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Expectant mothers can expose themselves to the higher risk by drinking the water, swimming in chlorinated water, taking a bath or shower, or even by standing close to a boiling kettle, say researchers.

The finding, based on an analysis of nearly 400,000 infants, is the first that links by-products of water chlorination – chemicals known as trihalomethanes, or THMs – to three specific birth defects.

Exposure to high levels of THMs substantially increased the risk of holes in the heart, cleft palate and anencephalus, which results in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp.

Where exposure to THMs was above 20 millionths of a gram per litre, there was an increased risk of 50 to 100 per cent of these conditions compared with levels below 5 millionths of a gram per litre.

The dangerous levels are reached in one in six households in the UK – around four million homes – according to the author, Professor Jouni Jaakkola, at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

“The biological mechanism for how these disinfection by-products may cause defects are still unknown,” says Prof Jaakkola, who reports the findings with Taiwanese colleagues in the journal Environmental Health.

“However, our findings don’t just add to the evidence that water chlorination may cause birth defects, but suggest that exposure to chlorination by-products may be responsible for some specific and common defects.”

Less than 0.4 percent of Germany’s total primary energy supply came from geothermal sources in 2004. But after a renewable energy law that introduced a tariff scheme of EU €0.15 [US $0.23] per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity produced from geothermal sources came into effect that year, a construction boom was sparked and the new power plants are now starting to come online.

“Geothermal sources could supply Germany’s electricity needs 600 times over,” Werner Bussmann, CEO of the German Geothermal Association [Geothermische Vereinigung], told RenewableEnergyWorld.com.

He said special, cost effective technology allowed energy to be extracted from geothermal reservoirs containing low- to moderate-temperature water that are so typical of Germany.

Innovative technology is important because Germany, unlike countries such as Iceland, Italy or Indonesia, does not have volcanic activity or the associated dry steam reservoirs that can be used to produce electricity directly.

In Tokyo recently, Semmoto revealed he had advised Prime Minister Helen Clark three years ago that New Zealand’s broadband service was “pitiful”.

The PM had apparently praised previous Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung’s performance, but Semmoto’s contention was that any CEO who did not ensure the nation’s broadband infrastructure was fast enough and with sufficient bandwidth to enable New Zealand’s high-tech industry to carry out business from here should not be in the job.

He advised Helen Clark that the Government needed to do something about Telecom by introducing competition, and as Gattung moved on, he got in touch with Paul Reynolds, whose performance he had admired at BT, and strongly pushed him to take on the job.

Semmoto praises Communications Minister David Cunliffe for tackling Telecom. “It had to be done”.

But he’s critical of the Government’s recent Budget announcements: The $340 million Digital Pathway Fund will still not be sufficient to fast forward the switch in emphasis needed to get New Zealand on to a better broadband platform, he says. Its focus on fibre – when many advanced societies are switching to greater use of mobile technologies – needs to be balanced.

New Zealand will simply “get killed” if it does not tackle such issues swiftly and build a speedy information highway to connect to nations with which it wants to do business.

Semmoto also delivered the latter message to the recent Japan New Zealand Partnership Forum where he urged New Zealand businesses to lift the level of their ambition. To be more like Finland with its focus on hi-tech innovations and to be “more independent” and take less notice of the gap with Australia.

Tourists and business travelers from the 27 countries currently listed under the visa waiver program will have to register with the US government three days in advance, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The new rules aim to make it more difficult for potential terrorists to enter the United States from places such as France, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Singapore, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, the government said.

However, critics have raised concerns about the possibility of reduced tourism and difficulties with last-minute business travel.

“Getting this information in advance enables our frontline personnel to determine whether a visa-free traveler presents a threat, before boarding an aircraft or arriving on our shores,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

“It is a relatively simple and effective way to strengthen our security, and that of international travelers, while helping to preserve an important program for key allies.”

The government will ask for the same information that travelers currently fill out on the I-94 card which is handed out on the plane and turned in to customs on arrival in the United States, a DHS official told AFP.

That includes such information as passport number, country of residence, disclosure of communicable diseases or involvement in terror activities.

“Rather than relying on paper-based procedures, this system will leverage 21st century electronic means to obtain basic information about who is traveling to the US without a visa,” Chertoff said.

Travelers may register with the US government beginning in August, and the information will remain valid for two years so that it is not necessary to repeat the same process in that time period.

Once the regulations become mandatory in January 2009, all US-bound travelers from the countries affected “will need to receive an electronic travel authorization prior to boarding a US-bound airplane or cruise ship,” it said.

The rules do not affect US travelers heading overseas.

The new program, known as the Interim Final Rule for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), was called for under the “implementing recommendations” of the 9/11 Commission Act in 2007, DHS said.

The 9/11 Commission was a bipartisan panel created by the US government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Now, on the cusp of 40, Carl found himself living in a double-wide trailer and buying cans of beer from a 90-year old bartender in a Podunk Nevada town. And he had never been happier. His eyes were shining in a way I had never seen when he lived in the city.

A year ago, Carl evacuated from San Francisco and moved to the Nevada desert. He sold the business, sold his house, bought some land and relocated his wife and dog to what he calls the “deep desert.”

Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those detained.

Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

It is the use of ships to detain prisoners, however, that is raising fresh concern and demands for inquiries in Britain and the US.

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as “floating prisons” since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu. A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans.

Reprieve will raise particular concerns over the activities of the USS Ashland and the time it spent off Somalia in early 2007 conducting maritime security operations in an effort to capture al-Qaida terrorists.

At this time many people were abducted by Somali, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces in a systematic operation involving regular interrogations by individuals believed to be members of the FBI and CIA. Ultimately more than 100 individuals were “disappeared” to prisons in locations including Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Guantánamo Bay.

The government is growing increasingly interested in waging war online. The Air Force recently put together a “Cyberspace Command,” with a charter to rule networks the way its fighter jets rule the skies. The Department of Homeland Security, Darpa, and other agencies are teaming up for a five-year, $30 billion “national cybersecurity initiative.” That includes an electronic test range, where federally-funded hackers can test out the latest electronic attacks. “You used to need an army to wage a war,” a recent Air Force commercial notes. “Now, all you need is an Internet connection.”

On Monday, the Air Force Research Laboratory introduced a two-year, $11 million effort to put together hardware and software tools for “Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement.” “Of interest are any and all techniques to enable user and/or root level access,” a request for proposals notes, “to both fixed (PC) or mobile computing platforms… any and all operating systems, patch levels, applications and hardware.” This isn’t just some computer science study, mind you; “research efforts under this program are expected to result in complete functional capabilities.”

Unlike an Air Force colonel’s proposal, to knock down enemy websites with military botnets, the Research Lab is encouraging a sneaky, “low and slow” approach. The preferred attack consists of lying quiet, and then “stealthily exfiltrat[ing] information” from adversaries’ networks.

But, in the end, the Air Force wants to see all kinds of “techniques and technologies” to “Deceive, Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, [or] Destroy” hostile systems. And “in addition to these main concepts,” the Research Lab would like to see studies into “Proactive Botnet Defense Technology Development,” the “reinvent[ion of] the network protocol stack” and new antennas, based on carbon nanotubes.

raditionally, the military has been extremely reluctant to talk much about offensive operations online. Instead, the focus has normally been on protecting against electronic attacks. But in the last year or so, the tone has changed — and become more bellicose. “Cyber, as a warfighting domain . . . like air, favors the offense,” said Lani Kass, a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff who previously headed up the service’s Cyberspace Task Force. “If you’re defending in cyber, you’re already too late.”

“We want to go in and knock them out in the first round,” added Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, which focuses on network issues.

The moved added to a steep sell-off since last month’s peak over $135 a barrel that has been propelled by intensifying worries over high prices denting global energy demand and that increased regulatory scrutiny could cool speculation.

“In short, the commodity complex’s ‘all clear to buy’ signal has just been flicked off and I am sure traders are on high alert for a rebound in the dollar, a bearish event for commodities,” said Chris Jarvis, senior analyst at Caprock Risk Management in New Hampshire.

U.S. crude fell $3.02 to $124.74 a barrel by 1815 GMT after earlier hitting a session low of $124.50. London Brent crude fell $2.95 to $125.07 a barrel.

In addition, the surgeon performed liver transplants at UCLA on three other men who are now barred from entering the United States because of their criminal records or suspected affiliation with Japanese organized crime groups, said a knowledgeable law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The four surgeries were done between 2000 and 2004 at a time of pronounced organ scarcity. In each of those years, more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the Greater Los Angeles region.

The surgeon in each case was Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil, executive chairman of UCLA’s surgery department, according to another person familiar with the matter who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Busuttil is a world-renowned liver surgeon who co-edited a leading text on liver transplantation and is one of the highest-paid employees in the University of California system.

There is no evidence that UCLA or Busuttil knew at the time of the transplants that any of the patients had ties to Japanese gangs, commonly called yakuza. Both said in statements that they do not make moral judgments about patients and treat them based on their medical need.

U.S. transplant rules do not prohibit hospitals from performing transplants on either foreign patients or those with criminal histories.

The most prominent transplant recipient, Tadamasa Goto, had been barred from entering the U.S. because of his criminal history, several current and former law enforcement officials said. Goto leads a gang called the Goto-gumi, which experts describe as vindictive and at times brutal.

The FBI helped Goto obtain a visa to enter the United States in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs, said Jim Stern, retired chief of the FBI’s Asian criminal enterprise unit in Washington.

Goto got his liver, Stern said, but provided the bureau with little useful information on Japanese gangs.

“I don’t think Goto gave the bureau anything of significance,” Stern said. Goto “came to the States and got a liver and was laughing back to where he came from. . . . It defies logic.”

Although Stern was not involved with the deal, he said he learned the details when he became unit chief in 2004 and continues to be troubled by what happened.

After the transplant, Goto was again barred from reentering the U.S., said the first law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and therefore requested anonymity.

But Goto continued to receive medical care from Busuttil in Japan. The doctor traveled there and examined Goto on more than one occasion, said Goto’s Tokyo-based lawyer, Yoshiyuki Maki — and evaluated Goto while he was in custody in 2006.

Busuttil’s medical opinion was cited in a successful court petition to have Goto released for medical care at a Tokyo hospital, Maki said.