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Kenya peace talks move forward

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) — Kenyan negotiators trying to end the violent ethnic tensions that erupted after the disputed presidential elections last year have reached some sort of a political agreement and will continue talking next week, a spokesman for the mediators said.

But a government spokeswoman specified the agreement is not a substantive one.

Nasser Ega-Musa told CNN on Thursday that Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general who was asked to help settle the dispute, will outline the agreement at a news conference Friday in Kenya.

Ega-Musa, spokesman for the panel of eminent African personalities on the national dialogue of reconciliation chaired by Annan, said Annan will release the text of the agreement that was signed by both parties. The talks will resume on Monday morning, Ega-Musa said.

Chief government negotiator Martha Karua, asked about the negotiations at the Nairobi airport, said, All I can say is that the talks are progressing and that a substantive agreement has not been hammered out.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is being sent to Kenya in the coming few days to support efforts to end violence there. President Bush announced the mission in Washington on Thursday.

Earlier this week, both sides in the disputed December 27 presidential election in Kenya agreed not to pursue a recount or audit of the votes.

President Mwai Kibaki won the vote but supporters of challenger Raila Odinga disputed the poll. Anger over the elections sparked civil conflict, leaving hundreds of people dead.

Both sides have agreed on the creation of an independent committee to investigate irregularities in the election and suggest reforms.

Karua was also asked about reported comments from the British high commissioner to Kenya that the British government does not recognize the current government as legitimate.

I will remind them that we are not a colony and we will not take pressure from any other country, she said. Can you imagine a Kenyan envoy telling the British what to do?

They are throwing their non-existent weight around.
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Deutsche Post chief suspected of tax-evasion

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Deutsche Post Chief Executive Klaus Zumwinkel is under investigation for suspected evasion of some euro1 million ($1.45 million) in taxes through investments in Liechtenstein, prosecutors said Thursday after questioning the executive.

As part of this investigation today many premises were searched, among them the private residence of the suspect, Dr. Klaus Zumwinkel, said Bernd Bieniossek, a spokesman for Bochum prosecutors, who are leading the investigation.

Zumwinkel is suspected of evading about euro1 million ($1.45 million) in taxes via investments in Liechtenstein, he said.

The 64-year-old left his Cologne home accompanied by police after authorities searched the residence and his office.

Zumwinkel got into one of two unmarked silver Mercedes police cars and drove off without making any comment. His attorney at the scene also declined to answer questions.

Zumwinkel was taken in for questioning to the Bochum prosecutors’ office and after providing information and paying an undisclosed amount of surety, was released to go home, Bieniossek said.

Deutsche Post said in a terse statement later Thursday that the entire management board, including its chairman, Dr. Zumwinkel, is functioning fully and is conducting its business as usual.

It said that Zumwinkel discussed the accusations against him in detail with the authorities concerned.

Zumwinkel has led Deutsche Post since 1990. He is also the chairman of Deutsche Telekom AG’s supervisory board, which is the equivalent of a board of directors, and of the supervisory board of Postbank AG.

In addition, he sits on the airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s supervisory board, and is on U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley’s board of directors.

Zumwinkel was named manager of the year by Germany’s Manager Magazin in 2003.

Deutsche Post delivers mail in Germany and is a major worldwide player in the express delivery and logistical services business through its DHL unit. It’s also the majority owner of Deutsche Postbank, which engages in retail banking and financial services.

The German government owns a majority stake in Deutsche Post, but the Economy Ministry refused to comment on the investigation, saying it was up to prosecutors to make any statements.

However, an economic policy spokesman for the center-left Social Democrats, who are part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, said if Zumwinkel is found to be guilty, he should not hold his job for one minute longer.

It is beyond comprehension that a multimillionaire like Zumwinkel found it necessary to save a couple of million euros in this way, Rainer Wend told Der Spiegel magazine’s online edition.

Deutsche Post shares were up 2.9 percent in late Frankfurt trading to euro22.27 ($32.46).
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NBA plans expansion into Europe - report

LONDON, England — American basketball is planning to create up to five new European franchises who would compete for the NBA Championship, according to a report by Sports Illustrated.

The astonishing claims come hard on the heels of plans by the football’s English Premier League to play matches overseas and underline the growing trend of globalization in major sports leagues.

This was further evidenced by Super Bowl champions New York Giants playing a regular NFL season game against the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in London, but the NBA’s leaked plans go far beyond that.

A report on the Sports Illustrated Web site, says NBA commisioner David Stern will reveal his proposals on the eve of the All-Star Game in New Orleans this weekend.

The plans are understood to include the formation of a European division with five new teams in major markets.

The teams would play a full 82-game schedule and compete for the NBA championship.

It is not the first time that Stern has entertained the concept of overseas expansion.

He broached the idea in 2003, saying at the time that the league would look into European expansion within a decade.

Those plans were scrapped, however, with the NBA instead focusing on developing its relationship with China and other emerging basketball markets.

The number of European and overseas players has steadily increased in the NBA and basketball enjoys a particularly high profile in Spain, France, Italy, Greece and the Balkans.

The NBA has played regular-season games in Japan and Mexico, and played exhibition contests this season in London and Rome.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is doubtful for Sunday’s All-Star game with a damaged finger.

Bryant, who dislocated his right pinkie last week, scored 29 points in 35 minutes in Wednesday’s 117-92 win at Minnesota.

Bryant sat out the fourth quarter and had the finger X-rayed after the game. E-mail to a friend

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Study: Love rivals get ogled too

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) — Valentine’s Day is a good time for men and women to attend to their lovers — just in case anyone else might be looking.

While people of each gender tend to ogle beautiful people of the opposite sex, they also check out good-looking rivals who might show interest in their partner, a study shows.

The Florida State University researchers examined something that isn’t a surprise to anyone — people’s eyes are quickly drawn to someone attractive. But this being serious research, they gave it a serious name: attentional adhesion.

Jon Maner, an assistant professor of psychology, said human brains are designed to latch on to people’s attractive features in a quest to find the right mate, or to guard a sweetheart from rivals.

I was also surprised that jealous men paid so much attention to attractive men, Maner said.

The professor’s findings were published in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Graduate students Matthew Gailliot, Aaron Rouby and Saul Miller co-wrote it.

Maner and his colleagues found that the study participants — all heterosexual men and women — fixated on highly attractive people within the first half-second of seeing them, even if it was someone of the same sex.

In three experiments, 442 respondents completed questionnaires to determine the extent to which they were motivated to seek out members of the opposite sex.

They were then shown photos of attractive men and women and average-looking men and women.

After a photo of one of the faces flashed in one quadrant of a computer screen, the participants were required to shift their attention away to somewhere else on the screen. Electronic eye-tracking equipment found that it took participants about a tenth of a second longer to shift their attention away from photos of attractive people.

Literally in the blink of an eye … just a tenth of a second, we can detect attractiveness, Maner said. I don’t think we had a good sense of just how automatic and nonconscious this kind of attentional bias can be.

And that stare most likely lasts even longer outside a lab.

In the real world, when people are looking at real people, I suspect attention would linger quite a bit longer, Maner said. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

found here.

CNN’s Jim Clancy on Imad Mughniyeh

CNN’s Jim Clancy is a news anchor and correspondent for CNN International.

Imad Mughniyeh was a master of deception. He was also Hezbollah’s chief of security and its strategist. His alleged role in bombings and kidnappings earned him a place on the Most Wanted Terrorists list of the United States.

He reportedly underwent plastic surgery in Iran to change his appearance. Mughniyeh was often reported to be in Iran or Syria or on a plane between those two countries. Tehran and Damascus always denied any knowledge.

So forgive me if I greet the news of his demise with considerable skepticism. His life’s work was deception and it would pain me not to take that into account when reporting his death.

Let me take you back to Beirut, Lebanon, in June of 1985, where I was covering a hostage situation for CNN.

It became the very image of terror. On the runway at Beirut International Airport, a TWA pilot looks down from the cockpit window as a hijacker holds a gun to his head. What a remarkable coincidence that the media was there to capture the moment.

But it wasn’t what it appeared to be.

The gunman was actually a teenager. He hadn’t been one of the four men who hijacked TWA flight 847. He was nothing more than a security guard for a few crewmembers left aboard the jetliner while 40 other hostages had been hauled off to Beirut’s southern suburbs.

He just wanted to be on television.

I was permitted to sit down and talk with pilot John Testrake while he was still held hostage. Testrake told me the teenager saw a television news crew approaching and insisted on staging the photo. He became agitated when Testrake refused.

So determined to get his Kodak moment as a terrorist, the young man had unloaded the gun and handed it to Testrake to prove it was empty. Testrake told me he only agreed when he feared the young gunman might become unhinged if he didn’t get his way.

The so-called face of terror photo was really a picture of media manipulation.

A fitting twist because the man who really was behind the spectacular hijacking would become modern terror’s master of deception. He was the main actor who never took center stage. There was never even a reliable photo of him.

Later that week, a source brought me the names of three of the hijackers of the TWA flight to the Commodore Hotel in West Beirut. One of those names was Imad Mughniyeh.

Mughniyeh was the suspected mastermind of the simultaneous attacks on U.S. Marines and French paratroopers in October 1983 in which 241 Marines and 58 French troops were killed. The bombings eventually led the U.S. and other peacekeepers to pull out of Lebanon.

In December 1985, there was another simultaneous bomb barrage on the streets of the Kuwaiti capital.

Even watching the Kuwait story develop from Beirut that winter, I can remember hoping the mysteries of the barracks bombing might be about to unravel. One of the attackers left a severed thumb at the scene in Kuwait. Police quickly uncovered his identity and 17 suspects were rolled up and jailed before they could escape.

One of those sentenced to death in the Kuwait case was none other than Imad Mughniyeh’s brother-in-law.

According to Lebanese intelligence sources, bombings and kidnappings were a family business. Mughniyeh’s strategy was to kidnap Westerners in the war-torn streets of Lebanon in order to force the release of his relatives and allies.

In all, more than 90 hostages from more than 20 nations were taken. Some would be released only to see more kidnapped.

Terry Anderson, the chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press spent nearly seven years in captivity before he became the final American hostage released. Others never made it out. The remains of CIA station chief, William Buckley, were recovered and it appeared every bone in his body had been broken. Britain’s Terry Waite went to Beirut to negotiate the release of the hostages only to be taken hostage himself.

Even after Saddam Hussein’s invading troops opened the doors of Kuwait’s jails and Mughniyeh’s brother-in-law scurried home, the Western hostages continued to be held. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria all denied any involvement. It was only when Iranian clerics called for the release of the Westerners that they finally were freed.

Today, Hezbollah and Syria are paying tribute to Mughniyeh and hurling blame at Israel for his death in a car bombing. I’m not declaring the story to be false and I’m not about to tell anyone it’s the truth. I just keep remembering how much deception Mughniyeh employed in his life’s work.

He was a founding member of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and thousands of its supporters are expected to turn out in the streets of Beirut to remember him Thursday.

Thursday is February 14. It is the anniversary of the day in 2005 when Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated with a massive car bomb. Hariri’s son and political heir, Saad Hariri, blames Syria and its Lebanese backers for the killing.

In what has become an annual ritual, tens of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters are expected to take to the streets in remembrance of Hariri.

Now, with planned demonstrations for Imad Mughniyeh, Syria and Hezbollah have a counterweight that could also become an annual commemoration and even a rivalry with Hariri protesters.

And can you imagine the coincidence that both should fall on the same day?

Like the photo of the hijacked pilot and the gunman, not everything is as it appears.
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