Scotland's Salmond would consider non-nuclear NATO bases

By Daniel Bases

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alex Salmond wants to see an independent Scotland free of submarines laden with nuclear missiles, but he says he is open to hosting NATO bases without weapons of mass destruction.

As leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which controls the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, the Scottish first minister announced last month that on September 18, 2014, Scots would have a chance to decide whether or not to break from the United Kingdom after more than 300 years.

A Scotland free of British Trident nuclear submarines has been a long-standing aim of the SNP.

In an interview with Reuters in New York on Thursday, Salmond said he would not get into a debate before the referendum about allowing foreign military bases on Scottish soil. But he did say it was the SNP's intention to be a NATO member.

"The choice in policy terms is to be a non-nuclear member of that organization," he said. "So then if we are talking about a non-nuclear base, then of course that would be something that would be possible in terms of the (NATO) treaty agreement."

In February, the British government led by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron warned in a legal opinion that an independent Scotland would forfeit its membership in international bodies such as NATO and the European Union.

Salmond said an application to join the EU would be one of his first acts after a successful referendum. He predicted EU entry for an independent Scotland in 2016.

Salmond is in the United States to promote the independence cause and to drum up investment to bolster the economy of the 5.2 million strong Scottish nation. He will seek to promote a distinct foreign policy view when he visits Washington next week and meets with U.S. lawmakers.

Salmond said neither he nor Washington had broached the subject of a U.S. military base in Scotland, but the SNP had had discussions with U.S. representatives about NATO membership.

CAMERON AND TRIDENT

Cameron visited Scotland on Thursday and welcomed back the crew of a Trident submarine. He is at odds with some members of his own coalition government in saying that scaling back Britain's nuclear deterrent would be unwise given potential threats from Iran and North Korea.

Salmond argues that Scotland's annual contribution of 180 million pounds ($275 million) to help maintain the submarines would be better spent elsewhere.

"I accept that cleaning up contaminated land is part of the responsibilities of government, but the most important step in decontaminating nuclear materials in Scotland is not to renew a nuclear missile system for the next half century," he said.

Salmond and the SNP face a hard battle to secure independence. Opinion polls around the time the referendum date was set showed support for independence at 30 percent of the Scottish electorate while 50 percent favor the status quo.

Salmond hopes to boost support for the SNP cause by convincing Scots they would be better off with independence, not least by redirecting North Sea oil and gas revenues to their own Treasury.

According to the Scottish government, in the fiscal year ending in March 2012, Scotland accounted for 9.3 percent of UK public spending but 9.9 percent of UK tax revenue. Oil and gas aside, Scotland is pushing wind energy while building technology services in addition to tourism and Scotch Whisky industries.

On his first day of a week-long trip, Salmond signed deals with two U.S. businesses - Massachusetts-based life sciences firm Daktari and North Carolina-based business analytics software and services firm SAS - to expand operations in Scotland and add approximately 220 new jobs.

Salmond reiterated his challenge to debate Cameron on television about the merits of Scottish independence. He accused the prime minister of visiting Scotland to "scare" Scots about the impact of independence just as he was trying to promote its business and culture in the United States.

(Reporting By Daniel Bases; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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Chemical weapons use in Syria would be "outrageous crime:" U.N. chief

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the director general of the independent Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Tuesday they were deeply concerned about the alleged used of chemical weapons in Syria.

"The Secretary-General remains convinced that the use of chemical weapons by any party under any circumstances would constitute an outrageous crime," Ban's office said in a statement after he spoke by telephone with OPCW Director General Ahmet Uzumcu.

The OPCW is a Hague-based body charged with overseeing the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Texas bill would require DNA testing before death-penalty trials

By Corrie MacLaggan

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A law proposed in Texas would require all biological evidence collected in cases in which the state is seeking the death penalty to undergo DNA testing before trial, a change intended to reduce the risk of an innocent person being put to death.

Texas executes more prisoners than any other state. The bill's Democratic author, state Senator Rodney Ellis, said he was unaware of any other state having a similar law.

His proposal has also won the backing of the state's Republican attorney general.

"This law is a safeguard to help ensure no innocent person will be executed in Texas," said Attorney General Greg Abbott, who announced his support for the proposal at a press conference on Tuesday.

"If you're innocent, you're going to find out that your exoneration will come sooner," Abbott added. "If you are guilty, justice will be more swift and more certain. This law will also help prevent the seemingly endless appeals that do nothing more than game the system and delay justice."

Texas has executed 493 people since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Virginia has had the second-largest number of executions, 110.

There have been 303 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States, according to the Innocence Project. Of those exonerated, 18 served time on death row and an additional 16 were charged with capital crimes but did not receive a death sentence.

"We know that sometimes we get the wrong person," said Ellis, who represents parts of Houston. "There may be more men and women serving on death row today who did not commit a crime for which they were convicted."

Ellis pointed to the case of Michael Morton, an innocent man who spent nearly 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife before DNA evidence exonerated him. While Morton did not face the death penalty, Ellis said his case exemplifies the problem of wrongful conviction.

"Texas state government has been sensitized to the failures of its criminal justice system through the exoneration cases and particularly through the Michael Morton case," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit that aims to improve the quality of representation afforded those facing the death penalty.

Abbott said conducting DNA testing before a trial rather than after would prevent people who have been convicted from asking for repeated tests of evidence.

Under the proposal, the state would pay for the DNA testing. Abbott and Ellis said they weren't yet sure how much that might cost.

Stephen Saloom, policy director at the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people, said Ellis' bill was a good idea, but that he was uncertain whether such legislation was necessary.

"This should already be happening as a matter of practice," he said.

All states except Oklahoma have laws allowing post-conviction access to DNA evidence, although the laws vary, according to the Innocence Project. Some of the laws don't allow access to DNA in cases in which the defendant confessed to the crime or don't require adequate preservation of DNA evidence, the Innocence Project says.

Abbott and Ellis both support the death penalty.

Abbott said he did not believe Texas has executed any innocent people, noting that the state has an exhaustive process in place to ensure that doesn't happen.

Ellis was not so sure.

"I just don't know," he said. "I worry about it."

(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Gevirtz)

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