Andhranews

San Francisco, Oct. 5: Hewlett-Packard’s former chairwoman was among five people charged on Wednesday with illegally gathering phone records of board members, journalists and others in an effort to find the source of news leaks.
The felony charges, filed by the California attorney-general’s office, are the first stemming from a spying operation that ended last spring but came to light a month ago in disclosures by a disgruntled former director. The case has rocked the company, forcing out the chairwoman, Patricia C. Dunn, along with the general counsel, a second director and two other senior officers. A House subcommittee held hearings on the case last week, and federal prosecutors have also been considering charges.

It was Ms Dunn who authorised the operation, aimed at tracing leaks from the board, and put it into the hands of outside investigators. Those charged with her on Wednesday included the company lawyer who supervised one phase of the operation and three detectives. The charges stem from the use of pretexting, a form of deception, to obtain private calling records from phone company employees.
“We plan to aggressively prosecute this case,” Bill Lockyer, the State’s attorney-general, said at a press conference in Sacramento. “However, the investigation into this matter remains active and still incomplete, ” he said.

The company’s general counsel, Ann O. Baskins, who resigned hours before the House hearing last week, was not among those charged. Nor was Mark V. Hurd, the chief executive, who has overseen a resurgence in Hewlett-Packard’s business that has buoyed its stock even in the face of the recent upheaval.

Tehran, Oct. 5: A forgotten letter in which the founder of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, cited a need for nuclear weapons has stoked a debate over whether to negotiate with the West and raised questions about Iran’s nuclear intentions on Thursday. ithin hours after the letter appeared on Friday on the Web site of the news agency ILNA, the word “nuclear” was removed, apparently after a call from the Iranian National Security Council.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly insisted that Iran’s nuclear programme is peaceful, sharply criticised the release of the letter. “Those who think they can weaken the will of the people for construction and development by questioning their values will fail,” he said on Sunday, “and they only show their lack of wisdom and commitment.”

The letter, which had been previously published elsewhere, was written in 1988, near the end of Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq. It was brought to light again on Friday by the former Iranian President, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to defend himself against hard-line critics who accuse him of ending the war when Iran was on the brink of victory.

But the letter has also been used by moderates to bolster the case for nuclear talks with the West. Iran faces sanctions for defying the United Nations Security Council’s demand that it halt its uranium enrichment, which the United States says is part of a weapons programme. In the letter, Ayatollah Khomeini outlined the reasons Iran had to accept the bitter prospect of a ceasefire in the war, which had ground down to a stalemate, with about 250,000 Iranians dead and 200,000 disabled. It did not specifically call for Iran to develop nuclear weapons, but referred indirectly to the matter by citing a letter written by the officer leading the war effort, Mr Mohsen Rezai.

“The commander has said we can have no victory for another five years, and even by then we need to have 350 infantry bridges, 2,500 tanks, 300 fighter planes,” Ayatollah Khomeini wrote, adding that the officer also said he would need “a considerable number of laser and nuclear weapons to confront the attacks.” Ayatollah Khomeini determined that the nation could not afford, politically or economically, to continue the war, and in a famous public statement compared the decision to “drinking a chalice of poison.”

ILNA, the Iranian Labour News Agency, removed the word “nuclear” within a few hours of putting the letter on the Web, after receiving a call from the Iranian National Security Council, according to a reporter with the agency who requested anonymity. The letter was released as part of a debate about who was most instrumental in persuading Ayatollah Khomeini to end the war. That argument, in turn, reflects growing tensions between moderates, led by Mr Rafsanjani, and military figures, who are expanding their power in the government of President Ahmadinejad.

Sydney, Oct. 5: A major three-way diplomatic spat is brewing in Australasia over an Indian origin lawyer who had jumped bail in Papua New Guinea last week.
Julian Moti, 41, the new attorney-general of the Pacific nation of Solomon Islands, was arrested on Friday by the Papua New Guinea police from the airport in the capital, Port Moresby. He was on transit to the Solomon Islands when the request to arrest him came from Australian authorities.

He was granted bail but did not appear in court. He was found missing from the hotel in Port Moresby where he was put up and is now believed to be under diplomatic protection at the Solomon Islands high commission in Papua New Guinea. Australia has sought the extradition of Mr Moti, an Australian citizen, from Papua New Guinea on an earlier charge of child sex in another Pacific nation, Vanuatu. This had soured relations between Australia and the Solomon Islands with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of Solomon Islands, who also happens to be a personal friend of Mr Moti, stating that Australia’s action “is a serious violation of the sovereignty of the Solomon Islands and a disregard of established institutions.”

Now, according to reports, the case has got a fresh twist with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare too siding with the Solomon Islands. “Now, if it is Australia’s case, it should be dealt with in Australia and the Solomon islands. They came here and we have no law under our act to hold people in ransom,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “He (Mr Moti) came here, he is to have a free passage from us,” a report in Post Courier newspaper quoted Sir Michael as saying. Mr Moti is an Indo-Fijian who acquired Australian citizenship after graduating in law.

Washington, Oct. 5: A US federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the government can continue running warrantless domestic spying operations launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks until an appeal against a ban on the programme is heard. On August 17, Justice Anna Diggs Taylor of the federal court in Detroit, Michigan, ordered a halt to warrantless spying on US citizens’ telephone and other electronic communications by the National Security Agency, ruling that President George W. Bush had surpassed his powers to authorise the operations.

But an appeals court judge in Cincinnati, Ohio, suspended Justice Taylor’s order while the government pursues its ca-se to overturn her decision. The White House has maintained that the spying programme, which operates without warrants required by law under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is necessary to fight the “war on terror”.