Center opens to protect rare turtle in Cambodia (AP)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – An extremely rare soft-shell turtle species has a new, protected home in Cambodia.

The critically endangered Cantor's giant soft-shell turtles is one of the rarest freshwater turtles in the world. Scientists last saw one in the Cambodian wild in 2003, and small numbers have been seen in neighboring Laos.

U.S.-based Conservation International says it opened the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center on Wednesday in Kratie province, 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Phnom Penh.

An 18-kilogram (40-pound) female turtle was released into the conservation pond at a Buddhist pagoda at the center's launch.

The species can grow up to 2 meters (6 feet) in length and weigh more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds.

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Google's new Finland data center is cooled by Baltic Sea's water (Digital Trends)

Google is once again showing off its big environmental conscience with video of the new Hamina, Finland data center, due to open up towards the end of the year. The new center, much like Google’s Saint-Ghislain center, will not be using chillers in its cooling system. Instead, waters from the Baltic Sea will be harnessed to keep servers cool.

Google paid $52 million for the Summa paper mill that yielded the 410 acres of land where the new data center is being built. Stora Enso, the paper-making company that formerly owned the land, closed the paper mill down in 2008 because of the drop in newspaper and magazine-paper production.

According to the video, the center collects cool water through an inlet pipe and travels through granite tunnels built by the paper mill in the 1950s. The Register has found that the pipes are two meters in diameter and “the system uses 20-year-old water pumps installed by the mill.” The tunnels and pipe are kept clear of blockage by using a small submarine to explore regularly.

The water travels through four straining systems and meets a water-to-water heat exchanger. The heat exchanger cools a separate stream that carries on to the data center. Google senior director of data center construction Joe Kava says that once the watera€™s purpose is met, a€?we return the temperature that is much more similar to the inlet temperature, so we minimize any environmental impact in that area.a€

The total costs for the structure comes to roughly $260 million, including the purchase price but the money Google saves from cooling costs will be significant. The Register also reports that the Finland data center will use wind power from the wind park next to the facility.

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Internet rules at center of 'e-G8' forum in Paris (AP)

PARIS – France wants better regulation of the Internet. Google's executive chairman says policymakers should tread lightly and avoid "stupid" rules.

Bridging such differences about how the Internet could or should be more regulated took center stage Tuesday at an "e-G8" meeting aimed to parlay the digital world's growing economic clout into a cohesive message for world leaders at the Group of Eight summit later this week in Normandy.

The two-day Paris gathering has brought together Internet and media world gurus such as Google Inc. executive chairman Eric Schmidt, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. And the discussion includes issues such as protecting children from "evil stuff" on line, preventing illegal downloading of copyrighted materials and shielding Facebook users from unsolicited invitations.

The e-G8 comes amid concerns in the industry that some countries — including several in Europe such as France — have taken measures or enacted laws that could curb Internet freedoms.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, kicking off the conference, said governments need to lay down and enforce rules in the digital world — even as they need to foster creativity and economic growth with the Internet.

It's unclear whether he'll win over digital executives with this argument, or whether the G-8 summit — which doesn't include countries such as China, a major source of online activity and online regulation — will agree on a single policy going forward.

Sarkozy said he faced mistrust over his push for the "e-G8" when Japan's earthquake, fiscal troubles in Europe, and the Arab world revolutions are likely to dominate the G-8 summit in Deauville on Thursday and Friday. Conflicting visions about the Internet — notably about how regulated it should be — has pitted companies such as Amazon.com and Google against governments about how to protect privacy and copyrights online.

"We need to hear your aspirations, your needs," Sarkozy told hundreds of business executives, creative minds and journalists at Tuileries Gardens in Paris. "You need to hear our limits, our red lines."

Policymakers such as Sarkozy say the blistering pace of growth has often left regulators behind. He said a "balance" needed to be struck to prevent misuse of the Internet — such as to protect children online — while boosting its potential as a driver for economic growth.

While praising the executives, he said regulatory curbs are needed.

"Don't let the revolution that you've begun threaten everyone's basic right to a private life and full autonomy," said Sarkozy. "Full transparency ... sooner or later runs into the very principle of individual freedom."

Google's Schmidt said technological changes have led to a "shift in power" toward individuals — whether to illegally release secret documents or transfer copyrighted material, or rally against their repressive regimes.

"My own opinion is that most governments are having trouble with that shift in power," he said. "So rather than sort of complaining about it, which is what everybody does, why don't we see if we can harness it?"

During an e-G8 panel talk, Schmidt said: "You want to tread lightly on regulating brand new, innovative industries. ... Clearly you need some level of regulation for the evil stuff. But I would be careful about overregulating the Internet.

"I cannot imagine any delegate in this conference (who) would want Internet growth to be significantly slowed by a government that slows it down because of some stupid rule that they put in place," he said.

Last week, the U.N.'s independent expert on freedom of speech said governments that curtail users' access to the Internet are violating a basic human right — regardless of the justification.

Britain last year joined France by announcing it would cut off Internet access to people who illegally download copyright-protected material. The French government has so far issued only warnings under the "three strikes" formula for possible penalties.

Privacy concerns have also raised hackles in Europe.

In January, Facebook and German officials reached a deal over unsolicited invitations sent to nonmembers of the social networking site through its "Friend Finder" feature — which allows Facebook to send email invitations to potential users through current members' address books.

The feature came under fire in Germany for violating privacy laws by allowing unauthorized access to information of third parties. The agreement allows Facebook members more control over the email addresses they share.

Johannes Caspar, a data protection official in Hamburg who negotiated the deal for the Germans, said American laws under which Facebook operates tend to be more laissez-faire than those of Europe about privacy issues.

He said Facebook has cooperated with German investigations about possible privacy law violations, and the onus now is on Europe "to make things clearer" about the rules companies face on the continent.

___

Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

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Shopping Center Parkway Parade

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Parkway Parade is a Singaporean suburban shopping center located in the Marine Parade. It was founded and opened for the public on the March 9, of the year 1984. This is a huge shopping complex that has a seventeen storey floor office tower along with a seven-storey shopping mall with a basement. This huge building has been developed by the great business organization, Parkway Holdings. It was in the year 2000 that this company sold the building of the Parkway parade to the Asia Pacific Investment Company. This company runs the business here by Lend Lease, leasing different parts to different organizations and small business holders to establish a business for themselves. In the year 2002, in the month of March, redevelopment of the mall area of the building started and the process was to proceed in two phases. The first was the location of new tenants with respect to the position of the mall and its standing in the city. This did not take much time. The second phase of the process was the expansion of the food court and the alfresco dinning area to attract and accommodate more people along with a play area for the kids and not to mention, the country’s tallest glass water fall.

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Medicare at the center of budget debate

By Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

President Obama outlines his fiscal policy during an address Wednesday at George Washington University in Washington.

EnlargeCloseBy Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

President Obama outlines his fiscal policy during an address Wednesday at George Washington University in Washington.

But not on Medicare.

The government

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Party Leaders Look to Center for Budget Support as Liberals, Conservatives Balk

AP

Shown here are Rep. Anthony Weiner, left, Rep. Michele Bachmann, center, and Sen. Rand Paul.

President Obama and congressional leaders are going to have to rely on the political center to pass their 2011 budget bill as Tea Party conservatives and dyed-in-the-wool liberals start to peel off. 

The text of that bill, released Tuesday morning, had a little bit for everyone -- cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and the elimination of some presidential "czars" for Republicans; protection of education programs like Head Start and Pell grants for Democrats.

But the bill also left a lot out. For starters, it only cut $38.5 billion, including about $12 billion in cuts that were already signed into law -- not enough for some Republicans, particularly freshmen who wanted their first big budget clash to result in seismic, not just historic, cuts. On the Democratic side, the fact some programs for the poor were not spared was a moral outrage. 

The mounting discontent means dozens of lawmakers from both parties will likely take a stand against the budget bill when it comes for a floor vote later in the week, presumably before the current stopgap budget expires. It may not be enough to derail the hard-fought deal, but their objections challenge the narrative that congressional leaders achieved a masterstroke with their 11th-hour, shutdown-averting compromise. 

"I'll probably vote against it if the cuts are as draconian as they have been," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., told Fox News. She was among a half-dozen members of Congress who protested the cuts Monday in New York City, claiming they would slash funding to low-income aid programs ranging from Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to Community Development Block Grants. 

Joining her were Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Charles Rangel, Eliot Engel, Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez. Most of them voted against the stopgap budget early Saturday morning. The bill passed overwhelmingly on a 348-70 vote in the House, with more Democrats opposing it than Republicans. 

As the details of the broader plan were released Tuesday, even high-ranking Democrats were keeping their opinions close to the vest.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the Democrats' top vote counter in the House, said he's not yet sure whether he will support the bill. "There are a number of things I don't like," Hoyer said.

Hoyer said he does not know whether Republicans will ask him for help rounding up Democratic votes for the bill -- the GOP can only afford to lose 27 members before needing help from the other side to pass it. 

"My presumption is we don't know where our people are, and I don't think they know where their people are," Hoyer said.

But harder-line lawmakers from both parties are starting to generate clatter against the compromise ahead of a final vote. 

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, announced Tuesday that he would oppose the final package. 

"While I respect that some of my Republican colleagues will ultimately support this spending deal, I believe voters are asking us to set our sights higher," he said in a statement. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also wrote in a letter to colleagues that he would vote "a resounding NO" on the deal, and urged others to join him. 

"The much-ballyhooed 2011 continuing resolution will leave the federal government spending $1.6 trillion more than it takes in," he wrote. "The only 'good news' from the 2011 CR would be that it adds less debt than President Obama's plan, but it does not appreciably change the accumulation of debt." 

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has also expressed disappointment in the plan, saying it didn't cut enough and lamenting that it carved out provisions to defund Planned Parenthood and the federal health care overhaul. 

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., the champion of the Planned Parenthood measure, said in an interview over the weekend that while he appreciates the work House Speaker John Boehner did on behalf of his caucus at the negotiating table, the compromise is "probably not good enough" to win his vote. 

GOP leaders, though, claim they got the best deal they could for their side. Boehner and others have noted he was the sole GOP negotiator at a table full of Democrats and describe the compromise as a substantive first step toward bigger budget reforms. 

Both parties already are gearing up for a fight over raising the debt ceiling and, connected to that, the 2012 budget and entitlement reforms. Obama plans to outline a new deficit-reduction strategy Wednesday as he looks to haggle with Republicans who have proposed a sweeping plan which would overhaul Medicare while cutting trillions over the next decade. 

With that as the backdrop, party leaders are urging their rank-and-file to clear away the 2011 budget battle and move on to the next one. 

"There are going to be dozens of these battles over the next 18 months," Boehner told Fox News on Monday. "We just have been through the first one. We're about to engage in the second one. But this is going to go on and on and on." 

The final 2011 budget bill includes a provision preventing Guantanamo prisoners from being transferred to the U.S., as well as a provision restricting taxpayer funding for abortion in the District of Columbia. 

It reduces the military budget by $2 billion more than Defense Secretary Robert Gates said was an acceptable level, but strips out related earmarks and eliminates the controversial backup engine for the F-35 fighter jet. 

Other areas of the budget took a considerable hit. The EPA endured a 16 percent decrease, losing $1.6 billion from its budget. Transportation and housing budgets took an 18 percent budget cut compared with last year's levels. The bill would end funding for more than 55 programs, according to the House Appropriations Committee, extracting about $1 billion in savings. Plus the final bill would end funding for two programs in the health care overhaul and reduce the legislative branch budget by over $100 million. That includes a 5 percent cut to most House offices.

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NYC, L.A., Kennedy Space Center, Smithsonian to get the 4 retired space shuttles

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NASA cutting contractors at Marshall Space Flight Center

The Marshall Space Flight Center,has about 2,500 government and 3,500 contract employees. STORY HIGHLIGHTSSpace agency says it is cutting because of budget constraintsEssential Center functions will continue, spokesman saysCenter is best known for developing transportation and propulsion technologies (CNN) -- NASA said Thursday, because of budget constraints, between 150 and 300 contractor positions will be eliminated at the Marshall Space Flight Center, the agency's Huntsville, Alabama facility.

"Funding to Center support contractors will be reduced and that will result in reductions to the contractor workforce here," NASA said in a statement.

Marshall spokesman Dominic Amatore said the furloughs were not wholly unexpected.

"Our director back in January talked about budget issues and at that time, told employees about forming groups to look at expenditures, especially procurement money," he said.

Amatore said Marshall Center director Robert Lightfoot delivered an all-hands message on Tuesday to announce the layoffs.

"The cuts are broadly across the center," Amatore said. "The jobs that are directly affected by this budget involve center operations and maintenance, so it really cuts across the operation."

The contract employees will get additional information from the organizations they work in and, ultimately, from the specific contract companies they work for, Amatore said.

The facility's main priorities are not expected to be affected.

"Marshall Space Flight Center officials have conducted a comprehensive review of all institutional procurement and other expenditures and established funding priorities, ensuring that essential Center functions are maintained and that operational capabilities are in no way compromised," a space agency statement said.

Marshall supports a variety of initiatives for NASA, including engineering, science and space operations, but is best known for developing transportation and propulsion technologies.

The furloughs will be implemented by the end of May, Amatore said.

Amatore said Lightfoot addressed the possible government shutdown Tuesday, and that NASA would identify a "certain core group" that would be essential to operations.

Marshall currently has approximately 2,500 government employees and 3,500 contract employees, he said.

In a statement, Lightfoot said, "As NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has said, tough times require tough choices. Marshall Center is doing what is necessary to live within our budget and retain the essential capabilities needed to support NASA's mission. We know this is a difficult time for members of our contractor workforce who are being affected by reductions and we intend to assist them in their career transition as much as possible."

In February 2010, President Barack Obama announced plans to conclude the Constellation rocket program, which led to 900 contractor job cuts at Marshall last year.

Despite the layoffs, Amatore said employees remain concentrated on the job at hand.

"We're very focused on flying safely. We've got a space shuttle launch coming up this month," he said. "NASA employees are very dedicated, very focused."

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AARP Tax Exemption Report at Center of Contentious Capitol Hill Hearing

AARP logo, graphic element on white. (AP)

A Republican-authored report on alleged financial irregularities within AARP has met with deep resistance among Democratic lawmakers and AARP senior executives.

The report, entitled "Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn't Know," alleges that the AARP violated its tax exempt status by, in effect, selling health insurance policies and by actively lobbying for the massive health care law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year.

Both those activities, Republicans say, violate the spirit of 501c4 tax-exempt organizations, which are supposed to "promote the common good and social welfare of a community of people."

Confronted with the report during an oversight hearing Friday held by the House Ways and Means Committee, senior AARP managers recoiled at its accusations.

"We do not sell insurance," Barry Rand, chief executive officer of AARP told the committee. He described AARP's insurance related revenues as "royalties."

In such an arrangement, AARP receives a fee from private insurers in exchange for tweaking their policies, accepting an AARP "brand" and selling those polices to AARP members.

In 2009, AARP revenues from such royalties amounted to two and a half times the amount the association received from member dues.

Several Democrats on the Committee pointed out that other 501c4 organizations, including The Tea Party Patriots and the grass-roots conservative organization Crossroads GPS -- both of which are opposed to the new health care law -- also enjoy tax-exempt protections.

"This is nothing other than a political witch hunt. I ask my colleagues, who's next? Who else is on your list? My college? Your church? This is a dangerous game to play," Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., angrily told Republicans on the committee.

Two tax lawyers invited by the committee presented polar opposite views as to whether the report’s allegations should be further investigated.

"My answer is yes," said William Josephson, an expert in charitable donations.

But Frances Hill, director of the Graduate Tax Program at the University of Miami said, "I saw nothing ...in the report that revocation of exemption is likely, probable or warranted."

House Ways and Means Committee staff members told Fox News that the entire AARP report will be handed over to the Internal Revenue Service next week, along with a recommendation for further investigation.

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