear-cut for everyone. Take people who live in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, which is wedged between India, Pakistan and China. India and Pakistan have gone to war repeatedly over the disputed territory.
Technically, it's "Indian-administered."
But on Facebook, it's simply in India.
Shujaat Bukhari, a journalist in Srinagar, was slightly uncomfortable about the classification.
"As far as the traditions of the people are concerned, the political issues, it might not match with the people's mindset," he said, even while conceding it could be seen as accurate.
"It is administratively part of India, so as far as that is concerned, it is correct," he said. "But it doesn't gel with the mood of the people."
The Indian government is very sensitive about how international media organizations characterize Kashmir, he said by phone from Srinagar.
"If the Economist (magazine) publishes a map which is related to India or Kashmir, if that map is not acceptable to the Indian government, they put a stamp when (the magazine) reaches India saying these maps should not be treated as as authentic," he said.
Srinagar is just one of many examples of the diplomatic minefields social-networking sites can stray into when seeking basic information about their users.
Facebook recently changed its listing for the Golan Heights -- which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 -- so users there could choose to say whether they live in Israel or Syria.
It was responding to pressure from a pro-Israel group called HonestReporting -- and from Facebook users who set up a group on the site itself called "Facebook, Golan Residents Live in Israel, not Syria."
"It is not for Facebook to decide the national origin of Golan residents," the group says on its page.
Facebook may have pleased pro-Israel users there by giving them the choice to say where they live, but not all Syrians were happy about the change.
"I think Facebook sort of shot itself in the foot to make it optional for the Golan to say this is part of Israel," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian scholar based in the United States.
"This is against international law," he said.
And the Golan is only the tip of the iceberg.
Jerusalem, which remains hotly disputed between Israel and the Palestinians, is simply in Israel as far as Facebook is concerned.
Tibet's capital Lhasa is in China on Facebook, although many Tibetans and their supporters reject China's rule of Tibet. The "Free Tibet" group on Facebook has nearly 188,000 members.
Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia briefly went to war last summer over the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi is listed as being in Georgia on Facebook. Two pro-independence Abkhaz Facebook groups have about 1,200 members between them.
The social-networking site "deals with the listings for disputed territories on a case-by-case basis," Facebook representative Debbie Frost told CNN by e-mail.
She said the site -- which recently announced it has 300 million users -- consults the International Organization for Standardization, the United Nations and other global organizations.
"We also may consider other factors when trying to determine if dual listings would make sense for a given city or region. For example, Srinagar -- the example you gave -- is in the Indian-administered region, and has been since 1947," she said.
"We will continue to look at the listings we provide and may offer more dual listings in (the) future. We will also listen to requests from our users and in the cases of disputed territories we may try to come up with options that enable them to choose one of two countries," she added.
Bukhari, the journalist in disputed Srinagar, suggests that Facebook "should have a separate section for disputed areas."
That's a solution that Yahoo appears to have embraced -- up to a point.
It offers "disputed territory" as an option for users creating a new account, but won't actually register a new account if users choose that option.
It does allow users to say they are from Taiwan -- which China considers a renegade province and is not represented at the United Nations -- and the "Occupied Palestinian Territories." But it does not appear to allow users to create an account if they choose "Occupied Palestinian Territories."
It does not offer Tibet, Kashmir or Abkhazia.
Google, for its part, offers Taiwan and "Palestinian Territories," as well as Western Sahara, a breakaway region of Morocco that is not recognized internationally.
It does not offer Tibet, Kashmir or Abkhazia.
Neither Yahoo nor Google responded to repeated CNN requests for comment.
But if Facebook's experience with the Golan Heights is any indication, they may all be getting comments from users soon enough.
How Xbox Can Help Fight Heart Disease
By Tara Kelly / London Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009
Heartworks, the first fully functioning virtual heart to help train cardiologists and doctors
Countless medical studies have concluded that playing too many video games can be harmful to one's health. Now, however, it turns out that one of the more popular video-game consoles on the market, the Xbox 360, could be used to save lives.
A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England has devised a way to use an Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks. The new tool has the potential to revolutionize the medical industry because it is both faster and cheaper than the computer systems that are currently used by scientists to perform complex heart research. (See pictures of video-game consoles.)
The system, detailed in a study in the August edition of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry, is based on a video-game demo created by Simon Scarle two years ago when he was a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, the division of the U.S.-based company that designs games for the Xbox 360. Scarle modified a chip in the console so that instead of producing graphics for the game, it now delivers data tracking how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells. This creates a model of the heart that allows doctors to identify heart defects or conditions such as arrhythmia, a disturbance in the normal rhythm of the heart that causes it to pump less effectively. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.)
"This is a clever use of a processing chip ... to speed up calculations of heart rhythm. What used to take hours can be calculated in seconds, without having to employ an extremely expensive, high-performance computer," Denis Noble, director of Computational Physiology at Oxford University, tells TIME.
To create a heart model now, researchers must use supercomputers or a network of PCs to crunch millions of mathematical equations relating to the proteins, cells and tissues of the heart, a time-consuming and costly process. Scarle's Xbox system can deliver the same results at a rate five times faster and 10 times more cheap, according to the study. (See pictures from an X-ray studio.)
"These game consoles aren't just glorified toys. [They] are pieces of very powerful computing hardware," Scarle says. "I can see this ... being most useful for students and early-career scientists to just quickly and cheaply grab that extra bit of computing power they otherwise wouldn't be able to get."
Scarle attributes his breakthrough creation to his unusual background of working as a software engineer in the gaming industry and performing electrocardio-dynamics research at the University of Sheffield in England. The idea for the heart-modeling tool came from a "little shooter game" he developed at Microsoft in which a player trys to gun down enemies in an arena meant to resemble a heart. (See pictures of the heart.)
"I did a game-ified version of my old cardiac code. I could actually present some 'proper' science [based on] the cool things us game developers do," Scarle says.
The Xbox 360 isn't the only video-game console that is being used for scientific research. At the University of Massachusetts campus in Dartmouth, scientists are using Sony PlayStations to simulate black-hole collisions to try to solve the mystery of what happens when a supermassive black hole swallows a star. (Read "Microsoft: Out of the X Box.")
So perhaps parents shouldn't be too worried if their children are spending an inordinate amount of time playing video games. Who knows, today's Grand Theft Auto or Halo addict may end up discovering a new moon around Saturn or finding a cure for cancer.
By Tara Kelly / London Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009
Heartworks, the first fully functioning virtual heart to help train cardiologists and doctors
Countless medical studies have concluded that playing too many video games can be harmful to one's health. Now, however, it turns out that one of the more popular video-game consoles on the market, the Xbox 360, could be used to save lives.
A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England has devised a way to use an Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks. The new tool has the potential to revolutionize the medical industry because it is both faster and cheaper than the computer systems that are currently used by scientists to perform complex heart research. (See pictures of video-game consoles.)
The system, detailed in a study in the August edition of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry, is based on a video-game demo created by Simon Scarle two years ago when he was a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, the division of the U.S.-based company that designs games for the Xbox 360. Scarle modified a chip in the console so that instead of producing graphics for the game, it now delivers data tracking how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells. This creates a model of the heart that allows doctors to identify heart defects or conditions such as arrhythmia, a disturbance in the normal rhythm of the heart that causes it to pump less effectively. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.)
"This is a clever use of a processing chip ... to speed up calculations of heart rhythm. What used to take hours can be calculated in seconds, without having to employ an extremely expensive, high-performance computer," Denis Noble, director of Computational Physiology at Oxford University, tells TIME.
To create a heart model now, researchers must use supercomputers or a network of PCs to crunch millions of mathematical equations relating to the proteins, cells and tissues of the heart, a time-consuming and costly process. Scarle's Xbox system can deliver the same results at a rate five times faster and 10 times more cheap, according to the study. (See pictures from an X-ray studio.)
"These game consoles aren't just glorified toys. [They] are pieces of very powerful computing hardware," Scarle says. "I can see this ... being most useful for students and early-career scientists to just quickly and cheaply grab that extra bit of computing power they otherwise wouldn't be able to get."
Scarle attributes his breakthrough creation to his unusual background of working as a software engineer in the gaming industry and performing electrocardio-dynamics research at the University of Sheffield in England. The idea for the heart-modeling tool came from a "little shooter game" he developed at Microsoft in which a player trys to gun down enemies in an arena meant to resemble a heart. (See pictures of the heart.)
"I did a game-ified version of my old cardiac code. I could actually present some 'proper' science [based on] the cool things us game developers do," Scarle says.
The Xbox 360 isn't the only video-game console that is being used for scientific research. At the University of Massachusetts campus in Dartmouth, scientists are using Sony PlayStations to simulate black-hole collisions to try to solve the mystery of what happens when a supermassive black hole swallows a star. (Read "Microsoft: Out of the X Box.")
So perhaps parents shouldn't be too worried if their children are spending an inordinate amount of time playing video games. Who knows, today's Grand Theft Auto or Halo addict may end up discovering a new moon around Saturn or finding a cure for cancer.
Scientists say movie androids not as far-fetched as they seem
(CNN) -- Why leave home when you can send out a sexy, stylish robot version of yourself to do anything you tell it?
In "Surrogates," lifelike robots take the place of humans in day-to-day life.
That's the world of "Surrogates," a film starring Bruce Willis that opens Friday.
Willis plays an FBI agent who investigates the first murder to occur in years in a world where no one worries about crime or pain, because their robots self-heal with a quick reboot.
Far-fetched science fiction? Sure.
But scientists and the movie's makers say the technology might not be as far away as most people think.
Armies use remote-controlled robots to attack enemies and destroy land mines. Emerging technology for the disabled allows users to operate robotic limbs and control computer cursors without touching a keyboard.
And emerging "telepresence" technology is letting people see, hear and, increasingly, walk, talk and gesture using human-sized robots a world away.
"There are a lot of real-world components to this," said robotics expert and author Daniel H. Wilson, whose books like "Where's My Jet Pack?" and "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" explore the intersections between science fiction and real science.
"Clearly, there are not fully functional humanoid robots ... but there are a lot of components to telepresence that already exist."
"Surrogates" director Jonathan Mostow, whose film credits include 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," said he was drawn to the concept of surrogate robots as an extension of current technology. And, he said, as he met with scientists, he became convinced that something approaching the concept could one day be a reality.
"To me, it's not even a question of the technology. Technology always catches up," he said. "The question is, is some universal human urge being met by this invention? It seems to me we have a fundamental human desire to be lazy, to sort of not have to do things in person and to do it remotely.
"That began with the telegraph and the telephone and has morphed into the Internet."
The first steps down the road are being taken at Anybots, a Mountain View, California, company founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.
The company offers, for about $30,000, a 5-foot-tall, 35-pound robot that allows the user to remotely travel, see, hear and talk. It hopes to release its latest version of the robot at a more affordable price.
The robot's vaguely humanoid curves, roughly adult height and ability to move around using technology similar to that of the Segway are important steps up from current teleconferencing technology, Blackwell said.
Anybots in the development phase are being designed to run, jump and climb stairs, and they come equipped with fully articulated hands designed to perform increasingly human-like tasks.
Blackwell said he's not sure the technology will ever advance to the level imagined in "Surrogates" -- but that may have as much to do with desire as ability.
"I don't know if we'll ever get quite to that level, of being that realistic," he said. "Most of the time, you're not trying to fool people; you're just trying to make something human enough so people can relate to it."
Wilson, who said he appreciates "Surrogates" because it avoids sci-fi's traditional "man vs. machine" dynamic, also imagines social reasons for not pursuing such technology.
"Would humans stand in line at the grocery store behind a robot? Would I let my children play outside if I knew there were robots outside walking dogs?" he said.
It's more realistic, Wilson said, that a humanoid robot could be created to remotely perform tasks that would be too dangerous for the machine's operator to do. although NASA employs robots in space, the highly technical work often required for space walks still requires a human touch -- at least for now.
Plus, he said, making robots that look and act like us would help them function better, he said.
"Another major reason to create humanoid robots is, they can use all of our tools," Wilson said. "Human beings have taken large chunks of the planet and completely transformed the environment to support our embodiment. Doorways are a certain width all over the world because human beings are about the same size. All our tools are similar because we've all got hands and thumbs."
For Mostow, the movie also reflects technological advances that, for better or worse, exist as the world of online networking continues to grow.
"You can do your shopping. You can get your news. You can let everyone know what you're up to," he said. "For those who telecommute, you don't even have to put your clothes on to go to work.
"This idea basically just takes that to its logical conclusion."
(CNN) -- Why leave home when you can send out a sexy, stylish robot version of yourself to do anything you tell it?
In "Surrogates," lifelike robots take the place of humans in day-to-day life.
That's the world of "Surrogates," a film starring Bruce Willis that opens Friday.
Willis plays an FBI agent who investigates the first murder to occur in years in a world where no one worries about crime or pain, because their robots self-heal with a quick reboot.
Far-fetched science fiction? Sure.
But scientists and the movie's makers say the technology might not be as far away as most people think.
Armies use remote-controlled robots to attack enemies and destroy land mines. Emerging technology for the disabled allows users to operate robotic limbs and control computer cursors without touching a keyboard.
And emerging "telepresence" technology is letting people see, hear and, increasingly, walk, talk and gesture using human-sized robots a world away.
"There are a lot of real-world components to this," said robotics expert and author Daniel H. Wilson, whose books like "Where's My Jet Pack?" and "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" explore the intersections between science fiction and real science.
"Clearly, there are not fully functional humanoid robots ... but there are a lot of components to telepresence that already exist."
"Surrogates" director Jonathan Mostow, whose film credits include 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," said he was drawn to the concept of surrogate robots as an extension of current technology. And, he said, as he met with scientists, he became convinced that something approaching the concept could one day be a reality.
"To me, it's not even a question of the technology. Technology always catches up," he said. "The question is, is some universal human urge being met by this invention? It seems to me we have a fundamental human desire to be lazy, to sort of not have to do things in person and to do it remotely.
"That began with the telegraph and the telephone and has morphed into the Internet."
The first steps down the road are being taken at Anybots, a Mountain View, California, company founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell.
The company offers, for about $30,000, a 5-foot-tall, 35-pound robot that allows the user to remotely travel, see, hear and talk. It hopes to release its latest version of the robot at a more affordable price.
The robot's vaguely humanoid curves, roughly adult height and ability to move around using technology similar to that of the Segway are important steps up from current teleconferencing technology, Blackwell said.
Anybots in the development phase are being designed to run, jump and climb stairs, and they come equipped with fully articulated hands designed to perform increasingly human-like tasks.
Blackwell said he's not sure the technology will ever advance to the level imagined in "Surrogates" -- but that may have as much to do with desire as ability.
"I don't know if we'll ever get quite to that level, of being that realistic," he said. "Most of the time, you're not trying to fool people; you're just trying to make something human enough so people can relate to it."
Wilson, who said he appreciates "Surrogates" because it avoids sci-fi's traditional "man vs. machine" dynamic, also imagines social reasons for not pursuing such technology.
"Would humans stand in line at the grocery store behind a robot? Would I let my children play outside if I knew there were robots outside walking dogs?" he said.
It's more realistic, Wilson said, that a humanoid robot could be created to remotely perform tasks that would be too dangerous for the machine's operator to do. although NASA employs robots in space, the highly technical work often required for space walks still requires a human touch -- at least for now.
Plus, he said, making robots that look and act like us would help them function better, he said.
"Another major reason to create humanoid robots is, they can use all of our tools," Wilson said. "Human beings have taken large chunks of the planet and completely transformed the environment to support our embodiment. Doorways are a certain width all over the world because human beings are about the same size. All our tools are similar because we've all got hands and thumbs."
For Mostow, the movie also reflects technological advances that, for better or worse, exist as the world of online networking continues to grow.
"You can do your shopping. You can get your news. You can let everyone know what you're up to," he said. "For those who telecommute, you don't even have to put your clothes on to go to work.
"This idea basically just takes that to its logical conclusion."
Thứ Ba, 22 tháng 9, 2009
Desperation stalks Zimbabwe's white farmers
HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A desperate Zimbabwean farmer fighting to hold onto his land -- a year after the country's political rivals pledged to govern jointly -- fears he will eventually lose to politics and violence.
Ben Freeth's farm was gutted by fire, as was his father-in-law's.
The power-sharing agreement included an undertaking by both parties to ensure property rights are upheld but farm attacks and invasions continue unabated in Zimbabwe.
Charles Lock is one of an estimated 400 farmers who have remained in the country despite President Robert Mugabe's policy of redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks.
"Why do they want to remove me when I've complied with everything they want? What more do they want other than for me to pack my bags and leave and if that's the case, then admit that that is the policy. Pass a law: no whites are allowed to farm. Then it makes it clear," Lock said.
Since 2000, Mugabe's controversial land reform program has driven more than 4,000 commercial farmers off their land, destroying Zimbabwe's once prosperous agricultural sector.
"When the land reform program began, we decided we were not going to have a confrontational attitude; that we would actually go along with this program because it was the only way that this whole thing would be sorted out. So I voluntarily gave away my own farm and moved onto my father-in-law's farm," Lock said.
That was in 2002. A year later the government came knocking on his door again, he said, demanding more land.
Lock told CNN he eventually gave up 70 percent of his father-in-law's farm, which he then owned. Now an army general is demanding Lock's remaining 30 percent.
When Zimbabwe's new unity government was formed -- with Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change -- in February this year, the general allegedly posted soldiers on Lock's farm. The farmer said he stopped farming and trade at gun point.
When CNN visited Lock's farm this month, workers were standing idle. Maize and tobacco, which Lock said is worth more than U.S. $1 million, lay in storage.
"They've switched off our irrigation system, taken out keys and stop our trucks if we want to deliver maize," he told CNN.
So Lock had to sneak into his own property like a thief by cutting open the gate leading to his store room. He took a few valuables from his workshop suspecting that his whole place will soon be looted.
With the formation of a unity government farmers were hoping for some protection but Lock said: "Nothing is happening here. There is no land audit happening, no one comes out here to check, to see. We are just left vulnerable."
On another farm, Ben Freeth's fight for his land has just escalated to another level.
Freeth has been repeatedly beaten, arrested and harassed. Now his farmhouse and that of his father-in-law have been gutted by a mysterious fire. See the destruction the fire caused
Freeth could not say for sure that this is arson but told CNN that the group of ZANU-PF youths who have occupied his farm have repeatedly threatened to burn his house.
"One time they came round with burning sacks at night and they started making a huge noise and ringing a great big bell and shouting and screaming. They were going underneath the thatch saying we are going to burn your house down if you don't get out," he said.
Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell are among a group of Zimbabwean farmers who won the right to remain on their land at a southern African tribunal.
But Mugabe has declared the ruling null and void and pulled out of the tribunal. Farmers cannot contest land issues in Zimbabwe and approaching international courts has thus far not worked either.
When CNN interviewed Mugabe's minister of state, Didymas Mutasa, about the disregard for human and property rights on the farms, he blamed the farmers for the violence, saying landless blacks are getting frustrated with their refusal to relinquish their land.
"Human rights are beginning to be seen now because they benefit the whites, and when they were affecting blacks badly as they did the likes of us, it didn't matter and nobody raised anything about those human rights.
"And sometimes we say, good heavens, if that is the kind of human rights you are talking about, you better keep them away from us; we don't want to see them," he told CNN.
But it is black farm workers who are caught in the cross fire. They continue to bear the brunt of the land reform program by repeatedly being beaten and intimidated. Some have even been killed.
Tractor driver William Kale said it is farm laborers working for white farmers who are targeted.
"They actually say you the workers, you are ones that are supporting the white farmer. That is why he is carrying on farming and we refuse to go because we have nowhere to go," Kale told CNN.
Many farmers and farm workers we spoke to say they are in a worse position now under the unity government than they were before.
Lock said: "When ZANU-PF was in power, you had hawks and doves in government and the doves were approachable and often helped us. But now that these positions are being shared with Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC, Mr. Mugabe has only appointed hawks to his cabinet who insist on continuing the land reform program. And when it comes to the MDC, the land issue seems to be a hot potato they do not want to touch. I have asked Mr. Tsvangirai to intervene but nothing is happening."
Prime Minister Tsvangirai refuted that. "That is not true," he said. "We initiated to find out who is being affected, the few remaining white farmers. Let's be frank here, we are talking of farmers as being white, but to me any destruction of farm production affects the whole viability of agriculture. There should be no disruption of any farm activity."
To those under siege these words are little comfort as they continue to fight a battle they are unlikely to win.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A desperate Zimbabwean farmer fighting to hold onto his land -- a year after the country's political rivals pledged to govern jointly -- fears he will eventually lose to politics and violence.
Ben Freeth's farm was gutted by fire, as was his father-in-law's.
The power-sharing agreement included an undertaking by both parties to ensure property rights are upheld but farm attacks and invasions continue unabated in Zimbabwe.
Charles Lock is one of an estimated 400 farmers who have remained in the country despite President Robert Mugabe's policy of redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks.
"Why do they want to remove me when I've complied with everything they want? What more do they want other than for me to pack my bags and leave and if that's the case, then admit that that is the policy. Pass a law: no whites are allowed to farm. Then it makes it clear," Lock said.
Since 2000, Mugabe's controversial land reform program has driven more than 4,000 commercial farmers off their land, destroying Zimbabwe's once prosperous agricultural sector.
"When the land reform program began, we decided we were not going to have a confrontational attitude; that we would actually go along with this program because it was the only way that this whole thing would be sorted out. So I voluntarily gave away my own farm and moved onto my father-in-law's farm," Lock said.
That was in 2002. A year later the government came knocking on his door again, he said, demanding more land.
Lock told CNN he eventually gave up 70 percent of his father-in-law's farm, which he then owned. Now an army general is demanding Lock's remaining 30 percent.
When Zimbabwe's new unity government was formed -- with Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change -- in February this year, the general allegedly posted soldiers on Lock's farm. The farmer said he stopped farming and trade at gun point.
When CNN visited Lock's farm this month, workers were standing idle. Maize and tobacco, which Lock said is worth more than U.S. $1 million, lay in storage.
"They've switched off our irrigation system, taken out keys and stop our trucks if we want to deliver maize," he told CNN.
So Lock had to sneak into his own property like a thief by cutting open the gate leading to his store room. He took a few valuables from his workshop suspecting that his whole place will soon be looted.
With the formation of a unity government farmers were hoping for some protection but Lock said: "Nothing is happening here. There is no land audit happening, no one comes out here to check, to see. We are just left vulnerable."
On another farm, Ben Freeth's fight for his land has just escalated to another level.
Freeth has been repeatedly beaten, arrested and harassed. Now his farmhouse and that of his father-in-law have been gutted by a mysterious fire. See the destruction the fire caused
Freeth could not say for sure that this is arson but told CNN that the group of ZANU-PF youths who have occupied his farm have repeatedly threatened to burn his house.
"One time they came round with burning sacks at night and they started making a huge noise and ringing a great big bell and shouting and screaming. They were going underneath the thatch saying we are going to burn your house down if you don't get out," he said.
Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell are among a group of Zimbabwean farmers who won the right to remain on their land at a southern African tribunal.
But Mugabe has declared the ruling null and void and pulled out of the tribunal. Farmers cannot contest land issues in Zimbabwe and approaching international courts has thus far not worked either.
When CNN interviewed Mugabe's minister of state, Didymas Mutasa, about the disregard for human and property rights on the farms, he blamed the farmers for the violence, saying landless blacks are getting frustrated with their refusal to relinquish their land.
"Human rights are beginning to be seen now because they benefit the whites, and when they were affecting blacks badly as they did the likes of us, it didn't matter and nobody raised anything about those human rights.
"And sometimes we say, good heavens, if that is the kind of human rights you are talking about, you better keep them away from us; we don't want to see them," he told CNN.
But it is black farm workers who are caught in the cross fire. They continue to bear the brunt of the land reform program by repeatedly being beaten and intimidated. Some have even been killed.
Tractor driver William Kale said it is farm laborers working for white farmers who are targeted.
"They actually say you the workers, you are ones that are supporting the white farmer. That is why he is carrying on farming and we refuse to go because we have nowhere to go," Kale told CNN.
Many farmers and farm workers we spoke to say they are in a worse position now under the unity government than they were before.
Lock said: "When ZANU-PF was in power, you had hawks and doves in government and the doves were approachable and often helped us. But now that these positions are being shared with Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC, Mr. Mugabe has only appointed hawks to his cabinet who insist on continuing the land reform program. And when it comes to the MDC, the land issue seems to be a hot potato they do not want to touch. I have asked Mr. Tsvangirai to intervene but nothing is happening."
Prime Minister Tsvangirai refuted that. "That is not true," he said. "We initiated to find out who is being affected, the few remaining white farmers. Let's be frank here, we are talking of farmers as being white, but to me any destruction of farm production affects the whole viability of agriculture. There should be no disruption of any farm activity."
To those under siege these words are little comfort as they continue to fight a battle they are unlikely to win.
D.C. train crash probe prompts nationwide rail alert
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal safety investigators said Tuesday they fear flaws found in Washington's Metro subway system after a deadly crash this summer may endanger other transit systems, and they sent out an urgent recommendation asking that other rail operators check for similar problems.
Investigators are shown at the crash scene in Washington. Nine people were killed in the June 22 wreck.
In letters to federal regulators, the National Transportation Safety Board said "all rail transit operators and railroads should be informed" about system flaws that could cause a track circuit to fail to detect a train.
It was not clear how many rail systems have similar train detection systems. Neither the NTSB nor the Federal Transit Administration had a list of systems that use the "audio frequency track circuits" that are the focus of the probe.
But an FTA spokesman said that because it doesn't know how many operators use the systems, "we are sending today's urgent recommendation to all rail transit operators, and will identify the pertinent operators through a later survey."
Meanwhile, the Federal Railway Administration, which regulates Amtrak and more than a dozen commuter rail systems, said it also will follow the NTSB guidance but believes the number of impacted systems will be "limited."
Nine people were killed and 52 taken to hospitals June 22 when a southbound Metrorail train struck the rear end of stopped train just north of the Fort Totten station. Investigators say an automatic train protection system did not detect the stopped train, so the moving train did not receive a command to slow or stop.
The NTSB said it is continuing its investigation into the precise causes of the crash, but it said the investigation has raised concerns that the track circuit is susceptible to errant signals.
In its letter to regulators, the NTSB said it discovered one circumstance in which an unintended signal path could be created, resulting in a track relay remaining energized even though a stopped train was occupying the circuit.
"After only three months, this complex investigation is far from complete, so we are not ready to determine the probable cause of the [Metro] accident," NTSB Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman said. "However, our findings so far indicate a pressing need to issue these recommendations to immediately address safety glitches we have found that could lead to another tragic accident."
The NTSB sent letters to Metro, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration and Alstom Signaling Inc., which acquired General Railway Signal, the manufacturer of some of the equipment.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal safety investigators said Tuesday they fear flaws found in Washington's Metro subway system after a deadly crash this summer may endanger other transit systems, and they sent out an urgent recommendation asking that other rail operators check for similar problems.
Investigators are shown at the crash scene in Washington. Nine people were killed in the June 22 wreck.
In letters to federal regulators, the National Transportation Safety Board said "all rail transit operators and railroads should be informed" about system flaws that could cause a track circuit to fail to detect a train.
It was not clear how many rail systems have similar train detection systems. Neither the NTSB nor the Federal Transit Administration had a list of systems that use the "audio frequency track circuits" that are the focus of the probe.
But an FTA spokesman said that because it doesn't know how many operators use the systems, "we are sending today's urgent recommendation to all rail transit operators, and will identify the pertinent operators through a later survey."
Meanwhile, the Federal Railway Administration, which regulates Amtrak and more than a dozen commuter rail systems, said it also will follow the NTSB guidance but believes the number of impacted systems will be "limited."
Nine people were killed and 52 taken to hospitals June 22 when a southbound Metrorail train struck the rear end of stopped train just north of the Fort Totten station. Investigators say an automatic train protection system did not detect the stopped train, so the moving train did not receive a command to slow or stop.
The NTSB said it is continuing its investigation into the precise causes of the crash, but it said the investigation has raised concerns that the track circuit is susceptible to errant signals.
In its letter to regulators, the NTSB said it discovered one circumstance in which an unintended signal path could be created, resulting in a track relay remaining energized even though a stopped train was occupying the circuit.
"After only three months, this complex investigation is far from complete, so we are not ready to determine the probable cause of the [Metro] accident," NTSB Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman said. "However, our findings so far indicate a pressing need to issue these recommendations to immediately address safety glitches we have found that could lead to another tragic accident."
The NTSB sent letters to Metro, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration and Alstom Signaling Inc., which acquired General Railway Signal, the manufacturer of some of the equipment.
Chinese president pledges steps to combat climate change
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao told a U.N. summit on climate change Tuesday that China will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase reliance on clean energy sources in coming years.
Chinese President Hu Jintao addresses a summit on global climate change on Tuesday at the United Nations.
In what was called the first speech on climate change by a Chinese leader at the United Nations, Hu outlined some specific steps but provided no firm target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
As one of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters, China is a major player in international negotiations on a new global climate change treaty.
Hu reiterated past calls by China for industrialized powers such as the United States, the other largest emitter, to contribute more to a solution because they pollute more in developing their economies. Watch Greenpeace react to Hu's speech »
In his speech, Hu said China will "endeavor" to cut emissions of carbon dioxide -- the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change -- by "a notable margin" in coming years.
He also said China will "vigorously develop renewable energy and nuclear energy" with the goal of increasing the share of nonfossil fuels in total energy consumption to 15 percent by 2020.
In his most specific proposal, Hu said China will increase forest cover by 40 million hectares by 2020 as a way to offset greenhouse gas emissions by industrial polluters, cars, airplanes and other sources. The increase, equal to more than 150,000 square miles, or an area almost as big as California, would be based on China's forest cover in 2005, according to Hu.
Forests serve as carbon "sinks" by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it.
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao told a U.N. summit on climate change Tuesday that China will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase reliance on clean energy sources in coming years.
Chinese President Hu Jintao addresses a summit on global climate change on Tuesday at the United Nations.
In what was called the first speech on climate change by a Chinese leader at the United Nations, Hu outlined some specific steps but provided no firm target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
As one of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters, China is a major player in international negotiations on a new global climate change treaty.
Hu reiterated past calls by China for industrialized powers such as the United States, the other largest emitter, to contribute more to a solution because they pollute more in developing their economies. Watch Greenpeace react to Hu's speech »
In his speech, Hu said China will "endeavor" to cut emissions of carbon dioxide -- the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change -- by "a notable margin" in coming years.
He also said China will "vigorously develop renewable energy and nuclear energy" with the goal of increasing the share of nonfossil fuels in total energy consumption to 15 percent by 2020.
In his most specific proposal, Hu said China will increase forest cover by 40 million hectares by 2020 as a way to offset greenhouse gas emissions by industrial polluters, cars, airplanes and other sources. The increase, equal to more than 150,000 square miles, or an area almost as big as California, would be based on China's forest cover in 2005, according to Hu.
Forests serve as carbon "sinks" by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it.
Fertility clinic to couple: You got the wrong embryos
(CNN) -- On a cold morning in February, 10 days after undergoing in vitro fertilization, Carolyn Savage lay in bed at her Ohio home waiting for the results of her pregnancy test.
Sean and Carolyn Savage with daughter Mary Kate (now 18 months) and sons Ryan, left, and Andrew.
Time was moving slowly. It was getting late and the call from the fertility clinic should have come by lunchtime.
"We were waiting and waiting and the call seemed like it would never come," Savage said.
Finally, around 4 p.m., Carolyn's husband, Sean, got the call at work.
"The doctor told me in one sentence, 'Carolyn is pregnant, but we transferred the wrong embryos,'" he said. "I didn't even know that could physically happen. It was a total shock, totally beyond the realm of possibility."
In a tragic mix-up, the Savages say the fertility clinic where Carolyn underwent in vitro fertilization implanted another couple's embryos into Carolyn's uterus.
In essence, she had become an unwitting surrogate for another family.
After receiving the news, Sean hung up the phone and drove straight home to tell his wife in person.
"He walked in and was as white as a sheet," Carolyn said. "He told me, and I think he repeated himself two or three times, and I kept saying 'You're joking.' I kept yelling at him stop it but there was nothing on his face indicating a joke." Watch more on the Savages and their reaction to their situation »
Incredulity turned to shock, and when that shock melted, so did the couple's hope for having another child of their own. At the time, Carolyn was 39 and her chances of having a child naturally after this one were waning.
"That was the beginning of a very treacherous and emotional journey for us," said Sean.
"I don't think I've ever cried so much in my life," said Carolyn. "It was such a nightmare and, in a way, I felt violated."
That nightmare was the tipping point on a pregnancy path marred by failed attempts and painful miscarriages.
Only the birth of the Savages' first child was easy. Their second child, born almost three years later in 1997, was 10 weeks premature after Carolyn developed life-threatening complications.
"That was a scary time for us," said Carolyn. Yet after she recovered, the Savages consulted with a doctor and remained intent on pursuing future pregnancies.
It would prove exceedingly difficult. Carolyn and Sean tried on and off for 10 years to have another child before turning to IVF. Eventually, Carolyn became pregnant with the couple's third child, resulting in another difficult pregnancy and premature birth. Their daughter is now a healthy 18-month-old.
With five embryos left over from IVF -- and despite the risks to Carolyn's health -- the Savages, guided by their religious beliefs, refused to let the unused embryos at the clinic languish.
February 6 was when they thought they had three of their own embryos implanted by the fertility clinic.
Cases like these, while tragic, are exceedingly rare, said Dr. David Adamson, a reproductive endocrinologist and past president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
"There are well in excess of 100,000 embryo transfers every year in this country," said Adamson. "The fact that this happens once in several hundred thousand embryo transfers means the vast majority of the time, systems do protect from this taking place."
Groups like the ASRM have a series of strong protocol recommendations for in vitro procedures, such as accurately labeling embryos with the patient's name and Social Security number, and color-coding samples uniquely to avoid confusion. These identification procedures are not legally mandated, but mistakes can occur if they are not followed, said Adamson. After learning about the mistake, the Savages made two decisions right away: They would not abort the baby, and when he was born, they would relinquish the baby to his DNA parents.
"They didn't choose this path either," Carolyn Savage said of the DNA parents, who declined to speak with media. "We knew if our embryo had been thawed and negligently put into another woman, we would expect that the child would be returned to us."
The Savages are not releasing the name of the clinic where they underwent the IVF procedure, but provided CNN with proof of their reproductive predicament, including results of amniocentesis, a genetic test, indicating the baby Carolyn is carrying is not theirs.
They have met with the baby's DNA parents, and according to Carolyn the DNA-related mother of the child has come along for one doctor's appointment.
"We knew based on legal precedent that custody would be lost, and we agree with that precedent," said Carolyn, alluding to a similar case of errant IVF in 1999 in New York in which custody was awarded to the genetic parents.
The Savages are grimly aware that they will have to do the same thing soon. Carolyn is now 35 weeks pregnant and expecting to deliver within the next couple of weeks. It is a countdown fraught with mixed emotions.
Health Library
MayoClinic.com: Infertility
"As the process has gone along, it has been exceptionally difficult imagining this playing out," Sean Savage said.
"There are so many ways to walk into that delivery room," Carolyn. "We're trying to mentally frame it instead of a loss -- it is a loss, I don't want to say that it isn't -- but we're trying to look at it as a gift we're giving someone else."
The Savages say the five embryos they originally had cryogenically preserved at the clinic in Ohio are still unused and have been moved to another clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. They say doctors have advised against any more pregnancies for Carolyn, so they are working out terms with a gestational carrier, or surrogate, to carry some of those embryos for them.
Still, even if a surrogate can eventually help them expand their family, the Savages say that the memory of the child they gave up will always linger.
"I know that tug will be there every day wondering if the baby's happy, healthy and OK," said Carolyn.
"We want him to know that it wasn't that we didn't want him, but too many people wanted him," said Sean. "We gave him up because it was the right thing to do."
(CNN) -- On a cold morning in February, 10 days after undergoing in vitro fertilization, Carolyn Savage lay in bed at her Ohio home waiting for the results of her pregnancy test.
Sean and Carolyn Savage with daughter Mary Kate (now 18 months) and sons Ryan, left, and Andrew.
Time was moving slowly. It was getting late and the call from the fertility clinic should have come by lunchtime.
"We were waiting and waiting and the call seemed like it would never come," Savage said.
Finally, around 4 p.m., Carolyn's husband, Sean, got the call at work.
"The doctor told me in one sentence, 'Carolyn is pregnant, but we transferred the wrong embryos,'" he said. "I didn't even know that could physically happen. It was a total shock, totally beyond the realm of possibility."
In a tragic mix-up, the Savages say the fertility clinic where Carolyn underwent in vitro fertilization implanted another couple's embryos into Carolyn's uterus.
In essence, she had become an unwitting surrogate for another family.
After receiving the news, Sean hung up the phone and drove straight home to tell his wife in person.
"He walked in and was as white as a sheet," Carolyn said. "He told me, and I think he repeated himself two or three times, and I kept saying 'You're joking.' I kept yelling at him stop it but there was nothing on his face indicating a joke." Watch more on the Savages and their reaction to their situation »
Incredulity turned to shock, and when that shock melted, so did the couple's hope for having another child of their own. At the time, Carolyn was 39 and her chances of having a child naturally after this one were waning.
"That was the beginning of a very treacherous and emotional journey for us," said Sean.
"I don't think I've ever cried so much in my life," said Carolyn. "It was such a nightmare and, in a way, I felt violated."
That nightmare was the tipping point on a pregnancy path marred by failed attempts and painful miscarriages.
Only the birth of the Savages' first child was easy. Their second child, born almost three years later in 1997, was 10 weeks premature after Carolyn developed life-threatening complications.
"That was a scary time for us," said Carolyn. Yet after she recovered, the Savages consulted with a doctor and remained intent on pursuing future pregnancies.
It would prove exceedingly difficult. Carolyn and Sean tried on and off for 10 years to have another child before turning to IVF. Eventually, Carolyn became pregnant with the couple's third child, resulting in another difficult pregnancy and premature birth. Their daughter is now a healthy 18-month-old.
With five embryos left over from IVF -- and despite the risks to Carolyn's health -- the Savages, guided by their religious beliefs, refused to let the unused embryos at the clinic languish.
February 6 was when they thought they had three of their own embryos implanted by the fertility clinic.
Cases like these, while tragic, are exceedingly rare, said Dr. David Adamson, a reproductive endocrinologist and past president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
"There are well in excess of 100,000 embryo transfers every year in this country," said Adamson. "The fact that this happens once in several hundred thousand embryo transfers means the vast majority of the time, systems do protect from this taking place."
Groups like the ASRM have a series of strong protocol recommendations for in vitro procedures, such as accurately labeling embryos with the patient's name and Social Security number, and color-coding samples uniquely to avoid confusion. These identification procedures are not legally mandated, but mistakes can occur if they are not followed, said Adamson. After learning about the mistake, the Savages made two decisions right away: They would not abort the baby, and when he was born, they would relinquish the baby to his DNA parents.
"They didn't choose this path either," Carolyn Savage said of the DNA parents, who declined to speak with media. "We knew if our embryo had been thawed and negligently put into another woman, we would expect that the child would be returned to us."
The Savages are not releasing the name of the clinic where they underwent the IVF procedure, but provided CNN with proof of their reproductive predicament, including results of amniocentesis, a genetic test, indicating the baby Carolyn is carrying is not theirs.
They have met with the baby's DNA parents, and according to Carolyn the DNA-related mother of the child has come along for one doctor's appointment.
"We knew based on legal precedent that custody would be lost, and we agree with that precedent," said Carolyn, alluding to a similar case of errant IVF in 1999 in New York in which custody was awarded to the genetic parents.
The Savages are grimly aware that they will have to do the same thing soon. Carolyn is now 35 weeks pregnant and expecting to deliver within the next couple of weeks. It is a countdown fraught with mixed emotions.
Health Library
MayoClinic.com: Infertility
"As the process has gone along, it has been exceptionally difficult imagining this playing out," Sean Savage said.
"There are so many ways to walk into that delivery room," Carolyn. "We're trying to mentally frame it instead of a loss -- it is a loss, I don't want to say that it isn't -- but we're trying to look at it as a gift we're giving someone else."
The Savages say the five embryos they originally had cryogenically preserved at the clinic in Ohio are still unused and have been moved to another clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. They say doctors have advised against any more pregnancies for Carolyn, so they are working out terms with a gestational carrier, or surrogate, to carry some of those embryos for them.
Still, even if a surrogate can eventually help them expand their family, the Savages say that the memory of the child they gave up will always linger.
"I know that tug will be there every day wondering if the baby's happy, healthy and OK," said Carolyn.
"We want him to know that it wasn't that we didn't want him, but too many people wanted him," said Sean. "We gave him up because it was the right thing to do."
Thứ Hai, 21 tháng 9, 2009
Latin American drug cartels find home in West Africa
(CNN) -- Colombian and Mexican drug cartels have jumped the Atlantic Ocean and expanded into West Africa, working closely with local criminal gangs to carve out a staging area for an assault on the lucrative European market.
Authorities destroy cannabis found in Ivory Coast. West Africa is appealing to drug traffickers from Latin America.
The situation has gotten so out of hand that tiny Guinea-Bissau, the fifth-poorest nation in the world, is being called Africa's first narco-state. Others talk about how Africa's Gold Coast has become the Coke Coast. In all, officials say, at least nine top-tier Latin American drug cartels have established bases in 11 West African nations.
"The same organizations that we investigate in Central and South America that are involved in drug activity toward the United States are engaged in this trafficking in Western Africa," said Russell Benson, the Drug Enforcement Agency regional director for Europe and Africa. "There's not one country that hasn't been touched to some extent."
The calculus is simple: bigger profits in Europe than in the United States, less law enforcement in West Africa than in Europe.
The driving force is the booming European market for cocaine.
"The exponential rise in the number of consumers has made Europe the fastest-growing and most-profitable market in the world," said Bruce Bagley, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Miami.
While the European market has been expanding, use in the United States has declined from its peak in the 1980s, the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said in its 2009 annual report, issued in July.
"Cocaine use prevalence in the USA is 50 percent lower than it was two decades ago, while Spain, Italy, Portugal, France and the United Kingdom have all seen cocaine use double or triple in recent years," the U.N. report said.
About 1,000 tons of pure cocaine are produced each year, nearly 60 percent of which evades law enforcement interception and makes it to market, the report said. That's a wholesale global market of about $70 billion.
Criminals traffic about 250 tons to Europe each year, though not all of it makes it there, the U.N. said. The European market totals about $11 billion. About 27 percent of the cocaine that entered Europe in 2006 came from Africa, the United Nations said.
Huge profits make Europe particularly attractive. Two pounds of uncut cocaine can sell for $22,000 in the United States but for $45,000 in Europe, analyst Ashley-Louise Bybee wrote in a policy journal this year. The Justice Department said the price in Europe can be three times more than in the United States.
"It's a significant market for them to exploit," Benson said.
A strong euro and weaker dollar also make Europe attractive to traffickers because of favorable exchange rates. There's also the fact that the European Union recently issued a 500 euro note, currently equivalent to about $700. The largest U.S. denomination in circulation is the $100 bill. Traffickers prefer the large euro notes because they are easier to carry in large quantities.
For example, Benson said that $1 million in $100 bills weighs 22 pounds, while $1 million in 500 euro notes weighs 3.5 pounds.
"It's a huge difference," he said.
Though Europe is highly attractive to traffickers, it can have tight, Western-style security. So the Colombian and Mexican cartels have discovered that it's much easier to smuggle large loads into West Africa and then break that up into smaller shipments to the continent -- mostly Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
West Africa is a smuggler's dream, suffering from a combination of factors that make the area particularly vulnerable. It is among the poorest and least stable regions in the world. Governments are weak and ineffective and, as a top DEA chief testified to the U.S. Senate this summer, officials are often corrupt.
Law enforcement also is largely riddled with corruption. Criminal gangs are rampant. Foot soldiers can be recruited from a large pool of poor and desperate youth.
"It's a point of least resistance," Benson said.
West Africa refers to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
"This area of the world is ripe," Bagley said. "There has been very little attention paid to it. The United States is loath to give aid to these countries because they are corrupt."
U.S. authorities find themselves at a great disadvantage fighting cartels that have much more money and guns. The DEA has four offices -- in Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa -- to cover a continent that spans 11.7 million square miles and has nearly 1 billion people.
"It's a big place," Benson acknowledges, noting that there are 54 countries on the continent.
Local police also are vastly outgunned. Guinea-Bissau offers an alarming example.
"The Judicial Police ... have 60 agents, one vehicle and often no fuel," analyst Bybee wrote in a journal called New Voices in Public Policy, published by the George Mason University School of Public Policy. "As a result, when culprits are apprehended, they are driven in a taxi to the police station. They just recently received six sets of handcuffs from the U.K., which were badly needed. In the military, one rusty ship patrols the 350-kilometer (217-mile) coastline and 88 islands."
Even when criminals are caught, Bybee said, "the near absence of a judicial system allows traffickers to operate unimpeded." For example, she said, "because the police are so impotent, the culprits are often held for just a few hours before senior military personnel suddenly attain extraordinary judicial powers to demand their release."
The few officials who stand up to the traffickers receive death threats or are killed.
West Africa also is particularly attractive to traffickers because it is near "the soft underbelly of Europe," said retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was drug policy director for President Clinton.
Geography plays another role because West Africa is fairly close to the three South American nations that produce nearly all of the world's cocaine -- Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Many of the shipments depart from Venezuela, which shares a 1,273-mile (2,050-kilometer) porous border with Colombia and is even closer to Africa.
"They go right dead-ass across the shortest route," McCaffrey said.
Most of the cocaine shipments cross the Atlantic in large "mother ships" and then are off-loaded to small vessels near the coastline, the United Nations said. Small planes modified for overseas flight that can carry a 1-ton cargo also have been used. Most of those come from Venezuela, the United Nations reported.
A report issued in July by the Government Accountability Office said traffickers use go-fast boats, fishing vessels and commercial shipping containers as the primary means of smuggling cocaine out of Venezuela. McCaffrey also noted the use of go-fast boats and special planes.
DEA Assistant Administrator Thomas Harrigan testified before the Senate in June that authorities in Sierra Leone seized a cocaine shipment last year from a twin-engine aircraft marked with a Red Cross insignia. The flight originated in Venezuela, he said.
The GAO report noted that "U.S. government officials have observed an increase in suspicious air traffic originating in Venezuela." In 2004, the report said, authorities tracked 109 suspect flights out of Venezuela. In 2007, officials tracked 178 suspicious flights.
Then there's the crime connection in West Africa.
"Colombian and Venezuelan traffickers are entrenched in West Africa and have cultivated long-standing relationships with African criminal networks to facilitate their activities in the region," Harrigan told a Senate subcommittee on African affairs.
"These organizations don't operate in a vacuum," Benson said. "They have to align themselves with West African criminal groups."
The cartels also have aligned themselves with terrorists, Harrigan said.
"The threat of narco-terrorism in Africa is a real concern, including the presence of international terrorist organizations operating or based in Africa, such as the regional threat presented by al Qaeda in the Lands of Maghreb," he said, referring to al Qaeda activists in North Africa. "In addition, DEA investigations have identified elements of Colombia's Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia [FARC] as being involved in cocaine trafficking in West Africa."
Benson said the groups operating in Africa are "primarily narcotics organizations" but acknowledged that the Marxist FARC guerrillas in Colombia are a force to be dealt with. The rebels have waged war on the Colombian government for more than 40 years.
"The profit potential is such that the FARC is one of the largest cocaine-trafficking operations globally and is also a terrorist organization," he said.
Bagley and McCaffrey see less evidence of terrorist connections with the traffickers in Africa, both using nearly identical language.
"I'd be really skeptical of those kinds of assertions," McCaffrey said.
"I'm quite skeptical about linkages between cartels and terrorists," Bagley said. "The criminal groups seek profits. They're not interested in taking over governments."
Still, Bagley said, traffickers and terrorists may use some of the same criminal networks.
Analysts note that the surge of cartel activity in West Africa is a fairly recent development. The U.N. report said it started around 2005. Bybee places it around 2006.
McCaffrey, who was in the Clinton White House in the 1990s, said he saw the problem coming a long time ago.
"I've been warning people in Europe and Latin America starting 10 years ago where this issue was going to move," he said. "The Europeans absolutely blew me off."
The U.N. report offers some hope, saying that cocaine seizures in Europe peaked in 2006 and topped out in West Africa in 2007. Overall seizures have declined since 2006, the report said.
"This trend appears to be continuing in 2009 and includes declines in the number and volume of seizures made in the region and in the number of air couriers coming from the region in Europe," the report concluded.
For example, authorities seized 11 large shipments in Africa in 2007, four in 2008 and none so far this year.
The report does not specify whether there are fewer shipments or smarter criminals avoiding detection.
But if there is a decline, the DEA's Benson said he has not seen it.
"In the last three or four years, it's increased quite dramatically," he said. "The Colombian organizations have been active there longer than that. In the last two years, we've also seen Mexican involvement in the area as well."
(CNN) -- Colombian and Mexican drug cartels have jumped the Atlantic Ocean and expanded into West Africa, working closely with local criminal gangs to carve out a staging area for an assault on the lucrative European market.
Authorities destroy cannabis found in Ivory Coast. West Africa is appealing to drug traffickers from Latin America.
The situation has gotten so out of hand that tiny Guinea-Bissau, the fifth-poorest nation in the world, is being called Africa's first narco-state. Others talk about how Africa's Gold Coast has become the Coke Coast. In all, officials say, at least nine top-tier Latin American drug cartels have established bases in 11 West African nations.
"The same organizations that we investigate in Central and South America that are involved in drug activity toward the United States are engaged in this trafficking in Western Africa," said Russell Benson, the Drug Enforcement Agency regional director for Europe and Africa. "There's not one country that hasn't been touched to some extent."
The calculus is simple: bigger profits in Europe than in the United States, less law enforcement in West Africa than in Europe.
The driving force is the booming European market for cocaine.
"The exponential rise in the number of consumers has made Europe the fastest-growing and most-profitable market in the world," said Bruce Bagley, dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Miami.
While the European market has been expanding, use in the United States has declined from its peak in the 1980s, the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said in its 2009 annual report, issued in July.
"Cocaine use prevalence in the USA is 50 percent lower than it was two decades ago, while Spain, Italy, Portugal, France and the United Kingdom have all seen cocaine use double or triple in recent years," the U.N. report said.
About 1,000 tons of pure cocaine are produced each year, nearly 60 percent of which evades law enforcement interception and makes it to market, the report said. That's a wholesale global market of about $70 billion.
Criminals traffic about 250 tons to Europe each year, though not all of it makes it there, the U.N. said. The European market totals about $11 billion. About 27 percent of the cocaine that entered Europe in 2006 came from Africa, the United Nations said.
Huge profits make Europe particularly attractive. Two pounds of uncut cocaine can sell for $22,000 in the United States but for $45,000 in Europe, analyst Ashley-Louise Bybee wrote in a policy journal this year. The Justice Department said the price in Europe can be three times more than in the United States.
"It's a significant market for them to exploit," Benson said.
A strong euro and weaker dollar also make Europe attractive to traffickers because of favorable exchange rates. There's also the fact that the European Union recently issued a 500 euro note, currently equivalent to about $700. The largest U.S. denomination in circulation is the $100 bill. Traffickers prefer the large euro notes because they are easier to carry in large quantities.
For example, Benson said that $1 million in $100 bills weighs 22 pounds, while $1 million in 500 euro notes weighs 3.5 pounds.
"It's a huge difference," he said.
Though Europe is highly attractive to traffickers, it can have tight, Western-style security. So the Colombian and Mexican cartels have discovered that it's much easier to smuggle large loads into West Africa and then break that up into smaller shipments to the continent -- mostly Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
West Africa is a smuggler's dream, suffering from a combination of factors that make the area particularly vulnerable. It is among the poorest and least stable regions in the world. Governments are weak and ineffective and, as a top DEA chief testified to the U.S. Senate this summer, officials are often corrupt.
Law enforcement also is largely riddled with corruption. Criminal gangs are rampant. Foot soldiers can be recruited from a large pool of poor and desperate youth.
"It's a point of least resistance," Benson said.
West Africa refers to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
"This area of the world is ripe," Bagley said. "There has been very little attention paid to it. The United States is loath to give aid to these countries because they are corrupt."
U.S. authorities find themselves at a great disadvantage fighting cartels that have much more money and guns. The DEA has four offices -- in Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa -- to cover a continent that spans 11.7 million square miles and has nearly 1 billion people.
"It's a big place," Benson acknowledges, noting that there are 54 countries on the continent.
Local police also are vastly outgunned. Guinea-Bissau offers an alarming example.
"The Judicial Police ... have 60 agents, one vehicle and often no fuel," analyst Bybee wrote in a journal called New Voices in Public Policy, published by the George Mason University School of Public Policy. "As a result, when culprits are apprehended, they are driven in a taxi to the police station. They just recently received six sets of handcuffs from the U.K., which were badly needed. In the military, one rusty ship patrols the 350-kilometer (217-mile) coastline and 88 islands."
Even when criminals are caught, Bybee said, "the near absence of a judicial system allows traffickers to operate unimpeded." For example, she said, "because the police are so impotent, the culprits are often held for just a few hours before senior military personnel suddenly attain extraordinary judicial powers to demand their release."
The few officials who stand up to the traffickers receive death threats or are killed.
West Africa also is particularly attractive to traffickers because it is near "the soft underbelly of Europe," said retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was drug policy director for President Clinton.
Geography plays another role because West Africa is fairly close to the three South American nations that produce nearly all of the world's cocaine -- Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Many of the shipments depart from Venezuela, which shares a 1,273-mile (2,050-kilometer) porous border with Colombia and is even closer to Africa.
"They go right dead-ass across the shortest route," McCaffrey said.
Most of the cocaine shipments cross the Atlantic in large "mother ships" and then are off-loaded to small vessels near the coastline, the United Nations said. Small planes modified for overseas flight that can carry a 1-ton cargo also have been used. Most of those come from Venezuela, the United Nations reported.
A report issued in July by the Government Accountability Office said traffickers use go-fast boats, fishing vessels and commercial shipping containers as the primary means of smuggling cocaine out of Venezuela. McCaffrey also noted the use of go-fast boats and special planes.
DEA Assistant Administrator Thomas Harrigan testified before the Senate in June that authorities in Sierra Leone seized a cocaine shipment last year from a twin-engine aircraft marked with a Red Cross insignia. The flight originated in Venezuela, he said.
The GAO report noted that "U.S. government officials have observed an increase in suspicious air traffic originating in Venezuela." In 2004, the report said, authorities tracked 109 suspect flights out of Venezuela. In 2007, officials tracked 178 suspicious flights.
Then there's the crime connection in West Africa.
"Colombian and Venezuelan traffickers are entrenched in West Africa and have cultivated long-standing relationships with African criminal networks to facilitate their activities in the region," Harrigan told a Senate subcommittee on African affairs.
"These organizations don't operate in a vacuum," Benson said. "They have to align themselves with West African criminal groups."
The cartels also have aligned themselves with terrorists, Harrigan said.
"The threat of narco-terrorism in Africa is a real concern, including the presence of international terrorist organizations operating or based in Africa, such as the regional threat presented by al Qaeda in the Lands of Maghreb," he said, referring to al Qaeda activists in North Africa. "In addition, DEA investigations have identified elements of Colombia's Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia [FARC] as being involved in cocaine trafficking in West Africa."
Benson said the groups operating in Africa are "primarily narcotics organizations" but acknowledged that the Marxist FARC guerrillas in Colombia are a force to be dealt with. The rebels have waged war on the Colombian government for more than 40 years.
"The profit potential is such that the FARC is one of the largest cocaine-trafficking operations globally and is also a terrorist organization," he said.
Bagley and McCaffrey see less evidence of terrorist connections with the traffickers in Africa, both using nearly identical language.
"I'd be really skeptical of those kinds of assertions," McCaffrey said.
"I'm quite skeptical about linkages between cartels and terrorists," Bagley said. "The criminal groups seek profits. They're not interested in taking over governments."
Still, Bagley said, traffickers and terrorists may use some of the same criminal networks.
Analysts note that the surge of cartel activity in West Africa is a fairly recent development. The U.N. report said it started around 2005. Bybee places it around 2006.
McCaffrey, who was in the Clinton White House in the 1990s, said he saw the problem coming a long time ago.
"I've been warning people in Europe and Latin America starting 10 years ago where this issue was going to move," he said. "The Europeans absolutely blew me off."
The U.N. report offers some hope, saying that cocaine seizures in Europe peaked in 2006 and topped out in West Africa in 2007. Overall seizures have declined since 2006, the report said.
"This trend appears to be continuing in 2009 and includes declines in the number and volume of seizures made in the region and in the number of air couriers coming from the region in Europe," the report concluded.
For example, authorities seized 11 large shipments in Africa in 2007, four in 2008 and none so far this year.
The report does not specify whether there are fewer shipments or smarter criminals avoiding detection.
But if there is a decline, the DEA's Benson said he has not seen it.
"In the last three or four years, it's increased quite dramatically," he said. "The Colombian organizations have been active there longer than that. In the last two years, we've also seen Mexican involvement in the area as well."
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