CentrePoint News News That Matters

By BBC

Royal Dutch Shell has shut three oil flow stations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region after a pipeline was sabotaged, a company spokeswoman has said.

She said Saturday’s leak on the Trans Ramos oil pipeline was confirmed “to have been caused by sabotage”. The leak was later stopped.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

It came shortly after Nigeria’s militant group Mend said it was ending the truce it declared last October.

An alleged group spokesman said Mend did not believe the government would restore control of resources to local people.

Mend has demanded that residents be given a greater share in profits from oil resources and land.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8490494.stm

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By Fox News

The head of the Taliban in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone attack, Pakistan state television reported Sunday.

The report stated Mehsud had been injured in a drone attack in the Shaktoi area January 14 and died three days later. He reportedly was buried in the village of Mamuzai in the North Waziristan region.

But a Taliban spokesman denied the report on Sunday, calling it a “total lie” in an interview with Reuters.

The Pakistani army said it is investigating the reports.

The militant leader’s death would be an important success for both Pakistan, which has been battling the Pakistani Taliban, and the U.S., which blames Mehsud for a recent deadly bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584402,00.html?test=latestnews

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By Richard Grey

The Stern Review on the economics of climate change, which was commissioned by the Treasury, was greeted with headlines worldwide when it was published in October 2006

It contained dire predictions about the impact of climate change in different parts of the world.

But it can be revealed that when the report was printed by Cambridge University Press in January 2007, some of these predictions had been watered down because the scientific evidence on which they were based could not be verified.

Among the claims that were removed in the later version of the report, which is now also available in its altered form online, were claims that North West Australia has been hit by stronger tropical typhoons in the past 30 years.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7111618/Stern-report-was-changed-after-being-published.html

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By Dario Cristiani and Riccardo Fabiani

Three Spanish aid workers of the Catalan NGO Barcelona Acció Solidària, Albert Vilalta, Alicia Gámez and Roque Pascual, were kidnapped somewhere between Nouadibou and Nouakchott in Mauritania on November 29 (El Paìs, November 30, 2009). Four days earlier, a French citizen, Pierre Camatte, was kidnapped in Ménaka, in the eastern part of Mali (Le Monde, November 27, 2009).

A spokesman for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Saleh Abu Muhammad, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in an audio message sent to al-Jazeera (Le Monde, December 8, 2009). The Spanish government, through the voice of its foreign affairs ministry, Angelo Morantinos, gave credibility to the communiqué (ABC.es [Madrid], December 8, 2009).

French authorities did not release any comment on these kidnappings, stating only, “We are of course in contact with the Spanish authorities… We are fully mobilized… we must exercise a certain level of discretion in order to be effective.” [1] In a message delivered in early January, AQIM threatened to kill the French hostage if France and Mali did not meet the group’s demand for the release of four militants imprisoned by Mali’s authorities.

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http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35963&tx_ttnews[backPid]=7&cHash=e46e925f11

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By Michael Ireland

HAVANA, CUBA (ANS) – A Cuban Evangelical Pastor has been denied the right to appeal his six-year prison sentence by the Supreme Tribunal in Havana.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports that Pastor Omar Gude Perez, a leader in a fast growing network of independent churches called the ‘Apostolic Reformation’, was convicted of “falsification of documents” after trumped up charges were made against him during a summary trial last July.

In a statement to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) Pastor Gude Perez’s wife said the court’s decision confirmed her belief that her husband’s arrest and imprisonment in May 2008 was orchestrated at the highest levels of government.

CSW says that Pastor Gude Perez was initially charged with Human Trafficking, but a local court threw out the charges ten months later, citing a total lack of evidence. The latest charge was brought against him a full year after his initial detention. The prosecution’s petition also accused the pastor of “counter-revolutionary conduct and attitudes.”

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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10010225.htm

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By Stefan J. Bos

JOS, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)– A tense calm returned to the Nigerian city of Jos Saturday, January 30, after hundreds of people were killed in days of clashes between Muslims and Christians, missionaries said.

“We are beginning to see some resemblance of peace, gradually…But how will you calm the nerves of those who are deeply hurt and badly traumatized?” added Gabriel Barau, the chairman of Jos-based Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association (NEMA).

Police said 326 people died while other sources claimed over 400 residents were killed in last week’s riots as bodies were still unaccounted for. At least two pastors and 46 other Christians were among those killed, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), a major umbrella group, and other sources.

The reported deaths are believed to include a Christian family, suggested Barau.

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http://www.bosnewslife.com/11204-jos-test

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By Michael W. S. Ryan

It appears that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is currently following a new version of a classic al-Qaeda strategy.  Developed by al-Qaeda’s strategic thinkers, the strategy behind AQAP’s latest operations is to draw American military forces into Yemen. If successful, AQAP would strengthen its position in the near term within the traditional tribal structure and potentially benefit its recruitment efforts and broaden its financial support.  Such an outcome would also open another front in a strategic location, even as the United States is planning and executing a drawdown in Iraq.  In light of the United States’ current refusal to take this bait, we should expect AQAP to attempt further provocative operations aimed at America.

In October 2009, Shaykh Anwar al-Awlaki published an article in English on a jihadi website with the title: “Could Yemen be the Next Surprise of the Season?”  (tawhed.ws, October 20, 2009). Born in the United States, this is the same ideologue who was linked to Major Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter, and the young Nigerian who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route to Detroit on December 25. Very little notice was taken of this article in the Western press initially, perhaps because Al-Awlaki gave no details and had not yet achieved his current notoriety, but he did make some telling points.

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http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35964&tx_ttnews[backPid]=7&cHash=d3bffef146

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By Yomiuri Shimbun

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama reemphasized in his first policy speech of the current Diet session Friday the government’s intention to smoothly carry out a series of economic stimulus measures by the early passage of the fiscal 2010 budget while continuing to coordinate with the Bank of Japan to tackle deflation.

On strengthening Japan-U.S. security ties, Hatoyama pledged to decide by the end of May the issue of where to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station, which is in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture.

Delivering the speech at both plenary sessions of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, Hatoyama said his government’s biggest economic and fiscal policy task is to put the weak economy back on a sound path toward recovery.

“As we’re strongly determined not to let the economy fall into a double-dip recession, we have compiled a [92 trillion yen] budget plan for fiscal 2010–the largest package ever of its kind–in line with the second supplementary budget [for fiscal 2009], which just passed the Diet.

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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T100129007150.htm

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By Ria Novosti

Libya will buy 1.3-billion-euro ($1.8 billion) worth of arms from Russia under a new contract, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Saturday.

“It’s not only for small arms and light weapons,” he said.

He added that the contract was signed on Friday.

Russian media reports previously said $2 billion contracts for the delivery of Russian fighter jets and air-defense systems to Libya would be signed during the January 26-27 visit to Moscow by the country’s defense minister, Maj. Gen. Younis Jaber.

This deal follows the October deal for Libya’s $200 purchase of three Russian-made missile-launching ships.

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http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100130/157724509.html

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090310/120495201.html

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By John Doyle, David Seifman and Charles Hurt

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won’t be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.

The back-to-the-future Gitmo option was reported yesterday by Fox News and was not disputed by White House officials.

Such a move would likely bring howls of protest from liberals already frustrated that President Obama has failed to meet his deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

It would also indicate that after years of attacking the Bush administration for its handling of the war on terror, Obama officials are embracing one of the most controversial aspects of it.

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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bay_what_gitmo_mCRoRefbWjHgmYQFT4vvIK

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