German lawmakers OK expansion of euro bailout

German Lawmaker

BERLIN - German lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly approved expanding the powers of the eurozone bailout fund, a major step toward tackling the sprawling debt crisis, in a vote that also helped strengthen Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government.

The measure had been largely expected to pass the lower house of parliament, but a lively debate ahead of the vote reflected how divided Germans remain over their role as Europe's economic power.

Of 611 lawmakers present, 523 voted in favor, while 85 voted against it. Only three lawmakers abstained, meaning that Germany in the future will be guaranteeing loans to the bailout fund, the so-called European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF, of up to euro211 billion, rather than euro123 billion so far.

German Lawmaker

Moneywatch: Stock futures up after German vote on bailout fund

The vote had highlighted tensions in Merkel's center-right coalition that was strained by threats of dissent from many members who balked at the cost of propping up the eurozone's strugglers.

Opposition leaders had said going in that if Merkel's coalition has to rely on their votes, it would be a sign that her strife-prone and increasingly unpopular government is finished.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel smiles, surrounded by MPs holding their ballots on September 29, 2011 at the Lower House of German parliament Bundestag in Berlin, as lawmakers voted to expand the EU's rescue fund.

Yet after a night of intense lobbying, a majority of coalition members — 315 — voted in favor of the measure, enough to have ensured its passage even without opposition support.

"This shows the clear determination of the coalition on this issue," Rainer Bruederle, parliamentary leader of Merkel's junior partner, the Free Democrats, told N-TV broadcaster after the vote. "We have made an important decision for Europe."

Yet Frank Schaeffler, also of the Free Democrats, argued that bailout measures have worsened Greece's economic situation.

"Despite all arguments, the first bailout did not make the situation for Greece better, but worse," Schaeffler said. "Expanding the fund will make the situation even worse."

The lawmakers — under close scrutiny from jittery markets — were voting on European leaders' decision in July to increase the effective lending capacity of the fund to euro440 billion ($595 billion) and give it new powers, such as buying the bonds of shaky countries or lending money to governments before they get into a full-blown crisis.

Though Merkel described the euro ahead of the vote as "our common future" and said approving the beefed-up bailout fund was "of the very, very greatest significance," discussions went deep into the night Wednesday, in an attempt to win over dissenting members of her governing coalition.

On Wednesday, Finland voted in favor of expanding the fund's powers despite earlier threats to pull out of a rescue plan for Greece.

The fund expansion has to be ratified by all 17 eurozone nations to take force.

Germany's upper house of parliament is expected to pass the measure on Friday.

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Jackson's doctor asked for help in caring for him, attorney testifies

Michael jakson
By Alan Duke, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A lawyer hired by concert promoter AEG to draw up the contract with Michael Jackson's personal physician testified Wednesday that Dr. Conrad Murray requested a cardiopulmonary resuscitation machine and money to hire a second doctor to help him care for Jackson.

The additional doctor and the CPR equipment were never provided, since the contract was not signed before Jackson died, attorney Kathy Jorrie testified.

Jackson's personal assistant began his testimony after Jorrie's, telling jurors about the chaos inside the pop icon's bedroom in the minutes after Murray realized Jackson had stopped breathing.

At the start of court proceedings Wednesday in Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial, Paul Gongaware, an executive with the company promoting Jackson's comeback concerts, was on the stand.

The trial of Conrad Murray begins

Patients of Conrad Murray speak out

Larry King: Michael Jackson was shy

Dr. Drew, Dr. Sanjay Gupta talk propofol

Under cross-examination by the defense, Gongaware said he noticed that Jackson had "a little bit of a slower speech pattern, just a slight slur in the speech" after a visit with Dr. Arnold Klein.

Murray's lawyer contends that Klein is partly responsible for Jackson's death since he was giving him Demerol shots in the last weeks of his life, without Murray's knowledge.

The lawyer who drew up AEG's contract with Murray testified that it was her understanding that Murray did not want the CPR unit or the additional doctor until he arrived in London with Jackson in July 2009 for the "This Is It" concerts.

"I asked Dr Murray, why do we need a CPR machine?" Jorrie testified.

Murray told her he needed it since "given (Jackson's) age and the strenuous performance he would be putting on, that if something went wrong, he would have it," she said.

The second doctor would be necessary because "if (Murray) was tired or unavailable, he wanted to make sure there was someone else to be of assistance" to Jackson.

AEG is being sued by Jackson's mother Katherine, based on her contention that the concert promoter hired and controlled Murray when he was caring for her son.

The prosecution contends that part of the negligence that makes Murray criminally liable for Jackson's death is the lack of monitoring and CPR equipment on hand when Jackson died.

Picture Of Michael Jackson

The trial began Tuesday with prosecutors playing a stunning audio recording of an apparently drugged Jackson slurring his words weeks before his death and showing jurors a photo of Jackson's corpse on a hospital gurney.

Jackson's struggle to sleep between rehearsals for his "This Is It" comeback concerts is central to the prosecution and defense theories of how the entertainer died June 25, 2009.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney David Walgren blamed Murray for Jackson's death, saying he abandoned "all principles of medical care" when he used the surgical anesthetic propofol to put Jackson to sleep every night for more than two months.

The coroner ruled that Jackson's death was the result of "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with sedatives.

Murray defense lawyer Ed Chernoff contended that Jackson, desperate for sleep, caused his own death by taking a handful of sedatives and drinking propofol while the doctor was out of the room.

Scientific evidence will show that, on the morning Jackson died, he swallowed a sedative without his doctor's knowledge, "enough to put six of you to sleep, and he did this when Dr. Murray was not around," Chernoff said.

Jackson then ingested a dose of propofol on his own, creating "a perfect storm that killed him instantly," Chernoff said.

"When Dr. Murray came into the room and found Michael Jackson, there was no CPR, no paramedic, no machine that was going to revive Michael Jackson," he said.

"He died so rapidly, so instantly that he didn't have time to close his eyes," Chernoff said.

Chernoff told jurors that Murray was trying to wean Jackson off propofol when Jackson died.

Jackson's death was "tragic, but the evidence will not show that Dr. Murray did it," Chernoff told jurors.

Jackson's personal assistant, Michael Amir Williams, described Wednesday a frantic series of phone calls that started at 12:13 p.m. on the day the pop icon died.

"Call me right away, please, call me right away," Dr. Conrad Murray said in a voice message to Williams, which prosecutors played in court Wednesday.

"Get here right away, Mr. Jackson had a bad reaction," Williams said Murray told him when he called him back.

Williams then ordered a security guard to rush to the upstairs bedroom where Murray was working to resuscitate Jackson.

It was several minutes before the guard called for an ambulance.

Williams later rode with Jackson's three children to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, following the ambulance that carried their father.

Jackson family members slowly arrived at the emergency room and joined the children, who were kept in a private room with their nanny while doctors tried to revive their father, Williams said.

"Dr. Murray and the doctors walked out and they closed the curtain and said 'He's dead,' " he testified.

Williams described what he called an odd request by Murray at the hospital for a ride back to Jackson's home after he was pronounced dead.

Murray told Williams he needed to go back to retrieve "some cream" from Michael's bedroom that Jackson "wouldn't want the world to know about."

The prosecution contends Murray wanted to retrieve evidence of his medical misconduct that led to Jackson's death.

The defense, which was still cross-examining Williams Wednesday afternoon, is likely to question him about trips he took with Jackson to Klein's Beverly Hills, California, clinic in the weeks before his death. Medical records show that Klein gave Jackson numerous shots of Demerol, Chernoff told jurors Tuesday.

Jackson's inability to sleep the morning he died was "one of the insidious effects" of Demerol addiction withdrawal, Chernoff said. Since Murray did not know about the Demerol, he could not understand why Jackson was unable to fall asleep that morning, Chernoff said.

Murray appeared to become emotional at one point as Chernoff presented his opening statement Tuesday morning, dabbing his eyes at times. Mostly, though, the defendant remained stoic through the proceedings.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license.

Prosecutors played clips from Murray's interview with investigators in which he described giving Jackson a final dose of the propofol after a long, restless night when the singer begged for help sleeping.

"The evidence in this case will show that Michael Jackson trusted his life to the medical skills of Conrad Murray, unequivocally that that misplaced trust had far too high a price to pay," Walgren said. "That misplaced trust in the hands of Conrad Murray cost Michael Jackson his life."

The most dramatic moment Tuesday came when jurors heard a May 10, 2009, recording, captured by Murray's iPhone, of Jackson "highly under the influences of unknown agents," as he talked about his planned comeback concert, according to Walgren.

"We have to be phenomenal," Jackson said in a low voice, his speech slurred. "When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, 'I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I've never seen nothing like this. Go. It's amazing. He's the greatest entertainer in the world.' I'm taking that money, a million children, children's hospital, the biggest in the world, Michael Jackson's Children's Hospital."

The tape, prosecutors say, is evidence that Murray knew about Jackson's health problems weeks before his death.

Jurors also saw a video of the superstar rehearsing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles the night before he died. Jackson sang and danced to "Earth Song," the last song he would rehearse on stage.

Prosecutors also presented a photo of Jackson's lifeless body on a hospital gurney, about 12 hours later.

Producer Kenny Ortega, the first prosecution witness, said Tuesday he was jolted by Jackson's appearance when the latter arrived at a rehearsal, on June 19, less than a week before he died.

"He appeared lost and a little incoherent," Ortega said. "I did not feel he was well." Ortega said he gave the pop singer food and wrapped him in a blanket to ward off chills. Jackson watched the rehearsal and did not participate that day.

Ortega was helping Jackson prepare for the "This Is It" world tour scheduled for London's O2 Arena in autumn 2009.

In an e-mail early June 20, Ortega wrote, in part, to AEG President Randy Phillips, "My concern is, now that we've brought the Doctor in to the fold and have played the tough love, now or never card, is that the Artist may be unable to rise to the occasion due to real emotional stuff."

The producer said Jackson appeared weak and fatigued on June 19.

"He had a terrible case of the chills, was trembling, rambling and obsessing," he wrote. "Everything in me says he should be psychologically evaluated. If we have any chance at all to get him back in the light. It's going to take a strong Therapist to (get) him through this as well as immediate physical nurturing. ... Tonight I was feeding him, wrapping him in blankets to warm his chills, massaging his feet to calm him and calling his doctor."

Jackson also appeared to be scared of losing the comeback tour.

"I believe that he really wants this ... it would shatter him, break his heart if we pulled the plug," Ortega wrote. "He's terribly frightened it's all going to go away. He asked me repeatedly tonight if I was going to leave him. He was practically begging for my confidence. It broke my heart. He was like a lost boy. There still may be a chance he can rise to the occasion if (we) get him the help he needs."

AEG was the concert promoter.

Murray was unhappy that Jackson did not rehearse June 19 and told Ortega not to try to be the singer's physician, Ortega testified, adding that Jackson insisted the next day he was capable of doing the rehearsals. Jackson was a full rehearsal participant in the days before he died, the producer said.

Gongaware, the AEG executive, testified that after the 50 London shows sold out instantly, there were still 250,000 buyers wanting tickets.

Gongaware said he negotiated with Murray, at Jackson's request, to work as the singer's personal doctor. Murray initially asked for $5 million a year, explaining that he would have to close four clinics and lay off employees.

Gongaware rejected that deal but later offered him $150,000 a month, an amount recommended by Jackson. The physician agreed.

Gongaware and Ortega testified that Jackson on many occasions appeared fully engaged and excited about the impending concerts.

Jackson's parents, brothers Tito, Jermaine and Randy, and sisters La Toya, Janet and Rebbie filled a row in the courtroom for opening statements and the first witness Tuesday. Jackson's three children are not expected to attend the trial or testify, according to a source close to their grandmother, Katherine Jackson.

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Apple to kill iPod classic, shuffle?

ipod classic

By Doug Gross, CNN

(CNN) -- The iPod classic, a venerable stalwart in the world of consumer technology, may be getting the axe along with its cousin, the iPod shuffle, according to a blog that focuses on Apple news.

Ipod Classic

Citing an unnamed source, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting that, in addition to unveiling the iPhone 5 next week, Apple plans to discontinue the more dated versions of its music player in favor of sleeker models like the iPod Nano and iPod Touch.

The blog notes that Apple teased a "product transition" during its most recent earnings report.

Saying only that the source is not an analyst, TUAW says the rumor makes sense.
Excitement around Amazon, Apple releases

"The classic is a holdover from 10 years of iPod existence, bearing many similarities to the original iPod," wrote blog editor Victor Agreda, Jr. "The shuffle is basically the same form factor as the nano, minus a screen."

He writes that the blog had been "sitting on a tip" about the discontinuation and only wrote about it after speculation popped up on other sites.

A groundbreaking device in personal tech, credited with reinvigorating Apple a decade ago, the iPod line now accounts for just about 7 percent of Apple's overall revenues. The iPhone and iPad, which offer music and video streaming along with lots of other features, have in some way trumped the iPod's usefulness.

Last year, Apple made what then-CEO Steve Jobs called "the biggest change in the iPod lineup ever."

But amid big changes to the Touch, Nano and Shuffle, there was no mention at all of the classic iPod, leading many to speculate that the end may be near.

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6 New Healthy-Eating Rules (Without the Food Pyramid)

The government is ditching the famous food pyramid for a dinner plate as part of the latest changes to USDA dietary guidelines. Here's what this means for you.
By Jennifer Abbasi

After nearly two decades, it’s time to say goodbye to the food pyramid. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled a new symbol — a plate — that replaces the widely recognized (and often criticized) icon that’s been advising American consumers on what to eat since 1992.
6 new rules for healthy eating

Recently, First Lady Michelle Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin unveiled the new icon: MyPlate, a plate divided into four wedges to represent the basic food groups — fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. Next to the plate is a cup standing in for the dairy group. “We’re all bombarded with so many dietary messages that it’s hard to find time to sort through all this information,” Mrs. Obama said in a press conference. “When it comes to eating, what’s more simple than a plate? This is a quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods that we’re eating.”

Foods For Healthy

“Parents don’t have time to measure 3 ounces of chicken or look up a serving of broccoli or rice,” Mrs. Obama continued. She said parents “have time to take a look at kids’ plates,” which, according to the new guidelines, should contain half fruits and vegetables, along with whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy. She said she plans to start using it immediately with her own daughters.

The new logo is a reminder to help consumers make healthier food choices consistent with the new USDA dietary guidelines, which are updated every five years based on the latest nutrition science and research on eating habits. The plate-shaped logo is one part of a large-scale consumer nutrition initiative by the USDA, that includes an expanded website and other tools and resources. The initiative’s online home will be ChooseMyPlate.gov, which replaces MyPyramid.gov.

The pyramid won’t be officially retired, but for the first time it will be targeted only to nutrition educators. “We realize the food pyramid has to exist because it’s so familiar, but it’s too complicated and has too many messages,” says Robert Post, PhD, deputy director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.

The latest dietary guidelines, released earlier this year, reflect the nation’s growing obesity epidemic. “They were developed through the filter of having an obese country,” says Dr. Post.

Everyday Health asked Post to explain what else is new about the latest recommendations — and how we can use the rules to eat better, lose weight, and prevent disease.

New Food Rule 1: Eat the Most Nutrient-Dense Foods

Why the change: Americans consume far too many “empty calories” — those that lack good-for-you nutrients like whole grains, lean protein, vitamins, and minerals. “About 260 calories in a 2,000-calorie daily diet could be from indulgences like cookies or soda,” Post says. But the typical American eats closer to 600 to 800 empty calories a day.

That’s why nutrient density is a major focus of the new food guidelines. Nutrient-dense foods, Post explains, are “foods that in their prepared state that have significantly more nutrients per calorie. They’re how consumers can get the most out of their food.” For example, for the same amount of calories as soda, fat-free or low-fat milk offers calcium, vitamins, minerals, and protein, where soda has none.

What you can do: Fill half your plate at any given meal with vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, which are naturally nutrient dense. Skip add-ons like batters, breading, and butter, and choose sauces and dressings wisely, like vinaigrettes made with healthy olive oil instead of full-fat dressings. Opt for a baked potato instead of French fries, grilled chicken instead of fried, brown rice instead of white rice, and low-fat milk instead of whole milk or soda.

Remember that nutrient-dense doesn’t always mean low-calorie. “There’s a lot to be said for higher-calorie foods with lots of nutrients, such as nuts,” says David Grotto, RD, a dietitian in Illinois and author of 101 Optimal Life Foods. “Research suggests that nuts actually prevent you from over-eating because they help you feel full.” The key is displacing empty calories with nutritious, filling calories.

New Food Rule 2: Eat Fewer Solid Fats and Added Sugars

Why the change: Plain and simple, “there are no nutrients associated with solid fats and added sugars,” Post says. Solid fats include butter, stick margarine, and meat fats. Added sugars are commonly found in packaged goods such as grain-based snacks and desserts, soda, energy drinks, and juice “drinks.”

“Consuming calories from added sugars and solid fats displaces the types of foods that give you beneficial nutrients, like potassium, calcium, fiber, and vitamin D, which Americans don’t get enough of,” he adds. “Eating more empty calories and fewer nutrients can pack on pounds, particularly when we get too little exercise.”

What you can do: Trim fat from meat, remove skin from poultry, and use less table sugar. Watch for sneaky sugar in foods (you’d be surprised how many non-sweet-tasting foods, like ketchup, contain added sugar). Read ingredient lists of packaged foods for tip-off words like corn syrup, sucrose, sugar, honey, syrup, and dextrose. If you spot them in the first few ingredients, avoid the food or eat it less frequently.

Treat desserts, sugar-sweetened sodas, and candy as treats — not as everyday foods. Or rethink your definition of dessert: “A bowl of fruit with an ice cream topping can be as satisfying as a bowl of ice cream with a fruit topping,” Grotto says.

New Food Rule 3: Eat More Seafood

Why the change: Seafood is rich in heart- and brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which the typical American diet sorely lacks. The new food guidelines recommend consuming at least 8 ounces of fish, shellfish, and other types of seafood every week (the 2005 guidelines did not recommend a specific amount of fish).

In a recent study, people who added two 4-ounce portions of fatty fish a week to their diet had a whopping 10-fold reduction in risk for a fatal heart attack. “That’s a powerful association,” Grotto says.

What you can do: Swap out your usual meat or poultry dinner twice a week for seafood. A 4-ounce serving of fish is smaller than you might think — it looks like a deck of cards. Pick fish that’s high in omega-3s but low in mercury, such as salmon, trout, or herring.

Pregnant women should eat fish too, but it’s especially important to pick low-mercury varieties (in large amounts the heavy metal has been linked to health problems).

If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, limit your intake of white tuna (albacore) to 6 ounces per week, and and don’t eat tilefish, shark, swordfish, or king mackerel, which can be high in mercury. If you’re concerned about the mercury content in tuna, use canned salmon instead for your sandwiches or casseroles.

How to get your kids to eat it? Grill salmon burgers instead of hamburgers, puree anchovies or smoked sardines and add to tomato sauce, or toss teriyaki tuna strips onto a salad.

New Food Rule 4: Show Red Veggies Some Love

Why the change: The previous food guidelines mentioned orange, but not red, vegetables. Now the two have been combined into one veggie sub-group. The guidelines recommend eating more of this group, along with dark-green veggies and beans and peas.

“Red vegetables, such as tomatoes and red peppers, are a great source of vitamin C, lycopene and other antioxidants, and other nutrients,” Post says. (Technically tomatoes are a fruit, but the USDA lumps them into the veggie category because that’s how people tend to eat them.)

What you can do: Most people should eat five-and-a-half cups cups of red and orange vegetables each week. To get the most nutritional bang for your buck, keep in mind that your body is better able to absorb lycopene, the fat-soluble antioxidant in red peppers and tomatoes, in the presence of oil. Lycopene is important because it may improve heart health and lower the risk of cancers like breast and prostate cancer. Keep a supply of jarred red peppers in oil and add them to sandwiches, salads, stir-fries, and omelets for a flavorful nutrient boost.

Tomato sauce is another easy way to boost your red veggie intake, but the ready-made stuff can be loaded with added salt. Look for jars with 300 or fewer milligrams of salt per serving. Some stores even carry no-salt-added versions.

And think beyond the usual suspects to red varieties of vegetables such as cabbage, beans, and Swiss chard. Red cabbage and beans contain anthocyanins, plant chemicals that show promise in preventing heart disease and cancer and protecting brain health. Red beans are the most fiber-rich vegetable in the world, Grotto says.

New Food Rule 5: Eat More Fruit Every Day

Why the change: Okay, we’re cheating a little bit here — this isn’t actually a new rule, but it’s an essential part of the food guidelines we couldn’t not mention. Here’s why: Only 42 percent of Americans eat the two cups of fruit per day that are recommended for someone on a 2,000-calorie diet.

Choosing fruit over less-healthy snacks will automatically make your diet more nutrient-dense and lower in calories.

All fruits are healthy, but berries are among the best – gram for gram, they’re jam-packed with nutrients for very few calories. For example, says Grotto, a whole cup of strawberries has about 50 calories and contains elagic acid that may help the lining of your arteries become more pliable, which could help prevent atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

What you can do: The best way to work more fruits into your diet is to have them on the tarmac ready to go: peeled, cut up, and mixed together in individual serving containers in your fridge.

At least half of your fruit should be in whole fruit form — fresh, frozen, or canned if it’s packed in 100 percent fruit juice — because whole fruit contains fiber that juice doesn’t. You can get the rest of your fruit from 100 percent fruit juices, such as orange juice. Eat fruit for snacks or dessert, add it to salads, and use it in place of sugar, syrups, and other sweet toppings for cereal and pancakes.

New Food Rule 6: Vegetarianism and Veganism Can Be Healthy

Why the change: For the first time, the dietary guidelines include a model for healthy vegetarian and vegan eating.

“In looking at a variety of eating patterns around the world, we now recognize that vegetarian diets that include dairy and eggs, and vegan diets, can provide enough of the nutrients we need to be healthy,” Post says. “We know that with proper planning, you can get enough protein from dairy, eggs, beans and peas, soy products, and nuts and seeds, and other nutrients from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.”

What you can do: Not surprisingly, the biggest concern with meat-free diets is getting enough protein. You’ll need to replace meat with other foods that qualify as complete proteins -- which means they contain all of the essential amino acids. Complete proteins include dairy, eggs, soy (such as tofu and edamame), and certain grains, such as amaranth and quinoa.

Watch out for the salt: Veggie burgers and other frozen meat substitutes can be packed with sodium. “Frozen food is an equal opportunity employer of high sodium, whether it’s vegetarian or not,” Grotto says.

Vegans, and vegetarians who don’t get enough dairy and eggs, may also be deficient in certain nutrients, namely vitamins B12 and D, calcium, and iron, so it’s a good idea to talk to a registered dietitian, who may recommend that you take supplements or make other changes to your diet.

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Scientists: Particles appear to travel faster than light

Science Research About Particle

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

(CNN) -- Scientists in Switzerland say an experiment appears to show that tiny particles traveled faster than the speed of light -- a result that would seem to defy the laws of nature.

The physicists say that neutrinos sent 730 kilometers (453.6 miles) underground between laboratories in Switzerland and Italy arrived a fraction of a second sooner than they should have, according to the speed of light.

A monitor showing the first ultra high-energy collisions is seen at the CMS experiment control room at CERN in 2010.

The report was published Friday by a group of researchers working on the so-called Opera experiment, based at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, in Switzerland. CERN is the home of the Large Hadron Collider.

"I was surprised, shocked," by the findings, Antonio Ereditato, Opera spokesman at the University of Bern in Switzerland, told CNN. "However, we are confident in what we did and we think we did it correctly.

"We concluded after a long scrutiny of all systematic uncertainties that we could not explain (the result) otherwise."

The 150 or so researchers on the Opera project will continue their research, he said, but now they want the worldwide scientific community to come up with "new ideas to explain or new experiments which should -- could -- confirm or disprove the effect."

The finding would seem to challenge Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, and the long-established law of physics that nothing can exceed the speed of light.

"It is very, very remarkable if it's true," said Professor Neville Harnew, head of particle physics at Oxford University.

"If this proves to be correct, then it will revolutionize physics as we know it."

2010: Particle collider's woes

Early universe revealed at 4 trillion degrees

He will be among scientists from around the world tuning into a webcast seminar held by CERN Friday afternoon, to discuss what Harnew describes as an "ultra-exciting" development that has come "totally out of the blue."

The Opera team's result is based on the observation of more than 15,000 bunches of neutrinos sent between CERN and the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. A neutrino is an electrically neutral subatomic particle, an elemental building block of the universe.

The physicists say the measurements of the distance and the time involved were performed with great precision, to nanosecond accuracy.

And the results seemed to show the neutrinos travel "at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light, nature's cosmic speed limit."

Professor James Stirling, head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, said part of what is so surprising is that "the effect is so large, relatively speaking" -- that is, that the particles traveled a significant degree faster than should have been possible.

"This is a violation of this speed of light limit," he said. "This is really a result that would challenge one of the cornerstones of the whole of physics."

Sergio Bertolucci, research director at CERN, said the Opera team followed good scientific practice by throwing open their findings to other scientists.

"When an experiment finds an apparently unbelievable result and can find no artifact of the measurement to account for it, it's normal procedure to invite broader scrutiny," he said.

"If this measurement is confirmed, it might change our view of physics, but we need to be sure that there are no other, more mundane, explanations. That will require independent measurements."

Ereditato said more research is needed -- and that the Opera team wants to be prudent for now because of the apparent magnitude of their finding.

"The potential impact on science is too large to draw immediate conclusions or attempt physics interpretations," he said in a CERN news release. "My first reaction is that the neutrino is still surprising us with its mysteries."

Harnew told CNN the new finding "cannot currently fit in the standard theories at all" and would have to be confirmed by another experiment -- to ensure there is no subtle systemic error at play -- before a discovery can be claimed.

And he cautions that "neutrino measurements are extremely difficult experiments," making it hard to verify results independently.

Neutrinos, which are emitted during the process of radioactive decay, have only a tiny mass and usually pass through matter without interacting with anything else, making them very hard to detect.

CERN is one of only a handful of laboratories capable of running an experiment like the Opera project, Harnew said. Other possible sites could be J-Parc in Japan, home of the multinational T2K project, and Fermilab in Illinois.

Stirling also wants to see more experiments to replicate and test the results, but predicts that theoretical physicists will struggle to write papers on such a revolutionary finding.

It was only recently discovered that neutrinos, which come in three types, can switch from one type to another -- thereby proving that they have mass, Stirling said.

If they can indeed travel faster than mass-less particles, like light, then these mysterious particles will have done even more to turn the world of physics on its head.

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Ursula Sladek: The Housewife Who Powered A Green Revolution

Revolution Green Power

From Nick Glass, for CNN

Schonau, Germany (CNN) -- A former teacher with no formal business qualifications, Ursula Sladek cuts an unusual figure as the head of a major electricity company.

But then her company, the Schonau Power Supply (EWS) -- based in the hills of a remote German town -- is not your typical electricity supplier.

Ursula Sladek

Founded by Sladek and a few friends in 1991, EWS is a citizen-owned co-operative that powers 120,000 homes across Germany, using only sustainable energy supplies.

Today, following the nuclear explosion in Fukushima and Germany's subsequent commitment to end its reliance on nuclear power over the next decade, EWS is enjoying rocketing demand, and expects to provide for a million homes by 2015.

Not bad for a self-professed housewife, who wrest control of her local electricity grid from the nationwide energy provider.

Sladek's story starts in 1986, in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster. Although her home in Schonau was over 2,000 kilometers away from the nuclear plant explosion, traces of radiation had still managed to infect the local wildlife.

We never thought about overtaking a grid and doing what we're now doing

Ursula Sladek, EWS president

"At first we thought: What can the children eat? Can they play outdoors," she recalls. "And we still have this now, when you go into the forest, the mushrooms are still polluted; the wild boar is still polluted ... 25 years after Chernobyl, that is still here."

Sladek, a mother of five, established "Parents for a Nuclear Free Future" -- a regional organization aimed at promoting alternatives to nuclear energy.

At the time, Sladek believed that KWR, the power company responsible for providing her town with its electricity, could be persuaded to invest in sustainable supplies and even help its people reduce their reliance on the grid.

She was wrong.

"They told us: 'You want to save energy? We sell energy. That's our job. We'll not help you.' We learned that neither the government nor the energy supplier would do anything."

It was exactly this response that spurred Sladek and others living in Schonau into what they did next.

"We never thought about overtaking a grid and doing what we're now doing," says Sladek. "Their attitude was the reason why we wanted to."

And so, when KWR's licence to operate the power grid came up for renewal in 1991, Sladek and her group created their own power-company and launched a local petition to convince the town council and the population to let them manage it cooperatively.

After many years and battles, in 1997, EWS had raised enough money -- about €2 million -- to buy the contract to supply Schonau with non-nuclear electricity.

Collectively owned by 1,000 citizens, the company gets all its energy from green sources, mainly hydropower operations, but also including solar panels and wind turbines. Some homes even have small co-generation systems that produce domestic heat as well as electricity that can be sold back to the grid.

So do EWS customers pay a premium to keep a clean and green conscience? Nope. In fact, according to Sladek, they pay less.

"We're offering (electricity) even cheaper than companies which supply their customers with nuclear power or with coal power," she says.

"That is because we don't want to gain as much money as the others do. Of course, we have to gain money as well because we have people who work for us ... But we just don't want to gain as much ... that's not the reason why we do (it)."

Indeed, the company's shareholders receive small dividends, as well as an income from any home-generated power they put back into the grid, but the rest is reinvested into new renewable energy projects and into training and supporting communities who want to run their own green energy companies.

It's for these reasons that Sladek was named European winner of the 2011 Goldman Environmental prize, often cited as the "Nobel for the environment," in April of this year. Not many energy barons can boast one of those.

You may be interesting about New Facebook Changes

Users not happy with new Facebook changes

Facebook page Changes

By Doug Gross, CNN

Facebook has made big changes to users' pages, and people are responding in droves with their metaphorical "dislike" buttons.

News Feeds were popping with not-so-gentle complaints Wednesday as many of the social-networking behemoth's 750 million users began seeing the overhaul.

Facebook Page

"This is absolutely the worst of the many wrong-headed 'improvements' you have made, and that's quite a feat," a user named Franklin Habit wrote on the site's official Facebook page. "I think Facebook's usefulness to me has now been outstripped by its lack of ease in use."

Others were more succinct.

"This sucks," wrote user Brandon Howell. "That is all."

To be fair, griping about Facebook changes is a time-honored hallmark of the site. Change is hard for some people, and users grumble every time Facebook revamps their pages.

And it's perhaps a touch on the ironic side that many of the current complaints are coming from folks who, in turn, complained in December when the current format was rolled out. Or the time before. And the time before that.

Which isn't to say that the changes aren't pretty dramatic.

Instead of defaulting to your friends' most recent posts, the News Feed (which people hated when it was introduced) is now topped in many cases by what Facebook calls "Top Stories" for you. It uses an algorithm that combines such factors as which friends you interact with most and which friends' posts have the most comments and "likes" on them.

That algorithm, of course, was in its infancy on Wednesday, leading many users to say the top stories that Facebook suggested were random, at best.

"The 'top stories' needs to be gotten rid of," wrote user Kristy Montaney. "They're out of context and I want to check my News Feed from most recent to oldest, none of this 'top stories' stuff."

In a post on The Facebook Blog, developer Mark Tonkelowitz said the idea is to help people who may not log in to the site all the time find the best content, not just the newest.

"Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper," he wrote. "You won't have to worry about missing important stuff. All your news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top."

If you check Facebook more frequently, he said, you'll see newer stories at the top of your feed.

The other most glaring change Wednesday was a new, scrolling rail on the right side of the home page. Facebook calls it The Ticker. We're partial to "The ADD Bar," because the feature seems pitched to our attention-deficit lifestyles with its rapidly streaming nuggets of friends' activity.

If a friend "likes" an update, comments on a post or subscribes to a page, it now pops up in the -- OK, we'll say it -- somewhat Twitter-like timeline.

Haters were calling it distracting. But Tonkelowitz believes the Ticker plugs the gap in the time lag the News Feed sometimes experiences, letting users have more real-time interactions.

One apparent quirk of the Ticker is that when a friend interacts with a nonfriend (say, likes the status update of someone you're not friends with), clicking on that activity will show the original post.

Tonkelowitz's blog post said the Ticker "shows you the same stuff you were already seeing on Facebook." But, Wednesday morning, clicking on a few items there seemed to show updates and other posts by nonfriends, even when those users' privacy settings appeared to make their posts private.

Facebook did not immediately respond Wednesday to a message seeking clarification on how that feature works. The company may explain the new changes further at f8, its annual conference, on Thursday.

In the history of Facebook changes, the pattern has typically been that users complain loudly at first and threaten to leave the site but then eventually learn to live with, if not like, the new approach.

This time may be somewhat more interesting in that it's the first major Facebook overhaul since Google rolled out its rival social networking site, Google+.

Many of the anti-change posts Wednesday were coupled with threats to defect to Google+ if things aren't changed back.

And interestingly -- and, we have to assume, coincidentally -- the Facebook overhaul was announced on the same day that Google+, previously an invite-only affair, was opened to the public.