Monday, October 31, 2011

FDA backs Vytorin for kidney disease patients

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Food and Drug Administration says Merck's cholesterol drug Vytorin helps reduce heart attack, stroke and related problems in patients with kidney disease, a potential new use for the blockbuster drug.

The agency's online review also found no new safety concerns with Vytorin, which came under scrutiny for potential cancer risks in 2008.

Merck has asked the FDA to approve the drug for a new use in reducing heart-related problems chronic kidney disease patients. The combination pill is already cleared to reduce bad cholesterol.

FDA says that Vytorin lowered kidney disease patients' heart-related problems by 16 percent compared with placebo. However results varied depending on whether patients were receiving dialysis, standard treatment for patients with late-stage kidney disease who can no longer remove waste from their blood. Patients on dialysis only saw a six percent drop in heart problems, compared with a 22 percent reduction for healthier patients not on dialysis.

On Wednesday, the FDA will ask non-government advisers to comment on the disparity and to vote on the overall safety and efficacy of the drug for kidney disease patients.

Vytorin, a $2 billion-a-year drug for Merck, combines two brand-name cholesterol pills Zocor and Zetia.

In July 2008, preliminary results from a four-year study indicated a possible increased risk of cancer in patients getting Vytorin. But FDA's latest review found no evidence of a link between Vytorin and cancer.

"We believe these data should help lay to rest investor concerns about Vytorin and Zetia's safety," Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez wrote in a research note Monday.

Shares of Merck & Co. Inc. fell 23 cents to $34.88 in morning trading Monday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-10-31-Vytorin-FDA%20Review/id-09a2b9bd4d4a470d9b86ce55e32d80b8

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Video: Attorney quits Baby Lisa case

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45087058#45087058

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Weather brings delays at airports in NY, Philly (Providence Journal)

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Preschool Peers May Boost Language Skills in Kids (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Preschool students with poor language skills show much greater improvement if they're placed in a classroom with higher-achieving children, compared to being in a class with other low-achievers, researchers say.

The findings are important because many preschool programs in the United States are targeted to poor children, whose development of language skills may be lagging, according to lead author Laura Justice, a professor at Ohio State University's School of Teaching and Learning.

"The way preschool works in the United States, we tend to cluster kids who have relatively low language skills in the same classrooms, and that is not good for their language development," she said in a university news release. "We need to pay more attention to the composition of preschool classrooms."

She and her colleagues looked at 338 children in 49 preschool classrooms and found that, among children with low initial language skills, those who were placed in the lowest-ability classes tended to lose ground during the school year, while those placed in average-ability classes tended to improve their language skills.

The researchers also found that high-ability students improved their language scores when placed in either low- or average-ability classes.

"Children with high language abilities don't seem to be affected by the other kids in their class," Justice said.

The findings, published in the Oct. 25 online edition of the journal Child Development, don't explain how preschoolers' language skills are affected by peers. Either direct interactions between children or teacher expectations for their students may play a role, the authors suggested.

But Justice said one thing is certain from this study -- dividing preschoolers into low- and high-achievement classrooms may be shortchanging those who most need help.

"If we really want to help lift kids out of poverty, and use preschool as a way to make that happen, we need to reconsider how we provide that education," Justice said. "Classrooms that blend students from different backgrounds are the best way to provide the boost that poor students need."

More information

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association outlines typical speech and language development in children.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111028/hl_hsn/preschoolpeersmayboostlanguageskillsinkids

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APNewsBreak: US northern border checks scaled back

SEATTLE (AP) ? The U.S. Border Patrol has quietly stopped its controversial practice of routinely searching buses, trains and airports for illegal immigrants at transportation hubs along the northern border and in the nation's interior, preventing agents from using what had long been an effective tool for tracking down people here illegally, The Associated Press has learned.

Current and former Border Patrol agents said field offices around the country began receiving the order last month ? soon after the Obama administration announced that to ease an overburdened immigration system, it would allow many undocumented people to remain in the country while it focuses on deporting those who have committed crimes.

The routine bus, train and airport checks typically involved agents milling about and questioning people who appeared suspicious, and had long been criticized by immigrant rights groups. Critics said the tactic amounted to racial profiling and violated the civil liberties of travelers.

But agents said it was an effective way to catch unlawful immigrants, including smugglers and possible terrorists, who had evaded detection at the border, as well as people who had overstayed their visas. Often, those who evade detection head quickly for the nearest mass public transportation in hopes of reaching other parts of the country.

Halting the practice has baffled the agents, especially in some stations along the northern border ? from Bellingham, Wash., to Houlton, Maine ? where the so-called "transportation checks" have been the bulk of their everyday duties. The Border Patrol is authorized to check vehicles within 100 miles of the border.

The order has not been made public, but two agents described it to the AP on condition of anonymity because the government does not authorize them to speak to the media. The union that represents Border Patrol agents planned to issue a press release about the change Monday.

"Orders have been sent out from Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C., to Border Patrol sectors nationwide that checks of transportation hubs and systems located away from the southwest border of the United States will only be conducted if there is intelligence indicating a threat," the release says.

Those who have received the orders said, agents may still go to train and bus stations and airports if they have specific "actionable intelligence" that there is an illegal immigrant there who recently entered the country. An agent in Washington state said it's not clear how agents are supposed to glean such intelligence, and even if they did, under the new directive they still require clearance from Washington, D.C., headquarters before they can respond.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, Bill Brooks, repeatedly insisted that any shift in enforcement tactics does not amount to a change in policy as local commanders still have authority to aggressively pursue illegal immigrants near the border and at transportation hubs.

"It's up to the local commander to position his agents the way he wants to position them. What we've done is gone to a risk-based posture," he said.

In a separate statement, the agency said, "Conducting intelligence-based transportation checks allows the Border Patrol to use their technology and personnel resources more effectively, especially in areas with limited resources."

Shawn Moran, vice president of the union that represents agents, was outraged at the changes.

"Stated plainly, Border Patrol managers are increasing the layers of bureaucracy and making it as difficult as possible for Border Patrol agents to conduct their core duties," the National Border Patrol Council's statement said. "The only risks being managed by this move are too many apprehensions, negative media attention and complaints generated by immigrant rights groups."

The Border Patrol has dramatically beefed up its staffing in the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, doubling to more than 20,000 agents nationally. Along the northern border, the number has jumped from about 300 in the late 1990s to more than 2,200.

Until receiving the new directive, the Bellingham office, about 25 miles from the Canadian border, kept agents at the bus-and-train station and at the local airport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now, the agents have little work to do, according to a Washington state-based Border Patrol agent who has been with the agency for more than 20 years and spoke to the AP.

The situation is similar in upstate New York, where an agent told the AP ? also on the condition of anonymity ? that a senior manager relayed the new directive during a morning roll call last month. Since then, instead of checking buses or trains, agents have spent shifts sitting in their vehicles gazing out at Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, where few illegal immigrants cross.

"They're already bored," the agent said. "You grab the paper every day and you go do the crossword."

The change was immediately obvious to Jack Barker, who manages the Greyhound and Trailways bus station in Rochester, N.Y. For the past six years, he said, Border Patrol agents boarded nearly every bus in and out of the station looking for illegal immigrants.

Last month ? one day after the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 and all of the hype that surrounded it ? the agents stopped coming. They haven't been back since, Barker said.

"What's changed that they're no longer needed here?" Barker asked. "I haven't been able to get an answer from anybody."

Doug Honig, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, welcomed the news.

"If the Border Patrol is indeed not boarding buses and trains and engaging in the random questioning of people, that's a step in the right direction," he said. "People shouldn't be questioned by government officials when there's no reason to believe they've done anything wrong."

Kent Lundgren, chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, said the transportation checks have been a staple of the agency for 60 years. His organization has heard from agents around the country complaining of the change, he said.

"From the tactical point of view, the Border Patrol is no longer checking transportation unless there's a specific threat," he said.

Gene Davis, a retired deputy chief in the Border Patrol's sector in Blaine, Wash., emphasized how effective the checks can be. He noted that a check of the Bellingham bus station in 1997 yielded an arrest of Palestinian Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer. Abu Mezer skipped out on a $5,000 bond ? only to turn up later in Brooklyn, where New York police shot him as he prepared to bomb the city's subway system. Davis also noted that would be millennium bomb suspect Ahmed Ressam was arrested at the border in late 1999 when he drove off a ferry from British Columbia to Washington in a rented car full of explosives.

"We've had two terrorists who have come through the northern border here ? to put these restraints on agents being able to talk to people is just ridiculous," Davis said. "Abu Mezer got out, but that just shows you the potential that's there with the transportation checks."

The Border Patrol informed officials at the Bellingham airport on Thursday that from now on they would only be allowed to come to the airport "if there's an action that needs their assistance," said airport manager Daniel Zenk.

"I'm shocked," Zenk said. "We welcome the security presence the Border Patrol provides."

___(equals)

Alicia Caldwell contributed from Washington, D.C., Ben Dobbin from Rochester, N.Y., and Carolyn Thompson from Buffalo, N.Y.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-28-Border-Transportation%20Checks/id-432d9c51cab142218447ae544aacdae3

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Rihanna's 'We Found Love' Co-Star Talks On-Set Chemistry

'We were like mates,' model Dudley O'Shaughnessy says of his connection to Rihanna.
By James Montgomery


Rihanna on the set of "We Found Love"
Photo: Photopress Belfast/Splash News

If the onscreen chemistry between Rihanna and her "We Found Love" co-star, boxer-turned-model Dudley O'Shaughnessy, seemed real, well, that's because it was.

That's what O'Shaughnessy is saying in a new interview with London's Evening Standard newspaper, in which he gushes about his connection with the pop star, and admits that after three days on "We Found Love" shoot, he "didn't want it to end."

"I loved it," he said. "Not just because it was 'a certain person's' video, but just because I love being on set.

"I wasn't star-struck at all ... she's just a nice girl. It's not like just because she's achieved so much that she thinks her sh-- don't stink," O'Shaughnessy continued. "She's such a humble, down-to-earth girl and that made it even better for me because I didn't feel intimidated or anything. We just got along. We were just like mates."

O'Shaughnessy added that, before being cast in "We Found Love," he had given up his dreams of becoming a professional boxer and was even contemplating quitting modeling, thinking, "I'm going to have to get a normal job now. I'll have to be a plumber or something," but, after his agency supplied his headshots to Rihanna's camp, she personally picked him for the video.

"The director, everyone, loved him," his agent told the Standard. "Obviously, Rihanna loved him."

Of course, O'Shaughnessy played it coy when asked about rumors that his and Rihanna's on-set relationship carried over into their off-set lives. Asked how he handled those steamy sex scenes, the model said, "You've just got to get into it," he said, adding that despite what you may read, he is still very much single.

"It's not that I'm looking [for a girlfriend]," he said. "I don't want to say I want a girlfriend or I don't. If it happens, it happens."

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673258/rihanna-we-found-love-music-video.jhtml

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Lindsay Lohan's father arrested again in Tampa (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? The estranged father of actress Lindsay Lohan was back in police custody Thursday, hours after being released from a Tampa jail on domestic violence charges.

Tampa police responded to a 911 call from Michael Lohan's on-and-off girlfriend early Thursday. Kate Major told police Lohan, 51, made a harassing phone call to her shortly after being released from jail Wednesday afternoon.

Lohan called again while police were at Major's condo. Major, 28, put the call on speaker so police could listen. After hearing what Lohan said, the police department notified the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office of a violation of Judge Walter Heinrich's pre-trial release orders that he stay away from Major and an arrest order was authorized.

Police went to the Tahitian Inn in Tampa, where Lohan was reportedly staying. According to a news release from police, Lohan spotted the officers and jumped off a third-floor balcony in an attempt to escape.

Lohan was arrested after a short pursuit on foot. He was taken into police custody and taken to the Hillsborough County Jail. There, deputies suspected he may have broken his foot when he jumped off the balcony, so he was taken to Tampa General Hospital for evaluation.

Authorities said he will be returned to the jail once he's been cleared by doctors.

Lohan was arrested Tuesday on domestic violence charges involving Major, a former reporter for the Star tabloid. Police say he grabbed her arms and pushed her down multiple times during a daylong argument. When Lohan was released from jail Wednesday, he said he "didn't do anything" and the charges were Major's way of making money.

The St. Petersburg Times ( http://bit.ly/txPQkt) reported that Lohan claimed Major set him up to be overheard by police Thursday. "She needs help, she calls me, and I'm a sucker so I call her back. I'm an idiot," Lohan said as he was being put into the back of a police cruiser.

In July, a misdemeanor domestic violence charge against Lohan stemming from a fight with Major was dismissed in Los Angeles after she failed to show up for the trial. Lohan's attorney said Major declined to cooperate to avoid a court spectacle.

Lohan has a history of arrests in New York over allegations of harassment from ex-girlfriends.

Meanwhile, his daughter Lindsay Lohan could also return to jail in California after a judge last week ruled she violated probation involving a community service assignment. A Nov. 2 court date was set to decide whether Lindsay Lohan should be jailed.

The 25-year-old actress was given probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a misdemeanor theft case this year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_en_mo/us_people_lindsay_lohan_s_father

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Friday, October 28, 2011

Obama nods to Hispanics in West as Republicans slip (Reuters)

DENVER (Reuters) ? With Hispanic voters upset at Republican presidential candidates over immigration, President Barack Obama played to a Latino audience on a trip to the West this week to shore up support from a group that is key to his re-election hopes.

Obama, a Democrat, made stops in California, Colorado, and Nevada. The latter two are swing states where the sizable Hispanic population could mean the difference between winning and losing in 2012.

Though Obama's trip was not billed as a Hispanic outreach tour, his public and private events were clearly designed with the Latino vote in mind.

In Las Vegas, he discussed housing policy with a Hispanic couple who had come to the United States as undocumented workers and later became U.S. citizens. Obama announced a new housing initiative with them and their children standing nearby in a made-for-television tableau.

The president made an unscheduled stop at a Los Angeles restaurant in a neighborhood dotted with Spanish-language billboards. He held a fundraiser focused solely on Latino donors, the first of its kind for his 2012 campaign. Actors Antonio Banderas and Eva Longoria hosted the event.

In Denver, Obama opened his remarks at a fundraiser by praising Colorado's Hispanic lieutenant governor at length.

"Between the two camps, only President Obama seems interested in attracting Latino votes right now, with Republicans continuing to damage their image and long-term reputation with hostile and inflammatory remarks about immigrants," said Latino Decisions pollster Matt Barreto.

Despite declining support from Hispanics, Obama is still more popular than his potential Republican rivals, who fought each other in a televised debate last week over who was tougher on illegal immigration.

A recent Pew Research poll showed Obama's approval ratings among Latinos at 51 percent compared to 58 percent in a Pew Hispanic Center poll conducted roughly a year ago.

"The president recognizes that our country's success is intricately tied to Hispanic success," said Obama campaign spokeswoman Gabriela Domenzain.

Obama announced new efforts to revive the housing market, create jobs and help with student loans during his western tour, which ended on Wednesday.

REPUBLICANS AND HISPANICS

Leading Republican candidate Herman Cain angered Hispanics by recommending an electrified fence on the Mexican border that could kill illegal immigrants.

Lauro Garza, the Texas director of the country's leading Latino conservative group Somos Republicans is severing his ties to the party over Cain's remarks.

But rather than outright opposition to the Republicans, many Hispanics are just not that interested in the party's presidential contenders.

"Most Latino voters say they have no opinion, or have never heard of the leading Republican candidates, an indicator that they are not doing much outreach," said Barreto, who is also a political science professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.

He said polling showed Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney with only 28 percent favorability rating among Latinos. Cain had favorability of 15 percent.

But Obama cannot rest easy. Many Hispanics are upset at his failure to pass immigration reform and the increase in deportations of undocumented workers.

All five of the new Latino members of the House of Representatives elected in 2010 were Republican, said Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

The Senate's only Latino addition was Marco Rubio, who is considered a frontrunner for the Republican vice presidential slot in 2012.

"Obama's failed policies have hit Latinos especially hard," Kukowski said, adding that unemployment among that group was 11.3 percent compared to the overall rate of 9.1 percent.

Republicans ran Spanish-language ads for the presidential race in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida, she said.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_hispanics

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

'Flying Humvee' moves ahead

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin's design for DARPA's Transformer TX program to develop a battle-ready flying car has advanced to the prototype development stage. AAI Corporation's design has advanced as well. Ground and air demonstrations could begin by 2015.

By John Roach

A flying car that's rugged enough for hardcore off-road driving, able to survive small-arms fire and can quickly take off and land is potentially just a few years shy of reality, according to reports sourced from DARPA, the U.S. military's future-oriented research arm.

Aerospace companies Lockheed Martin and AAI Corporation have presented "feasible designs" to the military's Transformer program, reports Aviation Week's Ares blog, and have advanced to the next phase, which is to begin work on prototypes of the contraptions.


Formal contracts for Phase 2 have yet to be awarded, AAI spokeswoman Sharon Corna told me in an email, but "it is my understanding that DARPA intends to proceed with us."

Presentation of?prototypes of the so-called "flying Humvees" is expected at the end of fiscal 2012. If DARPA selects one of the designs for Phase 3, ground and flight demonstrations of a flying Humvee could occur in 2015.

AAI Corporation

AAI Corporation's design for the Transformer TX program is shown here.

Regular folks may soon be able to drive around Terrafugia's Transition roadable aircraft, which cleared regulatory hurdles this July. But that car, which is more like an airplane that drives and must take off and land at airports, is a far cry from what DARPA has in mind.

The military envisions a vehicle that can carry four soldiers and gear, take off and land vertically, be flown more than 250 miles on a tank of gas, and be operated by a "typical soldier," according to DARPA's program description.?

"Meeting these requirements is pushing the state of the art in lightweight materials and structure, high power-to-weight engines, and autonomous flight controls," Aviation Week notes.

More on flying cars:


John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Disposable computers for hurling into infernos, underwater robots that team up for search and rescue, and other new tools are coming to the aid of emergency responders during calamities.

Source: http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/26/8494776-flying-humvee-moves-ahead

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Herman Cain's latest 'flip-flop': A federal gay-marriage ban (The Week)

New York ? Just six days after asserting that same-sex marriage is an issue best left to the states, the GOP hopeful argues that the feds should ban it

Just last week, GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain faced substantial ridicule over his confusing back-and-forth explanation of a "pro-life-but-actually-kind-of-pro-choice position on abortion." Now the businessman is under fire again for reversing his stance on another hot-button social issue. Speaking Saturday with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Cain said that he supports a federal ban on gay marriage. "There's a movement going on to basically take the teeth of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act," he said, "And that can cause an unraveling, so we do need some protection at the federal level because of that." Cain also acknowledged that he "used to" believe that gay marriage was a state issue, but that he's since changed his mind. Turns out that "used to" was less than a week ago, when Cain told Meet the Press' David Gregory that he "wouldn't seek a constitutional ban for same-sex marriage." Will Cain's latest "flip-flop" harm his campaign?

He's just trying to cozy up to the Right:?This whiplash-inducing turnaround means Cain has either "had a complete change of heart or is simply pandering to conservatives,"?says Andrew Belonsky at?Death + Taxes. Considering Cain's similarly abrupt 180 on abortion, and the heat he took from the GOP base for suggesting the feds should stay out of same-sex marriage, it's clear that Cain will do or say anything to keep conservatives on his side.
"Herman Cain changes tune: Amend constitution to ban gay marriage, abortion"

But this makes him look like a shape-shifting opportunist: This is bad news for Cain, says Dan Amira at New York. He's revealing that all of his policy positions "are soft and malleable, and liable to transform from one day to the next." That's a trait that's not likely to reflect well on a presidential candidate.
"Herman Cain still figuring out where he stands on this 'gay marriage' thing"

Cain's not a flip-flopper ? he's just an inexperienced campaigner: Cain has a "truth problem," says Jazz Shaw at Hot Air. The businessman is unabashedly honest when answering almost any question, realizing "only after the fallout from his answers begins" that he's done damage to his campaign. "If there's a flaw here, it's that he can't just stick by his original assertion and defend it boldly." He needs to find a way to win the nomination while espousing these unpopular positions authoritatively, or "he should have figured out how to lie about it more convincingly in the first place."
"Herman Cain's truth problem"

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20111024/cm_theweek/220679

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

How The Gadget Show built its FPS simulator (video)

Remember The Gadget Show's FPS simulator that we showed you last week? Armed with naught but a pre-release level of Battlefield 3 and £500,000 ($650,000), it transformed a Birmingham studio into the sort of game room only multi-billionaires can dream of (as long as the dreams involved getting shot back, the sim comes packing paintball markers). The episode, which shows how this slice of gaming greatness came to be, has just finished airing here in the UK, where streaming and catch-up services aren't available to those outside the country. Fortunately for you lot, our friends at the show have uploaded the feature for you to watch in all its glory after the break.

Continue reading How The Gadget Show built its FPS simulator (video)

How The Gadget Show built its FPS simulator (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ksLoJeieprg/

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Gaddafi son preparing to flee Libya: NTC official (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a fugitive son of the deposed Libyan leader, is near Libya's borders with Niger and Algeria and planning to flee the country using a forged passport, an official with the National Transitional Council said on Monday.

"He's on the triangle of Niger and Algeria. He's south of Ghat, the Ghat area. He was given a false Libyan passport from the area of Murzuq," the official told Reuters by telephone.

The official said Muammar Gaddafi's former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi was involved in the escape plot.

"In the south, they intercepted Thuraya (satellite telephone) communications. Abdullah Senussi has been on the border in that area to organize his exit and also a neighboring intelligence source tipped us off about that," the official said.

Saif al-Islam, a fluent English speaker who studied at the London School of Economics, is the only one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons still unaccounted for.

Two fled to Algeria, one is in Niger, two were killed earlier in the Libyan conflict and one, Mo'tassim, was killed after being captured with his father last week near the city of Sirte.

The International Criminal Court earlier this year issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam, and another for al-Senussi.

The NTC official said it would be difficult to track Saif al-Islam's movements and stop him crossing out of Libya.

"The region is very, very difficult to monitor and encircle. It needs warplanes. Even NATO cannot monitor this area," he said.

"It needs a large force of our brigades to intercept and to be able to monitor and hunt him down. It is very, very difficult. All we have there is some small-scale patrols of our fighters."

"The region is a desert region and it has many exits. It is also a smuggling route. It has many, many exit routes."

(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/ts_nm/us_libya_saif_escape

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Caterpillar 3Q profit soars, raises year view (AP)

NEW YORK ? Strong demand for construction and mining equipment should boost Caterpillar Inc.'s revenue through next year, even as the health of global economy remains in doubt.

The company's optimistic forecast followed double-digit growth in third-quarter earnings and revenue, which it reported Monday. The robust quarter and outlook lifted the stock price of the Peoria, Ill.-based company by 5 percent, a much bigger gain than the broader market.

Sales and earnings at the company, the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, give insight into growth and investment around the world.

Caterpillar, which makes everything from black-and-yellow excavators and harvesters to diesel-electric locomotives, earned $1.14 billion, or $1.71 per share, between June and September. That was up 44 percent from $792 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue surged 41 percent to $15.72 billion, and demand for machinery came from across the globe. Developing nations continued to need construction equipment as their economies prosper, while developed countries, whose growth is weak, are replacing older equipment.

Higher commodity prices are attracting more investment in mines and fueling demand for mining machinery.

"Although there is a good deal of economic and political uncertainty in the world, we are not seeing it much in our business at this point," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman said.

Caterpillar expects to earn $6.75 per share on sales of $58 billion in 2011. That's up from its previous forecast of $6.25 to $6.75 per share on revenue of $56 billion to $58 billion.

It thinks revenue next year will increase 10 and 20 percent from 2011 to between $63.8 billion and $69.6 billion.

The company is continuing to add jobs ? nearly 5,000 between June and September alone. As of Sept. 30, it had about 149,000 employees, up more than 20 percent from a year earlier, including staff gained from acquisitions. About 5,600 of those jobs were added in the United States, where unemployment remains stuck at slightly more than 9 percent.

The company's performance was better than Wall Street expected. Excluding its $7.6 billion acquisition of a mining equipment maker, Caterpillar earned $1.93 per share on revenue of $14.58 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet Research were expecting a profit of $1.63 per share on $14.84 billion in sales.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_caterpillar

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Herman Cain: What did he say about abortion?

Herman Cain came under attack for his pro-life position. What did Herman Cain say exactly?

Herman Cain?s been getting slammed by his opponents for statements he made in a recent interview with CNN?s Piers Morgan suggesting that his position on abortion is, um, not particularly coherent.

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You can watch the interview yourself, but we?ve transcribed the relevant bits below:

MORGAN: What?s your view of abortion?

CAIN: I believe that life begins at conception and abortion under no circumstances - and here?s why

MORGAN: No circumstances?

CAIN: No circumstances.

MORGAN: Because many of your fellow candidates - well, certainly, some of them - qualify that

CAIN: they qualify it, but

MORGAN: rape, and incest, and so on.

CAIN: rape and incest

MORGAN: Are you honestly saying - a tricky question, i know

CAIN: a tricky question

MORGAN: You?ve had children, grandchildren

CAIN: Yes

MORGAN: If one of your female children, grandchildren was raped, you would honestly want her to bring up that baby as her own?

CAIN: See, you?re mixing two things here Piers.

MORGAN: Why?

CAIN: You?re mixing two things here

MORGAN: But that?s what it comes down to

CAIN: What it comes down to is not the government?s role or anybody else?s role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you?re not talking about that big a number. So what I?m saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician. Not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family, and whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn?t try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive decision.

MORGAN: But by expressing the view that you?ve expressed, you are effectively? You might be president. You can?t hide behind the mask of being the pizza guy. You might be president of the United States of America. So your views on these things become exponentially massively more important. They become a directive to the nation.

CAIN: No they don?t. I can have an opinion on an issue without it being a directive on the nation. The government shouldn?t be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to a social decision that they need to make.

MORGAN: That?s a very interesting departure from the normal politics.

CAIN: Exactly.

Cain?s campaign later released a statement attempting to clarify his position, saying:

Yesterday in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, I was asked questions about abortion policy and the role of the President. I understood the thrust of the question to ask whether that I, as president, would simply ?order? people to not seek an abortion. My answer was focused on the role of the President. The President has no constitutional authority to order any such action by anyone. That was the point I was trying to convey. As to my political policy view on abortion, I am 100% pro-life. End of story.

The whole episode has given Cain?s opponents a clear opening to attack. Rick Santorum told the Associated Press that Cain?s position was ?basically the position that just about every pro-choice politician has in America.?

And at Saturday?s Faith and Freedom Coalition banquet in Des Moines, Iowa, Rick Perry took a clear jab at Cain (though without naming him personally), with this remark:

?It is a liberal canard to say I am personally pro-life but government should stay out of that decision. If that is your view, you are not pro-life, you are pro having your cake and eating it too.?

More intriguing, CNN reported that an anonymous leaflet was distributed on car windshields outside the banquet, saying ?Herman Cain threw the babies under the bus,? and quoting Cain?s remarks from the CNN interview: ?It ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make.?

Like your politics unscrambled? Check out DCDecoder.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/bSdnOq2F49k/Herman-Cain-What-did-he-say-about-abortion

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Monday, October 24, 2011

Sencha Launches Mobile HTML5 Cloud, Sencha.io

sencha-io-badgeJavascript Web app framework provider Sencha is today announcing the public beta launch of Sencha.io, its new HTML5 mobile cloud service. The service will allow Sencha app developers to build "shared experiences" in the browser, without having to write server code or manage hosting. At launch, Sencha.io will provide a set of cloud services, including Sencha.io Data, Sencha.io Messages, Sencha.io Login and Sencha.io Development. Combined, the new services let developers use just a few lines of Javascript code to store data, send messages to users, listen for messages, deploy apps or login users via Facebook or Twitter.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/x8DhkiA6FIE/

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Cain's stumbles fuel doubts on electability (AP)

ATLANTA ? Herman Cain is learning the hard way what it means to face the glare of the national spotlight.

After captivating Republicans hungry for an alternative to Mitt Romney, the presidential hopeful has made a series of stumbles that have left some questioning if he's ready for the White House. The Georgia businessman has been on a media blitz since a rise in the polls catapulted him into the top tier of the race for the Republican party nomination.

But Cain has sometimes appeared to be in over his head. In the last week, he:

_Suggested a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico should be electrified to kill illegal immigrants trying to pass into the United States. Cain later called it a joke and apologized if anyone was offended by the remarks.

_Said he would negotiate for the release of U.S. prisoners held by terrorists, then reversed himself and said he had misunderstood the question.

_Muddied the water on abortion, telling CNN that, while he strongly opposes abortion, "the government shouldn't be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to social decisions that they need to make." He later issued a statement reiterating his opposition to abortion.

_Amid criticism that his signature 9-9-9 tax overhaul would force the majority of Americans to pay more to the government, he reworked the plan to exclude the poorest Americans and to allow some deductions. Backers of Cain's original plan had praised its simplicity, and piling on loopholes could erode into that support.

Through it all, Cain has appeared unflappable. He chalks up the reversals to the breakneck pace of the race.

"In a couple of instances ... I misspoke because of the pace of the interview. I don't call it a flip-flop. I'd rather come back and explain to people what I really meant," Cain said Friday after an economic speech in Detroit. "It doesn't send mixed messages. It just shows that I'm willing to correct myself ... if in fact I need to correct myself for clarity. That's what I'm trying to achieve."

For those in the GOP still in search of a candidate to back, his rocky rollout on the national stage has reinforced the view that Cain ? he has never held elected office ? is not ready for the big leagues.

"I'm looking for someone that's electable and right now I don't think he fits into that category," said 60-year-old Gene Carkeet of Memphis, Tenn., who attended a recent Cain rally there but remains undecided.

Gwen Ecklund, Republican chairwoman in Crawford County, Iowa, said Cain "has had a bad week."

"I do think it made some people take a second look," she said.

Cain's stumbles come as the campaign of rival Rick Perry shows some early signs of renewed vigor. Perry has plummeted in public opinion polls as Cain has climbed. But the Texas governor turned in a spirited and combative debate performance at a recent forum in New Hampshire and plans to unveil his own tax reform proposal relying on a flat tax under which everyone would pay the same income tax rate.

Cain and Perry are competing for support from tea party groups and evangelical voters.

Ralph Reed, a Republican strategist who founded the national Christian Coalition and now heads the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said Cain is going through the growing pains that come with sudden national exposure.

"It's a learning curve for any candidate who moves from the back of the pack to front of the pack," Reed said. "You undergo the political equivalent of a GI tract exam ... where every word is weighed and chewed over and scrutinized."

Reed said that after months of jumping on every media appearance offered, Cain and his staff must now limit his exposure and hammer home carefully honed talking points.

That's a tall order for a man who has spent years as a conservative radio talk-show host, saying what was on his mind and scoring points for being provacative.

Whether Cain's willingness to retool his 9-9-9 tax plan will be seen as a strength or a weakness is an open question.

"I guess we'll see what the polls say next week," said Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist had been critical of Cain's original proposal.

Not everyone is disheartened by Cain's missteps. Kay Godwin, co-founder of Georgia Conservatives in Action, said she is still solidly behind him.

""Look at Romney and Perry at the last debate. They can't even be civil to each other on a stage in front of a national audience," Godwin said. "At his core, Herman has the heart to save this country."

____

Elliott reported from Detroit.

____

Follow Shannon McCaffrey at http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111022/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain_stumbles

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Ronaldo scores 3 goals, Real Madrid routs Malaga

Sami Khedira, Eliseu Pereira

updated 6:05 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2011

BARCELONA, Spain - Cristiano Ronaldo scored three times in a 15-minute span of the first half to help Real Madrid rout Malaga 4-0 on Saturday and moved into first place in the Spanish league,

Having set up Gonzalo Higuain for Madrid's opener, Angel Di Maria assisted Ronaldo for his first goal. The Portuguese forward added two more to decide the match before halftime at La Rosaleda stadium. It was big-spending Malaga's first home loss and second in a row overall this season.

Madrid moved one point ahead of Barcelona, which was held to a 0-0 tie by visiting Sevilla. Goalkeeper Javi Varas blocked a penalty kick by Lionel Messi in second-half injury time to cap his excellent performance of nine saves.

Ronaldo and Messi are tied for the league lead with 10 goals, and Ronaldo has 12 overall.

Levante travels to Villarreal on Sunday looking to extend its best ever start with a sixth consecutive win that would move it a point ahead of Madrid.

Elsewhere, Sporting Gijon beat Granada 2-0 for its first win of the season, while Sergio Garcia's second-half goal dropped the winless Racing Santander into last place as Espanyol won 1-0 for its second straight away victory.

___

LONDON (AP) ? Liverpool was given a reality check on Saturday as promoted Norwich drew 1-1 at Anfield while Newcastle extended its unbeaten start to the Premier League season with a 1-0 victory against Wigan.

Craig Bellamy marked his first league start since returning to Liverpool in August with a goal in first-half stoppage time, but substitute Grant Holt leveled for Norwich on the hour.

Fifth-place Liverpool is already four points adrift of fourth-place Newcastle which went a ninth match unbeaten.

Yohan Cabaye curled the ball into the net in the 81st minute to send Wigan bottom with a sixth successive loss.

Wigan is in the relegation zone with Bolton, which lost 2-0 at home to Sunderland after late goals from Stephane Sessegnon and Nicklas Bendtner.

But Wolverhampton Wanderers fought back from two goals down against Swansea to salvage a 2-2 draw and end a run of five consecutive league losses.

In a West Midlands derby, Paul Scharner secured a 2-1 victory for West Bromwich over Aston Villa.

Manchester rivals City and United are leading the way in the league and meet on Sunday at Old Trafford.

___

PARIS (AP) ? Montpellier beat Caen 3-1 to go level on points with leader Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday, while Marseille defeated Ajaccio 2-0 to move away from the relegation zone.

Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa nodded Montpellier in front from Younes Belhanda's free kick and rounded off the victory after John Utaka's strike.

Montpellier was down to 10 men in the 63rd when midfielder Joris Marveaux picked up a second yellow card for a violent challenge on Niang.

And Caen midfielder Benjamin Nivet pulled one back with a late penalty kick after Montpellier goalkeeper Geoffrey Jourdren had fouled M'Baye Niang.

But then Caen had a player sent off when forward Pierre-Alain Frau received a second yellow card for a late tackle.

___

ROME (AP) ? Genoa striker Andrea Caracciolo scored a late equalizer to hold Serie A leader Juventus to a 2-2 draw Saturday.

Alessandro Matri had twice given Juventus the lead but Caracciolo found the target from a sharp angle in the 85th minute after reserve goalkeeper Marco Storari ? playing for the injured Gianluigi Buffon ? failed to intervene.

Marco Rossi had first equalized for Genoa in the 31st with a bouncing header.

With 13 points, Juve moved one point ahead of Udinese, which hosts newly promoted Novara on Sunday.

With three wins and four draws, Juventus remained unbeaten under new coach Antonio Conte.

Maxi Lopez scored a late equalizer as Catania drew 2-2 at Fiorentina to extend the Tuscan club's winless streak to four matches and pile pressure on manager Sinisa Mihajlovic.

___

BERLIN (AP) ? Borussia Dortmund got over its disappointing Champions League form by routing hapless Cologne 5-0 on Saturday to go second in the Bundesliga.

Shinji Kagawa put the defending champions ahead in the seventh minute before Marcel Schmelzer's goal, a double from Robert Lewandowski and Sebastian Kehl's header.

Dortmund is three points behind Bayern Munich, which plays at Hannover on Sunday.

Stuttgart drew 2-2 at Nuremberg to move third on goal difference, as Borussia Moenchengladbach lost 1-0 at Hoffenheim.

Also Saturday, Hertha Berlin drew 0-0 with Mainz and Kaiserslautern beat Freiburg 1-0 to leave the visiting side bottom of the table.

Hamburger SV is a point ahead of Freiburg after a 1-1 draw with Wolfsburg in the late game, Thorsten Fink's first in charge of the home side.

Fabian Johnson returned from a neck injury for Hoffenheim in his first appearance since Sept. 10, starting alongside Danny Williams. Johnson's switch for Germany to the United States was approved by FIFA last month.

___

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Sebastian Leto scored twice to lead Panathinaikos to a 4-0 victory over visiting Ergotelis in the Greek league Saturday.

Jean-Alain Boumsong and Costas Katsouranis added a goal apiece for Panathinaikos, which tops the standings with 13 points. Atromitos also has 13 points after a 1-0 win over Giannena on Saturday, but Panathinaikos has the better goal difference and two games in hand.

In Saturday's other game, Asteras and Xanthi drew 1-1.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Longtime CBS correspondent Robert Pierpoint dies (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? CBS News correspondent Robert C. Pierpoint ? who covered six presidents, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination and the Iranian hostage crisis in a career that spanned more than four decades ? died Saturday in California, his daughter said. He was 86.

Pierpoint, who retired in 1990, died of complications from surgery at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Marta Pierpoint told The Associated Press. He had broken his hip Oct. 12 at the Santa Barbara Retirement Community where he lived with his wife Patricia.

After making his name covering the Korean War ? a role he reprised when he provided his radio voice for the widely watched final episode of "MASH" in 1983 ? Pierpoint became a White House correspondent during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, a position he would hold through the Jimmy Carter administration.

"He lived quite an amazing life," said Marta Pierpoint. She said her father was most proud of his coverage of the Korean War, Watergate and most of all the Kennedy assassination, an event that would still bring him to tears in an interview with his hometown paper three weeks before his death.

"I didn't like what the priest said about a time to live and a time to die," Robert Pierpoint told the Santa Barbara News-Press in an Oct. 2 story. "It was not Kennedy's time to die."

Pierpoint said his "one bad mistake" the day of the assassination was not revealing that Jacqueline Kennedy had blood on her pink suit when she walked out of her husband's hospital room.

"I didn't describe the blood, and I should have," he said. "I was in shock."

Pierpoint said of the six administrations he covered, Kennedy's was the most fun.

"He was not afraid of the press," Pierpoint told the News-Press. "He had been a reporter. He knew everyone in the White House press corps by name and reputation and joked with us. He was comfortable in his own skin."

Pierpoint said his first White House assignment, the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration starting in 1957, was not as easy. He said Eisenhower was "a relatively good president, but he wasn't a good communicator. I didn't feel that I did a good job, but they kept me on."

CBS certainly did keep Pierpoint on at the White House, for 23 years, a period he chronicled in his 1981 memoir, "At the White House."

He moved to covering the State Department in 1980, and ended his career on the show "Sunday Morning" with Charles Kuralt.

Born May 16, 1925, in Redondo Beach, Calif., Pierpoint joined the Navy in 1943 but didn't see action. He graduated from the University of Redlands, where his papers and archives are now kept, in 1948.

While a graduate student at the University of Stockholm he began work as a stringer for CBS, and found his calling. His coverage of an attempted Communist coup in Finland won him attention, and he was sent to Tokyo as a full-time correspondent, which led to his coverage of the entire Korean War.

Pierpoint shifted as the news business did from radio to television, and appeared on the first episode of Edward R. Murrow's "See It Now" in 1951, eventually becoming one of the close Murrow associates known as "Murrow's Boys."

Before his career was over he had won two Emmys with other reporters, including one for his work on a 1989 banking scandal just before his retirement.

During retirement he was a frequent speaker and frequently went fishing in Montana.

He also didn't hesitate to give his opinion on the directions the White House went after he left, saying recently that he was not impressed with President Obama.

"He's not a fighter. He surrenders to Congress before it's necessary," Pierpoint told the News-Press. "Lyndon Johnson was a fighter. He fought for what he believed in. He was wrong on Vietnam, but right on civil rights."

In addition to Patricia, he is survived by four children, including actor Eric Pierpoint, who has appeared "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," and "Liar, Liar" with Jim Carrey.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111023/ap_en_ot/us_obit_robert_pierpoint

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Saturday, October 22, 2011

The iPhone 4S has an improved GPS system with GLONASS support

The iPhone 4S has an enhanced GPS system with support for GLONASS according to Apple?s own technical specification page. The question is what is GLONASS and what does it actually mean to us in the real world? GLONASS according to its Wikipedia page stands for Globalnaya Navigazionnaya Sputnikovaya...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/V8E3H9vTCgw/

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Euro zone rescue plans shrouded in doubt (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? A split between the International Monetary Fund and the European Union is threatening to delay Greece's next aid payment in another blow to European efforts to stem the debt crisis.

An admission by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday that Berlin and Paris were divided over how to make the euro zone bailout fund more effective had already dented hopes that Sunday's EU summit would bring substantial progress.

News the IMF rated EU projections for Greece's debt too optimist and wanted to delay approval of the next aid tranche further complicated the picture. The fund wants to wait until after this weekend's summit to see if discussions produce a clearer picture, EU officials said.

Without an eight billion euros loan payment from the EU and IMF next month Greece faces default, possibly dragging the larger economies of Spain and Italy into the mire and sending shockwaves through the banking system.

Seeking a comprehensive plan, euro zone leaders are racing to agree new steps to reduce Greece's debt, strengthen the capital of banks with exposure to troubled euro zone sovereigns and leverage the euro zone's rescue fund to stem contagion to bigger economies.

But progress appears to be glacial.

Sarkozy flew to Frankfurt on Wednesday evening for emergency talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the head of the IMF and other key euro zone officials. French media reported he missed the birth of his daughter in the process.

France has argued the most effective way of leveraging the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is to turn it into a bank which could then access funding from the ECB, but both the central bank and the German government oppose this.

Failure to reach a deal at Sunday's summit of European leaders would further undermine financial markets' confidence in the currency bloc and its ability to get on top of a two-year-long debt crisis, which threatens the long-term viability of the single currency.

Markets caught up with the downbeat tone from policymakers. The euro fell and European shares were down one percent having risen this week on hopes of comprehensive action from euro zone leaders.

Since France's finance minister pledged a decisive outcome to the October 23 summit last Saturday, expectations have been downplayed with Germany and others saying it will only be another step along the road to solving the debt crisis.

"I don't believe that such solutions could be made on Sunday that would ... fix everything. But I'm certain that there will be decisions that point to the right direction," Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen said in comments broadcast late on Wednesday.

Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the "two-steps-forward one-step-back" approach was disconcerting.

FORCED BANK LOSSES?

Adding to the uncertainty, EU officials said there was growing acceptance among key euro zone member states that further private sector involvement in reducing Greece's debt burden may have to be forced, not voluntary, something that has been ruled out up to now.

"Some countries are working under very aggressive scenarios," one EU official said. "Let's be serious, everybody knows that a 50 percent haircut, as Germany is asking for, is not a voluntary move."

In July, private sector investors agreed to contribute 50 billion euros to reducing Greece's debt pile via a debt buyback and swap agreement, which equated to a 21 percent writedown. That is now seen as insufficient to make Athens' debts sustainable.

Greece remains mired in recession and its overall debt is forecast to climb to 357 billion euros ($492 billion) this year, or 162 percent of annual economic output -- which few economists believe can be paid back.

The Financial Times reported that plans to strengthen the banking system, another key plank of the discussions, would fall short of market expectations.

Latest official estimates put the banks capital shortfall at less than 100 billion euros, the FT said, compared with a recent IMF report putting the funding hole at 200 billion and analysts' estimates of 275 billion or more.

With a senior Germany government source saying Berlin remained resolutely opposed to the ECB backstopping the rescue fund, euro zone officials have told Reuters that an alternative model, whereby the EFSF could underwrite a portion of newly issued euro zone debt, is also on the table.

By guaranteeing the first 20-30 percent of any losses, the 440 billion euros EFSF could be stretched three to five times further.

However, analysts are unconvinced that a leverage plan involving a guarantee on first losses would succeed, warning that it could create a two-tier structure in some bond markets and would be meaningless without an explicit commitment from the ECB to go on buying at-risk debt, something it has been reluctant to do.

While Europe's leaders rush to stop a larger writedown of Greek debt infecting others in the euro zone, ordinary Greeks are raging at the prospects of several more years of pain as the price of help from international lenders.

Greek protesters marched on parliament on Thursday, raising the prospect of more violence in strikes against austerity measures parliament is poised to approve to try to stave off bankruptcy.

Running battles between black-clad demonstrators and riot police on Wednesday left streets in central Athens covered with smoldering rubbish and lumps of masonry hacked off buildings in a repeat of clashes seen in anti-austerity protests in June. ($1 = 0.725 Euros)

(Writing by Mike Peacock; editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111020/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Appeal filed in case of slain ND college student (AP)

FARGO, N.D. ? Lawyers for a man sentenced to death for killing a University of North Dakota student submitted a document Tuesday for what is considered the final step in the legal appeals process, claiming his trial team was ineffective and that the man is mentally disabled.

The 298-page document, a so-called habeas corpus motion, was filed in federal court for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., who was convicted of kidnapping resulting in the death of Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes, Minn. Rodriguez, 58, of Crookston, Minn., is being held on death row at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.

The appeal was filed by attorney Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law professor who has represented several death row inmates. U.S. attorneys in the case depicted Rodriguez "as little better than an animal, uncaring and unworthy," Margulies said.

"We now know this carefully scripted tale conceals much and reveals little. Little about the government's case, and even less about Alfonso Rodriguez, was true," the document says. "In the pages that follow, we describe in meticulous detail the difference between what was and what could have been."

Federal prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.

Sjodin was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall in November 2003. Authorities say she was raped, beaten and stabbed. A jury sentenced Rodriguez to death on Sept. 22, 2006. It was the state's first federal death penalty case and resulted in tougher laws for sex offenders.

Rodriguez earlier lost an appeal with a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 vote. Rodriguez asked for a hearing in front of the full circuit court, which was denied. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Margulies said the previous legal team failed to uncover that Rodriguez is mentally disabled.

"And were there no more to learn about Mr. Rodriguez than the fact that he is retarded that would be enough," the lawyer writes. "Because the law accepts what no civilized society should question: we do not kill the mentally retarded."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111018/ap_on_re_us/nd_slain_student_appeal

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Paleo CSI: Early Hunters Left Mastodon Murder Weapon Behind (LiveScience.com)

A new look at a very old mastodon skeleton has turned up evidence of the first known hunting weapon in North America, a tool made of bone that predates previously known hunting technology by 800 years.

The sharp bit of bone, found embedded in a mastodon rib unearthed in the 1970s, has long been controversial. Archaeologists have argued about both the date assigned to the bone ? around 14,000 years old ? and about whether the alleged weapon was really shaped by human hands. But now, researchers say it's likely that 13,800 years ago, hunters slaughtered elephant-like mastodons using bony projectile points not much bigger around than pencils, sharpened to needle-like tips.

"We're fortunate that the hunter 13,800 years ago was probably trying to get that bone projectile point in between the ribs, probably trying to get at a vital organ," said study researcher Michael Waters, an anthropologist at the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University. "Maybe the mastodon flinched or his thrust was off, and he hit a rib instead and broke his bone projectile point. So it's bad for him, and good for us." [Image Gallery: Evidence of Mastodon Hunters]

Waters and his colleagues report their finding in the journal Science tomorrow (Oct. 21).

Uncovering a kill site

One thing is for sure: The ancient mastodon kill wasn't a fair fight. The creature, unearthed by a rancher digging a stock tank in the late 1970s in Washington state, was old and likely sickly when it died, with teeth "quite literally worn down to a nubbin," said Donald Grayson, an anthropologist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the new study.

The rancher turned the site over to archaeologists, who returned the favor by dubbing the find the "Manis Mastodon," the rancher's surname. The archaeologist's claim that the mastodon was hunted down by humans about 14,000 years ago was regarded with suspicion among other researchers, however, who pointed out that there was no solid proof that the bony point found embedded in the mastodon bone was made by human hands.

It was possible, Grayson said, that the bone was a part of the mastodon's own skeleton, perhaps even a dislodged bone chip from a fight with another animal. [Read: 25 Amazing Ancient Beasts]

Paleo cold case

But archaeological technology today is leaps and bounds past what it was in the 1970s. So Waters and his colleagues decided to take another look at the case of the Manis Mastodon. They extracted bone protein from the damaged rib and radiocarbon-dated it, an advanced version of the dating technique used four decades ago. Sure enough, they found that the specimen dates back 13,800 years. That's 800 years earlier than the North American Clovis, who were known to hunt mammoths and mastodons.

But Waters and his colleagues also needed evidence that the bony tip embedded in the rib was man-made. To investigate, they used a high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scan.

"We're all familiar with hospital CT scanners where they can scan your body and look inside to see organs and bones," Waters said. "This is a high-resolution industrial version that creates digital X-rays spaced every 0.06 millimeters [0.002 inches], about half the thickness of a piece of paper."

This ultra-sharp look inside the rib revealed the needle-sharp shaft of the projectile point lodged inside the mastodon's bone. The images suggested the point had been whittled down and sharpened, Waters said, the work of human hands. [See video of the weapon point and bone]

To top it off, the researchers extracted bone protein and DNA from the projectile point itself, determining that the weapon had been made from the bones of yet another mastodon.

"That was even more exciting, because what that meant is whoever these hunters were that tracked down and killed the Manis Mastodon were hunting with weapons made from a previous kill," Waters said.

Pre-Clovis hunters

Other anthropologists warned that it's difficult to conclusively understand an archaeological site given only one artifact, but said the find went a long way to putting the mastodon controversy to bed.

"It's very convincing," said James Dixon, the director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, who was not involved in the current study. Other mammoth and mastodon butchering sites from the same time period have been discovered (albeit without hunting weapons), Dixon said, and the new mastodon analysis adds to the evidence that human hunter-gatherers were killing the big, woolly creatures before the Clovis culture came along.

"To me, the high-quality scan strongly suggests that this really is a bone projectile point, and that this is another pre-Clovis site," Grayson agreed. If so, he said, it's the third confirmed pre-Clovis archaeological site, including the northern Patagonia settlement of Monte Verde from about 14,800 years ago and the Paisley Caves in Oregon, where scientists uncovered 14,300-year-old human feces.

So how did these early hunters kill a creature the size of an elephant with weapons the size of pencils? It's possible that groups of hunters ganged up on a mastodon and threw their projectile points like spears until the animal looked "like a pincushion," Waters said. The Manis Mastodon was nicked in an upper rib, consistent with the use of an atlatl, or spear-thrower, a hollowed-out shaft used to get more speed and leverage behind a thrown spear, Dixon said.

Or maybe that mastodon was already on its last legs before the human hunters finished it off, Grayson suggested.

"It is fully possible that this poor guy was not standing when killed, and might actually have been lying down and in the process of dying on his own," Grayson said. "That would solve the problem of having someone tall enough, or up high enough, to stick it in the back."

You can follow LiveScience?senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on?Twitter @livescience?and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20111020/sc_livescience/paleocsiearlyhuntersleftmastodonmurderweaponbehind

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