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Report finds rape culture in Asia
NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT
Government sells another $811 million in GM stock The government is getting closer to selling all of its General Motors Co. stock. The Treasury Department said in its August report to Congress that it sold $811 million worth of GM common stock last month. The report dated Tuesday says the government has recovered about $35.4 billion of the $49.5 billion bailout it gave the Detroit automaker. That means taxpayers are still $14.1 billion in the hole. The Treasury says the price per share of stock sold in July and August will be revealed at a later date.
WASHINGTON
Richest 1 percent earn biggest share since 1920 The gulf between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America is the widest it’s been since the Roaring ‘20s. The very wealthiest Americans earned more than 19 percent of the country’s household income last year — their biggest share since 1928, the year before the stock market crash. And the top 10 percent captured a record 48.2 percent of total earnings last year. U.S. income inequality has been growing for almost three decades. And it grew again last year, according to an analysis of Internal Revenue Service figures dating to 1913 by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University. One of them, Berkeley’s Emmanuel Saez, said the incomes of the richest Americans surged last year in part because they cashed in stock holdings to avoid higher capital gains taxes that took effect in January.
WASHINGTON
U.S. says eight more countries join statement on Syria The White House says eight more countries have signed a statement blaming Syrian President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR’ AH’-sahd) for a chemical weapons attack and calling for a strong international response. The additions announced Tuesday bring the total number of supportive countries to 33, up from 25 on Monday. The statement was released last week at the close of an economic summit in Russia. It had 11 original signers, including the United States. The latest countries to sign are Georgia, Guatemala, Kuwait, Malta, Montenegro, Panama, Poland and Portugal.
KINSHASA, Congo
‘Significant progress’ in Congo, M23 talks The Congolese government and a rebel group that is ensconced in the hills above one of the country’s largest cities have made progress in talks organized by neighboring nations, according to a statement issued Tuesday. “Significant progress has been made in the dialogue,” said the statement from the Office of the Facilitator of the International Conference of the Great Lakes, which is hosting the mediation effort in the capital of neighboring Uganda. Late last month, Congolese troops exchanged heavy fire with the M23 rebels, who occupy positions just outside the strategic eastern city of Goma. Aided by U.N. forces who pounded rebel positions with combat helicopters the Congolese were able to reclaim several areas that had been occupied by the M23, until the rebels unexpectedly declared a cease-fire, saying they wanted to resume talks. —Compiled from Daily wire reports
Wednesday, September 11, 2013 — 3A
In some parts of region, offenders felt ‘sexual entitlement’
Susan Walsh/AP Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), left, accompanied by the committee’s ranking Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asks a question, on Capitol Hill in Washington,Tuesday.
Feds seek legitimacy for marjiuana financial sector Banks currently wary to serve lawful marijuana-related businesses WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and federal banking regulators will help clear the way for financial institutions to transact business with the legitimate marijuana industry without fear of prosecution, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told Congress on Tuesday. The issue has taken on greater urgency now that Colorado and Washington have become the first states to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Currently, processing money from marijuana sales puts federally insured banks at risk of drug racketeering charges. Because of the threat of criminal prosecution, financial institutions often refuse to let marijuana-related businesses open accounts. The problem occurs in states that have laws permitting medical use of marijuana. In 1996, California voters made their state the first to allow medical use, and 19 more states and the District of Columbia have enacted similar laws. In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cole said the absence of banking services is one that “we need to deal with” and that
“we’re working on it.” The congressional hearing was the first since the administration announced a new, more permissive enforcement policy. On Aug. 29, the Justice Department said it won’t try to stop Colorado and Washington state from legalizing recreational marijuana use as long as they implement strong enforcement systems. Marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law. At the hearing that highlighted the conflict between state and federal law on marijuana, Cole told the committee that “there are no perfect solutions here. ... We’re at the point we’re trying to find the best of the imperfect solutions before us.” Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that as a result of the banking constraints, legitimate marijuana businesses are operating on a cash-only basis and “that’s a prescription for problems, tax evasion” and other criminal activity. Cole agreed and said there is a public safety component to the problem because the cash-only business can result in the presence of guns. In 2011, American Express announced it would no longer handle medical marijuanarelated transactions because of fear of federal prosecution. A month later, Cole gave banks an explicit directive on medical marijuana that stated: “Those who engage in transactions involving the proceeds of such
activity may also be in violation of federal money laundering statutes and other federal financing laws.” Leahy, who spent eight years as a prosecutor early in his career, said the Justice Department should focus on prosecuting violent crime and should respect the votes in Colorado and Washington to legalize small amounts of marijuana for personal and medical use. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee’s top Republican and co-chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, said the Justice Department is “giving the green light” to an industry bent on breaking federal law. Grassley said that Colorado has seen a sharp uptick in diversion of marijuana from Colorado to other states and increased use among minors. “I understand the skepticism that you come to it with,” Cole told Grassley. “We have reserved, quite explicitly, the right to go in” and challenge the regulatory programs of Colorado and Washington. Grassley asked what the Justice Department plans to do to protect states like Iowa from marijuana being diverted from states like Colorado. Cole responded, “If it’s being exported from Colorado to Iowa and we find out about it, we will prosecute.” With the door to legalization open in two states, others could follow.
Google loses federal appeals case for invading online privacy Data collected through unprotected networks ruled as ‘Wi-Spy’ SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal appeals court said Google wrongly collected people’s personal correspondence and online activities through their Wi-Fi systems as it drove down their streets with car cameras shooting photos for its Street View mapping project. The ruling that the practice violates wiretap laws sends a warning to other companies seeking to suck up vast amounts of data from unencrypted Wi-Fi signals. “The payload data transmitted over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks that was captured by Google included emails, usernames, passwords, images, and documents,” wrote the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a report released Tuesday Google had argued that their activities were exempt from the wiretap law because data transmitted over a Wi-Fi network is a “radio communication” and is “readily accessible to the public.” Not so, wrote the judges, agreeing with an earlier federal judge’s ruling. “Even if it is commonplace for members of the general public to connect to a neighbor’s unencrypted Wi-Fi network, members of the general public do not typically mistakenly intercept, store, and decode data transmitted by other devices on the network,” they said.
Google’s Street View cars can be spotted with pole mounted cameras on their roofs, photographing along roadways the world over. The photos then show up on Google’s popular Street View map option, where viewers can virtually scroll along a street past homes, cars and shops, all captured in photographs. But unbeknownst to passersby, those cameras weren’t just making photos. They were also collecting detailed information transmitted over Wi-Fi networks they passed through. Privacy experts and industry watchers said this was the first time an appeals court has ruled that it’s illegal for a company to sniff out and collect private information from the Wi-Fi networks that provide Internet service to people at home. Google is also the first publically known company to try. “This appeals court decision is a tremendous victory for privacy rights. It means Google can’t suck up private communications from people’s Wi-Fi networks and claim their WiSpying was exempt from federal wiretap laws,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project director. “Because Google’s Wi-Spy activity was so extensive, the potential damages could amount to billions of dollars.” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of Electronic Privacy Information Center, called it “a landmark decision for Internet privacy.” “The court made clear that the federal privacy law applies to residential Wi-Fi networks,” he said. “Users should be protected
when a company tries to capture data that travels between their laptop and their printer in their home.” A Google spokesperson said Tuesday that attorneys for the Internet giant are “disappointed in the 9th Circuit’s decision and are considering our next steps.” Attorney Elizabeth Cabraser, representing a class action of plaintiffs who say their privacy was invaded by Google said Tuesday they look forward to resuming their case now that a federal appeals court has ruled in their favor. Google has apologized for the snooping, which it says took place between 2008 and March 2010. It promised to stop collecting the data and said the practice, conducted in more than 30 countries, was inadvertent but not illegal. Earlier this year Google settled a 37-state lawsuit for $7 million after attorney generals sued over what they said was an invasion of privacy for the data collection. The practice was discovered by a German data protection commissioner in 2010. A few months later, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told conference goers the firm had made a mistake. “In short, let me just say that we screwed up,” he said at the time. Google says it has disabled the equipment that was collecting the data, and agreed to destroy the information as soon as possible. The company is currently obliged to hold it, unused, because of ongoing litigation.
LONDON (AP) — About one in four men in some parts of Asia admitted raping a woman, according to the first large studies of rape and sexual violence. About one in 10 admitted raping a woman who was not their partner. International researchers said their startling finding should change perceptions about how common violence against women is and prompt major campaigns to prevent it. Still, the results were based on a survey of only six Asian countries and the authors said it was uncertain what rates were like elsewhere in the region and beyond. They said engrained sexist attitudes contributed, but that other factors like poverty or being emotionally and physically abused as children were major risk factors for men’s violent behavior. A previous report from the World Health Organization found one-third of women worldwide say they have been victims of domestic or sexual violence. “It’s clear violence against women is far more widespread in the general population than we thought,” said Rachel Jewkes of South Africa’s Medical Research Council, who led the two studies. The research was paid for by several United Nations agencies and Australia, Britain, Norway and Sweden. The papers were published online Tuesday in the journal, Lancet Global Health. In the new research, male interviewers surveyed more than 10,000 men in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea. The word “rape” was not used in the questions, but the men were asked if they had ever forced a woman to have sex when she wasn’t willing or if they had ever
forced sex on someone who was too drunk or drugged to consent. In most places, scientists concluded between 6 to 8 percent of men raped a woman who wasn’t their partner. When they included wives and girlfriends, the figures were mostly between 30 to 57 percent. The lowest rates were in Bangladesh and Indonesia and the highest were in Papa New Guinea. Previous studies of rape have been done in South Africa, where nearly 40 percent of men are believed to have raped a woman. Of those who acknowledged forcing a woman to have sex, more than 70 percent of men said it was because of “sexual entitlement.” Nearly 60 percent said they were bored or wanted to have fun while about 40 percent said it was because they were angry or wanted to punish the woman. Only about half of the men said they felt guilty and 23 percent had been imprisoned for a rape. “The problem is shocking but anyplace we have looked, we see partner violence, victimization and sexual violence,” said Michele Decker, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who co-wrote an accompanying commentary. “Rape doesn’t just involve someone with a gun to a woman’s head,” she said. “People tend to think of rape as something someone else would do.” “It’s not enough to focus on services for women,” said Charlotte Watts, head of the Gender, Violence and Health Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was not part of the study. She said some programs in Africa based on challenging traditional ideas of masculinity are proving successful. “It may be that the culture where they grew up condones violence, but it’s not impossible to change that,” she said.
New MSU drone to boost crop yield Drone to act as diagnostic tool on fields EAST LANSING (AP) — A drone has joined the vehicle fleet at Michigan State University, which is using the pilotless airplane to find ways to help farmers increase their yields through better use of fertilizer and water. The National Science Foundation is financing the research. The East Lansing school says the information that the drone gathers also will help reduce the environmental effect of nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emissions. The university says the drone “measures how crops react to stress, such as drought, nutrients deficiency or pests.” It says the plane can document a field’s status “down to centimeters.” With the detailed knowledge, farmers can quickly spot problem areas and address them with a precise response, Bruno Basso, an ecosystem scientist at Michigan State, said in a statement. “When you have a cut and need disinfectant, you don’t dive into a pool of medicine; you apply
it only where you need it and in the quantity that is strictly necessary,” said Basso, who also works at Michigan State’s Kellogg Biological Station. “Rather than covering the entire field with fertilizer, it can be applied exactly where it’s needed. We basically try to do the right thing, at right place, at the right time.” The drone has three censors — a high-resolution radiometer, a thermal camera to monitor plant temperature and hydration, and a laser scanner. Basso said the drone “is like an X-ray. Before we can diagnose the problem, we need to collect as many details as possible.” The sensor data can be plugged into the System Approach for Land-Use Sustainability model. Known as SALUS, the crop tool forecasts crop, soil, water, and nutrient conditions in the climate of the present and the future, the university said. It also can be used to evaluate crop rotations, planting dates, irrigation and fertilizer use and project crop yields and their effect on the land. “It’s based on actual need, not on tradition, not on history or a plan recommended by someone else,” Basso said. “It’s what plants need now and is the ultimate in sustainability.”