Obama lawyers: Citizens targeted if at war with US (AP)

WASHINGTON ? U.S. citizens are legitimate military targets when they take up arms with al-Qaida, top national security lawyers in the Obama administration said Thursday.

The lawyers were asked at a national security conference about the CIA killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and leading al-Qaida figure. He died in a Sept. 30 U.S. drone strike in the mountains of Yemen.

The government lawyers, CIA counsel Stephen Preston and Pentagon counsel Jeh Johnson, did not directly address the al-Awlaki case. But they said U.S. citizens don't have immunity when they're at war with the United States.

Johnson said only the executive branch, not the courts, is equipped to make military battlefield targeting decisions about who qualifies as an enemy.

The courts in habeas cases, such as those involving whether a detainee should be released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, make the determination of who can be considered an enemy combatant.

Late last year, a judge threw out a lawsuit filed by al-Awlaki's father, saying that the courts do not have the authority to review military decisions by the president aimed at protecting the country from terrorists. The cleric's father, Nasser al-Awlaki of Yemen, was suing to prevent the U.S. from targeting his son.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_targeted_killing

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Watch: Newt Gingrich: 'I Should Lose Weight' (ABC News)

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Rapper Tinie Tempah's big ambition for U.S. "Disc-Overy" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? At the age of 23, British rapper Tinie Tempah has already sold a million records with his debut album "Disc-Overy."

Now he's hoping to conquer the United States with a new breed of hip-hop music through the release this week of his drum and bass hit British single "Pass Out" and a performance on TV singing contest "The X Factor".

Reuters spoke with Tinie Tempah about his career so far and British influences on the U.S. rap music scene.

Q: Your music is at the core of a new wave of hip-hop coming out of London. How were you influenced by the London scene?

A: "In London, everything is interlinked, you can't avoid it, so it just became a natural thing to put drum and bass or garage in your music. I just wanted my album to appeal to everybody across the board. I didn't go out there to intentionally make it sound different 'cause I wanted to be edgy, I just wanted to make what I know and what I like."

Q: Why do you think people have responded to your music in the way that they have?

A: "People, especially in England, were just happy that there was a black British young kid who was able to sign a record deal and transcend the stereotypes of a black British rapper -- urban in a hoodie, can't talk properly, looks like a ragamuffin. I think people were rooting for me to transcend that."

Q: Do you think the artists topping music charts are being influenced by the new wave of British hip-hop?

A: "When 'Pass Out' came out and people started trying to do 'Pass Out'-esque type music -- and I'm not saying Jay-Z and Kanye had a listen to us -- but when I listen to "Ni**as in Paris", it sounds like it's definitely been inspired or influenced by what's been going on in the U.K."

Q: Was there a time that you thought success wasn't going to happen?

A: "The MOBOs (Music of Black Origin Awards, in U.K.) 2009, I was sitting at home while I was a fully active emcee but wasn't nominated for anything, and watching all my mates sitting there in suits, drinking champagne, going up for awards, I was like, 'is this even going to happen for us?' But then the next year was a really good year for us. You need to experience a little bit of bad, it makes you appreciate the good a lot more and it makes you realize how hard you actually have to work."

Q: Why did you release "Written in the Stars" as the first single in the U.S. after the success of "Pass Out" in the

U.K.?

A: "America definitely embraced what the Brits have to offer in terms of this new wave of music, and how eclectic and experimental it is. But I just don't think at that time that they were ready for 'Pass Out.' Now that Jay-Z and Kanye have done 'Watch The Throne' and there's a little bit more edgier music like Skrillex and Diplo, I think people are going to be more ready for it. 'Written in the Stars' was my strongest card at the time...it took me everywhere in America. Now that they understand me a little more, I think we should give 'Pass Out' a go and see what happens."

Q: At the age of 23 with more than a million records sold, how do you keep yourself grounded?

A: "The thing that keeps me going and that keeps me grounded is longevity, and never wanting it to end. You don't want to go to rehab or to stop thinking about the music and stop taking pride in it. We still have a long way to go, this is not ending any time soon."

Q: How have your parents responded to your success?

A: "They're very happy. I'm from a traditionally African background, things like this don't usually happen, it's usually that you go to school, go to college, get your degree, be a doctor, lawyer, as long as you're earning 100 grand a year. Me deviating from the norm was a little bit daring, gutsy, and they were more worried than anything. Music is just a very volatile thing."

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/people_nm/us_tinietempah

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European share rally ends (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? A two-day rally in European shares came to a halt on Tuesday, while the euro slipped from highs on investor caution ahead of an Italian bond auction and widespread skepticism over whether European policymakers will be able to prevent debt contagion.

Safe-haven German Bunds pushed higher after a sharp sell-off in recent days with a report that Standard & Poor's could cut France's triple-A rating outlook to negative within days bringing the focus back to how the debt crisis threatens to ensnare larger euro zone economies.

Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, plans to sell up to 8 billion euros of 3- and 10-year bonds later on Tuesday and is likely to pay more than 7 percent, a level that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek international aid.

The region's finance ministers are set to agree details on how to bolster the European Financial Stability Facility bailout fund in a bid to stem contagion in bond markets.

But many who are hoping for more decisive action could be disappointed as the euro zone leaders have a history of falling well short of market expectations.

The FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index of top European shares was down 0.3 percent at 937.78 points, after rising 3.6 percent on Monday, its biggest one-day rise in a month. The STOXX Europe 600 Banking Index (.SX7P), exposed to euro zone sovereign debt, fell 0.8 percent.

"Despite all the rhetoric, I have little faith that the region's authorities are coming to terms with the scale of the problem," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, strategist at Charles Stanley. "You can talk as long as you like but we have to see the plan, and the plan has to be workable."

Tension in euro zone money market and banks' reluctance to lend to each other has also intensified. This is likely to see investors cut exposure to the euro zone and seek safer alternatives like dollar assets.

Reflecting global market strains, the Bank of Japan supplied dollars in market operations for the fourth time this month on Tuesday, providing $100 million in an operation maturing in three months and $1 million maturing in a week.

Peripheral euro zone debt came under pressure with Italian and Spanish 10-year bond spreads widening over their German counterparts. Italian 10-year yields rose 13 basis points to 7.41 percent while the cost to insure against default by Italy also edged higher.

SCOPE FOR DISAPPOINTMENT

Germany and France are reportedly working on proposals for a more rapid fiscal integration in Europe ahead of a European Union summit on December 9, but the European Central Bank has defied calls for a stepped-up role in helping resolve fiscal problems within the 17-member euro zone.

Analysts say without a more permanent wealth transfer mechanism the market is likely to be left disappointed by talk of a greater fiscal union, especially if the stance of the ECB remains unaltered. That could see the euro and riskier currencies under renewed downward pressure.

"While the effectiveness of the leveraged EFSF remains questionable, we also doubt that the finance ministers will be able to pull anything materially new out of the hat tonight," said Commerzbank strategist Benjamin Schroeder.

The euro slipped from a high of $1.33734 to $1.3330 on Tuesday, trading only marginally higher on the day. It had gained more than 1 percent on Monday to a high of $1.3398.

The dollar index (.DXY) measured against six key currencies was down 0.3 percent.

(Additional reporting by Brian Gorman and Kirsten Donovan in London; Editing by)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111129/bs_nm/us_markets_global

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San Francisco offers anti-Wall Street protesters new camp site (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, seeking to lure anti-Wall Street activists from a downtown encampment, offered them an alternate site on Tuesday at a former school 2.5 miles from the current Financial District camp.

Occupy San Francisco members met on Tuesday night to discuss the proposed site in the city's Mission District, and the mayor's list of conditions for using it. The offer includes land for pitching tents and a building with restrooms.

The offer comes as other major U.S. cities, weary after weeks of protests, have moved in to dismantle similar encampments that have sprouted over the past two months as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality and excesses of the U.S. financial system.

Some of those efforts have sparked confrontations between protesters and police, including in neighboring Oakland where clashes last month evolved into one of the most violent episodes since the anti-Wall Street movement began.

But prospects of an agreement in San Francisco remained uncertain. The group's decision-making tradition requires a total consensus, and one member, Chance Martin, said he planned to block any decision to leave Justin Herman Plaza, a camp within view of major bank branches and upscale restaurants, where the first tents went up two months ago.

"There is a strong feeling among a lot of us that this is a First Amendment issue," Martin said.

Still, he expected some members of the group acting independently to sign an agreement offered by the city and relocate to the new site.

Christine Falvey, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said she did not have exact specifications, but that the site offered advantages over the current camp.

"It's larger than the site they are in now," she said. "There is running water and restroom facilities, which is key to our health and safety concerns."

On Tuesday, portable toilets provided by labor unions at the Justin Herman site were overflowing.

The proposed license agreement for the site at 1950 Mission Street prohibits cooking, children and pets, and would allow city officials to inspect inside tents, all of which could be deal-breakers, said Martin, an advocate for homeless people.

Falvey said the mayor had not set a deadline for the occupiers to leave their current camp, but that they could not stay indefinitely. In addition to sanitation problems, the current camp is preventing other people from using the park, which includes bocce ball courts.

Martin said the campers had worked to comply with city health and safety requirements, saying campers had cleared tents from the bocce ball courts and that bocce players are using them.

(Edited by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/us_nm/us_protests_sanfrancisco

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YaCy's gunning for Google with free-software bullets

YaCy's a new free-software search engine aiming to wrest control of your private data back from the Googles and Bings of this world. There's no targeted advertising here, just a global network of peers all connected with the site's software. It currently has 600 peer operators servicing 130,000 queries monthly, with each user able to create individual search rankings so results improve over time. Project head Michael Christen said it's important no person decides what is listed, or in what order -- which makes us wonder what would happen if the Justin Bieber fan club decided to game the system. The software is available on GNU/Linux, Windows 7 and OS X and you can try a web-based tester (if you can get it working) at the source link below.

YaCy's gunning for Google with free-software bullets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/30/yacys-gunning-for-google-with-free-software-bullets/

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Wandering wolf inspires hope and dread (Providence Journal)

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