Qatar ruler hands power to son to mark 'new era'

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 26, 2013 file photo, Emir of Qatar Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, center, attends the opening session of the Arab League Summit in Doha. Qatar?s emir moves to hand power over to his son, aiming to bring a youthful new face to rule in a tiny Gulf nation that has become one of the most powerful in the Middle East, aggressively spreading its influence through cash. (AP Photo/Ghiath Mohamad, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 26, 2013 file photo, Emir of Qatar Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, center, attends the opening session of the Arab League Summit in Doha. Qatar?s emir moves to hand power over to his son, aiming to bring a youthful new face to rule in a tiny Gulf nation that has become one of the most powerful in the Middle East, aggressively spreading its influence through cash. (AP Photo/Ghiath Mohamad, File)

A man prepares to take a picture with his mobile photo of a televised address by Qatar's Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in Doha, Qatar,Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Qatar's ruler said Tuesday he has transferred power to the 33-year-old crown prince in an anticipated move that puts a new generation in charge of the Gulf nation's vast energy wealth and rising political influence. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

A man watches a televised address by Qatar's Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in Doha, Qatar,Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Qatar's ruler said Tuesday he has transferred power to the 33-year-old crown prince in an anticipated move that puts a new generation in charge of the Gulf nation's vast energy wealth and rising political influence. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

A man prepares to take a picture with his mobile photo of a televised address by Qatar's Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in Doha, Qatar,Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Qatar's ruler said Tuesday he has transferred power to the 33-year-old crown prince in an anticipated move that puts a new generation in charge of the Gulf nation's vast energy wealth and rising political influence. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? Qatar's ruler formally handed power Tuesday to his 33-year-old son, capping a carefully crafted transition that puts a new generation in charge of the Gulf nation's vast energy wealth and rising political influence after the upheavals of the Arab Spring.

The 61-year-old emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, used a televised address to note repeatedly the importance of shifting leadership to more youthful hands ? an indirect acknowledgment of the demands for reforms opened by the uprisings that have swept the region.

Qatar has been a player in the regional turmoil, using its riches to support rebels in Libya and now in Syria. Qatar also has broken ranks with other Gulf states to offer help to the Muslim Brotherhood, which rose to political dominance in Egypt. Its influence is further spread by the powerful Al-Jazeera TV network, which it founded.

The Western-backed Gulf Arab dynasties have managed to remain in power, but they have displayed their insecurity by launching crackdowns that have included arrests over alleged anti-state plots and social media posts deemed insulting to the leadership.

"The future lies ahead of you, the children of this homeland, as you usher into a new era where young leadership hoists the banner," the outgoing emir said as he announced the anticipated transition to the British-educated crown prince, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

As part of taking on the mantle, Sheik Tamim will begin putting together a new government that may be in direct contrast to the old guard leaders across the Gulf. Qatar has given no official explanation on the transition, which had been widely expected for weeks, but Sheik Hamad is believed to be suffering from chronic health problems.

Sheik Tamim is not expected to make any immediate policy shifts for

In an important sign of continuity and shared goals, the outgoing emir and Sheik Tamim stood shoulder to shoulder and greeted members of the ruling family and others following the address.

Later, Sheik Tamim ? addressed formally as emir for the first time by state media ? was greeted by members of the ruling family, military officers and others "who came to swear allegiance," the official Qatar News Agency reported.

Sheik Tamim has been closely involved in key decisions since 2003, when Tamim became the next in line to rule after his older brother stepped aside. The outgoing emir is expected to remain a guiding force from the wings.

"Sheik Tamim will be driving his father's car, which is already programmed on where to go," said Mustafa Alani, a political analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Geneva.

The transition ? a rarity in a region where leadership changes are nearly always triggered by deaths or palace coups ? also sends a message the wider Middle East. It appears a sweeping response to the Arab Spring upheavals and their emphasis on giving voice to the region's youth, and it reinforces Qatar's bold-stroke political policies.

"The time has come to turn a new leaf in the history of our nation," the outgoing emir said in his address, "where a new generation steps forward to shoulder the responsibility with their dynamic potential and creative thoughts."

Under Sheik Hamad, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1995, Qatar has transformed into a political broker and a center for global investment with a sovereign fund estimated to be worth more than $100 billion. Its portfolio includes landmark real estate, luxury brands and a powerful presence in the sporting world. Tiny Qatar also defeated rivals including the U.S. to win the rights to host the 2022 football World Cup.

Qatar has played a role as mediator in conflicts such as Sudan's Darfur region and regional disputes including Palestinian political rifts. Qatar this week hosted a Syrian opposition conference attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and is the venue for possible U.S.-led peace talks with Afghanistan's Taliban.

In another sign of Qatar's risk-taking policies, it allowed an Israeli trade office ? effectively a diplomatic outpost ? for years before ordering its closure following Israel's incursion into Gaza in late 2008.

But Qatar has faced criticism from rights groups for joining the Gulf-wide crackdowns on perceived dissent since the Arab Spring. In one of the most high-profile cases, Qatari authorities jailed a poet whose verses included admiration for the uprisings. In February, the sentence against the poet, Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, was reduced from life to 15 years.

Christopher Davidson, an expert in Gulf affairs at Britain's Durham University, believes some of the tough measures by Qatari officials reflect internal squabbles with hard-liners trying to exert their influence. Such groups could be among the first housecleaning targets by the new emir, he predicted.

"Tamim is seen as focused on domestic issues first," said Davidson. "One of the main tasks will be to establish a new social contract with the population ... What kind of opposition is allowed and what is not will be part of that."

In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi told reporters that Iran supports any moves by Qatar that bring "peace and tranquility" for the region. Relations between the two nations have deteriorated over Syria, where Tehran remains strongly on the side of key ally Bashar Assad.

___

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-25-Qatar-Rulers/id-c080ebb9d28743acb3fa1875ab5e47f1

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Snowden possibly seeks asylum in several countries

WASHINGTON (AP) ? WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (ah-SAHNJ') says former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has possibly applied for asylum in other countries besides Ecuador.

Assange says he cannot go into detail about Snowden's whereabouts except to say that he is safe.

Snowden left Hong Kong Sunday to travel to Ecuador through Moscow and other points to avoid extradition to the U.S. He is facing espionage charges stemming from his disclosure of U.S. surveillance programs that collect phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence.

Snowden was not on a flight to Cuba Monday as expected. Ecuador says it is considering its asylum requests.

Ecuador granted Assange asylum last year. Assange is staying at the country's embassy in England to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sex crime allegations.

Assange's lawyer has said Snowden does not have many options for asylum.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-24-US-NSA-Surveillance-Asylum/id-07ebacef16354ae5bc10ec4edbc9d658

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Aerospace Merger Means Big Savings for U.S. Government, Company Says

PARIS ? Executives with Aerojet Rocketdyne, in its first week since forming from the merger of two rocket propulsion companies, said Tuesday (June 18) the new firm would save the U.S. government $1 billion over a decade and be responsive to the demands of customers, despite its dominance in the market for liquid-fueled rocket engines in the United States.

Warren Boley, president and CEO of Aerojet Rocketdyne, said here at the 2013 Paris Air Show that the combined company promised the U.S. government $100 million in acquisitions savings per year in order to help achieve the endorsement of the Pentagon as officials sought approval for the merger, which was finalized on June 14..

GenCorp Inc., the parent company of Aerojet, purchased Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corp. in a deal valued at $550 million. [The World's Tallest Rockets: How They Stack Up]

The savings are vital to the sustainment of U.S. military and NASA satellite programs, which have been hamstrung by rising launch costs over the last few years.

Boley said the company's commitment to $1 billion in cost savings over the next 10 years is being reviewed by two Defense Department contracting agencies.

"We're willing to stand up and be counted on that [promise]," Boley said.

Aerojet Rocketdyne officials also promised innovation and responsiveness to customer needs, despite concerns that competition would suffer with the merger of the two primary liquid-fueled rocket engine manufacturers in the United States.

"Going forward, I want to have the ability to have a complete technology suite that satisfies all customers affordably," Boley said. "There are immediate affordability opportunites in our launch business in future technology. That's what is very exciting when you look at the launch portion of the Aerojet Rocketdyne business."

Products competing with each other

One immediate test of Aerojet Rocketdyne's promise involves a dispute over the engines used on the first stage of the Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket, which successfully launched for the first time in April.

Once RD AMROSS ? a joint venture of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and engine-builder NPO Energomash of Russia ? is incorporated into Aerojet Rocketdyne, the propulsion firm will find its products in competition with each other in many markets, including for the first stage of Antares and advanced boosters for NASA's Space Launch System. [NASA's SLS Rocket for Deep-Space Flights (Images)]

Antares is under contract to NASA for eight commercial cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station, plus an additional test flight later this year. Orbital hopes to win additional Antares launch orders from NASA, military and commercial customers.

The Antares first stage is powered by two kerosene-fueled AJ26 engines supplied by Aerojet, which acquired the engines from Russia in the 1990s. The engines ? known as NK-33s in Russia ? were built in the 1960s and 1970s for the Soviet Union's N1 moon rocket.

Aerojet imported the engines to support the company's U.S. propulsion business and modified each unit to gimbal, allowing the engines to steer rockets ascending from the launch pad into orbit. The upgraded engines under Aerojet's control are renamed the AJ26.

But the NK-33 engine is not in production in Russia anymore. Aerojet Rocketdyne has an inventory of 43 AJ26 engines available for Orbital's Antares rocket ? enough for 21 flights. Between 12 and 18 more NK-33 engines are stockpiled in Russia.

"Orbital is currently pursuing a long-term first stage propulsion system for its new medium-class Antares launch vehicle," Orbital spokesman Barry Beneski said in a statement. "Orbital currently uses the Aerojet AJ26, which is derived from the Russian NK-33, and has a sufficient supply of AJ26 engines available to meet commitments to NASA for commercial cargo supply to the International Space Station."

Finite engine supply

Aware of the finite supply of AJ26 engines, Orbital Sciences began inquiring about the purchase of RD-180 engines ? then controlled by Aerojet rival Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne ? to support the company's long-term strategy of expanding the Antares market into medium-lift satellite launches and further cargo missions to the space station.

RD AMROSS is responsible for U.S. sales of the RD-180 engine for United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket.

Lockheed Martin Corp., a ULA stakeholder along with Boeing Co., invested in the development of the RD-180 engine for the Atlas 5 rocket in the 1990s. ULA still maintains intellectual property rights to the engine, giving the Atlas 5 rocket exclusive access to RD-180 engines in the U.S. market.

The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into the matter after complaints of "anti-competitive" practices made by Orbital against ULA and RD AMROSS.

"Today, the only engine in active production that is technically suitable for the Antares and available for use in the U.S. is the RD-180 engine from Russia," Beneski said. "Orbital continues to investigate all potentially available engine options, one of which is the continued use of AJ26 engines, based on new production NK-33 engines."

Aerojet Rocketdyne plans to close the acquisition of Pratt & Whitney subsidiary RD AMROSS later this year, after securing approvals from the Russian government.

Boley said Tuesday that Aerojet Rocketdyne has a written agreement with the NK-33 engine's manufacturer, the Kuznetsov Design Bureau in Russia, to start production of the engine. If Orbital places places an order for more AJ26 engines by the end of 2013, Boley said new NK-33s could arrive in the United States for Aerojet upgrades by late 2016.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook?or Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/aerospace-merger-means-big-savings-u-government-company-114146224.html

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Peloton's Android-powered static bike lets you spin from home (video)

Here's some gear that'll ensure you'll never again have to fight for space in that hyper-competitive spin class. The Peloton Bike is two grands' worth of static bike that's designed to bring the gym experience to your home with a number of innovative touches. First up, the Android 4.1-running unit is controlled by a 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 with 1GB of RAM and 16GB storage with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, ANT+, Bluetooth 4.0 and Ethernet. It's connected to a 21.5-inch 1080p multitouch display, which'll let you stream classes from Peloton's NYC studio live and on-demand. The display also holds a webcam and microphone, so you can still swear at your friends / the instructor as if you were there in real life.

Secondly, the New York design house has abandoned the bike chain, replacing it with a belt drive that'll prevent your training getting too noisy, and a magnetic resistance system to reduce wear and tear on the flywheel. The company has taken to Kickstarter to raise funds for the initial production run, requesting $250,000 before it can release the hardware. Pre-ordering now means that you can get the bike for $1,700 with a year's worth of subscription to the spin classes, after which point will cost you $40 a month. Interested in learning more? There's a video after the break.

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New York Assembly Shelves Bill That Would ?Shut Down' Tesla Sales In The State

The New York State Assembly has tabled a set of two proposed bills that would render Tesla Motors' business model for selling cars illegal in the state. Tesla's sales model takes a page out of Apple's playbook, selling its electric cars through its own branded stores, rather than through third party dealerships.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2s-9N-WWEbM/

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Communications Surveillance, Protest and Control? | Paul Bernal's ...

What is the real reason that certain of the authorities are so keen on universal surveillance of communications data? Is it the fight against terrorism? It doesn?t seem very likely. It?s a supremely ineffective method of dealing with terrorism at best ? even the examples quoted by the security services as ?proof? that it works have pretty much all been swiftly debunked (see for example here). In practice, it seems, targeted, intelligence-driven, almost ?traditional? methods seem to do the job far better. So why do the authorities all around the globe seem to be so enthusiastic about communications surveillance? One word: control

Control is the key

Despotic regimes have always wanted to have as complete a level of surveillance as possible ? they want to know what is going on, who is meeting who, what they?re talking about, what they?re planning. That way, they can get control over their people. They can find subversives and dissidents, they can infiltrate those who resist or plot against them, they can snuff out the plans of their enemies before they gather sufficient momentum to have a real effect. That?s been fundamental to pretty much every oppressive regime throughout history ? and the capabilities of the internet, and in particular of internet surveillance, offer possibilities beyond the dreams of the despots of yesteryear. However, it?s not just despots who like surveillance ? or rather, it?s not just those that we usually label as ?despots? who like it. It?s anyone who wants more control ? or who thinks that things are going out of control. It?s those concerned with ?public order?. It?s those concerned with ?protest?. That, sadly, means it?s all of our governments today ? even that in the UK.

Snooping on the badger-cull protestors

News came out this week that ?Whitehall chiefs scan Twitter to head off badger protests?. As reported to the BBC, ??[t]he Department for Rural Affairs uses ?horizon scanning? software to gain an ?early warning? of public protests.? Relatively speaking, this is a primitive form of snooping ? and a legal one, since it scans public messages on social media services such as twitter. This isn?t a secret plan like PRISM, but an official and key part of the government?s communication plan ? but it reveals a good deal about how the government (and other authorities) see the potential of communications surveillance. If they can find out what people are thinking and planning, they can nip protests in the bud.

Pretty much all of this, of course, is legal, and much of it is justifiable in ?public order? terms ? but as anyone who saw the recent and deeply shocking revelations that the McLibel leaflet was co-written by an undercover police officer who had infiltrated an environmental campaign group would know, the tactics and techniques used by ?law enforcement? to deal with protestors and related groups can often stretch not just the law but our imaginations. Ideas presented and proposed for good or at least defensible reasons can easily morph into something much more sinister. Give the authorities leeway, and they use it?

The real use of communications surveillance?

?which is what, it seems likely, is one of the keys behind the enthusiasm for all kinds of communications surveillance, from the Snoopers? Charter in the UK to PRISM and so forth in the US, to all the massive new programme in India etc. They know that if they have full surveillance capabilities their ability to control what is happening will be magnified enormously. Not only can they effectively unmask protestors, they can find out who their friends are, what websites they visit, where they?re planning to meet and so on. If they take it a few steps further, they can ?block them from communicating with each other, shut down their blogs ? or warn them off with anonymous threatening emails, or leak their details to their enemies.

Does this sound far-fetched? Perhaps, but not nearly as far fetched as the McLibel story, let alone the other horrendous details surrounding police infiltration of environmental and anti-racist groups. What?s more, most of the surveillance systems planned are designed for precisely this kind of surveillance ? linking into Facebook, Google etc is far better at this that it is at fighting terrorism, paedophilia etc. Terrorists and paedophiles don?t do their planning on Facebook etc ? but those organising legal, peaceful protests like that against the badger cull DO. Terrorists and paedophiles do everything they can to keep ?dark? ? and they learn how to do so, what technology to use to bypass the authorities. Peaceful protesters don?t ? they don?t often feel that they need to, and they don?t have the capabilities. They?re the obvious targets of this kind of thing: universal internet surveillance isn?t so much about fighting the big things as it is about keeping ?public order?.

Whether that is an acceptable thing is another story. Public order IS important ? but so is the right to protest, and not just in countries like Turkey. Protest is fundamental to our democracy, to our freedom of expression, to our ability to hold our governments to account. It?s important everywhere, and letting the authorities design and operate systems to stifle and control it is something about which we should be very wary.

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Source: http://paulbernal.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/communications-surveillance-protest-and-control/

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Egypt opposition opens to former autocrat's party

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's largest opposition bloc on Saturday reached out to former members of the deposed president's party, ahead of mass protests on June 30 demanding the ouster of his successor.

The move came a day after some 100,000 supporters of current President Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist and the country's first elected leader, packed a main square in Cairo to support him and challenge the largely liberal opposition that demands he step down.

Morsi won a four-year term as president with some 52 percent of the vote in a run-off last June against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister of now-ousted Hosni Mubarak. Shafiq is now contesting the election results.

"I can't isolate millions of Egyptian people because they were part of the National Democratic Party," said Mohamed ElBaradei, a top leader of the opposition National Salvation Front, referring to Mubarak's now-dissolved party. He said the invitation to Mubarak supporters did not extend to those who had been convicted of crimes under the old regime.

"The masses of Egyptian people are calling for change," he said, adding that the plan now was to discuss national reconciliation. He made his remarks during a two-day conference entitled "After Departure," which aims to draw up a road map in case Morsi resigns as the opposition demands.

Since the 2011 uprising that forced Mubarak from power, members of his NDP have been labeled "feloul," or "remnants," by both liberals and Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group.

Joining ranks with the "feloul" is seen as a major shift and painful choice by the opposition, the vast majority of whom voted for Morsi last year in order to block Shafiq from taking office because they did not want a Mubarak-man ruling after the uprising.

After Mubarak's fall, the NDP was dissolved and scores of top party officials were detained while on trial over various charges of corruption, along with former regime officials. The country's Supreme Administrative Court in 2011 ruled that party members can participate in elections.

The party has an estimated three million members. After it was disbanded, some joined newly established parties. A yet-untested "political isolation" clause in the new constitution may ban senior officials in the now-defunct party from top posts.

The June 30 call is rooted in a months-long petition drive called "Tamarod," or "Rebel," in Arabic, which helped galvanize an opposition that has been demoralized and in disarray. Organizers announced on Thursday that they have collected 15 million signatures supporting Morsi's ouster and early presidential elections.

The opposition accuses Morsi of monopolizing power and of failing to deliver on promises to create an inclusive system where the opposition is represented. Morsi and the Brotherhood accuse the opposition of being used by Mubarak-men aiming to topple Egypt's first democracy and bring back the old regime.

Meanwhile, the country's powerful military, widely suspected to be at odds with the president, said it will not intervene in political infighting.

"The men of the armed forces don't gamble with the present or the future of the nation," Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was quoted by official news agency MENA as saying during a graduation ceremony on Saturday. The military, he said, "are not biased to a certain faction against the other but their only bias is to the Egyptian people with all its sects and factions."

Ruling for nearly 18 months after Mubarak's ouster, the military came under sharp criticism by liberals and rights groups for what they called mismanagement of the country's transition, human rights violations and enabling an Islamists takeover.

In the year since Morsi took office, the military top brass have expressed unwillingness to return to power. Police, who have engaged in deadly clashes with street protesters over the past two years, have signaled they want to stay out of any violence it is feared may erupt on June 30.

Also on Saturday, MENA reported that the Presidential Election Commission sat Tuesday to look into Shafiq's complaints alleging irregularities and forgery in last year's vote. Shafiq is in self-exile in United Arab Emirates as he is being tried in absentia on corruption-related charges, which he says are politicized.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-opposition-opens-former-autocrats-party-161917220.html

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Snowden's return to US could be legal battle

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The criminal case against Edward Snowden could turn into a prolonged legal battle before the former contractor who says he revealed two highly classified surveillance programs ever appears in a U.S. courtroom to answer espionage charges.

A formal extradition request to bring Snowden to the United States from Hong Kong could drag through appeal courts for years and would pit Beijing against Washington at a time China tries to deflect U.S. accusations that it carries out extensive surveillance on American government and commercial operations.

It is not known whether the U.S. government has made a formal extradition request, and the Hong Kong government had no immediate reaction to the charges against Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who admitted providing information to the news media about the programs. Police Commissioner Andy Tsang told reporters only that the case would be dealt with according to the law. A police statement said it was "inappropriate" for the police to comment on the case.

A one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., part of the Eastern District of Virginia where his former employer, government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered, in McLean. He is charged with unauthorized communication of national defense information, willful communication of classified communications intelligence information and theft of government property. The first two are under the Espionage Act and each of the three crimes carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on conviction.

The complaint is dated June 14, five days after Snowden's name first surfaced as the person who had leaked to the news media that the NSA, in two highly classified surveillance programs, gathered telephone and Internet records to ferret out terror plots.

Snowden told the South China Morning Post in an interview published Saturday on its website that he hoped to stay in the autonomous region of China because he has faith in "the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."

A prominent former politician in Hong Kong, Martin Lee, the founding chairman of the Democratic Party, said he doubted whether Beijing would intervene yet.

"Beijing would only intervene according to my understanding at the last stage. If the magistrate said there is enough to extradite, then Mr. Snowden can then appeal," he said.

Lee said Beijing could then decide at the end of the appeal process if it wanted Snowden extradited or not.

If formal extradition is pursued, Snowden could contest it on grounds of political persecution.

Hong Kong lawyer Mark Sutherland said that the filing of a refugee, torture or inhuman punishment claim acts as an automatic bar on any extradition proceedings until those claims can be assessed.

"Some asylum seekers came to Hong Kong 10 years ago and still haven't had their protection claims assessed," Sutherland said.

Hong Kong lawmakers said that the Chinese government should make the final decision on whether Snowden should be extradited to the United States.

Outspoken legislator Leung Kwok-hung said Beijing should instruct Hong Kong to protect Snowden from extradition before his case gets dragged through the court system.

Leung urged the people of Hong Kong to "take to the streets to protect Snowden."

The Obama administration has now used the Espionage Act in seven criminal cases in an unprecedented effort to stem leaks. In one of them, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning acknowledged he sent more than 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and other materials to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. His military trial is underway.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, welcomed the charges against Snowden.

"I've always thought this was a treasonous act," he said in a statement. "I hope Hong Kong's government will take him into custody and extradite him to the U.S."

But the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy group, said Snowden should be shielded from prosecution by whistle-blower protection laws.

"He disclosed information about a secret program that he reasonably believed to be illegal, and his actions alone brought about the long-overdue national debate about the proper balance between privacy and civil liberties, on the one hand, and national security on the other," the group said in a statement.

Michael di Pretoro, a retired 30-year veteran with the FBI who served from 1990 to 1994 as the legal liaison officer at the American consulate in Hong Kong, said "relations between U.S. and Hong Kong law enforcement personnel are historically quite good."

"In my time, I felt the degree of cooperation was outstanding to the extent that I almost felt I was in an FBI field office," di Pretoro said.

The U.S. and Hong Kong have a standing agreement on the surrender of fugitives. However, Snowden's appeal rights could drag out any extradition proceeding.

The success or failure of any extradition proceeding depends on what the suspect is charged with under U.S. law and how it corresponds to Hong Kong law under the treaty. In order for Hong Kong officials to honor the extradition request, they have to have some applicable statute under their law that corresponds with a violation of U.S. law.

Disclosure of the criminal complaint came as President Barack Obama held his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board and as his intelligence chief sought ways to help Americans understand more about sweeping government surveillance efforts exposed by Snowden.

The five members of the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board met with Obama for an hour in the White House Situation Room, questioning the president on the two NSA programs that have stoked controversy.

One program collects billions of U.S. phone records. The second gathers audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas, and probably some Americans in the process, who use major Internet service providers, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Yahoo.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snowdens-return-us-could-legal-battle-200441742.html

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Plane with wing walker crashes at Ohio air show

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) ? Media outlets are reporting that a stunt plane carrying a wing walker has crashed at an air show in western Ohio.

The crash happened Saturday afternoon at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton. A schedule posted on the event's website had Jane Wicker Wingwalker scheduled to perform.

A fire dispatcher confirmed a crash Saturday to The Associated Press but had no other information.

The Dayton Daily News and several TV stations say the plane burst into flames when it hit the ground. A fire truck extinguished the blaze.

There was no immediate word on the fate of the pilot, wing walker or anyone else aboard the plane. No one on the ground was hurt.

A spokeswoman for the Vectren Air Show near Dayton didn't immediately return a telephone message.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plane-wing-walker-crashes-ohio-air-show-173332552.html

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The Importance of Project Management for Business Communications

When your business decides to upgrade its phone system for improved business communications, you need to be able to fully trust the service capabilities of your business phone provider. They have to possess skills that can successfully complete the job while remaining within your budget, meeting your deadline and avoiding extended system downtime.

At TelWare, our project management system can guide you through the design and installation of your new phone system and ensure your system goes live on completion day and meets all of your business objectives.?We also provide one point of contact that will be responsible for your installation. This is vital for simplifying lines of communication and assuring a successful delivery.

?Our technicians create a ?roadmap? for each client, so they know what to expect during their system?s changeover,? says Mike Canipe of TelWare. ?We understand that switching phone systems is often a major undertaking, and that?s exactly why our technicians see your phone system upgrade to its successful completion.?

Our technicians take specific steps to complete each client?s phone system upgrade. Your business can expect the following from our project management services, including:

• Initial orientation meeting: For this initial meeting, we identify the site, the configuration of the switch, feature plans, layout of equipment, feasibility and conduct a thorough inspection.

• Demonstration: We provide a presentation of equipment, project plan and quotes.

• Business needs examination: We work with you to identify your specific needs and the customer service model you provide. This ensures your system is customized to fit your business needs perfectly.

• Go live day: Your key contact person, technicians and trainers attend the first day of service. The focus is very much on support and guidance as you start using the new technology. Most initial training is accomplished on this day.

• Training schedules: To maximize your investment in equipment and to ensure your staff is confident in using the new system, we will work with you to develop a training and development schedule for your staff.

We will be collaborating together to create your business?s desired telephone system. Working with our project?management?offers your business a variety of benefits, including:

1. Stay within budget:?By using a project management system, your budget remains a priority in your phone system upgrade. At every phase of the installation you are provided with cost-effective options so your business can remain comfortably safe from spending over your planned budget.
2. Ensure?efficient?installation:?One of the main responsibilities of a project management team is to not only see your project through to completion, but to ensure that it is done properly. With technicians monitoring every step of your upgrade, you can trust that your system is being installed as?efficiently?as possible to fit your specifications.
3. Minimize system down time:?The point of upgrading your phone system is to improve your communication with your customers. That?s why project management teams collaborate on risk management techniques, so during your phone system?s upgrade they can anticipate and avoid complications that could extend your business?s downtime.

?Our project management services are the central process in phone system upgrades,? explains Canipe. ?Our project managers? goal is to remain within your budget while meeting your deadline with as little to no downtime as possible so you can get back to work.?

To learn more about project management for business?communications?or to schedule an appointment, call Mike Canipe with TelWare at 704-598-4700 or email Mike. Our project managers look forward to helping you upgrade your phone system so your business can continue to grow!

Source: http://www.telware.com/the-importance-of-project-management-for-business-communications/

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5.2 quake hits northern Italy, some damage

MILAN (AP) ? An earthquake with a 5.2 preliminary magnitude struck northern Italy at midday Friday, causing some damage but no immediate reports of casualties.

Italy's Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the quake occurred at 12:33 p.m. (1033 GMT) in a mountainous region near the Tuscan coast between the provinces of Massa e Carrara and Lucca.

Mayor Riccardo Ballerini of Lunigiana, near the epicenter, told Sky TG 24 that some buildings in his town had sustained damage, including collapsed walls, but that there were no reports of injuries.

The state railway shut down some local lines to check for damage.

The quake, which struck at a depth of five kilometers (three miles), was felt as far away as Milan, Verona and Florence, a radius of more than 160 kilometers (100 miles).

Television footage showed an interior begin to shake as Josefa Idem, Italy's equal opportunity and sports minister, was speaking at the Reggio Emilia city hall, some 70 kilometers away (40 miles). The event was halted and the building evacuated.

The news agency ANSA said many people in the town of Carrara near the epicenter left their houses in fear, but that there were no immediate signs of damage.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-2-quake-hits-northern-italy-damage-125340328.html

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Sizing Up Big Data, Broadening Beyond the Internet - NYTimes.com

In his young career, Jeffrey Hammerbacher has been a scout on the frontiers of the data economy.

Big Data 2013

A special section on the business and culture of big data.

In 2005, Mr. Hammerbacher, then a freshly minted Harvard graduate, did what many math and computing whizzes did. He went to Wall Street as a ?quant,? building math models for complex financial products.

Looking for a better use for his skills, Mr. Hammerbacher departed to Silicon Valley less than a year later and joined Facebook. He started a team that began to mine the vast amounts of social network data Facebook was collecting for insights on how to tweak the service and target ads. He called himself and his co-workers ?data scientists,? a term that has since become the hottest of job categories.

Facebook was a fabulous petri dish for data science. Yet after two and a half years, Mr. Hammerbacher decided it was time to move on, beyond social networks and Internet advertising. He became a founder of Cloudera, a start-up that makes software tools for data scientists.

Then, starting last summer, Mr. Hammerbacher, who is now 30, embarked on a very different professional path. He joined the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan as an assistant professor, exploring genetic and other medical data in search of breakthroughs in disease modeling and treatment.

The goal, Mr. Hammerbacher said, is ?to turn medicine into the land of the quants.?

The story is the same in one field after another, in science, politics, crime prevention, public health, sports and industries as varied as energy and advertising. All are being transformed by data-driven discovery and decision-making. The pioneering consumer Internet companies, like Google, Facebook and Amazon, were just the start, experts say. Today, data tools and techniques are used for tasks as varied as predicting neighborhood blocks where crimes are most likely to occur and injecting intelligence into hulking industrial machines, like electrical power generators.

Big Data is the shorthand label for the phenomenon, which embraces technology, decision-making and public policy. Supplying the technology is a fast-growing market, increasing at more than 30 percent a year and likely to reach $24 billion by 2016, according to a forecast by IDC, a research firm. All the major technology companies, and a host of start-ups, are aggressively pursuing the business.

Demand is brisk for people with data skills. The McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the consulting firm, projects that the United States needs 140,000 to 190,000 more workers with ?deep analytical? expertise and 1.5 million more data-literate managers, whether retrained or hired, by 2020.

Yet the surveillance potential of Big Data, with every click stream, physical movement and commercial transaction monitored and analyzed, would strain the imagination of George Orwell. So what will be society?s ground rules for the collection and use of data? How do we weigh the trade-offs involving privacy, commerce and security? Those issues are just beginning to be addressed. The debate surrounding the recent disclosure that the National Security Agency has been secretly stockpiling telephone call logs of Americans and poring through e-mail and other data from major Internet companies is merely an early round.

Big Data is a vague term, used loosely, if often, these days. But put simply, the catchall phrase means three things. First, it is a bundle of technologies. Second, it is a potential revolution in measurement. And third, it is a point of view, or philosophy, about how decisions will be ? and perhaps should be ? made in the future.

The bundle of technologies is partly all the old and new sources of data ? Web pages, browsing habits, sensor signals, social media, GPS location data from smartphones, genomic information and surveillance videos. The data surge just keeps rising, doubling in volume every two years. Just two days of the current global data production, from all sources ? five quintillion bytes (a letter of text equals one byte) ? is about equal to the amount of information created by all the world?s conversations, ever, according to research at the University of California, Berkeley.

Yet the importance of the sheer volume of data ? and its exponential growth path ? can be overstated. There?s a lot of water in the ocean, too, but you can?t drink it. Beyond advances in computer processing and storage, the other essential technology is the clever software to make sense of all that data. These are largely tools taken from the steadily evolving world of artificial intelligence, like machine learning.

The increasing volume and variety of data, combined with smart software, may well open the door to what some people call a revolution in measurement. This technology, they say, is the digital equivalent of the telescope or the microscope. Both of those made it possible to see and measure things as never before ? with the telescope, it was the heavens and new galaxies; with the microscope, it was the mysteries of life down to the cellular level.

Data-driven insights, experts say, will fuel a shift in the center of gravity in decision-making. Decisions of all kinds, they say, will increasingly be made on the basis of data and analysis rather than experience and intuition ? more science and less gut feel. Data, for example, is an antidote to the human tendency to rely too much on a single piece of information or what is familiar ? what psychologists call ?anchoring bias.?

Big Data, its proponents insist, will be the next big trend in management. Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, cites the familiar business truism, ?You can?t manage what you can?t measure.? And as it opens new horizons in measurement, the modern data era, Mr. Brynjolfsson said, will transform the practice of management. Big Data, he said, will ?replace ideas, paradigms, organizations and ways of thinking about the world.?

But caveats are in order. Big Data is a descendant of Frederick Winslow Taylor?s ?scientific management? of a century ago. His instruments of measurement and recording were the stopwatch, clipboard and his eyes. Taylor and his acolytes used these time-and-motion studies to redesign work for maximum efficiency.

Yet eventually, the excesses of that approach became apparent and even satirical grist for the movie ?Modern Times? by Charlie Chaplin. And the enthusiasm for quantitative methods has waxed and waned ever since.

Discrimination by statistical inference is a real risk in the Big Data world, as some personal data trails suggest a correlation that may be wrong. David C. Vladeck, a former senior Federal Trade Commission official and a professor of law at Georgetown University, offers this example: Imagine spending a few hours looking online for information on deep fat fryers. You could be looking for a gift for a friend or researching a report for cooking school. But to a data miner, tracking your online viewing, this hunt could be read as a telltale sign of an unhealthy habit ? a data-based prediction that could make its way to a health insurer or potential employer.

And, again, the surveillance potential of Big Data technology, if it runs amok, is scary.

But all technologies involve trade-offs and risks. In ancient times, fire could cook your food and keep you warm, but, out of control, could burn down your hut. Cars pollute the air and cause traffic deaths, but they have also increased personal mobility and freedom, and stimulated the development of regional and national markets for goods.

Big Data technology is not fundamentally different. Its advance is probably inevitable, and the risks seem manageable and the potential benefits enormous. One glimpse of the potential payoff can be seen at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, in the work being pursued by the group Mr. Hammerbacher has joined.

The 100-member team at the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology is headed by Eric E. Schadt, a leading researcher in genomics and biomathematics. Dr. Schadt joined Mount Sinai less than two years ago, lured by ample financing and the promise that his group?s work would not be research in isolation but part of the medical center in treating patients.

The genomics revolution is on the cusp of realizing its promise, according to Dr. Schadt, thanks to the advancing technology of genetic sequencing and analysis. The government-financed Human Genome Project, completed in 2003, cost $2.7 billion. Today, whole human genome sequencing, identifying all three billion chemical units in the human genetic instruction set, can be done for $3,000. In three years, Dr. Schadt predicts, the cost will be less than $1,000, and in 5 to 10 years, less than $100, almost like a blood test today.

The technology makes it possible not only to observe life at the molecular level as never before, but also to explore how the minute ingredients of biology and the environment influence each other in individual humans ? and personalize treatment. People with similar genetic traits, Dr. Schadt notes, often have very different health outcomes. Chronic ailments like cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer?s are not caused by single genes, he said, but are ?complex, networked disorders.?

The Mount Sinai researchers, Dr. Schadt said, intend to combine genetic information with the medical histories ? weight, age, gender, vital signs, tobacco use, toxic exposure and other data ? to build more sophisticated models of biology and health outcomes. ?We?re trying to move medicine in the direction of climatology and physics; disciplines that are far more advanced and mature quantitatively,? he said.

Dr. Schadt recruited Mr. Hammerbacher, an overture that coincided with Mr. Hammerbacher?s research into where next to best apply his skills. He describes his career as a matter of ?following the smartest people to find the best problem.? Health care, in his view, is ?the best problem by far,? where his talents could do the most good. At Mount Sinai, Mr. Hammerbacher said he hoped to learn a lot and assemble a small group of computing and data experts to help accelerate the genomic and medical research there.

Mr. Hammerbacher remains the chief scientist of Cloudera and splits his time between San Francisco and Manhattan.

But he is spending more time in New York these days and just bought an apartment on the Lower East Side for himself and his wife.

Mr. Hammerbacher has qualms about the Big Data realm he has helped create, including the surveillance potential of the technology. ?What does it mean,? Mr. Hammerbacher pondered at one point, ?to live in an era where things and people are infinitely observed?? And he appreciates that there is a lot of truth beyond data. ?Just because you can?t measure it easily doesn?t mean it?s not important,? he observed.

While he is perhaps a qualified enthusiast, Mr. Hammerbacher is a data believer. He calls data the ?intermediate representation of science.? The genome, he said, is ?the quantification of the core of what we are.?

He says he thinks that medicine, and nearly every other field, will increasingly fall under the sway of what he calls ?the numerical imagination,? which can be distilled in a question: ?What is the story the data tells us??

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/sizing-up-big-data-broadening-beyond-the-internet/

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Japanese bank to pay NY $250M in laundering case

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ Ltd. will pay $250 million to the state of New York for laundering billions of dollars in transactions that violated economic sanctions against countries including Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar, New York financial regulators said Thursday.

The state's Department of Financial Services said the bank agreed to the fine and a year of special monitoring for handling the 28,000 U.S. dollar transactions totaling about $100 billion through its New York operation between 2002 and 2007.

BTMU employees routinely removed information from wire transfer messages that could have identified the government and business entities involved as targets of sanctions, the department said.

BTMU said Thursday it reported the violations to its regulators and stopped the practice in 2007.

"Since 2007, BTMU has significantly improved its compliance policies and procedures," the bank said. "BTMU is committed to conducting business with the highest levels of integrity and regulatory compliance, and to continually improving its policies and procedures."

It said it will continue to cooperate with regulators.

BTMU is Japan's largest bank when ranked by assets, according to SNL Financial.

As part of the agreement with New York, an independent consultant will monitor compliance with sanctions and measures taken to correct the problems at BTMU's New York branch. That monitor will report to state regulators.

That consultant will operate under new standards the state DFS announced this week to ensure their objectivity and independence from the institutions they are monitoring.

BTMU will also give the DFS a plan to improve its compliance with bank secrecy and anti-money laundering rules. That plan is subject to approval by the department.

"BTMU took an important step today toward addressing these serious transgressions. It is vital that companies continue to self-report violations and those that do not run the risk of even more severe consequences," Benjamin Lawsky, the state superintendent of financial services, said Thursday.

Last year, Britain's Standard Chartered Bank agreed to pay $340 million to settle New York allegations it violated sanctions by processing billions of U.S. dollar transactions for Iranian interests.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-bank-pay-ny-250m-laundering-case-161323435.html

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