Severe python damage to Florida's native Everglades animals documented in new study

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) ? Precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park in Florida have been linked to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a study by Michael Dorcas, an associate professor of biology at Davidson College, and colleagues. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, the first to document the ecological impacts of this invasive species, strongly supports that animal communities in the 1.5-million-acre park have been markedly altered by the introduction of pythons within 11 years of their establishment as an invasive species. Mid-sized mammals are the most dramatically affected, but some Everglades pythons are as large as 16 feet long, and their prey have included animals as large as deer and alligators.

"The magnitude of these declines underscores the apparent incredible density of pythons in Everglades National Park and justifies the argument for more intensive investigation into their ecological effects, as well as the development of effective control methods," said Dorcas, lead author of the study and author of the 2010 book Invasive Pythons in the United States.

He continued, "Such severe declines in easily seen mammals bode poorly for the many species of conservation concern that are more difficult to sample but that may also be vulnerable to python predation."

The most severe declines, including a nearly complete disappearance of raccoons, rabbits and opossums, have occurred in the remote southernmost regions of the park, where pythons have been established the longest. In this area, populations of raccoons dropped 99.3 percent, opossums 98.9 percent and bobcats 87.5 percent. Marsh and cottontail rabbits, as well as foxes, were not seen at all.

The researchers collected their information via repeated systematic night-time road surveys within the park, counting both live and road-killed animals. Over the period of the study, researchers traveled a total of nearly 39,000 miles from 2003 to 2011 and compared their findings with similar surveys conducted in 1996 and 1997 along the same roadways before pythons were recognized as established in Everglades National Park.

The authors also conducted surveys in ecologically similar areas north of the park where pythons have not yet been discovered. In those areas, mammal abundances were similar to those in the park before pythons proliferated. At sites where pythons have only recently been documented, however, mammal populations were reduced, though not to the dramatic extent observed within the park where pythons are well established.

"Pythons are wreaking havoc on one of America's most beautiful, treasured and naturally bountiful ecosystems," said U.S. Geological Survey director Marcia McNutt. "Right now, the only hope to help halt further python invasion into new areas is swift, decisive and deliberate human action."

The authors suggested that one reason for such dramatic declines in such a short time is that these prey species are "na?ve" -- that is, they not used to being preyed upon by pythons since such large snakes have not previously existed in that ecosystem.

"It took 30 years for the brown treesnake to be implicated in the nearly complete disappearance of mammals and birds on Guam; it has apparently taken only 11 years since pythons were recognized as being established in the Everglades for researchers to implicate pythons in the same kind of severe mammal declines," said Robert Reed, a USGS scientist and co-author of the paper. "It is possible that other mammal species, including at-risk ones, have declined as well because of python predation, but at this time, the status of those species is unknown."

Another coauthor of the study was John Willson '02, a research scientist at Virginia Tech University who has worked with Dorcas on several studies, and co-authored the book Invasive Pythons in the United States.

Willson commented, "Our research adds to the increasing evidence that predators, whether native or exotic, exert major influence on the structure of animal communities. The effects of declining mammal populations on the overall Everglades ecosystem, which extends well beyond the national park boundaries, are likely profound, but are probably complex and difficult to predict. Studies examining such effects are sorely needed to more fully understand the impacts pythons are having on one of our most unique and valued national parks."

On January 23 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a rule in the Federal Register that will ban the importation and interstate transportation of four non-native constrictor snakes that threaten the Everglades, including the Burmese python. These snakes are being listed as injurious species under the Lacey Act.

In addition to Dorcas and Willson, authors of the study are Robert N. Reed, USGS; Ray W. Snow, NPS; Michael R. Rochford, University of Florida; Melissa A. Miller, Auburn University; Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., State Museum of Pennsylvania; Paul T. Andreadis, Denison University; Frank J. Mazzotti, University of Florida; Christina M. Romagosa, Auburn University; and Kristen M. Hart, USGS.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Davidson College.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Michael E. Dorcas, John D. Willson, Robert N. Reed, Ray W. Snow, Michael R. Rochford, Melissa A. Miller, Walter E. Meshaka, Jr., Paul T. Andreadis, Frank J. Mazzotti, Christina M. Romagosa, and Kristen M. Hart. Severe mammal declines coincide with proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1115226109

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130193241.htm

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Oil spill brings attention to delicate Gulf coast

TIVOLI, Texas?? For decades, farmers and fishermen along the Gulf of Mexico watched as their sensitive ecosystem's waters slowly got dirtier and islands eroded, all while the country largely ignored the destruction.

It took BP PLC's well blowing out in the Gulf ? and the resulting environmental catastrophe when millions of gallons of oil spewed into the ocean and washed ashore ? for the nation to turn its attention to the slow, methodical ruin of an ecosystem vital to the U.S. economy. Last month, more than a year and a half after the spill began, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a three-year, $50 million initiative designed to improve water quality along the coast.

"I'm not going to say that it's the silver lining," Will Blackwell, a district conservationist with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Services, said of the oil spill. Blackwell is one of many regional officials who have long worked with farmers and ranchers to fence cattle, reseed native grasses and take on other seemingly inane projects that go a long way toward preventing pollution and coastal erosion.

"I'm going to say that it will help get recognition down here that we have this vital ecosystem that needs to be taken care of," he said. "This will keep it at the forefront."

NRCS administrators struggled for years to divide a few million dollars among farmers and ranchers in the five Gulf states. Now, they are getting an eleven-fold increase in funding, money that will allow them to build on low-profile programs that already have had modest success in cleaning crucial waterways by working with farmers and ranchers to improve land use practices.

The nation's focus turned sharply to the Gulf when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blew up in April 2010. Images of oil-coated birds and wetlands were splashed across newspapers and cable news networks. Coastal wetlands that are habitat to all sorts of wildlife were soiled and oyster beds were wiped out, underscoring the Gulf's ecological and economic importance.

The project is called the Gulf of Mexico Initiative, the first concrete step from a year's worth of meetings, studies and talking by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a committee formed by President Barack Obama in the spill's wake.

Sometimes, the money is spent on simple projects, such as building fences and installing troughs to keep cattle away from rivers and creeks that flow into the Gulf. The minerals in cow manure can pollute those upstream waters and then flow into the ocean. Those minerals can deplete oxygen in the Gulf, creating "dead zones" where wildlife can't thrive.

Other times, the program pays for expensive farming equipment that turns soil more effectively and creates straighter rows. That helps keep fertilizers on the farm ? where it helps crops ? and out of the Gulf, where the nutrients choke oxygen from the water. This equipment also decreases erosion, which has eaten up hundreds of miles of Gulf Coast habitat in the past century.

Until now, most counties in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas got right around $100,000 apiece to spend annually on these programs. The demand was far greater in many areas, but money was hard to come by, Blackwell said, highlighting the popularity of the program in Refugio County, Texas ? the rural area of Southeast Texas he oversees.

The influx of money has many farmers and ranchers ? especially those who have reaped the program's benefits in the past ? eager for more opportunities to improve the environment they rely upon for their livelihood.

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Now, they are hurriedly filling out applications and waiting for officials to rank the paperwork ? those considered to have the greatest possible impact are the most likely to be approved.

"Fifty million dollars sounds like a lot. But when you consider ? Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and Texas, it's not going to be enough," said Glen Wiggins, a Florida farmer applying for help buying new farming equipment.

"But it'll help."

Dallas Ford, owner of the 171-acre Smoky Creek Ranch in Tivoli, Texas, first worked with the NRCS to build fences and strategically located troughs. The fences keep cattle in separate fields and allow him to rotate the cows between the fields, a practice that helps keep grass longer and better able to recover when it rains. The troughs ensure the cattle remain in the area and keep away from Stony Creek ? a bountiful tributary of the Gulf's Hynes Bay.

Ford estimates he has between $15,000 and $20,000 worth of additional work to do on his ranch ? all of which will ultimately improve water quality in Stony Creek ? but he will be able to do it only if he can get another contract with NRCS, which would cover about half the costs.

The cash infusion reminded him of a mentor who once said you could cook anything with time and temperature. In this project, Ford said, time is plentiful ? the temperature is money and manpower.

"We might be able to cook something a little faster," Ford said. "Now, maybe I can get you a nice steak."

About 685 miles away, Wiggins has been buying new tilling equipment to use on his 800-acre peanut and cotton farm that straddles the Alabama-Florida line. The high-tech farming equipment helps him better turn the soil and plant straighter rows, which ultimately prevent erosion and keep nutrients in the soil rather than allowing them to flow downstream and into the Gulf.

Wiggins' land sits on three watersheds ? Canoe Creek and Pine Barren Creek that are part of Sandy Hollow Creek, and Little Pine Barren Creek. With the work he's already done, Wiggins estimates he has reduced erosion by at least 50 percent. Now, he wants to further reduce it, mostly through the use of new equipment that will decrease conventional, and more destructive, tillage of his land.

"I'd like to get it down to zero, but if I could get it to 10 percent conventional tillage, I would be tickled to death," Wiggins said.

He estimated the new equipment will cost about $70,000. The only way he can make that purchase is with NRCS' help ? and now it may be within reach.

"The oil spill has been a powerful force to get people's attention," Wiggins said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46182691/ns/us_news-environment/

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College presidents wary of Obama cost-control plan (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Public university presidents facing ever-increasing state budget cuts are raising concerns about President Barack Obama's plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition prices or face losing federal dollars.

Illinois State University President Al Bowman says the reality is that deficits in many public schools can't be easily overcome with simple modifications. Bowman says he's happy to hear Obama call for state-level support of public universities but adds that, given the decreases in state aid, tying federal support to tuition is a product of "fuzzy math."

Obama spelled out his proposal Friday at the University of Michigan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_college_costs

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UN nuclear team heads to Iran

VIENNA?? Senior United Nations nuclear inspectors headed to Tehran on Saturday to press Iranian officials to address suspicions that the Islamic state is seeking atomic weapons.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency hopes Iran, which has indicated readiness to discuss the issue for the first time since 2008, will end years of stonewalling on intelligence pointing to an intention to develop nuclear arms technology.

"We are trying ... to resolve all the outstanding issues with Iran, in particular we hope that Iran will engage with us on our concerns regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program," IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts told reporters as he prepared to depart from Vienna airport.

But Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of using such offers of dialogue as a stalling tactic while it presses ahead with its nuclear program, say they doubt Tehran will show the kind of concrete cooperation the IAEA wants.

They say Iran may offer limited concessions and transparency in an attempt to ease intensifying international pressure on the country, a major oil producer, but that this is unlikely to amount to the full cooperation that is required.

The outcome could determine whether Iran will face further international isolation, or whether there are prospects for resuming wider talks between Tehran and the major powers on the nuclear dispute that has sparked fears of war.

The United States and its allies suspect the program has military aims but Tehran says is for peaceful electricity generation.

"The chances of the IAEA's success may depend on how badly Iran wants to avoid harder sanctions," said nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Story: Israel senses bluffing in Iran's retaliation threats

Remarks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs on Saturday suggested Iran was not in the mood for concessions.

"Iran's stance towards its nuclear issue has not changed in term of fundamentals and principles," Ali Akbar Velayati said, according to the ISNA news agency.

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"One important principle is that Iran would not relinquish or withdraw from its peaceful nuclear activities."

The six-member IAEA team of senior officials and experts, headed by Nackaerts, was due to arrive in Tehran early on Sunday.

The three-day visit comes at a time of soaring tension between Iran and the West. The IAEA issued a report in November with details of suspected research and development activities in Iran relevant to nuclear weapons.

The West has seized on the report to ratchet up sanctions aimed at Iran's lifeblood oil exports. Iran hit back on Friday warning it may halt oil exports to Europe next week.

'Appearing to cooperate'
The IAEA team is expected to seek explanations to the issues raised in the report, including information that Iran appears to have worked on a nuclear weapon design, and demand access to sites, officials and documents relevant to the agency's probe.

The IAEA says Iran, which has rejected the allegations as forged and baseless, has not engaged with the agency in a substantive way on these issues since August 2008 and that it keeps receiving intelligence data adding to its concerns.

"There were a huge number of questions raised by the November report. They will be seeking to answer those questions, and it's incumbent on Iran to be supportive," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said this week.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has called on Iran to show a "constructive spirit" in the meeting and Iran has said it is willing to discuss "any issues" of interest to the U.N. agency, including the military-linked concerns.

Video: Exclusive: tensions flare near crucial oil chokepoint

Iran's Press TV state television said on its website the IAEA visit was aimed at bolstering cooperation between the two sides "by resolving ambiguities," language Tehran has also used in the past.

The English-language station cited Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying the main objective was to "thwart plots by enemies who are leveling unfounded allegations" against Iran and to prove its nuclear transparency.

Hibbs said Amano would want to see a "significant step" from Iran, for example by agreeing to more intrusive IAEA inspections or by explaining issues related to the weapons suspicions.

"I'm not very optimistic," Hibbs said. "Iran's track record is of appearing to cooperate whenever they are threatened by penalties."

Meanwhile, European oil companies that are owed oil by Iran could lose out if Iran imposes a ban on crude exports to the EU next week, a measure currently before the Iranian parliament, the head of Iran's state oil company said Saturday.

"Generally, the parties to incur damage from the EU's recent decision will be European companies with pending contracts with Iran," Ahmad Qalebani, head of the National Iranian Oil Co., told the ISNA news agency.

"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," he said. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."

The EU banned imports of oil from Iran Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development program.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46174915/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Windows 8 adds sensor support, will be the PC to turn, turn, turn

Microsoft is slowly turning its stalwart desktop OS into a mobile powerhouse. The company just keeps rolling out improvements and features for Windows 8 aimed at really making upcoming tablets competitive with their Android and iOS-based market mates. After cramming mobile broadband tools into the tile-happy OS, now Redmond is turning its attention towards sensors. The next version of Windows will offer integrated support for gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers and ambient light sensors among other things. Devs will even be able to use multiple sensors in conjunction for more accurate interaction. Check out the video after the break for more details.

Continue reading Windows 8 adds sensor support, will be the PC to turn, turn, turn

Windows 8 adds sensor support, will be the PC to turn, turn, turn originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'30 Rock' star back at work after hospitalization (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY ? Comedian and "30 Rock" cast member Tracy Morgan is back at work in New York after a brief hospitalization in Utah, his publicist said Wednesday.

"He appreciates everyone's support and concern," Lewis Kay said in an email to The Associated Press.

The actor was hospitalized Sunday while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, where the elevation is 7,000 feet.

Kay said Morgan suffered from exhaustion and altitude. Morgan also has diabetes.

Morgan posted a comment on Twitter from the hospital Monday, saying the high altitude "shook up this kid from Brooklyn."

"Superman ran into a little kryptonite," he quipped.

The hospital found no drugs or alcohol in Morgan's system, Kay said.

Recordings of 911 calls made on the night he collapsed, which were obtained by the AP, indicate Morgan passed out at the Blue Iguana restaurant.

"I don't know if he's been drinking," said one caller, who added that Morgan had vomited. He also said the actor was unconscious and had been loaded into the backseat of a taxi, ready to be rushed to a hospital. However, the dispatcher told the caller to remain there and wait for an ambulance.

Other callers told the dispatcher Morgan had a high fever and was breathing slowly.

"It's actually a celebrity. He has a high fever," said one caller.

An ambulance arrived a short time later and took Morgan to a nearby hospital. He was released a day later.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Dobner contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_ot/us_film_sundance_tracy_morgan

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Giffords resigns House seat to focus on recovery

This video image provided by House Television shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Giffords resigned from the House on Wednesday amid tears, tributes and standing ovations, more than a year after she was gravely wounded by a would-be assassin. (AP Photo/House Television)

This video image provided by House Television shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Giffords resigned from the House on Wednesday amid tears, tributes and standing ovations, more than a year after she was gravely wounded by a would-be assassin. (AP Photo/House Television)

This video image provided by House Television shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., accompanied by Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., walks on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Giffords resigned from the House on Wednesday amid tears, tributes and standing ovations, more than a year after she was gravely wounded by a would-be assassin. (AP Photo/House Television)

This video image provided by House Television shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Giffords resigned from the House on Wednesday amid tears, tributes and standing ovations, more than a year after she was gravely wounded by a would-be assassin. (AP Photo/House Television)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In a House occasionally known for untoward exits, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords stood among cheering, crying colleagues to say goodbye Wednesday, over a year after she was gravely wounded by a would-be assassin.

Giffords had come to the well of the chamber to resign, a formality since she'd signaled her intention earlier, as she recovers from a gunshot wound to the head during a shooting rampage in her home district in Arizona. It was one of the longer House goodbyes in recent times, as Democrats and Republicans lined up to see her off. A prolonged standing ovation followed a fusion of tributes and tears as colleagues praised her dignity and perseverance.

Surrounded by friends and colleagues and holding Rep. Jeff Flake's hand, Giffords heard her close friend, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, read her resignation letter to the chamber. In it, Giffords said she had "more work to do on my recovery before I can again serve in elected office."

Last January, a gunman opened fire at Giffords' "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, killing six people and wounding 13, including Giffords who suffered the gunshot wound.

"I don't remember much from that terrible day, but I have never forgotten my constituents, my colleagues or the millions of Americans with whom I share great hopes for this nation," Giffords said in the letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

After reading it, an emotional Wasserman Schultz helped Giffords slowly make her way to the podium where she handed the letter to a teary-eyed Boehner.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Giffords had become "an inspiring symbol of determination and courage to millions of Americans ... Her message of bipartisanship and civility is one that all in Washington and in the nation should emulate."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Giffords' "strength against all odds serves and will continue to serve as a daily inspiration to all of us."

Moments later, the House, including Giffords, voted for her final piece of legislation ? a bill that would impose tougher penalties on smugglers who use small, low-flying aircraft to avoid radar detection and bring drugs across the Mexican border.

The vote was 408-0.

Giffords submitted resignation letters to both Boehner and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, but it isn't effective until the end of the day.

It falls to Brewer to set a date for a special primary and general election to fill the Arizona seat. That will probably happen in the spring or early summer. In November, voters will choose someone for the full two-year term.

Whoops, cheers and sustained standing ovations greeted Giffords' arrival in the chamber. Holding Wasserman Shultz' arm, the congresswoman moved down the center aisle, receiving kisses and hugs from her colleagues.

Her mother, Gloria, and husband, retired Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, watched from the gallery. Giffords had announced on Sunday in a Web video that she would resign her seat.

"She realized she was not going to run for re-election and this point the right thing to do was for her to step down," Kelly said after the emotional event on the House floor. "But I'm more optimistic than anybody else about her future. She just needs some more time, whether it's a year or two years or three years, I'm very confident she's going to have a long and effective career as a public servant."

Asked about her daughter's future, Gloria Giffords said, "I kind of think she's transcended Congress. I don't know where she's going to end up."

"She's remembered every boy she's ever kissed, every song she's ever sang, every bill she's ever passed," she said. "So upward and onward."

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Jim Abrams contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-25-Giffords-Resignation/id-0b188bb147b8427bb4adcba4f2c3f99c

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Epic clash: Silicon Valley blindsides Hollywood on piracy (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The massive online protest last Wednesday, in which Wikipedia and thousands of other websites closed down or otherwise protested and helped to kill controversial online piracy legislation, was widely heralded as an unprecedented case of a grassroots uprising overcoming backroom lobbying.

Yet a close look at how the debate unfolded suggests that traditional means of influencing policy in Washington had its place too. The technology industry has ramped up its political activities dramatically in recent years, and in fact, has spent more than the entertainment industry -- $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2011, compared with $906.4 million spent by entertainment companies.

The latest chapter in what has become an epic, decades-long battle between the two industries over copyrighted digital content began innocuously enough. Hollywood movie studios, frustrated by online theft that they claim already costs them billions of dollars a year and will only get worse, in 2010 started pushing for a law that would make it possible to block access and cut off payments to foreign websites offering pirated material.

In 2010, longtime industry friend Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, introduced a bill, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously but never went further.

In May last year, Leahy tried again, introducing his Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act. In October, Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a similar bill. The last major piece of copyright law, the Pro-IP Act of 2008, moved through Congress with little controversy, so the industry felt hopeful.

Through the end of September, Hollywood had outspent the tech industry 2-to-1 in donations to key supporters of measures it was backing. More than $950,000 from the TV, music and movie industries has gone to original sponsors of the House and Senate bills in the 2012 election cycle, compared with about $400,000 from computer and Internet companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Tech companies preferred backers of a narrower alternative bill. The computer and Internet industries gave more than $291,000 to supporters of that measure vs. about $185,000 from the content makers.

"They're both very powerful. They're all big players. They give a lot of money to politicians. This has to be a tough choice for many members of Congress," said Larry Sabato, a campaign finance expert who teaches at the University of Virginia.

PAY ATTENTION

The bills had attracted no public attention, but in early September, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman wrote to senators to oppose the bill. Later that month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce marshaled a group of 350 companies to write in supporting it.

The introduction of the House bill in late October prompted more scrutiny. Critics including the Consumer Electronics Association fretted over issues such as whether U.S. websites could be shut down under the bill, and security risks to Internet infrastructure that they said may arise.

By mid November, technology executives were paying close attention. Many watched online as Google copyright counsel Katherine Oyama testified before a House Judiciary Committee hearing November 16. Another, Ben Huh, chief executive of the online media network Cheezburger Inc, would eventually help organize the Web blackout.

Members of Congress "basically beat up Google," said Huh, who tuned in from the office. "We were watching it going, 'This is incredibly unfair.'"

Later that day, he talked over the testimony with Erik Martin, general manager of the social news site Reddit.com. The two would later help lead the online blackout efforts, along with others such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Meanwhile, the White House was taking meetings from both sides. The first week of December, Motion Picture Association of America chief and former Senator Chris Dodd moved the MPAA's board meeting from its traditional site of Los Angeles to Washington, in part so executives could lobby on the issues.

Dodd, along with movie executives including Warner Bros Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer and Fox Filmed Entertainment co-Chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, met with White House officials including chief of staff Bill Daley and Vice President Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with the situation. They hammered home why the law was needed to go after foreign sites.

TAKING TURNS

The following week, it was the tech companies' turn. Executives including LinkedIn's Hoffman, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, and venture capitalists Brad Burnham and Paul Maeder met with the same officials to press their case.

Major tech companies then took out advertisements in newspapers including the Washington Post and The New York Times, saying the bills would allow U.S. government censorship of the Internet. The ads ran December 14 in the form of an open letter to Washington, signed by heavyweights such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

The ads ran as the House Judiciary Committee was turning back the bill. The proceedings streamed live over the Internet, allowing the public to watch many members struggling to fully understand terms such as IP address and DNS server.

North Carolina Rep. Mel Watt, for example, professed that he was "not a nerd and didn't understand a lot of the technological stuff." That opened them up to mockery in the blogosphere, with commentators questioning their ability to craft law around the Internet. "Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How the Internet Works," Motherboard blogger Joshua Kopstein wrote in a widely circulated post.

The weekend after the committee adjourned its hearing, opponents started an online petition to veto SOPA at the White House's "We the People" website. Within days, the petition had acquired 38,500 signatures, far exceeding the 25,000 required for review by the administration. An separate petition started in late October had already gathered more than 52,000 signatures.

A few days before Christmas, the House Judiciary Committee released the names of the many companies that supported SOPA. But that succeeded only in galvanizing further opposition: influential Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham took the unusual step of saying that any company that supported SOPA would be barred from Demo Day, an industry showcase.

People posting to the social-news site Reddit then suggested a boycott of one of the bill's supporters, the domain-name registrar GoDaddy, asking people to transfer their domains to another registrar. Many sites, among them Huh's Cheezburger, said they would switch. Just before New Year's Day, GoDaddy dropped its support for the bill amid widespread publicity.

Meanwhile, the White House was crafting its response to the online petitions. Three top aides to President Barack Obama, who won election in 2008 supported by online organizing and who has long been friendly to Internet industry concerns, weighed in on the issue in mid-January just as Hollywood was preparing to celebrate the Golden Globe Awards. The officials posted a response to the online petition and voiced concerns about the bills, while calling for improved antipiracy legislation.

That sparked a flood of media coverage and helped expand the Internet blackout to more sites. One popular protest, the brainchild of Instagram engineer Greg Hochmuth and YouTube Product Management Director Hunter Wall, allowed people to add black "Stop SOPA" banners to their Twitter and Facebook profile photos. On Wednesday, some 30 people a minute were adding the banners to their photos, Hochmuth told Reuters.

A FORMIDABLE COMBO

The combination of White House concerns, the impending online protest and the intense pressure on legislators from high-profile Internet industry leaders abruptly changed the dynamic on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, as the blackout unfolded, support for the bills quickly crumbled.

Some Hollywood executives acknowledge their own flat-footedness in trying to marshal public opinion as opposition mounted. While technology companies brandished the power of the Internet, Hollywood relied on old-media weapons such as television commercials and a billboard in New York's Times Square. It proved to be too little, too late.

One entertainment-company lawyer complained that opposing arguments were often inaccurate but spread like wildfire anyway on the Internet, leaving supporters scrambling to correct the information without the benefit of a strong online network.

"We do some of that (online) stuff, but it has to go through a committee of 14 people," he said. "The other side doesn't have conference calls. They just put stuff out there."

Both friends and foes of SOPA and PIPA do not think they have seen the end of this battle.

"Bills are a lot like zombies," said Cheezburger's Huh. "You never know if they're dead or going to come back."

When it comes around again, lobbyists on both sides will have learned some valuable lessons.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, with additional reporting by Jasmin Melvin and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/en_nm/us_congress_piracy

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Joe Paterno, revered coach tainted by scandal, dies (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? Penn State's Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football history who was fired in November over a child sexual abuse scandal involving an assistant that rocked America, died on Sunday of lung cancer. He was 85.

Paterno won adoration from fans of the highly successful and profitable Penn State football program and they unleashed invective at the university board of trustees who fired him unceremoniously after 46 years as head coach, tarnishing his outsized legacy.

Equally outraged were his critics and advocates for victims of sexual abuse who faulted Paterno for his relative inaction upon hearing an accusation that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused a young boy in the Penn State football showers in 2002.

Paterno told university officials but not police, opening him to criticism that he protected an accused child molester for nine years.

Sandusky, 67, who has maintained his innocence, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of a The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court placed him under house arrest.

Waves of mourners descended on a makeshift shrine to Paterno outside the university's Beaver Stadium. They draped an American flag on a statue of Paterno and wrapped its neck with a Penn State scarf.

Sobbing at the statue's feet was Dana Gordon, a 1982 graduate who blamed the school's board of trustees for hastening Paterno's death by firing him in a "callous way."

"The way the board treated him took a lot of the fight out of him," Gordon said.

Later, a few thousand mourners braved freezing cold temperatures to attend a vigil. Many held candles while the football team's marching band played somber music, including "Amazing Grace."

"I am not only a better player because of him, but also a better person as well," Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin said in a ceremony that made only vague references to the scandal. "This guy was not only a football coach. He was also a father, a husband, and I consider him a friend."

The scandal raised questions about the measures the university took to protect Sandusky and a football program that Forbes magazine estimated made a profit of $53 million in 2010, especially since accusations against him first surfaced in 1998. At that time a university police detective admonished Sandusky to stop showering naked with boys but stopped short of bringing criminal charges.

One of the biggest scandals in college sports history, it provoked a national discussion about pedophilia in the same way charges involving Roman Catholic priests did years earlier.

The matter also drew impassioned arguments about the balance between protecting the young and the rights of criminal defendants, who are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

"I hope his passing and the controversy surrounding Sandusky will deter other people, especially powerful people, from covering up child sex crimes," said David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group.

"Even decades of professional achievement should not obscure dreadfully reckless and callous inaction that results in child sex crimes," Clohessy said.

Sandusky issued a statement sending condolences to the Paterno family but did not mention the investigation.

"Nobody did more for the academic reputation of Penn State than Joe Paterno. He maintained a high standard in a very difficult profession," Sandusky said.

Paterno won a reputation for making sure his players graduated and one of the program's mottos was "Success With Honor."

Paterno's downfall was spectacular. For decades he was a symbol of vitality who patrolled the Penn State sidelines with unchallenged authority, easily recognizable by his thick eyeglasses and jet-black hair that grayed a little in his later years. His two national championships, in 1982 and 1986, won him enduring loyalty from fans who affectionately called him "JoePa."

In the end, he was confined to a wheelchair upon breaking his hip in a fall one month after being fired, and he wore a wig after losing his hair to chemotherapy, according to the Washington Post, which interviewed Paterno about a week before his death.

Paterno was surrounded by family when he died 9:25 a.m. on Sunday of metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung, Mount Nittany Medical Center said in a statement.

IMPACT ON CRIMINAL CASE

Paterno's death may not significantly affect the case against Sandusky, but was more likely to weaken the criminal case against two university officials charged with perjury, legal experts said.

Paterno learned of at least one accusation against Sandusky in 2002, when graduate assistant Mike McQueary told Paterno he witnessed Sandusky molesting a boy of about 10 years old in the showers of the Lasch Football Building.

Paterno told university officials but not police, a decision that ultimately led to his downfall.

Paterno, in an interview with the Washington Post published on January 14, said he was uncertain how to handle the matter and trusted the university administration.

Paterno testified before the grand jury that he informed former athletic director Tim Curley about what McQueary told him. About 10 days later, McQueary testified, he was called to a meeting with Curley and university finance official Gary Schultz to discuss what happened.

Curley and Schultz both face perjury charges based on their inaction. Schultz also testified before the grand jury he was aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky.

University President Graham Spanier was fired along with Paterno, and Curley and Schultz stepped down.

"If he (Paterno) had known the devastation that this means, he would have reacted differently," said Peter Pelullo, founder of Let Go, Let Peace Come In, a support group helping some of Sandusky's accusers with counseling.

Because Paterno was not believed to have witnessed any purported abuse, his testimony would not have been crucial to Sandusky trial, said Paul Callan, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney.

But his death could set back the criminal case against Curley and Schultz because they will be denied the chance to cross-examine an important witness.

Max Kennerly, a Philadelphia trial lawyer who has followed the case, said Paterno's death was unlikely to alter any civil litigation being contemplated by Sandusky's accusers. If any were considering suing Paterno, they could just name his estate.

"Death doesn't change your status as a party," Kennerly said.

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson, Barbara Goldberg, Noeleen Walder and Andrew Longstreth; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/ts_nm/us_usa_paterno

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APNewsBreak: Afghan asylum bids hit 10-year high (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? More Afghans fled the country and sought asylum abroad in 2011 than in any other year since the start of the decade-long war, suggesting that many are looking for their own exit strategy as international troops prepare to withdraw.

From January to November, more than 30,000 Afghans applied for political asylum worldwide, a 25 percent increase over the same period the previous year and more than triple the level of just four years ago, according to U.N. statistics obtained by The Associated Press ahead of their scheduled publication later this year.

Many Afghans are turning to a thriving and increasingly sophisticated human smuggling industry to get themselves ? or in most cases, their sons ? out of the country. They pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to cross into Iran or Pakistan to more $25,000 for fake papers and flights to places like London or Stockholm.

Thousands of refugees also return each year, but their numbers have been dwindling as the asylum applications rise. Both trends highlight worries among Afghans about what may happen after 2014, when American and other NATO troops turn security over to the Afghan army and police.

The true numbers of people leaving is likely even higher ? since those who are successfully smuggled abroad often melt into an underground economy. Still, the jump in a rough indicator like asylum seekers suggests the total numbers are also on the rise.

Smuggling people out of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan is a $1 billion-per-year criminal enterprise, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimates. Those who pay to leave often face a risky journey and detention abroad because many developed countries now see many Afghans who flee as illegal economic migrants, not political refugees.

Still, the business finds an eager clientele in Afghans such as Ahmad, an unemployed 20-year-old in Kabul. He has agreed to pay a smuggler $400 to take him over the Iranian border, where he hopes to find work and save up to move on to Europe in a few years. He has no money, but his smuggler is giving him credit ? he'll have a month to pay up once he's in Iran.

"I don't think anything will improve in three or five years, so it's better to leave now," said Ahmad, who expects to leave for Iran within a few weeks. He asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of being arrested.

Ahmad's family fled to Iran during the Taliban's late 1990s rule and returned full of hope after the regime fell. But now, he sees no future in his homeland.

"If foreign troops leave, the situation will only get worse, not better," he said.

That's a view shared by many. Tajma Kurt, who manages an International Organization for Migration program helping Afghans who have returned home, says she's noticed a marked change in ordinary Afghans' outlook since roughly 2007, when the Taliban insurgency began to gain strength and violent attacks increased.

"Before, they were looking for a job, discussing buying a house or whatever," Kurt said. "Now, they are all thinking of leaving because the situation has deteriorated dramatically and they don't see that it's going to get much better."

Devastated by decades of war, Afghanistan is already the world's biggest source of refugees, with more than 3 million of its total population of 30 million still outside the country, most in Iran and Pakistan, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees and the Afghan government.

After the 2001 U.S.-led military intervention that toppled the Taliban, some 5.7 million Afghan refugees returned. The vast majority of those came back in the first five years. The numbers have since dwindled, with about 60,000 refugees returning last year, about half the number as the previous year.

As the pace of returns slowed, the number of Afghans seeking asylum abroad rebounded. In 2011, 30,407 sought asylum through November, the latest available figures.

Driving both trends is not only economic ambition but deep uncertainties about the country's future, says Abdul Samad Hami, deputy minister of Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation.

"Who knows what happens when foreign troops leave Afghanistan? Is it going to get better or worse? Who knows what happens with the foreign aid to Afghanistan ? going down or increasing?" he said.

Some Afghans fear that once most foreign troops leave, the Taliban will take over more territory and civil war could erupt along ethnic lines, as it did in the 1990s. Others worry the Afghan economy will collapse if foreign aid dries up.

The real number of Afghans leaving is unknown, but undoubtedly higher than the asylum figures. The country's foreign ministry recently said 50,000 Afghans illegally entered Greece in the past two years alone, many of them now stranded without passports or money to move farther into Europe. Most of those arranged their journey with smugglers.

For their money, many endure a perilous journey.

Esmat Adine nearly drowned after the overcrowded boat he was on sank off Indonesia late last year, killing at least 200 fellow asylum-seekers headed for Australia. He says he left his wife and infant son at home in Afghanistan and paid $5,000 to travel to Australia after the Taliban threatened to kill him for working with American aid workers. He flew from Kabul to Dubai, then boarded a plane to Jakarta, Indonesia. From there, he was taken to eastern Java and was packed onto the doomed boat.

When the vessel capsized, Adine managed to survive by swimming to a nearby island.

"I swam and swam until I reached the shore," Adine, 24, told The Associated Press in an Indonesian detention center, where he is awaiting a ruling on his legal status. "I thought of how my wife and children are counting on me, of how I must earn a good life in Australia, free from intimidation."

He says he still hopes to be able to enter Australia and send for his family.

Australia has vowed to crack down on asylum-seekers but has been forced to relax a policy of mandatory detention because its detention camps are dangerously overcrowded.

Hami, the Afghan refugee official, says the country has come a long way and if the transition goes smoothly, fewer people will want to leave. But he conceded that depends on whether the government can provide security and jobs.

"If the situation gets worse, people will go out. If the situation gets better, people will return."

___

Associated Press reporters Massieh Neshat in Kabul and Ali Kotarumalos in Indonesia contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan_more_fleeing

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Polywell Ignition X7900i-3960

The year's most scorching gaming machines on the market tend to arrive hot on the heels of Intel releasing a new flagship processor, and that's certainly true of 2011. In the wake of the debut of the Intel Core i7-3960X, manufacturers are falling over themselves to put out the fastest, most decked-out desktops that anyone living on a trust fund will be dying to have. One such system is the Polywell Ignition X7900i-3960, a $4,599 (street) behemoth bearing the smoking new processing and enough other new hardware to send the most trembling enthusiast into flights of ecstasy. And, oh yeah, it's fast, too. But if you're spending over $4,500 on a desktop, you undoubtedly want the speediest, best-designed, and most feature-packed one you can get. For its numerous virtues and outstanding performance scores, however, the Ignition X7900i-3960 is not quite that.

Design
At least the Ignition X7900i-3960 is an eye-catcher. Its full-size tower case is cast in gleaming, glossy white with sharp accents that give each part of it a uniquely striking appearance. A band of silvery metal wraps around the top and the bottom, though it's interrupted on the latter with a black plastic ventilation grille. You'll find a similar grille at the bottom of the front panel: It's covering the intake fans and is in turn covered by a series of shiny black fins. This look, in turn, is replicated on the top panel; on the two side panels, you'll find the black grille as well, albeit without the fins. The rear panel is solid black metal, though cut with many hexagonal holes for ventilation.

Both the side panels eschew thumbscrews in favor of a key-and-knob locking mechanism. The knob is found on either side of the rear panel: Turn it one way to free the panel, which you can then just pull away; turn it back the other way to secure it shut; or use the keys (on our model, attached via a twist tie to one of the ventilation holes) to prevent anyone from getting into the computer. It's a somewhat bulky and inelegant system, but it works.

Features
Dashing as the Ignition X7900i-3960 may be in the attractiveness department, it's what's inside that counts even more?and there's a lot. In addition to the Core i7-3960X processor cooled by a sedate-looking, Polywell-branded fan?and?heat sink combo, plugged into the Intel Desktop Board DX79SI is a whopping 32GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 memory. Because Intel's new X79 Express chipset supports quad-channel memory, this is divided among eight DIMMs, and there are no free slots for putting in more. (Not that you'll need to upgrade anytime soon, anyway!) Video capabilities come courtesy of two video cards using the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 GPU design, the fastest the company makes. This gives you an enormous amount of graphics potential, but requires a lot of power?thankfully, this is provided by a 1,250-watt power supply. All these internal components are cooled by four fans: one 150mm for intake, located at the bottom of the internal drive well, and three for exhaust (two in the top panel, one in the rear panel).

There's plenty more to be found on the front panel, too. Let's start with the two optical drives: one LG "Super Multi Blue" model that combines Blu-ray playing and DVD recording functionality, and one traditional DVD?RW drive. In another of the 5.25-inch bays you'll find a multiformat card reader. This leaves two bays free, and from them you can directly access the internal storage, all without having to unplug any SATA data or power cables. This gives you 240GB spread across two 120GB solid-state drives (SSDs) and an additional 3TB hard drive.

Only when you get to the collection of front-panel ports do you start to see what you're missing: One eSATA, three USB 2.0, and headphone and microphone jacks flank the power button on the top edge?that's right, no USB 3.0 ports. You'll only find two of those on the rear panel, joining six USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit LAN jacks, a FireWire port, and S/PDIF digital and 8.1-channel analog audio ports for connecting speakers. Another nice feature is the "back to BIOS" button, which lets you safely roll back any changes you make to your system's configuration (such as overclocking).

A Logitech Cordless Desktop X100 keyboard and an associated OptiMouse complete the hardware side of the spectrum. Two warranties, one for three years for parts and one for five years for labor, should keep you decently protected.

Performance
Any performance tweaking you may want from the X7900i-3960 you will have to do yourself: Polywell has provided no out-of-the-box overclocking for it. The good news is that because the rest of the system?s components are so advanced, you still get amazing frame rates. But overall performance isn?t going to compare with what you?ll see on an overclocked system such as the Falcon Northwest Mach V that uses this same CPU and many similar components?with one big difference that further accelerates its gaming prowess.

That would be its setup of three Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 video cards, which let it deliver results that surpass those of the Polywell. We saw this in every gaming test, whether PCMark 7 (6,154 versus 5,990), 3DMark 11 (6,505 versus 6,148 at the Extreme preset), Crysis at 1,920 by 1,080 with Very High details (75 frames per second, or fps, versus 73fps), or Lost Planet 2 at 1,920 by 1,080 with High details (168fps versus 122fps). And the Falcon Northwest?s overclocking helped it excel at non-gaming tasks, too (on the off chance you?ll ever want to do them), again trumping the Polywell in every match-up.

So if you?re looking for the best Core i7-3960X gaming machine you can find, right now the Editors? Choice Mach V takes the prize?in addition to superior performance, it also gives you more storage space (with the help of two 256GB SSDs), a more forward-thinking case design, and a more adventurous motherboard loaded with features (including a lot more USB 3.0 ports) that Intel?s doesn?t attempt. But it?s important to note that the Mach V also comes with a faint-worthy $6,899 price tag. The Polywell Ignition X7900i-3960 offers an incredibly compelling alternative for $2,300 less, with most of the same pluses and only some minor minuses. The only way it will disappoint is your hunger for speed can only be sated by the most tip of the top desktop out there.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

More desktop reviews:
??? Polywell Ignition X7900i-3960
??? iBuypower Chimera 4-V1
??? Velocity Micro Vector Holiday Edition (2011)
??? Falcon Northwest Mach V (Core i7-3960X)
??? Cybernet ZPC-D5
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/fn3RE_Lr4PE/0,2817,2398335,00.asp

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Head of Arab League monitors in Syria defends work

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

An anti-Syrian regime protester flashes victory sign as he marches during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

CAIRO (AP) ? The head of the Arab League's observation team to Syria has struck back at critics who say the mission has failed to stop violence between security forces and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.

Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi told reporters in Cairo Monday that the mission's job was to never to stop the violence, but to document progress on the League's peace plan.

Al-Dabi, a Sudanese army general who has been accused of war crimes, defended the mission. He says that since its start, violence has gone down, prisoners have been released and some protests have been allowed to proceed peacefully.

The Arab League on Sunday extended the observer mission for another month and presented a new initiative aimed at ending the crisis ? which Syria's government rejected.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria rejected the Arab League's wide-ranging new plan to end the country's 10-month crisis Monday, saying the League's call for a national unity government in two months is a clear violation of Syrian sovereignty.

The state-run news agency, SANA, said Damascus considers the plan "flagrant interference in its internal affairs" and the latest turn in an international plot against Syria.

President Bashar Assad blames the uprising that erupted in March on terrorists and armed gangs acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country. His regime has retaliated with a crackdown that the U.N. says has killed more than 5,400 people.

The Arab League has tried to stem the bloodshed by condemning the crackdown, imposing sanctions and sending a team of observers in to the country. On Sunday, the League called for a unity government within two months, which would then prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held under Arab and international supervision.

It also provides for Assad to give his vice president full powers to cooperate with the proposed government to enable it to carry out its duties during a transitional period.

The League called on Syria's government to release political detainees, allow peaceful demonstrations and pull the military out of cities and residential areas.

The European Union backed the Arab plan Monday, and it extended existing sanctions against Assad's government by adding 22 more officials and eight companies to the blacklist.

Omar Idlibi, a spokesman for the Syrian National Council opposition group, said the Arab efforts do not go far enough. He and many other opposition figures demand Assad leave power and say anything less will just give the regime time to bury the revolution.

But there are significant splits in the opposition about the way forward.

Hassan Abdul-Azim, who heads the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, or NCB, said the Arab plan is an "advanced step as the Arab League has started dealing with matters more seriously."

Abdul-Azim told The Associated Press that the plan would put more pressure on the Syrian regime and "tells it that it's impossible to keep matters as they are."

Syria appeared to get a serious boost Monday from its powerful allies in Russia. Russia's business daily Kommersant reported that Moscow has signed a contract to sell 36 Yak-130 combat jets to Syria ? a deal that, if confirmed, would openly defy international efforts to pressure Assad's regime.

Violence, meanwhile, continued inside Syria.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops and army defectors clashed Monday near the western town of Qusair, close to the Lebanese border. It said five soldiers were killed and 13 were wounded.

The reports could not be confirmed.

Syria has prevented most independent media coverage and until recently has refused to issue visas for most foreign journalists. In recent weeks, the regime has begun to permit entry for journalists on trips escorted by government minders.

On Sunday, Arab League foreign ministers extended the much-criticized observers mission for another month, according to a statement from the 22-member organization.

The Arab League faced three options Sunday: ending the mission and giving up its initiative, extending it, or turning the crisis over to the U.N. Security Council, as some opposition groups have urged. There, however, it would face a possible stalemate because of disagreements among permanent members over how far to go in forcing Assad's hand.

The mission's one-month mandate technically expired on Thursday.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told reporters that his country will pull out its observers because "the Syrian government did not implement the Arab plan." He urged Muslim countries, China, Russia, Europe and the U.S. to put pressure on Assad's government to stop the violence.

Saudi Arabia has been one of the harshest Arab critics of the crackdown, It recalled its ambassador from Damascus last year in protest.

___

Bassem Mroue can be reached on http://twitter.com/bmroue

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-23-ML-Syria/id-edea475933964417a2cf6b0c262df5e0

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Beyonce gets fly with golden booty named after her

In this 2009 photo released by researcher Bryan Lessard of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), a newly discovered horse fly in Austrlia with its golden-haired bum is shown at the Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra, Australia. For 24-year-old CSIRO researcher Lessard, a fan of pop diva Beyonce, there was only one name worthy of its beauty: Beyonce, He told The Associated Press Monday, Jan.16, 2012 he wanted to pay respect to the insect's beauty by naming it Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae. (AP Photo/Bryan Lessard, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY, CREDIT MANDATORY

In this 2009 photo released by researcher Bryan Lessard of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), a newly discovered horse fly in Austrlia with its golden-haired bum is shown at the Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra, Australia. For 24-year-old CSIRO researcher Lessard, a fan of pop diva Beyonce, there was only one name worthy of its beauty: Beyonce, He told The Associated Press Monday, Jan.16, 2012 he wanted to pay respect to the insect's beauty by naming it Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae. (AP Photo/Bryan Lessard, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY, CREDIT MANDATORY

In this 2009 photo released by researcher Bryan Lessard of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), a newly discovered horse fly in Austrlia with its golden-haired bum is pinned at the Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra, Australia. For CSIRO researcher Lessard, 24, a fan of pop diva Beyonce, there was only one name worthy of its beauty: Beyonce, He told The Associated Press Monday, Jan.16, 2012 he wanted to pay respect to the insect's beauty by naming it Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae. (AP Photo/Bryan Lessard, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY, CREDIT MANDATORY

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? A newly discovered horse fly in Australia was so "bootylicious" with its golden-haired bum, there was only one name worthy of its beauty: Beyonce.

Previously published results from Bryan Lessard, a 24-year-old researcher at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, were recently announced on the species that had been sitting in a fly collection since it was captured in 1981 ? the same year pop diva Beyonce was born.

He says he wanted to pay respect to the insect's beauty by naming it Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae.

Lessard said Beyonce would be "in the nature history books forever" and that the fly now bearing her name is "pretty bootylicious" with its golden backside.

"Bootylicious" was the title of a song by Beyonce's previous group, Destiny's Child.

It's unknown if the rare species is a bloodsucker like many female horse flies. Lessard says he was unable to find any live specimens when he went looking in 2010 in northeast Queensland's Atherton Tablelands, where it was captured three decades ago. However, at least one member of the public has alerted him that he was recently bitten by what's locally called the "gold bum fly."

The description of the fly was earlier published in the Australian Journal of Entomology, but the results were announced last week.

Lessard says he hasn't heard from Beyonce, who recently gave birth to her first child, but he is a fan and hopes she will take his scientific gesture as a compliment. He also said the name was picked to help draw attention to the importance of his field and the need for more researchers to catalog and study insects.

Horse flies are "vital pollinators of native plants, not just in Australia, but all over the world," Lessard said. "It's extremely important to name all the undescribed species so we can measure our human impact on the environment and hopefully protect it for future generations to enjoy."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-01-16-AS-Australia-Beyonce-Horse-Fly/id-b5d519ca3f2544bd83ee803818d4881a

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Markets are calm ? too calm. Why pros are spooked (AP)

NEW YORK ? After wild price swings that left investors bewildered and not a cent richer last year, stocks are rising again, and calm has settled over the market like blue skies after a storm.

Or maybe eye of the storm is the better metaphor.

"It's a little too calm," says the usually unflappable Jim Paulsen of Wells Fargo Management, a bullish stock strategist not easily spooked. "Maybe we're setting up for a break."

Whether that break will bring a rise or fall in stocks, Paulsen is not sure. But he suspects it'll be big whichever direction.

For eight straight days, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has moved up or down less than 1 percent, a run that is both remarkable and a tad eerie. The last time stocks moved so little for so long was a 13-day streak starting last April 21 ? just before a bumpy five-month drop to near bear-market lows.

Other curiosities, ominous or otherwise, from the first two weeks of the year:

? The hapless and helpless are hot. Netflix Inc., the DVD-by-mail and streaming entertainment company that enraged customers by raising rates, is up 36 percent. Bank of America is up 19 percent. Both lost more than half their value in 2011.

? The first is last. The best-performing of the S&P's 10 categories last year, utilities, is now the worst. Those stocks rose 15 percent last year but have fallen 3 percent this year. Investors apparently have decided they're too expensive. The second-best sector last year, consumer staples, is down 1.3 percent.

? Stocks are up, even if profits aren't. The S&P has risen 17 percent from its 2011 low on Oct. 3 despite increasing pessimism among analysts about profits. In three months since that low, analysts have cut fourth-quarter profit estimates at companies they follow by 19 percent, the most since the depths of the Great Recession three years ago.

For all of 2012, the analysts now say earnings will rise 10 percent, down from a projected 17 percent five months ago, according to FactSet, a provider of financial data.

? Where have all the traders gone? The markets have been calm even though few shares are trading hands. Low volume typically exaggerates price moves. Experts say last year's abnormally low average daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange, 4.3 billion shares traded, was one reason stocks gyrated so much. This year, volume has averaged 3.9 billion.

The good news for investors is that the S&P has risen 2.5 percent in 2012. But Barry Knapp, head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays Capital, smells trouble.

The usual explanation for stocks rising this time of year is what's known as the January effect: Investors sell stock at the end of previous year to lock in losses for tax purposes, then buy again in the new year.

This year, it's more like the January defect.

Knapp says investors sold as expected, but then got nervous and didn't follow through with the crucial second part ? buying. That's his explanation, anyway for the low volume. He's worried the small gains this year could prove fleeting.

"Investors don't have a lot of conviction about the rally," he says. "Most don't believe the Europeans have solved their problems or that the slowdown in China won't get worse."

Or apparently that the U.S. economy will grow much faster.

The big news so far this year is that unemployment in the U.S. fell to 8.5 percent in December, the lowest in almost three years. That raised hopes that the labor market is finally on the mend.

But then the government reported Thursday that unemployment claims rose to 399,000 in the first week of the year, the highest in six weeks, and now investors are not so sure.

Further dampening spirits was a report that sales at retailers increased just 0.1 percent in December. Earlier, several retail chains, including Target, J.C. Penney Corp. and Kohl's Department Stores Inc., cut their earnings forecasts. After Tiffany & Co. warned of disappointing holiday sales, investors pushed its stock down 11 percent.

Among S&P 500 companies making so-called pre-announcements about their fourth quarter earnings, FactSet says those cutting forecasts have outnumbered those raising them by three to one.

Which would be bad for stocks ? except in the upside-down world of investing. Linda Duessel, an equity market strategist at Federated Investors, says investors tend to drive down stocks too far on warnings that profits could fall short of expectations, creating bargains.

"We're betting investors will be surprised," Duessel says. "We're bullish."

So is Paulsen of Wells Fargo, notwithstanding his talk of an eerie calm. He says investors are paying 12.5 times expected per-share earnings for the S&P 500 versus a more typical 14.5 times, meaning they're relatively cheap.

He thinks the gap will close, and stocks could jump 15 percent, assuming the unemployment rate continues to drop this year and investors become more confident. For an extra kick in your portfolio, he suggests buying stocks in industries closely tied to the economy, like industrials, materials and financials. All three fell last year.

"There's a huge discount (on stocks) due to all the fear and phobia," Paulsen says. "Rising confidence could be a big boost."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120115/ap_on_bi_co_ne/us_wall_street_week_ahead

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