Nazi reference disrupts talks

Some pre-negotiation jabbing turned into a potentially damaging diplomatic incident Saturday when Brazil’s foreign minister said rich countries’ deception in trade talks reminded him of tactics used by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

His comments drew a sharp rebuke from the United States, whose chief trade negotiator, Susan Schwab, is the daughter of Jewish Holocaust survivors.

The controversy threatens to overshadow this week’s last-ditch effort to save seven years of frustrating talks on a new global trade pact toward alleviating world poverty.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the U.S., Europe and other wealthy economies have so frequently misrepresented the talks launched in Qatar’s capital in 2001 that public perception has become totally warped.

SAN JOSE, Calif.

Scientists discuss next moon step

For the next three days, Silicon Valley will be the base for planning humankind’s return to the moon, as more than 400 scientists from around the world assemble at NASA’s Ames Research Center for a conference on what type of science should be done when astronauts revisit Earth’s nearest neighbor.

It could happen in the decade after NASA retires the space shuttle in 2010 and begins flying a new generation of rocket booster. And it won’t be a temporary visit, NASA officials and scientists said Sunday. The United States, they said, will focus on creating a permanent presence on the moon, using it as a training platform for missions to Mars and beyond.

“We’re going back, and this time we’re going to stay,” S. Pete Worden, director of NASA Ames, said at the lunar science conference.