Six In The Morning

 China Making Some Missiles More Powerful

   

By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD

After decades of maintaining a minimal nuclear force, China has re-engineered many of its long-range ballistic missiles to carry multiple warheads, a step that federal officials and policy analysts say appears designed to give pause to the United States as it prepares to deploy more robust missile defenses in the Pacific.

What makes China’s decision particularly notable is that the technology of miniaturizing warheads and putting three or more atop a single missile has been in Chinese hands for decades. But a succession of Chinese leaders deliberately let it sit unused; they were not interested in getting into the kind of arms race that characterized the Cold War nuclear competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.

  Amazon Tall Tower Observatory gives scientists the big picture of the rainforest

Taller than the Eiffel Tower, a new mast will provide vital data on the atmosphere and the forest’s health

Donna Bowater  Sunday 17 May 2015

The Amazon rainforest has an extraordinary impact on the planet, producing about half of all the oxygen in the atmosphere.

Now a mast, taller than the Eiffel Tower, has been built deep in the heart of the forest – amid jaguars, snakes and giant trees – to monitor chemical changes in the air that could shed new light on global climate change.

The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (Atto) is the tallest structure in South America. At 1,066ft (325m) – 3ft higher than Paris’s structure – its reach will allow researchers to gain a dramatic new perspective.

 Opinion: Fear devours open societies

  A bomb threat halted the recording of a German TV show and an arena evacuation. Bicycle races, opera performances, carnival processions have been canceled. We’re on the brink of paranoia, writes Martin Muno.

 DW-DE

For umpteen-thousand girls and young women, it was the most important event of the year: the winner of Heidi Klum’s reality TV show “Germany’s Next Top Model” (GNT) was to be chosen on Thursday evening, in front of an audience of 10,000 in Mannheim’s SAP Arena, and many more glued to their TV screens.

But we still don’t know which of the four finalists was the lucky one: A bomb threat made sure that the event came to an sudden end. The venue was evacuated, broadcaster ProSieben showed a movie instead of the highly anticipated reality show finale.

The show is part of a spate of events that have been canceled in Germany due to fears of terrorist attacks: others include a May 1 bicycle race in Frankfurt, a Carnival procession in Braunschweig in February, and an anti-Islamist PEGIDA demonstration in Dresden in January.

Seattle flotilla protests Shell’s Arctic drilling plans

      May 17, 2015 – 2:14PM

Bryan Cohen

Hundreds of activists in kayaks and small boats fanned out on a Seattle bay to protest plans by Royal Dutch Shell to resume oil exploration in the Arctic and keep two of its drilling rigs stored in the city’s port.

Environmental groups have vowed to disrupt the Anglo-Dutch oil company’s efforts to use the Seattle as a home base as it outfits the rigs to return to the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, saying drilling in the remote Arctic waters could lead to an ecological catastrophe.

Demonstrators have planned days of protests, both on land and in Elliott Bay, home to the Port of Seattle, where the first of the two rigs docked on Thursday.

Holocaust drama ‘Son of Saul’ shakes up Cannes audiences

 

 Associated Press JILL LAWLESS

A Hungarian film that takes viewers into the hellish heart of the Holocaust has left Cannes reeling.

“Son of Saul,” the first feature from director Laszlo Nemes, has become an early favorite to win the Palme d’Or and has been praised for reimagining the way the Holocaust is depicted onscreen.

The Hollywood Reporter called the film “remarkable – and remarkably intense,” while Variety judged it “terrifyingly accomplished.” The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said it was “devastating and terrifying” and praised its “gaunt, fierce kind of courage.”

Fears as buildings continue to crack in quake-hit Nepal

 Thousands of buildings are too dangerous to live in but continue to stand perilously in capital Kathmandu.

Annette Ekin

Kathmandu, Nepal– Three weeks after a powerful earthquake devastated Nepal, buildings in the capital Kathmandu damaged by the shaking and now too perilous to live in have yet to be torn down.

For the past few weeks, people whose homes were destroyed and others who are afraid to return home, have lived in tents on open grounds and even stayed in large spaces like those of wedding venues.

People have re-navigated how they walk along familiar streets by avoiding passing under dangerously tilted buildings.