Plaintiffs in gay marriage case wed in SF, LA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The four plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot Friday, just hours after a federal appeals court freed gay couples to obtain marriage licenses in the state for the first time in 4 1/2 years.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the San Francisco City Hall wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier as hundreds of supporters looked on and cheered. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, who married at Los Angeles City Hall 90 minutes later with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presiding.

"By joining the case against Proposition 8, they represented thousands of couples like themselves in their fight for marriage equality," Harris, who had asked the appeals court to act swiftly, said during Stier and Perry's brief ceremony. "Through the ups and downs, the struggles and the triumphs, they came out victorious."

Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, "spouses for life," but during their vows, the Berkeley couple took each other as "lawfully wedded wife." One of their twin sons served as ring-bearer.

Although the couples fought for the right to wed for years, their weddings came together in a flurry when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving, "effective immediately," a stay it had imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging the ban advanced through the courts.

Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, called the appeals court's swift action "outrageous." Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side in a legal dispute has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case, and Proposition 8's backers had not yet announced whether they would do so.

"The resumption of same-sex marriage this day has been obtained by illegitimate means. If our opponents rejoice in achieving their goal in a dishonorable fashion, they should be ashamed," said Andy Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups that sponsored the 2008 ballot measure.

"It remains to be seen whether the fight can go on, but either way, it is a disgraceful day for California," Pugno said.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that Proposition 8's sponsors lacked authority to challenge the ban after Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown, both Democrats, refused to defend the ban in court.

The decision lets stand a trial judge's declaration that the ban violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.

The Supreme Court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 case until after the 25-day period, which ends July 21. But San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who joined the two couples in the lawsuit, said Friday that the 9th Circuit panel had the power to lift the stay it imposed.

"The fact of the matter is the only thing holding up the weddings was the stay that the 9th Circuit had in place," Herrera said. "The fact that there is a separate 25-day period allowing the petition to go for a rehearing is separate and apart from that stay."

Brown directed California counties to start performing same-sex marriages immediately after the appeals court's order. A memo from the Department of Public Health said "same-sex marriage is again legal in California" and ordered county clerks to resume issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

Given that word did not come down from the appeals court until mid-afternoon, most counties were not prepared to stay open late to accommodate potential crowds. The clerks in a few counties announced that they would stay open a few hours later Friday.

A jubilant San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced that same-sex couples would be able to marry all weekend in his city, which is hosting its annual gay pride celebration.

___

Associated Press writers Jason Dearen, Paul Elias and Mihir Zaveri contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plaintiffs-gay-marriage-case-wed-sf-la-015212241.html

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It?s the Prop 8 boys? turn! Weddings galore in California tonight (Americablog)

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Breakthrough in Internet bandwidth: New fiber optic technology could ease Internet congestion, video streaming

June 27, 2013 ? As rapidly increasing demand for bandwidth strains the Internet's capacity, a team of engineers has devised a new fiber optic technology that promises to increase bandwidth dramatically. The new technology could enable Internet providers to offer much greater connectivity -- from decreased network congestion to on-demand video streaming.

Described in the June 28 issue of the journal Science, the technology centers on donut-shaped laser light beams called optical vortices, in which the light twists like a tornado as it moves along the beam path, rather than in a straight line.

Widely studied in molecular biology, atomic physics and quantum optics, optical vortices (also known as orbital angular momentum, or OAM, beams) were thought to be unstable in fiber, until BU Engineering Professor Siddharth Ramachandran recently designed an optical fiber that can propagate them. In the paper, he and Alan Willner of USC demonstrate not only the stability of the beams in optical fiber but also their potential to boost Internet bandwidth.

"For several decades since optical fibers were deployed, the conventional assumption has been that OAM-carrying beams are inherently unstable in fibers," said Ramachandran. "Our discovery, of design classes in which they are stable, has profound implications for a variety of scientific and technological fields that have exploited the unique properties of OAM-carrying light, including the use of such beams for enhancing data capacity in fibers."

The reported research represents a close collaboration between optical fiber experts at BU and optical communication systems experts at USC. "Siddharth's fiber represents a very unique and valuable innovation. It was great to work together to demonstrate a terabit-per-second capacity transmission link," said Willner, electrical engineering professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Ramachandran and Willner collaborated with OFS-Fitel, a fiber optics company in Denmark, and Tel Aviv University.

Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the technology could not come at a better time, as one of the main strategies to boost Internet bandwidth is running into roadblocks just as mobile devices fuel rapidly growing demands on the Internet. Traditionally, bandwidth has been enhanced by increasing the number of colors, or wavelengths of data-carrying laser signals -- essentially streams of 1s and 0s -- sent down an optical fiber, where the signals are processed according to color. Increasing the number of colors has worked well since the 1990s when the method was introduced, but now that number is reaching physical limits.

An emerging strategy to boost bandwidth is to send the light through a fiber along distinctive paths, or modes, each carrying a cache of data from one end of the fiber to the other. Unlike the colors, however, data streams of 1s and 0s from different modes mix together; determining which data stream came from which source requires computationally intensive and energy-hungry digital signal processing algorithms.

Ramachandran's and Willner's approach combines both strategies, packing several colors into each mode, and using multiple modes. Unlike in conventional fibers, OAM modes in these specially designed fibers can carry data streams across an optical fiber while remaining separate at the receiving end. In experiments appearing in the Science paper, Ramachandran created an OAM fiber with four modes (an optical fiber typically has two), and he and Willner showed that for each OAM mode, they could send data through a one-kilometer fiber in 10 different colors, resulting in a transmission capacity of 1.6 terabits per second, the equivalent of transmitting eight Blu-RayTM DVDs every second.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/zoBY3cb6fMU/130627142406.htm

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Chapman University unearths data in animal habitat selection that counters current convention

Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
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Contact: Sheri Ledbetter
sledbett@chapman.edu
714-289-3143
Chapman University

When common loons settle down to breed, they pick sites like the ones they hatched in, even if better habitat is vacant

ORANGE, Calif. Chapman University's Walter Piper, Ph.D., has published research this week in a leading science journal that shows animals choose habitat similar to where they were raised rather than that likely to maximize reproductive success. This finding runs counter to current tenets of habitat selection theory.

The paper is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B on June 26 and includes co-authors Michael Palmer, Nathan Banfield and Michael Meyer. Dr. Piper's research focuses on his long-term study of loons.

"The basic finding is that young loons chose to settle on territories that are very similar to their natal territories," noted Dr. Piper, professor in Chapman's Schmid College of Science and Technology. "This behavioral pattern seems to indicate that loons choose habitat so as to promote their survival, not their breeding success. This is exciting because it flies in the face of current dogma in field of habitat selection."

Here is the abstract from the research: Scientists have long presumed that animals settle on breeding territories according to the ideal free model, which presumes that animals select habitat that maximizes the number of offspring they can produce. But settlement data often show that, in fact, animals do not select high quality habitat. Indeed, here we report that young common loons have a striking tendency to settle on breeding lakes that resemble their natal lake in terms of both size and pH. Preference for natal like rather than high quality habitat, might allow a young animal to feed on familiar prey and, hence, increase its likelihood of surviving its early breeding years.

###

To see the paper, titled Can settlement in natal-like habitat explain maladaptive habitat selection?, click here: http://www.chapman.edu/scst/_files/piper-research-paper-2013.pdf.

More information on Dr. Piper's research on loons can be found at The Loon Project website: http://loonproject.org/.

Consistently ranked among the top universities in the West, Chapman University provides a uniquely personalized and interdisciplinary educational experience to highly qualified students. Our programs encourage innovation, creativity and collaboration, and focus on developing global citizen-leaders who are distinctively prepared to improve their community and their world. Visit http://www.chapman.edu.

Follow us on Facebook at: Chapman University Facebook
On Twitter at: @ChapmanU
On YouTube at: Chapman University YouTube Channel

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sheri Ledbetter
sledbett@chapman.edu
714-289-3143
Chapman University

When common loons settle down to breed, they pick sites like the ones they hatched in, even if better habitat is vacant

ORANGE, Calif. Chapman University's Walter Piper, Ph.D., has published research this week in a leading science journal that shows animals choose habitat similar to where they were raised rather than that likely to maximize reproductive success. This finding runs counter to current tenets of habitat selection theory.

The paper is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B on June 26 and includes co-authors Michael Palmer, Nathan Banfield and Michael Meyer. Dr. Piper's research focuses on his long-term study of loons.

"The basic finding is that young loons chose to settle on territories that are very similar to their natal territories," noted Dr. Piper, professor in Chapman's Schmid College of Science and Technology. "This behavioral pattern seems to indicate that loons choose habitat so as to promote their survival, not their breeding success. This is exciting because it flies in the face of current dogma in field of habitat selection."

Here is the abstract from the research: Scientists have long presumed that animals settle on breeding territories according to the ideal free model, which presumes that animals select habitat that maximizes the number of offspring they can produce. But settlement data often show that, in fact, animals do not select high quality habitat. Indeed, here we report that young common loons have a striking tendency to settle on breeding lakes that resemble their natal lake in terms of both size and pH. Preference for natal like rather than high quality habitat, might allow a young animal to feed on familiar prey and, hence, increase its likelihood of surviving its early breeding years.

###

To see the paper, titled Can settlement in natal-like habitat explain maladaptive habitat selection?, click here: http://www.chapman.edu/scst/_files/piper-research-paper-2013.pdf.

More information on Dr. Piper's research on loons can be found at The Loon Project website: http://loonproject.org/.

Consistently ranked among the top universities in the West, Chapman University provides a uniquely personalized and interdisciplinary educational experience to highly qualified students. Our programs encourage innovation, creativity and collaboration, and focus on developing global citizen-leaders who are distinctively prepared to improve their community and their world. Visit http://www.chapman.edu.

Follow us on Facebook at: Chapman University Facebook
On Twitter at: @ChapmanU
On YouTube at: Chapman University YouTube Channel

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/cu-cuu062613.php

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Engadget + gdgt NYC wrap-up

Well, that's fun. We've wrapped up Engadget and gdgt's first-ever combined New York City event, and boy howdy did we have a heck of a night. A whole bunch of readers braved the heatwave to queue up hours in advance, forming a line that snaked around the block. When the doors opened, they were greeted with gear-packed event space, including lounges from Sony and Samsung and booths from companies like Toshiba, Qualcomm, Nokia and Sling, plus some smaller outfits like our first-ever Insert Coin winner, Ziphius.

The event also featured panels throughout the night, including conversations with Samsung Mobile VP Nick DiCarlo and Sony Electronics senior manager, Ray Hartjen, plus a roundtable discussion on the state of the industry featuring Jordan Crook from TechCrunch, Kevin Tofel from GigaOm and Harry McCracken from Time. IK Multimedia closed things out with performances by prog band Sound of Contact and Living Color leader Vernon Reid. All in all, not a bad night, if we do say so ourselves. We can't wait to do it again!

Gallery: Engadget + gdgt NYC wrap-up

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/engadget-gdgt-wrap-up/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Unlikely Planets Found In Violent Star Clusters

And here we thought we know it all.

I find it funny, but if you can find that planets can survive in extreme conditions, how the hell can you not think that life can't also? This always reminds me how the experts are experts on nothing, because we really know nothing about the universe.

But hey, let's spend more money then all the combined totals of the income of all 3rd world nations (totally making that figure up, too lazy to check) on killing people instead of advancing human knowledge.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/PVe_bD63mWU/story01.htm

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Jimmy Wales Is Only Worth $1 Million

A million dollars is a lot of money for a normal person, but that's pretty low if you founded the fifth most visited website on the planet, and only pretty good if you were a CEO in 1965. Nonetheless, Wikipedia chief Jimmy Wales just barely cracks six figures in total net worth, despite the 20 billion page views behind his 12-and-a-half-year-old do-gooder website, according to Amy Chozik's?big new profile in The?New York Times Magazine.?Wales makes less than "car dealers in Ohio," he admits in interview. But he's okay with that: "Their jobs are much, much less interesting than mine," he added. "Can you imagine Howard Roark saying, 'I just want to make as much money as possible?'" asked Wales, a libertarian Ayn Rand fan ? like any good Internet tycoon.?

RELATED: Why Jimmy Wales's Face Isn't on Top of Every Single Wikipedia Page Right Now

This 46-year-old entrepreneur has a higher purpose, apparently. Wales pulls in his real money by way of $70,000 in speaking engagement fees and the stock options in his for-profit arm, Wikia. Wikipedia, however, is a non-profit and part of a larger movement that Wales evangelizes in his many talks about "Internet rights."?But maybe the whole doing-good thing happened more by accident: "Like many Internet entrepreneurs of the early aughts, Wales aimed to create something cool first and worry about a business model later," writes Chozik. But the bubble had popped by the time he got around to thinking about money and now it's too late to slap ads on the site. "Were Wikipedia to accept banner and video ads, it could, by most estimates, be worth as much as?$5 billion," reports Chozik.?"But that kind of commercial sellout would probably cause the members of the community, who are not paid for their contributions, to revolt."

RELATED: The Sun Sets on the Encyclopedia Britannica Print Edition

So, Wales has run with an entrepreneur image that doesn't include dollar signs and has transformed himself into a kind of benevolent pseudo-celebrity. "I used to be just a guy. Now I'm Jimmy Wales," he said in an interview once. Jimmy Wales sure is famous, but he's famous?for being the guy who puts his face on top of the Internet encyclopedia and asks us for money. He gets to be on Stephen Colbert's show and have the likes of Bono in his cellphone, which by the way is a cheap $85 Huawei. But he'll always be "the?guy who made the sum of the world's information free without making a penny himself."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jimmy-wales-only-worth-1-million-145202622.html

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JetBlue begins Fly-Fi flight testing, on track for Q3 launch

Adding satellite WiFi to an airplane isn't as simple as mounting an antenna up top and flipping the switch on a router -- even installing a cockpit printer requires FAA approval, so as you can expect, the Federal Aviation Administration won't check off on major modifications without some thorough testing. JetBlue's new Fly-Fi service is well on its way to getting a formal green light, though, and is expected to launch before Q3 is through. This week, the carrier is running through a variety of flight tests with one of its Airbus A320s, including maneuvering the plane with some pretty unusual weight loads, such as the rear center of gravity positioning you can see demonstrated above. After that's complete, it's time to wait for FAA certification before moving onto performance testing, and if all goes well, passengers should expect to hook up to ViaSat-1 from 30,000 feet in mere months. Once Fly-Fi goes online, it'll be by far the fastest commercial in-flight WiFi option -- we really can't wait!

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Internet

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/jetblue-begins-fly-fi-testing/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Will Immigration Break Boehner? (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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Heat celebrate with parade through downtown Miami

NBA champion Miami Heat small forward LeBron James reacts as he is introduced, Monday, June 24, 2013 during a celebration at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

NBA champion Miami Heat small forward LeBron James reacts as he is introduced, Monday, June 24, 2013 during a celebration at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

NBA champion Miami Heat's Chris Andersen gestures to fans during a parade honoring the team in Miami, Monday, June 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

NBA champion Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra touches the the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship trophy, Monday, June 24, 2013 during a celebration at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

NBA champion Miami Heat small forward LeBron James, center, touches the the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy as shooting guard Dwyane Wade, left, and center Chris Bosh, right, look on, Monday, June 24, 2013 during a celebration at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

NBA champion Miami Heat's LeBron James, left, motions to the fans during a parade honoring the team as Juwan Howard, right, looks on in Miami, Monday, June 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

MIAMI (AP) ? The last piece of confetti had landed, the Miami Heat championship celebration was officially over and many in the crowd of revelers were starting to make their way to the exits.

Players and coaches remained on the stage.

They were in no hurry to leave. Every member of the NBA champions stood and watched a giant video board play highlights of Miami's march through the playoffs, from LeBron James' MVP-caliber plays on both ends to Ray Allen's season-saving 3-pointer in Game 6 of the NBA Finals and countless moments in between.

"It's a special group," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "You know what? This season started over nine months ago with that trip to China and we were able to experience so many cool things together in the regular season. But at times, it just seems to be going by so fast."

So maybe that's why the Heat aren't ready to stop celebrating this title just yet.

With an estimated 400,000 people lining the downtown Miami streets, the Heat held their parade and an in-arena rally afterward Monday. James stood atop a double-decker bus with a cigar in his mouth for the parade. Shane Battier blew kisses to the crowd, Dwyane Wade raised three fingers aloft and Chris Andersen flapped his arms in a nod to his "Birdman" moniker.

"It's the ultimate," James told Sun Sports, the Heat broadcast partner. "It's the ultimate. This is what I came down here, to be able to have a parade at the end of the year. I'm extremely blessed, man. It doesn't get any better than this."

Several players held super-soaker squirt guns and sprayed water on fans, confetti dotted the streets, and horns honked from all directions. Heat managing general partner Micky Arison and team president Pat Riley stood in the front of one bus, while Spoelstra ? his championship cap turned backward ? waved and clapped at fans.

"Miami parties better than any city in the world," Spoelstra said. "But it took nine months, nine months of incredible sacrifice, not only by these men right here but everybody in our organization, grinding it out every single day, ups and downs, highs and lows. And to have a culmination like Game 7 in front of all of you here is incredible."

Wade said that without the fans, Miami wouldn't have found a way to win the title.

"It's humbling. It's very humbling to be here," Wade said, gazing out at the enormous crowd. "I envision a lot of things. I can't say I envisioned this. This parade down Biscayne Boulevard was once a vision by Coach Riley and now we've taken this ride three times. It's special."

When Riley got hired by the Heat, he talked at his introductory news conference about his vision of a parade down Biscayne Boulevard. It took Riley until 2006 to deliver on that hope, but now with three parades in eight seasons, the Heat are getting used to these celebrations.

"Their names are going to be respected and honored," Riley said. "And that's all we have. All we have is the name on the front of the shirt, which is the Heat, and the name on the back of the shirt. And that's why we play."

Miami became the sixth franchise in NBA history to win consecutive championships, after topping the San Antonio Spurs in this year's finals for the third title overall for the Heat franchise, needing a Game 7 to get it done. Wade and Udonis Haslem ? a Miami native who said "this is what it's all about" ? are the only players to be part of all three titles, and Wade insisted Monday that the city is going to be his home now for good.

"This is my home. They've treated me well since Day One," Wade said. "I'll be here for probably the rest of my life in this amazing city. I thank the Miamians for accepting me as one of their own."

Miami needed to win Games 6 and 7 of the finals to capture the title, and needed a huge late comeback in Game 6 just to force the ultimate game. Down by five with less than a half-minute left in regulation, James and Ray Allen made 3-pointers ? Allen's coming with 5.2 seconds left ? to force overtime, and the Heat ultimately prevailed to get into Game 7.

"I have to say that is the biggest shot I ever hit in my career," Allen said.

Along the parade route, one vehicle carried a number of uniformed military personnel. The Heat have honored military members before every home game in Miami for the past several seasons.

Police reported no major problems, and bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs were spotted working their way through the crowd. City officials banned fans from carrying backpacks, though several were spotted along the route and some people were searched randomly for security reasons. The huge crowds and parking difficulty did not seem to take away from the fans' celebratory mood.

"It's the excitement of something that doesn't come around too often, even though we've been lucky to experience it two years in a row," said Heat fan Blake Thames, who made the trip down from Palm Beach County.

Some fans began arriving before sunrise Monday, and traffic into downtown was extremely heavy as people hoped to get close enough for a glimpse of the celebration.

"It hasn't hit me yet," James said. "This is unbelievable to be a part of such a great franchise and to be able to go back-to-back."

Players spent the weekend celebrating. Some are planning to start vacations later this week, while others will remain in South Florida for at least a few more days.

"All the fans that we're seeing here is who supported us throughout the whole season, man," James said. "This is the least we could do is ride through the city and show our appreciation."

___

Associated Press Writers Jennifer Kay and Kelli Kennedy in Miami contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-24-BKN-Heat-Parade/id-fae23d75f1ce4213800574c7b3c8a42d

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Will new British surveillance revelations fuel another hacking backlash?

British agency GCHQ's involvement in the NSA's global surveillance have some drawing parallels with the phone-hacking scandal that rocked the British media.

By Sara Miller Llana,?Staff writer / June 17, 2013

Rebekah Brooks (c.), former News International chief executive, leaves Southwark Crown Court in London where she appeared to face charges related to phone hacking earlier this month. Some are drawing parallels between the phone hacking scandal and the revelations of broad surveillance of phone calls and email by British spy agency GCHQ and its US counterpart, the NSA.

Sang Tan/AP

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The Guardian newspaper?s allegations that British intelligence agents spied on foreign diplomats at a G20 summit surely comes at an awkward moment in foreign policy circles: just as leaders gathered for the G8 in Northern Ireland.

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Europe Bureau Chief

Sara Miller Llana?moved to Paris in April 2013 to become the Monitor's Europe Bureau?Chief. Previously she was the?paper's?Latin America Bureau Chief, based in Mexico City, from 2006 to 2013.

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But it also comes at a sensitive moment for Britain itself, still reeling from the phone hacking of British media giants that has brought privacy issues to the fore of the public debate.

?The issue of the ease with which organizations can both collect and then publicize information is transforming society?s understanding about what is and what is not confidential,? says?Martin Moore of the London-based Media Standards Trust, a charity advocating more ethical practices in the British press.

The most recent allegations, against the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), are based on documents provided by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward?Snowden. The British newspaper reported Sunday night that the agency?spied on the phone calls and emails of diplomats who were visiting London during a G20 summit in 2009. This included setting up and tapping an Internet?caf??and?hacking the communications of the South African foreign ministry and a Turkish delegation.

The revelation comes after Mr.?Snowden?provided documentation, also to the Guardian and The Washington Post, disclosing the surveillance of common citizens by the US government in its ongoing anti-terrorism fight ? a revelation that had dismayed Europe.

But the GCHQ?scandal raises questions that relate to the 2011 phone-hacking scandal in British media, says Mr. Moore. In the earlier scandal, information that public figures and newsmakers considered private was accessible by corporations, creating a "digital footprint" and the ?potential for misuse,? he says ? much like the GCHQ spying, just with the government, instead of media corporations, doing the hacking of the public's data.

This case will turn attention to the access that governments?have to information considered private. ?We?re going to see many more conversations about what the safeguards ought to be and whether there ought to be greater openness from governments as to what [information] they are collecting and how they are using it,? Moore says.

Just this month, Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, pleaded not guilty in court in London to charges including intercepting voice-mail messages in a scandal that eventually spread to officials and other news organizations.

?The phone-hacking scandal produced massive reaction," says James Curran, director of the media studies center at the University of London, and left a society sensitive to the powers of new technologies.?

?Powerful institutions in society are now enabled through new communications technology to probe private letters without sufficient public-interest justification,? he says. The discontent has spanned the political spectrum, with both the right and left condemning an erosion of privacy. ?My hunch is there will be enormous fuss, like a snowball that gets bigger and bigger.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/0h_2ezSpbsk/Will-new-British-surveillance-revelations-fuel-another-hacking-backlash

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Vodafone launches bid for Kabel Deutschland

LONDON (AP) ? Britain's Vodafone PLC has launched a takeover bid for Germany's biggest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland, as part of its push to dominate media services in its biggest market.

Vodafone, a British cellphone company with wide international interests, confirmed Monday it will offer 87 euros per share for Kabel Deutschland. The deal values the German company at 7.7 billion euros ($10.2 billion), but when including 3 billion euros in net debt, the total value is 10.7 billion euros.

Vodafone Group Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said the combination comes amid growth in German demand for fast broadband and data services.

"The combination of Vodafone Germany and Kabel Deutschland will greatly enhance our offerings in response to those needs and is consistent with Vodafone's broader strategy of providing unified communications services."

Kabel Deutschland Holding AG, which has more than 8 million customers, said that its management and supervisory boards "welcome this announcement."

Kabel Deutschland shares were up 1.7 percent in midday Frankfurt trading at 85.52 euros.

Vodafone made a preliminary approach to Kabel Deutschland earlier this month. That was followed by a preliminary takeover proposal from U.S. rival Liberty Global.

Though the reaction of the markets appeared to suggest the price was in line with expectations, analysts like Keith Bowman offered a note of caution, wary of Vodafone's track record on mergers. In 2000, the company took over Mannesmann AG in a stock-swap deal valued at $180 billion ? at the time, the largest corporate merger ever ? a price many analysts believed overvauled the German company.

"Vodafone's European acquisition track record is not great, still marred somewhat by its previous over payment for Germany's Mannesmann, whilst rival cable group Liberty Global could still look to bid for Kabel," Bowman said in a statement that followed the announcement.

Bowman also noted that another element of uncertainty comes from Vodafone's tussle with Verizon Communications Inc., the New York-based company. Vodafone and Verizon together own Verizon Wireless, the largest cellphone carrier in the U.S. and a very profitable operation.

Verizon Wireless once had a policy of using its cash to pay down debt ? a policy that ended only in January. Analysts saw that debt reduction strategy as a way to squeeze Vodafone and persuade it to sell its 45 percent stake.

New York-based Verizon Communications owns the other 55 percent of Verizon Wireless and controls its operations.

"The deal comes at a time when the exact future of its US Verizon business is still up in the air," Bowman said, adding that economic "prospects for Europe continue to remain challenging."

Ronald Klingebiel, a Warwick University professor who has consulted for the telecoms industry, said mobile companies like Vodafone increasingly pursue "multi-play strategies," to give customers broadband, fixed and mobile telephone lines and television.

But he said that Vodafone may have approached Kabel Deutschland because its present systems, which rely on Deutsche Telekom's fixed-line system are running at capacity.

"Deutsche Telekom is struggling to upgrade its network with vectoring technology, something that will increase its control over competitive data traffic," he said.

"This may have convinced the Vodafone leadership to buy into Kabel Deutschland, a high-capacity cable-network provider, whom they had already approached at other times without concluding a deal."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vodafone-launches-bid-kabel-deutschland-074114590.html

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PFT: Hernandez watch still on? |? Evidence taken?

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During Tank Johnson?s tumultuous tenure with the Bears, incidents with guns got him arrested, jailed and suspended, and his close friend was shot and killed in front of him after an altercation at a Chicago bar. All that has Johnson offering new NFL players a simple piece of advice: You don?t need a gun.

Johnson spoke today at the rookie symposium and said that there?s enough security in place, provided by teams and the league, that players don?t have to carry guns to protect themselves.

?While you?re playing in the NFL, you do not need a firearm for any reason,? Johnson said, via Tim Graham of the Buffalo News. ?The NFL does a great job of putting these resources around you where you don?t need a firearm. Having a gun is not going to help you when that moment comes if you?re not trained on how to use that gun.?

Johnson owned several guns before the Bears drafted him, and he now says he wishes he hadn?t brought them to Chicago with him.

?I?m just here to talk to you guys about firearms, guns, gats, straps, all that stuff that we keep seeing pop up in the media all the time with our young athletes,? Johnson told the rookies. ?The main thing that caused me those troubles, coming from Phoenix and moving to Chicago, was bringing a car full of my guns, thinking it was going to be sweet like it was in Phoenix, where you can buy an AK-47 at Circle K.?

Some NFL players think that being high-profile people with a lot of money means they need guns for protection. Johnson is there to tell the rookies that guns are a lot more likely to get them into trouble than to keep them out of trouble.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/23/reporters-neighbors-hang-around-outside-hernandezs-home/related/

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Whale of a win: Environmental victory protects whales from noise pollution

Michael Jasny, director of the?NRDC?Marine Mammal Project, contributed this article to LiveScience's?Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

By Michael Jasny,?Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) / June 20, 2013

A gray whale attracts attention by blowing air out of its blowhole as it cruises just off the shore of Washington State, Wednesday, June 19, 2013. A landmark case will protect whales from the painfully loud blasts used in oil exploration.

Alan Berner / The Seattle Times / AP

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Here?s a recipe for an environmental train wreck: Take one of the world's most powerful industries, allow it to conduct harmful activities for years without obtaining the basic authorizations required by law, and produce a wealth of science making it plain that those harmful activities are putting endangered and vulnerable species at risk.

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Today (June 20, 2013), a number of conservation groups, including my own,?announced a landmark agreement?that may prevent one such train wreck ? this one in the already scarred Gulf of Mexico.

The underlying problem is airguns.?To search for deep deposits of oil, companies troll the ocean with high-volume airguns that, for weeks or months on end, regularly pound the water?with sound louder than virtually any other man-made source, save explosives. We now know that these surveys can have?a vast environmental footprint, disrupting feeding, breeding and communication for whales and other species over literally thousands of square miles.

It's the sort of activity that ordinarily requires approval under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and other federal laws. And yet the government has allowed it to proceed without authorization in the Gulf of Mexico, a body of water that may well be the most heavily prospected on the planet.

Industry runs dozens of exploration surveys each year in the northern Gulf, and many of them make use of large airgun arrays. For more than a decade now, the problem has languished, even as the threat posed by airgun exploration has loomed larger and larger.

Our alliance of conservation groups sued over the government's failure. In the end, we reached agreement with both federal officials and industry representatives that will help protect marine mammals while a comprehensive environmental review is underway.?

Among other things, our settlement puts biologically important areas off-limits to high-energy exploration, expands protections to additional at-risk species and requires the use of listening devices to help prevent injury to endangered sperm whales. Our agreement is also forward-looking, requiring industry to develop and field-test an alternative to airguns known as marine vibroseis, which could substantially reduce many of the impacts. Over the long term, the hope is that working together stands a better chance of saving species in the Gulf's biologically compromised, politically heated environment.

Marine conservation in the Gulf isn't like conservation in other places. Among other difficulties, the disruptive activities NRDC is concerned about are affecting the same populations still suffering from the?Deepwater Horizon?disaster.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/8mdPQNNuIAw/Whale-of-a-win-Environmental-victory-protects-whales-from-noise-pollution

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Snowden on the Run (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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AP Source: NSA leaker Snowden's passport revoked

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed a highly classified surveillance program has had his U.S. passport revoked, an official said Sunday.

Edward Snowden's passport was annulled before he left Hong Kong for Russia and while that could complicate his travel plans, the lack of a passport alone could not thwart his plans, the U.S. official said. If a senior official in another country or with an airline orders it, a country could overlook the withdrawn passport, the official said.

The U.S. official would only discuss the passport on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Snowden's allies said he was heading toward Ecuador, where the foreign minister said the government had received a request for asylum.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki refused to comment on Snowden's passport specifically but said individuals facing arrest warrants could have their passport withdrawn.

"Such a revocation does not affect citizenship status. Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Mr. Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel other than is necessary to return him to the United States," Psaki said in a statement.

The State Department said the United States was in touch, through diplomatic and law enforcement channels, with countries that Snowden might travel through or to.

Snowden, a CIA technician and former NSA contractor, helped The Guardian and The Washington Post to disclose surveillance programs that collects vast amounts of online data and email, sometimes sweeping up information on ordinary American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.

Since news organizations began publishing reports based on Snowden's disclosures, he had been in hiding in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws.

Snowden was said to have landed in Moscow on Sunday but was not seen leaving the airport.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-23-US-NSA-Surveillance-Snowden-Passport/id-dccb6a684d874a23affa8dbd4eec655b

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Syrian rebels get new weapons

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels said Friday they have received new weapons from friendly countries that could lead to changes on the ground and victories against President Bashar Assad's forces.

The arms shipments arrived recently from Arab nations and other countries, a spokesman for the opposition fighters, Loay AlMikdad, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

He did not elaborate on the shipments but insisted no weapons have come from the United States so far.

AlMikdad's comments confirm earlier AP reporting that new weapons were recently delivered to the opposition from allies, enabling them to stall advances by regime forces in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, and elsewhere.

Opposition members and experts had told the AP that Gulf countries delivered earlier this month new anti-tank missiles and some anti-aircraft missiles to rebel commanders.

The U.S. announced earlier this month it had conclusive evidence that Assad's regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against opposition forces. The White House said multiple chemical attacks last year killed up to 150 people.

Following the announcement, which also coincided with a new aggressive push by the regime to drive rebels from strategic areas they held, U.S. officials said President Barack Obama has authorized sending weapons to Syrian rebels in a major policy shift.

Obama has said the use of chemical weapons crosses a "red line," triggering greater American involvement in the crisis.

Syrian rebels have long demanded they be supplied with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles but some Western nations are worried such weapons could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked groups that are fighting in Syria against Assad. The country's bloodshed has killed about 93,000 people since the crisis erupted in March 2011.

"You will see changes on the ground," said AlMikdad, the spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, or FSA. "You will see victories by the Free Syrian Army and we will be able to repel attacks on civilian areas. We will be able to protect civilian areas in a better way."

His comments came hours after the main rebel military commander of the Western-backed FSA first confirmed his fighters had received the new weapons, refusing to describe the weapons or where they came from.

Gen. Salim Idris said they would give his forces more power against government troops and allied Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.

"I would like to thank the brothers and the friends whom I don't want to name," Idris told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV on Friday.

Pressed to comment on weapons from the U.S., Idris only said: "We are waiting, and we urge them to hurry up in supplying us with weapons and ammunition."

Obama pointedly refused to detail steps his government has recently taken to arm rebels. U.S. officials have confirmed that the administration has approved weapons and ammunition shipments to the opposition, giving little details.

"We believe that the United States will implement its commitments toward us very soon," AlMikdad said. "We are strong on the ground. We will regain the territories that were taken by the regime."

"People will see that all the Free Syrian Army needed was weapons to bring down the regime," he added.

Meanwhile, activists reported that troops pounded several areas around the country on Friday, including the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun and Aleppo city.

Amateur videos showed smoke billowing from Qaboun as it was subjected to shelling. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a Syrian warplane carried out an air raid on Jobar, a key district on the edge of Damascus. It gave no word on casualties.

Also Friday, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said that soaring summer temperatures, overcrowding and worsening hygiene are the latest threats facing some 4 million children affected by Syria's civil war.

"Without enough safe water and sanitation, the likelihood that children in Syria and those living as refugees around the region will fall sick with diarrhea and other diseases is certain to rise," said Maria Calivis, UNICEF's director for Middle East and North Africa.

In Syria, the availability of safe water is one third what it was before the crisis, UNICEF said. Of the more than 4.25 million displaced Syrians, many live in overcrowded shelters with insufficient access to toilets and showers. The agency also said the sewage systems are damaged or overwhelmed by the increase in displaced populations.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-theyve-effective-weapons-162539008.html

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