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In The News This Week PENTAGON TO SEND MISSILES, 400 TROOPS TO TURKEY The U.S. will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack, Page 1
RUSSIA BACKTRACKS ON STATEMENT ABOUT ASSAD'S FALL Russia's attempt to backpedal after a top diplomat said Syrian President Bashar Assad is losing control of his country. Page 2
POLICE: 27 KILLED AT CONN. SCHOOL; 1 OTHER DEAD 27 people were killed in the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, including the gunman, and one person died at another scene. Page 3
FLORIDA ACCIDENT STATISTICS Accident Statistics from Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Page 4
FLORIDA ACCIDENT REPORTS This Weeks Accident Reports from Various countys in Florida. Page 5
SYRIAN TROOPS BATTLE REBELS IN DAMASCUS SUBURBS Syrian government forces are carrying out a broad offensive. . Page 6
FACEBOOK REJECTS GERMAN DEMAND TO ALLOW FAKE NAMES Facebook will fight a German privacy watchdog's. Page 6
UBS TO PAY $1.5 BILLION OVER RATE-RIGGING SCANDAL TSwitzerland's UBS AG agreed to pay some $1.5 billion in fines to international regulators following a probe into the rigging of a key global interest rate. . Page 7
CALIFORNIA IN FOR MORE UNUSUALLY HIGH 'KING TIDES' The tide is high, and it's holding on.
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Volume 731 Issue 450
Established 1998
December 17, 2012
P E N TA G O N T O S E N D M I S S I L E S , 400 TROOPS TO TURKEY INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AP) -- The U.S. will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile the attack, Pentagon said F r i d a y .
Oana woman Lungescu said "the deployment will be defensive only." "It will not support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation. Its aim is to deter any threats to Turkey, to defend Turkey's population and territory and to de-escalate the crisis on NATO's south-eastern border," Lungescu said.
D e f e n s e Secretary Leon Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, right, walks off of his plane and shakes Panetta signed a hands with 10th Tanker Base Commander Brig. Gen Serdar Gulbas, center, Christopher E. Craige, at left, Commander of the 39th Air Base Wing at deployment order Col. Panetta did not Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Panetta stopped to visit troops en route to Turkey in Turkey before heading home after spending three days in Afghanistan. mention how soon from Afghanistan the two Patriot batcalling for 400 U.S. soldiers to operate two batteries of teries will head to Turkey or how long they might stay. Patriots at undisclosed locations in Turkey, Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters flying with Earlier this week in Berlin, German Deputy Panetta. Foreign Minister Michael Link told lawmakers that current plans call for the missile sites to be stationed at Germany and the Netherlands have already Kahramanmaras, about 60 miles north of Turkey's agreed to provide two batteries of the U.S.-built border with Syria. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte defense systems and send up to 400 German and said Thursday that the Netherlands, Germany and the 360 Dutch troops to man them, bringing the total num- U.S. are working closely with Turkey "to ensure that ber of Patriot batteries slated for Turkey to six. the Patriots are deployed as soon as possible." But he predicted they would not become operational before German lawmakers voted 461-86 Friday to the end of January. Turkey joined NATO in 1952, three approve the deployment of two Patriot missile batter- years after the alliance was formed. ies. The mandate allows Germany to deploy a maximum 400 soldiers through January 2014. NATO forAt Incirlik Air Base, about 60 miles north of the eign ministers endorsed Turkey's request for the Syrian border, an Air Force member asked Panetta Patriots on Nov. 30. what the US would do if Syria used chemical or biological weapons against the rebels. Panetta said he A number of Syrian shells have landed in Turkish could not be specific in a public setting, but added, "we territory since the conflict in the Arab state began in have drawn up plans" that give President Barack March 2011. Turkey has condemned the Syrian Obama a set of options in the event that U.S. intelliregime of President Bashar Assad, supported Syrian gence shows that Syria intends to use such weapons. rebels and provided shelter to Syrian refugees. Ankara is particularly worried that Assad may get desperate Asked by another Air Force member whether he enough to use chemical weapons. thought Syria would "react negatively" to the Patriot deployments, Panetta said, "I don't think they have the During a brief stop at Incirlik Air Base, Panetta told damn time to worry" about the Patriots since the U.S. troops that Turkey might need the Patriots, which regime's leaders are struggling to stay in power. are capable of shooting down shorter-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft. He indicated that Syria's reaction to the Patriots was not a major concern to him. He said he approved the deployment "so that we can help Turkey have the kind of missile defense it Separately, NATO will deploy its Airborne Warning may very well need to deal with the threats coming out and Control System aircraft, or AWACS, to Turkey on of Syria," he said. a training exercise this month, the NATO said. The U.S., Germany and the Netherlands are the only NATO members who have the upgraded PAC-3 missiles, capable of missile interception. Each battery has an average of 12 missile launchers, a NATO official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because alliance regulations do not allow him to speak on the record. In a statement issued Friday NATO spokes-
He said the exercise was not connected to the deployment of the Patriots. The aircraft, which can detect launches of groundto-ground missiles, will exercise command and control procedures as well as test the connectivity of various NATO and Turkish communications and data sharing systems, the official said.
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Legal Street News Monday December 17, 2012
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RUSSIA BACKTRACKS ON S T A T E M E N T A B O U T A S S A D ' S F A L L Sergey Lavrov.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's attempt to backpedal after a top diplomat said Syrian President Bashar Assad is losing control of his country reflects the dilemma Moscow faces as opposition fighters gain ground.
"There have been no changes in Russia's position," Jamil told journalists after the meeting. "Russia stands for dialogue and against foreign interference."
Erick Pennington
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Throughout the Syrian crisis, Russia Facing furhas tried to walk a fine ther questions line - eschewing stateFriday about ments of outright supBogdanov's port for Assad while blocking international from left: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey s t a t e m e n t , attempts either to pres- Lavrov and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov meet in Moscow. L u k a s h e v i c h Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Thursday, that President sure him to stop the Bashar Assad is losing control over Syria and his opponents may win, the first insisted there fighting or to leave acknowledgement by Assad's main ally that he faces a likely defeat had been no shift in the power altogether. Russian position on Syria. He said Moscow is continuing Instead, Russia has insisted that negotiations are the to call for a political dialogue between the Syrian governonly way to resolve the crisis and has portrayed itself as a ment and the opposition on the basis of the peace plan principled opponent of foreign intervention. agreed upon at an international conference in June. The strategy, however, has led some to view Moscow's stance as a disingenuous attempt to prop up a dictator in a country where activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed since March 2011. As the fighting in Syria intensified over recent months, Russian officials have held back from public assessments of whether Assad's regime would survive. But on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by major Russian news agencies as saying "there is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory" and "an opposition victory can't be excluded." On Friday, the Foreign Ministry issued a convoluted denial, saying its top envoy for Syria was merely characterizing the opinion of the Syrian opposition rather than stating Russia's view. "In that context, Bogdanov again confirmed Russia's principled stance that a political settlement in Syria has no alternative," ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement. While Bogdanov's statement seemed to signal Russia's attempt to begin positioning itself for Assad's eventual defeat, the Foreign Ministry's backtracking clearly indicated that Moscow has no intention yet of pulling away from its Mideast ally. This was reinforced by Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, who was in Moscow on Friday to meet with Bogdanov and his boss, Foreign Minister
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"Our only goal is to end the violence in Syria as quickly as possible, start a dialogue between the Syrians, between the government and the opposition, and work out a formula for advancing a political process," Lukashevich said. "There hasn't been and there won't be any retraction from our principled line on the Syrian affairs." Georgy Mirsky, a leading Mideast expert with the Institute for World Economy and International Relations, a top foreign policy think tank supported by the Russian government, said Bogdanov may have slipped up. "Bogdanov went very far, and the question is whether he coordinated his statement with Lavrov," the analyst said. "If he didn't, he may have gotten himself in trouble." Mirsky said it would be difficult for Russian President Vladimir Putin to dump Assad. "It would amount to a loss of face, look like caving in to Western pressure. That's not in his character," Mirsky said. "Russia is going to lose Syria anyway. But if it's lost as a result of Assad's ouster or killing or a coup by his own men, it wouldn't look like Putin's defeat. But he would look very bad indeed if even he doesn't wait for Bashar Assad to go away." The U.S. quickly commended Russia on Thursday for "waking up to the reality" by acknowledging the Syrian regime's impending fall, but Lukashevich lashed back, saying that "we haven't fallen asleep."
Continued on page 3
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Street News Monday, December 17,2012
P O L I C E : 2 7 K I L L E D AT S C H O O L ; 1 O T H E R
C O N N . D E A D
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) -- Police say 27 people were killed in the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, including the gunman, and one person died at another scene.
Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter was in the school and heard two big bangs. Teachers told her to get in a corner, he said.
The dead at the school include 20 children.
"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," he said. His daughter was fine.
The gunman opened fire Friday morning inside a school where his mother worked. He blasted his way through the building as young students cowered helplessly in classrooms while their teachers and classmates were shot. The gunman killed himself. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says someone who lived with him also died.
Andrea Rynn, a spokeswoman at the hospital, said it had three patients from the school but she did not have information on the extent or nature of their injuries.
Connecticut State Police lead children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., following a reported shooting there Friday, Dec. 14,
Young students crying and looking frightened were escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line after the shots rang out in Newtown, 60 miles northeast of New York City. The attack comes less than two weeks before Christmas and appears to be the nation's seconddeadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. A gunman opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary school where his mother worked Friday, killing at least 26 people, including 18 children, by blasting his way through the building as young students cowered helplessly in classrooms while their teachers and classmates were shot. The attack, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, appeared to be the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007. The death toll - 26 victims plus the gunman - was given to The Associated Press by an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way. Panicked parents raced to Sandy Hook Elementary School, about 60 miles northeast of New York City, looking for their children in the wake of the shooting.
R U S S I A
Students were told to close their eyes by police as they were led from the building. Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. "That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends." He
said
the
shooter
didn't
utter
a
word.
A photo taken by The Newtown Bee newspaper showed a group of young students - some crying, others looking visibly frightened - being escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other's shoulders. The suspect was 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, whose mother, Nancy, works at the school, a law enforcement official said. His younger brother was being held for questioning as a possible second shooter, the official said. Ryan Lanza's girlfriend and another friend were missing in New Jersey, the official also said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation. Students and staff were among the victims, state police Lt. Paul Vance said a brief news conference. He also said the gunman was dead inside the school, but he refused to say how people were killed.
B A C K T R A C K
Continued from page 2 "We haven't changed our position and we won't," he said. Russia maintains a naval base at the Syrian port of Tartus, the only such outpost outside the ex-Soviet Union serving Russian navy ships in the Mediterranean and hosting an unspecified number of military personnel. Russia also has an unspecified number of military advisers teaching Syrians how to use Russian weapons, which make up the bulk of Syria's arsenals. Syria is Russia's last remaining ally in the Middle East and has been a major customer of Soviet and Russian weapons industries for the last four decades, acquiring billions of dollars' worth of combat jets, helicopters, missiles, armored vehicles and other military gear. Russia has joined with China at the U.N. Security Council to veto three resolutions that would have imposed sanctions on Assad's regime over its bloody crackdown on the uprising that began in March 2011.
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Moscow also has continued to provide the Syrian government with weapons despite strong international protests. Asked if Beijing also foresees Assad's demise and whether it plans to evacuate its citizens in Syria, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it would take unspecified steps to protect Chinese nationals and appealed anew for a cease-fire and for a negotiated political transition. "China is deeply worried about the continuing violent conflict in Syria and always believes that a diplomatic settlement to the Syrian issue is the only way out and also serves the shared interest of the international community," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily media briefing. On Friday, the Pentagon announced it will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attacks.
Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and ran to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building. "Everyone
was
just
traumatized,"
he
said.
Richard Wilford's 7-year-old son, Richie, is in the second grade at the school. His son told him that he heard a noise that "sounded like what he described as cans falling." The boy told him a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the kids huddle up in the corner until police arrived. "There's no words," Wilford said. "It's sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him." The White House said Barack Obama was notified of the shooting and his spokesman Jay Carney said the president had "enormous sympathy for families that are affected."
SABER-TOOTHED C AT F O S S I L S FOUND NEAR L A S V E G A S LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Researchers say a pair of fossils unearthed in the hills north of Las Vegas belonged to a saber-toothed cat. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports (HTTP://ON.RGJ.COM/SYEHTN ) a team from California's San Bernardino County Museum identified the fossils dug up in June as being front leg bones from the extinct predator. Kathleen Springer, the museum's senior curator, says the saber-tooth fossils are thought to be approximately 15,590 years old. The discovery marks the first of its kind in the fossil-rich Upper Las Vegas Wash. Springer heads a team that's been studying the wash for a decade and been collecting fossils there under a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management since 2008. She says the bones of Las Vegas' only known saber-toothed cat are still being studied. There are no immediate plans to display them, but Springer expects that to happen eventually.
4 Legal Street News Monday December 17, 2012
F L O R I D A
A C C I D E N T
S T A T I S T I C S
Data From the Official Website of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. www.flhsmv.gov
THIS W EEK
______________________________________Legal Street News Monday, December 17, 2012
AUTO ACCIDENTS Broward County Crashs July 2, I-95 December 11, 2012 Crashes and incidents being reported on area roadways by the Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Department of Transportationinclude: 7:37 a.m., disabled vehicle near the 1700 block of eastbound Cypress Creek Road, blocking a left lane; 7:24 a.m., disabled vehicle on U.S. 1 at I-595; 7:23 a.m., crash on southbound I-95 after Hallandale Beach Boulevard, blocking a left lane; 7:11 a.m., I-595 eastbound crash at the exit ramp to northbound I-95, no travel lanes blocked; 7:08 a.m., disabled vehicle on southbound I-95 near the exit ramp to Woolbright Road in Boynton Beach. The incident having the biggest affect on South Florida's roadways early Monday happened in northwest Miami-Dade where a lunch truck overturned in the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 near Miami Gardens Drive (Northwest 186th Street).
IN SOUTH FLORIDA
All but one lane reopens on I-95 near Boynton after crash December 13, 2012 A work trailer full of nails and carpentry overturned in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in the Boynton Beach area this morning, temporarily blocking three lanes of traffic as crews worked to clear the debris from the road, Florida Highway Patrol reports. All but one lane of the interstate is now open, FHP spokesman Lt. Tim Frith said. “It overturned and nails were all over thre or four lanes,” he said. The crash happened about 7:27 a.m. near Boynton Beach Boulevard. At one point, three southbound lanes were closed and the traffic backed up to 6th Avenue South in the Lake Worth area.
I-95 injury crash through Pompano Beach December 13, 2012
The crash site is just south of the Broward County line and was causing some southbound delays because of onlookers.
Among the crashes and incidents being reported Friday morning by the Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Department of Transportation on area roadways: 8:59 a.m., injury crash on I-95 northbound near Sample Road inPompano Beach, no travel lanes blocked; Hit-and-run crash on the I-95 northbound entrance ramp to Griffin Road in Dania Beach, no travel lanes blocked; 8:31 a.m., crash in the northbound lanes of I-95 after Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach, no travlel lanes blocked.
Additionally, outside Fort Pierce, all the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 were closed because of a tractor trailer fire. Southbound I-95 motorists were being detoured off the roadway at Okeechobee Road.
One person taken to trauma center after wreck on U.S. 1
Shortly before 7 a.m., the incident had most of the northbound lanes closed and was causing significant delays. By 7:30 a.m., all travel lanes were reopened but travel was extremely slow. northbound
Northbound I-95 crash through Pompano Beach December 11, 2012 Crashes and incidents being reported Tuesday morning on South Florida's roadways by the Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Department of Transportation include: 6:47 a.m., northbound I-95 injury crash near Copans Road in Pompano Beach, slowdowns through the crash scene; 6:25 a.m., southbound crash I-95 approaching Sheridan Street; 6:14 a.m., northbound I-95 near Hallandale Beach Boulevard, debris reported in the roadway; 5:58 a.m., northbound injury crash on I-95 near Hollywood Boulevard, travel lanes now clear;
December 14, 2012
Fort Pierce motorist accused in high-speed chase, accident after road rage incident Decembr 16, 2012 PORT ST. LUCIE — A Fort Pierce motorist sped up to 120 mph through the city as law enforcement officers pursed him in a road rage case late Thursday night, according to arrest affidavits. Michael Hicks, 23, of the 3100 block of Naylor Terrace, finally was apprehended after he ran into a pickup truck, spinning it almost 180 degrees. When Hicks was hospitalized for injuries, a deputy quoted him as telling medical staff he had taken Xanax. He was arrested by sheriff’s deputies and police on four felony charges: aggravated battery, aggravated fleeing from a law enforcement officer and tampering with evidence tampering by allegedly throwing a beer can out of the window of his 2002 Buick. He also was charged with driving while intoxicated, reports show. The pursuit started when Port St. Lucie police got a 911 call from a motorist complaining Hicks was pursuing him after they talked at a gas station on St. Lucie West Boulevard. The caller said Hicks was upset about a breakup with a girlfriend. The girlfriend alleged Hicks was holding the caller as a hostage at the gas station, the report states. However, the caller said he shook hands with Hicks before driving off — then Hicks reportedly started closely following the car and bumping it, according to arrest reports. Hicks is accused of speeding on Airoso Boulevard, St. James Drive and 25th Street until finally striking the pickup truck at Oleander Avenue at 11:48 p.m. Along the way, he ran a red light and stop signs in alleged attempts to escape law enforcement, according to the reports. In a report, a deputy wrote that at one point, “I reached a speed of almost 120 mph ... (and) the defendant began (pulling) away from me. I estimated his speed to be 120 to 130 mph” on South 25th Street.
One person was air lifted to Shands Jacksonville Medical Center after a two-car accident on U.S. 1 South, said St. Johns County Fire Rescue spokesman Lt. Andrew O’Quinn. The accident happened around 5:05 p.m. at U.S. 1 South and State Road 206, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The crash involved a Nissan and a dump truck, said Ron Cooper, Florida Highway Patrol communications center supervisor. John Begley, 42, was the driver of the Nissan, Cooper said. David Allen Hicks, 33, drove the dump truck. The driver of the Nissan was taken to the hospital in serious condition, O’Quinn said. Further details about the crash and the drivers’ hometowns were not available as of Friday evening. Part of U.S. 1 South was blocked for more than an hour.
Northbound I-95, hit-and-run crash near the entrance ramp to Hallandale Beach Boulevard.
Motorcycle in I-95 Crash:
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December 12, 2012
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WEST PALM BEACH — A motorcyclist was struck by a white Toyota Tacoma on the northbound Belvedere Road exit ramp of Interstate 95 this morning According to the Florida Highway Patrol, around 9 a.m. today, a man in his 20s driving a black Kawasaki motorcycle attempted to make a lane change when he struck the Toyota and was thrown from his motorcycle. The man - whose name has not been released - was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center and treated for minor injuries.
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S Y R I A N T R O O P S B AT T L E REBELS IN DAMASCUS SUBURBS BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian government forces are carrying out a broad offensive against rebels in the suburbs of Damascus, the state media said Wednesday, while the opposition said it made advances in a Palestinian refugee camp nearby where its fighters have been battling with a proregime faction.
community in Syria stayed on the sidelines. But as the civil war deepened, most Palestinians backed the rebels, while some groups - such as the PFLP-GChave been fighting alongside the troops. The group is led by Ahmed Jibril, Assad's longtime ally.
The state-run SANA news agency said Wednesday that troops have killed "scores of terrorists" - the government term for the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. The suburbs of the Syrian capital have been opposition strongholds since the uprising started in March 2011. The rebels have recently made significant advances in in the area, capturing air bases and military installation and clashing with a pro-government Palestinian group for control of the Yarmouk refugee camp, located in the capital's southern part. SANA said Wednesday's fighting was taking place in the capital's southern outskirts of Daraya, Harasta, Douma and Hajar Aswad, a neighboring area of Yarmouk. On Tuesday, Syrian fighter jets bombed Yarmouk for the second time in a week, sending thousands fleeing from the camp. There were no reports on casualties from those strikes. Similar airstrikes on Sunday killed at least eight people in Yarmouk, activists said.
The fighting in the camp has forced an exodus of Palestinian refugees and Syrians who came to the camp in past weeks to escape violence elsewhere in the city, according to United Nations officials. In this Monday, Dec. 17, 2012 photo, a boy runs for cover after a mortar shell hit a street killing several people in the Bustan Al-Qasr district of Aleppo, Syria.
The rebel offensive in the camp, which began Friday, is aimed at driving out a pro-government Palestinian gunmen of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement Wednesday he had asked U.N. chief Ban Kimoon to help in bringing the Palestinian refugees in Syrian to the Palestinian territories. This could include the West Bank, where Abbas governs, or the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Most of the fighting on Wednesday was concentrated on surrounding districts outside the camp, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said the rebels took control of large parts of the camp after resistance from the PFLP-GC gunmen ceased early Wednesday. The group relies on reports from activists on the ground.
The statement said there are 450,000 Palestinian refugees living in 10 camps in Syria. Abbas said Yarmouk, which is the biggest camp, "has been through a difficult situation due to the escalating conflict in Syria."
When the revolt against Assad's rule began 21 months ago, the half-million-strong Palestinian
Any movement of refugees into the West Bank would need the consent of Israel. Israel's Foreign Ministry had no comment.
FA C E B O O K R E J E C T S G E R M A N D E M A N D T O A L L O W FA K E N A M E S BERLIN (AP) -- Facebook will fight a German privacy watchdog's demand to allow users to register with fake names, insisting Tuesday that its current practice fully complies with the law. The California-based social networking site has long required users to register with their real names - a policy that the data protection commissioner of Schleswig-Holstein state says is in breach of German law and European rules designed to protect free speech online. The commissioner, Thilo Weichert, ordered Facebook on Monday to rescind its real name policy immediately.
"We believe the orders are without merit, a waste of German taxpayers' money and we will fight it vigorously," Facebook said in a statement. The company claims that its real name policy is intended to protect users. Weichert told The Associated Press that Facebook has two weeks to respond. If it fails to comply with the order, his office can impose a penalty against the company, said Weichert. The maximum fine would be only (EURO)50,000 ($66,000) - peanuts for a multinational company, but nevertheless a symbolic blow that could also lead to a tougher stance from other German and European privacy regulators.
"We have the right to prevent this data protection breach," he said. "Theoretically we can order the website blocked, but that would be disproportionate." German privacy rules have posed a legal headache for Facebook, Google and other web giants in recent years. The country has strict laws on data protection that give consumers significant rights to limit the way companies use their information. Weichert has previously warned investors against buying Facebook shares, warning that the company's "business model will implode" because Facebook users' private information is used in breach of European law. Facebook says it has more than 20 million active users in Germany.
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_____________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, December 17, 2012
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U B S T O P A Y $ 1 . 5 B I L L I O N OVER RATE-RIGGING SCANDAL GENEVA (AP) -- Switzerland's UBS AG agreed Wednesday to pay some $1.5 billion in fines to international regulators following a probe into the rigging of a key global interest rate. In admitting to fraud, Switzerland's largest bank became the second bank, after Britain's Barclays PLC, to settle over the rate-rigging scandal. The fine, which will be paid to authorities in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland, also comes just over a week after HSBC PLC agreed to pay nearly $2 billion for alleged money laundering. The settlement caps a tough year for UBS and the reputation of the global banking industry. As well as being ensnared in the industry-wide investigation into alleged manipulations of the benchmark LIBOR interest rate, short for London interbank offered rate, UBS has seen its reputation suffer in a London trial into a multibillion dollar trading scandal and ongoing tax evasion probes. As a result of the fines, litigation, unwinding of real estate investments, restructuring and other costs, UBS said it expects to make a fourth quarter net loss of between 2 billion to 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.2-2.7 billion). Nevertheless, the Zurich-based bank maintained that it "remains one of the best capitalized banks in the world." Despite the fine, investors were cheered that some of the uncertainty surrounding the stock has been lifted. UBS shares were trading up 1.6 percent at 15.50 francs around noon on the Zurich exchange. Other banks are expected to be fined for their involvement in the LIBOR scandal. LIBOR, which is a self-policing system and relies on information that global banks submit to a British banking authority, is important because it is used to set the interest rates on trillions of dollars in contracts around the world, including mortgages and credit cards. UBS characterized the probes as "industrywide investigations into the setting of certain benchmark rates across a range of currencies." The UBS penalty is more than triple the $450 million in fines imposed by American and British regulators in June on Barclays for submitting false information between 2005 and 2009 to manipulate the LIBOR rates. Those fines exposed a scandal that led to the departure of Chief Executive Bob Diamond and the announcement that Chairman Marcus Agius would step down at the end of the year. In accepting the fines, UBS said some of its employees tried to rig the LIBOR rate in several currencies, but that its Japan unit, where much of the manipulation took place, entered a plea to one count of wire fraud in an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.
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al systemically important banks" that the Basel, Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements, the central bank for central banks, considers too big to fail. It's not the first time that UBS has fallen afoul of regulators. Notably in 2009, U.S. authorities fined UBS $780 million in 2009 for helping U.S. citizens avoid paying taxes.
The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich, Switzerland, in this Dec. 18, 2001 picture. UBS reported a first quarter net profit of 2.42 billion Francs ($1.89 billion) in this May 4, 2004 file photo. Swiss bank UBS announced Wednesday Dec. 19, 2012 to pay 1.4 billion Swiss francs (US$ 1.53 billion) in fines to resolve investigations that it helped manipulate the benchmark LIBOR interest rate
UBS said some of its personnel had "engaged in efforts to manipulate submissions for certain benchmark rates to benefit trading positions" and that some employees had "colluded with employees at other banks and cash brokers to influence certain benchmark rates to benefit their trading positions." UBS added that "inappropriate directions" had been submitted that were "in part motivated by a desire to avoid unfair and negative market and media perceptions during the financial crisis." Britain's financial regulator called the misconduct by UBS "extensive and broad" with the rate-fixing carried out from UBS offices in London and Zurich. Different desks were responsible for different rate submissions. At least 2,000 requests for inappropriate submissions were documented an unquantifiable number of oral requests, which by their nature would not be documented, were also made, the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority said. "Manipulation was also discussed in internal open chat forums and group emails, and was widely known," the FSA said. "At least 45 individuals including traders, managers and senior managers were involved in, or aware of, the practice of attempting to influence submissions." Joe Rundle, head of trading at London-based ETX Capital, said the case exposes "just how brazen and arrogant" the UBS traders were while collaborating with "corrupt external brokers." Sergio Ermotti, who was appointed CEO of UBS AG in November 2012 in the wake of a major trading scandal, said the misconduct does not reflect the bank's values or standards. "We deeply regret this inappropriate and unethical behavior. No amount of profit is more important than the reputation of the firm, and we are committed to doing business with integrity," he said. With more than 2.2 trillion Swiss francs ($2.4 trillion) in invested assets, UBS is one of the world's largest managers of private wealth assets. At last count, the bank had 63,745 employees in 57 countries and said it aims for a headcount of 54,000 in 2015. Along with Credit Suisse, the second-largest Swiss bank, UBS is on the list of the 29 "glob-
The U.S. government has since been pushing Switzerland to loosen its rules on banking secrecy and has been trying to shed its image as a tax haven, signing deals with the United States, Germany and Britain to provide greater assistance to foreign tax authorities seeking information on their citizens' accounts. In April, Ermotti called Switzerland's tax disputes with the United States and some European nations "an economic war" putting thousands of jobs at risk. And in September 2011 the bank announced more than $2 billion in losses and blamed a 32-year-old rogue trader, Kweku Adoboli, at its London office for Britain's biggest-ever fraud at a bank. Britain's financial regulator fined UBS, saying its internal controls were inadequate to prevent Adoboli, a relatively inexperienced trader, from making vast and risky bets. Adoboli has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
SAMSUNG DROPS A P P L E INJUNCTION BIDS I N E U R O P E LONDON (AP) -- Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it has withdrawn its requests to have sales of certain Apple products banned in Europe, though it is still pursuing lawsuits over technology licenses. The two companies are waging a legal battle on multiple fronts and across the world as they jostle for dominance in the more than $100 billion global smartphone market. On Monday, a judge in San Francisco rejected Apple Inc.'s demands that Samsung cease selling models which a jury recently found illegally used Apple technology. The ruling allows Samsung to continue selling three of the older-generation smartphones still on U.S. shelves. In the European case, Samsung said it was withdrawing the injunction requests "in the interest of protecting consumer choice." It did not specify in what countries it was dropping the requests, but press reports mentioned Germany, France, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands. While it dropped the sales ban request, Samsung is still suing Apple in Europe over the use of certain technology licenses. "Samsung did not withdraw its lawsuits in Europe; the lawsuits are very much in place," said Samsung spokesman Kiyung Nam.
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Legal Street News Monday, December 17, 2012
C A L I F O R N I A I N F O R U N U S U A L LY H I G H ' K I N G
M O R E T I D E S '
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- The tide is high, and it's holding on.
during last December's king tides, which prompted the California Highway Patrol to temporarily close a local highway connector ramp due to roadway flooding midmorning.
Some Californians were in for another day of ankle-deep seawater in low-lying coastal communities Friday as unusually high "king tides" pulled the Pacific farther ashore than normal.
The damage could have been much worse if the weather had brought big waves along with the high tides, National Weather Service forecaster Larry Smith said.
The tides, the result of an occasional astronomical alignment, caused some damage Thursday but proved mostly just a nuisance. Water flooded Pacific Coast Highway and side streets in Sunset Beach, a sliver of Huntington Beach between the ocean and a yacht harbor. Down the Southern California coast, Newport Bay was brimming, while just north of San Francisco the tide swamped a commuter parking lot in Marin City and seeped into dozens of cars.
"Right now it's just a neat thing.... When we have the low tide this afternoon you will be see father out than you normally would," Smith said. "It kind of does give you a glimpse of what the future might be with the sea level rise."
Newly moved in resident Juliana Chen steps out of her garage with her daughter into the overflowed street onto Pacific Coast Highway in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012. Astronomical high tides have caused minor street flooding in some low-lying areas along the Southern California coast.
Bruce DuAmarell, an 18-year Sunset Beach resident, said he got a call at work from an alarmed neighbor and came home. "My garage had flooded. There were four to five inches in my garage," he said, as he took a break from sweeping water onto the street. "It came up over the seawall and literally filled up the harbor." DuAmarell said he lost a vacuum cleaner and some Christmas presents for his children, but otherwise was unscathed. Occurring several times a year, king tides happen when the Earth, moon and sun align in a way that increases gravitational pull on the Earth's oceans, raising water levels several feet above normal high tides. The non-scientific term also refers to extremely low tides.
keep 13-year resident Fred Grether out of trouble. He tried to drive his 2004 Porsche to a car wash to rinse off the salt water after the flooding reached the rims and undercarriage. But driving to the car wash did more damage than staying put, he said as a tow truck prepared to haul his car to the shop. "I didn't realize how deep it was at the intersection and as soon as I got to the intersection, I heard this frizzling noise and my car alarm started going off and I realized that I had burned out the electrical system on my car," he said. "Now I'm off to my local mechanic today about me doing something very, very stupid," said Grether, who's seen flooding three times. The tide at Marin City reached 7 feet, slightly higher than
The tides reached over 10 feet in Redwood City, a bit above predicted levels, the National Weather Service said.
The event provided organizers of the California King Tides Initiative an opportunity to get California residents thinking about and preparing for the future. The 3-year-old initiative, sponsored by government and nonprofit groups, enlists camera-toting volunteers to photograph the King Tides as an illustration of what low-lying coastal areas could look like if predictions about the Earth's climate come to pass. As of Thursday afternoon, about 100 new snapshots had been uploaded to the photo-sharing project, coordinator Heidi Nuttles said. "It's definitely very high tides this year, and we just encourage people to use this opportunity to go out, take pictures and reflect what this means for our shoreline and the fact that's its constantly changing even today, and how that might affect how we think about sea level rise in the future," Nuttles said.
Residents of Sunset Beach expect flooding, but that didn't
T W I N N A S A S PA C E C R A F T P R E PA R E T O C R A S H I N T O M O O N LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After nearly a year circling the moon, NASA's Ebb and Flow will meet their demise when they crash - on purpose - into the lunar surface.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) -- Lingering radioactive contamination exists at a former rocket test lab outside of Los Angeles that was the site of a partial nuclear meltdown, federal environmental regulators said Wednesday.
Just don't expect to see celestial fireworks. Next week's impact near the moon's north pole by the washing machine-sized spacecraft won't carve a gaping crater or kick up a lot of debris. And it'll be dark when it happens.
The Environmental Protection Agency launched a $42 million study to investigate radioactive pollution at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, 25 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
"We are not expecting a big flash or a big explosion" that will be visible from Earth, said mission chief scientist Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Still, it'll mark a violent end to a successful mission that has produced the most high-resolution gravity maps of Earth's closest neighbor. On Friday, engineers will turn off the science instruments in preparation for Monday's finale. Previous unmanned trips to the moon have studied its lumpy gravitational field, but Ebb and Flow are the first ones dedicated to this goal. Since entering orbit over New Year's weekend, the formation-flying spacecraft have peered past the craggy surface into the interior. Initially, the spacecraft flew about 35 miles above the surface and later dropped down to 14 miles. About an hour before Monday's impact, they will fire their engines until they run out of fuel and slam at 3,800 mph into a predetermined target - a mountain near the north pole that's far away from the Apollo landing sites. Ebb will hit first followed by Flow 20 seconds later. Though the drama won't be visible from Earth, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will fly over the crash site afterward and attempt to spot them. The last time NASA aimed at the moon was in 2009. The world watched through telescopes and over the Internet as a spacecraft and its booster rocket smashed into a permanently shadowed crater - a one-two punch that fiz-
CONTAMINATION AT FORMER ROCKET T E S T S I T E
Technicians collected 3,735 soil samples from a corner of the 2,850-acre hilltop lab where most of the testing was done. Of those, they found about 10 percent contained radioactive concentrations exceeding background levels. This undated artist file rendering provided by NASA on Dec. 21, 2011, shows the twin Grail spacecraft mapping the lunar gravity field. Launched from Cape Canaveral on Sept. 10, 2011, the spacecraft began collecting data in March, 2012. After nearly a year circling the moon, NASA's Ebb and Flow spacecraft will meet their demise when they are scheduled to crash - on purpose - into a lunar mountain Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, ending a successful mission.
zled when spectators saw little more than a fuzzy white flash. The mission's end will also mark the close of a student campaign that used cameras aboard the spacecraft to image lunar targets including on the moon's far side. The MoonKAM project was spearheaded by a science education company founded by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. Ride died of pancreatic cancer in July at age 61. Even after Ebb and Flow complete their mission, scientists will continue to pore over the bounty of data they collected. Among their findings so far: The moon is more beat up than previously imagined. The crust is much thinner than thought. And there's no evidence that Earth once had two moons that collided to form the one we see in the night sky.
Most of the contaminated soil was found in places like the materials handling facility that were previously cleaned, but it looked like "isolated spots were missed," said Mary Aycock, an EPA Superfund remedial project manager. The pollution occurred in restricted areas of the lab and environmental officials said there was no immediate threat to the community because the site is secure. The EPA presented its findings at a public meeting in Simi Valley, home of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. It expects to issue a final report by the end of the month. The Energy Department conducted nuclear research at the site from the 1950s through 1998. It was the site of 10 reactors, one of which had a partial meltdown, and an open-air pit where workers burned radioactive and chemical waste. The EPA deals with Superfund sites around the United States and many former Energy Department facilities in the West are more contaminated than Santa Susana, said Michael Montgomery, assistant director of EPA's Superfund division. The Energy Department, NASA and Boeing Co. are responsible for a cleanup that is being overseen by the state. The deadline for ridding the site of chemical and radioactive pollution is 2017.