links for 2009-04-05

"North Korea's development and proliferation of ballistic missile technology pose a threat to the northeast Asian region and to international peace and security. The launch today of a Taepo-dong 2 missile was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind. With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations.

We will immediately consult with our allies in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, and members of the U.N. Security Council to bring this matter before the Council. I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and to refrain from further provocative actions.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Sunday that passed over Japan, the government in Tokyo said, defying calls from world leaders to scrap a plan that has caused international alarm.

The U.S. State Department confirmed North Korea had launched the rocket but had no further details. South Korea's presidential Blue House would make a statement at 11:00 p.m. EDT, local TV said.

Japan said the rocket's second booster stage had splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, indicating the launch had been successful.

"The projectile launched from North Korea today appears to have passed over toward the Pacific," the Japan prime minister's office said in a statement.

The United States, South Korea and Japan say the launch is actually the test of a Taepodong-2 missile, which is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said.

Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90- minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising and business office employees.

Poor weather and planning may have forced North Korea to delay the launch of a long-range rocket Saturday, officials in Seoul said, after Pyongyang reported preparations were complete and lift-off would take place soon.

The United States, Japan and South Korea see the launch as the test of a long-range missile designed to carry a warhead to U.S. territory and say it would violate U.N. resolutions.

North Korea has said the launch would take place between April 4-8 from the hours of 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. EDT. It has tested the rocket known as the Taepodong-2 only once before, in 2006, when it exploded less than a minute into flight.

A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said.

Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Three officers were killed.

The FBI on Saturday ruled out Pakistani Taliban militant leader Baituallah Mehsud's claim that he was responsible for an attack on a U.S. immigration assistance center in New York state in which 14 people were killed.

"Based on the evidence, we can firmly discount that claim," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.

A man armed with two handguns killed 13 people at an immigrant services center on Friday before apparently turning the gun on himself, authorities in Binghamton, New York, said.

Representative Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton, told the New York Times that indications were the gunman was an immigrant from Vietnam.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani Taliban militant leader Baituallah Mehsud claimed on Saturday responsibility for an attack on a U.S. immigration center in New York state in which 13 people were killed.

"I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to U.S. drone attacks," Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

A man armed with two handguns killed 13 people at an immigration services center before apparently turning the gun on himself, authorities in Binghamton, New York, said.

Representative Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton, told the New York Times that indications are the gunman was an immigrant from Vietnam.

Lawrence Summers, director of President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, earned millions working at a hedge fund and speaking to banks such as Citigroup Inc. that later received taxpayer bailout money.

Hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. paid Summers more than $5 million in salary and other compensation in the past 16 months, according to a financial disclosure form released by the White House yesterday. Summers served as a managing director at the New York-based firm. Summers, a former Treasury secretary, also earned more than $2.7 million in speaking fees.

“There was considerable interest in hearing his economic insights,” said Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman. At the White House, Summers “has been at the forefront of this administration’s work to shore up our nation’s financial system and to put in place a regulatory framework that will strengthen the financial system,” LaBolt said.

Lawrence H. Summers, one of President Obama's top economic advisers, collected roughly $5.2 million in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw over the past year and was paid more than $2.7 million in speaking fees by several troubled Wall Street firms and other organizations.

Financial disclosure forms released late Friday by the White House show that many of Obama's top aides earned generous salaries, investment income and fees for delivering speeches and serving on corporate boards. National security adviser James L. Jones earned $1.1 million last year in board compensation from five corporations, including defense contractor Boeing, in addition to $900,000 in salary from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and hundreds of thousands more in consulting fees.
Three of the president's closest aides from Chicago earned large sums over the past year as well. David Axelrod, Obama's chief political strategist, received $1.55 million in compensation from public affairs firms he owned…..