When he released a federal worker survey on the afternoon before Thanksgiving, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry forthrightly noted that “continued tight budgets and pay freezes” contributed to many lower ratings.
The report goes a bit further, suggesting “the downward trend of many of the survey items . . . suggest that the continued tight budgets, salary freezes and general public opinion of federal service are beginning to take a toll on even the most committed employees.”
JAKARTA: Indonesia's anti-corruption agency has named the country's sports minister as a suspect in a multi-million-dollar graft case, in the latest scandal to hit the president's party ahead of the 2014 elections.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) asked authorities late Thursday to ban sports minister Andi Mallarangeng from travelling as it probes the construction of a sports centre built on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta.
The KPK said in a statement it was conducting an investigation into corruption "regarding the construction of the Hambalang sports facilities and infrastructure between 2010 and 2012, carried out by suspect Andi Alfian Mallarangeng".
The contracts to build the sports facility were worth 2.5 trillion rupiah ($261 million).
The KPK has named several members of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party as suspects in various cases in the recent years, threatening the ruling party's position ahead of mid-year elections in 2014.
The KPK this year prosecuted the party's former treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, who is now also implicated in the sports centre case.
- AFP/ck
Liquor is an important part of tribal customs and social get together are incomplete if alcohol and mutton are not served to guests. Since ages, tribals in Kinnaur are brewing liquor locally known as "angoori" while in Lahaul-Spiti they make it from wheat. But with the coming of wealth locally brewed liquor was replaced by whisky and beer resulting into social inequality widening the gap between rich and poor.
Noted social activist of Kinnaur and chairperson of Kinnaur Mahila Kalyan Parishad Ratan Manjari said over the years serving English liquor and beer during marriages and other social functions had become a show of wealth and those not having money too were serving it and get burdened with debt. "Trend was wrong which needed to be stopped and now we have done it in many villages of Kinnaur," she said. Kinnaur Mahila Kalyan Parishad has 200 mahila mandals as its members.
Ratan Manjari said for 5-6 years, they have mobilized support of women in Kinnaur district to tell them how use of English liquor and beer during marriages is resulting in waste of money besides creating divide among rich and poor. "Today, we have succeeded in banning English liquor in social functions, especially in Kalpa, Sangla, Lippa and other areas of district," she said.
To ensure that people obey the decision, a provision of imposing fine has been made by women amicably. "We have decided to impose penalty of Rs 5,000 on people serving the English liquor and those consuming it," Manjari said. She said still a lot more is required to be done.
In Lahaul-Spiti district, Udaipur village is setting an example for others by observing complete ban on English liquor and beer during social gathering for last three years. "During marriages and other functions only locally made liquor is served. Those defying ban are punished by mahila mandal members," said Hemvati, Mahila Mandal member of Udaipur.
Hemvati said if a family in the village found serving English liquor and Beer despite ban, then Rs 10,000 fine is imposed, but if same offence is committed second time then the family is boycotted socially.
"Such decisions are in larger interest of society as seeing rich people serving liquor even poor were following the trend after borrowing money. In one wedding, people were usually spending Rs 50,000 to 1 lakh only on liquor, but now with ban enforced in many villages show of wealth has been curbed in the interest of poor," said Rigzin Samphel Hayerpa, Zila Parishad member from Kolang in Lahaul-Spiti.
Image courtesy T.A. Rector, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSF
A new camera called the One Degree Imager, located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, is responsible for this enticingly crisp image of the Bubble Nebula. Released on December 4, this closeup highlights the sphere of gas blown out by the nebula's central star, which is 45 times larger than our own sun.
Located in the constellation Cassiopeia, the Bubble Nebula is ten light-years across. Intense radiation from the massive star causes the otherworldly glow that lights up what looks like a celestial soap bubble.
(Related: "Amazing Hubble Images.")
Published December 6, 2012
Photograph by Frank Olsen, My Shot
Delicate green auroras light up the water at Buksnesfjord, Norway, in a picture taken just after midnight on December 4.
(See pictures of auroras sparked by a massive solar flare.)
Published December 6, 2012
Image courtesy SDO/NASA
Sheets of plasma—or superheated gas—break off from the surface of the sun in this image taken in extreme ultraviolet light. Before floating free, the plasma rose up and danced along pathways determined by magnetic fields. These unseen forces pushed and pulled the gas into contorted shapes.
(Learn about the sun.)
Published December 6, 2012
Image courtesy NASA
What looks like a jawbreaker is actually a gravity map of the moon. Red areas indicate places with higher gravity fields while blue areas indicate lower gravity fields.
(Learn about lunar exploration.)
Twin probes circling the moon—part of NASA's GRAIL mission—since 2011 have been recording changes in gravity as they fly over peaks and valleys on the lunar surface. As one probe flies over an area with a greater gravity field, the washing-machine-size instrument speeds up slightly, increasing the distance between it and its sister probe. These minute changes in position have enabled scientists to construct this very detailed view of local changes in the moon's gravity.
(How well do you know your moon myths? Take our quiz.)
Published December 6, 2012
Illustration courtesy L. Calçada, ESO/NAOJ/NRAO
In this artist's conception of fine-grained particles around a brown dwarf—or a failed star—bits of debris are on their way to becoming a rocky planet.
Current thinking on Earthlike, rocky planet formation says that random collisions between tiny debris occur in the disc of material surrounding newborn stars. But the recent discovery of such a disc surrounding a brown dwarf has some astronomers rethinking that hypothesis. If planets can form from the debris around these failed stars, then rocky planets may be much more common than previously thought.
(Related: "Coldest Star Found-No Hotter Than Fresh Coffee.")
Published December 6, 2012
Image courtesy Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, Suomi NPP/NASA
The Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime image of the aurora australis over the Antarctic coast south of South Africa. Despite the winter darkness and a waning crescent moon, the auroras produced enough light for sensors on board the new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite to capture the boundary between the ice shelf and what some scientists call the Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean (dark line across the bright center swirl).
Launched last year, Suomi NPP enables scientists to capture nighttime images of the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The new sensor is so sensitive, it can capture the lights from one ship at sea.
(Learn about Antarctica.)
Published December 6, 2012
Image courtesy Michael Taylor, Landsat/NASA
In NASA's Landsat 5 satellite image, the Mergui Archipelago shows off the vibrant greens of its rain forests and the brilliant blues of the surrounding tropical ocean. Located along the southern border of Myanmar (Burma), next to Thailand, the area is known for valuable pearl oysters (Pinctada maxima) and a highly diverse concentration of plants and animals.
(See photos of Myanmar.)
Published December 6, 2012
Illustration courtesy AOES Medialab/ESO
The Venusian atmosphere is made mostly of carbon dioxide, along with periodic spikes in sulfur. Recent research has found that volcanoes on the planet's surface, seen here in an artist's conception, are likely injecting that sulfur into the upper atmosphere. Direct confirmation is difficult, however, since Venus's thick atmosphere precludes a peek at its peaks.
Published December 6, 2012
Image courtesy SSI/ISA/ESA/NASA
Published December 6, 2012
Software millionaire John McAfee has been returned to an immigration detention cell in Guatemala after being rushed to a Guatemala City hospital via ambulance.
McAfee, 67 -- who soon may be deported back to Belize, where authorities want to question him about the shooting death of his neighbor -- was reportedly found prostrate on the floor of his cell and unresponsive.
He was wheeled into the hospital on a gurney. Photographers followed in pursuit right into the emergency room, but as emergency workers eased McAfee's limp body from the gurney and onto a bed and began to remove his suit, he suddenly spoke up, saying, "Please, not in front of the press."
Earlier today, McAfee had complained of chest pains, raising concerns he might be having a heart attack.
However, that did not appear to be the case. Hours after his emergency, hospital officials sent McAfee back to the detention center, telling ABC News they found no reason to keep him overnight.
In a phone interview overnight, McAfee told ABC News, "I simply passed out, everything went black."
He said he hit his head on the floor when he collapsed. McAfee explained that for the past 48 hours he hasn't eaten and had very little to drink.
McAfee had been scheduled to be deported to Belize, ABC News has learned. But a judge could stay the ruling if it is determined that McAfee's life is threatened by being in Belizean custody, as McAfee has claimed in the past several weeks.
McAfee's attorneys hope to continue delaying the deportation by appealing to the Guatemala's high court on humanitarian grounds.
Raphael Martinez, a spokesman for the Belize government, said that if McAfee is deported to Belize, he would immediately be handed over to police and detained for up to 48 hours unless charges are brought against him.
"There is more that we know about the investigation, but that remains part of the police work," he said, hinting at possible charges.
He added that a handover by Guatemala would be "the neighborly thing to do."
A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Guatemala said that "due to privacy considerations," the embassy would "have no comment on the specifics of this situation," but that, "U.S. citizens are subject to the laws of the countries in which they are traveling or residing, and must work within the host countries' legal framework."
Guatemala's National Police/AP Photo
Just hours before McAfee's arrest, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview Wednesday he would be seeking asylum in Guatemala. McAfee was arrested by the Central American country's immigration police and not the national police, said his attorney, who was confident his client would be released within hours.
"Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," said McAfee before his arrest. "I chose Guatemala carefully."
McAfee said that in Guatemala, the locals aren't surprised when he says the Belizean government is out to kill him.
"Instead of going, 'You're crazy,' they go, 'Yeah, of course they are,'" he said. "It's like, finally, I understand people who understand the system here."
But McAfee added he has not ruled out moving back to the United States, where he made his fortune as the inventor of anti-virus software, and that despite losing much of his fortune he still has more money than he could ever spend.
In his interview with ABC News, a jittery, animated but candid McAfee called the media's representation of him a "nightmare that is about to explode," and said he's prepared to prove his sanity.
McAfee has been on the run from police in Belize since the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull.
During his three-week journey, said McAfee, he disguised himself as handicapped, dyed his hair seven times and hid in many different places during his three-week journey.
He dismissed accounts of erratic behavior and reports that he had been using the synthetic drug bath salts. He said he had never used the drug, and said statements that he had were part of an elaborate prank.
Investigators said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of the former developer, who was found shot in the head in his house on the resort island of San Pedro, but that they wanted to question him.
McAfee told ABC News that the poisoning death of his dogs and the murder just hours later of Faull, who had complained about his dogs, was a coincidence.
McAfee has been hiding from police ever since Faull's death -- but Telesforo Guerra, McAfee's lawyer in Guatemala, said the tactic was born out of necessity, not guilt.
"You don't have to believe what the police say," Guerra told ABC News. "Even though they say he is not a suspect they were trying to capture him."
Guerra, who is a former attorney general of Guatemala, said it would take two to three weeks to secure asylum for his client.
According to McAfee, Guerra is also the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha. McAfee said the government raided his beachfront home and threatened Samantha's family.
"Fifteen armed soldiers come in and personally kidnap my housekeeper, threaten Sam's father with torture and haul away half a million dollars of my s***," claimed McAfee. "If they're not after me, then why all these raids? There've been eight raids!"
Before his arrest, McAfee said he would hold a press conference on Thursday in Guatemala City to announce his asylum bid. He has offered to answer questions from Belizean law enforcement over the phone, and denied any involvement in Faull's death.
Two high-profile Republican members of Congress who stand at the forefront of the effort to rebuild the party after a stinging presidential defeat delivered speeches Tuesday night aimed at turning the page with a fresh emphasis on inclusion and a renewed focus on growing the middle class.
“Nothing represents how special America is more than our middle class. And our challenge and our opportunity now is to create the conditions that allow it not just to survive, but to grow,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), the Leadership Award recipient at a dinner hosted by the Jack Kemp Foundation, a charitable nonprofit organization named for the late congressman and Housing and Urban Development secretary.
TOKYO: Japan's main opposition party will comfortably win the general election this month, opinion polls showed Thursday, the first time surveys have indicated anything other than a fragile coalition.
The hawkish chief of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Shinzo Abe is also tipped to win back the premiership, an office he held for around a year until 2007, according to a telephone poll conducted by Kyodo news agency.
The LDP is on course to win up to 306 of the 480 seats in lower house of parliament on December 16, with the projected tally representing a huge jump from the 118 seats the party currently has.
The survey of 123,700 eligible voters showed Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will see its number of seats plunge to between 57 and 82 from the 308 it swept to power with in 2009.
Around 1,500 candidates, fielded by 12 parties or standing as independents, are vying for the 480 seats -- 300 in single-seat constituencies and 180 allocated for proportional representation in 11 blocs.
Previous opinion polls have shown a much tighter race, with commentators expecting the election would leave Japan with a fragile coalition government.
Kyodo noted about half the voters said they had not yet decided on who to vote for.
Similar surveys by the mass-circulation Asahi and Yomiuri dailies, released Thursday, also showed the LDP was gaining momentum and was on course to win a single-party majority.
The Kyodo survey said the LDP's potential junior coalition partner New Komeito party is likely to win between 25 and 31 seats.
If the two parties joined forces they would have a two-thirds majority in the powerful lower house, giving them the right to overrule the DPJ-dominated upper house.
The Japan Restoration Party, an unwieldy coalition of followers of Osaka's outspoken mayor Toru Hashimoto and of the China-bashing former governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, is likely to become a third-largest party, the polls showed.
The Tomorrow Party of Japan, a hastily cobbled-together grouping of DPJ malcontents and a left-leaning newcomers pledging to end Japan's nuclear power programme in 10 years, could have just 15 seats.
This month's vote is being seen as a verdict on the DPJ's three-year rule, which included the turbulent months after the nuclear disaster plunged the nation into its biggest crisis since World War II.
- AFP/ck
"On November 12, 2012, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of southern Asia," Nasa said releasing a picture of India on this Diwali night.
"The image is based on data collected by the VIIRS 'day- night band', which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared. The image has been brightened to make the city lights easier to distinguish," it said.
Nasa said most of the bright areas in the imagery released by it are cities and towns in India, the country with the world's largest Hindu population.
"India is home to more than 1.2 billion people and has 30 cities with populations over 1 million. (For comparison, China has 62 cities with more than 1 million residents and the United States has 9)," it said.
Cities in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan are also visible near the edges of the image.
"An image that claims to show the region lit for Diwali has been circulating on social media websites and the Internet in recent years. In fact, it does not show what it claims. That image, based on data from the Operational Linescan System flown on US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, is a color-composite created in 2003 by NOAA scientist Chris Elvidge to highlight population growth over time," Nasa said.
"In that image, white areas show city lights that were visible prior to 1992, while blue, green, and red shades indicate city lights that became visible in 1992, 1998, and 2003 respectively," it said.
"In reality, any extra light produced during Diwali is so subtle that it is likely imperceptible when observed from space," Nasa said.
NASA is so delighted with Curiosity's Mars mission that the agency wants to do it all again in 2020, with the possibility of identifying and storing some rocks for a future sample return to Earth.
The formal announcement, made at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting, represents a triumph for the NASA Mars program, which had fallen on hard times due to steep budget cuts. But NASA associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld said that the agency has the funds to build and operate a second Curiosity-style rover, largely because it has a lot of spare parts and an engineering and science team that knows how to develop a follow-on expedition.
"The new science rover builds off the tremendous success from Curiosity and will have new instruments," Grunsfeld said. Curiosity II is projected to cost $1.5 billion—compared with the $2.5 billion price tag for the rover now on Mars—and will require congressional approval.
While the 2020 rover will have the same one-ton chassis as Curiosity—and could use the same sky crane technology involved in the "seven minutes of terror"—it will have different instruments and, many hope, the capacity to cache a Mars rock for later pickup and delivery to researchers on Earth. Curiosity and the other Mars rovers, satellites, and probes have garnered substantial knowledge about the Red Planet in recent decades, but planetary scientists say no Mars-based investigations can be nearly as instructive as studying a sample in person here on Earth.
(Video: Mars Rover's "Seven Minutes of Terror.")
Return to Sender
That's why "sample return" has topped several comprehensive reviews of what NASA should focus on for the next decade regarding Mars.
"There is absolutely no doubt that this rover has the capability to collect and cache a suite of magnificent samples," said astronomer Steven Squyres, with Cornell University in New York, who led a "decadal survey" of what scientists want to see happen in the field of planetary science in the years ahead. "We have a proven system now for landing a substantial payload on Mars, and that's what we need to enable sample return."
The decision about whether the second rover will be able to collect and "cache" a sample will be up to a "science definition team" that will meet in the years ahead to weigh the pros and cons of focusing the rover's activity on that task.
As currently imagined, bringing a rock sample back to Earth would require three missions: one to select, pick up, and store the sample; a second to pick it up and fly it into a Mars orbit; and a third to take it from Mars back to Earth.
"A sample return would rely on all the Mars missions before it," said Scott Hubbard, formerly NASA's "Mars Czar," who is now at Stanford University. "Finding the right rocks from the right areas, and then being able to get there, involves science and technology we've learned over the decades."
Renewed Interest
Clearly, Curiosity's success has changed the thinking about Mars exploration, said Hubbard. He was a vocal critic of the Obama Administration's decision earlier this year to cut back on the Mars program as part of agency belt-tightening but now is "delighted" by this renewed initiative.
(Explore an interactive time line of Mars exploration in National Geographic magazine.)
More than 50 million people watched NASA coverage of Curiosity's landing and cheered the rover's success, Hubbard said. If things had turned out differently with Curiosity, "we'd be having a very different conversation about the Mars program now."
(See "Curiosity Landing on Mars Greeted With Whoops and Tears of Jubilation.")
If Congress gives the green light, the 2020 rover would be the only $1 billion-plus "flagship" mission—NASA's largest and most expensive class of projects—in the agency's planetary division in the next decade. There are many other less ambitious projects to other planets, asteroids, moons, and comets in the works, but none are flagships. That has left some planetary scientists not involved with Mars unhappy with NASA's heavy Martian focus.
Future Plans
While the announcement of the 2020 rover mission set the Mars community abuzz, NASA also outlined a series of smaller missions that will precede it. The MAVEN spacecraft, set to launch next year, will study the Martian atmosphere in unprecedented detail; a lander planned for 2018 will study the Red Planet's crust and interior; and NASA will renew its promise to participate in a European life-detection mission in 2018. NASA had signed an agreement in 2009 to partner with the European Space Agency on that mission but had to back out earlier this year because of budget constraints.
NASA said that a request for proposals would go out soon, soliciting ideas about science instruments that might be on the rover. And as for a sample return system, at this stage all that's required is the ability to identify good samples, collect them, and then store them inside the rover.
"They can wait there on Mars for some time as we figure out how to pick them up," Squyres said. "After all, they're rocks."
Eccentric software tycoon John McAfee, wanted in Belize for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor, has been arrested in Guatemala for entering the country illegally, his Guatemala attorney told ABC News.
Before McAfee's arrest, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview he would be seeking asylum in Guetemala. McAfee was arrested by the Central American country's immigration police and not the national police, said his attorney, who was confident his client would be released within hours.
"Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," said McAfee, 67, before his arrest. "I chose Guatemala carefully."
McAfee said that in Guatemala, the locals aren't surprised when he says the Belizean government is out to kill him.
"Instead of going, 'You're crazy,' they go, 'Yeah, of course they are,'" he said. "It's like, finally, I understand people who understand the system here."
But McAfee added he has not ruled out moving back to the United States, where he made his fortune as the inventor of anti-virus software, and that despite losing much of his fortune he still has more money than he could ever spend.
In his interview with ABC News, a jittery, animated but candid McAfee called the media's representation of him a "nightmare that is about to explode," and said he's prepared to prove his sanity.
McAfee has been on the run from police in Belize since the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull.
During his three-week journey, said McAfee, he disguised himself as handicapped, dyed his hair seven times and hid in many different places during his three-week journey.
He dismissed accounts of erratic behavior and reports that he had been using the synthetic drug bath salts. He said he had never used the drug, and said statements that he had were part of an elaborate prank.
Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images
Investigators said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of the former developer, who was found shot in the head in his house on the resort island of San Pedro, but that they wanted to question him.
McAfee told ABC News that the poisoning death of his dogs and the murder just hours later of Faull, who had complained about his dogs, was a coincidence.
McAfee has been hiding from police ever since Faull's death -- but Telesforo Guerra, McAfee's lawyer in Guatemala, said the tactic was born out of necessity, not guilt.
"You don't have to believe what the police say," Guerra told ABC News. "Even though they say he is not a suspect they were trying to capture him."
Guerra, who is a former attorney general of Guatemala, said it would take two to three weeks to secure asylum for his client.
According to McAfee, Guerra is also the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha. McAfee said the government raided his beachfront home and threatened Samantha's family.
"Fifteen armed soldiers come in and personally kidnap my housekeeper, threaten Sam's father with torture and haul away half a million dollars of my s***," claimed McAfee. "If they're not after me, then why all these raids? There've been eight raids!"
Before his arrest, McAfee said he would hold a press conference on Thursday in Guatemala City to announce his asylum bid. He has offered to answer questions from Belizean law enforcement over the phone, and denied any involvement in Faull's death.
False Report of McAfee Arrest on Mexico Border
Over the weekend, a post on McAfee's blog claimed that he had been detained on the Belizean/Mexico border.
On Monday, a follow-up post said that the "John McAfee" taken into custody was actually a "double" who was carrying a North Korean passport with McAfee's name.
That post claimed that McAfee had already escaped Belize and was on the run with Samantha and two reporters from Vice Magazine.
McAfee did not reveal his location in that post, and a spokesman for Belize's National Security Ministry, Raphael Martinez, told ABC News on Monday that no one by McAfee's name was ever detained at the border and that Belizean security officials believed McAfee was still in their country.
However, a photo posted by Vice magazine on Monday with their article, "We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers," apparently had been taken on an iPhone 4S and had location information embedded in it that revealed the exact coordinates where the photo was taken -- in the Rio Dulce National Park in Guatemala -- as reported by Wired.com.
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