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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
North Pole not flooded -- but lots of melting in the Arctic
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Widespread media reports of a lake at the North Pole don't hold water -- but scientists who deployed the monitoring buoys are watching closely as Arctic sea ice approaches its yearly minimum.
Soldier in WikiLeaks case to learn fate
By Medina Roshan
(Reuters) - The verdict will be read on Tuesday at the court-martial of the soldier accused of the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history, the judge said, with the biggest question whether he will be convicted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy, carrying a life sentence.
Legal observers said it was highly likely that Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, who in March pleaded guilty to lesser charges related to sharing some 700,000 documents with the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website in 2010, will be found guilty on at least some of the 21 criminal counts.
"The difficult part is did he know that the information was going to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban? To me, that is the linchpin of the case," said Richard Rosen, a professor of law at the Texas Tech University School of Law and a former military lawyer. "If he's not found guilty of that charge, the punishment is going to be a lot less severe in my opinion."
Judge Colonel Denise Lind said on Monday that she plans to issue her verdict in the case at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Tuesday in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Manning, originally from Crescent, Oklahoma, opted to have his case heard by Lind, rather than a panel of military jurors.
Military prosecutors have called the 25-year-old defendant a "traitor" for publicly posting information that the U.S. government said could jeopardize national security and intelligence operations.
Lawyers for the low-level intelligence analyst said Manning was well-intentioned but naive, hoping that his disclosures would provoke a more intense debate in the United States about diplomatic and military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More than three years after Manning's arrest in May 2010, the U.S. intelligence community is reeling again from leaked secrets, this time exposed by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in the transit area of a Moscow airport for more than a month despite U.S. calls for Russian authorities to turn him over.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has surfaced again as a major player in the newest scandal, this time aiding Snowden in eluding authorities to seek asylum abroad.
The cases of Manning and Snowden, a former contractor for a U.S. spy agency, illustrate the difficulties of keeping secrets at a time the internet makes them very easy to share widely and quickly. In addition, more people are granted access to classified data.
"The bar has become very low for what the government has to prove in order to convict someone for disclosing classified information to the media," said Elizabeth Goitein, a security specialist at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.
She said that military courts had made it easier to convict people on charges of aiding the enemy.
"There has been a heightened standard of intent that has been required," Goitein said. "We're really starting to see the court chip away at this."
(Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Steve Orlofsky and Grant McCool)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/verdict-bradley-manning-wikileaks-case-read-tuesday-164216110.html
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Spain police to study train 'black box' Tuesday
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) ? Police will soon begin extracting information from the "black box" of a train that crashed last week, a Spanish court official said Monday, potentially making clear why the driver failed to brake in time to stop the train from hurtling into a dangerous curve, killing 79 people.
Francisco Garzon Amo faces multiple counts of negligent homicide for the country's worst train accident in decades. The investigation has increasingly focused on him and his failure to brake, with a witness saying he told him seconds after the crash that he was going fast and tried to stop, but couldn't.
The black box could clear up whether there was a mechanical or technical failure.
Experts will start examining the black box Tuesday under the instruction of Judge Luis Alaez. Alaez late Sunday charged Garzon, but allowed him to leave custody without bail. He was driven from the court in a police car after dark, but it was not clear where he was taken.
Several Spanish neswspapers, including leading daily El Pais, reported Monday that the driver acknowledged to the judge that the train was travelling too fast, but that he briefly stopped paying attention. A court spokeswoman said she could not comment on details of the testimony.
The spokeswoman said that before taking the driver's testimony, officials carried out checks on calls and messages made from the man's mobile phone. She was speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with court policy.
At least one press photograph showed the man talking on a mobile phone shortly after the crash. Several news media reported Garzon told railway control in a call that he had been going too fast.
The crash has left a pall over the city of Santiago de Compostela, an important Catholic religious site that had been preparing for a feast celebrating Spain's patron saint. Shrines and regional flags with black mourning ribbons have dotted the area.
Spain's royal family and leading politicians were to attend a somber Mass on Monday in homage to the victims killed and injured. Crown heir Prince Felipe, his sister Princess Elena and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy were among those scheduled to attend the evening ceremony in the city's ancient cathedral.
Many families of victims were also expected to attend the Mass, which is to be televised nationally. The ceremony is open to the public and a giant screen is to be set up in one of the squares outside the cathedral, where thousands of pilgrims, many with backpacks and walking sticks, traditionally gather on arriving in the city.
Officials canceled the feast of St. James of Compostela on Thursday, and turned the sports arena into a morgue.
Most of the dead were Spaniards but there were also victims from Algeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, France, Italy, Mexico and the United States. The train was almost certainly carrying would-be pilgrims although most usually walk to Santiago from all over Spain and abroad.
On Sunday, families of victims performed the painful task of retrieving their loved ones' belongings, collecting luggage that was being held by police.
The Spanish rail agency has said the brakes should have been applied four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the train hit the curve. The witness who rushed to the scene said in an interview broadcast Sunday that minutes after the crash Garzon told him he couldn't brake.
The resident, Evaristo Iglesias, said he and another person accompanied the blood-soaked Garzon to flat ground where other injured people were being laid out, waiting for emergency services to arrive. A photograph shows Iglesias in a pink shirt and cap helping the bloodied driver.
"He told us that he wanted to die," Iglesias told Antena 3 television. "He said he had needed to brake but couldn't," Iglesias said. He added that Garzon said "he had been going fast."
Spain's state-run train company has described Garzon as an experienced driver who knew the route well.
Officials said 70 people injured in the train accident remained hospitalized, 22 of them in critical condition.
___
Associated Press writers Ciaran Giles and Jorge Sainz contributed to this report from Madrid.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spain-police-study-train-black-box-tuesday-135210065.html
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Novel technology for producing 'electronic ink' may lead to inexpensive, durable electronics and solar cells
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Electronic touch pads that cost just a few dollars and solar cells that cost the same as roof shingles are one step closer to reality today.
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Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Berlusconi faces verdict that could endanger Italian government
By Barry Moody
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's supreme court convenes on Tuesday to rule whether Silvio Berlusconi should be jailed and banned from public office for tax fraud, a verdict that could endanger Italy's shaky coalition government.
A ruling against the former prime minister would be his first definitive conviction and signal the end of an era in which he has dominated Italian politics for two decades through his media power and political skill.
It could also plunge the government - an uneasy coalition of Enrico Letta's center-left Democratic Party (PD) and Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom (PDL) - into crisis and bring renewed uncertainty to the euro zone third's largest economy that could reverberate across the bloc.
The five judges of the Cassation Court - Italy's highest -will hear a final appeal by Berlusconi against a 1-year jail sentence and 5-year ban from office handed down by lower courts for the fraudulent purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset media empire.
The court may take up to three days to deliver its ruling.
Berlusconi, 76, accuses leftwing magistrates of trying to bring him down in more than two dozen court cases since he stormed to power for the first time in 1994.
Although they are waiting for a signal from Berlusconi, PDL hawks have called for everything from a mass resignation of its government ministers to blocking Italy's motorways if the court rules against him.
Fabrizio Cicchitto, a senior PDL parliamentarian, said the media magnate had faced 30 trials. "If this is not a political use of justice what is?"
The departure of Berlusconi from parliament if he is convicted would also raise major questions about the future of his party, which depends on his charisma and wealth.
But a greater risk to the government could come from Letta's faction-ridden PD, many of whose members are already deeply unhappy with being in a coalition with their old enemy, and may refuse to continue if he is found guilty.
CHAOTIC
However, both President Giorgio Napolitano, who dragged the parties into a coalition in April after a two-month crisis that followed inconclusive elections, and Letta himself are adamant that Italy cannot afford more instability as it struggles to climb out of its worst postwar recession.
Both of the major parties may also be reluctant to precipitate an election whose result could be even more chaotic than the February vote and boost support for the populist 5-Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo.
Berlusconi has for months kept his hawks on a tight leash, saying the government must continue.
However, political sources say this stance was dictated by Berlusconi's lawyers, who wanted to avoid upsetting the supreme court judges. The mercurial magnate's reaction if he is found guilty is uncertain.
Berlusconi's lawyers have filed 50 objections to the supreme court, which will rule only on legal procedure and whether the previous appeal court properly justified its sentence.
The court has three choices: convict Berlusconi, acquit him or send the case back to the appeal court because of legal errors. It could also postpone a decision, probably until September - a move advocated by moderate politicians who want to avoid a summer crisis.
Even if Berlusconi is found guilty, his ban from public office depends on a vote by his peers in the Senate which could take weeks or months.
The scandal-plagued mogul is also appealing against a seven- year jail term handed down in June for abuse of office and paying for sex with Moroccan-born nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug alias "Ruby the Heartstealer" when she was underage.
(Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby and James Mackenzie; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/berlusconi-faces-verdict-could-endanger-italian-government-233240702.html
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Meilutyte, other teens doing just fine at worlds
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? For Ruta Meilutyte, a gold medal would merely be a bonus.
She's already grabbed what she came for at these world swimming championships.
A breakout star at last year's London Olympics, the 16-year-old from Lithuania set the first world record of the meet Monday night ? in the semifinals of the 100-meter breaststroke, no less.
Meilutyte will be an overwhelming favorite in the final Tuesday, but she considers the record a bigger accomplishment than a world championship. She nearly broke the mark during the morning preliminaries, then returned in the evening to go even faster.
The youngster touched in 1 minute, 4.35 seconds, beating the record set by American Jessica Hardy in 2009 at the end of the rubberized suit era.
"My biggest aim is accomplished now and I'll give it my best shot in the final," said Meilutyte, who trains in Britain. "It's one of the steps, one of the dreams. Obviously, a gold medal would be a cherry on top."
The kids are doing all right at these worlds, that's for sure.
Eighteen-year-old Missy Franklin cruised into the final of the 100 backstroke as the top qualifier, despite a tough start in the semifinals when her right leg slipped while pushing off the wall. Another young American, 16-year-old Katie Ledecky, followed up her gold medal in the 400 freestyle by easily qualifying for the 1,500 free final.
"It's so incredible to see the youth that the sport has and that it will continue to have," Franklin said. "It's so awesome watching it and kind of being a part of this whole experience as it's happening."
There were no American golds on the second night of swimming at the Palau Sant Jordi.
Christian Sprenger made sure the Australian men won't endure another gold-medal shutout like the one in London, edging South African world-record holder Cameron van der Burgh in the men's 100 breast.
"To finally have the Australian anthem played for me, it's an extraordinary feeling, and after a swim I couldn't be prouder of," Sprenger said. "Our team had some setbacks last year, but we came through stronger. We are going to be back and going to be stronger."
Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom knocked off another world-record holder, Dana Vollmer of the U.S., in the 100 butterfly. For Sjostrom, the victory came four years after she won the same event at the world championships in Rome, which was followed by the bitter disappointment of fourth-place finishes at both the 2011 worlds and the Olympics.
"It's hard to believe because my confidence hasn't been that good after lots of fourth places," she said. "Now I am so happy. My confidence is so much better now. I know I can swim so much faster."
Vollmer, who took an extended break after the Olympics and came into the event battling an illness, settled for the bronze with a time more than a second off her gold-medal performance in London.
"The goal is to always try and win, but with where I am right now I am really happy with the bronze," Vollmer said. "I needed the fall off to recharge looking to 2016. It is disappointing now, but it lights that fire to get back in the pool and keep working hard for Rio."
Hungary's Katinka Hosszu ran away with a dominating win in the women's 200 individual medley, with Ye Shiwen among those in her wake. The 17-year-old from China, another of the young stars at the last Olympics, was last at the final turn and settled for fourth ? not even making the medal podium in Barcelona.
Ye swept the IMs in London, setting a world record in the 400.
"That was slower than expected but I did everything I could," she said through a translator. "After the Olympics I couldn't sleep, so I couldn't prepare like I had done before. I'm five kilograms heavier than I was at the Olympics. I need to go back and train harder and hopefully I'll do better next time. I was happy with my butterfly but nothing else."
Hosszu made it look easy, leading at every stroke change and cruising to the wall nearly 1.5 seconds ahead of the field.
"That was kind of my plan to go out and be aggressive from the beginning," she said. "I saw nobody was coming, so I just wanted to touch the wall and start celebrating."
Hosszu finished nearly 7 seconds behind Ye in the 200 IM at London, and just missed a medal with a fourth-place finish in the 400 IM.
This time, it was Ye coming over to shake hands with the winner.
"I was really surprised," Hosszu said. "I wasn't sure of the order after me. It was only later I saw she wasn't on the podium. I am sure she will be back on the podium. She is a great swimmer."
Longtime Brazilian star Cesar Cielo took gold in the 50 fly ? a non-Olympic event ? with Eugene Godsoe of the U.S. grabbing the silver.
But Meilutyte was the star of the night without even winning a medal.
She just keeps getting better after upsetting American Rebecca Soni for the Olympic gold in the 100 breast last summer. With Soni taking the year off, there's no doubt that Meilutyte is the new queen of the breaststroke ? at the moment and perhaps years to come.
"It's a new breed of swimmer coming up," van der Burgh said. "The 100 has become more of a sprint than it was before. If you are too slow than you can never catch up, and I think that's the big change."
Australia's Alicia Coutts didn't win gold but deserved a shout-out for pulling off a grueling double. She finished second in both the 100 fly and 200 IM, one night after anchoring the Aussies to silver in the 400 free relay.
Coutts was in tears after getting caught by American Megan Romano in the relay, feeling she let her team down, but the Aussie is piling up quite a medal haul in Barcelona.
The home crowd got a thrill when Mireia Belmonte of Spain won bronze in the 200 IM.
Meanwhile, Ryan Lochte put himself in position to take a run at his first individual gold of these championships. He was the second-fastest qualifier in the semifinals of the 200 free behind Russia's Danila Izotov.
___
Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/meilutyte-other-teens-doing-just-fine-worlds-190636193.html
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Chromecast rooted, operating system detailed
The operating system looks to be a special blend of Google Chrome and Android; more work to be done.
If anyone had any doubts, put them to rest because the Chromecast has been rooted. We're not surprised at this -- any device that runs an OS that accepts input will get exploited eventually -- but what the GTV Hacker crew found inside is a bit more intriguing.
Google says the Chromecast runs ChromeOS, and when you power it up it says Chrome big as life, but the folks at GTV Hacker say that's not really so. After digging into the software a little (rooting gives you access via telnet) they say what's there is closer to Android or Google TV than it is to Chrome. There are no methods to run any apps on the system, but they don't rule out the possibility of a real Android port to the $35 dongle.
If you have a powered USB OTG cable and a flash drive you can erase, you can give this a try yourself. The process seems trivial, though there's nothing you can do with it once you're finished other than look at the system files. For some of us though, that's reason enough. Let's hope content companies aren't scared off of the whole Google Cast concept now.
Source: GTV Hacker
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/t4CFGX4aAtQ/story01.htm
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