Real Box History

Intense pollution fouls Hong Kong air

2010-03-22T16:29:00.001-07:00

A pedestrian covers her mouth on Monday at a street intersection in Hong Kong.

The internationally recognized view across Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour is obscured by Monday's haze.

Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- Air pollution at or near record levels in Hong Kong on Monday was caused by a sandstorm from northern China, environmental officials said.

The Environmental Protection Department urged people, especially those with breathing or heart problems, to stay indoors and limit physical exertion.

Schools had been ordered to cancel sports activities, said Environment Secretary Edward Yau, according to Radio Television Hong Kong, a public television station.

Hong Kong's air pollution has grown progressively worse during the past two decades, as pollution from mainland China has blended with pollution generated by Hong Kong.

Over the years, poor air quality has even affected the view across Victoria Harbor, which separates Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon Peninsula by less than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) at the narrowest point.

On days with heavy pollution, the vibrant lights and skyscrapers on either side of the harbor cannot be seen from the other side.

Meet the Obama Death Tweeter Who Will Be Arrested Today

2010-03-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

Maybe not today, but very soon! His name is Jay Martin and he has spent the evening making sure everyone on Twitter knows he is "dead fucking serious" about wishing death upon Barack Obama. Updated with comment from Martin

Earlier today you met Solly Forrell, the conservative blogger now under investigation by the Secret Service for threatening Obama on Twitter. Well, here's another Twitter user helping to keep the Secret Service busy with his own death threats. According to his Facebook page, Jay Martin graduated from Vatterott College last year with an IT degree and currently resides in Federal Way, WA. His About Me Page says: "Socially aware, Deep thinker, Artistic, Hip Hop Aficionado, free thinker, Funny Guy." Oh, and he really, seriously, honestly, wants to kill President Barack Obama. (Thanks for the add, Jay!)

It started with this dispatch from Martin's Twitter account, inspired by last night's health care vote:

After a bunch of users were like, WTF? Are you serious? Martin responded:

But, like, seriously, Jay Martin. Do you REALLY want to kill Barack Obama? Please erase all doubt from our mind:

Yikes, OK. Um. We'll give you one more chance... You say you're a "funny guy." So this is just a really, really tasteless joke. Right? RIGHT!?

Well! Hope you have a good lawyer. You will definitely need it.

Although, Jay Martin is actually pretty excited about his impending legal troubles!

You may say you "didn't do anything wrong," but the law—specifically 18 USC Sec. 871:
—does not agree with you. Jezebel already went over this!

Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

When asked for comment via Twitter, Martin responded.

Well, no. Honestly, we wanted to give you one last chance to say anything that might convince us and the authorities you are just some idiot kid pounding randomly on a keyboard rather than an idiot kid who is actually issuing serious death threats against the president via Twitter. We will remind you that Forrell is currently under investigation by the Secret Service for saying way less.

Update: We managed to reach a fiercely back-pedaling Jay Martin on Facebook and he had this to say:

GAWKER: Why were you tweeting death threats against Obama tonight?
MARTIN: Eh.. I have no excuse for that. I don't really wish death on him or anyone else
I was just being irrational and speaking on raw emotion But there's no EXCUSE..I did it.. and yea.
GAWKER: So when you said you were "dead serious" about wanting Obama dead what did you mean? Were you joking?
MARTIN: No.. I wasn't joking. Thats not something you joke about. Again.. I was highly upset and speaking out of anger. I did not mean what I said though.
GAWKER: What about the legal aspect?
MARTIN: As far as the FBI? I don't really care about them. I said what I said.. And if they take action then so be it.
GAWKER: Were you aware of how serious what you were doing could be? You're not worried at all about the fact that you could be facing jail time?
MARTIN: No I am Not. And I did not think about consequences. Again..I was speaking out of anger and acted irrationally. Had I been in a rational mind set.. I would not have said it
GAWKER: so do you regret saying it?
JAY: Yes. But not because he's the president.. and not because Of possible jail time. As I said . I don't wish death on anyone. So yes. I regret threatening another person to that extreme... If I could take it back. I would. But i can't. So I'm willing to face whatever comes next.
GAWKER: So you were speaking out of anger. What prompted your anger I'm guessing the health care vote?
JAY: Yes. And my beliefs on it from what I have researched.
GAWKER: Would you consider yourself a Conservative?
JAY: I'm not political. I don't believe our Government has its citizen's best interest in mind whether Democrat or Republican.
GAWKER: OK, so that's why you're against the health care bill.
JAY: Basically yes.

So, there you have it: Jay Martin, perhaps the world's first black Teabagger? Anyway, thanks for talking with us, Jay. We are fairly convinced that you do not want to kill Obama, but you're still in a shitload of trouble. Hopefully we have all learned a lesson about how far away we should be from our keyboards while being utter fucktards. (Far.)

Hey, FBI, here's your guy!

IMF warns world’s richest countries to keep debt in check

2010-03-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

With red ink threatening to choke recovery, John Lipsky says, belt-tightening is necessary

Beijing — The Associated Press Published on Sunday, Mar. 21, 2010 5:53PM EDT Last updated on Sunday, Mar. 21, 2010 5:58PM EDT

The International Monetary Fund warned the world's wealthiest nations Sunday to watch their surging levels of government debt, saying it could drag down the growth needed to ensure continued economic recovery.

The economic crisis is leaving “deep scars in fiscal balances, particularly in the advanced economies,” John Lipsky, the IMF's No 2. official, told the China Development Forum in Beijing. He said that countries that have been going into debt to stimulate their economies should now prepare for belt-tightening steps next year.

“Policy-makers should be making it clear to their citizens why a return to prudent policies is a necessary condition for sustained economic health,” said Mr. Lipsky, who is the fund's deputy managing director, according to remarks prepared for the conference.

The IMF projects that gross general government debt in the G7 advanced economies, except Germany and Canada, will rise from an average of about 75 per cent of GDP at the end of 2007 to about 110 per cent of GDP at end of 2014, Mr. Lipsky said.

This year, the average debt-to-GDP ratio in the wealthiest countries is projected to reach levels that prevailed in 1950 in the aftermath of the Second World War, Mr. Lipsky said. The ballooning of government debt also comes amid rising health and pension spending, he said.

“Addressing this fiscal challenge is a key near-term priority, as concerns about fiscal sustainability could undermine confidence in the economic recovery,” Mr. Lipsky said, adding that in the medium term, large public debt could lead to higher interest rates and slower growth.

Countries should aggressively pursue reforms that will boost growth, such as the liberalization of goods and labour markets and the elimination of tax distortions, he said, though such moves on their own will be insufficient without direct measures to reduce spending.

They should also strengthen fiscal institutions in ways that could include improving tax collection and reinforcing fiscal-responsibility legislation, while pursuing entitlement reforms, such as increasing the retirement age, to help in restoring finances, he said.

For the United States, Mr. Lipsky said, a higher public savings rate will be required to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability.

“An increase in public saving would augment an expected rise in household saving to boost national saving and reduce the current account deficit,” he said.

America's national debt — now $12.5-trillion — has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past decade, to the point where it threatens to swamp overall economic output. Roughly half of it is owned by global investors, with China holding the largest stake.

Japan's debt is proportionately even bigger — about twice its GDP — but the impact is cushioned by the fact that most is held by Japanese households.

In Europe and Japan, where there is already a high tax burden on labour, measures should focus on improving the targeting of social benefits and on reducing exemptions on indirect taxes, he said.

Volcano erupts in Iceland, hundreds evacuated

2010-03-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

This frame grab from APTN shows the volcano near the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier, the fifth largest glacier in Iceland, as it begins erupting early Sunday morning. Photo: AP.

Authorities evacuated hundreds of people after a volcano erupted beside a glacier in southern Iceland, Iceland’s civil protection agency said on Sunday.

The eruption occurred around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday (1930 EDT) beside the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, the fifth largest in Iceland. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.

Authorities initially said the eruption was below the glacier. However, scientists conducting an aerial survey in daylight located the eruption and it did not occur below ice, lessening the chances of flooding from a glacier melt.

“This is the best possible place for an eruption, as the area is not covered by ice,” said Tumi Gudumundsson, a geologist at the University of Iceland, said in an interview with the national broadcaster, RUV.

Scientists can see lava flows in the half—mile (1—kilometer) long fissure, and authorities are watching for further activity.

Fearing flooding, authorities evacuated some 450 people in the area 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of the capital, Reykjavik, as a precaution but no damage or injuries have been reported, said Vidir Reynisson, the department manager for the Icelandic Civil Protection Department.

A state of emergency has been declared in communities near the 100 square mile (160 kilometers) glacier.

Three Red Cross centres were set up for evacuees in the village of Hella.

The Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration has ordered aircraft to stay 120 nautical miles away from the volcano area, essentially closing it off.

Three flights from the U.S. - departing from Seattle; Boston; and Orlando, Florida - were diverted to or grounded in Boston because of the volcano. All domestic flights were also cancelled until further notice, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service reported.

A European volcanic island in the North Atlantic, Iceland is largely an arctic desert with mountains, glaciers and volcanoes and agricultural areas in the lowlands close to the coastline.

The last time the volcano erupted was in the 1820s.

Protests continue in Bangkok as 65,000 join parade

2010-03-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Tens of thousands of opposition activists paraded through Thailand's capital Bangkok to try to win over Bangkok's middle classes to their anti-government campaign.

Published: 2:44PM GMT 20 Mar 2010

Bangkok: Police estimated 65,000 protesters took part, although some media and witnesses said as many as 90,000 were in the convoy. Photo: GETTY

The red-shirted supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra moved around the city of 15 million people in an eight mile convoy, handing out leaflets saying "We love Bangkokians" and calling on urban sympathisers to join their push for new elections.

Smiling, waving flags and shaking their trademark clappers, they cruised along the route in a deafening procession of motorcycles and overloaded pickup trucks, cheering, honking horns and shaking hands with crowds that lined the streets.

Police estimated 65,000 protesters took part, although some media and witnesses said as many as 90,000 were in the convoy.

"We want to invite Bangkok residents to oust aristocrats and the government," one of the red-shirted leaders said.

The week-long rally, which drew up to 150,000 people last Sunday, has so far been peaceful, boosting investor sentiment and helping to lift Thai stocks to a 20-month high.

Prime Minister Abhist has avoided his office, parliament and his home for security reasons and spent another day at a fortified military compound.

He has refused to bow to demands for a new election, insisting the country is too divided to go to the polls.

Mr Abhisit said he was willing to hold talks with the protesters to end the deadlock, but only if Mr Shinawatra was off the agenda.

"My question is: What is the standpoint of the 'red shirts'? – Democracy or Thaksin? If answer is democracy, we can talk," Mr Abhisit told Channel 3 television.

Protest leaders agreed to hold preliminary talks either on Sunday or Monday, but had conditions of their own.

"We will only talk with Abhisit, no one else," one of the leaders, Nattawut Saikua, told reporters, rejecting the government's plan to send other cabinet ministers.

The self-exiled Mr Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup and convicted of graft, is the assumed leader and financier of the movement and has called the campaign a "class war".

Although fatigue and the sizzling sun had forced many protesters to return to their provinces, streams of Bangkok people, mostly economic migrants from Thaksin's northeast stronghold, turned out in force to join the convoy or cheer them from the streets.

"Abhisit – get out," some motorcyclists bellowed. Others held aloft pictures of Thaksin and shouted: "fight, fight".

The vast number that took part underlined the deep social divisions in Thailand and showed the rally still had momentum, despite earlier showing signs of fizzling out. Protest leaders said they would stay for at least two more weeks.

Analysts said the "red shirts" had earned many sympathisers in their seven days of rallies but face an uphill struggle to bring the politically powerful middle classes fully on board.

Many in the capital remain staunchly opposed to Mr Shinawatra, a former telecommunications tycoon derided by opponents as a corrupt autocrat who abused power to enrich his family business.

Mr Shinawatra lives mostly in Dubai and has delivered rousing video-link addresses to the "red shirts", who are among the millions of Thais who brought him two landslide election wins and remain loyal because of his populist policies while in office.

The "red shirts" say big businessmen, aristocrats, army generals and judges have colluded to undermine elected governments – which were led or backed by Mr Shinawatra – and want Bangkok residents to help return power to the people.

Protesters say Oxford-educated Mr Abhisit, who is backed by an influential establishment elite and a politically potent military, is a "puppet" who should step down.

Ore. lawsuit claims Boy Scouts sex abuse coverup

2010-03-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

By WILLIAM McCALL, Associated Press Writer William Mccall, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 39 mins ago

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years.

The "perversion files," a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could all change in the coming weeks in an Oregon courtroom.

The lawyer for a man who was molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday. The lawyer says the files show how the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.

On Friday, testimony from a bishop for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responsible for a Scout troop of church members suggested the Scouts never provided training about spotting abuse or preventing it.

The trial is significant because the files could offer a rare window into how the Boy Scouts have responded to sex abuse by Scout leaders. The only other time the documents are believed to have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia.

At the start of the Oregon trial, attorney Kelly Clark recited the Boy Scout oath and the promise to obey Scout law to be "trustworthy." Then he presented six boxes of documents that he said will show "how the Boy Scouts of America broke that oath."

He held up file folder after file folder he said contained reports of abuse from around the country, telling the jury the efforts to keep them secret may have actually set back efforts to prevent child abuse nationally.

"The Boy Scouts of America ignored clear warning signs that Boy Scouts were being abused," Clark said.

Charles Smith, attorney for the national Boy Scouts, said in his own opening statement the files were kept under wraps because they "were replete with confidential information."

Smith told the jury the files helped national scouting leaders weed out sex offenders, especially repeat offenders who may have changed names or moved in order to join another local scouting organization.

"They were trying to do the right thing by trying to track these folks," Smith said.

Clark is seeking $14 million in damages on behalf of a 37-year-old man who was sexually molested in the early 1980s in Portland by an assistant Scoutmaster, Timur Dykes.

Clark said the victim suffered mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and lost several jobs over the years because of the abuse.

Dykes was convicted three times between 1983 and 1994 of sexually abusing boys, most of them Scouts.

Although there have been dozens of lawsuits against the organization over sex abuse allegations, judges for the most part have either denied requests for the files or the lawsuits have been settled before they went to trial.

The Boy Scouts had fought to keep the files being used in the Portland trial confidential. But they lost a pretrial legal battle when the Oregon Supreme Court rejected their argument that opening the files could damage the lives and reputations of people not a party to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because the Mormons acted as a charter organization, or sponsor, for the local Boy Scouts troop that included the victim. But the church has settled its portion of the case.

The Portland trial comes as the Boy Scouts are marking their 100th anniversary.

"They spent a century building the Boy Scout brand," said Patrick Boyle, author of a book about sex abuse in the Boy Scouts. "It's one of the most respected organizations in the world."

The trial "can only erode what they have been doing for 100 years," he said.

The Portland case centers on whether the Boy Scouts of America did enough to protect boys from Dykes.

The Mormon bishop who also served as head of the Scout troop, Gordon McEwen, confronted Dykes after receiving a report of abuse by the mother of one boy in the troop in January 1983.

In a video deposition played Friday for the jury, the bishop said Dykes admitted abusing 17 boys and provided a written list of names.

But a retired police officer who investigated the abuse report testified Friday that McEwen never told police about the list.

Charles Shipley, who was a Multnomah County sheriff's detective at the time, said he interviewed a pair of victims before calling Dykes in for questioning.

Shipley said Dykes admitted molesting the two boys and was arrested. Shipley was concerned there were additional victims and asked McEwen to talk to other parents of the 30 Scouts in the troop.

Two other potential victims were identified but Shipley said their parents did not want their sons involved with the investigation.

In his deposition, McEwen admitted he never turned over the written list and had only vague recollections of his conversations with police.

McEwen said he personally contacted the parents of all 17 boys on the list before calling a state meeting of the church to "disallow" Dykes, or limit his church involvement, and counsel him to "repent of his errors."

Dykes pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children.

Clark told the jury Dykes continued with his scouting activities until he was arrested again in July 1984 during a routine traffic stop while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip.

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America at its headquarters in Irving, Texas, said in a statement the organization cannot comment on details of the case, but has worked hard on awareness and prevention efforts, including background checks.

"Unfortunately, child abuse is a societal problem and there is no fail-safe method for screening out abusers," Deron Smith said.

Bill Proposes Increased Aid to the Needy for College

2010-03-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

The federal government would provide $36 billion in new financing for Pell grants to needy students over the next 10 years under legislation announced Thursday by Congressional Democrats.

The maximum annual Pell grant would rise to $5,975 by 2017, from $5,350 this year. The new Pell initiative includes $13.5 billion to cover a shortfall caused by the sharp increase in the number of Americans enrolling in college during the recession.

Congress would pay for the larger grants by ending subsidies to private banks that make student loans and shifting to direct federal lending.

But the amount going to education spending and aid for college students is far less than the Obama administration had hoped, largely because the savings from the switch to direct federal lending is now estimated to be $61 billion, rather than $87 billion.

In addition, $9 billion of the savings would be used to offset the costs of the health care overhaul proposed by the Democrats — an amount that lets the health care proposal meet requirements for the package to go through the budget-reconciliation process.

On top of that, $10 billion of the savings would go to deficit reduction.

“This legislation offers the most sweeping changes to the federal student loan program in a generation,” said Representative George Miller of California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “With one move, Congress can make college more affordable, keep jobs in America, prepare young people for our global economy, and reduce our deficit by billions.”

The banking community, which has lobbied fiercely against the student-loan legislation, rallied against the use of education savings to pay for health care.

“This is entirely unnecessary — there’s nothing in the reconciliation instructions that requires such a draconian cut in student aid, whatever the cause,” said a statement Thursday from America’s Student Loan Providers. At a news conference Thursday, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he was confident that there would be enough votes to pass the legislation, which is likely to be put to a vote Sunday.

Congressional leaders, and Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, hailed the package as a historic opportunity to help working- and middle-class Americans afford a college education.

But it is also true that the student-loan proposal has been cut back sharply from the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act that the House passed in October, based on a previous Congressional Budget Office estimate of $87 billion in savings.

The House bill provided billions for the construction, modernization and repair of school and community-college buildings, billions more to early childhood education, and further billions to help community colleges improve their graduation rates. All those have been eliminated, although community colleges would still get some new financing under the legislation.

Then, too, the House bill called for increasing Pell grants each year by the consumer price index plus 1 percent starting in 2013, to $6,900 by 2019. But to save money, the extra 1 percent was eliminated.

One of the few areas not cut was $2.55 billion for historically black and minority-service colleges, which remains the same as in the House legislation.

The Obama administration’s effort to end the subsidies and federal guarantees for student loans, known as the Federal Family Education Loan program, and redirect billions of dollars to students, has been strongly opposed by bankers, Republicans and some Democrats from areas with strong student-loan businesses.

They say the conversion to required direct lending is an unwarranted government takeover that will lead to the widespread loss of banking jobs, and poor service for students.

Court records illuminate Viacom-YouTube battle

2010-03-18T16:04:00.001-07:00

This image shows the YouTube Web site Thursday March 18, 2010, in Los Angeles. Court documents unsealed Thursday as part of a 3-year-old copyright lawsuit against the online video leader reveal YouTube founders' views on copyright, and Viacom's desire to buy the the site before getting beat out by Google. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel) (Richard Vogel - AP)

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

The Associated Press
Thursday, March 18, 2010; 5:44 PM

SAN FRANCISCO -- YouTube co-founder Steve Chen once warned a fellow co-founder to stop posting pirated videos on their Web site, according to court documents unsealed Thursday as part of a 3-year-old copyright lawsuit against the online video leader.

That bit of intrigue was among the confidential information that had been kept under wraps since Viacom Inc. sued YouTube for alleged copyright infringement of "The Colbert Report, "The Daily Show" and other shows in a federal court in New York.

The newly released evidence also revealed that Viacom wanted to buy YouTube before getting beat out by Google Inc., which acquired the site for $1.76 billion in 2006. One Viacom executive even suggested a joint bid by Viacom and Google.

Viacom, the owner of Paramount Pictures and cable TV channels that include Comedy Central, sued YouTube in 2007 seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

The media company alleges that YouTube allowed copyright-protected clips to appear on its Web site in its early days to attract a bigger audience. YouTube maintains it has always obeyed the Internet's copyright laws, which generally protect service providers from copyright claims as long as they didn't post the infringing material themselves and promptly remove it when notified about a violation.

An e-mail exchange less than six months after YouTube's February 2005 inception showed that Chen was worried about Jawed Karim's lax attitude toward copyrights might cause trouble.

"Jawed, please stop putting stolen videos on the site," Chen wrote in the July 19, 2005, e-mail. "We're going to have a tough time defending the fact that we're not liable for the copyrighted material on the site because we didn't put it up when one of the co-founders is blatantly stealing content from other sites and trying to get everyone to see it."

In a statement after the documents were unsealed, YouTube said Chen's e-mail was referring to some aviation videos that had been making the rounds on the Web. "The exchange has nothing to do with supposed piracy of media content," YouTube said.

Karim left YouTube before Google bought it in 2006.

Viacom was sizing up YouTube as a takeover target before it launched its legal attack accusing YouTube of illegally hosting roughly 62,000 clips from the company's stable of movies and cable TV programming.

MTV Networks, the division overseeing Viacom's cable TV operations, made the case for a YouTube bid in a July 2006 presentation. Google swooped in to buy YouTube five months later.

"We believe YouTube would make a transformative acquisition for MTV Networks/Viacom that would immediately make us the leading deliverer of video online," Viacom's review said.

Viacom also hailed YouTube as "the dominant platform" for Web video and worried that the site would end up being sold to News Corp.'s MySpace. The documents didn't mention how much Viacom might be willing to pay for YouTube.

The presentation was drawn up by Adam Cahan, an MTV Networks executive vice president. Cahan had just left Google earlier in 2006 to work for Viacom.

Just a few days before Google announced its YouTube deal, Cahan tried to persuade his old employer to make a joint bid. "The idea would be Viacom and Google buy YouTube," Cahan wrote in an Oct. 6, 2006, e-mail to Susan Wojcicki, Google's vice president of product management and the sister-in-law of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Since Google took over, YouTube has struck licensing deals with many media companies, which now get a cut of revenue from ads shown on the video site.

YouTube won over much of the professional media by developing technology that automatically detects video and audio claimed by its copyright owners.

One of the biggest disputes in Viacom's lawsuit is over how YouTube monitored its site for copyright violations before Google bought it.

Viacom contends YouTube's employees realized copyright-protected video was being illegally posted on the Web site, but routinely looked the other way because they knew the professionally produced material would bring in more people.

YouTube lawyers have contended there was no way to know whether copyright-protected video was coming from pirates or from movie and TV studios looking to use the Web site as a promotional tool. If a studio issued a notice of a copyright violation, YouTube says it promptly removed the specified clip as required under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Kidnapped boy Sahil Saeed still missing despite rescue reports

2010-03-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

Police categorically deny claims by Pakistani politician that British boy has been found

Sahil Saeed was kidnapped while on holiday with his father. Photograph: Manchester Evening News

Pakistani police said today that the kidnapped British boy Sahil Saeed was still missing, dashing hopes raised after a politician said he had been found.

The controversial Punjab law minister, Rana Sanaullah, told Geo TV that Sahil, who was kidnapped from his grandmother's house in Jehlum a week ago, was rescued in Sialkot, a neighbouring city in the north-eastern Punjab province.

But Muhammad Aslam Tareen, a detective based in Punjab, said he could "categorically confirm" that the five-year-old, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was still missing.

"We are closing in, yes. But have we found him yet? No. We hope to have something in the next 24 to 48 hours," Tareeen said.

Sanaullah had gone as far to say that Sahil had been sent back to the UK to be reunited with his father, and a man and woman had been arrested on kidnapping charges. He alleged thast two female relatives of Sahil had been involved in the kidnapping.

But Sanaullah appeared to have confused two different kidnapping cases.

Police said the rescued boy was not Sahil, and the minister was mistaken.

"I wish the news were true but it's not true," said Waqar Chohan, the senior police official from Sialkot. "We recovered one child, but that was not this case. That child was abducted from Rawalpindi."

The Jhelum police investigations superintendent, Khalid Mehmood, said he was unaware of reports that Sahil had been rescued.

Sanaullah, however, has not changed his statement, increasing the confusion.

British officials in Pakistan appeared to be in the dark.

George Sherriff, a spokesman for the British high commission in Islamabad, said: "We can't confirm anything." Staff were urgently checking the reports.

Raja Mohammad Basharat, a relative of Sahil, speaking from Jhelum, expressed the family's anger.

"We've been sitting here for eight days and no one is telling us anything," he said. "They [officials saying Sahil was found] are telling lies."

Basharat said he did not know the whereabouts of Sahil's father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, or whether he was still in Pakistan.

Sahil's father returned to the UK yesterday in defiance of Pakistani wishes that he remain there as a witness, according to reports.

Basharat also hit out at allegations that a member of the family was involved in the kidnapping – a claim repeated by Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, on Sunday.

"If someone in the family is involved, tell us, we'll co-operate, we are ready to help, we would also want to know. They haven't told us who, so why do they keep saying that?" he said.

Sahil and his father were on the last day of a two-week holiday when robbers broke into his grandmother's house.

The robbers made a ransom demand of £100,000 when they snatched Sahil and were understood to have repeated the demand in phone calls to his father. The Pakistani authorities contacted Interpol for help with the investigation after reports that the kidnappers called from international numbers, including one in Spain.

Pakistani officials have accused members of Sahil's family of being involved in the abduction. They denied the claims.

As Medicaid Payments Shrink, Patients Are Abandoned

2010-03-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

FLINT, Mich. — Carol Y. Vliet’s cancer returned with a fury last summer, the tumors metastasizing to her brain, liver, kidneys and throat.

Enlarge This Image

Stephen McGee for The New York Times

Rebecca and Jeoffrey Curtis searched for care for their son. In the process, they felt like “second-class citizens,” Ms. Curtis said.

Times Topic: Medicaid

Enlarge This Image

Stephen McGee for The New York Times

Carol Y. Vliet began chemotherapy to treat her cancer, but lost her doctor because he stopped seeing Medicaid patients.

As she began a punishing regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, Mrs. Vliet found a measure of comfort in her monthly appointments with her primary care physician, Dr. Saed J. Sahouri, who had been monitoring her health for nearly two years.

She was devastated, therefore, when Dr. Sahouri informed her a few months later that he could no longer see her because, like a growing number of doctors, he had stopped taking patients with Medicaid.

Dr. Sahouri said that his reimbursements from Medicaid were so low — often no more than $25 per office visit — that he was losing money every time a patient walked in his exam room.

The final insult, he said, came when Michigan cut those payments by 8 percent last year to help close a gaping budget shortfall.

“My office manager was telling me to do this for a long time, and I resisted,” Dr. Sahouri said. “But after a while you realize that we’re really losing money on seeing those patients, not even breaking even. We were starting to lose more and more money, month after month.”

It has not taken long for communities like Flint to feel the downstream effects of a nationwide torrent of state cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and disabled. With states squeezing payments to providers even as the economy fuels explosive growth in enrollment, patients are finding it increasingly difficult to locate doctors and dentists who will accept their coverage. Inevitably, many defer care or wind up in hospital emergency rooms, which are required to take anyone in an urgent condition.

Mrs. Vliet, 53, who lives just outside Flint, has yet to find a replacement for Dr. Sahouri. “When you build a relationship, you want to stay with that doctor,” she said recently, her face gaunt from disease, and her head wrapped in a floral bandanna. “You don’t want to go from doctor to doctor to doctor and have strangers looking at you that don’t have a clue who you are.”

The inadequacy of Medicaid payments is severe enough that it has become a rare point of agreement in the health care debate between President Obama and Congressional Republicans. In a letter to Congress after their February health care meeting, Mr. Obama wrote that rates might need to rise if Democrats achieved their goal of extending Medicaid eligibility to 15 million uninsured Americans.

In 2008, Medicaid reimbursements averaged only 72 percent of the rates paid by Medicare, which are themselves typically well below those of commercial insurers, according to the Urban Institute, a research group. At 63 percent, Michigan had the sixth-lowest rate in the country, even before the recent cuts.

In Flint, Dr. Nita M. Kulkarni, an obstetrician, receives $29.42 from Medicaid for a visit that would bill $69.63 from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. She receives $842.16 from Medicaid for a Caesarean delivery, compared with $1,393.31 from Blue Cross.

If she takes too many Medicaid patients, she said, she cannot afford overhead expenses like staff salaries, the office mortgage and malpractice insurance that will run $42,800 this year. She also said she feared being sued by Medicaid patients because they might be at higher risk for problem pregnancies, because of underlying health problems.

As a result, she takes new Medicaid patients only if they are relatives or friends of existing patients. But her guilt is assuaged somewhat, she said, because her husband, who is also her office mate, Dr. Bobby B. Mukkamala, an ear, nose and throat specialist, is able to take Medicaid. She said he is able to do so because only a modest share of his patients have it.

The states and the federal government share the cost of Medicaid, which saw a record enrollment increase of 3.3 million people last year. The program now benefits 47 million people, primarily children, pregnant women, disabled adults and nursing home residents. It falls to the states to control spending by setting limits on eligibility, benefits and provider payments within broad federal guidelines.

Michigan, like many other states, did just that last year, packaging the 8 percent reimbursement cut with the elimination of dental, vision, podiatry, hearing and chiropractic services for adults.

When Randy C. Smith showed up recently at a Hamilton Community Health Network clinic near Flint, complaining of a throbbing molar, Dr. Miriam L. Parker had to inform him that Medicaid no longer covered the root canal and crown he needed.

A landscaper who has been without work for 15 months, Mr. Smith, 46, said he could not afford the $2,000 cost. “I guess I’ll just take Tylenol or Motrin,” he said before leaving.

This year, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, a Democrat, has revived a proposal to impose a 3 percent tax on physician revenues. Without the tax, she has warned, the state may have to reduce payments to health care providers by 11 percent.

In Flint, the birthplace of General Motors, the collapse of automobile manufacturing has melded with the recession to drive unemployment to a staggering 27 percent. About one in four non-elderly residents of Genesee County are uninsured, and one in five depends on Medicaid. The county’s Medicaid rolls have grown by 37 percent since 2001, and the program now pays for half of all childbirths.

But surveys show the share of doctors accepting new Medicaid patients is declining. Waits for an appointment at the city’s federally subsidized health clinic, where most patients have Medicaid, have lengthened to four months from six weeks in 2008. Parents like Rebecca and Jeoffrey Curtis, who had brought their 2-year-old son, Brian, to the clinic, say they have struggled to find a pediatrician.

“I called four or five doctors and asked if they accepted our Medicaid plan,” said Ms. Curtis, a 21-year-old waitress. “It would always be, ‘No, I’m sorry.’ It kind of makes us feel like second-class citizens.”

As physicians limit their Medicaid practices, emergency rooms are seeing more patients who do not need acute care.

At Genesys Regional Medical Center, one of three area hospitals, Medicaid volume is up 14 percent over last year. At Hurley Medical Center, the city’s safety net hospital, Dr. Michael Jaggi detects the difference when advising emergency room patients to seek follow-up treatment.

“We get met with the blank stare of ‘Where do I go from here?’ ” said Dr. Jaggi, the chief of emergency medicine.

New doctors, with their mountains of medical school debt, are fleeing the state because of payment cuts and proposed taxes. Dr. Kiet A. Doan, a surgeon in Flint, said that of 72 residents he had trained at local hospitals only two had stayed in the area, and both are natives.

Access to care can be even more challenging in remote parts of the state. The MidMichigan Medical Center in Clare, about 90 miles northwest of Flint, closed its obstetrics unit last year because Medicaid reimbursements covered only 65 percent of actual costs. Two other hospitals in the region might follow suit, potentially leaving 16 contiguous counties without obstetrics.

Medicaid enrollees in Michigan’s midsection have grown accustomed to long journeys for care. This month, Shannon M. Brown of Winn skipped work to drive her 8-year-old son more than two hours for a five-minute consultation with Dr. Mukkamala. Her pediatrician could not find a specialist any closer who would take Medicaid, she said.

Later this month, she will take the predawn drive again so Dr. Mukkamala can remove her son’s tonsils and adenoids. “He’s going to have to sit in the car for three hours after his surgery,” Mrs. Brown said. “I’m not looking forward to that one.”

today news

2010-03-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

Inmate Count in State Prisons Falls Over 2009
The director of the public safety performance project of the group that put together the report noted that "it's too early to tell whether this is a tap of the brakes or a shift in reverse."
Read original story in The New York Times | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Geithner: Unemployment Will Stay High Through 2010
But he -- and other administration officials -- expect some relief this spring.
Read original story in Daily Finance | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Haiti Needs $11.5 Billion to Rebuild
International aid agencies will present their reconstruction plan, which emphasizes short-term housing, at the end of the month in New York.
Read original story in BBC | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
ACLU Tries to Save Prom For Lesbian Couple
Mississippi's Itawamba Agricultural High School allegedly cancelled its prom after two lesbian students announced their intention to attend together. The ACLU is preparing for a fight.
Read original story in CNN | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
For Middle Class, Individual Health Insurance "Not a Real Option"
Which is especially terrible considering they are the ones being dropped from employer-sponsored plans faster than any other group.
Read original story in The Huffington Post | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
World Bank Boosts Chinese Growth Forecast
Beijing has set a target growth rate of 8% for 2010, but, with consumption growing strongly, the World Bank anticipates remarkable growth of 9.5% over the year.
Read original story in BBC | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Obama Puts Together NCAA Bracket For Second Year Running
The president has picked Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas State and Villanova as his men's Final Four and Connecticut, Stanford, Tennessee and Notre Dame as his women's.
Read original story in ABC News | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tiger's Return Sends Masters' Ticket Prices Soaring
From $200 to $2,400.
Read original story in TMZ | Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Health Care Callers Swamp Capitol Hill Switchboards
With (hopefully) less than a week to go before the House's final health care reform vote, phone calls and e-mails are pouring in for wavering Democrats, Republicans are readying the post-vote publicity push, and the Chamber of Commerce is looking ahead to November.
Read original story in Talking Points Memo | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Geithner Warns Unemployment Will Stay High in 2010

2010-03-17T16:13:00.001-07:00

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top economic officials in the Obama administration say that, while they expect some improvement this spring, 2010 will probably remain a rough year for Americans looking for work.

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Geithner read a joint statement -- which he prepared with Christina Romer, chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, and Peter Orszag, director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget -- warning that the nation's unemployment rate "is likely to remain elevated for an extended period. The forecast projects that in the fourth quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate will be 8.9%, and that by the fourth quarter of 2012, it will be 7.9%."

Geithner called the current unemployment rate of 9.7% "unacceptable by any metric." He testified that it usually takes the creation of more than 100,000 jobs per month to bring the unemployment rate down; the administration foresees job creation averaging 100,000 for the rest of 2010 -- but doesn't expect it to substantially exceed that. In fact, Geithner said, the jobless rate might even rise slightly over the next few months, as unemployed workers attempt to return to the labor force.

However, he said, the Obama administration's actions have kept the United States from slipping into a "second Great Depression."

"The worst now appears to be behind us," said Geithner. "However, the country faces significant and ongoing challenges: high unemployment, the need to build a new and stable foundation for prosperity in the years and decades ahead, and a medium- and long-term fiscal situation that could ultimately undermine future job creation and economic growth. The big problems we face today were all years in the making, and it is our responsibility to address them without delay."

Tagged: unemployment

Absent-mindedness is a middle-aged male problem, research shows

2010-03-16T22:31:00.001-07:00

Women come out best in listening and recollection tests in study by University of London's Institute of Education

A study has shown that older men are more susceptible to absent-mindedness than women. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

It's been an endless source of aggravation between the sexes; how can men so easily forget birthdays, anniversaries, and even friends' names?

Not, it seems, because they cannot be bothered to remember. Research suggests that, in middle age at least, absent-minded-ness is a particularly male problem.

At the age of 50, women's verbal memory outperforms their male counterparts by a significant margin, a report by the Institute of Education, University of London suggests.

A survey of more than 9,600 middle-aged British men and women showed that women outscored men in two listening and recollection tests.

"Men performed significantly more poorly in the verbal memory tests: particularly on the delayed memory test," the authors, Matthew Brown and Brian Dodgeon, said.

"This was quite a surprising result, since women turning 50 tend to do worse: another study has shown that during the menopause women do not do so well."

Participants in the first test listened to 10 common words being read out and were then given two minutes to recall as many as possible. The second test required them to list the same 10 words about five minutes later. Women scored almost 5% more than men, on average, in the first test, and nearly 8% more in the second.

Women were less accurate in a third test requiring them to cross out as many "Ps" and "Ws" as possible in a page filled with rows of random letters. They had, however, scanned letters faster than men.

In a fourth test, naming as many animals as they could in a minute, men and women had identical scores. Each could name 22 animals, on average. The study did not test whether men are better than women at recalling numbers; previous studies have shown that women tend to do better on word recognition tests.

Those tested were members of the National Child Development Study who have been tracked since their birth in 1958. They were tested at age 16, and the latest tests will help estimate the impact that exercise, diet, smoking, alcohol and depression have had on mental abilities. Initial analysis shows those who exercised at least once a month did better on all tests, on average, than those who did not. Non-smokers, including ex-smokers, also outscored smokers in the first of the "word recall" tests, even after social background was taken into consideration.

"Although measuring gender differences was not the central purpose of tests, the differences between men and women were interesting," the authors said.

26 students, teachers killed in bus accident in India

2010-03-16T22:28:00.001-07:00

NEW DELHI - Twenty-six college students and teachers were killed while 29 were injured in a bus accident early Monday morning in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, reported local TV channel CNN-IBN.

The students were returning from a picnic in Mathura of the temple town of Vridavan in Uttar Pradesh, northern India, to Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan, said the report.

The accident took place at a bridge when the bus collided with another vehicle. The bus fell off from the bridge.

Road accident rate in India is among the highest in the world with at least 100,000 killed each year on the road. Reckless driving and lack of enough traffic law enforcers and guide signs are blamed for the high death rate.

Thai protesters collect blood for message

2010-03-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Anti-government protesters poured a small amount of blood at the headquarters of the government in Bangkok on Tuesday, but the demonstration did not live up to their threat to douse the ministers' offices in blood.

The protesters had launched a blood drive earlier to collect enough samples for the demonstration.

Thousands of "red shirts" -- so named for their clothing -- held out their forearms to allow their compatriots to draw blood.

The protesters intended to collect 1,000 liters (1 million cubic centimeters) and then throw the blood on the grounds of the Government House, which houses ministerial offices, at 6 p.m. (7 a.m. ET).

"Red shirts" rally in Bangkok: Share your photos

If Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva still refuses to dissolve parliament, the demonstrators said they will collect another 1,000 liters of blood Wednesday and splash it on the headquarters of the ruling party.

Video: Blood spill protest thwarted

Video: PM rejects 'Red Shirt' demand

RELATED TOPICS

The next day, they will collect 1,000 more liters and target the prime minister's residence, the demonstrators said.

What are the protests about?

Abhisit has repeatedly said he will listen to the protesters but will not accede to their demands.

The anti-government demonstrations began Friday. By Sunday, tens of thousands of protesters had poured into the center of Bangkok.

The rallies have been largely peaceful. Abhisit has said his government will not use force to quell the demonstrations.

The nation's tourism minister estimated the demonstrations might have resulted in a 20 percent drop in tourists. The impact on Chinese visitors appears to have been greater, with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce reporting a 50 percent cancellation rate.

The protesters are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006.

Thaksin was the only Thai prime minister to serve a full term and remains hugely popular.

He fled the country in 2008 while facing trial on corruption charges that he says were politically motivated.

The protesters say Abhisit was not democratically elected and have demanded that he call new elections.

Since Thaksin's ouster, Thailand has endured widespread political unrest that has pitted Thaksin loyalists against Abhisit supporters.

Two people were killed and at least 135 wounded in riots in April 2009 when protesters clashed with demonstrators supporting the government.

Today news

2010-03-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Justice Stevens Will Retire Before Obama Leaves Office
And possibly as soon as this year.
Read original story in The New Yorker | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Obese Woman Wants to Gain Another 400 Pounds
Donna Simpson, who makes a living by appearing on a site where visitors pay to watch her eat, considers herself normal and healthy. She wants to weigh 1,000 pounds.
Read original story in Fox News | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
HIV Infection Rates Are Up For Gays, Drug Users and Prostitutes
And worse, few are seeking help and professional medical treatment because of criminal laws.
Read original story in The Associated Press | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Federal Reserve Debates When to Raise Interest Rates
Rates, held at record lows since December 2008, will need to be raised eventually to avoid inflation. The question is when.
Read original story in The Associated Press | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Thai Protesters Give Blood ... To Dump on Ministers' Offices
And if parliament isn't dissolved after the demonstration, the protesters have vowed to keep the blood flowing.
Read original story in CNN | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Stooges, ABBA and Others Join Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
At the Hall's 25th induction ceremony on Monday night, Billie Joe Armstrong, frontman of Green Day, introduced the Stooges' Iggy Pop as "the most controversial singer we will ever see."
Read original story in The New York Times | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
After Cyclone Hits, Fiji Declares State of Emergency
Troops will begin deploying water, food and basic relief supplies immediately.
Read original story in The Associated Press | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Fargo Goes Into Flood-Fighting Mode
With greater preparation, officials believe the Red River will cause less damage this year than it did last year.
Read original story in The Grand Forks Herald | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Michael Jackson Estate Signs Biggest Music Deal Ever
Longtime label Sony has inked a seven-year deal worth up to $250 million to release never-before-heard recordings.
Read original story in TMZ | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
John McCain, Sarah Palin Back Together Again
The long-time Arizona senator will square off against former Congressman JD Hayworth in the state's Republican primary.
Read original story in The Associated Press | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Man Killed By Plane Making Emergency Landing
With an oil leak blocking his field of vision, the plane's pilot was forced to make an emergency landing on the beach when his propeller fell off. He struck a man who was jogging on the beach.
Read original story in The Hilton Head Island Packet | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Even Rielle Hunter Finds the Rielle Hunter Photos "Repulsive"
The former videographer admits to Barbara Walters that posing with Barney and Dora was not such a great idea.
Read original story in Jezebel | Monday, March 15, 2010

Singapore warns of terror threat in Malacca Strait

2010-03-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

Thu Mar 4, 5:00 AM ET

FILE - This May 27, 2004 file photo shows a Singaporean sailor manning a machine gun during a patrol of the waters off Singapore. Singapore's Navy is warning that a terrorist group is planning attacks on oil tankers in the Malacca Straits. According to an advisory issued Wednesday, March 3, 2010, by the Navy's Information Fusion Center seen by The Associated Press, terrorists may also be targeting other vessels in the shipping lane off Malaysia's east coast.

(AP Photo/Ed Wray, File)

By ALEX KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy, Associated Press Writer – Thu Mar 4, 5:27 am ET

SINGAPORE – Singapore's Navy warned that a terrorist group is planning attacks on oil tankers in the Malacca Straits, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Terrorists may also be targeting other vessels in the shipping lane off Malaysia's east coast, according to an advisory issued Wednesday by the Navy's Information Fusion Centre seen by The Associated Press.

"The terrorists' intent is probably to achieve widespread publicity and showcase that it remains a viable group," the Navy advisory said. "However, this information does not preclude possible attacks on other large vessels with dangerous cargo."

The Navy did not say which terrorist group is planning the attacks. Spokesmen at the Defense Ministry and the Information Fusion Centre were not immediately available for comment.

The Malacca Strait is the favorite route of oil shippers between the Persian Gulf and Asian Pacific markets. The strait, just 1.7 miles at its narrowest point, was the second-busiest shipping lane of crude in 2006, with 15 million barrels a day passing through, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

Singapore lies at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula and is home to the world's busiest port.

The Navy said in previous successful terrorist attacks on tankers, small fishing boats or speedboats were used, and these kinds of boats could be used to attack ships in the Malacca Strait.

The Navy, which said it is coordinating with regional partners regarding the threat, recommended ships add lookouts and lighting, avoid fishing areas and maintain a good speed.

News

2010-03-15T16:25:00.001-07:00

Morning Edition

Doctor Blames U.S. Weapons for Birth Defects in Falluja
Locals claim the medium-sized town, where drinking water comes from a river polluted by war fallout, is home to 1,000 birth defects a year.
Read original story in BBC | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Ads Intended to Curb Binge Drinking Cause Binge Drinking
A new study shows that trying to capitalize on feelings of guilt or shame is likely to backfire.
Read original story in Advertising Age | Thursday, March 4, 2010
China Slows Military Growth
The move is seen as an attempt to ease tensions with Taiwan, calm outside fears over China's rapidly growing military and avoid criticism that comes with big budget hikes during a time of economic hardship.
Read original story in AFP | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Singapore: Terrorists Planning Oil Tanker Attack Off Malaysia
The Malacca Straights are one of the busiest shipping lanes for oil, but are especially vulnerable to attack as they are only 1.7 miles wide at their narrowest.
Read original story in The Associated Press | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Earthquake Rocks Taiwan
The 6.4-magnitude quake is the biggest to hit Taiwan's southern region in more than a century. Troops have been dispatched to the area to determine the extent of the damage.
Read original story in Xinhua | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Students Trade Bibles for Porn
Atheist Agenda, a student group on a San Antonio campus, ran a program where people could trade in religious texts in exchange for high-grade pornography.
Read original story in Boing Boing | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Anheuser Busch Posts Huge Profits Despite Zero Growth
Beer executives say global demand for beer is neither growing nor shrinking, but expect to expand operations into emerging economies over the next year.
Read original story in The Associated Press | Thursday, March 4, 2010
New Study Shows Dinosaurs Older Than Thought
Dinosaurs probably walked the earth 10 million years -- during the middle Triassic period -- earlier than originally thought.
Read original story in National Geographic | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Barbara Walters Ends Oscars Special on a High Note
The long-time television personality will air her last -- and, she says, her best -- Oscars special, featuring Sandra Bullock and Mo'Nique, this Sunday.
Read original story in The Associated Press | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Obama to Congress: Finish Your Work
Obama urges the House and the Senate to finish work on health care reform legislation by the end of the month and hints that reconciliation will be used to get fixes to the Senate bill passed in the Senate.
Read original story in The Washington Post | Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Accused of Harrassment, Rep. Eric Massa Announces He Won't Seek Re-Election
The one-term congressman said he was retiring for health reasons, but Politico reports that the married Massa has been accused of sexually harassing a male staffer.
Read original story in Politico | Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Harkin: Senate Dems Will Use Reconciliation To Pass Health Care Reform
After a meeting with the Senate majority leader and five other top Dems, Harkin says the House will vote on the Senate bill and the Senate will fix its legislation via reconciliation.
Read original story in Politico | Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Your request is being processed... Had Sex? Study Finds It Depends Who You Ask

2010-03-08T16:53:00.001-08:00

Let's talk about sex.

But first, it might be useful to define it.

More than a decade after Bill Clinton raised questions over the definition of the word "is," a new study is raising questions over the definition of the term "had sex." If you ask men near the same age bracket as the former president (over 65), 23% wouldn't even count penile-vaginal intercourse.

Research conducted by the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University found "no universal consensus on which behaviors constituted having 'had sex.'" Questions in the telephone survey of 486 random participants asked about different behaviors: manual-genital, oral-genital, penile-vaginal intercourse and penile-anal intercourse. The study also looked at different outcomes and qualifiers, including orgasm in women, ejaculation in men, short duration, or wearing condoms.

For example, 89% of respondents considered penile-vaginal intercourse as having "had sex" only if the male ejaculates. Without any qualifier mentioned, 95% felt that penile-vaginal intercourse counted.

What's the standard for the remaining 5%? Not to mention all those older men?

Perhaps some respondents were in denial, or perhaps researchers were wary of too much information. Either way, the study apparently didn't get that specific. But it did find a need for behavior-specific terminology in certain fields. The institute concluded, "Researchers, educators and medical practitioners should exercise caution and not assume that their own definitions of having 'had sex' are shared by their research participants or patients."

The implications could be significant for anybody who has sexual relations, regardless of how they define it. Brandon Hill, a research associate involved with the study, pointed out that it's common for doctors to ask about a patient's intimate history when treating sexually transmitted diseases. The number of partners can differ with inconsistent definitions.

"There's a vagueness of what sex is in our culture and media," said William L. Yarber, one of the study's co-authors. "If people don't consider certain behaviors sex, they might not think sexual health messages about risk pertain to them. The AIDS epidemic has forced us to be much more specific about behaviors, as far as identifying specific behaviors that put people at risk instead of just sex in general. But there's still room for improvement."

Among the study's other findings about what counts as having "had sex," around 20% didn't count anal sex and around 30% didn't count oral sex:

While 81% considered penile-anal intercourse to be sex, the rate was lower in men aged 18-29 (77%) and far lower in men aged 65 and up (50%);
73% counted receiving oral sex, but only 71% counted giving oral sex -- the response was lower among older and younger men;
Overall, responses were similar among both genders

The study involved 204 men and 282 women in the state of Indiana.

Morning Edition

2010-03-08T16:51:00.000-08:00

Morning Edition

Advisers Will Push Obama to Prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed in Tribunal
Going against Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to try the Sept. 11 mastermind in a New York civilian court may be the key to securing the support needed to finally close Guantanamo Bay.
Read original story in The Washington Post | Friday, March 5, 2010
Man Opens Fire at Pentagon, Injures Two Officers
The officers returned fire, killing the man before he could get past "the first line of defense for the Pentagon."
Read original story in The Washington Post | Friday, March 5, 2010
Rats Trained to Sniff Out Landmines
Locals in Mozambique, only one of many countries afflicted by landmines, call them "Hero Rats," but nobody is willing to pay for their service.
Read original story in BBC | Friday, March 5, 2010
Supporters, Staff Leave Governor Paterson's Side
Drowning in various charges and allegations, Governor Paterson needs his supporters now more than ever. But they're nowhere to be found.
Read original story in Reuters | Friday, March 5, 2010
China Commits to Increased Spending on Social Programs
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao pledged, in an annual policy speech, to work towards closing the growing gap between rich and poor.
Read original story in The Guardian | Friday, March 5, 2010
How Do You Define Sex?
A new study from the Kinsey Institute shows that there is no universal consensus.
Read original story in The Huffington Post | Friday, March 5, 2010
Police: Avoid Mexican Border Cities During Spring Break
The Texas Department of Public Safety made the unprecedented decision to ask students not to visit the dangerous border cities to the south while away from school.
Read original story in CNN | Friday, March 5, 2010
House Passes $15 Billion Job Bill
Already approved in the Senate, the bill is on its way to President Obama's desk just as new unemployment numbers come out.
Read original story in The New York Times | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Steele: "Our Donors Are Compassionate, Concerned Activists"
And we would like them to continue giving us money.
Read original story in Talking Points Memo | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Obama Wants Reform Bill by March 18
Gibbs says Congress is "on schedule" to hold final health care reform votes within two weeks, but the Post isn't buying it.
Read original story in The Washington Post | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Too-Detailed Status Update Scuttles Plans for Israeli Army Raid
An elite unit of the IDF had to suspend a planned arrest operation after a soldier posted details of the plans on Facebook.
Read original story in The Jerusalem Post | Thursday, March 4, 2010
Bison Are No Longer at Home on the Range
With the number of noncommercial bison herds down to 70, conservationists say it's time for a "second recovery" of the American bison.
Read original story in Science Daily | Thursday, March 4, 201

Chile rescues 79 survivors, Bachelet vows to crack down on looting

2010-03-02T23:35:00.000-08:00

A policeman tries to keep order as people run away with looted merchandise in the quake-devastated Concepcion, Chile, March 1, 2010. Chilean security forces Monday arrested dozens of looters in Concepcion as hundreds of looters ransacked shops for food and other goods. The 8.8-magnitude quake occurring Saturday has killed over 700 people in Chile. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

SANTIAGO, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers on Tuesday pulled out 79 survivors and seven bodies from the debris of a collapsed building in earthquake-stricken Concepcion.

Firefighter commander Juan Carlos Subercaseaux told the press that six occupants of the building remain missing.

The eight-story building in downtown Concepcion, which was put into use last year and contains 80 apartments, was turned into a pile of rubble about three stories high by Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Rescuers had feared that most of the trapped occupants might have been killed.

Subercaseaux, whose team just returned from Haiti, attributed the survival of such a large number of occupants to the quake-proof design of the building, which was able to keep space inside the rubble after the structure collapsed.

Concepcion, located on the Pacific coast in northwestern Chile, was the worst-hit city in the massive earthquake that has left nearly 800 people dead.

The Chilean government Tuesday extended an 8 p.m.-to-noon curfew to begin at 6 p.m. to crack down on looting in the city.

Authorities also added three towns, Talca, Cauquenes and Constitucion, to the curfew list to suppress looting in those areas.

President Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday that she will enforce "all the strictness of the law" on those responsible for looting and riots in the earthquake-hit regions.

"We have ordered to carry out with the necessary severity to prevent illegal actions from continuing to happen, and those who do not understand will receive all the strictness of the law," Bachelet said.

She added that the looting and other problems were the "criminal actions of small groups that are causing huge material and human damages."

"It cannot be tolerant that the firemen, who today are fulfilling important rescue works in Concepcion, have to use their resources to fight against a fire in a supermarket, where the goods are valuable resources for the people," Bachelet said.

She said temporary hospitals have been established, and the delivery of food, water, blankets and clothes to the most affected regions has started.

"People probably are always going to feel that we could have done things better," the president said. "But the reality is given the extent (of destruction), it will always be insufficient."

The Army and the Navy of Chile will deploy two frigates, one ship, 11,855 troops, 2,131 marines and 50 planes to provide assistance in the regions of Maule and Bio Bio.

Major supply companies in Chile said Tuesday there was enough food and water for the public as it struggles in the aftermath of the earthquake.

"The main suppliers in the country have necessary reserves and conditions to meet all the national demands," the Trade Union Association of the Supplier Industries (AGIP) said.

AGIP President Vasco Costa said his organization has launched contingency plans to deliver food and drinks according to the special needs of each regions.

The death toll rose to 796 on Tuesday and aftershocks continued to roll through the region.

The government said the number of affected people still stood at 2 million, or one-eighth of the country's total population. Most of the deaths were registered in the Maule region with at least 554 people dead. Some 92 deaths were registered at the Bio Bio region; 48 deaths in the O'Higgins province; 18 deaths in the city of Valparaiso; and 13 deaths in the region of La Araucania.

In the capital city of Santiago, which has a population of 6.2 million, 38 people were known to have died in the quake.

State television reported that more than 300 bodies have been found in a coastal fishing village that was swamped by huge tsunami waves immediately after the earthquake.

Damage from the earthquake so far has been estimated to be up to 30 billion U.S. dollars, or one-fifth of Chile's gross domestic product (GDP).

"I can only say it will be a lot," Bachelet said.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami ravaged towns and cities along a 700-km stretch of Chile's Pacific coast. Downed bridges and damaged or debris-strewn highways made transit difficult if not impossible in many areas.

U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton arrived in Chile on Tuesday to offer relief assistance. She brought with her 20 sets of satellite telephones.

"We stand ready to help in any way that the government of Chile asks us to," Clinton said. "We want to help Chile who has done so much to help others."

Bachelet has asked for field hospitals, water purification systems, field kitchens, mobile bridges and electricity generators among other relief assistance from the international community.

"The government is expecting that these needs will be filled largely through bilateral arrangements and we need to stay within the parameters of what the country has asked for and not to send anything that they didn't ask for," UN deputy emergency relief coordinator Catherine Bragg said in New York.

SANTIAGO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Chile early Saturday has reached 723, the Chilean government said on Monday. Full story

Plane carrying aid to Chilean city crashes, killing 6 people

SANTIAGO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed Monday when the small plane they were on board crashed while carrying aid to Chilean city Concepcion, which was hit hard by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake early Saturday, local officials said. Full story

Int'l community promises new aid to Chile, looting occurs in quake-hit zones

CONCEPCION, Chile, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The international community has promised aid to Chile, where an 8.8-magnitude quake hit its second largest city of Concepcion that has left more than 711 people dead, while rescuers are desperately trying to find more survivors within the first 72 hours after the quake. Full story

Chilean security forces arrest dozens of post-quake looters

CONCEPCION, Chile, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Chilean security forces Monday arrested dozens of looters in quake-hit Concepcion, the country's second biggest city. Full story

Fresh aftershock jolts Chile, curfew, rescue underway

SANTIAGO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A powerful 6.2-magnitude aftershock hit central Chile late Sunday, the latest after a massive 8.8-degree earthquake rattled the country early Saturday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Full story

The PS3 Problem: How Sony Got Scooped By Its Own Users

2010-03-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

When a problem was discovered in Sony's PS3 consoles, the company's official response was lacking.

Jared Newman, Technologizer

You know things are bad when Sony tells Playstation 3 owners not to turn on their consoles for fear of data loss, but they're even worse when the warning comes 16 hours, and an entire night, after the company first acknowledged problems with the Playstation Network.

Yesterday, Sony announced that PS3 consoles, with the exception of the new PS3 Slim, were unable to connect with the Playstation Network because of a bug in the system's clock. What's worse is that simply turning on the consoles can cause "errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data." As such, Sony advised staying away from the PS3 -- unless you've got a Slim -- until they can fix the problem, hopefully within 24 hours.

As with any tech service outage, it's appropriate to look at whether the official response was adequate. In this case, Sony's clearly was not.

Information moves astoundingly fast in the gaming world. I first got wind of the problem at around 4 p.m. PST, reading a Twitter update from Game Informer's Philip Kollar. His PS3 Trophy information was gone, and he couldn't play any games. That was two hours before Sony itself acknowledged the problem and said it was looking into it.

Before long, Sony's customers blew the story open. Reports of internal clock issues were everywhere, mainly stemming from the popular gaming forum NeoGAF. By midnight, one user had posted a detailed FAQ on who was affected, what to do and what's at risk by turning on your console.

That's exactly what Sony should've done. Instead, the company sat on the issue until Monday morning, when spokesman Patrick Seybold posted a sterile message explaining the errors. The warning to PS3 Fat owners was buried in his blog post. That was the last we heard from Sony. Among the perfectly valid questions that were unanswered: How will a fix will be delivered to people who can't go online? What other data is at risk of being lost? Will people get their trophies back?

Kotaku's reporting that consoles are now coming back to life (but no word from Sony, mind you). Sony still has some explaining to do, and gamers deserve an apology not just for the outage itself, but for being kept in the dark.

AOL reverses steep fourth-quarter loss but revenue drops 17%

2010-02-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

AOL, which gained independence from corporate parent Time Warner in December, is devising a new strategy as a "content- focused company." (Axel Heimken/associated Press)

Reporting quarterly results for the first time in a decade as an independent company, AOL said Wednesday that it earned $1.4 million in the fourth quarter, reversing a steep loss from a year earlier.

The Web publisher, which Time Warner spun off in December, said revenue fell 17 percent in the quarter, to $809.7 million, as sales fell in both of its major businesses lines -- online advertising and dial-up Internet access.

Chief executive Tim Armstrong said in a conference call that the company was emerging from a difficult transitional year, as it gained independence from its former corporate parent, reduced its employee head count and labored to devise a new strategy. In the fourth quarter of 2008, AOL lost $1.93 billion as it recorded a hefty one-time charge.

Discussing the results with analysts during Wednesday's call, Armstrong elaborated on that strategy, calling AOL a "content-focused company." As an example, he pointed to the company's tech news blog, Engadget, as being important enough to its audience of gadget aficionados to attract advertising partners such as Sprint. That blog was also the "official" blog of the recent consumer electronics show, Armstrong said.

In an interview Wednesday, Armstrong characterized the quarter in relatively positive terms. "I wouldn't consider it 'winning' for us," he said, "but in terms of getting us back on track, I think it was a very good place for us to start."

AOL said its ranks of dial-up subscribers fell 27 percent from a year earlier, continuing a long shift away from its roots as an Internet-access portal. Now based in New York, the company maintains a significant presence in Dulles, where it formerly had its headquarters.

Armstrong and AOL's chief financial officer, Artie Minson, said during the call that the company is anticipating that its subscriber numbers will continue to shrink and is betting it will be able to rebuild itself largely based off of a portfolio of sites that have an ardent following.

"It's a strategy that we're all very passionate about," Armstrong said. "We put the heartbeat and the will to win back in AOL."

To bolster the content available on its collection of sites, AOL acquired last month a Nashville-based video production firm, StudioNow, for $36.5 million, paid in cash and AOL stock.

Tech industry analyst Roger Kay gave Armstrong and the company a mixed report card. "I've got to give him some credit for doing as well as he did," Kay said.

Still, Kay was skeptical of AOL's new strategy as a Web publisher, given that the company never benefited from its years as a part of Time Warner, a company with ample supplies on the content front. "They couldn't get content from a professional provider; now they're going to do that on their own? I'd say the odds are against them."

Last month, AOL laid off 1,000 workers as part of a corporate plan to reduce its head count by a third. The company said Wednesday that it will close more of its overseas offices in the coming year.

Shares of AOL rose 2.4 percent to close at $25.23 Wednesday.

Google Buzz takes on Facebook and Twitter

2010-02-09T21:33:00.001-08:00

Google has launched a new tool that will allow users of its email service to share their feelings with other users, in an effort to take on social networking giants Facebook and Twitter head-on.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin on hand for the launch of Google Buzz Photo: REUTERS

Google Buzz, as the new application is called, essentially allows Gmail users to write status updates which other users can see, but goes further by allowing them to aggregate other services in an attempt to make it easier to operate in the increasingly frustrating information-heavy online environment.

It is a significant expansion of a feature currently available in Gmail where users can write small status updates in its chat function which can be seen only by friends.

Buzz goes a number of steps further, however, by allowing users to create a Google profile page, which can be seen not just by friends but by the entire web if so desired, and will guide users to follow the people they email and chat with the most.

It will also allows posts to include links, YouTube videos, pictures from Google's Picasa hosting service.

Buzz also sends replies to status updates straight into a user's Gmail inbox, meaning less toggling between various browser windows, and allows an individual to connect social networking feeds from Twitter and Flickr into one place.

"The stream of messages has become a torrent," said Bradley Horowitz, Google's vice-president of product development. "There is no way to parse that amount of information that ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. We think this has become a Google-scale problem."

However there are some significant drawbacks, not least the current inability at launch to connect Buzz with Facebook, and the fact that although an update written in Buzz will be 'tweeted' to a person's followers, followers' replies to that update will not be seen in Buzz.

Google will bring its own unique sense of ranking to the social networking world, however, in particular flagging up updates from friends that have been commented upon or 'liked' by others, and therefore are deemed more meaningful than someone simply saying what they had for their lunch.

Buzz is in the process of being rolled out to all Gmail users, with no final date by which all account holders will be able to use it.

Gmail is the third most popular web-based email in the world, with 176.5m unique visitors in December, based on statistics from comScore, which ranks Microsoft's Hotmail number one, with 369.2m unique visitors, and Yahoo Mail second with 303.7m.

Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks

2010-02-09T21:31:00.001-08:00

The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a "wake-up call." Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a "collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners."

But achieving collaboration is not easy, in part because private companies do not trust the government to keep their secrets and in part because of concerns that collaboration can lead to continuous government monitoring of private communications. Privacy advocates, concerned about a repeat of the NSA's warrantless interception of Americans' phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, say information-sharing must be limited and closely overseen.

"The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?" said Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an organization of current and former intelligence and national security officials that seeks ways to foster greater sharing of information between government and industry.

On Jan. 12, Google took the rare step of announcing publicly that its systems had been hacked in a series of intrusions beginning in December.

The intrusions, industry experts said, targeted Google source code -- the programming language underlying Google applications -- and extended to more than 30 other large tech, defense, energy, financial and media companies. The Gmail accounts of human rights activists in Europe, China and the United States were also compromised.

So significant was the attack that Google threatened to shutter its business operation in China if the government did not agree to let the firm operate an uncensored search engine there. That issue is still unresolved.

Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, sources said, but the deal is taking weeks to hammer out, reflecting the sensitivity of the partnership. Any agreement would mark the first time that Google has entered a formal information-sharing relationship with the NSA, sources said. In 2008, the firm stated that it had not cooperated with the NSA in its Terrorist Surveillance Program.

Sources familiar with the new initiative said the focus is not figuring out who was behind the recent cyberattacks -- doing so is a nearly impossible task after the fact -- but building a better defense of Google's networks, or what its technicians call "information assurance."

One senior defense official, while not confirming or denying any agreement the NSA might have with any firm, said: "If a company came to the table and asked for help, I would ask them . . . 'What do you know about what transpired in your system? What deficiencies do you think they took advantage of? Tell me a little bit about what it was they did.' " Sources said the NSA is reaching out to other government agencies that play key roles in the U.S. effort to defend cyberspace and might be able to help in the Google investigation.

These agencies include the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Over the past decade, other Silicon Valley companies have quietly turned to the NSA for guidance in protecting their networks.

"As a general matter," NSA spokeswoman Judi Emmel said, "as part of its information-assurance mission, NSA works with a broad range of commercial partners and research associates to ensure the availability of secure tailored solutions for Department of Defense and national security systems customers."

Despite such precedent, Matthew Aid, an expert on the NSA, said Google's global reach makes it unique.

"When you rise to the level of Google . . . you're looking at a company that has taken great pride in its independence," said Aid, author of "The Secret Sentry," a history of the NSA. "I'm a little uncomfortable with Google cooperating this closely with the nation's largest intelligence agency, even if it's strictly for defensive purposes."

The pact would be aimed at allowing the NSA help Google understand whether it is putting in place the right defenses by evaluating vulnerabilities in hardware and software and to calibrate how sophisticated the adversary is. The agency's expertise is based in part on its analysis of cyber-"signatures" that have been documented in previous attacks and can be used to block future intrusions.

The NSA would also be able to help the firm understand what methods are being used to penetrate its system, the sources said. Google, for its part, may share information on the types of malicious code seen in the attacks -- without disclosing proprietary data about what was taken, which would concern shareholders, sources said.

Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a privacy advocacy group, said companies have statutory authority to share information with the government to protect their rights and property.

Tonight News 5/02/2010

2010-02-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

1) Google to enlist NSA to ward off attacks

The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

2) Biden, off message and spot-on

A defense of stimulus programs turns up the big hidden issue for the 2010 elections.

3) A deficit's demographics

A Nobel laureate economist points out a terrifying truth regarding age and health care.

4) Beneath the 'vegetative state,' scientists find some alert minds

Many of the patients were labeled with the same grim diagnosis: "vegetative state." Their head injuries, teams of specialists had concluded, condemned them to a netherworld -- alive yet utterly devoid of any awareness of the world around them.

5) Criticism of Obama on national security likely to remain big issue

The Obama administration is aggressively pushing back against Republican criticism of its handling of terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, sharpening a partisan debate about national security policy, which is likely to be a major issue throughout the midterm election year.

6) Rand Paul lights a fire under Kentucky GOP

LOUISVILLE -- Rand Paul believes he was born to lead the anti-establishment movement sweeping the GOP.

7) Tai Shan leaves the zoo for China

Tai Shan, the adolescent giant panda who has been a beloved symbol of Washington for the past four years, left town Thursday morning for China after a week of farewells and tearful goodbyes.

8) Obama's spirituality is largely private, but it's influential, advisers say

Every morning, sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m., a short religious passage comes across President Obama's BlackBerry, sent by one of his aides.

9) Children of dead CIA officers try to learn about their work

John F. Sullivan had always wondered about his mother, Leonor E. "Lee" Sullivan, a CIA secretary and translator who died in December at 70, and especially about the strange telephones in their Reston home in the late 1970s and '80s. The Spy Phones, as the family called them, looked like ordinary ...

10) Toyota problem surfaced in 2007

Federal regulators uncovered stark evidence that some Toyota cars accelerated unexpectedly more than two years ago. But neither the government's safety agency nor the automaker apparently recognized at the time how broad the dangers would turn out to be.

Student suicides worry Mumbai educators

2010-02-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

By Mallika Kapur and Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN

Mumbai, India (CNN) -- Mahesh Poddar can barely hold back tears when he talks about his daughter, Mini, who committed suicide when she was 15 years old.

"I have so many wonderful memories of her," he said, before taking a long pause.

Mini, the only child of Mahesh and Sarita Poddar, took her own life in 2001. Her parents said Mini was distraught about college admissions and had just missed out on getting into the college of her choice.

"I don't know why she took this extreme step," said Sarita Poddar.

The Poddars have recently been joined in their grief by other parents: Since the beginning of the year, some 25 students have taken their lives in Mumbai and surrounding areas, and parents, teachers and officials are struggling to understand what is behind the deaths as they try to prevent more.

"It's hard to talk about our experience again and again. But I do it. I do it for my daughter."
--Mahesh Poddar

India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world -- and recent studies suggest about 40 percent are adolescents.

Authorities are organizing counseling sessions, said Sanjay Kumar, education secretary of Maharashtra state, in which Mumbai is located.

In many cases, the trigger appears to be academic pressure. A 13-year-old-boy killed himself after being suspended from school. In several cases, students committed suicide after failing exams, according to local newspaper reports.

India's education system is based on rote learning, or memorization, with a strong emphasis on scoring high marks. Classrooms are typically places filled with boiler cooker pressure.

A Bollywood film that uses this school culture as the backdrop, "3 Idiots," is playing to packed audiences in cinemas across the country.

The film, released in late December, has struck a chord with the Indian public, quickly becoming the highest grossing film in the history of Bollywood.

"If I have to pinpoint a period in my life which has been most stressful, it was my 12th standard exams (school leaving exams for 16, 17 or 18 year olds)," said Rajkumar Hirani, the film's director. "So I wanted to say something about it. The pressure is killing students."

Dr. Harish Shetty, a psychiatrist, said the message of the film was real. He attributes the recent spate of suicides to rapid changes in India's social and economic landscape, which has led to a breakdown of the traditional family structure.

"In the past, kids had more free time with their parents and teachers. In the past, kids did not have to struggle to get admission into colleges. In the past, kids had better resilience. All these factors have been affected by the changes India has gone through since the 1980s," he said, referring to the onset of the country's economic liberalization.

The suicides were a wake-up call for educators, said Sangeeta Srivastava, principal of Sardar Vallabhai Patel Vidyala, a government school in North Mumbai.

Though none of the recent suicide cases in the city involved students from her school, she is worried. Recently, a student from her school ran away from home before exams.

"As teachers, we have a lot of effect on the students, even more than parents do," she said.

Srivastava was one of the first school principals in the city to host a counseling session by a suicide prevention program, called "Life Is Beautiful," for her teachers.

The program is backed by Mumbai's municipal authority and the Bombay Psychiatry Society. It aims to help teachers identify suicidal tendencies in a child.

Aamir Khan, the star of "3 Idiots," is part of this campaign -- as is Mahesh Poddar. He goes from school to school, telling teachers and students about his experience.

Sometimes, he takes his along his seven-year-old son, whom the couple adopted a year after Mini died. "We were finished. He's rekindled our lives," Mahesh Poddar said of his son.

On his work with schools, he added: "It's hard to talk about our experience again and again. But I do it. I do it for my daughter."

Harmeet Shah Singh reported on this story from New Delhi, India

Today 5/02/2010

2010-02-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS
AIG to pay $100 million in new round of bonuses
American International Group plans Wednesday to pay another round of employee bonuses, worth about $100 million, said several people familiar with the matter, a year after similar payments at the bailed-out insurance giant infuriated many Americans and inflamed Washington.
(By Brady Dennis, The Washington Post)

Kirk, Giannoulias win Illinois' Senate primaries for Obama's old seat
Gubernatorial elections remain too close to call with nearly all votes in
(By Lois Romano, The Washington Post)

Man held in bomb attempt said to be cooperating
Result counters recent criticism of the case's handling
(By Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post)

Oscar's wide embrace for Best Picture
Academy is bringing 10 nominees instead of five to the dance this year
(By Dan Zak and Jen Chaney, The Washington Post)

More Today's Highlights

POLITICS
Investigators cast eye to electronic throttles
Federal regulators have launched an inquiry into whether engine electronics caused vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly as legislators and experts on Tuesday cast doubt on Toyota's explanation of its "runaway cars."
(By Peter Whoriskey and Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post)

Trade group: Community banks need federal aid
Obama's plan to spur small-business lending is still taking shape
(By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho, The Washington Post)

Kirk, Giannoulias win Illinois' Senate primaries for Obama's old seat
Gubernatorial elections remain too close to call with nearly all votes in
(By Lois Romano, The Washington Post)

Man held in bomb attempt said to be cooperating
Result counters recent criticism of the case's handling
(By Carrie Johnson, The Washington Post)

Volcker presses for banking rules
Some senators say plans could threaten ongoing reform efforts
(By Brady Dennis, The Washington Post)

More Politics
NATION
Pentagon backs gays serving openly in military
The Pentagon's top leaders declared Tuesday for the first time that -- after decades of opposition and equivocation from the armed forces -- they support an end to the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military.
(By Craig Whitlock and Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post)

Officials warn of looming terror risk
(By Joby Warrick, The Washington Post)

Removing the cloak from families' past
Children of CIA officers left to decipher mystery after their parents die
(By Ian Shapira, The Washington Post)

A middle-class president's paradox
Despite his roots, Obama has struggled to show that he's connected to 'everyday Americans'
(By Eli Saslow, The Washington Post)

Investigators cast eye to electronic throttles
Some think systems could be to blame for 'runaway' Toyotas
(By Peter Whoriskey and Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post)

More Nation

WORLD
Proposed arms sale to Russia criticized
PARIS -- When the French navy's 23,700-ton Mistral-class amphibious assault ship dropped anchor in St. Petersburg's frigid harbor Nov. 23, it was doing more than paying a friendly visit to the Russians.
(By Edward Cody, The Washington Post)

Ahmadinejad backs deal to remove uranium
U.S. REACTS CAUTIOUSLY
Iran formally rejected proposal weeks ago
(By Thomas Erdbrink and Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post)

For children in Port-au-Prince, 'every day it is worse'
Medical teams launch vaccination effort; food, shelter remain scarce
(By Peter Slevin, The Washington Post)

Drop cited in recidivism among former detainees
Guantanamo review process better since Bush era, official says
(By Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post)

POLITICS DIGEST
(The Washington Post)

More World

METRO
Victory for NAACP in racial-profiling case
The state's second-highest court handed the NAACP a victory Tuesday in the long-running "driving while black" issue, ordering the Maryland State Police to turn over records showing how the department dealt with complaints of racial profiling by its troopers.
(By Andrea F. Siegel, The Washington Post)

Howard council approves plan to redevelop Columbia
(By Larry Carson, The Washington Post)

Removing the cloak from families' past
Children of CIA officers left to decipher mystery after their parents die
(By Ian Shapira, The Washington Post)

Religious leaders worry that Obama's faith council is for show
(By Michelle Boorstein and William Wan, The Washington Post)

LOTTERIES
February 2
(The Washington Post)

More Metro

BUSINESS
Investigators cast eye to electronic throttles
Federal regulators have launched an inquiry into whether engine electronics caused vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly as legislators and experts on Tuesday cast doubt on Toyota's explanation of its "runaway cars."
(By Peter Whoriskey and Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post)

Dour forecast underpins budget plan
IN ESTIMATES, A SLOW RECOVERY
Jobs prediction is starkest at White House
(By Neil Irwin, The Washington Post)

Trade group: Community banks need federal aid
Obama's plan to spur small-business lending is still taking shape
(By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho, The Washington Post)

D.C. jobless rate drives up overall number for region
Council bill would provide tax incentive to small business that hire
(By V. Dion Haynes, The Washington Post)

Officials warn of looming terror risk
(By Joby Warrick, The Washington Post)

More Business
TECHNOLOGY
Hill testimony planned on NBC-Comcast deal
(By Reuters, Reuters)

Investigators cast eye to electronic throttles
Some think systems could be to blame for 'runaway' Toyotas
(By Peter Whoriskey and Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post)

More Technology

SPORTS
Area previews
Virginia hosts N.C. State, surging George Mason travels to Georgia State and slumping GW heads to Charlotte in area college basketball action Wednesday.
(The Washington Post)

Brees was nearly a saint elsewhere
The Dolphins could have had the quarterback. Instead he's the savior in New Orleans.
(By Mark Maske, The Washington Post)

Streak cred
CAPS WIN CLUB RECORD 11TH STRAIGHT
Washington scores three goals in third period to pull away, 4-1
(By Tarik El-Bashir, The Washington Post)

Portis anticipates a strong return
Head injury cost Redskins running back eight games, but he's excited to play again
(By Rick Maese, The Washington Post)

Healthy Miller fulfills expectations for Wizards
(By Gene Wang, The Washington Post)

More Sports

STYLE
Oscar's wide embrace for Best Picture
The dance floor is packed, kids. It's hot and sweaty out here, in this mosh pit of Na'vi and Nazis. This is what happens when you let nearly everyone into the party, which is what the Academy did Tuesday morning when it announced its Best Picture nominees (10 instead of the usual five). How are we...
(By Dan Zak and Jen Chaney, The Washington Post)

Lafayette's 'Armide': A steal at the price
(By Anne Midgette, The Washington Post)

'Grease' is still the word (even if it's cleaned up)
(By Jane Horwitz, The Washington Post)

Euripides reimagined: A tragedy and a romp
(By Celia Wren, The Washington Post)

In 'Collection,' a rich eccentric, an art world spat
(By Nelson Pressley, The Washington Post)

More Style

LIVE DISCUSSIONS
The 'Lost' Hour: Season 6 Premiere
Join Liz Kelly and Jen Chaney, authors of the Post's "Lost" dueling analysis and both obsessive "Lost" fans, as they try to get to the bottom of the show's mysteries -- Wednesdays at 2 p.m. ET.
(Jen Chaney and Liz Kelly, washingtonpost.com)

Free Range on Food: Staffers solve your cooking conundrums
(The Food Section, washingtonpost.com)

The Reliable Source: Miss Virginia, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Rhee, John Edwards, Carlos Allen, Kristini Bell, more
(Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, washingtonpost.com)

Pearlstein: How the iPad impacts new media business models
(Steven Pearlstein, washingtonpost.com)

Post Politics Hour
(Scott Wilson, washingtonpost.com)

More Live Discussions
Rebuilding Haiti
THE MASSIVE international response to Haiti's earthquake has brought more than $2 billion in aid to the stricken Caribbean nation, by the United Nations' reckoning. That's a stunning figure, but it comes with a giant asterisk: So far, the vast majority of the aid, more than 85 percent, has been...
(The Washington Post)

Farm farce
Agri-hypocrites on the loose
(The Washington Post)

The forgotten threat
The Obama administration and al-Qaeda's quest for biological weapons
(The Washington Post)

Children suffering health problems in Port-au-Prince camps

2010-02-04T16:12:00.000-08:00

Major earthquake hits Haiti

This gallery collects all of our photos of the crisis in Haiti, starting with the most recent images and going back to the first photos that emerged after an earthquake hit the impoverished nation Jan. 12.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Children are increasingly suffering health problems in Port-au-Prince's crowded encampments, say international medical workers, who predict the situation will worsen as Haiti continues to reel from the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Food remains scarce, water is often impure and thousands upon thousands of families are living side by side in makeshift shelters that rarely consist of more than a synthetic tarpaulin and walls of thin cloth.

Worried about the potential for disease, medical teams launched a major campaign Tuesday to vaccinate children in the capital.

In a project expected to last about two weeks, the goal is to protect as many as several hundred thousand children against measles, tetanus and diphtheria, UNICEF spokeswoman Roshan Khadivi said.

"Every day it is worse," said Pino Gonzalez, a Médecins du Monde nurse working with children at a sweltering encampment on Toussaint L'Ouverture Boulevard, about a mile from the Port-au-Prince airport. "If you go more and more days without food, water or shelter, it can only get worse."

U.S. officials said Tuesday that three weeks after the earthquake destroyed Haiti's capital, international food aid had reached at least 1 million people -- but another million were estimated to need such assistance. At least 70,000 families who lost their homes had received plastic sheeting, tents or shelter materials, but at least 170,000 more required help, they said.

"We are in an emergency relief situation, and we will continue to be in an emergency relief situation for many weeks to come," Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told reporters in Washington.

He said, however, that water distribution had been a "success story." People who had no access to international food aid appeared to be getting by through scavenging, buying goods in markets and other means.

International food trucks have not stopped in the Toussaint L'Ouverture Boulevard camp, where a citizens' committee estimates that 12,000 suddenly homeless people have taken refuge. Nor has there been other help.

"We have asked," Médecins du Monde physician Philippe Rodier said, "but the problem is so enormous for the resources available."

By midweek, officials estimated, daily food deliveries will be underway in 16 places in Port-au-Prince, including gang-wracked Cité Soleil. The effort is scheduled to reach 2 million people in 15 days. Army Col. Gregory Kane called it the U.N. World Food Program's "surge."

"Things are getting better, but the needs are immense," said David Meltzer, the American Red Cross's senior vice president for international services. "It will be years. Three weeks into it, it's still very early to see what the recovery will look like."

The Haitian government estimates that 200,000 children younger than 7 are in temporary camps.

An American doctor working in a triage tent in the courtyard of the State University Hospital of Haiti said Tuesday that child illnesses "connected to crowding" there are growing. He cited meningitis and intestinal disorders exacerbated by the heat and a shortage of food and clean water.

"They're outside. There's inadequate shelter," said Rashid Kysia, a Chicago emergency room doctor. "When you crowd like this, you get diarrhea and dehydration. They can't catch up."

For the children in the teeming settlements, there are no organized activities and precious few toys. There are no schools. A half-dozen boys at the camp on Toussaint L'Ouverture Boulevard flew kites they had fashioned from pieces of plastic shopping bags.

The camp, which sprawls over a dusty hill across from a closed car dealership, continues to grow, said Boussico Pierre-Louis, an engineer and leader of a citizens' committee that keeps order.

"In every tent, there's a group of about 10 people, and of those 10, about four are kids. There are a lot of kids who are sleeping at night without tents," he said as he maneuvered along narrow paths. "They lost everything."

Food deliveries, still sporadic, have missed this encampment, although relief trucks and international soldiers rumble along the main street next to the camp from dawn until dusk.

"Sometimes I spend several days without eating," said Myrlande Casimir, who is breast-feeding her 3-month-old son, Daniel. She shares a dirt floor in a cloth enclosure with 11 others.

Several tents away, two of Kivier Bazelais's five children have rashes and sores on their dust-covered skin.

His house crumbled in the earthquake. Anything less severe, he said, and "I would take the risk and stay under it. It would be much better than staying here."

A further concern for children is psychological damage. Many have lost relatives and friends. Older children have seen their schools and homes destroyed.

"They have lost security, love and protection," said Marlene Goodfriend, a pediatric psychiatrist at the University of Florida at Jacksonville who has worked in Haiti. "The psychological effects can be profound, and many of these children will manifest symptoms of stress and possibly post-traumatic stress syndrome."

Jacklin Blaise's concerns are more immediate. Holding his 1-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, named after the late pop singer, he said she coughs through the night and sleeps little: "She got sick when we came here. The wind, the dust. The kids are under the sun."

"If by any chance it rains," Blaise said, "we will all be victims again."

Staff writers Mary Beth Sheridan and Annie Gowen in Washington contributed to this report.

Pakistan bomb kills 3 U.S. soldiers, 3 children

2010-02-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

Bomb hits Pakistan convoy, destroys girls' school

A police officer looks at the remains of a vehicle destroyed by a bomb explosion in Lower Dir, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Three U.S. soldiers, three schoolchildren and a Pakistani soldier were killed. (Naveed Ali/Associated Press)Three American soldiers, a Pakistani soldier and three children from a girls' school were killed in a bomb blast in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said.

The bomb struck a security convoy as it travelled past the school celebrating its opening in the Lower Dir region, not far from the Afghan border.

At least 100 people were wounded, including two U.S. soldiers and dozens of schoolchildren, according to army officials and police chief Mumtaz Zarin Khan. The U.S. Embassy confirmed the American casualties.

The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a Reuters report.

The bomb destroyed much of the Koto Girls High School, leaving books, bags and pens strewn in the rubble.

"It was a horrible situation," said Mohammad Siddiq, a 40-year-old guard at the school. "Many girls were wounded, crying for help and were trapped in the debris."

The same school was damaged by a militant attack last year.

Girls' schools are a frequent target of the Taliban, who consider female education a violation of Islam. The Taliban banned education for girls and forced working women to return to their homes when the militant Sunni group controlled neighbouring Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

There were conflicting reports about the source of the blast. Some officials said it was a roadside bomb detonated by remote control, while others said it was a suicide car bomb.

An injured student is admitted to hospital Wednesday after a roadside bombing near a girls' school in Lower Dir in northwest Pakistan. (Rohullah Shakir/Associated Press)

Security forces targeted

The region where the blast occurred, near the Swat Valley, was thought to have been largely cleared of militants during last year's military offensive. The Pakistani government has been waging a war against militants believed to be primarily based in the country's tribal regions near the Afghanistan border, though the militants have launched attacks from many regions of the country, often against security and police forces.

The Pakistani army said Sunday it was investigating reports that Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud had died of injuries suffered in a U.S. drone missile strike in mid-January. His death would be an important success for Pakistan, which has been battling the Pakistani Taliban, and the U.S., which blames Mehsud for a recent deadly bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan.

The U.S. soldiers killed and injured in the blast were part of a small group of American service members training the paramilitary Frontier Corps, the local security force in the region, officials said.

American training of Pakistani forces in the region has been ongoing since 2008 but has been little publicized, as Pakistan's government is sensitive to domestic criticism that it is too closely aligned with the United States in its effort to combat militant groups.

China rejects Obama pressure over currency

2010-02-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

A bank clerk transfers stacks of renminbi in a bank in Hefei in central China's Anhui province. File photo: AP.

China lashed back on Thursday at President Barack Obama’s vow to get tougher in currency disputes, saying criticism is unhelpful and insisting exchange controls are not to blame for its trade surplus.

Mr. Obama’s comments on Wednesday could add to strains with Beijing amid tensions over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, Internet censorship and a possible Obama meeting with the Dalai Lama.

“The exchange rate of the renminbi is not the major reason for the Chinese-U.S. trade deficit,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said, referring to the currency, which is also known as the yuan.

Washington and other Chinese trading partners say the yuan is kept undervalued, giving China’s exporters an unfair price advantage and swelling its trade surplus.

“We hope the U.S. side could objectively and rationally see a number of problems in the Chinese-U.S. economic and trade cooperation and appropriately deal with them via negotiation,” Mr. Ma said at a regular news briefing. “Criticism and pressing obviously is not helpful to solving problems.”

China reported a $196 billion global trade surplus last year.

At a meeting with U.S. senators in Washington on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said his administration would take a tougher line with Beijing over trade.

“The approach that we’re taking is to try to get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways,” Mr. Obama said.

“One of the challenges that we’ve got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are artificially deflated in price. That puts us at a huge competitive disadvantage,” he said.

Beijing broke the yuan’s link to the U.S. dollar in 2005 and allowed it to rise by about 20 percent through late 2008. But it has been frozen since then in what economists say is an effort by Beijing to keep its exporters competitive as global demand plunged.

Washington and Beijing also are embroiled in disputes over access to each other’s markets for tires, steel and other goods.

Jacob Zuma admits fathering 20th child

2010-02-04T07:38:00.000-08:00

(Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images)

Jacob Zuma dances at his wedding to latest wife Thobeka Madiba

Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa and probably the world's most famous polygamist, has admitted fathering his 20th child with a woman who is neither one of his three wives nor a fiancée.

Mr Zuma's statement is his first comment on the subject since it was reported last week that he had fathered the child, a girl, with a long-time family friend, who is also the daughter of one of the organisers of this year's World Cup finals.

South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper reported that Sonono Khoza, 39, the divorced daughter of Irvin Khoza, chairman of the country’s 2010 World Cup Organising Committee, had given birth to a girl in October – three months before Mr Zuma married his third wife in a traditional Zulu ceremony.

Critics accuse the 67-year-old President, whose sexual antics appall many liberal Souty Africans and anti-Aids activists, of undermining the country's campaign against Hiv-Aids.

In his statement Mr Zuma attacked his critics, saying: "It is mischievous to argue that I have changed or undermined government's stance on the HIV and Aids campaign.I will not compromise on the campaign. Rather we will intensify our efforts to promote prevention, treatment, research and the fight against the stigma, attached to the epidemic."

His latest child has been registered in the name of Thandekile Matina Zuma, according to the Sunday Times. She is the twentieth to be acknowledged by the President, who is to marry a fourth wife this year.

Brian Sokutu, a spokesman for the African National Congress Party, said that the president's relationship with a fifth woman was not adulterous because Mr Zuma was a polygamist who might have been planning to marry her.

Last month Mr Zuma defended polygamy before a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He dismissed claims that polygamy was unfair to women and said that he treated his wives equally.

"That's my culture. It does not take anything from me, from my political beliefs and everything, including the belief on the equality of women," he told a panel discussion at Davos.

Mr Zuma wed Thobeka Madiba, his third wife, two years after he married Nompumelelo Ntuli. He remains married to Sizakele Khumalo, the most senior wife, whom he wed in 1973. His first wife, Kate Mantsho Zuma, committed suicide in 2000. He divorced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is Home Affairs Minister, in 1998.

He is also engaged to Gloria Bongi Ngema, from Durban, whose family presented gifts to Mr Zuma’s extended family last month.

Mr Khoza, owner of the Soweto-based Orlando Pirates football team, is said to have told family friends that he felt betrayed by Mr Zuma's relationship

India proposes foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan

2010-02-04T07:34:00.001-08:00

I presume if I go to Pakistan, I presume we will hold bilateral talks if there is an opportunity. But remember Saarc is a multilateral forum: Chidambaram.—Photo by Reuters

NEW DELHI: Signalling a thaw in bilateral ties, India has sent a formal proposal to Pakistan for talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries and stressed that it will carry on these discussions with "an open and positive mind".
New Delhi has made it clear that the talks will focus primarily on counter-terrorism, but has indicated "that other issues that will contribute to creating an atmosphere of peace and stability between the two countries will also be raised," well-placed sources said.

"Dates are being discussed for the meeting between the foreign secretaries," the sources said. The response from Islamabad is awaited.

This will be the first meeting between Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir since they met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September last year.

The Indian side has stressed that it will hold "discussions with an open and positive mind," and will not like to prejudge their outcome.

All relevant issues will be discussed, including counter-terrorism, the sources added.

The foreign secretaries are likely to meet after Home Minister P. Chidambaram's expected visit to Islamabad to attend the Feb 26-28 meeting of home/interior ministers of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

This will be the first visit by an Indian minister to Pakistan since 26/11 attacks that suspended the bilateral dialogue and brought ties to an all-time low.

The two sides had decided on limited foreign secretary-level interaction after talks in Sharm el-Sheikh last July to assess actions taken by Pakistan to punish terrorists linked to the Mumbai carnage and in addressing India's concerns on cross-border terror.

A positive assessment by India after the talks between foreign secretaries could set the stage for the meeting between the foreign ministers and prime ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Thimphu April 28-29.

Chidambaram's expected visit to Islamabad, along with the meeting between the foreign secretaries, are seen in Pakistan as clear signals by India to resume the composite dialogue.

India has, however, struck a cautious note and indicated that the resumption of dialogue will depend on Pakistan's concrete actions against the masterminds and perpetrators of the 26/11 carnage.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Wednesday had indicated India's willingness to resume dialogue with Pakistan, saying even a few steps by Islamabad in the Mumbai terror probe will "satisfy" it and will make it easier "to carry on normal business" with the neighbouring country.

India decided to rethink its stance on re-engaging Pakistan after reports of Pakistan's recent actions in the Mumbai terror probe.

Pakistan recently indicated its willingness to accept Indian dossiers, including the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist caught alive during the 26/11 attack, as evidence to prosecute the planners of the carnage. Islamabad also accepted evidence relating to boats used to ferry the attackers from Karachi.

What Exactly Will Happen In 2012?

2010-02-03T23:38:00.001-08:00

2012 is going to be a busy year.

The year 2023 is by many separate accounts seen as being a portal into what some people call the Golden Age. 2012 marks according to the The Mayan Calendar, the ending of time as we know it. The Mayan calendar has proven to be one of the most accurate time keeping systems known to human kind. It has tracked without fail every solar eclipse every lunar eclipse and even takes into account changes in the rotation of the earth and the speed of the rotation of the earth to accommodate for this.

The Maya also predicted that in the year 1996 an inter-dimensional network would be created and that would enable everyone to see and communicate with each other thousands of miles away. Could this be Internet web cams?

Scholars have known for decades that the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan calendar system of timekeeping was set to end precisely on December 21, 2012, the winter solstice. That this system was put in place some 2300 years ago is an astonish fact. How was it that ancient Mesoamerican skywatchers were able to pinpoint a winter solstice that far off into the future?

The book 2012: "Mayan Year of Destiny" claims that the Maya may have been instructed in their wisdom by disembodied entities from Orion and the Pleiades. Contact was maintained through shamanic rituals conducted in accordance with the movements of planets and stars.

2012 is sometimes claimed to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or apocalypse to some). Various sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar occuring on December 21 to mean there will bemajor change in the world order.

Why Did They Choose The Year 2012?

The date December 21st, 2012 A.D. (13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count), represents an extremely close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (Equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun). The ancient Maya recognized this as the "Sacred Tree". This is an event that has been coming into focus very slowly over thousands of years. It will all come to a conclusion at exactly 11:11 am Greenwich Mean Time.

Things That Will Happen in 2012

The works of James Joyce will enter the public domain.

433 Eros, the second-largest Near Earth Object on record is expected to pass by earth in a near miss.

If she is still on the throne, Elizabeth II will celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.

The United States Census of 1940 will be released to the public.

On April 17 The United States will cede control of the military of the Republic of Korea after 50 years of control.

On July 27 the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics will begin in London at 7:30 pm.

On October 19 the Earth will be home to 7 billion people, according to the US Census Bureau.

The Replacement Eastern Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will open to traffic, replacing the old Eastern cantilever span that was damaged in the Earthquake in 1989, almost a quarter century after the span was damaged.

California's ban on the production of foie gras is scheduled to take effect.

NASA's new Orion spacecraft is scheduled to become fully operational for International Space Station support flights.

The Freedom Tower in New York City is scheduled to be finished by 2012 on the site of the World Trade Center.

Charles Manson will be eligible for a parole hearing again.

According to the 1997 book "The Bible Code" certain algorithms of the Bible code reveal that a meteor, asteroid or comet will collide with the earth. Could this be 433 Eros?

The book "The Nostradamus Code" speaks of a series of natural disasters caused by a comet (possibly as above) that will allow the third Antichrist to disperse his troops around the globe under the guise of aid in preparation for a possible nuclear war.

The book "The Orion Prophecy" claims that the earth's magnetic field will reverse.

Some proponents of a peak oil catastrophe place major events in 2012. Richard C. Duncan's book "The Peak of World Oil Production and the Road To The Olduvai Gorge" claims that the Olduvai cliff will begin and permanent blackouts will occur worldwide. Several studies predict a peak in oil production in or around 2012.

Is the clock ticking on the end of the world? Or the end of the world as we know it?

'Climate emails hacked by spies'

2010-02-03T23:30:00.001-08:00

Interception bore hallmarks of foreign intelligence agency, says expert

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

EPA

Dr Rajendra Pachauri

A highly sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia was probably carried out by a foreign intelligence agency, according to the Government's former chief scientist. Sir David King, who was Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser for seven years until 2007, said that the hacking and selective leaking of the unit's emails, going back 13 years, bore all the hallmarks of a co-ordinated intelligence operation – especially given their release just before the Copenhagen climate conference in December.

The emails were stolen from a backup computer server used by the University of East Anglia. They contained private discussions between climate scientists that have embarrassed those involved, particularly Professor Phil Jones, who has stepped down from his post as head of the unit pending an independent inquiry into whether there is any evidence of scientific misconduct. He is not implicated in the hacking.

In an interview with The Independent, Sir David suggested the email leaks were deliberately designed to destabilise Copenhagen and he dismissed the idea that it was a run-of-the-mill hacking. It was carried out by a team of skilled professionals, either on behalf of a foreign government or at the behest of anti-climate change lobbyists in the United States, he said.

"A very clever nerd can cause a great deal of disruption and obviously make intelligence services very nervous, but a sophisticated intelligence operation is capable of yielding the sort of results we've seen here," Sir David said.

"Quite simply, it's the sophistication of the operation. I know there's a possibility that they had a very good hacker working for these people, but it was an extraordinarily sophisticated operation. There are are several bodies of people who could do this sort of work. These are national intelligence agencies and it seems to me that it was the work of such a group of people," he said.

More than 1,000 emails, and some 2,000 documents, were stolen from a university back-up server where remote access is difficult. This represents a small fraction of the total number of emails for the period from 1996 to 2009, suggesting they had been selected for the most incriminating phrases relating to possible scientific misconduct and breaches of the Freedom of Information Act. The leak of the emails in the weeks running up to the climate change conference in Copenhagen appeared to be carefully timed to destabilise the meeting.

"I don't think that it's a coincidence that the stealing of the emails from the individuals involved in East Anglia was put out for publication one month before Copenhagen. That wasn't a coincidence," Sir David said. "The emails date back to 1996, so someone was collecting the data over many years. It looks like possibly the work of an intelligence service. What it was was a very well co-ordinated part of a campaign. It was a difficult piece of work to get that done.

"I've no inside knowledge except for the fact that I did work with our [intelligence] agencies, and the American agencies, that I have some experience," he added.

The existence of the stolen emails came to light on 17 November when someone tried to load them onto the RealClimate website run by climate scientists, including Gavin Schmidt of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr Schmidt said that the hackers were using a legitimate computer based in Turkey as a proxy server but the attack could have been launched from another computer anywhere in the world.

He attempted to disable the hacking operation as it was taking place, but was prevented several times before finally succeeding because the hackers had penetrated deep into the website's database software. This required considerable skill and knowledge which an opportunistic hacker would not have had, he said. "That requires some kind of monitoring-tool set-up and required them to have more access than you would get by simply logging into the blog," Dr Schmidt said.

Two days after the attempted RealClimate hack, the file of stolen emails appeared on a server used by a company called Tomcity operating from the Russian city of Tomsk in Siberia. However, again, the uploading could have been done by someone operating a proxy server anywhere else in the world.

Experts have suggested that loading the email file onto a Tomsk computer server may have been a clumsy attempt to lay a trail to the door of the Russian intelligence service, which has since denied any involvement in the hacking incident. Some commentators in Russia have said that China had more to gain from destabilising the Copenhagen conference than Russia.

Sir David said, however, that it was not possible to dismiss the possibility of Russia's involvement. "If it was a job done on behalf of a government, then I suppose there is the possibility that it could be the Russian intelligence agency," he said.

"If it was a maverick group then I suppose it could be the Americans, but I am hazarding a guess as much as anyone else. The only thing is, I've worked within government and I've seen this in operation," Sir David added. "It was a sophisticated and expensive operation. In terms of the expense, there is the American lobby system which is a very likely source of finance. Right now, the American lobbyists are a very likely source of finance for this, so the finger must point to them," he said.

Norfolk Constabulary is conducting an investigation into the hacking but said yesterday it would not comment on speculation that a foreign intelligence agency was involved. The University of East Anglia also said that it could not comment.

Cyber crime: The 21st century threat

*Espionage once conjured images of lonely spooks on foreign assignations during the height of the Cold War. Not any longer. The rise of capitalism, a free-market economy and an interconnected digital world have changed those terms of engagement.

Last week Hillary Clinton issued a warning to China and Russia to tighten up their internet security amid a growing threat of international cyber crime. "We cannot afford in today's interconnected world to have too many instances ... where companies' accounts can be hacked into," she said. It came after Google threatened to end its operations in China following what it described as a "sophisticated and targeted" cyberattack on Google, Adobe and 20 other US companies.

More recently MI5 has accused China of setting up so-called "honeytraps" with a view to obtaining sensitive commercial secrets from top UK companies. According to The Sunday Times, promotional gifts handed out at business trade shows included cameras and memory sticks have allegedly been found to contain bugs that provide the Chinese with remote access to users' computers.

Estonia, too, has been a victim of cyber crime. In 2007 it was subject to a three-week cyber attack that saw hackers permeate firewalls and infiltrate websites of banks and political institutions, in a move that threatened to wipe out the country's digital infrastructure. Nato has now established a cyber-defence centre in the region and the FBI has despatched a computer security expert.

Last year, Russian hackers were accused of a sophisticated cyber attack which temporarily shut down two social networking sites in order to silence a Georgian blogger critical of Moscow's policies. Kunal Dutta

Dr Rajendra Pachauri

*With his swept-back hair and wispy beard, Dr Rajendra Pachauri looks every inch the climate change visionary. And as chairman of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who accepted a Nobel Peace Prize alongside Al Gore in 2007 he has become an international figurehead in the battle against global warming and one of the most powerful figures at the Copenhagen summit. But a spate of controversy over recent IPCC research papers and a resurgent mood among challengers to the theory of man-made climate change have led many to wonder who, exactly, he is.

According to the "brief" two-page CV on his personal website, Dr Pachauri, 68, juggles his UN role with his position as chief executive of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) which has strong historic ties (although not for the past decade) with the Tata Group, India's largest privately-owned corporation which also owns Jaguar, Land Rover and steelmaker Corus in the UK. His critics say the other high-profile positions he holds – more than 20 – with banks, universities and think tanks could pose potential conflicts of interest with his UN role. Among his many directorships was one from 1999-2003 with the Indian Oil Corporation. Dr Pachauri says he receives no money for these roles.

Yet he began his career as an engineer working with the Diesel Locomotive Works in Varanasi. Today, despite cooling relations with the Government, he is one of India's most famous figures, inhabiting the exclusive Golf Links area of Delhi where Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's richest man, owns a house and where, despite owning his own electric car, he was photographed this week being chauffeur-driven on the one-mile journey to his offices in a 1.8-litre Toyota.

Perhaps most intriguingly, the cricket-loving environmentalist showed yet another side to his personality with the publication this month of a raunchy novel, Return to Almora, about an ageing academic looking back over his spiritual and sexual journey through life. Jonathan Brown

The bottleneck century

2010-02-03T23:28:00.001-08:00

In his documentary What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire filmmaker Tim Bennett notes that many of the book authors now writing about peak oil, climate change, species extinction and myriad other urgent environmental and resource topics usually end their otherwise grim analyses with what he calls "the happy chapter," a chapter with solutions and responses which will supposedly help us to avert catastrophe.

In a new book, Bottleneck: Humanity's Impending Impasse, William Catton, Jr. dispenses with "the happy chapter" altogether and simply gives us the grim prognosis. Human society is now on an unstoppable trajectory for a significant die-off. Catton, author of the well-known classic of human ecology, Overshoot, expects that by 2100 the world population will be smaller, perhaps much smaller, than it is today. We are in what he calls "the bottleneck century." He likens our situation to that of an airplane taking off at nighttime with a crew that is unaware that the runway is too short. The pilot will accelerate the plane as usual expecting a normal takeoff. Unless the pilot somehow receives and believes a warning to brake and reverse the engines quickly, by the time he or she actually sees the end of the runway, it will be too late and the plane will crash.

Well, the warnings have been issued, Catton explains. And, few people believe them. Catton spends much of the book explaining why this is so. As you read his explanation, it becomes clear why there will be no "happy chapter" at the end.

The main culprit, according to Catton, is the division of labor into ever smaller occupational niches. The marvel of such a system is that people who know nothing about one another's occupation can cooperate through the miracle of the marketplace to increase society's overall productivity and wealth. And, they can exchange every kind of good or service through the medium of money. The downside of such a complex and finely differentiated system is that no one can really understand it.

That might not matter so much except that fossil fuels have enabled humans to increase both their numbers and per capita consumption enormously in the last 200 years. The impact of that vast increase on the world's renewable and nonrenewable resources has been profound. It has lead to all the effects mentioned above and many others including deforestation, heavy erosion of farmland, toxic pollution of air and water, and overharvesting of fisheries.

But how does our complex division of labor make it more difficult to respond to these problems? First, we cannot make an independent appraisal of these problems because of our limited knowledge, mostly confined to our occupational niches. As a result we must rely on experts.

This leads to the second difficulty. We are often faced with competing opinions among experts. Never mind that some of these experts are merely paid spokespersons for the fossil fuel industry or for big agribusiness or for the forestry industry. Without careful discernment, most of the public has difficulty differentiating scientifically-based statements from mere polemic and outright falsehood. The mass media thus becomes a conduit for propagating bad or at least inconclusive information. In short, the feedback we humans need to in order to run our society in a sustainable way is dangerously lacking.

Because language is the way humans coordinate much of their activity--especially in our complex society of highly differentiated occupations--when that language becomes corrupted or is used to deceive, it works against the survivability of the species. One problem is that we have outdated wordmaps which tell us, for instance, that natural resource extraction is really "production" and can therefore be expanded as necessary whenever we like. And, we believe we can throw things "away," when there really never has been any "away." We "throw away" our carbon emissions into the atmosphere and produce global warming. We "throw away" our toxic chemicals into landfills which then leak into our waterways.

Third, since nearly all humans now labor in exceedingly narrow occupational niches, they seek to maintain those niches by competing with others. The famed sociologist Emile Durkheim hypothesized that division of labor would create solidarity among humans through interdependence. Instead, it has created the alienation and competition that go hand-in-hand with the dominance of the market system in nearly every economic transaction. Most humans now believe their lives are about acquiring money rather than resources since for so many money is the only gateway to the resources they need. This financializes their thinking and makes it difficult to talk about Earth systems in some other context than the market.

Fourth, human beings evolve in response to current conditions, not future ones. Humans are known to discount possible future events greatly. This puts their focus on what they are experiencing right now and makes them vulnerable to large, abrupt changes since their inclination to prepare for future changes is exceedingly limited.

The competitive and impersonal nature of modern society, the corruption of language and control of mass communication by vested interests, and the focus of humans on the here and now combine to make it all but impossible to coordinate human efforts worldwide in the thoroughgoing way that would be required to avoid the bottleneck. Those efforts would have to include an immediate drop in fertility rates below replacement, a vast reduction in the consumption of natural resources, and the complete abandonment of the burning of fossil fuels. You can see why Catton thinks such developments must be placed in the "impossible" category.

None of these main points are dealt with systematically in the book, but appear and reappear in various contexts. Catton could have used an editor to help him organize his message and make it more succinct and focused. For example, the many personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout the text seem as if they could have been eliminated or at least been more sharply written. The failure of style in this book may result from it being self-published. But I can understand Catton's urgency. At 84 he may have felt that he didn't want to wait to line up a regular publisher.

Still, despite Catton's discursive style, the reader will be rewarded with his subtle insights into the nexus between nature and human society. Rather than giving us a catalogue of our depleted resources; our poisoned water, food and air; or the data behind our endangered climate, he assumes all of this and tells us why human beings are unlikely to respond to these problems and therefore seem almost certain to face a bottleneck in this century. For those who have read his marvelous book Overshoot, this new book will not seem as challenging as it otherwise might be.

"Bottleneck" ends with a disheartening message for it suggests that there is no alternative but to prepare for the bottleneck. Catton is nevertheless explicit about the advantages of knowing the worst rather than living in any temporary blissful ignorance. He does not believe humans will be wiped out, but rather that their numbers will be considerably reduced and their societies simplified. If his book contributes to some form of ecological awareness that can be transmitted beyond the bottleneck, then he says he will consider it a success. It's an oddly humble objective for a book so sweeping in its conclusions.

Pentagon to rank global warming as destabilising force

2010-02-03T23:26:00.001-08:00

US defence review says military planners should factor climate change into long-term strategy

A fisherman in the dried reservoir of Lam Takhong Dam, Thailand, a consequence of global warming.The Pentagon says climate change does not cause conflict but it could act as an accelerant. Photograph: Vinay Dithajohn/EPA

The Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilising force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The quadrennial defence review, prepared by the Pentagon to update Congress on its security vision, will direct military planners to keep track of the latest climate science, and to factor global warming into their long term strategic planning.

"While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world," said a draft of the review seen by the Guardian.

Heatwaves and freak storms could put increasing demand on the US military to respond to humanitarian crises or natural disaster. But troops could feel the effects of climate change even more directly, the draft says.

More than 30 US bases are threatened by rising sea levels. It ordered the Pentagon to review the risks posed to installations, and to combat troops by a potential increase in severe heatwaves and fires.

The review's release coincides with a sharpening focus in the American defence establishment about global warming – even though polls last week showed the public increasingly less concerned.

The CIA late last year established a centre to collect intelligence on climate change. Earlier this month, CIA officials sent emails to environmental experts in Washington seeking their views on climate change impacts around the world, and how the agency could keep tabs on what actions countries were taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The CIA has also restarted a programme – scrapped by George Bush – that allowed scientists and spies to share satellite images of glaciers and Arctic sea ice.

That suggests climate change is here to stay as a topic of concern for the Pentagon.

The Pentagon, in acknowledging the threat of global warming, will now have to factor climate change into war game exercises and long-term security assessments of badly affected regions such as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

Military planners will have to factor climate change into war game exercises and long-term security assessments of badly affected regions such as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

"The leadership of the Pentagon has very strongly indicated that they do consider climate change to be a national security issue," said Christine Parthemore, an analyst at the Centre for a New American Security, who has been studying the Pentagon's evolving views on climate change. "They are considering climate change on a par with the political and economic factors as the key drivers that are shaping the world."

Awareness of climate change and its impact on threat levels and military capability had been slowly percolating through the ranks since 2008 when then Senators Hillary Clinton and John Warner pushed the Pentagon to look specifically at the impact of global warming in its next long-term review.

But the navy was already alive to the potential threat, with melting sea ice in the Arctic opening up a new security province. The changing chemistry of the oceans, because of global warming, is also playing havoc with submarine sonar, a report last year from the CNAS warned.

US soldiers and marines, meanwhile, were getting a hard lesson in the dangers of energy insecurity on the battlefield, where attacks on supply convoys in Afghanistan and Iraq inflicted heavy casualties.

"Our dependence on fuel adds significant cost and puts US soldiers and contractors at risk," said Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of defence for the environment. "Energy can be a matter of life and death and we have seen dramatically in Iraq and Afghanistan the cost of heavy reliance on fossil fuels."

She told a conference call on Friday the Pentagon would seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions from non-combat operations by 34% from 2008 levels by 2020, in line with similar cuts by the rest of the federal government.

In addition to the threat of global warming, she said the Pentagon was concerned that US military bases in America were vulnerable because of their reliance on the electric grid to cyber attack and overload in case of a natural disaster.

The US air force, in response, has built up America's biggest solar battery array in Nevada, and is testing jet fighter engines on biofuels. The Marine Corps may soon start drilling its own wells to eliminate the need to truck in bottled water in response to recommendations from a taskforce on reducing energy use in a war zone.

But not all defence department officials have got on board, and Parthemore said she believes it could take some time to truly change the military mindset.

Parthemore writes of an exchange on a department of defence list-serv in December 2008 about whether global warming exists. It ends with one official writing: "This is increasingly shrill and pedantic. Moreover, it's becoming boring."

5 Careers You Can Start at Any Age

2010-02-03T16:35:00.000-08:00

by Jessica Hanley, FindtheRightSchool.com

In-demand jobs often require specific degrees or career training, but you shouldn't feel discouraged if you lack the necessary education.

Today's abundance of online education options means you're never too old to go back to school, and many online degree programs cater specifically to the busy lives of working adults. By working and attending school online, you can prepare for your next job without sacrificing your current income. The following jobs are expected to grow faster than average from 2008 to 2018, and each requires training that can be achieved at any age.

1. Physical Therapist Assistant

Physical therapist assistants help physical therapists rehabilitate patients, including accident victims and sufferers of debilitating diseases. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment of physical therapist assistants is expected to grow 33 percent thru 2018, much faster than the national average. In 2008, these assistants earned an average of $46,140.

Physical therapist assistants must earn an associate's degree in physical therapy from an accredited program. These programs generally last two years and prepare students for state licensing. If you're interested in becoming a physical therapist assistant, career training and online education can help you make the transition.

2. Registered Nurse

Registered nurses help doctors treat, diagnose, and care for patients in hospitals, doctors' offices, and care centers. Nurses make up the largest employment group within health care, and their numbers are expected to grow by another 22 percent from 2008 to 2018. According to the BLS, registered nurses earned an average of $62,450 in 2008.

To prepare for licensing, nurses must earn at least an associate's degree in nursing from an accredited nursing program. Associate's degree programs take approximately two years to complete, while programs offering a bachelor's degree in nursing take about four years. Online degree programs can help you train for a career in nursing without leaving your current job.

3. Elementary School Teacher

If you have a passion for learning and enjoy working with kids, a career as an elementary school teacher may be a good fit. Elementary school teachers teach multiple subjects to students from kindergarten through sixth grade, emphasizing understanding, responsibility, and consideration. According to the BLS, elementary school teachers earned an average of $49,330 in 2008, and the field is expected to grow by 16 percent from 2008 to 2018.

To teach in public schools, elementary school teachers must earn a bachelor's degree and graduate from a teacher education program. With online classes available, it's never too late to return to school and qualify to become a teacher.

4. Computer Software Engineer

Computer software engineers use principles of computer science and mathematics to design and develop software. From computer games to networking systems, the programs developed by computer software engineers help computers function in our everyday lives. The BLS expects employment of computer software engineers to increase by 34 percent thru 2018, which means plenty of opportunities to enter the field. In 2008, these engineers earned an average of $85,430.

To become a computer software engineer, you need to earn a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, or a related field. Some positions require a master's degree in computer science, and all expect employees to be up-to-date with new technologies and computer systems. Online degree programs in computer science and software engineering can prepare you for a career in this innovative field, regardless of your age or schedule.

5. Management Analyst

Management analysts (also called management consultants) are business experts that help companies solve problems to remain competitive. Management analysts must think strategically and come up with innovative, effective solutions for their clients. In 2008, management analysts earned an average of $73,570, and the BLS expects their employment to increase by 24 percent in the next decade.

Competition for management analyst positions is intense, and often a master's of business administration (MBA) degree is required. Online business degrees are increasingly common, so it's possible to enhance your industry knowledge with a formal degree.

Taking the Next Step

These five careers prove that opportunities exist across industries, and it's not too late to transition into a field you're passionate about. With online degree programs and career training options, you can reach your education goals without giving up your current job and lifestyle

North Korea may be readying missile test: report

2010-02-03T16:33:00.000-08:00

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has declared a no-sail zone off its west coast, indicating it may be readying to test-launch missiles in the area, South Korean news broadcaster YTN on Tuesday quoted a military official as saying.

World | South Korea | North Korea

The area is near a contested sea border with the South that was the site of a brief naval clash in November between the states, technically still at war, that left a South Korean ship pockmarked with bullet holes and a North Korean vessel limping back to port in flames.

About a month before that clash, North Korea rattled regional security by firing short-range missiles off its east coast.

"We are closely monitoring the area to inspect whether this announcement was made as a part of their winter training or to launch short-range missiles," the unnamed official told YTN.

South Korean military officials said they were checking on the YTN report.

Destitute North Korea in recent weeks has signaled that it is ready to reduce the security threat it poses to economically vital North Asia by saying it could end its year-long boycott of international nuclear disarmament talks.

Analysts said the latest moves may be an attempt by Pyongyang to increase its leverage and win concessions to lure it back to the table in the disarmament-for-aid talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim, editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Sanjeev Miglani)

Teen pregnancy, abortion rates rise

2010-02-03T16:28:00.000-08:00

By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

The teen pregnancy rate in the USA rose 3% in 2006, the first increase in more than a decade, according to data out today. The data also show higher rates of births and abortions among girls 15-19.

The numbers, calculated by the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit group that studies reproductive and sexual health, show a clear reversal from the downward trend that began in the 1990s.

About 7% of teen girls got pregnant in 2006, a rate of 71.5 pregnancies per 1,000 teens. That's up slightly from 69.5 in 2005, Guttmacher says. In 1990, when rates peaked, about 12% got pregnant.

ABSTINENCE: Faith groups take the lead

ARCHIVES: Teen births state by state

ADULT TV: A link to teen sex?

Just as the long-term declines in teen pregnancy were for all racial and ethnic groups, the rise in 2006 was for all demographics, the report shows.

Guttmacher and others suggest the increase is related to a focus on abstinence-only sex education programs under the Bush administration.

Funding for abstinence doubled from 2000 to 2003, to $120 million. By 2008, funding was at $176 million. Guttmacher is an outspoken opponent of abstinence-only education.

"The focus on abstinence and the shifts in pregnancy occurred about the same time," says Guttmacher's Lawrence Finer.

"The issue here is clearly that we have a lot of teenagers who are having sex, but they aren't careful enough at contraception to avoid pregnancy," says Sarah Brown, executive director of the nonprofit National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, who has seen Guttmacher's numbers.

Some speculated a rise in teen birth rates reported last year was a result of fewer abortions, but the data show otherwise. "There isn't enough evidence to say there's a causal relationship, but pregnancies overall are increasing, regardless of whether they're carried to term or not," Finer says.

Those on the other side cry foul. "To me, it appears to be another opportunity to throw a barb at abstinence education," says Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association. She says that only a quarter of federal funding for teen sexuality programs went to abstinence in 2008.

In 2006, two-thirds of all teen pregnancies were to ages 18-19; data do not reflect marital status.

Guttmacher's analysis shows a 4% increase in the teen birth rate and a 1% rise in abortion rates, based on federal statistics and Guttmacher's abortion research. The National Center for Health Statistics will release its pregnancy rate data later this year.

Ill Nigeria President Yar'Adua must quit - media chiefs

2010-02-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

President Umaru Yar'Adua has both heart and kidney problems

Nigeria's ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua must hand over power to his deputy within seven days or resign, a group of media chiefs has warned.

Owners of 17 newspapers and media organisations said in a joint statement that Mr Yar'Adua should be impeached if he fails to comply with the deadline.

The embattled president has been in a Saudi Arabia hospital since November.

There have been various legal cases challenging the president's ability to rule from his sick bed.

In the latest ruling, the high court said there was no constitutional requirement for an interim leader to be appointed.

Last week, the cabinet issued a statement that President Yar'Adua was "not incapable" of running the country, following a previous court ruling giving ministers two weeks to make such a declaration.

Ambiguous

The media owners said they were calling for the president to formally transfer power to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan because he had been away for more than 70 days.

"The stakeholders hereby demand that the president cede power to his deputy or resign within seven days," their statement said.

"If he fails to take these obvious constitutional steps... the National Assembly should commence impeachment proceedings against the president for endangering the country."

Owners of several of the country's best-selling newspapers - including the Punch and the Vanguard - put their names to the communique.

Since Mr Yar'Adua left the country, fears of a power vacuum have surrounded the government.

The legal wrangling has focused on the country's constitution - which some people believe is ambiguous in its provisions for a prolonged absence by the president.

Mr Yar'Adua flew to Saudi Arabia in late November for medical treatment and has not been seen in public since.

In his only broadcast interview since he left Nigeria, he told the BBC's Hausa Service on 12 January that he would return to resume his duties as soon as his doctors would allow.

The president is suffering from an inflammation of the lining around the heart and has long suffered from kidney problems.

Morning Brief: U.S. soldiers and children killed in Pakistan school bombing

2010-02-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

Top news: A bomb planted outside a girls' school in the Lower Dir district of Pakistan Northwest Frontier Province killed three U.S. soldiers, three children and a Pakistani soldier on Wednesday. The Americans were part of a small group of troops working to train the Pakistani Frontier Corps, which is responsible for security in the volatile northwest.

They were reportedly on their way to attend the inauguration of a school built with U.S. humanitarian assistance when the bomb went off. More than 50 people were injured in the blast. No U.S. soldiers are formally stationed in Pakistan, though a number are involved in intelligence and training missions. That U.S. troops are involved in development assistance was not previously known.

The U.S. carried out its largest ever drone attack in Northwest Pakistan on Tuesday night with a 16-18 missile barrage in Waziristan that killed at least 10 people.

Gays in the military: At a hearing on Capitol Hill, both Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates advocated ending the U.S. military's "don't ask don't tell" policy.

Mistrust in the eyes of rescued Haitian 'orphans'

2010-02-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

The 33 children who were rescued from an alleged kidnapping by Americans who claimed to be missionaries, huddled together at an orphanage late Sunday outside Port-au-Prince, visibly mistrustful of adults.

Some of the 33 Haitian children, including a child of around 13 months (second left), at the SOS Children's Village in Croix des Bouquets, outside of Port-au-Prince. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

A one-year old girl, dressed in red and surrounded by children aged four, five and seven, glared at adults who came to find out how she was doing. She firmly clutched the hands of a friend, who seemed to be about four years old, seated on a bench next to her.

The children were rescued from being illegally taken out of Haiti by Americans who say they belong to a US-based charity.

Patricia Vargas, the regional director of the orphan charity SOS Children, said that for legal reasons the children's identities cannot be revealed.

Vargas answered a call from Haitian authorities to meet the children, who were returned from the border with the neighbouring Dominican Republic, on Saturday.

"The majority of these children have families. Some of the older ones said their parents are alive, and some gave an address and phone numbers," said Vargas, a Costa Rican who is in charge of SOS Children's operations in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Haitian police seized five men and five women with US passports, as well as two Haitians, as they tried to cross late Friday into the Dominican Republic carrying the children aboard a bus, Haitian authorities said.

The Haitian culture and communications minister, Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, has said that the children had no documents.

While the children rested at the SOS Village, an oasis of sorts amid the widespread devastation in the Haitian capital, the one year old girl does not loosen the grip on her friend's hand. The older children take turns protecting her, sitting her on their laps and giving her warm hugs.

Inside the SOS Village scores of volunteers from countries including Chile, Guatemala and Costa Rica do not hide the shock of the news.

"Even if we had ... [suspected] that this was happening in Haiti after the earthquake, it is a shock," said SOS spokesman Georg Willeit, an Austrian.

Willeit takes visitors around one of the center's cabins, which is decorated like a home, but also makes sure that no outsider questions the children.

"Several of them were very scared last night," said Willeit.

Three young teenage girls were taking special care of "the baby," a girl about seven months old wearing a light-blue outfit and cap that arrived Saturday so malnourished and dehydrated that she spent the night in the hospital.

"The little girl has trouble eating. She does not know how to," said Willeit.

Haitian officials have given warning that child traffickers could take advantage of the chaos after the quake, and that legitimate adoption agencies may rush to take orphans before proper checks have been conducted.

The 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12 killed 170,000 people, made more than one million homeless and left many children vulnerable in the Americas' poorest nation.

Volunteers said that after the quake parents flocked to the orphanage carrying pictures to identify their children, hoping to find them there.

Nearly half of Haiti's population is under the age of 18, and children are seen at all hours in refugee camps and in the rubble-covered streets.

Some of the children may simply be out of parental sight, as mothers and fathers spend much of the day rushing from one place or another trying to get a donated tent, or some food and water.

Three USAID officials killed in Lower Dir blast

2010-02-03T00:56:00.000-08:00

The security forces immediately sealed off the area and began evacuating the dead and wounded. — Photo by Reuters

PESHAWAR: Three American aid officials were among six killed that included three school children when a paramilitary convoy on its way to inaugurate a school was hit by a roadside bombing in the northern Lower Dir district on Wednesday, officials said.

A security official said the three aid workers belonged to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Their names could not immediately be ascertained.

The official said a convoy escorted by the paramilitary Frontier Corps was hit by a powerful roadside bombing near the Koto village in Hajiabad in Lower Dir, killing the three aid workers and three school children.

“We can not release the identities of the aid workers”, the official said, requesting he not be named.

“It was a huge blast”, local journalist, Haroon Rashid, who accompanied the convoy and was also wounded in the explosion told Dawn.

“The army has sealed off the area and no one is being allowed to move. I am here with wounds on my leg and arms and am waiting to be evacuated”, he said on phone from the scene of the occurrence.

The explosion left 59 others wounded including five paramilitary personnel and two local journalists. Majority of those wounded were girls from a girls’ high school situated on the main road, Deputy Coordination Officer, Lower Dir, Ghulam Muhammad told Dawn from the regional headquarters of Timergarah.

The security official said the group was on its way to inaugurate a primary school in Kad, Lower Dir that had been blown up by militants but was rebuilt by USAID.

The security forces immediately sealed off the area and began evacuating the dead and wounded.

“We are still receiving the wounded”, Medical Superintendent of the District headquarters Hospital, Lower Dir, Dr. Wakil Muhammad said.

Lost, "LA X": Reviewing the final season premiere

2010-02-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

By Alan Sepinwall/The Star-Ledger

February 03, 2010, 1:21AM

Terry O'Quinn in the "Lost" season premiere.A review of the "Lost" final season premiere coming up just as soon as I bring a book into a cave...

"My condition is irreversible." -Locke
"Nothing is irreversible." -Jack

Hot damn, that was fun.

The traveling comedy/obfuscation team of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse spent much of this final "Lost" hiatus promising that season six would have a new narrative structure, just as we got in seasons four (flash-forwards) and five (time travel). Having taken us both back and forwards through time, turns out the game for year six involves going sideways, with a "Sliding Doors"(*) approach that allows Cuselof to have it both ways with last year's cliffhanger, as we see one timeline where Faraday's plan worked and Jack and company wound up back on the plane in 2004, and another where it didn't and everyone's in the middle of a big mess on Craphole Island in 2007.

(*) I swear, I spent the first fifteen minutes after the premiere ended wrestling with whether to use "Sliding Sawyers" as a subject line, or if that would be an unfair giveaway for time-shifters, folks on the West Coast, etc. Ain't easy when my fondness for semi-clever wordplay clashes with my hawkishness about spoiler protection.

It was clear quickly that there was something hinky with the 2004 timeline, particularly since I had only recently rewatched the pilot to write this morning's column. Jack's hair was obviously wrong (as was Rose's), but so were subtler details like the dialogue between Jack and Cindy, or the fact that she gives him only one bottle here, when she slipped him two in the pilot. And then as the flight went along, things became more and more disconnected from the timeline we originally knew: Desmond is on board, Hurley is blissfully lucky, Boone failed to bring Shannon home, etc.

(Perhaps the biggest change of all in the new timeline: the island is underwater. So when Juliet set off Jughead, a whole lotta people died. Hell of a plan, Jack.)

It's a trope of many comic book time travel stories that if you go back in time to change the past, all you do is create an alternate timeline, while the old one you wanted to change still exists. Based on Juliet's posthumous declaration to Sawyer that "It worked" (and based on Lindelof's comic book bonafides), I'm going to assume that's the operating theory here, and that the 2004 scenes aren't some extended dream sequence.

For a brief period, I began to wonder if the gimmick was worth the screen time, and the effort of bringing back Ian Somerhalder, Dominic Monaghan and the rest. Whether the 2004 timeline is real or not (and there comes a point where I have to set my inner comic book nerd aside and acknowledge that none of this is real), the fact is I've spent the last 5 years being invested in the characters back on the island in 2007, and it's their stories I want to see continued.

And, certainly, the parts of "LA X" that resonated with me most deeply were the ones taking place on the island, about which I'll have plenty to say in a bit. But as the premiere moved along and we kept zipping back to hang out on Oceanic 815 (and then in the airport), I began to have the same feeling I did when I rewatched the pilot: I was just so happy to be reminded of when I liked Jack or when Locke was a serene wise man and not a pig-headed victim. I remembered that I did, once upon a time, care about Boone and Charlie (and the unfortunately-absent Shannon). And as the characters landed at LAX and their stories took unexpected turns - Kate escaping from Marshal Mars (and commandeering a cab occupied by Claire, in a neat convergence of Aaron's two mommies), Charlie and Jin independently winding up in custody, Jack and Locke bonding over their respective lost luggage (and Jack and his savior complex wondering if he can fix Locke's wrecked spine) - I couldn't help but be curious about where this was all going.

Not only do I wonder where these alt-stories will travel, but what connection it's all going to have to the "proper" timeline on the island. Will they just be used to illuminate characters' behavior in the island present, the same way they did back in the early flashback days (pre-Jack's tattoos, at least)? Or is the parallel structure telling us something else? Will Alt-Jack reach a point in his time on the mainland where he realizes, just as his bearded counterpart once did, that he has to go back? Might there be a circumstance where the two Sawyers meet and the universe explodes in a collision of sarcasm and anti-sarcasm? Or will the island and mainland timelines remain independent for the rest of the show's run?

If the 2004 scenes were often intriguing, and occasionally distracting, they were still a sideshow to the main event taking place back on the island.

Where to begin? With the confirmation that Evil Locke (or the Man in Black, or Esau, or whatever we want to call him), is Smokey?

With Sawyer and Juliet's tearful, and all-too-brief reunion in the wreckage of the Swan station?

With our first visit to the temple of The Others, and our introduction to two new recurring characters played by John Hawkes (another "Deadwood" alum) and Hiroyuki Sanada?

With Sayid's death and apparent resurrection?

Let's bounce around, why don't we?

When Locke turned out to not be Locke in last year's finale, I wondered exactly why the smoke monster - which we'd been previously told was the island's "security system" - would tell Ben to blindly follow a man who turned out to not be acting in the interests of the island (and/or Jacob, if you can separate the two). Well, now we know: Smokey ain't working for Jacob, but against him, and is made up of the Man in Black. Like so many "Lost" mysteries, the explanation raises up plenty of new questions - for starters, why Smokey would be willing to work with Ben in previous periods, when Ben was following the orders of Jacob - but we finally have something resembling a definitive answer of exactly what/who the monster is. Now we just need to know exactly who/what Esau is. Heh.

Whatever he/it is, Terry O'Quinn is clearly relishing the chance to play this new, mysterious, dangerous character, and Non-Locke's powers and knowledge of people like Ben and Richard (whom he last saw when Richard was "in chains") creates an unsettling dynamic among these characters who are so used to being in charge. And he also finally, more clearly delineates between the good guys and the bad guys (I think). Since Jacob=light, and Esau=dark, and The Others were with Jacob, and our heroes are now with The Others, that should lay things clear, right? (Of course, we'll still need to learn why The Others were all into kidnapping, torture and other experiments while Jacob was still alive, or if we're just supposed to write that off to Ben being kind of a dick as the human leader.)

And since Ben made clear last season that the island, as far as he knew, could not resurrect people - which was then confirmed when we saw Locke's corpse and discovered that the guy we thought was Locke was really the Man in Black - does that mean we shouldn't be so quick to assume the Sayid who sat up at episode's end is really our Sayid? Could Jacob be using Sayid's body to find his own loophole in this never-ending fight? Or did he just know that the only way to defeat an immortal man who can turn into a smoke monster is with a communications expert-turned-torturer-turned-international-assassin with great hair?

If Sayid's back to life for real, great, but if not, I think I'm okay with it. It felt like the character hit a natural stopping point after he shot young Ben last season, and his opening moments with Hurley in "LA X" suggested the show was saying goodbye to that iteration of Sayid just as Sayid was preparing to say goodbye to this mortal coil. (And, as with Alt-Locke, Naveen Andrews will still get to play a version of the character we know so well.)

Whether Sayid got resurrected or just reanimated and possessed, he's still ambulatory in some fashion, where Juliet appears to be so dead that not even Miracle Max could do anything for her. Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell got to put a moving coda onto the couple they created with the writers last year, and it was every bit as heart-wrenching as Juliet's plunge into the Swan shaft at the end of "The Incident." The only problem I had with it, I think, is that Sawyer's love and grief for Juliet was portrayed here as so strong and all-consuming that I can't imagine the show plausibly trying to revisit the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle, at least in this timeline. Unless there's a point in this season where island time jumps forward a long way from this tragic moment, Sawyer's going to be too wrapped up in his feelings for Blondie to convincingly give Freckles the time of day as anything but a shoulder to cry on and an extra gun to back his play.

Juliet's death also gives the show a fresh spin on the enmity between Sawyer and Jack, and the massive, fatal failure of the Jughead plan (from this Jack's perspective, anyway) might hopefully convince Jack once and for all that things tend to go bad when he's appointed or appoints himself leader of anything. But probably not.

And speaking of leaders, we meet another of a sort in the Hiroyuki Sanada character to be named later. (Several internet sources list Hawkes' character as "Lennon," which simultaneously seems too obvious and amusing, and for simplicity's sake, I'll use that until we get in-show evidence to the contrary.) The temple Others seem culturally different from several other Others factions we've seen, styled more like hippies. (Might we find out that there are a bunch of Dharma defectors and/or their descendants among this bunch?) We've been hearing about the temple for years, and this is definitely an interesting introduction to the place.

And I see by the clock that it's now 1:06 a.m., so I better get to the bullet points before my brain shuts down. Some other thoughts:

• Well, we knew that Cindy and the kids were among the group sent to the temple back in season three, but we still hadn't seen them in all that time. Now we have. All that's left is an explanation for why they (and any other Oceanic survivors recruited into Other-dom) didn't skip around in time last year.

• Getting back to Rose and Bernard, did Jughead's detonation fling them back into the present as well, or did it only affect the time travelers who were close to its explosion?

• Alt-Sawyer has his counterpart's nicknaming gifts, as he dubs Cindy "Earhart." (While doing some prep for this season, I stumbled across this awesome YouTube collection of Sawyer nicknames and its sequel. Absolutely worth the waste of your time.)

• Bram's failed attempt to survive Smokey's attack finally gives us a good explanation for why Jacob's cabin was surrounded by that circle of ash: it, along with the Dharma sonic barrier, are the only things that seem able to repel the monster.

• Still more explanations: the guitar case Jacob gave Hurley contained not a guitar, but a wooden ankh with a fortune hidden inside.

• We may not have gotten Shannon, or Mr. Eko, or some of the other awesome Oceanic survivors in this one, but we got Arzt! And Frogurt! Both as annoying as ever!

• Good to see Kate's tree-climbing skills are still intact even after a time-jump.

• Also good to know that at least Hurley is the one Oceanic survivor who didn't become a firearms expert shortly after landing on the island (or at any point after).

• Was glad to see that the Miles/LaFleur friendship wasn't quickly forgotten now that we're away from the Dharma days.

• "You're the monster." "Let's not resort to name-calling." Funny funny stuff from the Emerson/O'Quinn duo there.

• Claire makes her first appearance in more than a year, and I hope we finally revisit (in one timeline or the other) the matter of what will happen with Aaron's horrible destiny. And speaking of underserviced characters, I'd really like to see Sun return to prominence this year, now that most of the characters are now back on the island at the same time.

Parents 'reclaim' children in Haiti abduction-adoption row

2010-02-02T22:28:00.000-08:00

Some of the 33 Haitian children a US Christian group attempted to smuggle into the Dominican Republic outside of Port-au-Prince on January 31. The 33 infants and children are being reunited with their families, the US-based aid group now caring for them said Tuesday.

(AFP/File/Roberto Schmidt)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The 33 infants and children that an American Christian group tried to smuggle out of quake-hit Haiti are being reunited with their families, the US-based aid group now caring for them said Tuesday.

The children were picked up last week by members of an Idaho-based Baptist group called New Life Children's Refuge who tried to take them across the border to the Dominican Republic where they planned to establish an orphanage.

But some of the children are not orphans at all.

"The parents now are coming to the village to reclaim their children," Heather Paul, the CEO of SOS Children's Villages USA, told NBC's "Today Show". "We already hear that many are saying that we have parents."

Police seized five men and five women with US passports, as well as two Haitians, as they tried late Friday to cross into the neighboring Dominican Republic with the children aged between two months and 14 years.

The case came to light as authorities in the capital Port-au-Prince expressed concern that some Haitian children may have fallen prey to human traffickers or been misidentified as orphans.

Paul said the children had been in poor condition when her group first received them but that they appeared to be on the mend.

"They came quite traumatized, as you can imagine, for a number of reasons. First, the devastation of the earthquake and then the mystery or confusion of their family's disappearance."

"They're getting better," she said.

Paul added that while in the care of the US Baptist group, the children, "weren't well dressed, they were dehydrated. They needed medical assistance."

She said the case underscored the need for stricter rules and greater vigilance in dealing with children in Haiti.

"I don't know all the facts, but if they were good intentions, they've certainly gone awry," she said.

"I think this is proof positive for all those people around the world who would like to adopt Haitian children, that we must wait on the right registration."

Laura Silsby, head of New Life Children's Refuge, has insisted the group's aims were entirely altruistic.

"We came here literally to just help the children. Our intentions were good," she told AFP from police detention. "We wanted to help those who lost parents in the quake or were abandoned."

In Port-au-Prince, interim prosecutor Mazar Fortil said the Christians may face a charge of criminal conspiracy in Haiti as well as possible charges of kidnapping minors and child-trafficking.

US consular officials visited the detained Americans and brought them food and insect repellent, but relatives back in the United States said they had hoped American officials might have done more.

"I've seen them on TV and they look like they're in good spirits," Sean Lankford, whose wife and 18-year-old daughter were among those held, told NBC.

He said he had not been able to speak to them since their arrest and was concerned that they had not received better treatment in detention.

"First off, you know, I think they were required to give them food and water. I mean, the basic essentials for life. And they were to help them to contact counselors on their behalf -- at least to give them the ability to do that. They were late in doing that," Lankford complained.

"I appreciate everything they have done. I know that it took them a while to find them first off. I know also that there's a lot of needs that are happening in Haiti," the Meridian, Idaho resident said.

But he added "as a dad and a husband, you know, I just want to make sure that my wife and my daughter have everything that they need, and my friends there have everything they need to stay healthy while they work through this, and while we try to help them work through this."

Serotonin May Be Key to Sudden Infant Deaths

2010-02-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

Deficiency hampers babies' ability to respond to low oxygen, study suggests

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Lack of the brain chemical serotonin may be crucial to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), new research finds.

Babies who died of SIDS had significantly lower levels of serotonin -- an important regulator of involuntary functions such as breathing and heart rate -- compared to babies who died of other causes, the study found. This finding may eventually lead to a test that could screen newborns to spot those most vulnerable to SIDS.

"This study is confirming that SIDS is a serotonin problem, and we're getting closer to the fundamental mechanism behind SIDS," said the study's senior author, Dr. Hannah C. Kinney, a neuropathologist at Children's Hospital Boston and a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.

"The goal is to develop a test to identify which babies are at risk, and then to find a drug that might be able to help them through the critical period. But these are long-term goals," she said.

Results of the study are published in the Feb. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

SIDS involves the sudden, unexplained death of an infant under one year of age, according to background information in the study. Although the rate of SIDS has decreased in the United States -- largely as a result of a national Back-to-Sleep campaign that encouraged parents to put babies to sleep on their backs one out of every 2,000 American babies is still dying of SIDS, the authors note.

Researchers have long suspected that a lack of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter in the brain, may be a factor in SIDS deaths. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit messages from one brain cell to another. Experts have theorized that a lack of serotonin affects the way a baby responds to a loss of oxygen and a buildup of carbon dioxide while sleeping. In babies with a normally functioning system, the lack of oxygen would cause them to awaken and turn their head to get fresh oxygen.

In babies who die of SIDS, this important protective mechanism is either underdeveloped or lacking, and they don't awaken. That may be one reason why the Back-to-Sleep campaign was so successful in reducing SIDS. By putting babies to sleep on their backs and taking soft, fluffy bedding out of the crib, parents are taking away environmental stressors that may contribute to SIDS, the researchers said.

In the current study, Kinney and her colleagues measured levels of serotonin and trytophan hydroxylase (TPH2) in 35 babies who died from SIDS and in 12 babies who died of other, known causes. TPH2 is an enzyme that helps make serotonin. In the group of babies who had died of other causes, the researchers included infants who had experienced oxygen deprivation near death to rule that factor out as a cause of lower serotonin levels.

They found that serotonin levels were 26 percent lower and TPH2 levels were 22 percent lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to babies who died of other causes.

"This study is getting close to the underlying mechanism," said Dr. Raymond Pitetti, associate director of emergency medicine at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"The goal would be to develop a screening tests so we can identify someone who might need a monitor or to be more closely watched," he said.

In the meantime, he and Kinney advised parents to continue to put their babies to sleep on their back, to avoid soft bedding, to ensure adequate ventilation in the room where the baby sleeps and maybe even add a ceiling fan to the room. Some research has suggested that putting babies to bed with a pacifier in the mouth may help prevent SIDS, too.

"The most important thing for parents to know is that SIDS is a biological problem. It's a disease process, and right now, there's no way to identify it in advance," said Kinney. That why it's so important to take away any environmental challenges, like soft bedding and sleeping on the stomach, she added.

More information

The American Lung Association has advice on preventing SIDS.

SOURCE: Hannah C. Kinney, M.D., neuropathologist, Children's Hospital Boston, and professor, pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.; Raymond Pitetti, M.D., associate director, emergency medicine, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Penn.; Feb. 3, 2010 Journal of the American Medical Association

political news 3/02/2010

2010-02-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

'Don't ask, don't tell' policy to change

Defense officials will announce changes to the government's policy of barring open homosexuals from serving in the military, though amendments may take years to implement.

Latest Political Headlines

Obama proposes $30 billion allocation for small-business loans (By David Cho and Binyamin Appelbaum)

Racial issues intensify Illinois gubernatorial primary (By Lois Romano)

Obama budget would spend billions more: Focus is lowering unemployment rate and boosting middle class (By Lori Montgomery and Michael A. Fletcher)

How Obama's budget would affect each agency | Federal budget: Full coverage

Budget analysis: In budget, Obama tries to balance vision against current needs (By Alec MacGillis)

President Obama seeks to revamp No Child Left Behind teaching standards (By Nick Anderson)

Obama officials present a strategic redefining of Homeland Security's mission (By Spencer S. Hsu)

Washington Sketch: Orszag is one hot number (By Dana Milbank)

Obama's struggle with health-care reform echoes Clintons' failure in 1994 (By Abigail Trafford)

The Obama Presidency

• Palin's PAC brings in $1.4 million in 2nd half of 2009
• Sarah Palin magazine hits newsstands and convenience stores
• Jenny Sanford: Son called my husband's affair 'worse than Eliot Spitzer'

The Fix by Chris Cillizza

• Illinois primary day: The year of the outsider (continued)?
• Poizner Accuses Whitman of Intimidation
• Should Charlie Crist run as an independent in Florida's Senate race?

Economic & Domestic Policy by Ezra Klein

• Tab dump
• Rep. Paul Ryan's daring budget proposal
• Even Al Franken's got one

Live Discussions

Post Politics Hour: 'Don't ask, don't tell' and more - 11 a.m. ET (Ed O'Keefe)

Opinions

Jimmy Carter: A crisis in Sudan (By Jimmy Carter)

Tone-deaf on terrorism: The Obama administration slowly wakes up to reality (By Richard Cohen)

Out of one, many: Scott Brown and all-about-me politics (By Eugene Robinson)

Where the real budget savings lie (By Len Burman)

Learning to be a better role model (By Gilbert Arenas)

Reaching across the aisle (By Howard Kurtz)

» EXPLORE THE DATABASE | House Votes | Senate Votes

• Congress 111, Senate vote: Vote 17: On the Cloture Motion
• Congress 111, Senate vote: Vote 16: On the Nomination
• Congress 111, Senate vote: Vote 15: On the Cloture Motion

News 3/02/2010

2010-02-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Number of Visits to Food Pantries Soars
Since early 2008, a new report shows, the number of Americans relying on free food has grown month after month; kids are the fastest growing group.
Read original story in The Chicago Tribune | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
Concern Over CIA Moonlighting Policy
Politico uncovered a policy that allows top intelligence operatives to moonlight for outside companies, eliciting a wave of concern.
Read original story in Politico | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
$237 Million to Move Gitmo Detainees to U.S.
The funds, which would be used to move the remaining 192 Guantanamo detainees to an idle prison in Illinois, are tucked into the fiscal 2011 budget.
Read original story in CNN | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
China to Obama: Stay Away From Dalai Lama
A meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan leader visits Washington next month would "seriously undermine the political foundation of Sino-U.S. relations."
Read original story in Al Jazeera | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
Pentagon to End Third Party Gay Outings
While officials decide how to integrate gays and lesbians into the military, soldiers "outted" by other soldiers will no longer be dismissed.
Read original story in The Atlantic's Politics Channel | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
Pakistan Captures Taliban Base
Following days of fierce fighting, Pakistani military forces have captured a major Taliban base in Bajaur; hundreds are fleeing the region.
Read original story in BBC | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
Karzai Wants Saudi Help in Peace Talks
The Afghan president is taking the first steps toward establishing a group of leaders and influentials that will push for peace with the Taliban in the region.
Read original story in Reuters | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
"Space Taxis" May Replace NASA Moon Missions
If Obama's budget makes it through Congress, NASA funding will increase more by than $1 billion a year, but it would also mean the end of men on the moon.
Read original story in The Washington Post | Monday, Feb. 1, 2010
HBO Considers Anita Bryant Biopic
"Sex and the City" creator is attached to direct the project written by former Bryant classmate, Chad Hodge.
Read original story in The Hollywood Reporter | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
"Calvin and Hobbes" Creator Grants Rare Interview
Bill Watterson, creator of the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes," grants his first interview in more than 15 years.
Read original story in Cleveland Plain Dealer | Monday, Feb. 1, 2010
Girl Fights Off Shark With Boogie Board
The 14-year-old New Zealander remained calm even after the 5-foot-long "massive grey thing" sank its teeth into her hip.
Read original story in The Guardian | Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010

Rising FHA default rate foreshadows a crush of foreclosures

2010-02-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

David H. Stevens (Andrew Harrer - Bloomberg)

By Dina ElBoghdady and Dan Keating

Washington Post Staff Writer

The share of borrowers who are falling seriously behind on loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration jumped by more than a third in the past year, foreshadowing a crush of foreclosures that could further buffet an agency vital to the housing market's recovery.

About 9.1 percent of FHA borrowers had missed at least three payments as of December, up from 6.5 percent a year ago, the agency's figures show.

Although the FHA's default rate has been climbing for months and eating into the agency's cash, the latest figures show that the FHA's woes are getting worse even as the housing market shows signs of improvement. The problems are rooted in FHA mortgages made in 2007 and 2008. Those loans are now maturing into their worst years because failures most often occur two to three years after a mortgage is made.

If the trend continues and the FHA's cash reserves are exhausted, the federal government would automatically use taxpayer money to cover the losses -- a first for the agency, which has always used the fees it charges borrowers to pay for its losses.

As these loans from 2007 and 2008 go bad and clear off of the FHA's books, agency officials said, losses are expected to taper off, aided by the housing market's anticipated recovery and an influx of more creditworthy borrowers, who have flocked to the FHA's home-buying program in the past year.

Agency officials said they have cracked down on poorly performing lenders and announced higher qualifying fees for borrowers. On Monday, the agency projected that the fees should generate $5.8 billion in fiscal 2011, up from $2 billion this year. That would fatten the FHA's cash cushion, used to cover unexpected losses.

Beleaguered books

For now, just about every major measure of the agency's financial health is worsening.

The FHA does not make loans but insures lenders against losses. And claims have already spiked. The agency had to pay out on 47 percent more loans in October and November than in the corresponding period a year earlier, according to an FHA report.

The number of loans in foreclosure, including those that have not yet been billed to the agency, has also increased. They were up 26 percent in the last quarter from a year earlier.

FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens, who joined the agency in July, flagged his agency's troubles with the 2007 and 2008 loans in October, when he told a House panel that "rogue players on the margin" immediately migrated to the world of FHA lending after the subprime mortgage market collapsed.

Their aggressive lending tactics attracted borrowers with unusually poor credit profiles to the FHA. "That clearly impacted the books of business in 2007 and 2008, and that performance data is showing up very clearly in today's balance sheet," Stevens said at the time.

Plunging home prices have exacerbated matters by leaving some FHA borrowers unable to sell or refinance their homes because they owe more than their homes are worth. Yet with unemployment running high, many borrowers can't afford to keep up their payments.

Adding to the trouble was a now-defunct FHA program that enabled sellers to cover the down payments of buyers. This meant many borrowers had no skin in the game and were more likely to walk away at early signs of trouble. The program resulted in excessive defaults before it was ended in late 2008, and it is projected to cost FHA an additional $10.5 billion in losses, Stevens said.

For all these reasons, the FHA projects that it will pay out claims to lenders on one out of every four loans made in 2007 -- the worst rate in at least three decades. The claim rate should be nearly the same on the vastly larger volume of loans made in 2008.

Better borrowers

But agency officials said they have reasons to be optimistic.

The FHA-backed loans made in 2009 tended to go to borrowers with higher credit scores than in previous years. These borrowers turned to the FHA when the mortgage market collapsed and other lending sources dried up. By then, reputable lenders doing business with the agency were already imposing tougher restrictions on FHA borrowers, further boosting the credit profile of those loans. The average credit score of an FHA borrower is now 690, up from 630 only two years ago, agency officials said.

These higher-quality loans are expected to result in lower losses, so the agency should make money on loans issued this year and over the next few years, according to an independent audit designed to gauge the agency's health.

The audit, released in November, found that the cash the FHA set aside to pay for unexpected losses had dipped to historic lows, well below the level required by law. As of Sept. 30, those reserves were estimated at $3.6 billion, down from nearly $13 billion a year earlier. The most recent figure represents 0.53 percent of the value of all FHA single-family-home loans -- far lower than the 2 percent required by Congress.

But Ann Schnare, a former Freddie Mac official, said the situation could be even worse. She said the audit underestimates future losses because it does not take into account all loans that are now overdue, only those that the FHA has paid claims on.

Stevens said his agency has pored over its data to analyze risk and is taking steps to shore up its financial health. "You have a limited set of options under these circumstances: Raise fees [for borrowers] or make policy changes," Stevens said in an interview. "We've done both."

The agency banned 268 lenders from making FHA loans last year, more than double the total terminated in the previous eight years. The FHA suspended six other firms. Among them were some of the largest FHA lenders -- Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and Lend America, both of which shut their doors soon thereafter.

The agency also proposed a rule that would require banks to hold up to $2.5 million in capital that they can use to repay the agency for losses if they were involved in fraud. Banks are now required to hold only $250,000.

Borrowers are also facing tougher scrutiny from the agency. People taking out FHA loans will have to pay higher upfront fees, perhaps as early as this spring. Those with especially weak credit scores will also have to put down at least 10 percent instead of the usual 3.5 percent down payment. The amount of money sellers can kick in toward closing costs and other fees will also be limited.

Why do people often vote against their own interests?

2010-02-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

Americans voicing their anger at the healthcare proposals at a "town hall meeting"

The Republicans' shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US.

Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why there is often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

Last year, in a series of "town-hall meetings" across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama's proposed healthcare reforms.

What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.

Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform - the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state - are often the ones it seems designed to help.

In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%.

Anger

Instead, to many of those who lose out under the existing system, reform still seems like the ultimate betrayal.

Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?

Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?

It might be tempting to put the whole thing down to what the historian Richard Hofstadter back in the 1960s called "the paranoid style" of American politics, in which God, guns and race get mixed into a toxic stew of resentment at anything coming out of Washington.

But that would be a mistake.

Drew Westen argues that stories rather than facts convince voters

If people vote against their own interests, it is not because they do not understand what is in their interest or have not yet had it properly explained to them.

They do it because they resent having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know best.

There is nothing voters hate more than having things explained to them as though they were idiots.

As the saying goes, in politics, when you are explaining, you are losing. And that makes anything as complex or as messy as healthcare reform a very hard sell.

Stories not facts

In his book The Political Brain, psychologist Drew Westen, an exasperated Democrat, tried to show why the Right often wins the argument even when the Left is confident that it has the facts on its side.

He uses the following exchange from the first presidential debate between Al Gore and George Bush in 2000 to illustrate the perils of trying to explain to voters what will make them better off:

Gore: "Under the governor's plan, if you kept the same fee for service that you have now under Medicare, your premiums would go up by between 18% and 47%, and that is the study of the Congressional plan that he's modelled his proposal on by the Medicare actuaries."

Bush: "Look, this is a man who has great numbers. He talks about numbers.

"I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It's fuzzy math. It's trying to scare people in the voting booth."

Mr Gore was talking sense and Mr Bush nonsense - but Mr Bush won the debate. With statistics, the voters just hear a patronising policy wonk, and switch off.

For Mr Westen, stories always trump statistics, which means the politician with the best stories is going to win: "One of the fallacies that politicians often have on the Left is that things are obvious, when they are not obvious.

"Obama's administration made a tremendous mistake by not immediately branding the economic collapse that we had just had as the Republicans' Depression, caused by the Bush administration's ideology of unregulated greed. The result is that now people blame him."

Reverse revolution

Thomas Frank, the author of the best-selling book What's The Matter with Kansas, is an even more exasperated Democrat and he goes further than Mr Westen.

He believes that the voters' preference for emotional engagement over reasonable argument has allowed the Republican Party to blind them to their own real interests.

The Republicans have learnt how to stoke up resentment against the patronising liberal elite, all those do-gooders who assume they know what poor people ought to be thinking.

Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America's poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.

Thomas Frank thinks that voters have become blinded to their real interests

Thomas Frank says that whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different:

"You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining.

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."

As Mr Frank sees it, authenticity has replaced economics as the driving force of modern politics. The authentic politicians are the ones who sound like they are speaking from the gut, not the cerebral cortex. Of course, they might be faking it, but it is no joke to say that in contemporary politics, if you can fake sincerity, you have got it made.

And the ultimate sin in modern politics is appearing to take the voters for granted.

This is a culture war but it is not simply being driven by differences over abortion, or religion, or patriotism. And it is not simply Red states vs. Blue states any more. It is a war on the entire political culture, on the arrogance of politicians, on their slipperiness and lack of principle, on their endless deal making and compromises.

And when the politicians say to the people protesting: 'But we're doing this for you', that just makes it worse. In fact, that seems to be what makes them angriest of all.

This edition of Turkeys Voting for Christmas was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 24 January and repeated on Wednesday 27 January at 2045 GMT. Listen via the BBC iPlayer.

Beyonce, Taylor Swift Dominate 2010 Grammy Awards

2010-02-02T06:44:00.001-08:00

2/1/10, 8:10 am EST

Photo: Kravitz/FilmMagic

Female artists dominated the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, with Beyoncé and Taylor Swift leading the charge at last night’s ceremony at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. The I Am … Sasha Fierce singer tallied the most awards, scooping up six trophies — the most ever for a female artist on a single Grammy night — most notably Song of the Year and Best R&B Song for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Halo.” Swift took home the show’s biggest honor, however, nabbing Album of the Year for 2009’s best-selling LP, Fearless. At 20, Swift is now the youngest musician to win Album of the Year; she won four awards overall, including Best Country Album (also Fearless), Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance (both “White Horse”).

Look back at the 2010 Grammys’ biggest moments in photos.

Lady Gaga, who opened the show with a powerhouse duet with Elton John, won a pair of awards — Best Dance Album for The Fame and Best Electronica/Dance Song for “Poker Face” — but both were announced during a pre-telecast ceremony. Kings of Leon grabbed three awards, all revolving around their hit “Use Somebody,” Jay-Z scored three trophies for singles (his Blueprint 3 wasn’t eligible this year) and the Black Eyed Peas also won three Grammys, including Best Pop Vocal Album for The E.N.D.

Green Day followed up a memorable performance of “21 Guns” with the American Idiot musical cast by winning Best Rock Album for 21st Century Breakdown. In awards handed out before the broadcast, Bruce Springsteen’s “Working on a Dream” was named Best Solo Rock Performance, Jeff Beck took Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “A Day in the Life,” the Beatles scored Best Long Form Video and French electronic pop group Phoenix pulled out a surprise victory in the Best Alternative Album category with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Check out the winners list here.

Get a look at the best and worst of 2010 Grammy fashion.

The Grammys are known for its high-wattage performances as much as their hardware, and last night’s show was packed with big-name team-ups. Lady Gaga got the party started with “Poker Face” before taking a seat at her piano (adorned with mannequin limbs frozen into Gaga’s monster claw) and facing off against Elton John on her “Speechless” and his “Your Song.” Beyoncé and a SWAT team of dancers mashed up the I Am… Sasha Fierce hit “If I Were a Boy” with Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Pink spun from the ceiling, soaking wet, during an acrobatic performance of “Glitter in the Air.” And Lil Wayne, Eminem, Drake and Travis Barker kept the censors on their toes with a profanity-laced medley of Rebirth’s “Drop the World” and the hit “Forever.”

The ceremony also included a 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson featuring Celine Dion, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, Usher and Carrie Underwood singing along with the King of Pop’s “Earth Song.” Jackson’s two eldest children, Prince and Paris, accepted their father’s posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award in one of the night’s most touching moments. Jeff Beck led a special Les Paul tribute while Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It” merged T-Pain, opera, Doug E Fresh and Slash performing the “November Rain” solo into one strange performance. Stevie Nicks joined Taylor Swift to duet on “Rihannon” and “You Belong With Me” in one of the few performances that felt out-of-sync. And even though the Dave Matthews Band were shut out of any Grammy wins, the group broke out a full choir, horns and string section for a strong rendition of “You & Me.”

For a full rundown of the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, be sure to check out our live blog and all of Rolling Stone’s essential Grammy coverage.

Abstinence Education Effective in Reducing Teen Sex, Comprehensive Sex Ed Not

2010-02-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

A new study concludes that abstinence-only education had a significant and long-term effect in reducing teen sexual activity. “The abstinence-only intervention reduced sexual initiation,” reports the study, which is featured in the most recent issue of the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, published by the American Medical Association.

The study found that a short eight-hour abstinence program reduced sexual activity among youth by a third. Despite the brevity of the abstinence training the effects lasted a full two years after students left the classroom. Moreover, if students who took the abstinence course did become sexually active they were not less likely to use contraception.

In contrast, study found that alternative types of sex ed failed. “Safe sex” programs (which promote contraception only) and “comprehensive sex ed” programs (which teach both abstinence and contraceptive use), had no effect on teen sexual behavior. These programs neither reduced teen sex nor did they increase contraceptive use among teens, which is their major emphasis.

These findings are based on a randomized controlled experiment, the gold standard in program evaluation and designed to produce unbiased results. The study analyzed 662 African-American 6^th and 7^th grade students in four public middle schools serving low-income communities in a northeastern U.S. city. They were randomly assigned to participate in an eight-hour abstinence-only program, an eight-hour “safe sex” program, an eight- or twelve-hour comprehensive sex education program, or a general health-only, non-sex ed program, which represented the control group in the experiment.

Bolstered by its rigorous randomized controlled design, this study provides important new findings. It strengthens the existing body of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of abstinence education. A 2008 Heritage study, for example, reviewed 15 studies of authentic abstinence programs and found that 11 of the 15 studies reported positive behavioral changes among teens.

These new findings—that abstinence education reduced teen sex, without causing any adverse decline in contraception use, while “safe sex” and comprehensive sex ed programs failed to reduce teen sex or increase contraceptive use—seriously counter the ineffectiveness claim made by opponents of abstinence education.

Opponents of abstinence are often motivated by ideology than by social science research.

In recent weeks, abstinence foes launched yet another attack, attributing the rise in teen pregnancy and birth rates, after more than a decade of dramatic decline, to federally-funded abstinence programs. However, a funding analysis by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that, in the fiscal year 2008, for every dollar the department spent on abstinence education, it spent $4 on comprehensive sex education and family planning services targeting teens. In FY2008, the department spent $176.5 million on abstinence education. By contrast, pregnancy and STD prevention programs and family planning services for teens received $609.3 million .

Sadly, despite the social science evidence, the Obama administration and Congress have eliminated all federal spending on abstinence education and, instead, have created additional funding for comprehensive sex education.

Northumbrian Water shares up on takeover talk

2010-02-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

See utility sector share prices

Shares in Northumbrian Water have jumped 12% following a report that the company could receive a £1.7bn takeover offer from a Canadian pension fund.

The Sunday Times reported that the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan was thought to be in talks with banks over raising money for a bid.

The pension fund already owns a 27% stake in the UK company.

Northumbrian Water provides services to 4.3 million people in the north-east and south-east of England.

It provides water and sewerage services to 2.6 million people in the north-east of England, and water services to 1.7 million in the south-east of England where it trades as Essex & Suffolk Water.

Shares in Northumbrian Water closed up 30.4p, or 11.8%, at 288p.

The report of the takeover interest also caused shares in other utility companies to rise. Pennon Group rose 5%, Severn Trent climbed 4% and shares in United Utilities were up 2.8%.

In November, Northumbrian Water said that business closures in the north-east of England had left it with bad debts of £1.7m in the six months to September 2009.

IPCC claims on Amazon, ice not based on science

2010-02-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

2 Feb 2010, 0309 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Credibility issues continue to dog the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The UN climate change body is now being charged that its claim on disappearing Amazonian forests is based on a report by environmental activists while that on disappearing ice from the world’s mountain peaks is based on a doctoral student’s essay and an article in a mountaineering magazine.

The IPCC report stated reductions in mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa was caused by global warming. It had cited two scientific papers as its primary source of information. However, according to the UK’s Sunday Telegraph, the two sources were actually an article published in a magazine for mountaineers and a geography student’s master’s dissertation. The article in the mountaineering magazine — Climbing News — was based on anecdotal evidence about the changes the authors were witnessing during climbs. While the dissertation by a student from the University of Bern in Switzerland reportedly quoted interviews with mountain guides in the Alps.

To back its claims that the large tracts of Amazonian forests will disappear because of diminishing rainfall, the IPCC has cited a report by the environment group WWF. The Sunday Telegraph has questioned the IPCC’s decision to cite a WWF report to support its claim that 40% of Amazon forests could disappear due to declining rainfall and even be replaced by tropical savannah.

UK’s secretary of state for energy and climate change Ed Miliband said that it would be “profoundly irresponsible” to allow recent controversies over scientific data to undermine the fight against climate change. “Yes, it was bad a mistake that was made. Yes, the IPCC needs to reform its procedures so these kind of mistakes don’t happen again. But the truth is, it doesn’t undermine decades of climate research,” Mr Miliband said.

The pressure is be on the IPCC to improve its procedures. “The goof ups that are being reported are all from Working Group II. Clearly, evangelism has overtaken science. I am told that there are many things in the summary for policymakers that are not there in the Working Group reports. There is a clear need to distinguish science from advocacy, and the IPCC should stick with science,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.

U.S., China, others join Copenhagen Accord on climate

2010-02-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

Each nation determines its own target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Fumes from vehicles and smoke from factories fog the air on the outskirts of Ahmadabad last week. India was among the nations that joined the Copenhagen Accord by the Sunday deadline. (Ajit Solanki / Associated Press / January 23, 2010)

By Jim Tankersley

February 2, 2010

Reporting from Washington - The United States, China and dozens of other countries accounting for nearly 80% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions have signed onto a voluntary agreement to curb climate change.

If the countries make good on their pledges, they will dramatically reduce the emissions scientists link to global warming, but not enough to hold temperatures to levels scientists say are needed to minimize risks of drought, flooding and other catastrophic effects.

Still, the number of nations signing on, along with the amount they pledged in reductions, buoyed many environmentalists after the December climate summit meeting in Copenhagen.

The 193 countries represented in Copenhagen could not reach agreement on a pact to reduce carbon emissions. They settled instead for a voluntary accord that asks each nation to pledge to reduce them.

"What we now know that we did get out of Copenhagen was clarity of what countries are going to be doing to fight climate change," said Keya Chatterjee, director of the World Wildlife Fund's climate change program. The situation is "much better than we had a couple months ago. But it's still not where we need to be."

In addition to the United States and China, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, the countries that met a Sunday deadline to formally join the Copenhagen Accord include India, Japan and the nations of the European Union, the United Nations announced Monday.

Each nation determined its own target for reducing emissions. Fast-developing countries such as China promised to limit emissions as a share of their growing economies, while wealthy nations such as the United States pledged reductions from historic levels.

The accord has no enforcement provision, though it does require participants to allow international scrutiny of their efforts.

Many of the pledges are contingent: The United States, for example, refuses to set a concrete target until Congress passes a climate bill, and Canada's pledge is linked to that of the U.S.

Even at their most stringent, the pledges do not meet the accord's goal of holding warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, climate scientists and environmental groups say.

The list of countries not signing onto the accord includes OPEC nations such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, which environmentalists do not expect to join. Other countries such as Turkey and Malaysia are expected to eventually sign on.

The countries still have major issues to hash out, including how to handle the billions of dollars to be funneled from wealthy nations to poorer ones to help them adapt to climate change and develop cleaner sources of energy.

The Obama administration asked Congress on Monday to allocate $1.4 billion in the 2011 budget for international climate efforts. The administration has pledged to help raise as much as $100 billion annually by 2020.

jtankersley@latimes.com

54 killed as suicide bomber targets Shiite pilgrims in Iraq

2010-02-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

The attack, which echoes one a year earlier, occurred in a hospitality tent for Shiite Muslims making the walk to the shrine city of Karbala. Iraqis fear even worse as March elections draw near.

Two-year-old Mohammed Haider, wounded in the suicide attack in Baghdad, is held by his mother at a hospital. (Karim Kadim, Associated Press / February 1, 2010)

By Liz Sly

February 2, 2010

Reporting from Baghdad - A female suicide bomber detonated a vest rigged with explosives among a crowd of Shiite Muslim pilgrims Monday in northeast Baghdad, killing 54 people and wounding 109, the latest in a string of attacks that have unnerved the city as pivotal elections loom next month.

The bomber hid the explosives under her voluminous blackabaya, or cloak, and detonated them among pilgrims gathered at a hospitality tent in the neighborhood of Bab al Shams. The dead included five women employed to search female pilgrims for bombs, police said.

Taxi driver Ahmad Najem, 30, who witnessed the attack, described seeing a huge fireball erupt from the tent, followed by the wails of the injured.

"I saw the bodies of women and children, and bags and slippers strewn all around in pools of blood," said Najem, who joined in helping evacuate people.

The pilgrims were among hundreds of thousands walking to the shrine city of Karbala to mark Arbaeen, the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a 7th century figure revered by Shiites. Traditionally, residents set up hospitality tents to serve refreshments to the pilgrims.

Such public displays of Shiite religiosity were banned during Saddam Hussein's rule. Since his fall from power in 2003, millions have been making the journey on foot to the Karbala shrine. Just as regularly, insurgents have attacked them along the way, and Monday's bombing echoed one a year earlier in which a suicide attacker killed 40 pilgrims, also at a hospitality tent.

But a recent pilgrimage had gone off almost without incident, drawing boasts from the government that the security forces were in full control.

Monday's bombing was the bloodiest of the year, and was the fifth suicide attack in Baghdad in a week. It coincided with widespread fear that insurgent groups are gearing up for a major onslaught in the weeks before the March 7 national elections.

A dramatic deterioration in security could affect the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq, set to take place by the end of August.

American commanders have said they intend to assess things after the elections and decide whether to send home an estimated 65,000 combat troops, leaving a force of about 50,000 in Iraq.

liz.sly@latimes.com

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