The Morning Report -- Thursday February 7, 2013

Solomon Islands Tsunami -- Tunisian Government Dissolved -- North Korea Makes New Threats -- Delayed Decision On Gay Ban -- 17yr Old Locked In Basement -- Dell Goes Private -- Free Wifi In Every US City? -- Obama To Justify  Drones

SOLOMON ISLANDS TSUNAMI DEATHS CONFIRMED

AP

Aid workers struggled to reach remote villages in the Solomon Islands on Thursday as the death toll rose from a tsunami triggered by a powerful undersea earthquake.

At least nine people were killed when an earthquake set off a small but powerful tsunami that sent 1.5-metre (4ft 11in) waves roaring inland on Santa Cruz Island, in the south Pacific, on Wednesday. Around 100 homes across five villages were damaged or destroyed.

Elderly people and at least one child were among those who died after being sucked under the rushing water, said George Herming, a spokesman for the prime minister.

Dozens of strong aftershocks were keeping frightened residents from returning to the coast, Herming said.

TUNISIAN GOVERNMENT DISOLVES

Reuters

(Reuters) - Tunisia's ruling Islamists dissolved the government and promised rapid elections in a bid to restore calm after the killing of an opposition leader sparked the biggest street protests since the revolution two years ago.

The prime minister's announcement late on Wednesday that an interim cabinet of technocrats would replace his Islamist-led coalition came at the end of a day which had begun with the gunning down of Chokri Belaid, a left-wing lawyer with a modest political following but who spoke for many who fear religious radicals are stifling freedoms won in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.

During the day, protesters battled police in the streets of the capital and other cities, including Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Jasmine Revolution that toppled Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.

NORTH KOREA THREATENS TO TURN BORDER FACTORY INTO MILITARY ZONE

Reuters

Rising tensions on the Korean peninsula are jeopardizing a joint industrial project that has served as one of the few remaining symbols of reconciliation between Seoul and Pyongyang.

North Korea has warned the South it will abandon the Kaesong Industrial Complex and turn the border area back into a military zone if Seoul follows through on its pledge to tighten inspections there.

Earlier this week, Seoul's Unification Ministry said it would more closely monitor industrial parts and other cargo shipped into the facility, as a result of expanded U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang following a banned November rocket launch.

DECISION ON BAN OF GAYS IN BOY SCOUTS DELAYED

Rotary Club

It was disappointing Wednesday when the executive board of the Boy Scouts of America delayed a decision to let local troops make their own decisions on whether to allow openly gay participants. Still, the delay also came with a commitment to hold a definitive vote on the policy at the BSA’s national meeting in May. So the 103-year-old organization has forced a choice upon itself: Either it will emerge from this debate with a commitment to diversity, or behave like an intolerant relic of the past.

POLICE SAY TEENAGER WAS HANDCUFFED IN BASEMENT SINCE LAST SEPTEMBER

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Kansas City police are investigating a 17-year-old boy's report that his father and stepmother kept him handcuffed and barely fed in the basement of his home since September of last year.

Police reports say an officer and a social worker found the teenager Monday handcuffed to a steel pole, cold and "very thin for his height." They went to the home after receiving a call about the boy. The report does not say who made the call.

The teenager told police that he had been kept in the basement since being removed from school by his father. He said his father generally brought him only instant oatmeal, Ramen noodles and two bologna sandwiches every day.

The police report does not indicate any reason for the boy's treatment.

DELL GOES PRIVATE

Dell has officially closed a buyout of the company, taking the company off the publicly-traded stock market and into private hands. The deal is being financed by cash and equity from CEO Michael Dell, funds from investment firms Silver Lake and MSD Capital, a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, plus debt financing from a number of banks as well as Dell's cash on hand. Dell's shareholders will receive $13.65 for each share of common Dell stock they hold, up about 25 percent from Dell's closing share price of $10.88 back on January 11th, which Dell says is the last day prior to rumors of the buying starting to circulate. Those rumors have escalated in the last week, when Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal reported that discussions to bring Dell private were serious, and that a deal could be reached in the following six weeks.

Bloomberg also reports that board members met last night to vote on the move, while the Wall Street Journal cites top execs as saying company founder Michael Dell is a man "increasingly worried about his legacy." Michael Dell has reportedly lost enthusiasm for the day-to-day running of the company since reclaiming his position as CEO of the company in 2007.

NO, FREE WIFI ISN'T COMING TO EVERY US CITY 

An amazing story circulated today through much of the mainstream media and tech press. The US government is going to build gigantic Wi-Fi networks across the country, giving free Internet access to everyone.

Or perhaps the US would somehow force wireless providers to build these networks—in which case, it's not clear why this amazing new Internet service would be free, unless the goal was to destroy the entire business model of both cellular carriers and Internet service providers in one fell swoop.

The headlines were literally too good to be true, and so outlandish no one should have written them in the first place. "FCC Proposes Free Wi-Fi For Everyone In The US," Popular Science reported. "FCC wants free Wi-Fi for all," said The Daily Caller. On Mashable, it was "Government Wants to Create Free Public 'Super Wi-Fi'," and Business Insider breathlessly reported, "Telecom Corporations Are Trying To Stop The Government From Offering Free 'Super Wi-Fi'"

OBAMA TO RELEASE DOCUMENT ON TARGETED KILLINGS USING DRONES TO CONGRESS

Washington (CNN) -- The Senate Intelligence Committee will receive a classified document Thursday that seeks to justify the administration's policy of targeting Americans overseas via drone attacks, chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said.

"I am pleased that the president has agreed to provide the Intelligence Committee with access to the OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) opinion regarding the use of lethal force in counterterrorism operations," the California Democrat said in a statement Wednesday.

"It is critical for the committee's oversight function to fully understand the legal basis for all intelligence and counterterrorism operations."

The announcement came shortly after an administration official said President Barack Obama had yielded to demands that he turn over to Congress the classified Justice Department legal advice that seeks to justify the policy.