Snowden charged with espionage, theft in NSA case

WASHINGTON — Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who says he revealed that the National Security Agency collects Americans' phone records and Internet data from U.S. communication companies, now faces charges of espionage and theft of government property.

Snowden is believed to be in Hong Kong, which could complicate efforts to bring him to a U.S. federal court to answer charges that he engaged in unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information.

In addition to those charges, both brought under the Espionage Act, the government charged Snowden with theft of government property. Each crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The one-page criminal complaint against Snowden was unsealed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., part of the Eastern District of Virginia where his former employer, government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered, in McLean.

The complaint is dated June 14, five days after Snowden's name first surfaced as the person who had leaked to the news media that the NSA, in two highly classified surveillance programs, gathered telephone and Internet records to ferret out terror plots.

It was unclear Friday whether the U.S. had yet to begin an effort to extradite Snowden from Hong Kong. He could contest extradition on grounds of political persecution. In general, the extradition agreement between the U.S. and Hong Kong excepts political offenses from the obligation to turn over a person.

Hong Kong had no immediate reaction to word of the charges against Snowden.

The Espionage Act arguably is a political offense. The Obama administration has now used the act in seven criminal cases in an unprecedented effort to stem leaks. In one of them, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning acknowledged he sent more than 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and other materials to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. His military trial is underway.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, welcomed the charges against Snowden.

"I've always thought this was a treasonous act," he said in a statement. "I hope Hong Kong's government will take him into custody and extradite him to the U.S."

But the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy group, said Snowden should be shielded from prosecution by whistle-blower protection laws.

"He disclosed information about a secret program that he reasonably believed to be illegal, and his actions alone brought about the long-overdue national debate about the proper balance between privacy and civil liberties, on the one hand, and national security on the other," the group said in a statement.

Michael di Pretoro, a retired 30-year veteran with the FBI who served from 1990 to 1994 as the legal liaison officer at the American consulate in Hong Kong, said "relations between U.S. and Hong Kong law enforcement personnel are historically quite good."

"In my time, I felt the degree of cooperation was outstanding to the extent that I almost felt I was in an FBI field office," di Pretoro said.

The U.S. and Hong Kong have a standing agreement on the surrender of fugitives. However, Snowden's appeal rights could drag out any extradition proceeding.

The success or failure of any extradition proceeding depends on what the suspect is charged with under U.S. law and how it corresponds to Hong Kong law under the treaty. In order for Hong Kong officials to honor the extradition request, they have to have some applicable statute under their law that corresponds with a violation of U.S. law.

Hong Kong lawmakers said Saturday that the Chinese government should make the final decision on whether Snowden should be extradited to the United States.

Outspoken legislator Leung Kwok-hung said Beijing should instruct Hong Kong to protect Snowden from extradition before his case gets dragged through the court system.

Leung urged the people of Hong Kong to "take to the streets to protect Snowden."

In Iceland, a business executive said Friday that a private plane was on standby to transport Snowden from Hong Kong to Iceland, although Iceland's government says it has not received an asylum request from Snowden.

Business executive Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson said he has been in contact with someone representing Snowden and has not spoken to the American himself. Private donations are being collected to pay for the flight, he said.

"There are a number of people that are interested in freedom of speech and recognize the importance of knowing who is spying on us," Sigurvinsson said. "We are people that care about privacy."

Disclosure of the criminal complaint came as President Barack Obama held his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board and as his intelligence chief sought ways to help Americans understand more about sweeping government surveillance efforts exposed by Snowden.

The five members of the little-known Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board met with Obama for an hour in the White House Situation Room, questioning the president on the two NSA programs that have stoked controversy.

One program collects billions of U.S. phone records. The second gathers audio, video, email, photographic and Internet search usage of foreign nationals overseas, and probably some Americans in the process, who use major Internet service providers, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Yahoo.

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Associated Press writer Jenna Gottlieb in Reykjavik, Iceland, contributed to this report.

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FAA moving toward easing electronic device use

WASHINGTON — Relief may be on the way for airline passengers who can't bear to be separated even briefly from their personal electronic devices. The government is moving toward allowing gate-to-gate use of music players, tablets, laptops, smartphones and other gadgets, although it may take a few months.

Restrictions on cellphone calls and Internet use and transmission are not expected to be changed.

An industry-labor advisory committee was supposed to make recommendations next month to the Federal Aviation Administration on easing restrictions on using electronic devices during takeoffs and landings. But the agency said in a statement Friday the deadline has been extended to September because committee members asked for extra time to finish assessing whether it's safe to lift restrictions.

"The FAA recognizes consumers are intensely interested in the use of personal electronics aboard aircraft; that is why we tasked a government-industry group to examine the safety issues and the feasibility of changing the current restrictions," the statement said.

The agency is under public and political pressure to ease the restrictions as more people bring their devices with them when they fly in order to read e-books, listen to music, watch videos, and get work done.

Technically, the FAA doesn't bar use of electronic devices when aircraft are below 10,000 feet. But under FAA rules, airlines that want to let passengers use the devices are faced with a practical impossibility — they would have to show that they've tested every type and make of device passengers would use to ensure there is no electromagnetic interference with aircraft radios and electrical and electronic systems.

As a result, U.S. airlines simply bar all electric device use below 10,000 feet. Airline accidents are most likely to occur during takeoffs, landings and taxiing.

Using cellphones to make calls on planes is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. There is concern that making calls from fast-flying planes might strain cellular systems, interfering with service on the ground. There is also the potential annoyance factor — whether passengers will be unhappy if they have to listen to other passengers yakking on the phone.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that a draft report by the advisory committee indicates its 28 members have reached a consensus that at least some of the current restrictions should be eased.

A member of the committee told The Associated Press that while the draft report is an attempt to reach consensus, no formal agreement has yet been reached. The member was not authorized to discuss the committee's private deliberations and requested anonymity.

There are also still safety concerns, the member said. The electrical interference generated by today's devices is much lower than those of a decade ago, but many more passengers today are carrying electronics.

Any plan to allow gate-to-gate electronic use would also come with certification processes for new and existing aircraft to ensure that they are built or modified to mitigate those risks. Steps to be taken could include ensuring that all navigational antennas are angled away from the plane's doors and windows. Planes that are already certified for Wi-Fi would probably be more easily certified.

Although the restrictions have been broadly criticized as unnecessary, committee members saw value in them.

One of the considerations being weighed is whether some heavier devices like laptops should continue to be restricted because they might become dangerous projectiles, hurting other passengers during a crash, the committee member said. There is less concern about tablets and other lighter devices.

FAA officials would still have the final say. An official familiar with FAA's efforts on the issue said agency officials would like to find a way to allow passengers to use electronic devices during takeoffs and landings the same way they're already allowed to use them when planes are cruising above 10,000 feet. The official requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak by name.

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a Senate panel in April that he convened the advisory committee in the hope of working out changes to the restrictions.

"It's good to see the FAA may be on the verge of acknowledging what the traveling public has suspected for years — that current rules are arbitrary and lack real justification," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., one of Congress' more outspoken critics of the restrictions, said in a statement. She contends that unless scientific evidence can be presented to justify the restrictions, they should be lifted.

Edward Pizzarello, the co-founder of frequent flier discussion site MilePoint, says lifting the restriction is "long overdue."

"I actually feel like this regulation has been toughest on flight attendants. Nobody wants to shut off their phone, and the flight attendants are always left to be the bad guys and gals," said Pizzarello, 38, of Leesburg, Va.

Actor Alec Baldwin became the face of passenger frustration with the restrictions in 2011 when he was kicked off a New York-bound flight in Los Angeles for refusing to turn off his cellphone. Baldwin later issued an apology to fellow American Airlines passengers who were delayed, but mocked the flight attendant on Twitter.

"I just hope they do the sensible thing and don't allow people to talk on their cellphones during flight," said Pizzarello, who flies 150,000 to 200,000 miles a year. "There are plenty of people that don't have the social skills necessary to make a phone call on a plane without annoying the people around them. Some things are better left alone."

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Mayerowitz reported from New York.

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Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

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Southwest cancels 57 flights after computer glitch

CHICAGO — A system-wide computer failure forced Southwest Airlines to ground its entire fleet of airplanes preparing for departures late Friday, and at least 57 flights had to be canceled even after service was fully restored hours later, a company spokeswoman said.

Michelle Agnew told The Associated Press that 43 of the cancellations were flights scheduled for late Friday night departures in the western half of the country. The other 14 were Saturday morning flights scattered across the U.S. because crews were not able to get to airports in time to make the scheduled takeoffs.

An estimated 250 flights — most of them on the West Coast — were grounded at least temporarily Friday night. The glitch impaired the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-ins, print boarding passes and monitor the weight of each aircraft.

Some flights were on the taxiway and diverted back to the terminal after the problem was detected around 8 p.m. PDT Friday, Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said. Flights already in the air were unaffected.

Shortly after 11 p.m. PDT, Southwest posted on its Twitter page that "systems are operating and we will begin work to get customers where they need to be. Thanks for your patience tonight."

Agnew said the computer system was "running at full capacity" by early Saturday. Before that, though, officials used a backup system that was much more sluggish.

"Backup systems are in place, not the main system, so it's slower," Hawkins said after service resumed. "But we are able to start launching these flights."

He said cancellations were inevitable because the airline doesn't do redeye flights and by the time the problem was fixed, it was near "the end of our operational day."

The late hour of the disruption meant the computer problem affected far more flights on the West Coast, but Hawkins said at least a few on the East Coast were grounded as well. Southwest, based in Dallas, conducts, on average, 3,400 flights a day.

A spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport said of about 25 inbound and outbound flights remaining Friday, only five departing flights were experiencing delays, of 30 to 80 minutes. At LA/Ontario International Airport (ONT), a total of three flights — all departures — were affected.

Four Southwest flights were temporarily held in Seattle, said Christina Faine, a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport spokeswoman.

One flight to Oakland, Calif., had been due to leave at 9:20 p.m. and departed before 11 p.m. Faine said late Friday night that an airport duty manager, Anthony Barnes, told her the others were expected to depart shortly.

Steve Johnson, a spokesman for Portland, Ore., International Airport, said he was not aware of any planes held up there.

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Associated Press writers Kathy McCarthy in Seattle, Robert Seavey in Phoenix and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Voters in Mass. city weigh in on Wynn casino plan

EVERETT, Mass. — Voters in Everett will be deciding whether to give the green light to Steve Wynn's plan to build a $1.2 billion casino in the city.

Wynn, a Las Vegas casino operator, signed a host community agreement with city officials that calls for $30 million in advanced payments and more than $25 million in annual payments to Everett if the casino opens for business.

The vote on Saturday is the first binding referendum on a casino proposal since the 2011 passage of the state's expanded gambling law.

Voter approval of a host community agreement is required before a developer can seek a casino license from the state gambling commission.

Wynn has also agreed to other conditions including the clean-up of pollution on the proposed site along the Mystic River, which formerly housed a chemical plant.

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Iran Oil Ministry denies cyberattack

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian oil ministry official on Saturday denied a report published by a government agency that it had successfully blocked a cyberattack on an oil sector computer network.

Ahmad Tavallaei, head of IT at the National Iranian Oil Company, said in comments posted on the oil ministry's website shana.ir that a technical problem, not a cyberattack, was the reason for a temporary shutdown of the network.

An Iranian government agency in charge of fighting sabotage said earlier Saturday in its website, paydarymelli.ir, that the networks of the Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company came under cyberattack the day before.

Iran periodically reports the discovery of viruses and other malicious programs in government, nuclear, oil and industrial networks, blaming Israel and the United States. In May, Iran shut down part of its oil facilities because of another such reported cyberattack.

Israel has done little to deflect suspicion that it uses viruses against Iran.

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Burger King delivery service now in Boston

You no longer have to leave the couch or cubicle to get a Whopper and fries thanks to a new program rolling out over the next few weeks.

Burger King yesterday announced an expansion of its delivery service, BK Delivers, to Boston. The fast food restaurant at 100 Washington St. in Dorchester is the only store that is offering delivery right now, and it is limited to a few zip codes, including Dorchester, Roxbury, Ashmont and Dudley Square.

Ordering online was simple and easy, and each item could be customized. Just under 40 minutes later, the food arrived in Dorchester, piping hot and freezing cold where appropriate, along with napkins and condiments. The driver, Pedro Falcon, said the cold food goes in one bag and the hot food in another, and when the bags return to the Dorchester store, they are kept in the freezer and in a heated area.

"Everyone who sees the new service, they're excited," Falcon said.

Near the Franklin Park Zoo, a crowd formed when the food arrived, and many people said they would likely use the service.

"It's going to do great business," said Shantia Elston, 20, of Boston.

The fast-food chain plans to have the service ready to go in two more restaurants in the Boston area within a couple of weeks, and another two over the summer.

"Boston has some of our most loyal guests and the Burger King brand is excited to offer them the opportunity to enjoy the food they love, delivered to them in the comfort of their home, dorm or office," Petru Pusta, Burger King's director of retail innovation, said in a statement.

Burger King already offers delivery in several cities, including San Francisco, New York and Chicago.

"When I pass away, I'll know I was the first Burger King driver" in Massachusetts, Falcon said.

Customers can order online at BKDelivers.com or by calling 1-855-673-3725. A person who picked up the phone yesterday said the average delivery time is about 45 minutes. Delivery requires a minimum order of $10, and is available from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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Cambridge property turned into stylish, upscale apartments

A little more than two years ago, the Wyeth in Cambridge was an aging Roman Catholic school in need of a complete down to-the-studs demolition.

Enter Broder Properties, a Boston–based developer, with plans to open the Wyeth this September, a 44-unit luxury apartment building at 120 Rindge Ave.

The four-story, LEED Platinum building near the MBTA's Porter Square Station, has raised environmental sustainability to a high-end level of living.

With a multitude of successful developments under his belt, Eric Svenson co-founded Broder in 2006 with his brother, Ben Svenson, and partner Dana Nielsen.

Prior to founding Broder, Eric Svenson and Nielson worked together at The Abbey Group, a prominent real estate development firm.

In an adaptive reuse project with a steadfast focus on sustainability, Svenson said, "We were faced with a unique construction question. What's to be done with all the demolition material? Partnering with a local Cambridge company named Green Goat; our contractor was able to recycle 88 percent of the materials once destined for a landfill. The 330 existing windows, for example, were carefully removed and shipped to Haiti to assist in their rebuilding effort."

Svenson believes that sustainability and luxury can not only coexist, but also enhance one another. From the oversized triple glazed windows that offer hours of natural light to the state of the art HVAC system that circulates fresh, clean air; private balconies or patios in every rental unit, to clean, contemporary finishes and open plan layouts — nearly every square inch has been designed and executed to exceed the highest standards.

The Wyeth also works with local vendors for a concierge service that lets residents have groceries delivered to their units, their cars washed on site, and pets walked.

All units have private parking spaces just steps from their doors, plus visitors spaces. There will be grill stations on the front lawn and on-site bike racks — with visitor bikes. There's a gym and private conference rooms. There will even be a specialty juice bar charging station for electric cars.

The market apparently likes the combination of luxury and sustainability. After less than a month, the Wyeth is almost 40 percent leased for the fall. One-bedrooms range from $3,300 to $3,500, while two, three- and four- bedroom units range in price from $4,400 to $5,000 per month.

Jennifer Athas is a licensed real estate broker. Follow her on Twitter @jenathas.

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Apple chases rivals with reboot

Apple's soon-to-be-released new operating system for iPhone plays it safe — so safe it isn't likely to pose any threat to rival Android and Windows.

It's called iOS 7, and it's coming to mobile devices near you this fall. Right now it's in beta, or draft form, which I had a chance to review. And hopefully, there will be some improvements and additions before it's released to the public.

Because the changes aren't big enough. The ideas aren't bold enough. The innovations are largely limited to graphic design, and that just isn't going to win any business back.

First, the good news: You will finally be able to multitask on an iPhone, swiping through a carousel of "cards" that show open apps. A handy control center is accessed by swiping in from the bottom and it reveals easy access to a camera, a calculator, a flashlight, AirPlay, which lets you stream your music over Wi-Fi, and a cool new feature called Airdrop, which lets you transfer files to nearby iPhones.

Cooler still is the way photos and graphics now look. Colors and photos somehow seem more vibrant and real. Icons are no longer three-dimensional-looking. They're simple and clean.

The upcoming system includes more gesture controls. You can close an app by dragging it up and out of view. You can use drag down search mode from the middle of the screen, and more stuff like that, which we've seen in other smartphone brands, including Blackberry, for years.

Now, the bad news. And it's really bad news. What's most striking about iOS 7 — keeping in mind that this could change — is what it lacks. In a nutshell: something new. It doesn't have anything that Android and Windows phones don't already have.

The new Apple operating system — a similar version is expected to be released for iPad — seems to be about playing catch-up.

Siri, for example, is now probably as adept as Google Now at answering your questions.

But iOS 7 lags in how it organizes a user's contacts. The people hub concept, a fundamental innovation of both Android (think Google Plus) and Windows, organizes information from the many social networks we use. And that is now essential for smartphones.

Unless Apple goes back to the drawing board, it's unclear how iOS 7 is going to keep its high-end users — the ones willing to pay $400 for a 64 GB iPhone 5 — from moving to another platform within the next year. And it certainly isn't going to win back any of those who have already switched.

Apple still has the prettiest-looking icons and beautiful graphics. I guess we'll just have to see if that's enough for consumers.

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Tokyo court backs Apple against Samsung on patent

TOKYO — Apple Inc. has won a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. in a Japanese court, one of dozens of legal battles around the world between the technology giants.

The Tokyo District Court issued a partial verdict Friday in favor of Apple. Damages were not announced.

The court said in a summary that further examination is needed to determine if Samsung must pay compensation, and if so, how much. A final verdict is expected later.

Apple and Samsung are embroiled in similar battles in the U.S., South Korea, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia.

The latest was over "bounce-back" technology for scrolling on devices. Samsung was found to have infringed Apple's patent on previous models of the Galaxy phone and tablet series. Samsung has since changed its smartphone design to show a blue light, instead of bouncing back.

The two companies are competing fiercely in global markets, and accuse each other of illegally using various technologies.

Samsung said it will study the ruling before deciding whether to appeal.

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New England better on primary care than most of US

PLAINFIELD, Vt. — Ronald Pitkin, 84, remembers the day in the early 1960s when his brother Belmont got a gash in his leg while the two were cutting firewood. They went to the office of the town physician, Dr. Frank Corson.

Corson worked alone, and Pitkin was drafted to be his assistant. "He told me 'You're going to have to scrub up.' I was the operating room nurse that day."

Now Pitkin gets his health care at The Health Center, sleek, modern clinic that houses primary care, dentistry, psychiatry and other specialties under one roof. It's one of eight facilities in small towns around Vermont that charge based on patients' ability to pay. They provide primary care to about 25 percent of the mostly rural state's residents, and experts say they're a key part of the reason why Vermont leads the country in primary care doctors per capita.

"This is a terrific health care center," Pitkin said recently as he waited for a checkup with the center's senior physician, Dr. John Matthew. "It's more care, and help in general, for less dollars than just about anywhere."

With Vermont leading the way, five of New England's six states rank in the top six for primary care doctors per capita, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The sixth, Connecticut, ranks 12th. As the national shortage of primary care doctors expected to increase after the federal Affordable Care Act takes full effect next year, some are looking to New England's states with an eye to what they've been doing right.

Several factors contribute to New England's relatively strong position. Among them: strong public health programs ensuring that high percentages of residents have health coverage, meaning fewer doctors deliver uncompensated care. Massachusetts, which enacted a universal health care program in 2006, has about 97 percent of its residents carrying health coverage. In Vermont it's about 94 percent.

The high rates of people already insured means "we will not experience the same (influx of newly insured patients) in Vermont as in other states that have very high rates of uninsured people or low Medicaid eligibility," said Mark Larson, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health Access.

Medical schools in New England, including the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, have increased their emphasis on educating doctors for primary care in recent years, officials said. Vermont and New Hampshire augment a federal program that offers partial loan forgiveness for doctors willing to work in under-served areas with a similar state program.

In rural northern New Hampshire, Edward Shanshala, executive director of Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, said he tries to use the lifestyle as a lure when recruiting new doctors. "If you like to hike, bike, ski, fish and things like that — great!" he said.

Doctors also have time to see more patients because physician's assistants and nurses deliver some basic care to patients, said Brian Rosman of the Boston-based consumer group Health Care for All.

"The goal is to have everybody working at the top of their license," Rosman said. "Doctors should do things that really need doctors."

Even in New England, though, the picture is "far from rosy," said Dr. Joseph Gravel, president of the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians. Starting family physicians at his Lawrence office make $130,000 a year; specialists can make three or four times that much, Gravel said. With many new doctors facing student loan debts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the incentives are clear.

A physician workforce study by the Massachusetts Medical Society reported that even a state ranking third in primary care doctors per capita had experienced a shortage for eight consecutive years. Half of all primary care physicians were not accepting new patients, with others reporting long wait times.

MMS spokesman Rick Gulla said the per-capita numbers may overstate access. "Many physicians in the state are teaching, doing research, or other activities. Some of those physicians only see patients a day a month, and this also affects patient access to care."

And the need for care is increasing, too, as the general population ages. Maine has the nation's highest median age; Vermont is second.

"It seems like not only is Maine's general population aging, but a significant percentage of primary care practitioners is also getting to an age of retirement," said Vanessa Santarelli, CEO of the Maine Primary Care Association, which promotes and supports 20 federally qualified health centers across the state.

And sometimes the hiking, skiing and fishing just aren't big enough attractions, Shanshala said. He described some of the lengths to which he's gone to recruit physicians. When doctors in training leave after brief stints, he invites them to return for the company picnic and tries to keep in touch in case they ever want to come back.

Still, the picture New England is better than elsewhere, Gravel said. He cited a 2007 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association saying that among new medical school graduates just beginning their residencies, just 3.3 percent nationwide were going into family practice.

Strong support from the community and from Vermont's political leadership were among the chief satisfactions of Matthew's 40-plus-year career, he said. Good primary care leads to good overall health, he said, noting Vermont has been ranked the healthiest state for several years running — six, according to the United Health Foundation.

"Vermont is a good society," Matthew said. "Everyone is concerned about the least amongst us."

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AP writers Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., and David Sharp in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.

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