CIA sued over 1950s 'murder' of government scientist plied with LSD
Frank Olsen's family claim CIA threw him from a hotel window and covered up his death after he witnessed torture by agency operatives in Europe
The family of a US government scientist who fell to his death from a New York hotel window six decades ago have launched a lawsuit for damages against the CIA, alleging the agency was involved in his murder and a subsequent cover-up.
In one of the most notorious cases in the organisation's history, bioweapons expert Frank Olson died in 1953, nine days after he was given LSD by agency officials without his knowledge.
In the lawsuit, filed in the US district court in Washington on Wednesday, Olson's sons Eric and Nils claim their father was murdered after he witnessed extreme interrogations in which the CIA killed suspects using the biological agents he had developed.
The Irish Times - Thursday, November 29, 2012
Moment of truth draws near for the British press
MARK HENNESSY, in London
For some, today’s findings from Leveson Inquiry are the final chance to regulate a “feral” British press. For others, they pose the greatest threat to press freedom in 300 years.
Tempers are running high as the deadline for release nears, with all sides attempting to pressure British prime minister David Cameron to their side of the argument.
Following its release, Mr Cameron, who received the report yesterday morning, will take to the despatch box of the House of Commons to say what he will do next.
The key issue is statutory regulation; though, like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking-Glass, the two words mean whatever the speaker intends them to mean.
China pledges to board ships in disputed seas
November 29, 2012 - 3:50PM
Police in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan will board and search ships which enter into what China considers its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, state media said.
The South China Sea is Asia's biggest potential military trouble spot with several Asian countries claiming sovereignty.
From January 1, Hainan police will have the authority to board and seize control of foreign ships which "illegally enter" Chinese waters and order them to change course or stop sailing, theChina Daily reported.
"Activities such as entering the island province's waters without permission, damaging coastal defence facilities and engaging in publicity that threatens national security are illegal," the English-language newspaper said.
Arabica coffee under threat as climate change looms
Researchers predict that wild Arabica coffee populations could go extinct by in the next 70 years.
The high quality coffee bean is being threatened by rising tempratures according to a study in PloS One, and the loss of the wild populations of it could threaten plantations as the species loses genetic diversity.
A study by researchers at Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in collaboration with scientists in Ethiopia found that 38 to 99.7 percent of the areas suitable for wild arabica will disappear by 2080 if predictions of rising temperatures pan out.
Because coffee is a highly climate-dependent crop, the increase of a few degrees of average temperature in growing regions can put at risk the future of Arabica coffee and the livelihood of millions of people who grow and produce it.
South Asia
Execution met with silence in Pakistan
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI - Wednesday, November 21, dawned like any other in the sleepy town of Faridkot, some 150 kilometers from the Punjab capital of Lahore in Pakistan. But as the town's 3,000 residents went about their daily routines the air grew thick with apprehension, for a reason none wanted to mention.
At seventy-thirty that morning, one of the town's former residents, a man named Ajmal Kasab, was executed in Pune's Yerawada Central Jail, in western India's Maharashtra state.
Kasab was the sole survivor of a group of 10 men who carried out the three-day terror rampage in November 2008 that left 166 people dead in Mumbai.
At seventy-thirty that morning, one of the town's former residents, a man named Ajmal Kasab, was executed in Pune's Yerawada Central Jail, in western India's Maharashtra state.
Kasab was the sole survivor of a group of 10 men who carried out the three-day terror rampage in November 2008 that left 166 people dead in Mumbai.
How lonely must it be to be Mahmoud Abbas?
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is losing support at home as Hamas' star rises. While he's trying to regain relevance with a UN bid this week, the US and Israel are working against him.
As Israel veered close to a ground invasion of Gaza last week, with Israeli warplanes and artillery pounding Gaza, and Hamas directing rocket fire towards Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time ever, one name was on nobody's lips: Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr. Abbas may be president of the Palestinian Authorityand the head of Fatah, the political party founded byPalestinian Liberation Organization icon Yasser Arafat. But during days of shuttle diplomacy involving Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt, and other regional powers, Abbas was basically the lonely guy in the corner, hoping someone would eventually ask him to dance.
With the exception of a brief visit from Hillary Clinton, no one ever did. Now in the West Bank today, Abbas's Palestinian Authority is presiding over the exhumation of Mr. Arafat's body (his widow has been insisting of late that his 2004 death was the result of polonium poisoning) while Hamas negotiates with Israel via Egyptian intelligence officials over further easing of the economic blockade of Gaza.
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