£17billion wiped off BP shares as oil slick reaches U.S. coast in 'worst spill in history'... and Obama says they will pay

Ablaze: A fleet of tugs attempt to extinguish the fire on the sinking oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana

No way to stop it: Rough winds and waves push against an oil boom set up in a flimsy effort to protect the Louisiana coast yesterday

Snapshot of disaster: Four hundred miles out in space, Nasa's Aqua satellite has taken pictures of the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico

Nearly £17 billion pounds have been wiped off BP shares as an oil spill that is threatening to eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and started washing ashore along America's Gulf Coast early today.

Fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes in a desperate attempt to stave off an environmental disaster.

BP was also facing financial disaster as the company lost £16.9billion in market value and U.S. President Barack Obama announced they will foot the bill for the clean-up.

The company is currently bleeding £4million a day as the crisis spreads out of control. In the end, the disaster could cost billions.

But the threat to life along the Louisiana coast - and the devastating repercussions for the local economy - threatened to be even greater.

The spill was bigger than imagined - and closer. Five times more oil than BP estimated is gushing into the ocean each day – about 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons.

Fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines. The slick is estimated to be 600 miles in circumference and is set to devastate hundreds of miles of coastline.


Hopeless: A helicopter flies over an oil boom ringing the islands of the Mississippi delta yesterday

Last line of defence: The flimsy oil booms are now all that stands between the birds and other marine life here on Breton Island and along hundreds of miles of the Gulf Coast, and the lethal tar

No way to stop it: Rough winds and waves push against an oil boom set up in a flimsy effort to protect the Louisiana coast yesterday

Time running out: The survival of much wildlife on the coast is at stake as the spill threatens to turn bigger than the Exxon Valdez

Stemming the tide: Waves swamp an oil boom set up off the coast yesterday. The weather has driven the slick onto the shoreline much earlier than anticipated - and if the waves continue to pound the booms they fail to catch much of the oil

Threat: A boat tries to scoop up some of the spill using an oil boom

The DigitalGlobe images clearly show the oil slick floating on the surface of the water as clean-up crews attempt to stem the flow

Lethal: A satellite image taken on Monday by DigitalGlobe shows vessels working to clean up the oil slick

A graphic posted by the U.S. coastguard and the industry task force fighting the slick shows its approximate location

'It is of grave concern,' David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said.
'I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.'

President Obama has offered military planes, ships and equipment to help BP stem the oil spewing from a well beneath the rig which exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week.

And the cost of cleaning it up will fall on London-based firm BP, the White House said yesterday.

Barack Obama's spokesman Nick Shapiro said the President has ordered his administration to aggressively confront the oil slick that is spreading over the Gulf of Mexico and oozing ever closer to the coast.
The military is working to determine how its array of aircraft, ships and equipment might be able to assist the clean-up operation.

The oil slick from the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig which exploded and sank a week ago could become America's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast.

The area is one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.

The oil was thickening in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.

The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina.
Mr Obama dispatched cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.

Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the coastguard, the government or BP.

'They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't pro-active,' he said.

'As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms.'

The US Coast Guard worked with BP to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water's surface.

The coastguard urged the company to request more resources from the US Defence Department. A BP executive said the corporation would 'take help from anyone'.
Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore was spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated - about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons a day.

At that rate, the spill could eclipse the worst oil spill in US history - the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 - in the three months it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea bed.

Ultimately, the spill could grow much larger than the Valdez because Gulf of Mexico wells typically hold many times more oil than a single tanker.

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP Exploration and Production, had initially disputed the government's larger estimate. But he later acknowledged on NBC's Today show that the leak may be as bad as officials said.

He said there was no way to measure the flow at the sea bed, so estimates have to come from how much oil rises to the surface.

Mike Brewer, 40, who lost his oil spill response company in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina nearly five years ago, said he feared the scale of the escaping oil was beyond the capacity of existing resources.
'You're pumping out a massive amount of oil. There is no way to stop it,' he said.

An emergency shrimping season was opened to allow shrimpers to scoop up their catch before it was fouled by oil.

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency yesterday so officials could begin preparing for the oil's impact. He said at least 10 wildlife management areas and refuges in his state and neighbouring Mississippi were in the oil plume's path.

The declaration also noted that billions of dollars had been invested in coastal restoration projects that may be at risk and he also asked the government if he could call up 6,000 National Guard troops to help.

The coastguard abandoned a plan on Wednesday to set fire to the leaking oil after sea conditions deteriorated.

The attempt to burn some of the oil came after crews operating submersible robots failed to activate a shut-off device that would halt the flow of oil.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was briefed on the issue, said his spokesman, Captain John Kirby.

But Capt Kirby said the Defence Department had received no request for help, nor was it doing any detailed planning for a mission on the oil spill.

Mr Obama dispatched homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano, interior secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson to help with the spill.

He said the White House would use 'every single available resource' to respond.

The oil has the consistency of thick roofing tar.

A graphic posted by the coastguard and the industry task force fighting the slick showed it covering an area about 100 miles long and 45 miles across at its widest point.

From the air, the thickest parts of the spill resembled rust-coloured tentacles of various thickness.

The air was thick with the acrid smell of petroleum.

More than two dozen vessels moved about in the heart of the slick pulling oil-sopping booms.

BP says work will begin as early as today to drill a relief well to relieve pressure at the blowout site, but that could take months.

Another option is a dome-like device to cover oil rising to the surface and pump it to container vessels, but that would take two weeks to put in place, BP said.

Industry officials say replacing the Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean, would cost up to £460 million. BP has said its costs for containing the spill are running at £4 million a day.

The company said it would spend £66million to drill the relief well.

Indian diplomat accused of spying for Pakistan

An Indian diplomat was arrested by her government on charges of spying for Pakistan, officials said Tuesday, a development that could hurt relations between the wary nuclear neighbors and almost certainly leave New Delhi red-faced.

Madhuri Gupta, 53, a second secretary at the Indian Embassy in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, was reportedly lured back to India on the pretext that her help was needed to prepare for an upcoming regional meeting in Bhutan.


She was detained as soon as she landed at the airport several days ago and was found to be in possession of seven sensitive documents, according to Indian news reports.

"We have reason to believe that an official in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had been passing information to Pakistani intelligence agencies," said Vishnu Prakash, spokesperson for the Indian Foreign Ministry. "The official is cooperating with our investigation and inquiries."

Gupta has worked in the embassy's press and information department for 2 1/2 years as an Urdu translator, Indian news reports said, citing police sources. She had been under suspicion for a few months.

As a second secretary, Gupta probably would not have had much access to sensitive information, said B. Raman, a security analyst and former Pakistan desk head with the Research and Analysis Wing, India's equivalent of the CIA. But she still could have caused significant damage if she planted electronic listening devices, he said.



In the 1970s, he said, India caught a British telephone operator in its Paris Embassy taping conversations and feeding them to British intelligence services. The operator was fired.

Red flags reportedly went up after Gupta, who is unmarried, started asking questions outside her area of responsibility and was found to have funds in a Pakistani account, the Times Now news network reported. She has since confessed that she was lured by the money and motivated by unhappiness over not being promoted, the network said.

Analysts said cellphone intercepts may also have played a role, along with the suspicions raised by embassy colleagues.

A picture of Gupta obtained by news networks showed a round-faced woman with glasses and shoulder-length dark hair.

Although many questions about the alleged intelligence gathering remain unanswered, analysts said, the news will almost certainly lead to soul searching at India's Foreign Ministry and among counter-intelligence officials responsible for screening embassy staff members.

"Any disclosure of intelligence activities involving Indian diplomats is embarrassing," said Raman, now director of the Institute for Topical Studies in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

Some expressed outrage on hearing the news, especially in light of attempts to revive talks between the longtime enemies.

"Even as Pakistan talks about having prime minister-level talks, they go ahead with intelligence activities," said Ajit Doval, former head of the Intelligence Bureau, India's equivalent of the FBI. "It doesn't send the right signal."

Others said there were no angels in this game.

"This is standard practice worldwide," said Imtiaz Gul, executive director of Islamabad's Center for Research and Security Studies. "America, Britain, India or Pakistan — they all do it. It obviously comes to a halt once discovered."

It's not clear that Gupta will face prosecution, analysts said, given the high bar required to prove a legal case and reluctance to disclose secrets in court.

In the 1980s, Pakistani intelligence allegedly recruited a senior Indian military attache using a "honey trap" involving an attractive woman in Karachi who reportedly seduced and blackmailed him. When the government found out, it returned him to India and fired him but never prosecuted him. "It's sometimes very difficult to prove," Raman said. "You need evidence from people in Pakistan, which is difficult to get."

Details of Gupta's career track were not immediately available, but her age and low-level position suggested that she was not a career foreign service officer.

A properly trained Indian civil service official might be less "susceptible to foreign inducements," Kapil Sibal, India's human resources minister, said outside the parliament. "That they were able to penetrate the embassy is shocking."

Mayor pledges more Jewish homes in east Jerusalem

Barkat said there was "no freeze" on construction

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat pledged that more Jewish homes will be built in east Jerusalem, despite US calls for a freeze there in a bid to boost prospects for Middle East peace.

Barkat showed no sign of constraints on construction in Jerusalem despite a Haaretz newspaper report saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to refrain from "significant" actions in the disputed holy city.

"The answer is no, a clear no," he told reporters Tuesday when asked if Israel would heed calls by President Barak Obama's administration to stop building in east Jerusalem until at least Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are launched.

The mayor said there had only been a temporary halt to construction as Israel reeled from the shock of having its US ally publicly reprimand it for announcing last month 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem.

"When you get two slaps in your face, first of all, you stop and you think: 'Did you do anything wrong?'" he said.

"It takes some time to recover from such an attack by such a friend like the US administration. Now I think we're past that phase right now," Barkat told reporters over dinner.

"There is no freeze," he confirmed, adding there will be more announcements of further construction.

"There will be buildings going on. You cannot stop a vibrant living city, especially not Jerusalem. And by the way, if you stop it, Jews will leave and Arabs will build illegally," he added.

"You must build for both Jews and Arabs," he said.

"Giving Palestinians any grip of east Jerusalem is putting a Trojan horse for Jews in Jerusalem," the mayor said.

Saying he was simply following a masterplan for Jerusalem, Barkat said he aimed to keep the holy city's Jewish population at 65 percent and the Palestinian population at 35 percent.

Barkat said he showed the masterplan -- which also calls for designs that help increase tourists from two million a year to 10 million a year in a decade -- to US lawmakers and government officials during his visit to Washington.

He said he planned to meet with State Department officials on Wednesday.

His visit coincides with that of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, but is independent of it.

The United States has been pressing the two sides to return to negotiations for months, but the Palestinians have refused to do so without a complete freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

French president arrives in Xi'an for China visit-Sarkozy: France willing to deepen ties with China

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (R) arrive at Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on April 28, 2010, kicking off a three-day state visit to China. (Xinhua/Yang Yimiao)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives in Xi’an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province, Wednesday morning, starting his three-day state visit to China.

Sarkozy will leave Xi'an for Beijing Wednesday afternoon. He will also visit Shanghai and attend the opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo scheduled for April 30.

During his stay in China, Chinese President Hu Jintao, top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao will meet or hold talks with Sarkozy. Leaders of the two countries will exchange views on further improving China-France all-round strategic partnership as well as international and regional issues of mutual concern, according to Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he wants to enhance Franco-Sino relations at all levels because China has an indispensable role to play on the global stage.



The French president was speaking in an interview with Xinhua Tuesday before his visit to China, where he will attend the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

President Sarkozy described bilateral ties and partnership as comprehensive as well as strategic.

"Comprehensive, because it covers all aspects of our relationship; strategic, because China has become an absolutely essential player on the international stage. There is no more big issue today that we can tackle without China," Sarkozy said.

Referring to the establishment of the France-China diplomatic relations 45 years ago, the president said some misunderstanding between the two countries had belonged to the past and he held a firm confidence in China's future.

"This is why I made the strengthening of the Franco-Chinese partnership a priority of our foreign policy," Sarkozy said.

He said relations between the two countries had warmed and France would like to further ties with China "in all dimensions."

Besides political and diplomatic dialogue on all major international issues and the promotion of the development of trade and industrial cooperation, France and China could open new fields for cooperation, the president said.

Current bilateral cooperation on sustainable development, personnel exchange and scientific communication all had room to be expanded, he said.

In his opinion, the "ambitious" will to promote France-China ties was not only a reflection of "the long profound friendship" between the two nations, but also a response to new challenges in the 21st century.

Sarkozy said the visits by leaders of the two countries would bring "France-China partnership to a new decisive stage."

Taking the European Union as a whole, Sarkozy said it was important to establish closer EU-China ties both in economic and political terms.

"I think we must go even further, going deeper in our consultation on all major international issues and providing content to our cooperation (to make it) more concrete and operational," Sarkozy said.

"Europe and China should work together more, especially to organize globalization," he said.

Thai troops, protesters clash in Bangkok suburb-Thai king speaks for first time in political crisis ask new appointed judge to act honestly according to oaths to stabilize country.

Thai army soldiers fire at anti-government ''red-shirt'' protesters on a highway near the old airport in the northern suburbs of Bangkok April 28, 2010.

Thai troops fired live rounds in the air and shot rubber bullets in a chaotic clash with anti-government protesters on a highway in Bangkok's suburbs on Wednesday that wounded 10 people and possibly killed one.

Soldiers used rubber bullets or fired into the air with automatic weapons in an attempt to stop a convoy of up to 2,000 "red shirt" protesters on pickup trucks and on motorcycles who had left central Bangkok in defiance of a state of emergency .

About 100 protesters had moved ahead of the main convoy, charging the troops and riot police, who used batons and shields to push them back. Some protesters fought back by hurling stones and shooting metal balls from sling-shots, witnesses said.

The fighting stopped as a powerful tropical rainstorm moved over the traffic-choked area about 40 km (25 miles) from central Bangkok on Vipawadee-Rangsit road.

Meanwhile , Thai king speaks for first time in political crisis ask new appointed judge to act honestly according to oaths to stabilize country.



A Reuters photographer said a soldier was shot in the head and was feared dead.

An official at Bhumibol Airforce Hospital in northern Bangkok said at least 10 people had been admitted there. The nature of their injuries was not immediately clear.

The main convoy with hundreds of protesters was about 8 km (five miles) behind the scene of the clash, the latest violence in a seven-week crisis that has killed 26 people, wounded nearly 900, paralyzed Bangkok and started to squeeze Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.

The protesters, honking horns and singing on the back of their pick-up trucks and motorcycles, left their fortified base near the business district on Wednesday morning, heading for a market 50 km (30 miles) away.

Riot police and troops did not try to stop them initially and thousands remained at their encampment in a ritzy shopping district in central Bangkok they have occupied since April 3.

Security forces reinforced checkpoints outside the shopping district with more troops and police.

The mostly rural and urban poor red shirts inflicted traffic chaos in Bangkok on Tuesday by stacking tires on the elevated platform of a commuter train station by their protest site, worried troops would use Bangkok's Skytrain to attack them.

The red shirts set out gas cooking canisters along their three-meter (10 ft) high barricade on the edge of the Silom business district overnight, a Reuters reporter said. The medieval-like barriers have been doused with fuel so they can be turned into a wall of fire should security forces try an assault.

Thailand's stock index was down 0.9 percent at 4:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday as the country's political crisis outweighed good quarterly results. The index has lost 3.30 pct so far in April, when the protests turned violent, versus a 1.8 rise in Asian markets outside of Japan.

TROOP MOVEMENTS

Troop movements were reported in central areas of Bangkok late on Tuesday and army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said some were "training" for an eventual dispersal of the protesters.

Hopes for a negotiated end to the crisis were dashed at the weekend when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected a proposal by the protesters for an election in three months.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuangsuban said the security forces would stop protesters moving around in defiance of a state of emergency. "It is clear the protesters are not gathering peacefully. We will not be lenient with these people any more."

Many in the army, which led a failed operation against a red-shirt rally on April 10 when 25 people were killed and 800 wounded, do not want to be dragged into battle with civilians.

Adding to the volatile mix, groups opposed to the red shirts -- and the loss to business and livelihoods the protests have caused in Bangkok -- have held rallies in the capital and want to see the red shirt encampment broken up.

The red shirts back ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup, and say Abhisit came to power illegitimately with tacit military backing.

Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon revered by the poor and reviled by Bangkok's elite, was convicted in absentia on corruption-related charges and lives abroad to avoid jail.

Analysts say the deadlock and a possible deterioration in law and order could continue for weeks, damaging the economy, with consumer confidence flagging and the tourist industry suffering, especially in the capital.

If the protests drag on for three months, it could shave 0.64 percentage point off Thailand's 2010 economic growth forecast of 4.5 percent, the government has said.



For the first time amid the political upheaval raging in Thailand, the nation's revered king spoke out Monday, calling on new judges to help stabilize the country.

Speaking from the hospital where he has been since last year, King Bhumibol Adulyadej addressed a group of newly appointed judges.

"I would like all you to preserve honesty," he said, adding that "it will be a way to help the country to be progressing and stabilized at the same time."

He told the judges they could "be seen as model" for people who work in all sorts of jobs.

The king added that in performing their duties, the judges "would help to uphold justice and order of the country, and this is very important. If you do follow your oath strictly, it will help bring order to the country, certainly."

Thailand is facing a political crisis, with civilians and members of the military clashing in the streets. On April 10, more than 20 people were killed in clashes, and several bombs exploded in a business district.

King Bhumibol, the world's longest reigning monarch, wields little political power, but is revered and enjoys immense popularity.

Arizona's immigration law has ripple effect

Opponents of Arizona's new immigration enforcement law protest outside the state capitol building in Phoenix, Arizona, Sunday. Critics of the law say that it will encourage racial profiling by law enforcement and endanger civil rights in the state.


Immigration activists express opposition to new Arizona law in New York City on Tuesday.

Andrea Mercado makes a sign in Oakland, in preparation for a planned May 1 immigration rally.

Arizona's tough new immigration law has spawned calls for boycotts, a travel warning from Mexico to its citizens and a possible federal lawsuit, but a key Republican senator said Tuesday that it is not likely to result in comprehensive immigration reform this year.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham had been the lone GOP senator supporting reform, but he said it appears a reform bill must wait until 2012 to gain enough public and political support to pass. A reform bill could not pass without bipartisan support.


"Good people in Arizona are so afraid of an uncontrolled border that they passed a law that I think is unconstitutional," Graham said at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "We've got a long way to go to prove we can secure the border."

Arizona's law is under review by the U.S. Justice Department to determine whether it violates the Constitution, and Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he may challenge the law in court.








Dennis Burke, U.S. attorney for Arizona, said his office is working closely with the Justice Department to review the immigration law, which makes it a state crime to be in Arizona illegally and requires police and other law-enforcement agents to check documents of people they reasonably suspect to be illegal.

"The president clearly has concerns," Burke told The Arizona Republic. "The Justice Department has been in discussions with us about the bill and its impact on federal law."

Also Tuesday:

• Because of the new law, the Mexican government warned its citizens to use extreme caution if visiting Arizona.

• The Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association said six groups have canceled meeting or convention plans in the state. Member hotels and resorts said the groups' reservations ranged from 20 to 120 rooms.

• Calls for boycotts of Arizona and the state's businesses continued to pour in from neighboring states and countries.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, testifying before the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that the government has made huge progress in securing the border but argued that reform is needed.

Arizona's action, and violence along the southwestern border, should not be used as an excuse for Congress to avoid taking up comprehensive immigration reform, she said.

"The border is as secure now as it has ever been," Napolitano told the Senate panel.

Napolitano, who served as Arizona's governor before joining President Barack Obama's administration in January 2009, said the number of Border Patrol agents has doubled to more than 20,000 people in the past five years. That's the highest level of staffing in the Border Patrol's 85-year history, she said.

At the same time, Homeland Security has increased the amount of technology deployed at the border, Napolitano said.

For example, she said, Customs and Border Protection now has 30 Z-Backscatter mobile X-ray units that screen passenger vehicles crossing the border. That's up from nine units in 2009.

But Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who has been at the center of the immigration firestorm since signing Senate Bill 1070 into law on Friday, made it clear Tuesday night that she doesn't think the federal government has upheld its responsibilities when it comes to border security.

"Why don't they do their job and uphold their laws?" said Brewer, who lashed out at the Obama administration and Napolitano in particular.

The issue "just falls on deaf ears," Brewer said.

Napolitano, Brewer added, probably knows the border issue better than anyone. But, the governor said, "now that's she's on the other side of the fence . . . she's just ignoring us."

Federal officials say that increased security has resulted in fewer immigrants trying to enter the country illegally and an increase in the seizures of illegal drugs.

Mark Qualia, a spokesman for the CBP, said the number of illegal immigrants caught trying to cross the southwestern border has been steadily declining since 2005, when about 1.2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended. In 2009, he said, the number dropped to about 541,000.

At the same time, seizures of illegal drugs continue to rise.

Since March 2009, federal agents have seized 1.65 million kilograms of drugs along the border, an increase of 15 percent, Napolitano said.

She said she fears that Arizona's new law will divert time and money from catching drug smugglers and other felons to go after people who have committed misdemeanor immigration violations.

"We believe it will detract from and siphon resources away from those committing the most serious crimes," she told the senators.

Meanwhile, the Mexican state of Sonora announced that it will not attend a meeting it and Arizona has held every year for the past four decades.

The meeting of the Sonora-Arizona Commission, scheduled to take place June 3-4 in Phoenix, was canceled as part of a protest of the state's immigration laws, officials said in a letter to the state.

California officials are taking action, too. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday introduced a resolution calling for a boycott of Arizona because of its new anti-immigration law.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn said she planned to introduce a similar resolution for the City Council, according to the Los Angeles Times. California Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, sent a letter to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, asking for a list of Arizona businesses and agencies that do business for California.

Steinberg proposes that "California do everything legally possible to sever its economic ties with the state of Arizona until that state's newly enacted racial-profiling law is repealed," according to a statement posted on his website.

Brewer called such boycotts and actions "unfortunate."

"I am really disappointed that people would try to resolve their problems with the legislation by boycotting the state," Brewer said Tuesday. "They are only depriving the legal residents of Arizona when they do that. I think it's both unfortunate and unnecessary."

Brewer, who is reaching out to her gubernatorial counterparts in other border states, said she has not specifically addressed the boycott issue but is trying to explain Arizona's position on the immigration issue.

She spoke with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson a few days ago and hopes to talk to Schwarzenegger and Texas Gov. Rick Perry soon.

The Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association said the estimated economic value of the cancellations ranges from $5,000 for the smaller groups to $45,000 for the larger.

Kristen Jarnagin, vice president of communications for the association, said the properties did not report the types of groups, other than a meeting of immigration attorneys. Also, a number of tourists have been calling or writing hotels to cancel plans.

"What the biggest unknown is and what our biggest concern is," Jarnagin said, "is that a lot of groups who are currently in the process of planning and would have considered Arizona won't even consider us. They will just mark us off their list.

"So it's almost like the silent boycott. We likely won't ever know the real economic impact because we will just never hear from those people."

'Gay dog' and his blind owner refused service in Australian restaurant

Gay or guide? A seeing-eye dog and its trainer (file photo). An Australian man was barred from a restaurant after staff thought his 'guide' dog was a 'gay' dog

An Australian restaurant has been fined after turning a blind customer away because they thought his guide dog was gay.

Ian Jolly, 57, was trying to enter the Thai Spice restaurant in Adelaide in May, 2009 when he was refused entry.

Staff had misheard the woman with Mr Jolly, and believed that his 'guide dog' Nudge was in fact a 'gay dog'.
The restaurant's owners said a waiter had understood the woman 'to be saying she wanted to bring a gay dog into the restaurant'.

'The staff genuinely believed that Nudge was an ordinary pet dog which had been desexed to become a gay dog,' the owners said in a statement to South Australia's Equal Opportunity Tribunal.

The restaurant, which displays a 'guide dogs welcome' sign and whose ambience is described in reviews as 'relaxed', has refused to comment on the ruling to the Australian press.

Mr Jolly is set to receive a written apology and US$1,400 compensation - but the situation left a lasting mark.

'I always have that fear now, when I go out,' he said.

'I just want to be like everyone else and be able to go out for dinner,' he told Australian press.

Goldman Sachs heads deny wrongdoing-Selling securities and then betting on their demise at the same time.

Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein gestures during his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee hearing on ''Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks'' on Capitol Hill in Washington April 27, 2010.

Senator Carl Levin sparred with Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein over whether the investment bank was conflicted when it sold securities to clients and then shorted them.

Blankfein seemed puzzled by the line of questioning at a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing. Levin seemed frustrated that Blankfein did not acknowledge that a firm may be conflicted if it is selling securities and betting on their demise at the same time.

Below is an abridged transcript of part of their sparring at the hearing:



Levin:

"We've heard in earlier panels today example after example where Goldman was selling securities to people and then not telling them that they were taking and intended to maintain a short position against those same securities. I'm deeply troubled by that, and it's made worse when your own employees believe that those securities are 'junk' or 'a piece of crap' or a 'shitty deal,' words that emails show your employees believe about a number of those deals.... Now there's such a fundamental conflict it seems to me when Goldman is selling securities, which particularly when its own people believes they are bad items... Given that kind of a history... how do you expect to deserve the trust of your clients, and is there not an inherent conflict here?"

Blankfein:

"...Our clients' trust is not only important to us, it's essential to us, it is why we are as successful a firm as we are and have been for 140 years. We are one of the largest client franchises in market making in the kinds of activities we're talking about now, and our client base is a pretty critical client base for us, and they know our activities, and they understand what market making is."

Levin:

"Do you think they know that you think something is a piece of crap when you sell it to them and then bet against it, do you think they know that?"

Blankfein:

"I want to make one thing clear... the act of selling something is what gives the opposite position of what the client has. If the client asks us for a bid, and we buy it from them, the next minute we own it and they don't... we can cover that risk, but the nature of the principal business in market making is that we are the other side of what our clients want to do."

Levin:

"When you sell something to a client, they have a right to believe that you want that security to work for them. In example after example... we're talking about betting against the very thing you're selling, without disclosing that to that client. Do you think people would buy securities from you if you said, 'you know, we want you to know this, we're going to sell you this, but we're going out and buying insurance against this security succeeding. We're taking a short position'... That's a totally different thing from selling a security and no longer having an interest in it... Is it not a conflict when you sell something to someone, and then are determined to bet against that same security, and you don't disclose that to the person you're selling to?"

Blankfein:

"In the context of market making, that is not a conflict. What clients are buying... is they are buying an exposure. The thing that we are selling to them is supposed to give them the risk they want. They are not coming to us to represent what our views are. They probably, the institutional clients we have, wouldn't care what our views are, they shouldn't care. We do other things at the firm... where we are fiduciaries."

Levin:

"And that's the part that's very confusing to folks..."

Blankfein:

"I know."

Levin:

"...because they think you're fiduciaries."

Blankfein:

"Not in the market making context."

Levin:

"Yeah but they are not told that not only are you not a fiduciary, you are betting against the same security that you are selling to them, you don't disclose that. That's worse than not being a fiduciary. That's being in a conflict of interest position."

Blankfein:

"The markets work on transparency with respect to what the item is. It doesn't carry representations of what a position the seller has. Just think of buying from... a stock exchange, or a futures market. You don't even know, you're not even supposed to know who's on the other side. You could have the biggest mutual fund in the world selling all its position in something, they could hate it. You would never know that if you were a buyer of a stock... Liquidity in the market demands transparency that the thing is supposed to do what it is supposed to do. The people who were coming to us for risk in the housing market, wanted to have a security that gave them exposure to the housing market, and that's what they got. The unfortunate thing... is that the housing market went south very quickly... and so people lost money in it. But the security itself delivered the specific exposure that the client wanted to have."

Japanese PM to meet Okinawa Governor as U.S. base relocation deadline draws close

People take part in a rally as a part of a mass rally in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2010. People take part in a rally as a part of a mass rally in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2010. People staged a mass rally Sunday in the village of Yomitan on the western coast of the Okinawa Island, demanding the central government relocate a U.S. marine base outside of the southernmost prefecture.

People take part in a rally as a part of a mass rally in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2010. 

Okinawa citizens opposed to relocating U.S. marine facility within Japan's southernmost prefecture staged a sit-in protest in front of the Diet members' buildings on April 27, 2010.

Okinawa citizens opposed to relocating U.S. marine facility within Japan's southernmost prefecture staged a sit-in protest in front of the Diet members' buildings on April 27, 2010. 

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will meet Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima on May 4 to discuss the thorny issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Japan's southernmost prefecture, political sources close to the matter said Wednesday.

Hatoyama's visit comes on the back of a mass protest rally held Sunday in which 90,000 local residents and politicians, including the governor, gathered in the village of Yomitan in Okinawa to call for the relocation of the Futemma base outside the island.

Sources also revealed Wednesday that Japan's Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa submitted to Hatoyama a set of proposals for modifying an existing bilateral accord reached in 2006 between the U.S. and Japan to relocate the Futemma base from the crowded residential area of Ginowan to a less densely populated coastal area of the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa Prefecture.

Okinawa citizens opposed to relocating U.S. marine facility within Japan's southernmost prefecture staged a sit-in protest in front of the Diet members' buildings on April 27, 2010.

People take part in a rally as a part of a mass rally in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2010

Japanese government officials on Wednesday also met with Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs to discuss the finer points of the latest proposal, earlier drafts of which Campbell described as "encouraging."

The current plan which would see a new airstrip built on an elevated platform in the shallow waters off the coast in Nago, Okinawa, instead of on reclaimed land from the sea, now also involves the possibility of transferring some of the exercises conducted by the air units at the Futemma base to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, an island about 200 kilometers northeast of the main Okinawa island and 1,400 kilometers south of Tokyo.

However on Wednesday Hatoyama visited the Tokyo home of Torao Tokuda, an ex-lawmaker elected four times to the House of Representatives before retiring from politics in 2005, with significant influence in the Tokunoshima area, to seek Tokuda's support and understanding for the plan.

But the bedridden Tokuda rejected the prime minister's ideas involving Tokunoshima saying, "A U.S. base is not acceptable, but I want to do something to be respectful to the prime minister."

Up to 15,000 residents from Tokunoshima island mobilized on April 17 to show their defiance to the governments plans and along with recent protests on Okinawa island the Hatoyama-led government are seemingly struggling to raise the local support, which the U.S. has stipulated is central to the relocation process.

Hatoyama has until the end of May to resolve the relocation issue. Prior to being elected the now prime minister pledged to move the Futemma facility outside of Okinawa.

eBay pulls listing for van used by 'Dr Death' Kevorkian to perform assisted suicides -Ebay does not sell murder items memoriable less than 100years.

Removed: The 1968 Volkswagon van once owned by Dr Kevorkian was put up for sale on eBay, but removed by the online auction site yesterday

Dr Jack Kevorkian (pictured in 2007)

Online auction site eBay has removed a listing for a van used by Dr Jack Kevorkian to perform several assisted suicides.

The company said the sale of the van would violate the company's policy against the sale of murder-related collectables.

Jack Finn, a retired used auto parts dealer, put the 1968 Volkswagon van once owned by Kevorkian up for auction on eBay last week.

With three days left in the auction, the top bid placed for it was $3,400 at 12:30 pm EDT Monday, but the ad had been pulled an hour later.

In an e-mail message, eBay told The Associated Press it 'does not allow the sale of items closely associated with notorious murderers within the last 100 years.'

'We carefully consider all the details before deciding to remove such listings when they're brought to our attention, looking at the entire posting to determine if eBay policy has been violated,' eBay said.

In an e-mail to Finn, eBay said: 'The listing was removed because it violated the eBay Murderabilia policy.'



'I don't run eBay, Craigslist or the world,' Finn said. He said Auburn, Ind.-based Kruse Auctions has agreed to sell the van at its May 13-16 auction.

The 82-year-old Kevorkian has been in the news lately because of Saturday's premiere of the HBO movie 'You don't Know Jack.' Al Pacino plays Kevorkian in the movie.

A replica of the VW appears in the movie.

Kevorkian used the van while assisting in several deaths, including the poisoning of an Alzheimer's patient that launched his public effort in 1990.

Finn said he bought the van in 1997, when he was in the used auto parts business. He said he since has retired from the Auburn Hills-based company, Recycled Bugs, and put the van up for sale to clear out warehouse space.

Mayer Morganroth, Kevorkian's friend and lawyer, said Kevorkian turned the van in to his own auto shop for scrap in 1997 and that he was upset it had been put up for auction.

'Jack never sold it, never got a dime for it,' Morganroth said. 'Jack believed it was destroyed.'

Morganroth said it was not possible to trace how the van came to be owned by Finn and said Kevorkian wouldn't pursue the matter.

Whoever buys the water-damaged and long-idle van shouldn't expect to get anywhere in it, Finn said.

'We are telling you that this bus is absolutely not safe to drive,' Finn wrote in his eBay listing. 'All safety systems on the vehicle would have to be completely overhauled. Although the vehicle may actually move and stop under its own power, it's not being sold as a drivable bus.'

Nicknamed 'Dr. Death,' Kevorkian claims to have helped at least 130 people die from 1990 until 1998. He was released from prison in 2007 after serving eight years for a second-degree murder conviction for assisting in the 1998 death of a 52-year-old Michigan man with Lou Gehrig's disease.