Monday 28 November 2011

Gaming Everything ? Blog Archive ? Sony's Smash Bros. competitor ...

November 26th, 2011 Posted in News, PS3 Posted By: Valay

Update: It appears that Molina has removed his Twitter account. Hmm?

Rumors have been swirling as of late that Sony will soon be unveiling a new fighting title that will see some similarities to Nintendo?s Smash Bros. franchise. In particular, it seems that characters from Sony?s various game franchises will be gathering for this upcoming project.

New content has been discovered that all but confirms this speculated title. Chris Molina, a senior level designer at SuperBot Entertainment, has posted the images above to his Twitter account and has left messages that essentially confirm its existence. One image even indicates that Kratos and Sweet Tooth will be making an appearance.

SuperBot has been the studio rumored to be working on the project.

Some of Molina?s more interesting tweets:

1.Our capture station and waiting area ? Parappa is a permanent resident http://twitpic.com/6a60jz

2.The character artist sitting a row ahead of mine is modeling polygonal female boobies. Carry on?

3.Our studio fighters getting their brawl on http://twitpic.com/6au76k

4.Racing to finish a level design doc for today?s review ? map layout is looking spiffy if I do say so myself.

5.Slam! Second level design pitch approved by our studio leads! Now onto Sony Santa Monica for a final green light.

6.In the middle of a skype video interview with a level design candidate from Osaka, Japan.

7.New Sony Playstation commercial vaguely foreshadowing our soon to be announced title ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature?&v=HBuK3EcY6vk

8.Checking out the original art assets from a Sony IP title we?re appropriating for my level ? very cool seeing this environment in raw form.

Announcement soon, then?

Source 1, Source 2

Source: http://gamingeverything.com/12186/sonys-smash-bros-competitor-all-but-confirmed-images-revealed/

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Afghan officials: Fire from Pakistan led to attack

Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces parked as authorities close border at Torkham border post in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)

Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces parked as authorities close border at Torkham border post in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)

A Pakistani border security guard stands alert as authorities close border down the Torkham border for NATO vehicles in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zubair)

Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces sit parked as authorities close the border at Torkham border in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf)

Pakistan army soldiers carry coffin of Saturday's NATO attack victims for funeral in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Afghanistan-bound containers carrying supplies for NATO forces parked as authorities close Chaman border in Pakistan on Sunday, Nov 27, 2011. Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Shah Khalid)

(AP) ? Afghanistan officials claimed Sunday that Afghan and NATO forces were retaliating for gunfire from two Pakistani army bases when they called in airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, adding a layer of complexity to an episode that has further strained Pakistan's ties with the United States.

The account challenged Pakistan's claim that the strikes were unprovoked.

The attack Saturday near the Afghan-Pakistani border aroused popular anger in Pakistan and added tension to the U.S.-Pakistani relationship, which has been under pressure since the secret U.S. raid inside Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

Pakistan has closed its western border to trucks delivering supplies to coalition troops in Afghanistan, demanded that the U.S. abandon an air base inside Pakistan and said it will review its cooperation with the U.S. and NATO.

A complete breakdown in the relationship between the United States and Pakistan is considered unlikely. Pakistan relies on billions of dollars in American aid, and the U.S. needs Pakistan to push Afghan insurgents to participate in peace talks.

Afghanistan's assertions about the attack muddy the efforts to determine what happened. The Afghan officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it was unclear who fired on Afghan and NATO forces, which were conducting a joint operation before dawn Saturday.

They said the fire came from the direction of the two Pakistani army posts along the border that were later hit in the airstrikes.

NATO has said it is investigating, but it has not questioned the Pakistani claim that 24 soldiers were killed. All airstrikes are approved at a higher command level than the troops on the ground.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen offered his deepest condolences and said the coalition was committed to working with Pakistan to "avoid such tragedies in the future."

"We have a joint interest in the fight against cross-border terrorism and in ensuring that Afghanistan does not once again become a safe-haven for terrorists," Rasmussen said in Brussels.

NATO officials 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 U.S. plans its own investigation. Two U.S. senators called Sunday for harder line on Pakistan.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said Pakistan must understand that American aid depends on Pakistani cooperation. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Pakistan's moves to punish coalition forces for the airstrikes are more evidence that the U.S. should get its troops out of the region.

On Sunday, Pakistani soldiers received the coffins of the victims from army helicopters and prayed over them. The coffins were draped with the green and white Pakistani flag.

The dead included an army major and another senior officer. The chief of the Pakistani army and regional political leaders attended the funerals.

"The attack was unprovoked and indiscriminate," said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. "There was no reason for it. Map references of all our border posts have been passed to NATO a number of times."

There were several protests around Pakistan, including in Karachi, where about 500 Islamists rallied outside the U.S. Consulate.

The relationship between the United States and Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation in a strategically vital part of the world, grew more difficult after the covert raid that killed bin Laden in May.

Pakistani leaders were outraged that they were not told beforehand. Also, the U.S. has been frustrated by Pakistan's refusal to target militants using its territory to stage attacks on American and other NATO troops in Afghanistan.

A year ago, a U.S. helicopter attack killed two Pakistani soldiers posted on the border, and a joint investigation by the two nations found that Pakistani troops had fired first at the U.S. helicopters.

The investigation found that the shots were probably meant as warnings after the choppers passed into Pakistani airspace.

After that incident, Pakistan closed one of the two border crossings for U.S. supplies for 10 days. There was no indication of how long it would keep the border closed this time.

On Sunday, about 300 trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan were backed up at the Torkham border crossing in the northwest Khyber tribal area, the one closed last year, as well as at Chaman, in the southwestern Baluchistan province.

Militants inside Pakistan periodically attack the slow-moving convoys, and torched 150 trucks last year as they waited for days to enter Afghanistan.

"We are worried," said Saeed Khan, a driver waiting at the border terminal in Torkham and speaking by phone. "This area is always vulnerable to attacks. Sometimes rockets are lobbed at us. Sometimes we are targeted by bombs."

Some drivers said paramilitary troops had been deployed to protect their convoys since the closures, but others were left without any additional protection. Even those who did receive troops did not feel safe.

"If there is an attack, what can five or six troops do?" said Niamatullah Khan, a fuel truck driver who was parked with 35 other vehicles at a restaurant about 125 miles, or 200 kilometers, from Chaman.

NATO uses routes through Pakistan for almost half of its shipments of non-lethal supplies for its troops in Afghanistan, including fuel, food and clothes. Critical supplies like ammunition are airlifted directly to Afghan air bases.

NATO has built a stockpile of military and other supplies that could keep operations running at their current level for several months even with the two crossings closed, said a NATO official closely involved with the Afghan war, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

NATO once shipped about 80 percent of its non-lethal supplies through Pakistan. It has reduced that proportion by going through Central Asia. It could send more that way, but that would make NATO heavily dependent on Russia at a time when ties with Moscow are increasingly strained.

Pakistan also gave the U.S. 15 days to vacate Shamsi Air Base in Baluchistan. The U.S. uses it to service drone aircraft targeting al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Pakistan's tribal region when weather problems or mechanical trouble keeps the drones from returning to their bases in Afghanistan, U.S. and Pakistani officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The drone strikes are very unpopular in Pakistan, and Pakistani military and civilian leaders say publicly that the U.S. carries them out without their permission. But privately, they allow them to go on, and even help with targeting for some of them.

___

Faiez reported from Kabul. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, Matiullah Achakzai in Chaman, Deb Riechmann in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-27-Pakistan/id-70f43263dd51439cbfbc755696872c37

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Mars life? New rover may uncover clues

For more than a decade, robotic probes sent to Mars have been searching for signs of past water, believed to be one of the key ingredients for life.

Now, NASA opens a new chapter in the search for extraterrestrial life with an ambitious mission to find life's habitats, and possibly even organics, on Mars.

"I'd be surprised if we landed on the surface (of Mars) and didn't find something that looked like it could have been a formerly habitable environment," said California Institute of Technology planetary scientist John Grotzinger, lead researcher for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory.

NEWS: Mars Rover Plutonium Triggers Launch Precautions

But what scientists really want to find is organic carbon ? molecules containing carbon that are derived from organic processes ? if indeed any has been preserved in the harsh Martian environment.

"It's a long shot, but we're going to try," Grotzinger told reporters during a pre-launch press conference.

It's been 35 years since NASA went looking for organics on Mars. Scientists didn't think the Viking lander twins, which touched down in 1976, found evidence of biological activity, though the results of one key experiment have been mired in controversy.

PHOTOS: When Discovery News Met Mars Rover 'Curiosity'

Mars Science Lab, nicknamed Curiosity, isn't a life-detection mission like Viking. Rather, it is intended to chemically analyze the landing site known as Gale Crater for habitats that could have supported life, or possibly still can.

WATCH VIDEO: New concepts for Mars-probing rovers would use Martian wind to move around the planet.

Curiosity follows three previous rovers ? Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity ? the lander Phoenix, and a fleet of orbiting probes that have focused on looking for signs of past water. The previous missions returned overwhelming evidence that Mars was once a warmer and wetter place and hints that the planet once sported an ocean, rivers and other bodies of water on its surface.

The question now is whether the water existed long enough for life to evolve and if there were other ingredients necessary for life, namely organic compounds, which are the building blocks for life on Earth.

ANALYSIS: New Mars Rover to Land at Gale Crater: Video

"One of the ingredients of life is water. We're now looking to see if we can find other conditions that are necessary for life by defining habitability or what does it take in the environment to support life," said Mary Voytek, director of NASA's astrobiology program.

The $2.5-billion rover is scheduled for launch at 10:02 a.m. EST Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Its 60-million mile journey is expected to end in August 2012, with a touchdown inside the 96-mile wide Gale Crater. The site features a three-mile-high mountain of sediment that will be the focus of Curiosity's studies for at least two years.

? 2011 Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45437842/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Obama turning to Biden for help in 3 key states

The Associated Press
By Julie Pace?

A year from Election Day, Democrats are crafting a campaign strategy for Vice President Joe Biden that targets the big three political battlegrounds: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, states where Biden might be more of an asset to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign than the president himself.

The Biden plan underscores an uncomfortable reality for the Obama team. A shaky economy and sagging enthusiasm among Democrats could shrink the electoral map for Obama in 2012, forcing his campaign to depend on carrying the 67 electoral votes up for grabs in the three swing states.

Obama won all three states in 2008. But this time he faces challenges in each, particularly in Ohio and Florida, where voters elected Republican governors in the 2010 midterm elections.

The president sometimes struggles to connect with Ohio and Pennsylvania's white working-class voters, and with Jewish voters who make up a core constituency for Florida Democrats and view him with skepticism.

Biden has built deep ties to both groups during his four decades in national politics, connections that could make a difference.

As a long-serving member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden cemented his reputation as an unyielding supporter of Israel, winning the respect of many in the Jewish community. And Biden's upbringing in a working class, Catholic family from Scranton, Pa., gives him a valuable political intangible: He empathizes with the struggles of blue-collar Americans because his family lived those struggles.

"Talking to blue-collar voters is perhaps his greatest attribute," said Dan Schnur, a Republican political analyst. "Obama provides the speeches, and Biden provides the blue-collar subtitles."

While Biden's campaign travel won't kick into high gear until next year, he's already been making stops in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida this fall, speaking at events focused on education, public safety and small businesses and raising campaign cash. Behind the scenes, he's working the phones with prominent Jewish groups and Catholic organizations in those states, a Democratic official said.

Biden is also targeting organized labor, speaking frequently with union leaders in Ohio ahead of a vote earlier this month on a state law that would have curbed collective bargaining rights for public workers. After voters struck down the measure, Biden traveled to Cleveland to celebrate the victory with union members.

The Democratic official said the vice president will also be a frequent visitor to Iowa and New Hampshire in the coming weeks, seeking to steal some of the spotlight from the Republican presidential candidates blanketing those states ahead of the January caucus and primary.

And while Obama may have declared that he won't be commenting on the Republican presidential field until there's a nominee, Biden is following no such rules. He's calling out GOP candidates by name, and in true Biden style, he appears to be relishing in doing so.

During a speech last month to the Florida Democratic Convention, Biden singled out "Romney and Rick", criticizing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for saying the government should let the foreclosure crisis hit rock bottom, and hammering Texas Gov. Rick Perry's assertion that he would send U.S. troops into Mexico.

And he took on the full GOP field during an October fundraiser in New Hampshire, saying "There is no fundamental difference among all the Republican candidates."

Democratic officials said Biden will follow in the long-standing tradition of vice presidents playing the role of attack dog, allowing Obama to stay out of the fray and appear more focused on governing than campaigning.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal strategy. The Obama campaign has been reluctant to publically define Biden's role in the re-election bid this early in the run, though campaign manager Jim Messina did say the vice president would deliver an economic message to appeal for support.

"You'll see him in communities across the country next year laying out the choice we face: restoring economic security for the middle class or returning to the same policies that led to our economic challenges," Messina said.

Democrats say Biden will campaign for House candidates in swing states as the party tries to recapture some of the seats in Congress lost during the 2010 midterms.

And here again, the vice president's efforts in politically crucial Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida could be most important. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting 12 districts in those states that Obama and Biden carried in the 2008 presidential race but are represented by Republican representatives.

New York Rep. Steve Israel, who chairs the committee, said he believes Biden could be a "game-changer" in those districts.

"All he has to do is ask voters, has the Republican strategy of no worked for you?" Israel said.

Israel met with Obama and Biden at the White House earlier this month to discuss, among other things, their role in congressional campaigns. While Israel said he hopes Obama will actively campaign for Democratic House candidates, he said "the vice president has already volunteered."

Source: http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/26/9035894-obama-turning-to-biden-for-help-in-3-key-states

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Saturday 26 November 2011

Scientists turn on fountain of youth in yeast

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2011) ? Collaborations between Johns Hopkins and National Taiwan University researchers have successfully manipulated the life span of common, single-celled yeast organisms by figuring out how to remove and restore protein functions related to yeast aging.

A chemical variation of a "fuel-gauge" enzyme that senses energy in yeast acts like a life span clock: It is present in young organisms and progressively diminished as yeast cells age.

In a report in the September 16 edition of Cell, the scientists describe their identification of a new level of regulation of this age-related protein variant, showing that when they remove it, the organism's life span is cut short and when they restore it, life span is dramatically extended.

In the case of yeast, the discovery reveals molecular components of an aging pathway that appears related to one that regulates longevity and lifespan in humans, according to Jef Boeke, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology, genetics and oncology, and director of the HiT Center and Technology Center for Networks and Pathways, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

"This control of longevity is independent of the type described previously in yeast which had to do with calorie restriction," Boeke says. "We believe that for the first time, we have a biochemical route to youth and aging that has nothing to do with diet." The chemical variation, known as acetylation because it adds an acetyl group to an existing molecule, is a kind of "decoration" that goes on and off a protein -- in this case, the protein Sip2 -- much like an ornament can be put on and taken off a Christmas tree, Boeke says. Acetylation can profoundly change protein function in order to help an organism or system adapt quickly to its environment. Until now, acetylation had not been directly implicated in the aging pathway, so this is an all-new role and potential target for prevention or treatment strategies, the researchers say.

The team showed that acetylation of the protein Sip2 affected longevity defined in terms of how many times a yeast cell can divide, or "replicative life span." The normal replicative lifespan in natural yeast is 25. In the yeast genetically modified by researchers to restore the chemical modification, life span extended to 38, an increase of about 50 percent.

The researchers were able to manipulate the yeast life span by mutating certain chemical residues to mimic the acetylated and deacetylated forms of the protein Sip2. They worked with live yeast in a dish, measuring and comparing the life spans of natural and genetically altered types by removing buds from the yeast every 90 minutes. The average lifespan in normal yeast is about 25 generations, which meant the researchers removed 25 newly budded cells from the mother yeast cell. As yeast cells age, each new generation takes longer to develop, so each round of the experiment lasted two to four weeks.

"We performed anti-aging therapy on yeast," says the study's first author, Jin-Ying Lu, M.D., Ph.D., of National Taiwan University. "When we give back this protein acetylation, we rescued the life span shortening in old cells. Our next task is to prove that this phenomenon also happens in mammalian cells."

The research was supported by the National Science Council, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University, Liver Disease Prevention & Treatment Research Foundation of Taiwan, and the NIH Common Fund.

Authors on the paper, in addition to Boeke and Lu, are Yu-Yi Lin, Jin-Chuan Sheu, June-Tai Wu, Fang-Jen Lee, Min-I Lin, Fu-Tien Chian, Tong-Yuan Tai, Keh-Sung Tsai, and Lee-Ming Chuang, all of National Taiwan University; Yue Chen and Yinming Zhao, both of the University of Chicago; and Shelley L. Berger, Wistar Institute.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Jin-Ying Lu, Yu-Yi Lin, Jin-Chuan Sheu, June-Tai Wu, Fang-Jen Lee, Yue Chen, Min-I Lin, Fu-Tien Chiang, Tong-Yuan Tai, Shelley?L. Berger, Yingming Zhao, Keh-Sung Tsai, Heng Zhu, Lee-Ming Chuang, Jef?D. Boeke. Acetylation of Yeast AMPK Controls Intrinsic Aging Independently of Caloric Restriction. Cell, 2011; 146 (6): 969 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.07.044

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111123190408.htm

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Thousands rally in Egypt on "last chance Friday" (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to military rule packed Cairo's Tahrir square on Friday in the biggest turnout of a week of protests and violence that has killed 41 people.

The military rulers named a veteran former prime minister to head a new civilian cabinet, but that did little to appease the demonstrators who poured scorn on a name from the past.

The United States, long a bedrock supporter of Egypt's military, called on the generals to step aside "as soon as possible" and give real power to the new cabinet "immediately."

Protesters accuse the military of clinging to power since it took over when an uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak on February 11. The past week of street battles between demonstrators and police have looked like a replay of February's unrest.

Kamal Ganzouri, named by the ruling army council to head a national salvation cabinet, said his powers were stronger than those given to previous prime ministers, but gave no details.

"I have asked the Field Marshal to give me a little time so I can form a cabinet that will satisfy the entire people," the veteran economist told a news conference, referring to army chief Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

He said the new government would not be announced before Monday, the date set for Egypt's first free parliamentary election in decades, which could be overshadowed if the violence of the past week continues.

Ganzouri, 78, served as prime minister under Mubarak from 1996 to 1999. He was appointed after Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet resigned this week amid the protests.

Protesters responded angrily to the naming of a Mubarak-era veteran. After his appointment was confirmed, crowds in Tahrir chanted in derision: "They brought a thief and appointed another thief," referring to Sharaf and Ganzouri.

Hundreds of protesters shouted "Ganzouri, we don't want you" outside the cabinet offices in central Cairo.

The military rulers have promised a faster transfer of power to a civilian president, now due to be elected in June, and say the parliamentary elections will go ahead as planned.

BATTLE ZONES

Until a truce calmed violence on Thursday, streets around Tahrir had become battle zones with stone-throwing protesters fighting police firing tear gas, pellets and rubber bullets, a repeat of the scenes that forced Mubarak from office.

Protesters called for a million-man march on what they dubbed "the Friday of the last chance." A steady stream of men, women and children surged into Tahrir before weekly Muslim prayers, often the day of the biggest demonstrations of this year's "Arab Spring" uprisings across the region.

Some, like Atef Sayed, 45, with his wife and two daughters, were protesting for the very first time.

"We're here to back the idea that the military council hands responsibility to civilians and focuses on military affairs. Nine months have gone by with many things that have happened in a way opposite to what the revolutionaries wanted," he said.

But enthusiasm for the protests was not universal.

About 5,000 people waving Egyptian flags demonstrated in favor of the military rulers in Cairo's Abbassiya district.

"The people want the emptying of the square," shouted the demonstrators, watched by hundreds of people on flyover bridges. A banner read: "Egypt will not be governed from Tahrir square."

Activists who tried to organize a march to Tahrir from a mosque in the capital's Shubra neighborhood were rebuffed.

"The army council will leave in six months. We have elections in three days. What do these people want?" asked one worshipper angrily. "They are hired to start trouble."

In its strongest statement on Egypt's turmoil so far, the White House stepped up pressure on the military rulers to speed up the handover to civilian control.

"Full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

"The United States strongly believes that the new Egyptian government must be empowered with real authority immediately."

FRUSTRATION WITH ARMY

The army, once hailed for its role in easing Mubarak from power, has come under increasing fire for dragging out a handover to civilian rule, even as Egypt's economy falters.

Many protesters say they do not trust the army to oversee a fair election next week.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which along with some other groups accepted army plans for a faster transition, wants the election to go ahead, drawing scorn from some protesters who say the Brotherhood is focused only on gaining seats in parliament.

The Brotherhood organized a protest last Friday against army efforts to shape a new constitution, but left Tahrir as protests widened. It held a separate rally this Friday at al-Azhar mosque for the "liberation" of Jerusalem from Israeli control.

The Health Ministry said 41 people have died in the week's violence, state television reported. More than 2,000 people were also wounded in the unrest in Cairo and several other cities.

The latest upheaval makes it even harder to dig the economy out of a crisis whose first victims are the millions of poor Egyptians whose frustration spurred the revolt against Mubarak.

Egypt's central bank unexpectedly raised interest rates on Thursday for the first time in more than two years, after depleting its foreign reserves trying to defend a currency weakened by the political chaos.

In fresh blows to confidence, the Egyptian pound weakened to more than six to the dollar for the first time since January 2005, and Standard & Poor's cut Egypt's credit rating.

The economic woes may argue in favor of Ganzouri, whose government virtually balanced the budget, cut inflation, held the exchange rate stable and maintained healthy foreign currency reserves during his time in office from 1996 to 1999.

He introduced some economic liberalization measures and many Egyptians viewed him as an official who was not tainted by corruption. But his record serving under Mubarak could stir opposition from those demanding a clean break with the past.

Some Facebook activists derided the choice of a Mubarak-era man to steer the country into a new era, listing four ancient pharaohs as useful alternatives if Ganzouri turns the job down.

"Tutankhamun is more suitable because he is from the youth," one said, referring to the boy king of ancient Egypt.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed, Tamim Elyan, Dina Zayed and Ashraf Fahim; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/wl_nm/us_egypt_protests

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Delta adds real-time bag tracking for holiday travelers (Digital Trends)

delta-bags

Added within a recent update to Delta?s mobile application available for iPhone, Android and Windows phone owners, air travelers now have the ability to watch the progress of checked bags before, during and after the flight. After the Delta customer launches the application on a smartphone, they select ?Track My Bags? and enter either the bag tag number or the file reference number into the screen. After entering a last name as well, the app displays for the current location of the bag as well as previous areas that the bag passed though. Assuming the smartphone has a camera, the user can also scan the barcode included on the ticket supplied by Delta when checking the bag.

luggage-caroselThe details provided by the application are very similar to information that a Fedex or UPS customer can pull up to track a package. The bag is scanned when dropped off in addition to when it?s being loaded on the plane. When the bag is scanned at the destination, the application also provides the claim area location where the customer will be able to locate the luggage. When accessing the application on the plane, customers will be able to use the app, in addition to the official Delta site, without having to pay for?Gogo in-flight Internet service. BlackBerry owners are going to have to wait until early 2012 to get access to the same feature as Delta hasn?t completed work on the BlackBerry version of the application yet.

While tracking bags is a great feature for air travel, Delta does charge the majority of the customers for checked bags. When traveling within the United States or Canada, economy travelers have to pay $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second. However, first class and business class travelers can check up to three bags for free.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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The Android-iPhone battle, mapped state by state

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111124/tc_digitaltrends/deltaaddsrealtimebagtrackingforholidaytravelers

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Friday 25 November 2011

European shares fall on Merkel comments (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? European shares fell for the sixth consecutive session in low volume on Thursday after German Chancellor Angela Merkel restated her position against changing the role of the European Central Bank to ease the euro zone debt crisis.

The market trimmed gains after the comments by Merkel about the ECB as well as remarks that she remained opposed to the use of jointly issued euro bonds to combat the region's debt crisis.

"The comments about the ECB were a clear message to the market not to expect anything in the short-term," Veronika Pechlaner, a fund manager on the Ashburton European equity fund, said.

"The market is looking toward the ECB as it only has the firepower necessary to help the situation. The question is how much systemic risk do you get before something is done."

Banks (.SX7P), which have been in focus due to their exposure to the region's sovereign debt, pared earlier gains.

But after a sell-off of 10 percent over the past five days many banking stocks were in "oversold" territory after the (.SX7P) Relative Strength Index (RSI) came close to 30 on Wednesday and technical factors kept the (.SX7P) up 1 percent.

The RSI is a technical momentum indicator comparing the magnitude of recent rises with recent falls to determine "oversold" or "overbought" conditions. A reading of 30 or below is considered "oversold," while 70 and above is "overbought."

The main mover in the banking sector was Belgian lender Dexia (DEXI.BR), up 27.9 percent, after a French Finance Ministry source said an agreement to guarantee the troubled bank's financing would be reached within days.

Dexia's RSI fell into oversold territory at the beginning of October and is down 65.9 percent since October 4 after it emerged it would need state aid from France and Belgium.

On Wednesday Dexia's RSI was at 22.8, but had risen to 34.8 on Thursday.

Portuguese banks featured heavily on the downside in the banking sector after Fitch downgraded Portugal's credit rating to junk status because of its large fiscal imbalances, high debt and concerns about its austerity programme.

A Reuters poll showed that economists have slashed growth forecasts for the periphery countries from next year and 2013 and expect it will be years before the debt ridden countries recover from the crisis.

Portugal's PSI 20 (.PSI20) was down 0.9 percent underperforming the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index of top shares which closed down 0.3 percent at 899.50 points in choppy trade, having been up as much as 913.13 and down as low as 894.37.

Volume on the FTSEurofirst 300 index was low at 76.8 percent of its 90-day daily average due to a public holiday in the United States.

FUND MANAGERS CAUTIOUS

Fund managers were wary about investing in banks because they were "oversold."

"Banks are not investable in the euro zone at the moment. Clearly there are people trading the banks shares, but there is no clarity on the quality of the balance sheets," David Coombs, fund manager at Rathbone Brothers, which has $24.2 billion under management, said.

(Reporting by Joanne Frearson, Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/bs_nm/us_markets_europe_stocks

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Rob Kardashian Receives Perfect Score For Freestyle Dance (VIDEO)

Rob Kardashian Receives Perfect Score For Freestyle Dance (VIDEO)

Rob Kardashian rocked “Dancing with the Stars” last night, emerging as the frontrunner to win in the finale show tonight! Kardashian lifted and twirled his [...]

Rob Kardashian Receives Perfect Score For Freestyle Dance (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2011/11/22/rob-kardashian-receives-perfect-score-for-freestyle-dance-video/

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Thursday 24 November 2011

RI reaches agreement on Central Falls contracts (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/165617673?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Just Show Me: 3 great travel apps for your Android phone (Yahoo! News)

Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you how to?use three great travel apps for your?Android phone.

Embarking on a cross country trek this holiday season? Don't leave home without these travel apps! They'll make your traveling experience much easier.

  • TripIt
  • WeatherBug
  • Yelp!

And while you're out traveling, changes are you'll be doing some?holiday shopping.?Check out our guide to?2011's Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to make sure you're not paying a penny more than you should be.
For more episodes of Just Show Me,?subscribe to Tecca TV's YouTube channel and?check out all our Just Show Me episodes. If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.

This article originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

  • 27 amazing historical travel images more than a century old
  • 5 great portable travel speakers
  • Travel Tech: How to plan a road trip in 10 easy steps

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111123/tc_yblog_technews/just-show-me-3-great-travel-apps-for-your-android-phone

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Gunman barricaded in building at Colorado air base (AP)

SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. ? An airman armed with a pistol barricaded himself in a building at an Air Force base in Colorado that controls all GPS satellites, but operations haven't been disrupted, officials said Monday.

The building was evacuated, and no shots were fired and no one was injured, said Schriever Air Force Base spokeswoman Jennifer Thibault.

A negotiator and a SWAT team from the El Paso County Sheriff's Department were on scene at the Air Force's request, said Air Force Lt. Marie Denson.

Thibault said the airman is a member of a security squadron and is armed with his own handgun. Officials were investigating how he got the weapon past security and onto the base.

The airman is in a building where personnel prepare for deployments, Thibault said.

Control rooms for GPS and other military satellites are in a separate, heavily protected inner compound surrounded by fences and staffed with armed guards.

The gunman faces a discharge over a matter in civilian court, but no other details were available, Denson said. He is still classified as being on active duty, she said.

The airman's name, rank and service history weren't immediately released.

The base about 60 miles south of Denver controls more than 60 military satellites.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_us/us_colorado_air_base_gunman

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Wednesday 23 November 2011

Thanksgiving dinner: Why is it more expensive?

The cost of a Thanksgiving turkey is up $3.91 cents over last year. Overall, a Thanksgiving dinner is up 13 percent since last Thanksgiving.

Faced with rising food prices, shoppers may feel the pinch as they pick up their holiday staples at the supermarket. The cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, including all the basic trimmings, has increased by about 13 percent since last year, according to an annual price survey.

Skip to next paragraph

The average cost of this year's Thanksgiving meal for 10 people is $49.20, which is a $5.73 price increase from the average of $43.47 in 2010, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) annual informal survey.

For the survey, AFBF researchers asked 141 volunteer? shoppers from 35 U.S. states to look for the best possible prices when shopping for items from a set menu, which has remained unchanged since 1986. To accurately gauge price trends around the nation, researchers asked the shoppers to refrain from using special promotional coupons or purchase deals, such as spending $50 at a store and receiving a free turkey.

The survey's "classic dinner" consists of a 16-pound turkey (which showed a $3.91 price increase from 2010), pumpkin pie mix (41-cent increase), pie shells (-cent increase), whipped cream (26-cent increase), stuffing (24-cent increase), package of rolls (18-cent increase), sweet potatoes (7-cent increase), cranberries (7-cent increase), green peas (24-cent increase) and a gallon of milk (42-cent increase).

Turkey ? that Thanksgiving necessity ? was the priciest item on the menu, coming in at $21.57 this year, compared with $17.66 in 2010. That's an increase of about 25 cents per pound, making the bird the biggest contributor to the final cost of the meal and the one item on the menu to experience the largest price increase in 2011.

"Turkey prices are higher this year primarily due to strong consumer demand both here in the U.S. and globally," John Anderson, an AFBF senior economist, said in a statement. [Infographic: Rising Thanksgiving Costs]

The only two items to show a price dip: A 1-pound relish tray?of carrots and celery dropped by 1 cent, while a group of "miscellaneous ingredients" necessary to prepare the meal, including eggs, sugar, flour, evaporated milk and butter, decreased by 12 cents.

"Although we'll pay a bit more this year, on a per-person basis, our traditional Thanksgiving feast remains a better value than most fast-food value meals, plus it's a wholesome, home-cooked meal," Anderson said.

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

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/iyrUK_p8tak/Thanksgiving-dinner-Why-is-it-more-expensive

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Deadline for flood insurance claims | insurance, flood, claims - News ...

The deadline for submitting Proof of Loss for North Carolina flood insurance claims from Irene was extended an additional 30 days.

Hurricane Irene survivors with flood insurance claims in North Carolina have until Wednesday Nov. 23 to file Proof of Loss with the insurance company that issued them a National Flood Insurance Program Standard Flood Insurance Policy, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency release.

Proof of Loss, which must be signed and sworn to, must include a detailed estimate and other supporting documentation to replace or repair the flood-damaged property. Survivors with questions or concerns about flood insurance claims may call a toll-free hotline for help at 855-336-2002.

NFIP advises policy holders to ensure that their signed and sworn Proof of Loss, with supporting documentation, is received in the insurance carrier?s office by Wednesday Nov. 23, to avoid missing the deadline. Submitting the Proof of Loss to an insurance agent instead of the insurance company, or putting it in the mail on the deadline, will not meet the Proof of Loss requirement, the release states.

At the time Hurricane Irene struck Aug. 27, there were 113,784 NFIP policies in effect in the 38 counties designated in the disaster declaration. As of Nov. 1, the National Flood Insurance Program reported 9,000 claims had been filed. The program is administered by FEMA, working with insurance companies.

A Flood Insurance Claims Handbook (FEMA Publication F-687) explains the process of filing and appealing claims. It is available online at floodsmart.gov/toolkits/flood/downloads/NFIP-FloodInsuranceClaimsHandbook.pdf.

After the Proof of Loss is submitted, if the property owner notices additional damage the owner may file a supplemental Proof of Loss, documenting the newly discovered damage, as long as it is within the 90-day time period allowed by the extension granted by FEMA. If new damages are discovered and a claim for additional damages is presented after the 90 days, the insured must request a waiver of the time limitation from FEMA in order to submit the claim, the release states.

If a property owner disagrees with the insurance company?s final determination of the claim, the owner may appeal. The owner should:

Talk with the adjuster.

If not satisfied, talk with the adjuster?s supervisor.

If still not satisfied, contact the insurance company?s claim representative.

After taking those steps, the owner may contact FEMA by writing at Federal Emergency Management Agency; Mitigation Directorate ? Federal Insurance Administrator, 1800 South Bell St. Arlington, VA 20598-3010

Those who have sustained disaster-related damage should register with FEMA. The deadline for registration is Nov. 30. There are three ways to register with FEMA:

Call 800-621-3362. Help is available in most languages. People who have a speech disability or are deaf or hard of hearing may call (TTY) 800-462-7585; register online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov; register using a tablet or smartphone by visiting m.fema.gov

Source: http://www.jdnews.com/news/insurance-97646-flood-claims.html

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Tuesday 22 November 2011

Jenny McCarthy Looking For Love On The Internet

On Sunday at the American Music Awards, Jenny McCarthy commented that her next search for love could come from an online dating site like Match.com. Jenny who once was Miss October in 1993 for Playboy also once dated actor Jim Carrey. Jenny expressed that her online profile would not be obvious and would not reveal personal data so that it could be easily identified. One clue for McCarthy’s profile is that she did check on the site that she is interested in men between 35 to 48 years old. In the past, Jenny has expressed that she just can’t find the right man in Los Angeles. What is Jenny’s dream man like? Well first of all he must be sweet, must have a job so that he can buy dinners etc., she doesn’t care if he is bald or has a big nose, he doesn’t have to be famous. In fact, Jenny prefers if they are not famous. She believes that it is harder if two people are famous to maintain a relationship under a microscope. Recently, Jenny commented on the break up of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. She wished them luck and said they are both really sweet [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/q4EtskxNyMg/

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Netflix to sell convertible debt, shares fall (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Netflix Inc said late on Monday that it agreed to sell $200 million of convertible debt to long-time backer Technology Crossover Ventures as the struggling online video rental company tries to raise new capital.

The zero-coupon notes, due in 2018, convert to Netflix common stock at a price of about $85.80 per share.

The deal requires Netflix to raise at least $200 million selling common stock to other, unaffiliated investors, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shares of Netflix fell 2.5 percent to $70.61 in extended trade as investors prepared to be diluted by new stock that may hit the market.

Netflix, which had $159.2 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of September, has lost about two-thirds of its market value since the company's shares touched a high of almost $300 in July.

The company has struggled to renegotiate video content deals. It has also lost subscribers and warned of a first-quarter loss.

TCV, a leading venture capital firm, has been an investor in Netflix for many years. TCV co-founder Jay Hoag is on Netflix's board.

TCV also has investments in Groupon, Facebook and Electronic Arts.

(Reporting by Himank Sharma in Bangalore and Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111121/tc_nm/us_netflix

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Monday 21 November 2011

Rumor: Potential details on 2012 iPad 3, iPhone 5

iLounge claims their most solid of sources has given them details about the next generation iPad 3, iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple ends up calling it) and MacBooks for 2012. Highlights include: Thicker, higher res display iPad for spring. 4-inch screen, aluminum-backed, non-tear-drop shaped iPhone for summer. Thinner MacBooks...


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/k6EMBYfqeXo/story01.htm

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Sunday 20 November 2011

Balloonatics Prepare For Thanksgiving Day Parade

With the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade less than a week away, it's crunch time for the balloon technicians. Science Friday goes behind the scenes at Macy's design studio to find out about the final preparations for the parade.

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

Joining me now is our multimedia editor, Flora Lichtman, with our Video Pick of the Week. And it's very seasonal, is it not?

FLORA LICHTMAN, BYLINE: Yeah. It's time to lighten up as usual with pick of the week. But this time, even more than usual. We are headed to the Macy's design studio to get a look at those balloons that they use in the parade every year.

FLATOW: How they design them.

LICHTMAN: How they design them. And actually, right now, it's crunch time for the balloonatics there. And it's - I didn't even come up - I wish I came up with that word.

FLATOW: It's a great word, great word.

LICHTMAN: They called themselves that.

FLATOW: Balloonatics.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

LICHTMAN: Yeah. I love it. And so they're doing sort of the final checkup on all these balloons before they go out for their big day. So we saw puff the - one of the new balloons, Julius, which is a monkey, blown up in the studio. It's really, you know, this is something that I remember watching a parade on TV, as a kid, every Thanksgiving. And so to see them now up close, they're really tremendously large.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: And I saw - while watching the Video Pick of the Week - it's up there - watching them how they blow this up and how they've test them, it's how talkative these guys are, right? The...

LICHTMAN: The balloonatics...

FLATOW: Yeah, the...

LICHTMAN: ...not the balloons? Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

LICHTMAN: Yeah. I know. It was a really fun visit. So they - well, they told us a few things. They shared some secrets about how they make the balloons. So the balloons are actually divided into different compartments. And one of the advantages there is that if you, you know, nick it, oops...

FLATOW: Oops.

LICHTMAN: ...the whole thing doesn't come down. You just deflate like a hand or an arm.

FLATOW: Good thing.

LICHTMAN: So that's a good idea. And then, the other thing is that the major thing for the people working on inflation is getting the skin to the right amount of smoothness - called skin stress.

FLATOW: Good. Of course.

LICHTMAN: And so there's a very technical test for that. You thump on the balloon and it makes this sort of like boing blimp sounds.

FLATOW: Like thumping a watermelon.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

LICHTMAN: Yeah. Exactly. Same idea.

FLATOW: Same idea.

LICHTMAN: So all the inflation people are trained to listen for that ring. So it was sort of a neat thing. But one of my favorite parts about this was talking about what it's like on the day of the parade. And just to give you a sense of what it's like, Jim Artle had this to say.

(SOUNDBITE OF INTERVIEW)

JIM ARTLE, BALLOONATIC, MACY'S: When the sun starts coming up and you can see the floats in all their glory and they sparkle and balloons majestically sitting under their nets. When I start to launch the balloons in the morning, I take off at a dead run with this huge grin on my face. And I don't stop until I'm all the way back down to the end of the parade landing the balloons and putting them all the way. Everyone of us is like that.

FLATOW: Jim Artle has been there for 31 years.

Wow. He's seen a lot of hot - a lot of helium.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

LICHTMAN: A lot of helium. And actually, he has a very special trick that I'm going to look for when I watch the parade this year, which is that, as we know, Charles' law says that when you heat up a gas, it expands...

FLATOW: Right.

LICHTMAN: ...right? So as these balloons are going down the path, they're losing a little bit of helium little by little by little. So they get - by the end, there's a little bit sag here, it sounds like. So right before their glamour shot in front of the national cameras, Artle will park the balloon in between an across street. So the sun is shining down on it, which will puff it up so that it looks bright and fresh for the cameras.

FLATOW: Ready for its close up...

LICHTMAN: Exactly.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: ...as they say. And it's our Video Pick of the Week. It's - see the balloonatics up there on our website, @sciencefriday.com. It's a beautiful piece, beautifully done by Flora, went out there and watch...

LICHTMAN: And Christopher Intagliata too.

FLATOW: Christopher was out there. And go to our website, @sciencefriday.com and see that video pick. That's something new to watch for on the parade.

LICHTMAN: Absolutely.

FLATOW: All right. Thank you, Flora.

LICHTMAN: Thanks, Ira.

FLATOW: That's about all the time we have for today.

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/18/142512094/balloonatics-prepare-for-thanksgiving-day-parade?ft=1&f=1007

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Congress about to kill high-speed train program (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Congress voted Thursday to kill funds for President Barack Obama's signature high-speed rail program, but the initiative may have some life in it still.

Republican lawmakers are claiming credit for killing the program. But billions of dollars still in the pipeline will ensure work will continue on some projects. And it's still possible money from another transportation grant program can be steered to high-speed trains.

Obama had requested $8 billion in fiscal 2012 for the program and $53 billion over six years.

But House-Senate bargainers this week agreed to a broad spending bill that eliminates any funding specifically for high-speed trains. The House approved that legislation Thursday 298-121 and the Senate followed suit 70-30, sending the measure to the White House.

Republicans have made it clear since taking control of the House last year that they intended to eliminate the program, which they say is too costly.

The bill marks "an end to the president's misguided high-speed rail program, but it is not the end of American high-speed rail," said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's railroad subcommittee.

Shuster and the Transportation Committee's chairman, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., say the future of high-speed rail in the U.S. is in the Northeast rail corridor, which connects Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, rather than the national network of trains envisioned by Obama.

"We are being given a chance to refocus and reform the high-speed rail program," Shuster said.

But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., an Obama ally and high-speed rail supporter, said he is confident some money will be found to keep Obama's train program going through the Transportation Department's TIGER program, which makes grants to projects that achieve critical national objectives.

The 2012 spending bill includes $500 million for the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program. High-speed trains would have to compete with highway, transit, port and freight rail projects for money.

Since Obama took office in 2009, his administration has steered $10.1 billion to high-speed rail projects around the country. Some of the money is only now being used because of the time it takes to start up a major grant program and because the program suffered setbacks when several GOP governors canceled projects in their states that had been awarded funds.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday that he expects more than $1 billion in high-speed rail construction-related activity across the country next year.

The biggest project is in California, where the state is proposing Europe-style bullet trains traveling up to 220 mph between San Francisco and Anaheim. Planners hope to start construction of the first phase, from Fresno to Bakersfield, next year and complete it by 2017.

The project has been awarded $3.9 billion in federal aid so far. California voters also authorized $9 billion in bonds for high-speed trains in 2008. But at that time the project was forecast to cost $45 billion and be completed by 2020.

A new estimate and schedule released this month pegged the cost at just under $100 billion and pushed completion to 2034. One reason for the cost increase is that it takes into account inflation over that period. But the price tag has strengthened the position of the project's opponents.

"What's frustrating about Congress passing no new funding this year is that it adds uncertainty to federal funding," said Petra Todorovich, director of America 2050, an urban planning and infrastructure advocacy group. "That isn't helpful to projects like California that rely on a certain amount of federal funding."

The first phase of the California project is already funded.

"Some time in the next few years they will need Congress to vote for more money for rail, but it doesn't kill the project that Congress zeroed out funding this year," Todorovich said.

Mort Downey, the No. 2 Transportation Department official under President Bill Clinton and a former Obama campaign adviser, said Obama's high-speed rail plans depend on the California project.

"If California continues to go forward, we're still on life support," Downey said.

Anthony Perl, chairman of the Transportation Research Board's rail group, said that even if Obama's program collapses, it's "still highly likely" a national high-speed rail network will be built in coming decades, partly because the price of oil is expected to continue to increase.

"There is nothing that uses less oil moving people than trains," Perl said. "Cheap oil equals more cars and planes; expensive oil equals trains."

California transportation officials estimate that if high-speed train service doesn't go forward, the state will need to spend $171 billion to construct more than 2,300 miles of freeways, four more airport runways and 115 additional airline gates to accommodate the travel demands of the state's population of 54 million people by 2050.

____

Follow Joan Lowy at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

____

Online:

Transportation Department: http://www.dot.gov

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_go_co/us_high_speed_trains

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Saturday 19 November 2011

NCAA taking up Penn State scandal

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2011, file photo, NCAA president Mark Emmert speaks about policy changes being considered by the NCAA during the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics meeting in Washington. Penn State released a letter Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, from NCAA president Mark Emmert to Penn State president Rod Erickson saying that the governing body for college sports will examine "Penn State's exercise of institutional control over its intercollegiate athletics programs" in the case of Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator for the NCAA college football team accused of serial child sex abuse. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2011, file photo, NCAA president Mark Emmert speaks about policy changes being considered by the NCAA during the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics meeting in Washington. Penn State released a letter Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, from NCAA president Mark Emmert to Penn State president Rod Erickson saying that the governing body for college sports will examine "Penn State's exercise of institutional control over its intercollegiate athletics programs" in the case of Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator for the NCAA college football team accused of serial child sex abuse. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

(AP) ? The NCAA will examine whether Penn State broke any rules with its handling of a child sex abuse scandal that has shocked the campus and cost the school's former president and coach Joe Paterno their jobs.

NCAA president Mark Emmert sent a letter to Penn State president Rod Erickson saying that the governing body for college sports will look at "Penn State's exercise of institutional control over its intercollegiate athletics programs" in the case of Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator accused of 40 counts of child sex abuse.

"We have to examine those facts and make a thoughtful determination of what is covered by our bylaws and what is not," Emmert told The Associated Press on Friday.

Emmert said the case is not yet a formal investigation, though the inquiry could lead to that. NCAA investigators have not yet been on Penn State's campus. Emmert has asked the university to respond by Dec. 16 to several questions.

If the NCAA decides to move ahead from there, the process could take an additional six to 10 months.

"Everyone that works inside a university, a coach, an administrator, a faculty member is first an educator and mentor," Emmert said. "When you're in that position you have a responsibility to provide leadership and maintain a high ethical standard."

Sandusky is accused of abusing eight boys, some on campus, over 15 years. Among the charges is an alleged assault in 2002 that was not brought to the attention of police, according to a grand jury report, even though top officials at Penn State knew there was an accusation of inappropriate behavior.

The resulting scandal has tarnished the image of a once squeaky-clean football program that has prided itself on the slogan "Success with Honor."

"It will be important for Penn State to cooperate fully and provide any assistance possible to the NCAA," Erickson said in a statement. "The university's and NCAA's interests are perfectly aligned in identifying what went wrong and how to prevent anything similar from happening again."

The school's athletic department also released a statement, pledging it would work with the NCAA.

Athletic Director Tim Curley has been placed on administrative leave, and Vice President Gary Schultz, who was in charge of the university's police department, has retired.

Schultz and Curley each are charged with lying to the grand jury and failure to report to police. They maintain their innocence, as does Sandusky.

In addition to the ongoing criminal investigation of Sandusky, Penn State has started its own, internal review and the U.S. Department of Education is examining whether the school failed to report incidents of sexual abuse on campus, as required by federal law.

Soon after Penn State announced that the NCAA was getting involved in the case, Scott Paterno, the ex-coach's son, said his father has been diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer. The younger Paterno said his father is expected to make a full recovery.

Emmert, in his letter, said the allegations in the case are testing "not only the integrity of the university, but that of intercollegiate athletics as a whole and the NCAA member institutions that conduct college sports."

The NCAA in the letter asked Penn State to respond to various questions, including:

? How did Penn State exercise "institutional control over the issues identified in and related" to the grand jury report? Did the school have procedures in place that were, or were not, followed?

? The NCAA also wants to know if "each of the alleged persons to have been involved or have notice of the issues identified in and related" to the grand jury report behaved according to the school's policies on honesty and ethical conduct.

? The NCAA also asked Penn State to explain its policies and procedures that are "in place to monitor, prevent and detect the issues identified in and related to the Grand Jury Report."

Paterno, Division I's winningest coach with 409 victories, was fired by university trustees Nov. 9, the same night then-president Graham Spanier also left his job under pressure. School leaders faced mounting criticism that more should have done to prevent the alleged abuse.

Emmert in his letter cited an NCAA bylaw that says coaches or athletic staffers must "do more than avoid improper conduct or questionable acts. Their own moral values must be so certain and positive that those younger ... will be influenced by a fine example. Much more is expected of them than of the less critically placed citizen."

__

AP Sports Writer Mike Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-11-18-FBC-Penn-State-Abuse/id-a4eb85fc6975468082699f21dd1174f9

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