Andrew Oberle Chimp Attack: Student In Critical Care After Being Dragged, Bitten

In this photo taken Feb. 1, 2011, chimpanzees sit in an enclosure at the Chimp Eden rehabilitation center, near Nelspruit, South Africa. (AP Photo/Erin Conway-Smith)

JOHANNESBURG -- In the six years he's managed a sanctuary for abused and orphaned chimpanzees, South African conservationist Eugene Cussons is from time to time called on to comment when an ape elsewhere in the world attacks a human. Cussons says he could always pinpoint a moment of taunting or perceived aggression that could have set off the quick and powerful animals.

This time, though, the attack was at his own Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden in eastern South Africa. And Cussons, host of the Animal Planet show "Escape to Chimp Eden," is without an explanation.

In telephone interview Saturday, Cussons said he would have to wait until the severely injured victim, a University of Texas at San Antonio anthropology graduate student who was inspired by famed primatologist Jane Goodall to study chimps, was well enough to provide details on what sparked Thursday's attack.

It was the first such attack since Cussons, working with Goodall's renowned international institute, converted part of his family's game farm into the sanctuary in 2006.

"You can train for it, you can do your best to prepare," Cussons said. "But when it actually happens, it's shocking and traumatic for everyone."

Cussons's team quickly evacuated the dozen tourists to whom Andrew F. Oberle had been giving a lecture and tried to separate the chimps from Oberle. In the end, Cussons, who was himself attacked by a chimp as he tried to pull it off Oberle, took the extreme step of firing into the air, scaring the animals away.

Oberle was bitten repeatedly and dragged for nearly a kilometer (half mile). Cussons said one of the chimps was injured in the scuffle, and he was awaiting a veterinarian's report to determine the nature and extent of the injury. No one else was hurt.

Male chimps can stand up to 1.7 meters (5 feet, 7 inches) tall and weigh about 70 kilograms (154 pounds), according to the Jane Goodall institute. The two chimps that attacked Oberle were male, though the sanctuary's website did not say how large those animals were.

Cussons said it was the first time he had asked Oberle to speak to visitors. The student had arrived last month for a follow-up study visit after an extended stay to observe the chimps a year or so ago, Cussons said. As a researcher, Cussons said Oberle had been trained to ensure he understood how the animals might behave and knew to keep a safe distance. Cussons said Oberle was given additional training before addressing the tour group.

Cussons said Oberle broke the rules by going through the first of two fences that separate humans from the chimps. The chimps then grabbed him and pulled him under the second fence, which is electrified. Cussons said it was unclear why Oberle had moved so dangerously close.

Only after Oberle is well enough to talk will investigators "be able to find out why he crossed the safety fence to go on to the main fence," Cussons said.

Mediclinic Nelspruit hospital said Saturday that the 26-year-old Oberle remained in critical condition in intensive care. Oberle underwent surgery at the hospital Thursday.

Cussons said Saturday that Oberle's mother was on her way to South Africa. Oberle's mother, Mary Flint of St. Louis, said Friday that chimpanzees have been her son's passion since seventh grade, when he watched a film about Goodall.

Goodall, a Cambridge University-trained ethnologist, began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe National Park in 1960. Since 1994, her institute has been involved in conservation programs across Africa. The institute says its Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in Congo is the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in Africa.

Flint said Oberle knew the risks of working with chimps and would not want them blamed for the attack.

"He adored them," she said. "Since he was a little boy he just loved them, and I just have faith that ... when all is said and done, he's going to go right back into it."

The sanctuary has been closed to tourists since the attack, while government and police officials investigate. The Jane Goodall Institute South Africa is conducting its own investigation.

"Everyone at Chimp Eden is hurting," Cussons said, saying the thoughts of staff members were with Oberle and his family.

Cussons said the two chimps that attacked Oberle, Amadeus and Nikki, had been isolated in their night pens since the attack. He said they were calm and exhibiting remorse, which he said chimps show by behaving submissively.

Human-animal contact is kept to a minimum at the sanctuary, designed as a haven for chimpanzees, which are not native to South Africa, that have been rescued from elsewhere in Africa. Some lost their parents to poachers in countries where they are hunted for their meat or to be sold as pets, and others were held in captivity in cruel conditions.

"They come here and we rehabilitate them by giving them space ... and contact with their own kind," Cussons said. According to the sanctuary's website, one of the chimps involved in the attack, Amadeus, was orphaned in Angola and brought to South Africa in 1996, where he was kept at the Johannesburg Zoo until the sanctuary opened. The other, Nikki, came from Liberia in 1996 and also was held at the zoo until becoming among the first chimps at the sanctuary. Before arriving in South Africa, Nikki, whose parents were killed for their meat, had been treated like a son by his owners, who dressed him in clothes, shaved his body and taught him to eat at a table using cutlery, the website said.

In the United States, a Connecticut woman, Charla Nash, was attacked in 2009 by a friend's chimpanzee that ripped off her nose, lips, eyelids and hands before being killed by police. The woman was blinded and has had a face transplant. Lawyers for Nash filed papers this week accusing state officials of failing to seize the animal before the mauling despite a warning that it was dangerous.

Michael Marin, Convicted Arsonist, Poisoned Himself In Courtroom, Investigators Believe

Minutes after being convicted of arson, Michael Marin, 53, appeared to put something in his mouth and take a drink from a water bottle. He collapsed and died within minutes.

PHOENIX -- As the word "guilty" filled the silence of a Phoenix courtroom, defendant Michael Marin closed his eyes, put his head in his hands and appeared to put something in his mouth. He then took a swig from a sports bottle.

Minutes later, the 53-year-old Marin was dead.

Now investigators are trying to confirm their suspicion that Marin popped a poison pill after the jury found him guilty of arson, a bizarre ending to a case that began in 2009 when he emerged from his burning mansion in scuba gear.

Prosecutors said he torched his home when he couldn't keep up with the payments. Marin, an attorney and father of four, faced seven to 21 years in prison.

"This is one of the strangest cases I've seen in a long time," said Jeff Sprong, a spokesman with the Maricopa County sheriff's office. "We're hoping to find out exactly what he was thinking and exactly what he took."

Detectives will get the liquid from the sports drink tested for poisons. An autopsy was being conducted Friday to determine if any poison was in Marin's system, but results weren't expected to be released for months.

Marin's four grown children, who live in Arizona, did not return requests for comment, nor did his attorney, Andrew Clemency, or prosecutor Chris Rapp.

Marin, a former Wall Street trader, had summited Everest and wrote on his Facebook page that he had scaled six of the world's seven tallest mountains. He also was an art collector who had original Picassos.

Prosecutors painted him as a desperate man who had $50 in his bank account in July 2009, down from $900,000 a year earlier. He also had a monthly mortgage payment on the mansion of $17,250 and an upcoming balloon payment of $2.3 million.

Marin also owed $2,500 a month on a different home and owed $34,000 in taxes, prosecutors said.

On July 5, 2009, Marin told investigators that he escaped a blaze in his 10,000-sqaure-foot mansion in a posh part of Phoenix using a rope ladder and wearing scuba gear to avoid inhaling smoke.

Fire investigators later determined that the blaze was intentionally set. As Marin was led off to jail, he told reporters that he was innocent and "utterly shocked" that he was being arrested.

On Thursday, a jury found Marin guilty of a felony count of arson of an occupied structure.

After the verdict, he appeared to put something in his mouth, according to video footage. Soon after, a bright-red Marin coughed, reached for a tissue, buried his face in his hands and appeared to sob, The Arizona Republic reported.

Marin then began making noises that sounded like snores and whoops as he began convulsing and fell on the floor face-first, according to the newspaper.

Sprong, the sheriff's spokesman, said an investigator in the courtroom tried to resuscitate Marin. He was pronounced dead soon after at a hospital. Sprong said the department planned to interview his family and search his home.

Records show that other defendants found guilty of arson of an occupied structure, on top of other serious charges and when other people's lives were at risk, have received more lenient sentences than the one Marin faced.

For instance, a Phoenix man was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years' probation after being convicted on charges that included arson of an occupied structure. Prosecutors said he endangered 12 people, including six children.

Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in criminal sanctions, said a sentence up to 21 years in prison seemed overly long in Marin's case.

"What makes the potential sentence both seem quite long and seem, in some sense, inappropriate is that the life that was put at risk was that of the offender," he said.

Zimring said Marin likely would have been eligible for a shorter sentence had he agreed to a plea deal.

Jerry Cobb, a spokesman for the Maricopa County attorney's office, said talks about a plea deal had broken down and the case moved to trial. He could not say which side was more responsible for the breakdown.

Cobb said that after Marin was convicted, prosecutors would have sought a harsher sentence for him, anywhere between 10 1/2 and 21 years in prison.

Among Marin's last posts on Facebook, in November 2009, was a photo of his four children that said there was something more important to him than his Everest conquest.

"More than anything else I may have accomplished in this life, this is what really matters to me: the blessing of knowing the amazing individuals I am privileged to call my children," he wrote.

___

Apple Lawsuit: iPhone Maker Blocks Sale Of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus Phone

A judge on Friday granted Apple's pre-trial request to block the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone.

By Dan Levine

SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday granted Apple Inc'srequest for a pre-trial injunction against the sale of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's <005930.KS> Galaxy Nexus phone, handing the iPhone maker its second legal victory against Samsung in a week.

Apple and Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics corporations, are waging legal war in several countries, accusing each other of patent violations as they vie for supremacy in a fast-growing market for mobile devices.

Friday's decision, by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, comes days after she also slapped a pre-trial ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, a tablet computer that runs on Google Inc's Android and goes toe-to-toe with the iPad.

The back-to-back triumphs - significant because pre-trial injunctions are rarely granted - meant Apple had a better week in court than last week, when Chicago federal court judge Richard Posner ruled the iPhone maker could not pursue an injunction against Google's Motorola Mobility, effectively ending that case.

"Apple has made a clear showing that, in the absence of a preliminary injunction, it is likely to lose substantial market share in the smartphone market and to lose substantial downstream sales of future smartphone purchases and tag-along products," Judge Koh said in Friday's ruling.

Koh scheduled a hearing on Monday to consider whether to put the Galaxy Nexus injunction on hold pending appeal. And she said in court that she might rule on Sunday whether or to similarly put on hold the earlier injunction on the Galaxy Tab.

Apple has waged an international patent war since 2010 as it seeks to limit the growth of Google's Android system, the world's most-used mobile operating platform. Opponents of Apple say it is using patents too aggressively in a bid to stamp out competition.

Spokeswoman Kristin Huguet reiterated her previous statement, accusing Samsung of copying the look and feel of its products. Samsung was not immediately available for comment.

As a condition of the injunction, Apple was ordered to post a bond of more than $95 million, to secure payment of damages sustained by Samsung should the injunction be deemed a wrongful decision later. The order shall become effective upon posting of the bond.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 12-00630.

(Reporting By Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Edwin Chan, Carol Bishopric and Richard Chang)

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Canada GDP: April Saw 0.3 Per Cent Rise Mostly On Mining And Oil, StatsCan Says

Statistics Canada says the economy grew by 0.3 per cent in April, after rising 0.1 per cent in March, mostly on the strength of the oil and mining industries. (Alamy photo)

OTTAWA - Canada's economy had a second month of growth in April, building momentum with a 0.3 per cent increase in gross domestic product compared with March, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

Canada's economy took a step backwards in February — when output was affected by a number of production shutdowns — but resumed growth in March, when the GDP advanced by 0.1 per cent.

Emanuella Enenajor, an economist at CIBC World Markets, said April's increase was in line with her estimates and slightly better than the consensus estimate — but not robust.

"Growth in April was primarily driven by resources, after temporary disruptions to production. Beyond the bounce back in those temporary factors, and a surge in wholesale, underlying growth was relatively muted," Enenajor wrote in a research note.

"Today’s data are in line with our outlook for 2.5 per cent growth in Q2."

The second quarter, which began April 1, officially ends June 30 but Statistics Canada won't be scheduled to release its report for the three-month period until Aug. 31.

There have been a number of factors that have slowed Canada's recovery from the deep recession that ended in mid-2009.

Among the chief concerns has been the lingering European debt crisis that has been a drag on other regions of the global economy, including in Asia and North America — all important markets for Canadian exports.

Statistics Canada reported Friday that most of the April increase came in mining and oil and gas extraction and, to a lesser extent, wholesale trade.

Transportation services as well as the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector also increased.

Retail trade, manufacturing, accommodation and food services and the public sector declined.

Mining and oil and gas extraction rose 2.7 per cent in April after declines of 2.0 per cent in February and 1.1 per cent in March.

Wholesale trade was up 1.2 per cent in April, a fifth consecutive monthly increase.

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John Roberts Jokes That He'll Spend Some Time In An 'Impregnable Fortress'

FARMINGTON, Pa. -- U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is joking that he'll be spending some time in "an impregnable fortress" now that the Supreme Court has ended a session that featured him casting the decisive vote upholding President Barack Obama's health care law.

Responding to a question about his summer plans, Roberts quipped that he thought his planned trip to Malta to teach a class was a "good idea."

He delivered the joke Friday at a federal court conference at a posh Pennsylvania resort.

Roberts declined to answer a question about the landmark opinion issued Thursday. But he says he hopes the court will be remembered for "protecting equal justice under the law."

Roberts was speaking in Farmington, Pa., at a conference hosted by the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia Circuit.

Martin O'Malley On GOP: 'Only Health Care Mandate They Can Embrace Are Transvaginal Probes For Women'

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) took a heck of a shot at Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) Friday on a conference call organized by the Obama campaign following the Supreme Court's health care ruling.

"The only health care mandate they can embrace are transvaginal probes for women," he said of Republicans. McDonnell signed a mandatory ultrasound bill in March that required women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion. The bill was later revised, allowing women to opt for an abdominal ultrasound.

The primary focus of the call was whether or not the individual mandate constituted a tax or a penalty. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) , who was also on the call, insisted on the latter. O'Malley spent his time arguing that the mandate would only affect some 2 percent of the country.

The provision, he added, "was also in Romneycare, or as [Louisiana] Governor Jindal just called it, 'Obamneycare.'" Jindal had just been on a conference callFriday morning with McDonnell, during which he was discussing the health care law and let slip the phrase "Obamney" before catching himself.

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Health-care ruling vindicates solicitor general Verrilli

STRINGER/REUTERS - In this courtroom illustration, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli (R) speaks to Justice Antonin Scalia (L), Chief Justice John Roberts (C) and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington March 27, 2012.

He “fumbled” on immigration and probably “blew the case” for health care, many legal analysts asserted after Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. made his oral arguments in March before the Supreme Court.

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin back then called Verrilli’s performance “a train wreck” and “maybe even a plane wreck.” On Thursday morning, Toobin acknowledged he was “eating a bit of crow.” And Verrilli was leaving the Supreme Court with a big win in his pocket, with a 5-4 ruling that upheld the Obama administration’s signal legislative achievement.

At the White House, President Obama hugged White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, then called Verrilli to congratulate him.

It was the second victory of the week for the solicitor general, who was sworn in a year ago. On Monday, the court struck downmost of the Arizona immigration law in a decision that reasserted the federal government’s primacy.

By fining individuals if they were to refuse to buy health insurance, Verrilli had argued in briefs and before the court, Congress was within its rights as a taxing authority. In his opinion Thursday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appeared to have expanded on that argument in upholding the mandate’s constitutionality.

The rumors of the law’s death had been greatly exaggerated. The predictive analysts and pre-buttal political operatives had been shamed into silence, at least momentarily.

And a goat of the health-care debate suddenly became a hero.

Verrilli is a low-key, serious and deliberate attorney, say those who know him, and a passionate competitor who is known to be emotional. When NPR’s Nina Totenberg asked him what made him cry, he said, “almost anything, actually . . . even a stupid movie or television show.”

That display did not happen Thursday inthe court. And if there was any gloating or glee when he returned to his offices, such information was as privately held as the justices’ discussions on his arguments. A request for reaction was met in the Justice Department with a polite, “Sorry, we are declining comment. Thanks.”

Verrilli is about to go on vacation, a friend said — to New Hampshire, where presidential candidate Mitt Romney is about to start his vacation as well.

And Friday, he can celebrate his 55th birthday, the Supreme Court’s term behind him.

House holds Holder in contempt

Washington (CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt for refusing to turn over documents tied to the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting -- a discredited operation that has become a sharp point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

The 255-67 vote marked the first time in American history that the head of the Justice Department has been held in contempt by Congress. Almost every House Republican backed the measure, along with 17 Democrats.

A large number of Democrats -- including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi -- walked off the House floor in protest and refused to participate in the vote. Speaking in New Orleans immediately after the vote, Holder dismissed it as "the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided -- and politically motivated -- investigation during an election year."

The criminal contempt charge refers the dispute to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, who will decide whether to file charges against Holder. Most legal analysts do not expect Machen -- an Obama appointee who ultimately answers to Holder -- to take any action.

House members are also expected to pass a civil contempt measure Thursday afternoon. The civil measure would allow the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to file a lawsuit asking the courts to examine the Justice Department's failure to produce certain subpoenaed documents, as well as the validity of the administration's recent assertion of executive privilege over the documents in question.

Legal experts contacted by CNN have said, based on recent precedent, that it could take years for the courts to reach any final decision.

Fast and Furious, a so-called "gun-walking" operation, allowed roughly 2,000 guns into Mexico with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. Two guns found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's fatal shooting were linked to the operation. Guns from the operation have also been linked to an unknown number of Mexican civilians' deaths.

GOP leaders say the documents they seek are needed to get to the circumstances surrounding Terry's death. Democrats insist the Republican-led probe is all about politics. Thursday's vote came two days after House Republicans rejected the latest offer by the White House and Justice Department to turn over some of the documents sought by congressional investigators in exchange for dropping the contempt measures.

A senior House Republican aide told CNN the offer was insufficient.

In the hours leading up to the criminal contempt vote, Republicans repeatedly insisted that they were exercising proper legislative oversight of the executive branch and seeking answers for Terry's family.

"In the real world Americans are expected to comply with subpoenas. Is the attorney general any different? No he is not," said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Florida. "The attorney general can stonewall all he wants. The attorney general can misremember all he wants. But whether he likes it or not, today responsibility will land on his desk."

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, warned that "even the attorney general cannot evade the law. (It's) time for America to find out the truth. ... (It's) time for a little transparency. Today is judgment day. That's just the way it is."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the "House needs to know how this happened, and it's our constitutional duty to find out. ... No Justice Department is above the law, and no Justice Department is above the Constitution."

Democrats accused Republicans of playing political games with an operation that leaders on both sides of the aisle concede was a mistake.

"What the Republicans are doing with this motion ... is contemptible," Pelosi declared. "This is something that makes a witch hunt look like a day at the beach. It is (the) railroading of a resolution that is unsubstantiated by the facts, based on a false premise."

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, complained that "every single attempt for even-handed investigation has been thwarted by the Republican majority." Holder is "a good, decent, honorable man. He's doing an excellent job as attorney general. He does not deserve this."

Among other things, Democrats contend that California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has refused to let witnesses proposed by Democrats give public testimony. They also claim he has been demanding documents outside the scope of the subpoenas Holder is accused of violating.

Specifically, Issa and other Republicans are seeking documents showing why the Justice Department decided to withdraw as inaccurate a February 2011 letter sent to Congress that denied any major flaws in Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder has repeatedly refused to turn over materials containing internal deliberations, and asked Obama last week to assert executive privilege over such documents.

A video released Tuesday by Democrats on Issa's panel showed the chairman making past allegations of White House links to Fast and Furious, juxtaposed with Issa saying Sunday there was no evidence of a White House cover-up.

Some gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, maintain that the program allowed hundreds of weapons, including assault rifles, to end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels in order for the Obama administration to press for new gun control laws. The NRA heavily pressured House members -- most notably moderate and conservative Democrats -- to back the contempt measures.

The contempt vote in Issa's committee last week fell along strict party lines, with Republicans supporting a contempt recommendation and Democrats opposing it. The vote occurred before the gun lobby formally registered its support for the contempt resolution.

Rarely has any pro-gun-rights Democrat representing a rural and Southern district broken with the NRA's position on key votes, especially in an election year.

Meanwhile, Pelosi argued last week that Republicans were targeting Holder because he is fighting their efforts to suppress voter turnout in November. Rep. John Larson, D-Connecticut, chastised Republicans earlier this week for pushing ahead on the contempt vote as part of a strategy to prevent economic progress and harm Obama's re-election chances in November.

"This is just all part of a continuing plan, and whether it's suppressing the vote or suppressing the economy -- this obstructionist regime that we see that continues to block because they think they would rather see President Obama fail than the nation succeed," Larson said.

Energy companies push for carbon market bailout

Thirteen of Europe’s biggest energy companies have sent a joint letter calling on the EU to "back-load" 1.4 billion carbon dioxide allowances in a bid to bolster the flagging price of carbon in the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Their move comes as lobbying by energy-intensive industries against strong measures to bail out the carbon market in a forthcoming EU proposal reaches a critical stage, analysts say.

The 13 firms – including Shell, E.On, Statoil, Alstom, Dong Energy and General Electric – describe a fully-functioning ETS as the “main policy” for achieving the EU’s ambitious goal of an 80-95% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Their letter, which EurActiv has seen, also argues that ETS auction revenues must play an “important role” in funding low carbon innovations, in which many of them have invested.

“We therefore call on you to bring forward an immediate proposal to back-load the timing of EU ETS auctions,” they say. “Your proposal should reflect the European Parliament Environment Committee’s position calling for the withdrawal of 1.4 billion ETS Allowances.”

‘Back-loading’ is a short-term measure to stagger the release of carbon allowances for auction - without affecting the total number eventually released – so as to manipulate the carbon price to a level at which it can create incentives for low-carbon investments.  

Isaac Valero Ladrón, spokesman for Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, welcomed the companies' call for it.  

“Businesses associations and companies are betting on innovation and competitiveness. This is the way to go to boost growth and jobs in Europe,” he told EurActiv.

“This is why the Commission will present before the summer break a review of when allowances are auctioned in the third phase of the EU ETS. At the same time, we will also present long-term structural options to strengthen the carbon market.”

Creating investment incentives

A carbon price of €25-€30 per tonne had been thought the minimum necessary to spur low-carbon investments, but earlier this year the price collapsed to a record low of near €6 per tonne due to an oversupply of credits, recession, and uncertainty over the long-term climate investment outlook.

It is currently languishing at around €8 a tonne.

EU energy and environment ministers agreed to complete a review of measures to buoy the carbon price by this summer, at a council meeting in Denmark in April.

“There is a tendency [of] much more allowances going into the market in the early phase, rather than the later stage,” Hedegaard said at the time. “We think it's time to look into whether that makes sense.”

Officials within Hedegaard’s climate directorate see back-loading as a form of “good house-keeping”, if coordinated with the EU’s Climate Change Committee, while taking macro-economic developments and market conditions into account. 

Energy-intensive industry

However, the reaction to the ‘back-loading letter’ from sections of Europe’s energy intensive industrial sector was negative.

Unlike the 13 energy companies they argue that a higher carbon price would make them less competitive, and increase the risk of ‘carbon leakage’ – or the relocation of carbon-intensive industry to less-regulated areas outside the EU.   

“We don’t think that there should be a partial review right now focussed only on the carbon price, and we would like to keep the [ETS] instrument as a cost-effective way to reach an emissions reduction,” said Robert Jan Jeekel, energy and climate change policy director of Eurometaux, the European non-ferrous metals federation.

A strong carbon price was “not an aim” of the ETS, he told EurActiv. “It is a result of the scheme.”

However, the European Commission and at least 13 major energy companies disagree.

POSITIONS: 

"Pre-emptive short-term measures would create a precedent, resulting in greater uncertainty, which has to be avoided and could have major repercussions for EU industry, which is already under strain from the economic crisis," a widely circulated letter from employers' federationBusinessEurope said.

Fast And Furious: Justice Department Emails Show Eric Holder's Concern Over Operation

WASHINGTON — "We need answers on this. Not defensive BS. Real answers."

In email exchanges with subordinates in February and March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder and the department's second-highest official expressed growing concern that something might have gone wrong in a federal gun-smuggling probe called Operation Fast and Furious.

Two of Holder's emails and one by Deputy Attorney General James Cole were among documents the Justice Department showed Tuesday to Republican and Democratic staffers of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee in an effort to ward off a criminal contempt vote against the attorney general.

The full contents of the emails were described to The Associated Press by two people who have seen them. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about them publicly.

For the past year and a half, some Republicans have promoted the idea that Holder and other top-level officials at the Justice Department knew federal agents in Operation Fast and Furious had engaged in a risky tactic known as "gun-walking."

Two of Holder's emails and one from Cole appear to show that they hadn't known about gun-walking but were determined to find out whether the allegations were true.

When relying on the technique of gun-walking, federal agents tried to track suspected illicit gun-buyers instead of arresting them. The hope was that the low-level "straw" purchasers would lead law enforcement to major arms-traffickers, enabling the agents to dismantle networks that had put tens of thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. In Operation Fast and Furious, the tracking effort failed. The operation identified over 2,000 illicitly purchased weapons. Some 1,400 of them have yet to be recovered.

The emails by Holder and Cole followed a hurried assurance by the Justice Department on Feb. 4, 2011, to Sen. Chuck Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. No such tactic was used, the Justice Department said in a letter to Grassley. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico," the letter added. The letter was based on incorrect assurances supplied to the Justice Department by the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix and by ATF officials. The department withdrew the Feb. 4 letter on Dec. 2, 2011, after documenting what had taken place not only in Operation Fast and Furious, but in three other gun-walking operations going back to 2006.

At the Justice Department on Thursday, spokeswoman Nanda Chitre declined to comment about the e-mails.

After the Feb. 4 letter to Grassley, news stories appeared containing allegations of gun-walking. The Justice Department was awash in conflicting opinions over whether the media accounts were correct.

CBS News ran a story on Feb. 23, 2011. On March 3, CBS followed up, and the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity weighed in with its own online account.

On Feb. 23, aides passed along to the attorney general the CBS story alleging gun-walking, and the attorney general shot back, "We need answers on this. Not defensive BS. Real answers."

Five days later, Holder asked the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate.

On March 3, Cole, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, emailed his staff: "We obviously need to get to the bottom of this."

Holder was skeptical of any assurances.

"I hope the AG understands that we did not allow guns to walk," an official at the ATF's Washington headquarters said on March 10 in an email that Holder's aides forwarded to the attorney general.

In a response, Holder wrote, "Do they really, really know" that there was no gun-walking?

A day earlier, at Holder's instruction, the Justice Department had sent out a directive to the field reinforcing a longtime Justice Department policy against gun-walking. The directive said that agents must not allow guns to cross the border into Mexico.

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Sidney Crosby Contract: Pittsburgh Penguins Sign Star To 12-Year Extension

Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby (87) celebrates his first-period goal during an NHL hockey game against the New York Islanders in Pittsburgh on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

-- Sid the Kid is sticking around.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and superstar center Sidney Crosby have agreed to a 12-year contract extension Thursday that leaves little doubt Crosby has overcome the concussion-like symptoms that sidelined him for most of the last two seasons.

The deal keeps the 24-year-old Crosby in Pittsburgh through 2025 and gives the team some room to play in the free-agent market. Crosby, whose previous deal was set to expire next summer, will be paid around $8.7 million a season. Crosby will officially sign the extension on Sunday.

Crosby has played in just 28 games in the last 18 months after sustaining a concussion in the Winter Classic against the Washington Capitals in January, 2011. Crosby finished with eight goals and 29 assists last season and added three goals in a first-round playoff loss to Philadelphia.

Mitt Romney On Supreme Court Health Care Ruling: We Must 'Replace President Obama' (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- Speaking on Capitol Hill shortly after the Supreme Court's historic decision, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the fact that health care reform was upheld as constitutional on Thursday makes it more urgent than ever for the American people to vote President Barack Obama out of office in November.

"If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have to replace President Obama," Romney said.

Romney said he agreed with the four dissenting justices, who ruled that the entire Affordable Care Act should be thrown out.

"What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States, and that is I will act to repeal Obamacare," he said. "Let's make sure we understand what the court did and did not do. What the court did today was say that Obamacare does not violate the Constitution. What they did not do was say that Obamacare is good law or good policy. Obamacare was bad policy yesterday, it's bad policy today. Obamacare was bad law yesterday, it's bad law today."

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberal justices, upholding the individual mandate as a tax and concluding it was not valid as an exercise of Congress' commerce clause power. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined in supporting the mandate.

Romney said he would like to see health care reform legislation that ensures "people who want to keep their current insurance will be able to do so," enables people with preexisting conditions to get insurance, gives states more support in their efforts to expand health care access and focuses on lowering the cost of such care.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court essentially bucked the conventional wisdom from pundits who had long been predicting that at least part of the Affordable Care Act would be struck down, potentially hurting Obama's chances for reelection. Republicans were quickly trying to put the best political spin on the outcome that they could, portraying the individual mandate as a tax increase.

National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Brian Walsh, for example, tweeted, "To be clear, SCOTUS has confirmed Senate Dems passed a massive tax increase during one of the worst recessions in US History#FullRepeal."

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul noted that an hour and a half after the court's decision came down, the campaign had already raised $300,000 "organically."

WATCH ROMNEY'S FULL COMMENTS BELOW (via CNN):