Rights investigations needed in Sudan border areas: U.N. (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Huts were still burning and looters roamed the main town of Sudan's disputed Abyei region this week, a senior U.N. official said, more than a month after Khartoum seized it and shut down a joint north-south administration.

Kyung-wha Kang, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said "thorough" investigations were needed in Abyei and another conflict-stricken border region, where weeks of fighting has forced tens of thousands of people to flee.

South Sudan will become a separate country in a little over two weeks, but clashes along the ill-defined border have raised fears of a return to the all-out north-south civil war that killed more than two million people over decades until 2005.

Fighting erupted between the northern army and southern-aligned fighters in the oil state of Southern Kordofan on June 5, about two weeks after Khartoum seized the neighboring contested Abyei region with tanks and soldiers.

Kang said a drive through Abyei's main town this week showed "complete destruction. No civilians. Some huts still burning, smoke, looters still roaming around".

"I think the situation is serious enough that it requires a thorough investigation," she said in an interview late on Tuesday.

The northern army, which says its troops are in Abyei and Southern Kordofan to guarantee stability and protect civilians, has called for Abyei's residents to return home.

Kang said human rights monitors should be given more access to the area to conduct interviews with people involved in and affected by the fighting on both sides.

"We would like that opportunity, but so far access has been very limited," she said.

Thousands of residents who had fled Southern Kordofan's state capital of Kadugli and the surrounding area to shelter near a U.N. mission in Sudan compound had returned home, but it was questionable whether the return was voluntary, Kang said.

She said her team had asked to visit Southern Kordofan during a tour of Sudan ahead of southern secession on July 9, but they had not heard back yet.

"Kadugli also requires a thorough, thorough look," Kang said. "The sooner the better".

Separate human rights and church groups have accused Khartoum of waging a campaign targeting the ethnic Nuba population in Southern Kordofan -- a northern state -- because of their perceived support for the south.

Northern officials have dismissed such charges as politically motivated allegations without grounds.

Air space has been largely restricted for U.N. flights over Southern Kordofan, which the world body has said has endangered its aid work in the area.

The United Nations also said six of its national staff were arrested at Kadugli airport on Wednesday.

Sudan has a long history of violent conflict.

The January referendum in which southerners voted to secede was a condition of a 2005 deal to end a civil war fought over ideology, ethnicity, religion and oil which forced millions to flee their homes.

Kang said the new nation in the south would face "enormous" human rights challenges, exacerbated because infrastructure and state capacity were still lacking.

"War leaves behind a culture where brute force gets its way," she said. "Overcoming that culture will require a lot of time, a lot of support, a lot of push".

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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AP Interview: US says no new treaty needed (AP)

LONDON – America's new cyber czar said Wednesday that international law and cooperation — not another treaty — was enough to tackle cybersecurity issues for now.

Christopher Painter, coordinator for cyber issues for the U.S. State Department, declined to comment on a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday that said the Pentagon was considering a policy that could classify some cyberattacks as acts of war. He said the report was based on material that had either not been released or discussed yet.

He did, however, say that U.S. President Barack Obama's recent cybersecurity strategy covered a myriad of different aspects, ranging from international freedoms to governance issues and challenges facing the military.

"We don't need a new treaty," he told The Associated Press as he arrived for an international cybersecurity summit in London. "We need a discussion around the norms that are in cyberspace, what the rules of the road are and we need to build a consensus around those topics."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) — New cyber attacks are being perfected so quickly that the world needs a nonproliferation treaty to control their creation and use, the chairman of one of the world's largest telecommunications companies said Wednesday.

Michael Rake of BT Group PLC warned that world powers are being drawn into a high-tech arms race, with many already able to fight a war without firing a single shot.

"I don't think personally it's an exaggeration to say now that basically you can bring a state to its knees without any military action whatsoever," Rake said. He said it was "critical to try to move toward some sort of cyber technology nonproliferation treaty."

The suggestion drew a mixed response from cyberwarriors gathered in London for a conference on Internet security, although at least one academic praised it for highlighting the need to subject online interstate attacks to some kind of an international legal framework.

Cyberweapons and cyberwarfare have increasingly preoccupied policymakers as hacks and computer viruses grow in complexity.

Recent high-profile attacks against Sony Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. have made headlines, while experts described last year's discovery of the super-sophisticated Stuxnet virus — thought to have been aimed at sabotaging Iran's disputed nuclear program — as an illustration of the havoc that malicious programs can wreak on infrastructure and industry.

"You can close vital systems, energy systems, medical systems," Rake said. "The ability to have significant impact on a state is there."

The threat grows every day. Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder of anti-virus software provider Kaspersky Lab ZAO, said Internet security firms were logging some 70,000 new malicious programs every 24 hours. Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI, said that last year alone his agency arrested more than 200 cybercriminals.

How to deal with that threat was the topic of the two-day summit organized by the EastWest Institute, an international think tank which gathered hundreds of law enforcement officials, business leaders, academics and security consultants for talks in the British capital.

Rake's proposal for a nonproliferation treaty lacked detail, but it was one of several calls for some kind of an international treaty governing cyberspace. Hamadoun Toure, head of the United Nations telecommunications agency, said that "we all know that the next war, if it was to take place, would take place in cyberspace."

He added that the best way to win such a war was to ensure that it didn't happen in the first place.

But those working in the field were divided about the wisdom of any cybersecurity treaty. Francis Delon, France's secretary-general for national defense and security, said it was too early for work toward an international pact because policymakers were still coming to grips with the ways that states — and criminals — could strike at each other over the Internet.

The question was one of "pure pragmatism," he said. "The ground's just not ready for it."

As for some kind of cyberweapon nonproliferation treaty, Delon seemed dismissive. Asked whether it was even feasible to track software programs — thousands of which can fit on a single tiny memory stick — in the same way that the international community monitors ballistic missiles or nuclear material, he chuckled.

"I think you've answered your own question," he said.

But some said the analogy between malicious viruses and nuclear weapons was appropriate. Solange Ghernaouti-Helie, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, noted that both were capable of causing catastrophic collateral damage far beyond their original targets.

She suggested that Toure's International Telecommunication Union could act as a kind of online version of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which polices member states' nuclear programs with inspections and monitoring. She noted that there already is an international body, the Malaysia-based Global Response Center, devoted to monitoring worldwide cyberthreats. Perhaps it could do the job?

In any case, she said, "we can't accept that we can do nothing."

___

Paisley Dodds contributed to this report.

Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://www.twitter/razhael

__

Online:

The EastWest Institute: http://www.ewi.info/

The Telecommunication Union's response center: http://bit.ly/llCTv3

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Nuclear task force: No immediate changes needed in U.S.

A federal task force says U.S. reactors don't have significant safety issues. Shown in Virginia's North Anna Power Station.Task force does not recommend immediate changesBut changes are expected when its study is completedWatchdog group does not see that "the picture is quite as rosy"

Washington (CNN) -- A federal task force set up following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan says no immediate changes are needed to improve the safety of nuclear reactors in the United States. But it said it expects to recommend changes when it completes its study in 60 days.

"As we stand today, the task force has not identified any issues that we think would undermine our confidence in the continued safety and emergency planning for nuclear plants in this country," task force leader Charles Miller told the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday. "That said, we do expect that we're likely to have findings and recommendations that will further enhance the safety of the nuclear plants in this country."

But an industry watchdog group said the NRC task force is "pulling its punches" by failing to take immediate actions to address shortcomings.

"I think if you're listening carefully, they're telling two different stories," said Ed Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "On the one hand, they say we don't need to take any immediate action. On the other hand, their inspections have turned up problems with compliance on the measures that are supposed to be in place to deal with severe accidents. It doesn't sound like the picture is quite as rosy."

The NRC set up the internal task force shortly following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan to provide a quick review of the incident and report on lessons that could be applied domestically. The task force will also brief the NRC in June and July, and its recommendations will set the stage for more in-depth studies.

An NRC official, meanwhile, told the commission that post-Fukushima safety inspections of U.S. nuclear plants found some lapses.

"None of the observations poses a significant safety issue," Martin Virgilio testified. "But there were observations that equipment that was relied on would not start, that it had not been maintained. There were some places where the capability to deal with large fires and explosions ... there were discrepancies in terms of the procedures, the equipment and the training."

The problems have been addressed, he said.

At Thursday's briefing, the task force listed a number of areas it is exploring and gave hints where it believes change may be necessary. Among them:

• Scenarios involving multiple reactors or spent fuel pools: Disaster plans in the U.S. typically envision problems at one reactor or storage facility. But the Fukushima disaster showed the complications of dealing with multiple, simultaneous disasters, the task force said. "If you're dealing with a multi-unit event at the same time, you have considerations with regard to adequate staffing, how to triage, who makes decisions on how to triage and how you go about proceeding with what you need to do first," Miller said.

• Examining lengthy blackouts: The Fukushima event is challenging notions that power blackouts can quickly be resolved. And the NRC needs to look at contingencies where infrastructure damage prevents quick repairs to damaged nuclear sites.

• Severe accident management guidelines: The industry implemented the guidelines, known as SAMGs, as a voluntary initiative in the 1990s. "Consequently, we do not evaluate them as part of the agency's routine reactor oversight process," Miller said. He said the task force noticed during its examination that the guidelines apply to the reactor core and containment buildings but do not cover spent fuel pools.

• Radioactive contamination: Miller said the task force is exploring the industry's ability to have real-time radiation measurements during accidents, both on site and off site.

• Potassium iodide: "If you look at the days following Fukushima, even in the United States, there were various levels of information being given out about the prophylactic used of KI (potassium iodide's formula), not all of which was prudent. And I think we need to take a look at whether further education in that regard is necessary."

CNN

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Knox trial: More time needed for DNA review

ROME (AP) — Independent forensic experts are seeking more time to conclude their review of DNA evidence in the appeals trial of Amanda Knox, news reports and lawyers said Friday.

The two court-appointed experts are looking into DNA traces on the knife believed to have been used to kill Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old Briton who shared an apartment with Knox in Perugia, and into DNA traces found on the clasp of the bra Kercher was allegedly wearing at the time she was killed.

Knox, an American student, was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Kercher and sentenced to 26 years in jail. Her boyfriend at the time of the murder, Raffaele Sollecito of Italy, was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 25 years.

They both deny wrongdoing and their appeals trial is under way in Perugia.

The experts — originally scheduled to conclude their review on Monday, and then report to the court on May 21 — have asked for a delay of about 40 days, according to the ANSA news agency. The request was confirmed Friday by Francesco Maresca, a lawyer representing the Kercher family, and by Luca Maori, an attorney for Sollecito.

During the first trial, in the absence of a clear motive for the brutal killing, DNA evidence was crucial. Prosecutors maintained that Knox's DNA was on the knife handle, Kercher's DNA on the blade, and Sollecito's on the clasp of Kercher's bra.

The independent experts were mandated to either conduct a retest or, if not possible, assess the accuracy of the original testing. They have found that DNA traces were too small for a retest and are now reviewing the original analyses to assess whether they were reliable and up to standard, said Maresca.

The experts sought the review's extension because they want to study more documents regarding the tests, ANSA said.

The defense has always challenged the accuracy of the analyses presented in the first trial, saying traces were too low to be conclusive and alleging possible contamination. The bra was recovered at the crime scene only several weeks after the slaying. Kercher was found dead in the apartment she shared with Knox on Nov. 2, 2007, her throat slit.

The review was granted at the defense's request and assigned to two forensic experts of La Sapienza University in Rome. It takes place in the presence of experts appointed by the parties.

Maresca said the request was simply "dictated by the need to understand everything definitely," and did not speculate what it might mean for the ultimate outcome of the trial. Maresca is part of the trial because the Kerchers are civil plaintiffs in the case.

The next hearing will still be held on May 21. But the court will hear remaining witnesses, rather than the evidence review, and set a calendar, the lawyers said. The experts will likely present their findings to the court between late June and early July.

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Knox trial: More time needed for DNA review

ROME (AP) — Independent forensic experts are seeking more time to conclude their review of DNA evidence in the appeals trial of Amanda Knox, news reports and lawyers said Friday.

The two court-appointed experts are looking into DNA traces on the knife believed to have been used to kill Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old Briton who shared an apartment with Knox in Perugia, and into DNA traces found on the clasp of the bra Kercher was allegedly wearing at the time she was killed.

Knox, an American student, was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Kercher and sentenced to 26 years in jail. Her boyfriend at the time of the murder, Raffaele Sollecito of Italy, was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 25 years.

They both deny wrongdoing and their appeals trial is under way in Perugia.

The experts — originally scheduled to conclude their review on Monday, and then report to the court on May 21 — have asked for a delay of about 40 days, according to the ANSA news agency. The request was confirmed Friday by Francesco Maresca, a lawyer representing the Kercher family, and by Luca Maori, an attorney for Sollecito.

During the first trial, in the absence of a clear motive for the brutal killing, DNA evidence was crucial. Prosecutors maintained that Knox's DNA was on the knife handle, Kercher's DNA on the blade, and Sollecito's on the clasp of Kercher's bra.

The independent experts were mandated to either conduct a retest or, if not possible, assess the accuracy of the original testing. They have found that DNA traces were too small for a retest and are now reviewing the original analyses to assess whether they were reliable and up to standard, said Maresca.

The experts sought the review's extension because they want to study more documents regarding the tests, ANSA said.

The defense has always challenged the accuracy of the analyses presented in the first trial, saying traces were too low to be conclusive and alleging possible contamination. The bra was recovered at the crime scene only several weeks after the slaying. Kercher was found dead in the apartment she shared with Knox on Nov. 2, 2007, her throat slit.

The review was granted at the defense's request and assigned to two forensic experts of La Sapienza University in Rome. It takes place in the presence of experts appointed by the parties.

Maresca said the request was simply "dictated by the need to understand everything definitely," and did not speculate what it might mean for the ultimate outcome of the trial. Maresca is part of the trial because the Kerchers are civil plaintiffs in the case.

The next hearing will still be held on May 21. But the court will hear remaining witnesses, rather than the evidence review, and set a calendar, the lawyers said. The experts will likely present their findings to the court between late June and early July.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Deal needed to avoid spending train wreck

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WASHINGTON –  Political ideologies and government spending realities are speeding trains headed toward a nasty crash in Washington this week barring a compromise between Republicans in the House and Senate Democrats aligned with President Barack Obama in the battle to contain America's soaring debt.

Failure to reach a deal for the rest of this budget year, which ends on Sept. 30, could lead to a partial shutdown of the government when spending authority expires at midnight on Friday. It is unclear which side would absorb public blame and anger for such a dramatic turn of events. But there was likely to be political damage, and mainstream members of both parties say they want to avoid a shutdown.

At issue are cuts to so-called discretionary programs, the cost of running various government agencies that use only 12 percent of the federal budget.

Republicans took control of the House in a landslide last November with much of their success built around tea-party-aligned candidates elected on the promise of lower taxes, less spending and smaller government. Nearly six weeks ago, the House passed a bill calling for $61 billion in cuts in discretionary spending for the remainder of the year.

The Senate, which also must approve such a measure, never took it up.

Instead both houses of Congress have passed two short-term spending laws to keep government open while cutting $10 billion out of this year's budget. That appropriation runs out Friday. Late last week, Obama said that compromise was close with Republicans on $33 billion in cuts, and he warned that without a deal the ensuing government shutdown would "jeopardize our economic recovery" just as jobs are finally being created.

There are indications the $33 billion figure may truly be in play, with sufficient votes lined up among mainstream House Republicans and Democrats. But House Speaker John Boehner is denying a deal is in the works, apparently fearing he would alienate the Republican tea party conference and damage party solidarity in advance of the coming 2012 presidential election. Many of the 87 new Republican House members say they will not go for a compromise.

What's more, the huge political divisions may only harden on Tuesday when Republicans reveal their plans to further slash government outlays for the next fiscal year, a spending outline that was expected to call for profound changes in funding for U.S. social safety net programs, particularly government-funded health care for the elderly and the poor.

Those programs, known as Medicare and Medicaid, along with Social Security pension benefits and defense spending consume the vast majority of government spending. None of them is under consideration in the current battle over cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, even though a special Obama commission on the debt has recommended dramatic changes in all that spending and in the American tax laws.

Obama has said little about the commission recommendations and sought to remain publicly above the fray, instead focusing his message on repairing the recession-ravaged economy and reducing unemployment.

He weighed in, however, after good news on the jobs front last Friday.

"Given the encouraging news we received today on jobs, it would be the height of irresponsibility to halt our economic momentum because of the same old Washington politics," he said.

"It can't be 'my way or the highway politics,'" said the president. "We know that a compromise is within reach. And we also know that if these budget negotiations break down, it could shut down the government and jeopardize our economic recovery."

Shortly before Obama spoke, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shifted the Democrats' position on one key element of the talks, in apparent deference to environmentalists angered by an earlier concession.

House Republicans included provisions in their $61 billion package of spending cuts that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing regulations on a variety of industries that would cut emissions of climate changing greenhouse gases.

"Neither the White House or the Senate leaders is going to accept any EPA riders," he said in a conference call with reporters.

The spending conflict also is playing out under the shadow of the upcoming requirement for Congress to vote on increasing the amount of money the government can borrow. Democrats cannot increase the debt ceiling without Republican support in both the Senate and House. The Treasury Department estimates the government will hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling sometime between April 15 and May 31. The administration has warned Congress that failing to raise the debt limit would lead to an unprecedented default on the national debt.

This pivotal week will test congressional abilities to compromise on a plan that moves some distance toward reducing deficit spending. Republicans warn the practice is leading toward the decline of American power and influence, and Democrats argue that cuts cannot be too Draconian in the face of a weak economic recovery and the needs of middle- and lower-income Americans.

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Report: Study of gay, transgender health needed

and when they do, there's little research to guide doctors in their treatment.

Thursday's report says changing that starts with a seemingly simple step: Researchers should ask people about their sexual orientation and gender identity, just as they routinely ask about race and ethnicity, in all government-funded health studies.

The report was welcomed by the gay-rights community as a long-needed step in addressing health disparities.

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