NEW YORK – The lawyer for the wife of accused kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido says his client misses the children her husband allegedly fathered with his victim, and says she saw them all as a family.
Nancy Garrido's lawyer told CBS's "The Early Show" on Wednesday that his client says she loves the girls.
Authorities say Phillip Garrido fathered Jaycee Lee Dugard's two daughters, now 11 and 15.
The Garridos were arrested last week and charged in the kidnapping, rape and imprisonment of Dugard, who was 11 years old when she was snatched outside her home in 1991.
Lawyer Gilbert Maines also appeared on ABC and NBC on Wednesday, saying Nancy Garrido seemed distraught and frightened during his first meeting with her. But he says she realizes why she is in jail.
September 2009
LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (AFP) –
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged world leaders to act now to halt global warming, as he saw first-hand its effects in the Arctic ahead of a key climate change summit in December.
The UN will organise a high-level international meeting in New York on September 22 to prepare for the Copenhagen summit.
In Copenhagen, world leaders will try to seal a new accord to fight climate change after the Kyoto Protocol requirements expire in 2012.
"I will tell world leaders that this is the time to act before it is too late," Ban told reporters during a visit to Norway's Svalbard archipelago, just 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the North Pole.
"The Arctic is similar to sending a canary into a coalmine -- this is a danger warning for the global climate," he said.
If world leaders fail to "take urgent action ... we will regret it deeply for the future of humanity and the future of the world," he added.
His comments came a day after he visited the Ny-Aalesund climate change research station in Svalbard and took a walk on the polar ice rim, saying he was "very much alarmed" by the rapid rate of melting ice.
Researchers studying atmospheric conditions in the Arctic had told him Tuesday that they had over the past two years suddenly seen a large increase in emissions of methane gas, one of the most aggressive greenhouse gases that contributes to global warming.
"This Arctic is the place where this global warming is happening much faster than any other region in the world. It looks like it's seemingly moving in slow motion but it's moving faster and faster. Much faster than expected," Ban said Tuesday.
Norwegian Environment Minister Erik Solheim, who accompanied the UN secretary general on his tour of the Arctic region, echoed Ban's concerns.
"There is absolutely no doubt of the challenge facing the world today. Hundreds of thousands of people will die if we don't act," he told a seminar attended by Ban at Longyearbyen University in Svalbard.
"The magnitude of the task is enormous," he added.
Speaking to AFP, Ban criticised world leaders for often acting in the interests of their own countries.
"Climate change affects everyone. It doesn't respect borders. So political leaders should act as world leaders," he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Ban toured a vault carved into the Arctic permafrost, filled with samples of the world's most important seeds in case food crops are wiped out by a catastrophe.
"The world faces many daunting challenges today, one of the greatest of which is how to feed a growing population in the context of climate change," a bundled-up Ban told reporters after he visited the site.
"The seeds stored here in Svalbard will help us do just that. Sustainable food production may not begin in this cold Arctic environment, but it does begin by conserving crop diversity," he said.
Aimed at safeguarding biodiversity in the face of climate change, wars and other natural and man-made disasters, the seed bank has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million batches of seeds, or twice the number of crop varieties believed to exist in the world today.
The vault was inaugurated in February 2008, and so far some 25 international and national institutes from 22 countries have deposited some 400,000 batches of seeds, according to the Norwegian government.
Ban was to leave the Arctic later Wednesday.
EDINBURGH, Scotland – Britain did not want the Lockerbie bomber to die in a Scottish prison, Britain's foreign secretary acknowledged Wednesday, as Scotland's parliament resumed debate on the decision to free the terminally ill Libyan and let him die at home.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband defended Britain's government in a BBC interview following the release of confidential documents about discussions regarding convicted bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi. Miliband confirmed details that emerged in the documents, suggesting that the U.K. had not sought to have al-Megrahi serve out his life sentence.
"We did not want him to die in prison, no, we weren't seeking his death in prison," Miliband said.
The remarks, and the release of the documents, offer the first formal indication of the British government's thoughts on the release. The government had previously refused to be drawn into the issue, saying it was up to the government in Scotland to decide on justice issues.
Al-Megrahi, 57, was the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. Scotland freed him on compassionate grounds Aug. 20 after doctors said he had terminal cancer.
Opposition leader David Cameron immediately seized upon Miliband's remarks, demanding an investigation into the controversy.
"The prime minister and the government stand accused of double-dealing saying one thing to the Libyans in private, refusing to express an opinion to the British public and indicating something else to the Americans," Cameron said. "That is why we need an inquiry to clear this matter up."
The British government released the documents Tuesday in an attempt to quell speculation that it had pushed al-Megrahi's release to boost economic cooperation with Libya. But the documents fanned more resentment in the United States, where al-Megrahi's release was vehemently opposed.
Britain has regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that are responsible for local issues but retains power over foreign policy.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the decision to free al-Megrahi was Scotland's. He will now face increased pressure to say how he viewed Scotland's decision a stand he was been reluctant to take because of domestic political pressure to keep regional issues separate from the national ones.
Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in 2001 with a minimum term of 27 years. Releasing prisoners on compassionate grounds is a regular feature of Scottish justice for dying inmates.
Anger has been percolating on both sides of the Atlantic since al-Megrahi flew home to a hero's welcome in Libya.
The families of some American victims have said they were disgusted by the bomber's release, which was also sharply criticized by President Barack Obama, FBI director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder.
U.S. Justice Department spokesman Richard Kolko said Tuesday that his department had "received assurances in the 1990s that al-Megrahi's full sentence would be served in Scotland."
The American statement seemed to contradict some of the released documents, including one from Britain's Foreign Office that said there was no categorical commitment given to the United States to keep al-Megrahi jailed.
During debate in the Scottish parliament Wednesday, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said he had received "conflicting advice" from officials in London on what assurances Britain had given Libya and the United States.
"I still do not know the exact nature of the pretrial discussions or what may have been agreed between the Libyan and U.K. or any other governments," he said.
American victims' families reacted with fury to the disclosures.
"The fix has been in for a while," said Bob Monetti, whose 20-year-old brother Richard from Cherry Hill, N.J. was among those killed. "The U.K. has put incredible pressure on Scotland to do this thing, and they finally caved in."
As the more than a dozen documents dated between 2007 and 2009 were released, Libya marked the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Col. Moammar Gadhafi to power an extravaganza meant to celebrate the return of the former pariah state into the international fold after terrorism.
The disclosures followed claims in the British media that the British government struck a deal with Libyan authorities to include al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement because that was in Britain's best interests as a major oil deal was being negotiated.
Britain has growing economic interests in Libya from oil exploration to financial services. Last year, British imports from Libya topped some 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion).
But the British government has repeatedly denied its role in the release and said there was no pressing commercial deal.
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Associated Press writers David Stringer and Jill Lawless in London, Devlin Barret in Washington, Alfred De Montesquiou in Tripoli, Libya, and Geoff Mulvihill in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
