Under the deal, O2 will link the “Airwave” network used by the police and other emergency services to London Underground's own “Connect” digital radio system, to allow police officers to have radio coverage when working in any of the Tube's tunnels and stations.

This complex transaction involved seven parties and required two separate and independent PFI contracts to be linked up in an innovative way. O2 Airwave provides the UK's secure digital communications network for emergency and public safety organisations, known as “Airwave”, which is used by all officers across police forces in Great Britain including the British Transport Police. To date, this network has only provided coverage in London Underground surface stations and cut-and-cover tunnels, but not in deep stations and tunnels across the Tube network. Independently, Citylink, a consortium of a number of telecoms providers is rolling out “Connect”, a new digital radio system for London Underground for use by London Underground personnel. Under the series of contracts now signed, the two systems will be linked together to provide coverage for police and other emergency services’ radios right across the London Underground network. Once in place, Airwave users, including police officers or ambulance crews, will have seamless radio coverage as they enter all Underground stations from above ground or when they travel on trains.

The Morrison & Foerster team was led by partner Alistair Maughan, technology procurement specialist and head of Morrison & Foerster’s Global Sourcing Group, and Reinhard Schu, a senior associate in Morrison & Foerster’s Global Sourcing Group. Mr. Maughan has been PITO’s legal adviser on the Airwave project since 1996.

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North and South Korea have wasted no time in building on the nuclear deal agreed to by six nations here in the Chinese capital. Following consultations in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, South Korean Assistant Unification Minister Lee Kwan-se said Thursday that suspended inter-Korean talks would resume.

He says there is willingness to improve the inter-Korean relationship, so the two Koreas will hold minister-level meetings in Pyongyang from February 27 to March 2.

South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, who will represent Seoul at the talks, has made no secret of South Korea's interest in resuming emergency food and fertilizer assistance to the severely impoverished North.

Seoul halted regular shipments last July, after North Korea test-fired a series of missiles despite warnings from South Korea and the international community. The North responded by suspending inter-Korean talks and scheduled reunions between family members separated by the Korean divide.

South Korea kept its food embargo in place after North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in October. Seoul also backed United Nations punitive sanctions against Pyongyang.

South Korea, the United States, China, Russia, Japan, and North Korea agreed Tuesday on a list of preliminary steps aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons programs. Now the two Koreas are expected to devote special attention to resuming food aid and restarting a host of inter-Korean projects such as family reunions and cross-border railways.

The deal agreed to here in Beijing exchanges a shutdown of North Korea's main nuclear facility at Yongbyon for delivery of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil within 60 days. Far more ambitious targets toward scrapping the North's weapons are to be set out in future phases of the agreement.

Ryoo Kihl-jae, Dean of Seoul's Kyungnam Graduate School of North Korean studies, says South Korea views it as a matter of strategic importance to ensure that severe economic deprivation does not destabilize North Korea. However, he says South Korean patience for subsidizing the North does have its limits.

He says if there is trouble in implementing the current North Korean nuclear deal, South Korean political support for engagement with the North may suffer.

South Korea's main opposition party, whose candidates enjoy a wide lead in early polling for this December's presidential election, says the upcoming North-South ministerial should focus primarily on ensuring North Korea adheres to the terms of the Beijing nuclear deal.

Opposition politicians are concerned that South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun may gain political support by hosting an early summit with the North.

WASHINGTON —The IRS announced today that it had entered into an agreement that resolves several disputed tax issues with Merck & Co., Inc. and its subsidiaries. The agreement will result in a payment to the government of approximately $2.3 billion in federal tax, net interest and penalties, and resolves all issues that had been in dispute between the parties for the tax years 1993-2001. The resolution is one of the largest achieved in recent years by the Service and a taxpayer through the examination process.

Both the IRS and Merck acknowledge that reaching an agreement of this magnitude was the result of cooperation by both parties. To facilitate this agreement, the IRS and the taxpayer used various issue management strategies, including the Fast Track Settlement Program.

Among the significant issues resolved were three issues that resulted from Merck’s use of minority equity interest financing transactions. The execution of these agreements should facilitate the ability of the IRS and the taxpayer to move forward and effectively address tax issues arising in subsequent examination years.

WASHINGTON - The United States filed has filed suit seeking to permanently bar Richard E. Almy and his company, REA Associates, Inc., from preparing federal tax returns, the Justice Department announced today. According to the complaint, filed in the Middle District of Florida, Almy and his company prepared tax returns that claimed overstated, duplicated, and fabricated deductions on their clients’ tax returns. An examination by the Internal Revenue Service of 175 tax returns prepared by Almy and his company during 2003 found that all of them required audit adjustments that increased the tax owed.

The government alleges that the defendants’ scheme involved knowingly ignoring or modifying information provided by their clients on summary sheets containing their income and expenses for the applicable tax year. The government estimates in the complaint that this alleged fraudulent tax preparation scheme by Almy and his company has resulted in an understatement of their customers’ federal income tax liabilities of more than $16 million for tax years 2001 through 2003 alone.

The complaint also seeks an order requiring Almy and his company to provide the Justice Department with the names, addresses, social security or taxpayer identification numbers, as well as e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of their customers.

Since 2001, the Justice Department has obtained more than 220 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.

Downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a real estate revival of epic proportions. And the Los Angeles Urban Redevelopment Group and its people are in the thick of it.

Although business has long been L.A.'s heart, its arts and cultural institutions have given life to its soul in recent years. Each year, thousands come to watch Esa -Pekka Salonen conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall; view avant-garde works at the Museum of Contemporary Art; or tour the magnificent Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Free outdoor concerts by Grand Performances at California Plaza during the summer months offer an eclectic mix of music, dance and spoken word programs. The Museum of Neon Art houses a unique collection of neon signs from many Los Angeles landmark buildings.

Nearby Exposition Park draws hundreds of thousands of people annually to the California Science Center and IMAX, Natural History Museum and California African-American Museum. The City's ethnic diversity is also reflected by the Japanese American National Museum located in Little Tokyo.

World-class athletic teams and venues offer sports fans a wealth of choices: the Dodgers at their longtime home in Chavez Ravine just north of the Downtown Center District; plus the Kings, Lakers, Avengers, Sparks and Clippers playing at the Staples Center.

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced today a multi-faceted Department of Justice initiative to assist the city of New Orleans in its continued recovery from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. The Department will be committing federal resources to support the New Orleans Police Department’s (NOPD) efforts to reestablish its local crime laboratory, funding to provide assistance to victims and witnesses of crimes, and a grant to establish a Family Justice Center.

“Following the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Justice Department has taken unprecedented measures to support state and local law enforcement efforts to rebuild the infrastructure that is critical to fighting crime in New Orleans and surrounding parishes,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “Today we are reinforcing our efforts by committing important resources to assist crime victims and local law enforcement officers. The road to recovery is long, but the Justice Department is committed to helping state and local law enforcement establish a safer New Orleans.”

The Justice Department is allocating resources to help reestablish the NOPD Crime Lab, which was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The lack of a permanent and functional crime lab in New Orleans has led to significant delays in the processing and analysis of important evidence such as blood, drugs and ballistics. In the absence of a permanent forensics lab, the NOPD has been using space provided by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, and the Louisiana State Police, and services provided by Justice Department agencies whenever possible. Through the assistance and financial support of FEMA, as well as that of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, the city has acquired the space necessary to establish a single dedicated NOPD crime lab at the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Center. The NOPD will hire additional technicians to assist in processing evidence and clearing the backlog that has built up since Katrina.

The Justice Department has also announced that it will fund two highly trained victim assistance specialists for the next three years. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the local criminal justice system has faced many challenges, including the need to provide advice and assistance to victims and witnesses of crimes. The victim specialists will establish a regional victims services committee to lead and coordinate victims assistance efforts within Orleans and Jefferson Parishes; provide essential training and outreach to communities and participating local law enforcement offices as well as schools, community centers and faith-based organizations; educate the general population as well as victims about the criminal justice process; and provide essential advice, counseling and services to victims and witnesses served by the local criminal justice system. The specialists will be stationed in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The funding for the specialists was made possible through the close collaboration of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Office of Justice Programs.

To provide assistance to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes, the Justice Department is committing up to $3 million to create a comprehensive victim service and support center, where victims can find the services they need in one central location. The Department’s Office on Violence Against Women is working with partners in the public and private sectors to identify the most effective way to help victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault crimes in New Orleans, by providing multiple services in a single location, including emergency housing, medical care, counseling, law enforcement assistance, faith-based services, social services and employment assistance, among others.

The Department already has helped 15 communities across the country establish comprehensive domestic violence victim service and support centers through the implementation of the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative. The grant announced today will likely be utilized to establish a center that replicates this model.

The initiatives announced today build on previous efforts by the Justice Department to assist New Orleans in rebuilding its law enforcement services post-Katrina. In January 2007, the Justice Department outlined additional law enforcement resources that are acting as a force multiplier to state and local law enforcement officers dedicated to fighting violent crime in New Orleans. The additional federal resources include six Assistant U.S. Attorneys, six additional ATF Special Agents to work with the New Orleans Violent Crime Impact Team, nine additional FBI agents to supplement the New Orleans Violent Gang Safe Streets Task Force, and three additional Deputy U.S. Marshals and an investigative analyst to support the Crescent Star Fugitive Task Force.

Teams of U.S. Department of Justice personnel have been embedded with the NOPD to develop more cases against dangerous individuals for federal prosecution.  In the weeks since that initiative began, a total of 24 individuals have been arrested in New Orleans directly related to the joint NOPD/Department of Justice efforts and have been charged via criminal complaint at the outset with serious violations of federal laws, including firearms violations and drug distribution charges.  One individual so charged remains wanted by federal authorities.  Additionally, 13 of the individuals arrested on these charges have already been indicted by federal grand juries for these serious crimes as the result of swift work by the law enforcement personnel and the federal prosecutors assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  

Following Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana was a driving force in the creation and continued vitality of the Southeast Louisiana Criminal Justice Recovery Task Force, and the Department has made more than $30 million in grants available to the city of New Orleans and Orleans Parish to help rebuild the criminal justice system. In total, the Department has made available to the state of Louisiana over $61 million in justice assistance grants and Katrina relief law enforcement infrastructure funds.