EU threatens to suspend data agreements with US, citing privacy concerns

The EU threatened to suspend US access to certain financial and travel data in wake of recent NSA leaks.

By Adrian Croft,?Reuters / July 5, 2013

European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels. Malmstrom expressed concerns over US surveillance techniques.

Francois Lenoir/ Reuters/ File

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The?European Union?is threatening to suspend two agreements granting the?United States?access to European financial and travel data unless Washington shows it is respecting EU rules on data?privacy, EU officials said on Friday.

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The threat reflects European disquiet about allegations that the?United States?has engaged in widespread eavesdropping on European Internet users as well as spying on the EU.

Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU's home affairs commissioner, wrote to two senior U.S. officials on Thursday to voice European concerns over implementation of the two agreements, both struck in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and regarded by Washington as important tools in the fight against terrorism.

"Should we fail to demonstrate the benefits of (the agreements) for our citizens and the fact that they have been implemented in full compliance with the law, their credibility will be seriously affected and in such a case I will be obliged to reconsider (whether) the conditions for their implementation are still met," Malmstrom said.

EU-U.S. relations are going through a "delicate moment", she wrote in the letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and?David Cohen, Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

"Mutual trust and confidence have been seriously eroded and I expect the US to do all that it can to restore them," she said in the letter, seen by Reuters.

Malmstrom is dispatching a team of officials to Washington next week for previously scheduled reviews of both information-sharing agreements.

The Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) provides the US Treasury with data stored in?Europe?on international financial transfers. The Passenger Name Record agreement covers data provided by passengers when booking tickets and checking in for flights. All such information is passed to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

SAFEGUARDS

The?United States?and the EU need to show that the two data-sharing agreements "continue to bring benefits to our security and that the robust safeguards attached to them are respected to the full. We need complete transparency and a maximum of information on both programmes," Malmstrom wrote.

The?European Parliament, some of whose members have long worried that the agreements granted the?United States?too much access to European data, called on Thursday for the scrapping of both accords unless Washington revealed the extent of its electronic spying operations in?Europe.

Many of the eavesdropping reports were based on leaks by fugitive former US spy agency contractor?Edward Snowden.

Last month, US officials confirmed the existence of an electronic spying operation codenamed PRISM, which according to Snowden collects data from European and other users of?Google?, Facebook,?Skype?and other U.S. companies.

In a separate leak, the?United States?was accused of eavesdropping on EU offices and officials.

France?initially urged the EU to delay talks on an ambitious trade pact with the?United Statesover the alleged spying.

European Commission?President Jose Manuel Barroso said later that?Europe?would begin the trade talks on Monday as planned but would at the same time set up EU-U.S. working groups to examine the scope of?US intelligence-gathering.

Separately, German Interior Minister?Hans-Peter Friedrich?said the country's intelligence services were not spying on the?United States?and that he did not think German policymakers were under US surveillance.

"Anything else would be inacceptable," he was quoted by the mass-circulation Bild newspaper as saying.

"It would be inacceptable for NATO partners and friends to spy on?German government?offices and if that were the case, we would not only demand that this stops immediately, we would also demand an apology."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/drIN4IzCCUA/EU-threatens-to-suspend-data-agreements-with-US-citing-privacy-concerns

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Tree rings reveal El Ni?o tied to recent global warming

El Ni?o, the notoriously capricious weather phenomenon, has a clear pattern of unusually aggressive behavior throughout the past century. Scientists see a link to global warming.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / July 1, 2013

Shoppers and vendors protect themselves and their merchandise from the sudden downpour in March 2010 in Manila, Philippines. The rain was a great relief to farmers experiencing El Nino-triggered drought in the agricultural areas of the country.

AP Photo/Pat Roque

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Every seven years ? or sometimes every two years, or maybe four years ? El Ni?o turns a bucket of rainfall over western South America, sending floodwaters cascading over coastal Ecuador and typhoons spiraling into Peru. Other parts of countries get no rain at all, withering in a crippling dry heat. Fish die, and so do the birds that live off them. The economy of those coastal countries buckles. Nations wait for respite.

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For all the damage it does, El Ni?o, a rise in water temperatures off western South America's coast, is difficult to track, a fickle phenomenon that arrives unannounced and gives little notice as to when it might depart ? maybe a year later, or maybe two years.

But new research suggests that the phenomenon was uncharacteristically active in the late 20th century, relative to the previous seven centuries. That in turn suggests that El Ni?o is more responsive to climate change than previously believed and that it might be possible to better predict future conditions.

El Ni?o is not a well-understood phenomenon. So, pinning its capricious behavior on manmade global warming is challenging, since El Ni?o waxes and wanes like a fair-weather friend over short lengths of time. Those short busts and booms could be pegged to short-term, natural weather fluxes, as opposed to a long-term, the warming of the Earth.

But this latest research, published in Nature Climate Change, looks with longer hindsight on the phenomenon, reflecting on some 700 years of its behavior. That long look back revealed some clear patterns that suggest the phenomenon is waltzing in step with global warming.

Scientists compiled some 2,222 tree-ring chronologies of the past seven centuries from both the mid-latitudes in both hemispheres and the tropics. Tree rings can provide an accurate record of historical climate pattern, packing in their width and color information about the precipitation, wind, and temperature conditions at the time at which the tree was growing.

Scientists found that the tree ring patterns in the 20^th -century suggested that El Ni?o had been more active then than during the last seven centuries, meaning ?that long-term El Ni?o patterns have dovetailed with the global warming that characterized that century.

?This suggests that many models underestimate the sensitivity to radiative perturbations in greenhouse gases,? said Shang-Ping Xie, co-author and meteorology professor at the International Pacific Research Center. ?Our results now provide a guide to improve the accuracy of climate models and their projections of future ENSO activity.?

?If this trend of increasing ENSO activity continues, we expect to see more weather extremes such as floods and droughts,? she said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/I9wfdlWQs_g/Tree-rings-reveal-El-Nino-tied-to-recent-global-warming

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Insurance Costs Set for a Jolt (WSJ)

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Texas Sen. Davis Braces For New Abortion Fight

Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis, who blocked extensive abortion restrictions in her state with an 11-hour filibuster last week, said she expects a different fight this week on the issue.

"They mismanaged the clock terribly last time and they also ran roughshod over a lot of our Senate rules and traditions to try to ram this bill through," Davis told host Bob Schieffer on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "But, what they now have to confront is that the eyes of Texas, the eyes of the country, are watching and they are going to be held accountable for the decisions that they make in this process."

Story continues below video.

Meanwhile, Davis said she continues to be taken aback by Texas Gov. Rick Perry's attacks on her after the filibuster.? On Thursday, just two days after, Perry told the National Right to Life Convention in Dallas that Davis, a single mother of two daughters and a graduate of Harvard Law School, that she should "learn from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential."

Perry: Abortion Foe Best Example 'That Every Life Matters'

"It was a terrible personal thing for him to say," Davis said of Perry's insinuation that her own mother chose not to abort her. "I've been in the political arena for some time, and it takes a lot to offend me."

She said even more than for herself, she was 'offended about the statement it makes on behalf of women throughout the state of Texas. I think it showed disregard for the fact we all we each own our own personal history, we make choices and have the opportunity to take chances that present themselves to us. What this is about is making sure that women across the state of Texas have the same opportunity to make those choices and have the same chances that I had."

Perry has announced a second session to pass the measure Monday. If passed, the state will impose laws that forbid abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, as well as shut down most abortion clinics.

Davis says the law would set up a "very dangerous place" for women's reproductive rights and healthcare.

She also accused Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst using the abortion legislation to "step up on the political ladder" by "bullying women and their liberties in the process."

She noted that experts outside the political world, such as the American Obstretics and Gynecology College are saying if the clinics close, "that means of thousands and thousands and thousands of women will no longer have access to this safe reproductive healthcare."

? 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/texas-wendy-davis-rick/2013/06/30/id/512653

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Death toll from west China's violence rises to 35

BEIJING (AP) ? The official death toll rose to 35 Friday from an outburst of violence that included knife attacks on police in a far-western region that has seen frequent clashes between China's Muslim minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority.

Initial reports said 27 people were killed Wednesday in a remote town in the Xinjiang region, with state-run media saying that knife-wielding assailants targeted police stations, a government building and a construction site ? all symbols of Han authority and influx in the region.

The updated death toll included some of the severely injured dying in the hospital. It also included 11 assailants shot dead in Lukqun township in Turpan prefecture, the state-run Xinhua News agency said. Two police officers were among the 24 people they killed, Xinhua said.

The reports did not identify the ethnicity of the attackers, nor explain what may have caused the conflict in the Turkic-speaking region, where Uighurs have complained of suppression and discrimination by Han people. The report also said police captured four injured assailants.

The Wednesday violence ? described as a terrorist act by China's state media ? was one of the bloodiest incidents since unrest in the region's capital city of Urumqi killed nearly 200 in 2009.

It was impossible to independently confirm the state-run media accounts. The Global Times said police set up many checkpoints along the 30-kilometer (19-mile) road to Lukqun and dissuaded reporters from traveling there due to safety concerns.

Information is tightly controlled in the region, which the Chinese government regards as highly sensitive and where it has imposed a heavy security presence to quell unrest. However, forces are spread thin across the vast territory and the response from authorities is often slow.

Xinjiang (shihn-jeeahng) is home to a large population of minority Muslim Uighurs (WEE'-gurs) in a region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan and has been the scene of numerous violent acts in recent years, including the riots in the capital four years ago.

Critics have attributed the violence, including Wednesday's deadly clashes, to Beijing's oppressive and discriminatory ethnicity policies. Many Uighurs complain that Beijing imposes tight restrictions on their religious and cultural life, barring children and women from attending mosques and discouraging fasting during the Muslim month of Ramadan, which starts this year in early July.

The Chinese government says all ethnic groups are treated equally and that the violence is terrorism with no connection to religion or ethnicity. It points to billions of dollars it has invested in modernizing Xinjiang, a strategically vital region with significant oil and gas deposits.

Beijing often accuses overseas Uighur activists of orchestrating violence and obscure militant groups sometimes take responsibility, with little or no evidence to prove claims on either side.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-west-chinas-violence-rises-35-025105257.html

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Why Going To College Is A Valuable Investment In 1 Chart

It?s rough out there for recent college grads -- but that doesn?t make pursuing a degree a bad idea.

The jobless rate for Americans overall, which includes those with and without a college degree, is higher than for those with at least a bachelor's, according to a report released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. When you break out those with higher education from the general worker population, the benefit becomes clear, as this chart from the bank illustrates:

Adding to the chart, a recent study by The Hamilton Project found that the gap in employment and earnings between college graduates and those without a degree is growing -- meaning college is becoming more important, not less.

This fact is often overlooked in discussions of the plight of recent college graduates, many of whom are underemployed, according to various studies. A recent study from McKinsey noted that a newly-minted college graduate takes a job they feel overqualified for every five minutes in America.

Many are questioning the value of a degree because it's become so costly to get one. And Congress may be making it worse. The Senate failed to pass a deal Thursday to prevent interest rates from doubling on many government-backed college loans. The result: About 7 million students could see their borrowing costs double next week.

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