Obama Refuses Comment on Chinese Dissident
U.S. President Barack Obama has refused to confirm whether a blind Chinese dissident, who recently escaped from house arrest in Beijing, is under U.S. protection.
In response to a reporter's question Monday, President Obama said he would not make a statement on the situation of Chen Guangcheng.
U.S. officials have expressed concern about Chen's fate, but have refused comment on his whereabouts amid unconfirmed reports he fled to the U.S. embassy in Beijing.
President Obama said he is aware of the press reports on the situation and added that every time the United States meets with China the issue of human rights comes up.
Mr. Obama's comments come days before an annual bilateral meeting in Beijing between the United States and China. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be leading the U.S. delegation.
Clinton echoed Mr. Obama's comments later Monday, saying she would not address Chen's case at this time. However, she said she can guarantee that human rights will be among the issues discussed during the meeting in Beijing.
The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, arrived in Beijing Sunday and is expected to talk with Chinese officials about Chen.
A U.S.-based China rights organization says Chen is under U.S. protection, and that talks are under way between U.S. and Chinese officials.
Speaking to VOA late Sunday, ChinaAid President Bob Fu said that while Chen is safe and at a location far from his home, the only option left for him might be to flee to the United States.
Citing sources close to Chen, Fu said more than two dozen military police arrested Chen's older brother and nephew Friday morning, the same day Chen allegedly went into U.S. protection. Those sources also say Chen's wife, daughter and mother still are under tight house arrest.
Chen, a lawyer and activist, received a four year jail sentence in 2006 after documenting abuses in China's policy on restricting the size of most families. Since 2010, he has been held under house arrest. He disappeared April 22 from a village in the eastern province of Shandong, although authorities did not realize he was missing until last Thursday. It is not clear where he went, but his friend and fellow activist Hu Jia said he believed that Chen was admitted into the U.S. embassy Friday.
In a video posted online Friday, Chen detailed the abuses he and his family have allegedly suffered in his year-and-a-half under house arrest. He also called on Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to investigate human rights abuses in China.
Fighting Erupts in Mali
Witnesses in Mali say heavy gunfire has broken out in the capital, Bamako, about a month after a military coup d'état.
The witnesses say the shoot-out on Monday involved troops who took part in the March coup and presidential guard members loyal to Mali's deposed president Amadou Toumani Toure.
A spokesman for the military government said the soldiers from the presidential guard are trying to stage a counter coup.
Witnesses tell VOA that presidential guard members have set up barricades at strategic points around Bamako. They say one of the sites where gunfire was reported is around the state broadcaster's main building.
State television did not broadcast its usual evening newscast on Monday.
On March 22, renegade soldiers seized power in Mali, accusing President Toure of failing to properly equip the army to handle a Tuareg rebellion in the north.
The new military government, under pressure from the regional bloc ECOWAS, later agreed to form a civilian transitional government to organize new elections.
Last week, Mali's interim leaders announced the formation of a new government that gave military officers three posts in the new government — defense, interior security and interior ministry. The rest of the 24-member government is made up of civilians.
Since the coup, Tuareg rebels fighting alongside the Islamist group Ansar Dine have captured three northern regions. The rebels declared an independent state, a move that was rejected by neighboring countries and the African Union.
US Sends Japanese Turtle Smuggler to Prison
A court in Los Angeles on Monday sentenced a Japanese man to 21 months in prison for smuggling live turtles into the United States.
Atsushi Yamagami was also ordered to pay an $18,000 fine.
He pleaded guilty to charges of hiding 55 turtles and tortoises in snack food boxes and sneaking them through the Honolulu and Los Angeles airports in suitcases.
Federal prosecutors said Yamagami led a reptile smuggling ring that dealt in chameleons, lizards and snakes to sell at pet shows — a violation of the global treaty protecting endangered species. They called the trafficking a case of animal cruelty that risked spreading salmonella across the United States.
Labour market 'alarming'
The International Labour Organization has warned that the global employment situation is "alarming" and unlikely to improve soon.
The agency said that austerity measures, especially in advanced economies, were hurting job creation.
That comes as Spain officially re-entered recession amid escalating spending cuts.
The National Statistics Institute said the economy shrank 0.3% over the three months to the end of March, the second consecutive quarterly contraction.
In corporate news, sportswear giant Adidas said that "commercial irregularities" at its Reebok unit in India could cost the firm up to 125m euros ($165m, £101m).
The firm told the BBC it is carrying out an internal investigation. "We will take further steps" when that process has been completed, a spokeswoman said.
Insurance giant Aviva announced it will look again at how much it pays new senior executives after concerns expressed by shareholders.
The concerns centred on whether overall levels of pay accurately reflected shareholder value in the last year.
The world's biggest brewer, Inbev, reported first quarter profits of $1.7bn, almost double the profit made in the same quarter of 2011.
The Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks will cut 1,400 jobs by 2015, their owner National Australia Bank announced.
NAB blamed a "significant downgrade in the growth prospects of the UK economy".
Over the weekend, Argentine oil firm YPF vowed to keep providing gas supplies as the dispute over its forced nationalisation continues.
The firm said it will keep delivering liquefied natural gas (LNG) to customers, after Repsol decided to cancel deliveries.
The latest edition of Business Daily asks, can soaring chief executive pay be curbed? The team invited Tim Bush from research group Pirc, and Mark Pettman, an executive headhunter, to discuss the question.
--BBC
Ford earnings fall amid Europe's economic weakness
US carmaker Ford has reported lower quarterly profits following weak sales in Europe and higher tax charges.
Ford, the second-largest US carmaker, said first quarter net income was $1.4bn (£862m), down from $2.6bn for the same quarter last year.
Ford said about half the drop was due to it paying a higher tax rate.
Ford made a loss of $149m in Europe where many economies are struggling. The carmaker's sales in Europe were down by 60,000.
Ford also reported losses in Asia, Africa and South America. However, in North America pre-tax profits rose 17% to $2.1bn, which was its best performance in the region since 2000.
The company's results contrast with others this week from leading car firms.
Volkswagen, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai and Chrysler all reported an increase in profits for the quarter.
Earlier this month, Ford said it would increase its investment in China with plans to build a $760m factory in Hangzhou.
Ford has been boosting its manufacturing capacity in China as part of its effort to raise global sales by nearly 50% to about 8 million cars by 2015.
BBC
Google staff 'knew of wi-fi snooping', report says
The Google engineer who wrote a program that collected personal data from wi-fi networks told at least two other colleagues, a report has revealed.
Google released the full investigation conducted by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
It said senior staff on the Street View team were unaware of the plans.
The company was fined $25,000 (£15,300) earlier this month for impeding the FCC's investigation, but was ruled to not have broken the law.
The report came two weeks after a heavily redacted version was released by the FCC at the time of the original fine.
It detailed how one Google engineer, referred to only as "Engineer Doe", produced a computer program capable of collecting data from people's unsecured home wireless networks.
The data gathered included contents of some emails and web browsing history.
'Collect, store and review'
The collection took place while Google was photographing areas in its Street View car between 2008 and 2010.
"Engineer Doe specifically told two engineers working on the project, including a senior manager, about collecting payload data," the agency said in its report.
"Engineer Doe intended to collect, store and review payload data for possible use in other Google projects."
However, the investigation added that other senior managers on the Street View team were unaware of Engineer Doe's actions.
Google said it wanted to now "put the matter behind us".
"We decided to voluntarily make the entire document available except for the names of individuals," the company said.
"While we disagree with some of the statements made in the document, we agree with the FCC's conclusion that we did not break the law."
Spain in Recession
Spain's economy has slumped into a recession.
Spain's National Statistics Institute data showed Monday that the country's economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2012, after a similar contraction in the final three months of last year.
The news comes as Standard & Poor's agency downgraded the ratings of several top Spanish banks, including BBVA and Santander.
Other downgraded banks include Banesto, Banco Sabadell, Ibercaja, Banca Civica, Kutxabank, Bankinter and BBSA.
Last week, S&P cut Spain's credit rating two notches, saying the outlook is negative.
In reducing the country's sovereign debt rating from “A” to “BBB+,” S&P cited what is calls the risk that Spain's debt could expand while the economy shrinks.
The financial rating agency predicted that the Spanish economy will contract 1.5% this year after previously forecasting a slight growth.
S&P says falling personal incomes, less investment by businesses, and cuts in government spending to balance the national budget are dragging down the Spanish economy.
Suicide Bombing Kills 5 in Eastern Nigeria
Authorities in eastern Nigeria say a suicide bombing targeting a police official has killed at least five people.
Officials said the explosion Monday in Jalingo, the capital of the largely peaceful Taraba state, was triggered near the state ministry of finance and police headquarters. The police official was not harmed.
The attack comes a day after gunmen in northern Nigeria killed at least 15 people in an assault on a university theater used for church services.
Security officials said the gunmen threw small explosives into the site at Bayero University in Kano on Sunday, then fired on worshippers as they ran outside.
A faculty member at the university, Dr. Nasir Fagge, told VOA the killings happened at two locations at the school, and that security had been increased in the days leading up to the attack in light of other deadly incidents in the city.
He also said three professors were among those killed.
One of at least 22 people wounded in the Sunday's attack described the assault as coming just before service began.
“We were about to start the mass, then we start hearing gunshots, pah pah pah, and I ducked down because I am a retired soldier, and I said I will not run away to anywhere.”
Authorities said the attackers fled before security officers arrived, prompting police to cordon off the area.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which resembled others carried out by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram.
The group claimed responsibility for deadly attacks on Thursday at the offices of This Day newspaper in the northern city of Kaduna and the capital, Abuja.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language, is trying to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. It has killed more than 1,000 people since 2009.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has been under increasing international pressure to bring an end to the violence.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is split between the majority-Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.
Source-VOA
Al-Qaida Offers Hostage Release for Freeing of Cleric
A statement on a militant website says al-Qaida's north African branch has offered to release a British man abducted in Mali if Britain frees radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada.
The statement attributed to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which could not be verified, said the group would release Stephen Malcolm, who was taken from the northern Mali town of Timbuktu last November along with two other Westerners.
But the message also warned Britain not to deport Qatada to his native Jordan, where he was convicted in absentia in 1998 of terrorism charges related to two bomb plots.
Britain re-arrested Qatada earlier this month, renewing efforts that began in 2001 to send him back to Jordan. The move has been repeatedly blocked by the courts, including in January when the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the deportation, because evidence used against the cleric in Jordan may have been obtained using torture.
Jordan's justice minister has said Qatada would be entitled to a new trial.
British officials have described Qatada as former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's top European deputy. He has been detained for most of the past decade under the country's anti-terrorism laws.
Gunmen Kill 15 During Christian Service in Northern Nigeria
Gunmen in northern Nigeria attacked a university theater used for church services, killing at least 15 people.
Security officials say the gunmen threw small explosives into the site at Bayero University in Kano on Sunday, then fired on worshippers as they ran outside.
A faculty member at the university, Dr. Nasir Fagge, told VOA the killings happened at two locations at the school, and that security had been increased in the days leading up to the attack in light of other deadly incidents in the city.
He also said three professors were among those killed.
One of at least 22 people wounded in the Sunday's attack described the assault as coming just before service began.
“We were about to start the mass, then we start hearing gunshots, pah pah pah, and I ducked down because I am a retired soldier, and I said I will not run away to anywhere.”
Authorities said the attackers fled before security officers arrived, prompting police to cordon off the area, keeping out even emergency personnel for a time.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which resembled others carried out by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram.
The group claimed responsibility for deadly attacks on Thursday at the offices of This Day newspaper in the northern city of Kaduna and the capital, Abuja.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language, is trying to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. It has killed more than 1,000 people since 2009.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has been under increasing international pressure to bring an end to the violence.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is split between the majority-Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.