EPA releases draft 4 of the Energy Star Lamps V1.0 specification

The new Energy Star draft specification loosens the requirements for uniform beam distribution in omni-directional lamps and updates flicker and lumen-maintenance requirements.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is continuing what has become a two-year quest to develop a new Energy Star lamps specification to replace the prior Compact Fluorescent Lamps and Integral LED Lamps specifications. The agency recently released draft 4 of the V1.0 spec with a reduction in the beam-uniformity requirements in omni-directional lamps, updated flicker definitions and requirements, and a message that said the agency considered and declined to act on a coalition of stakeholders' request to lower efficacy requirements on high-CRI lamps. In the area of omni-directional beam distribution, the EPA continued down a path of relaxing requirements. The agency said it has taken the action because existing incandescent lamps don’t meet the tighter specification in earlier drafts and that consumer expectations don't align with the tighter specs. Moreover, the agency said the new draft will provide more choices of Energy Star products for consumers. Several drafts back, the specification required uniformity to within 20% from the top of the lamp (considered 0°) down to 135° toward the base of the lamp. Remember that the DOE L Prize requirements were for 10% uniformity over 0-150°. Draft 4 allows a 25% variance from 0-135°, and states that only 90% of the values measured at 5° increments must meet the requirement. Some lamps makers that have developed compliant product with prior drafts believe that the EPA is bowing to pressure from other makers who have struggled to deliver compliant products. Efficacy requirements The EPA decided to leave the efficacy requirements for all lamps unchanged relative to draft 3. Back in January, a coalition of companies, lighting designers, and researchers had asked the EPA to lower efficacy requirements slightly in products that had a 90 CRI or above. The theory was that many specifiers would only use 90 CRI lamps. But manufacturing a lamp to 90 CRI that could also meet the efficacy requirements was a challenge that could actually slow the adoption of more-efficient LED-based lighting because of higher prices. The group argued that Energy Star recognized products at slightly lower efficacy could conversely hasten the transition to LED lamps and increase aggregate savings. The EPA says that it carefully considered the stakeholders' request for a relaxation of efficacy requirements by 5-10 lm/W, but decided against such a change. The new draft notes that products currently on the Energy Star qualified products list and listed in the US Department of Energy (DOE) Lighting Facts program do in fact deliver on the efficacy requirements in 90 CRI flavors. The EPA did say that it was still inviting stakeholder comments on the matter. Other changes In the area of flicker, the new draft states that all dimmable lamps must have a waveform periodic frequency of 120 Hz or more. Lamps that have a frequency in the 120-800-Hz range must have a flicker index of 0.001 times the frequency. The new draft includes a refined definition of the flicker index. There are a number of other less significant components in the new draft. The Lamps Specification Version 1.0 website includes a link to the full spec, a summary of the changes, and also a link to an archived webinar where the EPA presented the changes in draft 4. Looking forward, the EPA has said it is considering some other key additions. For example, it plans to address the trend of lamps that include wireless networks such as ZigBee, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. Those lamps consume small amounts of power, even when the light source itself is off, so that the lamps can respond to a remote control. The agency also plans to continue refining metrics for dimming performance.

Notre-Dame de Paris suicide a political act - Marine Le Pen

Dominique Venner, an award-winning far-right historian, shot himself inside the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris

France's far-right party leader Marine Le Pen has paid tribute to the man who killed himself in the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, saying it was a "political act".

Ms Le Pen, who heads the National Front, said it was aimed at "waking up the people of France".
The man was named as Dominique Venner, an award-winning far-right historian.
In his blog written shortly before his suicide on Tuesday, he criticised a new law legalising gay marriage.

Mass evacuation

"All respect to Dominique Venner whose final, eminently political act was to try to wake up the people of France," Ms Le Pen wrote on Twitter.

Dominique Venner's latest blog entry condemned the government's decision to legalise gay marriage

She later added that "it is in life and hope that France will renew and save itself".
Bruno Gollnisch, another National Front member, said that Mr Venner's "dramatic act was a protest against the decay of our society", according to the AFP news agency.
Mr Venner, 78, pulled out a shotgun and shot himself through the mouth beside the main altar shortly after 16:00 (14:00 GMT) on Tuesday - in front of some 1,500 visitors at the cathedral.
The police said he had made no statement before killing himself, although a note was found next to his body. They did not disclose its contents.

Just hours earlier, Mr Venner wrote on his blog a damning critique of the same-sex marriage bill.

"New spectacular and symbolic actions are needed to wake up the sleepwalkers and shake the anaesthetised consciousness.
"We are entering a time when acts must follow words."
Mr Venner was also a former member of the Secret Army Organisation (OAS), which opposed Algerian independence in the early 1960s and tried to assassinate President Charles De Gaulle.
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says Notre-Dame is the most visited landmark in France, attracting more than 13 million visitors each year, but security is relatively relaxed.
It would not be difficult to conceal a weapon in a shoulder bag, he says.
The cathedral is celebrating its 850th year.
"It's unfortunate, it's dramatic, it's shocking," the rector of Notre-Dame, Monsignor Patrick Jacquin, told the Associated Press news agency.
This was the first suicide in decades at the cathedral, he said. A few people had jumped to their deaths from Notre-Dame's twin towers, but no-one was thought to have killed themselves at the altar before, he added.
"We will pray for this man, as for so many others at their end."

US immigration bill passes Senate panel

The full Senate will now debate the bill next month

A sweeping immigration bill that would offer a chance of citizenship to millions living in the US illegally has taken a stride forward in Congress.

A Senate panel voted 13-5 to back the measure, after a plan to allow people to sponsor same-sex partners for permanent legal status was withdrawn.
The full Senate will now debate the proposal next month.
The bill is widely seen as the biggest overhaul of US immigration policy in more than a quarter of a century.

Republican support

But lawmakers' last attempt at immigration reform was more recent - a bipartisan bill failed in the Senate in 2007.

Looking beyond stereotypes to capture the everyday lives of Latinos in America

After Tuesday evening's vote, immigration activists who had crowded into the Senate judiciary committee room cheered.
In a statement, US President Barack Obama congratulated the panel.
He said the bill was "largely consistent with the principles of common sense reform I have proposed and meets the challenge of fixing our broken immigration system". Mr Obama added he was "hopeful" the amendment process would "lead to further improvements".
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he would not block the measure from coming to the floor for a full debate, but did not say how he planned to vote.
Three Republicans joined all 10 Democrats on the committee in voting for the bill.

Approval came after committee members agreed to a Republican move to ease visa restrictions on hiring skilled workers from countries such as China and India.

The Democratic chairman of the committee, Patrick Leahy, also withdrew an amendment that would have allowed people to sponsor same-sex partners, who are foreigners, for permanent legal status.
"I don't want to be the senator who asks people to choose between the love of their life and the love of their country," Sen Leahy said.
The bill's supporters had asked him to remove the proposal in order to save the legislation.
"I believe in my heart of hearts that what you're doing is the right and just thing," Democrat Senator Richard Durbin said. "But I believe this is the wrong moment, that this is the wrong bill."
At the centre of the legislation is a provision that would allow the estimated 11 million people living in the US illegally to obtain "registered provisional immigrant status", six months after the bill's enactment if certain conditions are met.
That status is the beginning of a 13-year process that would one day allow immigrants to be eligible to apply for a green card.
The bill also includes provisions to strengthen border security along the US-Mexican border, using additional agents and drones.

In California, an incomplete dream for undocumented Asian students

The president of the powerful AFL-CIO union group, Rich Trumka, attacked the last-minute deal allowing an increase in the number visas for hi-tech specialists as "anti-worker".
But he said organised labour would continue to support the larger bill.
In the other chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, immigration legislation is due to receive a hearing in the judiciary committee on Wednesday.
The latest push for reform follows Mr Obama's announcement last June that the US would allow young undocumented workers who immigrated as children to apply for two-year, renewable visas.
Republicans have increasingly embraced the idea of immigration reform after a large majority of Hispanic voters supporters Obama in last year's election.

Oklahoma tornado: Search for survivors nears end

Laura Trevelyan reports on the continuing rescue effort in Moore, Oklahoma

Rescue workers are combing the ruins left by the gigantic tornado that killed two dozen people in Oklahoma on Monday.

Officials say the search for survivors is nearly over as efforts turn towards recovery.
Fire chief Gary Bird said he was "98% sure" there were no more survivors or bodies to recover from the rubble.
The storm, which also killed nine children, has meanwhile been upgraded to the most powerful level of twister.
Packing winds of at least 200mph (320km/h), the tornado razed a swathe of the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said the death toll may rise above 24 as some bodies could have been taken directly to funeral homes.
The body count was revised down from 51 after the state medical examiner said some victims may have been counted twice in the confusion.

According to the local fire chief, no survivors or bodies have been found since Monday night.

He said the goal was to conduct three searches of each location just to be sure.
Emergency crews have had trouble navigating the devastated neighbourhoods because there were no street signs remaining. Some used mobile phones and GPS to navigate.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has upgraded the tornado to EF-5, the most powerful type on the Fujita scale. It uses the word "incredible'' to describe the force of such a storm.
The NWS said the twister's path was 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide.
Continue reading the main story

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• Why they call it 'Tornado Alley'

For about 45 minutes on Monday afternoon, the storm battered the suburb of about 55,000 people.

Emergency workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the rubble of homes, schools and a hospital, while 237 people were known to have been injured.

Seven of the nine children killed in the tornado died at Plaza Towers Elementary, where the storm ripped off the roof and knocked down walls as students and teachers cowered in hallways and bathrooms.

Officials said they were still trying to account for a handful of children not found at the schools who may have gone home early with their parents.
That primary school and one other hit by the storm, Briarwood Elementary, did not have safe-rooms that protect against tornadoes, said Albert Ashwood, of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
More than 100 schools in Oklahoma had been provided with state-funded safe rooms, he said, but not those two.
Residents were given 16 minutes' warning before the tornado touched down - officials said such advisories were usually issued eight to 10 minutes ahead of a twister.
Oklahoma's insurance commissioner told Reuters news agency the cost of the storm would exceed that of the 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, that killed 158 people. He said the Joplin twister caused $3bn (£2bn) in damage.

US President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in Oklahoma and ordered federal authorities to join in the search efforts.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is due in Oklahoma on Wednesday to back rescue and recovery efforts.
"The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground there for them, beside them as long as it takes for their homes and schools to rebuild," Mr Obama said from the White House.
Heavy-lifting equipment was deployed under bright floodlights as the operation continued overnight and throughout Tuesday.
Rescuers braved the danger of electrocution and fire from downed power lines, as well as ruptured natural gas lines.
More than 200 Oklahoma National Guardsmen together with personnel from other states were called in to help the search-and-rescue effort.

 

The storm left a tangle of ruined buildings, piles of broken wood, overturned and crushed cars.

Many houses in the area are built on hard ground without basements, so many residents had struggled to find shelter.
Oklahoma City lies inside the so-called Tornado Alley stretching from South Dakota to central Texas, an area particularly vulnerable to storms.
The city of Moore was hit by a severe tornado in May 1999, which had the highest winds ever recorded on Earth, over 310mph.

The courage of teachers

Tornado levels elementary school

(CNN) -- Each day more than 55 million students attend the country's 130,000 schools.

Each day, parents and guardians entrust some 7 million teachers with the education of our children.

And on a normal day, that is all we expect teachers to do -- teach.

LZ Granderson

But on those not-so normal days we are reminded that for six hours a day and more, five days a week, teaching is not the only thing teachers are charged with doing. On those not-so-normal days, we are reminded that teachers are also asked to be surrogate parents, protectors, heroes.

Monday was one of those not-so-normal days.

The nation watched in horror as a 2-mile-wide tornado with winds up to 200 mph tore through Moore, Oklahoma. As sirens blared and the ground shook, the full force of the twister hit Plaza Towers Elementary School around 3 p.m. It was full of students, young scared children who had nowhere to hide as the tornado ripped off the roof, sending debris everywhere.

"We had to pull a car out of the front hall off a teacher and I don't know what her name is, but she had three little kids underneath her," a rescuer said. "Good job teach."

And that teacher was not the only one whose body shielded children from harm.

Tornado hits elementary schools

A couple of years ago, as state and local officials were looking for ways to cut spending, a study from the American Enterprise Institute emerged in 2011, asking a provocative question: Are teachers overpaid?

Using abbreviated metrics -- such as comparing private sector employees' SAT and GRE scores with those of teachers -- the study's co-author Jason Richwine said the findings suggested that "years of education could be an overestimate of cognitive skills."

A counterintuitive and insulting proposition. But in retrospect that shouldn't be too surprising considering Richwine's doctoral dissertation advocated keeping out immigrants with low IQs, which he maintained are lower than those of the "native white population." He also co-authored an attack on immigration reform for the Heritage Foundation. And he resigned as the group's senior policy analyst shortly afterward.

Nevertheless, as educators in Chicago voted to strike and benefits such as tenure came under scrutiny, the question that study proposed sparked a national conversation and helped turn 2012 into a year in which teacher-bashing became a popular past time.

But when I think of the importance of teaching in this country, when I think about the heroism demonstrated in Oklahoma, I find it impossible to overpay teachers.

We can certainly talk about the realities of the economy, debate the best method to evaluate effectiveness and discuss the drawbacks of unions. But anyone who characterizes teachers as overpaid is forgetting what we entrust them with each and every day.

Our children.

On a normal day, you don't think about that too much.

But on a not-so-normal day, that is all you can think about.

Anne Marie Murphy, a mother of four, died trying to protect 6-year-old Dylan Hockley as Adam Lanza terrorized the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary School in December. When police found the two victims, Murphy was still holding Hockley in her arms.

And five other educators did not run away from the threat but gave their lives trying to protect students, trying to protect children.

How do you overpay for that?

Obviously no parent or guardian drops their children off at school thinking tragedy is going to happen. But perhaps we should be grateful that if something terrible does happen, that there are these angels in the building who will do right by our kids. Who will give anything -- sometimes even their lives -- to protect them in our absence.

One of the Plaza Towers teachers reportedly was lying on top of six students in a school bathroom to shelter them from the horrific storm.

I'm sure that is not in the job description.

So yes, it is fiscally responsible for a community to talk about loss of tax revenue and budget deficits. But we ought to be careful not to vilify this profession while doing so. Teachers are not glorified babysitters with summers off. Their profession fuels all others, and on a normal day that is amazing enough in and of itself.

But on a day that's not so normal, we hope and pray that they are willing to do much more. And time and time again, in the face of terrible tragedies, we have learned that many of them do.

LEC Lyon lights historic Nîmes conurbation roadways with LEDs

SSL fixtures installed in roadway curbs and adjustable LED spotlights for pedestrian and vehicular tunnels preserve the historic look of Nîmes while providing effective route markers and ambiance.

Lighting design firm Côté Lumière sought to "create an overall ambience at a human scale" in an outdoor lighting project in Nîmes, France that stretches 5 km from Nîmes station to the A9 Autoroute. The project utilized LEC Lyon LED luminaires to both implement marker lighting that's installed in the roadway curb and tunnel lighting that creates a welcoming ambiance to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. LEC developed and manufactured customized product for both the roadway and tunnel lighting at the request of Côté Lumière. The designers demanded products that could maintain the historic aesthetic of the conurbation while also meeting the city's requirements in terms of light levels, minimal environmental impact, and long life with minimal maintenance. The roadway, including traffic islands and roundabouts, is lit with LED-based spot lights that project a 2m strip of light onto the roadway (see nearby photo). About the installation, the designers, Patrice Eschasseriaux and Aurélien de Fursac, said "A rhythm is created along the roadway, as well as perspective, without producing adverse effects." LEC manufactured the lights so that they could be adjusted after installation in the curb to ensure a uniform look along the roadway. Moreover, the city required fixtures that could be repaired if needed, and LEC delivered a modular design with removable and replaceable components. Tunnel lighting The tunnel lighting for both pedestrian paths and roadways, was intended to be different from the lighting that is typically found in such location. Indeed, the designers said, "We above all didn’t want to light it like a tunnel! It’s a nondescript place, but one where you could feel good and experience something." LED and Côté Lumière worked together to create the 4040M spotlights that can be rotated on three axes. Moreover, the fixtures include customized elliptical lenses on the LEDs. Ultimately, the fixtures could be adjusted precisely to achieve the desired lighting effect. As the nearby photo shows, the lights in tunnels are directed along the rounded inner surface of the walls and ceiling in cases where the tunnels are shaped like a half cylinder. In tunnels with rectangular features the lights are directed separately on ceilings and walls. In both cases, the installation provides the same rhythmic ambiance found in the marker lights. "Our project was daring," said the design team. "We had to convince people that it made sense to customize spaces that were heavily travelled day to day, and it worked." The designers noted that the project countered the more common approach of using higher light levels and bathing areas with uniform light.

Guatemala ex-leader Rios Montt's genocide conviction overturned

Gen Rios Montt has denied ordering any attacks against any of Guatemala's indigenous groups

Guatemala's former military leader Efrain Rios Montt has had his conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity overturned.

The constitutional court said the trial must go back to where it stood on 19 April and restart from that point.
On 10 May, Gen Rios Montt was convicted of ordering the deaths of 1,771 people of the Ixil Maya ethnic group during his time in office in 1982-83.
The 86-year-old was sentenced to 80 years in prison. He denies the charges.
Harrowing testimony The constitutional court on Monday threw out all proceedings in the case after the April day when there was a dispute between two judges about who should hear the case.

The ruling follows an appeal by Gen Rios Montt's defence lawyers, who argued that procedural errors had been committed.

The trial - which began in March - was beset by delays and even a temporary suspension.
During the hearings, dozens of victims gave harrowing testimony about atrocities committed by soldiers.
Gen Rios Montt became the first former leader to be found guilty of genocide by a national tribunal in May.
Now, just days later, the jubilant scenes among indigenous campaigners in a packed court were contrasted sharply with the low-key press conference in which this latest legal twist was announced, the BBC's Will Grant in Guatemala City reports.
But he adds that the decision to annul the sentence does not signal the end of the legal battle either for the prosecution or for Mr Rios Montt as both sides will now start preparing to return to court to replay the final few weeks of the trial.
An estimated 200,000 people were killed in Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war, the vast majority of them indigenous Mayans.
Mr Rios Montt's 17 months in power are believed to have been one of the most violent periods of the war.
The former general abandoned politics in 2012, after serving in Congress for a number of years.
He is now expected to leave the military hospital where he is currently being held and return to his home under house arrest.

Apple 'among largest tax avoiders in US' - Senate committee

Apple's Tim Cook will set out proposals to simplify corporate tax laws when he appears at the hearing

Apple has been accused of being "among America's largest tax avoiders" by a Senate committee.

The committee said Apple had used "a complex web of offshore entities" to avoid paying billions of dollars in US income taxes.
Apple chief Tim Cook will go before the panel on Tuesday. In prepared testimony Apple said it did not use tax gimmicks.
The committee said there was no indication it had done anything illegal.
Apple has a cash stockpile of $145bn (£95bn), but the committee said $102bn of this was held offshore.
The company says it is one of the largest taxpayers in the US, having paid $6bn in federal corporate income tax in the 2012 fiscal year.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has been examining "methods employed by multinational corporations to shift profits offshore".
Some large firms in the US have come under fire for their reluctance to repatriate their foreign earnings as they could face a top tax rate of 35%.
US corporation tax is one of the highest in the world at 35%. However, companies typically pay far less, thanks to numerous deductions and exemptions.
'Holy Grail' In its report into Apple, committee chairman Carl Levin said: "Apple wasn't satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven.
"Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere."

But committee member John McCain said: "Apple claims to be the largest US corporate taxpayer, but by sheer size and scale, it is also among America's largest tax avoiders."

Apple said in its statement: "Apple does not move its intellectual property into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the US in order to avoid US tax.
"It does not use revolving loans from foreign subsidiaries to fund its domestic operations; it does not hold money on a Caribbean island; and it does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands."
It added that it had "substantial" foreign cash because it sells the majority of its products outside the US, and these foreign earnings were taxed in the jurisdictions where they were earned.
'Dramatic simplification'
The committee has already questioned tech giants Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard over their tax practices.
In September, the committee accused the two firms of using places such as the Cayman Islands, so they do not have to pay US taxes, saying their methods ranged from "egregious to dubious validity". Both companies deny any wrongdoing.
Five of the top 10 companies with the biggest offshore cash balances are in the technology sector.
Apple said it wants to see legislation that "dramatically simplifies" the US corporate tax system.
It believes reform should be "revenue neutral, eliminate all corporate tax expenditures, lower corporate income tax rates, and implement a reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the US".
It said that, though these changes may increase its own taxes, it would not be opposed to such a result "if it occurs in the context of an overall improvement in efficiency, flexibility and competitiveness".
It said the changes would stimulate job creation in the US, increase domestic investment and promote economic growth.
Apple drew criticism three weeks ago when it sold $17bn in bonds to raise cash to fund payouts to shareholders, rather than repatriating some of its cash reserves, which would be taxed in the US.
The move saved the company an estimated $9.2bn in taxes.
In its prepared testimony, Apple said that the move was in its shareholders' best interests.
'Fair tax' debate
While critics argue that companies shifting their profits overseas is a huge tax avoidance scheme, others want lower rates to encourage firms to invest in the US.
Last week Cisco chief executive John Chambers said his company was likely to invest more overseas if US tax laws were not modified.
"I prefer to have the majority of my employees here in America. That's the right decision for us, but if we can't bring our cash back, we're going to grow dramatically faster overseas in terms of job placements," he told CNBC.
"I think this is something our country has to fix."
The US is not the only country trying to ensure companies pay their "fair share" of taxes.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has called for countries to work together to clamp down on tax avoidance.
In the UK, Google, Starbucks and Amazon are among several large companies to face criticism over the amount of corporation tax they pay.
Despite making sales of hundreds of millions of pounds, they reported small profits or even losses in the UK after shifting their earnings to overseas operations.
The row led coffee chain Starbucks to agree to pay more UK corporation tax.
On Sunday, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt defended his company, saying it had "always aspired to do the right thing", but added that "international tax law could almost certainly benefit from reform".

Oklahoma tornado: Dozens killed in Moore

David Willis reports on the aftermath of the tornado in Oklahoma City

At least 91 people, including 20 children, are feared killed by a huge tornado which tore through Oklahoma City suburbs, officials in the US state say.

Worst hit was Moore, south of the city, where neighbourhoods were flattened and schools destroyed by winds of up to 200mph (320km/h).
About 120 people are being treated in hospitals.
President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in Oklahoma.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Alastair Leithead BBC News, Oklahoma City

Hours after the storm struck, the frantic search-and-rescue operation is still going on.
Heavy machinery is being used under floodlights to try and find and free those still trapped under the tons of debris.
The town of Moore was hit by a record breaking storm once before - 14 years ago - when a deadly tornado took a similar path.
More people are already known to have been killed this time around.
Hospitals have been treating the scores of injured - many are still critically ill and the authorities warn that the number of dead is likely to increase.

He also ordered federal authorities to join in the search efforts which are continuing throughout the night.

Monday's twister hit Moore, a suburb of about 55,000 people, at 14:56 (19:56 GMT) and remained on the ground for about 45 minutes.
The official death toll is 51, but local authorities say the figure is expected to rise as another 40 bodies have been found.
The Oklahoma chief medical examiner's office said at least 20 children were among the dead.
Plaza Towers Elementary school took a direct hit: the storm tore off the building's roof and knocked down walls.
"The school was flattened. The walls were pancaked in," Oklahoma's Lt Gov Todd Lamb told the BBC.
"There's still roughly two dozen children that are missing. There have been some bodies recovered from that school and it's absolutely horrific and devastating."
Another school - Briarwood Elementary - was also damaged, and teachers were later seen leading pupils out to safety.
Oklahoma Gov Mary Fallin said it was a "tragic" day.

More than 200 Oklahoma National Guardsmen as well as out-of-state personnel have been called in to assist the search-and-rescue effort.
The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Oklahoma says many of tornadoes in the region hit the open plain, but this one struck a residential area.
Many houses are built on hard ground without basements, so many people did not have recourse to shelter, our correspondent adds.

'Most powerful tornado'

Shocked survivors spoke of the tornado's power.
"We locked the cellar door once we saw it coming, it got louder and next thing you know is you see the latch coming undone," survivor Ricky Stover said.
"We couldn't reach for it and it ripped open the door and just glass and debris started slamming on us and we thought we were dead, to be honest."

The damage wrought by the tornado was "unlike anything that I've ever seen before," said Rick Smith of the National Weather Service

Melissa Newton said: "There's shingles and pieces of sheet rock and wood in our yard and all across our neighbourhood. Some homes are completely gone. It's devastating."
James Rushing said he had hurried to Plaza Towers Elementary School, where his foster son Aiden was a pupil, to see it destroyed by the storm.
"About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart," he told the Associated Press news agency.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday's tornado had generated winds of up to 200mph.

"It's certainly the most powerful tornado that I've ever dealt with in my 20 years with the weather service," NWS meteorologist Rick Smith in Norman, Oklahoma, told the BBC.
The town of Moore was hit by a severe tornado in May 1999, which had the highest winds ever recorded on Earth.
But Betsy Randolph of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol told local news station Skynews 9 that the damage on Monday appeared to exceed that of the 1999 tornado.
Tornadoes, hail and high winds also hit Iowa and Kansas, part of a storm system stretching from Texas to Minnesota.
On Sunday, a tornado smashed a trailer park on Highway 102 near Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma's state medical examiner confirmed earlier on Monday that two people had been killed in the area.

Oklahoma tornado leaves massive path of death, destruction; at least 51 dead

Teachers lead children away from Briarwood Elementary School after a massive tornado destroyed the building in Oklahoma City on Monday, May 20. The death toll continues to climb as rescuers search for survivors. It was part of a tornado outbreak that began in the Midwest and Plains on Sunday, May 19. View more photos of the aftermath in the region.

Are you experiencing severe weather in your area? Send photos and videos to CNN iReport. But please remember to stay safe.

For local coverage of Monday's devastating storms in Oklahoma, go to these CNN affiliates: KFOR, KOCO, KOKH, KOKI.

Moore, Oklahoma (CNN) -- Clinging to the hope of finding more survivors, rescue workers raced overnight scouring mountains of rubble where houses and schools once stood-- even as the sobering death toll continued to climb.

The vicious tornado that tore across central Oklahoma on Monday has killed at least 51 people -- with about 40 more bodies expected to arrive at the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office, Amy Elliott of the coroner's office said. The official death toll will gradually rise as the bodies are processed.

At least 20 of those killed were children, including seven from Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore -- the site of a frantic search early Tuesday morning.

About 75 students and staff members hunkered down in the school when the tornado hit, CNN affiliate KFOR reported. The school in the direct path of the monster storm's fury.

A father of a third-grader still missing sat on a stool outside. Tears cascaded from his face as he waited quietly for any news.

Even parents of survivors couldn't wrap their minds around the tragedy.

"I'm speechless. How did this happen? Why did this happen?" Norma Bautista asked. "How do we explain this to the kids? ... In an instant, everything's gone."

Get the latest developments in the story

Across Moore, even the city's main hospital fell victim to the tornado.

"Our hospital has been devastated," Mayor Glenn Lewis said. "We had a two-story hospital, now we have a one. And it's not occupiable."

So dozens of wounded had to be rushed to other hospitals.

At least 145 people were taken to three area hospitals.

That number includes 45 children taken to the children's hospital at Oklahoma University Medical Center, Dr. Roxie Albrecht said. Injuries ranged from minor to severe, including impalement and crushing injuries.

Not the first time

Even for a city hardened by massive tornadoes, no one in Moore had seen this kind of devastation.

The suburb recovered from a fierce twister in 1999 that killed six people there and dozens in the area. When that tornado struck, it was the most devastating in history in terms of wind speed, Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Tom Lamb said.

10 deadliest tornadoes on record

This time, the 2-mile-wide twister stayed on the ground for a full 45 minutes. The death toll has far surpassed anything the area has seen from a tornado -- and is expected to climb.

"Our worst fears are becoming realized," Bill Bunting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center said Monday afternoon.

The preliminary rating of damage created by the tornado is at least EF4, meaning it had winds between 166 and 200 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

After the ear-shattering howl of the killer storm subsided, survivors along the miles of destruction emerged from shelters to see an apocalyptic vision -- the remnants of cars twisted and piled on each other to make what had been a parking lot look like a junk yard.

Many survivors in the city looked like zombies, unable to process the breadth of the tragedy, KFOR reporter Scott Hines said.

Hiding in refrigerators

Hines said rescuers found a 7-month-old baby and its mother hiding in a walk-in refrigerator. But they didn't survive.

Track current severe weather

At the devastated hospital in Moore, some doctors had to jump in a freezer to survive, Lamb said.

Lando Hite, shirtless and spattered in mud, described how the storm pummeled the Orr Family Farm in Moore, which had about 80 horses.

"It was just like the movie 'Twister,'" he told KFOR. "There were horses and stuff flying around everywhere."

'This is not over yet'

The tornado also disrupted roads, piling them high with debris and complicating both travel and communication.

"People are trapped. You are going to see the devastation for days to come," said Betsy Randolph, spokeswoman for Oklahoma Highway Patrol. She did not say how many people were stuck.

More than 38,000 electricity customers in Oklahoma are without power, according to local power providers. The city of Moore had no running water overnight, the mayor said.

While the threat of killer tornadoes is subsiding, severe weather threatened to strike states farther east.

'We're also concerned that there may be an enhanced and widespread damaging wind threat with storms as they merge together," Bunting said.

"This is not over yet."

Osram leads research on LED-based adaptive headlamps for autos

Adaptive SSL implementations will be capable of varying the range of headlights based on vehicle speed or widening the beam to illuminate sidewalks in city driving.

Focused on increased safety for drivers and passengers, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER) is sponsoring a research project on adaptive forward lighting systems (AFS) for autos, and Osram Opto Semiconductors is serving as the project coordinator. The project will seek to combine microelectronics and optoelectronics technologies to enable autonomous camera-based control of LED headlamps with no mechanical actuators. The AFS concept includes both optimum lighting for the driver and supplementary traffic safety functions. The goal is glare-free high-beam lighting, and low beams that adjust to the speed of the vehicle. For example, at high speed, the AFS would extend the range of the headlamps. In city driving the system would produce a broader beam to ensure that pedestrians or cyclist are lit and easily detected by the driver. The FMER project will seek to develop a technology framework that can be broadly used by automakers going forward on a global basis. During the research phase, Daimler with carry out tests of the system. In addition to Osram Opto and Daimler, there are a number of other participants in the project. IC vendor Infineon Technologies is contributing experience in automotive electronics and LED drivers. Osram's Specialty Lighting division is working on new electronic control gear for headlamps. The Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration is focused on interconnect technologies. Auto lighting specialists Hella will develop the optical system and build headlamp prototypes using Osram LED modules. The project will use multi-chip LEDs such as the Osram Ostar LED pictured nearby. Stefan Grötsch is responsible for LED applications in automotive lighting at Osram Opto and is serving as project coordinator. Grötsch said, "We have brought together major players in their respective sectors and have assembled a wealth of expertise for this pioneering project."

Human stem cell cloning: 'Holy Grail' or techno-fantasy?

Human cloning: One step closer

Editor's note: David King has a PhD in molecular biology and is the director of Human Genetics Alert, an independent watchdog group. He focuses on the ethical and social issues raised by genetics.
(CNN) -- Today was a strange day. I'm used to handling the brief but overwhelming burst of media attention that comes with new stories about medical breakthroughs and ethical issues. But I don't often get an accompanying deluge of passionate e-mails and phone calls from people who had read my comments, denouncing me for criticizing science, especially medical research that "can save millions of lives."

There is definitely something special about this idea of "therapeutic cloning," something that has a religious feel to it. Most of those messages come from people who have family members suffering from some of the diseases that we are told will be cured, and it's hard to have to pour cold water on people's hopes.

TIME: Scientists clone human stem cells

David King

I feel really angry at the scientists and PR people who have sold the idea of cloned human stem cells to so many patient support groups, when there is so little scientific substance to their promises. We are told that there will be great medical benefits and that the risks that there will be cloned babies are small, but in truth it's the other way round.

Let's deal with the cloned babies issue first. Ordinary people know perfectly well why human cloning is wrong, and that's why governments around the world, including all developed nations except the USA have banned it. But there are plenty of desperate people and egoistic tycoons wanting to be cloned, and plenty of unscrupulous IVF doctors happy to relieve them of their cash. And there are still countries where those doctors can go to evade legal sanctions.

What the Oregon scientists have done is to deliver the baby that the would-be human cloners have been waiting for 15 years -- what looks like a reliable technique for creating cloned embryos. I think it was irresponsible to publish their research before there is a comprehensive global ban on cloning, with tough sanctions.

But I think what makes me even angrier as a scientist is the hype and false promises around therapeutic cloning. Let's be clear: this is not about embryonic stem cell research, which, despite the hype may deliver something given time, although the alternatives of adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells look set to deliver results much quicker. And I'm not a pro-lifer; destruction of embryos is not what bothers me.

The cloning element is there purely for the purposes of creating tissues genetically identical to the patient that won't be rejected, and that's a nice idea. The trouble is it brings a whole raft of biological problems with it that create major risks to the patient as well as creating an impossibly expensive process.

With cloning, you are forcing nature to do something that it does not want to, so the new risks are to be expected. Cloning creates abnormalities in the genetic read-out, which is the reason that cloned animals are so often sick. Those errors will be there in any stem cells and tissues produced by cloning. Those problems are another reason why cloning babies would be hugely unethical, but they don't necessarily make it impossible.

Finally, even if you could somehow solve these problems, the use of genetically matched tissues in mainstream medicine is simply not feasible and, unlike electronic gadgets, medical costs go up, not down.

In addition to the extremely expensive process of cloning, for each patient you have to culture stem cells and reliably turn them into the tissue you want with 100% efficiency, so you don't get a single left over stem cell that will cause tumors. You have to do all that to a standard of accuracy that will satisfy government regulators and medical liability lawyers when something goes wrong. Forget it. We don't do anything remotely approaching this in medicine and it doesn't look like medical budgets are growing, does it? There are other much better solutions to the tissue rejection problem that will cost a fraction of the price.

The fact is that the cloning paper published on Wednesday is zombie science. Therapeutic cloning was dead and buried years ago, but it just seems to keep on going, and so do people's hopes. There is definitely something weird here, something that brings out religious terminology like "the Holy Grail of medicine" around therapeutic cloning. That's because therapeutic cloning is a fantasy, one that belongs to the modern religion, the religion of technocracy. That's the only way I can explain how scientists who ought to know better seem to get drunk on their power over nature and keep pursuing this absurd dream.

People often say to me that scientists pursuing therapeutic cloning are "just trying to make money," but the truth is worse. Driven by their technocratic ideology, they betray their own credo of sticking to the facts, and that's bad enough. But to keep raising people's hopes in this way is really unforgivable.

Household energy-saving lamps,Start low-carbon lifestyle.

Today , "low-carbonlife" is becoming a new lifestyle . In recent years,it was noticed that there are more and more people begin using energy saving lamp .Even as Some people say that, "it will be a trend,if Energy saving lamps instead of the traditional incandescent . We must attention the promotion of efficient energy-saving lamps.It is the best way to make sure that a high brightness , low power consumption , high luminous efficiency and stability advantages . In addition,high-quality energy-saving lamps instead of 100W incandescent , not only to reduce power consumption by 85% , also increased brightness by 25% -35% . As an old saying goes , energy-saving lamps could equal to health lamp and long life lamp .

A more perfect commercial civilization

We ,the people ,in order to form a more perfect commercial ,we all want to move the same place,towards a better future for our children and our grand children. The belief comes from our unyielding faith,for a better living environment.

Honesty is one of the most beautiful coat, is the most holy soul of flowers

When it comes to honesty,quite a lot of people believe it is essential to a person’s character and success.Great people in history such as Abraham Lincoln and Genet Washington set us good example of being honest,they are great because they are honest.MP learning honest to be great.

Verbatim launches MR16 LED lamp based on RGB phosphor mix

A violet LED combined with red, green, and blue phosphors yields a lamp that Verbatim says will render fine details and color nuances in objects better than other white-LED approaches.

Verbatim has introduced the VxRGB Vivid Vision MR16 LED retrofit lamp in Europe, and perhaps more importantly, a new approach to generating white light with LEDs. The solid-state lighting (SSL) product is based on a violet LED and a combination of red, green, and blue (RGB) phosphors that makes the lamp especially suited for applications such as museums and high-end retail where accurate rendition of small differences in color hues and textures is important. The VxRGB technology will likely be used in a variety of products going forward, and the LEDs could ultimately be sold by Verbatim's parent Mitsubishi Chemical Corp, who developed the phosphors and is fabricating the LEDs, or even licensed to another LED maker. The initial 6.5W MR16 product delivers 180 lm over a 35° beam pattern with a color temperature of 2900K and a CRI of 85. Verbatim says that the lamp can replace 20W halogen lamps. The company said that the technology is "particularly effective in spaces where small differences in color hues, tints and textures can have a significant impact." The violet light that escapes the LED, and the RGB light emitted by the phosphors combine to deliver even energy across the entire human visual spectrum – much like sunlight. The company says that the technology can be used to produce CCTs ranging from 2500K to 6000K. The claimed advantages, however, are difficult to quantify. The company has said the VxRGB technology can enable 90 CRI SSL products although this initial product is 85 CRI. "The CRI is not the measurement that is relevant for this type of specialist product," said Jeanine Chrobak-Kando, business development manager at Verbatim. "It is all down to customer needs in utilizing the unique characteristics of the light in making objects appear more vivid with high perception fidelity." Indeed, the VxRGB lamp may be an example of just has poor CRI is in terms of a measure of color metric for SSL products. As we covered in our color-science series of articles, CRI can penalize lamps that over saturate colors even though that may be visibly desirable in some applications. Alas, the initial incarnation of the VxRGB technology offers far lower efficacy than other LED MR16 lamps. The lamp efficacy is below 30 lm/W and that doesn't include the efficiency lost in the power transformer that drives the low-voltage lamps. While the lamps still use less power than legacy sources, they are far from the best LED lamps in terms of energy savings. For example, Soraa announced new MR16s at Lightfair that can replace 65-75W halogens and deliver 80-85% energy savings. In general, LED-based designs that attempt to deliver warm color temperature and high CRI struggle to also deliver maximum energy savings. For example, typical warm-white LEDs based on blue emitters must include red phosphor in the formulation and that generates wasted energy outside the human sensitivity range. In the case of Verbatim, it's not immediately clear where or how the inefficiency comes into play. Still, if the lamps perform as Verbatim claims, the relatively moderate energy savings may be acceptable in specialty applications. Chrobak-Kando said, "We plan to expand our product portfolio based on VxRGB technology in the future. This technology offers us greater freedom in creating products with a dedicated light output that fits according to special applications and customer needs."

NY busts multi-million dollar 'cigarette smuggling ring'

About 20,000 cartons were brought to New York per week by distributors

New York officials say they have busted a multi-million dollar cigarette smuggling ring.

Officials allege that three of the 16 Palestinian immigrants charged had links to known terrorists.
The state's attorney general said investigators had recovered only "a fraction" of the proceeds from sales of more than a million untaxed cartons.
The amount of money involved remains unclear, but records show the suspects deposited at least $55m (£36m).
The scheme cost the state an estimated $80m in tax revenue, said officials in a press conference on Thursday.
The alleged ringleaders, brothers Basel and Samir Ramadan, were arrested on Wednesday in Maryland.
Investigators said they had found $1.5m in cash - some stashed in black plastic bin bags - in the home and car of Basel Ramadan.
'Astounding profits' According to police, the scheme involved buying large quantities of cigarette cartons from a wholesaler in Virginia, hiding them in a public storage building in Delaware and bringing them to New York City and upstate New York for sale at markets and grocery stores.
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that one of the suspects used to run a business in the 1990s partly funded by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind cleric serving a life sentence for a conspiracy to blow up New York City landmarks.
Another was the "confidant", Mr Kelly said, of a Lebanese immigrant convicted of a deadly shooting attack in 1994 on a van full of Jewish students on Brooklyn Bridge.
He said a third suspect used to live in the same apartment as the secretary of a key fundraiser for the Palestinian militant group, Hamas.
Officials have not linked the proceeds of the cigarette sales to any militant fundraising, but said they would keep pursuing the missing money.
"This dangerous criminal ring was able to generate astounding profits that we are still continuing to trace," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement.

Nigerian army begins raids on Boko Haram in Borno

Troops are already present in large numbers in Nigeria's north-east

Nigeria's army has begun operations against militant Islamists in the north-east, military officials say.

They say troops raided parts of a game reserve in Borno state where the Boko Haram group has established bases.
The raids came after states of emergency were declared in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa north-eastern states, where 2,000 people have died since Boko Haram launched an insurgency in 2009.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed in Adamawa to curb militant attacks.
A BBC reporter in Adamawa says that decision is surprising, as the security situation there is less serious than in Borno and Yobe.
Mobile phones down On Thursday soldiers raided "terrorist camps" in the Sambisa Game Reserve, a remote 500 sq km (200 sq mile) savannah in Borno that is known to be a haven for Boko Haram militants, officials are quoted as saying.
Nigerian military spokesman Brig Gen Chris Olukolade said "every resource available" to the armed forces would be used against Boko Haram.

Correspondents say this means fighter jets and helicopter gunships are likely to be deployed.
When asked whether this would not put civilians in harm's way, Brig Gen Olukolade said the targeted bases were in unpopulated areas close to Nigeria's borders.
Our reporter says the hardest part of this campaign will be in urban areas like the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, where the Islamist militants are living among the civilian population.
Mobile phone networks were not functioning in many parts of north-east Nigeria on Thursday, but our reporter says it is not clear if this is related to the current military offensive.
Militants have previously attacked mobile phone masts in the area in an effort to disrupt communications.
The BBC's Abdullahi Tasiu Abubakar in Adamawa city says many there feel the curfew is unnecessary and will disrupt their lives.
Our reporter adds that there is no sign of a huge military build-up in the city since President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in the three states.
The president said the army would take "all necessary action" to "put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists".
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state in the north.
Although they often attack Christians and government targets, they have also killed many Muslim civilians.

Suspect: Boston bombing was payback for hits on Muslims

Toobin: Note shows pre-meditation

(CNN) -- Boston Marathon bombing victims were collateral damage in a strike meant as payback for U.S. wars in Muslim lands, the surviving suspect wrote in a message scribbled on the boat where he was found hiding, a law enforcement source told CNN Thursday.

In the message, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also proclaimed that an attack on one Muslim is an attack on all, and said he would not miss older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev -- who died after a firefight with police three days after the bombing -- because he would soon be joining him, according to the source.

The writing on the inside of the boat dovetails with what Dzhokhar, 19, told investigators questioning him in a Boston hospital room shortly after his capture, the source said.

Friendly fire led to officer's shooting during Boston manhunt

CNN has previously cited U.S. officials in reporting that Dzhokhar said U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq were motivating factors behind the April 15 attack, which killed three people and wounded 275.

According to authorities, the Tsarnaev brothers fashioned explosive devices from pressure cookers and other materials and detonated them near the finish line of the race.

Three days later, authorities released their images to the public as suspects in the case. Investigators believe they then killed MIT police Officer Sean Collier and hijacked a car before battling authorities in a wild firefight on a Watertown, Massachusetts, street.

Nearly 24 hours later, police found Dzhokhar hiding in the boat after the owner called police to report someone was inside of it.

The final hours that paralyzed Boston

Dzhokhar -- who suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hands -- is being held a federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility in Devens, Massachusetts. He has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Tamerlan was secretly buried in a rural Virginia cemetery this month following protests from Massachusetts residents and officials against burying him in that state.

Authorities have said they believe the brothers acted alone, but are investigating whether they could have learned from or been aided by terror groups, including groups overseas.

Of particular interest has been Tamerlan's 2012 trip to the semi-autonomous Russian republic of Dagestan, home to numerous Islamic militant groups that have warred against Moscow's rule.

Source: Russia withheld details about Tsarnaev

Russian authorities asked U.S. officials to investigate Tamerlan before the trip, saying they believed he was becoming increasingly involved with radical Islam. The FBI investigated, but found no evidence of extremist activity, FBI Director Robert Mueller reiterated Thursday during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

Mueller said Russian authorities told the FBI that Tamerlan and his mother appeared to be "very religious" and that Tamerlan seemed "intent on returning and perhaps participating in jihad, in Russia."

The FBI conducted a thorough investigation and found "no ties to terrorism," Mueller said.

U.S. officials learned after the bombings that Russian officials had intercepted a 2011 phone call between the suspect's mother, living in Dagestan, and one of her sons, in which they reportedly had a vague conversation about jihad, a law enforcement official told CNN earlier.

Some lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have been critical of how law enforcement, intelligence agencies and the administration of President Barack Obama handled the Russian tip.

While Tamerlan and his mother were added to a terror database following the FBI investigation, Tamerlan was allowed to make his Russian trip in 2012, returning six months later.

EU LGBT Survey: Poll on homophobia sparks concern

The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency surveyed 93,000 people in the EU and Croatia

A quarter of gay people surveyed in a major EU poll say they have been subjected to attacks or violent threats in the past five years.

Poorer and younger respondents were more likely to face discrimination due to their sexuality, the survey found.
The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency surveyed 93,000 people in the EU and Croatia for what it calls the most comprehensive survey of its kind.
Friday marks the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.
The EU LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) Survey shows some worrying trends, says the BBC's Anna Holligan in the Hague, where some 300 politicians and experts are gathering to discuss shaping new European Union policies to stamp out homophobia.

Unreported discrimination

The online survey asked lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender respondents whether they had experienced discrimination, violence, verbal abuse or hate speech on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

A quarter of respondents said they had been attacked or threatened with violence in the past five years

FRA Director Morten Kjaerum said "big challenges" remained when it came to battling discrimination against LGBT people across the EU.
The survey found:

• Some 26% of respondents (and 35% of transgender respondents) said they had been attacked or threatened with violence in the past five years
• Most of the hate attacks reported took place in public and were perpetrated by more than one person, with the attackers predominantly being male
• More than half of those who said they had been attacked did not report the incident to the authorities, believing no action would be taken
• Half of respondents said they had felt personally discriminated against in the year before the survey, although 90% did not report the discrimination
• Some 20% of gay or bisexual respondents and 29% of transgender respondents said they had suffered discrimination at work or when looking for a job
• Two-thirds of respondents said they had tried to hide or disguise their sexuality at school.

The FRA hopes the findings will help policy makers to better target their work in promoting the rights of LGBT people.

Philips Lumileds adds mid- and low-power LEDs

Lumileds targets reduction in LED component count for lamps with mid-power devices that integrate two emitters.

Philips Lumileds has introduced the two-die Luxeon 3535 2D mid-power LEDs that, among other potential usages, can lower component count in retrofit lamp designs. The company also announced its first low-power LED, the Luxeon 4014, that targets linear application such as under-cabinet and cove lighting. The new mid-power devices deliver efficacy of 140 lm/W at 4000K and 100 mA of driver current – outputting a minimum of 60 lm. You can generally get 75% more lumen output by driving the devices at 200 mA. Lumileds said that maximum output is 130 lm. Efficacy drops by 20% at 200 mA. "A 50W PAR20 lamp can be achieved using only four LEDs," said Rahul Bammi, vice president of product management. "Alternatively, a 40W A19 lamp that previously required 14 LEDs can now be created using only six." Lumileds offers the LEDs across a CCT range from 2700K to 6500K. The entire family offers a minimum CRI of 80. Moreover, they all have an R9 rating above 0. The 3535 form factor measures 3.5×3.4 mm. Lumileds has repeatedly stressed its ability to keep forward voltages to a minimum, thereby helping to boost efficacy. The new mid-power devices with two emitters have a typical forward voltage of 6.1V and a maximum of 6.8V. Lumileds will offer bins with a maximum forward voltage as low as 5.8V. "This is an exciting breakthrough, because lighting designers can take advantage of a high lumen package with high efficacy while using significantly fewer chips per fixture," said Bammi. Lumileds also said the components will support lamp designs capable of Energy Star qualification with 25,000-hr rated life at 150 mA and 85°C. Low-power LEDs The new Luxeon 4014 low-power LEDs have a 4×1.4-mm footprint. Lumileds said that the family offers efficacy of 160 lm/W at 4000K. At 30 mA drive current the efficacy is 138 lm/W and minimum flux output is 10 lm. For now, 4000K is the only CCT offered. The LEDs have a minimum CRI of 80. Lumileds claims that the LEDs will offer better uniformity than other low-power LEDs, and that makes the LEDs suitable for usage in applications such as linear lighting where the components are packed closely together.

Kabul blast: Suicide bomber targets foreign convoy

David Loyn reports: "If armoured, they were very lightly armoured"

At least six Afghan civilians have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in the capital, Kabul, officials say.

The bomber blew up his vehicle next to a convoy of foreign armoured cars in the east of the city, police say.
Two children were among those killed and at least 30 more people were injured.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan has confirmed that one of its convoys was hit.
Government officials said those who died were bystanders.
Smoke rose above the industrial district of Karta-e Naw, in the east of the city, after the powerful explosion.
An explosives-filled Toyota Corolla was blown up beside two foreign military vehicles at around 08:00 (03:30 GMT), Kabul Police Chief Gen Salangi said.
The force of the blast destroyed several houses and a wide area of the city has been cordoned off. Sirens could be heard afterwards as ambulances headed to the scene.
The BBC's David Loyn in Kabul says harrowing images of the aftermath of the explosion have emerged, with badly burned bodies and an elderly man, his head seriously wounded.
"I heard a terrible explosion and our whole building shook," a local resident told AFP news agency.
An insurgent group linked to the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami, told the BBC in a phone call that it carried out the attack.
It is the first major blast in Kabul since March, when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the defence ministry, killing nine people.
The latest attack comes during what has been a bloody month for Isaf in Afghanistan, with at least 15 foreign military personnel killed in separate incidents since the beginning of May.
The Taliban announced a "Spring offensive" in April, saying it would target foreign military bases and diplomatic areas.

Syria conflict: BBC shown 'signs of chemical attack'

There were deadly clashes in Saraqeb in November 2012

The BBC has been shown evidence apparently corroborating reports of a chemical attack in Syria last month.

A BBC correspondent who visited the northern town of Saraqeb was told by eyewitnesses that government helicopters had dropped at least two devices containing poisonous gas.
The government has vehemently denied claims it has used chemical agents.
The US has warned that such a development would be a "red line" for possible intervention.
However, President Barack Obama has said the current intelligence on possible chemical weapon usage did not constitute sufficient proof.
'Suffocating smell' In April, Saraqeb, a town south-west of Aleppo, came under artillery bombardment from government positions.
Doctors at the local hospital told the BBC they had admitted eight people suffering from breathing problems. Some were vomiting and others had constricted pupils, they said. One woman, Maryam Khatib, later died.
A number of videos passed to the BBC appear to support these claims, but it is impossible to independently verify them. Mrs Khatib's son Mohammed had rushed to the scene to help his mother and was also injured in the attack.

"It was a horrible, suffocating smell. You couldn't breathe at all. You'd feel like you were dead. You couldn't even see. I couldn't see anything for three or four days," Mr Khatib told the BBC.

A doctor who treated Mrs Khatib said her symptoms corresponded to organophosphate poisoning and that samples had been sent for testing.
Both the US and UK have spoken of growing evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons.
Rebel fighters have also been accused of using them. They also have denied this.
In March, Syria's government and opposition called for an inquiry into an alleged chemical weapon attack in Khan al-Assal in the north of Syria which killed at least 27 people, with both sides blaming each other.
A 15-strong UN team headed by a Swedish scientist, Ake Sellstrom, has been assembled to investigate the claims.
However, the Syrian government has refused the team access. Syrian officials have been quoted as saying they want the team to look into the incident in Khan al-Assal, but the team has requested unconditional access with the right to inquire into all credible allegations.
The UN says estimates that the two-year-old conflict has left at least 80,000 people dead.

Possible tornadoes hit Texas; 6 dead, dozens injured

Deadly tornado hits Hood County, Texas

(CNN) -- Possible tornadoes ripped through north Texas on Wednesday night, killing at least six people and injuring more than 100 others, officials said.

The fatalities occurred when the storm struck a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood in the Granbury area, Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said. There were about 120 homes in the neighborhood and most of them were destroyed.

Fourteen people still missing and the death toll could rise, according to Deeds.About 100 people were injured, said Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare.

'The darkness doesn't help'

Rescue workers searched for the missing and surveyed the damage in the early morning hours. But the full extent of the damage may not be realized until the sun comes up.

It may have been as many as three tornadoes that walloped the area, officials said.

A tornado may have touched down several times in Hood, Tarrant, Dallas and Parker counties, Zavadsky said.

"With these types of tornadoes, they touch down; they lift up; they touch down. They tend to hopscotch," he said. "The darkness doesn't help, but the crews on scene are doing a really good job to try and reach out to the folks who might be trapped or unable to get to a shelter or the triage area."

There were reports of homes in Granbury being flattened with people inside, Hood County Judge Darrell Cockerham said.

'Traumatic injuries'

Donna Martin, a worker at a local veteran's organization, said some suffered injures.

"There are a lot of traumatic injuries," Martin said. "My husband told me that a car was lifted in the air. It just came in and hit so fast"

City officials were sending school buses to affected neighborhoods to help with evacuations.

The National Weather Service warned that a mile-wide tornado reported by spotters had shifted its track and was moving "right at the city of Cleburne," a community of about 15,000 people in north Texas.

"If you are in its path ... take cover immediately to protect your life," the weather service alert said.

Officials hadn't confirmed that a tornado actually touched down in Dallas but said the storm was capable of producing one.

IRS commissioner quits over conservative tax scrutiny

President Obama: "The misconduct uncovered was inexcusable"

The head of the US tax agency has quit after it emerged his staff singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny, President Barack Obama has announced.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had asked for and accepted the resignation of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Acting Commissioner Steve Miller, he said.
"I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again," Obama told a news conference.
The scandal has been one of several to rattle the White House in recent days.
Earlier on Wednesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder faced four hours of questioning at a Congressional hearing on the IRS, the secret seizure of phone records from the Associated Press news agency, and the attack on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi.
Mr Holder told the House judiciary committee that it would take time for the FBI to determine if any laws had been broken by IRS personnel.

'Inexcusable'

In a short statement to reporters at the White House, President Obama said he had reviewed the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report on the IRS's targeting of conservative groups and found the "misconduct" uncovered was "inexcusable".

"Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it," he said. "I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives."

"The IRS has to operate with absolute integrity."
To that end, Mr Obama revealed that the treasury secretary had requested and accepted the resignation of acting commissioner of the IRS.
"It's important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward".
The president said the treasury department would also put in place new safeguards to "make sure this kind of behaviour cannot happen again" and that the IRS would begin implementing the TIGTA's recommendations immediately.
In a letter to colleagues, Mr Miller said he would leave his role in June.
"There is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation's tax agency," he added.
Mr Miller took over leadership of the agency in November, when the five-year term of Commissioner Douglas Shulman ended.
At the time when conservative groups were targeted, Mr Miller was a deputy commissioner who oversaw the division responsible.'Who's going to jail?'

On Tuesday, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's report on the scandal placed the blame on "ineffective management".

It found IRS managers had allowed "inappropriate criteria" to be developed and stay in place for more than 18 months, resulting in "substantial delays" in processing applications for tax-exempt status, and requests for "unnecessary information", such as lists of donors.
Among the criteria used by the IRS Determinations Unit to flag groups for review, the TIGTA said, were having words like "Tea Party", "Patriots" and "9/12" in their names; or manifestos that focused on the government's fiscal policy and educating the public to "make America a better place to live", or criticised how the country was being run.
Senior IRS officials told the watchdog that the decision to focus on conservative groups had not been influenced by any individual or organisation outside the agency.
Some Republicans, including two high-profile governors, have called for a special prosecutor to investigate.
House Speaker John Boehner told reporters earlier on Wednesday: "My question is, who's going to jail over this scandal?"
At least three Congressional panels are planning hearings, and House judiciary committee member Representative Darrell Issa said he had asked five mid-level IRS employees be made available for questioning.

DOE awards four SBIR grants for OLED projects in FY13 SSL program

Litecontrol, Plextronics, InnoSys, and Universal Display win funding for various OLED research projects as the DOE seeks to push the SSL technology toward broader commercialization.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced four new research grants awarded as part of its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The latest awards target advancements in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology, in this case all are for OLED projects, and the funding goes to Litecontrol Corp, Plextronics Inc, InnoSys Inc, and Universal Display Corp. Litecontrols's project is entitled "A novel OLED luminaire system for specialty lighting applications." The company is developing an OLED luminaire family for use in corridors and public spaces at night in which accurate color rendering is important. Universal Display is developing a low-energy shelf light targeted at aircraft interiors that it hopes to bring to market in 2015. The company is pursuing the "Novel energy saving phosphorescent OLED lighting products" project in partnership with IDD Aerospace who has previously developed LED-based aircraft cabin lighting. InnoSys will pursue a project entitled "Highly efficient and smart power supplies to drive phosphorescent OLED lighting panels." The effort is targeted at enabling OLED usage in mainstream general-lighting applications in residential, commercial, and industrial settings. Today most OLED manufacturers supply standard LED drivers for use with their products, but it has long been recognized that maximum energy efficiency in OLED installations would require a customized driver design. Plextronics' project is focused on lowering the cost of large-area OLED panels – the most significant roadblock to broader OLED usage. The "Low cost printed electrodes for OLED lighting" project seeks to use inkjet technology and conductive silver ink to simplify the fabrication of anode structures on a panel layer. The company believes the technology can increase the manufacturing through-put on a manufacturing line by eliminating some photolithography steps. The DOE continues to support OLED projects in parallel with funding LED research. OLEDs trail LEDs in terms of light output and efficacy by several years on the DOEs own roadmaps. But OLED technology, and its ability to inherently to output diffuse light, could still prove a better match for some lighting applications. The latest awards were part of the FY13 Release 2 Phase 1 congressional allocation. The DOE SSL program is specifically focused on energy-saving opportunities in lighting that it has documented as significant, including new research on potential savings. Moreover, the agency recently noted a National Academy of Science report that documents the DOE's substantive role in furthering SSL deployment.