Brazil’s president says the nation has nearly doubled its high-speed internet connections in the past year.

President Dilma Rousseff says there are now 72 million such connections in Latin America’s largest nation.

She says 6 million families have signed up for low-cost high-speed Internet access through the government’s four-year, $6 billion National Broadband Plan. The government aims to have 40 million households hooked up through the plan by 2014.

Private studies have shown that broadband access in Brazil is more expensive than most nations, averaging about $42 per month, but the government plan provides access for prices starting at about half that.

Indian PM visits Myanmar amid energy quest

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh departed Sunday on a three-day visit to Myanmar that underscores India’s quest for energy supplies and concerns about China’s strong influence in the Southeast Asian country.

Singh said he hoped to focus on stronger trade and investment links, development of border areas and improving connectivity between India and Myanmar.

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ikenbot:

A Hole in Mars

Credit: NASA, JPL, U. Arizona

Back in 2007, black spots were discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist.

The unusual hole pictured above was found on the slopes of the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons. The above image was captured three weeks ago by the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars.

The holes were originally identified on lower resolution images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, The above hole is about the size of a football field and is so deep that it is completely unilluminated by the Sun. Such holes and underground caves might be prime targets for future spacecraft, robots, and even the next generation of human interplanetary explorers.

Serbia rivals agree to cooperate on new government

Serbia’s new nationalist president and the liberal rival likely to be the next prime minister assured the country Monday that they could overcome deep differences and create a stable, pro-European Union government.

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Crowds gather for Golden Gate Bridge celebration

Crowds gathered along San Francisco’s waterfront Sunday, while San Francisco Bay was crowded with pleasure boats, tug boats and other vessels as the city celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Tens of thousands of people were expected to flock to the area to enjoy a number of events taking place along a section of waterfront stretching from Fort Point south of the bridge to Pier 39 along The Embarcadero.

At least several thousand people had gathered along the waterfront by Sunday afternoon, said Mary Currie, public affairs director for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.

“Everyone is biking and walking and looks very happy,” she said. “We’re off to a great start.”

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mothernaturenetwork:

U.S. creates first ‘National Blueway’

Unlike the current patchwork of protections for rivers, a National Blueway will cover an entire river ‘from source to sea,’ including its watershed.

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Canada ranks high in housing, safety and life satisfaction, OECD says

By any measure – health, education, housing or income – Canadians are far better off than residents of the developing world.

But they’re also better off than many of the planet’s richest countries, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s latest quality-of-life assessment, released on Tuesday.

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The Sierra Club, the nation’s largest environmental organization, today announced that it is partnering with Sungevity, one of the country’s leading residential solar providers, to help families go solar easily and affordably. The new partnership will help consumers save money on electricity bills, reduce pollution and support the Sierra Club’s overall mission to explore, enjoy and protect the planet.

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‘Solar Suitcase’ aids doctors in developing world

They began with large solar panels put together in their backyard.  Today, suitcase-sized kits provide the “power of light” to almost 200 clinics around the world.

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Washington hopes to buy historic ranch for conservation

Rattlesnake Mountain offers sweeping views of the historic McWhorter Ranch, a pristine property largely unchanged since it was settled in 1903, laced with dry grasses and sagebrush and home to elk and other wildlife. The ranch stretches down the mountain’s south face across more than 20 square miles of Washington’s shrinking shrub-steppe habitat.

In the not-so-far-off distance, another scene unfolds: the bustle of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan area, complete with high-tech businesses and newly-planted vineyards to support a booming wine industry.

McWhorter Ranch is going up for sale June 1, and given its size and location, the property could very likely draw bids from agricultural and real estate developers. But state and local officials are working with conservation groups to try to raise enough money to stave off any speculators and preserve it.

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German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.

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PICTURED ABOVE: Augustine P. Mahiga, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia.

Somalia’s leaders clear obstacles to ending transitional period – UN official

Leaders in Somalia have agreed to set up a Constituent Assembly that will adopt the East African nation’s new constitution in line with an existing roadmap to end the current transitional governing arrangement by an upcoming deadline, the United Nations envoy for the country said today.

At a three-day consultative meeting that ended on Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, signatories to the so-called Roadmap for the End of Transition in Somalia agreed that elders will select the delegates to the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) no later than 20 June, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), Augustine Mahiga, told a news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, today.

“These meetings [in Addis Ababa] of the principals were dynamic and sometimes contentious. But most importantly, they were ultimately successful,” said Mr. Mahiga.

After decades of warfare, Somalia has been undergoing a peace and national reconciliation process, with the country’s Transitional Federal Institutions currently implementing the roadmap, devised in September last year, that spells out priority measures to be carried out before the current transitional governing arrangements end on 20 August.

The NCA will convene on 2 July to adopt the new provisional constitution by 10 July. Members of parliament will be selected by 15 July by the elders, who will be assisted in the process by a Technical Selection Committee to ensure that the nominees meet the criteria set out in an earlier agreement. In his remarks to the media, Mr. Mahiga noted that key decisions made during the meetings included the expansion of the Technical Selection Committee, which will now be broadened to ensure representation of Somalia’s various clans and international observers.

“There is a real spirit of camaraderie and a drive for progress amongst the signatories of the Roadmap,” said Mr. Mahiga. “The process is moving forward and the Somali leadership is committed to meeting the challenging, but achievable, timetable. It is critical that all parties, including the international community, now pull together to support this process.”

Agreements reached in Addis Ababa removed procedural obstacles to the implementation of the roadmap, the envoy said, while noting the limited time-frame.

“Somalia is less than ninety days away from the most momentous event in its recent history. We have no time to lose,” he said. “There is not a moment to spare as Somalia and its partners get down to work and ensure this process is participatory, legitimate, inclusive, transparent and, above all, Somali-owned.”

A communiqué issued in Addis Ababa at the end of the meetings also recommended that the President of the Transitional Federal Government issue a presidential decree to convene the NCA. The decree will also enable the constitutional-making process to proceed towards the adoption stage and allow the formation of the National Security and Stabilization Plan, which is intended to lay the foundation for the development of the Somali justice and security sector.

California’s Coronado named nation’s best beach

Like a Hollywood star, Coronado’s 1.5 mile-long beach literally sparkles, thanks to the mineral mica glinting in its sand.

That’s one of the reasons why Coronado — flanked by the iconic hotel featured in Marilyn Monroe’s 1958 film “Some Like It Hot” — has been named the No. 1 beach in the United States in the 2012 survey by “Dr. Beach” professor Stephen P. Leatherman of Florida International University.

It is the first time “Dr. Beach” has given the top slot to California in the more than two decades that he has been ranking beaches in the United States based on their environmental quality and safety for swimmers.

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Richmond passes ban on genetically engineered crops

Richmond council has passed a motion banning genetically modified shrubs, plants and food crops from being grown in the city.

Rossland, Kaslo, Nelson, Powell River and Saltspring Island have passed motions opposing genetically modified organisms with their boundaries, but Richmond is the first predominantly agricultural jurisdiction in B.C. to enact such a ban. The motion passed unanimously by council Tuesday evening was considerably stronger than the action recommended by city staff, who suggested lobbying senior levels of government for mandatory labelling of foods that contain ingredients from genetically engineered crops.

Under the motions passed, Richmond will seek stronger labelling requirements and integrate education and awareness of the issues raised by GMOs into the city’s public outreach programs. Because GE crops are federally regulated, Richmond cannot legally enforce its ban, but proponents of the ban are delight with the message that it sends.

“It’s a pretty awesome outcome,” said Arzeena Hamir of the Richmond Food Security Society. Hamir and representatives of the anti-GMO group GE Free BC first approached council two years ago to seek a ban on genentically engineered plants.

Hamir presented council with a petition in support of the ban, containing more than 1,000 names.

“I think this ban is more than symbolic,” said Hamir. “To me just asking for labelling would have been the more meaningless gesture.”

Only three farms in Richmond are known to be growing genetically engineered crops, according to Coun. Harold Steves, who is also a RIchmond farmer. Steves said the danger of pollen drift from GE crops — in which literally carries modified genetic material on the wind to other fields —could deter farmers from trying to grown certified organic crops in Richmond.

Opponents of GMOs claim that GE crops give rise to novel proteins that are not recognizable to human and animal digestive systems and that engineered genetic material may have unknown consequences when it is released in to the environment.

GE crops are created by taking genetic material from one living thing and pasting into another, often to provide resistance to pests or chemical pesticides.

Most of the major commodity crops — maize (corn), soy, canola and cotton — grown in Canada and the United States are GE and more than 80 per cent of packaged foods contain the products of those crops. Neither Canada nor the United States requires foods containing GMOs to be labelled, though many European jurisdictions do.

French president: All combat troops out in 2012

French President Francois Hollande for the first time provided details of his plan to pull France’s combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, saying Friday he would leave around 1,400 soldiers behind to help with training and logistics.

The new French leader, making good on one of the major foreign-policy promises of his campaign, confirmed in a one-day visit to Afghanistan that all of France’s 2,000 combat troops would be brought home by the end of this year — putting France on a fast-track exit timetable that sparked consternation among some allies at a NATO summit in Chicago early this week.

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