New Zealand's internet bad boy wants to see top U.S. lawman

By David Ingram and Naomi Tajitsu

WASHINGTON/WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A trip to New Zealand will put America's chief prosecutor on the same soil as a flashy internet mogul who is fighting extradition to the United States on charges he assisted massive piracy of copyrighted movies and music.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visits New Zealand next week for an annual meeting of a "quintet" of attorneys general from mostly English-speaking countries - and not to meet up with the entrepreneur Kim Dotcom.

The founder of defunct file-sharing service Megaupload, Dotcom has oscillated between assailing Holder's trip and wanting to hear what he has to say in person.

It was unclear on Thursday whether Holder would appear in public. His speech at the University of Auckland is planned primarily for students and will be closed to the public and the media, although his U.S. speeches are usually open to the media.

In Twitter posts, Dotcom requested a ticket to the speech, offered to send T-shirts and an ethics manual to wherever Holder is staying and challenged his followers to film Holder while a Megaupload theme song plays for a $500 prize.

Dotcom tweeted that he would like to understand Holder's definition of cybercrime, one issue the quintet works on.

An extradition hearing for Dotcom is scheduled for August, although appeals could further delay it, said Ira Rothken, a lawyer for Megaupload. He told Reuters by phone he had no reason to expect a meeting between Holder and Dotcom.

Holder declined an interview through a spokeswoman on Thursday. Federal prosecutors in Virginia who are handling the case declined to comment on how it is proceeding.

Dotcom got rich from founding Megaupload, which allowed users to upload and download movies, music, television shows, e-books and software. The site once commanded 4 percent of global online traffic before U.S. prosecutors shut it down.

The United States began a criminal copyright case against Dotcom in January 2012. At Washington's request, New Zealand law enforcement officers conducted a dramatic raid on his mansion outside Auckland.

Attempts to have him sent to the United States for trial were delayed after a New Zealand court last year found that New Zealand used unlawful warrants in his arrest and illegally spied on him in the lead-up to the raid.

PRECEDENT SETTER?

Dotcom and six associates face U.S. charges that they conspired to infringe copyrights, launder money and commit racketeering and fraud.

The copyright case could set a precedent for internet liability laws and, depending on its outcome, may force entertainment companies to rethink their distribution methods.

Dotcom maintains that Megaupload, which housed everything from family photos to Hollywood blockbusters, was merely a storage facility for online files, and should not be held accountable if content stored on the site was obtained illegally.

The Justice Department counters that Megaupload encouraged piracy by paying money to users who uploaded popular content and by deleting content that was not regularly downloaded.

It said Megaupload cost copyright holders such as movie studios and record companies more than $500 million and generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds. It called the case among the largest ever involving criminal copyright.

Dotcom launched a new file-sharing service, Mega, in January.

Many New Zealanders view Dotcom, born in Germany as Kim Schmitz, as a folk hero fighting for online freedom and willing to stand up to the U.S. and New Zealand governments.

Dotcom, who has been released on bail and is suing the New Zealand government for illegal surveillance, predicted Holder would keep a low profile during his visit.

"It's probably risk management and avoidance of bad PR because the story has not yet arrived in any big way in the U.S. media," he wrote in an email to Reuters. "Any bad coverage here might spill over to the U.S."

Holder's visit to Dotcom's country of residence is not his choice. The attorneys general of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States began meeting as a quintet in 2009 to discuss legal matters including cybercrime.

After a gathering in Ottawa last year, it was New Zealand's turn to host.

(Reporting by David Ingram in Washington and Naomi Tajitsu in Wellington; Editing by Howard Goller and Xavier Briand)

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Canada minister wants deportation review after train plot arrests

By Randall Palmer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada must review its deportation policy in light of a pardon that was granted to a Canadian resident once threatened with deportation and now accused in an alleged al Qaeda plot to derail a passenger train, a government minister said on Friday.

Raed Jaser, one of two men charged in connection with the suspected plot, argued in a 2004 deportation hearing that Canada should not deport him because he was stateless and no country would take him in.

Canada had sought to deport him because he had convictions on several counts of fraud, immigration board documents show.

Jaser was later pardoned, and he then became a permanent resident in Canada, the equivalent to holding a U.S. green card.

"The reality is that he was pardoned, and that repealed his criminal inadmissibility to Canada," Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told reporters. "That raises for me an important policy question. Why should a pardon override criminal inadmissibility?"

"That's what I'm looking at with my officials - to see whether we can make a policy change. It seems to me, I don't care whether you get a pardon or not, if you commit a serious criminal offense in Canada, you should be kicked out - period," Kenney said.

Jaser, 35, of Toronto, and Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, a Tunisian studying for his doctorate near Montreal, face several charges, including conspiracy to work with a terrorist group.

U.S. officials have said the suspects, who were arrested in separate raids on Monday, were believed to have worked on a plan to blow up a trestle on the Canadian side of the border as a train between Toronto and New York passed over it.

Jaser, who denies the charges, is a Palestinian who was born in the United Arab Emirates, but is not a UAE citizen.

He arrived in Canada with his family in 1993 as refugee claimants, but racked up five convictions for fraud and two for failing to comply with supervisory orders, according to the transcript of a 2004 immigration hearing.

Canada cited Jaser's criminal record when it tried to deport him in 2004. He was released after he argued he was stateless.

Kenney said he was reviewing the case with his officials to see what lessons could be learned and whether there were legislative gaps that needed to be filled.

He said the Conservative government had already tightened the system to make pardons harder to obtain.

(Additional reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Peter Cooney)

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Alberta wants securities regulation to stay with provinces

By Alastair Sharp

TORONTO (Reuters) - Alberta wants individual provinces to retain their authority over Canadian securities regulation, a position that makes federal attempts to create a single, national body more difficult, although Alberta is willing to make some adjustments in the current system.

The province's finance minister, Doug Horner, said Alberta was happy to discuss greater cooperation with Ottawa, especially in the realm of systemic risk. But the energy-rich province, which is seen as a key player in creating the critical mass of support that would pave the way for a national regulator, is not about to dismantle its own financial watchdog.

"We're talking about a collaborative system. It isn't that we're going to go to a common securities regulator and have one office somewhere," Horner said in an interview on Wednesday. "That's been pretty much off the table for provinces for some time."

Canada, alone among the Group of Seven rich industrialized countries, has a network of 13 provincial and territorial securities regulators rather than a single national body.

International investors view the system as inefficient and prone to duplication, especially for a company seeking to raise capital in several provinces.

But provinces like Alberta and independence-minded Quebec don't want change. The Supreme Court of Canada backed the provincial line in a 2011 ruling that said a previous plan to impose a national regulator was unconstitutional.

In his 2013 budget, released earlier this month, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Ottawa would still prefer to cooperate with the provinces to establish a common watchdog.

If that didn't work, he would push ahead with legislation giving Ottawa powers to curb systemic risk in capital markets.

But Horner dismissed the idea of a central regulator and said provincial finance ministers who met in Montreal on Monday wanted instead to consider improvements to an existing "passport" system.

That would, for example, create common rules across jurisdictions and ensure corporate filings need be done only once, and in the province that makes the most sense.

"We recognize that there's some things we need to change," he said. "Do we need to get rid of what we have and go to a national securities regulator and give up our sovereign right to manage that? No. And we won't."

Horner said a go-it-alone approach by the federal government could risk further legal wrangling if it moves too aggressively into areas seen as part of the provinces' purview, a fee-creating boon for lawyers rather than investors.

Ontario, home to most of the biggest companies listed in Canada, is solidly in support of a national regulator while opposition is most strident in Quebec, which is home to Canada's main derivatives exchange.

British Columbia and Alberta began expressing more openness to the idea last year, raising hopes the pair plus Ontario could create a critical mass of support that would persuade other provinces to come on board as well.

But Horner said Alberta was protective of its energy and agriculture industries and would want to handle offerings for junior and midcaps companies in those fields.

"That expertise, that resource, that strength, needs to be maintained in Alberta because that's where the industry is," he said.

(Additional reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Leslie Adler)

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Cricket-Suspended Watson wants to play for Australia again

SYDNEY, March 12 (Reuters) - Suspended Australia vice-captain Shane Watson is determined to play for his country again and dismissed on Tuesday suggestions that he had a poor relationship with captain Michael Clarke.

Watson was one of four Australia players suspended from the third test in India for a breach of discipline because they failed carry out a task set for them by coach Mickey Arthur which was to present three ideas on how the team could improve.

Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja were also dropped for the same reason.

Asked whether this would be the end of his test career, Watson, quoted by local media, replied: "I hope not."

Watson, who returned to Australia earlier in the day to be with his heavily pregnant wife, accepted responsibility for his actions but questioned the severity of the punishment.

"I accept that I did the wrong thing with what I did, but I will always find it very hard to accept being suspended from a test match for my country," he was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

"I've missed test matches and games through injury throughout my career. I feel like I've worked my absolute bum off to have an opportunity to represent my country.

"When that's taken away from you, you think the actions must be very severe. That's where we differ on our opinions. I think it's extremely harsh. I expressed my extreme disappointment with the punishment. But everything happens for a reason in your life."

TEAM PLAYER

Watson took aim at Cricket Australia high performance manager Pat Howard, who had earlier said Watson was only "sometimes" a team player.

"All I can really say is go around and ask every person I've ever played cricket with and that will give you the best indication of whether I'm a team man or not," he said.

"Pat Howard doesn't particularly know me very well. He's come from a rugby background and hasn't been in and around cricket very long."

He also challenged Howard's view that he and captain Clarke needed to "sort out their issues", saying that relationships were always complicated.

"I've been playing cricket with and against Michael Clarke since I was 12. We've got a lot of history as people. We're obviously quite different people in certain ways but very very similar in a lot of ways as well," he said.

"In the end, like you do in every relationship, it goes up and down and things are going really well at the moment with me and Michael."

The three other suspended players have remained with the team and Pattinson said although it might seem like a heavy punishment there could be long-term benefits.

"People might say it's a harsh punishment for a small thing, but I think if we look outside the actual thing we did wrong, it's the other stuff as well and it builds up," he was quoted as saying on the Cricket Australia website (www.cricket.com.au).

"If you look really deeply like I did at it, you can see why it's actually happened, I think it's just going to hold us in a better team, better mentality and I think a better culture in the long run.

"We've got a group of young players that are all striving for the same thing, so I think this is just that kick in the bum to make you really realise what we've got and what we really want and that is to get to number one."

India crushed Australia by eight wickets and an innings and 135 runs in the first two tests and the touring side must win the last two matches to level the series. (Writing by Sonia Oxley in Manchester,; Editing by Ed Osmond)

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Suspended Watson wants to play for Australia again

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Suspended Australia vice-captain Shane Watson is determined to play for his country again and dismissed on Tuesday suggestions that he had a poor relationship with captain Michael Clarke.

Watson was one of four Australia players suspended from the third test in India for a breach of discipline because they failed carry out a task set for them by coach Mickey Arthur which was to present three ideas on how the team could improve.

Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja were also dropped for the same reason.

Asked whether this would be the end of his test career, Watson, quoted by local media, replied: "I hope not."

Watson, who returned to Australia earlier in the day to be with his heavily pregnant wife, accepted responsibility for his actions but questioned the severity of the punishment.

"I accept that I did the wrong thing with what I did, but I will always find it very hard to accept being suspended from a test match for my country," he was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

"I've missed test matches and games through injury throughout my career. I feel like I've worked my absolute bum off to have an opportunity to represent my country.

"When that's taken away from you, you think the actions must be very severe. That's where we differ on our opinions. I think it's extremely harsh. I expressed my extreme disappointment with the punishment. But everything happens for a reason in your life."

TEAM PLAYER

Watson took aim at Cricket Australia high performance manager Pat Howard, who had earlier said Watson was only "sometimes" a team player.

"All I can really say is go around and ask every person I've ever played cricket with and that will give you the best indication of whether I'm a team man or not," he said.

"Pat Howard doesn't particularly know me very well. He's come from a rugby background and hasn't been in and around cricket very long."

He also challenged Howard's view that he and captain Clarke needed to "sort out their issues", saying that relationships were always complicated.

"I've been playing cricket with and against Michael Clarke since I was 12. We've got a lot of history as people. We're obviously quite different people in certain ways but very very similar in a lot of ways as well," he said.

"In the end, like you do in every relationship, it goes up and down and things are going really well at the moment with me and Michael."

The three other suspended players have remained with the team and Pattinson said although it might seem like a heavy punishment there could be long-term benefits.

"People might say it's a harsh punishment for a small thing, but I think if we look outside the actual thing we did wrong, it's the other stuff as well and it builds up," he was quoted as saying on the Cricket Australia website (www.cricket.com.au).

"If you look really deeply like I did at it, you can see why it's actually happened, I think it's just going to hold us in a better team, better mentality and I think a better culture in the long run.

"We've got a group of young players that are all striving for the same thing, so I think this is just that kick in the bum to make you really realise what we've got and what we really want and that is to get to number one."

India crushed Australia by eight wickets and an innings and 135 runs in the first two tests and the touring side must win the last two matches to level the series.

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Kenya: Candidate wants tallying halt in close race

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's presidential race tightened late Thursday as new results pushed the leading candidate below the crucial 50 percent mark needed to win outright. A final result was expected Friday, but the close race and a troubled vote count are sparking fears of the kind of violence that ripped through the country after its last national election.

Tensions rose as the political coalition led by Kenya's prime minister, currently running in second, alleged that some vote results have been doctored and called for a stop to a tallying process it said "lacked integrity."

The statement by Raila Odinga's coalition said the counting process should be restarted using primary documents from polling stations, but the election commission insisted there was no way to doctor the results.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta had a small lead over Odinga as of late Thursday, though crucially Kenyatta for the first time slipped below the 50 percent threshold that would give him a clean win.

Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto face charges at the International Criminal Court for their alleged involvement directing postelection violence five years ago. The court announced Thursday that the start of Kenyatta's trial would be delayed from April until July.

Kenya's national vote on Monday was the first since the 2007 election sparked tribe-one-tribe attacks that killed more than 1,000 people. Minor protests have cropped up, but no massive rioting or ethnic violence has occurred. As more time passes without a final result, though, tensions are rising, sparking fears that the dam now holding back potential protests could break.

Though Odinga's party said it continues to urge "calm, tolerance and peace," its call for a halt to the vote count and allegations of vote rigging could agitate its supporters. Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Odinga's running mate, said the announcement "is not a call to mass action."

Odinga's supporters in 2007 felt they had been cheated out of an election win over President Mwai Kibaki. Those supporters took to the streets, kicking off two months of clashes that, in addition to the ethnic violence, saw more than 400 deaths caused by police who were fighting protesters. A 2008 government report said the results were so tainted it was impossible to say who actually won.

The winner must capture 50 percent of the vote from the eight presidential candidates in order to win; otherwise there is a runoff.

Officials on Thursday continued to add up votes from tally sheets that have been transported to the capital, results that are being played across Kenyan TV screens. The partial results as of late Thursday in Kenya showed Kenyatta with about 3.5 million votes; Odinga had about 3.25 million. A little more than half of polling stations had been tabulated.

Musyoka told a news conference that "we have evidence that the results we are receiving have actually been doctored." He then listed several voting districts where he said the total votes cast exceed the number of registered voters. Musyoka also said that Kenyan law requires that vote results be transmitted electronically from polling stations before transporting the results.

The election commission chairman, Isaak Hassan, said later he has not seen any case where the total valid votes exceeds the number of registered voters.

Musyoka said Odinga's party was exploring several options to stop the vote count, including getting a court injunction. The electronic tally that was to serve as a preliminary vote count and be available soon after the polls closed failed on Tuesday, leaving the country in a tense information vacuum late Tuesday and Wednesday.

One issue that arose Thursday was why rejected ballots are no longer reflected in the count in high numbers. When the preliminary count froze on Tuesday there were more than 330,000 rejected ballots, an important issue because of a legal fight that will be launched over whether those ballots should be counted in the overall vote total, thus making it harder for a candidate to reach 50 percent of the votes cast.

Hassan said that the number of rejected ballots was incorrectly increased by a factor of eight because of a computer error.

On Thursday, by contrast, official vote tallies showed a very low number of rejected votes, leading to questions about where they all went. The election commission was to hold a news conference later Thursday but had yet to make any statements as of mid-day.

Kenya is the lynchpin of East Africa's economy and plays a vital security role in the fight against Somali militants. The U.S. Embassy in Kenya is the largest in Africa, indicating this country's importance to U.S. foreign policy.

The political battle between the families of Kenyatta and Odinga goes back to the 1960s and to the two candidates' fathers. Jomo Kenyatta was Kenya's first president after the end of British colonial rule. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga served as the country's first vice president then. The two later had a falling out.

If a runoff is declared for Odinga and Kenyatta, it would be most likely held in late April or early May, depending on how long legal challenges take.

___

Associated Press reporter Rodney Muhumuza in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.

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