Environmental lawyer ignores death threat to protect nature.

CNN’s Arwa Damon spends the day with Tony Oposa.

BP ousts CEO Hayward and taps an AmericanBy Ben Rooney, staff reporter.

Tony Hayward will step down as chief executive of BP, the company announced Tuesday, amid ongoing outrage over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP said Hayward will be replaced by American Robert Dudley effective October 1.24EmailPrintCommentDudley is another long-time BP employee with more than 30 years in the oil business.

A chemical engineer by training, Dudley was put in charge of the day-to-day leadership of the Gulf Coast clean-up operation in June.

Hayward will receive a years salary amounting to $1.6 million. The company also plans to nominate him as a non-executive director of Russian oil and gas venture TNK-BP.

The announcement of the change in leadership came as BP reported a second-quarter net loss of $17.2 billion. The heavy loss was due to a $32.2 billion charge the company took related to the oil disaster. That charge includes oil spill costs through the end of June, BP said.

The news ends weeks of speculation about management changes at the company responsible for what has been called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

It also presents an opportunity for BP to put a new public face on the company as it seeks to rebuild its reputation.Hayward has become a lightning rod for public and political anger since a drill rig operated by BP exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April.

The disaster killed 11 workers and ruptured a well deep below the surface.The company has already committed $20 billion to compensate individuals and businesses affected by the spill. But it still could face billions more in fines and legal costs associated with the explosion.

BP has since managed to temporarily halt the flow of oil into the Gulf. But attempts to provide a permanent fix were delayed after Tropical Storm Bonnie prompted crews to suspend efforts to create a relief well last week. BP said Monday it will probably be several more days before it can resume drilling operations.

The spill, which Hayward himself called an environmental catastrophe, has fouled large portions of the coastline in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. It has also crippled the Gulf Coast economy and led to a government-imposed moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the region.

Investors have punished the company. Shares of BP BP have plunged nearly 40% since the spill, erasing about $72 billion of BPs market value.Despite signs that BP chose cheaper, riskier drilling tactics before the disaster, Hayward is not expected to face criminal charges.

Legal experts believe some mid-level employees at BP could go to jail though.Since he was thrust into the spotlight, Hayward has made a number of high-profile gaffes that critics say illustrated his lack of sensitivity for those hurt by the spill. In May, he botched an apology by saying hed like his life back, a slip he later apologized for.

Hayward, who grew up outside London, joined BP in 1982 after completing his Ph.D. in geology at the University of Edinburgh the same year. After stints on BP projects in Europe, China and South America, he was made a company director and returned to London in 1997.

He moved up the corporate ladder in the years after BP merged with Amoco in 1998, creating what was then the largest company in Britain. He took over as CEO in 2007.

via BP replaces CEO Tony Hayward with Robert Dudley – Jul. 27, 2010.

18 dead, 57 missing after Tropical Storm Conson rakes Philippines – CNN.com.

(CNN) — Eighteen people were killed and 57 others are missing as Tropical Storm Conson moved over the Philippines, the country’s National Disaster Coordinating Council reported Wednesday.

The storm, known locally as “Basyang,” had weakened slightly, the council said. As of 4 p.m. Wednesday (4 a.m. ET), its maximum sustained winds were at 53 mph (85 kph) near its center and gusts of up to 62 mph (100 kph).

Conson made landfall on the northern Philippine island of Luzon late Tuesday, about 41 miles (66 kilometers) east of the capital, Manila. It was back over the South China Sea, about 112 miles (180 kilometers) west of Iba, as of Wednesday afternoon.

Four people died when a warehouse under construction collapsed, the council said. Several people were hit by fallen debris and several others drowned. Twelve people were injured by debris. The missing included 25 fishermen.

Nearly 500 houses were reported damaged. Many were still without power, although it had been restored in some areas. More than 4,000 people were stranded in various ports, along with 26 vessels, the council said.

The storm is expected to move into southern China on Friday, but the Joint Typhoon Warning Center is predicting little or no intensification before landfall there. Heavy rain and flooding will be a concern for southern China.

The storm became the first typhoon of 2010 on Monday before losing some steam. While some flooding was reported after heavy rains, most roads and bridges were passable, the council said.

(CNN) — The deadly bombings in Uganda’s capital may have heralded a chilling new chapter in the history of a Somali Islamist group with links to al Qaeda.

For almost four years the radical al Shabaab movement has been engaged in a violent struggle with the U.N.-backed transitional government for control of Somalia, which has had no effective administration since Mohamed Siad Barre’s regime collapsed in 1991.

But the weekend bomb attacks in Kampala that killed 74 people would mark the first time the group has claimed responsibility for an operation beyond the Somali border, apart from sporadic attacks across the border into northern Kenya.

Al Shabaab, meaning “the youth” in Arabic, advocates the strict, often brutal, Saudi Arabian-inspired Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. It emerged in 2005 as the militant youth wing of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which briefly controlled much of the Horn of Africa nation before being ousted in 2006 by troops from neighboring Ethiopia.

While most of the ICU’s leaders fled, al Shabaab fighters under leader Ahmed Abdi Godane remained behind to wage a guerilla-style war against the invading force.

The U.S.-backed Ethiopians remained until early 2009 when the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) took tentative control, clinging to a small part of the capital, Mogadishu. They were supported by African Union (AU) peacekeepers mainly from Uganda and Burundi.

By contrast al Shabaab won control of much of central and southern Somalia, while their growing ties with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terror network gave them valuable manpower and resources. In March last year bin Laden issued a statement calling for Muslims everywhere to “help the Somali mujahedeen fight until Somalia is an Islamic state.”

According to the transitional administration in Mogadishu the burgeoning relationship with al Qaeda led to an influx of militant fighters from abroad.

“With regard to the fighting that’s going on in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and in Yemen, some people are looking for a place to hide and Somalia is a good candidate for that,” Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told CNN in April.

Ahmed, once a senior, moderate figure in the ICU, said al Shabaab has also reached out to the Somali diaspora living in the West, radicalizing young Muslims via the Internet and encouraging them to move back to the country to join the “Jihad.” The group have become particularly adept at using the media in this way to announce details of attacks that it has carried out.

Senior African Union military figures say the signs of al Qaeda’s hand in the fighting are visible through the use of Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, and suicide bombings.

But it is al Shabaab’s mutation from nationalist insurgents to fully-fledged terrorist organization that has been most significant, according to Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group.

“If you look at the rhetoric and language and if you look at the Web sites, if you hear their preachers or their scholars speak, it is completely indistinguishable from al Qaeda leaders,” Abdi said.

Uganda’s recent involvement in Somalia makes it unsurprising that a newly “internationalized” al Shabaab would eventually target them, according to analyst Alex Vines, from London-based think tank Chatham House.

“Al Shabaab are the leading point of inquiry because of its previous threats against Uganda and because of its contributions to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the presence of the EU training mission in Mogadishu,” he told CNN.

In March, the New York Times reported that the U.S. had become so concerned with the group’s activities across Somalia and in Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, that they were giving direct military support to the TFG. This was strongly denied in Washington.

But al Shabaab’s growing reach also indicates that they have a consistent income stream. In addition to money being sent from sympathetic Somalis and Muslims in the West, there’s growing evidence the group are benefiting from the explosion in piracy off Somalia. Piracy expert Andrew Mwangura believes many pirates may be “fronting” crime syndicates based around the Mideast, with ransom cash eventually filtering through to Islamist fighters who control much of Somalia’s coastline.

Al Shabaab is believed to number up to 7,000 armed men, with a main force of around 3,000 fighters with well-honed guerrilla skills, according to Agence France-Presse. It comprises an armed wing, known as the Jeish al-Usrah (Army of Suffering), as well as a religious police or propaganda arm known as Jaysh al-Hisbah (Army of Morality).

via Somali militants ready to terrorize world? – CNN.com.

Germany beats Argentina   4:0







Los Angeles, California (CNN) — Larry King, the iconic TV interviewer, will step aside from hosting of his prime time CNN show later this year, he said Tuesday.

King, 76, made the announcement with a short posting to his Twitter account, citing his desire to spend more time with his wife and young children.

“I want to share some personal news with you. 25 years ago, I sat across this table from New York Governor Mario Cuomo for the first broadcast of Larry King Live. Now, decades later, I talked to the guys here at CNN and I told them I would like to end Larry King Live, the nightly show, this fall and CNN has graciously accepted, giving me more time for my wife and I to get to the kids’ little league games,” King wrote.

“I’m incredibly proud that we recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest running show with the same host in the same time slot. With this chapter closing I’m looking forward to the future and what my next chapter will bring, but for now it’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders.”

“He will end his run with Larry King Live on his own terms, sometime this fall,” said Jon Klein, president of CNNUS. “Larry is a beloved member of the CNN family and will continue to contribute to our air with periodic specials.”

During his Tuesday night show, King told guest Bill Maher “there’s a freedom” that came with his decision.

“I want to expand,” King told the comedian. “I want to do other things that I haven’t been able to do.”

The idea to step aside came to him after he completed his week-long 25th anniversary celebration, he said.

“I’m thinking to myself, I’ve done 50,000 interviews,” he said. “I’m never going to top this.”

King said he would exit the host’s chair “maximum November.” But, he told Maher, “Then I’ll be doing specials. You’ll see me in other places.”

Asked whom he wants to replace him, King cited “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest. “He’s curious, he’s interesting, he’s likable,” King said. “If he has a great interest in politics, I would recommend him. But I’m sure there’s a ton of people who could do it. Come on. It’s Q and A.”

“It’s not easy,” Maher responded. “That’s the trick.”

In a telephone call to the program, former first lady Nancy Reagan told King, “I couldn’t let you do this without my calling you. You didn’t call me and ask my permission.”

King said he had made no plans about his future, but added, “I’m looking forward — I feel open to so many things. Life will be better.”

ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer chimed in: “I just want to say, Larry, what a monument of vitality you have built for all of us and I cannot wait to see your specials because everybody in the world wants to talk to you and to see you do them in a concentrated way — when you choose to do them it’s going to be a thrill.”

King’s decision followed months of media speculation about his future as his ratings declined.

King was hosting a nationally syndicated overnight radio talk show when CNN founder Ted Turner persuaded him in 1985 to try his interviewing skills on cable TV.

“All I had to do was everything I’d been doing since I was a kid,” he wrote in his best-selling 2009 autobiography, “My Remarkable Journey.”

His gentle but persistent interview style drew big-name guests, and “Larry King Live” became a place for major personalities to break news. Billionaire Ross Perot used the show to announce he was running for president in 1992. And the show was the setting for the historic NAFTA debate between then-Vice President Al Gore and Perot in 1993, a debate that for more than a decade was the highest-rated program in cable history.

King, who was initially based in Washington, became a mandatory stop for politicians. Over his career, he conducted sit-down interviews with every U.S. president since Richard Nixon.

His program was sometimes a place of real-time diplomacy. In 1995, he hosted a program on the Middle East Peace process with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

His suspenders, large glasses and vintage desk microphone are as recognizable as the countless celebrities lined up to have an intimate chat with King while the world listened in.

And there have been a lot of guests, including Marlon Brando, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Paul McCartney, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, L. Ron Hubbard, Madonna and Martin Luther King, Jr.

After extensive coverage over many months of O.J. Simpson’s trial for murder, Simpson himself called the program the night he was acquitted.

King says that Nelson Mandela was the most extraordinary person he has met.

In his autobiography, King confessed that he never plans a question, that he likes to be surprised by the answers. He says he asks his interview subjects to explain things.

“All I do is ask questions,” he wrote. “Short, simple questions.”

Born in Brooklyn, Larry Zeiger moved to Miami, Florida, in 1957. He began his radio career that year with a new name, Larry King. His first television job was hosting a local interview show in Miami in 1960.

While some critics have called King a throwback, he embraced the online social networking tool Twitter. He had 1,648,920 Twitter followers as of Tuesday.

On Monday, King used Twitter to respond to a fan’s question about the highlights of his career:

“Winning 2 Peabody Awards & an Emmy. Perot-Gore Debate a show highlight,” King tweeted.

In addition to earning the Emmy and two Peabody Awards, he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1992.

King also has an extensive film resume, having played himself in 20 movies.

King has suffered a decline in ratings. His show, which was once on top, sometimes has come in fourth among cable talk shows during the 9 p.m. hour.

King faced highly publicized personal problems this year. He and his eighth wife, Shawn Southwick-King, filed for divorce in April, but reconciled weeks later.

King has repeatedly talked about the importance of spending time with his children, including his two boys from his marriage with Southwick-King.

“I’d love to see Chance and Cannon talk about how their Dad took them to play when they were kids,” he wrote in his autobiography.

After suffering a heart attack in 1987, King underwent quintuple bypass heart surgery. A year later, he created the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, which he said was to help those “not so lucky” to have medical insurance. In 2009, the foundation paid for 287 life-saving surgeries.

And through it all, the interviews continued.

“Only God failed to show up for a Larry King interview,” said Tom Johnson, who was CNN’s chairman for more than a decade, ending in 2001.

“Larry has been my close friend since I joined CNN in 1990,” Johnson said. “We never had a single disagreement in my 11 years as CEO, although he never thought much of my suggestions for more shows about North Korea.”

Is there anyone he would like to interview that he hasn’t so far? For years, he joked in his autobiography, he answered that question “God.”

“And my first question would be, ‘Do you have a son? Because there’s a lot riding on the answer.’”

(CNN) — A rampant Germany thrashed arch rivals England 4-1 in Bloemfontein to reach the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup.

Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski took advantage of sloppy defending to give Germany a 2-0 lead before Matthew Upson headed in for England.

Frank Lampard was denied an equalizing goal for England when the officials failed to spot that the ball had clearly crossed the line.

But despite England coach Fabio Capello’s claim that the controversy was the turning point, a far superior Germany ran away with the match in the second half, with Thomas Muller scoring twice on the break to inflict England’s biggest ever World Cup defeat.

“I think we played well but then I was disappointed by the mistakes and they counter-attacked well,” Capello told BBC Sport.

“Germany is a big team and they played well — we made mistakes, but the referee made a bigger one. This is football.”

It was the first World Cup meeting between two of football’s oldest foes since 1990, when West Germany beat England on penalties after a 1-1 draw. England’s only previous victory had come in the 1966 final — a 4-2 triumph at London’s Wembley.

Germany carved the game’s first opening inside five minutes when a pass over England’s defense found Mesut Ozil, whose shot was saved by the legs of David James.

The same direct approach brought the opening goal after 20 minutes when a long punt downfield from Manuel Neuer sent Klose racing clear.

The striker showed strength to hold off Upson and flick the ball past James with an outstretched right foot to post his 50th international goal and his 12th at World Cup finals.

England’s defenders were caught out of position again for Germany’s second goal as Muller shifted the ball to Podolski, who slashed a left-footed shot into the far corner.

Five minutes later, England got back in the game when Gerrard’s cross was headed home by Upson.

Then came the controversial moment when Lampard’s strike from the edge of the penalty area struck the underside of the bar and bounced down about two feet over the goal-line, only for Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda and his assistants to fail to award a goal.

Germany may feel the decision atones for 1966, when England were famously awarded a third goal even though Geoff Hurst’s shot appeared to bounce down on the line.

England looked the stronger side in early stages of the second half and Lampard rattled the bar with a free-kick.

But then the German onslaught began as England’s hopes were buried by two fine counter-attacking goals in three minutes.

First Bastian Schweinsteiger teed up Muller to smash the third past James at his near post, and then Mesut Ozil crossed for the Bayern Munich winger to compound England’s misery.

Germany, who have now reached at least the quarterfinals at every World Cup since 1954, will face Argentina in the last eight on Saturday.

Osh, Kyrgyzstan CNN — When Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva set a two-day limit to get barricades down in Osh, she was testing the limits of her power.

It was the June 18, more than week after violence first flared that she made her initial foray into the seething ethnic tensions in the countrys south.The capital Bishkek, seat of her interim government, is a days drive, several mountain ranges to the north. She flew into Oshs dilapidated Soviet-era airport a few miles out of town and hopped on a helicopter for the rest of the journey.

Lenins statue still towers over the square where she touched down; a monument to how far this forgotten corner of the globe has been left behind.Lenins successor, Josef Stalin, carved up the region creating countries no rational cartographer would dare.

He took a patchwork of ethnic idiosyncrasies, nomadic Kyrgyz, more settled Uzbeks and others drawing lines that would guarantee a tinderbox.