Germany's Greens say Snowden should get safe haven in Europe

BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's opposition Greens suggested on Monday that Europe provide a safe haven for former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, whose revelations about the extent of U.S. surveillance programs have infuriated America's allies.

Juergen Trittin, parliamentary leader and candidate for chancellor of the Greens, Germany's third biggest party, told German television it was an outrage that the 30-year-old former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor should be seeking asylum in "despotic" countries.

"It's painful for democrats that someone who has served democracy and, in our view, uncovered a massive violation of basic rights, should have to seek refuge with despots who have problems with basic rights themselves," said Trittin.

"Someone like that should be protected," he said. "That counts for Mr Snowden. He should get safe haven here in Europe because he has done us a service by revealing a massive attack on European citizens and companies. Germany, as part of Europe, could do that."

Trittin did not specify which "despots" he was referring to.

Snowden flew from the United States to Hong Kong and is now in an international airport in Russia seeking asylum in Ecuador - the country that has been sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its London embassy since last year.

European concern over U.S. spying tactics flared anew at the weekend after German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the NSA had tapped communications at EU offices in Washington, Brussels and at the United Nations.

According to the report, the NSA taps half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month, much more than any other European peer. Britain's Guardian newspaper said the United States had also targeted non-European allies.

The revelations have enraged America's foreign partners and sparked a debate over the balance between the protection of privacy and national security. The Germans are particularly sensitive about this, having experienced the Stasi secret police in communist East Germany and the Gestapo under the Nazis.

"This used to happen in the Eastern bloc but you were aware of it. You knew everything was bugged so you didn't talk to each other. You just went for a walk in the forest," Martin Schulz, the German president of the European Parliament, told German radio. "It is no way to treat your closest partners."

Chancellor Angela Merkel has not commented on the latest report. She said during a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this month that some questions about the U.S. program, code-named Prism, still needed to be cleared up. Obama tried to reassure Germany that the program was well within the law and that the emails of ordinary citizens were not being monitored.

Trittin said that in response to the latest revelations, the EU should suspend exchanging banking and flight data with the United States.

He said plans to create an EU-U.S. free trade zone should only be pursued if rules were upheld "such as respecting commercial secrets rather scouting them out via espionage".

(Reporting by Stephen Brown and Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Noah Barkin)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/germanys-greens-snowden-safe-haven-europe-080014894.html

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Can An Old Massachusetts Fishing Port Light The World Again?

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick joined state officials, clean energy advocates and union representatives to break ground for the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.

Jesse Costa/WBUR

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick joined state officials, clean energy advocates and union representatives to break ground for the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.

Jesse Costa/WBUR

A shabby old fishing port on the South Coast of Massachusetts was once known as the City That Lit the World. Its whale oil powered candles and lamps around the country.

Now, the city is trying to rekindle that flame with an alternative form of energy: offshore wind.

A Distant History Of Wealth

New Bedford's glory days are long gone. The city suffers from a long list of woes ? high crime, persistent unemployment and poor public schools.

For generations, the sea was New Bedford's lifeblood. Now, the water is still there, but the wealth is gone.

You can see just a glimmer of New Bedford's old opulence shining through its cobblestone streets and the whaling captains' old mansions.

"On the eve of the Civil War, New Bedford was the wealthiest city per capita in the United States," says Mayor Jon Mitchell. "New Bedford was to whaling what Detroit was to automobiles."

Striving For New Opportunities

On a chilly May morning, Mitchell joined state officials and local union representatives to break ground on the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal ?a 100-million dollar state-funded project.

The port is being described as the first of its kind in the country ? big enough to transport wind blades the length of a football field. Locals hope it will serve as the hub for the offshore wind industry and bring in jobs. New Bedford's current employment rate is among the worst in the state.

The Energy Department estimates that if the U.S. takes advantage of its wind potential by 2030, some 20,000 jobs could sprout up around the offshore wind industry.

A quarter of the nation's wind reserves lie just south of Martha's Vineyard, and New Bedford is the closest deep-water port. Mitchell says his city is sitting on the Saudi Arabia of wind.

"New Bedford is the biggest commercial fishing port in America," says Mitchell. "We know what we're doing out on the water."

Contagious Optimism

The mayor's optimism is rubbing off on Justin Silvia, who wakes up at 3:30 am to drive more than an hour to get to his job as a heavy equipment operator. He says he would love to find work closer to home so he could spend time with his three kids. He's trying to land himself a job on this port project.

"There's definitely a big buzz in the area as far as how many jobs it's going to create. I mean, the main focus is get as many New Bedford unemployed workers that are capable and trained properly," he says.

New Bedford is already working with Bristol Community College to secure grants that will train displaced workers.

Skepticism Remains ? On The Water And Off

But not all of the folks on the water think offshore wind is the solution to all the city's troubles. Fishermen have been struggling to find work in recent years as the government declared certain waters off limits.

Tony Alvernaz is a fisherman in New Bedford. He wonders how fishermen will be able to navigate around giant wind turbines to find healthy fish.

"New Bedford has been a seafaring city for how many years, how many centuries? And so let's do away with that; let's bring on the wind farm. Is that the answer? I don't think so," he says.

Matt Kaplan, a wind analyst for IHS Emerging Energy Research in Cambridge, says it's a big bet. "Offshore wind will have to be tied to creating jobs in order to really be successful here because of the premium cost."

Kaplan says the problem is that no matter how strong the wind gusts blow, local utility companies have to be willing to pay a premium for pricey offshore wind energy. For now, there are federal subsidies that help nudge development along, but there is no guarantee that the government's helping hand will always be there.

Still, Kaplan said it helps that New Bedford is first in designing an offshore wind-friendly port.

"But whether that's going to make New Bedford the one-stop shop moving forward forever, for being the only port for offshore wind, I think it's a really tough call just because of the need to really create local jobs in each state that has one of these projects," Kaplan says.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/06/24/190687185/can-an-old-massachusetts-fishing-port-light-the-world-again?ft=1&f=1007

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Samsung, Sony and others said to have no interest in Facebook Home

By Nadia Damouni and Siddharth Cavale (Reuters) - Tensions started rising at Men's Wearhouse Inc over the past six months, as founder and executive chairman George Zimmer increasingly butted heads with his handpicked CEO over the clothing retailer's strategy. CEO Doug Ewert wanted to sell the company's K&G Fashion Superstore business, while Zimmer wanted to keep it, two sources familiar with the situation said. Zimmer also objected to rising compensation for top executives, including Ewert, while the board thought it was appropriate, the sources said. Zimmer, who is known to U.S. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-sony-others-said-no-interest-facebook-home-191046814.html

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Chinese astronaut teaches 60 million kids from space

A Chinese astronaut gave China its first physics lesson by video from space today, a required lesson for middle schools across the country.

By Peter Ford,?Staff writer / June 20, 2013

A student looks at his iPad as his class watches a live broadcast of a lecture given by Shenzhou-10 spacecraft astronauts on the Tiangong-1 space module, at a primary school in Quzhou, Zhejiang province June 20, 2013.

REUTERS

Enlarge

It adds a whole new meaning to ?distance learning.?

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping gave a physics lesson by video from a space module orbiting more than 300 km (186 miles) above the earth?on Thursday.

She gulped a globule of water floating in the air, and pushed a fellow astronaut against the module?s wall with a touch of her finger, to illustrate the effects of weightlessness. Then she answered questions from a group of children gathered in a studio in Beijing watching the lesson on live TV.

The scene resembled a similar lesson that US elementary school teacher Barbara Morgan taught from the International Space Station in 2007. But this one had specifically Chinese characteristics.

The questions that the Chinese kids asked?on Thursday?were much like the questions that American kids asked six years ago. Do stars twinkle when you are in space? (No, because there is no atmospheric interference.) Have you seen any UFO?s? (?Not yet? was Ms. Wang?s answer to that one.)

But while Barbara Morgan and her colleagues participated in three low-key sessions with small groups of students in Idaho, Virginia, and Massachusetts, Wang?s class was broadcast nationwide on state TV?s premier channel and 60 million schoolchildren and teachers in 80,000 middle schools watched, according to China?s Education Ministry.

The ministry had ?issued instructions requiring middle schools to adjust their class schedules and organize students to watch? the lesson, according to its website.

The compulsory class reflected the importance that the Chinese government has attached to its ambitious space program. Beijing first sent a human into space only 10 years ago, but plans to build its own space station by 2020.

Beijing has more than just a technological interest in space. A few years ago, just before China launched its first lunar probe, the chief scientist for China's moon program, Ouyang Ziyuan, was blunt about its political purposes.

"Lunar exploration is a reflection of a country's comprehensive national power,? he said in an interview with the official newspaper People's Daily. ?It is significant for raising our international prestige and increasing our people's cohesion."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/-r4oyi0Jidw/Chinese-astronaut-teaches-60-million-kids-from-space

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Robert Duvall spectator at Bulger trial in Boston

BOSTON (AP) ? Academy Award winner Robert Duvall is one of the spectators at the racketeering trial of reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Duvall sat in the back of the courtroom Friday at Bulger's trial in Boston.

The 82-year-old Duvall has had a long television and film career, including starring roles in "The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part II." In those mob epics, he played Tom Hagen, a lawyer and adviser to the Corleone family.

He won a best actor Oscar in 1984 for his role in "Tender Mercies."

He has been shooting a movie, "The Judge," in Shelburne, Mass., this month. Duvall plays the title character in the film, which also stars Robert Downey Jr., Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D'Onofrio.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/robert-duvall-spectator-bulger-trial-boston-132814587.html

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UK Women Under 50 Diagnosed with Breast Cancer in Record ...

Breast cancer researchers in the UK have noticed a troubling trend recently, which is that more women under the age of 50 are being diagnosed with breast cancer. A record number of women under 50, actually ? according to Cancer Research UK, 10,068 women under the age of 50 in the UK were diagnosed with the disease in 2010, 2,356 more than were diagnosed in 1995.

According to the Guardian, the rise in diagnoses ?represents an 11% growth in incidence rates of breast cancer in women aged under 50 over the same period ? from 38 per 100,000 women diagnosed in 1993-1995 to 42 women per 100,000 in 2008-2010.? Cancer Research UK isn?t quite sure what?s behind the unsettling rise in under-50 breast cancer diagnoses, but it has suggested that there?s a correlation between the 11 percent growth in incidence rates and growing alcohol consumption, more widespread use of the contraceptive pill, and a growing number of women choosing to have fewer children later in life.

The silver lining here is that the death rate for breast cancer patients fell from nine per 100,000 women under 50 in 1993-1995, to five per 100,000 in 2008-2010. Routine screenings are offered to women in the UK between the ages of 50 and 70, but changes are now being made to the prevention program so that women in their 40s are also invited to have regular screenings. That?s a start, but according to Chief Executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer Chris Askew (who doesn?t have the most trustworthy surname, but moving on), the rise in the under-50 breast cancer rate merits attention from the medical community:

Although breast cancer is more common in older women, it's worrying to see an increase in the number of younger women diagnosed with the disease. We must invest in vital research for new treatments and disease prevention.

That probably means going a few steps beyond just having all the English football players wear pink cleats for a month.

[Guardian]

Image via AP, Rich Pedroncelli

Source: http://jezebel.com/uk-women-under-50-diagnosed-with-breast-cancer-in-recor-488290243

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Wind farms to lure back German lobsters decimated by WW2

By Madeline Chambers

BERLIN (Reuters) - New wind farms off Germany's North Sea coast will provide an ideal habitat that could help restore the lobster population near Heligoland after British bombing during and after World War II drove them away.

Biologists at the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research are breeding 3,000 lobsters to be released next year into the Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm near the island 70 km off the German-Dutch coast.

The 1.5 square km island had a thriving fishing industry before it became a Nazi fortress in the war, pounded by Allied bombs, and then later used for target practice. It is now a tourist resort.

Billions of euros of investment in wind turbines as part of Germany's ambitious transition to renewable energy has given the scheme impetus. Lobsters, whose local population is 90 percent smaller than it was 70 years ago, need a firm seabed to thrive.

"The new wind parks mean lobsters may settle in a new habitat, because the stony foundations offer a favorable environment," project leader Heinz-Dieter Franke said.

The 700,000 euro ($923,500) scheme is funded by compensation paid to the state of Lower Saxony by utility EWE for any potential ecological damage caused by the construction of its wind park. The money will fund breeding, reintroduction and monitoring of the lobsters for roughly two years.

"With Germany's shift to renewables, we could have 5,000 wind farms by 2030, so if it works, this kind of project could have a huge effect on the lobster population," Franke said.

He estimated that wind farms could help increase the lobster population to as many as 300,000 lobsters in the area around Heligoland in the long run from 50,000 to 100,000 now.

EXPLOSIONS

Scandinavian and Mediterranean lobster stocks have collapsed in the past few decades from a combination of environmental factors.

But some scientists cite British explosives as one reason for the decimation of the lobster population around Heligoland.

In one of the biggest bombing runs on Heligoland during the war, the Allied air force destroyed almost every building on the island, raining down 7,000 bombs in a two-hour raid on April 18, 1945.

For five years after the war, Britain used Heligoland for target practice, and in 1947 it set off some 7,000 metric tons worth of explosives to blow up U-boat pens in one of the biggest non-nuclear detonations on record.

Britain released the crater-scarred island for resettlement in 1952, but scientists say that was too late for the lobsters.

The toxins from the bombs may have hurt the crustaceans' sense of smell, which is essential in finding a sexual partner and so damaged their ability to reproduce, Franke said.

Lobster expert Dominic Boothroyd, general manager of Britain's National Lobster Hatchery, said the idea of using the hard foundations of a wind park made sense and that projects to reintroduce young lobsters had taken place in Britain and Norway, though not on wind farms.

"(From these projects), we know the animals survive and that they contribute to fishery and reproduce. We have also got a lot of interesting biological information," Boothroyd said.

($1 = 0.7580 euros)

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; editing by Gareth Jones and Jane Baird)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wind-farms-lure-back-german-lobsters-decimated-ww2-115151982.html

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