“Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, told the U.S. Attorney General, Alberto R. Gonzales, that the capability of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the United States to raise funds in the guise of collecting for bogus charities is hampering Sri Lanka’s peace process. Raising the point about a recent California U.S. District court verdict, the minister said it is helping the terrorist group through its front organizations to collect money purportedly for charitable purposes. But the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister said the money finally ends up in terrorist coffers to procure weapons… The Minister was referring to a U.S. District Court verdict in California, of Judge Audrey B. Collins, that declared terrorist groups like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam could raise funds ‘for lawful non-violent activities.’ Department of Justice sources said there is a similar concern about the verdict on their part and the verdict will be appealed against by the Department of Justice at an appropriate time. Writing a strongly worded editorial, the Washington Times newspaper, in December 2006 said, ‘It would be terribly wrong-headed to think that charity for terrorists is permissible if the purported intention is humanitarian.’

The International Herold Tribune reports that a racketeering claim against Chevron Corp. filed by Nigerians who claimed the oil company conspired with the military and police in Nigeria to gun down demonstrators protesting their operations:

Nine Nigerians, represented by lawyers from EarthRights International and other nonprofit groups, sued Chevron in a San Francisco federal court in 1999 after Nigerian soldiers and police shot protesters who opposed drilling by a Chevron subsidiary and destroyed villages where they lived.

The plaintiffs failed ‘to present evidence that defendants gained a competitive advantage in the United States or impacted the U.S. economy, by engaging in the alleged racketeering activity,’ U.S. District Judge Susan Illston wrote in the decision announced Wednesday.

While the racketeering charge did not apply, Illston acknowledged evidence showed that Chevron played a role in the subsidiary’s security policies, approved payments to the military and attempted to cover up the subsidiary’s involvement in the attacks… The Nigerians allege soldiers, supported by Chevron Nigeria Ltd., destroyed homes and killed or injured dozens of people. They also claim Chevron provided helicopters, boats and planes to Nigerian soldiers who fired at demonstrators in 1998 on an offshore oil platform and in 1999 at two villages where protesters lived.

Chevron lawyers have said the protesters were armed youths who demanded money and took more than 200 workers hostage. They were shot during an attempt to rescue the hostages. The company has argued the case belongs in African courts.

Los Angeles Times: “A physician and her adult daughter returned to Los Angeles Wednesday after being poisoned during a trip to Moscow, the latest in a string of Russian poisoning cases that have sparked international intrigue… Marina Kovalevsky, a 49-year-old internist well known in L.A.’s Russian community, and her daughter Yana, 26, were sickened 12 days ago by thallium, an odorless, colorless, toxic chemical element initially suspected in the death of a former Russian spy in London last year. Their plight has roiled the large local community of expatriates from Russia and other former Soviet republics, many of whom say it is difficult to imagine any motive for an attack on the popular doctor or her daughter. ‘Everybody is upset. Everybody is talking about it,’ said West Hollywood resident Irina Mermel, 69, who has known the family more than a decade. At the same time, some familiar with Russian crime said it was hard to think that the poisoning was accidental”

“A Turkish court ordered access to YouTube’s Web site blocked on Wednesday, after a prosecutor recommended the ban because of videos allegedly insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk… Over the past week, Turkish media publicized what some called a ‘virtual war’ between Greeks and Turks on YouTube, with people from both sides posting videos to belittle and berate the other. The video prompting the ban allegedly said Ataturk and the Turkish people were homosexuals, news reports said. The CNN-Turk Web site featured a link allowing Turks to complain directly to YouTube about the ‘insult. On its front page on Wednesday, the newspaper Hurriyet said thousands of people had written YouTube and that the Ataturk videos had been removed from the site. ‘YouTube got the message,’ the headline said.”

The world’s largest automakers have asked a judge to toss out a federal lawsuit filed by California that seeks untold millions for future damage caused to the state by global warming. In its lawsuit filed in September by then-Attorney General Bill Lockyer, California blamed the auto industry for millions of dollars it expects to spend on repairing damage from global-warming induced floods and other natural disasters. The state sued Chrysler Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and the U.S. subsidiaries of Japan’s biggest manufacturers, Honda North America, Nissan North America and Toyota Motor North America.

The lawsuit was filed as a challenge to the automakers’ suit seeking to overturn California’s law limiting vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases. California Attorney General Jerry Brown went forward with this legal approach, but tried to arrange a meeting with chief executives of the car companies to “discuss resolution of our pending litigation and moving forward cooperatively”. The automakers refused this appeal saying they were only willing to discuss dismissal of the California suit.

In opening arguments, The automakers’ attorney argued that global warming is an international issue that needs to be addressed jointly by the worlds’ politicians. He said it is impossible for California to show precisely what damage automakers have done to the state when there are many sources of carbon dioxide emissions. U.S. District Court Judge Martin Jenkins seemed to also be concerned with how a court could decide a damage award that would accurately determine the damages global warming had on California while also pinpointing the auto industry’s liability. The industry also made the point that it is not really fair for the state to blame the auto industry while maintaining its own fleet of 37,000 vehicles and an extensive highway network.

Auto industries attorneys have also argued that the case raises foreign policy issues and the judge seemed to share the concern that the lawsuit could interfere with U.S. foreign-policy efforts and its abilities to negotiate treaties addressing global warming.

“In remarks prepared for delivery today to the Association of American Publishers, and carefully passed out to selected media outlets ahead of time, Microsoft attorney Thomas C. Rubin ripped into Google as a bunch of copyright cowboys and parasites. ‘Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people’s content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue,’ Rubin said.”

The Los Angeles Times reports: “The meltdown in the business of high-cost mortgages to high-risk borrowers accelerated Friday as one major lender revealed that it was under federal criminal investigation and a second said it would quit the business after regulators accused it of making too many loans likely to end in foreclosure… The criminal investigation disclosed Friday focuses on how New Century Financial Corp. of Irvine accounted for losses when it was forced to buy back soured loans last year, and whether its executives profited by selling stock while misleading other shareholders… New Century, the largest independent sub-prime lender, shocked Wall Street last month when it said that it would restate results for the last year, erasing $268 million in profit it had reported. Shareholder lawsuits accuse the company’s officers and directors of selling stock for more than $26 million at falsely inflated levels.

Federal regulators already have leveled civil accusations against the No. 2 independent sub-prime lender, Fremont General Corp. of Santa Monica. Fremont disclosed Friday in an SEC filing that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would sanction its bank subsidiary, Brea-based Fremont Investment & Loan, for failing to control the risks inherent in sub-prime lending and in its second major business, commercial real estate construction loans. The company said it had decided to quit sub-prime lending entirely and was “engaged in discussions with various parties regarding the sale of the business.”

“Two Sherman Oaks immigration lawyers have been indicted for allegedly filing fraudulent visa applications, some of them for workers at their law firm, prosecutors said today. Daniel E. Korenberg, 57, and Steven James Rodriguez, 40, are named in a 33-count indictment. Both are charged with making false statements and conspiracy, and Korenberg is also charged with multiple counts of visa fraud. The two worked for one of the West Coast’s largest immigration law firms, which was formerly known as Korenberg, Abramowitz & Feldun — where Korenberg was a partner and Rodriguez was a senior associate. The firm hired paralegals and other office staff who were not authorized to work in the United States, according to prosecutors. It is now known as the ASK Law Group, and has offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Las Vegas, according to ICE. “

“Heat and smog aren’t the only hazards of the central San Joaquin Valley. Valley cities had some of the nation’s highest rates of identity theft in a recent Federal Trade Commission report. The Madera area ranked No. 2 for the number of complaints per capita, behind No. 1 Napa. Fresno, the Hanford-Corcoran area and the area including Visalia and Porterville all ranked in the top 50 of about 400 metropolitan areas with more than 100,000 population nationwide in 2006. Why? No one knows for sure, said FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne Farrell. But Fresno police Sgt. Doug Goertzen suggests there’s one major reason: methamphetamine. ‘We’re seeing a correlation between drug use and identity theft,’ he said. ‘It’s just a way of generating money to purchase drugs.’ Crooks who once robbed convenience stores for a couple hundred dollars now find they can get thousands of dollars via identity theft, Goertzen said.”

A House subcommittee may issue subpoenas for four of the eight U.S. attorneys who were abruptly fired two months ago, including Carol Lam of San Diego. In December, the Department of Justice forced eight U.S. attorneys to resign firing six on a single day. The dismissal of Ms. Lam raised suspicions because she had successfully prosecuted Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham and had indicted the former third in command at the Central Intelligence Agency. Just before she was forced to leave her job, Lam helped get former CIA Executive Director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo indicted by a Grand Jury on 11 counts of corruption for his illegal award of covert CIA contracts to his long-time friend Brent R. Wilkes. Wilkes had been a Republican party “Pioneer” who raised more than $100,000 for Bush’s 2004 reelection. At first, the Department of Justice claimed the U.S. attorneys were dismissed for “performance reasons.” It has subsequently been revealed, however, that all but one of those U.S. attorneys had positive job evaluations.

“A Massachusetts man is charged with defrauding Cisco Systems Inc. of millions of dollars worth of computer networking equipment. Michael A. Daly, 53, was arrested Tuesday during a search at his business… Cisco’s SMARTnet program allows customers to receive replacement equipment immediately, without having first to return the broken part. According to the complaint, Daly used false identities in 39 states to obtain networking equipment from Cisco under the program, carrying out the fraud at least 700 times, on each occasion obtaining equipment with a list price ranging from $995 to $25,000. After preliminary proceedings in Boston, Daly will appear in federal court in San Jose to face charges.”

“The Energy Department cited the University of California for 15 nuclear safety violations at the Los Alamos National Lab, the department announced Feb. 26.
The violations stem from a series of incidents at the New Mexico lab in 2005. The University of California was managing the facility at the time the violations occurred. It now manages the facility as part of Los Alamos National Security LLC, which also includes partners Bechtel National, Washington Group International and BWX Technologies. In two cases, lab workers were contaminated with nuclear radiation. One of the workers spread the contamination outside the lab and state, according to Energy. While the radiation levels in both cases were below Energy limits for radiation doses, “the effects could have been significantly greater,” according to a statement released by the department. Inspections of the lab in November 2005 found the university had not properly enacted health, environment and safety programs. At the time the violations occurred, nonprofit groups were exempt from civil penalties, so the university will not have to pay $1.1 million in fines that the violations carry.”

“Throughout Southern California, various trade contractors working on building projects with Lennar Corporation have received letters from the builder directing subcontractors to reduce and resubmit invoices for previously contracted work. Within the letters, Lennar threatens the contractors with being shut out of future
work unless they meet the company’s demand to lower prices for work in progress and, in some cases, already completed. The January letters offer ‘trade partners’ the option of lowering their previously arranged prices or ‘be excluded from bidding future work for a minimum of 6 months.’ According to Beth Curran, executive director of the California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors, Orange County/Inland Empire (CALPASC OCIE), this amounts to extortion and sets a dangerous precedent.”

The U.K. based law firm Clifford Chance is pulling out of California. According to San Francisco Business Times, the company, “wasn’t able to recruit lawyers from other firms. Legal recruiters said Clifford Chance’s difficulty may have stemmed from its pay structure. Clifford Chance, like many other British-based firms, uses a lockstep compensation system tied to seniority. That contrasts with the U.S. custom of paying partners based, at least in part, on the amount of business they generate for the firm. Over the years a number of Clifford Chance lawyers defected to other firms. Clifford Chance closed all its California locations except for Silicon Valley in 2004″. The company will still support California clients but its U.S. operations will be based in New York and Washington D.C.

According to Freethinker’s Forum: “The Chairman of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). You remember the MPAA right? This is the high-and-mighty organization that is in charge of convincing and threatening people with legal action if they violate copyright or licensing terms of movies and music. It turns out the MPAA blog is run by a piece of software called “Forest Blog” – a Freeware blog, and one of the few things the author asks is that if you use the software in a commercial environment, pay about $40 for the registration, and don’t remove the links to the author’s original site. Of course, the MPAA apparently installed the software, didn’t register and removed the links and credits from it before they let their executives use the blog software to rant and rave about the evils of piracy.”

This has got to be an ominous development. The LA Times has reported the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were forced to pull their recruitment ads after they appeared on Internet sites run by the notorious 18th Street gang, thought to be one of the largest and most violent gangs in the world. According to Wikipedia:

The 18th Street Gang is a Los Angeles-based Latino/Hispanic street gang but the gang also is Asian and Native members. It is considered by many gang analysts to be the largest gang in the United States in terms of membership, and one of the most violent gangs in the world. It is estimated that there are over 20,000 members of 18th Street in Los Angeles County alone.

The 18th Street gang grew out of an older Los Angeles gang, the Clanton Street Gang (after the street that was their home base). In the 1940’s, Clanton Street was changed to 14th Place due to the high number of Zoot Suit Pachucos ‘hanging-out’, as well as the war effort’s need for simple addresses. The Clanton gang was active in Los Angeles for decades and comprised several generations of well-established Mexicans living in America; more recent Mexican immigrants and Chicanos that wanted to join Clanton were rejected. From these rejects the 18th Street gang was born.

The gang has since grown to be California’s largest street gang, with membership in the tens of thousands. Out of the this, it is estimated that about 60% of its members are illegal immigrants, according to a confidential report last year by the state’s Department of Justice. While the majority of the gang’s activities occur in Los Angeles, the gang is active throughout the United States and other countries, including Canada, Peru, Mexico, and El Salvador.

Members of the gang frequently tattoo “18″ or “XV3″ on their bodies (occasionally covering their entire bodies.) The gang is divided into five subsets or ’sides’: North, East, South, West and South Central Los Angeles. Furthermore, each side has its own cliques or mini gangs. 18th Street members often fight several rival gangs, the most notorious of which is the MS-13.

“Advocates for intellectual property rights have identified 60 countries that are lagging in IP protection for creative works, including computer software. China and Russia lead the list. The Business Software Alliance, which includes many Silicon Valley companies, and the International Intellectual Property Alliance have filed their findings with U.S. officials to include in an annual report identifying countries that fail to provide effective IP protection. China and Russia were also listed in 2006 as the two countries that are of the greatest concern in copyright protection. Other countries on the priority watch list for 2007 are Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela.”

“Prosecutors are strongly considering filing criminal charges related to backdating of stock options against ex-executives at several California companies, according to reports Friday. The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed sources who said that charges ‘are being strongly considered’ against an ex-executive of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. Also under investigation and facing possible charges are former executives at Cupertino-based Apple Inc. and semiconductor-equipment maker San Jose-based KLA-Tencor Corp., the Journal reported. The newspaper reported earlier that prosecutors are nearing charges against a former official of computer-security company Santa Clara-based McAfee Inc. “

“Cisco Systems Inc. has granted Apple Inc. another week to respond to its trademark infringement lawsuit over the use if the name iPhone. The companies had agreed earlier to extend the deadline to Thursday night, but San Jose-based Cisco gave Cupertino-based Apple more time to respond to the suit, which was filed last month in federal court in San Francisco.”

“Likening the case to a plot hatched from a Hollywood script, federal authorities are investigating how a well-preserved nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs ended up at a Los Angeles auction house. The nest, which included 22 unhatched eggs believed to be at least 65 million years old, were apparently smuggled out of China to be sold here, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.”