The government of South Korea is drawing up a code of ethics to prevent human abuse of robots and vice versa.
The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for robotics users and manufacturers, as well as guidelines on ethical standards to be programmed into robots.
The document will also deal with legal issues, such as the protection of data acquired by robots and establishing clear identification and traceability of the machines.
Today, Congress took an important step towards restoring openness and transparency in government. Over the past six years, the Bush Administration has done everything it can to operate in secret, to avoid public scrutiny, and to limit congressional oversight. I am pleased that Congress is reversing this course by passing four critically important good government bills with strong bipartisan support.
H.R. 1255, approved by a vote of 333-93, makes clear that presidential records belong to the American people, not the president who created them. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 will nullify a Bush executive order which gave former presidents – and their heirs – nearly unlimited authority to withhold or delay the release of their own records. If it becomes law, this legislation will ensure that a complete historical record is available to researchers.
H.R. 1254, approved by a vote of 390-34, will require organizations that raise money for presidential libraries to disclose information about their donors. This will eliminate a major loophole that allows presidential supporters to secretly give millions in support of a president’s legacy while that president remains in office.
H.R. 1309, approved by a vote of 308-117, will strengthen the Freedom of Information Act and improve public access to government information. One key element of this legislation would restore the presumption of disclosure under FOIA that was eliminated by the Bush Administration in 2001.
H.R. 985, approved by a vote of 331-94, offers improved protections to federal whistleblowers who report wrongdoing to authorities. Federal employees and contractors are privy to information that enables them to play an essential role in ensuring government accountability.
The Australian Government is planning on making the incandescent light bulb a thing of the past. In three years time, standard light bulbs will no longer be available for sale in the shops in Australia (expect a roaring grey market) and everybody will be forced to switch to more energy efficient Fluorescent bulbs. In this move to try and curb emissions, the incandescent bulb — which converts the majority of used energy to heat rather then light — will be phased out.
A dozen years after Congress rejected a Clinton administration plan for universal health care, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden is readying a proposal to provide health care coverage to all Americans through a pool of private insurance plans.
“Employer-based coverage is melting away like a Popsicle on the sidewalk in August,” said Wyden, a Democrat and member of the Senate Finance Committee’s subcommittee on health care.
Wyden’s proposal, which he planned to unveil on Wednesday, is an outgrowth of work by the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, a 14-member panel that went to 50 communities around the country and heard from 28,000 people about how to reform health care.
The group, created in 2003 by legislation sponsored by Wyden and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, recommended that the government take steps to guarantee all Americans have basic health insurance coverage by 2012.
Wyden said his plan would allow workers to carry their health insurance from job to job without penalty and would cost the federal government no more than it’s paying today for health insurance coverage. It would cover all Americans except those on Medicare or those who receive health care through the military.
China is to abolish tuition and other fees for 150 million rural students, in a bid to narrow the gap between wealthy coastal provinces and poorer regions.
The students will be exempt from tuition fees over the course of their compulsory nine-year education.
The move would cost 15bn yuan ($1.9bn) a year, the China Daily said, or about 140 yuan ($18) a child.
But children of rural families who have migrated to China’s booming cities will not be included.
The new policy is “part of a major move to relieve the financial burden of farmers and to develop a new countryside,” the state-owned newspaper said.
In the first phase of the programme, which took effect this spring, more than 50m students living in western provinces – some of China’s poorest – were exempted.
Bushmen from the Kalahari desert have won a court case in which they accused Botswana’s government of illegally moving them from their land.
The court said the bushmen – or San people – were wrongly evicted from their ancestral homeland in 2002.
A panel of three judges ruled by two-to-one in their favour in the major issues in the case.
It is seen as a wider test of whether governments can legally move people from their tribal and ancestral lands.
The leader of the bushmen, Roy Sesana, emerged from court wearing traditional headdress and smiling broadly.
A law passed late last week—right before the 109th Congress wrapped up its final session—will outlaw pretexting, the practice of obtaining someone else’s phone records without their permission. Pretexting has been going on for years, but the practice recently moved into the public consciousness with the recent scandal over HP’s investigation into leaks of confidential information by one or more of its board members.
Passed by voice vote on Friday night, the legislation calls for fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison for individuals engaging in pretexting. Companies caught pretexting would face fines of up to $500,000.
The European Parliament has approved a 54bn euro (£36bn) ($80bn) plan to boost science research in Europe.
Framework Programme 7 (FP7) is designed to support several priority areas of research.
Of the different research categories, information technology gets the biggest chunk of funding, with a 9.1bn euro (£6bn)($12bn) budget.
But research into climate change and energy have received a comparatively small amount of funding in the plan.
The Parliament gave the go-ahead to the plan on Thursday at its second reading. FP7 is due to be formally adopted by the EU on 5 December. The programme is due to run from 2007 to 2013.
Protesters in Paraguay have staged a public crucifixion calling for a jailed former army general to be set free.
Tomas Velazquez, a supporter of General Lino Oviedo, popular among Paraguay’s indigenous people, was tied and nailed to a cross outside the Supreme Court.
Mr Velazquez called on the court to review Gen Oviedo’s 10-year jail sentence for plotting a 1996 coup.
Renewable energy is gathering steam in several states as voters and governors push electric utilities to generate a set percentage of electricity from clean sources such as wind and solar power.
In Washington state, voters approved a measure Nov. 7 mandating that 15% of electrical power come from renewable sources by 2020.
That makes 20 states and the District of Columbia with such requirements, according to the Department of Energy. Two others states � Illinois and Vermont � have non-binding goals on using renewable energy sources.
More states are forcing utilities toward wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, such as geothermal and biomass, to cut the use of coal and natural gas and spur greater U.S. energy independence. Burning coal produces greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that contribute to climate change. Power plants fueled by natural gas pollute the air with sulfur dioxide.
Deep in the most remote jungles of South America, Amazon Indians (Amerindians) are using Google Earth, Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping, and other technologies to protect their fast-dwindling home. Tribes in Suriname, Brazil, and Colombia are combining their traditional knowledge of the rainforest with Western technology to conserve forests and maintain ties to their history and cultural traditions, which include profound knowledge of the forest ecosystem and medicinal plants. Helping them is the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), a nonprofit organization working with indigenous people to conserve biodiversity, health, and culture in South American rainforests.
Ding dong the merrio!
Sing it high!
Sing it low!
Let them know…
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is standing down, President George W Bush has announced after bruising losses for Republicans in mid-term elections.
Mr Bush said that both he and Mr Rumsfeld had agreed the time was right for new leadership at the Pentagon.
Former CIA Director Robert Gates has been nominated to replace Mr Rumsfeld.
The Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in the polls, and the Senate balance of power hangs on a tight race in just one state, Virginia.
U.S. President George W. Bush will ask Congress to maintain current aid levels to Colombia, running more at than US$600 million (€478 million) a year in mostly military aid, an administration official said Tuesday.
The call for continued funding is a major boost to President Alvaro Uribe, Washington’s staunchest ally in Latin America, and comes despite the failure of record drug eradication efforts to reduce the cocaine trade in the South American nation.
U.S. military and anti-narcotics officials have said recently that aid for the drug eradication and counter-insurgency strategy known as Plan Colombia, which has cost American taxpayers more than US$4 billion (€3.2 billion) since 2000, should be gradually reduced as Colombian authorities take over more duties.
international herald tribune
Thanks to Verena Martin @ stopthedrugwar.org
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