Wednesday, 15 May 2013 20:38
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal
WASHINGTON: More than 50 US media organizations joined a protest of the US government seizure of journalist phone records from the Associated Press, describing the action as "an overreaching dragnet."The action "calls into question the very integrity of Department of Justice policies toward the press and its ability to balance, on its own, its police powers against the First Amendment rights of the news media and the public's interest," said a letter released Tuesday by the coalition.The protests came after the US government claimed it was trying to protect American lives when it took the drastic step of seizing journalists' phone records in a probe of what it calls a major security breach.The letter, sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that in the 30 years since the Justice Department issued guidelines governing its subpoena practice for journalist phone records, "none of us can remember an ...
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WASHINGTON: More than 50 US media organizations joined a protest of the US government seizure of journalist phone records from the Associated Press, describing the action as "an overreaching dragnet."The action "calls into question the very integrity of Department of Justice policies toward the press and its ability to balance, on its own, its police powers against the First Amendment rights of the news media and the public's interest," said a letter released Tuesday by the coalition.The protests came after the US government claimed it was trying to protect American lives when it took the drastic step of seizing journalists' phone records in a probe of what it calls a major security breach.The letter, sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that in the 30 years since the Justice Department issued guidelines governing its subpoena practice for journalist phone records, "none of us can remember an ...
WASHINGTON: The Sun has unleashed three potent solar flares in just under 24 hours, marking the most intense activity yet this year and causing limited interruptions to high-frequency radio communications.One of them was classified as an X3.2 flare, with X-class flares being the most intense type, the US space agency said."This is the strongest X-class flare of 2013 so far, surpassing in strength the two X-class flares that occurred earlier in the 24-hour period," NASA ...
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama learned on Monday what can happen to presidents caught up in allegations of scandal: they have to address them instead of anything else.It happened when the president had to interrupt his news conference with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain to answer questions about the widening investigation into the Benghazi attacks in Libya and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups.By the end of the day ...
WASHINGTON: The brother of Secretary of State John Kerry is stepping in as acting commerce secretary in a rare move which will see two siblings in the US cabinet, officials said Monday.Cameron Kerry, who held a senior post in the Commerce Department, will take up the position from June 1 when the current post-holder Rebecca Blank leaves to become the chancellor of University of Wisconsin-Madison."Cam has been at the Department of Commerce since 2009 and ...
WASHINGTON: Higher-level US Internal Revenue Service officials took part in discussions as far back as August 2011 about targeting by lower-level tax agents of "Tea Party" and other conservative groups, according to documents reviewed by Reuters on Monday.The documents show the offices of the IRS's chief counsel and deputy commissioner for services and enforcement communicated about the targeting with lower-level officials on Aug. 4, 2011, and March 8, 2012, respectively.The two communications occurred weeks and ...
WASHINGTON: The US Defense Department has decided to stop buying EADS Lakota helicopters for the Army next year, according to the head of the European aerospace's US-based unit."The Lakota is built by a highly skilled workforce, more than half of which are military veterans, at my company's Columbus, Mississippi, helicopter production facility," Sean O'Keefe, chairman and chief executive of EADS North America, said in an opinion article on the Defense News website."The Army has decided ...
NEW YORK: An activist hedge fund's nominees to the Hess Corp board of directors said they were waiving their right to receive a special pay package from the fund if the oil and gas company outperforms its peers under their watch.Hess shareholders are set to vote on the board nominees later this week.Hess and the hedge fund, Elliott Management, have been working hard to lobby investors to back their nominees. Hess said last week that ...
