Most Recent Posts

U.S. counterterrorism efforts include choking off the flow of cash to extremists, and urging friendly countries to help. But in Nairobi, Kenya, suspicion of Somali money — and an increase in terrorist attacks — has prompted a country-wide crackdown, with Kenyan police accused of extortion and arbitrary arrests of thousands of Somali refugees.

But how do you tell the difference between tainted money and honest cash?

Take Eastleigh, a neighborhood in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Depending on whom you're talking to, the Eastleigh market is either a tangle of back alleys where Islamist terrorists and pirates go to launder money, or it's one of the brightest spots of African capitalism, a dynamic 24-hour shopping center that's the only place for hundreds of miles where you can buy new jeans and sneakers at 2 in the morning.

Part of the reason Eastleigh attracts such investment, and such suspicion, is that Somalis make up the majority of people doing business there.

"When you come to Eastleigh, you feel that you are in Mogadishu or in other parts of Somalia, so you don't feel that you are an outsider," says Mohammed Shakul. "You feel at home."

Parallel Financial System

Shakul was born in Mogadishu, but he fled the war in his country in the 1990s and managed grocery stores in Nashville, Tenn. Seven years ago, he moved to Kenya and opened a hotel in Eastleigh aimed at other American Somalis and British and Canadian Somalis who like him want to come to the Kenyan capital and invest the money they've saved up in immigrant jobs as taxi drivers and shopkeepers and airline stewards.

Enlarge image i

10:55 a.m. ET: Declaring that Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius "has made a case to be released on bail," a South African magistrate on Friday set the stage for Pistorius to be set free while he awaits trial on the charge that he murdered his girlfriend.

Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair announced that news after spending nearly two hours discussing the case, South African law and the history of bail. During that long ruling from the bench, Nair said Pistorius had "failed to show this court that there's a weakness in the state's case" against him. But, Nair added, the state's case is not "so strong and watertight" that it's obvious Pistorius would decide he "needs to flee or evade his trial."

Nair said he does not consider the world famous athlete to be a flight risk, that the prosecution did not produce evidence that he has a "propensity to commit violence" and that there's no evidence Pistorius would try to "interfere with the state's witnesses."

After a short adjournment following the announcement, Nair ruled that the bail would be set at 1 million South African rand (about $112,000), of which Pistorius would have to put up 100,000 rand ($11,200) in cash. Pistorius was also ordered to hand over his passport, stay in South Africa and not enter any international airports.

Following the hearing, reports The Guardian, Pistorius "left the magistrate court in a truck ... chased by reporters on motorcycles." His next court date is June 4.

For much more, here's our original post and our earlier updates:

7:10 a.m. ET: We're due to learn this morning whether South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius will be granted bail as he awaits trial in Pretoria on a charge of premeditated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

As NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton tells our Newscast Desk, "the defense and prosecution have delivered their closing arguments" in a bail hearing that has lasted four days and at times felt like a trial. Pistorius, she notes, says he thought Steenkamp was an intruder and killed her by mistake at his home. The prosecution has offered evidence that it believes shows he knew what he was doing — including a neighbor's account of shouting coming from the house before shots were fired.

There's much more about the case in our previous posts.

The 26-year-old Pistorius, known as the "blade runner" because of the carbon-fiber prosthetic legs he uses, is the first double amputee to have participated in a Summer Olympics and is a Paralympics champion. Steenkamp, 29, was a model and aspiring reality TV star.

We'll be updating.

Update at 9:23 a.m. ET. Pistorius Has "Made A Case" To Be Released On Bail:

"I come to the conclusion that the accused has made a case to be released on bail," South African Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair just declared in a Pretoria courtroom. Then he adjourned the hearing for five minutes.

Update at 9:10 a.m. ET. Another Hint That Bail Will Be Granted?

"I cannot find that it has been established that the accused is a flight risk," says Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair.

Update at 9:07 a.m. ET. A Hint About The Decision?

The defense, says Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair, has "failed to show this court that there's a weakness in the state's case" that would compel him to grant bail. But, he adds, the state's case is not "so strong and watertight" that it's obvious Pistorius would decide he "needs to flee or evade his trial." That could be a sign that Nair is leaning toward granting bail. But, he still hasn't announced his decision.

Update at 9 a.m. ET. Magistrate Continues:

Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair, who has been speaking for the better part of the last 90 minutes, continues to discuss the case, the law and the evidence both sides have presented. He hasn't yet, though, given his ruling on whether bail will be granted.

Update at 8:41 a.m. ET. Hearing Resumes:

Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair has come back to the bench.

Update at 8:37 a.m. ET. Adjournment:

It's unclear why, but Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair just adjourned the hearing for what he indicated might be about five minutes. Moments before, he had said that prosecutors had presented enough "circumstantial evidence" to merit considering the charge of premeditated murder as he debates whether to grant bail.

Update at 8:30 a.m. ET. Decision Soon?

Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair has been speaking for nearly an hour. He has recapped the evidence, discussed the history of bail and current South African law, and appears to be getting close to announcing his decision.

Update at 7:50 a.m. ET. Live Tweets:

Storyful is curating tweets from journalists covering the trial.

Update at 7:40 a.m. ET. Hearing Resumes; Listen In:

Desmond Nair, the chief magistrate who is presiding over the bail hearing, has come back to the bench. The Guardian is among those live blogging from the court and audio from the courtroom is being streamed here.

South Africa's News 24 says it could take an hour for Nair to deliver his decision. He's beginning with a discussion about whether there should be TV coverage of the trial.

This interview was originally broadcast on Jan. 15, 2013.

At the Golden Globes, Ben Affleck looked genuinely surprised and delighted twice toward the end of the evening: first when he won best director for Argo, and then again when the film won for best motion picture/drama.

The film, which Affleck produced and in which he also stars, is the mostly true story of the CIA operative who helmed the rescue of six U.S. diplomats who managed to escape at the outset of the 1979 Iran crisis that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran.

Affleck, a Middle Eastern studies major in college, was a child when the crisis happened and does not remember the news coverage.

“ It's that struggle between ... the bookkeeper's reality and ... the poet's reality, and you make judgments as a director. And my judgment falls really cleanly on the line of, 'It's OK to embellish, it's OK to compress, as long as you don't fundamentally change the nature of the story and what happened.'

CNBC is far and away the television ratings leader in the financial cable news business. Now, evidence arrives that its executives, producers and reporters are going to great lengths to maintain its status.

The channel has adopted a policy that prohibits guests from appearing on rival channels amid breaking news if they want to be seen by CNBC's larger audience.

The tension over the policy with one of its peers offers a window into the intensity of the cable battles over what's called booking — landing interviews with key financial players, commentators, insiders and analysts.

"Every network should be trying to hustle to get content that's distinctive to their channel," said Andrew Morse, president of Bloomberg Television's U.S. operations. "That's our job. We're in the news business."

But Morse said Bloomberg doesn't try to dictate who can appear elsewhere.

"We want to talk to the newsmaker," Morse said. "If there's news we also understand, though, that newsmakers need to get their information out. People aren't in the world of just consuming one source of news and information now."

Politico was first to report the policy last week. CNBC's top spokesman initially denied to Politico that any such explicit policy existed. But a guest interviewed on CNBC earlier this month shared with NPR a copy of an email from a CNBC producer.

It carried this warning in red:

"CNBC POLICY REMINDER: Per CNBC policy, we cannot use guests who have a same-day appearance on Fox Business or Bloomberg...By accepting a booking with CNBC, you acknowledge and accept the terms of this policy."

So much of broadcast news revolves around the booking — with the pressure on the booker to land the guest.

“ Bookers are a unique life form in the ecosystem of news gathering. They are often the snipers who sit waiting for their prey, drinking black coffee, smoking cigarettes and striking at the ideal moment."