FBI has exemption to arrange payments to hostage-takers: U.S. sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While U.S. policy bans federal officials from doing business with kidnappers, the FBI for years has used a secret exemption to government rules to communicate with hostage-takers and sometimes send money to them, U.S. government sources said.

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Pacquiao to CNN: This is different

CNN's Don Riddell speaks to professional boxer Manny Pacquiao before his highly anticipated upcoming fight against Floyd Mayweather.

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Pacquiao has grand design for Mayweather

Freddie Roach said Thursday he has devised an elaborate strategy that will deliver a decisive victory for Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao in his 'Fight of the Century' against Floyd Mayweather.

The revered trainer said he expects a bulked up Mayweather to seek an early rounds knockout but warned Pacquiao would be ready to go the distance if necessary

"I have the winning formula for Manny," Roach said at the MGM Grand Hotel, with Saturday's bout just over 48 hours away.

"He (Mayweather) put on a lot of muscle for this fight. I think he will come out in early rounds and try to knock us out.

"He could also run all night. I have fallen asleep at a couple of his fights before. So I am ready for whatever he brings to the ring."

Pacquiao set up his training camp for the richest fight in boxing history in a private facility built underneath Roach's Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

They gutted the old laundromat that was there and replaced it with a de facto war room where Roach and Pacquiao have been crafting the plan they believe will end Mayweather's unbeaten record.

Roach said the new gym allowed Pacquiao to escape the clamour and chaos of the Wild Card that comes with having the Filipino superstar training there.

"I blocked the gym off and we kept it private. This camp I didn't have Manny trying to perform for an audience, he was performing for himself," Roach said.

- Happy campers -

"We had a good training camp. A lot of good sparring partners. We had eight sparring partners and we switched them up.

"Manny is too nice to his sparring partners all the time. Once he got too friendly with them we got a new one. That is why we used so many sparring partners."

Roach said earlier he thought Mayweather's unusually quiet demeanour in the build up to the fight was a sign he lacked motivation.

Pacquiao meanwhile went for a "light" run Thursday morning followed by another low-key workout in the afternoon.

"We are not focused on one strategy but two or three strategies," Pacquiao said earlier in the week. "Any way he wants to fight me is good. If he wants to run we will cut the ring off."

Roach said they are going to use Mayweather's fights against Zab Judah and Oscar De La Hoya as a blueprint for what they want to achieve in the ring. Mayweather beat Judah by a unanimous decision in 2006 and De La Hoya by a split decision a year later.

Roach said if De La Hoya had continued to use his jab effectively in the later rounds he could have beaten Mayweather.

"Oscar beat him in the first six rounds and lost to him in the last six. Oscar started following him around. We will improve on that. Zab just started tiring."

- 'Nothing but fear' -

Roach said they are waiting to see if the gloves that Mayweather will use meets the standards. They have asked the boxing officials to press the issue because it is past the deadline for both camps to turn in their gloves in for inspection.

"We turned ours in. They are long past their due," he said. "Their gloves are hand made and our gloves are made by a computer system. I just want to make sure the weight on the gloves is fair."

Mayweather's trainer, Mayweather Sr., said Thursday the gloves issue reflected fear in the Pacquiao camp.

"The gloves are not an issue. They ain't got nothing but fear," Mayweather Sr. said.

Asked about former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson's comment that Mayweather was "a very small, scared man", Roach said he agrees.

"Mike knows a lot about boxing," said Roach, who believes Mayweather's 38-year-old legs may not be as elusive as they once were.

"I don't think his legs are there anymore. He can't move like he used to. We will catch him," Roach said.

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Carmelo in Baltimore to march with protesters

The Knicks star wore a sweatshirt with Muhammad Ali's birth name on the front.

     

 

 

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NFL denies player's request to withdraw from draft

LSU offensive lineman wanted to be placed in supplemental draft later this year.

     

 

 

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Carmelo in Baltimore to march with protesters

The Knicks star wore a sweatshirt with Muhammad Ali's birth name on the front.

      

 

 

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Nets try to take force No. 1 seed Hawks to go the distance

Nets try to extend close, competitive series against No. 1 seed Hawks with Game 6 victory

      

 

 

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US keeps China, India on intellectual rights watch list

The United States on Thursday kept China and India on its Priority Watch List of trading partners that fail to protect intellectual property rights (IPR), hurting the economy.

In its annual Special 301 Report, the Commerce Department's US Trade Representative said there were now 13 trading partners on its Priority Watch List, three more than its previous report. Ecuador and Ukraine were newcomers, and Kuwait was added late last year.

Ecuador made the Priority Watch List because of its repeal last year of its criminal IPR provisions. "The current lack of criminal procedures and penalties invites transnational organized crime groups that engage in copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting to view Ecuador as a safe haven," the USTR report said.

Ukraine's government had not resolved problems identified two years ago by the US that include widespread use of illegal software by Ukrainian government agencies and the failure to adopt effective means to combat online copyright infringement, it said.

While welcoming promising efforts by the Ukrainian authorities, the USTR said it was looking forward to seeing "tangible and lasting improvement, both in legislative reform and in practice."

Kuwait was moved to the Priority Watch List in November after failing "to introduce legislation resulting in a copyright law consistent with international standards, and resume effective enforcement against copyright and trademark infringement."

The other countries on the Priority Watch List were Argentina, Algeria, Chile, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela.

China, the second-largest US trading partner, remained on the list despite certain improvements, including an intellectual property law reform effort, the report said.

- Broad China concerns -

There were new and longstanding concerns about IPR protection and enforcement. The report highlighted new measures such as conditioning market access on the use of Chinese-indigenous IPR and the conduct of research and development in China.

"A wide range of US stakeholders in China continues to report serious obstacles to effective protection of IPR in all forms, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and protection of pharmaceutical test data," it said.

"Given the size of China's consumer marketplace and its global importance as a producer of a broad range of products, China's protection and enforcement of IPR continues to be a focus of US trade policy."

India also remained on the list but the Obama adminstration was upbeat about future improvements under the government of business-friendly Narendra Modi, who took office last May, following last year's out-of-cycle (OCR) review to encourage progress on IPR issues.

The USTR has "the full expectation that the new channels for engagement created in the past year will bring about substantive and measurable improvements in India's IPR regime for the benefit of a broad range of innovative and creative industries."

It said it would not announce another OCR for India "at this time" but would monitor progress over the coming months.

- NAFTA partners eyed -

The USTR had 24 countries on its less-serious Watch List for underlying IPR problems that included North America Free Trade Agreement partners Canada, the largest US trading partner, and Mexico, the number three.

The Special 301 Report, based on public testimony in a review of 72 trading partners, covers a broad range of issues, from online piracy and counterfeiting to theft of trade secrets and legal barriers.

"Tens of millions of Americans owe their jobs to intellectual property-intensive industries. Strong and balanced protection and enforcement of intellectual property are critical for promoting exports of US innovative and creative goods and services, and sustaining those jobs here at home," said US Trade Representative Michael Froman.

Froman said in a statement that the report served as an "important tool" in the government's effort to "ensure that Americans can bring their inventions and creations to people all over the world without their work being infringed or misappropriated."

The 2015 report also underscored some success stories. Italy, for example, had implemented new regulations in 2014 to combat online copyright piracy.

The Philippines, which came off the Watch List last year, had undertaken enforcement reforms that included increased seizures of pirated and counterfeit goods.

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NASA spacecraft crashes on Mercury after 11-year mission

An unmanned NASA spacecraft has crashed on the surface of the planet Mercury, after it ran out of fuel following a successful 11-year mission, the US space agency said Thursday.

The MESSENGER probe -- short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging -- was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, and issued a final farewell on Twitter shortly before its demise at 3:26 pm (1926 GMT).

"Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye to all my friends, family, support team. I will be making my final impact very soon."

Shortly after, the official @MESSENGER2011 Twitter account posted another image of Mercury's surface, with the caption: "MESSENGER's LAST ACT? THAT'S SMASHING!"

The image was not of Mercury's fall. NASA has said previously that there could be no real-time pictures of the impact, which would take place on the side of the planet facing away from the Earth.

But the US space agency confirmed that the probe had indeed crash-landed.

"A NASA planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end Thursday when it slammed into Mercury's surface at about 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 kilometers per second) and created a new crater on the planet's surface," the agency said in a statement.

The spacecraft itself was just about three meters long.

The crater it would cause was expected to be 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter, NASA said.

The mission, which launched in 2004, had achieved "unprecedented success," with its top discovery being that Mercury had lots of frozen water and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters on the planet closest to the Sun, the US space agency said.

"Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating MESSENGER as more than a successful mission," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

"The MESSENGER mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission -- analyzing the exciting data already in the archives, and unravelling the mysteries of Mercury."

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Ukraine rebels expel Western NGO members for 'spying'

Pro-Russian rebels said Thursday they had expelled seven US and European members of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) NGO for "spying" in the eastern Ukrainian territory under their control.

"The IRC organisation, which works under the auspices of the US international development agency, was for several months acting in an illegal manner," the separatists' self-declared ministry of security said in a statement.

The expelled staff members of the aid organisation -- US and European citizens -- were working without authorisation and "actively attempting to establish contacts with (separatist) representatives in order to obtain information on the situation and social problems," the statement said.

The government in Kiev is fighting pro-Russian separatists who have taken control of parts of two key eastern regions.

The rebels said those expelled had "under cover of providing humanitarian aid to residents," collected personal data and probed locals on their attitude towards the separatist authorities.

Seven IRC members were expelled from the separatist east into government-controlled territory and their office in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk closed, the statement added.

The IRC made no immediate comment on the expulsions.

The rebel authorities said that eight other foreign employees of the same non-governmental group were expelled last year from eastern Ukraine, where numerous international organisations continue to operate, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian rebels and Kiev forces has cost over 6,000 lives so far.

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Senator, Iranian leader tangle on Twitter

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Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's killer explains why

The man who beat serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to death inside a Wisconsin prison says he did it because of Dahmer's creepy sense of humor -- which included turning prison food into fake limbs covered with ketchup to resemble blood, the New York Post reports.

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Valencia held to 1-1 by Rayo Vallecano in Spanish league

A goalkeeping error allows Rayo Vallecano to hold Valencia to 1-1 in the Spanish league

      

 

 

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Iran intercepts U.S.-flagged ship

Iran's Revolutionary Guard intercepted a U.S.-flagged ship, the U.S. Navy reports. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has the details.

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Iran accuses seized ship of 'peculiar' activity

A top Iranian official said Wednesday that a foreign cargo ship had been seized in the Persian Gulf because it had a history of "peculiar" activity.

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U.S. aircraft carrier enters Persian Gulf

The USS Theodore Roosevelt entered the Persian Gulf Saturday to conduct what a U.S. defense official called routine maritime security operations, days after U.S. warships were deployed to the Yemeni coast to counter an Iranian convoy.

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Syngenta shares surge on talk of Monsanto takeover

Shares of Swiss farm chemicals power Syngenta leaped more than 14 percent in post-market trade Thursday after a report that US seed giant Monsanto had made a takeover offer.

Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported the two global agroindustry leaders held discussions in recent weeks.

But it said Syngenta "has concerns" about a merger, because it could be challenged by regulators on antitrust grounds.

The combined company would be the world market leader in both seeds and crop chemicals.

It was not the first time talks between the two have been reported. Rumors of a possible merger surfaced in June 2014, but nothing came of them.

No prospective price was given in the report, but Syngenta has a market value of about $31 billion, while Monsanto is worth $54 billion.

Neither company could be immediately contacted on the report.

Syngenta's New York Stock Exchange-traded ADR shares surged 14.1 percent in post-market trade to $76.50 after having fallen modestly in regular trade.

Monsanto meanwhile was 3.6 percent higher at $118.07.

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One in six species faces extinction from climate change: study

One out of six species faces extinction as a result of climate change and urgent action must be taken to save large numbers of animals from being wiped out, an analysis said Thursday.

The study, published in the US journal Science, found that a global temperature rise of four degrees Celsius could spell disaster for a huge number of species around the world.

"We urgently need to adopt strategies that limit further climate change if we are to avoid an acceleration of global extinction," said study author Mark Urban, an ecology and evolutionary biology researcher at the University of Connecticut.

The analysis evaluated 131 previous studies about the impact of climate change on flora and fauna around the world.

It concluded that with each rising degree in global temperatures, more species were at risk.

A two degree increase, the study noted, could threaten 5.2 percent of species, while a three degree boost would put 8.5 percent of all species at risk.

"If we follow our current, business-as-usual trajectory (leading to a 4.3 degree Celsius rise)... climate change threatens one in six species (16 percent)," the study said.

Different regions of the world had varied extinction threats.

"Extinction risks were highest in South America, Australia and New Zealand, and risks did not vary by taxonomic group," Urban said.

In South America, the most vulnerable region, 23 percent of species may face extinction.

Fourteen percent could be threatened in New Zealand and Australia.

Five percent of species in Europe could face extinction, compared to six percent in North America, the study found.

Urban said governments must urgently act to prevent widespread extinction.

"Climate change is poised to accelerate extinctions around the world unless we adopt new strategies to limit it and implement specific conservation strategies to protect the most threatened species," he said.

- Marine fossils reveal threats -

Meanwhile, a related study in Science Thursday found that marine fossils can help identify which animals and ocean ecosystems face the greatest risk of extinction.

A team of paleontologists and ecologists looked at marine animals that died out over the past 23 million years.

They found that some groups were more vulnerable than others and the threat varied regionally.

"Whales, dolphins and seals show higher risk of extinction than sharks or invertebrates such as corals. Clams and mussels -- so-called bivalves -- had about one-tenth the extinction risk of mammals," the study found.

Regions of the tropics such as the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean were most at risk. Climate change and other human-related activities such as fishing contributed to that vulnerability.

"Climate change and human activities are impacting groups of animals that have a long history, and studying that history can help us condition our expectations for how they might respond today," said lead author Seth Finnegan, an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

But he said more research is needed to protect vulnerable species.

"There is a lot more work that needs to be done to understand the causes underlying these patterns and their policy implications," he added.

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Saudi says dozens of Yemen rebels dead in border battle

Saudi Arabia said its forces on Thursday killed dozens of rebels from Yemen who launched their first major attack on the kingdom since Saudi-led air strikes began last month.

Three Saudi soldiers also died in the battle after the rebels targeted their observation posts, the defence ministry said.

"The ground troops today repelled an attack at the southern Najran border" by Shiite Huthis and allied troops loyal to Yemen's former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, it said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"The ground troops engaged them" with support from air strikes, the ministry said.

"This led to.... the deaths of dozens of militias," the ministry said.

A Saudi-led coalition on March 26 began bombing in Yemen to halt a southern advance of the Iran-backed rebels.

The air strikes have sparked exchanges of fire along the border region, where nine Saudi soldiers and border guards have been killed in periodic incidents.

But this is the first time the military has reported a full-scale Huthi attack against the kingdom.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri has said that stopping the Huthis from threatening Yemen's neighbours was an aim of the military operations.

Saudi Arabia has reinforced the border with artillery, tanks and hilltop lookout posts to block the incursion of any Huthis from their traditional highland stronghold just over the boundary.

The rebels swept into Yemen's capital Sanaa last September from those bases and then advanced south on the port of Aden, forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

The coalition took action, fearing that a regime friendly to Shiite Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia's regional rival, could take control of all Yemen.

In early April the coalition said that more than 500 rebels had died in border clashes with the Saudi military since the air war began.

On the ground in Yemen, the Huthis and their allies are fighting Hadi loyalists.

The UN says about half of the more than 1,000 people killed in the Yemen fighting since late March were civilians.

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Gurrumul, shy Aboriginal voice, wins star support in US

Gurrumul is painfully shy, blind and grants no interviews, but the indigenous Australian singer's music is so striking that he has won star backing for a first US tour.

With a plaintive yet mellifluous voice, Gurrumul transcends language barriers as he sings in his Gumatj dialect which is understood only by around 3,000 people.

Gurrumul has sold more than half a million albums worldwide, largely in Australia where the reserved 45-year-old has become an unlikely chart sensation with his two albums both entering the top five.

After several plans fell through to play the United States, Gurrumul opened a tour Wednesday night in New York with the support of legendary producer Quincy Jones.

"It's unbelievable. I know you're going to get blown away as much as I was when I first heard him," Jones, best known for his work with Michael Jackson, said of Gurrumul in a video message.

"This is one of the most unusual and emotional and musical voices I've ever heard," Jones said.

Jones, writing on his Facebook page, called Gurrumul's music a reason to reject the mindset of colonization, saying: "When you look at the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the lands, there is always such authentic beauty."

While no one is betting that Gurrumul will win Michael Jackson-type fame, Jones' production company promoted the sold-out show at the Subculture club in Manhattan's NoHo district.

The tour will also take Gurrumul on Friday to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the history-rooted festival in jazz's birthplace.

Jones is not the only musical giant to support Gurrumul. Elton John joined him on stage in Australia, and Sting recorded a collaboration when Gurrumul earlier toured Europe.

- Folk feel, indigenous imagery -

The singer, whose full name is Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, comes from tropical 280 square-kilometer (100 square-mile) Elcho Island off the coast of Australia's Northern Territory.

Gurrumul is said to know hundreds of songs from his Aboriginal tradition but his music, save for the lyrics, carries a familiarity for Western listeners.

The sound is in line with Western folk music, with occasional echoes of Joan Baez. Gurrumul sings, strums guitar and often carries the melody through humming.

Along with a drummer and second guitarist, the back-up band features double bassist Michael Hohnen, who became Gurrumul's collaborator and alter ego after meeting him on Elcho Island two decades ago and eventually persuading him to record.

Hohnen said the band took advantage of the trip to New York to work in a studio on an upcoming album, which will have a more Gospel feel, a sign of the Methodist Church's strong presence on Elcho Island.

Gurrumul gives no interviews -- a mixture of his shyness and clan traditions -- and rarely budges on stage, instead allowing Hohnen to speak on his behalf.

"If anyone has ever seen a saltwater crocodile lying in the mud, that's about how much he moves," Hohnen said at the New York concert, to laughter of the crowd but no reaction from Gurrumul.

But a saltwater crocodile, Hohnen quickly explained, is a totem for Gurrumul that he has put into verse.

Another totem for Gurrumul's people that appears in song is the djilawurr, known to English settlers as the orange-footed scrub fowl, and Hohnen succeeded in encouraging the audience to imitate the bird's call.

Gurrumul sings occasionally in English as in the plainspoken but moving "Gurrumul History," in which the singer, who has never learned Braille, begins, "I was born blind / And I don't know why."

Gurrumul also chose English for a brief, surprise, comment to the crowd: "We love you, New York."

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Iran arming Yemen's Huthi rebels since 2009: UN report

Iran has been shipping weapons to Yemen's Huthi rebels since at least 2009, according to a confidential UN report, indicating that Tehran's support dates back to the early years of the Shiite militia's insurgency.

The report by a panel of experts was presented to the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee last week as the United Nations seeks to broker an end to the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen and a return to peace talks.

The panel of experts reported on the findings of an investigation into the 2013 seizure by Yemeni authorities of an Iranian ship, the Jihan, that was carrying weapons.

The information collected by the experts "suggests that the Jihan case follows a pattern of arms shipments to Yemen by sea that can be traced back to at least 2009," said the report seen by AFP.

"The analysis further suggests that the Islamic Republic of Iran was the origin of these shipments and that the intended recipients were the Huthis in Yemen or possibly in some cases further recipients in neighboring countries," it added.

"Current military Iranian support to Huthis in Yemen is consistent with patterns of arms transfers going back to more than five years to date."

Iran has denied charges of meddling in Yemen and instead accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out a military "aggression" against the troubled country after it launched an air campaign on March 26.

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Colombia's ex-intel chief jailed for domestic spying

A Colombian former intelligence chief was jailed for 14 years on Thursday for spying on judges, journalists and opposition figures in a high-profile case that stained the legacy of popular ex-president Alvaro Uribe.

The Supreme Court convicted Maria del Pilar Hurtado in February of ordering illegal wiretaps on a former senator, two opposition politicians, the mayor of Bogota and its own judges during Uribe's presidency from 2002 to 2010.

The sentence was less than the 20 years requested by prosecutors.

Uribe's former chief of staff Bernardo Moreno was also sentenced to eight years for soliciting illegally obtained intelligence from Hurtado's agents at the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) in 2007 and 2008.

Under Hurtado, the DAS illegally spied on opposition members and leaked some of the information obtained to the press, overtly political activities that had nothing to do with national security, the court ruled.

The scandal-plagued agency was disbanded by Uribe's successor, President Juan Manuel Santos.

After the allegations emerged, Hurtado fled the country in 2010 and was granted asylum in Panama, but surrendered to Colombian authorities at the end of January after Interpol issued a notice for her arrest.

Uribe, who remains popular and is one of Santos's most vocal opponents, said he was "saddened" to see Hurtado and Moreno jailed for "doing their duty."

He is now a senator and has immunity from prosecution in the case.

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Amateur's Baltimore Photo Makes Time Cover

The amateur photographer whose image from Baltimore's protests is Time magazine's latest cover says he's sad for the city but excited for himself.








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