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Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
US to investigate deadly NATO airstrike (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The U.S. is planning its own investigation into NATO's deadly airstrikes in Pakistan, while two senior lawmakers called for tough diplomacy after Islamabad turned away supply convoys into Afghanistan and demanded that the U.S. vacate a drone base.
Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, was expected by Monday to name an investigating officer to examine the incident, according to a defense official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A key question to be examined by the U.S. is who approved the airstrikes and why.
The attack could become the deadliest friendly fire incident against Pakistani troops since the war began a decade ago. It also raises serious questions about the extent of cooperation between supposed close allies in fighting terrorism.
"There's a lot of diplomacy that has to occur and it has to be tough diplomacy in the sense that they need to understand that our support for them financially is dependent upon their cooperation with us," said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate's No. 2 Republican.
Afghan officials say their soldiers called for help on Saturday after being fired upon from the direction of Pakistani border posts. Pakistani authorities claim the airstrikes were unprovoked.
NATO has said it is conducting an investigation of the incident. The alliance has not commented on Pakistani claims that the attacks killed 24 soldiers, but it has not questioned them.
Alliance officials previously have complained that insurgents fire from across the poorly defined frontier, often from positions close to Pakistani soldiers, who have been accused of tolerating or supporting them.
The incident threatens to send U.S.-Pakistani relations to an all-time low.
U.S. officials were already reeling in the wake of the raid in May on Osama bin Laden's hideout in a Pakistani garrison town. The Pakistan government was outraged it hadn't been told about the operation beforehand, and U.S. secrecy surrounding the operation underscored a deep mistrust between the two allies.
Frustration is particularly acute among members of Congress, who amid an economic recession are being asked to support billions in military and civilian aid for Pakistan.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, said Pakistan's latest move to punish coalition forces for the airstrikes is further evidence that the U.S. must end its military involvement in the region and bring troops home.
"As difficult as it is to fight our way thru this diplomatic morass between the incompetence and maybe corruption of Afghanistan and the complicity in parts of Pakistan, our soldiers are caught right in the middle of this at a time they are trying to bring peace to the region," Durbin said.
While calling for tougher diplomacy with Pakistan, Kyl said he would stop short of cutting off U.S. aid entirely to Pakistan. He said that severing ties in the past has only led to an increased influence of Islamic extremists among Pakistan's military ranks.
"It's very important to maintain the relationship for the long haul," he said, without offering more specifics on how that might be done.
Durbin suggested the U.S. back out from the region from a military standpoint.
"We've got to leave it to Afghan forces," he said.
Kyl and Durbin spoke on "Fox News Sunday."
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Video: More details come to light in Penn State scandal
>>> more details are coming to light about those new allegations against jerry sandusky , part of the growing child sex abuse scandal at penn state . nbc's jay gray is in state college for us tonight.
>> reporter: from the outside, it seemed to be a quiet thanksgiving for jerry sandusky , even as the firestorm of allegations around him continued to grow. two more young boys , both currently under the age of 18, have now accused the former state penn state coach of sexual abuse . as he drove off with his dog this morning, sandusky refused to discuss the latest accusations, but his attorney, joe amendola, confirms a report in a local newspaper that one of sandusky 's new accusers is from his own family. and in an e-mail to the media, also goes on to say, quote, the allegations are ridiculous and unfounded. as the investigation continues to grow, so do questions about governor tom corbett 's role in the controversy. he was the attorney general and member of the penn state board of trustees during the grand jury investigation of sandusky three years ago. during that time, never shared any information with the school.
>> i gave thought to it on a constant basis. we are very careful about how we reveal it.
>> the grand jury manual, though, seems to indicate he could have shared at least some of the information.
>> look, there is no question that everyone in this process, the penn state officials to even my good friend joe paterno , everyone in this process didn't act swiftly enough, didn't act courageously attorney.
>> reporter: also tonight an attorney for one of the men identified as a victim is asking for an injunction to stop the second mile charity from dissipating or transferring any of its assets as they consider suing that charity. jay gray, nbc news, state college , pennsylvania.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45431466/
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
Bing brings the holiday gold, offers free Xbox Live preview for Thanksgiving weekend
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Friday, November 25, 2011
Climate change: South Africa has much to lose (AP)
JOHANNESBURG ? Imagine the savannas of South Africa's flagship Kruger Park so choked with brush, viewing what game is left is nearly impossible. The Cape of Good Hope without penguins. The Karoo desert's seasonal symphony of wildflowers silenced.
Climate change could mean unthinkable loss for South Africa, which hosts talks on global warming that will bring government negotiators, scientists and lobbyists from around the world to the coastal city of Durban next week.
Guy Midgley, the top climate change researcher at the South African National Biodiversity Institute, said evidence gleaned from decades of recording weather data, observing flora and fauna and conducting experiments makes it possible for scientists to "weave a tapestry of change."
Change is, of course, part of the natural world. But the implications of so much change happening at once pose enormous questions, said Midgley, who has contributed to the authoritative reports of the United Nations' Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In the Karoo, for example, where plants found nowhere else in the world have adapted to long, dry summers and winter rainfall, the weather pattern is changing.
Scientists have noted large die-offs linked to the stress of drought among one iconic Karoo denizen, the flowering quiver tree, a giant aloe that often is the only large plant visible across large stretches of desert. Quiver trees attract tourists, and insects, birds and mammals eat their flowers.
"Any change in climate is going to affect the flowers," said Wendy Foden, a southern African plant specialist with the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Barend Erasmus, an ecologist at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, worked on some of the first efforts to model how Africa might be affected by climate change. He led a 2001 study that raised the possibility that up to two-thirds of the species studied might disappear from Kruger National Park.
Research done since has made Erasmus less fearful for Kruger's animal population. But he predicts profound effects should a changing climate encourage the growth of thick shrubs, squeezing out zebra, antelope and cheetah.
Already, he said, zebra and wildebeest numbers are declining in Kruger as their grazing areas disappear. The question is how much of the cause is due to high concentrations of carbon dioxide, and how much depends on other factors, including man's encroachment.
Offshore, penguin expert Rob Crawford has looked at changes in the breeding grounds of African penguins and other seabirds, noting South Africa's northernmost penguin colony went extinct in 2006. Crawford and his colleagues wrote in a 2008 paper that the movements "suggest the influence of environmental change, perhaps forced by climate."
The African penguin, also known as the jackass penguin because of its braying call, is found only in southern Africa. A colony near Cape Town has long been a tourist draw.
One penguin parent stays behind to nest and care for offspring, while the other seeks food for the family. If the hunting partner is away too long, the nesting parent has to abandon the chick ? or starve. Species like sardines, on which the penguins depend, have been displaced.
"If they don't have sardines, they can't feed their chicks," Erasmus said. "And eventually the colonies just disappear."
The numbers of African penguins have plummeted from up to 4 million in the early 1900s to 60,000 in 2010, according to the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds. Researchers blame humans, who collected penguin eggs for food until the 1960s. More recently, a new threat came with oil spills and commercial fishing's competition for anchovies and sardines.
Erasmus said more research needs to be done, including studies on how plants and animals react to extreme conditions.
A colleague at his university, Duncan Mitchell, has taken up the challenge by tracking and studying antelope living in one of the hottest and driest corners of South Africa.
"We're hoping to find that they have a capacity to deal with water shortage that they're not having to use at the moment," Mitchell said.
"Climate change is going to happen," Mitchell said, adding it's already too late to influence temperatures and water levels over the next four decades. "What needs to be researched is coping with unmitigated climate change."
Coping might involve moving vulnerable animals to cooler habitats ? or ensuring they're not so hemmed in by human settlements that they cannot migrate on their own. Park rangers may have to work harder to remove trees to protect savannas. The South African government has called for expanding gene banks to conserve vulnerable species.
Sarshen Marais, a policy expert for Conservation International, says the work her organization is doing to eradicate foreign plants and help farmers better manage their land and water has gained importance.
Climate change experts fear water could become even scarcer in the future, but farmers can take steps that will help cash crops as well as wildlife. Conservation International has encouraged local communities to cut down thirsty foreign plants and sell the debris for fuel, allowing impoverished South Africans to earn while they save native species that are losing in the competition for water.
Researcher Erasmus acknowledges that in a developing country like South Africa, it can be hard to prioritize the plight of plants and animals. But he said an economic argument can be made, including the impact on people living in savannas who supplement their diets with small birds, other animals and wild greens, and who make money selling native fruits.
Tourism also is a consideration.
"Kruger is a cash cow for the whole of SANParks," he said, referring to the national parks department.
Foden, the plant specialist, said that when she thinks of her native South Africa, she thinks of wide spaces filled with a stunning diversity of plants and animals.
"If we were to lose that," she said, "we would lose so much of our identity."
___
Donna Bryson can be reached on http://twitter.com/dbrysonAP
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Bahrain used "excessive force" in crackdown: inquiry (Reuters)
MANAMA (Reuters) ? Bahrain's security forces used excessive force to suppress pro-democracy protests earlier this year, torturing detainees to get confessions, an inquiry panel charged with investigating abuses said on Wednesday.
The government commissioned report, designed to help heal sectarian divisions between the island kingdom's Sunni rulers and majority Shi'ites, acknowledged five people had been tortured to death but said abuses were isolated incidents.
However the inquiry panel, led by Egyptian-American international law expert Cherif Bassiouni, dismissed Bahrain's allegation of Iranian interference in fomenting unrest, saying that was not supported by any evidence.
"In many cases security agencies in the government of Bahrain resorted to excessive and unnecessary force," Bassiouni said at the king's palace, adding that some detainees suffered electric shocks, and beatings with rubber hoses and wires.
Bahrain's Shi'ite-led opposition reacted cooly to the report, some saying it did not go far enough while others complained that those responsible for the abuses remained in office.
Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Shi'ite Wefaq bloc which quit parliament over the unrest, said: "We cannot say Bahrain is turning a new leaf yet...because the government that carried out all those abuses is definitely not fit to be given the responsibility of implementing recommendations."
The United States urged its ally Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, to quickly address abuses laid out in the report.
Washington, which has been faulted by rights activists for not criticizing Bahrain more sharply for the crackdown, appeared to carefully balance its demand for the abuses to be addressed with praise for its Gulf ally.
"We are deeply concerned about the abuses identified in the report and urge the Government and all elements of Bahraini society to address them in a prompt and systematic manner," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.
"We believe the ... report offers a historic opportunity for all Bahrainis to participate in a healing process that will address long-standing grievances and move the nation onto a path of genuine, sustained reform," Clinton added.
Bahrain's Shi'ite majority, inspired by uprisings that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, took to the streets in February and March to demand political reforms but their protests quickly escalated into the worst sectarian political violence since the mid-1990s.
The ruling al-Khalifa family responded by declaring martial law and called in troops from fellow Sunni Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as it set about crushing the protests.
The inquiry panel said there was no official policy of abuse during the widespread unrest, led by Bahrain's majority Shi'ite population demanding an end to sectarian discrimination and demanding a greater say in government. A few Shi'ite groups called for the abolition of the monarchy altogether.
The panel - which said 35 people were killed, including five security personnel - urged a review of sentences handed down on people arrested following the protests, when more than 2,000 state employees were also sacked, according to Bassiouni.
KING RENEWS ACCUSATION AGAINST IRAN
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, speaking after Bassiouni delivered his report, repeated the accusations against Iran, but said laws would be reviewed and if necessary revised in light of the unrest.
"We do not want, ever again, to see our country paralyzed by intimidation and sabotage... nor do we want, ever again, to discover that any of our law enforcement personnel have mistreated anyone," he said.
"Therefore, we must reform our laws so that they are consistent with international standards to which Bahrain is committed by treaties," he said.
In a statement, Bahrain noted the inquiry showed five deaths during the unrest were the result of torture, but added: "The report does not confirm that there was a government policy of torture, mistreatment or using excessive force."
A section of the 500-page report found the security service and interior ministry "followed a systematic practice of physical and psychological mistreatment, which amounted in many cases to torture, with respect to a large number of detainees."
Bassiouni also echoed elements of the kingdom's narrative of the unrest, saying Sunnis were targeted for intimidation by protesters. These included foreigners, including Pakistanis that the opposition say were naturalized because they are fellow Sunnis and employed in security services.
The United States has said a $53 million arms deal depends on the delivery of the report, and Bahrain has already acknowledged security forces used excessive force in some cases, while consistently denying any coordinated policy of torture.
The report follows a state-orchestrated "national dialogue" in the wake of the unrest which opposition groups dismissed as a farce.
The crackdown has left Bahrain polarized along sectarian lines, with low expectations from both sides that the inquiry would lead to reconciliation.
"It should have criticized the opposition that claims to represent the Shi'a, it only criticized the government," said Sheikh Muhsin al-Asfoor, a pro-government Shi'ite cleric who advises the king on Shi'ite affairs.
Maryam al-Khawaja, an activist with a Bahraini human rights group, suggested the investigation wound up exonerating Bahrain rather than identifying abuses, noting on Twitter: "Minutes after talked of violations...Hamad thanked the police."
(Reporting by Andrew Hammond and Warda al-Jawahiry; Writing by Joseph Logan and Reed Stevenson; editing by Jon Boyle)
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'Al-Qaida sympathizer' accused of NYC bomb plots (AP)
NEW YORK ? An "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home remained in police custody after an arraignment on numerous terrorism-related charges.
Jose Pimentel of Manhattan was described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a Sunday news conference announcing Pimentel's arrest as "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan.
"He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."
Ten years after 9/11, New York remains a prime terrorism target. Bloomberg said at least 14 terrorist plots, including the latest alleged scheme, have targeted the city since the Sept. 11 attacks. No attack has been successful, however. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad is serving a life sentence for trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.
Kelly said Sunday that Pimentel was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.
An unemployed U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad," Bloomberg said.
New York police had him under surveillance for at least a year and were working with a confidential informant; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.
"He appears to be a total lone wolf," the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."
At Pimentel's arraignment, his lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client's behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.
"I don't believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe," Zablocki said. "He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. ... This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack."
Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, was denied bail and remained in custody. The bearded, bespectacled man wore a black T-shirt and black drawstring pants and smiled at times during the proceeding. His mother and brother attended the arraignment, Zablocki said.
Pimentel is accused of having an explosive device Saturday when he was arrested, one he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010, and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.
Bloomberg said at the news conference that Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.
"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.
Kelly said a confidential informant had numerous conversations with Pimentel on Sept. 7 in which he expressed interest in building small bombs and targeting banks, government and police buildings.
Pimentel also posted on his website trueislam1.com and on blogs his support of al-Qaida and belief in jihad, and promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.
Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: "People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare."
The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady. He said police in the Albany area tipped New York City police off to Pimentel's activities.
Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."
About 1,000 of the city's roughly 35,000 officers are assigned each day to counterterrorism operations. The NYPD also sends officers overseas to report on how other cities deal with terrorism. Through federal grants and city funding, the NYPD has spent millions of dollars on technology to outfit the department with the latest tools ? from portable radiation detectors to the network of hundreds of cameras that can track suspicious activity.
Alexis Smith, 22, who lives in an apartment in the same building as Pimentel, said she was shocked that he was a suspect in a terrorist plot. "He was always very courteous to us," she said, adding that Pimentel helped her carry groceries and luggage into the building.
"It's nice to know he was only working alone," she said.
___
Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Colleen Long and AP video journalist David R. Martin contributed to this report from New York. AP writer Samantha Gross also contributed to this report.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
In NH, Obama to push for payroll tax cut extension
President Barack Obama makes a statement at the White House after the congressional debt supercommittee failed to reach an agreement on debt reduction on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama makes a statement at the White House after the congressional debt supercommittee failed to reach an agreement on debt reduction on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Targeting Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail, President Barack Obama is in New Hampshire, a political battleground, to begin a year-end push to extend payroll tax cuts.
During a speech Tuesday at a Manchester high school, the president was to argue that a failure to extend the tax breaks would hurt middle-class families already struggling amid a shaky economy, effectively daring congressional Republicans to block a measure and thus increase taxes.
"If we don't act, taxes will go up for every single American, starting next year. And I'm not about to let that happen," Obama said Monday, previewing the message he was expected to deliver.
The White House says a middle-class family making $50,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $1,000 if the payroll tax cuts are not extended.
The president's trip follows the collapse of the special congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee, which failed to reach a deal on $1.2 trillion in cuts ahead of a Wednesday deadline. Democrats had hoped to tuck the payroll tax extension, as well as a renewal of jobless benefits for the unemployed, into a supercommittee agreement.
With that option seemingly off the table, the White House plans to make a full-court press for a separate measure to extend the payroll tax cuts before they expire at the end of the year ? and set up Republicans as the scapegoat if that doesn't happen.
Republicans aren't wholly opposed to the extension. In fact, party members sent the White House a letter in September stating that extension of the payroll tax cut is one element of Obama's $447 billion jobs bill where the two sides may be able to find common ground.
Some Republicans worry that the tax cut extension would undermine the solvency of Social Security, and others are opposed to any effort to pay for the renewal by taxing the wealthiest Americans.
Last year's cut in the 6.2 percent payroll tax, which raises money for Social Security, was accomplished with borrowed money. The White House has been vague on exactly how it wants to see another round of cuts paid for; spokesman Jay Carney on Monday said only that the money should come from "asking millionaires and billionaires to pay a little bit extra."
A senior administration official said the president would not insist on the cuts being paid for immediately. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal administration strategy.
The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center. Economists say allowing the cuts to expire would harm an economy already hobbled by 9 percent unemployment.
Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers, at a total cost of $179 billion, and cut the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.
The issue could appeal to independent voters in low-tax New Hampshire, the presidential swing state Obama won in 2008. With Republican candidates blanketing the state with an anti-Obama message ahead of the Jan. 10 primary, the president and his surrogates, including Vice President Joe Biden, are seeking to steal some of the spotlight for their economic message.
It's been nearly two years since Obama visited New Hampshire. And on Tuesday, he'll find a state that has shifted distinctly to the right since his 2008 victory. Recent polls show that, if the election were held today, Obama would lose by roughly 10 percentage points to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Romney is expected Tuesday to begin airing his first television ads in New Hampshire, and they will criticize Obama's economic record.
___
Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in Manchester, N.H., contributed to this report.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
The Block Party Is a Bouncy Room of Sex [Nsfw]
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China urges progress on climate change fund (AP)
BEIJING ? China's climate change envoy said Tuesday that global financial woes have put climate issues on the back burner for now, but they have not diminished the need for a multibillion-dollar fund to help developing countries cope with global warming.
Delegates at a U.N.-sponsored climate change conference that starts Nov. 28 in Durban, South Africa, are to consider ways to raise $100 billion a year for the Green Climate Fund.
Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission and China's lead climate official, told a news conference in Beijing that some countries may not be able to pledge as much as originally planned but he hopes there will be progress in determining how the fund is allocated and managed in the long-term.
China is also pushing for new emissions-reduction targets for developed countries to take effect after the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Countries generally have fallen into camps of rich and poor on the issue. Developing countries insist the Kyoto obligations ? the individual targets for countries to cut emissions ? be extended and new targets adopted. Industrial countries say they want emerging economies to accept similar binding commitments.
Xie reiterated China's stance that developed countries are mainly to blame for the current global warming situation and must take the lead in combatting the problem, while developing countries should not have to face mandatory restraints on emissions because they would hamper efforts to alleviate poverty.
A white paper on China's climate change policies distributed at the news conference said clarifying a new emissions-reduction plan for developed countries was the most urgent task facing negotiators at Durban.
Also important will be securing "new, additional and abundant funds" for developing nations to deal with global warming, it said.
"Climate change hasn't become less important because of the international financial crisis, but it has become less prominent," Xie said. "Some people say that given the economic difficulties in Western countries these days, that it's not the proper time to discuss financing issues."
Xie said China understands that point of view but also believes global economic difficulties are temporary and that progress should be made at Durban on establishing the financing mechanisms for the fund. He said there are multiple options for financing but that the main source will be public funds from developed countries.
"If you have difficulties, for instance, you can donate less money, but the mechanism should be there and we hope, we look forward to positive progress in the allocation and management of these long-term financing mechanisms (in Durban)," Xie said.
China and other emerging economies exempted from the Kyoto pact have sharply increased emissions in recent years, while rejecting calls to commit by treaty to restraints on emissions.
However, China has voluntarily set a target of reducing power consumed per unit of economic output ? a measure known as "energy intensity" ? by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels, while also increasing the share of energy produced by renewable sources to 15 percent and expanding forest cover.
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Monday, November 21, 2011
Climate Panel: More Extreme Weather On The Way
Vallery Hache/AFP/Getty Images A U.N. climate panel says that we can expect more extreme weather conditions as a result of climate change. Above, people run from a high wave on Nov. 8 in Nice, France, where heavy rain and flooding forced hundreds to evacuate.
Brace yourself for more extreme weather. A group of more than 200 scientists convened by the United Nations says in a new report that climate change will bring more heat waves, more intense rainfall and more expensive natural disasters.
These conclusions are from the latest effort of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ? a consensus statement from researchers around the world.
And since this is a consensus, the conclusions are carefully couched. Take, for example, the issue of rainfall. "It is likely that the frequency of heavy precipitation will increase in the 21st century over many regions," says the report, which defines "likely" as more than a 66 percent chance.
You might expect heavy rainfall would lead to flooding, but the report is reluctant to make that strong a link. One of the authors, David Easterling from the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., says dams and flood-control projects in some places can handle the heavier bursts of rain, so it's not automatically the case that downpours lead to flooding.
Another example of this deliberate, cautious approach is evident in the report's conclusions about hurricanes and typhoons (hurricanes' equivalent in the Western Pacific). The science suggests strongly that hurricanes will eventually become more powerful, "but we won't really be able to detect an increase for another 30 to 40 years," Easterling tells NPR. "It may be there, but the increases are not huge. It's not like you'll see a doubling of wind speeds, but [storms are] expected to become more intense."
That said, the report finds no compelling evidence that hurricanes and typhoons will become more frequent as a result of climate change.
Much clearer is the trend about who is vulnerable to disaster. The report finds that 95 percent of the lives lost to natural disasters are in the developing world, where people often lack the infrastructure and resources to cope with calamity. Most of the financial costs are borne by the developed world, where valuable property is in harm's way. And that's not simply because of natural disasters ? it's principally because of the deliberate choices we've made to develop along vulnerable coastlines and floodplains.
You don't have to look far for evidence of those costs. This year "has been one of the most costly from extreme weather events, with more billion-dollar events than ever before," says Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a nonprofit that helps businesses and investors adapt to climate change. "The drought and wildfires in the Southwest and Southern Plains, for example, cost more than $9 billion in direct damage to cattle, agriculture and infrastructure." And Hurricane Irene, which killed at least 45 people, cost an additiional $7 billion.
"Perhaps these multibillion-dollar events that are coming at us fast and furious will be enough to get policymakers to sit up and listen and realize we've got to change ? and we have to move quickly," Lubber says.
And perhaps a report that trips over itself to be extra cautious ? as the IPCC's tangled jargon frequently does ? will also garner more credibility for the statements it does make with confidence.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/18/142513520/climate-panel-more-extreme-weather-on-the-way?ft=1&f=1007
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Sunday, November 20, 2011
US budget woes could threaten plans for NATO missile defense system in Europe (Star Tribune)
Sunken Chest Demands Prompt Evaluation, Expert Says (HealthDay)
THURDSAY, Nov. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Children with sunken chest require prompt evaluation to rule out more serious underlying conditions and to plan corrective surgery if necessary, according to experts.
Sunken or hollow chest, the result of a malformed rib cage, is one of the most common birth defects of the chest wall. It affects one in 300 to 400 children and is rarely life-threatening.
The main reason to perform surgery is to improve heart and lung function, not to improve appearance, Dr. Fizan Abdullah, a pediatric surgeon at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, explained in a Hopkins news release.
He said assessment of children with sunken chest accomplishes three goals -- it rules out serious underlying syndromes, assesses cardio-pulmonary function and begins the planning of surgery.
A small number of children with sunken chest have Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder of the connective tissues that can cause potentially deadly problems such as arterial aneurysms or rupture of the heart's aorta, Abdullah said.
A sunken chest can compress the heart and lungs and affect breathing and circulation, especially in more severe cases. Serious heart and lung problems are rare, but even children with mild sunken chest can have reduced cardiovascular endurance, tire quickly, have a feeling of pressure on their chest, and experience neck and back pain.
Surgery can remedy these problems and restore the chest to normal appearance. Several different surgical approaches can be used, including minimally invasive alternatives to open-chest surgery, Abdullah said.
The ideal time for surgery is between ages 14 and 16, Abdullah said. Doing the surgery at an earlier age when a child's bones are still growing could result in reemergence of the sunken chest. However, earlier surgery would be performed in severe cases that seriously compromise heart and lung function, Abdullah said.
More information
The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia has more about sunken chest.
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Saturday, November 19, 2011
Gingrich lugs loads of personal, political baggage (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Newt Gingrich is schlepping some supersized luggage along as his Republican presidential campaign takes off: He's got trunkloads of personal and political baggage.
This week's disclosure that a sweetheart consulting deal with housing giant Freddie Mac earned Gingrich at least $1.6 million over the past decade is only the latest potential liability to surface for the former House speaker.
Negatives that didn't get much attention when Gingrich was an asterisk in the polls are getting a fresh look now that he's risen to the top tier of GOP presidential candidates. Among them: policy flip-flops, inopportune moments of candor, two failed marriages, admissions of adultery, fits of petulance and a tendency to suggest he's the smartest person in the room.
"Everybody will dig up everything they can dig up," Gingrich said Wednesday, resigned to what's ahead.
Businessman Donald Trump allowed of Gingrich on CNN, "Got some baggage, but everybody has some baggage."
True, but sometimes size matters.
When Gingrich went on Fox News this week in his new role as a poll leader, he was asked about fliers distributed by evangelicals in Iowa, the leadoff caucus state, that pointed to adultery in his first two marriages. Gingrich dismissed that as old news.
"I'm very open about the fact that I've had moments in my life that I regret," Gingrich said. He spoke of his current "close marriage" to third wife Callista. He offered himself as an older and wiser 68-year-old grandfather.
A day later, Gingrich's financial dealings were in the spotlight, with reports of the huge sums he'd collected from Freddie Mac for consulting work when the federally backed housing agency was fending off attacks from the right wing of the Republican Party.
Gingrich tried to spin that as a positive, saying: "It reminds people that I know a great deal about Washington. We just tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn't work very well. So, having someone who actually knows Washington might be a really good thing."
He tried a different tack last summer to explain away a six-figure shopping spree at Tiffany's. When word surfaced that Gingrich and his wife had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the luxury jeweler, Gingrich said he and his wife were "very frugal" and lived within their budget. But he refused to say what they'd bought, insisting it was "my private life."
Gingrich's favorability rating among Republicans dropped from 61 percent to 43 percent after the Tiffany's news broke. But by October, he was back up to 58 percent.
Gingrich does get credit for his intellectual firepower and that has great appeal to Republican voters looking for a "fighting conservative" who can stand up to Barack Obama, says GOP consultant Greg Mueller. GOP voters cheer when Gingrich puts debate moderators in their place by rejecting the premise of their questions, Mueller noted.
But sometimes Gingrich takes it too far and can come across as arrogant and lecturing.
"There's no question Gingrich is going to have to check himself," says Mueller, "because he's got a quick wit and sometimes like to share it."
So far, at least, Gingrich has surprised even former aides with the way he's reined in his temperament this campaign.
This is, after all, a man whose pique at a perceived slight by President Bill Clinton in 1995 earned him a caricature on the front page of the New York Daily News showing him as a diapered baby with the headline, "Cry Baby. Newt's Tantrum."
"His biggest hurdle is to avoid self-inflicted wounds," says GOP strategist Rich Galen, a former Gingrich aide. "There is a history of the angry Newt, and that hasn't served him terribly well over the past 20 years. So far, he's been far more disciplined than I or other people gave him credit for."
History itself may work against Gingrich. At 68, he's viewed by many as part of the GOP of the past and won't get many points anymore for the Republican revolution he engineered to take control of Congress in 1994. By 1998, he was facing leadership challenges and ethics questions and decided not to seek re-election.
Gingrich has gotten in hot water this campaign for outspoken and sometimes shifting views. Within days of announcing his campaign, Gingrich had irked conservatives by harshly criticizing Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to remake Medicare as "right-wing social engineering." Gingrich apologized but has since sent mixed signals on where he stands on the matter. He's also wavered on Libya, initially criticizing Obama for not intervening and later saying he would not have used American and European forces there.
He's also sent mixed signals on his view of the government's role in ensuring people have health insurance. And that will make it harder for him to confront Republican rival Mitt Romney on an issue where the GOP leader is vulnerable because of his work to push through a requirement that people get health insurance when he was Massachusetts governor.
Trying to exorcise another demon, Gingrich took it on himself last week to bring up a widely circulated 2008 public service announcement in which he sat on a couch with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and called for action to address climate change, an ad that has gotten Gingrich nothing but grief from conservatives. The candidate called the ad "the dumbest thing I've done in the last couple of years."
Gingrich also will have to convince voters he's serious about being president. His campaign almost went under last summer after many of his aides and advisers resigned en masse, complaining that he wasn't seriously campaigning and had taken off on a Greek cruise with his wife not long after announcing.
So far, Gingrich is giving himself good marks for handling the increased scrutiny of his candidacy "in an even-handed way," as he put it at a Politico forum in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday.
He knows what will happen if he doesn't.
"If I blow up and do something stupid," he says, "they'll be able to say, `Gee, I wonder who the next candidate is.'"
___
AP Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
___
Nancy Benac can be followed at http://twitter.com/nbenac
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Amos Mac: What Gwen Araujo Taught Me
In 2002 I was living in San Francisco, working at a laundromat, going to protests that involved throwing furniture in the freeway, internally dealing with my own gender bullshit and because of that, feeling like a complete fraud of a human being. Like many young people who feel that their sexuality and/or gender lives in a space outside of the norm, I ran to California's queer mecca via Greyhound bus, searching for a place to fit in with no specific address in mind. San Francisco was as far west as I could go without drowning in the Pacific Ocean, and I knew it was The Place where my kind of queer could untangle itself, figure out where it fit, and truly live for the first time.
I had been in the Bay Area for a little over a year when the news of Gwen Araujo's murder hit. The initial information was shocking to me; I took Gwen's murder personally and felt betrayed by the world for not doing it's job regarding tolerance. How could a 17-year-old trans woman from a town just 30 miles from San Francisco, America's queer holy land, be murdered and buried in a shallow grave by the side of the road by her supposed peers? And what was this "trans panic" defense? While 9/11 felt like a surreal horror flick due to the distance I lived from the east coast, the news of Gwen's murder shook me hard, popping the bubble of the perfect utopia I thought I had uncovered. I was naive and sheltered towards this kind of trans reality. I moved to California to embrace the differences in human (and my own) sexuality and gender, yet in turn had I closed my eyes from what queers and gender-variant people were going through in the rest of the world? I felt the sting of a war I thought I was safe from, and I can still remember the images: Gwen's face frozen in time with a purple hooded sweatshirt on, her bangs parted across her forehead. Sylvia Guerrero (Gwen's mom) sobbing at a news conference, never once crying because her child was transsexual but rather because she was mourning the loss of a daughter. The faces of the four young men who took Gwen's life, dressed in their finest khaki's and white button-down shirts, their hair overly gelled, strolling into court. Snap-shots of these faces greeted me daily from the cover of the local paper for months.
I became obsessed with Gwen Araujo's story, the details of her personal life before her death, quotes given to the newspaper from her school friends and mother, what her favorite creature was (the butterfly) or about how she chose her first name in honor of her favorite singer (Gwen Stefani). I tried to attend the arraignment of some of the murderers in the East Bay, to add to community visibility in support of Gwen. I took 3 buses to a small court house only to find out that they had to move it to another town and I had missed it. I carried little facts on Gwen around me with as if I actually knew her, talking about the murder and the "trans panic" defense/excuse, and reminding people what can happen when intolerance, transphobia and little boys masquerading as men who are threatened by what they don't understand, collide.
It's been a little over 9 years since Gwen Araujo's death. While we came from different backgrounds of transgender experience, the loss of Gwen and how it opened my eyes at that particular moment is a major reason why I feel such a strong connection to trans visibility in my art and everyday work. Even in cities with rich histories of queer and trans acceptance, even in the San Francisco Bay area, there are people who are deeply threatened and live with great intolerance. While I completely respect people who would rather not be vocal about their trans history or identity, I also feel that those who show a trans presence of some kind helps with tolerance, adds important perspective to the world, brings up conversations around disclosure and respect, and forces people to face and deal with the reasons why they might not "like" a person just because they don't understand them. Most importantly, it shows up for those who will follow in our footsteps, whether they want that kind of help or not. That is what Gwen Araujo taught me.
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Follow Amos Mac on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amosmacphotos
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amos-mac/gwen-araujo-death_b_1101132.html
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Friday, November 18, 2011
Comtel Air to passengers: Pay extra or we don't fly
Comtel Air flight, at a refueling stop in Vienna en route to England, demands passengers pay an extra $31,000 for fuel. Comtel Air insists it's not insolvent.
Airlines have already begun charging for food, drinks, seat assignments and baggage. Now one is demanding that passengers cough up extra cash on board for fuel.
Skip to next paragraphHundreds of passengers traveling from India to Britain were stranded for six hours in Vienna when their Comtel?Air flight stopped for fuel on Tuesday. The charter service asked them to kick in more than 20,000 pounds ($31,000) to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.
The situation may represent a new low in customer care in an era when flyers are seeing long lines, long waits and few perks.
Britain's Channel 4 news broadcast video showing a?Comtel?cabin crew member telling passengers: "We need some money to pay the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay."
Some passengers said they were sent off the plane to cash machines in Vienna to raise the money.
"We all got together, took our money out of purses ? 130 pounds ($205)," said Reena Rindi, who was aboard with her daughter. "Children under two went free, my little one went free because she's under two. If we didn't have the money, they were making us go one by one outside, in Vienna, to get the cash out."
Amarjit Duggal told the BBC she was flying from the Indian city of Amritsar on?Comtel?after scattering her mother's ashes. Her father, sister and uncle were still in Amritsar and did not know when they would be able to return home.
The situation was highly unusual in Europe, where airlines are tightly regulated, said Sue Ockwell, a crisis management expert at Travel PR.
"It's a bit like, well, boarding a train and saying that you can't go on because they've cut the electricity off because they haven't paid the bill," Ockwell said. "You just really don't expect it. This is patently not going to do that airline any good at all."
The passengers did eventually reach Birmingham, but many expressed anger.
"It is absolutely disgusting," said Dalvinder Batra, who is from the West Midlands. "There are still people stuck out there."
Bhupinder Kandra, the airline's majority shareholder, told the Associated Press from Vienna that travel agents had taken the passengers' money before the planes left but had not passed it on to the airline.
"This is not my problem," he said. "The problem is with the agents."
But Kandra insisted Thursday the company was still solvent.
"We have not run out of money," he said. "We have enough."
Late Thursday, the Civil Aviation Authority stepped in to protect passengers after a company that sold flights on?Comtel?Air went out of business. Astonbury Ltd., trading as Skyjet, ceased trading. The authority will ensure that passengers get home in the coming days.
A similar?Comtel?situation was taking place back in Amritsar. Some 180 passengers on another?Comtel?flight were told they would not be taking off until they come up with 10,000 rupees (about $200) each, Kandra told the BBC on Thursday.
It was not clear when that plane was supposed to have taken off. The passengers in Amritsar were not stuck on the plane or at the airport, according to British diplomats in India. Most were booking flights on other airlines to get to Britain.
Ockwell dismissed Kandra's explanations, saying it sounded like a bad credit issue.
"One really does wonder," she said.
Airport officials in Birmingham said Thursday that?Comtel's?flights this weekend had been canceled, but Kandra insisted all would be operating as normal.
Kate Hanni, the executive director of FlyersRights.org, a nonprofit advocacy group for airline passengers, said she would be anxious to see how government handled the situation ? and whether there would be punishment for the airline involved.
"I have never heard anything like that on a Greyhound ? and there is no rest stop in the sky," she said, referring to a North American bus company. "The airlines are only competing on the lowest fares. They have reduced customer service to an afterthought.
"There's plenty of absurdity in airline land," she said.
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Video: 6 in 60
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45322580#45322580
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Thursday, November 17, 2011
Pentagon spending cuts: Dangerous or just overdue? (AP)
WASHINGTON ? What are taxpayers supposed to think? The Pentagon says threatened budget cuts will invite aggression, endanger national security and devastate its operations.
Though that view has plenty of adherents, there also are plenty of naysayers who call the Defense Department's predictions a scare tactic by bureaucrats desperate to protect their turf.
"This is palpable nonsense ... the idea that somehow or another this is going to be Armageddon," said Lawrence Korb, a former assistant defense secretary who is a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
At issue is the Pentagon's effort to prevent $500 billion in automatic, across-the-board defense budget cuts over 10 years if a bipartisan congressional supercommittee can't agree by Nov. 23 on $1.2 trillion or more in deficit reductions over a decade.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned Congress that a half-trillion-dollar cut, on top of $450 billion in savings already planned by the military, "would be devastating for the department."
Korb disagrees.
"They're acting like good bureaucrats ... trying to protect their rice bowls," he said.
Added Christopher Preble of the libertarian Cato Institute, "The taxpayer should understand how much we spend on the military" and how much that spending has grown.
In the 10 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, annual budgets for the military have nearly doubled to close to $700 billion. The U.S. accounts for nearly half of the defense money spent around the world ? more than the next 17 nations combined. The U.S. naval fleet is as big as the next 13 navies combined, according to various analyses and some of the Pentagon's own accounting in recent years.
Though many believe the automatic cuts will never come to pass, here are some points and counterpoints in the debate over looming spending cuts:
? Panetta told senators in a letter this week that after a decade of the threatened cuts, the U.S. would have the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest number of ships since 1915 and the smallest Air Force ever.
But it's not about the numbers, according to Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Greater firepower and tonnage make today's naval fleet smaller but more powerful, he said.
Likewise, Korb suggests the U.S. could safely reduce the number of Navy aircraft carriers and Air Force fighters by 25 percent because the military can rely on unmanned planes and precision-guided munitions.
Defense officials have said the Army and Marines could be decreased by some 65,000 troops or more. Korb suggests cutting 100,000 troops to return to pre-Sept. 11 levels and slashing the nation's arsenal of nuclear weapons from 5,000 to 311.
? Panetta has used apocalyptic terms such as "doomsday," "hollow force" and "paper tiger" to describe damage the cuts would do and says the military would have to rethink its strategy on what missions it could handle in the future.
Harrison argues that's the way it should be.
"In an era of constrained resources you should adapt your strategy to fit within resource constraints," he said. "This is a good moment for rethinking the way we're engaging in the world," including ways allies can share more of the burden.
Preble agreed.
"Panetta says that we would have to recalibrate our national security strategy if the military's budget is cut," Preble said. "I certainly hope that is the case ? such a recalibration is long overdue."
? The Pentagon says the $500 billion in reductions would be in addition to $450 billion in savings already planned. Panetta told senators this week that would mean up to a 23 percent reduction in the first year alone in 2013.
But some analysts put the reduction variously at 14 percent, 17 percent or 18 percent over time. And some say drawdowns after World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War were deeper and faster or at least comparable.
The bottom line, Preble said, is that defense spending under an automatic-cut scenario would return the budget to about where it was in 2007 ? "hardly a lean year for the Pentagon."
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Appcelerator developers warm to Windows Phone, give BlackBerry the cold shoulder
Appcelerator developers warm to Windows Phone, give BlackBerry the cold shoulder originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/aLiAqHVntkI/
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