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Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Pope Francis has been sneaking out at night to serve Rome’s poor..

Pope Francis greets the faithful at the end of mass at the Parish Church of St. Cirillo Alessandrino in Rome December 1, 2013. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (ITALY)

Want to meet the pope? Mingle with Rome’s homeless and he might just come to you.

It is a well-known fact that, while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis would venture out after hours to minister to the city’s poor. While that practice is now notably more difficult given his position, according to comments make recently by a Vatican official, he may in fact still be leaving the papal apartments for the occasional nighttime adventure, dressed in costume to hide his identity.

And now it appears we have confirmation. A Vatican source reportedly told The Huffington Post this week: “Swiss guards confirmed that the pope has ventured out at night, dressed as a regular priest, to meet with homeless men and women.”

Even Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, a key lieutenant who is in charge of distributing aid from the Vatican to the city’s poor, has addressed the speculation, saying: “When I say to him ‘I’m going out into the city this evening,’ there’s the constant risk that he will come with me.”

Also once worked as a bouncer

It wouldn’t be the first time Pope Francis surprised the world with his approach to the papacy. Not even the first time this week, in fact.

During a trip to a Rome-area church on Sunday, he revealed that he had once worked as a bouncer at a nightclub before turning his attention to the church. That’s in addition to his time as a janitor and laboratory assistant.

Prior to these revelations, the pope made waves in November when he addressed the topic of same-sex marriage saying “who am I to judge a gay person?” in response to a question posed by reporters. Francis later said he believes the church has become “obsessed” with the issues of abortion and gay marriage, called global capitalism “a new tyranny,” and even reached out to atheists.

Monday, 2 December 2013

Africa risks losing 20 percent of elephants in 10 years...

An estimated 22,000 elephants were illegally killed across the continent last year, as poaching reached "unacceptably elevated levels," according to a report by CITES, TRAFFIC and IUCN.
"If poaching rates are sustained at current levels, Africa is likely to lose a fifth of its elephants in the next ten years," the group said.
The study was released as experts and ministers met in Gaborone to look at ways to stamp out the slaughter, fuelled by a growing demand for ivory in Asia.
The meeting is expected to adopt 13 "urgent" steps to stem the tide of illegal elephant killings.
These will include classification of trafficking in ivory as a serious crime and securing stiff sentences for offenders.
Prevention would be tackled through better arming of national protection agencies and discouraging demand in destination countries.
The meeting will also recommend the adequate securing of government- and privately-held ivory stockpiles so they do not make their way into wrong hands.
"We continue to face a critical situation," said John E. Scanlon, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Poaching in Africa remains far too high
"Current elephant poaching in Africa remains far too high, and could soon lead to local extinctions if the present killing rates continue," said Scanlon.
He described the situation in central Africa, where the estimated poaching rate is twice the continental average, as "particularly acute".
There are around half a million elephants left in Africa compared with 1.2 million in 1980 and 10 million in 1900.
Researchers believe that poverty and weak governance in African countries harbouring elephants are driving forces behind a spike in poaching.
Ivory trade is banned under the CITES, yet the illegal trade is estimated to be worth up to $10 billion (7.4 billion euros) a year.
The price of ivory on the black market shot up tenfold in the past decade to more than $2,000 per kilogramme. On average, an adult elephant tusk can weigh 20 kg (44 pounds), according to experts.
In the past 13 years, the quantities of ivory traded have steadily shot up, according to Tom Milliken, an expert with the wildlife monitoring agency TRAFFIC.
"2013 already represents a 20 percent increase over the previous peak year in 2011. We're hugely concerned," said Milliken.
In terms of international crime, wildlife trafficking now ranks fifth after narcotics, counterfeiting, the traffic of human beings and of oil, according to estimates cited at the meeting.
Beyond worries about the species' survival, elephant poaching has given rise to security and terrorism concerns.
Proceeds from ivory are "known to fund terrorism acts, support conflicts" said the conference document. Experts suggest the funds could be financing groups such as Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab, Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army and Sudan's Janjaweed militia.
In recent years ivory trafficking routes appear to be shifting from the traditional west and central African seaports to east Africa with Kenya and Tanzania as the main exit points.
Most of the ivory ends up in Thailand and China.
Elephants still exist in between 35 and 38 African countries with large tracts -- about 55 percent of the continent's population -- still found in southern Africa.
Botswana, which is co-organising the conference with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), holds the largest population of elephants in Africa, according to statistics from conservationists.

Oregon Girl Barred From Selling Mistletoe But Told Okay to Beg..

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By Dina Abou Salem

Dec 2, 2013 4:03pm

Driven by her budding entrepreneurial instincts, an 11-year-old Oregon girl wanted to help her dad pay for her braces by selling mistletoe over the holidays, but she got tangled up in red tape instead.
Madison Root, of Portland, hit the downtown market on Saturday morning to sell the plants that she said she cut and wrapped herself from her uncle’s farm in Newberg, Ore.
“I felt like I could help my dad with the money,” she told ABC News affiliate KATU News.
But a private security guard hired by Portland Saturday Market asked her to stop selling the mistletoe because city rules ban conducting business or soliciting at a park without proper approval and documentation.
Chapter 10.12 of the Portland city code states that soliciting or conducting business includes the display of ”goods, or descriptions or depictions of goods or services, with the intent to engage any member of the public in a transaction for the sale of any good or service.”
The guard told Madison that she could sell her mistletoe on the city sidewalk outside the park’s boundaries, but not in the market, or simply ask people for donations for her braces, she told KATU News.
“The guard told her she can beg if she wanted but she can’t sell the mistletoe,” Root’s father, Ashton told, ABCNews.com. He also said that Root “does not want to encourage begging and wants people to earn their living… She is so keen on high work ethic.”
“I don’t want to beg! I would rather work for something than beg,” Madison told KATU News. “I wouldn’t think I’d have any problems because people are asking for money, people are selling stuff, this is a public place.”
However, vendors pay to rent a vending booth and are scrutinized before they qualify for the Portland Saturday Market, officials said.
“Applying for a booth is a juried process. I had to show samples of my jewelry to a panel of jurists. … We have to pay to maintain our spot at the market,” Viki Ciesiul, owner and designer of Viki Homemade Jewelry told ABCNews.com today.
Ciesiul, who has entered her fourth year as a vendor at the Saturday Market, said she had mixed feelings about Madison’s story.
“We [vendors] are trying to avoid too many types of street vendors who might bring the place down,” she said. “There are many ways she can participate and rules are there for a reason.”
Mark Ross, a spokesman for the Portland Parks Bureau, which manages the city park and rents it to the Saturday Market, said asking for donations in public is permitted. Asking for donations is “a form of free speech, protected under the First Amendment,” Ross told ABCNews.com.
Ross declined to comment about the incident involving Madison and the security guard, except to note that the Saturday Market administration designates and enforces its rules once the space has been leased to them.
After Madison’s story aired at 5 p.m. Sunday, a viewer called to order 30 bags of mistletoe. “Since the story aired, mistletoe orders mushroomed… even McKinzei Farms, one of the biggest selling Christmas tree farms in the area, made a $1,000 donation to Madison’s braces,” said Root’s father.
Root had her first set of braces placed today.

Madison Root, 11, seen in this video from KATU, was barred from selling mistletoe in a Portland, Ore. market but was told that she could ask for donations instead. (KATU/ABC News)

Year-end signups crucial test for health care site...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's new and improved health care website faces yet another test in just a couple of weeks, its biggest yet. If HealthCare.gov becomes overwhelmed by an expected year-end crunch, many Americans will be left facing a break in their insurance coverage.

Until now, the main damage from the website's technology woes has been to Obama's poll ratings. But if it chokes again, it will be everyday people feeling the consequences.
Some of those at risk are among the more than 4 million consumers whose individual policies have been canceled because the coverage didn't comply with requirements of the new health care law. A smaller number, several hundred thousand, are in federal and state programs for people whose health problems already were a barrier to getting private insurance before the overhaul.
"The chances are almost 100 percent that someone who would like to continue coverage next year and intends to secure it is not going to be able to do it," said Mark McClellan, who oversaw the rollout of the Medicare prescription drug benefit under President George W. Bush.
"It's important to recognize that none of these programs are going to work perfectly from the start and a big part of implementation is having mechanisms in place that anticipate problems and help mitigate their effects," added McClellan, now a health care policy expert with the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
But on Monday, administration officials projected renewed confidence that they're on top of things. White House spokesman Jay Carney declared that the federal site serving 36 states got 375,000 visitors by noon.
Even as fixes continued on back-end features of the system, enrollment counselors said the consumer-facing front end was working noticeably better — but still was not free of glitches or delays. As Carney acknowledged, some of Monday morning's visitors were shuttled into a queue and advised when to return for speedier service. That's actually an improvement to handle high volume, he said.
In the central Illinois city of Mattoon, enrollment counselor Valerie Spencer said she and her team finally signed up their first person in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Now they have a half-dozen success stories and dozens of consumers with appointments to finish applications at the Sarah Bush Lincoln Center, a small hospital serving the region.
The health care law offers subsidized private insurance to middle class people who don't have access to job-based coverage. The White House is aiming for 7 million people to enroll for private plans through new state-based marketplaces also called exchanges. Low-income people will be steered to an expanded version of Medicaid in states accepting it. People have until Dec. 23 to sign up for coverage that starts on Jan. 1.
"It's crunch time and a lot of people are really nervous," Spencer said.
An even bigger enrollment surge is expected the first part of next year, ahead of a March 31 deadline to avoid the law's tax penalties for those who remain uninsured.
In Beverly Hills, Fla., north of Tampa, self-employed real estate appraiser Tom Woolford said he was finally able to get all the way through the process Sunday and enroll in a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. Except nothing happened when he clicked a link to pay his first month's premium.
"As far as I know, I am in orbit someplace and nobody's got a transponder on me," said Woolford, who was otherwise pleased with the plan and his costs. He'll give it a week and see if the health plan reaches out to him.
If consumers still have unresolved issues, so do the feds. Among them:
THE BACK ROOM
Private insurers complain that much of the enrollment information they've gotten on individual consumers is practically useless. It is corrupted by errors, duplication or garbles. Efforts to fix underlying problems are underway, but the industry isn't happy with the progress and is growing increasingly concerned.
Over the weekend, as government officials trumpeted improvements to the website, the leading industry trade group pointedly called attention to the data mess. The president of the largest health insurance trade group said the website fix won't be complete until the entire system works from end to end. Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, raised the prospect that consumers might not be able to get access to needed benefits Jan. 1.
"There really needs to be an intense focus now on the back end of the process," said Joel Ario, who oversaw initial planning for the insurance marketplaces in the Obama administration and is now a top consultant with Manatt Health Solutions.
Administration spokeswoman Julie Bataille said that's already happening. More than 80 percent of insurers' problems were due to one bug that affected Social Security numbers, she said. That's been fixed.
CRAFTING A NEW PITCH
Largely because of the federal website problems, major advertising campaigns encouraging everyone from the young and hip to the middle aged and health conscious to enroll have been put on hold.
The worry now is that the technology debacle may have done lasting harm to the outreach plan. And even a revamped website with new bells and whistles is going to have to compete for attention with the year-end holidays.
"The real question in my mind is can they turn around the messaging?" said Caroline Pearson, who is tracking the overhaul for Avalere Health, a market analysis firm. "They've had eight weeks of terrible press. Can they begin to reach out with a message of things are fixed and we're back on track?"
It's unclear how much candor will creep into the pitch. Some enrollment counselors feel a need to acknowledge the problems.
Looking back on the weeks of failed attempts to enroll people through the marketplace, Spencer, in central Illinois, laments the feelings of broken trust.
"We told them we were here to help them and we (couldn't) help them," she said.
Still, some people returned again and again to keep trying to get through the process. "They keep trusting us and they keep coming back," Spencer said.
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Associated Press writers Carla K. Johnson in Chicago and Marco Mulcahy in New York contributed to this report.

Facing protests, Ukraine leader again courts EU..

People supporting EU integration attend a rally in Kiev, December 2, 2013. Ukrainian protesters blockaded the main government building on Monday, seeking to force President Viktor Yanukovich from office with a general strike after hundreds of thousands demonstrated against his decision to abandon an EU integration pact. (REUTERS/Gleb Garanich)

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Facing huge anti-government demonstrations after spurning a deal with the European Union, Ukraine's embattled president sought Monday to quell public anger by moving to renew talks with Brussels.

The opposition, meanwhile, scrambled to secure enough votes in parliament to oust the Cabinet and try to force an early presidential election, in the biggest unrest in the country since the 2004 Orange Revolution.
President Viktor Yanukovych struggled to reaffirm his grip on power as thousands of demonstrators besieged government buildings in Kiev, his party suffered defections and three cities in the west of the country openly defied the central government.
The protests were sparked by Yanukovych's decision to ditch the political association and free trade pact with the EU, followed by the violent dispersal of a small peaceful rally in Kiev over the weekend.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who strongly opposed the EU deal, denounced the opposition protests in Kiev as "pogroms."
On Monday, Yanukovych called European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and asked to renew negotiations on signing the association agreement. He also said in an interview with Ukraine's main television channels that he remains committed to European integration, but would like to negotiate better terms for the fragile Ukrainian economy.
Yanukovych urged the opposition for calm and dialogue with the government. But his call fell flat with opposition leaders who were hoping to summon enough parliamentary votes Tuesday to oust the Cabinet led by Yanukovych's loyal supporter, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, and force an early presidential vote.
"We need to change the system. There must be a complete reloading of the leadership," world boxing champion turned opposition leader Vitali Klitschko told reporters.
It was unclear whether the opposition could muster the 226 votes it needs in the 450-seat parliament to oust Azarov and his Cabinet.
The opposition controls about 170 seats, but independents hold 35 more and the governing Party of Regions was shedding support. At least three of its lawmakers quit in protest and one of them, Inna Bohoslovska, previously a vocal government supporter, called on other legislators to leave the party. A top Agriculture Ministry official also resigned Monday.
Oleksandr Yefremov, head of the Party of Regions faction in parliament, said lawmakers would discuss the situation Tuesday morning and might then put a no-confidence motion up for a vote. But he argued that there were no grounds to dismiss the government because of the protests, which have centered on Kiev's main Independence Square, popularly referred to as Maidan.
"Our goal is to make sure that the people on Maidan calm down," Yefremov said.
Opinion surveys conducted before the protests showed about 45 percent of Ukrainians supporting closer integration with the EU, with a third or less favoring closer ties with Russia. But the protests, and the police violence, appear to have unleashed anger against the government and tipped the balance more strongly in favor of integration with the EU.
Azarov criticized the opposition for blockading the government buildings and said the actions have the makings of a coup.
Putin, speaking Monday on a visit to Armenia, called the demonstrations an attempt by the opposition to destabilize the government.
"The events in Ukraine look more like pogroms than a revolution," he said.
Officials in the western cities of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil announced they were going on strike and called on their residents to turn out for protests. Lviv's mayor warned that police in his city would take off their uniforms and defend the city if the central government sent reinforcements. Scores of protesters from Lviv and elsewhere in western Ukraine have headed to Kiev by train and car to take part in the rallies.
"Yanukovych is now fighting for his political survival, and time is no longer on his side," said Tim Ash, an emerging markets analyst with Standard Bank in London.
The opposition also was getting support from Ukraine's main television channels, which are owned by the country's wealthiest businessmen. Instead of largely toeing the government line, the channels have begun to give a greater platform to the protesters.
In Kiev, thousands continued rallying on Independence Square, which was turned into a giant tent camp cordoned off by barricades made of metal bars and wooden planks. Hundreds of others held ground inside Kiev city hall, where some protesters slept on the floor, while others lined up to receive hot tea, sandwiches and other food brought in by Kiev residents. Other volunteers sorted through piles of donated warm clothes and medicines.
"You can also fight for freedom and independence by giving out sandwiches," said Yulia Zhiber, a 21-year-old philology student from Kiev.
Protests have been held daily in Kiev since Yanukovych's Cabinet announced on Nov. 21 that it was ditching the EU agreement in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Yanukovych was also reluctant to liberate his top rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose imprisonment the EU called political revenge and whose freedom it set as a condition for signing the deal.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman reaffirmed the willingness of Berlin and Brussels to sign the association agreement, saying the protests clearly showed that Ukrainians want the EU deal.
"For the German government, these demonstrations send a very clear message," he said. "It has to be hoped that ... Yanukovych will hear this message."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at a conference in Lima, Peru, appealed "to all parties to act with restraint" and "avoid any further violence."
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also called for calm.
"We continue to stress there is no room for violence in a country that aspires to a democratic future," she said.
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Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Raf Casert in Brussels, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Cara Anna at the United Nations contributed to this report.

New Egypt draft charter sets powers for military..

CAIRO (AP) — Extensive amendments of the constitution adopted under Egypt's ousted Islamist president give the military more privileges, enshrining its place as the nation's most powerful institution and the source of real power, while removing parts that liberals feared set the stage for the creation of an Islamic state.The new draft constitution is a key first step in implementing a political transition laid down by the military after it removed Mohammed Morsi from power. A 50 member panel declared the draft finished Monday, paving the way for a nationwide referendum within 30 days to ratify the document.
The military-backed government has heralded the draft charter as a step toward democracy — seeking to prove the credentials of the post-Morsi system amid continuing protests by Islamists furious over the coup against the country's first freely elected president.
The amended document enshrines personal and political rights in stronger language than past constitutions. But rights experts express fears that the political power carved out for the military could leave those rights irrelevant.
One key clause states that for the next two presidential terms, the armed forces will enjoy the exclusive right of naming the defense minister, an arrangement that gives the military autonomy above any civilian oversight and leaves the power of the president uncertain. The charter does not say how the post will be filled following that eight-year transitional period.
"This just paves the way for a bigger role for the army in becoming the main power broker," said Hossam el-Hamalawy, a leading member of the Revolutionary Socialists movement, a key player in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country for 29 years.
The run-up to the referendum is likely to be contentious. Egypt's new leadership is pushing for the revised charter to win by a greater margin than the 2012 one, which was the country's first post-Mubarak constitution and was largely drafted by Morsi's Islamist allies.
That document won a December 2012 referendum with about 64 percent of the vote, but with a low turnout of little more than 30 percent. A bigger margin and stronger turnout now could be touted as a show of the legitimacy of the post-coup system.
Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and its followers, however, reject the new government and the entire transition process, demanding Morsi's return — and they are likely to push ahead with protests to try to derail the new document. Some secular activists will also likely campaign against the new charter because of the power it gives the military.
The constitutional panel, appointed by the government and dominated by liberals, worked mainly behind closed doors. On Monday, with their work completed, the members praised the 67-page draft.
"It is now the right of every Egyptian to declare that this is their constitution," said Bishop Bola, the representative of the Coptic Orthodox Church on the panel.
"I believe this is a constitution for a civic, modern and democratic state in 90 percent of its articles. It's a leap in Egypt's life and I hope people vote for it in large numbers," said leftist politician and panel member Hussein Abdel-Razik.
The one ultraconservative Islamist on the panel, Mohammed Ibrahim Mansour of the al-Nour Party, said the document struck a good balance between the teachings of Islam and civil freedoms.
His support comes despite the removal of several provisions that ultraconservative Islamists had introduced into the Morsi-era charter, worrying liberals who feared they could be a prelude toward stricter implementation of Islamic law, or Shariah.
The new version retains Article 2, which says the "principles" of Shariah are the basis for legislation, a phrase that has been in all Egyptian constitutions since the 1970s.
But it removes a Morsi-era provision that gave a more precise definition for "principles" that could have been used to legislate stricter Islamic law. It also deletes a reference to a role for Al-Azhar, the country's main Islamic institution, in overseeing legislation.
The new charter also goes further than its predecessors in guaranteeing freedom of expression and other rights. It criminalizes torture and ensures equality between men and women, as well as women's and children's rights. It guarantees the freedom of belief as "absolute."
It also empowers lawmakers to remove the president with a two-thirds majority, forces the president to declare his financial assets and bans political parties founded on religion, sect or region. Artists, writers and filmmakers are guaranteed unbridled freedom to create.
But the power of the military enshrined in the document raises concerns that those rights could be undermined. The new draft removes some loopholes that Mubarak's military-backed regime used to get around rights guarantees — but there are fears that rights could be swept under the rug in the name of security.
Since Morsi's ouster, hundreds of his supporters have been killed by security forces in a crackdown on protests. Pro-Morsi Islamist TV channels have been shut down and this week, two of the iconic secular "revolutionaries" of the 2011 revolt — Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Ahmed Maher — were detained under a draconian law banning any protests without a police permit.
The new charter also fails to ensure any level of transparency for the armed forces' budget or details of its vast economic empire, which includes interests in construction, road building, bottled water and land reclamation.
Civilians can still be tried before military tribunals, a provision introduced in the Morsi-era constitution and a major source of tension between rights groups and the military since Mubarak's ouster. The new version appears to try to limit that authority by defining the charges that could lead to military trial — but still includes such scenarios as getting into a fist fight with an off-duty officer or the attendant of a military-own gas station.
Some 10,000 civilians are believed to have been hauled before military tribunals when generals were in power for nearly 17 months after Mubarak's ouster.
Except for Morsi's year in office, Egypt has been ruled by men of military background since 1952, when officers staged a coup and toppled the monarchy. Though popularly backed, the July 3 coup that removed Morsi returned the military to the helm.
There has been widespread speculation that military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi could run for president — something he has not ruled out.
Presidential and parliamentary elections are set to follow, in the spring and summer of next year, once the constitution is approved.

Though the original military transition plan called for the parliamentary vote to take place first, that could change — the new draft charter leaves unclear which will happen first, saying only that one of the votes must take place within 90 days of the constitution's adoption, with the other to follow within six months.

Amazon.com sees delivery drones as future..

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is working on a way to get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less — via self-guided drone.

Consider it the modern version of a pizza delivery boy, minus the awkward teenager.
Amazon.com Inc. says it's working on the so-called Prime Air unmanned aircraft project but it will take years to advance the technology and for the Federal Aviation Administration to create the necessary rules and regulations.
The project was first reported by CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday night, hours before millions of shoppers turned to their computers to hunt Cyber Monday bargains.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in the interview that while his octocopters look like something out of science fiction, there's no reason they can't be used as delivery vehicles.
Bezos said the drones can carry packages that weigh up to five pounds, which covers about 86 percent of the items Amazon delivers. The drones the company is testing have a range of about 10 miles, which Bezos noted could cover a significant portion of the population in urban areas.
Bezos told "60 Minutes" the project could become a working service in four or five years.
Unlike the drones used by the military, Bezos' proposed flying machines won't need humans to control them remotely. Amazon's drones would receive a set of GPS coordinates and automatically fly to them, presumably avoiding buildings, power lines and other obstacles.
Delivery drones raise a host of concerns, from air traffic safety to homeland security and privacy. There are technological and legal obstacles, too —similar to Google's experimental driverless car. How do you design a machine that safely navigates the roads or skies without hitting anything? And, if an accident occurs, who's legally liable?
Delivering packages by drone might be impossible in a city like Washington D.C. which has many no-fly zones.
But technology entrepreneur and futurist Ray Kurzweil notes that "technology has always been a double edged sword."
"Fire kept us warm and cooked our food but also was used to burn down our villages," says Kurzweil.
"It's fascinating as an idea and probably very hard to execute," says Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies who sees Bezos as an unconventional thinker. "If he could really deliver something you order within 30 minutes, he would rewrite the rules of online retail."
Amazon has already done that once. In 1995, with investments from family and friends, Bezos began operating Amazon as an online bookseller out of a Seattle garage. Over nearly two decades, Amazon grew to become the world's largest online retailer, selling everything from shoes to groceries to diapers and power tools.
Amazon spends heavily on growing its business, improving order fulfillment and expanding into new areas. Those investments have come at the expense of consistent profitability, but investors have been largely forgiving, focusing on the company's long-term promise and double-digit revenue growth.
The company spent almost $2.9 billion in shipping last year, accounting for 4.7 percent of its net sales.
There is no prohibition on flying drones for recreational use, but since 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration has said they can't be used for commercial purposes.
"The technology has moved forward faster than the law has kept pace," says Brendan Schulman, special counsel at the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.
Schulman is currently challenging that regulation before a federal administrative law judge on behalf of a client who was using a radio-controlled aircraft to shoot video for an advertising agency. Autonomous flights like Amazon is proposing, without somebody at the controls, are also prohibited.
The FAA is slowly moving forward with guidelines on commercial drone use. Last year, Congress directed the agency to grant drones access to U.S. skies by September 2015. But the agency already has missed several key deadlines and said the process would take longer than Congress expected.
The FAA plans to propose rules next year that could allow limited use of drones weighing up to 55 pounds. But those rules are expected to include major restrictions on where drones can fly, posing significant limits on what Amazon could do. Many of the commercial advances in drone use have come out of Europe, Australia, and Japan. In Australia, for instance, an electric company is using drones to check on remote power lines.
"The delay has really been to the disadvantage of companies here," Schulman says. "Generally, the government wants to promote the advancement of science and technology. In this case, the government has done exactly the opposite and thwarted the ability of small, startup companies to develop commercial applications for this revolutionary technology."
Amazon isn't the only company awaiting guidelines. A Domino's franchise in the United Kingdom released a test flight video in June of the "DomiCopter," a drone used to deliver hot pizza.
"We think it's cool that places like Amazon are exploring the concept," says Domino's spokesman Chris Brandon. "We'd be surprised if the FAA ever let this 'fly' in the States — but we will surely stay tuned to see where this all goes."
Matt Waite, a journalism professor at the University of Nebraska and head of the university's Drone Journalism Lab, says a bigger problem for Amazon is that the rules are not expected to allow autonomous drones, so a remote pilot would have to be in command of the aircraft at all times.
Indeed, the FAA said Monday that it is moving forward with "regulations and standards for the safe integration of remote piloted (drones) to meet increased demand." The agency reiterated that "autonomous (drone) operation is not currently allowed in the United States."
Given the slow pace at which the FAA typically approves regulations, Waite calls Bezos' prediction of four or five years for approval unrealistic.
Safety concerns could be the real obstacle in delaying drones for widespread commercial use.
"You're putting a device with eight rapidly spinning blades into areas where people are assumed to be," Waite says. "The threat to people on the ground is significant."
It's not hard to imagine that the world's biggest online retailer has some significant lobbying muscle and might be able to persuade the FAA to alter the rules.
Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako says the company has been in contact with the FAA "as they are actively working on necessary regulation."
One of the biggest promises for civilian drone use is in agriculture because of the industry's largely unpopulated, wide open spaces. Delivering Amazon packages in midtown Manhattan will be much trickier. But the savings of such a delivery system only come in large, urban areas.
Besides regulatory approval, Amazon's biggest challenge will be to develop a collision avoidance system, says Darryl Jenkins, a consultant who gave up on the commercial airline industry and now focuses on drones.
Who is to blame, Jenkins asked, if the drone hits a bird, crashes into a building? Who is going to insure the deliveries?
There are also technical questions. Who will recharge the drone batteries? How many deliveries can the machines make before needing service?
"Jeff Bezos might be the single person in the universe who could make something like this happen," Jenkins says. "For what it worth, this is a guy who's totally changed retailing."
If Amazon gets its way, others might follow.
United Parcel Service Co. executives heard a presentation from a drone vendor earlier this year, says Alan Gershenhorn, UPS' chief sales, marketing and strategy officer.
"Commercial use of drones is an interesting technology, and we're certainly going to continue to evaluate it," Gershenhorn says.
The U.S. Postal Service and FedEx wouldn't speculate about using drones for delivery.
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With reports from Barbara Ortutay in New York, David Koenig in Dallas and Sam Hananel in Washington D.C.
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Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

Lebanese army taking over in second-largest city..

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — The government authorized the army Monday to take charge of security in Lebanon's second-largest city of Tripoli for six months following deadly sectarian clashes by rival sides stemming from the civil war in neighboring Syria.

Many fear that the violence in Tripoli — only 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the Syrian border — could tip the rest of Lebanon back toward chaos. At least 12 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the latest fighting that broke out Saturday.
The decision by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati after a high-level security meeting at the presidential palace is meant to allay fears that the fighting was spreading out of control in the northern port city. But the army is weak and has been largely unable to stop the violence. Dozens of soldiers have been killed and wounded in Tripoli this year, often caught in the crossfire between rival gunmen.
Sectarian clashes linked to the war in Syria often flare in Tripoli between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Lebanon is divided into a patchwork of sects, including Sunnis, Shiites and Christians. Syria's rebels are dominated by its Sunni Muslim majority, and Lebanese Sunnis mostly support their brethren across the border, while Lebanese Shiites have staked their future with the Assad regime. The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has played a critical role in recent battlefield victories for forces loyal to Assad.
The fighting in Tripoli is concentrated between two impoverished, rival neighborhoods. The Bab Tabbaneh district is largely Sunni Muslim, as are most of the Syrian rebels fighting Assad's rule. Residents of Jabal Mohsen, a neighborhood perched on a hill, are mostly from his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
But the violence in recent days has taken a more ominous turn, spreading to include other parts of Tripoli as snipers took up positions on rooftops, and gunbattles and rocket fire raged out of control.
On Monday, schools, universities and some businesses were mostly closed as occasional gunfire rang out.
Tripoli's landmark Abu Ali Square — usually packed with cars, pedestrians and shoppers — was largely deserted as ambulances took casualties to hospitals.
Lebanese military armored vehicles patrolled, sometimes helping carry terrified civilians to safe places.
At one point, a brown BMW sped toward an army checkpoint near the square and screeched to a halt. The shaken driver jumped out and shouted to the troops, "I have two soldiers who were shot in the neck."
The officers ran toward him, looked at the wounded soldiers in the car and said, "Take them straight to the hospital." The car sped away.
A soldier said the two wounded officers had been off duty and were going home in the northern region of Akkar when they were hit by sniper fire.
On Sunday night, announcements were made through mosque loudspeakers for people to move to lower floors to avoid being hit by bullets or shells.
"I am worried about Tripoli," said Khaled Tutunji, who works at a construction material shop near Abu Ali Square. "In the past, we did not know who is a Sunni and who is Alawite," he said as he stood beside an armored personnel carrier as cracks of gunfire echoed from a distance.
Tensions soared in the city in August, following twin bombings outside Sunni mosques that killed 47 people and wounded scores.
Authorities arrested several members of the pro-Assad Arab Democratic Party on suspicion they were involved and they summoned the group's leader, Ali Eid, for questioning. He has refused to go to the police intelligence office, saying he did not trust them to be impartial.
His son, Rifaat, said his father is ready to go to any security agency other than the police intelligence office, which many pro-Syrians accuse of being dominated by anti-Assad officers.
Since he refused to show up for questioning, a wave of attacks against Alawites intensified and more than a dozen members of the sect have been shot in the legs in Sunni neighborhoods. An unknown group named "Families of the (mosque) Victims" claimed responsibility for the shootings.
Saturday's clashes erupted after an Alawite was shot in the leg while in a Sunni neighborhood.
Following the security meeting that included President Michel Suleiman and army commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji, Mikati said the army was to take charge of security for six months.
The army would carry out patrols and implement arrest warrants issued for fugitives in the city, he added.
In Beirut, a security official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media said 600 policemen from different parts of Lebanon will be sent to Tripoli to help improve security, working under the army's command.
Mazen Kotb, a curtain maker in Tripoli, said his business has fallen by 70 percent because of the tensions. Many of his clients were Alawites who don't dare to come to his shop, he said.
"What is happening in Tripoli pains my heart," Kotb said as he checked his Facebook page on a computer screen on his desk. He said he wanted to ask for a new identity card that does not include his sect, adding he fears he might be shot in the leg if he goes into Alawite areas.
The nearly 3-year-old civil war in Syria has killed more than 100,000 people.
Syrian state media said Monday that government troops captured the western town of Nabek near the frontier with Lebanon after five days of fighting. The Syrian military has been on the offensive in the western Qalamoun region that borders Lebanon to try to stop the flow of fighters and weapons.
Also in the Qalamoun region, fighting continued for control of an ancient, pro-government Christian village about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Damascus.
The government said six nuns were trapped in the village of Maaloula, after al-Qaida-linked rebels seized large parts of the area. Syrian army tanks were positioned around it as the fighting sent smoke wafting over the scenic village, nestled in hillsides.
Forces loyal to Assad are trying to keep rebels led by the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, or Nusra Front, from advancing. Opposition fighters have taken control of several parts of the village since blowing up a checkpoint at its entrance Friday, according to reports by the state news agency and opposition activists.
Five nuns and Mother Superior Pelagia Sayaf were trapped in the Mar Takla Convent, which sits above Maaloula, according to SANA.
Syria's Social Affairs Minister Kindah al-Shammat demanded that countries supporting the rebels pressure them to release the nuns. Rebels have seized parts of Maaloula before, only to be driven out within a few days by government forces.
Also Monday, the U.N.'s top human rights official said a growing body of evidence collected by U.N. investigators points to the involvement of senior Syrian officials, including Assad, in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Navi Pillay, who heads the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said "the scale and viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by elements on both sides almost defies belief." She said the abuses — including suspected massacres, chemical attacks, torture and rape — are being well-documented by an expert U.N. panel of investigators.
"They've produced massive evidence," she told a news conference. "They point to the fact that the evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state."
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was dismissive of Pillay's remarks.
"She has been talking nonsense for a long time and we don't listen to her," he told The Associated Press in The Hague.
Pillay said the lists of suspected criminals will remain sealed until requested by international or national authorities for a "credible investigation," and then possibly used for prosecution. The lists must be kept sealed "to preserve the presumption of innocence" until proper judicial probes can be done that could lead to trial, she said.
Pillay and the four-member U.N. panel on Syria war crimes chaired by Brazilian diplomat and scholar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro has previously said Assad's government and supporters and the rebels who oppose them have committed heinous war crimes in the civil war.
But this time, Pillay specifically referred to the president — though she was careful to say she hadn't singled him out as a possible suspect on the secret lists.
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Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Diaa Hadid in Beirut, John Heilprin in Geneva and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

Who's leaving enormous tips all over the country?

So here's a mystery for the holiday season: someone is leaving enormous, four- and five-figure tips on small checks at restaurants all over the country. But who, and why?
The "who" is the person or persons who goes by the pseudonym "Tips for Jesus." As for why? Well, the name seems to say it all, as does their Instagram slogan: "Doing the Lords [sic] work, one tip at a time."
"Tipsforjesus" has been active since at least September. The tips range from $500 to $10,000, and are being left at a random assortment of restaurants from Michigan to Chicago to Los Angeles. According to The Daily Dot, the tips left total more than $54,000.
The person or persons responsible is also making sure that the tips get in the right hands. When a waiter at Legends of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., complained that the $10,000 tip hadn't been given to him, "tipsforjesus" took action.
“Notre Dame is stiffing you?” tipsforjesus replied. “Hmmm, let me make sure the charges went through since they claim they did not. If they're lying to you, I can talk to AMEX about it, then you should get a lawyer, and call the local paper and ESPN. What they're doing flys in the face of what Jesus would do.” The account later posted a photo of the cleared AMEX charges.
So, servers of the world, be generous to your patrons. You never know when one of them will drop a four-figure bounty in your lap.

Norwegian halal reindeer meat to go on sale..

A reindeer is pictured on June 4, 2010 in Ny-Alesund in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway (AFP Photo/Martin Bureau)

Oslo (AFP) - Norway's first-ever halal reindeer meat will soon make it to the dinner tables of Muslims across Norway and places as distant

Vilteksperten, a slaughterhouse that specialises in game meat, has slaughtered 105 reindeer according to Muslim law, in cooperation with the Islamic Council of Norway.
"It's the tastiest meat in the world," said Harry Dyrstad, head of Vilteksperten.
Their reindeer are slaughtered using the same method as for halal meat -- the animal is first stunned and then its throat cut and its blood drained out -- but the halal method includes a blessing by a religious authority.
Halal reindeer meat is new in Norway, although in 2010 the Russian autonomous region of Yamalo-Nenets reportedly exported 1,000 cans of this product to Qatar.
Dyrstad had the idea in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, when the demand for wild reindeer meat dropped, as it was more expensive than farmed.
"We thought that many people around the world were willing to pay a little bit more to eat a delicious, healthy and nutritious meat," he said.
Norwegian Muslims are the main target for this new product, but halal reindeer meat could also be served in high-end restaurants in Dubai, according to Dyrstad.
"Those who have tried it say it's the best in the world," said Mehtab Afsar, secretary general of the Islamic Council of Norway.

"I'm really looking forward to trying it when it arrives in the shops," he told AFP.

Hubble Telescope Best Shot at Learning Comet Fate...

It's all up to Hubble.

NASA said Monday that the Hubble Space Telescope is the best bet for figuring out whether Comet ISON disintegrated during its brush with the sun last week.

A pair of solar observatories saw something emerge from around the sun following ISON's close approach on Thanksgiving Day. But scientists don't know whether the spot of light was merely the comet's shattered remains or what's left of its icy nucleus. Either way, by now, they say it may be just dust.

Over the coming week or two, scientists will keep a lookout for any brightening, which could indicate what, if anything is left. Hubble should put the matter to rest in mid-December, when the comet's remains are far enough from the sun for safe viewing.

As for us earthlings, there appears to be little chance of spotting what's left of the comet with the naked eye. Whatever is left will pass closest to Earth on Dec. 26; it will keep a safe 40 million miles away.

ISON was making its first visit to the inner solar system, after traveling from the Oort cloud on the fringes of the solar system, home to countless icy bodies, most notably the frozen balls of dust and gas in orbit around the sun known as comets

It was discovered by Russian astronomers last year and, early on, was predicted to become the comet of the century because of its brightness. Indeed, ISON would have wowed observers if it had survived the sun's fury.

NASA turned all its space eyes on the sun-grazing comet throughout the year, watching as ISON advanced ever closer. Even scientists were left wondering whether the comet would survive its encounter with the sun from just 730,000 miles out.

In an online blog, the Naval Research Laboratory's Karl Battams paid tribute Monday to ISON and suggested that donations be made to astronomy clubs, observatories or charities supporting science and math education for children.

"Never one to follow convention, ISON lived a dynamic and unpredictable life, alternating between periods of quiet reflection and violent outburst," Battams, an astrophysicist, wrote. "Comet ISON leaves behind an unprecedented legacy for astronomers, and the eternal gratitude of an enthralled global audience."

Man removed from flight in Phoenix over infectious disease alert...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Officials removed a man with an unspecified infectious disease - possibly tuberculosis - from a US Airways Express flight with 70 passengers on board shortly after it landed in Phoenix over the weekend, authorities said on Monday.

The unidentified man was removed from Flight 2846 from Austin, Texas, when it landed on Saturday after the airline received an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding a passenger known to have an infectious disease, a spokesman for the airline said.
The Transport Security Administration had not flagged the passenger as "do not fly" prior to the flight, although once in the air the CDC notified the airline that the passenger had "do not board" status, US Airways spokesman Bill McGlahsen said.
A document on the CDC's website said the do not board list is intended "to prevent persons who are contagious from boarding commercial aircraft." It mentioned pulmonary tuberculosis as one such communicable disease.
"After the flight left, the CDC notified the TSA who notified us," McGlahsen told Reuters. "We stopped short of the gate and then consulted with CDC and then we proceeded to the gate. That's where firefighters, paramedics met the flight," he added.
After the plane was stopped, some passengers reported that a firefighter announced over the intercom that everyone on board had been exposed to tuberculosis and should see their doctors immediately, The Arizona Republic newspaper reported on Monday.
McGlahsen could not comment on the passenger's medical condition. Calls to both the CDC and Maricopa County Public Health seeking details were not immediately returned on Monday.
Tuberculosis, which is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium, was once the leading cause of death in the United States, the CDC said on its website.
The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. If not treated properly, it can be fatal.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; editing by Andrew Hay)

Iceland Cop Killing First in Nation's History..

Police in Iceland said Monday they shot dead a gunman — the first time armed police have killed someone in the nation.

Iceland, which has a tiny population of around 320,000, has a low crime rate and gun violence is extremely rare. Its regular police force does not carry firearms.

Haraldur Johannessen, National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police, said Monday's incident was unprecedented.

Police said officers were called to an apartment in the Reykjavik suburb of Arbaer early Monday when a man fired a shotgun from inside the flat. Two policemen, who were not armed, were shot at when trying to enter the gunman's apartment.

Witnesses told local media that a smoke bomb was thrown into the apartment through a broken window in efforts to subdue the man. A special armed unit then entered and fired at the man, who was rushed to the hospital, where he died. No one else has been injured.

"All available members of the police force were deployed, and they tried to subdue him, but it was not successful," Reykjavik Metropolitan Police Commissioner Stefan Eiriksson told a press conference, according to local media website Visir. "The man began to shoot out the window of the apartment and it was decided to take action."

The motives of the man, who has not been named, are unclear. According to RUV, Iceland's national television station, the gunman was a man in his fifties and had been making threats to his neighbors.

Shotguns for hunting are legal in Iceland. Many Icelanders believe that the country rarely sees gun violence in part because handguns are banned.

Serial killer serving life sentence dies in South Dakota..

(Reuters) - A serial killer died on Sunday after serving less than three years of a life sentence for strangling seven women, according to South Dakota prison officials.
Walter Ellis, 53, died at a Sioux Falls hospital, apparently of natural causes, but an autopsy is being conducted as part of a standard investigation by the South Dakota Department of Corrections, the officials said in a statement.
As police searched for a suspect in the killings of seven Milwaukee women from 1986 to 2007, local media dubbed the killer "the Milwaukee North Side Strangler."
Ellis, arrested in 2009, was sentenced in February 2011 to seven consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole. He pleaded no contest to first-degree intentional homicide in the strangling deaths of the seven women, who ranged in age from 16 to 41.
Police said Ellis' DNA matched semen samples found on six victims and a blood sample on a can of pepper spray discovered at the seventh murder site.
Ellis, who was from Milwaukee, was housed in a South Dakota prison under an interstate agreement.
(Reporting By Carey Gillam; Editing by John Wallace)