'NatWest Three' head for prison

The three admitted guilty to wire fraud

Three British bankers have been sentenced to 37 months in prison each for their role in a multi-million pound fraud linked to US energy firm Enron.

David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby - the so-called NatWest Three - have been sentenced after admitting to wire fraud.

A Texas judge announced the sentence, thereby approving a plea-bargain deal.

Last November, the three, all 45, admitted to defrauding former employer NatWest out of $19m (£10m).

Judge Ewing Werlein in the Southern District of Texas announced the sentence on Friday.

Conspiracy

The men admitted to conspiring with ex-Enron employees Andrew Fastow and Michael Kopper, who are already in prison, to defraud NatWest of $19m and then split $7.3m between themselves.

The judge also ordered the three men to repay $7.3m to Natwest's owner, the Royal Bank of Scotland, as part of the sentencing.

Charges brought by prosecutors argued that the three men had advised NatWest to sell part of an Enron-owned firm, Sub Swap, for less than it was worth.

With today's announcement, three more individuals have accepted responsibility for their role in the widespread fraud at Enron Alice Fisher, assistant attorney general, US Department of Justice

The men then left the bank and bought a share in the company, before selling it on at a higher price for a profit.

Bermingham, of Goring, south Oxfordshire, Glasgow-born Mulgrew who lives in Brighton, East Sussex and Darby, of Lower Wraxall in Wiltshire, were extradited to the US in July 2006 and had previously protested their innocence to seven charges.

But in return for pleading guilty last year to one count of wire fraud, US prosecutors agreed to ask for the six other counts to be dismissed, and supported the trio's bid to serve some of their sentence in the UK.

Following the sentencing Bermingham said: "My conduct in this matter fell well below the standards expected."

Darby said: "I failed to take the right course of action and I deeply regret that."

Mulgrew apologised "unreservedly" and said his actions "lacked integrity".

The three are hoping to serve their sentences in the UK. But they still have to be referred to a US prison initially.

Enron, once a hugely successful energy firm, collapsed in 2001 with debts of $31.8bn (£18.3bn), becoming the second largest bankruptcy in the US.

This triggered a wave of court cases against the firm, including from former employees who lost their jobs and saw their pensions collapse.

Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher of the US Department of Justice said: "With today's announcement, three more individuals have accepted responsibility for their role in the widespread fraud at Enron".

Brain control headset for gamers

Gamers will soon be able to interact with the virtual world using their thoughts and emotions alone.

A neuro-headset which interprets the interaction of neurons in the brain will go on sale later this year.

"It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer," said Tan Le, president of US/Australian firm Emotiv.

"It allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively," she added.

The brain is made up of about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, which emit an electrical impulse when interacting. The headset implements a technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) to read the neural activity.

Ms Le said: "Emotiv is a neuro-engineering company and we've created a brain computer interface that reads electrical impulses in the brain and translates them into commands that a video game can accept and control the game dynamically."

Headsets which read neural activity are not new, but Ms Le said the Epoc was the first consumer device that can be used for gaming.

"This is the first headset that doesn't require a large net of electrodes, or a technician to calibrate or operate it and does require gel on the scalp," she said. "It also doesn't cost tens of thousands of dollars."

The use of Electroencephalography in medical practice dates back almost 100 years but it is only since the 1970s that the procedure has been used to explore brain computer interfaces.

The Epoc technology can be used to give authentic facial expressions to avatars of gamers in virtual worlds. For example, if the player smiles, winks, grimaces the headset can detect the expression and translate it to the avatar in game.

It can also read emotions of players and translate those to the virtual world. "The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games," said Ms Le.

"If you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous," she explained.

The $299 headset has a gyroscope to detect movement and has wireless capabilities to communicate with a USB dongle plugged into a computer.

The Emotiv said the headset could detects more than 30 different expressions, emotions and actions.

The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games Tan Le, Emotiv

They include excitement, meditation, tension and frustration; facial expressions such as smile, laugh, wink, shock (eyebrows raised), anger (eyebrows furrowed); and cognitive actions such as push, pull, lift, drop and rotate (on six different axis).

Gamers are able to move objects in the world just by thinking of the action.

Emotiv is working with IBM to develop the technology for uses in "strategic enterprise business markets and virtual worlds"

Paul Ledak, vice president, IBM Digital Convergence said brain computer interfaces, like the Epoc headset were an important component of the future 3D Internet and the future of virtual communication.

THOUGHT-CONTROLLED GAMING HEADSET Sensors respond to the electrical impulses behind different thoughts; enabling a user's brain to influence gameplay directly Conscious thoughts, facial expressions, and non-conscious emotions can all be detected Gyroscope enables a cursor or camera to be controlled by head movements The headset uses wi-fi to connect to a computer

US judge blocks Guantanamo move

A judge in the United States has blocked the US military from sending a detainee at Guantanamo Bay to Tunisia.

The judge ruled it would be a profound miscarriage of justice if Mohammed Abdul Rahman were sent to Tunisia where he says he would be tortured.

Human rights groups say the ruling marks the first direct intervention by a judge in such a case.

The ruling is temporary while the US Supreme Court decides whether inmates can mount challenge in civilian courts.

It means that for the time being the US Defence Department cannot transfer Mr Rahman to Tunisia, where he was convicted in his absence and where he alleged he would be tortured if sent back.

The government there denies his claims, but an official US report earlier this year said human rights abuses continued to take place in Tunisia.

A series of court challenges relating to Guantanamo Bay has led the Pentagon to change its rules and give prisoners greater access to legal representation.

There are about 340 detainees still being held at Guantanamo, according to the Pentagon.

US claims success in war on drugs

he top US drugs official has said anti-drug efforts are having the best results of the past 20 years.

John Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said cocaine shortages had led to a jump in prices in 37 American cities.

Efforts on both sides of the Mexican border have disrupted the flow of all drugs into the US, Mr Walters said.

But he said it had not yet been proven if the results could be sustained over the long term.

Mexican traffickers extradited

Mr Walters was speaking as the US and Mexico work out the details of an aid plan - expected to total $1bn - for Mexico to help combat drug cartels.

About 90% of the cocaine entering the US comes through Mexico.

"What's happened for the first time in two decades is we now see widespread reports of cocaine shortages in the United States," Mr Walters said.

In 37 cities had reported, he said, "the lack of the ability to receive wholesale amounts, kilo amounts, of cocaine in the quantities previously supplied at prices previously charged".

As a result of the drop in supply, the price of cocaine had increased by 24% and nearly doubled in some cities.

The drugs tsar credited Mexican President Felipe Calderon for some of the success.

He said US investigators had been working closely with Mexican authorities in their fight against the drug cartels.

Since Mr Calderon took office in December he has sent 25,000 soldiers and police to Mexican provinces plagued by drug violence and it seems to be working, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Mexico City.

Several high-profile Mexican traffickers have been extradited to the US in recent months.

Mr Walters also said that fewer American workers were showing positive on drug tests and that there were fewer cocaine-related hospital admissions.

The real challenge, he said, would be maintaining the results over the long term.

Uniform issue internal matter: White House

WASHINGTON, Sept 18: The Bush administration on Tuesday refused to take any position on whether President Pervez Musharraf should quit the military before or after his re-election, although in previous statements senior US officials repeatedly reminded the general that he had pledged to settle the uniform dispute before the elections.

Earlier on Tuesday, a senior lawyer for President Musharraf told the Supreme Court in Islamabad that he plans to quit his post as army chief if he wins forthcoming presidential elections.

At a White House briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino refused to get involved in the dispute over Gen Musharraf’s uniform. “As regards to the Pakistani supreme court looking into this matter of the uniform, that is an internal Pakistani matter that we’ll let them debate,” she said.“What we would like to see is free and fair elections in Pakistan,” she added.

The State Department also expressed similar views, adding that the United States “wants to see Pakistan succeed as a modern democratic country.”

Washington backs “a transparent election process that respects the Constitution, gives Pakistani citizens choices and respects their decisions,” a State Department official told Dawn.

Asked to comment on Sharifuddin Pirzada’s statement that “if elected for a second term as president, Gen Musharraf shall relinquish charge of the office of chief of army staff soon after elections and before taking the oath of president for the second term,” the State Department official said: “We refer you to the government of Pakistan.”

The US media, while reporting Mr Pirzada’s statement, noted that so far Gen Musharraf has strongly resisted moves to make him quit the military — which is the main source of his power and whose loyalty in the fight against Al Qaeda militants has kept Washington on his side.

The media also noted that the PPP has dismissed the plan as undemocratic and unconstitutional, but did not say if it would affect a proposed power-sharing deal between Benazir Bhutto and Gen Musharraf.

Al Qaeda losing popularity in Muslim world: US

WASHINGTON, Sept 17: Pakistan is among the Muslim countries where Al Qaeda has greatly lost its popularity — from above 75 per cent five years ago to 34 per cent now, says Karen Hughes, US Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

In an opinion piece released on Monday, Ms Hughes says that the opinion of the Muslim world about Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden “is turning darker than bin Laden’s newly-dyed beard.”

Talking about a “dramatic decline” in Osama’s standing in majority-Muslim countries, she quotes from recent opinion polls in Iraq and Afghanistan, which show that more than 90 per cent of those populations have unfavourable views of Al Qaeda and of Osama himself.

Similar polls in Turkey two years ago found that 90 per cent of citizens believe the Al Qaeda bombings in London, Istanbul, Madrid and Egypt were unjust and unfair; 86 per cent thought that there was no excuse for condoning the Sept 11 attacks; and 75 per cent said Osama does not represent Muslims.

She says that support for terrorist tactics has fallen in seven of the eight predominantly Muslim countries polled as part of the Pew Global Attitudes Project since 2002; in most cases, those declines have been dramatic.

Five years ago in Lebanon, 74 per cent of the population thought suicide bombing could sometimes be justified.

Today it’s 34 per cent -- still too high, but a stark reversal.Similar declines in support have occurred in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Jordan.

Muslim populations, according to Ms Hughes, are increasingly rejecting Osama’s attempts to influence their faith.She quotes from a survey by the WorldPublicOpinion.org, which found in April that large majorities in Egypt (88 per cent), Indonesia (65 per cent) and Morocco (66 per cent) agree: “Groups that use violence against civilians, such as Al Qaeda, are violating the principles of Islam. Islam opposes the use of such violence. “These shifts in attitude are beginning to show up in actions.

Sunni leaders in Iraq’s Anbar province are working with coalition forces against Al Qaeda because, she says and quotes one Sunni leader as saying that all the terrorists bring is chaos — “killing people, stealing goats, everything, you name it.”

After recent terrorist attacks in Algeria, protesters shouted: “Terrorists are not Muslims” and “no to terrorism; don’t touch my Algeria,” Ms Hughes concludes.The polls Ms Hughes quotes in her piece show a totally different picture from another survey released last week by a non-partisan NGO called Terror Free Tomorrow.

The Washington-based group claimed that President Pervez Musharraf -- a key US ally -- is less popular in his own country than Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to a poll of Pakistanis conducted last month by an anti-terrorism organisation.Additionally, nearly three-fourths of poll respondents said they oppose US military action against Al Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan.According to this poll, Osama bin Laden has a 46 per cent approval rating. Gen Musharraf’s support is 38 per cent. US President George W. Bush’s approval: 9 per cent.