The letter warned Lubitz that he would be prohibited from flying if his depression returned. Rapeseed, an oilseed known in North America as canola, has a mild reputation as a cooking oil. Maybe that's because the version that most consumers know is a pale, neutral-flavored oil used for frying and baking.
But in the U.K., a more colorful and flavorful version has made its way onto store shelves: cold-pressed rapeseed that goes for £5-7 per 500 milliliters (about $9-12 for 17 fluid ounces).
This vibrant, mustard-colored oil goes by names like Farrington's Mellow Yellow, Sussex Gold and Summer Harvest. Some products are touted as "extra virgin," and there's a Cotswold Gold rapeseed infused with white truffle. You'll find them at London's Fortnum and Mason food hall. Even chefs like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson have embraced the "national" oil, which is grown, processed and marketed by British farmers.
Third-generation farmer Algy Garrod uses it on his popcorn, to give it "a nice, creamy flavor," he explains while driving me through his bright yellow fields in Norfolk, in the east of England. In late April, they're in full bloom.
Lubitz was ultimately able to secure a job as a co-pilot for Germanwings. This type of "double low" rapeseed is what we eat on both sides of the Atlantic, explains University of East Anglia's crop geneticist Rachel Wells. Pope Francis called the gender pay gap a "pure scandal" in remarks Wednesday on marriage and family.
NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that Francis' remarks, at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, are some of his most forceful yet in favor of women.
Francis raised his voice as he made a plea for an end to the situation in which men typically earn more than women for performing the same task.
The "the disparity is a pure scandal," he said, in comments reported by Vatican Radio.
Sylvia adds that the pope dismissed the attitude of some who blame the crisis in the family on women leaving the house to go to work. She adds:
"Francis has been speaking out about family life ahead of a big church meeting on family issues in October. While he has often said women should play a bigger role in the church, he has said the door is closed to the possibility of women becoming priests."
The pope's remarks Wednesday were part of a larger catechetical reflection on marriage and family.
"Today, society is confronted with fewer marriages. ... These broken marriage bonds affect the young most of all, as they come to view marriage as something temporary," he said, according to Vatican Radio. "In truth, we know that almost every man and woman desires a secure and lasting relationship, a stable marriage and a happy family."
Central Illinois corn and soybean farmer Gary Niemeyer readies his genetically modified seed corn for spring planting at his farm near Auburn, Ill.
The Salt
Top Five Myths Of Genetically Modified Seeds, Busted Kevin Bubriski may live in Vermont but his heart is in Nepal.
Bubriski first visited Nepal in 1975 as a 20-year-old Peace Corps volunteer. He worked on a project to bring drinking water to villages. He came with a curiosity about the place and a camera in hand. And it was the camera that has shaped his destiny.
He began taking photos of the people he met and the sights he saw. And he has never stopped.
Over 40 years, Bubriski has visited Nepal many times and made many close friends. So when he awoke to a text message and a "flurry of emails" about the earthquake on Saturday, he immediately took to Facebook. Much to his relief, he saw messages from friends in Kathmandu indicating they were safe. But there is an eerie silence from those in more remote regions, the villages where there is at best limited electricity. Those are the people he is thinking of now.
But there are three key differences. The Europeans never adopted the name canola. And once genetically modified, herbicide resistant canola seeds were developed in 1995, North American farmers started planting mostly those, while European farmers stuck to the non-GMO rapeseed. (Today, 80-90 percent of the canola sold in the U.S. is GMO, while GMO rapeseed is banned across the European Union.)
Another key distinction of the artisanal — and more flavorful — rapeseed now available in the U.K. is how it's processed. As you're wheeled down to surgery, nervously waving goodbye to loved ones, it's unlikely that one of your fears is whether your surgeon will have to double up as your anesthesiologist.
But at a hospital in Kenya, Dr. David Barash remembers watching an obstetrician perform a cesarean section while at the same time instructing a nurse on how to deliver anesthesia. Six writers have withdrawn from the PEN American Center's annual gala on May 5 in protest against the free-speech organization's decision to give the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo its annual Freedom of Expression Courage Award.
The writers who have withdrawn from the event are Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi, The New York Times reports.
In its decision to honor Charlie Hebdo, PEN America cited the satirical publication's "dauntlessness in the face of one of the most noxious assaults on expression in recent memory." An attack on Jan. 7 by Islamist militants on the magazine and its staff killed 12 people, including some of its top cartoonists and editors. In a statement, PEN added:
"The day after the attack, the surviving staff of Charlie Hebdo magazine vowed to continue publication, releasing their next edition on time with a print run expanded from 40,000 to over eight million under the mantra 'All is Forgiven,' donating all proceeds to the families of the victims. The Charlie Hebdo attacks dealt a blow to the bedrock principle that no act of expression, no matter how provocative or offensive, can justify violence."
Charlie Hebdo had long pilloried political and religious figures, but it was the publication's depiction of Islam's Prophet Muhammad that had drawn intense scrutiny — as well as death threats from militant groups. Many Muslims consider any depiction of their prophet — even positive ones — to be offensive. Critics of the magazine say Charlie Hebdo was being deliberately provocative.
Kushner, in an email to the Times, said she was withdrawing from the May 5 PEN gala because she was uncomfortable with Charlie Hebdo's "cultural intolerance" and promotion of "a kind of forced secular view." Those views, the Times added, were echoed by the other writers who pulled out of the event.
Carey told the Times that PEN, in its decision, was going beyond its role of protecting freedom of expression.
"A hideous crime was committed, but was it a freedom-of-speech issue for PEN America to be self-righteous about?" he said in an email to the newspaper. In a new documentary in Russia, President Vladimir Putin says that the annexation of Crimea just over a year ago was justified and righted a historical wrong.
In the film titled The President, Putin denies that the importance of the Black Sea peninsula is not strategic. "It's because this has elements of historical justice. I believe we did the right thing and I don't regret anything," he says, according to RIA news agency.
Reuters reports: