Sunday, 30 October 2011

Gaddadi son Saif al-Islam finds friends in desert (Reuters)

AGADEZ (Reuters) ? Muammar Gaddafi's fugitive son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi can expect a warm welcome and even help hiding among the desert communities south of Libya which were long courted by his father.

Alienated further from the West by a war which risks unsettling a fragile regional peace, some were ready to defy an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant and shelter the son of a man who for years promoted the kinship of Saharan peoples.

"We are ready to hide him wherever needed," said Mouddour Barka, a resident of Agadez in northern Niger.

"We are telling the international community to stay out of this business and our own authorities not to hand him over -- otherwise we are ready to go out onto the streets and they will have us to deal with," he added.

Earlier this week hundreds joined a communal prayer at Agadez's main mosque in memory of Gaddafi and to ask for God's blessing for his children.

A senior Libyan official said on Thursday Saif al-Islam, 39, fearing the same fate as his slain father, was trying to arrange an aircraft to fly him from a desert refuge into the custody of the ICC, the world's top war crimes court.

His location remains unclear but Libyan and other sources have suggested he is somewhere in the mountainous border region between Niger and Mali, two African countries which have signed the Rome Statute of The Hague-based court.

BROTHER COUNTRIES

Niger's government in the capital Niamey has vowed to meet its ICC commitments but 750 km (400 miles) north in a region where cross-border allegiances among Tuareg nomads often outweigh national ties, the picture looks different.

"I am ready to welcome him in. For me his case is quite simply a humanitarian one," said Mohamed Anako, president of the council of Agadez region, a barren stretch of land almost the same size of France.

"Libya and Niger are brother countries and cousins. You find the same communities in Libya as you do in northern Niger -- so we will welcome him in," said Anako, who said only that he had heard "talk" of Saif al-Islam being in the area.

Aided by local Tuareg guides in a region Niger concedes is too vast for its forces to patrol effectively, Saif al-Islam could remain hidden almost indefinitely in the mountains that straddle the borders of Niger, Algeria and Mali.

Libya's southern neighbors learned to live with Gaddafi, accepting his largesse despite exasperation at his vision of a trans-Saharan people, rhetoric which prompted concerns over their territorial integrity in a region where borders are already porous.

For northern communities in both Niger and Mali, the NATO-backed Libyan war that removed Gaddafi has brought nothing but trouble, with thousands of African migrant workers and armed Tuaregs who fought for the fallen dictator turning up at their door.

This has sparked new concerns over stability in countries which have only in the past two years won respite from years of off-on Tuareg rebellions sometimes goaded on by Gaddafi.

While the security consequences for the region may take months to become clear, the build-up in recent weeks of 500 armed pro-Gaddafi fighters in the Kidal region of Mali by the Nigerien border may offer an opportunity for Saif al-Islam.

"He could be anywhere in the border region around Niger, Mali or Algeria," said a ministerial source in Mali.

"But hundreds of Libyan soldiers, all of Malian origin, are sheltering in Kidal, where they came in convoys commanded by pro-Gaddafi colonels. He would be safer among his own in Mali," the source added.

(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako; writing by Mark John)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/ts_nm/us_libya_saif_tuaregs

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Dragonflies literally scared to death of fish

Just the mere presence of a predator can stress out dragonfly larvae enough to kill them ? even if the dragonflies are out of the predator's reach and completely safe, a new study shows.

Biologists at the University of Toronto placed juvenile dragonfly (Leucorrhinia intacta) larvae and their predatory fish together in aquarium tanks. The two were separated so that although the dragonflies could see and smell their predators, the fish could not actually reach or eat the dragonflies.

"What we found was unexpected ? more of the dragonflies died when predators shared their habitat," study researcher Locke Rowe, chairman of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the university, said in a statement.

The dragonfly larvae that were exposed to predatory fish or aquatic insects whose presence may have also caused the larvae stress had survival rates 2.5 to 4.3 times lower than those that had not been exposed to either stressor.

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Rowe and colleagues then conducted another experiment to determine whether stressful conditions influence dragonfly metamorphosis. "We allowed the juvenile dragonflies to go through metamorphosis to become adult dragonflies, and found those that had grown up around predators were more likely to fail to complete metamorphosis successfully, more often dying in the process," Rowe said.

The results showed that 11 percent of the larvae that were exposed to fish died before reaching adulthood, compared with only 2 percent of larvae that went through metamorphosis in a predator-free environment.

"As we learn more about how animals respond to stressful conditions ? whether it's the presence of predators or stresses from other natural or human-caused disruptions ? we increasingly find that stress brings a greater risk of death, presumably from things such as infections that normally wouldn't kill them," Rowe said.

The findings can be used as a model for future studies on the harmful and potentially lethal effects of stress on living organisms, the researchers suggested.

The study was recently published in the journal Ecology and is highlighted in the journal Nature this week.

You can follow LiveScience writer Remy Melina on Twitter @remymelina. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience? and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45081079/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Saturday, 29 October 2011

Confident Cain plans to cut back campaign events

Republican Presidential candidate, Herman Cain campaigns in Talladega, Ala., Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Republican Presidential candidate, Herman Cain campaigns in Talladega, Ala., Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Republican Presidential candidate, Herman Cain campaigns in Talladega, Ala., Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

(AP) ? Presidential candidate Herman Cain isn't lacking in confidence about his 2012 prospects.

It's been weeks since he's set foot in first-voting Iowa or New Hampshire, yet he says he expects to finish first or second in each state.

He's also predicting victory in South Carolina, which will hold the South's first presidential contest in 2012. And that win, he says, will set the stage for him to capture the GOP nomination.

But Cain also says he plans to "dial back" his campaign and media appearances in order to avoid missteps. Since climbing in the polls, he's had a series of fumbles and has had to clarify comments on abortion, immigration and terrorism suspects.

Cain appeared Saturday at a Samford University football tailgate in Alabama.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-29-Cain/id-41200b1403944c93bb1a01dc399ac3b7

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Italians, Greeks skeptical over euro zone rescue plan (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? A deal struck by euro zone leaders on Thursday to contain the region's dangerous debt crisis was greeted skeptically in the two countries most in the firing line, Greece and Italy, with some saying politicians were dreaming.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi submitted an ambitious set of reforms intended to boost growth and cut debt as part of the deal, but analysts questioned the ability of his fractious coalition to implement the plan.

In Greece, opposition politicians and citizens feared further painful belt-tightening and years of recession, showing little enthusiasm for a plan for banks and insurers to accept a 50 percent loss on their Greek government bonds.

Berlusconi's pledges include raising the retirement age and making it easier for firms to lay off staff but few expect a scandal-ridden government with a poor track record of pushing through reforms to be able to do so while battling for survival.

"It's hard to believe that yesterday's intentions can really be transformed into the biggest plan of market reforms Italy has ever put on paper," Antonio Polito wrote in the Corriere della Sera daily, pointing to coalition tensions and lack of faith in the government.

An editorial in the left-leaning La Repubblica daily described the plan as a "book of dreams."

In a sign of the challenges Berlusconi faces, Italy's biggest trade union CGIL responded by pledging to fight the reform plans and called on smaller unions to unite against "targeted attacks" on Italian workers.

"We're ready to propose unified action," CGIL secretary Susanna Camusso told La Repubblica.

PROVOCATION

Even the smaller and more moderate unions CISL and UIL said they would participate in strikes if Italy's strict job protection rules were at stake.

"Touching redundancies seems like a provocation at a time when the country needs cohesion," said CISL leader Raffaele Bonanni.

Berlusconi submitted the hastily constructed package of reforms as a "letter of intent" to the EU summit, promising a much-delayed economic development plan by November 15 and other measures to increase growth and balance the budget by 2013.

They formed part of a euro zone deal aimed at drawing a line under spiraling debt problems that have threatened to unravel the European single currency project.

After dodging the worst of the financial crisis in recent years, Italy has moved to the center of the debt crunch this year as its bond yields soared to near unsustainable levels. Only intervention from the European Central Bank has prevented them from sliding out of control.

Investors have fretted about Italy's chronically sluggish growth and the sustainability of its 1.9 trillion euro debt, which at 120 percent of GDP is second only to Greece's in the euro zone.

Berlusconi's fast-mushrooming list of problems -- including sex scandals, legal troubles, a public spat with his economy minister and increasingly mutinous allies -- have further undermined confidence among investors.

Berlusconi's Northern League ally, on whom he relies on for a parliamentary majority, has refused to budge on some parts of pension reform and has openly questioned whether the government can see out its term ending in 2013. Analysts say early elections are likely in spring next year.

Still, some analysts said Berlusconi's plans went beyond expectations and European stock markets surged to a 12-week high on relief following the deal by European leaders.

IMPLEMENTATION

The spread between 10-year Italian and German government bonds narrowed to less than 370 basis points on Thursday after hovering around levels close to 400 last week.

"It's at least going in the right direction and going faster than we thought," said Gilles Moec, economist at Deutsche Bank.

"A lot will depend on the actual implementation and the timetable."

Analysts welcomed measures on potential job cuts in the public sector and moves to make it easier for companies to lay off people in times of economic difficulty although they met less support on Rome's streets.

"Making it easier to fire employees doesn't help people at all. They should target large assets, those who have more need to pay more in this moment of crisis," said one Rome resident, who did not wish to be named.

Unicredit analyst Chiara Corsa said that the move to facilitate redundancies should have been coupled with a broadening of the unemployment benefit system.

"In addition, more incisive action on the pension system, with more stringent requirements for the access to seniority pensions, or even their abolishment as originally requested by the ECB, would have been desirable," she added.

In Greece, citizens hit by several rounds of austerity, including hefty pay and pension cuts and tax hikes, responded with similar criticism to the EU deal.

Prime Minister George Papandreou said the agreement meant that the country's debt burden would now be sustainable, but people on the streets saw little reason to celebrate.

"I don't feel saved," said teacher Pantelis Abeloyannis, 47, a father of three who is struggling to make ends meet and pay his mortgage following heavy pay cuts.

"The banks are not paying for us today. They are just returning a part of the profit they have made from us all these years."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/bs_nm/us_italy

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Friday, 28 October 2011

The Breast Cancer You May Not Know About (ContributorNetwork)

Inflammatory Breast Cancer is very rare, but very aggressive.

I am alive today because my doctors had an icon on their desktop to remind them to be alert to IBC. Unfortunately, the incidence of this aggressive breast cancer is increasing in the United States.

You don't have to have a lump to have breast cancer.

Most of what we are taught about breast cancer does not apply to Inflammatory Breast Cancer. It does not make a lump. It nests inside dense breast tissue and does not typically show up on a mammogram. We are taught that breast cancer doesn't hurt, but Inflammatory Breast Cancer usually does. A heavy, swollen breast that feels warm and sore could be IBC. Many Inflammatory Breast Cancer cases are missed because the symptoms are mistaken for mastitis. Know all the symptoms of IBC, and if you have even one, make sure your doctor screens for Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer strikes women and men of all ages, most often younger women.

The median age for an IBC diagnosis is between 45 and 55. It has been diagnosed in men and in pregnant and lactating women. The youngest woman on record to be diagnosed with the disease was 12. It is vitally important for parents to encourage our sons and daughters to be aware of their bodies, and to talk to us if anything seems amiss. It is never too early to teach our children to take care of themselves.

Inaccurate diagnosis results in lethal treatment delays.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer spreads quickly, because unlike other breast cancers is originates in the lymph tissue. Lactating women often assume that their symptoms are mastitis, and miss the opportunity to fight the disease before it spreads. Inflammatory Breast Cancer is always diagnosed at Stage III or Stage IV, because by the time it shows symptoms it has progressed. Timely diagnosis and treatment is key to survival.

You don't need to be frightened, just aware. Knowledge is power.

Know your body, know your breasts, and teach your children to do the same. If you go to the hospital with chest pain, a responsible doctor will screen for a cardiac event. If you notice anything unusual happening to your breast, make sure that Inflammatory Breast Cancer is ruled out.

Share this information with every woman you know. You may save a life. I personally know of more than one Inflammatory Breast Cancer survivor who is alive today because someone in her life was aware.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111027/us_ac/9150251_the_breast_cancer_you_may_not_know_about

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Thursday, 27 October 2011

'Magnetic tongue' ready to help produce tastier processed foods

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2011) ? The "electronic nose," which detects odors, has a companion among emerging futuristic "e-sensing" devices intended to replace abilities that once were strictly human-and-animal-only. It is a "magnetic tongue" -- a method used to "taste" food and identify ingredients that people describe as sweet, bitter, sour, etc. A report on use of the method to taste canned tomatoes appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Antonio Randazzo, Anders Malmendal, Ettore Novellino and colleagues explain that sensing the odor and flavor of food is a very complex process. It depends not only on the combination of ingredients in the food, but also on the taster's emotional state. Trained taste testers eliminate some of the variation, but food processors need more objective ways to measure the sensory descriptor of their products. That's where electronic sensing technologies, like E-noses, come into play.

However, current instruments can only analyze certain food components and require very specific sample preparation. To overcome these shortcomings, Randazzo and Malmendal's team turned to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) to test its abilities as "a magnetic tongue."

The researchers analyzed 18 canned tomato products from various markets with NMR and found that the instrument could estimate most of the tastes assessed by the human taste testers. But the NMR instrument went even farther. By determining the chemical composition, it showed which compound is related to which sensory descriptor. The researchers say that the "magnetic tongue" has good potential as a rapid, sensitive and relatively inexpensive approach for food processing companies to use.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Anders Malmendal, Claudia Amoresano, Roberta Trotta, Ilaria Lauri, Stefano De Tito, Ettore Novellino, Antonio Randazzo. NMR Spectrometers as ?Magnetic Tongues?: Prediction of Sensory Descriptors in Canned Tomatoes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2011; 59 (20): 10831 DOI: 10.1021/jf203803q

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/0Tt5-suvDHg/111026122416.htm

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FDA: studies do not tie Chantix to mental problems

(AP) ? Federal health officials said Monday that Pfizer's anti-smoking drug Chantix did not increase psychiatric problems like depression and suicidal thoughts in two studies, though the findings are not definitive.

The Food and Drug Administration has been investigating reports of mood disorders and erratic behavior among Chantix patients since 2007. The agency said in a statement that two federally-funded studies involving more than 26,000 patients did not show an increased rate of psychiatric hospitalizations among Chantix patients, compared with those using nicotine patches and smoking cessation treatments.

FDA regulators stressed that the studies only recorded psychiatric problems that resulted in hospitalization, meaning many issues likely went unreported. Additionally, the studies by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense were not large enough to pick up very rare side effects.

Groups like the Federal Aviation Administration have already banned the drug for pilots and air traffic controllers due to side effects that could interfere with their work.

The agency said it is continuing to study the problems and recommends patients consult their doctors if they experience side effects with the drug. Pfizer is conducting its own large-scale study of Chantix behavioral effects, but the results won't be available until 2017.

"Healthcare professionals should advise patients and caregivers that the patient should immediately stop taking Chantix and contact a healthcare professional if agitation, hostility, depressed mood, or changes in behavior or thinking that are not typical for the patient are observed," the FDA said in an online statement.

More than 8.9 million people in the U.S. have filled prescriptions for Chantix since it was approved in May 2006. Last year Pfizer reported $755 million in sales for the drug, a decline of 14 percent since its peak sales of $883 million in 2007.

Shares of Pfizer Inc. rose 30 cents to $19.36, tracking broader increases on the S&P 500.

Chantix works by binding to the same spots in the brain that nicotine does when people smoke, blocking nicotine from those spots but causing release of a "feel-good" chemical, dopamine. The drug's label already carries a boxed warning, the most serious type, listing possible side effects including hostility, agitation, depression and suicidal thoughts and behavior.

New York-based Pfizer Inc. said in a statement: "We are reviewing this important information for smokers provided by the FDA."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-10-24-Smoking%20Drug-FDA/id-fadf5d1f3e2f49a492867ccfbf738fe2

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Wednesday, 26 October 2011

UFC 137 video: B.J. Penn takes his own road to the Nick Diaz fight

B.J. Penn's camp is about tech savvy as it gets, so to no one's surprise the Penn folks have turned out some great videos to rival what's on Countdown to UFC 137.

Make sure to check out Yahoo! Sports' exclusive blog with the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champ.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-137-video-B-J-Penn-takes-his-own-road-to-t?urn=mma-wp8544

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Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Researchers ID genetic mutation associated with high risk of age-related macular degeneration

Researchers ID genetic mutation associated with high risk of age-related macular degeneration

Monday, October 24, 2011

Age- related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe visual loss among the elderly. Researchers had previously identified several relatively common genetic variants which together predict a person's increased risk for AMD, but a significant number of persons without the disease also have these variants. Now, for the first time, investigators have been able to clearly show a specific rare mutation called CFH R1210C that predicts a very high risk of disease and is extremely uncommon among individuals who do not have the disease. Although it is a rare variant, accounting for about 1% of the total cases, it is highly related to familial disease and earlier age of onset. This research is published online and in an upcoming print edition of Nature Genetics. The paper is a collaborative effort between investigators from Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"Our paper shows that there is a genetic variant that confers high risk of the development of AMD; this finding not only clearly links CFH gene dysfunction to disease, but also might help to identify people who need to be screened more closely," said first author, Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD, a researcher in the Divisions of Genetics and Rheumatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

Prior to this publication, it was known that genetic variation within the CFH gene influenced risk of AMD in individuals. In this study, researchers conducted sequencing and genotyping of CFH in 2,423 AMD cases and 1,122 controls in the laboratory of senior author Johanna M. Seddon, MD, ScM, Professor of Ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine and Director of the Ophthalmic Epidemiology and Genetics Service at Tufts Medical Center. They identified a rare, high-risk mutation resulting in an arginine to cysteine substitution in the CFH protein. This mutation is associated with loss of function of the CFH protein and its discovery suggests that loss of CFH function can drive AMD risk. It was associated with advanced AMD with visual loss and many of the patients also had numerous drusen, which are the early hallmarks of AMD.

"The discovery of this rare but penetrant variant strongly associated with disease also points the way to developing new and effective treatments for high risk individuals," said Seddon.

Collaborators in this research included investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins University.

###

Brigham and Women's Hospital: http://www.brighamandwomens.org

Thanks to Brigham and Women's Hospital for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 28 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114552/Researchers_ID_genetic_mutation_associated_with_high_risk_of_age_related_macular_degeneration

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Songs to Read the Steve Jobs Biography By [Steve Jobs]

Steve Jobs loved music, evident from conversations and his guests at Apple events. Now his biography is out, part of which is devoted to music. As such, we've put together a Spotify playlist of Steve's favorites, past and present. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-sCfIDRKrnk/songs-to-read-the-steve-jobs-biography-by

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Monday, 24 October 2011

Crop scientists now fret about heat not just water

CHICAGO | Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:19pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Crop scientists in the United States, the world's largest food exporter, are pondering an odd question: could the danger of global warming really be the heat?

For years, as scientists have assembled data on climate change and pointed with concern at melting glaciers and other visible changes in the life-giving water cycle, the impact on seasonal rains and irrigation has worried crop watchers most.

What would breadbaskets like the Midwest, the Central Asian steppes, the north China Plain or Argentine and Brazilian crop lands be like without normal rains or water tables?

Those were seen as longer-term issues of climate change.

But scientists now wonder if a more immediate issue is an unusual rise in day-time and, especially, night-time summer temperatures being seen in crop belts around the world.

Interviews with crop researchers at American universities paint the same picture: high temperatures have already shrunken output of many crops and vegetables.

"We don't grow tomatoes in the deep South in the summer. Pollination fails," said Ken Boote, a crop scientist with the University of Florida.

The same goes for snap beans which can no longer be grown in Florida during the summer, he added.

"As temperatures rise we are going to have trouble maintaining the yields of crops that we already have," said Gerald Nelson, an economist with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) who is leading a global project initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to identify new crop varieties adapted to climate change.

"When I go around the world, people are much less skeptical, much more concerned about climate change," said David Lobell, a Stanford University agricultural scientist.

Lobell was one of three authors of a much-discussed 2011 climate study of world corn, wheat, soybean and rice yields over the last three decades (1980-2008). It concluded that heat, not rainfall, was affecting yields the most.

"The magnitude of recent temperature trends is larger than those for precipitation in most situations," the study said.

"We took a pretty conservative approach and still found sizable impacts. They certainly are happening already and not just something that will or might happen in the future," Lobell told Reuters in an interview.

CONCERNS GROWING

Scientists at an annual meeting of U.S. agronomists last week in San Antonio said the focus was climate change.

"Its impact on agriculture systems, impacts on crops, mitigation strategies with soil management -- a whole range of questions was being asked about climate change," said Jerry Hatfield, Laboratory Director at the National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

"The biggest thing is high night-time temperatures have a negative impact on yield," Hatfield added, noting that the heat affects evaporation and the life process of the crops.

"One of the consequences of rising temperatures ... is to compress the life cycle of that plant. The other key consequence is that when the atmosphere gets warmer the atmospheric demand for water increases," Hatfield said.

"These are simple things that can occur and have tremendous consequences on our ability to produce a stable supply of food or feed or fiber," he said.

Boote at the University of Florida found that rice and sorghum plants failed to produce grain, something he calls "pollen viability," when the average 24-hour temperature is 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius). That equates to highs of 104 F during the day and 86 F at night, he said.

DOES SCIENCE HAVE AN ANSWER?

The global seed industry has set a high bar to boost crop yields by 2050 to feed a hungry world. Scientists said that the impact of heat on plant growth needs more focus and study.

"If you look at a lot of crop insurance claims, farmers say it is the lack of water that caused the plant to die," said Wolfram Schlenker, assistant professor at Columbia University.

"But I think it's basically different sides of the same coin because the water requirement of the plant increases tremendously if it's hot," he said.

"The private sector understands the threats coming from climate change and have significant research programs in regards to drought tolerance. They focus less on higher temperatures, but that's a tougher challenge," Nelson said.

"We are responding with a number of initiatives...the primary one is focusing on drought tolerance," said John Soper, vice president in charge of global seed development for DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred, a top U.S. seed producer.

Pioneer launched a conventionally bred drought-tolerant corn hybrid seed in the western U.S. Corn Belt this spring, selected for its yield advantage over other varieties.

"We have some early results in from Texas that show that is exactly how they are behaving. They currently have a 6 percent advantage over normal products in those drought zones," Soper said.

Roy Steiner, deputy director for agricultural development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the foundation is focused on current agricultural effects of climate change.

"It's amazing that there are still people who think that it's not changing. Everywhere we go we're seeing greater variability, the rains are changing and the timing of the rains is creating a lot more vulnerability," Steiner said.

"Agriculture is one of those things that needs long-term planning, and we are very short-cycled thinking," he said. "There are going to be some real shocks to the system. Climate is the biggest challenge. Demand is not going away."

(Editing by Peter Bohan)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/xeFqfx5UGCQ/us-climate-crops-idUSTRE79N07420111024

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Insight: NY gas drillers' victory soured by tough new rules (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The end of a drilling ban in New York was meant to be a new dawn for energy companies. After years of waiting, they would finally be able to exploit the richest deposit of natural gas in the country.

But as companies delve into new regulations for drilling in New York, they're discovering a bitter reality: half the land they had leased for drilling may now be out of bounds.

In proposed new rules for drilling, which are expected to be finalized early next year, the state has imposed an off-limits buffer around its waterways due to environmental concerns about the effects that drilling will have on water supplies.

The buffers are as much as 20 times larger than neighboring, industry-friendly Pennsylvania.

After looking at maps of thousands of potentially forbidden acres, some companies are considering leaving the state altogether, Reuters has discovered.

Royal Dutch Shell, which has leased about 90,000 acres for drilling in New York, reckons that 40 percent of that land could be off limits under the proposed laws, a company source told Reuters after Shell completed modeling of its acreage in the state.

"We are looking at a potentially significant impact," the source said.

Inflection Energy, a small independent company with 15,000 acres in New York, is reconsidering drilling there after studies showed that about 60 percent of its acreage might not be drillable.

"It is forcing us to change our business model," said Inflection chief executive Mark Sexton. "If the regulations go ahead we will allocate more resources to Pennsylvania than New York. Originally we had planned to focus more on New York."

Inflection had aimed to increase leased land to 50,000 acres.

The revelation of the stiff restrictions on drilling near aquifers and waterways, a previously unreported aspect of environmental regulations proposed this summer, is the latest set-back for shale drillers in New York, where unusually fierce local opposition has stunted development.

It also highlights how tougher state regulations could rein in the rampant expansion of natural gas produced using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial technique to extract gas from shale rock deep below the surface by blasting it with chemical-laced water.

ENVIRONMENTAL SET-BACKS

The moratorium on drilling New York's portion of the huge Marcellus Shale gas deposit -- which extends south through Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- was put in place as environmentalists warned that drilling fluids used in fracking and methane could find their way into underground water sources and taint supply for millions of homes across the state.

The gas industry denies the link and had hoped that a concerted campaign to dispel fears about the impact of fracking would help turn New York policy in their favor.

"This (lease buying) was all done without the knowledge that the DEC was going to propose these increased setbacks," said Thomas West, an attorney in Albany New York who represents oil and gas companies. "It has a significant impact on the drillability of this acreage."

Some New York land has been off limits for years. The state has gone to great lengths to protect its drinking water from the chemicals used in fracking, far more than other gas-producing regions in the United States.

The long wait to drill has hit some companies hard, after they bet the wrong way on New York.

Norse Energy moved its headquarters to Buffalo, New York, four years ago, expecting to find fortune drilling the Marcellus. But after investing $100 million in New York, Norse laid off half its staff last month; its shares on the Oslo stock market have lost nearly all their value.

Norse, which owns leases on 180,000 acres in New York, is also considering leaving the state.

"We are in survival mode. We bet a lot on New York opening up for development and are now talking to the creditors on a regular basis," Norse executive vice president Dennis Holbrook said.

Even before the regulations were proposed, companies have been leaving the state. Last year, Talisman Energy, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus shale, moved its U.S. headquarters from Buffalo to Warrendale, Pennsylvania.

JOBS VS WATER

Governor Cuomo wants to lift the ban on fracking by next year, hoping to replicate an energy boom which is already underway and creating jobs in neighboring Pennsylvania.

But Cuomo must reconcile a spiraling economy and the need to boost jobs with concerns that fracking is harmful to the environment and New York's precious fresh water.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation has recommended that no drilling take place within 500 feet of New York's 18 primary aquifers, within 4,000 feet of the New York City and Syracuse watersheds and within 2,000 feet of rivers or streams.

In Pennsylvania, home to part of the Marcellus, the buffer from rivers and streams is 100 feet, with plans to extend this to 300 feet.

Cuomo's motives are clear: allowing fracking in New York could add nearly 55,000 jobs and $1.7 billion in revenue, the DEC said in a report in September.

But, with proposed regulations open to a ninety day comment period, parties are calling for stricter regulations that could leave even more land out of bounds to drillers.

"In a perfect world the setbacks need not be that far, but incidents will happen," said John Williams, a ground water expert at the U.S. Geological Survey.

A blow-out at a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well in Pennsylvania in April caused fracking fluids to spill into local waterways, heightening the debate about the safety of the chemicals used in the process. In New Jersey, just south of New York, fracking has been banned.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is calling for a seven-mile buffer from elderly underground water pipes that feed the state's major cities and traverse potentially busy drilling areas in the Marcellus.

Under the current proposed regulations, there are no buffers around New York's aqueducts.

"These tunnels were not designed to withstand this type of subsurface activity," said DEP commissioner Carter Strickland in a statement this month. "By the time one knows there is a problem, it may be too late to avoid serious impacts."

Parties have until December to put their comments to the DEC, after which regulations will be finalized. Drilling permits could be issued as early as mid-2012.

"What is interesting is the growing strength and intensity of public opposition to fracking," Eric Goldstein, a lawyer with the National Resources Defense Council, said after attending a public meeting on fracking in Albany this month.

"It would be nonsensical policy to put the priceless water supply infrastructure for half the state's population at risk for the potential gains from fracking."

(Reporting by Edward McAllister; Editing by Alden Bentley)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111021/bs_nm/us_newyork_shale

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Sunday, 23 October 2011

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Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/GRFHZ6xCMoY/

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Saturday, 22 October 2011

German satellite expected to hit Earth on weekend

Undated artist rendering provided by EADS Astrium shows the scientific satellite Rosat. The German Aerospace Center said the retired satellite is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces could crash into the earth as early as Friday. Spokesman Andreas Schuetz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 that most of the satellite named ROSAT, which is about the size of a minivan, will burn up during re-entry. (AP Photo/EADS Astrium)

Undated artist rendering provided by EADS Astrium shows the scientific satellite Rosat. The German Aerospace Center said the retired satellite is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces could crash into the earth as early as Friday. Spokesman Andreas Schuetz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 that most of the satellite named ROSAT, which is about the size of a minivan, will burn up during re-entry. (AP Photo/EADS Astrium)

BERLIN (AP) ? German scientists say they expect pieces of a defunct satellite hurtling toward the atmosphere to hit Earth this weekend.

Andreas Schuetz, a spokesman for the German Aerospace Center, said Friday the best estimate is still that the ROSAT scientific research satellite will impact sometime Saturday or Sunday.

The center says parts of the minivan-sized satellite will burn up during re-entry but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.87 tons (1.7 metric tons) could crash into the Earth with a speed of up to 280 mph (450 kph).

The satellite orbits the Earth every 90 minutes and scientists can only say that it could hit Earth anywhere along its path, between 53-degrees north and 53-degrees south ? a vast swath of territory that includes much of the planet outside the poles.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-10-21-Falling-Satellite/id-23f29f9fa8e44598a71dda989c4c66cb

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Senate rejects GOP effort on terrorist trials

(AP) ? The Senate voted early Friday to reject a Republican effort to prohibit the United States from prosecuting foreign terrorist suspects in civilian courts, handing a victory to President Barack Obama.

By 52-47, senators turned aside a proposal by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (AY-aht), R-N.H., that would have forced such trials to occur before military tribunals or commissions. The Obama administration has fought to continue bringing such cases in federal courts, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Attorney General Eric Holder writing Senate leaders on Thursday that the measure would deprive them of a potent weapon against terrorism and increase the risk of terrorists escaping justice.

Obama has had numerous clashes with Congress over the handling of war on terror detainees. Congress has voted to prevent the transfer of detainees from the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S. Obama has sought to close that detention facility but has been opposed by Republicans and some Democratic lawmakers.

Ayotte said it would be dangerous to let terrorists exercise the protections against self-incrimination and other rights of civilian courts that they might use to avoid surrendering critical information to investigators. Republicans cited last November's acquittal by a federal jury in New York of all but one of hundreds of charges brought against Ahmed Ghailani for his role in destroying two U.S. embassies in Africa, in which 224 people were killed.

"Enemy combatants are not common criminals who just robbed the liquor store," she said, adding, "The priority has to be on gathering information to protect Americans."

Democrats said since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 10 years ago, 300 terrorist cases have been successfully prosecuted in federal courts, compared to just three before military commissions. They also pointed to last week's guilty plea in a federal court in Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for trying to destroy a jetliner with a bomb in his underwear and the FBI's successful interrogation of Abdulmutallab.

"Give the president the power he needs to keep America safe," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

Ayotte fell well short of the 60 votes she needed for her amendment to prevail. The vote came as the Senate debated deep into the night over a wide-ranging spending bill that it will not complete until it returns next month after a one-week recess. .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-21-Congress-Terror%20Suspects/id-c613325818864ed9a15f77d1c3cc592d

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Friday, 21 October 2011

Fox snags FIFA World Cup rights from ESPN (Reuters)

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) ? Fox has won the rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Sports Business Daily's John Ourand reported.

That means Fox Sports Chairman David Hill & Co. beat out ESPN, which back in 2005 bought the rights for the 2010 Cup in South Africa and the 2014 event in Brazil.

ESPN has invested heavily in soccer, grabbing the rights to lucrative packages like the English Premier League and lesser ones like Major League Soccer.

"ESPN remains committed to presenting the sport of soccer at the highest level across our platforms with coverage of the UEFA European Football Championship, English Premier League, La Liga, MLS and other top leagues and tournaments, including the 2014 World Cup in Brazil," the Bristol, Conn.-based company said in a statement.

In keeping with its typical line of explanation, ESPN said it remained "disciplined" but "aggressive." That's code for "we got outbid and didn't want to spend as much as it would have taken."

Meanwhile, Fox's deal means that it not only gets the men's World Cup, but all FIFA events from 2015-2022. That includes the women's World Cup, as well as the under-20 and under-17 national team competitions.

The financial detail of the agreement are not yet known, though FIFA is expected to announce the deal in a press conference Friday afternoon. ESPN's previous package was worth $100 million, while Univision paid $325 million for the Spanish-language rights.

However, those rights have changed hands as well. A few different sports reporters, such as Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl and CNBC's Darren Rovell, tweeted that Telemundo (a property of NBC Universal) had secured the Spanish-language rights.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111021/media_nm/us_fifa

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Thursday, 20 October 2011

U.S. fears more plots from Iran's Quds Force (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States believes Iran's shadowy Quds Force is becoming increasingly aggressive overseas and may be working on other international plots beyond the alleged plan to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, three U.S. officials told Reuters.

U.S. allegations last week of a foiled plot in Washington have escalated tensions between the United States and Iran. They have also renewed Washington's focus on the Quds Force, the covert operations arm of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is believed to have sponsored attacks on U.S. targets in the Middle East -- but never before in the United States.

"They're being more aggressive ... not only in Iraq but worldwide," one senior U.S. official said in an interview. The official and others insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record and because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

U.S. officials have long charged that the Quds Force -- the Arabic word for Jerusalem -- has used proxies to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The Quds Force, whose power within Iran is believed to be growing, is also active in Lebanon, the Gulf, Syria and elsewhere, officials said.

Many Iran specialists have reacted skeptically to the disclosure of an alleged Iranian plot within the United States itself. Tehran has dismissed the charges as a fabrication.

Some foreign nations briefed on the plot have raised questions. While President Barack Obama has so far demanded tougher sanctions on Iran and not a military reprisal, representatives of those nations are nonetheless wary, given the flawed intelligence case President George W. Bush made for war in Iraq.

Even U.S. officials now convinced of the plot's authenticity acknowledged they were initially doubtful due to the case's odd facts, including the bumbling nature of the Iranian-American now in custody, and his approach to a supposed Mexican drug cartel figure who happened to be a U.S. federal informant.

U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters declined to provide details of the evidence that the Quds Force may have other plots in the works. But two officials stressed they were based on more than just speculation or analysis.

"These are not merely aspirational plots dreamed up by the Quds Force. In fact, there is active planning around them," a second senior U.S. official told Reuters. Both senior officials played down concerns any attack was imminent.

A third U.S. official said the recklessness of the alleged attempt to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington suggested that Quds "may be involved in other actions."

In the wake of the U.S. government's disclosure of the alleged plot, counterterrorism investigators in Britain are examining the possibility that other plots hatched in Iran were under way, a European government source said.

But the source said he and his colleagues were unaware of any current Iranian plots similar to the one the Americans said they had uncovered and disrupted.

IRAN'S 'SECOND MOST POWERFUL MAN'

U.S. officials said they believed Iran's Quds Force had expanded its power in recent years, exerting more control over the country's foreign policy.

Its commander, Qasem Suleimani, a brigadier general, has led the group's efforts to broaden Iran's influence in the Middle East, including by supporting Iraq factions that oppose the U.S. presence.

"His prominence within the Quds Force cannot be overstated. He is directly responsible for everything the Quds Force does," one U.S. military official, who is an expert on Iran, told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Karim Sadjadpour, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, described Suleimani as "arguably the second most powerful man in Iran after the supreme leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The United States has blamed Iran for an upswing in attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq over the summer that made June the deadliest month for U.S. personnel there since 2008. The United States also accuses Tehran of supplying weapons to Afghan militants, although on a far smaller scale than in Iraq.

In recent years, Suleimani's Quds Force has been "meddling in more places," the first senior U.S. official said.

"There are opportunities they think they can exploit in various places in the Middle East, that either they've got some foothold, and we're on one side, and they're on the other," the official said.

Vali Nasr, a professor of international politics at Tufts University, said the alleged plot cited by U.S. officials tracked with what appeared to be "far more aggressive Iranian behavior everywhere else."

He also cited Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan.

"For some, it might be this news came in the context of a trendline that they were seeing with Iran," Nasr said.

U.S. officials have told Reuters they believe Suleimani is connected to the latest U.S. plot.

"Whether he is doing this like other things on his own or whether this is the direction of Khamenei, we can't say right now," the first U.S. official said. "It's a problem no matter what."

Nasr said he doubted the Quds Force would be doing something as risky as a plot on U.S. soil without political clearance from above.

Some Iran watchers were stunned that Tehran would choose to carry out an attack on U.S. soil, a potentially dangerous departure from past protocol. But U.S. officials following Iran told Reuters the behavior was consistent with the activities by the Quds Force and Suleimani.

"It makes a huge difference to us that it's on U.S. soil. But Iran has been, with only the thinnest of veils, seeking to kill U.S. troops and U.S. government individuals for years," the military official said.

(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria in Washington and Mark Hosenball in London, Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111020/wl_nm/us_usa_iran_plots

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Foreign owners eye relegation end

By ROB HARRIS

updated 3:51 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2011

LONDON - Some of the Premier League's foreign owners want to abolish the relegation and promotion system, a senior English soccer executive said Monday.

With half the Premier League's 20 clubs under foreign ownership, League Managers' Association chief executive Richard Bevan said many owners would like to emulate the American system, where the major professional sports leagues have no relegation. if more teams are sold to overseas investors they could force a dramatic change to the rules.

"There are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about bringing about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League," Bevan said at the Professional Players Federation conference in London. "If we have four or five more new owners, that could happen."

Forcing any change requires support from 14 of the league's 20 clubs. Even then, The Football Association must approve. League rules state the FA's consent is needed for "the making and adoption of or any amendment to ... promotion to and relegation from the league."

"Certainly you'll find that with American owners and you'll find that with some of the Asian owners (they have been talking about scrapping relegation)," Bevan said on the sidelines of the conference.

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester United and Sunderland are owned by Americans, while Blackburn is under Indian ownership and Queens Park Rangers has Malaysian backers.

United manager Alex Ferguson said he supported the current system in which the three bottom clubs drop from the top tier to the Championship, while three clubs are promoted from the second tier to the Premier League.

"You may as well lock the doors (without relegation)," said Ferguson, whose club is owned by the Glazer family. "It would be absolute suicide for the rest of the teams in the country, particularly the Championship."

The Villa board headed by Randy Lerner, who also owns NFL's Cleveland Browns, was "confused and surprised" by Bevan's remarks.

"If he intended this group to specifically include Aston Villa, as could be inferred by his comments, then we would ask him to confirm as much," the club's board said.

But Bevan said "particularly American owners without doubt" have been looking at a system without relegation.

"Obviously if I was an American owner and I owned a football club or I was an Indian owner I might be thinking I would like to see no promotion or relegation, my investment is going to be safer and my shares are going to go up in value."

Stoke chairman Peter Coates, one of just 10 English owners in the top tier, warned of the dangers of scrapping the "lifeblood of our game."

"I'd be horrified to think that was someone's long-term agenda," Coates told The Associated Press. "Although it happens in America with franchises, our traditions are totally different. ... It would be an absolutely unthinkable thing."

The issue has not been publicly raised at a meeting of clubs since 2009 when Bolton chairman Phil Gartside proposed a 38-team Premier League split into two divisions.

If Premier League owners tried to abolish the ability of lower-tier teams to rise into the elite, they would meet opposition from Europe's soccer and political institutions. Since becoming UEFA president in 2007, Michel Platini has made good relations with the 27-nation European Union a priority to help ensure that the EU protects soccer's right to govern its own affairs.

UEFA has highlighted promotion and relegation among its core values in the "European sports model."

___

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

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


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Foreign owners eye relegation end

??Some of the Premier League's foreign owners want to abolish the relegation system, an English soccer executive said Monday, while United manager Alex Ferguson disagreed.

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Robin van Persie put Arsenal into the top half of the Premier League table with a double in a 2-1 victory over Sunderland.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44929883/ns/sports-soccer/

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Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Harry Reid to force Tuesday vote on Obama commerce secretary (Daily Caller)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to pull a procedural move Tuesday afternoon to sneak President Obama?s Commerce Secretary nominee John Bryson through Senate confirmation, The Daily Caller has learned.

The highly unusual maneuver will permit Reid to bypass the permanent Senate floor ?hold? placed on Bryson?s nomination by Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Inhofe ? a step he took because he objects to Bryson?s connection with a solar energy firm that received a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the federal government.

Reid?s chosen procedural maneuver, called a ?time agreement,? circumvents the normal committee process by which presidential nominations are vetted. Should he succeed,?Inhofe would no longer be able to stop Bryson?s confirmation.

If Reid is able to move forward procedurally, Bryson?s confirmation could reach the Senate?floor on Tuesday afternoon. In that case, s simple 50-vote majority would confirm Bryson?s nomination ? meaning Democrats could simply slip him through.

Inhofe told The Daily Caller on Tuesday morning that he will meet with the Senate Republican leadership around noon today. He said he will ask Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and others to back his call for Reid to require a 60-vote threshold to confirm Bryson as the new Secretary of Commerce.

?We are going to tell the majority that in the event that they don?t agree to giving us a 60-vote threshold, and then go ahead and vote on the nomination, then we will go ahead and object to the motion to proceed ? and go through all these arduous things and a filibuster ? and then ultimately they?ll have to do a 60-vote margin anyway,? Inhofe said in a phone interview.

The conservative stalwart from Oklahoma added that if he wins the GOP leadership?s support, Reid can either concede the issue and hold a 60-member majority vote, or fight back and ultimately lose.

?I?ll find out later today if the Republicans in the conference agree with me,? Inhofe told TheDc.

As the ranking Republican member of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, Inhofe has held up Bryson?s nomination for reasons other than those of some GOP colleagues. Other Republicans pushed for the Obama administration to first complete three free-trade agreements, which have recently been finalized. Inhofe, however, considers Bryson?s history troubling enough to hold him up.

Bryson, the former CEO of Edison International, was also chairman of the board of BrightSource Energy, a solar energy startup that received one of the biggest government-backed loan guarantees ever ? a $1.6 billion guarantee to build a solar energy facility in California.

?With Solyndra right now, and everyone talking about that, this is no time to have someone who has also had a similar type of loan guarantee that Solyndra got,? Inhofe told TheDC.

Bryson was also a co-founder of the National Resources Defense Council, a left-leaning ?environmentalist organization.??He isn?t just a supporter of it,? Inhofe emphasized. ?He helped found it.?

Inhofe also said Bryson could not possibly affect the economy in a positive way as Commerce Secretary.??Why have a guy as Secretary of Commerce who?s against commerce?? Inhofe asked. Bryson opposes drilling for fossil fuels and hydrofracking natural gas deposits, the senator said, and wants to rely ?solely on green energy where the technology does not exist yet.?

Bryson?s nomination was approved on October 6 by the Senate Committee on?Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Neither Reid?s office nor McConnell?s staff?responded to The Daily Caller?s request for comment.

Follow Matthew on Twitter

Vishal Ganesan contributed reporting to this article.

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20111018/pl_dailycaller/harryreidtoforcetuesdayvoteonobamacommercesecretary

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Daily Desired: Headphones With Soft Ear Pads and Big Sound [Desired]

Lambskin gets a bad, um, wrap, but it is oh so soft. If you're going to make a pair of headphones for fastidious ears, they really should have Downy-soft ear pads. More »


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Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Museum unconvinced by new Van Gogh death theory (AP)

AMSTERDAM ? Two American authors believe Vincent van Gogh was fatally shot by two teenagers and did not die from self-inflicted wounds, but the new theory won a skeptical reception Monday from experts at the museum dedicated to the 19th century Dutch master.

A book by Pulitzer prize-winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, "Van Gogh, The Life," concludes that Van Gogh, who suffered chronic depression, claimed on his deathbed to have shot himself to protect the boys.

"Covering up his own murder," said Naifeh in an interview broadcast Sunday on the U.S. network CBS's "60 Minutes."

Leo Jansen, curator of the Van Gogh Museum and editor of the artist's letters, said the biography is a "great book," but experts have doubts about the authors' theory of his death in 1890.

"We cannot yet agree with their conclusions because we do not think there is enough evidence yet," Jansen told The Associated Press.

At the same time, there has never been any independent evidence to support Van Gogh's dying confession that he had shot himself.

"There's no proof. We just know what he said, and that's what people always went by," Jansen said.

Severely wounded in the chest, Van Gogh dragged himself to the rooming house in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, where he was staying. He died about 30 hours later after telling his brother Theo, several doctors and the police that he had shot himself while painting in a wheat field. The gun was never found.

Naifeh and Smith revived unanswered questions that have clouded Van Gogh's own story: How did the painter, who had a widely known history of mental illness, obtain a revolver, and what happened to it? Why would he shoot himself at such an odd angle and not put the muzzle next to his heart? How did he manage with his wound to make the difficult journey more than one mile (2 kilometers) through the fields back to town? And what happened to his painting gear?

The authors say an art historian who visited Auvers in the 1930s heard rumors from citizens who were alive in 1890 that Van Gogh had been shot accidentally by two boys.

They also discovered a "guilt-ridden" 1956 interview by a wealthy French businessman, Rene Secretan, who said he and his brother had known Van Gogh that summer and had tormented him mercilessly. Secretan, inspired by a Wild West show that was popular in France, borrowed a gun from the owner of the inn where Van Gogh was staying, but he claimed the artist stole it from him.

Secretan recalled in the interview that they taunted Van Gogh, a lonely man who craved company, by putting salt in his coffee and getting their girl friends to tease him with fake seductions. But the authors say Secretan was never asked if he had been involved in the shooting, and he died the following year.

Naifeh said the evidence indicates that the shooting "involved these two boys. And that it was either an accident or a deliberate act. Was it playing cowboy in some way that went awry? Was it teasing with the gun with Vincent lunging out? It's hard to know what went on at that moment."

They theorize that Van Gogh was wounded in a farm yard closer to the inn, and that the boys fled with the gun and took the artist's materials when they fled. Van Gogh, suffering from bouts of temporal lobe epilepsy, "decided to basically protect them and accept this as the way to die. These kids had basically done him the favor of, of shooting him," said Naifeh.

Jansen said the authors' theory still had problems, including the unlikely idea that Van Gogh would lie about his attempted suicide. Although he acknowledged in his letters that he was tired of living, he considered suicide immoral and indecent. It was also a criminal offense, and survivors could be imprisoned.

"There's plenty of reason to look at the unclear circumstances again. It's just that their conclusion, in our opinion, is not yet sufficiently proven," Jansen said.

Van Gogh was 37 when he died. He had been painting for only 10 years, but had produced nearly 1,000 paintings and 1,100 drawings. None were sold in his lifetime, but they now command multimillion dollar prices on the rare occasions they come up for auction.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111017/ap_on_en_ot/eu_netherlands_van_gogh_s_death

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Monday, 17 October 2011

Long ties to Koch brothers key to Cain's campaign (AP)

IOWA CITY, Iowa ? Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation's capital. But Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.

Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his "9-9-9" plan to rewrite the nation's tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.

The once little-known businessman's political activities are getting fresh scrutiny these days since he soared to the top of some national polls.

His links to the Koch brothers could undercut his outsider, non-political image among people who detest politics as usual and candidates connected with the party machine.

AFP tapped Cain as the public face of its "Prosperity Expansion Project," and he traveled the country in 2005 and 2006 speaking to activists who were starting state-based AFP chapters from Wisconsin to Virginia. Through his AFP work he met Mark Block, a longtime Wisconsin Republican operative hired to lead that state's AFP chapter in 2005 as he rebounded from an earlier campaign scandal that derailed his career.

Block and Cain sometimes traveled together as they built up AFP: Cain was the charismatic speaker preaching the ills of big government; Block was the operative helping with nuts and bolts.

When President Barack Obama's election helped spawn the tea party, Cain was positioned to take advantage. He became a draw at growing AFP-backed rallies, impressing activists with a mix of humor and hard-hitting rhetoric against Obama's stimulus, health care and budget policies.

Block is now Cain's campaign manager. Other aides who had done AFP work were also brought on board.

Cain's spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael, who recently left the campaign, was an AFP coordinator in Louisiana. His campaign's outside law firm is representing AFP in a case challenging Wisconsin campaign finance regulations. At least six other current and former paid employees and consultants for Cain's campaign have worked for AFP in various capacities.

And Cain has credited Rich Lowrie, a Cleveland businessman who served on AFP's board of advisors from 2005 to 2008, with being a key economic adviser and with helping to develop his plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 9 percent, impose a national sales tax of 9 percent and set a flat income tax rate of 9 percent

"He's got a national network now that perhaps he wouldn't have had 15 or 20 years ago because of his work with AFP," said Republican Party of Wisconsin Vice Chair Brian Schimming, who has introduced Cain at events in Wisconsin. "For a presidential candidate, that's obviously helpful to have."

He said Cain was smart to hire Block.

Cain's recent victories in straw polls in Florida and Minnesota highlight the importance of organizing supporters and Block, who has a deep network in the tea party, "gets that side of it," Schimming said.

But Block has had his problems as well. He settled a suit in 2001 accusing him of illegally coordinating a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice's re-election with an outside group. Block agreed to pay $15,000 and sit out of politics for three years.

While Cain is quick to promote his career at the helm of the Godfather's Pizza chain, his ties to AFP aren't something the candidate appears eager to highlight.

His campaign did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment between Thursday and Sunday, and Cain does not include his AFP work on his biography on his website.

But Cain continues to work with the group.

While several other candidates will be at an Iowa Republican Party dinner on Nov. 4, Cain is scheduled to be in Washington mingling with activists at AFP's annual "Defending the American Dream" summit. He is the only confirmed presidential candidate for the event.

AFP spokesman Levi Russell said Cain has spoken at dozens of AFP rallies and events over the years to support a number of the group's activities. AFP has often covered his travel expenses or paid a "pretty modest honorarium" but he has not been paid since becoming a presidential candidate, he said.

"He's a dynamic, pro-business speaker that connects well with our activists," Russell said. "AFP is a very large organization, and there is a natural overlap between Cain's message of fiscal responsibility and the basic principles that AFP advocates for."

A spokeswoman for the Koch brothers did not respond to The Associated Press's request for comment on Cain.

To some liberals, Cain's rise with the help of AFP shows the incredible influence that outside groups controlled by super-wealthy individuals with specific agendas can have on the political process.

"Herman Cain is the first presidential corporate spokes-candidate," said Scot Ross, a liberal activist who leads One Wisconsin Now, which has often mocked AFP as a front group for corporate interests. "The best way to have your issues talked about in the issue debate is to have a candidate in your pocket with snappy comebacks and easily branded policy papers which mask how destructive they would be."

AFP's agenda also includes weakening private and public sector unions, opposing environmental regulations and undoing Obama's health care reform law, among other policies. But before the tea party and Obama, Cain worked with AFP on more local issues.

In 2006, he campaigned all over Wisconsin in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have limited state government spending. A slew of officials and analysts said the plan would have ultimately devastated government services, and the Republican-controlled Legislature eventually backed off it.

In a statement announcing Cain's tour, AFP sent out a press release touting his "in-depth understanding of the battle to control out-of-control government taxes and spending." Block promised that Cain was a speaker that activists would not want to miss.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111016/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain_s_rise_koch_brothers

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