Eroding taboos 'threaten lemurs'

14 December 2011 Last updated at 19:29 ET By Mark Kinver and Victoria Gill Science reporters, BBC News and Nature

The erosion of traditional cultural taboos in Madagascar has led to an unsustainable number of lemurs being killed for bushmeat, a study suggests.

Locals revered the primates, believing that the animals were family ancestors, but the influx of outside influences has seen a breakdown in these views.

Some species do not reach maturity for up to nine years and produce offspring once every two or three years.

The findings appear in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) One journal.

A survey of locals' eating habits by researchers from Bangor University in Wales, and the Malagasy NGO Madagasikara Voakajy showed that hunting of protected species in eastern Madagascar was increasing.

They suggested the rise in illegal hunting was the result of rapid social change, an increase in demand for meat and a decline in traditional taboos.

"When you have globalisation and outside influences, traditional cultures break down and change faster," explained co-author Julia Jones from Bangor University.

"What seems to be happening in some of the remote areas around the nation's eastern rainforests is that a lot of legal gold mining is springing up, so people from outside are moving into the area."

Continue reading the main story

Why is Madagascar's wildlife unique?

Dr Andrew Terry Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

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Madagascar is an ancient island that split from the Gondwana super-continent approximately 165 million years ago. This isolation has driven the evolution of a multitude of unusual and beautiful animal and plant forms that exist nowhere else on Earth.

Some of these species were present when the island split but many had to cross the Mozambique Channel, mostly likely by rafting on vegetation and subsequently evolved into unique forms.

Lemurs, for example, the best known of Madagascar's wildlife, share a common ancestor with present day prosimians (primates that are characterised as more ancient than monkeys or apes) such as bush babies. When their ancestors arrived in Madagascar they evolved and diversified into the 100 or so species known today.

Described as the 'eighth continent' for the richness of its biological diversity, over 95% of the plants and animals on Madagascar are found nowhere else.

We still know very little about the species in Madagascar and new species are constantly being identified. As a global biodiversity hotspot, this unique island is one of the world's most important conservation priorities.

Taboos play an important part in Malagasy culture, she added.

Lemurs, especially indris, have been associated with very strong taboos that traditionally ensured that the primates were not hunted.

For example, one story tells of a man who was looking for honey in the forest when he fell from a tree. Before he hit the ground, he was caught by an indri.

He was so grateful that he went back to the village and said from that moment on, no lemur was to be harmed.

Another belief is that the creatures are ancestors that became lost in the rainforests and turned themselves into lemurs in order to survive.

However, Dr Jones said that although people did not prefer to eat bushmeat, it was often the only meat available.

"If they want meat to eat, there is very poor availability of domestic meat in these rural areas," she told BBC News.

"Chickens suffer terribly from disease in rainforest areas, so do not survive that well - so there is not much protein from domestic animals around."

Dr Jones explained that the influx of people, attracted by job opportunities at the mines, had led to an increase in demand for meat and because people had wages from the mines, small bars that sold bushmeat were opening.

'Shocking' figures

The survey of 1,154 households showed that the majority of meals eaten over a three-day period did not contain any meat at all.

Continue reading the main story

In detail: Indri

• Scientific name: Indri indri
• Conservation status: Endangered
• Weight: 6-10kg
• Largest of the living lemur species
• Generally mate for life, and live in small family groups of two to six individuals
• Takes its name from "indri", which is Malagasy for "there it is", which locals used to shout when they showed the animal to European explorers

Among the meals that did contain meat, the preference was for fish or domestic animals rather than bushmeat.

Just under 10% of meals consisted of wild-caught animals, and just 0.5% contained meat from protected species.

However, when respondents were asked if they had ever eaten a protected species, 95% said that they had.

And when the team monitored villages to see how much bushmeat was being brought in, they recorded 233 carcasses of Endangered indri, the largest species of lemur.

Dr Jones called the figures "shocking", adding that this level of hunting was a major concern for conservation efforts.

"Even if things are being eaten very rarely, if they are very slow-reproducing animals that can be having a huge impact," she said.

"Species like the indri, for example, mature at seven to nine years and then only have one young once every two or three years.

"Primates, in general, are known to be extremely vulnerable to overexploitation."

Christopher Golden, from the Harvard Center for the Environment, US, said the island nation had a rich natural heritage.

"If you look at the mammals especially, which are the main group of animals affected by the bushmeat trade, all the primates - 100% of them - are unique to the island.

Such was the nation's biodiversity, he said, new species were being found all the time.

"I first came to Madagascar in 1990 and there were 34 known species of primates. Now, there are over 100 identified primate species."

However, Dr Golden - who was not involved in the study - added: "We know from our previous studies show hunting is not sustainable in the long run here."

David Attenborough explains how timber and mineral resources are a threat to Madagascar's wildlife

And here is one major conundrum.

Although unsustainable, the hunting and consumption of non-threatened wildlife in Madagascar is important for human nutrition - particularly for children.

In a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Dr Golden found that removing "access" to bushmeat for Malagasy families could increase the number of childhood anaemia cases by up to a third.

Dr Jones said improving the availability of alternative meat sources would be one way to overcome the lack of non-bushmeat supplies.

"The fact that people are not eating lemurs as a delicacy means that it is easier to reduce demand through substitutes, such as chickens."

However, she added, this would have to be supported by other projects, including improved veterinary vaccination programmes in order to ensure poultry or livestock did not get wiped out by viruses.

She also said improving the enforcement of existing wildlife laws could also play a role.

"It may not seem to be the most pressing issue facing the country, but wildlife is such an important source of income for Madagascar that tackling this issue should be a priority," Dr Jones observed.

"If the indri and other lemurs disappear from the forests then you are going to get fewer tourists and much less international interest.

"It would be a really positive step and would be worth some investment from the government, given the importance of wildlife to Madagascar's economy."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-16138206

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World stocks rise as data shows US layoffs easing (AP)

BANGKOK ? World stocks rose Friday amid improving U.S. jobs and manufacturing data and the expected approval in Italy of an austerity plan intended to get the country's finances under control.

Benchmark oil hovered near $94 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and the yen.

European shares rose in early trading, following gains in Asia. Britain's FTSE added 0.3 percent to 5,415.04. Germany's DAX inched up 0.3 percent to 5,745.07. France's CAC-40 was steady at 2,997.89. Wall Street also appeared ready to head higher. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.4 percent to 11,872 while S&P 500 futures gained 0.6 percent to 1,218.80.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index was 0.3 percent higher to close at 8,401.72. South Korea's Kospi rose 1.2 percent to 1,839.96 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.4 percent to 18,285.39. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia also rose.

Mainland China shares ended a six-session losing streak, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gaining 2 percent to close at 2,224.84.

Analysts stopped short of calling the gains a recovery, as trading was light ahead of the holidays. The Hang Seng, snapping a six-day losing streak, was higher on a technical rebound, said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong.

"The market dropped for six straight days. Now it may find some excuse for a technical rebound. So the U.S. job figures may be the excuse," Yip said.

Later Friday, the Italian government will hold a critical confidence vote in the lower house of parliament on a multibillion euro austerity package.

Despite widespread opposition, the plan aimed at persuading bond markets that the country can emerge from the widening European debt crisis is expected to pass. The country now sits on a 1.9 trillion euros ($2.5 trillion) powder keg of debt that could spark a global economic recession if a default occurs.

"While the plan will very likely get the required support from MPs, it will be important to see whether amendments are proposed in terms of spending cuts and implementation schedule, in particular," Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Credit Agricole CIB, said in a research note.

Signs emerged that the Chinese central bank may have intervened in the currency market by offering dollars to support the Chinese yuan, which has been weakening in recent sessions. That raised speculation that authorities may plan more market-boosting measures.

The yuan strengthened to a record 6.3294 against the U.S. dollar, but later eased to 6.3446. Weakness in the yuan could raise tensions with countries such as the U.S. that complain it is already undervalued.

Among Japanese stocks, online game firm Gree rose 0.8 percent after Nomura Holdings rated the stock a "buy" on an expected increase in profits, Kyodo News Agency reported. Major automakers fell, including Toyota Motor Corp., down 1.8 percent, and Mazda Motor Corp. dropping 2.2 percent.

Retailers led Australia stocks down. JB Hi-Fi tumbled 14.9 percent after surprising investors with a profit warning late Thursday. Myer Holdings fell 2.6 percent.

Investor sentiment rose after the U.S. government reported that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits dropped sharply last week to 366,000, the fewest since May 2008. That's a sign that layoffs are easing, a first step toward bringing down the unemployment rate, which currently stands at 8.6 percent.

Traders were also encouraged by a report from the Federal Reserve of New York that its index measuring regional manufacturing jumped to the highest level since May. That was far more than economists were expecting. A similar report from the Philadelphia branch of the Fed also increased more than analysts anticipated.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.4 percent to 11,868.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.3 percent to 1,215.76. The Nasdaq rose marginally to 2,541.01.

Benchmark oil for January delivery was up 12 cents to $93.99 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.08 to finish at $93.87 per barrel on Nymex on Thursday.

In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3009 from $1.3011 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 77.94 yen from 77.91 yen.

___

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Shanghai contributed to this report.

___

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FBI chief challenges Congress on terror detainees (AP)

WASHINGTON ? FBI Director Robert Mueller expressed concerns about what he called the "uncertainty" of requiring military custody for suspected terrorists, casting doubt on a massive defense bill that Congress raced to complete on Wednesday.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mueller said a coordinated effort by the military, intelligence agencies and law enforcement has weakened al-Qaida and captured or killed many of its leaders, including Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Walaki. He suggested that the divisive provision in the bipartisan defense bill would deny that flexibility and prove impractical.

"The statute lacks clarity with regard to what happens at the time of arrest. It lacks clarity with regard to what happens if we had a case in Lackawanna, New York, and an arrest has to be made there and there's no military within several hundred miles," Mueller said. "What happens if we have ... a case that we're investigating on three individuals, two of whom are American citizens and would not go to military custody and the third is not an American citizen and could go to military custody?"

President Barack Obama had personally appealed for last-minute changes to the bill's provisions on terrorism suspects as have senior members of his national security team, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mueller. The White House had threatened a veto over issue.

The bill would require that the military take custody of a suspect deemed to be a member of al-Qaida or its affiliates and who is involved in plotting or committing attacks on the United States. There is an exemption for U.S. citizens.

House and Senate negotiators who worked out a final version of the bill on Monday made some changes. They added language that says nothing in the bill will affect "existing criminal enforcement and national security authorities of the FBI or any other domestic law enforcement agency" with regard to a captured suspect, "regardless of whether such ... person is held in military custody."

The bill also says the president can waive the provision based on national security. It was unclear whether that mollified the White House, which has not said whether the veto threat still stands.

"My continuing concern is that that uncertainty will be there until it is resolved in some way by statute or otherwise," Mueller said.

On the other side of the Capitol, the House began debate on the legislation and was expected to pass it overwhelmingly. The bill would authorize $662 billion for military personnel, weapons, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and national security programs in the Energy Department for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

Reflecting a period of austerity and a winding down of decade-old conflicts, the bill is $27 billion less than Obama requested and $43 billion less than Congress gave the Pentagon.

House and Senate negotiators made several changes to appease the Obama administration during their weeklong, private sessions.

They abandoned a House effort to limit the president's ability to put in place a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia and decide on the size of the arsenal. They also dropped a reference to the Defense of Marriage Act that House conservatives, angered by the end of the ban on gays in the military, had tacked on.

They made changes sought by the Treasury Department to a provision imposing tough penalties on foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank.

The provisions on how to handle suspected terrorists had divided Obama's senior national security officials and Congress, as well as Democrats and Republicans. The test of wills reflects the dispute over whether to treat suspects as prisoners of war or criminals.

In an opinion piece in Tuesday's New York Times, retired Marine Corps Gens. Charles Krulak and Joseph Hoar urged Obama to veto the defense bill, arguing that the provisions undermine the nation's ideals in the name of fighting terrorism.

Citing the military custody provision, the former four-star generals wrote that it "would force on the military responsibilities it hasn't sought. This would violate not only the spirit of the post-Reconstruction act limiting the use of the armed forces for domestic law enforcement but also our trust with service members, who enlist believing that they will never be asked to turn their weapons on fellow Americans."

The legislation would deny suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens seized within the nation's borders, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention.

The bill begins a reduction in defense spending, a reality the Pentagon hasn't faced in the decade since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Pentagon spending has nearly doubled in that period, but the deficit-reduction plan that Obama and congressional Republicans backed this summer sets the Defense Department on a budget-cutting course.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and several other GOP defense hawks pledged to return to Washington next month with a plan to avoid automatic across-the-board cuts to defense required in 2013. The failure of the deficit supercommittee last month means $1.2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years, with half from defense.

Defense hawks said the 10 percent cut would hollow out the Pentagon and devastate U.S. military readiness.

McCain and Sens Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., promised an alternative package of cuts, but offered no specifics about what they would be.

____

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_defense

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Nearly 60 killed in rare attacks on Afghan Shiites (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? A suicide bomber struck a crowd of Shiite worshippers at a mosque in Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least 55 people in the deadliest of two attacks on a Shiite holy day ? the first major sectarian assaults since the fall of the Taliban a decade ago.

Four other Shiites were killed in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded as a convoy of Afghan Shiites was driving down the road, shouting slogans for the festival known as Ashoura. Health Ministry spokesman Sakhi Kargar gave the death toll and said 21 people also were wounded in that attack.

The Kabul bomber blew himself up in the midst of a crowd of men, women and children gathered outside the Abul Fazl shrine to commemorate the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein. Some men were beating themselves in mourning and food was being distributed.

The shrine, which is near the presidential palace, was packed with worshippers and dozens more were crammed into the courtyard. One witness said the bomber was at the end of a line and detonated his explosives near one of the gates to the shrine.

Bodies of the dead lay on top of one another where they fell to their deaths. Survivors with blood-smeared faces cried amid the chaos.

The Ministry of Interior said 55 were killed ? including two women and four children. Sayed Kabir Amiri, who is in charge of Kabul hospitals said more than 160 wounded in the blast.

That made it the single deadliest attack in the Afghan capital in more than three years. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the gates of the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008, killing more than 60 people.

Religiously motivated attacks on Shiites are rare in Afghanistan although they are common in neighboring Pakistan. No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blasts, reminiscent of the wave of sectarian attacks that shook Iraq during the height of the war there.

The Ministry of Interior in a statement blamed the Taliban and "terrorists," for the attack. It provided no other details but added that police defused another bomb that had been planted in Mazar-i-Sharif near the one that blew up.

The Taliban strongly condemned the two attacks and said in a statement to news organizations that they deeply regretted that innocent Afghans were killed and wounded.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaking at a news conference after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, said the attack was unprecedented in scope and the first time ever that one has been carried out during a religious event.

He said it was "the first time that on such an important religious day in Afghanistan terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place."

Mohammad Bakir Shaikzada, the top Shiite cleric in Kabul, said he could not remember a similar attack having taken place on such a scale.

"This is a crime against Muslims during the holy day of Ashoura. We Muslims will never forget these attacks. It is the enemy of the Muslims who are carrying them out," he said, declining to place blame.

Shiites make up about 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people, most of them ethnic Hazaras. Although thousands of Hazaras were massacred by the Taliban during fighting in the 1990s, Afghan insurgents ? nearly all of them Sunnis ? in recent years have focused their attacks primarily on U.S.-led NATO troops and Afghan security forces.

It was unclear whether Tuesday's attacks mark a change in Afghan Taliban strategy or were carried out by al-Qaida or another group based in Pakistan, where Sunni attacks on Shiites are common. Hard-line Sunnis consider Shiites nonbelievers because their customs and traditions differ from the majority sect.

In neighboring Pakistan, Sunni militants with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings across Pakistan against minority Shiites. One of the deadliest groups has been the Punjab-based Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility for gunning down 26 Shiites this summer riding in a bus through southwestern Baluchistan province.

Pakistan is a majority Sunni state, with Shiites making up about 15 percent of the 180 million population. Most Sunnis and Shiites live together peacefully, but tensions have existed for decades.

The last incident of violence between Shiites and Sunnis following the U.S. invasion 10 years ago occurred in early 2006, during Ashoura commemorations in the western city of Herat. During those riots, blamed on Islamic extremists, five people were killed and more than 50 injured.

Mahood Khan, who is in charge of the Abul Fazl shrine, said the explosion occurred just outside a courtyard where dozens of worshippers were lined up as they filed in and out of the packed building.

A few minutes after the blast, bodies could be seen loaded into the trunks of cars while wounded were led away by friends and relatives. Survivors wept in the streets.

"It was a very powerful blast," Khan said. "The food was everywhere. It was out of control. Everyone was crying, shouting. It is a disaster."

Mustafa, a shopkeeper, said he and his mother were delivering food to the worshippers when the blast occurred. Two groups of 150 to 200 people from Kabul had just prayed at the shrine and left.

Another group of more than 100 from Logar province was entering when the explosion occurred. He said the suicide bomber was at the end of the line of worshippers from Logar when he blew himself up near one of the gates to the shrine.

"It was very loud. My ears went deaf and I was blown 3 meters (yards)," said Mustafa, who uses only one name. "There was smoke and red blood on the floor of the shrine. There were people lying everywhere."

The shrine's loudspeaker continued to blast a recitation of the Quran as ambulances carried bodies and wounded away. Women stood outside the shrine wailing and holding crying children.

The shrine is close to the palace where Karzai lives and who is in Europe to attend an international conference on Afghanistan. It is named after Abul Fazl, who was an adviser to a 14th century Mogul emperor. The shrine and its blue minaret is one of Kabul's better known shrines. It is located in Murad Khane area near the Kabul river, a district that has been listed by the World Monuments Fund as one of its 100 most endangered sites of cultural heritage.

___

Associated Press writers David Rising in Berlin, and Deb Riechmann, Heidi Vogt and Patrick Quinn in Kabul contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111206/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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FDA favors more risk info on birth control pills (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Federal health regulators are leaning toward adding new warning labels about the risk of blood clots to packages of widely prescribed birth control pills such as Yaz, in light of growing evidence suggesting the newer contraceptive drugs are more risky than older drugs.

On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration will ask outside experts to weigh in on the issue and determine whether some women should not take the drugs.

Yaz and several other pills contain a manmade hormone called drospirenone (pronouncer: dro-speer'-a-non) which was heavily marketed as carrying fewer side effects than earlier drugs.

But several large, independent studies have suggested the rate of blood clots with drugs with the hormone is slightly higher than with other drugs.

FDA says the evidence is not conclusive, but it should appear in drug labeling.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111206/ap_on_he_me/us_birth_control_pills_fda_review

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WikiLeaks' chief in vital extradition court fight

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks during a news conference in central London, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. The whistle-blowing website has released details of companies it says are selling information obtained by monitoring people's mobile phones and computers. According to Assange, more than 150 organizations around the world have the ability to use phones as tracking devices as well as intercept messages and listen to calls. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks during a news conference in central London, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. The whistle-blowing website has released details of companies it says are selling information obtained by monitoring people's mobile phones and computers. According to Assange, more than 150 organizations around the world have the ability to use phones as tracking devices as well as intercept messages and listen to calls. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

LONDON (AP) ? Julian Assange is making what could be a last throw of the legal dice in his battle to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations.

On Monday the WikiLeaks founder will ask judges to let him take his case to Britain's Supreme Court. If they say no, he could be on a plane to Stockholm within days.

The 40-year-old Australian behind the secret-spilling website has spent almost a year on bail in Britain fighting extradition for questioning over claims of rape and molestation made by two Swedish women. So far, two courts have ruled against him.

For his case to be considered by Britain's Supreme Court, Assange's lawyers must persuade two High Court judges that it raises a question of "general public importance."

According to a website devoted to arguing Assange's case, his lawyers will seek to argue two points ? that the European arrest warrant for Assange is invalid because it was not issued by the correct authority, and that he should not be extradited because he has not been charged with any crime.

Lower courts have already considered and rejected both arguments.

Assange's hearing on Monday will come on the same day as a parliamentary debate on Britain's extradition rules. The House of Commons will debate and vote on demands to change extradition agreements that require Britain to transfer individuals to the U.S. and Europe ? sometimes on insufficient evidence, critics say.

Assange declined to discuss his case, but told The Associated Press he was heartened that lawmakers are tackling the issue of extraditions.

"What we ask for is humble ? the right to not be shipped off to foreign lands without formal charges or the presentation of even the most basic evidence," he told the AP in an email.

A district judge ruled in February that Assange could be extradited, and the High Court upheld that decision last month, saying the alleged offenses amounted to crimes under British law and ruling that the arrest warrant had been properly issued.

If Assange is granted a Supreme Court appeal, his stay in Britain ? where he lives under curfew at an affluent supporter's rural mansion ? is likely to last for many more months.

If he is denied, his legal fight will move to Sweden. Last month Assange replaced his Swedish lawyer with two high-profile attorneys, Per E. Samuelson and Thomas Olsson. Samuelson has a long track-record as a defense lawyer in sex crime cases and has also represented one of the men behind file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.

The allegations against Assange stem from a visit to Sweden in August 2010, shortly after WikiLeaks released secret U.S. files from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange became involved with two women, one of whom later accused him of coercion and molestation. The other alleged that he had sex with her as she slept.

Swedish prosecutors have not charged Assange with any crime, but have demanded that he return to Scandinavia to face questions.

He denies wrongdoing and says the sex was consensual. He has insisted the sex crimes investigation is politically motivated by opponents of his organization.

Assange has become a global figure since WikiLeaks began releasing secret government documents, including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables from U.S. missions around the world.

Vilified by U.S. authorities and other governments angry about their secrets being leaked, he has been hailed as a free-speech hero by many around the world.

But his expensive legal troubles ? and moves by U.S. financial companies to block donations to the site ? have taken a financial toll on WikiLeaks, which has been forced to suspend publishing to focus on fundraising. Assange has said the organization needs $3.5 million to keep it going into 2013.

Assange also faces potential legal action in the U.S., where prosecutors are weighing criminal charges, and where he could be dragged into the case of Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army analyst suspected of disclosing secret intelligence to WikiLeaks.

Manning remains in custody at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas. A military court hearing to decide whether he will stand trial is due to begin Dec. 16.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-04-WikiLeaks/id-80719106a65c41aeb59f6784009dd01c

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Robin Koerner: America Wins War on Terror (9-11-01 to 12-1-11) (Huffington post)

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