Sea Shepherd says drones find, photograph Japan's whaling fleet (Reuters)

SYDNEY (Reuters) ? Hardline whaling opponents attempting to stop Japan's annual whale hunt in the Antarctic said Sunday they had intercepted and photographed its whaling fleet using pilotless drone aircraft.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it located the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru off Australia's western coast Saturday using the drones, the first time this season it has made contact with the whalers.

However, other Japanese ships shielded the vessel "to allow it to escape," Sea Shepherd said in a statement.

"We caught them due west of Perth," founder Paul Watson told Reuters by satellite phone from the ship Steve Irwin. "For the next few days we will be chasing them. We are heading south."

The two drones are equipped with cameras and detection equipment and allow Sea Shepherd to monitor the whaling fleet from a distance, he said.

Watson said Sea Shepherd's three ships were well outside Antarctic waters when the Japanese vessel was seen. The Sea Shepherd waited for the Nisshin Maru after hearing from fishermen it had sailed through the Lombok Strait in Indonesia on its voyage to Antarctic waters.

The Sea Shepherd society's annual attempts to stop the Japanese whale hunt by "direct action" have been widely criticised by other environmentalists and governments, particularly Japan. However, it also has influential supporters.

Watson said sympathisers in New Jersey in the United States contributed to the cost of the two drones.

An international moratorium on whaling has been in place since 1986, but Japan exploits a loophole allowing whaling for scientific purposes to justify its annual hunt.

(Reporting by Chris McCall; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111225/ts_nm/us_australia_japan_whaling

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Turbulence As EU Court OKs Fee On Plane Emissions

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Air travel contributes only 2 to 4 percent of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. A new ruling says airlines flying into and out of European airports will have to pay a price for the carbon dioxide they emit from burning jet fuel. Above, a plane takes off from the Geneva airport last year.

A European court ruled Wednesday that airlines flying into and out of European airports will have to pay a price for the carbon dioxide they emit when they burn jet fuel.

U.S. airlines, which had been fighting the idea in court, say the European Union is trying to force other countries to reduce carbon emissions. Europe currently limits carbon dioxide emissions from its major industries to curb global warming. The ruling cannot be appealed, and the decision is likely to end the dispute.

Air travel contributes only about 2 to 4 percent of the CO₂ emissions worldwide. But Pamela Campos, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, says that will grow.

"This is an area where we are seeing very, very fast growth in emissions, and it's also an area that's technologically tough, so we need to start now," she says.

As air traffic has climbed, so have emissions. But Airlines for America, which represents the U.S. industry, says U.S. airlines have done their part by becoming more fuel-efficient.

"U.S. airlines have improved their fuel efficiency 115 percent since 1978," says Nancy Young, the group's environmental director, "and so to get more carbon emissions reductions, the Europeans are essentially imposing a tax."

Young says it's not fair to impose Europe's solutions on the rest of the world. She adds that paying the European Union for emissions could add up to about $3 billion by 2020. She says airlines will decide how much of the extra cost to pass on to passengers.

Bill Hemmings, a program manager with the British group Transport and Environment, says the extra cost probably won't amount to more than about $20 per flight.

"It's a few euros, maybe 10 or 15 euros at the most on long-haul flights, and a few euros on short-haul flights," Hemmings says. "I mean, those sorts of fare fluctuations will happen thousands of times a day."

But opponents, which include the Obama administration and at least 20 other governments, say it's not really the cost they're going to the mat for.

"We are not opposed to an appropriate climate regime," says Young. "What we think, though, is that the EU scheme is both illegal and bad policy."

The airline group would prefer to work out an emissions agreement through the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO. It's a U.N.-based organization that governs air travel policy for most of the world.

And that's a goal that Environmental Defense Fund lawyer Campos actually agrees with, but she argues that ICAO has dallied for years. She sees the court ruling as a kick in the pants.

"The opportunity here is to seize the momentum from Europe and break through the logjam at ICAO, and put in place a broad-based system that captures a much bigger percentage of the world's warming pollution from airplanes," she says.

The Obama administration is with the airlines in this so far, and could make it a diplomatic issue at the U.N.'s aviation organization.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/21/144082145/turbulence-as-europe-passes-fee-on-plane-emissions?ft=1&f=1007

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10,000 American troops pulled out of Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. military officials say that President Barack Obama's order to withdraw 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year has been accomplished, a little more than a week before the year-end deadline.

The drawdown is the first step in the U.S. military's plan to wind down the war, transition security to Afghan forces and end the combat role for international troops by the end of 2014.

It also gives the Obama administration a second war-related accomplishment to tout this month ? coming just a week after U.S. officials marked the end of the war in Iraq and the last convoy of American soldiers rumbled out of that country into Kuwait.

Officials say there are now 91,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan ? down from the peak of 101,000 in June.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-22-US-Afghanistan/id-d919540b29084e81890ea84f72e0cfba

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Healthbox: Chicago?s New Health-Focused Startup Accelerator Debuts Its Inaugural Batch

Is healthcare the industry that represents the next big opportunity for startups? Many are starting to believe it is, especially considering the fact that U.S. healthcare is currently a $2 trillion business. With technology beginning to play an increasingly vital role in healthcare and the health industry, disruption of legacy systems and an in-with-the-new approach has come to the fore for entrepreneurs looking for big opportunities in areas where they can add some serious real-world value. And what better way to help jumpstart these new health businesses than with business accelerators focused solely on healthcare? Bring them on, we say. Rock Health is off to a good start with its health-focused accelerator, announcing its second batch of killer startups last week. And now Chicago-based Sandbox Industries is launching its own health-y startup accelerator, called Healthbox.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/cy_lKMMu8nA/

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Brothers in alleged NC terror ring face sentencing (Providence Journal)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/176920190?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Chinese rebel villagers hunker down with rocks and rice (Reuters)

WUKAN, China (Reuters) ? Residents of a village in southern China who staged an uprising over land and a suspicious death said Monday they would not buckle, despite rumors that riot police were poised to quell their protest that has upstaged the ruling Communist Party.

For a week, the semi-urban village of Wukan in Guangdong province has driven off officials and police, and held daily protests attracting thousands of residents outraged by the death in custody of Xue Jinbo, an organizer of a months-long campaign over former farmland that residents say was taken illegally.

Although they have denounced local officials, the residents said they held out hope that the central government would step in and redress their grievances over Xue's death and the swathe of former farmland they said was seized for development.

But many also said they were braced for a crackdown, and village men guard barricades to block police.

"If they have guns, we have rocks," said a villager surnamed Li. "If they want us to die, it's OK too. We don't have any land left anyway."

At night, 50 or so men stood watch at a road turnoff leading into the besieged village, and solemnly explained how they would defend against a crackdown, certain it would come.

"Because of this land, we are not afraid to die," said another villager surnamed Lin. "We'll fight them to the death. If our village wasn't so united, this would not be possible."

On deserted roads, men on motorcycles patrolled with sticks in their hands.

"We can't sleep well at night, we know they will snatch the village representatives," said a villager surnamed Zhu.

President Hu Jintao, due to retire late next year, has made building a more "harmonious society" a centerpiece of his government.

"TRUST IN CENTRAL GOVERNMENT"

Although protests such as Wukan's do not threaten Communist Party power, they lay bare discontent against corruption, land seizures and official highhandness that corroding party authority at the grassroots.

Residents say hundreds of hectares of land was acquired unfairly by corrupt officials in collusion with developers. Anger in the village boiled over in September this year after repeated appeals to higher officials. Residents ransacked a government office and skirmished with police.

The government of Shanwei, the area including Wukan, said last week that some Communist Party members and officials accused of misdeeds over the disputed land were detained and that the main land development project had been suspended.

But villagers' fury has turned to Xue's death -- which the government has said was caused by a heart attack, not physical abuse -- and demands that officials hand his body over to his family.

Yet villagers also spoke longingly of their desire for the central government to intervene, and took pains to emphasize that their calls for democracy and elections are directed at the local government and not Communist leaders in Beijing.

"We trust in the central government," said a villager. "Why should the central government persecute us villagers? The central government is the farmers' parents."

At one house, bags of rice were stockpiled -- donations from wealthy villagers to be distributed to the other villagers.

Despite the looming threat of a crackdown, there was little palpable fear on the streets. People went about their business in the narrow alleys and children played.

"We are disappointed," said Liu. "Even the overseas media knows about this, how can the central government not know?"

China's state-controlled media have reported sporadically on the protests, only citing official statements.

Checks for "Wukan" on microblogging sites have been blocked, reflecting official wariness about spreading news about the confrontation.

(Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111219/wl_nm/us_china_unrest_village

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Grammy-winning singer Cesaria Evora dies at age 70 (AP)

LISBON, Portugal ? Cesaria Evora, who started singing as a teenager in the bayside bars of Cape Verde in the 1950s and won a Grammy in 2003 after she took her African islands music to stages across the world, died Saturday. She was 70.

Evora, known as the "Barefoot Diva" because she always performed without shoes, died in the Baptista de Sousa Hospital in Mindelo, on her native island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde, her label Lusafrica said in a statement on its website. It gave no further details.

Evora retired in September because of health problems. In recent years she had had several operations, including open-heart surgery last year.

She sang the traditional music of the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa, a former Portuguese colony. She mostly sang in the version of creole spoken there, but even audiences who couldn't understand the lyrics were moved by her stirring renditions, her unpretentious manner and the music's infectious beat.

Her singing style brought comparisons to American jazz singer Billie Holiday. "She belongs to the aristocracy of bar singers," French newspaper Le Monde said in 1991, adding that Evora had "a voice to melt the soul."

Evora's international fame came late in life. Her 1988 album "La Diva Aux Pieds Nus" ("Barefoot Diva"), recorded in France where she first found popularity, launched her international career.

Her 1995 album "Cesaria" was released in more than a dozen countries and brought her first Grammy nomination, leading to a tour of major concert halls around the world and album sales in the millions.

She won a Grammy in the World Music category of the 2003 awards for her album "Voz D'Amor".

Evora, known to her close friends as Cize (pronounced see-ZEH), was the best-known performer of "morna," Cape Verde's national music. It is a complex, soulful sound, mixing an array of influences arising from the African and seafaring traditions of the 10 volcanic islands.

Evora was born Aug. 27, 1941, and grew up in Mindelo, a port city of 47,000 people on the island of Sao Vicente, where sailors from Europe, America, Africa and Asia mingled in what was a lively cosmopolitan town with a fabled nightlife.

The local musical style borrowed from those cultures, defying attempts to classify it.

"Our music is a lot of things," Evora told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview at her home. "Some say it's like the blues, or jazz. Others says it's like Brazilian or African music, but no one really knows. Not even the old ones."

Evora was 7 years old when her father died, leaving a widow and seven children. At 10, with her mother unable to make ends meet, she was placed in an orphanage.

"I didn't like it. I value my freedom," she told the AP.

At 16, when Evora was doing piecework as a seamstress, a friend persuaded her to sing in one of the many sailors' taverns in her town. As her popularity grew, she was also rowed out into the bay to sing on anchored ships.

She received no pay ? just free drinks. She used to smile when she recalled her fame as a heavy cognac drinker. And she sadly recalled the exact day ? Dec. 15, 1994 ? she had to give up drinking for her health's sake.

Evora didn't think much of her international stardom and she went back to Mindelo whenever she could. She rebuilt her childhood home, turning it into a 10-bedroom house where friends and family often stayed over, and she always made sure she was home for Christmas.

A heavy smoker for decades, Evora was diagnosed with heart problems in 2005. She suffered strokes in 2008 and in September 2011, when she announced she was retiring.

She had a son and a daughter by different men but never married. Family details were not immediately available.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111217/ap_en_mu/eu_portugal_obit_evora

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