Monday, November 28, 2011

India invite to foreign retailers stirs backlash

India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists sit with placards at a protest in New Delhi, India, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. India's new open door policy for foreign retailers is stirring a backlash across the political spectrum from state governments who fear the move will be unpopular with their constituencies of small traders and shop owners. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists sit with placards at a protest in New Delhi, India, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. India's new open door policy for foreign retailers is stirring a backlash across the political spectrum from state governments who fear the move will be unpopular with their constituencies of small traders and shop owners. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists raise slogans as they sit with placards at a protest in New Delhi, India, Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. India's new open door policy for foreign retailers is stirring a backlash from state governments who fear the move will be unpopular with their constituencies of small traders and shop owners. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

(AP) ? A broad and fiery backlash against India's new open-door policy for foreign retailers sparked fresh investor fears Monday about political risk and the stability of the Congress Party's coalition government.

The new regulations don't require Parliamentary approval, but to set up shop, foreign retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour must be approved by the government of the state where stores will be located.

Five state leaders made clear over the weekend their unwillingness to let in foreign companies. Leaders from two of Congress' main coalition allies oppose the policy. Parliament adjourned Monday in an uproar over the issue and Communist Party-controlled trade unions have pledged to strike Thursday. Some politicians even threatened to burn down foreign stores that open under the new rules.

The fury of opposition is adding to foreign investor fears about the political risks of doing business in India. Some analysts say the Cabinet may have to backtrack on its bold new rules, which would be a political embarrassment for a government straining to reassert its leadership in the face of corruption scandals, high inflation and flagging growth.

"We are waiting for clarification of the rules related to FDI," Jean-Noel Bironneau, the managing director of Carrefour India, said Monday. "We prefer to assess the situation."

The new rules would allow big retailers such as Wal-Mart to set up supermarkets in India's major cities and will likely herald the entrance of companies like Swedish retailer Ikea, which has been keen to come for years, but only if it can maintain control of its operations.

In a letter to political leaders, Minister of Commerce Anand Sharma cast the change as a boon for consumers and farmers ? who constitute large sections of the voting public ? rather than a threat to small traders.

"A complex chain of middlemen have a cascading impact on supply inefficiencies and prices," he wrote. "(F)armers are unable to secure remunerative price for their produce, while consumer ends up paying more than 5 times the price secured by the farmers."

He said that in other emerging economies where foreign direct investment is permitted in retail, like China, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, local retailers have not been put out of business.

He has said that states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra ? home to India's financial capital, Mumbai ? support the policy.

The changes could also help domestic players who have struggled to succeed on their own.

Future Group Chief Executive Kishore Biyani, who has been likened in India to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club founder Sam Walton, welcomed the entry of foreign chains. "This policy is a win-win-win," he told The Associated Press. "It's a win for consumers, a win for retailers, a win for suppliers and a win for farm producers. Ninety percent of India should benefit."

Biyani would not discuss details of his negotiations with foreign partners, but said he's open to forging joint ventures, particularly in consumer electronics, where he'd like to become the market leader.

The debt-laden Future Group has 16 million square feet of retail space and is growing by 2 to 2.5 million square feet a year, he said. "We can now grow faster," he said.

The central government has taken out advertisements to quell critics, championing the new rules as a way to make food cheaper for everyone, eliminate waste that claims up to 40 percent of all fresh produce, and create millions of jobs.

The leaders of the states of Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa and West Bengal have all publicly opposed the ruling Congress Party's move to let foreign retailers own up to 51 percent of supermarkets and 100 percent of single-brand stores, according to the Press Trust of India.

India's main opposition BJP party as well as the Congress Party's coalition ally, the Trinamool Congress, have also voiced opposition. India's Hindustan Times newspaper calculated that 28 of the 53 cities where retailers could set up under the new rules are in states controlled by political parties opposed to the regulations.

Some say the wave of opposition won't scuttle the changes, which foreign retailers have been pushing for a decade.

"There are enough states which would be positively inclined," said Saloni Nangia, head of retail and consumer products at Technopak Advisors, a New Delhi based consulting company. "Retailers will take some time before they start implementing. By then things would settle down."

Other analysts say global economic uncertainty may prove a stronger immediate disincentive.

Tamil Nadu's chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in a letter Sunday to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said she wouldn't let retailers into her state, describing the central government's move as a "wrong decision, taken under pressure from a few retail giants starved for capital infusion for their future survival," according to the Press Trust of India.

Mayawati, the fiery leader of Uttar Pradesh, said foreign investment in retail would make her state "bankrupt." She is locked in a battle with the Congress Party over upcoming state elections.

The chief minister of Kerala, which is controlled by the Congress Party, also came out against the changes.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, has been silent on the issue. Though he is renowned for being business friendly and actively seeking foreign investment, a major constituency of his BJP party are the small traders and mom and pop shops that many fear will be put out of business if companies such as are allowed greater access.

The government tried to design the new retail policy so that the price of entry into India's 1.2 billion-strong consumer market would be improving the nation's food distribution and bolstering local businesses.

Under the new regulations, retailers must put at least half their investment into back-end infrastructure such as refrigerated storage, with 30 percent of procurement from small companies, and they can only open outlets in cities with a population of more than 1 million.

Technopak says the new rules could attract $5 billion in investment over the next five years.

The work facing new arrivals is formidable. Besides navigating political uncertainty, they must develop supply chains from scratch, improve supplier efficiency, set up logistics in a nation which needs better roads, train an uncomprehending work force and find appropriate, affordable retail locations in urban centers.

Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour and Germany's Metro may have an advantage over other foreign retailers if they decide to expand their India operations as they already have wholesale businesses in the country.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-11-28-AS-India-Retail-Backlash/id-8e8f6cdba67840a29664d2eddb5cef7f

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Lithuania to dismantle troubled bank (AP)

VILNIUS, Lithuania ? Lithuania's central bank said it would dismantle a bank controlled by a Russian businessman after regulators discovered large sums of money missing.

Lithuanian prosecutors said Friday that Raimondas Baranauskas, minority owner of Snoras Bank, has been detained in London after they had issued a European arrest warrant on Wednesday.

Prosecutors could not say whether Russian citizen Vladimir Antonov, the bank's majority owner, was also detained. Antonov is the owner of the Portsmouth football club.

The Bank of Lithuania said late Thursday that the dismantling of Snoras was the best solution for the Baltic state's financial system and economy, which have been jolted after the bank was nationalized and its operations halted.

Bank chief Vitas Vasiliauskas said should not waste taxpayers' money trying to help "a plane that won't fly."

"There is no other way to solve this situation," he said.

Hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) are believed to have been siphoned off from Snoras and Latvijas Krajbanka, a subsidiary bank in neighboring Latvia.

Janis Brazovskis, an official with Latvia's Finance and Capital Markets Commission who was appointed to oversee Latvijas Krajbanka, said Wednesday that Antonov's failed attempt to acquire the troubled Swedish automaker Saab might have triggered the downfall of the two Baltic banks.

He said that approximately 100 million lats ($200 million) were siphoned from the bank to increase its charter capital and finance Antonov's investment projects ? including the unsuccessful takeover of Saab.

Deposit holders in both countries are now forced to wait in long lines to withdraw money from cash machines, while companies and municipalities have seen the working capital virtually disappear.

Still, authorities in both Lithuania and Latvia say the two banks' collapse does not pose a systemic risk since they are mid-sized and the two states have ample reserves to guarantee deposits.

Latvijas Krajbanka was Latvia's 10th largest bank by assets after it was taken over by regulators on Monday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111125/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_lithuania_bank_woes

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

NASA launches super-size rover to Mars: 'Go, Go!' (AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? A rover of "monster truck" proportions zoomed toward Mars on an 8 1/2-month, 354 million-mile journey Saturday, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet.

NASA's six-wheeled, one-armed wonder, Curiosity, will reach Mars next summer and use its jackhammer drill, rock-zapping laser machine and other devices to search for evidence that Earth's next-door neighbor might once have been home to the teeniest forms of life.

More than 13,000 invited guests jammed the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday morning to witness NASA's first launch to Mars in four years, and the first flight of a Martian rover in eight years.

Mars fever gripped the crowd.

NASA astrobiologist Pan Conrad, whose carbon compound-seeking instrument is on the rover, wore a bright blue, short-sleeve blouse emblazoned with rockets, planets and the words, "Next stop Mars!" She jumped, cheered and snapped pictures as the Atlas V rocket blasted off. So did Los Alamos National Laboratory's Roger Wiens, a planetary scientist in charge of Curiosity's laser blaster, called ChemCam.

Surrounded by 50 U.S. and French members of his team, Wiens shouted "Go, Go, Go!" as the rocket soared into a cloudy sky. "It was beautiful," he later observed, just as NASA declared the launch a full success.

A few miles away at the space center's visitor complex, Lego teamed up with NASA for a toy spacecraft-building event for children this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The irresistible lure: 800,000 Lego bricks.

The 1-ton Curiosity ? 10 feet tall, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall at its mast ? is a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and with unprecedented skill, analyze them right on the spot.

It's as big as a car. But NASA's Mars exploration program director calls it "the monster truck of Mars."

"It's an enormous mission. It's equivalent of three missions, frankly, and quite an undertaking," said the ecstatic program director, Doug McCuistion. "Science fiction is now science fact. We're flying to Mars. We'll get it on the ground and see what we find."

The primary goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to see whether cold, dry, barren Mars might have been hospitable for microbial life once upon a time ? or might even still be conducive to life now. No actual life detectors are on board; rather, the instruments will hunt for organic compounds.

Curiosity's 7-foot arm has a jackhammer on the end to drill into the Martian red rock, and the 7-foot mast on the rover is topped with high-definition and laser cameras.

With Mars the ultimate goal for astronauts, NASA will use Curiosity to measure radiation at the red planet. The rover also has a weather station on board that will provide temperature, wind and humidity readings; a computer software app with daily weather updates is planned.

No previous Martian rover has been so sophisticated.

The world has launched more than three dozen missions to the ever-alluring Mars, which is more like Earth than the other solar-system planets. Yet fewer than half those quests have succeeded.

Just two weeks ago, a Russian spacecraft ended up stuck in orbit around Earth, rather than en route to the Martian moon Phobos.

"Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system," said NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science. "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, and now we're set to do it again."

Curiosity's arrival next August will be particularly hair-raising.

In a spacecraft first, the rover will be lowered onto the Martian surface via a jet pack and tether system similar to the sky cranes used to lower heavy equipment into remote areas on Earth.

Curiosity is too heavy to use air bags like its much smaller predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, did in 2004. Besides, this new way should provide for a more accurate landing.

Astronauts will need to make similarly precise landings on Mars one day.

Curiosity will spend a minimum of two years roaming around Gale Crater, chosen from among more than 50 potential landing sites because it's so rich in minerals. Scientists said if there is any place on Mars that might have been ripe for life, it may well be there.

The rover should go farther and work harder than any previous Mars explorer because of its power source: 10.6 pounds of radioactive plutonium. The nuclear generator was encased in several protective layers in case of a launch accident.

NASA expects to put at least 12 miles on the odometer, once the rover sets down on the Martian surface.

McCuistion anticipates being blown away by the never-before-seen vistas. "Those first images are going to just be stunning, I believe. It will be like sitting in the bottom of the Grand Canyon," he said at a post-launch news conference.

This is the third astronomical mission to be launched from Cape Canaveral by NASA since the retirement of the venerable space shuttle fleet this summer. The Juno probe is en route to Jupiter, and twin spacecraft named Grail will arrive at Earth's moon on New Year's Eve and Day.

Unlike Juno and Grail, Curiosity suffered development programs and came in two years late and nearly $1 billion over budget. Scientists involved in the project noted Saturday that the money is being spent on Earth, not Mars, and the mission is costing every American about the price of a movie.

"I'll leave you to judge for yourself whether or not that's a movie you'd like to see," said California Institute of Technology's John Grotzinger, the project scientist. "I know that's one I would."

___

Online:

NASA: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

Lego: http://legospace.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_sc/us_sci_mars_rover

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Friday, November 25, 2011

"A Separation," "Anatolia" win top Asian Pacific Screen Awards (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Two Oscar foreign-language contenders, Iran's "A Separation" and Turkey's "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," were the big winners at Thursday's Asia Pacific Screen Awards, which took place in Queensland, Australia.

"A Separation," directed and written by Asghar Farhadi, was named Best Feature Film. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" won awards for Achievement in Directing and Achievement in Cinematography, as well as receiving the Screen International Jury Grand Prize.

The two winners "are very different kinds of films, but both of them are the same in their excellence in every aspect of their filmmaking: from screenplay, to directing, to performances, to their technical craftsmanship such as cinematography and editing, everything," said APSA International Jury president Nansun Shi in a release announcing the winners.

Established in 2007, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards are an initiative of the government of Queensland, Australia, in collaboration with UNESCO and the International Federation of Film Producers. They are open to films from the Asia-Pacific region, an enormous area that stretches from Egypt to the Cook Islands, and from Russia to New Zealand.

Previous winners include China's "Aftershock," Australia's "Samson & Delilah" and Kazakhstan's "Tulpan."

The winners:

Best Feature Film: "A Separation"

Best Children's Feature Film: "Buta"; High Commendation: "Wind and Fog"

Best Animated Feature Film: "Leafie"

Best Documentary Feature Film: "I Was Worth 50 Sheep"; High Commendation: "Pink Saris"

Achievement in Directing: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia"

Achievement in Cinematography: Gokhan Tiryaki, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia"; High Commendation: Andrei Zviagintsev, "For Elena"

Best Screenplay: Denis Osokin, "Silent Souls"; High Commendation: Yoon Sung-Hyun, "Bleak Night"

Best Performance by an Actress: Nadezhda Markina, "For Elena"

Best Performance by an Actor: Wang Baoqiang, "Mr. Tree"

Screen International Grand Jury Prize: "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia"; High Commendation: Nahed El Sebai, Bushra and Nelly Karim, "Cairo 678"

FIAPF Award: Zhang Yimou

UNESCO Award: "For Toomelah"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_separation_anatolia_win_top_asian_pacific_screen_awards193743694/43714089/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/separation-anatolia-win-top-asian-pacific-screen-awards-193743694.html

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Nook Simple Touch gets $79 limited edition for Black Friday, makes other e-readers vaguely jealous

Barnes & Noble is celebrating Black Friday with a white border. The bookstore chain is offering up a limited edition of its excellent Nook Simple Touch reader this Friday, November 25th. Slight aesthetic differences aside, the real news here is the price -- the company is knocking $20 off the already low-cost device, making it the same as Amazon's ad-supported, touchscreen-free fourth gen Kindle. The $79 deal will only last one day, so get 'em while the e-ink is hot. Press info after the jump.

Continue reading Nook Simple Touch gets $79 limited edition for Black Friday, makes other e-readers vaguely jealous

Nook Simple Touch gets $79 limited edition for Black Friday, makes other e-readers vaguely jealous originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/23/nook-simple-touch-gets-79-limited-edition-for-black-friday-mak/

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

2 NATO troops killed in southern Afghanistan (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? Two NATO service members were killed in southern Afghanistan where foreign forces are trying to hold territory they gained after routing insurgents from their strongholds, the coalition said Tuesday.

One service member died in an insurgent attack and the other was killed in a roadside bombing. No other details were disclosed about the deaths, which occurred on Monday.

According to an Associated Press tally, 512 international troops have been killed so far this year in Afghanistan. At least 382 of those killed were Americans.

In eastern Afghanistan, four civilians were killed on Tuesday when their car hit a roadside bomb in Alingar district of Laghman province, said provincial spokesman Faizanullah Patan.

Two men, one woman and a child were killed in the explosion and two other adults were seriously wounded, he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

2008 Redux (Prospect)

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HTC Radar Review: 4G Phone For T-Mobile Is Speedy, Cheap

THE CAPTAIN GADGET 5-PARAGRAPH REVIEW OF:
The HTC Radar 4G From T-Mobile

(1.) Too many new smartphones try to mimic that elongated black-box look of the iPhone; the HTC Radar 4G, mercifully, does not. Available exclusively on T-Mobile (and what a shame it is that customers on other networks don't have the option to try it), the Radar is a sleek, silver-on-white eye-catcher of a phone. A small part of its visual appeal is Windows Mango, the beautiful operating system still unfamiliar to most everyone who doesn't work for Microsoft. The Radar doesn't look like all the other chocolate bar smartphones, which means more attention for the person who pulls it out of his or her pocket. Let us hold up the Radar as proof that handset manufacturers can still draw up a smartphone that is not a flattened black brick. Let us also hold it up as proof that it is possible to get a nice, attractive, functional smartphone for $99.

(2.) The Radar is light in the hand -- it almost feels fragile or empty-ish on the insides, to its minor detriment -- and rounded-smooth on the corners. It is a palpably well-built phone, front and back. The only physical buttons are a lock-screen button on top of the phone (same positioning as the iPhone's), a long volume bar on the right side and a Microsoft-mandated camera button below that. The screen never really showed the smudge of my fingerprints, though the white face-plate did catch mysterious small black smudges, probably from the dyes of my clothes, on occasion. One minor point of hardware annoyance: The lock-screen button, on the top right of the phone like the iPhone's lock-screen button, was recessed too far inwards, making it more difficult than it should have been to lock/unlock/power off. Pop it out on the second-gen, HTC.

(3.) Performance-wise, the Radar is zippy-quick. Perhaps it is due to the physical weight of the phone, but the Radar emits an illusion of sprightliness and instantaneous reaction-time. Of all the Windows phones I've used, the Radar feels fastest (specs comparisons of processors would indicate otherwise, but I trust my eye). Mango is still Mango (review here): an attractive mobile operating system that is comparatively lacking in apps but is cutting-edge in design, terrific for communication across several platforms (Facebook, SMS, Twitter and more) and an early-adopter's dream (get this hipster OS before it goes mainstream!). The Radar 4G comes with Slacker Radio, T-Mobile TV and a few other "entertainment apps" that you will most likely replace, ignore and/or abandon.

(4.) Camera-loading time is solid, if not great; camera quality is also solid, if not just okay. There's a front-facing camera, too, a nice add-on for a cheap phone. No complaints about call quality, SMS delivery or data downloads or uploads; T-Mobile's "4G," though not the faster of the two HSPA+ networks the carrier offers, offered quick speeds throughout New York City. Battery life was somewhere approaching excellent -- I was often able to go two days of heavy use and constant push email without plugging in.

(5.) The main draw of the HTC Radar, however, is its outward design. It's one of my favorites of the year, and I was relieved to find that the design was not let down by the smartphone's actual performance. Function follows form here; both are noteworthy and commendable, especially at $100. For a smartphone shopper on a budget (and -- sigh -- on T-Mobile) the Radar is one of your best choices. If HTC can free it from the T-Mo trap, it could have a cross-network superstar. I suppose the Radar retains some of its beauty in its scarcity or unavailability, however; perhaps it's better that it remains exclusively on T-Mobile.

-----

HTC RADAR 4G SPECS

Cost: $99 with two-year contract
Carriers: T-Mobile
Operating System: Windows 7.5 ("Mango")
Network: T-Mobile 4G (HSPA+ 14.4)
Display: 3.7-inch
Weight: 4.8 ounces
CPU: 1 GHz single-core
Memory: 512MB RAM
Storage: 8GB internal; no card slot
Camera: 5MP rear-facing with flash; front-facing VGA (less than 1MP)
Charger: Micro USB
Battery Life (stated): 10 hour talk time on 2G; 8 hour talk time on 3G

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/htc-radar-review_n_1100453.html

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

ExoPC's 40-inch multitouch EXOdesk is coming in 2012 for $1,299 (video)

We haven't even made it to Black Friday yet, and already we're getting a taste of the futuristic swag that'll be on display at CES in January. Over the weekend, ExoPC posted a video teasing a multitouch surface called the EXOdesk, promising more details when the show kicks off after the new year. The desk measures 40 inches (make that "40 high-definition inches") and, as you'd expect, supports a smorgasboard of multi-fingered gestures. The entire teaser lasts less than a minute, but you don't need more than a few seconds to realize this isn't the same UI we reviewed with the ExoPC Slate. So far, we noticed you can run apps at full-screen and swipe widgets to chuck 'em out of sight. You can also swipe the corner with four fingers to reveal what appears to be an RSS feed, and then swipe individual items to make them disappear. That's all we know about how it works, though the company did reveal it'll go on sale next year for $1,299 -- a fraction of the $8,400 you'll pay for the new Samsung SUR40 running Microsoft Surface. We'll be keeping an eye out for this when we stake out CES in January, but until then, we've got the teaser vid tucked after the break.

[Thanks, Trevor]

Continue reading ExoPC's 40-inch multitouch EXOdesk is coming in 2012 for $1,299 (video)

ExoPC's 40-inch multitouch EXOdesk is coming in 2012 for $1,299 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/21/exopcs-40-inch-multitouch-exodesk-is-coming-in-2012-for-1-299/

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Monday, November 21, 2011

Video: Mystery at Heath Bar Farm, Part 1

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/45357766#45357766

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Pirates hijack Chevron vessel off Nigeria: sources (Reuters)

ABUJA (Reuters) ? Armed men boarded an oil supply vessel contracted by U.S. energy company Chevron off the Nigerian coast early on Friday, shipping and security sources said.

This would be the second attack by gunmen on Chevron contracted vessels off the coast of President Goodluck Jonathan's home state of Bayelsa this month.

"The MV Endeavour was off the coast, serving Chevron's Agbami field, when gunmen boarded it in the very early hours," one security source told Reuters. Two other sources close to the incident confirmed the details.

One of the sources said three men may have been kidnapped.

Chevron said it was investigating the situation but had no further comment.

Experts say recent attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea threaten the region's position as an emerging trade hub that is an increasingly important source of oil, metals and agricultural products such as cocoa for world markets.

(Reporting by Joe Brock; Editing by Anthony Barker)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/wl_nm/us_nigeria_piracy

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Sunday, November 20, 2011

FACT CHECK: GOP senator gasps for facts on asthma (AP)

WASHINGTON ? It was a startling claim: Air pollution has no connection to asthma, Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul said on the Senate floor.

But Paul, and a chart he used to make his case against the health benefits of a new federal air pollution rule, relied on some creative sourcing and pseudoscience.

Paul's chart was a graph showing air pollution declining in California as the number of people diagnosed with asthma rose. The chart attributed the data to a May 2003 paper by what was then called the California Department of Health Services. But the department never plotted the relationship between those two factors.

In fact, the department said asthma attacks "can be triggered by exposures and conditions such as respiratory infections, house dust mites, animal dander, mold, pollen, exercise, tobacco smoke, and indoor and outdoor air pollutants."

Paul's real source was a 2006 paper "Facts Not Fear on Air Pollution" from the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank.

That paper, by independent consultant Joel Schwartz, contends that most air pollution information from environmentalists, regulators, scientists and journalists is exaggerated or wrong. The paper was not subjected to the normal peer-review process demanded for most published science.

Paul, an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon, cited Schwartz in his Nov. 10 remarks. "We have decreased pollution and rising incidence of asthma. Either they are inversely proportional or they are not related at all," he said.

At best, the chart suggests that air pollution alone cannot explain the rise in asthma, a chronic lung disease that inflicts approximately 34 million people in the U.S. Its exact cause is unknown.

The chart certainly can't be used to say that air pollution plays no role in causing asthma.

"They may think there is a pattern there, but in fact it has no basis," said Dr. Richard Kreutzer, head of environmental and occupational disease control at what is now California's Department of Public Health, the agency cited on Paul's chart. Kreutzer said there is evidence that some pollutants can cause asthma and even more research showing that air pollution aggravates asthma in those who have the disease.

The National Institutes of Health said last year that "recent findings have conclusively demonstrated a link between asthma and air pollution, especially ground-level ozone."

Schwartz, who now works for Blue Sky Consulting Group, discounts even studies linking pollution to asthma attacks, saying "they are probably not related."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Schwartz defended his work. "The fact that they move in opposite directions shows that air pollution is not a large factor in the cause," he said.

Dan Greenbaum, the president of the nonprofit Health Effects Institute, said such arguments "miss the point." The institute receives funding from both the Environmental Protection Agency and the auto industry.

"No pulmonary doctor has said that the primary reason for the increase in asthma is air pollution. That is not the concern with air pollution and asthma," Greenbaum said. "The concern is that if you have asthma, we have very strong evidence that you are sensitive to air pollution."

___

Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter (at)dinacappiello

___

Online:

California Department of Public Health paper: http://www.bit.ly/s3RAen

National Center for Policy Analysis paper: http://www.bit.ly/w06uJC

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_he_me/us_asthma_air_pollution_fact_check

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

US and Israel haven't learned their history lessons. Palestinians and Abbas have.

Billions in US aid dollars to individual economies and militaries in the Middle East have not strengthened peace. The success of post-war Europe shows the key to unity is to get citizens of different nations to work together. That hasn't really happened with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.

Edmund Burke famously said, ?Those who don?t know history are destined to repeat it.? The Arab-Israeli conflict, steeped in history, is a case in point. A major piece of US Middle East policy presents a clear example of history being forgotten, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas?s recent statehood bid at the United Nations serves as an example of history being remembered.?

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If 90 years ago someone had said that England, France, and Germany would become the strongest of allies with integrated economies, he would have been laughed out of the room. Forty years later that impossible vision had become a reality. It was made possible because a lesson of history was not lost; the mistake made after World War I of severely punishing Germany through the Treaty of Versailles was not repeated after World War II. Rather Germany was allowed to rebuild both economically and politically.

In addition, through the brilliance of the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan, the countries of Europe moved toward integration. With the exception of the Balkan wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia, that integration has led to a period of peace in Europe that has not been seen for centuries. One of the key ingredients to that success has been that nations were pushed to work with each other in various endeavors and formats, and in the process relationships were forged.

That lesson has been lost on successive US administrations as billions and billions of taxpayers dollars have been invested in the separate economies of Egypt, Israel, and Jordan ? much of it directed toward military aid. While these dollars were intended to bolster the Egyptian-Israeli and Jordanian-Israeli Peace Treaties of 1979 and 1994, they failed to do so.

Neither aid for separate economies or militaries strengthens peace. The weakening of these two peace treaties in the wake of the Arab Spring has happened in large part because those billions of dollars in US aid did nothing to bring Israelis and their Jordanian and Egyptian neighbors together.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/kBzYEN5qwgo/US-and-Israel-haven-t-learned-their-history-lessons.-Palestinians-and-Abbas-have

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Friday, November 18, 2011

Apple patent shows ideas for crack-resistant iPhone airbags (Digital Trends)

Good news for the Donald LeBuhns of the world, newly uncovered patents filed by Apple show the company has been thinking about upping durability for portables. Future iOS devices may even be getting little airbags installed to prevent your precious mobile electronics from shattering on the first drop.

The patent was apparently filed in 2010?s Q2, and dug up by Pattently Apple who says that one of the patent inventors, Stephen Lynch, worked on the iPod touch and inductive charging projects.

One pathway the patent points to for enhancing the durability of devices?assuming scratch attracting plastic isn?t considered?is to strengthen the glass. The thinner the device becomes, the thinner the glass cover window which can mean impact will crack or shatter it more readily. Alumino silicate, known as Gorilla Glass, is suggested, but future options to resist thermal shock include sodalime and borosilicate.

shock mount via cnet

The main focus in the patent seems to be concerned with types of ?apparatus, systems and methods for shock mounting a cover glass for an electronic device.? One method involves cover glass and a shock mount?which is an elastic fastener?that buffers between the glass and the rest of the electronic mass. Another method discussed in the patent involves glass, shock mount and sensors which can sense a drop and retract and protect the cover glass.

There is also a tunable shock mount option which would ?compression and dampening, so as to isolate the cover glass from the remaining mass of the electronic device.? The tunable option could have a shock mount made of polymyer, gel, foam, shape memory material, silicone rubber, viscoelastic material and other suitable types. The shock mount could also be made of an inflatable rubber bladder, or one filled with fluid that expands in shock events, e.g. an air-bag.

Of course, just because its a patent doesn?t necessarily mean it?ll be implemented, but its nice to see some of the ideas being juggled by the Apple think tank.

?

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Analyst says iPhone 5 was Steve Jobs? last project; expected this summer

Our favorite hidden features of iOS 5

Speaktoit: The Android answer to Siri

Apple iOS 5: Everything you need to know

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111118/tc_digitaltrends/applepatentshowsideasforcrackresistantiphoneairbags

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Troubled vote may tie Liberian president's hands (AP)

MONROVIA, Liberia ? Liberia's president may have easily won re-election but she's already facing questions about what sort of concessions she'll now be forced to make.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ran unopposed in last week's runoff vote after her opponent boycotted the poll.

Among the opposition candidates who did support her is Prince Johnson, an ex-warlord best known for videotaping himself and his men in 1990 as they tortured Liberia's former ruler.

Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace laureate, appeared at her final campaign rally with Johnson. Liberian newspapers report he's now asking for 30 percent of the positions in her government ? and immunity from prosecution.

Sirleaf's government says she has made no deals with Johnson, who is now a senator.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_re_af/af_liberia_election

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Oil hits $100 as US economy slowly improves (AP)

NEW YORK ? Oil prices hit $100 a barrel on Wednesday after a six-week surge that may drive gasoline prices higher in coming months and slow the fragile economic recovery.

For now, there a few reasons to explain why oil jumped 30 percent higher since early October.

One is promising. The U.S. economy continued to show signs of strength, meaning that the thirst for fuel may grow.

The other factor is troublesome, as concerns rise about potential disruptions to critical ? and tightening ? world oil supplies, including unrest in the key oil-producing areas of the Middle East and Africa.

The price run-up has led to increasing numbers of investors, such as major investment funds, pension funds, money managers and other speculators, to flood back into commodities markets.

"This thing is on fire," independent oil trader Stephen Schork said. "Everyone's gobbling oil up."

The benchmark oil price rose by 3.2 percent Wednesday alone, ending the day at $102.59 per barrel, after a Canadian pipeline company announced it would ship crude away from a key Midwest delivery point. It was the first time since July that oil rose above the $100 mark.

So far, the jump in prices hasn't pushed gasoline prices higher. Gasoline prices are being held in check because motorists are driving less than they did during the summer vacation season. Refineries also are allowed to make cheaper winter fuel blends this time of year.

Still, if oil holds above $100 per barrel for long, gasoline will inevitably rise from a national average of $3.402 on Wednesday. Analysts are already predicting pump prices above $4 per gallon in the spring.

It's tough to say how high oil will go.

After a similar surge in the spring, prices fell in April from this year's peak near $114 per barrel on fears of another U.S. recession and as industrialized nations planned and later released emergency supplies.

The springtime rise sharply curtailed economic growth. Consumers had fewer dollars to spend on other goods because gas cost so much more. There was even talk of $5 a gallon. The national average hit $3.9845 per gallon on May 5.

Consumer spending, which drives the U.S. economy, nearly came to a halt. The 0.7 percent growth in the spring quarter was the slowest since the recession ended in June 2009.

"Consumers had to pull back on other spending to fill up their gas tanks," said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody's Analytics. Americans are devoting more of their income to gasoline than ever this year. The Oil Price Information Service says that U.S. households have spent 8.4 percent of their income on gasoline, up from 6.7 percent in 2010 and 7.9 percent in 2008.

A variety of factors since have pushed oil prices above $100 again.

_The U.S. bounced back from the spring and appears to have avoided a recession: Over the past several weeks, economic reports have shown that consumers are spending more, and manufacturing activity continues to grow.

_Supplies are tightening: Crude stockpiles have been falling this year in the U.S. The government said Wednesday that storage levels are 6 percent lower than their 5-year average. They could fall further, given that a Canadian company inked a deal to send oil from a key Midwest delivery point to the Gulf of Mexico, where much of it is expected to be refined and potentially exported to other countries.

_Growing concerns about some of the world's richest oil producers: Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, is suspected of developing nuclear weapons, according to a United Nations report earlier this month. Its nuclear program could lead to international trade sanctions, and Israel has threatened military action. Companies operating in Nigeria also say that oil production has been hurt by spills, sabotage and outright thefts. Nigeria is one of the top five oil exporters to the U.S.

_Developing nations continue to demand more oil: China, India, Latin America and other developing regions of the world are burning more fuel as they build factories and their people buy more cars. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries expects world demand to increase from about 88 million barrels per day in 2011 to a record 92.9 million by 2015.

_Investors are increasingly confident that oil will go higher: Government data shows that speculators are mostly betting that prices will go up, not down. Intense interest from speculators tends to push oil prices higher, Schork said.

"They're just pouring money into this thing," he said. Because of the interest from speculators, it's hard to say exactly when prices would fall. "You just have to wait for buying interest to dry up."

___

AP Economics writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.

___

Chris Kahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/ChrisKahnAP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111116/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Squishybots: Soft, bendy and smarter than ever

Editorial: "Darwin trumps self-obsession in robotics"

Read more: Learning machines: The education of an animat

PICTURE what a robot might look like 50 years from now. It's mowing the lawn, or helping you with the housework. Now, what shape is it? What is it made out of? Does it have arms, legs and a head?

Chances are, what you were imagining does not have a squishy body and tentacles - but such a creature would be closer to the real future of robotics. For many tasks that we actually want robots to do, a hard body or humanoid shape just isn't cutting it. So researchers are rethinking the fundamentals of what a smart machine is.

Take the robot being built by Cecilia Laschi and her colleagues in the Italian city of Pisa. At the cost of a cool ?10 million, they are building a soft, rubbery, and

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1a23cea3/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg212283820B10A0A0Esquishybots0Esoft0Ebendy0Eand0Esmarter0Ethan0Eever0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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UK Galaxy Nexus availability updated -- some delayed until next week

Android Central

As the confirmed (and re-confirmed) UK Galaxy Nexus launch date approaches, we're hearing more and more reports of delays in shipping handsets out to customers. British online retailer Clove, which is usually pretty accurate with its release dates, now expects its first batch of Nexii next Wednesday, Nov. 23. Clove says "this will be part of the first batch of SIM-free stock that is available in the UK". Many of the other retailers we spoke to said the most recent date they had from Samsung was Nov. 17, but that they had yet to receive stock, and couldn't guarantee that they'd have any on launch day.

Meanwhile, Three UK -- which started taking pre-orders yesterday -- has said it won't be able to fulfill its pre-orders until next Tuesday, Nov. 22, due to "stock delays". Three adds that it's still expecting its retail stores to receive stock on the 18th, but that it can't fully confirm this yet.

So far the only place that's definitely stocking the Galaxy Nexus on the official launch date of Nov. 17 is Phones4U. However it seems you'll need to jump on a 24-month service agreement to get your launch-day Nexus, as the retailer isn't selling any unlocked or Pay As You Go stock.

We'll keep you updated with any more details in the hours and days ahead.

Source: @ThreeUK, Clove Blog



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/TAzha7DvFfs/story01.htm

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Rival Libyan militias clash near military base

Rival militias clashed on the outskirts of Tripoli for a fourth day Sunday, the most sustained violence since the capture and killing of Moammar Gadhafi last month.

The fighting, which has left at least four people dead since late last week, raised new concerns about the ability of Libya's transitional government to disarm thousands of fighters and restore order after a bloody eight-month civil war.

Libya's interim leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said his National Transitional Council brought together elders from the rival areas ? the coastal city of Zawiya and the nearby town of Warshefana ? over the weekend and that the dispute has been resolved. "I want to assure the Libyan people that everything is under control," he said Sunday.

However, as he spoke, fighting continued.

On Sunday afternoon, journalists heard gunfire and explosions of rocket-propelled grenades on the outskirts of a major military camp of the ousted regime. The camp, once a base of elite forces commanded by one of Gadhafi's sons, Khamis, is located on a highway midway between the capital of Tripoli and Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the west.

Mohammed al-Hadwash, a local commander of fighters from Tripoli, said gunmen from Zawiya and Warshefana were fighting for control of the camp.

Zawiya fighters also set up roadblocks on the outskirts of the city at intervals of about 200 yards. Groups of jumpy armed men, some brandishing RPGs, crowded around the checkpoints. Fighters searched trunks of cars and checked IDs.

The reason for the initial clash remains unclear, though rumors have been flying, including that some of the Warshefana had links to the old regime. At one point last week, fighters from Zawiya entered Warshefana and seized weapons. In retaliation, Warshefana fighters set up random checkpoints and fired at the main highway.

Abdul-Jalil said the NTC has established a committee to address the grievances of both sides. He said the fighting was sparked by young men behaving irresponsibly, but he did not elaborate.

Since the Oct. 20 death of Gadhafi, there have been a number of violent clashes between fighters, including a deadly shootout at a Tripoli hospital. Residents of the capital have also become increasingly annoyed with fighters from other areas of Libya who have taken over prime locations in the city, including a gated seaside resort village.

Despite the growing tensions, Abdul-Jalil and other NTC leaders have said they cannot disarm the fighters quickly.

Noting high unemployment among the armed men, Abdul-Jalil said the new government must offer alternatives first, including jobs, study and training.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45276784/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Monday, November 14, 2011

Accused Pentagon plotter risk to others-prosecutors (Reuters)

WORCESTER, Mass (Reuters) ? Prosecutors on Monday described a Massachusetts man accused of plotting to attack U.S. targets using model aircraft as a "ticking time bomb" who should not be released to home confinement before a trial.

Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen, has pleaded not guilty to charges he plotted to fly remote-control, explosives-laden aircraft into the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol and to follow up the attacks with a ground assault.

Ferdaus, whose case has renewed concerns about the risk of home-grown militant attacks, also was accused of attempting to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda. He was arrested after an undercover operation.

"The defendant should be detained for the safety of the community," said prosecutor Stephanie Siegmann during a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Prosecutors said Ferdaus had been warned before his arrest about hostile and threatening behavior at a religious center he attended, and that he was committed to jihad and his goal was to terrorize the United States.

Ferdaus had even talked about making homemade explosives, prosecutors said.

His defense team requested he be released under house arrest to his family's home in Ashland, Massachusetts, about 25 miles west of Boston, and would explore the possibility of bail with his parents.

Defense attorneys called the attack plan "fantasy," similar to a video game.

"It is clear, that on his own, without the FBI, Mr. Ferdaus would not have done anything," public defender Miriam Conrad said.

He did not know how to obtain explosives or assault weapons and did not make any effort to reach out to al Qaeda on his own before he was introduced to two undercover FBI employees, Conrad said.

Ferdaus, a physics graduate from Northeastern University in Boston, was arrested and charged in September.

Authorities said in an affidavit that he began planning to commit a violent "jihad" against the United States in early 2010.

He allegedly modified mobile phones to act as electrical switches for improvised explosive devices, authorities said, and is accused of supplying the phones to undercover FBI employees he believed were al Qaeda members or recruiters.

If convicted, Ferdaus faces up to 15 years in jail for providing support to foreign terrorists, up to 20 years for attempting to destroy national defense premises, and up to 20 years for attempting to damage and destroy buildings owned by the United States.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111114/us_nm/us_usa_crime_ferdaus

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beSpacific: Office of Finance 3Q 2011 Combined Operating ...

* Office of Finance 3Q 2011 Combined Operating Highlights for Federal Home Loan Banks

Office of Finance Announces Preliminary Unaudited Third Quarter 2011 Combined Operating Highlights for the Federal Home Loan Banks

  • "These highlights are prepared from the unaudited financial information of each Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) and are subject to change. This announcement contains unaudited individual and combined FHLBank balance sheet and income statement highlights as of and for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011 and comparative periods, attached as Tables I and II. Each of the FHLBanks has announced preliminary unaudited financial highlights for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2011, filing a Form 8-K with the SEC. The FHLBank System (System) continued to fulfill its mission by providing readily available and favorably priced wholesale funding to members while supporting the System's commitment to affordable housing. In addition, with the completion of the REFCORP obligation, the FHLBanks have an enhanced ability to further strengthen the System's capital base through increased retained earnings."
  • Related postings on financial system
  • Source: http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/028744.html

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    Sunday, November 13, 2011

    Sony's CEO is ready to launch a four-screen platform 'that can compete with Steve Jobs'

    After announcing that it would completely revamp its struggling TV business after yet another quarter of financial setbacks, what's next for Sony? CEO Howard Stringer tells the Wall Street Journal that R&D is focusing on a "different kind of TV set." He didn't specify whether he was talking about the company's efforts with Google TV or any other technology, however he did note the "really well organized" beauty of the iPhone and said that after a five year quest to build a platform that would compete with Steve Jobs, it's finally ready to launch. This all hinges on Sony's ability to pull its four screens (phones, tablets, PCs, TVs) together with network services like Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited (and hopefully make those Qriocity-birthed offerings famous for something other than being a footnote in its hacking scandal). Sony has finally begun to acknowledge its weaknesses in software and providing a uniform user experience, we'll probably find out more about how it plans to turn that around at CES 2012 in January.

    Sony's CEO is ready to launch a four-screen platform 'that can compete with Steve Jobs' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink   |  sourceWall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments


    Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/lMWLKvJ2GBg/

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    Saturday, November 12, 2011

    Prince William to be deployed to the Falklands

    File - This is a file photo dated March 31 2011 of Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, at the controls of a Sea King helicopter. Prince William will be deployed to the politically sensitive Falkland Islands next year as an air force search and rescue pilot, Britain's defense ministry said Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. The second in line to the British throne will spend six weeks in February and March at the British outpost 290 miles (460 kilometers) east of Argentina's coast in the Atlantic Ocean, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. (AP Photo / John Stillwell / PA, file) UNITED KINGDOM OUT

    File - This is a file photo dated March 31 2011 of Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, at the controls of a Sea King helicopter. Prince William will be deployed to the politically sensitive Falkland Islands next year as an air force search and rescue pilot, Britain's defense ministry said Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. The second in line to the British throne will spend six weeks in February and March at the British outpost 290 miles (460 kilometers) east of Argentina's coast in the Atlantic Ocean, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. (AP Photo / John Stillwell / PA, file) UNITED KINGDOM OUT

    (AP) ? Prince William will be deployed to the politically sensitive Falkland Islands next year as an air force search and rescue pilot, Britain's defense ministry said Thursday.

    The second in line to the British throne will spend six weeks in February and March at the British outpost 290 miles (460 kilometers) east of Argentina's coast in the Atlantic Ocean, the Defense Ministry said.

    He will be part of a crew of four Royal Air Force personnel on the deployment. The prince, known in the military as Flight Lt. William Wales, is an RAF helicopter pilot, currently based in Wales.

    The defense ministry said William, 29, would not undertake any ceremonial royal duties during the deployment. His wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, will remain in Britain.

    Britain has ruled the Falklands for more than 180 years, but Argentina claims sovereignty over the islands it calls Las Malvinas.

    Next year is a sensitive time ? the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War.

    Argentina invaded the islands in April 1982, and British forces retook them after a 10-week war that killed 650 Argentine troops, more than 250 British personnel and three islanders.

    William's uncle, Prince Andrew, served in the conflict as a Sea King helicopter pilot.

    Britain still maintains about 1,000 troops in the territory, which is home to about 3,000 people.

    The residents overwhelmingly wish to remain British, but Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has insisted Argentina and Britain should negotiate over the future of the islands, as the U.N. General Assembly has urged.

    British Prime Minister David Cameron has refused.

    "As long as the Falkland Islands want to be sovereign British territory, they should remain sovereign British territory ? full stop, end of story," Cameron said in June.

    In response, Fernandez accused Cameron of "mediocrity bordering on stupidity."

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-11-10-Britain-Prince%20William/id-90ec99bcbd2641648103dd2b95433172

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    Drug helps fat monkeys slim down - are people next? (Reuters)

    CHICAGO (Reuters) ? An experimental drug that chokes off the blood supply to fat cells helped obese monkeys slim down, a sign that it may work in people, too, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

    The drug, known as Adipotide, takes a different approach from other weight loss medicines, which have generally tried to control appetite, alter the absorption of fat or increase metabolism in order to help people lose weight.

    "Development of this compound for human use would provide a non-surgical way to actually reduce accumulated white fat," said Renata Pasqualini of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, whose study appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

    The drug works by seeking out and sticking to proteins on the surface of blood vessels that feed white fat cells -- the kind that gathers under the skin and around the middle.

    Once attached, the drug releases a synthetic molecule that triggers a natural process of cell death that kills the fat cells.

    Earlier tests of the drug on obese mice helped them lose 30 percent of their body weight.

    The latest study involved 15 monkeys that became obese in much the same way humans do -- by overeating and getting too little exercise.

    Ten monkeys were treated and five were the control group. At the end of the study, treated monkeys lost an average of 38.7 percent of their total body fat, compared to 14.8 percent for the control animals.

    Treated monkeys also lost 27 percent of their abdominal fat.

    Monkeys remained bright and alert throughout the study. The chief side effects were increased urine output and slight dehydration, both symptoms of mild kidney failure. But these were reversible and varied by dose.

    The researchers are now planning to test the drug in obese patients being treated for prostate cancer.

    "Obesity is a major risk factor for developing cancer, roughly the equivalent of tobacco use, and both are potentially reversible" Dr. Wadih Arap, also of MD Anderson, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

    "Obese cancer patients do worse in surgery, with radiation or on chemotherapy -- worse by any measure."

    Patients in the study will get daily injections of the drug for 28 consecutive days.

    "The question is, will their prostate cancer become better if we can reduce their body weight and the associated health risks," Arap said.

    Drug companies have had a difficult time getting new obesity drugs approved in the United States, with Vivus Inc, Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc's all suffering setbacks this year over safety concerns.

    More than a third of Americans are overweight and more than a quarter are obese, increasing their chances of developing health problems including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease and some cancers.

    (Editing by Xavier Briand)

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weightloss/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111110/hl_nm/us_obesity_drug_monkeys

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