More than one U.S. soldier shot Afghans, says local investigator
















TACOMA (Reuters) – A shooting rampage in March that left 16 Afghans dead in two villages was the work of more than one person, an Afghan police investigator testified on Sunday, contradicting the U.S. government’s account.


Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of killing the villagers, mostly women and children, when he ventured out of his remote camp on two revenge-fueled forays over a five-hour period in March.













The government believes Bales was solely responsible for the deaths, and survivors have testified to seeing only a single soldier. But several indirect accounts have suggested that more than one U.S. soldier was involved.


“One person did not have the courage to go to the villages in the dark of night,” Major Khudai Dad, the Afghan Uniform Police’s chief of criminal techniques in Kandahar City, told a hearing at a U.S. Army base via video link from Kandahar.


“There’s no way it is one person,” said Dad, speaking through an interpreter. Dad visited three compounds several thousand meters apart in the villages of Alkozai and Najiban around 8 a.m. on March 11, hours after the attacks.


“One person cannot do this work,” said Dad, adding that he spent only one hour at the three compounds, fearing Taliban attacks.


Dad was the sole witness on the seventh day of testimony before an ‘Article 32′ hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, which will establish whether Bales will face a court martial and possible death penalty if found guilty.


The shootings in Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.


SECOND SHOOTER THEORY


On Saturday, a U.S. investigator told the hearing that the wife of one of the victims told her during questioning in June that she saw more than one soldier on the night in question.


Army criminal investigator Leona Mansapit said the wife of Mohamed Dawood, who was killed in the village of Najiban, recalled a gunman entering the couple’s room shouting about the Taliban, while another man, a U.S. soldier, stood at the door.


This woman was persuaded by male family members not to testify to the hearing, an Army source, who asked not to be named, said on Sunday.


Dad said he took bullet shells from three different compounds, which were several kilometers apart, and turned them over to the Afghan National Army, who passed them on to U.S. investigators.


“In those three areas, where the incidents were, I was thinking and I’m thinking that is not a thing that one person would do,” he said.


A veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.


Prosecutors have already presented physical evidence to tie Bales to the crime scene, with a forensic investigator saying a sample of blood on his clothing matched a swab taken in one of the compounds where the shooting occurred.


Bales’ lawyers have not set out an alternative theory to the prosecution case, but have pointed out inconsistencies in testimony and highlighted incidents before the shooting in which Bales lost his temper easily, possibly setting up an argument that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.


Gathering evidence and witness statements was complicated by the speedy burial of victims, the inability of U.S. investigators to access the crime scenes for three weeks after the violence, and the dispersal of possible witnesses after treatment at a Kandahar hospital.


(Reporting By Laura L. Myers, writing by Bill Rigby; Editing by John Stonestreet)


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Oil drifts as fiscal cliff looms over US economy
















BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices drifted Monday as traders worried about the threat to the U.S. economy if lawmakers and President Barack Obama don’t reach an agreement to avoid automatic tax hikes and spending cuts.


Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 23 cents to $ 85.84 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 98 cents to finish at $ 86.07 per barrel on the Nymex on Friday.













Obama and congressional leaders face a Jan. 2 deadline to reach an agreement or at least come up with a framework to deal with expiring Bush-era tax cuts and automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic programs — known as the “fiscal cliff.”


Economists say the cuts could total $ 800 billion, cost 3 million jobs and plunge the U.S. back into recession. Analysts say more stock market turmoil could arise as the deadline approaches.


Obama was to begin talking to lawmakers in Washington this week on a deal.


Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, fell 48 cents to $ 108.92 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.


Among other energy futures trading on Nymex:


— Heating oil fell 0.6 cent to $ 3.00 a gallon.


— Wholesale gasoline rose 0.2 cent to $ 2.66 a gallon.


— Natural gas fell 1.8 cents to $ 3.485 per 1,000 cubic feet.


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Israel kills Gaza rocket crewman in second day of clashes
















GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian militant in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip on Sunday as a surge in cross-border violence entered its second day, local officials said.


Islamic Jihad, a smaller faction than Hamas which often operates independently, identified the dead man as one of its own, saying he was a member of a rocket crew hit by an Israeli missile in Jabalya, northern Gaza.













The Israeli military confirmed carrying out an air strike in the area. The death brought to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israel since four of its troops were hurt in a missile attack on their jeep along the Gaza boundary fence.


Islamic Jihad said it had fired 70 short-range rockets and mortar bombs across the border since Saturday, salvoes which drove Israeli residents to blast shelters. At least one Israeli, in the town of Sderot, was wounded, ambulance workers said.


Israel described the jeep ambush as part of a Palestinian strategy of trying to curb its countermeasures against possible cross-border infiltration. Israeli forces often mount hunts for tunnels and landmines on the inside of the Gaza boundary, creating a no-go zone for Palestinians.


“Of course we don’t accept their attempt to change the rules,” Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Israel’s Army Radio.


“The essence of the struggle is over the fence. We intend to enable the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) to work not just on our side but on the other side as well.”


Palestinians said four of Saturday’s dead were civilians hit by an Israeli tank shell while paying respects at a crowded mourning tent in Gaza’s Shijaia neighborhood. Israel denies targeting civilians.


The bloodshed puts internal pressure on Hamas, which, though hostile to the Jewish state, has sat out some of the recent rounds of violence as it tried to consolidate its Gaza rule and reach out to neighboring Egypt and other foreign powers.


Israel blames Hamas for any attacks emanating from Gaza, but has shown little appetite for a major sweep of the territory which might strain its own fraught ties to the new Islamist-rooted government in Cairo.


(Writing by Dan Williams; Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Todd Eastham)


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Mail.Ru cuts stakes in Groupon, Facebook, Zygna
















MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian email-to-social networking group Mail.Ru cut its stakes in U.S. internet firms Groupon, Facebook, and Zygna, according to the company’s website.


Mail.Ru now has a 0.52 percent stake in the world’s largest social networking site Facebook, 0.16 percent of U.S. game maker Zynga and 0.84 percent of daily deal website Groupon.













As of October 30, it had a 1.17 percent stake in Zynga, a 0.75 percent stake in Facebook and 4.12 percent of shares in Groupon.


It could raise between $ 200 million and $ 250 million from the sales, said Anastasia Obukhova, an analyst at VTB Capital in Moscow. Mail.Ru declined to comment on the disposals.


“We’ve always been very clear that Groupon, Zynga and Facebook, positioned inside of Mail, are financial assets, not strategic ones,” said Matthew Hammond, the investor relations director at Mail.Ru Group.


At the end of October, Mail.Ru, part-owned by metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov, sold 16 million Facebook shares, worth around $ 370 million, on top of a more than $ 700 million sale as part of Facebook’s initial public offering. That was followed by a hefty dividend payout to Mail.Ru’s shareholders.


(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)


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Colin Firth, Emily Blunt film “Arthur Newman” goes to Cinedigm
















LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Cinedigm has acquired domestic distribution rights to “Arthur Newman,” starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt, the studio announced on Friday.


“Arthur Newman,” the directorial debut of Dante Ariola, chronicles Wallace Avery (Firth), a depressed man loathed by his ex-wife. He stages his own death and heads out on the road where he meets Mike (Blunt), who also wants a fresh start.













Cinedigm will release the film in theaters mid-2013, with on-demand, premium digital, DVD and TV distribution to follow.


“‘Arthur Newman’ is perfect for today’s audiences… A deeply entertaining film highlighted by touching performances from Colin and Emily that bring real heart and soul to a powerful story of displacement, longing and ultimately, redemption. Moviegoers will leave the theatre moved and uplifted,” Vincent Scordino, vice president of acquisitions for Cinedigm Entertainment Group, said in a statement.


Becky Johnson penned the script for the film, which she also produced alongside Vertebra Films’s Mac Cappuccino, Cross Creek Pictures’ Brian Oliver and Alisa Tager.


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U.S. investigator in Afghan rampage case suggests gunman not alone
















TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) – The wife of an Afghan villager killed in a rampage blamed on a decorated U.S. officer told an Army investigator that more than one soldier was present when her husband was shot dead at their home in March, the investigator testified on Saturday.


Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of killing 16 villagers, mostly women and children, when he ventured out of his remote camp on two revenge-fueled forays over a five-hour period in March.













The wife’s account, relayed by Army criminal investigator Leona Mansapit, appeared to cast doubt on the government’s case that Bales alone was responsible for the deaths, although survivors have so far testified to seeing only a single soldier.


The U.S. government, which has been laying out its case against Bales in a pre-trial hearing aimed at deciding whether he can be sent for court martial, says a coherent and lucid Bales acted alone and with “chilling premeditation”.


Mansapit said that the wife of Mohamed Dawood, who was killed in the village of Najiban, recalled a gunman entering the couple’s room shouting about the Taliban, while another man, a U.S. soldier, stood at the door.


The shootings in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.


Mansapit said the wife, who spoke to her through an interpreter, said one of the men pulled her husband out of the door, while the other stopped her from following. One of the men then put a gun to her husband’s head and killed him, while the other continued to yell about the Taliban, grabbing her by the hair and slamming her head against the wall, she said.


Mansapit, who was called by the defense, recalled the woman as saying that outside there were more soldiers “speaking English among themselves”. She put the woman’s age at about 25 but did not name her. It was not immediately clear whether the wife would testify to the hearing herself.


The testimony came a day after a father and two sons described being attacked by a sole U.S. soldier in their family compound in the Afghan village of Alkozai. So far, the only sworn references to more than one soldier have been second hand.


AFGHAN TESTIMONY


A veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.


Prosecutors have already presented physical evidence to tie Bales to the crime scene, with a forensic investigator saying a sample of blood on his clothing matched a swab taken in one of the compounds where the shooting occurred.


Bales’ lawyers have not set out an alternative theory to the prosecution’s case, but have pointed out inconsistencies in testimony and highlighted incidents before the shooting where Bales lost his temper easily, possibly setting up an argument that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.


Gathering evidence and witness statements was complicated by the speedy burial of victims, the inability of U.S. investigators to access the crime scenes for three weeks after the violence, and the dispersal of possible witnesses after treatment at a Kandahar hospital.


Bales’ lead civil defense attorney John Henry Browne, who is in Kandahar to question witnesses, complained early in the investigation that his team was denied access to villagers wounded in the attacks.


One of the villagers, a 15-year-old boy who was wounded in the rampage in Alkozai but survived by hiding, testified to the hearing at a U.S. Army base in Washington state that the shooter wore a U.S. military uniform.


“He put his pistol in my sister’s mouth and then my grandmother started wrestling with him,” the boy, introduced to the court by the single name of Rafiullah, said via video link from Kandahar Air Field. “He shot me in my legs.”


The boy’s testimony was consistent with the recollections of another teenage boy, Sadiquallah, who testified previously that he saw only a single American that night.


(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Pravin Char)


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China slams “distorted” view of copyright piracy problem
















BEIJING (Reuters) – China‘s top official in charge of fighting copyright piracy on Sunday slammed what he said was deliberate distortion of the problem by the Western media caused by the country’s poor global image, saying important facts had been ignored.


Foreign governments, including the United States, have for years urged China to take a stronger stand against pervasive violations of intellectual property rights on products ranging from medicines to software to DVD movies sold on the street.













The United States in April again put China, along with Russia, on its annual list of countries with the worst records of preventing the theft of copyrighted material and other intellectual property.


But Tian Lipu, head of China’s State Intellectual Property Office, said the government’s efforts were being ignored.


“Speaking honestly, there is a market. People use and buy pirated goods,” Tian told reporters on the sidelines of a landmark Communist Party congress.


“To a large extent, China’s intellectual property rights protection image has been distorted by Western media.


“China’s image overseas is very poor. As soon as people hear China they think or piracy and counterfeiting — (Beijing’s) Sanlitun, that place in Shanghai, Luohu in Shenzhen,” he said, referring to places notorious for selling fake goods.


“We don’t deny (this problem), and we are continuing to battle against it,” Tian added.


But other facts were overlooked, he said.


“For example, China is the world’s largest payer for patent rights, for trademark rights, for royalties, and one of the largest for buying real software,” he said. “We pay the most. People rarely talk about this, but it really is a fact. Our government offices, our banks, our insurance companies, our firms … the software is all real.”


Microsoft Corp and other members of the Business Software Alliance in the United States complain that nearly 80 percent of the software installed on personal computers in China is pirated.


Tian said that if companies like Apple Inc were so worried by piracy they would never choose China for their production bases.


“Of the goods made for Apple, most are made in China. Once Apple’s brand is added to it and it is exported to the United States its value doubles,” he said.


“This could only happen because China’s intellectual property rights environment sets foreign investors at ease allowing them to come to China to manufacture.”


The International Intellectual Property Alliance, a U.S. coalition of film, software, music and publishing groups, estimates that U.S. companies lost more than $ 15 billion in 2009 due to international copyright theft.


About $ 14 billion of the total was due to software piracy, with an estimated $ 3.5 billion in losses in China and $ 1.4 billion in Russia.


(Editing by Ron Popeski)


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Twin explosions strike southern Syrian city
















BEIRUT (AP) — Syria‘s state-run news agency says two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage.


SANA did not immediately give further information or say what the target of Saturday’s explosions was.













The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s Military Intelligence in Daraa.


The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, says the explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.


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“Carrie Diaries” Gets January Premiere Date
















NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – The 1980s-set “Sex and the City” prequel “The Carrie Diaries” will debut on the CW on Monday, January 14, the network announced.


“90210,” meanwhile, will move to its new 9 p.m. timeslot. And most CW shows will return from holiday break during that week.













The Carrie Diaries,” one of the CW’s most-anticipated shows, stars AnnaSophia Robb as 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw, who discovers the flashing lights of Manhattan as she copes with the death of her mother. She quickly discovers a vibrant and thrilling club scene.


Based on the novels by Candace Bushnell, “The Carrie Diaries” is from Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, in association with Fake Empire, with executive producers Josh Schwartz (“Hart of Dixie,” “Gossip Girl“), Stephanie Savage (“Hart of Dixie,” “Gossip Girl”), Len Goldstein (“Hart of Dixie”) Amy B. Harris (“Gossip Girl”) and Bushnell.


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Marijuana possession cases in Washington state going up in smoke
















SEATTLE (Reuters) – Prosecutors in Washington state‘s two most populous counties plan to dismiss scores of misdemeanor marijuana possession cases following passage of a landmark voter initiative earlier this week to legalize pot for adult recreational use.


Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to remove criminal sanctions for personal possession of an ounce (28.5 grams) or less of marijuana as voters approved ballot measures on Tuesday to legalize recreational use of the drug, setting up a possible showdown with the federal government.













Washington state’s legalization measure passed with more than 55 percent of voters supporting it and fewer than 45 percent opposed, and will take effect next month.


But prosecutors in Washington’s King and Pierce counties – which contain the cities of Seattle and Tacoma – moved swiftly to announce they were dropping 225 pending possession cases currently in the pipeline.


“The people have spoken loudly in Initiative 502, and there seems to be no point in continuing to prosecute cases for conduct that’s going to be legal in a couple of weeks,” King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg told Reuters.


Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said, “I don’t believe any jury is going to convict on a simple marijuana case after this initiative has passed.”


All the cases slated for dismissal represent the relative few in which marijuana possession alone is charged. Conviction for possession of an ounce or less carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail, Lindquist said.


Legalization efforts put both Washington state and Colorado at odds with federal law, which classifies marijuana as an illegal narcotic. The U.S. Justice Department has yet to say what if any actions it will take in response to the votes.


Asked to comment on the charge dismissals, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for western Washington said the Justice Department was reviewing the newly passed ballot initiatives and “has no additional comment at this time.”


In addition to legalizing personal possession of marijuana, the new Washington and Colorado laws will permit cannabis to be legally sold and taxed at state-licensed stores in a system modeled on what many states have in place for alcohol sales. Those provisions will take longer to be put into effect.


Washington and Colorado already have laws on the books legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, along with 15 other states and the District of Columbia.


Federal prosecutors in some of those states have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries and greenhouses deemed to be engaged in large-scale drug trade under the pretense of supplying medical cannabis to patients.


(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)


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