Former President George W. Bush on Thursday repeated Dick Cheney’s assertion that the administration’s enhanced interrogation program, which included controversial techniques such as waterboarding, was legal and garnered valuable information that prevented terrorist attacks.

Former President George W. Bush defended his administration in speech Thursday in Michigan.

Bush told a southwestern Michigan audience of nearly 2,500 — the largest he has addressed in the United States since leaving the White House in January — that, after the September 11 attacks, “I vowed to take whatever steps that were necessary to protect you.”

In his speech, Bush did not specifically refer to the high-profile debate over President Obama’s decision to halt the use of harsh interrogation techniques. Bush also didn’t mention Cheney, his former vice president, by name.

Instead, he described how he proceeded after the capture of terrorism suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in March 2003.

“The first thing you do is ask what’s legal?” Bush said. “What do the lawyers say is possible? I made the decision, within the law, to get information so I can say to myself, ‘I’ve done what it takes to do my duty to protect the American people.’ I can tell you that the information we got saved lives.”

Bush avoided the sharp tone favored by Cheney in recent weeks and stressed he does not want to disparage Obama.

“Nothing I am saying is meant to criticize my successor,” Bush said. “There are plenty of people who have weighed in. Trust me, having seen it first-hand. I didn’t like it when a former president criticized me, so therefore I am not going to criticize my successor. I wish him all the best.”

The former president was speaking to the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan. In a change in format, he agreed to answer questions directly from the audience instead of responding to pre-submitted questions provided to a moderator.

He repeated his disclaimer about not passing judgment on Obama later when asked about North Korea’s nuclear test. Before answering, the 43rd president said he is “in no way trying to shape my successor’s decisions or criticize them.”

“I know there are news people here, and they love conflict,” he said. Bush then went on to say that diplomacy is impossible without leverage.

“A lot of times people want to give out the carrots,” he said. “My attitude is, you give out the carrots when the behavior changes.”

After his opening remarks, Bush engaged in a nearly hour-long back-and-forth with audience members that touched on nearly all aspects of his presidency, from the September 11 attacks to his ban on embryonic stem cell research, to his consultations with advisers as the economic crisis hit last year.

He strongly defended his Troubled Asset Relief Program in response to the economic crisis at the end of his presidency, calling it crucial to preventing capital markets from freezing up, which he said would have led to another Great Depression. However, he said he remains “a free-market guy.”

Asked what he thinks about conservative pundits who say the Obama administration’s fiscal policies are opening the door to socialism, Bush said: “I think the verdict is out. I think people are waiting to see what all this means.”

The former president received a noisy standing ovation when answering a question about what he wants his legacy to be.

“Well, I hope it is this: The man showed up with a set of principles, and he was unwilling to compromise his soul for the sake of popularity,” he said.

He also revealed the topic of the first chapter in his forthcoming book, which he said will be about “the stories of my administration, as I saw them.” That first chapter, he said, will answer the question: “Why did I run for president?”

A police officer was shot to death by another officer as he was chasing a man he saw breaking into his car in New York’s East Harlem neighborhood, authorities said.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly talks at a news briefing about the fatal shooting of Officer Omar Edwards.

New York Police Department Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was shot twice about 10:30 p.m. Thursday just blocks from the precinct where he had finished his shift. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Harlem Hospital.

Edwards, in plainclothes, had just left the Housing Bureau Station House on East 124th St., said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. As Edwards approached his car, he saw a man rummaging through it.

“We believe that at this point, Officer Edwards, with his gun drawn, chased the individual north to 125th Street and east toward First Avenue,” Kelly said at a news conference in New York early Friday at Harlem Hospital.

Edwards was not wearing a bulletproof vest and did not fire a shot, Kelly said.

Plainclothes officers patrolling the neighborhood in an unmarked vehicle saw the chase and went after Edwards and the suspect.

“One of the officers, after exiting the vehicle, fired six times from a 9 mm Glock,” Kelly said.

Edwards was shot in the chest and arm. It was not clear whether any of the officers had identified themselves as law enforcement.

The officer who fired the shots has four-and-a-half years’ experience, authorities said. The shooting is under investigation, Kelly said.

A man was later arrested on suspicion of breaking into Edwards’ car.

The first comprehensive report into the human cost of climate change warns the world is in the throes of a “silent crisis” that is killing 300,000 people each year.

Victims of flooding in India last year are ferried to safety by the Indian Army in the northeastern state of Bihar.

More than 300 million people are already seriously affected by the gradual warming of the earth and that number is set to double by 2030, the report from the Global Humanitarian Forum warns.

“For the first time we are trying to get the world’s attention to the fact that climate change is not something waiting to happen. It is impacting seriously the lives of many people around the world,” the forum’s president, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told CNN.

Speaking to CNN’s Becky Anderson in London on Friday, Annan said the migration of people from newly uninhabitable areas presents a security issue that needs to be addressed by the United Nations Security Council.

“This is one of the reasons why I’ve described climate change as all encompassing,” he told CNN. “This threat to our health, this threat to food production, this threat to security. It raises political tensions, it will have people on the move — and they are on the move — and many more which will bring tensions.”

The report, titled “Human Impact Report: Climate Change — The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis” comes just six months before the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen to forge a post-Kyoto climate agreement for 2012 and beyond.

Annan called on Member States to reach a “global, effective, fair and binding” outcome on climate change, as the report warned that the talks could “well be the last chance for avoiding global catastrophe.”

He told CNN: “The U.S. administration has joined the mainstream about fighting climate change and that is a big step, and I hope that will also put a new momentum into the negotiations.”

The report’s startling numbers are based on calculations that the earth’s atmosphere is currently warming by 0.74 degrees Celsius. The Global Humanitarian Forum says that temperatures will rise by almost two degrees Celsius, regardless of what’s agreed in Copenhagen.

“No matter what,” the report concludes, “the suffering documented in this report is only the beginning.” A rise of two degrees, it says, “would be catastrophic.”

Of the 300,000 lives being lost each year due to climate change, the report finds nine out of 10 are related to “gradual environmental degradation,” and that deaths caused by climate-related malnutrition, diarrhea and malaria outnumber direct fatalities from weather-related disasters.

The vast majority of deaths — 99 percent — are in developing countries which are estimated to have contributed less than one percent of the world’s total carbon emissions.

The report warns climate change threatens all eight of the Millennium Development Goals, which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and reducing child mortality and the spread of diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria.

Connect the World

Watch Connect the World for Becky Anderson’s full interview with Kofi Annan.
Friday 2000 GMT

Around 45 million of the 900 million people estimated to be chronically hungry are suffering due to climate change, the report says. Within 20 years that number is expected to double. At the same time food production is expected to fall, driving food prices up 20%.

The countries considered to be most vulnerable are those in the semi-arid dry land belt that runs from the Sahara/Sahel to the Middle East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and parts of the U.S., small island states and the Arctic region.

Australia is singled out as the developed country most vulnerable to the direct impacts of climate change. Over the past 15 years, the combination of rising temperature and lower rainfall has produced the worst drought in the country’s recorded history.

While developed countries — including Australia — have committed funds to counter the impact of climate change, the Global Humanitarian Forum says developing nations need a dramatic injection of funds — up to 100 times more than is currently available to help them adapt to the changes.

The total economic cost of climate change each year is thought to be $125 billion, although the Forum warns that figure may be too conservative and doesn’t take into account the impacts on “health, water supply and other shocks.”

While commissioned by the Global Humanitarian Forum, the report was reviewed by a panel of experts, including Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced that the ICC World Twenty20 2009 warm-up encounter between India and Pakistan at The Oval on 3 June had been designated as a ‘Catch the Spirit’ match.

Funds raised through a variety of means during the game will go to support the families of the victims of the attack on the Sri Lanka team and match officials in Lahore in March, as well as Peace and Sport* projects across the Asian subcontinent.

Commenting on the initiative, ICC President David Morgan said: “The decision to designate the India – Pakistan encounter as a ‘Catch the Spirit’ match follows a recommendation by the ICC Board at its most recent meeting, in Dubai in April.

“The Board wanted to do something to assist the families of the victims of the terror attacks on the Sri Lanka team and match officials in March, and using this high-profile match with a sell-out crowd as a vehicle to do that makes excellent sense.

“‘Catch the Spirit’ is one of the themes of the ICC’s ongoing centenary year of 2009 and it highlights the respect with which the game is played around the world.

“We are extremely grateful to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the hosts, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Surrey County Cricket Club, for allowing the match to take place under this banner.

“And we are also grateful to ESPN STAR Sports, the ICC’s global broadcast partner, which is covering the match, for providing an excellent vehicle for the fund-raising efforts.

“We hope this match, watched by millions both at the ground and around the world will portray cricket in a positive light, make a positive contribution to the lives of those affected by those terrible events in March and contribute to assisting community-based projects across the Asian subcontinent that promote peace through cricket.”

Fund-raising methods on the day will include requests for contributions from spectators inside the ground, donations from appeals via broadcast and internet coverage of the match and contributions from cricket stakeholders and other parties.

Details of how people can contribute will be announced in due course.

The match is scheduled to start at 1730 British Summer Time (GMT + one hour).

Commenting on the initiative, BCCI President and ICC director Shashank Manohar said: “Cricket has a special power to bring people together. It is in keeping with the spirit of cricket that the BCCI will be supporting this cause.”

PCB Chairman and ICC director Ijaz Butt said: “The attack in Lahore was a terrible shock and we have immense sympathy for all those who were affected by the incident.

“The PCB provided support to the families of the victims immediately after the attack and it is encouraging to see the rest of the cricket world coming together in this way.”

Giles Clarke, Chairman of the ECB and an ICC director, said: “The ECB is delighted to be hosting the ‘Catch the Spirit’ match at The Oval. It is an excellent example of our great sport showing a great spirit, pulling together in a thoroughly worthy cause, and if cricket can be a vehicle for good then that has to be the right thing to do.

“I hope spectators at the ground and those following the game all around the world get behind this initiative and make it the success it deserves to be.”

Joël Bouzou, the President and founder of Peace and Sport, said: “Peace and Sport fully supports the ICC’s initiative.

“Cricket has a natural disposition to serve peace as it’s a very popular sport with great capacity to unite people: plus it has huge educational benefit.

“Peace and Sport is delighted to be able to act as the operational relay for funds generated by the ICC in order to create sustainable projects for peace through sport in this region which has greatly suffered.

“This partnership is totally in keeping with our organisation’s initiative, which has the objective of uniting decision-makers from sport and politics so that they pool their resources and expertise within structured projects.”

In celebration of the spirit and diversity of cricket, ‘Catch the Spirit’ activities are being hosted across the world in 2009, the ICC’s centenary year, bringing together cricketers across continents, countries and communities.

The India – Pakistan match is one of 12 warm-up matches that are taking place on 1, 2 and 3 June at Lord’s, The Oval and Trent Bridge ahead of the men’s tournament, which starts on 5 June at Lord’s when the host England takes on the Netherlands.

ESPN STAR Sports will be covering live 10 of those warm-up matches as well as all 27 matches in the men’s tournament and the two semi-finals and final in the women’s tournament, which take place ahead of the men’s matches on the same day and at the same venues.

Matches in the group stage of the women’s tournament will take place at Taunton between 11 and 16 June.

Zaheer played six games for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL

World Twenty20 holders India are confident seam bowler Zaheer Khan will be fit to play an important part in the upcoming competition in England.

The left-armer suffered a shoulder problem while playing for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

He will definitely miss India’s opening match against Bangladesh on 6 June, but captain Mahendra Dhoni says the overall prognosis is positive.

“Zaheer is most likely to get fit by the second or third game,” he said.

The 30-year-old played six matches for Mumbai in South Africa, picking up six wickets before injuring his left shoulder.

He is one of five seamers selected by India for the World Twenty20 and Dhoni believes the rest also have the ability to utilise the conditions in England.

“We have a lot of bowling options,” said Dhoni. “We have got talent like Praveen Kumar, RP Singh who can really swing the ball, and Irfan Pathan.

606: DEBATE Have your say on India’s Twenty20 squad

“Our part-time bowlers, especially spinners, have done well in the IPL. We bat right down to number eight or nine. We have a very balanced side. We need to focus on playing to our potential and hopefully we can defend the title.”

India are the bookmakers’ favourites to win the tournament which culminates in a final at Lord’s on 21 June.

Former Australia captain and India coach Greg Chappell said Dhoni’s team were strong contenders to retain their title.

“India has slight edge over other teams, with trump cards like Dhoni and [batsman] Yuvraj Singh,” said Chappell.

“Dhoni is among the best captains today. Yuvraj was out of colour in the IPL but is one of the most dangerous batsmen in the shortest form of cricket and will give headaches to rival captains.

“Indian players are very well prepared after the IPL.”

Team bosses are all now signed up to compete in next season’s campaign

Ferrari and the rest of the teams in the Formula 1 Teams’ Association (Fota) have submitted conditional entries for the 2010 championship.

Williams announced on Monday that they intend to enter next season’s campaign.

McLaren, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Renault, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP have now all followed suit.

The move would appear to bring an end to the recent row with the sport’s governing body, the FIA, over the voluntary budget cap.

A statement on behalf of Fota said: “Fota confirms all its members’ long-term commitment to be involved in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

“It has unanimously agreed further and significant actions to substantially reduce the costs of competing in the championship in the next three years.”

Fota said all its teams would race next year if a new financial agreement with F1’s management is reached by 12 June.

The association also wants the 2010 season to operate on the basis of current technical regulations.

Ferrari, Renault, Red Bull and Toyota had all threatened to pull out of the sport if the budgetary restrictions were to be forced through.

At a meeting at the Monaco Grand Prix last week, it was agreed in principle to delay the cap until 2011, while motorsport boss Max Mosley has made other concessions to the teams on governance.

The FIA will publish its list of accepted teams and drivers for the 2010 championship on 12 June.

Sales are falling across the world

Sales of servers worldwide fell almost 25% in the first three months of 2009, against the same period a year earlier, according to market research firm IDC.

Global sales were $9.9 bn (£6.14 bn), IDC said, the lowest figure since the firm started monitoring the computer server market 12 years ago.

Dell was the vendor hardest hit, with server revenue falling 31.2%.

IDC said they expected the situation to continue, although they predicted some recovery by 2010.

“Market conditions worsened in all geographic regions during the first quarter as customers of all types pulled back on both new strategic IT projects and ongoing infrastructure refresh initiatives,” said Matt Eastwood, IDC’s group vice president.

All three server sectors - volume, midrange, and high-end systems - registered a decline in sales. This is the first time this has happened since 2002.

The five big server vendors - HP, IBM, Dell, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens - all suffered a double digit percentage drop in revenue.

Revenue decline

Server operating system revenue also declined, IDC said.

Revenues for Unix servers fell 17.5% compared with the same period a year earlier.

Revenues for IBM’s System z servers, running the z/OS operating system, fell 18.9%. Microsoft Windows server revenues fell 28.9% to $3.7bn and Linux server revenues fell 24.8% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, its lowest in five years.

Mr Eastwood said companies had suspended buying new equipment and were focusing on extending the lifespan of existing products.

“While these strategies are effective in the near term, server demand will begin to improve in the second half of the year as customers begin to rebuild their IT capabilities in advance of a meaningful economic recovery in 2010,” he said.

The Xbox 360 controller has not changed since it launched in 2005

British broadcaster Sky has struck a deal with Microsoft that will see live football, TV and film content brought to the Xbox 360.

The deal marks the Xbox’s first move into live linear broadcast TV.

Rival consoles, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii, can access catch-up TV content via the BBC’s iPlayer.

Sky’s channels will be available on the Xbox 360 from the autumn, but no specific line-up or pricing details have been given.

Users of Microsoft’s Xbox Live online service on the 360 in the UK and the Irish Republic will be able to watch Sky’s live sport, programmes, catch-up TV and on demand films, without the need for a satellite dish or set-top box, or being an existing Sky customer.

Reduced cost?

Sky’s commercial group director Stephen Nuttall hinted there could be deals for some current Sky subscribers.

It’s a complement and alternative to the existing methods of experiencing Sky’s content Stephen Nuttall, Sky

Sky customers who have subscribed to premium content packages, or have multiple set-top boxes or one of the bigger broadband packages could get content via their Xbox at a reduced cost.

Neil Thompson, head of Xbox for UK and the Irish Republic, said: “The entertainment world is changing immensely, with consumers looking for choice, flexibility and convenience.

“They also want to experience community elements.”

The line-up of channels and content available via the Xbox would be similar to the existing Sky Player service, available on PCs and Macs, said Mr Nuttall.

Virtual personas

Xbox Live users will also be able to watch Sky content together virtually, chatting over the broadband connection, and sending messages via their avatars, or virtual personas.

The community viewing aspect will start with sport broadcasts, and could potentially roll out to other live TV content as well.

Mr Nuttall said Sky on Xbox was an “extra convenience, a choice; it’s a complement and alternative to the existing methods of experiencing Sky’s content”.

Currently, users can get content via a satellite service, a PC service and a mobile service, either separately or in combination.

Sky has 9.3 million subscribers in the UK, and the firm said “hundreds of thousands of people” were using its online Sky Player regularly.

Microsoft would not say how many Xbox 360 users it had in the UK, or how many Xbox Live subscribers.

The video content from Sky will be streamed in standard definition, “DVD quality” and will require at least a one megabit per second connection.

Mr Thompson said the deal with Sky did not rule out the BBC’s iPlayer ever appearing on the Xbox 360.

Mr Nuttall said putting content on the 360 did not signal the end of the set-top box.

He said: “It’s about the expansion of choice. The Sky Plus HD box has got a lot of distinct features that distinguish it from any sort of competition, including the Xbox 360.”