BOSTON – A Massachusetts company that claims rare film footage of the late John Lennon was stolen and sold to Yoko Ono without its permission asked a federal judge Tuesday to award it $6.3 million in damages.
Earlier this year, a judge found that Lennon's widow was the rightful copyright owner of the 1970 footage, which shows Lennon smoking marijuana and joking about putting LSD in President Richard Nixon's tea.
Lawrence, Mass.-based World Wide Video LLC had filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Ono and Anthony Pagola, a broker who sold Ono the footage.
In court Tuesday, the company's lawyer, Joseph Doyle, said a rock 'n' roll memorabilia expert estimated the film was worth $4 million to $6 million when Pagola sold it to Ono for $300,000 in 2002. Doyle asked the judge to order Pagola to pay the company $6.3 million.
Judge Rya Zobel did not immediately rule, but called the $6.3 million figure "probably speculative."
Ono disputed the $6.3 million value, saying in court documents filed Monday that neither she or anyone else in the film has given permission for the footage to be used commercially. She did not say what she thinks the film is worth.
Doyle said it is doubtful World Wide Video will be able to collect the damages. He said although Pagola was served with the lawsuit in Orlando, Fla., in 2008, he has not responded.
"I would tend to doubt that it's collectible," Doyle said.
Zobel said she would issue a written decision, but did not give any timetable.

THE HAGUE (AFP) –
Developing countries will need up to 100 billion dollars (80 billion euros) a year for 40 years to combat the effects of global warming, said a World Bank report released in The Hague on Tuesday.

Assuming the planet is two degrees Celsius warmer by 2050, "the study puts the cost of adapting ... at 75 billion to 100 billion dollars a year" from 2010, according to an investigation commissioned by Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

"What we try to show with this report is the urgency of ensuring that there are sufficient funds for adaptation" for poor countries, Dutch Development Minister Bert Koenders said on receiving the report.

"It is for many countries a question of life and death," he added. "There will be no climate deal in Copenhagen if there is no financing for adaptation" -- referring to the UN climate summit to be held there in December.

East Asia, South Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa are those most affected by global warming, the report said.

The European Union, Japan and the United States "realise" that money had to be found, Koenders said, adding however that funding "does not necessarily have to come from national budgets".

"The big political debate is now about the figures, that is why it is very important to have objective figures from this report."

Koenders said developing countries would require additional aid on top of traditional development assistance to deal with climate change.

World Bank economist Sergio Margulis, who headed the study, said the costs of global warming will rise.

"Development is the most powerful form of adaptation," the report said.

"It makes economies less reliant on climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture. It boosts the capacity of households to adapt by increasing levels of incomes, health and education.

"It enhances the ability of governments to assist by improving the institutional infrastructure. And it dramatically reduces the number of people killed by floods and affected by floods and droughts."

Development also means breeding drought- and flood-tolerant crops, climate-proofing infrastructure, the report said.

Margulis said developing countries, like their rich counterparts, also had a duty to reduce CO2 emissions "to avoid the unmanageable consequences of higher temperatures".

If nothing is done, the report argued, global warming would kill half the species on the planet, flood 30 percent of coastal wetlands, and cause a steep rise in malnutrition and disease.

The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday plunged into one of the most vigorous debates yet about its health care overhaul, arguing over whether to amend the draft proposal to add a government-run "public option."

That option, which would be offered to uninsured individuals and small businesses along with a variety of private insurance plans, is supported by liberal but vigorously opposed by Republicans and a handful of moderate Democrats.

Two of the panel's Democratic liberals spent the morning urging the committee to adopt a public plan in place of the consumer-owned, state-based "co-ops" that were developed by Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., spent the morning promoting a goverment-run plan. "I don't see any reason why we don't do this. I can't see why we don't do this," he said.

Run by the government, the plan would pay providers Medicare rates for the first two years and then set its rates by negotiation with doctors, hospitals and others.

GOP members of the committee argued that inclusion of a public plan in the exchanges, or marketplace, that the bill would create would soon lead to a government takeover of all health care.

"For most, if not all of us, on this side of the aisle . . . have long expressed misgivings about the public option," said ranking GOP member Charles E. Grassley of Iowa. "I think it is a slow walk toward government-controlled, single-payer health care."

Baucus is hoping to hold on to a few Democratic votes and defeat the amendment, and another, similar proposal to be offered by Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. Votes on both amendments were expected later in the afternoon.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's nuclear chief said Tuesday his country built its newly revealed uranium enrichment facility inside a mountain and next to a military site to ensure continuity of its nuclear activities in case of an attack.
Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the site near the holy city of Qom is next to an ammunition depot controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force. He said the only connection between the Qom nuclear facility and the Guard is the Guard would protect it against possible attacks.
"This site is at the base of a mountain and was selected on purpose in a place that would be protected against aerial attack. That's why the site was chosen adjacent to a military site," Salehi told a news conference. "It was intended to safeguard our nuclear facilities and reduce the cost of active defense system. If we had chosen another site, we would have had to set up another aerial defense system."
Details about the newly revealed site and the fact that Iran kept its construction secret for years have raised more suspicion among experts and Western governments that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons — something Tehran has long denied. The U.S. and its allies have strongly condemned Iran over the site and demanded it immediately come clean on its nuclear activities or face harsher international sanctions.
Salehi said the site was selected after a careful study by the authorities and will be open to inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog. He said Iran is in talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency to set a timetable "soon" for a visit.
He gave the location of the site as about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of capital Tehran on the road leading to Qom. That is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Qom. He dismissed a statement by Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday that the facility was near the village of Fordo, which is about 30 miles south of Qom.
A satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe and GeoEye shows a well-fortified facility built into a mountain about 20 miles northeast of Qom, with ventilation shafts and a nearby surface-to-air missile site, according to defense consultancy IHS Jane's, which did the analysis of the imagery. The image was taken in September.
GlobalSecurity.org analyzed images from 2005 and January 2009 when the site was in an earlier phase of construction and believes the facility is not underground but was instead cut into a mountain. It is constructed of heavily reinforced concrete and is about the size of a football field — large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges used to refine uranium.