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An orca named J35 has finally dropped her dead calf, which she'd been pushing with her head for at least 17 days and 1,000 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast, in an unprecedented show of mourning that drew international attention.

 The sad spectacle was a prime example, and confirmation, of the complex emotional lives of these sophisticated cetaceans, experts say.

 Other orcas, and similar animals like dolphins, have been seen apparently mourning their dead, but this is by far the longest recorded example of such behavior.

 J35, nicknamed Tahlequah, is a 20-year-old member of the long-studied J Pod of Southern Resident Killer Whales. These orcas, along with their endangered extended family—K and L pods—inhabit a huge territory that includes waters off Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria, British Columbia.

 Researchers worried that this "tour of grief" might seriously endanger the health of J35, but luckily, she appears to have made it through physically unharmed. "Telephoto digital images taken from shore show that this mother whale appears to be in good physical condition," the Center for Whale Research noted in an update, "following her record-setting ordeal.

 As J35’s sojourn continued, some experts wondered why she was so attached to the calf. Was it because the calf lived for about 30 minutes after it was born? Jenny Atkinson, executive director of The Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, British Columbi, thinks the grief Tahlequah is feeling is deeper because after 17 months of gestation, she then had the chance to form an emotional connection with her baby before it died.

 “I think that’s quite possible,” says John Ford, an orca researcher at the University of British Columbia. “The whales have a very strong drive to look after their offspring and this evidently extends to neonates that die at birth.”

 The death of another calf is a significant blow to J Pod, which hasn’t seen a successful birth in three years. Combined, the three pods have 75 members, and time is running out to maintain its viability. Ken Balcomb, founder and principal investigator at the Center for Whale Research, gives it five years.

 “We’ve got at most five more years of reproductive life in this population to make it happen”—meaning, to have viable offspring—"but if we don’t do it in those five years it isn’t going to happen,” he writes.

 View Images J35 carried her calf for at least 17 days and 1,000 miles, and researchers had worried she'd endangered herself by expending so much effort. But now she appears in good health. Photograph courtesy Center for Whale Research (Permit #21238)

 Balcomb points to a lack of food as the culprit. “We have long demonstrated that these fish-eating whales are getting skinnier and skinnier, and the death rate is increasing,” he writes on the center’s website.

 “Whales in this endangered population are dependent upon Chinook salmon for their primary food source. Unfortunately, Chinook salmon are also endangered,” he adds.

 Experts expressed relief that J35 survived. As a 20-year-old in her prime, the pod needs her to reproduce.

 “Even without this death, this is a population in crisis,” Atkinson says. “They need our stewardship and support if they are to survive.” ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video

 FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. -- A southern resident orca mother carried her dead calf in the waters off Washington's coast for a 10th straight day Thursday, in what researchers are calling a "tour of grief."

 Affiliates of the Center for Whale Research spotted J35 - known as Tahlequah - carrying her dead calf in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, according to Taylor Shedd of Soundwatch. She trailed slightly behind the main J-Pod, but was accompanied by her immediate family.

 The whales appeared to be headed west to open waters.

 J35 was first spotted July 24 carrying the calf on her nose and in her mouth. The calf was only seen alive briefly. By the time biologists from the Center for Whale Research arrived at her side, the calf was dead.

 On Wednesday, the calf was seen decomposing and had lots its rigidity.

 Shedd told Q13 News he asked whale watching vessels to keep their distance from J35 and J50, a 4-year-old orca that was seen earlier this month severely emaciated.

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 Michael Weiss, a field biologist with the Center for Whale Research, said whale watching boats were mostly voluntarily keeping their distance from the grieving orca.

 Researchers across the field said J35's actions are unprecedented. The traumatic scene unfolding day after day has weighed on scientists who watch the mammals closely.

 "As it's gone on, it's become less shocking," Weiss said. "It's no less sad and I think we're all just tired. Everyone who is on the water with her hopes that she will let it go soon."

 J35 is in OK shape, and her breathing has grown less labored as the days go on. She is being fed with the help of her close family, Weiss said. And her son, J47, hasn't moved far from her side.

 "I find it very interesting to watch," Weiss said of the close relationship between J35 and J47.

 An audio recording of what appeared to be J35 making "mournful and prominent" calls was given to Q13 News by Michael Harris, a well known marine expert and conservationist.

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 Q13 News will update this story at 4 and 5 p.m. ||||| As an orca mother shoulders her dead calf through the coastal waters of British Columbia and Washington state for a ninth day, government officials, scientists and volunteers are warning off vessels approaching the grieving whale and her pod.

 "We've had enforcement folks out every day to ensure that where there may be boating behaviour that's not appropriate,” Department of Fisheries and Oceans marine mammal co-ordinator Paul Cottrell told CTV News. “[Boaters] are being educated and also dealt with."

 The sight of the whale, labeled J35, has generated international interest with the poignant photos of the orca gently raising her calf above the water’s surface. This type of grieving ritual is well-documented, but J35 has carried it out much longer than scientists have observed before.

 J-pod, the group of 75 related Southern Resident killer whales, has followed J35 through the Salish Sea during the grieving ritual. Scientists believe they’re feeding the mourning mother from their own salmon catch as she remains fixated on the calf. But officials are increasingly concerned she’s exhausting herself by continuing the funereal tour through local waters.

 “[It’s a matter of] the sheer amount of effort J35 is expending with maintaining the calf in tow and also diving down as it sinks to pick it back up," explains Cottrell.

 J35 gave birth off Victoria’s Clover Point on July 24. Officials still aren’t sure if the female calf was stillborn or died shortly after and are counting on a necropsy to determine when she died and why.

 A sprawling joint effort between Canadian and American volunteers and federal officials is tracking the pod as they criss-cross through the Gulf and San Juan Islands and even approach populated areas. On Monday, Taylor Shedd documented J35 shepherding the dead calf in the waters near Deltaport with the piles of coal and cranes visible in the background.

 Officials aren’t revealing the exact location of the pod at this point out of concern more boaters will want to see the grieving whale for themselves, only saying J35 and her pod are in Canadian waters and under the jurisdiction of DFO.

 While the agency is warning mariners to stay away from J-pod, they ask anyone who sees a whale in distress from the water or shore to immediately report it to their incident line at 1-800-465-4335. A quick response could mean the difference between successful intervention and a long, drawn-out search for an injured mammal.

 Not only has the calf’s brief life tugged at international heartstrings, it’s triggered more concern among the scientific community. Despite a baby boom three years ago, none of the orca calves born to the resident killer whale group since the start of 2016 has survived and their preferred food source of fatty chinook salmon continues to dwindle.

 Researchers such as Victoria marine zoologist Dr. Anna Hall say the salmon will ultimately be their key to survival.

 “All of the actions that have taken place to date are terrific and we need to keep moving forward,” she told CTV News last week. “One of the important messages is continuing to make sure there are sufficient salmon particularly chinook salmon for the killer whales.”

 There are only 75 whales in J-pod, and a four year-old whale known as J-50 is cause for concern as the youngster looks underfed to trained observers tracking the group. Researchers plan to use photogrammetry from a distance in the coming days to see how she’s faring.

 That won’t happen until J35 gives up her dead calf and moves on.

 “It’s a sad situation,” says Cottrell, who’s urging long weekend mariners to steer clear.

 “We want people to respect the rules and the regulations put in place to ensure [the whales] are protected and they're not disturbed and they can do what they need to do. We want this population to thrive and recover." ||||| Members of a pod of endangered killer whales now appear to be taking turns floating the body of a newborn calf that died more than week ago.

 As It Happens reported on Friday about J-35, a mother orca from B.C.'s endangered killer whale population that has been balancing her dead calf on her nose near San Juan Island, Wash.

 It's now been more than a week and the mother whale is still carrying the calf's remains — sparking concerns among researchers that she'll tire herself out.

 "We do know her family is sharing the responsibility of caring for this calf, that she's not always the one carrying it, that they seem to take turns," Jenny Atkinson, director of the Whale Museum on San Juan Island, told As It Happens guest host Piya Chattopadhyay.

 "While we don't have photos of the other whales carrying it, because we've seen her so many times without the calf, we know that somebody else has it."

 New audio released

 The Whale Museum released an audio recording on Monday of the mother communicating with her pod.

 "You're hearing them communicate with one another. They're using a series of calls and whistles to communicate. And then you'll hear a clicking noise. That's echo-location," Atkinson said.

 "They use it to pick up their food source as well as map their underwater environment."

 The Whale Museum recorded the sound of the killer whale pod communicating to each other off San Juan Island, using geo-location to alert each other to potential obstacles and food sources. 0:20

 She said it's possible the sounds are related to their mourning of the calf — but researchers can't know for sure.

 "We picked up some calls earlier in the week and we hear things that sounded more like a very urgent call," she said. "If you think of going to a wake for a family, things can go on for multiple days and the grief is still deep, but the emotions kind of soften."

 A whale funeral

 That's exactly what Atkinson believes the whales are doing with the calf — holding their own version of a wake or a funeral.

 "Ceremonies can go on for days to honour and mourn the loss of a loved one," she said. "I think that what you're seeing is the depth of importance of this calf and the grief of the mother and the family."

 This July 25 photo shows the orca mother, J35, balancing her dead baby on her nose trying to keep it afloat. (Ken Balcomb/Centre for Whale Research)

 Anthropologist Barbara King, who studies animal emotion, agrees the whale's behaviour is likely a display of grief.

 There is a body of evidence that shows whales and dolphins mark the passing of their dead, King told CBC's On The Coast.

 Sometimes they will surround dead companions, showing curiosity or exploration, King said. Other times, it goes further: they keep vigils around the bodies of dead podmates or keep them afloat.

 "It's not anthropomorphic to use this label for them," King said. "Grief and love are not human qualities. They're things we share with some other animals."

 Population in crisis

 The southern resident killer whale population consists of three orca pods that live around the coast of Oregon, Washington and Vancouver Island.

 Their numbers are dwindling and they haven't have a successful birth since 2015.

 After the death of a 23-year-old orca June, the total number of southern resident killer whales is down to 75, the lowest it's been since the early '80s. The population has dropped by eight since 2016.

 This orca mother has been holding her dead calf afloat for more than a week in a "heartbreaking" ritual.

Read more at https://t.co/LPrUsQCzDj pic.twitter.com/FgsHnWrgTw —@CBCNews

 Their decline is attributed largely to a lack of available chinook salmon, their primary food source.

 Researchers are already worried that another young whale in the pod — J-50 — could be the next to die. The four-year-old is becoming increasingly emaciated.

 "I don't see how she can survive," Dave Ellifrit of the Center for Whale Research, told the Seattle Times.

 In May, Canada's federal government announced plans to cut the allowable catch of chinook by 25 to 35 per cent.

 In June, it announced further measures to help the endangered population, including reducing underwater vessel noise and better monitoring of pollution.

 Human empathy

 Atkinson said it's not hard to see why people have had such visceral reactions to images of J-35 and her calf.

 "Watching what she's going through, most people have been through some level of grief and have had some situation that this touches, because they can understand losing a child, losing a calf, and how heart-wrenching that is," she said.

 "And then not to be able to do anything when humans like to take action. We like to be able to do stuff. Sometimes the hardest thing is just to sit back and give respect and be a witness to a situation."

 Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview with Jenny Atkinson produced by Samantha Lui. |||||

– An orca who spent more than a week carrying her calf following its July 24 death now has some help. Other orcas in the pod swimming through Pacific Northwest waters near the US-Canada border are taking turns carrying the corpse after the effort caused the 20-year-old mother known as J35 to fall behind with labored breathing. Trailing the main pod with improved breathing, J35 was seen with the now-decomposing corpse Thursday in the Strait of Juan de Fuca alongside immediate family members who are keeping her fed, per KCPQ. But "because we've seen her so many times without the calf, we know that somebody else has it," Jenny Atkinson of San Juan Island's Whale Museum tells the CBC. The same pod held a similar display 15 years ago, but this is the longest period of orca mourning on record, per National Geographic. Audio recordings indeed suggest the pod is using calls and whistles perhaps related to mourning. They sound "more like a very urgent call," says Atkinson. "I think that what you're seeing is the depth of importance of this calf and the grief of the mother and the family." It's a tight-knit one: There are just 75 orcas in three pods in the southern resident population around Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver Island, down from 83 in 2016. None have seen a successful birth since 2015. Amid indications a 4-year-old orca might be starving, an expert describes "at most five more years" in which to try to birth viable offspring. Declines in Chinook salmon have hit the population hard, per Nat Geo. Canada hopes to lend a hand by limiting catches of the fish, while experts hope a necropsy will reveal how J35's calf died, per CTV News. Of course, it must be abandoned first.


Nazi Hunter Dedicates Career To Pursuing Justice

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Department of Justice Department of Justice

 Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

 More than 65 years after World War II, many Nazis are living out their lives in quiet retirements. The crimes scenes are, for the most part, cold. But Eli Rosenbaum is hot on the trail. He and his team at the Justice Department are Nazi hunters. They track down Nazis who moved to the U.S. after the war, and deport them.

 Rosenbaum grew up in a Jewish home, where his family didn't talk about the Holocaust. But one night when he was a child, he tuned the TV to a dramatic reenactment of the Auschwitz trial in Germany. "Suddenly I am seeing a woman testifying about being experimented on at a Nazi concentration camp," he tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "And I recall being absolutely shocked."

 Other than meeting the victims, Rosenbaum says the most memorable part of his work is questioning the suspects, an experience he calls "surreal." Siting in someone's home, or in the U.S. Attorney's office, "these people look close to harmless." Hearing them talk about the terrible things they did for the Nazi regime is unsettling, says Rosenbaum, "but one tends not to focus on the horror of it. You focus on getting the answers to the questions you're posing. But afterwards, that's usually when it hits you."

 "The time pressures grow every year. Sometimes I say it's sort of like when we started we were told, 'OK, run a four minute mile.' And we did it. And then a few years later, they say, 'Okay, you've got to run that mile but you've only got about three minutes forty-five seconds.' So, each year we have to run faster.

 In the early part of his career, Rosenbaum felt guilty if he took a weekend day off. "We were, after all, told from very start that time was our enemy, that these people were already senior citizens, and that we would have to work as fast as we responsibly could." The time pressure, added to the tragic nature of the cases, became too much, and he left after three years.

 But before long, he was back at the Justice Department, hunting Nazis. "The cases just don't let go of you," says Rosenbaum. Each of the victims breaks his heart, and impresses him with their courage. "You meet them and you say well, I have to pursue justice for them. It has to be done."

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 Should the U.S. continue to track down and deport Nazi war criminals from World War II? Tell us on Weekend Edition's Facebook page, or in the comments section below.

  ||||| He and many other young men in his town, Piadyki, were forced by the Nazis to be guards, he said, noting they were kept on a troop base converted from a farm and made to work night tours patrolling roads and bridges.

 ''They came and took me when I was 18,'' he said. ''We knew they would kill me and my family if I refused. I did it to save their lives, and I never even wore a Nazi uniform. They made us wear gray guards' uniforms and had us guarding bridges and rivers.''

 Mr. Palij insists he never set foot in any camp and never took part in any killings or atrocities during the war. And indeed, federal officials do not accuse him of that. Rather, they say that he, by cooperating as a Nazi guard, ''directly contributed to their eventual slaughter'' by either forcing prisoners to work or preventing them from escaping.

 Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of a special investigation unit for the Justice Department, called Mr. Palij ''an essential component in the machinery of annihilation'' at the camps.

 ''He took part in the persecution of Jewish inmates at Treblinka and ensured that they could not escape, and the end result was that as many as 7,000 people were individually massacred,'' Mr. Rosenbaum said.

 ''He was very loyal and very capable and served until April 1945, the last weeks of the war, while other soldiers were deserting right and left,'' he said.

 In 1949, Mr. Palij emigrated here at age 26 as a refugee of World War II. In 1957, he was granted United States citizenship. Mr. Palij, a retired draftsman with no children, lives in a rear rental apartment on 89th Street in Jackson Heights, a quiet Queens street lined with old brick row houses. He lives on Social Security checks. After two strokes, he is in frail health and takes care of Maria, 72, his wife of 43 years, who now has Alzheimer's disease.

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 In recent months, however, he has gone from being seen by neighbors as a polite old chap who constantly tinkers with his 1980 Oldsmobile, to a man being portrayed as a Nazi death camp guard with blood on his hands. Jewish demonstrators marched outside his home, calling him a butcher. ''There were 200 Jewish kids out there,'' he said. ''I called the precinct, and the cop told me: 'Leave them alone, and they'll leave. Don't say anything, or you might get a rock through your window.' ''

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 He has begun entering his home by the alley behind it.

 ''We get phone calls, people yelling, 'You Nazi!' It scares the hell out of my wife,'' he said.

 In July, a federal judge stripped Mr. Palij of his citizenship for falsely claiming in his immigration papers in 1949 that he worked on his father's farm in Poland and at a German factory during the period when he was actually serving the Nazis. Mr. Palij insists that he did this to enter the United States ''to save my life.''

 ''I spent five years in a refugee camp in Germany, and I had nowhere else to go but America,'' he said.

 ''These Jewish groups want to hunt down all the living Nazis, and I don't blame them,'' he said, ''but they know I never worked in a camp. They have proof of that.''

 Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which helps bring former Nazi war criminals to justice, dismissed Mr. Palij's denials.

 ''Every time they find a guard like this, he says he was forced into service,'' he said. ''To work at those camps, you had to be eager to be there. They only took people they knew were loyal and brutal and not sympathetic to pleas of the inmates.

 ''The most vicious guards at these camps, they all have this line that they were just the short-order cook or something, when they were actually trained to do nefarious and horrible things.''

 Justice Department officials say that since 1979, their investigations have resulted in 73 former Nazis' being stripped of United States citizenship, with 59 of them deported.

 But Mr. Palij said Wednesday, ''Let them come and get me.''

 ''I'm not running. What will they do? Shoot me? Put me in the electric chair? Where are they going to deport me to? What country is going to take an 80-year-old man in poor health?'' ||||| Washington (CNN) The U.S. government thinks Jakiw Palij was a guard at a Nazi concentration camp, but the 92-year-old is quietly living out his last years not in prison -- confined by old age to a second-story apartment in a modest red-brick duplex in one of the most diverse sections of New York City.

 Jackson Heights, Queens is an evolving, largely immigrant neighborhood a short 20 minute subway ride to midtown Manhattan.

 Palij's life there represents the closing of an era: the only remaining active case from the Nazi era pursued by the Justice Department's Office of Human Rights and Special Prosecutions.

 Despite more than a decade of deportation attempts by the Justice Department, Palij, who worked at the Trawniki concentration camp in Poland, likely will die here.

 A federal judge ordered Palij deported in 2004, but none of three European countries to which he could be sent will take him.

 In court filings, he has denied wrongdoing, claiming that he and other young men in his Polish hometown were coerced into working for the Nazi occupiers.

 JUST WATCHED Reporter's Notebook: Finding a Nazi in Queens Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Reporter's Notebook: Finding a Nazi in Queens 02:11

 Eli Rosenbaum has dedicated a career to pursuing men like Palij.

 Rosenbaum was an intern when he joined what was then the Office of Special Investigations in 1979, shortly after it was created.

 Now director of Human Rights Enforcement Strategy and Policy, Rosenbaum has become the Justice Department's best-known Nazi Hunter, helping the department pursue 137 cases, of which 107 were successful in stripping citizenship or deporting accused Nazis.

 Among them: John Demjanjuk , who was convicted in Germany of being an accessory to more than 28,000 murders for his work as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, after the Justice Department human rights unit pursued his deportation.

 Michael Kolhnhofer was so incensed at the deportation efforts of the Justice Department that when reporters showed up at his home in Kansas City in 1996 to ask questions he started shooting out his front door. The former Nazi guard at the Buchenwald death camp died after a shootout with police.

 For Rosenbaum, a career as Nazi hunter was accidental.

 After his internship stint he envisioned a legal career, perhaps in finance.

 Growing up, his family in Long Island, N.Y., didn't talk about the Holocaust. The term "Holocaust" wasn't even common parlance until a 1970s NBC broadcast of a teleplay based on the Nuremberg Trials.

 Rosenbaum recalls a snowy drive in New York decades ago with his father, who began telling him of his wartime military service. His father described arriving at Dachau, Germany a day after it was liberated. Then he stopped speaking. Rosenbaum looked over at this father. He was holding back tears.

 "That was a time when you just didn't see your dad cry," Rosenbaum recalls.

 The human rights office got its start after congressional and public pressure prompted the Justice Department to try to track down former Nazis who had moved to the U.S. -- some of them with the help of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies that recruited former Nazis with technical knowledge. In recent years, the office has also investigated cases related to atrocities in Bosnia and Guatemala. There remain a handful of ongoing World War II probes and Rosenbaum also oversees cases involving more recent war atrocities.

 In the Nazi cases, a handful of attorneys, historians and researchers looked into as many as 70,000 names of possible Nazis. Their obstacles were many: they had to rely on a scant supply of documents, some held by authorities in the Soviet Union and countries behind the Iron Curtain. The suspects worked hard to hide their identities. Some snuck into the U.S. as refugees, and all denied any role in atrocities. Witnesses were few, particularly in cases like Trawniki, where Nazis wiped out entire populations.

 "Our World War II cases are the ultimate cold cases. All of the crimes took place many decades ago on the other side of a vast ocean," Rosenbaum says. "It's very much a search for the proverbial needle in a haystack."

 Now, there's also the race against time. People who would have been adults in the Nazi era are quickly dying off.

 But Rosenbaum is resolute that pursuing every last Nazi is the least owed to the victims of the Holocaust. In the case of Palij, he says: "What Mr. Palij did prevented other people from reaching old age. He served at the Trawniki SS training and base camp -- really a school for mass murder -- and he trained on live Jews at the adjacent Trawniki Jewish Labor Camp. And, in the end, everyone who was held there was massacred."

 The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has helped support the work of Rosenbaum by providing access to documents it had collected on war crimes.

 Peter Black, senior historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, worked with Rosenbaum at the Justice Department.

 "For Eli, this became a mission," Black says.

 That the human rights unit stuck by the work is remarkable because of the many frustrations that arose, Black says. At the height of the Cold War, U.S. courts didn't trust evidence that came from the Soviet Union. U.S. intelligence agencies also warned that some allegations that originated from the Soviets was intended to hurt exile communities from the Baltic countries and Ukraine, which were under Soviet control.

 "You can't just decide that because someone gets away with [atrocities] for 40 years, that they are innocent," Black says. "You have to do what you can to achieve justice for the victims, as a statement about our response to these crimes."

 Rosenbaum and other lawyers and researchers spent years poring over documents looking to connect suspected Nazis to specific crimes.

 The atrocities of the Trawniki camp, where Palij worked, aren't well known in part because the killing was thorough, historians say. One document researchers uncovered helped illustrate the extent of the killing. A soldier broke the butt of his rifle, which meant he was required to file a report so the German SS would issue him a new one. The report mentioned an operation that killed 4,000 people at Trawniki, mostly Jews.

 The irony for lawyers and researchers working on the cases was that after stitching together evidence that someone was involved in atrocities, the most U.S. law would allow them to do is to deport former Nazis. Trying them for the actual crimes against humanity is something that was left for authorities in other countries. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– During some three decades with Justice Department, Eli Rosenbaum has earned a well-deserved reputation as a Nazi hunter. He has worked on 137 cases involving suspected Nazis, and in all but 30 of them, the accused lost citizenship or was deported. Now, CNN reports, just a single active case remains. But when it comes to Jakiw Palij, who lives in Queens, NY, deportation isn’t likely. In fact, a federal judge ordered the 92-year-old deported in 2004, but the European countries he could be sent to won't take him. Palij, CNN notes, will likely die here. "What Mr. Palij did prevented other people from reaching old age," says Rosenbaum, who now also oversees more recent war-related crimes as the DOJ's director of Human Rights Enforcement Strategy and Policy. Palij is accused of being a guard at the Trawniki death camp in German-occupied Poland—"in the end," Rosenbaum says, "everyone who was held there was massacred." Palij, who, per the New York Times, came to the US in 1949 as a refugee using falsified immigration papers, has denied any wrongdoing. In 2003, he told the Times that the Nazis coerced him into service patrolling bridges and roads at night. "We knew they would kill me and my family if I refused," he says. "I did it to save their lives, and I never even wore a Nazi uniform." The founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center downplayed that line of argument: "To work at those camps, you had to be eager to be there. They only took people they knew were loyal and brutal and not sympathetic to pleas of the inmates." In a 2013 interview with NPR, Rosenbaum described questioning the suspects about their alleged Nazi pasts as "surreal ... these people look close to harmless." (Joseph Goebbels' "love nest" is proving to be a tough sell for Berlin.)


– A Wall Street Journal reporter was fired Wednesday over potential business dealings with an Iranian-born arms dealer. The Washington Post reports Jay Solomon, chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Journal, had received Pulitzer consideration and was well-liked by the paper's editor in chief. His shocking termination springs from an AP investigation into Farhad Azima, who Solomon used as a source for stories. Azima, who has dealt weapons to multiple nations and was tied to the Iran-contra affair, offered Solomon a 10% stake in a company called Denx. While it's unclear if Solomon ever accepted that stake, the AP uncovered 18 months of emails and texts between Solomon and Azima discussing business together. In 2014, Solomon texted Azima: "Our business opportunities are so promising." The following year, Azima wished Solomon luck "on his first defense sale" in regards to delivering a proposal to UAE representatives. Also in 2015, there was talk of Denx being involved in an effort to bring down the government of Kuwait, though Solomon denies any knowledge of that. "Mr. Solomon violated his ethical obligations as a reporter, as well as our standards," Politico quotes a statement from the Journal as saying. The newspaper says it was "dismayed" by Solomon's actions and "poor judgement." Solomon, while denying ever getting into business with Azima, says he understands "why the emails and the conversations I had with Mr. Azima may look like I was involved in some seriously troubling activities."

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 Wall Street Journal fires Jay Solomon over involvement with arms dealer

 The Wall Street Journal has fired chief foreign affairs correspondent Jay Solomon for what the paper called a “breach” and ethical lapses over his involvement with an Iranian-born arms dealer.

 Washington Bureau Chief Paul Beckett made the announcement to staff during a hastily called meeting on Wednesday after meeting with senior editors in New York the day before. Beckett did not elaborate on Solomon’s situation, only to say that an upcoming Associated Press investigation would have more details. Beckett took no questions and asked any staffers who knew anything about the situation to come forward, according to multiple sources.

 Shortly after the announcement, the Associated Press on Wednesday afternoon published an article that said Solomon was offered a 10 percent stake in a company called Denx LLC by "Farhad Azima, an Iranian-born aviation magnate who has ferried weapons for the CIA.” Azima, the article said, was also one of Solomon's sources for years. Solomon’s involvement was unearthed as part of an AP investigation into Azima, in which the AP obtained a "collection of tens of thousands of emails his lawyers say was stolen by hackers,” which included conversations between Azima and Solomon.

 According to the AP, Solomon spent more than a year discussing the business effort with Azima, though it's not clear from those messages that Solomon took any concrete steps to make the ideas a reality. The hacked messages included one in which Solomon said in October 2014, “Our business opportunities are so promising."

 In another email from April 2015, Azima wrote to Solomon about a $725 million proposal contract with the United Arab Emirates that would "allow planes to spy on activity inside nearby Iran." According to the emails, Solomon was expected to "ferry the proposal" to government representatives from the UAE at a lunch the next day.

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 “We all wish best of luck to Jay on his first defense sale,” Azima wrote in an email also sent to Solomon, according to the AP.

 In a statement, the Journal said Solomon "forfeited" the newspaper's trust.

 “We are dismayed by the actions and poor judgment of Jay Solomon,” the Journal said in a statement. "The allegations raised by this reporting are serious. While our own investigation continues, we have concluded that Mr. Solomon violated his ethical obligations as a reporter, as well as our standards. He has not been forthcoming with us about his actions or his reporting practices and he has forfeited our trust. Mr. Solomon is no longer employed by The Wall Street Journal."

 Solomon, a veteran correspondent who published a book last year about Iran and the “spy games, bank battles and secret deals that reshaped the Middle East,” did not respond to emails seeking comment. But in a statement to the AP, he said he "clearly made mistakes in my reporting and entered into a world I didn’t understand.”

 “I never entered into any business with Farhad Azima, nor did I ever intend to. But I understand why the emails and the conversations I had with Mr. Azima may look like I was involved in some seriously troubling activities. I apologize to my bosses and colleagues at the Journal, who were nothing but great to me," Solomon said.

 According to the AP, Solomon did not mention Azima by name in any of his articles over the past four years, and Azima is not listed in the index of Solomon's 2016 book. But on Twitter, Solomon was Azima's first Twitter follower and Azima's first tweet was to Solomon in 2014.

 "Hi @WSJSolomon," Azima wrote. "@azimausa welcome to Twitter, your excellency!" Solomon wrote in return.

 Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico. |||||

 Jay Solomon, a veteran national security reporter — seen here being interviewed on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” in 2014 — was fired by the Wall Street Journal after a report alleging that he had discussed business deals with a source. (C-SPAN via Associated Press)

 At 3:08 pm on Wednesday, the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal received a cryptic email from their chief, Paul Beckett.

 “Short-Notice staff Meeting at 3:15,” read the subject. The team of 40 was told to gather at their usual spot. “We won’t need chairs,” he added. “It will be short.”

 Soon enough, Beckett delivered to the jittery group the news many had half-anticipated: Ace national security reporter Jay Solomon, whose desk had earlier that day been cleared off, had been fired. But as for the reason, Beckett said they’d have to read a forthcoming report from the Associated Press.

 Minutes later, that story hit the bureau like a bombshell: Solomon had been fired, the AP reported, after “evidence emerged of his involvement in prospective commercial deals — including one involving arms sales to foreign governments — with an international businessman who was one of his key sources.”

 According to the report, Solomon had been offered a 10 percent stake in a new company by an Iranian-born aviation magnate named Farhad Azima. Solomon told the AP he never “entered into any business dealings” with his source and never intended to. The Journal wouldn’t confirm or deny this part of the report but apparently saw enough to let him go.

 Farhad Azima, an Iranian-born aviation mogul whose alleged dealings with Solomon led to the reporter’s firing. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via AP)

 “We are dismayed by the actions and poor judgment of Jay Solomon,” the Journal said in a statement. “The allegations raised by this reporting are serious. While our own investigation continues, we have concluded that Mr. Solomon violated his ethical obligations as a reporter, as well as our standards. He has not been forthcoming with us about his actions or his reporting practices and he has forfeited our trust. Mr. Solomon is no longer employed by The Wall Street Journal.”

 Solomon is no slouch. His work covering national security and foreign affairs had been submitted by the paper for Pulitzer consideration, according to former and current Journal employees. He’s the author of a book about Iran and is widely considered among the staff to be a favorite of Editor in Chief Gerard Baker, who would often praise him in editors’ meetings.

 Solomon’s two decades at the Journal included stints in Asia and Africa. While in Washington, he had become a well-sourced fixture on the foreign policy social scene. He’s known to have a close working relationship with Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United States.

 He had drawn criticism, though, from some colleagues and government officials who perceived his work to show a bias against the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. In his 2016 book, “The Iran Wars,” Solomon wrote that the deal “rather than calming the world’s most combustible region, risks inflaming it.”

 No one, however, saw him as a potential business partner with his sources. That is, until the Associated Press, in the course of reporting another story, came across emails and text messages between Solomon and Azima that Azima’s lawyers said were stolen by hackers. Over the past three decades, Azima has been tied to the Iran-contra affair, dealt weapons to Persian Gulf and Balkan nations, and worked his ample connections in Washington.

 Hours before the Solomon story broke, the AP reported that Azima, 75, is under investigation on suspicions that he bribed a former UAE official in order to reap profits from a hotel sale in Tbilisi, Georgia. It was in the process of reporting this story that reporters came across his correspondence with Solomon.

 [From AP: ‘Worth killing over’: How a plane mogul dodged U.S. scrutiny]

 In April 2015, the AP reported Wednesday, Azima wrote to Solomon about a possible $725 million contract with the United Arab Emirates, in which he asked the reporter to bring the proposal to a UAE government representative he was lunching with the following day.

 “We all wish best of luck to Jay on his first defense deal,” Azima wrote to Solomon and others in the email.

 And the exchanges went both ways. In one particularly suspect instance from October 2014, Solomon texted Azima: “Our business opportunities are so promising.”

 On Wednesday, Solomon expressed regrets for his actions while at the same time insisting that things weren’t quite as bad as they may look.

 “I clearly made mistakes in my reporting and entered into a world I didn’t understand.” Solomon told the AP on Wednesday. “I never entered into any business with Farhad Azima, nor did I ever intend to. But I understand why the emails and the conversations I had with Mr. Azima may look like I was involved in some seriously troubling activities. I apologize to my bosses and colleagues at the Journal, who were nothing but great to me.”

 Hours after the sudden all-staff meeting, Journal employees were still coming to grips with what this all means.

 “I can’t imagine this will go away quickly,” one of them said. “Someone must be going through all his articles now. It might take a little while to know exactly how bad this is.” |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

It was almost 500 years ago when The Bom Jesus, a Portuguese sailing ship, inexplicably vanished while en route to India. The vessel was carrying an immense treasure that has eluded even the most ardent and focused treasure hunters. A recent discovery in the Namibia desert, however, may signal the end of that hunt.

 The Sperrgebiet, or “forbidden territory,” houses the joint operation of the DeBeers Diamond company and the Namibian government. This patch of desert near the African coastline—approximately 10,000 square miles—has pulsated with the exploits of would-be treasure hunters for quite some time now.

 The hunt began a hundred years prior when a German prospector happened upon a diamond in the area. News of this discovery spread throughout the prospector’s homeland, and an influx of German people would take to the area with hopes of making a similar discovery. More notably, though, the discovery would prompt Namdeb (portmanteau of Namibia and DeBeers) to mine the area.

 In 2008, miners were pushing their bulldozers across the golden sands, when they happened upon metal, wood, and pipes assembled in a strange, and at the time indiscernible, mass.

 A call was made to archaeologist Dieter Noli who quickly identified the objects on the “disturbed beach” as a shipwreck.

 Amid the wreckage were 44,000 pounds of copper ingots, which archaeologist Bruno Werz believes allowed the ship to survive its 500-year isolation.

 “Wooden remains would normally have been eaten by organisms,” said Werz, “but the poison would have protected part of those materials.”

 Bom Jesus Found?

 The ship’s cargo matches that of The Bom Jesus, as articulated by the sixteenth-century book, “Memorias Das Armadas,” which lists the ship as lost. The ship mysteriously disappeared in 1533 which would make this the oldest shipwreck to be discovered in Sub Saharan Africa.

 Nearly 24 pounds of treasure were discovered. Among these relics were 2,000 mint condition gold coins from Portugal and Spain, Portuguese silver coins, cannons made of bronze, tons of copper ingots, more than 50 elephant tusks, and navigational tools.

 “We figured out the ship came in, it hit a rock and it leaned over,” said Noli. “The superstructure started breaking up and the chest with the coins was in the captain’s cabin, and it broke free and fell to the bottom of the sea intact… In breaking up, a very heavy part of the side of the ship fell on that chest and bent some of the coins. You can see the force by which the chest was hit, but it also protected the chest.”

 The remnants of the ship are now being guarded by Namdeb. As per 16th-century practice, timber, muskets, cannonballs and swords are being kept in damp storage. Most of the find, however, is being kept out of the public eye.

 There are talks about featuring the shipwreck in a museum but as of yet nothing is confirmed. ||||| (CNN) In 1908, a German prospector found a diamond in the Namibian Desert. The area came to be known as the Sperrgebiet, or "forbidden territory," and was soon overrun by Germans on the hunt for the precious stone (they annexed 10,000 square miles of the desert for themselves). Today, DeBeers and the Namibian government still run a joint operation in the area.

 Photos: The diamond rush that revealed an ancient secret Photos: The diamond rush that revealed an ancient secret In the heart of Namibia's diamond country, the Sperrgebiet, prospectors struck gold, finding the remains of a fifteenth century ship, brilliantly preserved amid the dunes. Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: The diamond rush that revealed an ancient secret The ship is believed to be called The Bom Jesus ("The Good Jesus"), a Portuguese vessel that set sail for India but never made it out of the Southern Atlantic. One of numerous trade vessels to make the journey, archeologists discovered great riches in gold coins, copper and ivory among the ruins. Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: The diamond rush that revealed an ancient secret Archeologists believe that the site is so well preserved for a variety of reasons. The Sperrgebiet has for over a century been heavily restricted due to the mining operation underway, which has limited the number of humans who can access the 10,000-square-mile region. As for the ship itself, a large quantity of poisonous copper aboard is believed to have staved off microbes which would normally have consumed organic material in the ground. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: The diamond rush that revealed an ancient secret Gold coins were key to identifying the remains. Archeologists were able to date the Spanish and Portuguese currency back to a brief 13 year window in the fifteenth century, before cross referencing against various contemporary logs. Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: The diamond rush that revealed an ancient secret Among the objects aided by the copper aboard is this 500-year-old musket, unusually designed to rest on the cheek. Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: The diamond rush that revealed an ancient secret Ivory was also discovered, suggesting the ship made at least one stop before its failed attempt to enter the Indian Ocean. Hide Caption 6 of 6

 But on April 1, 2008 a worker discovered something far more valuable. He'd been searching for diamonds but struck on gold -- only this gold had been missing for nearly half a millennia.

 The smoking gun

 What was found that day had not been seen since the fifteenth century. The miners themselves did not know what they had hit on when they discovered pieces of metal, wood and pipes while they were bulldozing. At a loss, they called in an archaeologist.

 Dieter Noli remembers first surveying the scene:

 Read More ||||| A mine worker discovered sparkling artifacts in the soil which was the ship wreck dated between 1525 and 1538. Courtesy: CNN

 IT IS every archaeologist’s dream — the discovery of a missing ship which disappeared more than 500 years ago with a treasure chest of gold on-board.

 Not only did the discovery of the resting place of TheBom Jesus solve one of the biggest maritime mysteries, but for chief archeologist Dieter Noli, it was a history-changing find.

 The South African-based scientist told news.com.au he knew when he received a call revealing an usual find along the African desert coastline it would be for something special.

 But not even he knew at the time how big that find would be.

 A ship which had disappeared on its way to India laden with gold in 1533 had vanished, its fate and that of her crew unknown.

 Fast forward 500 years and that mystery was closer to being solved when a group of miners hunting diamonds off the Namibian dessert stumbled across some strange objects.

 The discovery and what it uncovered continues to captivate with talks now in place for the site to be opened up into a museum featuring what remains of the shipwreck that had been buried under the sand for half a millennia.

 THE DISCOVERY

 When miners stumbled across some unusual finds in their hunt for diamonds in April 2008, they knew they had found metal, wood and pipes.

 Unsure of what they were dealing with, the company they worked for, Namdeb Diamond Corporation, called in Dr Noli who instantly knew it was a shipwreck.

 Dr Noli, the chief archeologist of the southern Africa Institute of Maritime Archaeological Research, said the coastline was notorious for storms so finding a shipwreck was hardly surprising.

 However, it was a week into the excavation that a treasure chest laden with gold was found, with the coins indicating it had come from a Portuguese ship which had disappeared in 1533.

 “It adds new meaning to the concept of the ship having being loaded with gold,” Dr Noli said.

 Further investigation revealed the discovery of bronze bowls, and long metal poles later found to be canons.

 Dr Noli’s team also found a musket which he estimated to be at least 500 years old and bits of metal revealed a shipwreck was buried in the sand.

 The miners who were now working on the site also found compasses, swords, astrological tools, canons and even a time capsule.

 Silver coins were found.

 Dr Noli then contacted Bruno Werz, a marine archeologist who told CNN it was a dream come true to work on a ship from just after the age of exploration.

 He also said it was crucially important from world heritage perspective to find a shipwreck which contained material from three continents.

 “You can’t describe the feeling of seeing this material and realising how important it is,” he told the broadcaster in an earlier interview.

 He also said the large amounts of copper at the site helped preserve a lot of the objects, its weight preventing a lot of it from washing away.

 However the ship was “extremely badly battered” by the sea, with little of the original structure of left.

 GOLDEN FIND

 A week into the dig, the team found gold coins. a lot of them.

 The centuries old coins were in mint condition which Dr Noli believes is down to the ship breaking on rocks, tipping over and the chest with coins inside being buried under the superstructure.

 It was these very coins which gave Dr Noli and his team a massive clue.

 Within 45 minutes of finding the first gold coin, they had unearthed around 11kg of the treasure, Dr Noli told CNN.

 Dated between 1525-38 and in perfect condition, it meant the ship would have had to have set sail during that time.

 It also served as proof that the find was the oldest ever shipwreck found in sub-Saharan Africa.

 WHAT ELSE WAS FOUND

 Thousands of Portuguese and Spanish gold coins, Portuguese silver coins, bronze cannons, tonnes of copper ingots, more than 50 elephant tusks, as well as navigational instruments were uncovered.

 Dr Noli said more than 2000 gold coins were found in addition to five anchors, three navigational dividers and part of a ship’s compass.

 Pewter tableware, copper cooking utensils, swords and muskets were also found.

 Only a small part of the structural remains of the ship was uncovered.

 Some 5438 artefacts of cultural, scientific and intrinsic value were discovered in total.

 THE DIAMOND HUNTING AREA

 The Namibian coastline, some 18km north of the Orange River mouth, is renowned for its high number of storms and treacherous seas.

 The area where the ship was found was called Sperrgebiet, or “forbidden territory,” after the hundreds of German prospectors who ventured to the region in search for diamonds.

 Diamond company DeBeers and the Namibian government still run a joint operation in the area, according to CNN and the area remains largely out of sight.

 The remains of the shipwreck remain protected by mining security with limited numbers allowed onto the site.

 An idea for a museum has been floated but it remains to be seen whether it will occur. |||||

– Miners have been pulling diamonds from a vast area of Namibia's Namib Desert called the Sperrgebiet (or "forbidden territory") for more than a century. But in 2008, workers hunting for diamonds where the desert meets the Atlantic Ocean found something even more precious: the likely remains of the Bom Jesus, a Portuguese sailing ship that disappeared some 500 years ago on its way to India. It's a discovery, per recent coverage by News.com.au, that solved "one of the biggest maritime mysteries." Also, says archaeologist Dieter Noli, it's the oldest shipwreck ever found in sub-Saharan Africa. And there's treasure as well: Included in the find were some 2,000 gold coins from Spain and Portugal, according to Gainesville News. Upon unearthing the site of the shipwreck, per CNN, workers found pieces of metal, wood, and what looked like pipes. Not sure what they had found, they called in Noli. "It just looked like a disturbed beach," he told CNN earlier this month, "but lying on it were bits and pieces." Among those were a centuries-old musket and an elephant tusk. "I thought, 'Oh, no no, this is definitely a shipwreck,'" Noli says. Ultimately, in addition to the gold, workers recovered cannons (the pipes), navigational instruments, tons of copper ingots, swords, and a lot more—some 5,438 artifacts. Not much of the actual structure of the ship remains. But archaeologists have matched the cargo with that of the Bom Jesus (which means the "Good Jesus") based on details found in a 16th-century book that lists the ship as lost. The stretch of coastline is known for storms. Speaking to CNN, Noli speculates that the Bom Jesus "came in, it hit a rock, and it leaned over." (A famed shipwreck closer to home is getting a closer look.)


Article:

An Air Force instructor convicted of raping a female recruit and sexually assaulting several others is due back in court on one of the nation's busiest training bases Saturday for the start of the sentencing phase of his court-martial.

 Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker arrives for the fourth day of his trial at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, Friday, July 20, 2012. Walker is accused of sexually assaulting 10 basic trainees,... (Associated Press)

 Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, left foreground, arrives for the fourth day of his trial at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, Friday, July 20, 2012. Walker is accused of sexually assaulting... (Associated Press)

 Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, right, arrives for the fourth day of his trial at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, Friday, July 20, 2012. Walker is accused of sexually assaulting 10 basic... (Associated Press)

 Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, who faced the most serious charges in a sweeping sex scandal involving Lackland Air Force Base instructors, could be sentenced to up to life in prison and dishonorably discharged. A military jury convicted him Friday on all 28 counts he faced, including rape, aggravated sexual contact and multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault.

 Prosecutors say from October 2010 through January 2011, Walker sexually assaulted or had improper sexual or personal contact with at least 10 female recruits. Lackland is where all Air Force recruits go through basic training.

 Walker is among 12 Lackland instructors investigated for sexual misconduct toward at least 31 female trainees, and among the six charged on counts ranging from rape to adultery.

 Several of Walker's alleged victims testified during his court-martial, including one who described how Walker lured her into an office and sexually assaulted her on a bed, ignoring her pleas to stop. The Associated Press is not naming the women because they are alleged sexual assault victims.

 The women told jurors that Walker gained their trust to get them alone in his office or an empty dormitory, where he then forced them into kissing, touching or intercourse. The alleged sexual misconduct among instructors at the base apparently began in 2009, but the first woman didn't come forward until last year. The women who testified against Walker said they didn't tell anybody at first because they feared being booted from the Air Force.

 According to prosecutors, Walker had sexual intercourse with 4 of the 10 female recruits. He was also accused of making flirtatious or sexually suggestive comments, sending inappropriate text messages and sometimes groping his recruits.

 Prosecutors also accused Walker of forcing five recruits to engage in sexual acts with him by threatening their military careers, and they said he intimidated two of the women into lying about his alleged misconduct.

 Meanwhile, the Air Force said Friday that the case against another former training instructor was referred to a general court-martial.

 Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc is charged with sexual misconduct, obstructing justice and making a false official statement. He is accused of using his post as a military instructor to sexually assault and pursue a sexual relationship with one female trainee, and have a wrongful sexual relationship with another. No trial date was set.

 One of the other instructors charged in the case, Staff Sgt. Peter Vega-Maldonado, pleaded guilty in June, admitting he had sex with a female trainee in exchange for a sentence of 90 days' confinement. He later acknowledged he had been involved with a total of 10 trainees _ a number previously unknown to investigators.

 Lackland has about 475 instructors for the approximately 35,000 airmen who graduate every year. About one in five is female, pushed through eight weeks of basic training by a group of instructors, 90 percent of whom are men. ||||| The sexual abuse scandal is among the worst to hit the military in over a decade. In 1996, dozens of women at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland accused male supervisors of rape, sexual assault and other offenses in 1996. A few years earlier, more than 80 women were assaulted during several days of drunken revelry at the Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas, a case that led to the resignation of the Navy secretary and two admirals.

 Air Force officials said more instructors could be charged as a result of the current investigations, with recruits being encouraged to report episodes anonymously through a 24-hour tip line. The two-star general’s review has also been expanded to include three other Air Force training bases.

 “We’re not satisfied that this one unit is all there is,” Maj. Gen. Leonard A. Patrick, commander of the Second Air Force, which oversees basic training, said in an interview. “We want to assure ourselves through a disciplined approach that we’ve caught everything or everyone involved in this kind of behavior.”

 The scandal has been deeply painful for the Air Force. Nine years ago, a survey by the Pentagon’s inspector general found that 12 percent of the women who graduated from the Air Force Academy that year said they had been victims of rape or attempted rape while at the school. The vast majority said they did not report the episodes to the authorities out of fear of being punished.

 That appears to have been the situation in the current cases as well. The first assault allegations were reported by the acquaintance of a recruit and not the recruit herself. And when investigators began interviewing possible victims, almost all initially denied being assaulted.

 With a staff of about 475 instructors, Lackland provides basic training to every Air Force recruit, about 35,000 a year. About one in five of those trainees are women, and about nine in ten of the instructors are men.

 The rigorously hierarchical nature of the military makes it especially conducive to sexual abuse, critics say, and basic training is even more so, with instructors looming as intimidating, all-powerful figures to young recruits.

 Photo

 The Pentagon rejects such assertions. But amid growing criticism from advocacy groups and Congress, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta announced in April new steps to combat sexual assault, including having higher ranking officers handle sexual assault complaints, a change expected to lead to more prosecutions.

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 According to Pentagon data, there were 3,192 reports of sexual assault in the military in 2011, but only 240 went to trial, with 191 convictions. But the Defense Department acknowledges that the crime is vastly underreported, estimating the number of assaults may actually be closer to 19,000 a year.

 During closing arguments in Sergeant Walker’s trial on Friday, the lead prosecutor, Maj. Patricia Gruen, portrayed him as a predator who first intimidated, then befriended recruits before assaulting them.

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 “When you take off the sheep’s outfit and the wolf is released on the flock, he looks for those that stand out, and pounces,” she told the jury.

 But the defense, which called only one witness during the five-day trial, focused on the fact that none of the female recruits complained about Sergeant Walker to the authorities.

 The lead defense lawyer, Joseph Esparza, also noted that the prosecution failed to produce DNA evidence or surveillance video, even though there were cameras in parts of the barracks.

 “We don’t know what happened,” he said. “Everyone changed their stories based on when they were asked and who was asking.”

 The trial was dominated by the graphic and often emotional testimony of female recruits. The New York Times does not typically identify possible victims of sexual assault.

 One woman, identified as Airman 5, testified that Sergeant Walker tried to win her confidence by sympathizing with her after she had been upset by bad news from home. He later began sending suggestive texts to her cellphone before cornering her in a supply closet and forcing her to have sex with him.

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 The woman said she did not report the episode out of fear that Sergeant Walker would “recycle” her in punishment, meaning force her to redo basic training.

 “I was scared, and miserable and hurt,” the woman testified. Her version was corroborated in court by a friend.

 Another witness, identified as Airman 8, said Sergeant Walker called her into his office and pressured her to show her breasts. She mentioned the episode to other recruits, and word got back to Sergeant Walker.

 She testified that he then called her back into his office and warned her: “If you had a problem with it, then you should have come to me, instead of running your mouth. Remember, I’m staff sergeant, you’re a trainee.”

 “I went numb,” the woman testified. “I was scared. What if he punished me, or ruined my career?” ||||| Staff Sgt. Walker found guilty on all charges of sexual misconduct

 Photo: John Davenport, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 2 Caption Close Image 1 of 2 Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker (second from right) and others leave his trial at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on July 20, 2012, after he was convicted on all counts of illicit sexual contact with 10 women in basic training. Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker (second from right) and others leave his trial at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on July 20, 2012, after he was convicted on all counts of illicit sexual contact with 10 women ... more Photo: John Davenport, San Antonio Express-News Image 2 of 2 Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker (center) arrives for the fourth day of his trial at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio on July 20, 2012. Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker (center) arrives for the fourth day of his trial at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio on July 20, 2012. Photo: AP Staff Sgt. Walker found guilty on all charges of sexual misconduct 1 / 2 Back to Gallery

 Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, the boot camp instructor at the center of the worst Air Force basic training sexual misconduct scandal in history, was found guilty of all counts Friday.

 Standing at attention and flanked by his defense team, Walker stood expressionless as Col. Michael A. Romero, the president of the jury, pronounced him guilty of seven charges and 28 specifications of misconduct. Walker was red-eyed, with tears streaming down his face, as he left the court.

 In a basement room of the 37th Training Wing headquarters building at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, a group of Walker's victims also broke into tears. After hearing the pronouncements of several guilty verdicts, one woman collapsed, and others embraced her and each other on the floor. After the last specification was read, they consoled one another, sobbing, with some hugging.

 “I think you define a victory by a win, and I'm not sure that any of us win when we have a situation like this,” said Col. Polly Kenny, an Air Force lawyer. “I doubt that even the victims feel like it's a victory. I'm sure that they feel vindicated somewhat that they were believed.”

 Walker left the courthouse with his wife and family, perhaps spending his last night as a free man, after the judge, Col. Wesley Moore, ordered a pause in the proceedings.

 He'll be sentenced today. He faces up to 20 years each on six aggravated sexual assault specifications and life for rape.

 The jurors deliberated almost 61/2 hours before filing into the courtroom, all of them frowning.

 The Air Force charged Walker with having illicit relationships with 10 women, all of them in basic training and some in the units that he oversaw. There was no physical evidence in the case, only their testimony, and defense attorney Joseph Esparza tried to pick apart their accounts.

 In his closing argument earlier Friday, he told the jurors that while the number of women the Air Force listed as victims in the case looked bad, the sheer volume of accusers on its own meant nothing.

 “Staff Sgt. Walker is simply not guilty. I know that sounds incredible given the evidence we've heard,” Esparza said. “The fact that you're accused of a number of crimes isn't proof of anything.”

 Prosecutors and the defense each spent just more than an hour making closing arguments. The panel of six men and one woman left the courtroom shortly before 1 p.m. to review the long list of charges and specifications.

 Earlier in the day, the Air Force announced that another trainer would face trial. Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc is accused of sexually assaulting a female basic training recruit, wrongly conducting an intimate relationship with a trainee, obstruction of justice and adultery. No trial date was set.

 Tuesday, Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio, charged with sexually assaulting a female airman in basic training, violating a no-contact order and obstructing justice, was also ordered to face trial, with no date set.

 Walker's case is the most extensive of a half-dozen so far revealed by the Air Force.

 Armed with a slide presentation, Esparza worked to dissect the witness testimony by highlighting changes and inconsistencies in their stories. He also stressed that prosecutors didn't provide DNA evidence, witnesses to confirm the accounts of the women or Air Force logs and personal phone records.

 The lead prosecutor, Maj. Patricia Gruen, called Walker “the consummate predator,” telling jurors he used the power the Air Force gave him to satisfy his own sexual desires.

 Walker began overseeing flights, as Air Force training units are called, in October 2010. He is accused of developing an illegal relationship with a recruit identified only as Airman 10 on Oct. 25. He was yanked from his training instructor job 13 months ago.

 Prosecutors pointed to a pattern, saying Walker would be nice to the women, acting as if he were a friend, and later hug, kiss and grope them before trying to have sex. The Air Force said four women had intercourse with Walker, who is charged with adultery and rape.

 “He is the wolf in sheep's clothing,” said Gruen, the prosecutor.

 Kenny, the military prosecutor, said the Air Force failed his victims.

 “I think our obligation is to provide a safe, secure training environment and we did not find one for these 10 women, and as a result, we're here today,” she said. “But we're going to do everything we can to ferret out every single allegation and follow it through its conclusion.”

 sigc@express-news.net |||||
What is a summary?

– Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, an instructor at Lackland Air Force Base, was found guilty yesterday of raping one trainee and sexually assaulting several others, reports AP. Walker faces life in prison and a dishonorable discharge after being found guilty on 28 counts, including adultery, violating regulations, and committing sexual crimes against female trainees, notes the San Antonio Express-News. Thirty-one women have accused Walker and at least 11 other instructors of sexual misconduct over a two-and-a-half year period, which has led to a major policy review across the Air Force. "We're not satisfied that this one unit is all there is," the commander of the Second Air Force, which oversees basic training, tells the New York Times. "We want to assure ourselves through a disciplined approach that we’ve caught everything or everyone involved in this kind of behavior." The Defense Department estimates there may be up to 19,000 sexual assaults a year across the services, although just 3,192 were reported in 2011, with 191 convictions.


– Sometimes Goliath beats David—or Vernon, as the case may be. Seventy-six-year-old farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman has lost his Supreme Court battle with Monsanto over his use of patented soybean seeds, the New York Times reports. The court upheld an $84,000 lawsuit brought against Bowman by the agribusiness giant for growing and saving its seeds without paying a fee. Bowman had obtained the seeds from a grain elevator intended for animal feed, and argued that a doctrine called "patent exhaustion" allowed him to do as he pleased with the grain once he had purchased it. This may be true if he wanted to eat the seeds, but Justice Elena Kagan ruled that it does not extend to growing more seeds and replanting them without paying Monsanto for their use. But this case was about more than a few soybeans. Other industries with self-replicating products—from biotechnology to software—were paying close attention to see if their patents would remain safe, USA Today reports. But Kagan warned the outcome of this one case did not necessarily assure their futures. "Our holding today is limited," she wrote. "We recognize that such inventions are becoming ever more prevalent, complex, and diverse. In another case, the article's self-replication might occur outside the purchaser’s control. Or it might be a necessary but incidental step in using the item for another purpose."

Expand this summary.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that farmers could not use Monsanto’s patented genetically altered soybeans to create new seeds without paying the company a fee.

 The ruling has implications for many aspects of modern agriculture and for businesses based on vaccines, cell lines and software. But Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the court, emphasized that the decision was narrow.

 “Our holding today is limited — addressing the situation before us, rather than every one involving a self-replicating product,” she wrote. “We recognize that such inventions are becoming ever more prevalent, complex and diverse. In another case, the article’s self-replication might occur outside the purchaser’s control. Or it might be a necessary but incidental step in using the item for another purpose.”

 But Justice Kagan had little difficulty ruling that an Indiana farmer’s conduct in the case before the court, Bowman v. Monsanto Company, No. 11-796, had run afoul of patent law.

 Farmers who buy Monsanto’s patented seeds must generally sign a contract promising not to save seeds from the resulting crop, which means they must buy new seeds every year. The seeds are valuable because they are resistant to the herbicide Roundup, itself a Monsanto product.

 But the Indiana farmer, Vernon Hugh Bowman, who had signed such contracts for his main crop, said he discovered a loophole for a second, riskier crop later in the growing season.

 For that second crop, he bought seeds from a grain elevator filled with a mix of seeds in the reasonable hope that many of them contained Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready gene.

 Seeds from grain elevators are typically sold for animal feed, food processing or industrial uses. But Mr. Bowman planted them and sprayed them with Roundup. Many plants survived, and he replanted their seeds.

 Monsanto sued, and a federal judge in Indiana ordered Mr. Bowman to pay the company more than $84,000. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which specializes in patent cases, upheld that decision, saying that by planting the seeds Mr. Bowman had infringed Monsanto’s patents.

 Justice Kagan agreed, suggesting that Mr. Bowman had been too clever for his own good.

 Mr. Bowman’s main argument was that a doctrine called patent exhaustion allowed him to do what he liked with products he had obtained legally. But Justice Kagan said it did not apply to the way he had used the seeds.

 “Under the patent exhaustion doctrine, Bowman could resell the patented soybeans he purchased from the grain elevator; so too he could consume the beans himself or feed them to his animals,” she wrote.

 “But the exhaustion doctrine does not enable Bowman to make additional patented soybeans without Monsanto’s permission,” she added, and went on to say that “that is precisely what Bowman did.”

 Justice Kagan said that allowing Mr. Bowman’s tactic would destroy the value of Monsanto’s patent. “The exhaustion doctrine is limited to the ‘particular item’ sold,” she wrote, “to avoid just such a mismatch between invention and reward.”

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 Mr. Bowman acknowledged the general principle that he had no right to make a new product with Monsanto’s seeds. But he said he had used the seeds precisely as they were intended to be used — planting them “in the normal way farmers do,” Justice Kagan wrote.

 Accepting that theory, she wrote, would create an “unprecedented exception” to the exhaustion doctrine. “If simple copying were a protected use,” she wrote, “a patent would plummet in value after the first sale of the item containing the invention.”

 Mr. Bowman also argued in briefs that soybeans naturally “self-replicate or ‘sprout’ unless stored in a controlled manner,” meaning that “it was the planted soybean, not Bowman,” that created the new seeds.

 Justice Kagan rejected what she called “that blame-the-bean defense.”

 “Bowman was not a passive observer of his soybeans’ multiplication,” she wrote, adding: “Put another way, the seeds he purchased (miraculous though they might be in other respects) did not spontaneously create eight successive soybean crops.”

 “It was Bowman, and not the bean,” she wrote, “who controlled the reproduction (unto the eighth generation) of Monsanto’s patented invention.” ||||| Indiana farmer's effort to replicate soybeans that are resistant to weed killer is determined to be a patent infringement.

 The entrance to the Monsanto Company, headquartered in St. Louis, is seen in 2005. (Photo: James A. Finley, AP) Story Highlights Unanimous ruling protects biotechnology entrepreneurs from predators

 Justices gave little credence to Indiana farmer's argument

 Ruling does not settle all future cases involving self-replicating products

 WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court usually isn't friendly toward questionable patents, but it came down overwhelmingly on the side of agribusiness giant Monsanto Monday in a case that's bound to resonate throughout the biotechnology industry.

 The court ruled unanimously that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto's patent on genetically modified soybeans when he culled some from a grain elevator and used them to replant his own crop in future years.

 "If simple copying were a protected use, a patent would plummet in value after the first sale of the first item containing the invention," Justice Elena Kagan ruled in a short 10-page opinion. "The undiluted patent monopoly, it might be said, would extend not for 20 years as the Patent Act promises, but for only one transaction. And that would result in less incentive for innovation than Congress wanted."

 Who it helps: Inventors and entrepreneurs who have patents on products that can be self-replicated, from computer software to cell lines. While Kagan's decision is limited to the Monsanto case, it bolsters the argument that self-replicating products can be protected from patent infringement even if their challengers go through third parties.

 Who it hurts: Consumers paying high prices. The Center for Food Safety released a report in February that showed three corporations control much of the global commercial seed market. It found that from 1995-2011, the average cost to plant 1 acre of soybeans rose 325%.

 What's to come: Still pending is a decision on whether human genes can be patented. That case tests a company's patent on the genes that can identify an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. During oral arguments in April, the justices seemed far more skeptical of the merits of that patent.

 Monsanto's soybeans represent the cream of the crop because they are resistant to the weed killer Roundup. Farmers must pay Monsanto's price to plant the beans themselves.

 That's not what Indiana farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman did. After one year of going through Monsanto, he bought his second crop from a grain elevator. Then he used his own soybeans that resisted Roundup in future years -- in essence, the court said, making copies of a patented invention.

 Bowman's attorney, Mark Walters, had argued that the Monsanto seeds were acquired innocently enough from the grain elevator, and that Bowman's little operation never would threaten the company's monopoly.

 Two lower federal courts weren't impressed with Bowman's case, ruling in favor of Monsanto. And that argument carried little weight with the justices when the case was argued in February. They noted that Monsanto had spent hundreds of millions of dollars over more than a decade to perfect its soybeans -- something it would not have done if others could so easily replicate them.

 Bowman contended the soybeans were "self-replicating," but Kagan said that "blame-the-bean defense" wasn't worthy.

 "Bowman was not a passive observer of his soybeans' multiplication," she said. "Or, put another way, the seeds he purchased, miraculous though they might be in other respects, did not spontaneously create eight successive soybean crops.

 "It was Bowman, and not the bean, who controlled the reproduction (unto the eighth generation) of Monsanto's patented invention," Kagan said.

 Monsanto officials applauded the decision, not just for the company but for innovators of all shapes and sizes.

 "The court's ruling today ensures that longstanding principles of patent law apply to breakthrough 21st century technologies that are central to meeting the growing demands of our planet and its people," said David F. Snively, the company's executive vice president. "The ruling also provides assurance to all inventors throughout the public and private sectors that they can and should continue to invest in innovation that feeds people, improves lives, creates jobs, and allows America to keep its competitive edge."

 Jim Greenwood, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said the ruling will benefit all forms of biotechnology, "as well as the patients, farmers and consumers who benefit from biotechnology's help in healing, feeding and fueling the world."

 But Center for Food Safety executive director Andrew Kimbrell called the ruling a setback for farmers. "The court chose to protect Monsanto over farmers," he said. "The court's ruling is contrary to logic and to agronomics, because it improperly attributes seeds' reproduction to farmers, rather than nature."

 Fordham University School of Law professor Mark Patterson noted the decision stops short of determining how self-reproducing inventions should be handled in all cases.

 "Justice Kagan, in the last paragraph of the opinion, noted that 'such inventions are becoming ever more prevalent, complex, and diverse,'" Patterson said. "Either the court or Congress will have to address them again soon."

 Follow @richardjwolf on Twitter.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/165FPGy |||||


News article:

Inviting followers on Twitter to "show us what makes you proud to be British" as part of a diamond jubilee promotion must have seemed like a good idea at the time at Starbucks.

 But after tweeting the invitation to nearly 2,000 Irish followers of its Twitter account on Tuesday, the coffee giant has been on the receiving end of a backlash over its seemingly shaky grasp of political geography.

 "Right now someone in Starbucks Ireland is wishing there was a Twitter version of the memory wipe thing from Men In Black," was just one of the responses tweeted soon after.

 One follower of the Starbucks Ireland account (@Starbucks.IE), Fergus McNally, commented: "the ie stands for Ireland, awaiting the apology before I visit your stores again!!"

 An apology did come, hours after the gaffe, with the Starbucks Ireland account telling followers: "We erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page meaning to post to the UK only. Customers in Ireland: We're sorry."

 The company later followed up by issuing a statement saying: "First and foremost we apologise to our Irish customers for the mistake made on Twitter this afternoon.

 "The tweet, which was only meant to be sent to our British Twitter followers as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations, was erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page.

 "We apologise to all our customers and followers on Twitter in Ireland and hope that they will forgive our mistake."

 The error comes months after another global brand, Nike, found itself on the back foot after falling foul of sensitivities over Irish history.

 The sportswear giant said no offence was intended after issuing a St Patrick's Day-themed shoe which raised memories of a British paramilitary unit which gained notoriety during the Irish war of independence.

 Nike had released the shoe, which it dubbed the "Black and Tan", in a nod to Guinness. The beer-themed trainer had a black-leather upper with tan elements, creamy swoosh and featured an image of a pint. ||||| Add a location to your Tweets

 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Starbucks' Irish Twitter account has just 2,000 followers, but an awkward tweet it directed to them has managed to piss off an entire nation: "Show us what makes you proud to be British," the company tweeted during the Diamond Jubilee. The coffee giant says it intended the message to reach only its UK Twitter followers, the Guardian reports. One Irish customer warned @StarbucksIE: "The ie stands for Ireland, awaiting the apology before I visit your stores again!!" Following the mistake, Starbucks' Ireland account noted that "we erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page meaning to post to the UK only. Customers in Ireland: We're sorry."


Summarize this article:

Perez Hilton is now a father to a baby boy!

 The openly gay blogger, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira Jr., took to his eponymous blog Wednesday afternoon in a post titled "A Very Important Message from Perez" to share the news "directly from me, right here."

 "I am ready to announce that earlier this month I was blessed with the birth of my first child, a beautiful and healthy baby boy — with lots of hair on his tiny head. My family is overjoyed at this newest and most cherished addition," the 34-year-old wrote.

 PHOTOS: Hollywood baby boom

 There was no word of who the birth mother was or the tiny tot's name, or if the child came to be through adoption or surrogacy. But Hilton did share a photo of himself cradling and gazing down at the little guy in what we presume is a hospital room. In an August 2009 interview, the blogger told the Los Angeles Times' Robin Abcarian that he wanted to be a father by age 35 and that he had already investigated surrogates.

 Hilton was spotted shopping for baby clothes in West Hollywood in January, according to the Daily Mail. The blogger made a name for himself back in 2004 when he started posting snarky comments and doodling on tabloid photos of celebrities on his site. The first iteration of the gossip site was called PageSixSixSix.com.

 Since then, the Miami native has toned down the snark and become a household name, even hobnobbing with the celebs he teases, becoming a celebrity in his own right. The website reportedly gets 300 million page hits a month, and the birth of his son seems to have humbled the formerly sharp-tongued blogger, because he took a moment to show his appreciation for his fans in the baby announcement.

 PHOTOS: Gay celebrities: Who is out

 "Thank YOU for welcoming PerezHilton.com into your homes, offices, classrooms, cell phones and wherever else you may read my five websites. And thank you for welcoming ME into your lives! I am so humbled to welcome this little man into my life. And I am honored and ready for the challenge of guiding him through his. With love, Perez."

 Congrats!

 ALSO:

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 Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom plan to have more kids 'someday'

 Oscars: Lena Dunham supports Anne Hathaway, boos Seth MacFarlane

 Follow Nardine on Twitter @NardineSaad and Google +. Follow Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs. ||||| "Dear Friends,

 I want you to hear this directly from me, right here.

 I am ready to announce that earlier this month I was blessed with the birth of my first child, a beautiful and healthy baby boy - with lots of hair on his tiny head!

 My family is overjoyed at this newest and most cherished addition.

 Thank YOU for welcoming PerezHilton.com into your homes, offices, classrooms, cell phones and wherever else you may read my five websites.

 And thank you for welcoming ME into your lives!

 I am so humbled to welcome this little man into my life. And I am honored and ready for the challenge of guiding him through his.

 With love,

 Perez"

 Tags: birth announcement, boy, dad, father, perez hilton, son |||||

– Now that Perez Hilton's days of tweeting upskirt photos of underage celebs are apparently over, he's totally ready to be a dad. The acerbic gossip blogger posted a note to fans on his website yesterday announcing that his first child, "a beautiful and healthy baby boy," was born earlier this month. He also said he's looking forward to "guiding" his "little man" through life (and, we guess, reading him a children's book penned by none other than Perez Hilton). No word on how this all came about, although the LA Times notes that Hilton has discussed surrogacy in the past.


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– It's hard to find a one-way ticket domestically for $69, but if the CEO of Norwegian Air has his way, a ticket for that much may soon be available between Europe and the US, NBC News reports. Bjorn Kjos' master plan is to connect flights from smaller coastal US airports—New York's Westchester County Airport and Connecticut's Bradley International Airport have both been mentioned—that offer lower fees than busier airports to European destinations such as Bergen, Norway, and Edinburgh, Scotland. It's all part of the budget airline's blueprint to wrest trans-Atlantic market share away from larger airlines such as Lufthansa. Norwegian has 100 Boeing 737 MAX jets on order, with the first five set to arrive in 2017, the Telegraph notes. These planes are capable of flying over the ocean, but are more fuel-efficient and smaller, which would make them a better size for smaller airports like the one in Birmingham, England. Regulators would have to agree to the plan and set up customs stations at those US airports that don't currently handle international flights, but Kjos says he's sure that won't be an issue. A round-trip ticket will likely cost around $300 once all the fees are factored in, but that's still cheaper than the $500 or so that Norwegian's flights in and out of busier airports run, NBC notes. (One day of the week is the best day to buy a plane ticket.)

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 Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA hopes to sell one-way tickets to Europe for $69 as early as 2017 by flying from U.S. airports that have low fees, Chief Executive Officer Bjørn Kjos said in an interview Tuesday.

 Europe's third-largest budget airline is considering flights to Edinburgh and Bergen, Norway from U.S. airports that have little to no international service today, such as New York's Westchester County Airport and Connecticut's Bradley International Airport, just north of Hartford, Kjos said.

 Average prices on such routes are likely to be closer to $300 round trip, Kjos said, compared with many of Norwegian's fares that run more than $500 today because of higher fees levied by busier airports.

 The potential plans are part of Norwegian's broader move to cut prices and take share from traditional flag carriers that dominate trans-Atlantic flying.

 While airlines such as Deutsche Lufthansa AG offer travelers hundreds of destinations via connections in airport hubs, Norwegian is aiming to make nonstop service to small cities that straddle the Atlantic more common, which keeps costs low.

 "I think you will see a lot to that effect within five years' time," Kjos said. "What will happen to (Lufthansa) when everyone starts to fly direct?"

 Norwegian has 100 737 MAX jets from Boeing Co on order and expects to receive five in 2017. These planes are equipped to traverse the Atlantic but are smaller than most jets that currently do so, making them a better size for international flights to cities such as Birmingham in Britain, Kjos said.

 Regulators will have to agree to set up customs stations at U.S. regional airports to handle international traffic, although Kjos said he is confident this can be arranged.

 Norwegian is not the only airline to market cheap fares across the Atlantic.

 Iceland's Wow Air recently offered one-way fares between Boston and Paris for $99. Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Eurowings is also starting cheap long-haul flights.

 Kjos downplayed the competitive threat of Eurowings, saying, "I don't believe in their being able to operate low cost with a Boeing 767," in part because the widebody planes save less fuel and have smaller range than planes such as Boeing Dreamliners in Norwegian's fleet.

 Norwegian separately reported Tuesday that it filled 96 percent of long-haul plane seats in September, helping the airline post better-than-expected results. ||||| Norwegian Air hopes to sell one-way tickets to North America for $69 (£45) as early as 2017 by flying to US airports that have low fees, chief executive Bjørn Kjos has said.

 Europe's third-largest budget airline is considering flights to Edinburgh, Birmingham and Bergen in Norway from small US airports that have little to no international service, including New York's Westchester County Airport and Connecticut's Bradley International Airport, just north of Hartford.

 Average prices on such routes are likely to be closer to $300 round trip, Mr Kjos said.

 That price tag would be much lower than many of Norwegian's current long-haul fares, which cost $500 because of higher fees levied by busier airports.

 These new plans are part of Norwegian's broader move to cut prices and take share from traditional flag carriers that dominate transatlantic flying.

 While airlines such as Lufthansa offer travellers hundreds of destinations via connections at airport hubs, Norwegian is aiming to make non-stop services to smaller cities on either side of the Atlantic more common.

 "I think you will see a lot to that effect within five years' time," Mr Kjos said.

 • Are £99 flights to Canada the beginning of a budget transatlantic revolution?

 "What will happen to (Lufthansa) when everyone starts to fly direct?"

 Norwegian has 100 737 MAX jets from Boeing on order and expects to receive five in 2017.

 These planes are equipped to cruise over the Atlantic but are smaller than most jets that currently make the journey, making them a better size for smaller airports such as Birmingham.

 They're also more fuel efficient than their larger cousins.

 Regulators will have to agree to set up customs stations at US regional airports to handle international traffic, although Mr Kjos said he was confident this could be arranged.

 The airline said that while no decisions had been made on which UK airports would be included in the new, low-cost route, its existing operations at Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham would "naturally be the first destinations to consider operating from".

 Norwegian is not the only airline to market cheap fares across the Atlantic.

 Iceland's Wow Air recently offered one-way fares between Boston and Paris for $99. Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Eurowings is also starting cheap long-haul flights.

 Kjos downplayed the competitive threat of Eurowings, saying "I don't believe in their being able to operate low cost with a Boeing 767", in part because the widebody planes save less fuel and have smaller range than planes such as Boeing Dreamliners in Norwegian's fleet.

 Norwegian reported this week that it had filled 96pc of long-haul plane seats in September, helping the airline post better-than-expected results. |||||