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US interrogation debate detailed
US military lawyers have been detailing the development of harsh interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay and other detention centres.
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They told the Senate that methods such as sensory deprivation and simulated drowning were based on training given to soldiers on resisting interrogation.
The lawyers said they had raised concerns about the legality of the techniques as far back as 2002.
The White House responded by saying the US had treated all detainees humanely.
"Abuse of detainees has never been, is not and will never be the policy of this government," spokesman Tony Fratto said.
"The policy of this government has been to take these detainees and to interrogate them, and get the information that we can get to help protect this country," he added.
'Subject to perception'
The lawyers' comments on the development of the controversial interrogation techniques employed by the US military and security services were released as part of the initial findings of a report by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Pentagon's general counsel, William Haynes, sought information as early as July 2002 - nine months after the 11 September 2001 attacks - about training given to US military personnel on how to resist enemy interrogation.
The Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (Sere) programme is based on the experiences of US prisoners of war in previous conflicts.Serve trainers provided Mr Haynes with a list of techniques, including sensory deprivation, sleep disruption, water-boarding and stress positions.Several were approved by the then Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, in December 2002 despite objections by military lawyers."If we mistreat detainees, we will quickly lose the [moral] high ground and public support will erode," warned Col John Ley of the Army's Judge Advocate General's office in November 2002. Mr Haynes said he had been unaware of the legal objection from the military and that he had been doing the best he could to prevent further attacks.
"There was a limited amount of time and a high degree of urgency," he said.
The committee also released details from previously classified minutes of a meeting in October 2002 in which a top military lawyer at Guantanamo said previously banned techniques such as sleep deprivation were being used secretly.
"Officially it is not happening," Lt Col Diane Beaver told the meeting, adding that commanders feared the Red Cross might find out.John Fredman, then chief counsel to the CIA's counter-terrorism centre, argued during the meeting that torture "is basically subject to perception".
"If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong," he said.
The chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen Carl Levin, said Mr Rumsfeld's endorsement of harsh interrogation techniques had "unleashed a virus which ultimately infected interrogation operations conducted by the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq"."If we use those same techniques offensively against detainees, it says to the world that they have America's stamp of approval."
Wedding bells chime for California same-sex couples
California officials began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Monday evening after a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing the ceremonies took effect.
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The May 15 ruling took effect at 5:01 p.m. (8:01 p.m. ET) Monday. Gay and lesbian couples had lined up for hours outside county clerk's offices in anticipation of the decision coming into force.
Lesbian rights activists Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, were the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in San Francisco on Monday, with Mayor Gavin Newsom presiding over their wedding ceremony.
"This is an extraordinary moment in history," Newsom told a cheering, standing-room-only crowd at City Hall. "I think today, marriage as an institution has been strengthened."
The high-profile mayor heated up the debate on same-sex marriages in February 2004, when he ordered city officials to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Martin and Lyon were the first to exchange wedding vows after the order, only to see the ceremony voided later. "I think it's a wonderful day and I have to thank our mayor for most of it," Lyon said. "I'm very happy and very grateful for all of you."
Clerks expect a much larger number of couples to show up Tuesday morning to complete marriage-license applications that replace "Bride" and "Groom" with "Partner A" and "Partner B." The decision makes California the nation's second state, after Massachusetts, to legalize same-sex marriage. Four other states allow civil unions. Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, one of the first couples to obtain a marriage license Monday evening, rushed outside the courthouse in Beverly Hills for their Jewish wedding ceremony. There, they were greeted by a crowd of family, friends, supporters -- and a few opponents protesting the same-sex marriages with signs reading "repent."
"It's not about us," Tyler said. "It's about the entire movement that helped make this day possible."
Critics of the ruling have talked about staging protests against same-sex marriages this week. Opponents say they've collected enough signatures to call for a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and woman. The California secretary of state must verify the signatures before a November vote can be held on the proposed amendment.
Though the law affects only California, it has national implications. "Because we're in a presidential campaign right now, it's going to be a real flash point for the electorate to come together and say this really matters to us," said Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group based in Washington that opposes gay marriage.
Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California, issued a statement on behalf of seven bishops Monday, saying the Catholic Church "cannot approve of redefining marriage."
Marriage "has a unique place in God's creation, joining a man and a woman in a committed relationship in order to nurture and support the new life for which marriage is intended," the statement said. "The meaning of marriage is deeply rooted in history and culture, and has been shaped considerably by Christian tradition. Its meaning is given, not constructed." Newsom said the issue "is about civil marriages, not about religious marriages. ... We're not telling religious institutions what to do. They can continue to do what they've done."
In the May 15 ruling, the California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. The ruling surprised legal experts because the court has a conservative reputation. Six of its seven judges are Republican appointees.
US net firms to block child porn
Three of the biggest US internet service providers have agreed to block access to bulletin boards and websites that carry images of child sex abuse.
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The firms - Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable - will also provide more than $1m (£500,000) to fund efforts to remove child sex sites.The agreement was brokered by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.Previous attempts to crack down on child pornography have been resisted by the industry.Internet companies had previously argued that they could not be held responsible for how individuals communicate with other individuals online.Law enforcement agencies therefore concentrated on targeting the producers of images of child sex abuse rather than the ISPs.
'Graphic'
Mr Cuomo's initiative represents a new approach.
"You can't help but look at this material and not be disturbed," the New York Times quoted Mr Cuomo as saying.
"To say 'graphic' and 'egregious' doesn't capture it," he added.Agents from Mr Cuomo's office conducted an eight-month investigation into the ISPs before the agreement was reached.They posed as ISP subscribers and complained to the companies that they were allowing images of child sex abuse to proliferate in spite of customer service agreements pledging to discourage such activity.Mr Cuomo's office threatened the ISPs with charges of fraud and deceptive business practices.In an attempt to avoid the charges, the firms agreed to Mr Cuomo's terms, including the agreement to block access to child sex sites.The agreement will affect customers across the US.Negotiations with other service providers to broker similar agreements are continuing, according to Mr Cuomo.
Divers battled Komodo dragon before rescue
Five Europeans rescued Saturday after an Indonesia diving trip went wrong had to fight off a Komodo dragon while they were waiting to be found, according to reports.
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The group was found at Mantaolan, which is on the island of Rinca off the Komodo National Park, after going missing on Thursday.
The divers -- three Britons, a Frenchman and a Swede -- spent two nights on the deserted island which is home to the large Komodo dragon before rangers found them Saturday.Frenchman Laurent Pinel, 31, said the group had to fight off one dragon with rocks and scavenged for shellfish as they waited to be rescued, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported."On the beach a Komodo dragon came amongst us yesterday [Friday] afternoon," Pinel said, describing how the group had to pelt the dangerous reptile with rocks to scare it away.
"We had nothing to eat. We ate some kind of mussels scraped from the rocks," Pinel told the newspaper.The husband of one of the other divers said he was told they were in good condition, although dehydrated."I'm just so relieved," said Mats Kohler, whose wife is Helena Neva Lainen. They are both from Sweden.An official said they were being taken to a hospital for examination.
Searchers using boats located the missing divers at 11 a.m. Saturday (11 p.m. ET Friday), the official said.They arrived at a hospital in Labuan Bajo, on the western tip of the island of Flores, about two hours later, an official said.
They were one of two groups of divers who entered the water off Komodo National Park Thursday and were supposed to be gone for an hour, said an employee of the dive company, Reef Seekers. The second group came back after the hour passed but the first group failed to resurface, she said.
Earlier, an official with the Komodo Divers Association said the group that returned comprised six snorkelers. Among those who went missing was one of the owners of the dive company, Kathleen Mitchinson, the employee said.
The seas that the divers were in are known to be dangerous because of their strong tides, and that's one theory being investigated in the divers' disappearance, the employee said.
Police accused over stabbed girl
The mother of a teenage girl who was knifed to death has accused the police of failing to protect her daughter.
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Arsema Dawit, 15, died five weeks after her family made a complaint of assault to the Metropolitan Police.Tsehainesh Medhani said she was "devastated" by the death of Arsema who was found dead in a London tower block.Thomas Nugusse, 21, of Ilford, east London, was remanded in custody by Camberwell Green magistrates until August 21 on a charge of murder.Arsema was stabbed up to 10 times in the lift of Matheson Lang House, Baylis Road, Waterloo, where she lived.
She is believed to have just returned from school when she was attacked on Monday.
Appearing outside the family home, while a statement was read by her lawyer, Ms Medhani said she could not believe what had happened to her daughter."I came to this country from Eritrea to live in safety."When my daughter was threatened, I went to the police seeking protection. Sadly, this did not happen."I have lost a precious, beautiful and much-loved daughter who was kind, generous and loving."I feel as though a light has gone out of my life."The Met has referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
MoD accused of Chinook 'cock-up'
The Ministry of Defence has been accused of a "gold standard cock-up" over eight helicopters which have cost £422m but have yet to fly for the RAF.
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Commons public accounts committee chairman Sir Edward Leigh said the Chinooks had been "languishing" while troops in Afghanistan needed aircraft.A National Audit Office report says a string of problems have seen their £259m cost soar since delivery in 2001.The MoD said it was trying to get the Chinooks operating as soon as possible.The helicopters, which are modified Mark 3 (Mk3) Chinooks and were first ordered in 1995, are to be "reverted” to standard Mk2/2a models to get them to the field quicker.In the meantime, the MoD has added night-vision equipment to some of its standard Chinooks to enable them to carry out the sort of special forces missions the new Mk3s were intended for.
But the NAO says the stop-gap fix has raised serious safety fears as staff say the equipment reduced pilots' normal visibility.
Defence Equipment Minister Baroness Taylor of Bolton said that the reversion of the Chinooks to the Mk2 configuration was one of several steps the MoD was taking to increase helicopter numbers in Afghanistan.
She said: "The Chinook is the most capable support helicopter in Afghanistan. Based on operational need, the reversion project will allow delivery of more Chinooks to theatre in the shortest time-frame." Sir Edward, whose committee oversees the work of the NAO, strongly condemned the MoD's handling of the whole affair.
He said: "The Ministry of Defence's programme to make airworthy the eight Chinook Mk3 helicopters, which it acquired in 2001 for special operations work, has been a gold standard cock-up.
"Nearly seven years since they were delivered, the Chinook Mk3s are still languishing in climate-controlled hangers - despite the fact that they are desperately needed on operations in Afghanistan.
"This is a very unhappy state of affairs, made more acute by the knowledge of how much our soldiers in the hostile terrain of Afghanistan need helicopter support."
The aircraft were originally ordered by the MoD in 1995 at a cost of £259m.
Cockpit software
To make them suitable for special forces operations, they were configured as the hi-tech Chinook Mk3, equipped with extra "fat" fuel tanks, night-vision equipment and enhanced defensive aids.They were delivered in 2001 but have been beset by problems with their cockpit software.Deemed safe to fly only at altitudes above 500ft in clear conditions when the pilot could navigate by sight, they were useless for special forces work and so have been confined to special air-conditioned hangars in Wiltshire.Efforts to rectify the problems were abandoned last year when the government decided it was more important to increase the number of basic helicopters available for operations in Afghanistan.The NAO says work to "revert" them to standard Mk2/2a Chinooks is proceeding well, though the cost has soared from £53m to £90m.This is in addition to the £32m the MoD has spent on its stop-gap solution of fitting infrared night-screens to existing aircraft.The MoD says it has earmarked funds for resolving the safety fears associated with the screens but this will not be completed until after 2010.
Shuttle leaves for space station
Nasa's Discovery shuttle has blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
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The shuttle and its crew of seven are delivering a giant cylinder for Japan's Kibo science lab but also a new pump to repair the station's toilet.
The toilet in the Zvezda service module failed last week.Discovery's flight is the third orbiter mission of 2008 and the first to fly the "in-line" external fuel tank.The new fuel tank has been built from the ground up with the upgrades demanded after the Columbia disaster in 2003.The improvements are designed to minimise the shedding of insulation foam on launch - the problem that doomed Columbia and her crew.All missions prior to Discovery's have had the upgrades retrofitted on to tanks that were already constructed.
Japanese excitement
The shuttle took off into a brilliant blue sky at 1702 local time (2102 GMT) on Saturday. They are due to dock with the ISS on Monday. Nearly 400 Japanese journalists, space programme officials and other guests crowded into the launch site, their excitement growing as the hours, then minutes counted down, the Associated Press reports.
Discovery's primary task is to install the Japanese Pressurised Module (JPM) which is the size of a school bus and will place the Japanese at the forefront of space exploration, the BBC's Andy Gallacher reports from Florida.
The cylinder is the third science laboratory intended for the orbiting platform, after the US Destiny and European Columbus segments.Once the main Kibo (English: Hope) section is attached to the ISS's Harmony connecting node, the JLM can be moved from its temporary berth and slotted directly on to a larger Japanese unit.All of the pressurised module's internal systems and payload racks can then be transferred across to it.A 10m-long (33ft) robotic arm is also travelling up with the Discovery for use on Kibo.It will be used to position and retrieve experiments from a platform due to be delivered next year - the final part of the lab.
Toilet troubles
The solid-waste part of the Russian-built toilet is working properly.A replacement pump was rushed from Russia to be loaded on to Discovery for delivery to the ISS.Three spacewalks, of some 6.5 hours each, are currently planned for Discovery's mission, mainly for setting up the Kibo equipment.Astronauts will also deliver a nitrogen gas tank and inspect damage to a key joint that helps the station's power-generating solar arrays to follow the Sun.Discovery is carrying a special guest on the flight - the famous space ranger Buzz Lightyear.The 30cm-tall (12in) action figure, made famous in the Disney/Pixar Toy Story movies, is going into orbit as part of an educational programme.Nine further shuttle flights are required to complete the ISS before the orbiter fleet is retired in 2010. Since the urinal side of the toilet failed, the ISS crew have periodically had to flush the unit manually - an operation which takes two people 10 minutes to do.
Anxious wait for Zimbabwe results
People across Zimbabwe are anxiously awaiting the final election results, which have been slow to emerge since the close of polling on Sunday.
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The situation is said to be tense, as delays raise concerns of vote rigging.A team of pan-African observers said voting had been free and fair but also expressed concern about the delay.Official results show the ruling Zanu-PF has 31 parliamentary seats, while the opposition has 35 in total so far, with 144 seats still not declared.Five of the opposition seats have gone to a breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), according to official results. The MDC claims the main opposition party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had won 60% of the presidential vote, against 30% for Robert Mugabe. The international community has urged Zimbabwe to give the results soon.
Foreign ministers from seven European Union countries "called on the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to swiftly announce all official election results, especially the results of the presidential election". Washington said the vote should be counted honestly and reflect the will of the people. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the eyes of the world were on Zimbabwe. John Sawers, British ambassador to the United Nations, said that if the elections did herald a change of leadership, "there would be a huge groundswell of support for a new government prepared to address the fundamental problems that exist in Zimbabwe".
Rumours
Nana Ampofo, an analyst for Global Insight, which specialises in political and economic forecasting, says the delay is cause for concern. "The manner in which results for parliamentary constituencies are balanced 50-50 between the MDC and Zanu PF, it will raise eyebrows," he said.
"It's still not clear that the election results are fixed but there are definitely reasons to be concerned." Rumours have circulated as people await results, and government has been forced to deny speculation that Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, had gone to Malaysia or was planning to impose a state of emergency. Riot police have been patrolling the capital, Harare, and other urban areas and residents have been told to stay indoors. A BBC correspondent, in Zimbabwe despite a ban on the BBC operating there, says initial optimism that change is coming is evaporating.Our correspondent said there were some army units on the streets but there was no major deployment.
Patience
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga denied the polls would be rigged and said the president would accept defeat.He said people should be patient in waiting for the results.
"The verification process is ongoing. They are announcing the results," he told the BBC. "I know everyone is very anxious, they are on edge. They don't know if they are going to make it or not." Local results have been posted outside most polling stations since Sunday morning. Presidential, House of Assembly, Senate and local elections were all held on Saturday, and election officials say that this is why results have been slow to come.
Oldest recorded voices sing again
An "ethereal" 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song has been played for the first time in 150 years.
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The recording of "Au Clair de la Lune", recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice. A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children's song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record.The new "phonautograph", created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a "virtual stylus" to read the lines."When I first heard the recording as you hear it ... it was magical, so ethereal," audio historian David Giovannoni, who found the recording, told AP.
"The fact is it's recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke."
Sheet music
The short song was captured on April 9, 1860 by a phonautograph, a device created by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville. The device etched representations of sound waves into paper covered in soot from a burning oil lamp. Lines were scratched into the soot by a needle moved by a diaphragm that responded to sound. The recordings were never intended to be played.
It was retrieved from Paris by Mr Giovanni, working with First Sounds, a group of audio historians, recording engineers and sound archivists who aim to make mankind's earliest sound recordings available to all. To retrieve the sounds scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California made very high-resolution digital scans of the paper and used a "virtual stylus" to read the scrawls.
However, because the phonautograph recordings were made using a hand-cranked device, the speed varied throughout, changing the pitch.
"If someone's singing at middle C and the crank speeds up and slows down, the waves change shape and are shifting, Earl Cornell, a scientist at LBNL, told AP. "We had a tuning fork side by side with the recording, so you can correct the sound and speed variations."
Previously, the oldest known recorded voice was thought to be Thomas Edison's recording of Mary had a little lamb. The inventor of the light bulb recorded the stanza to test another of his inventions - the phonograph - in 1877. "It doesn't take anything away from Thomas Edison, in my opinion," Mr Giovannoni told Reuters. "But actually, the truth is he was the first person to have recorded [sound] and played it back." The new recording will be presented on 28 March at a conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections at Stanford University in California.
Slow progress on Kenyan cabinet
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister designate Raila Odinga have finished a two-hour meeting without naming a new grand coalition cabinet.
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Intense lobbying has been taking place since a power-sharing deal last month. Under the pact, cabinet posts should be divided on a 50-50 basis, but reports suggest there are still major differences between the two groups. Some 1,500 people died and more than 300,000 were displaced in the violence that followed disputed elections.
"We have discussed several issues, but some remain pending and we shall meet again after more consultations with our parties," Mr Odinga told reporters after the meeting. "I do not know when we shall meet again," he added.
President Kibaki is yet to make a statement. Last Tuesday, parliament enacted two bills that formalised the formation of the grand coalition government.
Earlier, government spokesman Alfred Mutua dismissed claims of a simmering dispute over the division of cabinet portfolios. "Consultations on the formation of the new cabinet are going on well - even better than expected and there is no hitch or deadlock," Dr Mutua said. Media reports claimed that members of the negotiation teams from both the Party of National Unity (PNU) and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) were contemplating asking the former mediator Kofi Annan to return and oversee the process. Mr Annan, who left Kenya soon after signing of the peace deal, pledged to return if needed. Pundits, however, argue that the new cabinet must reflect a regional balance to ease ethnic tensions that emerged after last year's general elections.
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