Bradley Manning verdict
is expected to come today


The judge presiding over the court-martial of an Army private charged with leaking U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks says she will announce her verdict today.

Bradley Manning was serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq when he sent a vast cache of secret diplomatic cables and classified military reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the anti-secrecy Web site.

Manning has admitted leaking 700,000 documents, pleading guilty to 10 lesser charges, including espionage and computer fraud. He faces a possible life sentence.

But Manning has denied other charges, including the most serious one — that he knowingly helped enemies of the United States, most notably Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

The defense attorney has argued that Manning is no traitor but a young, naive and good-intentioned citizen who wanted to encourage public debate about U.S. foreign policy.



Russian official claims
Snowden safer in airport


A Russian federal migration service official said he believes it's best that former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remain in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport because he is a wanted man and is safer there. The United States has promised Russia it will not seek the death penalty if Snowden is returned to America to face espionage charges.

Former NSA contractor Snowden has been holed up in Sheremetyevo Airport for more than a month as he awaits temporary asylum in Russia.

Snowden’s lawyer says his application for asylum has been submitted to Russia’s federal migration service, and it’s now a wait and see situation.

Vladimir Volokh, head of the service's public council, said if Snowden leaves Sheremetyevo, Russia can’t guarantee his safety.

"I don't think it is good for Snowden to travel freely in Russia, as he is wanted now," Volokh said, adding that he thinks the safest area for Snowden is to remain in the transit area at the airport or in areas under the jurisdiction of the immigration service.

Volokh’s comments came as Washington promised Snowden wouldn't face the death penalty were he expelled to the U.S.  In a letter to Russia’s justice minister, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder assured the Kremlin that the criminal charges Snowden faces back home don’t carry the death penalty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far refused to extradite Snowden, saying he is a free man.

Snowden’s lawyer says that once the former NSA contractor has the documents to leave Sheremetyevo he’ll be seeking to establish a life in Russia, at least for now.

The dispute over Snowden is the latest between Moscow and Washington.   The two sides continue to disagree over a myriad of issues including missile defense, Syria and adoptions.



Lone robber grabs jewels
worth $136 million in France


An armed robber stole gems worth $136 million (102 million euros) in a weekend jewelry heist in the French Riviera resort of Cannes, making it the country's biggest gem theft.
 
The prosecutor's office in the nearby city of Grasse issued the figure Monday based on an inventory of pieces seized in broad daylight from a precious jewelry exhibition at the luxury Carlton Hotel.
 
It was well over twice initial estimates, which local media had put at around $53 million.
 
The thief burst into the Carlton, on the famed La Croisette seafront, close to midday Sunday armed with an automatic pistol and with a cap and a scarf concealing his face.
 
He threatened security guards and sales staff and left moments later with a briefcase containing 72 pieces, including jewels, rings, pendants and diamond-encrusted earrings, from a collection belonging to diamond specialist Leviev.
 
Just 34 of the stolen items were worth a total of $135 million, according to the prosecutor's office, which initially valued the loot at “several million euros”.
 
“The man entered by a glass door onto the Croisette which normally should have been bolted,” a spokesperson at the prosecutor's office said.
 
Initial investigations suggested the man may have dropped several jewels as he hurried away on foot via a different door.
 
The hotel, celebrating its centenary this year, was where Alfred Hitchcock filmed scenes from the 1955 film “To Catch a Thief”, starring Cary Grant as a one-time cat burglar and Grace Kelly as the beautiful Frances.
 
The heist came two months after two smaller jewelry robberies hit the annual Cannes film festival, where movie stars are lent gowns and gems to parade on the red carpets.
 
It was the biggest theft of jewels on record in France.
 
A group of men disguised as women shoppers pulled out guns and made off with around $105 million worth of jewels from the Harry Winston jewelry store on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris in 2008.



Pope's trip to Brazil called
a success or just new style


Pope Francis’ first trip abroad, to Brazil, is being hailed as a success by prelates of the Roman Catholic Church. Critics say that so far, however, the new pope has brought a change of style, not substance.

He carried his own bag during his travels, and he visited a slum in Rio de Janeiro.

And his message to his young followers sounded downright subversive.

“Be revolutionaries. I ask you to swim against the tide. Yes, I am asking you to rebel.” he said.

On his way back to Rome, the pope spoke to reporters at length about difficult issues, including gay priests.

“If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge him," he asked.

The pope did not negate Church teaching that homosexuality is a sin. But his words do reflect a more compassionate approach to controversial issues than that of his predecessors.

Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, which opposes the church’s ban on abortion and contraception, said, “It feels good as a Catholic to have a leader who’s not against talking to us about why we can’t use condoms; again he’s not beating up on gays; or he’s not saying that women who have abortions are bad.”

He said the rhetoric, though, needs to be followed by real change.

“And we’re not seeing a lot of movement by Pope Francis, about changing some of the teachings that are hugely problematic for Catholics,” he said.

Still, Francis' first trip abroad suggests that he has a way with large crowds of the faithful, not seen since the papacy of John Paul II.



SS murderer turns 100
with protesters outside


Dozens of demonstrators, including members of Rome's Jewish community, protested outside the apartment building where the former SS officer responsible for one of Italy's worst wartime massacres celebrated his 100th birthday Monday.
 
Erich Priebke, a former SS captain, lives under house arrest in the Italian capital after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998 for the massacre in the Ardeatine Caves near Rome where 335 civilians were killed in March 1944.
 
There were brief scuffles as a man identified as Priebke's grandson arrived with a bottle of champagne and demonstrators jostled him with cries of “Shame!” and “Disgrace!”.
 
“It's a provocation! Arriving with a bottle of champagne!” one demonstrator shouted.
 
Almost 70 years since the end of World War II, Italy's wartime past is still deeply divisive in a country which came close to civil war when the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini collapsed in 1943.
 
Tensions around the birthday of Priebke, who has never expressed remorse for his actions, were heightened by reports of posters put up nearby hailing the former Nazi officer.
 
“Happy Birthday, Captain Priebke” read one poster signed by a group calling itself the Militant Community of Tiburtina (a Rome neighborhood), the daily Corriere della Sera daily reported.
 
The national association representing former wartime partisans said its headquarters had been scrawled with swastikas and comments supporting Priebke. Similar graffiti was seen elsewhere, Italian newspapers said.
 
In March 1944, Priebke was in charge of SS troops who executed the 335 people in retaliation for the killing of 33 German soldiers by a partisan group near Rome.
 
After the war he escaped to Argentina but was deported to Italy after he was interviewed on U.S. television and admitted his role in the massacre which he said was conducted against “terrorists”.



U.S. Senate confirms Comey
as new head of the FBI


The U.S. Senate has confirmed President Barack Obama's pick to become the next Federal Bureau of Investigation director. He is James Comey.

Senators Monday overwhelmingly supported Comey with a vote of 93-1. He will replace Robert Mueller, who has led the FBI since shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.

The vote went forward Monday after  Sen. Ron Paul, a Republican, ended his delaying tactics against the nomination. Paul had been blocking the vote over concerns about the domestic use of drones. He was the only one who voted against confirmation.

Comey, a Republican, served as a deputy attorney general in the previous administration of President George W. Bush.

Comey is perhaps best known for refusing to approve legal aspects of a domestic surveillance program in 2004, while serving as acting attorney general while his boss, John Ashcroft, recovered from surgery.

The White House says Comey, during his career, demonstrated unwavering toughness, integrity and principle in defending security and the nation's values.

  

Three-day sweep rescues
105 exploited kids, FBI says


The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation says it has rescued 105 sexually exploited children during a three-day nationwide sweep.

Operation Cross Country also resulted in the arrests of 150 pimps and other people involved in underage prostitution.

The enforcement action took place in 76 cities and was carried out with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

The assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, Ron Hosko, said, "child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across America."

Operation Cross Country was the seventh and largest such enforcement operation to date as part of the FBI's Innocence Lost national initiative. Since the initiative's 2003 creation, more than 2,700 sexually exploited children have been identified and recovered.



Approaching comet failing
to live up to advance billing


Astronomers slated to meet this week to discuss observing plans for Comet ISON may not have much to talk about. The so-called Comet of the Century may already have fizzled out.
 
“The future of comet ISON does not look bright,” astronomer Ignacio Ferrin, with the University of Antioquia in Colombia, said in a statement Monday.
 
Ferrin's calculations show the comet, which is currently moving toward the sun at 16 miles (26 km) per second, has not brightened since mid-January. That may be because the comet is already out of ice particles in its body, which melt as the comet moves closer to the sun, creating a long, bright tail.
 
Another theory is that the comet is covered in a layer of silicate dust that snuffs out water vapor and other gases that brighten the comet.
 
“Comet ISON has been on a standstill for more than 132 days ... a rather puzzling feat,” Ferrin wrote in a paper submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and posted online at the archival site arXiv.org.
 
The comet, named ISON for the International Scientific Optical Network that made its discovery, was found in September 2012 by two amateur Russian astronomers.
 
It is due to pass about 724,000 miles (1.2 million km) from the sun on Nov. 28. The relatively close pass was expected to create a massive tail that some scientists predict will be visible even in daylight.
 
If it survives, that is. At that distance, the comet would reach temperatures of about 4,900 degrees F (2,700 degrees C), hot enough to melt lead. It may also be pulled apart by the sun's gravity.
 
Scientists believe the comet hails from the Oort Cloud, a cluster of icy rocks that circle the sun about 50,000 times farther away than Earth's orbit. Calculations show Comet ISON is making its first and possibly last voyage into the inner solar system.



Detroit's bankruptcy places
art treasures in jeopardy


The Detroit Institute of Arts Museum is home to valuable paintings, sculptures, and artifacts from around the world.  But what is housed there belongs to the city of Detroit.  With the city filing bankruptcy protection, many are concerned the collections could be sold to pay Detroit’s creditors.
 
Inside its massive halls are more than 60,000 objects that make up one of the top collections of art in the United States.
 
Visitors to the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum can see up close the brush strokes of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait” or William-Adolphe Bouguereau's “Nut Gatherers” which is so finely detailed it looks more like a photograph than a painting.
 
It was the large wall murals of Detroit’s auto industry, painted by Diego Rivera, that attracted Virginia-based airline pilot Terrence O’Toole.
 
“And I thought it was interesting to come in here and see the murals depicting the cultural diversity of the plant,” O'Toole explained.
 
There are placards that describe each artifact on display. Underneath the title of many of the pieces are four important words, “City of Detroit Purchase.”
 
What sets the museum apart from most similar facilities is that the city owns the building and its collections. 
 
Even before Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, filed for bankruptcy protection, he inquired about the Institute’s inventory, setting the art world and Detroit’s citizens into a frenzy.
 
“It’s a slam against all the citizens of this city and a slam against the citizens of the whole area here," said bookseller John King, a lifelong Detroit resident who stayed in the city as its population dramatically declined.  He said the art institute is important to what is left of Detroit's spirit, and hopes creditors don’t force the sale of its assets to pay the city’s debt.
 
“It’s sad they’re even talking about going after that asset," King said. "I, mean they have other assets they could go after, and they shouldn’t really be touching the Detroit Institute of Arts.”
 
Finance professor Amiyatosh Purnanandan of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan says the total value of the collection is far less than what Detroit owes its creditors.
 
“You’re looking at $18 billion of debt," Purnanandan said. "The Art museum will fetch you about $1 to $2 billion.  Even if you sell that, it’s not going to solve your problems.”
 
“To have to sell it piecemeal would be sad," commented visitor O’Toole, adding that selling the collection could also undermine the very thing Detroit needs at the moment.
 
“It brings visitors, it brings cash flow to this community, which this city is in desperate need of some cash flow,” he noted.
 
The non-profit group ArtServe Michigan says the state earned $2 billion in tourism money in 2011, based mostly on cultural institutions, like the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Not only would selling the collection hurt tourism income, experts say such a sale would mean a large amount of rare and important artwork would flood the market, potentially undermining the city’s ability to get the best price possible for its holdings. 



Elephants found to consider
moonlight when they raid farms


African elephants appear to use the cover of darkness to avoid being detected by humans when raiding farmlands for food, according to a new study.

The study also showed that the elephants even adjust their foraging with the lunar cycle, which also is believed to be a way of avoiding contact with humans.

"Elephants are cathemeral, meaning they are active during day and night, but raid crops almost exclusively at night, suggesting they only venture close to villages when they believe they are harder to detect,” said Rachel Grant a lecturer in animal behavior at Anglia Ruskin University in England.

She added that an elephant's awareness of the higher risk of being detected on moonlit nights, because of the visual advantage gained by humans, could account for the changes in their behavior during the lunar cycle and explain why elephants are less likely to venture close to villages during the full moon.

The study was carried out in an around Mikumi National Park in Tanzania, about 298 kilometers west of Dar es Salaam, which holds one of the largest populations of wild elephants in Africa.

Researchers selected five villages near the park and recorded the instances of elephant crop raiding. They found that the number of elephant raid nights varied throughout the lunar cycle, with significantly fewer raids occurring during a full moon. The extent of crop damage also fell considerably during the full moon phase.

"Some animals that vary their activity according to the lunar cycle have an internally arising biological rhythm; alternatively they may be basing their decision-making on local conditions at the time,” said Grant. “Many animals alter their behavior according to varying light levels and the perceived risk of predation, and this is likely to be a partly evolved, partly learned response.”

Grant said the behavior was likely to be found in elephant populations outside Tanzania, and that the information from the study could be used to protect farms from elephant damage.

 

Carter reported to make visit
to North Korea for detainee


There are numerous reports that former U.S. president Jimmy Carter will travel to North Korea on a private mission to free a Korean-American man detained there.

Speaking to reporters Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Carter is making the North Korea trip in his personal capacity. But later the White House issued a statement saying it was not confirming the reported Carter trip.

A Carter spokeswoman said the former president was in the Colombian capital, Bogota, Monday, as part of a mission to announce success in the fight against river blindness disease. She also said Carter has no immediate plans to travel to North Korea.

Earlier Monday, the South Korean news agency Yonhap said Carter will visit Pyongyang soon to urge that North Korean leaders release Kenneth Bae.

North Korea detained Bae, a tour operator, in the northeastern port of Rason last November. He was later convicted of trying to topple the government and was sent to a prison camp to serve 15 years of hard labor.

The Internet petition Web site Change.org said Bae's family had no immediate response to the reports about Carter. The family launched a campaign on Change.org in early May, calling on the Obama administration to do everything it can to secure an amnesty for Bae and allow him to return home to his family and friends.

The former U.S. president has visited the impoverished country several times in recent years, despite the lack of diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The two sides have yet to sign a peace treaty since the Korean War ended in 1953.

Carter first traveled to North Korea in 1994, when he met then-Supreme Leader Kim Il Sung to defuse a nuclear crisis triggered by Pyongyang's expulsion of international nuclear inspectors.

Carter traveled again to North Korea in August 2010 and secured the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, another American citizen who had been sentenced to hard labor on charges of entering the country illegally. The former president last visited Pyongyang in April 2011 as part of an international group of former statesmen and women, known as The Elders.

Bae recently urged the U.S. government to secure his release, saying he is in poor health and wants to be reunited with his family. He made the emotional appeal from prison as he spoke in Korean in a videotaped interview granted to the Japanese newspaper Choson Sinbo, which is sympathetic to Pyongyang.

The newspaper published the interview on July 3 and said it was conducted on June 26 with North Korean government approval.