Invisibility cloak closer with flexible 'metamaterial'

Scientists have demonstrated a flexible film that represents a big step toward the "invisibility cloak" made famous by the Harry Potter franchise.

The film contains tiny structures that together form a "metamaterial", which can, among other tricks, manipulate light to render objects invisible.

Flexible metamaterials have been made before, but only work for light of a colour far beyond that which we see.

Physicists have hailed the approach a "huge step forward".

The bendy approach for visible light is reported in the New Journal of Physics.

Metamaterials work by interrupting and channelling the flow of light at a fundamental level; in a sense they can be seen as bouncing light waves around in a prescribed fashion to achieve a particular result.

But light waves can only be herded around by structures about the size of their wavelength - a property which is connected to their colour.

Until now, the most striking demonstrations of invisibility have occurred for light waves with a much longer wavelength than we can see. This is because it is simply easier to construct metamaterials with relatively large structures.

Even flexible metamaterial films have been shown off for this high-wavelength range.

For the far shorter waves we can see, a metamaterial requires structures so tiny - nanostructures - that they push the boundaries of manufacturing.

"The first step is imagining first of all that this could be done," said Andrea Di Falco of St Andrews University, the author of the paper.

BBC News

BBC apologises to Bob Geldof over Band Aid claims

Not many people come away from a clash with Bob Geldof unscathed. And for the BBC it has proved no different. Today, across BBC1, Radio 4 and the World Service, it will broadcast an apology to the singer-philanthropist and the Band Aid Trust he founded.

Accused by Geldof of causing "appalling damage" to the famine relief charity he founded in 1985, the BBC will admit that it was wrong, in a story broadcast in March this year, to have given the "impression" that money raised from the Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas ended up being spent on weapons rather than charity. It is a climbdown that Geldof said would "begin to repair some of the appalling damage done" to the reputation of Band Aid, and he welcomed it "on behalf of all those members of the public who have so magnificently donated to Band Aid and Live Aid over the last 26 years".

Once, the BBC's relationship with Geldof was very different. It was dispatches by BBC reporter Michael Buerk from famine-hit Ethiopia that prompted Geldof to record the song in the first place, and it was the corporation that broadcast the Live Aid concert in 1985.

But goodwill evaporated this year when the World Service's Africa editor, Martin Plaut, broadcast a story featuring a former Ethiopian rebel commander who claimed that in 1985 only 5% of the $100m destined for famine relief in the northern province of Tigray reached the starving.

The BBC now admits that Assignment programme failed to clearly distinguish that in fact no Band Aid cash was diverted for arms sales – an embarrassing admission that Geldof said was a "lapse in standards" by the corporation.

An inquiry by the BBC's editorial complaints unit stressed that Assignment "did not make the allegation that relief aid provided by Band Aid was diverted" but conceded that "this impression could have been taken from the programme" because viewers would have assumed that claims made by the former rebel applied to the money he helped raise.

The programme also carried an allegation from another former rebel that the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front had tricked aid workers into giving them money meant to buy food for the starving. The story was picked up by BBC news bulletins, including the Six O'Clock News.

The BBC said it "should have been more explicit in making it clear that the [Tigrayan] allegations did not relate specifically to Band Aid. There will be on air apologies and corrections and we are looking at the lessons that can be learnt".

Today Sir Brian Barder, the British ambassador to Ethiopia between 1982 and 1986, said: "I welcome the BBC's far-reaching apology to the Band Aid Trust for the seriously unfair and misleading impression given by the BBC World Service Assignment programme about alleged diversion of famine relief aid in limited rebel-held areas of the Ethiopian province of Tigray in the 1980s.

"The apology makes it absolutely clear that none of these allegations applied to the Band Aid relief effort".

The publicity will be a blow to the BBC, just a day after world affairs editor John Simpson compared last month's hastily negotiated licence fee settlement with "waterboarding", arguing it leaves the corporation "at the government's mercy". To add to the corporation's woes it is also facing a 48-hour strike from Friday by BBC journalists over pension changes.

The Guardian

Germany targets neo-Nazi internet radio station

German police have arrested 23 people suspected of being involved in an illegal far-right internet radio station.

About 270 officers took part in more than 20 raids across 10 German states.

Widerstands Radio (Resistance Radio) broadcasts music and ideology reflecting neo-Nazi views - something which is illegal in Germany.

Prosecutors say those held face charges of forming a criminal organisation and inciting racial hatred.

Police said the suspects were in their 20s and 30s and were believed to have broadcast on the station, or helped to organise the broadcasts.

The Federal Crime Office (BKA) said the 24-hour station used a computer server in the US and listeners would register under false names and addresses.

"[The] investigations are a strong hint to people running other extreme-right internet radio stations that dissemination of songs with extreme-right wing and xenophobic lyrics, even on the internet, will be pursued," said BKA head Joerg Ziercke.

He said they had noticed a growing trend among far-right groups to use music to recruit young people.

Last month, the BKA said that over the past decade the number of people with the potential to carry out far-right violence in Germany had doubled to around 9,000.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the arrests come during an intense debate in Germany over immigration, particularly from Muslim countries.

BBC News

Liberian President Johnson-Sirleaf sacks entire cabinet

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has asked her entire cabinet to stand down with immediate effect.

The president told ministers she wanted to restructure the cabinet and start with a clean slate, her office said.

Deputies are to lead all ministries until replacements have been appointed, and some ministers might be asked to return to the cabinet, the statement added.

The move comes amid a crackdown on corruption in the West African state.

President Johnson-Sirleaf told ministers she wanted them to resign because "this administration is entering into a critical stretch and this would afford her the opportunity to start with a fresh slate going forward", her office said in a statement.

Ms Johnson-Sirleaf said she wanted to assess ministers' performance.

The reshuffle could also be used "as an opportunity for reflection" by the ministers now on leave, she suggested.

The president has been in power since 2006 and is expected to stand again in elections scheduled for 2011.

Ms Johnson-Sirleaf has set out to tackle corruption, and last month the government said that it was investigating the role of former and current public officials in a suspected corruption scandal involving a proposed carbon deal.

BBC News

Dilma Rousseff: I Am The Only Successful 'Bulgarian' Abroad

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's newly elected President, whose father was born in Bulgaria, has called herself the only "Bulgarian" to reap success outside the territory of the small Balkan country.

"I assume to be the only Bulgarian, in commas of course, who have achieved success outside Bulgaria," Dilma Rousseff reportedly said in an interview for the Brazil TV channel Globo.

Dilma Rousseff, the first woman to become President of Brazil, is the daughter of Bulgarian immigrant Petar Rousseff (1900-1962), who left Bulgaria in 1929.

"It would be a very moving experience for me to be welcomed in Bulgaria as Brazil's president. It would be a great emotion for me and for them as well, because this is a small country. Just imagine how they look at Brazil – a country of 190 million people, which develops, creates new jobs and which is viewed by the world as one of the most prosperous. That's why I think this will be a very interesting meeting," she added.

Dilma's Bulgarian half-brother from Rusev's first marriage was Lyuben-Kamen Rusev (1930-2008). In 2006, Lyuben Rusev, a successful Bulgarian engineer who by that time was a childless and ailing old man living in Sofia with his wife, received a certain sum of money from his sister in Brazil.

"They had certain financial difficulties since the country's pension system is not as good as ours. At that time I stayed in contact with his family, sent him money. Then he died and I kept up my contacts with his wife, who later also passed away. So now I have nobody there," Dilma Rousseff said, but added that she knows her cousins in Bulgaria, who were found by the Brazilian TV channel.

Rousseff, from incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party, won Sunday's election by a wide majority, as voters looked to her to sustain strong economic growth and unprecedented prosperity.

In some of her first comments on economic policy since her victory, Rousseff said she wanted to bring down the debt-to-GDP ratio of 42 percent so that interest rates, among the world's highest, could start to be lowered.

Novinite

Obama seeks 'common ground' after midterm rebuke

WASHINGTON — Sounding humbled but not contrite after enduring a "shellacking" in U.S. midterm elections, President Barack Obama on Wednesday promised to seek common ground with Republicans now poised to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

At a White House news conference to address the GOP landslide in Tuesday's balloting, Obama took personal responsibility for huge Democratic losses he said stemmed from voter impatience with the pace of America's economic recovery.

The U.S. president also made a candid admission: voters had begun to perceive him as too distant from the concerns of American families struggling to deal with the ongoing fallout from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.

"You know, there is an inherent danger in being in the White House and being in the bubble," said Obama, who was in a reflective mood after absorbing the results.

"When you're in this place, it is hard not to seem removed . . . In the rush of activity, sometimes we lose track of, you know, the ways that we connected with folks that got us here in the first place".

The drubbing American voters inflicted on Obama and the Democrats was historic in nature. The GOP gained at least 60 seats in the House of Representatives — more than it did in the "Republican Revolution" of 1994 — and a half dozen in the Senate.

It was the biggest loss Democrats have endured since 1938, at the height of the Depression.

Obama said he interpreted the results as a clear message that voters want Republicans and Democrats to work together — and immediately signalled willingness to compromise on two major agenda items.

The U.S. president said he was dropping efforts to pass clean energy and climate change legislation that includes a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The House passed a cap-and-trade bill last year, but it has remained stalled in the Senate.

GlobalNews

Congregation votes to leave Lutherans

MILWAUKEE, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A Milwaukee-area congregation says it has voted overwhelmingly to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over its decision to allow gay clergy.

Calvary Lutheran Church in Brookfield must wait at least 90 days after this week's vote and discuss its position with the Rev. Jeff Barrow, bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod, before cutting its ties with the ELCA, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Kevin Wahlgren, president of the Calvary church council, said that given the lopsided 185-40 vote the congregation is unlikely to have a change of heart during the waiting period. He said Calvary members oppose not only the 2009 decision that gays and lesbians can become Lutheran ministers but also feel the ELCA, the largest Lutheran group in the United States, has turned to much toward a "social justice" agenda.

The ELCA reports that 395 congregations have either severed their ties with the church or held a first vote to do so in the past year.

Wahlgren said Calvary has not decided where to seek a new home. It has begun discussions with North American Lutheran Church, which is made up of former ELCA congregations that objected to gay clergy, and the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, which formed in 2000 and now has about 500 congregations.

UPI

Opinion split on Argentina's directions

BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is forging ahead without the shadow of late husband and former President Nestor Kirchner as expert opinion remains split on the country's future direction.

International Monetary Fund analysts said the death of Kirchner removes an important behind-the-scenes adviser and decision-maker and introduces uncertainty to Argentina's economic and political outlook. Kirchner died Oct. 27 from complications of heart disease. He was president from May 2003 to December 2007.

Other critics said Kirchner's death would give Fernandez the opportunity to be more presidential in her actions and pronouncements rather than be seen as the weaker half of what came to be known as Argentina's presidential couple -- self-assured, unmindful of critics and often controversial.

The World Bank's chief economist for Latin America, Augusto de la Torre, said he didn't know why Argentine business and economy reacted positively after Kirchner died. But, he added, financial markets often reacted quickly on scant information.

He cited "great uncertainty" in Argentina's political direction following Kirchner's death. Argentine bonds and stocks rallied soon after Kirchner's death in response to speculation his departure would make it hard for Fernandez to get re-elected in next year's polls and make way for the opposition that, in turn, could reverse current policies.

Kirchner had indicated he would stand for president in 2011, part of a strategy by the couple to alternate power sharing.

Both Fernandez and Kirchner were faulted by critics for not doing enough to remove causes of public discontent, stimulate the Argentine economy or encourage and reassure foreign investors.

Fernandez was voted in to succeed her husband in October 2007 but Kirchner exercised power behind the scenes, controlling political groups, often with controversial results. He returned to international prominence when the newly formed Union of South American Nations named him its first secretary-general in May this year.

Recent IMF analysis of Argentine economy said the Fernandez administration needs to implement reforms to promote sustained growth and encourage international investment.

Argentine policies toward its agriculture sector, a frequent trigger for disputes between the government and farmers' groups, also need radical reforms to remove sources of discontent, said an IMF report in October.

Argentina's economy has rebounded faster than the economies of several of its neighbors but the recovery is built largely on record soy crops and higher domestic consumption.

The IMF report estimated Argentine economy could expand 7.5 percent this year, matching the pace of growth in Brazil.

However, Fernandez among her latest comments gave no indication she contemplated reforms that would move the country away from the direction adopted under Kirchner's influence.

Instead, Fernandez indicated, the economic model adopted when Kirchner was president and continued through her presidency was here to stay.

All the intellectual and economic resources of the state are set toward deepening this industrial development model with a strong domestic market aims of boosting exports, said Fernandez.

She spoke to supporters at a rally Tuesday at the Renault automaker plant in the central province of Cordoba. It was her first major public appearance since Kirchner's funeral.

She promised to boost domestic manufacturing and improve earnings to help toward raising the standards of living in Argentina.

UPI

Politics 2010: Election results will be with us for some time

Leaders of both major political parties Wednesday surveyed the new landscape after the Republicans' decisive success in the U.S. midterm elections.

For the Democrats, including President Obama, the outcome was sobering. The president made phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California power broker who was the biggest loser Tuesday despite winning her own re-election contest handily, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who is likely to be the next to wear the speaker's crown, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House majority leader.

Obama told Boehner and McConnell he was "looking forward to working with ... the Republicans to find common ground, move the country forward and get things done for the American people".

"What yesterday also told us is that no one party will be able to dictate where we go from here, that we must find common ground in order to set -- in order to make progress on some uncommonly difficult challenges," Obama said.

Boehner, energized by the Election Day victory, said he's ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work with his Republican majority while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who survived a Tea Party challenge, said it's time to stop the name-calling and start working together.

"As you heard me say last night, we are humbled by the trust that the American people have placed in us, and we recognize that this is a time for us to roll up our sleeves and go to work on the people's priorities: creating jobs, cutting spending and reforming the way Congress does its business," Boehner said at a Washington news conference.

McConnell said, "It's clear we're going to have some type of bipartisan agenda," adding he could envision cooperation on cutting spending and debt.

The biggest question mark in the whole process is the Tea Party, whose victors promised to hold not only Democrats accountable, but Republicans too.

Republicans captured the House with 239 seats to 185 for the Democrats with 11 seats undecided. In the Senate, Democrats saw their majority shaved to 51 seats, to 46 for Republicans with three still undecided.

UPI

U.N. to review U.S. human rights record

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The United States is likely to be grilled about capital punishment during a U.N. review of its human rights record, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

U.S. officials are scheduled to appear Friday before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

HRW predicted they will also be asked about the practice of sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole and about unequal treatment of different races in the criminal justice system. The treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and of illegal immigrants is also likely to be covered.

The appearance is the first for the United States. The United Nations has begun doing universal periodic reviews of its 192 member states, to be conducted on a four-year cycle.

U.S. officials prepared a 25-page review of the country's human rights record and other groups, including HRW, have also prepared reports.

UPI

2 U.S. men charged with terror support

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Two men have been arrested and indicted in St. Louis on charges of providing support to a Somali terror group, the U.S. Justice Department said.

St. Louis resident Mohamud Abdi Yusuf was named on four charges of providing material support to a designated terrorist organization and one charge of conspiracy to structure financial transactions. 

Minneapolis resident Abdi Mahdi Hussein was named on a charge of conspiracy to structure financial transactions.

The indictment, returned Oct. 21 and unsealed Wednesday, said from February 2008 through at least July 2009, Yusuf and a third defendant, Duwayne Mohamed Diriye, a resident of Kenya and Somalia, were involved in a conspiracy to provide funds to al-Shabaab, a militant Somali militia, the department said.

The indictment said Yusuf sent funds to al-Shabaab supporters in Somalia, including Diriye, from U.S. money remitting businesses, in part by using fictitious names and telephone numbers. Yusuf is also charged with conspiring with Abdi Mahdi Hussein, an employee of a licensed money remitting business, to structure financial transactions to avoid record keeping requirements.

FBI agents arrested Yusuf Monday in St. Louis, and arrested Hussein Tuesday in Minneapolis. Both defendants made initial appearances in federal court Tuesday.

Diriye, who remains at large in Kenya or Somalia, is charged in the indictment with one felony count each of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

If convicted, Yusuf could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 for each count of providing material support to terrorist. Yusuf and Hussein could each be sentenced to a maximum penalty of five years in prison and fines up to $250,000 for conspiring to structure transactions.

UPI

Clinton touts proper use of wealth

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Papua New Guinea's prime minister Wednesday the United States remains a close partner.

Clinton met Prime Minister Michael Somare in Port Moresby. The secretary is on a seven-country, 13-day tour of Asia that includes Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Malaysia, as well as refueling stops in Guam and Pago Pago.

"I'm here on behalf of President Obama and our administration to reaffirm our commitment to our partnership and friendship ... here in the Pacific," Clinton said. " ... We will soon be breaking ground on a new embassy that will symbolize the future".

Clinton said Papua New Guinea "has the opportunity not only to be more developed and provide more benefits for your people, but to become a strong regional leader and a model for reducing poverty and spurring development".

But in order to do that, she said, "there will have to be a commitment to good governance and accountability and transparency, and you're taking steps to plan to do just that. The planning for a sovereign wealth fund is a very important commitment".

Clinton cited the phrase "resource curse".

UPI

U.N. urges Kenya to stop forced returns

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The United Nations Wednesday urged Kenya to stop the forced return of Somalis to their homeland, saying they are at "substantial risk".

"Kenya has for many years been generous host to many thousands of Somali refugees," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement in response to an order from local Kenyan authorities demanding 8,000 refugees at a border camp return to Somalia. "To be forcibly returning people to Somalia now betrays that spirit, places lives at risk, and contravenes the principles of non-refoulement -- or no forced return -- that are contained in Kenya's Constitution, its Refugees Act and in international refugee law.

"We urge Kenya's government to urgently halt further returns and allow those in no-man's land to come back".

The thousands of refugees -- mostly women, children and the elderly -- fled their homes when violence broke out between al-Shabaab and Ahlu Sunna Wal Janaa forces in their hometown of Bulla Hawa.

Nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced within Somalia by the violence, with another 614,000 taking refuge in neighboring countries, the U.N. agency said.

UPI

Italian link to letter bombs investigated

ROME, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Italian security experts say they're trying to determine if there's a link between Italian subversive groups and letter bombs sent to several European leaders.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi received a letter bomb mailed from Athens and sent on a cargo plane by way of Paris, ANSA reported Wednesday.

Greek police say they believe more than 10 letter bombs were apparently mailed on the same day from Athens.

The letter to Berlusconi aroused suspicions after similar letters were discovered Monday and Tuesday addressed to leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as a number of foreign embassies in Athens and the Greek Parliament building.

Most of the letter bombs were safely disarmed, although one employee of a delivery service was slightly injured when a letter bomb exploded in the company's offices.

UPI

Russian chopper crashes in Sakhalin

MOSCOW, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Everyone on board was killed when a military helicopter crashed during a training flight on Sakhalin Island, Russian officials said Wednesday.

Police said the MI-8 helicopter was on a training mission and disappeared from radar Tuesday in the southern part of the island, ITAR-Tass reported. Sakhalin is in the north Pacific, separated from the Siberian mainland by the Mamiya Strait.

The number of people on board was unclear. ITAR-Tass said a police source put the number of casualties at four, while the Federal Air Transport Service said there were three.

The weather in the area was bad at the time of the crash, officials said. Searchers found the helicopter still burning.

UPI

Patrol kills insurgents in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Afghan and international forces killed several insurgents and detained others during a mission to locate a Taliban leader in Helmand province, officials said.

An Afghan National Security and International Security Assistance Force patrol surrounded the compound of a Taliban leader suspected of planning, coordinating and executing numerous small arms and improvised explosive device attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, an ISAF Joint Command release said.

After securing the perimeter, the patrol used loudspeakers to call on occupants to exit peacefully.

Two armed insurgents were killed when they exited a building and threatened the patrol, the release said.

Four men, eight women and nine children exited peacefully during the operation and were protected, the ISAF said.

UPI

McConnell says Dems better pay attention

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Harry Reid still had a majority to lead in the U.S. Senate Wednesday but Republicans chewed close to the bone in the midterm elections, picking up six seats.

While Republicans fell short of gaining the 10 seats they needed to wrest control of the upper house of Congress away from Democrats, the inroads they made, along with their sweep to power in the House of Representatives, shifted the balance in the Senate.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., indicated his party would exercise its newly won advantage on spending, trade and energy issues, The New York Times reported.

"We're determined to stop the agenda Americans have rejected," McConnell said. "We'll work with the administration when they agree with the people, and confront them when they don't".

He forewarned Democrats could pay the price if they don't cooperate with the new Republican agenda.

"Our friends on the other side can change now and work with us to address the issues that are important to the American people that we all understood, or further change obviously can happen in 2012," he said.

"And we hope that they will pivot in a different direction, work with us on things like spending and debt, and trade agreements, and nuclear power, and clean-coal technology and other things the president has said that he's for that most of my members are for.

"So the question is, how do we meet in the middle?"

Reid, who toughed out a win against Republican challenger Sharron Angle, said Nevadans "chose hope over fear".

"Today Nevadans chose to move forward, not backwards," Reid told supporters.

UPI

Google settles class-action privacy suit

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Google says it has settled a class-action suit brought against the search giant over privacy breaches in its Buzz social networking program.

As part of the settlement announced Tuesday in a class-action suit brought by Gmail users, Google has agreed to pay $8.5 million into a fund to conduct privacy education, The Washington Post reported.

The agreement did not include cash payments to users, Google said.

Launched in February as an application within Google's Gmail e-mail program, Buzz in some cases exposed the contact lists and other data of some users to other Gmail users.

Google informed users they were included in the settlement -- by Gmail.

"Google rarely contacts Gmail users via e-mail, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz," the company said in messages sent to its U.S. users.

Analysts estimate the company has 170 million Gmail users around the world.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, which gave preliminary approval for the settlement, will hold a fairness hearing on the settlement on Jan. 31.

UPI