Merkel rival fires up party for election battle

HANOVER, Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel's rival, Peer Steinbrueck, on Sunday kicked off his bid to topple her in next year's German election, pledging social equality and a clear pro-European policy.

In a speech lasting almost two hours and punctuated with frequent bursts of enthusiastic applause, Steinbrueck said: "Freedom, justice, solidarity... with a commitment to these values, I am running to be chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany."

"It is time for a change," thundered the 65-year-old former finance minister, rewarded with an almost 10-minute standing ovation from his Social Democratic Party (SPD) supporters in the northern city of Hanover.

With 93.45 percent of the vote, SPD delegates officially nominated Steinbrueck as their candidate for the unenviable task of unseating Merkel, often called the world's most powerful woman, at federal elections expected in September.

Steinbrueck accused Merkel's party, the conservative CDU, of having no election strategy apart from relying on her and said her political slogans were "stickers on empty bottles" with little substance behind them.

"Mrs Merkel said she is running the best and most successful government since reunification (in 1990). I have rarely laughed so much," said Steinbrueck to tumultuous applause.

He pledged to put an end to what he said was "an increasing trend toward parallel societies" in Germany, the haves and the have-nots.

While he was forced to acknowledge that Europe's economic powerhouse currently enjoyed low unemployment, he stressed that many of those in work were not being paid fairly and pledged a legal minimum hourly wage of 8.50 euros ($10.98).

On the international stage, he vowed to "show his colours and go into the federal election with a clear pro-European stance."

"Europe is more than a common market, it is more than a currency union... it is more than a club of 27 European leaders. Europe is civilisation," he said.

He accused Merkel of fostering "isolation" in Europe with her policies against the debt crisis.

German media had seen Steinbrueck's speech as a final chance to kick-start his campaign after damaging revelations that he had pocketed some 1.25 million euros ($1.63 million) in fees for making speeches at private functions.

This topic continued to dog him even on Sunday, as a handful of campaigners from Greenpeace briefly interrupted the speech.

Steinbrueck himself briefly touched on the issue, saying: "My fees for speeches were rocks in my backpack that you have also had to carry on your shoulders."

But commentators seemed broadly impressed with what had been billed as "the most important speech of Steinbrueck's life."

The Bild mass circulation daily said Steinbrueck was "very focused, relaxed, very well prepared."

"Steinbrueck really got into his stride, became freer, more acerbic and more self-assured, but remained statesman-like," commented Europe's most widely read paper.

Newsweekly Spiegel said Steinbrueck clearly achieved the new beginning he wanted. "Now the SPD needs some success," wrote the influential magazine in its online edition.

Opinion polls point to the scale of the task facing the centre-left SPD against Merkel, who continues to be Germany's most popular politician.

A survey released by ARD public television ahead of the party conference showed the SPD still languishing some nine points behind Merkel's conservative CDU and CSU sister party from Bavaria.

Germans do not directly elect their chancellor but if they could, 49 percent would plump for Merkel and only 39 percent would vote for Steinbrueck in the election, the poll showed, although the gap appears to be narrowing slightly.

Steinbrueck vowed he would not join with Merkel in a so-called "grand coalition" and called on party members to "trust in ourselves and others will trust in us.

"If we stand side-by-side, then we'll get there," he pledged.

-AFP/ac

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Thief steals iPhone from quadriplegic

Washington's pointer in action.

(Credit:
NBC New York Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Some thieves like to believe they have scruples. They even talk of honor among themselves.

Some, though, see an iPhone and just can't help themselves. Earlier this year, footage emerged of a man stealing an iPhone from a baby in a store. Yet even that pales with a theft that occurred in a Staten Island apartment building lobby.

William Washington, 38, is a quadriplegic. He has cerebral palsy. The only way he communicates is through an iPhone that he keeps on the tray of his wheelchair. He uses a special pointer attached to a headband in order to tap out messages that are then converted into voice.

Yet, as NBC New York reports, this seems to have elicited no sympathy from someone who encountered him in the apartment building. While an utterly helpless Washington watched, the thief swiped the iPhone from his wheelchair tray and ran off.

Typing into a computer, Washington told NBC New York: "You shouldn't steal from a disabled person who relies on a special device to reach out to the world."

I'm not sure you should steal from anyone, really. But the idea that no sense of guilt might have crossed the thief's mind is quite stirring.

Thefts of iPhones and iPads are up 40 percent in New York.

More Technically Incorrect

London has seen a similar trend. The wife of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason declared yesterday that she is too scared to use her iPhone in public after hers was ripped from her by a man on a bike.

Yet to imagine that someone would have no conscience stealing one from a quadriplegic truly makes one wonder that the iPhone has become a peculiarly sad object of desire. The only way that Washington was able to inform police of the theft was by e-mail.

Police examined the surveillance video in the apartment building and this week arrested an 18-year-old who lives in the same apartment building. The Staten Island Advance identified him as Nakiem Sanders.

Washington didn't get his iPhone back. The alleged thief no longer had it. However, friends have bought him a new one.

You might imagine that the thief was attracted by a new
iPhone 5. However, Washington's was an iPhone 3G.

One can only hope that he doesn't have to live through anything like this again. And yet how will he ever be able to secure his iPhone to his wheelchair tray?

Perhaps he should try and employ the same technology as the shock-giving handcuffs that have recently been patented.

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.

Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't need it to flourish. The research team from the University of Florida in Gainesville thinks this ability is related to a plant's inherent ability to orient itself as it grows. Seeds germinated on the International Space Station sprouted roots that behaved like they would on Earth—growing away from the seed to seek nutrients and water in exactly the same pattern observed with gravity. (Related: "Beyond Gravity.")

Since the flowers were orbiting some 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth at the time, the NASA-funded experiment suggests that plants still retain an earthy instinct when they don't have gravity as a guide.

"The role of gravity in plant growth and development in terrestrial environments is well understood," said plant geneticist and study co-author Anna-Lisa Paul, with the University of Florida in Gainesville. "What is less well understood is how plants respond when you remove gravity." (See a video about plant growth.)

The new study revealed that "features of plant growth we thought were a result of gravity acting on plant cells and organs do not actually require gravity," she added.

Paul and her collaborator Robert Ferl, a plant biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, monitored their plants from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using images sent from the space station every six hours.

Root Growth

Grown on a nutrient-rich gel in clear petri plates, the space flowers showed familiar root growth patterns such as "skewing," where roots slant progressively as they branch out.

"When we saw the first pictures come back from orbit and saw that we had most of the skewing phenomenon we were quite surprised," Paul said.

Researchers have always thought that skewing was the result of gravity's effects on how the root tip interacts with the surfaces it encounters as it grows, she added. But Paul and Ferl suspect that in the absence of gravity, other cues take over that enable the plant to direct its roots away from the seed and light-seeking shoot. Those cues could include moisture, nutrients, and light avoidance.

"Bottom line is that although plants 'know' that they are in a novel environment, they ultimately do just fine," Paul said.

The finding further boosts the prospect of cultivating food plants in space and, eventually, on other planets.

"There's really no impediment to growing plants in microgravity, such as on a long-term mission to Mars, or in reduced-gravity environments such as in specialized greenhouses on Mars or the moon," Paul said. (Related: "Alien Trees Would Bloom Black on Worlds With Double Stars.")

The study findings appear in the latest issue of the journal BMC Plant Biology.

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Colorado Springs Doctor Rescued from Taliban

Dec 9, 2012 6:34am

ABC

The American doctor rescued from the Taliban in Afghanistan Saturday by U.S. Special Operations Forces is the medical adviser for a Colorado Springs NGO, his employer confirmed today.

Dr. Dilip Joseph and two colleagues were kidnapped by a group of armed men while returning from a visit to a rural medical clinic in eastern Kabul Province, according to a statement from their employer, Colorado Springs-based Morning Star Development. The statement said the three were eventually taken to a mountainous area about 50 miles from the border with Pakistan.

Morning Star’s crisis management team in Colorado Springs was in contact with the hostages and their captors almost immediately, the statement said.

On Saturday evening in Afghanistan, two of the three hostages were released. Morning Star did not release their names in order to protect their identities. Dr. Joseph remained in captivity.

Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ordered the mission to rescue Joseph when “intelligence showed that Joseph was in imminent danger of injury or death”, according to a military press release.

Morning Star said Joseph was in good condition and will probably return home to Colorado Springs in the next few days.

A Defense Department official told ABC’s Luis Martinez that Joseph can walk, but was beaten up by his captors.

Joseph has worked for Morning Star Development for three years, the organization said, and travels frequently to Afghanistan.

“Morning Star Development does state categorically that we paid no ransom, money or other consideration to the captors or anyone else to secure the release of these hostages,” the organization said.

Joseph can be seen here in a Morning Star Development video:

“Due to security concerns, some cannot be named but their help will never be forgotten. Among these who cannot be named we include all of the courageous members of the U.S. military who successfully rescued Mr. Joseph as they risked their own lives doing so,” the statement said.

SHOWS: World News

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Italy's Berlusconi announces fresh run for PM

ROME: Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday ended weeks of speculation by announcing he would run again for the job of prime minister, the post he was forced out of last year.

"I am running to win," the leader of the right-wing populist People of Freedom (PDL) party told journalists in Milanello, near the northern city of Milan.

He had called a meeting of the PDL for Sunday and had opened talks with his former coalition allies the Northern League to try to agree on a joint campaign backing a single candidate, he added.

"When I did sport, when I worked and studied, I never entered into a competition to be well-placed but always to win," he said.

"I hope to be in a position to be able to explain to Italians that there is a need for a force that enjoys a majority to change the rules of the constitution."

In the coming campaign he wanted to present several new faces, "because there are numerous people who have the right to feel tired," he added.

He had been in contact with a number of figures in the world of business, sport and university, he said.

"I hope to be in a position to be able to explain to Italians that there is a need for a force that enjoys a majority to change the rules of the constitution."

A general election is expected to be held in March or April of next year but the precise date has not been set, nor is there any agreement on a reform of an election law widely seen as unsatisfactory.

Berlusconi's announcement confirmed comments by leading members of his party and strong hints that he had himself made over the past few days.

In October, he had said that he would not run again for the premiership. On Wednesday evening however, the 76-year-old media tycoon said he had been assailed by requests to return to the field as soon as possible."

This will be his sixth bid to become prime minister, a post he has already held three times over a political career spanning two decades.

A parliamentary revolt forced him from office in November last year as he was fighting a series of scandals that had damaged his reputation and, said critics, the country's standing. The financial markets had reacted so badly that Italy was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Mario Monti took over as prime minister at the head of an unelected government of technocrats. He set about introducing a policy of tax rises and austerity measures to get the economy under control.

On Thursday, PDL lawmakers abstained from confidence votes in the government to protest Monti's policies, but stopped short of bringing down the executive they have supported until now.

The renewed political tension has once again spooked the financial markets and Pier Luigi Bersani, the newly-nominated leader of the centre-left Democratic Party accused Berlusconi of "incoherence".

"It's clear that you have not reflected on past mistakes and that for you the Monti government has not been a transition but a parenthesis that opens and closes and everything is like before," he told PDL lawmakers in parliament.

"You are being irresponsible!" he said.

Responding on Saturday however, Berlusconi dismissed the criticism.

"Bersani has already started his election campaign and, so far as I am concerned, we have acted in a very responsible manner."

Bersani was voted in as the leader of the Democratic Party only last weekend. Recent opinion polls put him comfortably ahead in the run-up to the spring election.

Monti's government is in any case due to end its term of office next spring, but the PDL's change of tack has raised the possibility that it might not last that long.

President Giorgio Napolitano was due to meet Monti later Saturday for talks.

Napolitano has sought to reassure the public, describing recent developments as "pre-election tensions".

But it has been enough to shake the markets: the yields between benchmark Italian and German 10-year sovereign bonds at one point on Friday widened to 330 points, from around 300 points on Monday.

- AFP/fa

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Gift ideas for the audiophile in your life

The tiny Firestone Audio Fireye Mini headphone amplifier

(Credit:
Firestone Audio)

While audiophile gear can be quite expensive, picking out a selection of terrific gift ideas that won't break the bank is still doable. Here you'll find books, music, gear, and even a free download that will put a smile on any audiophile's, or music lover's, face. The Audiophiliac had a self-imposed price limit of $100 max and easily met that goal. Seven of the 10 gift ideas are under $50!

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.

Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't need it to flourish. The research team from the University of Florida in Gainesville thinks this ability is related to a plant's inherent ability to orient itself as it grows. Seeds germinated on the International Space Station sprouted roots that behaved like they would on Earth—growing away from the seed to seek nutrients and water in exactly the same pattern observed with gravity. (Related: "Beyond Gravity.")

Since the flowers were orbiting some 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth at the time, the NASA-funded experiment suggests that plants still retain an earthy instinct when they don't have gravity as a guide.

"The role of gravity in plant growth and development in terrestrial environments is well understood," said plant geneticist and study co-author Anna-Lisa Paul, with the University of Florida in Gainesville. "What is less well understood is how plants respond when you remove gravity." (See a video about plant growth.)

The new study revealed that "features of plant growth we thought were a result of gravity acting on plant cells and organs do not actually require gravity," she added.

Paul and her collaborator Robert Ferl, a plant biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, monitored their plants from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using images sent from the space station every six hours.

Root Growth

Grown on a nutrient-rich gel in clear petri plates, the space flowers showed familiar root growth patterns such as "skewing," where roots slant progressively as they branch out.

"When we saw the first pictures come back from orbit and saw that we had most of the skewing phenomenon we were quite surprised," Paul said.

Researchers have always thought that skewing was the result of gravity's effects on how the root tip interacts with the surfaces it encounters as it grows, she added. But Paul and Ferl suspect that in the absence of gravity, other cues take over that enable the plant to direct its roots away from the seed and light-seeking shoot. Those cues could include moisture, nutrients, and light avoidance.

"Bottom line is that although plants 'know' that they are in a novel environment, they ultimately do just fine," Paul said.

The finding further boosts the prospect of cultivating food plants in space and, eventually, on other planets.

"There's really no impediment to growing plants in microgravity, such as on a long-term mission to Mars, or in reduced-gravity environments such as in specialized greenhouses on Mars or the moon," Paul said. (Related: "Alien Trees Would Bloom Black on Worlds With Double Stars.")

The study findings appear in the latest issue of the journal BMC Plant Biology.

Read More..

Australian DJs Behind Prank Call Under Fire

An outpouring of anger is being directed today at the two Australian radio hosts after the death of a nurse who was caught in the DJs' prank call to hospital where Kate Middleton was treated earlier this week.

Lord Glenarthur, the chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital - the U.K. hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was receiving treatment, condemned the prank in a letter to the Max Moore-Wilton, chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, the Australian radio station's parent company.

Glenarthur said the prank humiliated "two dedicated and caring nurses," and the consequences were "tragic beyond words," The Associated Press reported.

DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, radio shock jocks at Sydney's 2Day FM have been taken off the air, but the company they work for did not fire them or condemn them.

"I think that it's a bit early to be drawing conclusions from what is really a deeply tragic matter," Rhys Holleran, CEO of Southern Cross Austereo told a news conference in Sydney. "I mean, our main concern is for the family. I don't think anyone could have reasonably foreseen that this was going to be a result."

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found dead Friday morning after police were called to an address near the hospital to "reports of a woman found unconscious," according to a statement from Scotland Yard.

Circumstances of her death are still being investigated, but are not suspicious at this stage, authorities said Friday.

Following news of Saldanha's death, commentary on social media included posts expressing shock, sadness and anger.

Nurse Duped by 'Queen's' Prank Call Found Dead Watch Video

Jacintha Saldanha, Nurse at Kate Middleton's Hospital, Found Dead Watch Video

A sampling of some of the twitter posts directed at the DJs included: "you scumbag, hope you get what's coming to you" and "I hope you're happy now."

The hospital said that Saldanha worked at the hospital for more than four years. They called her a "first-class nurse" and "a well-respected and popular member of the staff."

The hospital extended their "deepest sympathies" to family and friends, saying that "everyone is shocked" at this "tragic event."

"I am devastated with the tragic loss of my beloved wife Jacintha in tragic circumstances, she will be laid to rest in Shirva, India," Saldanha's husband posted on Facebook.

The duchess spent three days at the hospital undergoing treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum, severe or debilitating nausea and vomiting. She was released from the hospital on Thursday morning.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jacintha Saldanha," a spokesman from St. James Palace said in a statement.

On Friday, Greig and Christian had been gloating about their successful call to the hospital, in which they pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and were able to obtain personal information about the Duchess's serious condition.

"You know what they were the worst accents ever and when we made that phone call we were sure a hundred people at least before us would have tried the same thing," said Grieg on air. She added with a laugh, "we were expecting to be hung up on we didn't even know what to say [when] we got through."

"We got through and now the entire world is talking, of course," said her co-host Christian.

When the royal impersonators called the hospital, Saldanha put through to a second nurse who told the royal impersonators that Kate was "quite stable" and hadn't "had any retching."

The hospital apologized for the mistake.

"The call was transferred through to a ward, and a short conversation was held with one of the nursing staff," the hospital said in a statement. "King Edward VII's Hospital deeply regrets this incident."

"This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore," John Lofthouse, the hospital's chief executive, said in the statement. "We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously, and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols."

The radio station also apologized for the prank call.

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North-east Japan quake rattles same fault as last year

The large earthquake today 245 kilometres off the east coast of Japan involved the same fault as in last year's devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which killed 15,000 and wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility.

The latest quake, of magnitude 7.3, struck at 5.18 pm Japanese time and was centred 160 kilometres southeast of the epicentre of the Tohoku quake.

Reports spoke of buildings swaying violently in Tokyo and in many cities along the east coast. There have been no reports of casualties, although evacuations were ordered in some cities.

A tsunami 1 metre high washed ashore at 6 pm Japanese time in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, a region which suffered severe damage last year. But tsunami warnings along the east coast of Honshu island from the far north down to Tokyo were lifted around two hours after the quake.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority said that all nuclear facilities, including Fukushima, were undamaged.

"Same fault zone"

Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, told New Scientist that today's quake originates from the same fault zone as the Tohoku quake. "It appears to be at the same interface, where the Pacific plate moving towards Japan is diving beneath the Okhotsk plate," says Baldwin.

According to Baldwin, the quake is one-fiftieth the size of the magnitude 9 Tohoku quake, which released 350 times as much energy. By mid-morning UK time, USGS had detected five aftershocks, the largest of which was of magnitude 6.2.

He says there is always a possibility that the quake could be the prelude to an even larger one. "But as a rule, most aftershocks are smaller than the first."

Baldwin stresses the extreme seismic activity around Japan, which straddles four continental plates all rubbing against one another. "Since 1978, there have been 15 quakes of magnitude 7 or higher," he says. "These happen pretty regularly."

Brian Baptie of the British Geological Survey (BGS) agrees that aftershocks are likely to be smaller, but notes that the devastating quake in 2011 was preceded a few days earlier by a magnitude-7 quake in the same zone. Whether large quakes trigger other "megaquakes" through a geological domino effect is hotly debated.

The BGS has produced a map showing the epicentres of the Tohoku event and today's quake.

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Football: All options open for Euro 2020: Platini

NYON, Switzerland: UEFA president Michel Platini on Friday said that he was open to all options for the European championships in 2020, a day after the ruling body said that the tournament would be held across the continent.

"It's a blank page at the moment," said the former France captain. "I can't tell you where we're going to go. We haven't yet gone into the details. It's a one-off decision."

Platini first mooted the idea of holding the 60th anniversary of European football's premier competition in a number of countries before the final of this year's edition in Poland and Ukraine, which was won by defending champions Spain.

On Thursday, UEFA's executive committee was virtually unanimous in supporting the idea, which Platini said had been circulating for a number of years and had been the subject of numerous meetings and discussions with national associations.

Many fans suggested that the decision, opposed only by Turkey which had previously submitted a bid to host the tournament in eight years' time, would lead to increased costs and could destroy the atmosphere of the competition.

But Platini, who has argued that a Europe-wide competition would relieve pressures on one or two host nations given the current parlous financial climate in many countries, said more work was required to thrash out the detail.

"There are political decisions and geographic decisions," he told reporters in Nyon, Switzerland, where UEFA is based. "It's not a case of a fan watching his team in Cardiff (Britain) then in Astana (Kazakhstan) and then in Sweden.

"Nothing is decided at the moment. I put forward the idea, the associations voted. I propose things and the executive committee decides."

UEFA secretary-general Gianni Infantino said that the project would be re-examined in January or March next year and that host cities would be chosen in early 2014.

"We're looking at something bigger and more united," Platini said. "Countries that would never have had the chance to host the Euros will be able to participate in this festival of football.

"The situation is difficult in Europe. It's hard to ask one country to invest in 10 stadiums like in Ukraine. There's also the idea of belonging to a European country. It's a great idea to mark the anniversary.

"The Euros will go to the fans. It'll meet supporters. In previous years, they had to go to the Euros. Everything will be done so that the fans are able to get to games."

Asked about the personal misgivings expressed by FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke, who said last week that a Europe-wide Euro would "kill the spirit of the competition", Platini said not everyone at the world governing body had doubts.

"I've received congratulations from the president of FIFA (Sepp Blatter), who said it was an great idea," said Platini.

England's Football Association (FA), meanwhile, registered their interest early in staging the semi-finals and finals at London's Wembley stadium, while the Scottish FA also said they would be keen to participate.

"Clearly Wembley is incredibly highly thought of by UEFA and it is something we will push for," said FA chairman David Bernstein.

"UEFA want to hold the semi-finals and the final on the same ground, or in the same city and I think we would be on their shortlist -- but there would be some strong competition.

"The public want it and we'd want it and it would be wonderful to have it here."

The host cities bidding process will begin in March, with decisions on venues set to be made in early 2014.

The next European championships in 2016 are to be held in France, with an increase in the number of teams from the current 16 to 24.

- AFP/fa

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