Friday, May 26, 2017

TRAFFIC Dear Mr.Fantasy

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Jimmy Carter believes U.S. is spying on him

"I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored."

By Dylan Stableford

Former President Jimmy Carter believes U.S. intelligence agencies are spying on him — so much so, he eschews email to avoid government spies.

"You know, I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored," Carter told NBC's Andrea Mitchell in an interview broadcast Sunday. "And when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write a letter myself, put it in the post office and mail it.

"I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored," Carter continued.

The 89-year-old said the National Security Agency and others have abused the argument that gathering intelligence is critical to homeland security.
"That has been extremely liberalized and, I think, abused by our own intelligence agencies," Carter said.

The 39th president, however, stopped short of criticizing No. 44 over the handling of the N.S.A. scandal, the crisis in Ukraine or anything else.

"I don't have any criticism of him," Carter said of Obama.

He was asked if the the president ever asks him for advice.

"Unfortunately, the answer is no," Carter said. "President Obama doesn't. But previous presidents have called on me and the Carter Center to take action."

Why not Obama?

"That's a hard question for me to answer, you know, with complete candor," he said. "I think the problem was that in dealing with the issue of peace between Israel and Egypt, the Carter Center [took] a very strong and public position of equal treatment between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And I think this was a sensitive area in which the president didn't want to be involved."

Saturday, March 22, 2014

L'Wren Scott's brother moves her funeral to Los Angeles at the request of heartbroken Mick Jagger

Despite living in New York and London, a final farewell to the designer will be held in California
Rolling Stones singer is being comforted by his five children on West Coast already
Sister Jan Shane is being 'kept away from services' after falling out with the designer six years ago

By Chelsea White

L'Wren Scott tragically left the world in New York, but those close to her will be saying their final goodbyes to the designer in California.

At the request of her grief stricken partner Mike Jagger, her older brother, Randall Bambrough, has moved the funeral to the West Coast on Friday.

According to Page Six, the pair decided to have both a final viewing and funeral on the West Coast, where the 70-year-old rocker is currently residing.

Scroll down for video

Final farewell: L'Wren Scott's funeral will be held in Los Angeles, California, at the request of Mike Jagger, pictured in 2010, and her brother

The singer has only just flown back to the United States from Australia, where the Rolling Stones were on tour when he received the tragic news that the 49-year-old had taken her life.

The designer was found in her Manhattan apartment on Monday, with the coroner ruling it a suicide.

More...

Jagger's spokesman confirmed to the MailOnline that he is in Los Angeles being comforted by his children - daughters Karis, Elizabeth, Georgia May and Jade as well as his son James.

Scott's body is currently at a New York funeral home but will soon be flown to Los Angeles.

Making hard decisions: The designer's brother, Randall Bambrough, had to identified her body following her suicide on Monday

Humble beginnings: Scott (bootom left) was adopted and grew up in Utah. Her sister Jan Shane (bottom right) are estranged. Also photographed L-R Lula Randall and Ivan Bambrough

Page Six said: 'Scott’s body has been at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side since Wednesday, when the Medical Examiner’s office released it after confirming her death was a suicide.'

Scott did not leave a note and many have speculated the stress of her business facing severe financial issues may have contributed to her hanging death.

The designer - who was raised in Utah - also has a sister, Jan Shane, however, according to Page 6 she has been barred from being part of the funeral.

L'Wren Scott and Mick Jagger speaking in 'last interview'

Glossy front: Despite a long line of famous fans, the 49-year-old's fashion line was a financial failure and she owed creditors nearly $6million, despite Mick's financial support

Shane’s husband, Ron, told The Post: 'Randy is trying to keep Jan from being able to attend any services.'

The husband said that Shane and Scott had been close but had a falling out when their mother died six years ago.

Earlier this week, Scott's sister told MailOnline that she hoped she would be buried in the family's plot in Ogden, Utah, next to her adoptive parents.

As decisions were being made to farewell the designer, Jagger's band mates also returned back to America, having cancelled the Australian tour.

Back home: Keith Richards walks down the stairs of the band's private jet after landing in Kent today following the death of frontman Mick Jagger's girlfriend, L'Wren Scott

First off: Richards walked onto the tarmac ahead of his bandmate Charlie Watts (right) before being whisked off in waiting cars

On Friday, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood, arrived at Manston airport, in Kent, aboard their logo-embossed private jet.
Frontier Touring has confirmed it is working on new dates for the Rolling Stones' Australian tour. Concert promoters said the band's shows may be held after the football season in either October or November, News.com.au reported.

On Wednesday night, the same night the Rolling Stones were due to perform in front of more than 15,000 screaming fans for the first show of their sold-out tour, drummer Charlie Watts played to just 130 people at the city's tiny Ellington Jazz Club.
The impromptu gig followed Watts telling MailOnline that Mick Jagger had been left dazed and unwell following the apparent suicide on Monday.
'He's holding up. He's okay,' Watts said earlier that night, adding: 'He's not really well. He's not really here. It was such a shock.'

Charlie Watts on how Mick Jagger is coping after L'Wren Scott...

Full house: Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts performs to just 130 people at Perth's Ellington Jazz Club

Monday, March 17, 2014

Fake Prince Harry cons Austrian floor fitter

As it turned out, Prince Harry did not need renovation works at Buckingham Palace

A Facebook user posing as Britain's Prince Harry has conned an Austrian floor fitter out of thousands of euros.

The fake prince offered the workman a million-euro contract to renovate the parquet floors at Buckingham Palace.

The tradesman then transferred 27,500 euros (£23,000) to several UK bank accounts, which the fraudster said was necessary to set up a British business.

The Austrian contacted police after not hearing back from the "prince". Investigations are ongoing.

But authorities in the province of Burgenland have told the floor-fitter that his chances of getting his money back are "slim", the Austrian Kurier newspaper reports.

The victim had initially transferred 2,500 euros to a Lloyd bank account, before sending another 22,000 euros for an alleged security deposit and a third sum of 3,000.

On Friday, the floor-fitter eventually went to see police after not hearing back from the fake prince for more than two weeks.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

US regulator sues 16 banks for alleged Libor rigging

Some of the world's biggest banks have been accused of colluding to fix Libor

A US regulator has sued 16 banks for allegedly manipulating the London interbank offered rate (Libor).

The Libor rate is used to set trillions of dollars of financial contracts, including mortgages and financial transactions around the world.

The regulator said the manipulation caused substantial losses to 38 US banks which were shut down during and after the 2008 financial crisis.

The sued banks include Barclays, HSBC, Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The British Bankers' Association (BBA) has also been sued by the regulator - the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

"BBA participated in the alleged scheme to protect the revenue stream it generated from selling Libor licenses and to appease the Panel Bank Defendants that were members of the BBA," it was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The FDIC alleged that the banks mentioned in its lawsuit rigged the rate from August 2007 to at least mid-2011.

Other banks named in the lawsuit include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Bank, Credit Suisse, UBS, and Rabobank.

Growing pressure

Crisis jargon buster

Use the dropdown for easy-to-understand explanations of key financial terms:

Libor

London Inter Bank Offered Rate. The rate at which banks in London lend money to each other for the short-term in a particular currency. A new Libor rate is calculated every morning by financial data firm Thomson Reuters based on interest rates provided by members of the British Bankers Association.

Libor is the average rate at which banks lend money to one another and is decided on a daily basis.

Most of the world's biggest banks contribute estimates to form the Libor.

But there have been allegations that some have looked to profit from it by understating or overstating their submissions.

Over the past two years, regulators across the globe have been investigating the manipulation of the rate and there have been $3.7bn (£2.26bn) in fines to date.

A string of international banks and brokers, including Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland, have faced both criminal and civil penalties for their involvement in the scandal.

Some banks have also been found to have understated their submissions in the period during and after the financial crisis.

They did so in order to avoid the perception that they were having to borrow at higher interest rates than their peers and might therefore be in financial difficulty.

Catching a yawn is linked to age, study shows

By Pippa Stephens Health reporter

People are less likely to catch yawns the older they are, the study found

People are less likely to yawn when others do as they get older, a study has found.

Contagious yawning is linked more closely to a person's age than their ability to empathise, as previously thought, US-based scientists said.
It also showed a stronger link to age than tiredness or energy levels.
Researchers are now looking at whether the ability to catch yawns from other people is inherited, with the hope of helping treat mental health disorders.
Autism and schizophrenia sufferers are reportedly less able to catch yawns, researchers said, so understanding the genes that might code for contagious yawning could illuminate new pathways for treatment.

“Start Quote

Contagious acts such as yawning and laughing remind us that we are often mindless beasts of the herd”

End Quote Robert R Provine University of Maryland in Baltimore County

In the study, published in the journal Plos One, 328 participants were shown a three-minute video showing other people yawning.

Each subject had to click a button every time they yawned.
Levels of tiredness Overall, 68% of the participants yawned. Of those, 82% of people aged under 25 yawned, compared with 60% of people aged between 25 and 49, and 41% of people aged over 50.
Dr Elizabeth Cirulli, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, led the study.
She said: "This is the first study to look at a whole bunch of factors. It is the largest study, in terms of the number of people involved, to date."
Dr Cirulli said she did not know why contagious yawning decreased with age.
She added that although age was the most important predictor of contagious yawning, only 8% of the variation in whether or not a participant yawned was explained by their age.
"The vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was just not explained," said Dr Cirulli.
The study used questionnaires to test the participants' empathy, levels of tiredness and sleep patterns.
Meanwhile, intelligence was assessed using cognitive tests.
Neurological 'nitty-gritty' Robert R Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, said the study was "unique" as it marked the first time a link between ageing and contagious yawning had been shown.
He said the study would "help to get down to the neurological nitty-gritty of contagious behaviours" and mental health disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.
Prof Provine said the findings could also help to understand why laughing and coughing were so contagious.
He added: "Contagious acts such as yawning and laughing remind us that we are often mindless beasts of the herd, not rational beings in full conscious control of our behaviour."

Planet X myth debunked

By Jean-Louis Santini

Washington (AFP) - It was an elusive planet that for 200 years appeared to explain Uranus's wobbly orbit. And there was the sister sun theorized to be near our solar system that caused asteroids to swerve toward Earth.

There is just one problem: neither "Planet X" nor "Nemesis" ever existed, researchers now say.

Or probably not.

"The outer solar system probably does not contain a large gas giant planet ("Planet X"), or a small, companion star ("Nemesis")," concluded University of Pennsylvania astronomer Kevin Luhman, who directed the study using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope.

The results were published in the most recent edition of The Astrophysical Journal.

Most theories had estimated Planet X to be up to four times the size of Jupiter -- the biggest planet in our solar system.

They suggested it would be found some 1,486 billion kilometers (923 billion miles) from the sun, or about 10,000 times farther than the Earth's orbit.
But the images gathered by the telescope did not detect any object larger than Jupiter.
Luhman doesn't rule out the possibility that a planet is lurking somewhere in the asteroid belt.
It would be hard to find if it were closely aligned with a bright star that blinds the telescope or were much smaller than had been theorized.
But after this latest survey, Luhman said the odds of finding one are very unlikely: "That is like a one in a hundred chance."
- History of Planet X -
Scientists first imagined the existence of Planet X in 1781, when they discovered Uranus, a gas giant that astonished astronomers with its orbital variations, apparently incompatible with Newton's laws of gravity.

Observers concluded that these irregularities could be explained by the existence of another, unknown planet that was exerting its own gravitational force.

Attempts to track this mysterious Planet X led to the discovery of Neptune in 1846. But the estimated mass of Neptune couldn't explain the deviations of Uranus's orbit.

That led astronomers to continue their search for Planet X -- which, in turn, led to the discovery of Pluto in 1930. But the dwarf planet was also too small to explain Uranus's irregular path around the sun.
Finally, in the 1990s, researchers determined that they had slightly overestimated the mass of Neptune, which meant the planet could in fact be the reason for Uranus's orbital behavior.

Yet Planet X believers were still not convinced.

- Sister sun killed dinosaurs? -

The existence of Nemesis, a sun-like star nearby, was first posited in the 1980s. The star, by occasionally coming closer to the sun, interfered with the orbit of comets and asteroids leading them to occasionally hit the Earth.

Collisions like these are blamed for the five mass extinctions over the last 540 million years -- the most recent being the dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago.

"So over the years, there have been different pieces of evidence suggesting there might be something there," Luhman explained to AFP.
But the WISE telescope didn't find anything.

The hunt for Planet X and Nemesis may have turned up empty, but the study did uncover 3,525 stars and brown dwarfs -- celestial objects whose mass puts them between a star and a large planet -- within 500 light years of the sun.

"Neighboring star systems that have been hiding in plain sight just jump out in the WISE data," said Ned Wright, a University of California, Los Angeles astronomer who contributed to the study.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane 'deliberately diverted'

Malaysia's Prime Minister: "These movements are consistent with the deliberate action of someone on the plane"

MH370 mystery

The communications systems of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 were deliberately disabled, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak has said.

According to satellite and radar evidence, he said, the plane then changed course and could have continued flying for a further seven hours.

He said the "movements are consistent with the deliberate action of someone on the plane".

The plane disappeared a week ago with 239 people on board.

The Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight last made contact with air traffic control as it headed east towards the South China Sea, about one hour after take-off.

Mr Razak told a news conference that new satellite evidence shows "with a high degree of certainty" that the aircraft's communications systems were disabled just before it reached the east coast of Malaysia.

According to a military radar, the flight then turned and flew back over Malaysia before turning north-west.

The passengers

153 Chinese including a delegation of artists
38 Malaysians including an official who was due to start a job at a branch office in Beijing
2 Iranians using false passports in a bid to seek asylum in Europe
3 Americans including an IBM executive who had recently relocated to Kuala Lumpur
2 Canadians returning to Beijing after a business trip
7 Indonesians, 6 Australians, 5 Indians and 4 French
2 each from New Zealand and Ukraine; one each from Russia, Taiwan and Netherlands

A satellite was able to pick up a signal from the plane for some seven hours after it lost radar contact, although it was unable to give a precise location, Mr Razak said.

He went on to say that based on this new data, investigators "have determined the plane's last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible corridors":

a northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand
a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean

Mr Razak said that in light of the new evidence, the investigation had "entered a new phase" and would focus on the crew and passengers on board.

Addressing reports that the plane had been hijacked, he said only "we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate".

The families on board the flight have endured an agonising wait for news since the plane disappeared on 8 March.

An extensive search of the seas around Malaysia - involving 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft - have proved fruitless.

Mr Razak's news conference goes some way to addressing the speculation that had begun circulating in local media that the plane had been hijacked and had somehow landed intact.

Costa Mesa woman sues to block removal of trees

A 37-year resident of Meadow Park neighborhood wants city officials to keep seven pine trees that had been slated to be taken down.

Dense rows of pine trees that line Yukon Avenue in Costa Mesa have become the target of a lawsuit filed by one resident who is concerned about a city plan to thin out their ranks.

by Scott Martindale

COSTA MESA – A woman who lives in an established neighborhood of tract homes near South Coast Plaza is suing the city, seeking to block the removal of seven city-owned trees.
Kimberly DeBroux, a 37-year resident of Costa Mesa’s Meadow Park neighborhood, said in a 70-page lawsuit this week that city officials erred when they approved the removal of seven healthy pine trees across the street from her home.
The trees, part of a dense block of 28 mature trees that line Yukon Avenue, were slated for removal this month at the request of DeBroux’s neighbors, who complained of root damage and excessive pollen and debris.
“They all knew these trees were there when they purchased their homes,” DeBroux said. “Why do they think they have the right to take them out, when they’re for the betterment of the entire neighborhood?”
The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court on Monday, has halted the city’s ability to proceed with removing any of the trees, said Bruce Hartley, the city’s maintenance services manager.
A court hearing is scheduled for April 3.
The rows of Canary Island pine trees, towering up to 65 feet, sit on a city-owned strip that abuts backyard walls.
The trees were planted along Yukon Avenue and Bear Street to create a dramatic entryway into the 132-home Meadow Park neighborhood.
In the past few months, three homeowners petitioned the city’s Parks & Recreation Commission to get seven of the trees closest to their homes removed.
Petitioner Kelly Waterman, who complained that yellow pollen regularly blankets her home and cars, had sought removal of six trees near her backyard wall. She was approved for three.
“If it were up to me, I’d remove all six next to my home, but it’s a compromise,” said Waterman, a 14-year resident. “Some relief is better than no relief.”
The city will pay to remove three trees near Waterman’s property because they’ve already caused her backyard wall to crack and lift, Hartley said.
The other four trees approved for removal haven’t clearly caused damage yet, so city officials decided the two homeowners who requested their removal would have to bear the cost, Hartley said.
The city has already received full payment to remove the four trees, Hartley said. They’ll cost $585 to $745 each to remove, depending on size.
“The residents are aware of the pending legal issues,” Hartley said. “We’ll either take action or refund their money.”
In her lawsuit, DeBroux has asked the court to overrule the Parks & Recreation Commission decision, and to require the city to hold a public hearing on the matter.
“If these mature, healthy trees are removed, they cannot be replaced,” DeBroux said in her lawsuit.
Gabriella Oseguera, who paid $2,200 to the city for the removal of three trees, said she was frustrated at the prospect of the looming court battle.
The 10-year resident recently finished building a backyard swimming pool and is fearful it could be damaged by tree roots, she said.
“I’m not about to argue the trees are not beautiful, but they’re damaging my walls,” Oseguera said. “Roots are coming into my property.”
DeBroux’s lawsuit includes a signed petition from 59 neighbors who support keeping all of the trees. But Oseguera said she doubted a majority of homeowners would be on DeBroux’s side, especially as the city’s legal bills begin to mount.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Young criminals 'should face tougher sentences'

By Declan Harvey

Most young adults believe young offenders should receive tougher prison sentences, a survey for Newsbeat suggests.

Some 67% said 16 and 17 year olds should be given the same jail terms as adults for similar violent crimes.
Meanwhile, 72% think over 18s should be sent to adult prisons, not Young Offenders Institutions.
Campaigners said the findings showed a lack of appreciation for the needs of young criminals.
"Locking up young people in adult jails with nothing to do is the surest way to create the hardened criminals of tomorrow," said Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust.
"For many young offenders, intensive community approaches that nip offending behaviour in the bud are more effective than a prison."
'No idea' The figures were compiled by Comres, which surveyed 1,000 18-30 year olds across the UK.
Of those polled, 62% said they thought prison conditions in the UK were not tough enough, compared with only 3% who said they were too tough.

Case study

Temi, 26, from London, spent three years in prison from the age of 18.
"I don't believe a 16 or 17 year old has the capability of thinking things through thoroughly and making major decisions. You don't understand your actions have these reactions. Help them by trying to encourage them rather than giving them negative comments - you can't solve a problem just by locking it away.
"In a young offender's prison you're still at a stage in your life where you are a bit cocky, you are a bit arrogant, you feel like you still need to mark your territory. Someone looking at you is still enough to cause confrontation.
"Whereas in an adult jail it's more like 'ok, I'm here, this is my start date, this is my release date'. The majority of them have families, maybe they were working, or they weren't, but they have responsibilities.
"I don't want to be in a position where someone is telling me to get up, do this, do that. So jail for me was an eye-opener, and I think it helped."

Curtis, 28, from Suffolk, who served just over two years in prison, told Newsbeat that people who have not experienced prison have "no idea what they are talking about".
"Are we saying that staff need to be more brutal, or that we need to limit their [prisoners'] liberties? I don't think prisons need to be tougher, there needs to be a lot more focus on creative and innovative methods for rehabilitation," he said.
Offenders aged under 18 receive shorter sentences in the UK because authorities believe the focus should be on rehabilitation, welfare and support instead of punishment.
The same is true for those aged 18-20. Most are sent to Young Offenders Institutions where more opportunities for education are offered.
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales said it was important to note that although the survey referred to serious crimes, most offences carried out by young people were minor.
Its figures from 2009 show only 3% of crimes committed by young people were serious enough to be dealt with at a crown court.
Childhood traumas Danny Kruger, chief executive of crime prevention charity Only Connect, said while the justice system should hold young offenders to account, it must also support their rehabilitation by responding directly to their specific needs.
"The fact is - as we know from working with young people - they often think, feel and behave differently from adults. They have had less time to recover from any traumas in their childhood; their brains are still developing and they are more drawn to risk; it's no surprise that young people are more likely to harm themselves and others than adults," he said.
Despite the other findings, three quarters said overall rehabilitation was more important than punishment.
Justice Minister Jeremy Wright said it was right that the most serious or persistent young offenders were sentenced to custody and those that commit violent offences faced tough sentences.
"It is unacceptable however that nearly three-quarters of young offenders who leave custody go on to reoffend - this needs to change. That's why we are doubling the amount of education we give those in Young Offenders Institutions and why we are reforming the youth estate with the introduction of Secure Colleges.
"These new establishments will tackle the root cause of offending by giving people the skills and self-discipline to gain employment and training upon release and turn their lives around."
In other findings, 58% of respondents said they supported the death penalty for serious crimes such as terrorism and child murder. This is despite successive surveys in the last ten years showing a steady decrease in support for capital punishment in the UK.
Meanwhile, nearly a third of women, 29%, think that police and criminal justice system do not take allegations of sexual assault seriously enough, compared to only one in six men of the same age (18%).
And when asked whether those accused of a sexual assault or rape should receive automatic anonymity until they were convicted, 58% said in an ideal world they would but 61% acknowledged it would be hard to implement in a digital age.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Italy up in arms over Michelangelo's David rifle advert

David at Florence's Accademia Gallery, file pic

David is on show at Florence's Accademia Gallery

Italy's culture minister has expressed outrage over an advertisement by a US weapons firm showing Michelangelo's David holding a rifle.

Dario Franceschini said the image was offensive and violated the law.
A number of Italian media web sites carried the image of the advertisement showing David holding a bolt-action rifle.
The advertisement, from Illinois-based ArmaLite, carries the line "a work of art" in promoting the $3,000 rifle.
Mr Franceschini urged the company to withdraw the advertisement for the AR-50A1.
He said in a tweet: "The image of David, armed, offends and infringes the law. We will take action against the American company so that it immediately withdraws its campaign."
Historical Heritage and Fine Arts Board curator Cristina Acidini has issued a legal notice to ArmaLite to withdraw the image, saying it distorts the artwork.
The government says it has copyright on the commercial use of images of David.
Angelo Tartuferi, director of Florence's Accademia Gallery, where the statue is on display, told Repubblica newspaper: "The law says that the aesthetic value of the work cannot be distorted.
"In this case, not only is the choice in bad taste but also completely illegal."
The marble statue of the Biblical hero was created by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504 and is considered a masterpiece of the Renaissance.

PM Maliki says Saudi Arabia and Qatar 'destabilise' Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of seeking to destabilise his country by supporting insurgent groups and providing them with financial support.

In an interview with French television channel France24, Mr Maliki said the two countries had effectively declared war on Iraq.

"They are attacking Iraq through Syria, and in a direct way," he said.

Mr Maliki also accused Saudi Arabia of supporting global "terrorism".

Iraq has been going through a period of renewed violence in recent months, driven principally by widespread discontent among the country's Sunni minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Mr Maliki, who belongs to the Shia majority, said accusations that he was marginalising the Sunnis came from sectarian groups with links to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

In the past, he has blamed unnamed regional countries for destabilising Iraq.

Last year, Iraq saw the highest death toll since 2007, according to the United Nations.

According to UN figures, the violence in 2013 killed 8,868 people.

Great Walls of America 'could stop tornadoes'

By James Morgan Science reporter, Denver

Building three "Great Walls" across Tornado Alley in the US could eliminate the disasters, a physicist says.

The barriers - 300m (980ft) high and up to 100 miles long - would act like hill ranges, softening winds before twisters can form.

They would cost $16bn (£9.6bn) to build but save billions of dollars of damage each year, said Prof Rongjia Tao, of Temple University, Philadelphia.

He unveiled his idea at the American Physical Society meeting in Denver.

However critics say the idea is unworkable, and would create more problems than it solves.

Threat over 'forever' Every year hundreds of twisters tear through communities in the great north-south corridor between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountain ranges.

"We may not have east-west mountain ranges - like the Alps in Europe - we can build walls”

End Quote Prof Rongjia Tao Temple University, Philadelphia

The proposed walls would not shelter towns - they would not be strong enough to block a tornado in motion.

Instead, they would soften the clashing streams of hot southern and cold northern air, which form twisters in the first place, Prof Tao said.

"If we build three east-west great walls, one in North Dakota, one along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma, and the third in the south in Texas and Louisiana, we will diminish the threats in Tornado Alley forever," he said.

As evidence, he points to China - where only three tornadoes were recorded last year, compared to 803 in the US.

BBC map showing number of tornadoes by US state per year

China too has flat plain valleys running north-south, but the difference is they are broken up by east-west hill ranges.

Although only a few hundred metres high, they are enough to take the sting out of air currents before they clash, Prof Tao believes.

Hotspot Back in the US, he notes that the flat farmlands of Illinois experience wildly varying risks of twisters.

"Washington County is a tornado hotspot. But just 60 miles (100km) away is Gallatin County, where there is almost no risk," he told BBC News.

"Why? Just look at the map - at Gallatin you have the Shawnee Hills."

These act like a barrier 200-250m (820ft) high, protecting Gallatin, he says.

"We may not have east-west mountain ranges - like the Alps in Europe - we can build walls."

Prof Tao said the design of the walls could be inspired by the Comcast skyscraper in Philadelphia

"We've already been doing computer simulations and next we aim to build physical models for testing [in wind tunnels]."

Rather than create an eyesore, the walls could be "attractively" designed, says Prof Tao.

He cites the Comcast skyscraper in Philadelphia - also about 300m high, and built with a reinforced glass exterior.

"Our tornado wall could even be built of glass too. It could be a beautiful landmark," he told BBC News.

"I spoke to some architects and they said it's possible. It would take a few years to finish the walls but we could build them in stages."

Prof Tao has yet to approach government or environmental agencies with his scheme, but the reaction from meteorologists has been highly sceptical.

Harold Brooks, of the National Severe Storms Laboratory, said the great walls "simply wouldn't work".

He told USA Today that tornadoes still occur in parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri despite east-west hill ranges similar in size to Prof Tao's proposed barriers.

'Poorly conceived'

"The cure could be worse than the disease”

Prof Joshua Wurman Center for Severe Weather Research

Another leading tornado expert, Prof Joshua Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research, was equally dismissive of Prof Tao's proposal.

"Everybody I know is of 100% agreement - this is a poorly conceived idea," he told BBC News.

"From what I can gather his concept of how tornadoes form is fundamentally flawed. Meteorologists cringe when they hear about 'clashing hot and cold air'. It's a lot more complicated than that."

Though much of the blame does lie with warm air rushing north from the Gulf of Mexico, stopping it would be nigh on impossible, Prof Wurman says.

"Perhaps if he built his barrier on the scale of the Alps - 2,000-3,000m (9,800ft) high, it would disrupt it," he says.

"But clearly that would also cause a drastic change in climate."

And there lies the real crux of the problem, says Prof Wurman. Any geoengineering scheme powerful enough to eliminate tornadoes would also by definition have catastrophic side effects.

"The cure could be worse than the disease," he told BBC News.

"So the solution to tornadoes is not trying to get rid of them.

"It's better predictions and warnings so people can get out of way. Better homes. Better shelters."

He added: "Don't get me wrong, I'm open to new ideas. I consider myself an out-of-the-box thinker. But just because an idea is heretical, doesn't mean it's a good one."

Malaysia jails Anwar Ibrahim for five years for sodomy

A Malaysian court has sentenced opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to five years in jail after overturning his acquittal on sodomy charges.

Mr Anwar led the opposition to its strongest ever performance in the May 2013 general elections.

While homosexual acts are illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia, very few people are ever prosecuted.

Mr Anwar has always maintained the charges were part of a political smear campaign.

TIMELINE: ANWAR IBRAHIM

1993 to 1998 - Deputy Prime Minister, under Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad
1999 - Jailed for abuse of power, sparking huge street protests
2000 - Found guilty of sodomy with his wife's driver
2004 - Supreme Court overturns sodomy conviction, freeing him from jail. He quickly emerges as the de facto opposition leader
March 2008 - ruling coalition narrowly wins general election, but with its worst results in 50 years. The opposition makes unprecedented gains
Aug 2008 - Anwar charged with sodomy for a second time, but despite this is soon voted in as an MP
Feb 2009 - Second trial for sodomy starts
Jan 2012 - Acquitted of sodomy by High Court
May 2013: Leads opposition to best-ever performance in general elections
Mar 2014: 2012 acquittal overturned by court after government appeal

The court decision will affect Mr Anwar's plans to compete in a key by-election in the state of Selangor this month, reports say.

A victory for Mr Anwar would mean he could become Selangor's chief minister - widely seen as a powerful post.

The court said he could remain free on bail while he appeals against the verdict to the country's highest court, AP news agency reported.

"All over again, after 15 years, they want to put me in the lockup and that is why they are rushing," Mr Anwar said after his acquittal was overturned.

He added that Prime Minister Najib Razak's government "faces the wrath of the people".

Meanwhile, a government spokesman said: "This is a case between two individuals and is a matter for the courts, not the government."

'Selective persecution'

In 2008, Mr Anwar was accused of having sex with a male aide. A High Court cleared him of the charges in 2012, citing a lack of evidence.

The government later appealed against his acquittal.

Malaysian police officers stand guard outside a courthouse in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Friday, March 7, 2014

The court decision comes ahead of a by-election Mr Ibrahim planned to contest

"It's truly a dark day for the Malaysia judiciary which has shown itself incapable of standing up straight when national political issues are in play in cases before them," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia head of group Human Rights Watch, said after the verdict.

Correspondents say Mr Anwar is seen as the key challenger to the ruling party, which has been in power since Malaysia's independence in 1957.

The Barisan Nasional coalition won 133 of the 222 seats in parliament in the 2013 elections - although it won the elections, it was the coalition's worst ever result.

Thousands of Malaysian opposition supporters rallied against the result, alleging that the polls were fraudulent.

Mr Anwar was previously a member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, but fell out with top leaders and was sacked in 1998.

He was then charged with sodomy and corruption, and given a six-year jail term for abuse of power, which sparked huge street protests.

In 2000 he was also found guilty of sodomy with his wife's driver and jailed for a further nine years.

In late 2004 Malaysia's Supreme Court overturned the sodomy conviction, freeing him from jail.

He then emerged as a leader in the opposition movement, leading it to increasingly strong performances in both the 2008 and 2013 elections.

First baby gorilla in 16 years born at Belfast Zoo

Staff at Belfast Zoo have been celebrating the arrival of the first baby gorilla to be born there in 16 years.

As Conor Macauley reports, the new born has caused much excitement amongst staff, with the public being offered the chance to name the new-born.

First hippo in 16 years born at Mexico City zoo

A baby hippo has been born at Mexico City's Chapultepec Zoo - the first in 16 years.

The so-far unnamed newborn has become the star attraction at the zoo since the birth on February 24.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Niger 'extradites' Gaddafi's son Saadi to Libya

Saadi Gaddafi was the head of Libya's special forces

The Libyan government says former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saadi, has been extradited from Niger and is now in custody in Tripoli.

Pictures posted on the internet apparently showed him having his head and beard shaved.

Saadi Gaddafi fled after his father was killed in the 2011 revolution.

He is accused of shooting protesters and other crimes during his father's rule, when he was head of Libya's special forces.

The Libyan government made an announcement about Saadi Gaddafi's extradition in a short statement early on Thursday.

"The Libyan government received today Saadi Gaddafi and he arrived in Tripoli," it said.

Niger had previously refused Libyan requests to extradite him, with the justice minister saying he was "certain to face the death penalty".

In 2012, Interpol issued a "red notice", obliging member countries to arrest him.

Saadi Gaddafi had reportedly resided in a state guesthouse in Niger's capital, Niamey, after fleeing across the Sahara Desert.

He is best known for a brief career in top-flight Italian football which was cut short by a failed drugs test, as well as his playboy lifestyle.

Steve McQueen artworks acquired by Amsterdam museum

Steve McQueen beside a still from Rolling Thunder

Rolling Thunder was made in 2007, one year before McQueen released his first feature Hunger

A museum in Amsterdam has acquired two artworks by Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winning artist turned film-maker.

The two pieces - a lightbox containing a photo of a boy on a beach and an 11-minute film of a dead horse lying in a meadow - will go on display at the Stedelijk Museum from 13 December.
The Dutch museum was one of the first in the world to focus on video art.
McQueen's latest film, 12 Years a Slave, was named best picture on Sunday at this year's Academy Awards.
The 44-year-old won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1999, partly for a film in which he recreated a Buster Keaton stunt involving a falling house wall.

Analysis Will Gompertz Arts editor

The art world might present itself as a refined elite above the vulgarities of consumer society, but in fact it is just as intoxicated by the razzle-dazzle of celebrity culture as the readers of Grazia.
Fame in the art world has the same affect as fame in the rest of society: it raises the value of an individual's stock. Which, when it comes to an artist, is art.
When Steve McQueen won the Turner Prize the value of his work will almost certainly have risen. To be the first artist in history to also win an Oscar - working in the same genre (film) - will inevitably further increase his prices.
His newly acquired international celebrity status is also highly valued by museums, who are desperate to attract a large, broad audience. The popular appeal of being able to own and show a film by a famous movie director is likely to tick several institutional boxes.

The first piece acquired by the Stedelijk is titled Mees, After Evening Dip, New Year's Day, 2002 and depicts a trembling boy on a beach with a towel clasped around him.

According to the museum, "the still image of the shivering Mees attains the status of a film projection, with the suggestion of movement and the passage of time".
The other piece, Rolling Thunder, is a 16mm colour film without sound in which the horse's lifelessness is signalled by a circling fly settling on its eyeball.
The museum calls its title "misleading, evoking associations with horse races, speed and (horse)power" while highlighting the "unanticipated tension" the static image provokes.
The Stedelijk already owns 7th Nov, a 2001 short in which McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of a fatal accident that changed his life forever.
In addition to winning the best picture Oscar, 12 Years a Slave received the best adapted screenplay prize and a best supporting actress award for cast member Lupita Nyong'o.
McQueen previously directed Hunger, about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, and Shame, a drama about a sex addict in which Michael Fassbender also played the lead role.

Italy PM calls on businesses to fund Pompeii repairs

Heavy rain led to the collapse of walls, as Alan Johnston reports

Italy's new Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, has called on business people to fund repairs to the ancient city of Pompeii, a Unesco World Heritage site.

Mr Renzi made the plea after heavy rainfall caused flooding there, damaging walls and buildings.

The site, where volcanic ash smothered a Roman city in AD79, has suffered slow degradation for many years.

On Tuesday, Italy's culture minister said he would unblock 2m euros ($2.8m) "to get the machine working".

Priority will also be given to work to reduce the risk of flooding in unexcavated areas.

'Ideological refusal'

“If the private sector can keep the wall standing upright, why not allow it to?”

Matteo Renzi Italian Prime Minister

Mr Renzi made the request for funding at a news conference on Wednesday.

"Italy is the land of culture, and so I challenge entrepreneurs: What are you waiting for?" he said.

"The ideological refusal to permit the private sector to intervene - as if only the public sector could guarantee the guardianship of heritage - must end."

"If the private sector can keep the wall standing upright, why not allow it to?" he asked.

Aged 39, Matteo Renzi became Italy's youngest prime minister last month.

He has vowed to bring "radical and immediate change" to Italy's struggling economy.

Neglected

The Italian government has already called upon the private sector to help restore other ancient monuments, including the Colosseum in Rome and the Trevi fountain.

The wall of an ancient shop also collapsed over the weekend

Italy's culture budget has suffered from cutbacks in recent years, leading the United Nations and European Union to issue warnings about the state of the country's historical sites.

The ancient city of Pompeii one of the world's greatest archaeological treasures. Every year, some 2.5m tourists visit the site, near the southern city of Naples.

Despite the money they generate, there have been allegations that Pompeii - designated a World Heritage site by the UN cultural organisation, Unesco - has been neglected and underfunded.

Last year, the 105m-euro ($145m) "Great Pompeii" rehabilitation project was launched, with the EU contributing 41.8m euros. However, one Italian newspaper said on Tuesday that only 588,000 euros had been spent.

Sandra Bullock Getting $70 Million Paycheck For ‘Gravity’

Sandra Bullock is going to have a very big pay day pretty soon, and it's all thanks to 'Gravity'. Sandra Bullock is going to have a very big pay day pretty soon, and it's all thanks to 'Gravity'.Episode Description

Sandra Bullock is going to have a very big pay day pretty soon, and it's all thanks to 'Gravity'. Sandra Bullock is going to have a very big pay day pretty soon, and it's all thanks to 'Gravity'.

How Flowering Plants Become Super Plants

Kara Rogers

Tomatoes, peanuts, corn, and strawberries seem to have little in common, with the exception that they are edible plants. Yet, they share a very unique trait, one that can be seen only with the power of a microscope—they are polyploids, meaning that they possess extra sets of chromosomes in the nuclei of their cells. Between 50 and 70 percent of the world’s flowering plants are believed to be polyploids.

The fascinating nature of polyploidy lies with the fact that many affected plants are relevant to our everyday lives. Varieties of some commercially important plants, such as cotton and wheat, are polyploids that have arisen naturally or through cultivation. The extra sets of chromosomes that characterize these plants become incorporated into cells most often as a result of an error in a form of cell division known as meiosis. Strawberries. (Credit: Ed Young/Corbis )

Strawberries. (Credit: Ed Young/Corbis )

Cells normally contain two sets of chromosomes, a state described as diploid. The diploid chromosome number is 46 in humans, 8 in fruit flies, and 78 in both domestic dogs and chickens. But apples can be diploid, with 34, or triploid, with 51. And bananas can have either 22 or 33, depending on whether they are diploid or triploid. The triploid forms are examples of polyploids.

Plants like tetraploid peanuts, hexaploid bread wheat, and octaploid strawberries add to the complexity of polyploidy. A number of these plants are useful agriculturally because the extra genetic material enables them to grow more vigorously than their diploid cousins. They also tend to produce unusually large fruit and flowers.

Although some polyploids are so hardy that they possess a selective advantage over normal plants, providing accommodations for all those extra chromosomes can be a major burden. The cells of high-level polyploids, such as strawberries, are often exceptionally large, which can result in watered-down fruit and brittle leaves or shoots. In short, more is not always better.

Polyploids, though they stand out as exceptions to the canon of heredity, still are confined by one of nature’s most basic guiding principles—genetic variation. Their success is closely tied to the diversity of their extra genes. Some polyploids inherit extra chromosomes that are nearly identical in genetic content to their ancestor chromosomes, which renders them as equally susceptible to diseases and environmental factors as diploids. But others inherit extra chromosomes that differ substantially from their ancestral forms. This provides at least some degree genetic diversity, which increases their ability to stave off disease and facilitates their adaptation to environmental stress.

Stronger when battling disease and pests.

Polyploids are generated when chromosomes fail to segregate properly during cell division, producing eggs or sperm that are diploid, instead of the normal haploid (or half of diploid). When an abnormal diploid cell combines with a normal haploid cell, the result is a triploid, an organism whose cells possess three sets of chromosomes. There also are situations in which two abnormal diploid cells combine to give rise to a tetraploid, an organism whose cells have four sets of chromosomes. Likewise, tetraploids can combine with tetraploids, producing octaploids.

As long as there exists an even number of chromosome sets, whether diploid, tetraploid, or hexaploid, an organism usually will be fertile. However, if the chromosome number is odd, such as triploid or pentaploid, the organism tends to be sterile. This occurs because the odd chromosome does not have a partner to pair with during cell division, leading to incomplete egg and sperm formation, which in turn causes division to terminate.

Because polyploid plants can breed with one another, they are inclined to produce new species. In contrast to the gradual evolutionary process that underlies most speciation events, polyploidy allows new species to emerge quite suddenly. Polyploids also take advantage of their extra genes, rearranging them and shuttling some off to learn new functions, which further contributes to speciation.

Polyploidy occurs in plants that reproduce sexually or asexually, but in animals extra chromosomes appear almost exclusively in those species that undergo asexual division by parthenogenesis, such as salamanders, insects, and some fish. Polyploidy is otherwise very rare in animals, because most reproduce sexually. This mode of reproduction in animals undermines polyploidy, readily selecting against cells containing chromosomal defects by aborting abnormal embryos. Although it is not clear why this is the case, scientists suspect that the complexities of development in sexually reproducing animals require such genetic precision that polyploidy in any form cannot be tolerated.

Polyploidy continues to have a number of useful applications in horticulture and agriculture. Breeding ornamental polyploid hybrids that produce sterile offspring limits the potential for invasive spread of nonnative species. Scientists also are working to develop polyploid crops that are more tolerant to pests and environmental stress than diploids. Making use of such a remarkable natural process is an attractive alternative to genetic modification.

Translate