Japan., Trial for postal discounts..[ 1371 ]

Bureaucrat on trial for alleged role in abuse of postal discounts says accusations false

Atsuko Muraki (Mainichi)

OSAKA -(Mainichi Japan) June 30, 2010- The defense counsel for a bureaucrat, on trial for allegedly ordering subordinates to forge an official document allowing a scam group to benefit from mail discounts for the handicapped, has argued that she is being falsely accused.

"Prosecutors investigated the case on the assumption that the defendant was involved, and forced those involved to testify to her participation. Moreover, prosecutors ignored objective evidence showing that the defendant is not guilty," the attorney told the Osaka District Court during the final hearing on June 29. "It's obvious that she was falsely accused."

"I hope that my innocence will be proven as soon as possible and want to lead an ordinary life," said the defendant, 54-year-old Atsuko Muraki. She is a bureau director general at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry -- currently suspended from duty as she is standing trial.

It is highly likely that the court will acquit Muraki, legal experts say, as Presiding Judge Nobuyuki Yokota refused to accept key depositions of defendants and witnesses -- which prosecutors had submitted to the court -- as evidence on the grounds that the way prosecutors questioned them was inappropriate.

During proceedings, prosecutors asserted that Muraki instructed her subordinates to forge a document after Hajime Ishii, a ruling Democratic Party of Japan member of the House of Councillors, had asked a former department manager with the ministry to do so. However, both Ishii and the former manager have denied the allegations.

Prosecutors demand the defendant spend 18 months behind bars for falsifying and using an official document. The court is scheduled to hand down a ruling on Sept. 10.

Click here for the original Japanese story

Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup..[ 1370]

Storm hinders Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup

Kristen Hays and Tom Doggett

HOUSTON / WASHINGTON

Thu Jul 1, 2010 12:15am EDT

A resident takes pictures of the waves with his cellphone as Hurricane Alex approaches near Bagdad beach in Matamoros, Mexican state of Tamaulipas June 30, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Tomas Bravo

HOUSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 

Waves and wind spawned by Hurricane Alex disrupted cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Wednesday while a senior U.S. official said a relief well intended to plug BP Plc's gushing deep-sea well remained weeks from completion.

Solar power has a practical future in aviation..[ 1369 ]

Solar Impulse plane postpones night record attempt

BBC., 05:06 GMT, Thursday, 1 July 2010 06:06 UK

 

The HB-SIA aeroplane will eventually give way to an even bigger vehicle

Pilot Andre Borschberg has announced he is postponing an attempt to make aviation history.

He had planned to take off from a Swiss airfield in a solar-powered plane and fly through the night.
Robotic craft have achieved this feat before now, but never a manned one.
Borschberg's HB-SIA aeroplane will need to generate enough energy through its 12,000 solar cells during the day to sustain its battery-driven engines during the dark hours.
It was to have taken off from Payerne in the west of Switzerland in an attempt to fly for 24 hours.
The was the latest step in the Solar Impulse project, which Mr Borschberg leads with his business partner and fellow adventurer Bertrand Piccard.
Dr Piccard famously made the first non-stop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon in 1999.

 

Andre Borschberg (L) and Bertrand Piccard (R) have worked on the project for seven years

The pair want to prove that solar power has a practical future in aviation and, more generally, in powering society at large.
The HB-SIA has the look of a glider but is on the scale - in terms of its width - of a modern airliner.
The aeroplane incorporates composite materials to keep it extremely light, and uses super-efficient solar cells, batteries, motors and propellers to keep itself in the sky.
The vehicle was unveiled last year and has since been undergoing daylight trials. The first full day flight was completed on 7 April.
The HB-SIA will be succeeded by HB-SIB. It is likely to be bigger, and will incorporate a pressurised capsule and better avionics.
The group plans to use this vehicle in two years' time to make the first manned transatlantic solar flight, followed in 2013 by an even more daring circumnavigation of the Earth.

A 12 million year-old Leviathan skull was discovered in Peru.[ 1368 ]

Sea monster' whale fossil unearthed

BBC Page last updated at 17:02 GMT,.. Wednesday, 30 June 2010 18:02 UK

Leviathan was an aggressive 17m-long predator which may have preyed on other whales

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Researchers have discovered the fossilised remains of an ancient whale with huge, fearsome teeth.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists have dubbed the 12 million-year-old creature "Leviathan".
It is thought to have been more than 17m long, and might have engaged in fierce battles with other giant sea creatures from the time.
Leviathan was much like the modern sperm whale in terms of size and appearance.

At the same time in the same waters was another monster... they might have fought each other

Dr Christian de Muizon Natural History Museum, Paris

But that is where the similarity ends. While the sperm whale is a relatively passive animal, sucking in squid from the depths of the ocean, Leviathan was an aggressive predator.

According to Dr Christian de Muizon, director of the Natural History Museum in Paris, Leviathan could have hunted out and fed on large sea creatures such as dolphins, seals and even other whales.
"It was a kind of a sea monster," he said.

"And it's interesting to note that at the same time in the same waters was another monster, which was a giant shark about 15m long. It's possible that they might have fought each other".
The researchers speculate that Leviathan was able to feed on very large prey up to 8m long. It would catch the prey in its huge jaws and tear it apart quickly and effectively with its giant teeth.
 

The Leviathan skull was discovered in 12 million year-old sediments in Peru A 3m-long fossilised skull of the creature was discovered by researchers in southern Peru in 2008. Dr de Muizon's student, Olivier Lambert was among them.
"It was the last day of our field trip when one of our colleagues came and told us that he thought he'd found something very interesting. So we joined him and he showed it to us," he said.
"We immediately saw that it was a very large whale and when we looked closer we saw it was a giant sperm whale with huge teeth."

The teeth were more than twice the length and diameter of those found in modern sperm whales and they were on the upper and lower jaws.

Dr Christian de Muizon compares the giant's teeth with those of a sperm whale

Sperm whales only have teeth on their lower jaw.

Dr Lambert and his colleagues had speculated that such a fierce creature might once have existed on the basis of discoveries of individual teeth.

Now, the discovery of the skull means that the Leviathan is not merely the stuff of myth and legend.
"Finally we found it," said Dr Lambert. " It was a very exciting moment".
The researchers do not know why this ancient whale died out. They speculate that the ecology and environment changed so that the creature had to change its feeding habits.
That may have led to the emergence of today's much gentler sperm whales, with the carnivorous niche filled by killer whales as conditions swung back again.

The authors of the report in Nature, who are all whale experts, are fans of the novel Moby Dick, which involves a ferocious white sperm whale.
So taken are they with the novel that they decided to dedicate their discovery to the author, Herman Melville, and give the creature its full scientific name of Leviathan melvillei.

Italy disagree for the Crusifix banning fm Schools ..[ 1367 ]

Italy Appeals Human Rights Court Ruling Banning Crucifix From Schools

AP2009

A crucifix hangs from the wall of a Naples elementary school's classroom, Italy, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009. Europe's court of human rights ruled Tuesday the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms under the continent's rights convention. The ruling, which could force a Europe-wide review of the use of religious symbols in government-run schools, rejected arguments by Italy's government that the crucifix was a national symbol of culture, history and identity, tolerance and secularism. A seven-judge panel sided with a complaint filed by Soile Lautsi, a parent of two children, who claimed public schools in her northern Italian town eight years ago refused to remove the Roman Catholic symbols from classrooms. The ruling awarded euro 5,000 (US$ 7,390) in damages to Lautsi, which the Italian government will pay her. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

FoxNews.com., Published June 30, 2010

| NewsCore

Italy on Wednesday began its appeal against a European Court of Human Rights ruling condemning the display of crucifixes in Italian schools in a case that could affect all of Europe.

The court's ruling in November found the display of crucifixes in Italian schools breached the rights of non-Catholic families, drawing howls of anger from Church and political leaders in the staunchly Roman Catholic country.

Italy's education minister attacked the initial ruling that crucifixes "restrict the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions," insisting the crucifix was a "symbol of our tradition."

Italian mother Soile Lautsi, whose two children attended a state school near Venice, took her case to the European court after a long battle pitting her against Italy's Catholic establishment.

Catholicism was the state religion in Italy until 1984, and a 1920s ruling ordering the presence of crucifixes in schools was never abolished.

The court's final ruling could be applicable to schools in all the Council of Europe's 47 member states.

Lautsi first brought the case eight years ago when her children, Dataico and Sami Albertin, aged 11 and 13, went to the state school in the northern Italian town of Abano Terme.

She was unhappy crucifixes were present in every classroom and complained to the school.

After education chiefs refused to remove the crosses, she spent several years fighting the decision through the Italian courts before taking the case to the Strasbourg court.

A dozen other countries, including Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Malta and Russia, are so-called third parties in the case and can present written observations.

Their lawyer, American law professor Joseph Weiler, warned against "an Americanization of Europe with a single rule that goes against the multiplicity of constitutions."

"Countries also have the right to define themselves in relation to their religious heritage," he said, noting that Christian crosses feature on national flags and money.

"All children in Europe, atheist or believers, learn that the right to believe and the right not to believe are realities," he said, pointing out that not all Britons who say "God save the queen" are believers.

Lautsi's lawyer, Nicola Paoletti, stressed that her client was "secular" and not "atheist."

"She has never said anything against the Catholic religion, she wants her two children to be educated according to the principle of secularism," Paoletti said.

"And yet, children in public schools think that the state identifies with this religion, and if they're not Catholic, then they can feel a minority and suffer as a result," he said.

The Italian government's lawyer, Nicola Lettieri, described the crucifix as "a passive symbol with no relation to teaching, which is secular."

"Where is the indoctrination, we're not distancing children from their parents' convictions," he said, adding that "the crucifix may be the expression of a Christian tradition, (but) Italy does not proselytiz