Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Halliburton reportedly agrees to pay Nigeria $250 million to drop bribery charges against Cheney, firm | Raw Story
The massive industrial c
onglomerate Halliburton has reportedly offered to pay $250 million to settle charges against its former chief executive, ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, in a multi-million dollar bribery case.
Nigeria filed charges against Cheney last week in an investigation of alleged bribery estimated at $180 million. Prosecutors named both Halliburton and KBR in the charges, as well as three European oil and engineering companies -- Technip SA, EniSpa, and Saipem Construction. Eleven Halliburton officials were arrested last month and freed on bail Nov. 29.
The charges allege that engineering contractor KBR, until 2007 a subsidiary of Halliburton, was among companies that paid bribes to secure a $6 billion contract for a natural gas plant. KBR pleaded guilty to the same bribes in a US court in 2009, and agreed to pay a $382 million fine. The Nigerian charges appear to stem from the US case -- though, in that trial, Cheney was never directly charged.
The $250 million figure would include a direct $130 million fine by the company and an agreement to repatriate another $120 million from Switzerland.
Representatives for Cheney and Halliburton met with Nigerian officials in London over the weekend.
Strikes, Violent Protests Cripple Greek Capital of Athens
The clashes morphed out of a protest march that gripped the Greek capital as tens of thousands of workers went on strike, railing against moves to liberalize the country's labor market and slash salaries at public corporations.
Hooded protesters -- some wearing ski goggles, others equipped with gas masks -- pelted riot police with stones and petrol bombs before rampaging through central Athens, setting dustbins ablaze and smashing cars parked outside luxury hotels.
Moscow police arrest more than 100, fear riots
The police deployment included crack anti-riot and special interior ministry units who were called up in anticipation of a street battle that was reportedly scheduled outside the Kievsky train station for 6:00 pm (1500 GMT).
"The checks resulted in the arrest of more than 100 people," news agencies quoted Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov as saying.
"We have confiscated several air guns, knives and stun guns," Biryukov said.
He added that police patrols had been stepped up throughout the centre of the city.
Rumours of the Kievsky station standoff spread across the Russian Internet following a weekend riot outside the Kremlin involving some 5,000 football fansand elements of the far right.
Gangs of ethnic Muslims were reported to be planning a counter-rally at Kievsky and a major Russian nationalist movement called on its supporters to come armed to the site.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.fea1c030d95ba5c96d74e7000265e4a3.921&show_article=1
In medical breakthrough, HIV-positive man ‘cured’ by stem cell transplant | Raw Story
An HIV-positive man who received a stem cell transplant for leukemia has been cured of HIV infection, doctors announced recently.
While the case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, doctors have now published an updated report in the journal Blood, which affirms extensive testing.
"It is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient," the doctors wrote.
Intelligence Reports Offer Dim Views of Afghan War
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: December 14, 2010
WASHINGTON — As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified intelligence reports offer a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border.
Massoud Hossaini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A Marine helicopter dropped flares over Marines on the ground in Musa Qala in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Cap and Trade by Stealth: U.S. States Partner With Foreign Governments
| WRITTEN BY ALEX NEWMAN |
| FRIDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2010 09:18 |
 While Americans were battling cap-and-trade legislation at the national and international levels, global-warming alarmists were quietly building regional systems between state and local governments, private industry, and even foreign governments that basically achieve the same effect — higher energy prices for consumers and more money for governments.The first and most prominent of these U.S. cap-and-trade systems is known as theRegional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). It was created not by the people through their legislatures, but by a so-called “Memorandum of Understanding” between state governors. Consisting so far of 10 Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont — the scheme is described on the RGGI website as “the first mandatory, market-based effort in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” Its board of directors consists primarily of each participating state’s top environmental bureaucrats. |