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Cricket banker charged in ‘global fraud’

Stanford presents a trophy to the winners of his Twenty20 cricket tournament in November 2008.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged businessman Robert Allen Stanford with orchestrating an $8 billion fraudulent investment program.

Stanford is the tycoon who bankrolled the Twenty20 Super Series cricket competition in the West Indies last year. The Texan has also contributed millions of dollars to the West Indies Cricket Board in an attempt to boost their flagging fortunes. Rose Romero, Regional Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office in Texas, said, “We are alleging a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world.” Stanford allegedly fabricated historical return data to prey on investors. The SEC says the investigation is on-going. Reuters.com reports three of Stanford’s companies are involved in the SEC probe including Texas-based Stanford Group Co, Antigua-based Stanford International Bank and investment adviser Stanford Capital Management. The SEC Web site said Stanford International Bank CFO James Davis and Stanford Financial Group chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt also face charges. It added that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor granted a temporary restraining order freezing the defendants’ assets and appointed a receiver to marshal those assets, as part of a request for emergency relief for the benefit of defrauded investors.

Google’s newest Android prepares to battle Apple

Google's Android platform goes head to head with Apple's iPhone.
Google launched the latest salvo in the cellphone wars Tuesday with the unveiling of the newest handset to carry its Android platform.

Unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Vodafone’s HTC Magic smartphone will make its European bow in the UK, Spain, France and Germany in the coming months. In Italy it will be available under a non-exclusive contract. The Google-run handsets are regarded as the chief rivals to Apple’s iPhones in the battle for the next generation of mobile devices. Google’s latest foray into the cell phone market is seen by many as the beginnings of the Internet giant’s attempts to dominate the industry. Some have expressed concerns that cell phone manufacturers, network operators and users will have little control over what data Google will be able to utilise from its software. Among critics is the LiMo Foundation, representing Linux-based operating system LiMo, which has launched its own cell phone platform, according to Congress organizer Groupe Speciale Mobile Association’s daily newsletter. “A lot of operators still harbor some questions over whether they will have the control over services and how much of the data that is going out and coming from a Google device goes to Google and how much to you [the operator],” LiMo’s Andrew Shikiar told Mobile Business Briefing. Users of both the Apple and Google models can download applications developed by third-parties from open-source software, potentially giving them the capability of small handheld computers. The first Android-capable handset, the G1, was launched last year. It partnered with T-Mobile for its UK launch, its first foray into the European market.

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The HTC Magic includes a 3.2-inch QVGA touch screen display, navigational buttons and a trackball. It also comes with several Google applications including Google Mail, Google Maps and Google Search as well as YouTube, which is owned by Google. Andy Rubin, Senior Director of Mobile Platforms at Google, said that the launch of the HTC Magic was an important step for Android. “With it, Vodafone is opening up the mobile web for consumers across Europe and giving more third-party developers a platform on which they can build the next wave of killer applications,” Rubin said. CNN’s Adrian Finighan, who is at the congress, said that as an iPhone user he had spent much of his time at this year’s event looking for something to rival his device. “The Magic is, well, magic! I think I’ve found it. It really is the first device that I could consider swapping my beloved Apple device for.”

Barely Bipartisan, a Stimulus Deal Is Done

The U.S. Senate looks to be on track to pass a bill that sounds almost exactly like what President Barack Obama asked for last month. The measure — now heralded as $780 billion, down from $890 billion — will include about 40% in tax cuts and more than 80% of the spending will flood the faltering economy within the next 18 months. But with just three Republican votes, the bill falls well short of the bipartisan goal Obama worked hard to achieve.

The final cost of the bill remained fuzzy late Friday as Senators scrambled to figure out how three amendments the Senate has already passed, estimated to add at least another $30 billion more in spending, would affect the total. Ten additional pending amendments could also alter the overall number. Democrats estimate the total in the end could range from $780 billion to $820 billion; Republican leaders said they believe the bill would cost more than $827 billion even before other amendments are added.

Nevertheless, the deal has three GOP votes in the Senate in its support — three more than the President got in the House. They come at a cost. Depending on what the final bill amounts to, the deal could cost more than $35 billion in cuts per Republican vote. And that’s after the Dems removed several provisions at the G.O.P. senators’ request — from family planning for low-income women to money to restore the National Mall. Senator Susan Collins, the lead Republican negotiator said that minuscule support from her party proved how hard it will be for Obama to overcome deep political divisions. “It’s really unfortunate as I think the American people really want us to work together and really are sick and tired of all the partisanship,” she said.

At one time, the Obama Administration had hoped to draw as many as 80 votes in the Senate but several spending provisions that would not have kicked in until after 2011 drew fire from both sides of the aisle. Collins and Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, spent most of the week closeted with 18 centrists, including six Republicans, hammering out the deal reached late Friday. In the end only Collins, her fellow Senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania signed on. Collins said she will continue to lobby her GOP colleagues.

Since he took office Obama has reached out to the GOP, even though the Democrats hold large majorities in both chambers of Congress. The President made an unprecedented trip to the Hill to meet with the Republican conferences, invited select GOP Senators to meet him with him in the Oval Office, at times one-on-one, and called numerous senators to convince them to come on board. In recent days, though, as the bill languished before the Senate his tone turned sharper. “The American people did not choose more of the same,” Obama said at a White House meeting Friday announcing his Economic Recovery Advisory Board. “They did not send us to Washington to get stuck in partisan posturing, or to turn back to the same tried and failed approaches that were rejected in the last election. They sent us here with a mandate for change, and the expectation that we would act. The bill before Congress isn’t perfect, but it is absolutely necessary.”

Democrats had hoped to vote on the measure Friday. Indeed, Senator Ted Kennedy, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, was prepared to return to Washington to cast his vote in support. But Republicans said they wanted more time to examine the deal and passage looks unlikely until Tuesday afternoon. “No action is not what any of my Republican colleagues are advocating, but most of us are deeply skeptical that this will work,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said announcing his opposition to the measure. “And that level of skepticism leads us to believe that this course of action should not be chosen.” It remained unclear if Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican who is Obama’s nominee to run the Commerce Department, would vote. Gregg had said he did not intend to, but if Kennedy is absent he may be forced to step in to help pass his future boss’s plan.

Most of the cuts that led to the deal — about $85 billion — came from reduced spending on school construction , teacher funding and higher education. The negotiators also cut provisions that the Congressional Budget Office said diffused less than 10% of funds into the economy within 18 months — for example, shrinking Head Start and a program to make federal buildings more energy efficient. “The Democrats wanted to see a lot of education funding and the Republicans generally argued that the programs, while worthwhile, should go through the regular appropriations process,” Collins said. “Or in the case of the $19 billion for school construction there’s a real case on whether that’s a federal role or a local and state role.” Tax cuts and other finance provisions allowed the negotiators to slash another $25 billion.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel attended the Democratic caucus’ briefing on the compromise and senators said he pushed hard for their support. Emanuel, a former House leader still popular with his ex-colleagues, may help win backing for the bill from House Dems upset over the loss of funding for their projects. Obama will also hit the road to sell the stimulus, visiting Elkhart, Ind., and Fort Myers, Fla., early next week. Elkhart has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country — at, 15.3%, dramatically up from 4.7% a year ago. Fort Myers has an unemployment rate of 10%.

Democratic leaders hope that the only thing Americans will remember of this excruciating process is the passage of a historic bill that could go a long way to fixing the economy. With his own twist to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said: “The world will little note nor long remember how many votes we had to pass the measure. The world and Congress and the nation want to know if this will work. If it passes with 61 votes or 81 votes, it’s just a footnote in history.”
See TIME’s pictures chronicling the history of the White House kitchen.
See pictures of presidential First Dogs.

PR exec: Death threats forced firm to drop octuplet mom

Nadya Suleman had her octuplets through fertility treatments.
Joann Killeen is president of the Killeen Furtney Group, the Los Angeles, California-based public relations firm that represented octuplet mom Nadya Suleman.

Suleman, who underwent fertility treatment, gave birth to six boys and two girls January 26 in Bellflower, California. She already had six children at home. The Killeen Furtney Group recently stopped representing Suleman because of death threats that came in to the firm’s office, Killeen said Monday on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Following is an edited transcript of Killeen’s conversation with King: Larry King: When you did this show February 3, you were representing her. Now you’re not. Why not Joann Killeen: Well, Larry, the number of death threats that came into our office, both by e-mail and voice mail, we had to make a decision about what was in the best interests of our own personal safety and that of our firm. So we met with the police department on Friday. We filed a criminal report. We provided them with all the information with all the threats. And they told us that we should take this very seriously. King: Why you and not her

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Killeen: Well, they’ve also threatened her. But the majority of the threats are coming to our office. I mean, Nadya doesn’t have an e-mail account. She doesn’t have a computer. So there’s no way to reach her. So the closest thing they can do is come after me. And they have — and just in painful, painful ways. King: How would do you characterize the nature of the threats Killeen: Well, they’ve said to me that I should be put down like an old dog, I should be paralyzed, my client’s uterus should be ripped out, she should be put on an island. I mean, Larry, I don’t know what’s happened with America, but they are really, really angry and letting me know what they think about this issue. King: Do you take special security precautions Killeen: Yes, I do. Yes, I do. We have extra patrols on our street. … We’re very conscious. The police department has been absolutely wonderful to work with. They’ve given me a special number to call if anybody stakes out my house, as they have before. I’ve been followed by paparazzi. I’m not a celebrity, so it’s a different position for me to be in. King: How did you inform Nadya that you were no longer. … Killeen: Well, we talked on Friday. And she’s had death threats, and I’ve had death threats. And she’s very upset that someone would come after us and come after her. I mean she says: “I’m just a mom. I don’t know why everybody is so upset. I’m just a mom trying to do the best job that I possibly can.” Watch Killeen explain that no money has been made off the publicity » King: Why do you think people are so angry — crazy enough, angry to threaten killing Killeen: Well, I think they are frustrated by a lot of things. When the news came out that Nadya was receiving some state disability from an injury and that she was trying to rehab and find a new career and go to school and she also had children at the same time, I think the taxpayers just absolutely flipped out and said, you know, we’re paying for this and we’re not getting our own fair share of government services. We pay a lot of taxes, the economy is bad, there’s no jobs. They’re angry. King: If you’re getting threats, what do you imagine she’s getting Killeen: Well, and I’ve seen them, because, again, there’s no e- mail account. So they’re sending them to me. … People will call my office and just say profanity on the phone. And with caller ID, I know exactly who they are. Others have sent handwritten notes to me with horrible words that I never would repeat on the air, Larry. And they even put their return address on them so — as if I’m going to return that call. King: What about the stories that she’s obsessed with Angelina Jolie — even had work done on her face to look like her more Killeen: You know, I asked her about that. And she just laughed. She said remember, with the octuplets, I put on 100 pounds — a hundred pounds of extra body weight for my babies. So of course things are going to look a little different than they did when I first started. King: She does look like her. Killeen: Well, I think hair and makeup, you could probably look like anybody you’d want to look like. She has said to me she has not had plastic surgery of any kind. And so I have to believe what my client tells me to be factually correct. King: So the only reason you’re out of this is threats on you and the firm, not because of any qualms with her Killeen: Oh, no. Not at all. Larry, I just can’t run my business and continue to do the things that I need to do for my clients with constant death threats and phone calls and interruptions. You know, I took on this account because I’m a mom and a grandma, and I wanted to help someone who needs help with the media. I did this pro bono. I’ve made no money. I have no intention of getting any money. And I think people need to realize I just did this out of the goodness of my heart to help a woman who didn’t know how to work with the media. King: Does she keep in touch with the father Killeen: The sperm donor King: Yes. Killeen: They have a very limited relationship. He’s not active in their life at all. King: Why are we mad at her Killeen: That’s a good question to ask America. If you look at the e-mails that are coming into my office, they’re saying they think that she’s worked the system. They think that she’s been able to stay home and live off of the taxpayers and have these multiple children. She’s not organized. She doesn’t have any kind of structure, you know; isn’t six children enough She intentionally went out to get eight children. And, you know, remember, Larry, she worked with the same doctor for every [in vitro fertilization] attempt. Based on her history of six embryos implanted, she got one child. The doctor told her the most this last attempt would be would be either one baby or twins, at the most. So she was shocked, he was shocked. Nobody expected eight children. That’s the big — big misnomer here. Everybody thinks she went and ordered eight and she got eight. She didn’t. King: Where does she go from here

Killeen: Well, I’m confident, as we continue to talk, that there are resources that are available to her, and she will collaborate with, you know, church leaders in her area. And hopefully the American public can get beyond their anger about her choices and her decisions and think about those eight little kids, Larry. You know, it’s all about those kids. That’s the whole reason why I took on this account, was to help the mom with those eight little kids.

Facebook faces furor over content rights

On an otherwise placid holiday weekend, one blog’s commentary on a change to Facebook’s terms of service created a firestorm of banter on the Web: does the social network claim ownership to any user content on the site, even if the user deletes it?

Facebook reorganized its terms of service last Wednesday. In a blog post, company legal representative Suzie White provided an explanation. “We used to have several different documents that outlined what people could and could not do on Facebook, but now we’re consolidating all this information to one central place,” White wrote. “We’ve also simplified and clarified a lot of information that applies to you, including some things you shouldn’t do when using the site.” The blog post sounded benign. But the brouhaha arose on Sunday over a revision in the wording of Facebook’s policy over what happens to profile content–shared items, blog post-like “notes,” photos–when members delete their accounts. Consumer advocacy blog The Consumerist phrased Facebook’s fresh policy as “We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever,” pointing out that Facebook’s ToS spruce-up removed several sentences in which the company said its licenses on user content expired upon account deletion. And that’s where the hysteria began.

“Facebook should now be called The Information Blackhole,” one Consumerist commenter proclaimed. “What goes in never comes out. Be careful what you huck in there.” Truth be told, most Facebook users won’t give a hoot, the same way that the flurry over the Beacon advertising program in late 2007 was fueled by a few vocal privacy advocates while the general population didn’t seem to care about it one way or the other. But for advocates of copyright reform and privacy, not to mention photographers and writers who may want the photos they upload or “notes” they write on Facebook to eventually lead to some kind of profit, the news was alarming. Some prominent Twitterers and bloggers, like New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, announced that they were deleting their Facebook accounts or pulling all uploaded content. So Facebook issued somewhat of a clarification on Monday to explain what the change really meant. “We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload,” a statement from Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt read. And indeed, Facebook’s terms of service do say that “User Content and Applications/Connect Sites” are exempt from its claims on content ownership. “The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site,” Schnitt’s statement continued. “That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc…), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend).” The statement also noted a few fine points. First, Facebook’s license only permits it to use user content “in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof,” indicating that CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not plan to make the site profitable by selling scandalous user photos to the National Enquirer when those Facebook members run for elected office. And second, if that Facebook content was not public, the site will respect the member’s chosen privacy settings. In other words, if your profile and the photos you have uploaded to it are only accessible to people on your friends list, Facebook says it does not have the right to show those photos to anyone outside your friends list.

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Facebook has expressed disapproval when photographs and profile screenshots normally protected by the site’s login wall or privacy settings have been made public on the Web. The site reportedly threatened gossip blog mogul Nick Denton with an account deletion when one of his properties, Gawker, posted photographs found on a socialite’s Facebook profile. Suffice it to say it would be hypocritical for Facebook to publicly distribute, let alone sell, the same content itself. Things are a little bit murky for sure, though. Unlike the Yahoo-owned Flickr, Facebook does not have extensive copyright preferences, meaning that a professional photographer might want to choose a media-sharing site where there’s less of a gray area as to what can actually happen down the road. But as Facebook becomes more and more of a content-sharing hub, especially now that the Facebook Connect product expands its reach to third-party sites, it’s likely there will be a louder cry among members–especially those involved in creative industries who use their Facebook profiles for professional promotion or publicity–for clearer terms. The way they stand now, Facebook’s terms of service claim that the company does not have ownership over content, yet that it does have “an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (to)…use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works, and distribute” material as long as it doesn’t violate the privacy preferences set by the user. Considering Facebook content is login-protected by default, the outcry should be quelled somewhat by that “subject only to your privacy settings” phrasing. Still, this is a debate that might not go away so quickly. iReport.com: Are you steamed over Facebook’s policy Zuckerberg wrote a post for the Facebook blog later on Monday about the issue: “We still have work to do to communicate more clearly about these issues, and our terms are one example of this,” he wrote. “Our philosophy that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant. A lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective of the rights we need to provide this service to you. Over time we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler.” Zuckerberg continued: “We’re at an interesting point in the development of the open online world where these issues are being worked out. It’s difficult terrain to navigate and we’re going to make some missteps, but as the leading service for sharing information we take these issues and our responsibility to help resolve them very seriously.”

Pakistani woman watches Taliban take over town she loves

A pro-Taliban delegation attends a meeting with government officials in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday.
Gul Bibi and her three children fled the Taliban’s bloody interpretation of Islamic law in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, hoping one day to return.

But now that the Pakistani government has recognized Taliban rule in the region in exchange for a temporary cease-fire, she said those hopes have been dashed. She warned that the government’s deal with the Taliban will have worldwide implications. “The whole point is, if it’s not contained to Swat, it’s going to spill all over in Pakistan and the West also doesn’t realize the seriousness of the situation,” Bibi said. “Probably your next 9/11 is going to be from Swat.” Watch Gul Bibi talk about Taliban threat » The chief minister of North West Frontier Province announced on Monday that the Pakistani government will recognize the Taliban’s interpretation of strict Islamic law, or sharia. The Taliban’s interpretation of sharia has included banning girls from school, forcing women inside and outlawing forms of entertainment. This form of Islamic law is already in effect in parts of North West Frontier Province where the Taliban have control — including Swat, which is located about 100 miles northwest of Islamabad. Provincial minister Amir Haider Hoti said the people of the region want sharia which fills the “vacuum” left by a lack of access to Pakistan’s judicial system. He said he hoped it would bring peace to the region, where Pakistani forces have battled militants aligned with the Taliban.

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It is difficult to gauge the concerns of residents in Swat, because the government does not allow journalists into the area due to the ongoing military operation. Also, residents risk their lives if they openly criticize Taliban rule. Bibi — who used a false name to protect her identity — told CNN that people in Swat do not support the Taliban’s version of Islamic law. A strict Muslim herself, Bibi said she observes the teachings of the Quran, and the Taliban’s interpretation of sharia has nothing to do with the Muslim religion. “They are killing people, they are beheading people, there is no accounting for what they are doing,” Bibi said. Their oppression is also focused on women. The Taliban have destroyed dozens of girls’ schools in the region. Bibi is living in a house in Islamabad with other women who have fled Taliban rule in Swat. “For God’s sake, in the West you must realize this: no education for women,” she said. “You are going to destroy an entire generation.” She dismissed the government’s peace deal as a concession to the Taliban. But she remains hopeful that she can return to the picturesque Swat Valley with her three children.

“I want peace more than anyone else,” Bibi said. “It’s my home, it’s where I want my children to go back to, it’s where I want to live. “I love Swat. It’s because of my love and my passion for Swat that I am speaking.”

Surgeons send ‘tweets’ from operating room

It’s 7 a.m. at Henry Ford Hospital, and surgeons are preparing to remove a cancerous tumor from a man’s kidney.

It’s potentially a risky surgery, but everything’s ready: The doctors and nurses are in the operating room, the surgical instruments are sterilized and ready to go, and the chief resident is furiously Twittering on his laptop. That’s right — last week, for the second known time, surgeons Twittered a surgery by using social-networking site Twitter to give short real-time updates about the procedure. Following the February 9 operation online were other doctors, medical students and the merely curious. Watch surgeons Twittering from the operating room » “Here’s something different: HenryFordNews is live tweeting surgery today, getting some buzz, too,” wrote one Twitter participant from Massachusetts. “I find this fascinating!” tweeted another Twitter user from Swansea, United Kingdom.

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“It’s an interesting use of technology, but I can’t help but feel a bit ‘eeewww!’ about this,” wrote a third tweeter from New York. Why twitter a surgery Whether it’s new and cool or merely yicky, observers say there’s no question that more and more doctors — and patients — will be sharing the blow-by-blow of medical procedures on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Dr. Craig Rogers, the lead surgeon in the Henry Ford surgery, said the impetus for his Twittering was to let people know that a tumor can be removed without taking the entire kidney. “We’re trying to use this as a way to get the word out,” Rogers said. Observers say Twittering about a procedure is a natural outgrowth of the social networking media revolution. “Doing this removes a real communication barrier. It helps make something scary much more comprehendable,” said Christopher Parks, co-founder of the Web site changehealthcare.com. “It brings us closer together and makes us more engaged.” Four months ago, Park’s colleague, Robert Hendrick, tweeted his own varicose vein removal surgery here as it was happening (he was, obviously, under local anesthesia). “It redirected my attention and allowed me to minimize some of the nervousness around what was going on. It felt like I had family and friends there to support me,” Hendrick wrote in an e-mail. “I wanted a record for other people who might be interested in the same surgery,” added Hendrick, who also posted photos and video of his surgery. “It later allowed me to connect with others with the same issues.” As time goes by and the younger generation moves into medicine, expect even more sharing online of private medical procedures, Parks says. “Newer and newer generations are used to putting their life online,” he said. “This generation shares everything.” “Gosh, this is big” Twitter users — those “tweeple” — who kept up with the Henry Ford procedure online got to share some medical drama in real time. (You can read the “Tweetstream” or watch video of the tumor removal on YouTube). As Rogers got closer to the tumor, he realized it was far larger than it had appeared on a CT scan, and he wondered out loud whether he would have to remove the entire kidney — something he’d been trying to avoid. “Gosh, this is big,” he said to his colleagues in the operating room. “Could I have picked a harder case for this” As Rogers worked away on his robotic machinery, the chief resident, Dr. Raj Laungani, Twittered: “Dr. Rogers is saying because the tumor is so large he may have to do a radical (total) nephrectomy.” After conferring with Laungani and others in the operating room, Rogers decided he could remove just part of the kidney. Then came another challenge: In a surgery like this one, doctors have to restrict blood flow to the kidney with clamps while they remove the tumor. Those clamps then have to be removed within 30 minutes so the kidney isn’t damaged by the lack of blood. iReport.com: Would you allow your surgeon to “tweet” “The goal is to keep the clamp time below 30 minutes,” Laungani Twittered. “25 minutes left!!!”

Approximately 25 minutes later, Laungani shared his relief with all of Twitterville: “Tumor is excised, bleeding is controlled, we are about to come off clamp,” he wrote. In the end, Rogers had the last tweet. “The robotic partial nephrectomy was a success,” he wrote. “Thank you for joining us today.”

Universal cellphone charger will ring the changes, say makers

An estimated 1.2 billion cell phones were sold in 2008, at least half of which were replacement handsets.
Cell phone makers Tuesday pledged to end one of modern life’s chief frustrations — and introduce a universal charger for handsets by 2012.

The GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), which represents more than 750 of the world’s cell phone operators, made the announcement at its annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Tuesday. Under the scheme, phone makers have pledged that a majority of new handset models will include the universal charger by January 1 2012. The planned device will use a micro USB plug. Aside from bringing relief to drawers stuffed full of redundant chargers, the GSMA stressed that the new device would reduce raw materials. “The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in tackling environmental issues and this programme is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers,” said Rob Conway, CEO and member of the board of the GSMA in a statement.

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Last year an estimated 1.2 billion cell phones were sold, according to University of Southern Queensland data reported by the GSMA, of which handsets accounted for between 50 and 80 per cent. That equates to between 51,000 and 82,000 tonnes of chargers. The GSMA hopes the initiative will slash the greenhouse gases that result from the manufacture and transport of chargers by 13.6 and 21.8 million tonnes each year. “There is enormous potential in mobile to help people live and work in an eco-friendly way and with the backing of some or the biggest names in the industry, this initiative will lead the way,” Conway added. The GSMA says that companies which have signed up to the plan include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Men ‘plotted to blow up jets with liquid bombs’

The eight men deny conspiracy to murder by plotting to blow up transatlantic aircraft.
Eight men plotted to use bombs disguised in drinks containers to blow up planes heading towards the United States in mid-flight in the name of Islam, a British court heard Tuesday.

Prosecutors told London’s Woolwich Crown Court the men planned to make the explosives from household objects to resemble drinks bottles, batteries and other items to be carried onto aircraft in hand luggage, the UK’s Press Association reported. The foiling of the alleged plot in August 2006 triggered the imposition of strict new security measures at international airports around the world, restricting the quantity of liquids passengers can carry on to aircraft. The measures, which led to massive delays and scores of canceled flights when they were imposed overnight, remain in place at many airports. Prosecutor Peter Wright described two of the men, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 28, as ringleaders of an Islamic fundamentalist conspiracy, according to PA. “It was an interest that involved inflicting heavy casualties upon an unwitting civilian population all in the name of Islam,” he said. “These men were indifferent to the carnage that was likely to ensue if their plans were successful. To them the identities of their victims was an irrelevance by race, color, religion or creed. “What these men intended to bring about together and with others was a violent and deadly statement of intent that would have a truly global impact.” Wright said the bombs were to be carried onto flights to the United States by suicide bombers as part of a plot hatched in Britain and Pakistan, according to PA. He said a computer memory stick seized at the time of the defendants’ arrests listed details of flights operated by three carriers — American Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada — between August and October 2006. “If each of these flights were successfully blown up the potential for loss of life was considerable,” Wright said. Ali, Sarwar and six others including Tanvir Hussain, 27, Ibrahim Savant, 28, Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, Waheed Zaman, 24, Umar Islam, 30, and Donald Stewart-Whyte, 22, deny conspiracy to murder. The trial is expected to last 10 months.

Green burials: A dying wish to be ‘home for fish’

Carole Dunham, 69, had her remains memorialized on an offshore reef.
Carole Dunham, 69, loved the ocean. Last July, she was diagnosed with cancer and had only a few months to live. Dunham knew her last footprint had to be a green one, and she started looking into eco-friendly alternatives to traditional burial.

The concept of “going green” has taken new life in the death care industry as eco-minded companies tap into the needs of those like Dunham. From biodegradable caskets to natural burial sites, death is becoming less of a dark matter than a green one. Dunham, an avid scuba diver, chose an eco-friendly company that would combine her cremated remains to form an artificial memorial reef. “She loved the idea of always being in the water as an alternative to being cremated and scattered,” said her daughter Nina Dunham. Dying is arguably the most natural phenomenon in the world, but modern death rituals — embalming with formaldehyde-based solutions and traditional burial in concrete vaults — are not nature-friendly, according to environmentalists. Along with its dead, the United States buries 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, 827,060 tons of toxic embalming fluid, 90,000 tons of steel (from caskets), and 30 million tons of hardwood board each year, according to the Green Burial Council, an independent nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “We can rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge with that amount of metal,” said Joe Sehee, the council’s executive director. “The amount of concrete is enough to build a two-line highway from New York to Detroit.”

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Sehee established a burgeoning network of death-care providers that have earned a green thumbs-up in the council’s eco-certification program, the first of its kind in the industry. “We want to reduce carbon emissions, waste and toxins in the death care industry and utilize burial to steward natural areas in the U.S.,” said Sehee. Among the certified eco-providers is Eternal Reefs, based in Decatur, Georgia. “We’re the surf and turf of natural burial,” said George Frankel, CEO of Eternal Reefs. The company takes the green movement to sea level by offering a living legacy in the form of underwater reefs used to create new marine habitats for fish and other sea life. The artificial reefs are cast from a mixture of environmentally safe cement and cremated remains. Eternal Reefs was the logical choice for Dunham, who died on November 3. “She liked the idea of being a home for fish,” said her daughter. Next week, Dunham will travel to Florida to see her mother’s reef lowered off the coast of North Miami Beach. Other families will join her, wearing shorts and T-shirts instead of dark suits and dresses. They will have a chance to decorate the reefs with flowers and other sea-friendly mementos. A brass plaque will help Dunham identify her mother’s reef. She intends to visit the underwater memorial by scuba diving there in the future. “These reefs will be covered up with sea life in a very short period of time, so they make a significant contribution,” Frankel said. The reefs last about 500 years, and so far about 300 have been dropped off the coasts of Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia. Another eco-provider certified by the Green Burial Council is UK-based Eco Coffins Ltd., which allows its customers to design their own 100 percent biodegradable coffins, made from 90 percent recycled grid honeycomb cardboard. The company says the coffins release 72 percent less carbon monoxide in the cremation process compared to a traditional coffin. “We are appealing to customers to make the responsible choice,” said Sophie Dansie, founder and director of Eco Coffins. “The fact that standard chipboard is full of resins and formaldehyde, which is either released into the earth when buried or as emissions when burnt, is really unknown to the general public.”

Buried yearly
Reinforced concrete: 1.6 million tons
Toxic embalming fluid: 827,060 tons
Steel from caskets: 90,000 tons
Hardwood from caskets: 30 million tons Source: Green Burial Council

The vibrant coffins have even captured some attention in Hollywood. They have a cameo as props in the upcoming film “Powder Blue.” An eco-friendly funeral can also help conserve land and protect it from development. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is working with the Green Burial Council to become the first state-park agency to offer cremation-based green burials. The funds raised from the services will be used to acquire new state park lands. “We want burials to be more sustainable for the planet, more meaningful for the planet and economically viable for the provider,” said Sehee. “We don’t want this to be a marketing gimmick that diminishes the social and ecological benefits of this concept,” he emphasized. The death care industry, like others, has its share of green hype. While it might be a bit macabre for some, CoffinCouches.com sells eclectic couches made out of used coffins. Founder Vidal Herrera buys unwanted or slightly damaged coffins from funeral homes that would otherwise go to a landfill. From these discarded materials, Herrera designs artsy Goth couches you might see in a music video or a tattoo parlor. Herrera’s clientele includes musicians, actors and others who can afford $3,500 for a couch. Hype or no hype, the decision is a personal one that ultimately rests with an individual or family. Sehee emphasizes that the Green Burial Council is careful not to diminish anyone’s choices or make recommendations about the greenest way to go. “There are shades of green and people can distinguish one shade from another,” he said.