Canadian native chief will continue hunger strike

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian aboriginal chief will continue her hunger strike despite meetings on Friday between native leaders and government officials, as a Canada-wide protest movement gets ready for more demonstrations and a day of action later this month.
A spokesman said chief Theresa Spence would continue her strike in an effort to force new meetings to discuss Indian rights.
Spence, from the remote northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat, has been surviving on a diet of tea and fish soup since early December as one of the most visible faces of a protest movement called Idle No More that wants more money from resource development and better living conditions.
She refused to participate in a meeting on Friday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other native leaders, arguing that Governor General David Johnston should also participate.
Johnston, who hosted a later ceremonial meeting with native leaders including Spence, is the representative of Queen Elizabeth in Canada.
"The meeting with the Governor General ... was not a triumph, it was simply a time to send a strong message to the powers that be," Spence's spokesman Danny Metatawabin said in an email.
"The hunger strike continues."
Harper agreed on Friday to pay more attention to native demands and to work more closely with them. But he made no promise about their demands.
Many of Canada's 1.2 million natives live on reserves with unsafe drinking water, inadequate housing, addiction and high suicide rates.
But the aboriginal movement is far from united, and it includes chiefs who say they are prepared to damage the economy unless Ottawa acts, and others who are ready to keep talking.
Native groups complain that Canada has ignored treaties signed with British settlers and explorers that they say granted them significant rights over their territory.
They want Ottawa to rescind parts of recent legislation that reduce environmental protection for lakes and rivers. One law makes it easier to lease lands on the reserves where many natives live, a change some natives see as a way to spur development and other eye with suspicion.
There have been many small demonstrations, including short-lived blockades of railway lines and major intersections. Idle No more plans a day of action on January 28.

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EU to plot telecom reforms this year: FT

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union will set out reforms for a pan-European telecommunications market this year to support competition and investment in the sector, the bloc's telecoms chief, Neelie Kroes, said in an interview with the Financial Times.
"We're working on a range of measures to create common and stable conditions across the EU for telecoms competition, investment and growth, which should also make cross-border consolidation more attractive," the European commissioner for digital agenda said in comments published on the paper's website on Sunday.
Kroes said she was not seeking a single regulator, but greater cooperation between the European Commission and national regulators, as well as asset-sharing between companies to promote investment.
The comments followed a report in the Financial Times on Wednesday that EU competition chief Joaquin Almunia had met with the heads of Europe's big telecoms groups to discuss a pan-European infrastructure network.
However, industry sources later played down the idea of a single network, saying the November meeting had focused on whether the large number of operators could be consolidated through takeovers.
Executives from Deutsche Telekom , France Telecom , Telecom Italia , Telefonica , KPN and Belgacom attended the meeting with Almunia.

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Avis' buy of tiny Zipcar could be in antitrust fast lane

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When car rental giant Avis announced in early January that it planned to buy Zipcar, hipsters across the United States gnashed their teeth in unison.
But an informal poll by Reuters of nine antitrust experts, many of whom lamented the deal privately for the feared loss of a lively upstart, found that eight of the nine expect U.S. regulators to approve the deal.
The quirky Zipcar is admired for its new approach to car rental. Young, monied professionals who have decided to live car-free and broke college students can join and then rent a car for $11.25 an hour, often without leaving their neighborhood.
Beyond convenience and attentiveness to customers, there are the whimsical elements, like nicknaming the cars. There is, for example, a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in Berkeley, California dubbed "Thaddeus."
Avis Budget Group Inc said on January 2 that it would pay about $500 million in cash, a 49 percent premium, for Zipcar Inc , thereby taking the top spot in the fast-growing U.S. car-sharing market.
With Zipcar in its stable Avis is poised to zoom past larger rivals Hertz Global Holdings Inc and Enterprise Holdings Inc .
"My first reaction was concern because I have been very excited to see the significant growth of startups (like Zipcar and other car-sharing companies)," said Ilana Preuss, 40, a Washington community development advocate who uses Zipcar.
"One nightmare would be they ruin the customer service of Zipcar, the friendliness of Zipcar," she said. "I'm hopeful that Avis will be able to add to what Zipcar does. I would hate to see it change for the worse."
The 12-year-old Zipcar charges more than traditional rental car companies for longer rentals but makes up for the high price with convenience for its members, who now number more than 760,000 in 37 U.S. states after the company's start in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Its niche - and one which it more or less created - is in rentals as short as an hour for users who, for example, may want to run a few errands, drive to business meetings or deal with an emergency.
Once signed up for Zipcar, members who reserve a car find it waiting for them in a designated parking spot with no need to wait in a slow-moving line at a car rental counter to fill out lengthy forms.
And no need for city slickers to trek to the airport: Zipcar has vehicles stashed in spots around many city and inner suburban areas. It also has a strong presence in college towns like Bloomington, Indiana, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Its fleet is stocked with premium cars like BMWs or Audis, fun cars such as the Mini Cooper, and larger vehicles like the Ford E-150 cargo van for that weekend apartment moving project.
Each vehicle is returned back to its designated spot at the end of the rental. Availability of each car is shown online, and renters can specify a block of time - say, from 10am to 2pm.
Avis, which declined to be interviewed for this story, has said it expects the deal to close in the spring of 2013. Zipcar will operate as a unit of Avis and Scott Griffith will remain the unit's chief executive officer, Avis said this month.
Hertz and Avis have made small efforts to get into the car-sharing business but neither have come close to challenging Zipcar's lead in this market.
In the rapidly consolidating world of car rentals, Avis has been relegated to No. 3 in the $22 billion U.S. industry. Hertz vaulted into the No. 2 spot with its acquisition of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, with Enterprise atop the pack.
While travelers landing at major airports see a profusion of car rental counters, at this point there are three giant nationwide rental companies. Avis previously bought Budget Rent a Car, Hertz owns the brands Dollar and Thrifty, and Enterprise owns Alamo and National.
Zipcar did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
FTC'S BRIEF TO CONSIDER IMPACT ON INNOVATION
The Federal Trade Commission is likely to review the Zipcar deal for antitrust concerns since it also looked at the Hertz acquisition of Dollar.
It could decide to challenge the proposed transaction under 2010 guidelines which allow regulators to oppose a deal if it would hurt competition in innovating, said Herbert Hovenkamp, who teaches antitrust at the University of Iowa College of Law.
"The government has said that it will challenge a merger on those grounds. It seems to me to fit with the Zipcar story. That's what I'm suspecting is going to emerge in this," said Hovenkamp.
But most other antitrust experts did not expect Avis to face stiff regulatory headwinds.
"I don't think there's any barriers to entry here," said David Balto, a veteran of the FTC and Justice Department now in private practice.
In order to stop a proposed merger the FTC and Justice Department usually show that prices will go up because of the deal. They must also show that if prices go up that there is little likelihood that newcomers will move into the business.
Peter Carstensen, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin Law School, believes the merger will be approved, and it angers him.
"It's the decline and fall of merger law," he said. "It's on top of a lot of other consolidation in the auto rental business. If it (the deal) has any economic effect, it will be an adverse one but there's no way we can prove an immediate substantial probability of an effect on price. I don't like it."
Still, Zipcar member Mike Bennett, a 35-year-old contractor who works on projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development, is a prime example of why the deal may win approval.
Bennett, who lives in Washington, uses Zipcar about once a month to visit family in the Maryland suburbs. He likes the service but if it deteriorates on Avis' watch, would happily switch to an upstart that is challenging Zipcar.

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AP: Criminal cases made Pa. AG hand over NCAA suit

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's attorney general said she granted Gov. Tom Corbett the authority to file a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA because the litigation could present a conflict of interest as her office prosecutes three Penn State administrators.
Attorney General Linda Kelly told The Associated Press on Thursday that "an actual conflict of interest could, and likely would, arise if this office were involved in both cases."
"The size and scope of that criminal case, which includes extensive grand jury testimony and other confidential information related to the university, made it untenable for the Office of Attorney General to pursue a civil lawsuit involving the NCAA's sanctions of Penn State," Kelly said. "Given the serious nature of both these cases, keeping these matters separate is the best course of action for the people of Pennsylvania."
Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley face endangering the welfare of children, obstruction, conspiracy, failure to report suspected child abuse and perjury charges for allegedly covering up complaints and suspicions about Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator who was convicted last summer of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, including attacks inside campus facilities.
Corbett sued the NCAA in federal court on Wednesday, saying a set of penalties imposed against Penn State over its handling of the matter should be thrown out on antitrust grounds. The school agreed to a $60 million fine, a four-year ban on post-season play, a reduction in scholarships and the elimination of more than 100 wins under former coach Joe Paterno.
The NCAA has called Corbett's lawsuit meritless and an affront to the victims of Sandusky, who is now serving a 30- to 60-year state prison sentence for abuse of 10 boys over 15 years.
Spanier, forced out as president last year after Sandusky's arrest, remains a faculty member but is on paid leave. Curley is serving out the last year of his contract as athletic director, also on leave. Schultz, the school's vice president for business and finance, has retired.
All three have said they are innocent.
Under state law, the attorney general pursues and defends lawsuits involving most state agencies, but can delegate that power for reasons of efficiency or if it is otherwise deemed to be in the best interests of the state.
Kelly said her office received a request from Corbett's lawyer James D. Schultz on Friday, Dec. 14, for permission to sue the NCAA. Her office granted it three days later, she said. That authority, signed by the chief of her litigation section, can be terminated or amended by the attorney general's office, and it does not cover any appeals.

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Criminal cases made Pa. AG hand over NCAA suit

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's attorney general said she granted Gov. Tom Corbett the authority to file a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA because the litigation could present a conflict of interest as her office prosecutes three Penn State administrators.
Attorney General Linda Kelly told The Associated Press on Thursday that "an actual conflict of interest could, and likely would, arise if this office were involved in both cases."
Her office is prosecuting Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley on charges of endangering the welfare of children, obstruction, conspiracy, failure to report suspected child abuse and perjury. Prosecutors claim they illegally covered up complaints and suspicions about Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator who was convicted last summer of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, including attacks inside campus facilities.
Corbett sued the NCAA in federal court on Wednesday, saying a set of penalties imposed against Penn State over its handling of the matter should be thrown out on antitrust grounds. The school agreed to a $60 million fine, a four-year ban on post-season play, a reduction in scholarships and the elimination of more than 100 wins under former coach Joe Paterno.
The size and scope of the criminal case made it "untenable" for the attorney general's office to sue the NCAA, Kelly said.
"Given the serious nature of both these cases, keeping these matters separate is the best course of action for the people of Pennsylvania," she said.
The NCAA has called Corbett's lawsuit meritless and an affront to the victims of Sandusky, who is now serving a 30- to 60-year state prison sentence for abuse of 10 boys over 15 years.
Spanier, forced out as president last year after Sandusky's arrest, remains a faculty member but is on paid leave. Curley is serving out the last year of his contract as athletic director, also on leave. Schultz, the school's vice president for business and finance, has retired.
All three have said they are innocent.
Under state law, the attorney general pursues and defends lawsuits involving most state agencies, but can delegate that power for reasons of efficiency or if it is otherwise deemed to be in the best interests of the state.
Kelly said her office received a request from Corbett's lawyer James D. Schultz on Friday, Dec. 14, for permission to sue the NCAA. Her office granted it three days later, she said. That authority, signed by the chief of her litigation section, can be terminated or amended by the attorney general's office, and it does not cover any appeals.
Kelly, a Republican, was nominated two years ago by Corbett, who left the office midterm after being elected governor.
Her decision drew criticism Thursday from a suburban Philadelphia politician who is considering a run against Corbett in the 2014 GOP primary. Bruce Castor, a Montgomery County commissioner and former district attorney, said the lawsuit appeared to be filed in a rush because Kelly's successor, Democrat Kathleen Kane, is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 15.
"I can't imagine any circumstances where I would have given up a case of this importance from my office," Castor said. "It would be exciting. It would be challenging. It would be headline-grabbing. It would have all of the elements that I used to think made a case worthwhile of handling, if not by myself, with my staff."
Kane did not respond to a message seeking comment left Thursday for Charlie Lyons, a top aide in her transition.
Walter Cohen, who spent nearly seven years in the attorney general's office, including a year as the attorney general, said he doubted Kane will want to take the case back.
"She's going to be handed a lot of stuff that happened under Linda Kelly, including the Curley and Schultz and Spanier prosecutions," Cohen said. "That itself is a lot to do."

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Women's hockey team at Dalhousie University suspended over hazing ritual

HALIFAX - Officials at Dalhousie University in Halifax have suspended the women's hockey team for the rest of the season after an investigation revealed that a recent hazing ritual involved excessive drinking, intimidation and humiliation.
University spokesman Charles Crosby issued a brief statement Thursday saying many of the team's players were "put in harm's way" both physically and psychologically during a private house party in September.
Crosby says an investigation by the vice-president of student services started after a first-year athlete approached the team's coach with concerns about the treatment of new players.
Though no one was physically hurt, Crosby says the incident represents a serious breach of the university's expectations.
He confirmed that the team captains have been removed from their positions and all but the first-year players have been suspended for the remainder of the 2012-13 season, which has made it impossible for the team to continue playing.
As well, Crosby said the team will be educated about the university's hazing policy and counselling services will be offered to team members.

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Ohio rape case: Evidence on social media creates new world for justice system

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Young people’s use of social media and mobile technologies to document every facet and event in their lives, including violent and criminal behavior, has drawn national attention to the investigation into an alleged rape of a teenage girl in Ohio.
Not only are the social media being used in support of the pending legal arguments for both the alleged victim and the defendants, but this case and others are creating the potential for a whole new courtroom dynamic between the prosecution, defense, and jury.
Ma’lik Richmond and Trent Mays, two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, are charged with raping a 16-year-old girl at two separate parties in August. The names of both suspects, who are juveniles, are being used because a court judge, defense attorneys, and local media made their names public.
The state attorney general’s office, which is handling the case, says both boys participated in raping the girl, who remains unnamed because she is a victim, while she was unconscious. Mr. Mays is also charged with the “illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.”
Two days after the alleged attacks was reported to law enforcement, local police confiscated about a dozen electronic devices belonging to all of the individuals involved. The devices were then turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, which reviewed tens of thousands of e-mails, texts, and photos. Mays and Mr. Richmond were arrested three days later. They are currently under house arrest.
Prosecutors say a photo taken at the party shows both boys holding the alleged victim by her arms and legs, suggesting her unconscious state. Defense attorneys deny she was unconscious, and claim to have a text message from the girl sent to their client that says, “I know you didn’t rape me.”
Also circulating are text messages posted to some social networks that reference that the rape happened, while the New York Times reports that a second photo snapped by a mobile phone shows the girl naked on a floor. Adding to the digital evidence is a video published online by Anonymous, the international hacker activist group, showing a group of students joking about the assault.
“Is it really rape because you don’t know if she wanted to or not? … She might have wanted to. That might have been her final wish,” one teenager is shown saying, according to CNN.
Local police say they are also tracking a possible video that is purported to show both boys participating in the violent attack.
The role social media plays in violent crimes is a relatively recent phenomenon dating back to the popularity of so-called “flash mobs,” which are public events involving group action that are planned and then executed using social media.
In some high-profile cases, the flash mobs have been used by gangs of youths to carry out the group beatings of strangers. On Sunday, a flash mob was blamed for a riot that broke out in Baton Rouge, La., where 200 teenagers engaged in a fight, causing the mall to be evacuated.
Law enforcement is also increasingly perusing social media sites to learn more about gang activity and get a better sense of when retaliation among certain groups will strike. For example, last year, police departments in Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia announced units to investigate social media behavior among gang factions, which often use mobile technology to plan, and later brag about, violent acts related to turf battles.
In Chicago, the strategy was used to investigate Keith Cozart, a rap star known as Chief Keef, who bragged on Twitter after a rival was gunned down in September. Mr. Cozart was also known for YouTube clips in which he mocked the slain victim.
Another local rapper named Lil Reese, whose real name is Tavares Taylor, came under scrutiny in October following the release of an online video to multiple hip-hop sites that show him severely beating an unidentified woman at a party. He was not charged because the woman could not be identified.
Paul Levinson, who teaches communications and media studies at Fordham University in the Bronx, says the motivation to document violence is “old-fashioned bragging.”
“When your morality is so degraded that you do these thing in the first place, whether it’s beating somebody up or, even worse, raping someone, the appeal for some people is, as a part of that process, to proclaim to the world you did that and have documentation,” Mr. Levinson says.
He cautions against blaming the technology itself, but says that the rapid ease of taking videos and interacting with others is merely enabling certain people to capitalize on their darker predispositions.
“What that suggests is there are some people who unfortunately have violent tendencies, but, to them, it seems a good thing and so that’s why there’s almost this compulsion to make a recording of it to get it out,” he adds.
Indeed, the rise in school bullying has also been attributed to the increased proliferation of social media. According to a report published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November 2011, 88 percent of teenagers using social networks have witnessed others being mean and cruel on social network sites. The incidents can then lead to physical altercations.
In the Ohio case, no physical evidence of the alleged rape exists, which means the looming court battle, scheduled for Feb. 13, will focus strictly on the interpretation of the media evidence.
The dynamic is creating a “whole new world” in the criminal justice system, says Lisa Smith, an attorney who specializes in domestic violence cases and who teaches law at Brooklyn Law School. Unlike traditional cases involving DNA, or other science-based evidence, where one side might rely on the testimony of a medical professional to guide the jury through their interpretation of a certain theory, cases involving text messages, mobile videos, and Facebook and Twitter postings as evidence hang on the direct values and behaviors of the jurors themselves.
“The average juror has no way to know which cardiologist is telling the truth,” she says. “But when it comes to Facebook and photos and text messages, they are going to use their own common sense and make judgments based on their own personal experience.”
Today investigators are trained to immediately seek out any digital evidence left behind on phones, tablets, and personal computers, and attorneys are now prepared to argue cases based on the interpretation of those messages and images, Ms. Smith says. What can be recovered can be conversations related to the planning of the crime, the post-discussion of the crime, or video or photo evidence of the crime itself.
Why this is an emerging trend has to do with the relative age of those involved: usually those of the Millennial generation or younger who have grown up with digital media and are conditioned to record and transmit most aspects of their lives – even if those details are criminal.
“In almost every case I’ve seen in the last year involving young people, there’s been some kind of documentation of the incident,” Smith says.
“This is what they do all day long and it doesn’t make any difference with the substance of they’re documenting,” she adds. “There is no thought process. You have to think of it as automatic, regardless of what they document, as it is to breathe. There is no judgment.”

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Facebook to hold press event, stock passes $30

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Facebook are pushing above $30 for the first time since July after it sent out invitations to "come and see what we're building" Tuesday at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
The company will say nothing more about the event. Speculation Wednesday ranged from a Facebook phone, something the company has consistently denied exists, to new search capabilities that would put it into direct competition with Google Inc.
The company emailed invitations to reporters and bloggers Tuesday and by Wednesday, shares passed the $30 mark for the first time since July.
Though still below its initial public offering price of $38, shares of Facebook Inc. have risen steadily since November as investors grow more confident that the social media site can make money through its growing mobile audience.

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Go Ahead, Keep Being Mean to Celebrities on Twitter

We realize there's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today: 
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We usually don't condone being an impolite jerk to anyone, especially on social media. But we kind of make an exception because, well, if everyone was nice to everyone all of a sudden, we'd run out of fun Jimmy Kimmel segments where celebrities read their tweets:
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Oh man, this giant squid is like the most famous sea creature celebrity of the moment. And yes, it's way freakier in motion:
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So fine, this is sort of bending the rules per se because this isn't really a video-video. It's the Game of Thrones introduction with beatboxing by the Stark children.
And finally, here is one minute of a man singing all the songs involving the word "baby." And in case you were wondering, yes, Justin Bieber is officially in the Baby Pantheon of Music.

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House sets Sunday session as "fiscal cliff" deadline nears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives will return to Washington on Sunday night, just over a day before income tax rates are set to spike higher, in a last-ditch chance to avert the year-end "fiscal cliff."
Senior Republican aides confirmed that House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday told members to be back in Washington in time for a 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT) legislative session on Sunday.
The House may then stay in session until January 2, the final day of the current Congress, according to a Twitter message from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
That is the day that another component of the "fiscal cliff" - $109 billion in automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs - is set to start.
The House went on recess a week ago amid a deadlock over how to resolve ways to avoid the $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that could throw the U.S. economy back into recession.
Some media outlets reported that Obama would meet with congressional leaders on Friday, but several congressional aides said no such meeting had yet been arranged.
If a meeting occurs, Obama is not expected to offer a new "fiscal cliff" solution and he is instead likely to stick to the outline he set out a week ago for a stop-gap fix, according to a senior Democratic aide.
That would include legislation to shield most Americans from any income tax increase starting on January 1, except for those households with net incomes above $250,000 a year. Obama also wants an extension of expiring benefits for the long-term unemployed.
So far, the Republicans who control the House have refused to go along with any measure that would raise income taxes on anyone.
Meanwhile, House Republican leaders held an approximately 35-minute telephone conference call with rank-and-file members on Thursday, according to one Republican aide.
"There were a lot of different members who spoke on the call. All had questions. All had comments," the aide said, refusing to elaborate.

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