Not only would one of two donated U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) telescopes suit the mission of NASA's proposed(WFIRST) it would boost the mission's capabilities without much exceeding its expected $1.63 billion budget, according to a study released on May 23.

The results of the study, known as WFIRST-AFTA (Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets), were presented here today (June 4) at the 222nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. []

"For approximately the same cost the use of these telescope assets would enable a WFIRST mission that has significantly improved scientific capabilities," Paul Hertz, the director of the astrophysics division of NASA's science mission directorate, said during the conference.

"In addition, the use of these telescope assets would enable us to add an exoplanet-imaging instrument to a WFIRST mission that would be able to image and characterize planets around nearby stars," Hertz added.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Many low-level tax inspectors in Germany's Nazi-era finance ministry were oblivious to the Holocaust and dutifully tried to contact murdered Jews whose wealth was being plundered by the ministry's top officials, according to a new book.

Germans have publicly atoned for Nazi crimes in a myriad of ways over six decades, providing scores of billions of dollars in reparations to Holocaust victims, their descendants and the state of Israel. But only recently have leading government ministries come clean on their own particular Nazi past.

The finance ministry's role in assisting the Nazis was long assumed as a fact but never examined in real detail until Berlin historian Christine Kuller's book "Bureaucracy and Crime", which it commissioned.

Her study shows how the Reichsfinanzministerium's top brass played an active role in looting the wealth of German Jews who fled the 1933-45 Nazi regime or were sent to death camps.

"There are indications that leading ministry officials knew about the connection (to the Holocaust) and also took part at times in the planning," Kuller told Deutschlandfunk radio before the book's formal presentation on Monday at the ministry.

"But that wasn't the case for the broad mass of ordinary tax inspectors. There are examples of where the tax inspectors tried to track down deported Jews with questions about the assets they were leaving behind. Surely the top officials must have known they were already murdered."

The finance ministry, now based in the formidable complex of buildings originally built as Hermann Goering's Luftwaffe headquarters in central Berlin, is the latest German cabinet department to critically examine its role during the Nazi era.

The foreign ministry was the first, almost a decade ago, to take a critical look at its Nazi past after long presenting itself as a bastion of resistance to Hitler even though many top officials identified with his regime and even after the war ostracized genuine opponents of Hitler's regime.

Nazi-era tax authorities appropriated property, bank account savings, securities, furniture, and artwork from Jews. Kuller said the Third Reich took "considerable sums, amounts into the billions", for state coffers.

She said Jews had estimated wealth of 16 billion Reichsmarks in 1933. About four billion was taken abroad by Jews who left Germany while the remaining 12 billion padded Hitler's coffers.

The Reichsmark was replaced by the deutsche mark in West Germany's 1948 currency reform. West Germans were allowed to exchange 10 Reichsmarks for one deutsche mark.

"The finance ministry was certainly not an apolitical, neutral administration especially if you look at the way it took part in the financial exploitation of Jews," said Kuller, a historian at Berlin's Free University who headed a commission investigating the Nazi past at the ministry's request.

"Bureaucracy and Crime" lays bare how the finance ministry systematically plundered assets from Jews but also how they were discriminated against with tax policies as well after the Nazis took power in 1933.

"Jews faced systematic discrimination and were even hit with a special tax," she said. "Their assets were also expropriated."

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Larry Goodwin, 62, was driving a tractor near his home south of Waco when he disturbed a pile of wood that contained a hive of the notoriously aggressive bees; eight people have been killed by the bees since 1990, thereports.

"You can't believe how bad they are. They make me want to get out of this business," Allen Miller, owner of Bees Be Gone, who later destroyed the hive, told the Tribune. []

"They can get up under your clothes where no other insect can go," Miller said. "In a hive of ordinary European bees, about 10 percent will attack if the hive is threatened, but with African bees, all of them attack you."

Eight to 10 stings per pound of body weight are considered lethal, according to the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Goodwin's family members toldthat there was no part of his body that was not covered in bee stings.

When science goofs

The introduction of Africanized honeybees into the Western Hemisphere was the result of a scientific experiment gone awry, according to a Texas A&M University report.

In 1956, Warwick Kerr, a honeybee geneticist with the University of So Paulo, Brazil, imported African bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) to study. His intention was to selectively introduce traits such as disease resistance and faster reproductive rate into native honeybees.

But a handful of the African bees escaped into the wild, where they interbred with native bees to produce bees with traits primarily derived from their dominant African forbearers (traits of the more docile native bees tended to be recessive and therefore lost), leading to the term "Africanized honey bees." []

The bees spread rapidly from Brazil and are now found throughout South and Central America. Hives have been reported in the United States in Florida and across the South and Southwest into Southern California.

If attacked, run

Though the bees aren't predatory, they become very aggressive when defending their hive, and minor disturbances like a lawn mower or a moving car even as far away as 100 feet (30 meters) can trigger an attack.

And Africanized honeybees aren't picky about where they build a hive. Old tires, junk piles, building eaves, cement blocks, upturned flower pots and even empty soda cans have been occupied by the bees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In the event of a , victims are advised to run as fast as they can toward an enclosed area like a car or building; even though some bees will follow, most will be shut out.

Protect your face and head as much as possible from stings by covering your head with a shirt or jacket. And do not jump into water (such as a swimming pool) to escape the bees they will wait at the surface for their victim to come up for air, according to Texas A&M University.

Stings from Africanized honeybees aren't more venomous than stings from native honeybees, but victims tend to be stung dozens or hundreds of times.

Goodwin, who was reportedly stung more than 1,000 times, was pronounced dead at the scene. A woman and her daughter who tried to help were also hospitalized with dozens of stings, KCENTV.com reported; firefighters who responded to a 911 call were also attacked.

One redeeming quality

Researchers have noticed that Africanized honeybees seem to be isolated in their current range by temperature and rainfall, according to the USDA.

They cannot survive a cold winter, and they seem to dislike steady, year-long rainfall. "Rainfall over 55 inches, distributed evenly throughout the year, is almost a complete barrier to [Africanized honey bee] spread," entomologist Jos D. Villa of the Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Unit in Baton Rouge, La., toldmagazine..

While attacks by the bees remain very rare, Miller told KCENTV.com that he's seen at least five cases of Africanized hives in the past month, more than he usually sees all year.

As loathed as they are, the Africanized bees might have one redeeming quality: They could hold the key to solving the problem of bee , a deadly syndrome that's wiping out native bee populations throughout North America and Europe.

Though the Africanized bees can carry thethat have been implicated in colony collapse disorder, they have considerable resistance to the mites, unlike native honeybees. If researchers could isolate the trait that gives the Africanized bees their resistance, they may be able to save native honeybee populations.

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There aren't yet many details on the letters. One, addressed to Bloomberg, was received at a New York City municipal building at 100 Gold Street. The other was sent to the Washington, D.C., office of , a group co-founded by Bloomberg which has been central to the recent debate over gun control.

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Oren Yavin, a reporter for the New York Daily News, provided updates via the New York Police Department.

Ricin letter to Mayor Bloomberg threatened him and had "references to the debate on gun laws," NYPD says.

NYPD personnel who came in contact with letter had "minor symptoms of ricin exposure...which have since abated," police said.

Last month, ricin-tainted letters . Authoritiesin that case (after having erroneously arrested ).

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Ricin is made from castor beans, and can be created using instructions found online. Thethat the poison is "very toxic," requiring exposure by inhalation or ingestion. Despite that toxicity, deaths from ricin poisoning are rare.

When Linda and Jay Mathews moved back to their native California nearly two years ago after 20 years in New York and Washington they found their dream home in Pasadena. It had everything they wanted, plus a few items not on their shopping list. Among the latter:on the roof that keep their electric bill to about $100 a year, less than what they paid each month when they were living in the East.

Moreover, because the power generated by their panels contributes to the region's overall electric grid, they also receive credit for energy they produce but don't use a policy known as "net metering," which adds additional savings to their overall electric costs.

"We weren't looking for a house with solar panels, but we are very happy we have them," said Linda, a retired editor. "Our electric bills are so much lower, and I love the notion that we are not dependent on electricity from coal-fired plants, those big villains that spew out all those toxic chemicals. We also appreciate that California is very environmentally conscious, which makes it easy to afford solar energy."

All indications are that the vast majority of Americans would love to have solar energy, if they could. The industry enjoys widespread public support that cuts across geographic, economic and political demographics. For example, aconducted last fall for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) found that nine out of 10 Americans believe it's important for the nation to develop and use solar power.

But not everyone who wants solar energy can have it. "The challenge the solar industry faces is bridging the gap from overwhelming public support to mass public adoption," said Monique Hanis, a former spokeswoman for the SEIA. "Solar is already more accessible and affordable to Americans than ever before, but we still have work to do before we get mass adoption."

The reasons for that gap range from upfront costs to the many hurdles companies and consumers must clear in order to install residential panels for example, permits and inspections required by many municipalities. There also are practical matters, such as whether a property receives enough sun during the day to make installing solar panels worth the investment.

Also, utility companies, required by many states to include a specific percentage of renewable energy in their portfolios, now are trying to eliminate net metering, arguing that it increases costs for their non-solar customers.

"They seemed to be comfortable with our business when it was a boutique thing, something just for the wealthy," said Will Craven, a spokesman for SolarCity, one of the nation's largest solar companies. "But now that it genuinely is competitive, they are threatened by it."

The cost of the Mathews' system was part of the price of their new home, but most homeowners are not always so lucky. It can be expensive to add a system, even though ultimately it will pay for itself, and then some. []

Solar companies have been trying to make this burden easier by offering the option of no-money-down solar leases, where the company owns and maintains the solar installation on the customers' roof, then sells the power to the customer at a price lower than the utility would charge.

For consumers who want to own systems, the good news is that the cost of materials and installation have been dropping rapidly recently an estimated 70 percent in the last two years, according to the American Solar Energy Society (ASES).

The bad news, however, is that the hassles of meeting state and local requirements can raise the price consumers ultimately pay, and subject them to bureaucratic procedures that can be time-consuming and frustrating. Requirements differ among states, with some California, New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina, among them being more solar friendly than others. Requirements also differ among local municipalities.

A single federal policy would simplify the process greatly.

"If you buy a new water heater or a new furnace for your house, a plumber comes and installs it, and that's it but if you want to install solar panels, multiple agencies have to approve it," said Susan Greene, president of the ASES. "It's almost impossible for solar companies to work nationally, so they usually only focus on certain states because it's too much work and too expensive to do it in the others."

Moreover, many advocates believe that solar entrepreneurs must step up within their communities to build relationships with policymakers and the media "to show that solar is working for their community," Hanis said. "They have to aggressively market to the families and small businesses in their community to show that this is something that can be viable in their neighborhoods."

There are encouraging signs that this already is happening.

SolarCity, for example, has installed panels nationwide on more than 100 Walmart stores, and in numerous school districts. One school district near Fresno, for example, saved enough money in electricity costs to restore its music program, suspended in a cost-saving measure in 2009.

In some communities where consumers can't install their own panels, it may be possible for them to buy shares in a solar "farm" located elsewhere and receive a credit against their utility bill. "It's not wired directly into your house, but it's going into the grid," Greene said. []

Also, new crowd-sourcing models are beginning to draw both investors and consumers. For example, , which funds solar projects and pays its investors back with interest. "Pretty brilliant stuff," said Jeff Siegel, managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, an alternative energy research firm.

Siegel is confident there will be more of this. "As far as closing the gap, I definitely see it happening," he said. "Solar installations in the United States continue to soar. Leasing models are going gangbusters. I believe the industry is continuing to grow quite well, and is likely to do so well throughout the rest of this decade and beyond."

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HOUSTON (AP) -- InterOil and Pacific LNG Group are in exclusive talks with Exxon Mobil about the development of natural gas fields in Papua New Guinea.

Shares of InterOil jumped almost 11 percent before the opening bell and appear to be headed for an all-time high when the market opens Friday. Pacific LNG is not publicly traded.

InterOil has petroleum licenses, an oil refinery and retail and commercial distribution facilities on the island nation just north of Australia. It's also a shareholder in a joint venture created to build a liquefied natural gas plant there.

InterOil Corp. and Pacific LNG potentially may sell a stake in Petroleum Retention License 15 to Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary, Exxon Mobil Papua New Guinea Ltd. InterOil and Pacific LNG may also be paid to drill more delineation wells in the Elk and Antelope fields, the companies said Friday.

If a deal is struck, it will need approval from the Papua New Guinea government.

UEFA has resisted the requests but Tutu's letter, to Britain's Guardian newspaper, which was also signed by ex-Mali striker Frederic Kanoute and a number of prominent sympathisers of the Palestinian cause, is aimed at increasing the pressure.

Last week UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, speaking after the UEFA Congress in London, refused to condemn Israel or accept that the competition, which runs from June 5-18, should be moved.

Infantino told a news conference: "UEFA and the Israeli FA is responsible for football, it cannot be held responsible for the politics of a national government.

"And we have no plans to move the tournament, which is being held legitimately in a UEFA member association."

After last week's Congress, pro-Palestine demonstrators broke into a banquet being held for UEFA delegates, interrupting proceedings, but were removed by security officers.

Palestinians complain that Israeli authorities restrict the movement of their athletes between the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas faction that calls for Israel's destruction, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank in which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group exercises limited civilian rule.

Israel limits the movement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank citing security concerns but says it has eased travel for athletes.

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, last week agreed tougher sanctions to combat racism among players and officials and the authors of the letter feel the same standards should be applied to Israel.

Tutu's letter read: "On Friday, delegates from European football associations gathered in a London hotel for UEFA's annual congress. They agreed new, strict guidelines to deal with racism, suggesting a commendable determination to combat discrimination in the sport.

"We find it shocking that this same organisation shows total insensitivity to the blatant and entrenched discrimination inflicted on Palestinian sportsmen and women by Israel.

"We call on UEFA, even at this late stage, to reverse the choice of Israel as a venue."

The Israeli FA has consistently said that UEFA will not bring political issues into the soccer arena.

Tutu, 81, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for standing up against white-minority rule in South Africa.

He played a pivotal role in the downfall of apartheid and subsequently worked to heal wounds in South Africa's traumatised society.

Though gonorrheabeing a (STD) and alldoesnt come up in conversation too often, it's way more prevalent than you probably think. Its also a superbug, meaning its grown resistant to the usual treatments because the gonorrhea bacteria has mutated to become stronger than ever.  In fact, earlier this month you may have seen alarmist headlines (Sex Superbug Could be Worse Than AIDS, said ) about drug-resistant gonorrhea. Thewas quick to respond, quelling fears about the bugs presence in the U.S. Many reports were referring to gonorrhea strain H041, which is very resistant to ceftriaxonethe drug widely recommended for treating gonorrhea. That strain, though, hasnt ever been reported in the U.S., said the CDC.

Gonorrhea is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a gram-negative bacterium (which means the cells have a double cell lining). Theestimates that about 62 million people get gonorrhea every year. To get it, you have to have contact with the mouth, penis, vagina, or anus of an infected sexual partner. Once N. gonorrhoeae bacteria have been transmitted, they infect mucosal surfaces in the genitals and throat.

Symptoms of gonorrhea manifest differently in men and women, and also vary in severity (many people, in fact, are asymptomatic). When symptoms do appear, men may see a urethral discharge, or feel pain in their testicles or scrotum. Complications for guys can result in epididymitis, which is pain and inflammation of the epididymis (for those not into genital anatomy and physiology, thats part of the testicle that stores sperm; were getting up close and personal now). In women, gonorrhea may also cause vaginal discharge or bleeding between periods.

Symptoms of untreated gonorrhea arent just uncomfortable and embarrassing, though. There are complications of gonorrhea infections that nobody likes to think about: In women, the STD can spread to the uterus and fallopian tubes, increasing the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy (a dangerous situation in which the embryo implants outside of the uterus). Gonorrhea can be passed from mother to child, and it also increases your risk for HIV. So, in the end, its a pretty serious infection.

Irvin will be eligible to participate in all offseason activities and preseason practices and games, but will be suspended without pay for the opening four games at Carolina, home for San Francisco and Jacksonville and at Houston. Irvin will be eligible to return to Seattle's active roster on Sept. 30 following the Seahawks' Week 4 game against the Texans, but only after losing a quarter of his salary for the season.

Irvin, the Seahawks' first-round pick in the 2012 draft, was scheduled to make $814,645 in base salary for the 2013 season.

"I want to apologize to my teammates, coaches and Seahawks fans for making a mistake when I took a substance that is prohibited in the NFL without a medical exemption," Irvin said in a statement released by the team. "I am extremely disappointed in the poor judgment I showed and take full responsibility for my actions. I will not appeal the discipline and instead will focus my energy on preparing for the season so I can begin earning your trust and respect again. I look forward to contributing to the team the moment I return."

Irvin's loss could be a significant blow for a team that has become a popular pick to contend for a spot in the Super Bowl. Irvin was expected to start at defensive end with Chris Clemons likely to miss the start of the season while recovering from knee surgery after being injured in Seattle's playoff win at Washington last January.

Suddenly, Seattle's focus on addressing the depth on the defensive line in free agency won't be viewed as a luxury. Seattle signed Cliff Avril, Tony McDaniel and Michael Bennett in free agency to bolster a pass rush that was inconsistent for most of the 2012 season. Avril was the only true outside pass rusher the Seahawks signed, but all three, along with Irvin, were expected to upgrade one of the few weak spots on a rising young team.

Irvin finished his rookie season with eight sacks but had just one in the final six weeks of the regular season. With Clemons out, Irvin got the start against Atlanta in the NFC playoffs and appeared overwhelmed by the Falcons' offensive line while trying to be the main pass rusher on the Seahawks line. But his speed off the edge flashed at different points during his rookie season and was the big reason Seattle used the 15th overall pick on a rush end whom many pundits didn't expect to be drafted that high.

Later Friday, Irvin posted a lengthy message to his Twitter account, expressing remorse for his actions. Irvin, who had a troubled upbringing in Atlanta that included a brief jail stint as a teenager, noted his efforts to rebuild his image and said the suspension is another strike against him.

"I messed up and I feel so bad and have been depressed for weeks now," Irvin wrote. "I've had sleepless nights because I knew when this came out, I would let so many people down, including myself."

Irvin's suspension also continues a troubling trend of Seattle players running afoul of the league's policies on banned substances. Since 2011, five Seahawks players John Moffitt, Allen Barbre, Winston Guy, Brandon Browner and Irvin have received four-game suspensions. Barbre was later released by the team.

All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman was also suspended last season for using a banned substance but won his much-publicized appeal last December. Sherman won by claiming there were errors in the chain of custody for his urine sample and that the tester made mistakes.

The American Library Association (ALA) said Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" series for children, that features characters like Professor Poopypants and Wedgie Woman, came top of its 2012 list of books that Americans asked to be removed from libraries because of content they considered inappropriate.

The "Captain Underpants" series of 10 books has appeared on the annual list three times since 2002, but has never previously reached the No.1 spot, the ALA said on Monday.

"Fifty Shades of Grey," the best-selling sadomasochistic tale of college students and a businessmen by British author E.L. James, debuted on the list in fourth place after the erotic trilogy sold 70 million copies around the world in the past two years.

The ALA said that its office for intellectual freedom received a total of 464 reports in 2012 on attempts to remove books from public and school libraries or school curricula. That was an increase from the 326 such attempts recorded in 2011.

The ALA defines such "challenges" as formal written complaints to a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed.

Other books making the list included "And Tango Makes Three," a children's tale about two male penguins who adopt an egg together, and Khaled Hosseini's Afghanistan-based best-seller "The Kite Runner."

The ALA's top 10 list of the most-challenged books of 2012 are:

1) "Captain Underpants," (series) by Dav Pilkey

2) "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie

3) "Thirteen Reasons Why," by Jay Asher

4) "Fifty Shades of Grey," by E.L. James

5) "And Tango Makes Three," by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

6) "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini

7) "Looking for Alaska," by John Green

8) "Scary Stories" (series), by Alvin Schwartz

9) "The Glass Castle," by Jeanette Walls

10) "Beloved," by Toni Morrison

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Brunnstrom)