Occupy May Day underway

"San Francisco, once a stronghold of the dispossessed, has become a playground for the rich and a living hell for those of us who can't keep up or have no interest in capitalist relations," Bay Area protest organizers said in a statement.

But morning rush hour traffic was still flowing on the Golden Gate Bridge, despite protesters' threats to shut it down.

Early Tuesday morning, protesters -- including Occupiers, labor unions, and community and religious organizations -- were picketing against unfair labor practices at Los Angeles International Airport, according to Occupywallst.org.

The L.A. airport issued a traffic advisory, and the airport's website said two blocks of nearby Century Boulevard were shut down in anticipation of a march by at least 1,200 union members at 3 p.m. ET.

May Day protests were also held in Greece and Turkey. Two thousand people gathered in Syntagma Square in Athens, and another 7,000 protesters gathered outside a factory where employees haven't been paid in six months, according to their union.

Thousands of protesters in Istanbul's central Taksim Square were met with a police presence.
A march was planned in London, ending at Trafalgar Square, and road closures were also in the works. Three men were arrested in Exchange Square outside Liverpool Street.
In New York, Occupy Wall Street has been planning protests at bridges and tunnels, with picket lines slated at the Chase Building, the New York Times building, Sotheby's and Manhattan's main U.S. Post Office.

Biggest Full Moon of 2012 Occurs This Week

This Saturday, the moon will come within 221,802 miles from Earth.

This month's full moon is due to be about 16 percent brighter than average.

Skywatchers take note: The biggest full moon of the year is due to arrive this weekend.

The moon will officially become full Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT. And because this month's full moon coincides with the moon's perigee — its closest approach to Earth — it will also be the year's biggest.

The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.

And not only does the moon's perigee coincide with full moon this month, but this perigee will be the nearest to Earth of any this year, as the distance of the moon's close approach varies by about 3 percent, according to meteorologist Joe Rao, SPACE.com's skywatching columnist. This happens because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular.

This month's full moon is due to be about 16 percent brighter than average. In contrast, later this year on Nov. 28, the full moon will coincide with apogee, the moon's farthest approach, offering a particularly small and dim full moon.

Though the unusual appearance of this month's full moon may be surprising to some, there's no reason for alarm, scientists warn. The slight distance difference isn't enough to cause any earthquakes or extreme tidal effects, experts say.

However, the normal tides around the world will be particularly high and low. At perigee, the moon will exert about 42 percent more tidal force than it will during its next apogee two weeks later, Rao said.

The last supermoon occurred in March 2011.
To view this weekend's supermoon to best effect, look for it just after it rises or before it sets, when it is close to the horizon. There, you can catch a view of the moon behind buildings or trees, an effect which produces an optical illusion, making the moon seem even larger than it really is.

Discovery Channel Crashes a Passenger Jet… for Science

This past weekend, Discovery Channel orchestrated the crash of a Boeing 727 passenger jet in a remote and uninhabited Mexican desert as part of a scientific experiment for an unprecedented international television documentary for Discovery Channel, Channel 4 in the UK and Pro Sieben in Germany.
The pilot evacuated the 170-seat aircraft (via parachute) just minutes before the collision after setting it on a crash course. It was then flown remotely from a chase plane. The crash went according to plan and there were no injuries or damage to property.

The plane was packed with scientific experiments, including crash test dummies in lieu of passengers. Dozens of cameras recorded the crash from inside the aircraft, on the ground, in chase planes and even on the ejecting pilot’s helmet.

An international team of experts will use the data to study the crash-worthiness of the aircraft’s airframe and cabin, as well as the impact of crashes on the human body, with the goal of finding new ways to help increase passenger survivability. The experiment will also help them evaluate new “black box” crash-recording technology.

The plane was crashed in a remote and unpopulated part of the Sonoran Desert of Baja California, Mexico. The location was chosen after an extensive international search to find a suitable location offering the perfect conditions for this groundbreaking scientific project.
For safety reasons, an exclusion zone at the crash site was manned by security teams, as well as the Mexican military and police. Ahead of the crash, a full safety review of the project was undertaken by the highly-qualified pilots and commanders as well as the Mexican authorities who concluded that it was safe for all concerned.

Following the crash, the aircraft will be salvaged and an extensive environmental clean-up operation is being carried out by a reputable agency with the full cooperation of the Mexican authorities
“For the first time, leading scientists and veteran crash investigators, who have been enthusiastic supporters of this project, witness a plane crash in real time and explore what happens to the airframe and cabin, as well as the effects on the human body during a catastrophe of this magnitude. We hope to provide new information about how to improve the chances of survival while providing scientific results on passenger safety and new technologies, including new ‘black box’ flight data recording systems.”
Executive Producer, Sanjay Singhal, from Dragonfly Film and Television Productions, said: “NASA were the last people to attempt a crash test of a full passenger jet three decades ago. Now, with the improvements in filming and remote control technology we felt that the time was right to do it again. It’s never been safer to fly, but we want to use this as an opportunity to provide scientific data that might help to improve passenger safety in those extremely rare cases when a catastrophic aircraft accident does occur.
“This has been an extraordinary feat of organization, involving up to 300 people on location, including the production team, pilots, experts, risk management, plus local crew, military, fire teams and police. This is the culmination of four years of planning and hard work. We’re particularly grateful to the Mexican authorities for their assistance and support.”
carried out by a reputable agency with the full cooperation of the Mexican authorities.

Rare glimpse inside Hitler's bunker

Unpublished: Russian soldiers and a civilian struggle to move a large bronze Nazi Party eagle which once loomed over a doorway of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, 1945. (William Vandivert—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
With only candles to light their way, war correspondents examine a couch stained with blood (see dark patch on the arm of the sofa) located inside Hitler's bunker, 1945. (William Vandivert—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Unpublished: LIFE correspondent Percy Knauth (left) sifts through debris in the shallow trench in the garden of the Reich Chancellery where, Knauth was told, the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned after their suicides. (William Vandivert—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Satellite Pic after Tsunamis

FILE - This satellite image released by DigitalGlobe shows an overview taken Jan. 2, 2005 of southern Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia after the Indian Ocean tsunamis. The U.S. Geological Survey said early Wednesday April 11, 2012 a 8.7-magnitude quake was centered 20 miles (33 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor around 269 miles (434 kilometers) from Aceh's provincial capital.

U.S. battling giant shrimp invasion

Do not be alarmed, but the cannibal shrimp invasion has begun.

The influx of the jumbo-sized shrimp (which look more like a small lobster than the little pink crustaceans you see at the grocery store) has increased 10 times in the last year, according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey—from 32 in 2010 to 331 in 2011. The shrimp-eating shrimp have been spotted in waters from North Carolina to Texas.

Tony Reisinger of the Texas Sea Grant Extension Service, told CNN that the tiger prawn "are cannibalistic as are other shrimp, but it's larger so it can consume the others."

The black-and-white-striped sea creatures have shown up in the Gulf of Mexico and Southeast coast and, unlike their bottom-feeding cousins, are big enough—up to 13 inches long and up to a quarter-pound—to gobble up smaller shrimp.

Researchers worry that the Asian cannibal species is preying on the smaller, native sea life, competing for resources and carrying disease.

The increase "is the first indication that we may be undergoing a true invasion of Asian tiger shrimp," said marine ecologist James A. Morris, who works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research.

Scientists don't know exactly how the Asian variety got to the Gulf Coast—the possibilities include breeding in the local waters or being carried to the area by currents.

No matter how they got to the U.S., they're not welcome. Said Morris, "The Asian tiger shrimp represents yet another potential marine invader capable of altering fragile marine ecosystems."

The  numbers are probably much higher than the reported amount. Pam Fuller, the USGS biologist who runs the agency's Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database, said, "The more fisherman and other locals become accustomed to seeing them, the less likely they are to report them."

The USGS will next look into the tiger shrimp DNA for clues to its origins, and asks anyone who spots a tiger shrimp to report its location to the USGS.

World Trade Center to Become Tallest Building in NYC

The lower Manhattan skyline shows One World Trade Center, April 27, 2012 in New York. By Monday April 30, 2012 the rising steel frame of One World Trade Center is expected to become the tallest building in New York City and in the Western Hemisphere. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images )

"Seven days a week..." The tower has taken 6 years to get to this point, growing at a rate of a floor a week. As the tower nears the day that it can reclaim the title of tallest building in New York, construction continues at the World Trade Center site around the clock?24 hours a day/7 days a week?as long as the weather cooperates. (Lana Zak/ABC)

"You know it's a good view when even the guys who work here are taking out their cameras..." From the 84th floor, lower Manhattan looks like a monopoly board with matchbox cars, while workers at the top enjoy views of all five boroughs, the Hudson and East Rivers, and the always awe-inspiring Statue of Liberty. (Lana Zak/ABC)

 

Australian billionaire plans to build Titanic II

A new Titanic could be sailing the high seas within a few years.

Billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer. (AFP Photo/Tertius Pickard)Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer announced plans Monday to build an ultra-modern, luxury version of the doomed ocean liner in China.

Palmer, one of the richest people in Australia with an estimated worth of more than $5 billion, said he had commissioned a state-owned Chinese company to construct Titanic II with the exact dimensions as the ill-fated original.

"It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems," Palmer said, according to AFP.

He said Titanic II would make its maiden voyage from England to New York in late 2016.

The news comes just two weeks after the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg on its first voyage across the Atlantic on April 15, 1912, sending 1,500 people to their deaths.

"Titanic II will be the ultimate in comfort and luxury with on-board gymnasiums and swimming pools, libraries, high class restaurants and luxury cabins," Palmer said.

The cost of the new ship was not disclosed.

Palmer announced his Titanic plans the same day he revealed he would make a run for Australia's Parliament.

Palmer said he would seek the conservative opposition's candidacy for the seat currently held by Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan.

"Politics is about ideas," the billionaire told reporters. "You are not going to become rich being a politician."

With shuttle's end, space firms seek new direction

 

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Less than a year after NASA ended its shuttle program, players in America's space business are casting around for new direction.

United Technologies Corp. is the most recent company to announce it will sharply scale back its role in space exploration. It's selling Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a manufacturer of rocket engines and liquid-propulsion systems that it's owned for seven years. The sale of Rocketdyne and other businesses are intended to raise $3 billion to finance United Technologies' purchase of aerospace parts maker Goodrich Corp.

Greg Hayes, chief financial officer at United Technologies, rapped U.S. space policy when he announced the decision in mid-March to sell Rocketdyne.

"Growth will be limited at Rocketdyne," Hayes told investor analysts. "It's still a very good business. It's a national asset ... but unfortunately, without a national space policy, growth will be limited for some time."

Rocketdyne dates to early rocketry, working with pioneers such as Wernher von Braun and contributing to propulsion on Apollo spacecraft in the 1960s and '70s that brought astronauts to the moon.

The company has a future with NASA even if the space agency's path is unclear, said Rocketdyne President Jim Maser. Three of four companies vying to take crew to the space station would use Rocketdyne propulsion, he said. Still, he said, NASA's path is unclear.

"There is an official space policy and I can't cite it, to be honest," Maser said.

NASA's 30-year shuttle program ended last July with the voyage of Atlantis. The space shuttle Discovery has become a museum piece, turned over by NASA in mid-April to the Smithsonian Institution.

Other companies have shifted some business from space exploration. Lockheed Martin Corp. closed its shuttle tank production line in New Orleans in 2010, ending the jobs of about 1,400 workers. A year later, NASA chose that site in New Orleans to build components of its new heavy-lift rocket, but only if Congress funds the project.

ATK Space SystemsTech has laid off hundreds of workers in Utah, citing the phase-out of the space shuttle and the Minuteman III ballistic missile programs.

And Florida's Space Coast, once the center of rocket launches, has lost thousands of jobs.

NASA is still using companies such as Boeing, SpaceX and others to ferry cargo and astronauts to and from the International Space Station in three to five years. Until then, the space agency will spend tens of millions of dollars per seat on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

High-profile space exploration is now becoming a commercial venture. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, plans to launch its Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral to the space station on April 30. And a group of wealthy backers, including Google executives and filmmaker James Cameron, are behind an asteroid-mining idea.

NASA suffers in comparison with its early days when it followed through on a grand vision by national leaders, starting with President John Kennedy, of sending men to the moon, said Olivier L. de Weck, an associate professor of aeronautics, astronautics and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"It's a little bit unfair to say NASA has had no space policy," he said. "It's not as monumental as Apollo, but it's still robust and a leader in breadth and scope of impact."

NASA is working on a new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. But several businesses such as SpaceX insist that with time, also can build a launch system, de Weck said.

"It's a real policy question, government competing with private business for space launch," de Weck said.

An argument can be made that government should focus on military applications such as spy satellites and explore beyond earth while leaving space launches to private business, he said.

United Technologies is not exiting space exploration entirely. The company is selling three industrial businesses at its Hamilton Sundstrand subsidiary, but is leaving untouched the company's work in making space suits, launch systems and other space equipment.

A spokesman for Hamilton Sundstrand would not discuss its space business until after the Rocketdyne sale. Hayes told investor analysts April 24 that United Technologies expects to sign a contract shortly for the sale of the company.

Matt Collins, an analyst at Edward Jones, said United Technologies has scaled back Hamilton Sundstrand's involvement in space exploration.

"It's a fraction of the business today," he said.

Chris Quilty, a Raymond James analyst, said that without the shuttle, the United States no longer has a vehicle to put humans into space, calling into question the need for rockets.

"The rocket does not have a mission. It does not have a payload," he said. "There's no lunar lander. It's literally a rocket to nowhere."

Industry changes are spurring "some truly innovative commercial companies coming into existence," such as Space Exploration Technologies, Quilty said. In December 2010, SpaceX became only the fourth entity — after the U.S. Russian and Chinese governments — to put a capsule into space.

Rocketdyne's Maser said space travel is essentially about physics and economics. Only the financial part has changed, he said.

"Fundamentally, how we leave the planet hasn't changed," he said. "We haven't come up with a brilliant new way to do that."

Escape puts China, U.S. in awkward spot

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States faces a tense week in China as high-level talks on trade and global hot spots like Iran and North Korea open in the shadow of a blind Chinese activist's bold escape from house arrest to seek U.S. protection in Beijing.

The trip to Beijing would have been challenging for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner even without a human rights dispute over Chen Guangcheng, who a U.S.-based group says is hiding in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The May 3-4 Strategic & Economic Dialogue is the last of such annual consultations before political seasons heat up in the United States and China, giving leaders in both countries less flexibility over contentious economic and security issues.

The United States goes into full campaign mode for the November presidential election, while China's ruling Communist Party enters a leadership transition in the fall that has been complicated by a scandal that toppled senior leader Bo Xilai.

Bob Fu, whose religious and political rights advocacy group ChinaAid is the chief source of information about Chen, said he had confirmed "intensive talks" between the United States and China began right after the activist took shelter in the embassy on Friday.

"I was told the Chinese top leaders have been deliberating a decision to be made very soon," Fu said on Sunday by telephone from Texas. A "Chinese official response (is) expected in the next day or so," he added.

The United States has not confirmed reports that Chen, who slipped away from under heavy surveillance around his village home in eastern Shandong province, fled into the U.S. Embassy. China has also declined public comment on Chen's reported escape.

Fu said he got his information from "both sides" in the talks over Chen's fate. The State Department would not comment.

New Faults, and Earthquake Risks, Found in Washington

Tectonically speaking, there's a lot going on in the Pacific Northwest. From the Cascadia subduction zone, where the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate is slowly pushing its way underneath the North American plate, to the Seattle Fault, where Native American legends recorded a massive earthquake 1,100 years ago, the region has its fair share of seismic hazards.

Now add to that three more potentially dangerous faults in the Bellingham Basin, a tectonically active area along the coast of Washington, near the Canadian border. A team of researchers has discovered active tectonic faults in this region nearly 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of any previously known faults.

We've known for a long time that the whole Pacific Northwest region is contracting very slowly north-to-south, at the rate of a few millimeters per year," said Richard Blakely, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., who was part of the study. "It doesn't sound like very much, but when you concentrate that contraction on specific faults, they can become rather dangerous."

Big enough

The faults Blakely and his colleagues found are reverse faults — a type of tectonic fault where one side is shoved up over the other side — and the team estimates they're capable of triggering magnitude-6.0 to -6.5 earthquakes.

That's big enough to cause damage and hurt people, but it's not as severe as a magnitude-7 earthquake, such as the one that occurred on the Seattle fault 1,100 years ago," Blakely told OurAmazingPlanet.

The team found the new faults through a bit of collaborative luck, Blakely said. He had been examining maps of magnetic anomalies in the region and noticed clues pointing to several unidentified faults in the area. When his colleagues in Washington showed him LiDAR images — data collected by an airborne laser tool that showed scarps (steep banks formed when a fault ruptures) in exactly the same areas — and paleoseismic records that indicated past earthquakes had shoved the ground upward several feet, they knew they had found something.

The three faults the team identified are located near Birch Bay, Sandy Point and Drayton Harbor, all along the Pacific coast of northern Washington, about 20 miles (32 km) north of the city of Bellingham.

They’re about 40 miles (60 km) north of where geologists previously thought active faulting ended in the Bellingham Basin, opening a new swath of the Washington coast to seismic hazards.

What's more, the team traced the faults from onshore to offshore, meaning that when they do rupture, they could trigger an underwater earthquake.

"This is a big 'if’=,' but if they ruptured again along their entire length, some of that rupture would be out in the water, and there might be a tsunami hazard related to that," Blakely said.

But Washington residents and their Canadian neighbors don't necessarily need to worry about that happening anytime soon. The researchers didn't find enough paleoseismic evidence to say how often major quakes occur along these faults.

The last time an earthquake occurred along the Birch Bay and Sandy Ridge faults was at least 1,000 years ago, Blakely said, and moving at a rate of only a few millimeters per year, it could take some time to build up enough tension to produce another quake.

Bin Laden's Wives: Life on the Run

Nearly a year ago, Navy SEALs successfully raided the compound of Osama bin Laden, who had been hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the al Qaeda mastermind.

With bin Laden gone, the family he smuggled along as he evaded international authorities has been instrumental in learning more about how bin Laden lived in the decade following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

WIDE ANGLE: Bin Laden Killed at Last

The family has been in the custody of Pakistani authorities since bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011. After being prosecuted for illegal entry, bin Laden's wives, along with their 11 children, will be deported to Saudi Arabia, though it's believed that his Yemeni-born wife will return to her native country.

Before the three widows were sentenced, Pakistani authorities elicited testimony from all three who were with bin Laden in his compound. Although two of his wives have generally refused to cooperate, according to reports, the youngest of bin Laden's wives, Amal Ahmad Abdul Fateh, has given authorities the clearest picture yet of what life was like on the run

Although reports of bin Laden's whereabouts often portrayed him as hiding away in caves along the mountainous Af-Pak border, the terrorist leader was actually moving around urban areas of Pakistan.

According to the testimony of his youngest wife, the family, though scattered occasionally, moved among five different safe houses

Even Abbottabad, the site of bin Laden's final hideout, has been described as a "peaceful hill resort," a far cry from the conditions in which bin Laden was supposed to be concealing himself

Bin Laden fathered four children in his 10 years on the lam.

Over the 10 years that bin Laden spent dodging international authorities, he fathered two boys and two girls with Fateh, all of whom were born in Pakistan. The two also had a child in Afghanistan before the attacks of 9/11.

Bin Laden also traveled with his two other wives and two adult daughters from his previous marriages.

Bin Laden's wives do not get along.

Romney "would not have killed bin Laden"

Would Mitt Romney have ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden? President Barack Obama's re-election campaign released a new video on Friday that strongly implies that he would not have, using the presumptive Republican nominee's own words against him.

Ever since Vice President Joe Biden boiled down Obama's 2012 slogan to "bin Laden is dead, GM is alive," it has been clear that the embattled incumbent would not hesitate to use the May 2, 2011, Navy SEAL strike as a political weapon

Fighting over the political use of bin Laden is hardly new—as Obama's 2008 presidential campaign could tell you, since they complained about then-rival Hillary Clinton doing just that. Clinton's camp ran an ad that used Osama bin Laden and implied that Obama (the ad didn't use his name) didn't have the foreign policy chops to be president

The video, taken from footage shot for Obama's 17-minute campaign commercial "The Road We've Traveled," opens with the message "the Commander-in-Chief gets one chance to make the right decision" and turns to former President Bill Clinton for validation. "That's one thing George Bush said that was right: The president is the decider in chief. Nobody can make that decision for you."

"Look, he knew what would happen," says Clinton. "Suppose the Navy Seals had gone in there and it hadn't been bin Laden. Suppose they had been captured or killed. The downside would have been horrible for him, but he reasoned 'I cannot in good conscience do nothing.' He took the harder and the more honorable path and the one that produced in my opinion the best result," he says, amid images including a photograph of New York City firefighters cheering the news of bin Laden's death.

"Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?" asks the on-screen text. The video recalls Romney's contention, in an April 2007 interview with the Associated Press, that Americans will not be markedly safer if bin Laden were killed and that "it's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." (Days later, in a May 3, 2007, debate, Romney was asked about his words and responded, "We'll move everything to get him. ... This is a global effort we're going to have to lead to overcome this jihadist effort. It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die.") It also cites a Reuters report referring to an August 2007 Republican candidates debate: "Mitt Romney criticized Barack Obama for vowing to strike al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan if necessary." (That's probably safer than directing viewers to the transcript of the debate: Romney criticized Obama for openly discussing the possibility of striking inside Pakistan, not for entertaining the idea. When moderator George Stephanopoulos asks whether it's fair to summarize his position as "keep this option on the table, but it is foolish to talk about it in public," Romney doesn't disagree.)

9,000 U.S. Marines to leave Okinawa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Japan announced on Thursday a revised agreement on streamlining the U.S. military presence on Okinawa that will shift 9,000 Marines from the southern Japanese island to Guam and other Asia-Pacific sites.

The new plan, unveiled days before Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda meets President Barack Obama in Washington, helps the allies work around the central but still-unresolved dispute over moving the Futenma air base from a crowded part of Okinawa to a new site that has vexed relations for years.

"I am very pleased that, after many years, we have reached this important agreement and plan of action. I applaud the hard work and effort that went into crafting it," U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement.

"Japan is not just a close ally, but also a close friend."

Under the agreement, 9,000 U.S. Marines will be relocated. Five thousand will go to Guam and the rest to other sites such as Hawaii and Australia, a joint U.S.-Japanese statement said

The updated version of a long-delayed 2006 plan was needed to achieve "a U.S. force posture in the Asia-Pacific region that is more geographically distributed, operationally resilient and politically sustainable," the statement said.

Snags over Okinawa had raised questions about the viability of the Obama administration's strategy of shifting U.S. forces from other regions to the Asia-Pacific to deal with nuclear saber-rattling by North Korea, the rapid military buildup of China and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Friction over U.S. bases intensified after the 1995 gang rape of a Japanese schoolgirl by U.S. servicemen. The case sparked widespread protests by Okinawans, who had long resented the American presence due to crime, noise and deadly accidents.

There are about 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan under a 1960 bilateral security treaty.

Okinawa, occupied by the United States from 1945-72, accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan's total land but hosts three-quarters of the U.S. military facilities in the country in terms of land area.

"This has been ... bogged down for years, but now we have been able to come up with a new approach de-linking the Futenma relocation from other elements, like moving out Marine forces to Guam and returning some parts of Okinawa," said Ichiro Fujisaki, Japan's ambassador to the United States

"Things are going to start moving," he told a gathering at a think tank in Washington.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the deal was discussed widely with U.S. lawmakers, who had refused to fund the overhaul on Okinawa until the Futenma deadlock was resolved and the administration fully explained how the move would fit overall U.S. strategy.

"We think it breaks a very long stalemate ... that has plagued our politics, that has clogged both of our systems," said Campbell.

How to get a cheap loan from the IRS

Say your overall cash-flow situation is good, but you need to cover a short-term deficit over the next few months. In today's still-strict credit environment, taking out a loan may not be much fun. It may not even be possible -- unless you have access to an untapped home equity line of credit or a helpful relative. If that's the case, great. If not, you may be able to turn to a surprising source for some help: the taxman.

If you're self-employed, an investor or someone who lives off Social Security benefits, pension payments, retirement account withdrawals, and the like, you can apply for loan from the Internal Revenue Service. Better yet: To borrow from the IRS, you don't have to fill out any annoying applications, prove your income or fence with a balky loan officer. While this may sound too good to be true, it is true. Read on for the details

.Increase Cash Flow by Temporarily Postponing Estimated Tax Payments
What you do is simply postpone some federal income tax payments that you would otherwise make to the IRS via estimated tax installments. You don't need the government's permission. You just do it and then make up the difference later. Of course, the IRS will charge interest on the difference between what you should have paid in for each installment and what you actually paid. However, the current interest rate on estimated tax underpayments is only 3%. While the rate can potentially change each quarter, it will probably remain at a reasonable level for a while.

The IRS calls the interest on estimated tax underpayments a "penalty." But since the current interest rate is only 3%, it's not really a penalty. In fact it's actually a pretty good deal for someone with a short-term cash crisis. I've been there myself a few times, and I've done the borrow-from-the-IRS drill. (Please don't tell my Mother!)

Note: If you are a salaried employee, you must pay in federal income taxes via payroll withholding. You may be able to adjust the withholding downward a bit for the rest of this year by turning in a revised Form W-4 to your employer. However, the strategy of borrowing from the IRS is basically unavailable to you. Sorry.

Estimated Tax Payments in a Nutshell
There is no federal income tax withholding on income from self-employment activities conducted via sole proprietorships, partnerships, or LLCs. Nor is there generally any required federal income tax withholding on interest income, dividends, capital gains, Social Security benefits, pension payments, or taxable retirement account withdrawals. Instead folks with income from these sources are expected to make four installment payments of estimated taxes for each year. The installments for the 2012 tax year are due on Apr. 17, June 15 and Sept. 17 of this year, and Jan. 15 of 2013. Obviously the first date is now in your rearview mirror, but the next three are still in the future. So you can work with the installments due on those dates by paying in less than you owe or even nothing at all.

As mentioned, you will be charged interest based on the difference between the amount you should have paid in for each installment and the amount you actually pay for as long as the underpayment remains outstanding. The amount that you should pay in for each installment generally equals the lesser of: (1) 22.5% of what you expect to report on your 2012 Form 1040 for total federal income and self-employment taxes or (2) 25% of what you reported on your 2011 return (27.5% if your 2011 adjusted gross income was over $150,000).

Make Sure to Catch Up by April 15, 2013
Borrowing from the IRS in this fashion is only a short-term fix. By no later than April 15th of next year, you must catch up for any estimated tax payment shortfalls for the 2012 tax year. If you don't, the IRS will start charging additional interest of half a percent per month on the shortfall--which equates to a 6% annual rate. That 6% is on top of the "regular" interest charge, which is currently only 3%. So you could be looking at a rate of 9% or maybe more. In any case, owing the IRS for 2012 taxes after April 15th of next year is just not a good position to be in. So, if you are not ready, willing, and able to pay up by that date, please pretend you never saw this article.

One last thing: you don't have to wait until April 15th to catch up. You can do so as soon as you are able. For example, say you decide to skip your 6/15/12 installment. You can catch up by doubling your 9/17/12 installment. The sooner you catch up, the less interest you will owe.

Six freebies you now have to pay for

More and more, our free society is turning into a fee society.
Many services and goods that were once freebies now cost money.
"You have the feeling that a lot of consumers are feeling 'fee'd' to death," says Greg Karp, author of "The 1-2-3 Money Plan" and a personal finance expert. "It's a nickel-and-dime world today."

Companies are realizing there are two approaches to raising prices, says Fred Hurvitz, marketing and retail studies professor at Pennsylvania State University. "You can up your basic price and include all of the service as if it's free. Or you can try to keep the base prices as low as possible -- and charge separately for extras."

From your checking account to pizza delivery, here are six areas of your life where you may now find yourself over-fee'd -- plus advice on how to avoid paying for traditionally free stuff.

Your bank wants a cut of your money

At one time, it seemed banks catered to patrons.

Free checking? Sure. Extra interest on high-yield savings? No problem. Free ATM access? Of course.

No-cost banking is now harder to find, at least in its purest form. According to Bankrate's 2011 Checking Account Survey, just 45 percent of noninterest checking accounts are free. An account holder can expect to pay an average maintenance fee of $4.37 per month, up from $2.49 in 2010, according to Bankrate's survey. And the national average fee a bank will charge a noncustomer for using its ATMs is $2.40.
Account holders can sidestep monthly fees for most noninterest checking accounts by maintaining a minimum balance or signing up for direct deposit.
Then, "the question becomes: Can you live within the rules of that particular bank that allows you a no-fee account?" says Bert Ely, a banking consultant in Alexandria, Va.
For those who can't maintain a high minimum balance or use direct deposit, Ely's advice is to walk away.

"I always say, shop around," he says. "And realize things change. Maybe your bank is good today, but maybe five years from now things change."

Niceties get price tags -- or just vanishMany free niceties have been kicked to the curb. Chocolates are disappearing from hotel pillows, extra sauce packets are harder to find at fast-food joints, and free pizza delivery has largely been hand-tossed away.
Americans buy $30 billion worth of pizza each year, according to TLC Cooking. And they increasingly pay delivery charges, which range from $2 to $3 at major chains Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's, according to an informal survey of the companies' national customer service lines. Plus, don't forget the tip.

Even the air you breathe isn't free -- at least not when it's pumped into your car's tires. You have to search "high and low" for a gas station that doesn't charge 50 cents to $1 for tire air, Karp says.

Other niceties such as extra side dishes and unlimited condiments at restaurants, clothing alterations and children's sports team trophies also are no longer free, Karp says.

But there are ways to keep newer costs at bay. For example, you could avoid pizza delivery charges by buying frozen pies or opting for carryout.

"It's more work for consumers to avoid all these (fees)," Karp says. It's probably possible, but it's going to take some diligence."

Fees for airline amenities take off
Remember when you could fly for one base price and bring along your belongings at no extra cost?

Those days have left the tarmac. Between 2005 and 2011, domestic airfares went up by about 18 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And things that used to come bundled into the ticket price now trigger separate fees.

Many airlines are charging customers for onboard snacks, seat selection, booking flights by phone, printing boarding passes at the airport, and using headphones and blankets, says Seth Kaplan, managing partner for Airline Weekly. A traveler could potentially pay an extra $100 per flight for all of these once-gratis amenities.

However, "there are consumers who benefit either because they never took advantage of those services to begin with or because they've now gotten creative about avoiding the fees," Kaplan says.

That creativity can include booking your flight online, printing your boarding pass at home, choosing not to select a seat, and bringing your own headphones and sweater, Kaplan says. You might also consider toting food from home, filling up a water bottle after clearing security, or scouring the terminal for cheap munchies

Read all about it: Free news is rarer

Here's a headline that may catch your eye: Newspapers nix free online news, slap customers with paywalls.
It was once common for news organizations such as The New York Times to provide full, free access to their websites. That's going the way of the typewriter, as news outlets use digital subscriptions to "monkey around with the business model," says Karp.

"Newspapers, for the longest time, gave away the news for free online, thinking they would make money from ads," he says. "That just didn't pan out."

Many news outlets now charge a monthly or annual fee to read their news on computers, smartphones and tablets such as the iPad. Usually these services include access to archives and ultra-cool multimedia projects. Gannett is the latest newspaper company to decide to charge for online content.

However, Karp says in many cases readers are still able to get free access to breaking or recent news online, if they provide demographic information such as their age and ZIP code.

 

Bin Laden Anniversary Triggers Law Enforcement Surge

While U.S. officials say publicly there is no specific threat of a terror attack, behind the scenes law enforcement officials tell ABC News there are plans for a major security surge at airports and transportation hubs in advance of next week's anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death.

The precautions are based on intelligence reports that al Qaeda is determined to avenge the death of bin Laden, killed by Navy SEALs last May, with a focus on aviation targets.

Of greatest concern to U.S. officials is al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and its master bombmaker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, who has survived repeated U.S. efforts to kill him.

It was al-Asiri, according to U.S. officials, who designed the so-called "underwear bomb" worn by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to bring down Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Abdulmutallab got the bomb past airport security but failed to detonate it successfully aboard the plane.

Officials say al-Asiri also designed the bombs hidden in printers that were shipped from Yemen to Chicago. The bombs were intercepted in Dubai and the U.K. after they'd been placed aboard cargo planes.

In a joint intelligence bulletin issued overnight, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said the Yemen group "intends to advance plots along multiple fronts, including renewed efforts to target Western aviation."

"It doesn't take a great number of people to do the kind of attack that we had on September 11," said Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant and former White House counterterrorism official. "That was less than two dozen people and it's clear that they have that number available in places like Yemen today."

Threats of a revenge attack have been monitored by the U.S. ever since last year's raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Among the papers found in his home were repeated references to the importance of attacks timed to coincide with anniversaries.

Shocking image of bear falling from tree

In a truly memorable photo, a bear can be seen falling from a tree after being tranquilized by police in Colorado.

The young bear, estimated to weigh between 150 and 200 pounds, had wandered onto the University of Colorado at Boulder campus and climbed into a tree, according to the CU Independent, which captured the stunning image.

"[The bear] was tranquilized by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department and it fell onto some mats that the Rec Center provided," CU Police Department spokesman Ryan Huff told the paper. "It is now in a cage and it will be relocated at a higher elevation."

Before it was tranquilized, the bear spent about two hours in a tree near the campus dorms. It reportedly landed safely.

On Tuesday, a family of black bears made the news, literally, after wandering onto the set of a local TV news station in Pennsylvania.

Volcano Watch: Heavy Breathing in Santorini

The iconic white roofs of the Greek isles of Santorini may not stay that way forever. Those buildings are perched, after all, on the rim of a massive underwater volcano blamed for destroying the Minoan civilization of Crete. And it’s restless.

ANALYSIS: White Roofs Help Volcanoes Chill Out

About 3600 years ago, at the height of Minoan civilization, Santorini let loose with one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history. The explosion blanketed nearby islands with piles of ash hundreds of feet thick and sent out a gigantic tsunami that devastated Crete, about 68 miles to the south.

Smaller eruptions across the ensuing millennia ended abruptly in 1950. Then, after 60 years of calm, the caldera reawakened early last year with an escalating swarm of earthquakes. When geologists took a closer look, they could see the ground was swelling as well, as though the sleeping giant were yawning.

ANALYSIS: Who Invented the Toilet?

The earthquakes and ground deformation scientists observed between 2011 and early 2012 are unprecedented since the 1950 eruption. But just because a volcano is sucking in breath doesn’t mean it will spew. Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull stratovolcano really let loose in 2010 after its own swarm of deformation-driven tremors, but Long Valley caldera in California has been breathing heavily since 1980 with no eruption at all.

So, what’s in store for Santorini?
In a recent analysis of the volcano published in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists estimate Santorini's latest inflation is due to 14.1 million cubic meters of magma accumulating in a chamber about 4.5 kilometers below the surface.

That may sound like a scary-big mass of melted rock, but it represents only about 0.03 percent of the estimated eruptive volume from the monstrous 1650 B.C. eruption—not nearly enough for a repeat performance. Should Santorini erupt, it will most likely be a relatively tame event, the study’s authors say.

PHOTO: Seafloor Erupts New Baby Canary

Still, they do offer one warning: “Potentially more dangerous is the effect of volcanic ashfall and earthquake activity, which could damage houses, induce landslides along the steep caldera cliffs and cause local tsunamis that could be dangerous for the local boat traffic within the caldera.”

Marine Monster Mystery on S.C. Beach

A bizarre creature that washed ashore last week in Folly Beach, S.C., sparked speculation in the area and on the Internet that a dead sea monster might have been discovered.

The tan-brown animal with greenish patches was strange enough, but what really baffled beachgoers was its massive size and the dinosaur-like bony plates on its sides. It's not clear just how long it was, but photos suggest it exceeded 10 feet.