‘No question’ of Chad arresting Sudan President Bashir

Omar al-Bashir was greeted warmly by his Chadian counterpart in Ndjamena

Chad’s government has said there can be no question of the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, being arrested during his current visit to the country.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has said Mr Bashir should be detained on charges of genocide and war crimes.

Chad recognises the ICC, but a minister insisted that it was a sovereign state which did not depend on the injunctions of international organisations.

Mr Bashir, who denies the charges, is attending a meeting of a regional bloc.

It is the first time he has set foot in a country which is an ICC member since he was first indicted in 2009.

The charges relate to the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, which the UN estimates has cost the lives of 300,000 people and displaced a further 2.7 million.
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Baidu profit doubles in record quarter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — While Google struggles with the Chinese market, local search giant Baidu is soaring to new heights. Baidu said Wednesday that its earnings doubled in the most recent quarter as its sales hit a record high.

Baidu reported net income of 837.4 million yuan ($123.6 million) for the quarter ended June 30, up 119% from a year earlier. Sales rose 74% to 1.9 billion yuan ($282.3 million).

Investors are taking note: Baidu now has a market capitalization of $25.5 billion — comfortably ahead of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) and edging close to eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500).

Baidu (BIDU) split its stock 10 to 1 in May, just weeks after the company said that its profit had more than doubled since January. That’s when rival Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) first announced that it was considering leaving China. In March, Google moved its servers out of mainland China and said it would stop censoring its search results in the country.
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Liverpool sign Joe Cole after release by Chelsea

Liverpool have signed Joe Cole on a four-year deal – subject to a medical – following his release by Chelsea.

The 28-year-old England midfielder left Stamford Bridge in June after failing to agree a new contract with the Premier League champions.

He was linked to Arsenal and Tottenham but has opted for Liverpool, who failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Cole’s arrival follows winger Yossi Benayoun’s move from Anfield to Chelsea for an undisclosed fee in July.

The West Ham academy graduate becomes Liverpool’s second summer signing after Serbia forward Milan Jovanovic arrived on a three-year contract from Standard Liege.

Cole joined Chelsea from West Ham for £6.6m in 2003 and scored 40 goals in 282 appearances, winning three Premier League titles and two FA Cups.

In June he claimed unspecified “political rather than footballing reasons” had led to his departure, but he insisted manager Carlo Ancelotti was not the cause of those problems.
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The law of the weed

California, ever a global leader in cannabis matters, may forge ahead again

IN 1971 a group of teenagers in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, started meeting after school, at 4:20PM, to get high. The habit spread, and 420 became code for fun time among potheads worldwide. Ever since, California has remained in the vanguard of global cannabis culture. Oaksterdam University in Oakland is today unique in the world as a sort of Aristotelian lyceum for the study of all aspects—horticultural, scientific, historical—of the weed.

Legally, California has also been a pioneer, at least within America. In 1996 it was the first state to allow marijuana to be grown and consumed for medicinal purposes. Since then, 13 states and the District of Columbia have followed, and others are considering it. But this year California may set a more fundamental, and global, precedent. It may become the first jurisdiction in the world to legalise, regulate and tax the consumption, production and distribution of marijuana.

Other Western countries—from Argentina to Belgium and Portugal—have liberalised their marijuana laws in recent decades. Some places, such as the Netherlands and parts of Australia, have in effect decriminalised the use of cannabis. But no country has yet gone all the way.
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Boeing’s Dreamliner to launch by 2011, CEO says

Farnborough, England (CNN) — Fans of Boeing’s much anticipated Dreamliner may have to wait a while longer before the aircraft is available for commercial use, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said Monday.

Speaking to CNN’s Richard Quest at the Farnborough Airshow, he said: “The airplane is flying exactly like we thought it would fly. It is possible that this airplane could slip in in the first few weeks of 2011.”

The Boeing Dreamliner made its international debut at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, UK on Monday after a two-year delay.

First unveiled in 2007, the Dreamliner’s maiden flight was originally scheduled for August the same year, but technical glitches delayed its launch.

To date, Boeing has received 860 orders for the Dreamliner across the world — All Nippon Airways being Dreamliner’s launch customer with 55 orders. Boeing has said it expects a “healthy increase” in orders following the Airshow.
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Google quietly kills its once-hyped Nexus One phone

(CNN) — With the eyes of the technology world squarely on Apple’s iPhone 4, Google quietly announced it will stop selling the Nexus One, its first and possibly only foray into the smartphone world.

In a two-paragraph post on its official blog, Google’s Nexus One team said the next shipment of the phones will be the last.

“Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google,” according to the post.

The announcement was made Friday, the same day that Apple CEO Steve Jobs held a news conference to announce the company’s solution for reception problems with the popular iPhone 4.

Running on Google’s Android operating system, the Nexus One was released in January to mostly positive reviews from the tech blogosphere. Early users compared it favorably to the iPhone and liked the ability to buy the phone, albeit for more money, without a data plan from a particular service provider.

But sales were anemic, with the phone selling only 135,000 units in roughly the same time it took the iPhone and the Droid — Motorola’s phone that runs the Android system — to sell 1 million.
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Court approves bail for media mogul Conrad Black

(CNN) — An appellate court on Monday ruled that jailed media mogul Conrad Black can be released on bail.

A judge will now set the bail conditions for Black, who is serving a six-and-a-half-year prison term for fraud. It was unclear when Black might be freed on bail.

Black formerly headed Hollinger International Inc., a media giant that published hundreds of newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, The Daily Telegraph of London and the National Post in Canada.

He was convicted in 2007 of fraud involving the sale of assets of Hollinger. However, the U.S. Supreme Court last month threw out the the law under which Black was convicted, setting up his appeal and request for release on bail while it is heard.
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US Supreme Court extends gun rights

The US Supreme Court has restricted the rights of state and city governments to enforce controls on gun ownership.

The US’s highest court ruled by 5-4 that a ban on handgun ownership in the city of Chicago was unconstitutional.

Justices said the US Constitution protected the right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defence.

The ruling could potentially change laws on gun ownership in many of the 50 US states.

Debate over the exact meaning of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms has raged for years in the US.

The amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

Two years ago, the court ruled a ban on handguns in Washington DC was unconstitutional – declaring that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess guns, at least for purposes of self-defence in the home.
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Help them to help themselves

The EU should not just hector China about universal values but encourage it to follow its own laws

THE European press has been filled with reports of the Universal Expo in Shanghai. They make for chirpy reading. The Spanish are offering Chinese visitors tortillas at their pavilion. In the Belgian pavilion (shared with the European Union), freshly made chocolates are being handed out every 20 minutes, drawing terrific crowds. France’s efforts have included a mock mass wedding for Chinese couples, who received a “Romantic Wedding” certificate and invitations to visit France in person.

The message is clear enough. This is not Europe as a shining city on the hill, a beacon of democracy and supranational co-operation. This is Europe as a nice place to shop and go on holiday. To be fair, the EU’s (rather small) stand in Shanghai talks about climate change and human rights. But such values are absent from European press reporting: the buzz is all about luring Chinese tourists and investment to recession-hit Europe.

This marks a rapid shift. Until recently European leaders visiting China felt obliged to speak out on human rights. A decade ago, a diplomat recalls, European investment in China was routinely linked to the appointment of a foreign general manager. Now, he notes: “the Chinese are buying Volvo.” Five years ago, Euro-boosters still argued that the EU—a peaceable club with an enviable social model and a lucrative internal market—was uniquely positioned to make China a “responsible stakeholder” and an ally in a multipolar world order.
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Apple issues advice to avoid iPhone flaw

Apple has released official advice for iPhone 4 owners to overcome the problem of the device losing signal when held by the lower left corner.

Steve Jobs responded to a query about the problem from one owner by saying: “Just avoid holding it in that way.”

The official advice is to “avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band”.

Alternatively, said Apple, customers could buy a case to shield the antenna.

The iPhone 4 went on sale on 24 June, with hundreds of people queuing outside Apple’s flagship store in central London for the launch.

Many new owners reported that signal strength dropped when the phone was held.

In a statement, Apple said: “Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas.”

Steve Jobs issued his response in a message responding to an e-mail from the Ars Technica news site. Mr Jobs wrote that “All phones have sensitive areas”.
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