NY City sues BP over Deepwater Horizon spill: Comptroller

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City said on Friday it sued BP Plc for more than $39 million of losses it claims beneficiaries of the city's pension funds sustained due to BP's "misconduct and fraudulent behavior" linked to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"BP failed to disclose to shareowners the serious risks involved in its offshore drilling operation," Comptroller John Liu said. "After the spill began, it misleadingly attempted to minimize the extent of the damage and the cost to shareowners."

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges BP failed to disclose facts about the dangers involved in offshore drilling operations, the extent of the leak and the estimated cost of the cleanup costs.

BP declined to comment on New York's lawsuit.

"The estimated transactional investment losses to City pension beneficiaries caused by BP's misconduct and fraudulent behavior exceed $39 million," the Comptroller's office said in the news release.

BP's New York-traded stock was down 0.1 percent at $42.2 after the news, about in line with the overall market. The broad based S&P 500 was down 0.2 percent.

The 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 rig workers and spilled 4 million barrels of oil in the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.

BP has estimated it could spend more than $42 billion to cover clean-up, fines and other liabilities. It has been selling a variety of assets to help cover its costs.

A trial for direct damages related to the spill got underway in February. The trial is being held with no jury before Judge Carl Barbier at federal court in New Orleans.

A U.S. civil trial has already been set for August 2014, regarding accusations that BP committed fraud by misleading shareholders before and after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill about its ability to respond to the accident.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy and Hilary Russ; Editing by Vicki Allen, Andre Grenon and Bob burgdorfer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-city-sues-bp-over-deepwater-horizon-spill-163656872.html

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Inmate missing since 1999 surrenders in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? After 14 years on the run from the FBI and tips from witnesses in two countries, David Lee Kemp turned himself over to authorities in southwest Oklahoma early Friday morning, local authorities said.

Kemp, of Lawton, Okla., was the only inmate to elude capture after escaping with eight other inmates on March 11, 1999, while awaiting trial on two first-degree murder counts in the killings of his ex-wife and her boyfriend.

Comanche County Sheriff Kenny Stradley said Kemp told police he was done running.

"He said that he was just tired basically of running and it was affecting his health," Stradley told The Associated Press.

Comanche County Jail records show Kemp was taken into custody at about 1:40 a.m. Friday on charges of felony first-degree murder and escaping from a county jail, a misdemeanor.

The sequence of events leading up to his arrest started at a rest stop along Interstate 44, Stradley said, when Kemp knocked on the window of a sleeping truck driver.

"He said, 'I need you to call Comanche County sheriff's department to come up here. I need to talk to them,'" Stradley said.

A deputy arrived and told Kemp he looked familiar. The deputy then asked for Kemp's name. Kemp told him and was immediately arrested, Stradley said. It's unclear if Kemp has a lawyer.

Kemp is charged in the deaths of Christina Cremer and her boyfriend, Robert Miller, whose bodies were found in August 1998, riddled with bullets in their Lawton apartment. He was apprehended by police in California several days later and taken to Comanche County.

In March 1999, he and eight other inmates overpowered a guard with a large grilling fork and escaped. Most were recaptured the same day.

Since then, Kemp was the subject of the "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries" TV shows. He was reportedly spotted in Las Vegas and may have also been spotted in Phoenix, Louisiana and even Canada.

Stradley was also sheriff back in 1999 when Kemp escaped, and called Kemp's capture "a big relief."

Angie Cremer, who is married to Christina Cremer's older brother, said the family had mixed emotions after hearing about the arrest.

"There's anger about what happened, then there's the grief that comes back. There's a lot of range of emotion that they're going through today," she told the AP late Friday.

A spokesman for the county said Kemp was under observation because of suicide concerns.

"He's completely compliant right now and following all the rules," said Jacob Russell, the spokesman. "All the added security at this time will be to and from the courtroom."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/inmate-missing-since-1999-surrenders-oklahoma-162641201.html

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Abusive parents still meeting children - timesofmalta.com

Photo: Reuters

Decisions being taken by a government advisory board on children in care, not to allow abusive parents to meet children during supervised access visits, are sometimes ignored, according to a social worker.

There were occasions when the Children and Young Persons Advisory Board recommended that a child who was living in foster care, for example, did not meet his or her abusive parent during family access time.

However, the abusive parents still turned up for the visit leaving the child traumatised.

This was recounted by social worker Daniella Zerafa during a conference entitled The Rights of the Child in Foster Care.

Ms Zerafa, who also lectures at the University of Malta, presented the case study of a fostered child, who she referred to as Katya.

The true story highlighted shortcomings in the system such as delays in deciding whether to issue a care order to remove a child from an abusive family.

Another problem highlighted was the fact that although Maltese law technically allowed the Government to strip parents of parental rights, in cases of abuse, this was not done in practice.

As a result, children were not being allowed to be adopted and live in a stable home.

During the conference Family Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said that her Government put the rights of children at the centre of its policies. She will work to ensure that children are given a stronger voice and that children in care are freed up for adoption. She said that there were about 600 children who lived in out of home care of which some 230 were being fostered.

Nationalist Party spokesman for the Family Chris Said also spoke about the need to strengthen legislation in the best interest of children. ?

Source: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130426/local/abusive-parents-still-meeting-children.467202

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Taliban vow suicide and 'insider' attacks in new spring offensive

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban in Afghanistan vowed on Saturday to start a new campaign of mass suicide attacks on foreign military bases and diplomatic areas, as well as damaging "insider attacks", as part of a new spring offensive this year.

The offensive was announced via emails from Taliban spokesmen. The Islamist group has made similar announcements in recent years, which have sometimes been followed by spikes in violence after Afghanistan's harsh winter months.

The announcement of more mass suicide and insider attacks will likely be greeted with concern by the NATO-led military coalition, which is in the final stages of a fight against the Taliban-led insurgency that began in late 2001.

However, there was no immediate reaction to the Taliban's statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

After announcing their spring offensive last year, the Taliban launched a large attack in Kabul involving suicide bombers and an 18-hour firefight targeting Western embassies, ISAF headquarters and the Afghan parliament.

The start of the traditional "fighting season" is particularly important this year, with ISAF increasing the rate at which it hands security responsibility to Afghan forces before the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of 2014.

The Taliban statement said this year's offensive, named after Khalid bin Waleed, one of the companions of the Islamic prophet Mohammad, will involve "special military tactics" similar to those carried out previously.

"Collective martyrdom operations on bases of foreign invaders, their diplomatic centers and military airbases will be even further structured while every possible tactic will be utilized in order to detain or inflict heavy casualties on the foreign transgressors," the statement said.

Insider attacks, also known as "green on blue" attacks, involve Afghan police or soldiers turning their guns on their ISAF trainers and counterparts. They have grown considerably since last year and have strained relations between Kabul and foreign forces.

However, there is considerable debate over how many can be attributed to infiltration by insurgents and how many are by disgruntled members of the Afghan security forces.

Last August, then ISAF commander, U.S. General John Allen, said about a quarter of such attacks involved the Taliban.

The spring offensive was coordinated to begin on May 28 - or the 8th of the Islamic month of Thaur - to coincide with a national holiday to mark the overthrow of the Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, the statement said.

(Reporting by Dylan Welch and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-vow-suicide-insider-attacks-spring-offensive-071938216.html

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Czech communist whisky matures to excellence

In this Thursday, April 25, 2013 photo Petr Nemy, an whisky expert, tastes the single malt "Hammer Head" whisky in a bar in Prague, Czech Republic. The "Hammer Head" whisky made in communist Czechoslovakia matured in oak barrels for more than twenty years to reach surprisingly good quality before hitting the market. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In this Thursday, April 25, 2013 photo Petr Nemy, an whisky expert, tastes the single malt "Hammer Head" whisky in a bar in Prague, Czech Republic. The "Hammer Head" whisky made in communist Czechoslovakia matured in oak barrels for more than twenty years to reach surprisingly good quality before hitting the market. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In this Tuesday, April 16, 2013 photo Vaclav Sitner, chief distiller, presents the single malt "Hammer Head" whisky in a distillery in Pradlo, Czech Republic. The "Hammer Head" whisky made in communist Czechoslovakia matured in oak barrels for more than twenty years to reach surprisingly good quality before hitting the market. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In this Monday, April 8, 2013 photo Eva Brozovska labels bottles with single malt "Hammer Head" whisky in a distillery in Pradlo, Czech Republic. The "Hammer Head" whisky made in communist Czechoslovakia matured in oak barrels for more than twenty years to reach surprisingly good quality before hitting the market. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In this Tuesday, April 16, 2013 photo Vaclav Sitner, chief distiller, presents the single malt "Hammer Head" whisky in a distillery in Pradlo, Czech Republic. The "Hammer Head" whisky made in communist Czechoslovakia matured in oak barrels for more than twenty years to reach surprisingly good quality before hitting the market. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In this Monday, April 8, 2013 photo Eva Brozovska fills bottles with single malt "Hammer Head" whisky in a distillery in Pradlo, Czech Republic. The "Hammer Head" whisky made in communist Czechoslovakia matured in oak barrels for more than twenty years to reach surprisingly good quality before hitting the market. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

PRADLO DISTILLERY, Czech Republic (AP) ? The Scottish peat was put on trucks and trains. The destination was Communist-era Czechoslovakia. The recipient: apparatchiks desperate for a decent whisky.

The journey beyond the Iron Curtain during the Cold War turned out to be the easy part. When the batch arrived, the Czech distillers had only a faint idea how to make whisky ? and it took years to get things right.

"It was one thing to read about it in books, but reality is something different," recalled Vaclav Sitner, a member of the team tasked with creating a premium whisky.

Now, almost 40 years on, the last batches of "Hammer Head" are winning rave reviews. And, in a historical twist, they are owned by a U.S. hedge fund that bought the beverage company that Sitner worked for.

Sitner, whose name still appears on the label, recalls the "alchemy" and "joy" as they concocted the whisky. It sold well despite its relatively high price in a communist economy.

In Czechoslovakia, living standards were higher than in most other communist nations, but only a limited variety of Western products were available at special stores for those privileged enough to have access to foreign currency. In common stores, there was a significant shortage of Western goods, from bananas to electronics.

"There were no means to import foreign whisky," Sitner said. Communist states' currencies were not convertible and the struggling command economies failed to produce enough decent goods to sell in exchange for hard currency.

The original plan was to source all the ingredients and equipment locally ? but met no luck.

"The problem was with the peat, because it didn't work," said Sitner. "The peat we had was from South Bohemia and in combination with oak shavings it created all sorts of problems."

"It was the most expensive peat in Europe. The (Scottish) peat didn't actually cost that much but the transport cost a fortune. We placed it on trucks and a train carriage. One carriage was enough for us for 5-6 years."

Sitner and his colleagues had to rely completely on their own skills since they had no chance to travel to Scotland to visit distilleries. They needed a good barley supplier and knowledge of how to grind it, a source of suitable water and new oak barrels where the product could mature for at least three years.

A small distillery in Pradlo, in the west of the country, coincidentally had a hammer mill of the kind used in Scottish distilleries. Dating from the 1920s, it was the only one in the entire country. Work started in 1976; three years of tests were needed before trial production could start ? and mass production started eight years later.

Communist apparatchiks liked it so much that the bottles became a favored present.

"The comrades liked to drink whisky, despite the fact that people (in those days) were obligated to drink vodka," Sitner said. "But comrades still liked the whisky."

The 1989 Velvet Revolution toppled the regime and the Czech whisky also vanished from sight as the market was flooded by whiskies from all over the world. Then whisky ceased to be made for good. What left had time to mature in the original oak barrels for years to improve gradually into its current level of excellence.

The liquor company that the distillery belonged to, Stock Plzen-Bozkov, was privatized. The new owners felt the drink had no future. They sold some 250 barrels for a ridiculously low price ? "barbarism," recalled Sitner.

In 2007, U.S. hedge fund Oaktree Capital Management acquired the company.

When officials from London-based Stock Spirits Group that controls the company for the fund were presented the local whisky, their first response was "impossible it was made here," Sitner remembered. After it passed a test in a tasting with some other single malt whiskies that followed, the company decided to put it on the market.

"Look at the gold," Sitner said with pride during a recent visit to Pradlo cellar where hundreds the original oak barrels are still in place. "It's a beautiful color," he said, holding a glass just taken from a barrel.

Demand for Hammer Head has been solid around the globe, but Sitner would not reveal how much was made and how much is still available. He would only said if the current sales remain at the same level of 10,000 - 15,000 bottles a year, it is expected to be sold out in five to seven years. The whisky sells for about ?45 ($59) a bottle.

Since 2011, Hammer Head has been listed in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible, an annual international whisky guide, where it scored 88.5 points out of 100 ? putting it among "very good to excellent whiskies definitely worth buying."

"This is one of Europe's maltiest drams ... if not the maltiest," the guide said.

In 2011, it won a Masters award at the 2011 Whiskeys of the World Masters.

Petr Nemy, an organizer of whisky tastings from the Scottish Club in Prague said that after more than 20 years of aging, Hammer Head "is beautifully matured. It's delicately malty and smoky with a taste of nuts and maybe, vanilla. It has a beautifully rounded taste. It's a joy to taste it."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-27-Czech-Communist%20Whisky/id-2a132da6fa0f4d128c1c8150cecfb588

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The hacked tweet that sank Wall Street

It took less than 140 characters to wipe out almost $140 billion from the stock market this week, as a fake report from The Associated Press of a bombing of the White House had investors running for the exits.

A little after 1:07 in the afternoon on Tuesday, investors and followers of the Associated Press's Twitter feed saw the words "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured" flash across their screens.

Listen to The Current's item on the latest Twitter-led investing panic here

What had been a positive day of gains on Wall Street was wiped out, as the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average lost roughly 140 points ? more than one per cent ? within 90 seconds.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it was over. The erroneous report was rapidly dispelled, the Dow went back to where it was, and everything returned to normal. Everything except shaky confidence in the market, which seems to be battered every few months with a new technology-based crisis that sends indexes reeling faster than humans can form a rational response.

"Before you could blink, it was over," said Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading and an outspoken critic of trading algorithms that are responsible for as much as two-thirds of stock trades on major North American markets today. "With people, you wouldn't have this type of reaction."

Known as "high-frequency traders," the trading systems are essentially vast networks of computers that collectively make trillions of calculations per second. Some are programmed to monitor macroeconomic events in the real world and respond accordingly. Others respond to imperceptible technical movements and place massive buy or sell positions instantaneously. When money can be made by reacting before others can, microseconds matter.

When HF traders respond to each other's large buys or sells, it starts an echo chamber, and that's when sudden sell-offs known as "flash crashes" can occur.

In May 2010, a similar event caused 600 points to vaporize off the Dow in 15 minutes, apparently in reaction to a single large trade that other computers then reacted to. Then last year, Knight Capital was blamed when an error in its trading software moved the value of some of America's largest companies sharply up and down in response to bogus trade orders before humans could intervene.

In August 2012, a phony report from a Russian official's Twitter account reporting that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been killed caused oil prices to spike, before moving lower again once the report was disproved.

"There was no waiting to see if any of this was real or not," trader Jonathan Corpina told CBC News' The Current in a recent interview. "The computers kicked into place way too quickly."

Confusion remains as to what exactly happened in markets on Tuesday. Some say the computers picked up on almost imperceptible pauses in human trading, as traders read and digested the bogus tweet. In Wall Street's insanely fast trading world, humans holding back for even a second could have signaled to computers that buyers were drying up and that prices could fall, and so the computers should sell fast.

Click here to watch Havard Gould's report on The National on the latest 'flash crash'

Others, like Saluzzi, think computers may have sold on the tweet itself. That's possible because computer trading programs are increasingly written to read, and react to, news from social media outlets like Twitter.

Irene Aldridge, a consultant to hedge funds on algorithmic programs, said many of the trading systems just count the number of positive and negative words, without any filter. She wants regulators to do more but believes that glitches and plunges may be inevitable.

As much as humans are prone to overreaction, human traders are sometimes better equipped to avoid panic trades. "We just stopped trading," Corpina says, recalling he actually talked to a client in Washington, D.C., who looked out the window to report nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

"We stepped back and took a breath ? which we're able to do as human beings, not computers ? until we were able to process what was going on."

A group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army eventually came forward and took credit for the hack. The pro-government group out of Syria has previously hacked the accounts of the BBC, CBS News and FIFA president Sepp Blatter with similar moves in recent months.

In Tuesday's case, it's not believed that the SEA had financial gain at heart, although regulators are looking into that possibility. But with $136 billion worth of stocks moving lower within seconds, clearly the potential for financial abuse is present. It's likely a lot easier to hack a Twitter account than it is to engage in other much more expensive and complicated forms of financial terrorism.

"If they were really smart they might have done this and then shorted some stocks," said professor Ron Diebert, who heads up University of Toronto's digital incubator, the Citizen Lab. "But I doubt that was the intention."

Regardless, the incident underscores some troubling weaknesses in an already wobbly financial market. Julian Brigden of investing consultancy Macro Intelligence 2 Partners said the drop suggested an "unstable" trading environment, one that's dominated by investors too quick to buy or sell without any real investment analysis. "To me, it's indicative of a very dangerous market," he said.

"The exchanges love speed," added Bart Chilton, a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a regulator that has been reviewing high-speed programs. "I'm not so sure that fast is always better."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hacked-tweet-sank-wall-street-211954829--finance.html

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This Robot Is Probably Better at Art Than You

Robots: great for a lot of things, not so much for having autonomous feelings or thoughts, widely believed to be crucial for making art (an increasingly contested point). While we've seen plenty of toasters draw and sculpt based on human direction or input from a camera, BNJMN is one of the first to generate his own imagery. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/C3tfhuJuLt4/this-robot-is-probably-better-at-art-than-you

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