Morning News Roundup (16 Feb)

• Salon has acquired and published all the photos from the Australian SBS news programme (I just love that spelling) Dateline. You can also download the Dateline video via Boing Boing (I'm downloading the BitTorrent file right now).
  
  [Note that Salon is subscription-based, but you can view content at the site if you sit through a web ad (you can go and refill your coffee/tea mug while it plays). That said, I will once again highly recommend purchasing a yearly subscription--it's very well worth it for its wide-ranging, progressive news commentary as well as good arts/cultural coverage. OK, back to the news...]
  
  
• Truthout is reporting that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not turned over emails to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that potentially incriminate Vice President Dick Cheney (as if his week could get any better).
  
  
• Condoleezza Rice asked Congress for $75m to increase TV and radio broadcasts and fund dissident groups in Iran (BBC).
  
  
• The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility has opened an internal investigation into the department's role in approving the Bush administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program. Also, Attorney General Gonzales said testimony from former attorney general John D. Ashcroft and former deputy attorney general James B. Comey would be limited in front of the Senate Judiciary committee (WaPo).
  
  
• Amazon is in talks with the four major global music companies (Vivendi Universal, Sony BMG, EMI, and Warner) with plans to launch a digital music download service this summer (Wall Street Journal). Features to be potentially part of the mix:
  

  Amazon-branded portable music players, designed and built for the retailer, and a subscription service that would deeply discount and preload those devices with songs, not unlike mobile phones that are included with subscription plans as part of the deal.

• Wal-Mart must now carry emergency contraception pills in Massachusetts. The state Board of Registration in Pharmacy on Tuesday ruled in favor of three women who filed complaints against Wal-Mart claiming that the stores refused to fill their prescriptions. (CNN)
  
  
• Maybe conservation, something a particular Vice President who's in a bit of hot water this week once pooh-poohed, can work. The WaPo reports that the Japanese goverment's efforts to save on energy has been taken to heart by its populace. One example noted is the rise in sales of energy-efficient products, such as Pixus MP500 printer, which cost more than other models but are noted to have long-term savings:
  

  For some products, it can take years for savings on energy bills to offset the initial investment. Thus, experts say, the boom here is not likely to spread overseas until product prices come down. But with opinion polls showing that more than three-fourths of Japanese view energy conservation as a personal responsibility, many here are willing to shell out the cash.
  
  That has contributed to the fact that Japan's energy consumption per person is now almost half that of the United States. Conservation fever swept the nation after the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty written in Japan that aims to reduce greenhouse gases. The United States has not ratified the treaty.