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Kimberley Process to allow Zimbabwe diamond sale

The chairman of the Kimberley Process has agreed to allow Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from its disputed Marange fields, deputy mines minister Gift Chimanikire said on Friday.

The Kimberley Process, created to prevent the trade in "blood" diamonds that fuel armed conflicts, normally takes such decisions by consensus at its regular meetings.

But the current chairman, Mathieu Yamba of the Democratic Republic of Congo, appears to have taken the decision unilaterally, raising questions among industry groups and watchdogs about the validity of the decision.

"Permission for sale was issued by the KP chairman," Chimanikire told AFP. "But I do not know when the actual sale would take place."

He said the decision was apparently taken in February, when Zimbabwe Mines Minister Obert Mpofu travelled to the DRC to meet with Yamba.

Kinshasa holds the rotating chair of the Kimberley Process, and has close ties to President Robert Mugabe.

The Marange fields, touted as Africa's richest diamond find of the decade, have been at the centre of a years-long controversy over mining rights and abuses by the military.

The military seized control of the fields near the Mozambican border in late 2008, violently evicting tens of thousands of small miners and then beating and raping civilians to force them to mine the gems.

Human rights groups say about 200 people were killed, and Kimberley investigators later documented "unacceptable and horrific violence against civilians by authorities", prompting a ban on exports of the gems.

Kimberley allowed two special sales of diamonds last year, but no agreement has been reached on whether to allow general exports of the gems.

"It's very disappointing," said Elly Harrowell, diamond campaigner with Global Witness, a watchdog that is party of the Kimberley Process.

"All decisions made in the KP are made on the basis of 100 percent consensus between all members," she said. "For the chair to unilaterally declare that this decision has been made against the will of numerous members... it's very worrying."

The World Diamond Council, a global industry group, has warned its members not to trade in the gems because the United States, Canada, Israel and the European Union have indicated that the diamond sales should not yet be permitted.

The council "advises members of the international diamond industry to refrain from trading in and exporting goods from the region until the situation and the status of these goods becomes clearer."

Website to pay $950,000 for posting Beatles hits

A website that sold Beatles songs online for 25 cents apiece before they became legally available has agreed to pay record companies nearly $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker signed off on the settlement between BlueBeat.com and music companies EMI Group PLC, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America on Friday. The judge ruled in December that the site violated the music labels' copyrights and presented unfair competition.

A trial to determine how much BlueBeat owed the companies was scheduled to begin Tuesday in Santa Ana, Calif.

BlueBeat streamed and sold music by the Fab Four and other top-name acts, including Coldplay and Lily Allen, for several days before music companies sued to shut it down in November 2009. By then, the site had already distributed more than 67,000 songs by The Beatles.

The posting of Beatles songs came shortly after the release of the group's re-mastered albums and a pricey box set. A year later, Apple Inc. announced with great fanfare that it was selling Beatles music on its popular music service iTunes.

Within the first week, more than 2 million Beatles songs were purchased online for $1.29 apiece and 450,000 albums were sold.

BlueBeat had denied wrongdoing, claiming owner Hank Risan had pioneered a method called "psycho-acoustic simulation" that resulted in unique versions of copyrighted music.

The judge rejected his arguments and explanations of his technique in her December ruling, noting that Risan's recordings were based on copies of CDs that he had purchased.

Risan said the settlement amount was a fraction of what the companies sought. He said the site, which is still active but doesn't have any Beatles music available, is still working to register copyrights for 800,000 recordings.

"So long as we pay royalties, we can stream their stuff all day and all night without a problem," said BlueBeat's attorney Archie Robinson.

"We basically settled the case for their attorney fees," Robinson said. "I felt that was sort of an acknowledgement on their part that they don't have the damages they claimed."

Russell Frackman, an attorney who represented the recording companies, did not return a phone message seeking comment.

J-Lo at Obama Super Bowl Party

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Actress and music diva Jennifer Lopez will top the bill at US President Barack Obama's annual Super Bowl party on Sunday, as the Green Bay Packers take on the Pittsburgh Steelers for the NFL championship.

J-Lo will be joined by husband Marc Anthony at the White House party, also featuring top officials including Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a senior US official said.

At one point, Obama had high hopes for the big title game, as his beloved Chicago Bears made it to the semi-final stage, but were knocked out by the Packers, the pride of Wisconsin.

Obama will be seeking a piece of the Super Bowl XLV action himself on Sunday, as he will grant a rare interview to Fox television's conservative talk show host Bill O'Reilly as part of the network's build-up to the big game.

H&R Block agrees to improve access for deaf

WASHINGTON – The nation's largest tax preparation company, H&R Block, agreed Monday to improve its services for deaf and hard of hearing people.

The Justice Department announced that H&R Block had agreed to a nationwide settlement to resolve a complaint filed by a deaf person in San Antonio, Texas, under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"The agreement will ensure that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have equal access to tax preparation services at more than 11,000 offices nationwide," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

In a written statement, H&R Block spokesman Gene King said, "We are happy to put this behind us and concentrate on serving all clients during our 56th tax season."

The company agreed to provide auxiliary aids and services such as sign language interpreters, to train its employees and to enforce policies for communicating with deaf and hard of hearing customers. It will post notices advising customers of their right to request a sign language interpreter or other aid.

The company agreed to pay a $20,000 civil fine and pay the person who filed the complaint $5,000 in damages.

H&R Block, headquartered in Kansas City, has more than 11,000 owned or franchised offices in the U.S.

Luxembourg ambassador says she filed rebuttal

SEATTLE – A superstar donor of President Barack Obama's last campaign who later became ambassador to Luxembourg said Saturday that she has filed a rebuttal to an internal State Department review that found her tenure to be a disaster.

Cynthia Stroum told The Associated Press that she did not know whether she could release details of the rebuttal publicly. She said that she was blindsided by the report, and that she wants to tell her side of the story eventually.

The State Department report released Thursday said her year in Luxembourg was fraught with personality conflicts, verbal abuse and questionable expenditures on travel, wine and liquor. It said things were so bad some staff requested transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan.

She also reiterated a statement first released to The Seattle Times in which she said she focused on initiatives that were in the best interest of U.S.-Luxembourg relations.

"The initiatives that I chose to focus on were what I believed to be in the best interest of the relationship between Luxembourg and the United States, and I'm proud of the links connected especially with businesses here in my home state of Washington," she wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Stroum, 60, is the daughter of the late Sam Stroum, a Seattle philanthropist who made a fortune as an investor in the Schuck's Auto Supply.

Sam Stroum was credited with saving the Seattle Symphony from bankruptcy and pushing the construction of Benaroya Hall, the symphony's home. He also served as president of the University of Washington Board of Regents.

Cynthia Stroum is an investor in Washington state-based companies, including Starbucks. She established two foundations focusing on cancer research and served on the board of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

She was also a producer on the Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun," which received a Tony nomination in 2004.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., had vouched for Stroum at her confirmation hearing, saying that "she will be an outstanding representative for our country."

As a fundraiser, Stroum ginned up at least $500,000 for Obama, putting her near the top of the campaign's money generators. Stroum also donated at least $13,800 to the campaigns of Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray since 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The State Department report said Stroum stressed to embassy staffers "the importance she attaches to the perquisites of" being an ambassador. As such, she was particularly concerned about the state of the ambassador's residence, which was being renovated, it said.

Embassy officials spent weeks trying to find her appropriate temporary housing, screening hundreds of properties. They found four that met her criteria, and she rejected all of them before finally settling on a residence.

The report also found that she inappropriately spent $2,400 on a trip to Switzerland; that the embassy bought $3,400 in liquor and wine to use up its entertainment budget even though such year-end sprees are barred; and that Stroum was reimbursed for buying a new queen-sized bed, even though she had been provided with a king-sized one.