In Idaho, teacher bonuses depend on parents

BOISE, Idaho?? Parents across Idaho will now play a role in whether or not their child's teacher gets a raise.

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Teacher bonuses in more than two dozen school districts statewide will depend to some degree on how well they can engage parents throughout the year, as part of new education changes signed into law earlier this year.

The laws championed by public schools chief Tom Luna carry sweeping changes for Idaho's public schools that include phasing in laptops for high school teachers and students, while requiring online courses.

School districts and public charter schools were also required to develop plans to reward employees who go above and beyond. The teacher pay-for-performance bonuses could be based on a variety of factors, including improved test scores and attendance rates.

A database compiled by the state Department of Education shows schools districts have adopted a mixture of criteria, giving teachers points for everything from student attendance to graduation rates and writing assessments.

The result: A laboratory of pay-for-performance methods in a state that has long debated whether teacher pay should be tied to things like student test scores.

At least 29 school districts statewide have since developed merit pay plans based, at least partly, on parental involvement.

In the central Idaho countryside, Challis schools have set a goal that teachers make contact with the parents of their students at least twice every three months.

"We're a really little town in the middle of nowhere, parents are pretty involved in what's going on, but we wanted to get them more involved in the academic side of the school," said Challis Superintendent Colby Gull.

Of the two required contacts, one can be general, such as a note sent home with every student in their class, while the other contact must be personal, where a parent is informed specifically about their student. That personal point of contact can be as simple as a teacher running into a parent in town.

"In Challis, that happens every time a teacher goes to the grocery store," Gull said.

And that chance meeting would go toward the teacher's merit pay goals.

"As long as they're talking about what's going on in the classroom and the parent is informed about their student," Gull said.

In southern Idaho, up to 70 percent of the potential bonus available to employees at Wendell High School will be based on attendance at parent-teacher conferences. More than 40 percent of parents have to attend the meetings in order for Wendell teachers to earn the maximum bonus and that goal was exceeded this fall.

In the nearby farming and ranching town of Gooding, the school district has a similar plan for seventh through 12th grades, with 25 percent of the teacher bonus based on parent attendance at three conferences throughout the academic year.

In northern Idaho, the Kendrick School District will also base the merit pay bonuses for teachers on how well they involve parents. "I think it's important to include parents, to engage parents," said Kendrick Superintendent Calvin Spangler.

Some critics of Luna's education changes have questioned the larger role for moms and dads. Their concerns include: Will an educator be afraid to discipline a student because their parents will now have a say in teacher job evaluations, under the education changes.

Spangler counters that since parents will already have input in job evaluations under Luna's plan, why not include them in the merit pay portion.

"If they're going to be involved, we might as well get them involved right now," Spangler said.

But how involved parents are may also be outside the control of teachers to some degree, said Penni Cyr, president of the Idaho Education Association.

"Idaho teachers know that parents are very, very important in the education of their child," Cyr said. "But there also factors that are outside of a teacher's control. So is it reasonable for holding teacher responsible for getting parents to a conference or to withhold pay because parents can't attend conferences for whatever reason?"

About 50 school districts and charter schools have opted not to develop their own pay-for-performance systems but rather to comply with the state's plan, which bases bonuses on standardized test scores. In the 105 districts and charter schools that have developed or are working on their own merit pay plans, teachers will still have to meet statewide goals in order to receive their pay-for-performance bonus.

The bonuses will be paid out during the next fiscal year, which starts in July 2012.

The statewide teachers union has criticized Luna's plan, which shifts money from school employee pay and benefits to help pay for the education changes. The reduced money for employee salaries has resulted in fewer teachers and larger class sizes in some school districts.

This year, the state is shifting $14.7 million in employee pay and benefits to increase the minimum teacher pay to $30,000, restore salary increases for teachers who further their education and pay for high school students who graduate early to earn college credits.

Under a proposed budget for next year, Luna wants to use about $20 million from Idaho's projected budget surplus to replace the funding that would continue to be taken from salaries to pay for new education changes, such as the teacher merit pay.

While critics of the funding formula have argued that Idaho is reducing money for all teacher salaries to award bonuses to a few, that has yet to happen and the projected surplus could allow the state to avoid that altogether, Luna spokeswoman Melissa McGrath said.

"No money has been shifted from salaries toward pay-for-performance, and our proposal for next year would not make that necessary because of recent revenue projections," McGrath said.

___

Jessie L. Bonner can be reached at http://twitter.com/jessiebonner

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/45094852/ns/us_news-life/

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Egypt military detains activist over clashes: lawyer (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egyptian military prosecutors ordered an activist be detained on Sunday for 15 days and another bailed pending investigations into accusations they incited violence, a move rights groups say is part of a crackdown by the ruling army on dissent.

A lawyer for Alaa Abd El Fattah, a high-profile blogger, said he was detained after appearing with activist Bahaa Saber before military authorities on Sunday over "inciting violence and sabotage" in connection with deadly clashes between the army and protesters in Cairo on October 9.

Saber was released on bail, said the lawyer, who said he would appeal Abd El Fattah's detention despite facing little chance of winning a case against the military prosecutor.

Abd El Fattah's sister told Reuters he was detained after both activists had refused to answer the army prosecutor's questions. She said they rejected the "legitimacy of the military prosecutor" and would only speak to a civilian official.

Egyptian military sources were not immediately available to comment on the case.

Some 25 people were killed in clashes that erupted during a demonstration by Christians over what they said was an attack on a church in southern Egypt.

Protesters said military police used excessive force, firing live ammunition and driving army vehicles into the crowds. The army defended their actions during the protest and blamed "foreign elements" and other agitators for the violence.

"They committed a massacre, a horrible crime and now they are working on framing someone else for it," Abd El Fattah earlier told Reuters on his way to the military prosecutor's office. "This whole situation is distorted."

"Instead of launching a proper investigation, they are sending activists to trial for saying the plain truth and that is that the army committed a crime in cold blood," he said, adding the military was using the "incitement" card to shift the blame away from its own officers.

MILITARY TRIALS

Authorities have detained 28 others on suspicion of attacking soldiers. Any trial will be before a military court, a move that has drawn broad criticism from politicians who want the army to use civilian courts and say the military cannot be the arbitrator when it is accused of having a role.

London-based rights group Amnesty said Saber could be charged with "verbal incitement" and said alleged videos showing Abd El Fattah throwing rocks during the protests could be used against them.

If charged, the two are also likely to face military trials, the rights group and others said.

Abd El Fattah, a well-known blogger and political activist, was previously arrested in 2006 when ousted President Hosni Mubarak was still office. Critics say the army has been using similar tactics against dissenters as Mubarak did.

Sunday's detention order was met by condemnation from activists who said the army was attacking "symbols of the revolution."

"The regime that arrested Alaa in 2006 is the same regime that is arresting him 2011, it has not yet fallen," Muhamed El-Hajj wrote on Twitter, reviving a 'Free Alaa' campaign that was used in 2006 to free the blogger.

Rights groups say over 12,000 civilians have been brought before military courts since the uprising that toppled Mubarak in February, calling into question the willingness of the army council to transform Egypt into a democracy.

"The military justice system should never be used to investigate or prosecute civilians. Military courts are fundamentally unfair, as they deprive defendants of basic fair trial guarantees," Amnesty said in a statement.

"The fact that military prosecutors are responsible for investigating the violence -- for which members of the armed forces are believed to be largely responsible -- has raised serious questions over the inquiry's independence."

(Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/wl_nm/us_egypt_activists

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Indian Grand Prix dogged by animals? (Reuters)

NOIDA, India (Reuters) ? The odds on a dog running on to the track and interrupting the inaugural Indian Grand Prix were priced at 100-1 Friday despite two incidents during first practice at the Buddh circuit.

British bookmaker William Hill offered what looked like attractive odds on any part of third practice, qualifying or the Formula One race itself being delayed due to the presence of an animal on the circuit.

While Friday's problems might be shrugged off as not unusual for India, where animals dead and alive are traffic hazards, it was no laughing matter for the drivers and particularly for Renault's Brazilian Bruno Senna.

Senna, whose uncle and triple world champion Ayrton died in a crash at Imola in 1994, was lucky to escape unscathed when he hit a dog on the track during a GP2 race at the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix.

"I saw a dog at the entrance to the track today, near the paddock and it was the same dog that stopped the Formula BMW session," he told Reuters. "So that was a bit worrying.

"Hopefully they (the marshals) will be keeping a sharper eye out. It's better to happen in a practice session than happening in a race like happened in Turkey where out of the blue two dogs showed up.

"It's a major worry, a very serious issue and we hope we don't have to think about it any more... I have suffered the consequences once and thankfully came out of it alive," said Senna.

Driver safety is very much on the minds of everyone in Formula One after a grim few weeks for motorsport, with double Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon and Italian MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli killed in track accidents.

The straight at the circuit near New Delhi is one of the longest in Formula One and cars will reach a top speed of around 315 kph. Hitting a dog even at far lower speeds could easily kill a driver if his head takes the impact.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso said he was confident the dog problem had been resolved.

"It was not good obviously to see animals running on the track," the double world champion told Reuters. "If this happened in a race situation it can become dangerous.

"If you are in a group of cars or something it can cause an accident... it is something that I am sure the circuit will avoid and I'm 100 percent confident that Sunday it will be no problem at all."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar; For Reuters sports blog Left Field go to: http://blogs.reuters.com/sport)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/od_nm/us_prix_dogs_odd

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Ericsson sells its Sony Ericsson stake to Sony (AP)

STOCKHOLM ? LM Ericsson and Sony Corp. announced Thursday they will go separate ways as Ericsson sells its 50 percent stake in mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson to Sony for euro1.05 billion ($1.46 billion).

Sony Ericsson will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony and integrated into Sony's broad platform of network-connected consumer electronics products, the Japanese company and Swedish wireless equipment firm said.

The transaction gives Sony an opportunity to quickly integrate smartphones into its portfolio of network-connected consumer electronics device, such as tablets, televisions and personal computers, the companies said.

The move was widely anticipated by analysts, who have argued Sony Ericsson could become more competitive in the tough smartphone market under sole Sony ownership.

Shares in Ericsson rose by 4.3 percent to 69.55 kroner ($10.6) in early Stockholm trading, while Sony stock climbed 5.4 percent to 1.65 yen ($21.7) before closing in Tokyo.

"I believe this improves the outlook for Sony Ericsson, because Sony can take full responsibility for the company and use the unique things that they have," said Greger Johansson, an analyst with research firm Redeye. "The opportunity to integrate the phones with their other products improves."

Johansson said the smartphone market is "extremely tough" and Sony Ericsson's competitors are also developing quickly.

He said the price Ericsson received wasn't great, but it will be a relief for the Swedish company to be able to focus on its core wireless equipment business and offload the mobile phone maker that has taken up a lot of management time.

"Sony Ericsson has no strategic value for Ericsson anymore," added Helena Nordman-Knutson, an analyst with Ohman Fondkommission in Stockholm.

Ericsson and Sony combined their unprofitable handset ventures into the joint venture Sony Ericsson in 2001 and enjoyed some early successes with its Walkman and Cyber-shot phones.

In recent years it has suffered from the competitive climate in the smartphone market and earlier this month the company posted a break-even third quarter result.

The company adopted Google's Android operating system for its smartphones in 2008, and has said it now controls about 11 percent of the Android-based smartphone market. Its Android-based Xperia smartphones account for more than 80 percent of its sales.

Thursday's deal will provide Sony with an intellectual property cross-licensing agreement, covering all products and services of Sony as well as ownership of five essential patent families relating to wireless handset technology.

"We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment," Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer said, adding this includes Sony's own network services, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network.

Stringer said the acquisition will also afford Sony operational efficiencies in engineering, network development and marketing.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, but has been approved by appropriate decision-making bodies of both companies.

Ericsson said the shift in the mobile market, from simple mobile phones to smartphones that include access to internet services and content, means the synergies for the company in having both a telecoms services portfolio and a handset operation have decreased.

"Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture, thereby combining Sony's consumer products knowledge with Ericsson's telecommunication technology expertise, it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones. Today we take an equally logical step as Sony acquires our stake in Sony Ericsson and makes it a part of its broad range of consumer devices," said Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg.

Ericsson said it will now focus on the global wireless market as a whole and how wireless connectivity can benefit people, business and society beyond just phones.

Ericsson and Sony will also set up a wireless connectivity initiative aimed at driving and developing the market's adoption of connectivity across multiple platforms, they said.

The agreement is expected to close in January 2012.

___

Malin Rising can be reached at http://twitter.com/malinrising

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_sweden_sony_ericsson

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In Pakistan, a militant deal sours (AP)

ISLAM NAGAR, Pakistan ? The deal saw one of Pakistan's most feared militants walk from jail apparently in exchange for his commitment to nonviolence, help in reining in other fighters and possibly delivering the votes of his followers.

Supporters showered Malik Ishaq with rose petals when he left the prison in the eastern city of Lahore in July. Days later, he was preaching murderous hatred toward minority Shiites to crowds of cheering Sunnis, energizing a network whose members have joined al-Qaida for terror strikes. That was too much for Pakistani authorities, who arrested him again last month.

Pakistan has a well-documented history of trying to coopt or strike deals with militants of various causes, and a close examination of the Ishaq case shows how that can play out.

It's a cautionary tale, perhaps, for U.S. officials who are urging Pakistan to bring to the negotiating table Afghan militants who enjoy safe havens in the country's lawless border regions.

Fifteen years ago, Ishaq founded Laskhar-e-Jangvi, or LeJ, which allies itself with al-Qaida and the Taliban. The LeJ is blamed for scores of attacks on Shiites, regarded as infidels, and on Pakistani and U.S. interests.

Ishaq was arrested in 1997 and accused in more than 200 criminal cases including the killings of 70 Shiites.

But the state could never make the charges stick ? in large part because witnesses, judges and prosecutors were too scared to convict.

Frightened judges treated him honorably in court and gave him tea and cookies, according to Anis Haider Naqvi, a prosecution witness in two cases against Ishaq. One judge attempted to hide his face with his hands, but Ishaq made clear he knew his identity in a chilling way: He read out the names of his children, and the judge abandoned the trial, he said.

Despite the lack of convictions, Ishaq remained in prison for 14 years as prosecutors slowly moved from one case to the next.

Ishaq proved his usefulness to the army in 2009, when he was flown from jail to negotiate with militants who had stormed part of the military headquarters in Rawalpindi and were holding hostages there, said Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, who used to advise the Punjab provincial government on religious matters.

A behind-the-scenes effort by the government to co-opt the leaders of militant outfits and bring them into mainstream political life, or at least draw them away from attacking the state, helped Ishaq secure his July 15 release, according to Ashrafi.

"I met Ishaq several times in prison," Ashrafi said, emphasizing that Ishaq assured him that he wanted to contribute to peace. "If someone wants to get back to normal life, yes, why not, we do help him," said Ashrafi. "These are our own men." He said he was disappointed to see him back in jail.

Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan denied there was any deal behind Ishaq's release, but said extremist leaders were free to join politics if they eschewed violence. "We are in touch with those who have become, or want to become, useful citizens," he said.

The Punjab is the key battleground between the ruling party of President Asif Ali Zardari and the party of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, currently in power in that province.

Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi, the head of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, or SSP, LeJ's parent sectarian group, told a rally last year that Nawaz's brother, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, had promised that Ishaq's release "would be settled in meetings" with him.

"After that meeting, the time is not far when the prison door would break open and Malik Ishaq would be released," he said.

LeJ and other militant groups can muster significant support in Punjab and parts of Sindh province through their schools and mosques, making them an important political force. Mainstream politicians have shown no hesitation in courting them despite their links to violence.

Local SSP leader Mohammad Tayyab said a recent SSP-backed candidate for a regional assembly seat in southern Punjab got 17,000 votes.

"That is what Zardari's party and Sharif's know very well," he said.

Khaled Ahmad, an expert on Pakistani militant groups in Punjab, said there is "no doubt" that the SSP and Sharif's party would cut deals as they have done in the past. "It is dangerous now because the group and its offshoots are in alliance with al-Qaida."

Government intelligence reports obtained by The Associated Press show Ishaq made threats in his public appearances after his release from prison.

He urged his supporters not to be afraid of Pakistani laws or prisons, and told them to "get on the streets and crush publicly the Shiites who abuse the Prophet Muhammad's companions."

"We know how to kill and how to die," he told a gathering near Rahim Yar Khan on Sept. 4, according to one report.

Ishaq's aides denied he made such remarks.

The government suspected Ishaq of coordinating meetings in recent months of 50 or so alleged terrorists, said Khan, the law minister. Some of the men Ishaq visited directly after his release had allegedly been involved in terrorism and were being watched by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, said the government reports.

LeJ's stronghold is south and central Punjab, a neglected, blisteringly hot part of the country that has long been the recruiting ground for state-sanctioned jihadi groups. Wealthy families, disproportionately Shiite, own large swaths of land where tenant farmers grow cotton, sugarcane and wheat and work at mango orchids.

Visitors to Ishaq's house in Islam Nagar in the southern Punjabi city of Rahim Yar Khan are greeted by an SSP member with an automatic rifle, against a backdrop of flags and banners glorifying the group.

"My father's mission is a true one," said his son, Malik Usman. "We will seek our reward from Allah."

___

Associated Press Writers Aqeel Ahmad in Mansehra, Pakistan, Khalid Tanveer in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan and Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_militant_bad_deal

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NATO likely to end Libya mission now Gaddafi dead (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? NATO is to formally decide on Wednesday whether to end its mission over Libya now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead and buried and the country's new leaders have declared the nation "liberated".

The likely decision to end the alliance's patrols over the skies of Libya at the end of the month marks another milestone in what the National Transitional Council (NTC) has pledged will be a road toward democracy and free and fair elections in 2013.

But the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mo'tassim after both were captured wounded but alive on Thursday and the grisly public display of their decomposing bodies in a Misrata meat locker have made the NTC's Western backers uneasy about Libya's prospects for stable government and respect for the rule of law.

Gaddafi and Mo'tassim were buried in a secret desert location on Tuesday to prevent their graves becoming a shrine for any remaining followers in the oil-rich North African state.

Under pressure from Western allies, the NTC promised on Monday to investigate how Gaddafi and his son were killed. Mobile phone footage shows both alive after their capture. The former leader was seen being mocked, beaten and abused before he died, in what NTC officials say was crossfire.

The treatment of others who supported Gaddafi and fought alongside him was now an issue, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.

"This is a test. The NTC has repeatedly said that they will distinguish themselves from the Gaddafi regime in terms of the respect of human rights and the rule of law," he told a news conference in Morocco.

"Now is the time for them to begin actions that will help them reinforce these words."

RIVALRIES

Emerging from 42 years of often brutal one-man rule, many Libyans are savoring the end of eight months of bitter civil war won with NATO's backing and are unconcerned about how Gaddafi met his end and how his body was treated afterwards.

"Throw him in a hole, in the sea, in garbage. No matter. He is lower than a donkey or a dog and only foreigners say they care about how we killed him. And they are lying," said engineer Ali Azzarog, 47.

Hatred of Gaddafi unified his disparate opponents, who will likely now tussle for power during a planned transition to democracy in a nation riven with regional and tribal rivalries.

With economic problems at home, NATO countries are expected to endorse an end to their U.N.-mandated mission in Libya when their ambassadors meet in Brussels on Wednesday after a preliminary decision last week to end it on October 31.

"We said that we would consult closely with the United Nations and the NTC and that process of consultations is ongoing," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.

Libyan interim Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said he wanted NATO to maintain its mission for another month, but hoped for a swift end to United Nations sanctions to free up funds for the interim government to pay salaries and help reconstruction.

SAIF ON THE RUN

NATO spokeswoman Lungescu declined to say whether NATO might extend the mission.

"I don't know whether there is a formal request. All these things remain to be sorted out. But in the end this is a political decision," she said.

NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, James Appathurai, said he expected the alliance to confirm its decision to end the mission.

"I don't expect that there will be a change to that decision, because it is quite clear that the pro-Gaddafi elements no longer have the command and control or other capabilities to pose an organized threat to civilians. That is now finished, and as a result our operation will end," he said.

Western military powers have already begun winding down the Libyan mission, and diplomats have said the majority of NATO equipment, including fighter jets, has already been withdrawn.

A NATO statement on Tuesday said operations in the interim would involve intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, although NATO would retain the capability to conduct air strikes if they were needed.

The one remaining element from the old order is Gaddafi's sons, the enigmatic Saif al-Islam, who remains on the run. Once viewed as a moderate reformer, he vowed to help his father crush his enemies once the revolt began.

An NTC official said Saif al-Islam was in the southern desert near Niger and Algeria and was set to flee Libya using a false passport.

(Reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Misrata, Christian Lowe, Jon Hemming and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Samia Nakhoul in Dubai, Abdoulaye Massalaatchi in Niamey, Matt Falloon in London, Souhail Karam in Rabat; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by David Stamp and Ralph Gowling)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/wl_nm/us_libya

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Giant dinosaurs may have migrated

Evidence suggests sauropods?sought greener pastures during summer

Web edition : 2:23 pm

Recalling the trek made by the cartoon Apatosaurus Littlefoot in The Land Before Time, real sauropod dinosaurs in prehistoric western North America may have fled the summer drought conditions of lowland river floodplains for the lush vegetation of upland settings. Such migrations, if they occurred, might explain how long-necked sauropods reached their immense size, researchers from Colorado College suggest online October 26 in Nature.

With fearsome Jurassic predators like Allosaurus about, the bigger sauropods grew, the safer they were.? ?Once sauropods reached their full size, they were effectively immune to predation,? says study leader Colorado College geochemist Henry Fricke.? An allosaur attack would have been as harmless as ?a bunch of hyenas trying to attack an elephant.?

Some paleontologists believe that sauropods grew so large because they had difficulty chewing and therefore needed huge stomachs to digest food. As the animals? stomachs evolved to bigger sizes, so did the rest of them, the theory goes. While Fricke doesn?t discount this theory, he believes that seasonal sojourns to areas rich in vegetation also played a part in the evolution of gigantism in sauropods.

Fricke and his colleagues pursued his seasonal migration theory by studying chemical variations in the teeth of the chewing-challenged sauropod Camarasaurus. ?When animals drink water, the oxygen in that water gets incorporated into the blood stream and eventually into tooth enamel,? Fricke explains.? That water takes on distinct chemical signatures based on where in the environment the dinosaur lapped it up. For example, water from a mountain tarn and water from a lowland swamp will have different amounts of a particular form, or isotope, of oxygen that has two extra neutrons in its nucleus.

Fricke and colleagues measured oxygen isotopes extracted from the tooth enamel of eight Camarasaurus fossil remains from the western United States, and then compared the enamel isotope levels to those of minerals found in nearby sediments. Because the levels differed between the enamel and sediments, Fricke believes that sauropods must have been leaving the basin itself and going to the adjacent highlands to eat and drink.

Though Fricke?s study suggests the sauropods were supping elsewhere, he and other paleontologists don?t rule out other possible reasons for the huge herbivores to take a hike. ?Food may not have been the sole reason the sauropods moved,? says George Engelmann of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, who was not involved in the study. ?But the isotopic variation suggests, at least, that they were moving around.?

Fricke plans to test the tooth enamel of other nonsauropod dinosaur species, such as Stegosaurus, so that he can provide a more complete picture of sauropod feeding behavior. If the oxygen isotope levels of smaller herbivores like Stegosaurus indicate that they remained in the lowlands year-round to feed, then Fricke will have more evidence that a higher nutrient demand was the central factor driving the larger sauropods to migrate.?????

Found in: Life

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335602/title/Giant_dinosaurs_may_have_migrated

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Bill Kristol?s Appalling Attack on Occupy Wall Street

OWS has provided a critical spark igniting a much-overdue conversation about issues that had for too long been ignored in the corridors of power. Does OWS need to define a next step? Yes, it does. Does it attract, as does every gathering, fringe groups that should be isolated, ignored, and condemned? Yes, it does. But is supporting OWS the right thing to do? Absolutely.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=c85333261c27b11ac1cfccf2280b92ae

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German lawmakers win full say on EFSF (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? German lawmakers flexed their muscles to secure a full parliamentary vote Wednesday on euro zone crisis measures negotiated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her euro zone peers, a move senior politicians said would give Merkel a stronger mandate.

The new vote comes just one month after Germany's Bundestag (lower of house of parliament) approved greater powers for the euro zone rescue fund, and should pass without problems, but it risks delaying Europe's response to the debt crisis at a crucial juncture.

Merkel cannot agree to changes to the 440 billion euro European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) without approval at least from the Bundestag's budget committee, as a result of a constitutional court decision last month.

However, Merkel's Christian Democrats' (CDU) floor leader Volker Kauder demanded a full debate and vote by the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) rather than just a vote by the 41-member budget committee, which might have been quicker and less risky while still meeting new rules on consulting MPs.

"On such important questions it's good if parliament gives the chancellor broad backing for her negotiations," said Kauder regarding the vote due early Wednesday, before Merkel returns to Brussels for a second, decisive euro summit.

Major opposition parties the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens welcomed the vote, and indicated they would back proposals aimed at countering the debt crisis. But they stopped short of confirming they would vote "yes," saying they needed to see documents detailing the proposals first.

With criticism ringing in Germany's ears from the head of the Eurogroup of single currency members, Jean-Claude Juncker, about it being slow to make decisions, Merkel met the heads of the main parties to seek consensus.

Juergen Trittin, parliamentary co-leader of the opposition Greens, said Merkel had told them the haircut for Greece would be "above 50 and below 60" percent and that leveraging of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) could be above 1 trillion euros.

Merkel will address parliament before the vote and before returning to Brussels for what should be a more decisive summit on boosting the firepower of the EFSF, raising the contribution of private banks to Greece's rescue, and getting European banks to increase their own capital to prevent contagion.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, head of the SPD parliamentary group criticized the fact that lawmakers were still waiting to see full proposals.

"We are still not able to talk of concrete texts... Therefore I am not in a position to talk conclusively or to tell you how the SPD will vote this week in parliament," he told reporters.

BATTLING MERKEL

The Chancellor's supporters praised her for getting France to drop demands to use the European Central Bank to leverage euro crisis funds, and there was broader support also for a leader often accused of dithering.

"Merkel's Battle for our Euro," was Monday's headline in the mass-circulation conservative paper Bild, saying she taught France's Nicolas Sarkozy "that the EFSF rescue fund cannot be used to print money" to solve the debt crisis.

"The chancellor must stick to her guns -- in the interests of Germany and of Europe," said the newspaper.

Her conservative bloc's chief whip, Peter Altmaier, said Sunday's summit "made headway" on all three issues, including "using the EFSF to avoid having to print money," and it should now be possible to produce the "comprehensive" crisis response that Merkel and Sarkozy have promised by the end of this month.

"The chancellor negotiated well in Brussels. She showed strong leadership," Altmaier told reporters.

"The French president says he sees things just like Angela and I see that as progress," said the conservative premier of Hesse state, Volker Bouffier. "Germany and France must take the same line as the most important two countries."

Sarkozy ceded to German insistence at Sunday's summit that the ECB should not be used to fight the crisis, which poses an especially big threat to French banks and France's triple-A sovereign debt rating.

Instead, an EU paper obtained by Reuters suggested the euro zone would take up Germany's proposal of boosting the EFSF's firepower by using it as a form of debt insurance, combined with seeking help from emerging market economies like China and Brazil via a special purpose investment vehicle (SPIV) to prop up the euro zone's secondary bond market.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said these two options, which had no ECB involvement, were the only two left on the table for leveraging the EFSF and would be discussed by the summit Wednesday. He said they were not mutually exclusive.

(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt, Gernot Heller and Oliver Denzel; Writing by Stephen Brown and Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/bs_nm/us_eurozone_merkel

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Michael Simzak: World Series Whoppers: Fact-checking Baseball's Political Lore

When an institution has been around as long as baseball has, it develops its fair share of tall tales. From billy goats, to curses, to "called shots," baseball certainly has a few whoppers, and sometimes the urban legends are so great the diamond just can't contain them. Over the years a few of baseball's better yarns have managed to weave their way into the fabric of government. Inspired by the World Series, now tied at two games apiece, the Constitution Daily Sports Desk decided to look at baseball legends with political ties and separate fact from fiction.

Taft Stretches

MYTH: This one comes straight from a source with White House ties. While attending Opening Day in Washington, D.C. in 1910, William Howard Taft became uncomfortable in his seat. By the seventh inning, Taft could no longer sit, so he stood up to unwind. Out of respect for the president, everyone stood and the game was delayed. After a few minutes Taft took his seat again, the spectators followed, and the game resumed. From this the tradition of the seventh inning stretch was born.

FACT: At around 300lbs, William Howard Taft was America's most rotund president, so it is not hard to imagine that he would be uncomfortable in a stadium seat. Unfortunately, this story is just that: a story. The Baseball Almanac cites an 1869 letter from Cincinnati Red Stockings player Harry Wright as the earliest reference to a seventh-inning stretch. Wright mentions in a letter home that the fans get up in the middle of the seventh inning and stretch and occasionally walk around the stadium. However, this story is not entirely without truth. Taft was an avid baseball fan, and he did go to Washington Senators games while in office. At the request of Senators' owner Clarke Griffith, Taft participated in a ceremony on Opening Day of 1910 and threw a pitch to Walter Johnson, inaugurating the tradition of presidents throwing out ceremonial first pitches.

Castro Pitches

MYTH: In the late 1940s Fidel Castro, a left-handed pitcher, was spotted playing for a college team in Havana. Castro received a tryout with a Major League club, either the New York Yankees or the Washington Senators; however, he was not signed. Castro returned to Cuba so humiliated that he became an anti-American revolutionary leader.

FACT: There is no evidence to suggest that any baseball team ever gave Castro a tryout or that he was ever anything other than a recreational baseball player. This story is most likely a clever attempt to explain Castro's Communist politics.

Ike a.k.a. "Wilson, c.f."

MYTH: Dwight Eisenhower played minor league baseball for Junction City, KS, in the summer of 1911 under the assumed name "Wilson," before attending West Point and playing football for the Cadets.

FACT: This is probably the toughest of the rumors to substantiate or debunk. There is a record of a Wilson playing 9 games for Junction City in center field in the summer of 1911. To add to the intrigue, Wilson listed no first name or birthday. Eisenhower did play baseball in high school, and it was a fairly common practice for athletes to attempt to maintain their amateur status for college by playing under an assumed name. Eisenhower further muddied the waters by giving conflicting statements over his baseball career, he admitted privately that he had played as Wilson, but would deny his "nom de baseball" when pressed. Had Eisenhower played in 1911 he would not have been eligible to play any sport in college. Furthermore, his deceit would have put him in violation of the honor code at West Point.

What's the moral of these tales, as Texas and St. Louis battle it out? We like to keep both our politicians and the game of baseball honest. And up to a point it's a good idea to fact-check baseball lore, too. So long as truth doesn't get in the way of a good story.

This post first appeared on Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-simzak/baseball-myths_b_1028249.html

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Warner Bros. Wants Ben Affleck to Direct The Stand

In a bit of a head scratcher, Warner Bros. has chosen Ben Affleck to write and direct their adaptation of Stephen King?s The Stand. The reason that this news is confusing is that just a couple months ago, it was reported that Warner Bros. was in negotiations with director David Yates to reunite with his Harry Potter scribe Steve Kloves for a multi-film adaptation of King?s novel. Deadline has the Affleck news, and their report has no mention of Yates. The Potter director was in high demand after helming the last four films in the beloved franchise, and it seemed as though he?d be tied up with The Stand for a few years before being able to take on any other projects. Now it looks as though Yates is free to choose another film as his follow-up. Hit the jump for more.

Affleck himself has been an in-demand director following his stellar one-two punch of Gone Baby Gone and The Town. He declined the Man of Steel gig, but one presumes that The Stand will be a fairly ambitious undertaking. No word on whether his version will span multiple films, though I would imagine that Warner Bros. would be keen on that idea for monetary reasons. I?m a big fan of Affleck?s other two directorial outings, so I?m anxious to see how he?ll tackle such a big adaptation. However, Affleck has yet to formally sign onto the gig, so it?s possible that he could end up not directing the pic. He?s currently filming the political/period drama Argo.

Here?s the synopsis for Stephen King?s The Stand:

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.

And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides ? or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail ? and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923815/news/1923815/

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He's floundered on debate stage, but Rick Perry at ease hunting pheasants in Iowa (Star Tribune)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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GoPro HD Hero2 sports cam captures craziest stunts

GoPro

By Rosa Golijan

GoPro, a popular sports camera brand, has added the HD Hero2 to its product lineup. This new gadget is supposedly twice as good as its predecessor and?? if its spec sheet is anything to go by?? that might not be an empty boast.

If you're unfamiliar with the GoPro camera systems, here's what you need to know:?These cameras are tough???waterproof and shockproof ??and they're meant to be taken on adventures. You can mount them onto helmets, in front of surfboards, onto handlebars, and so on in order to capture crazy stunts.

To see just what that might mean, check out GoPro's latest video demo:

Pretty great, no? But even if you're not ready to leap out of a plane or down a steep hill, the GoPro can still serve as a companion on the outings that are just a little bit to adventurous for your fragile everyday camcorder.?The HD Hero2 suit most needs quite well by using a 11MP sensor, shooting 1080p video, and offering improved low-light performance.

The GoPro HD Hero2 is available in three different bundles ??motorsports, surf, and outdoor ??and each includes a variety of accessories suited for its theme. Each bundle will set you back $299.99 and they're all available now.

Related stories:

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/24/8466486-gopro-hd-hero2-sports-camera-captures-even-the-craziest-stunts

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Magnetic Toothbrush Holder Cleanly Mounts Your Toiletries for Easy Access [DIY]

Having your toothbrushes, razors, and other bathroom tools strewn about your sink can get pretty messy, not to mention keep things wet and gross. This simple magnetic hanger will keep everything mounted on your wall for a cleaner look.

All you need for this is a piece of wood and a few strong magnetic strips glued together. Then, after gluing a few small washers on the back of your toothbrushes, they'll stick right on. Some electric toothbrushes will stick automatically, since they have metal parts inside them. Hit the link to see more details on putting it together.

Magnetic Toothbrush Holder | The Family Handyman

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You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and lurking around our #tips page.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/2PLTY4iRHV4/magnetic-toothbrush-holder-cleanly-mounts-your-toiletries-for-easy-access

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A bridge too far for owners and players in NBA labor dispute (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The likelihood of the NBA season starting at any point over the coming months appeared to be fast disappearing after marathon talks between players and owners ended this week without a deal being struck.

If anything, the gap between the two sides in their long-running labor dispute loomed as large as ever, despite indications that some progress had been made early on in their meetings in New York with federal mediator George Cohen.

When negotiations were finally halted on Thursday night after a total of 30 hours of discussions spread over three days, the body language on both sides summed up the impasse.

"We've kind of worn each other out," a grim-faced Peter Holt, chairman of the NBA's labor relations committee, told reporters. "We are where we are and they are where they are."

NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver, sitting next to Holt, said: "Ultimately, we were unable to bridge the gap that separates the two parties. At this time, we have no further discussions scheduled with the union."

The two sides are divided over two key issues -- the division of basketball-related income and the structure of the salary cap system.

NBA owners contend the league lost $300 million last season with 22 of 30 teams in the red and initially demanded players cut their share of revenue from 57 to 47 percent from the previous collective bargaining agreement, along with a firm salary cap and shorter contracts.

The players offered to reduce their share from 57 to 53 percent, and lowered that to 52.5 percent Thursday.

That was not enough for the owners, who had formally proposed a 50-50 split.

"That's when we broke off," Silver said of the abrupt halt to negotiations after five hours of mediation on Thursday.

BITTER TASTE

NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher was left with a bitter taste in his mouth.

"I want to make it clear that you guys were lied to earlier," he told reporters. "It's that simple. We've spent the last few days making our best effort to try and find resolution here. Not one that was necessarily a win-win.

"It wouldn't be a win for us, it wouldn't be a win for them but one that we felt like could get our game back-started and get our guys back on the court, get our vendors back to work, get the arenas open and get these communities revitalized."

The pre-season and the first two weeks of the regular season had already been canceled due to the protracted lockout that began on July 1 after the players and owners failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

Fisher, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, said the owners had incorrectly portrayed the union as having pre-conditions coming into the mediation talks.

"We in no way implied that we're not here to continue to negotiate," he added. "We in no way tied any one part to the other. We did not pre-condition our time and effort here.

"We continued to express our willingness to negotiate on the split as well as the system. We didn't say if they're not willing to come from 50 up to us at 52.5, that the talks are off.

"Coming into this process, we felt we were at 53 and they were at 50 and we would find a way to bridge that gap. Obviously they have no intention of moving from 50."

The NBA owners appear to be more focused on trying to find a way to give every team in the league an opportunity to be profitable.

"The competitive issues are as big an issue for us, as owners of these teams, as the economic issues are -- and particularly for the small markets," Holt said.

"We want to get to the point where all 30 markets have an opportunity, nothing guaranteed, but an opportunity to be competitive and an opportunity to make a few bucks.

"And so, on both sides of those issues, we went back and forth, and have been going back and forth for two years, and we're still pretty far apart."

(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Patrick Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111022/sp_nm/us_nba_dispute

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Panetta: Military's role to be discussed with Iraq

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) ? Once all U.S. troops in Iraq have left by year's end, Washington will negotiate with the Iraqi government on a possible American role in training the country's land and air forces, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday.

Speaking to reporters aboard his plane en route to Bali, Indonesia, Panetta said the U.S. and Iraq have not yet agreed even on the number of U.S. military personnel who would be assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to facilitate Iraqi arms purchases and to conduct initial training.

"That remains to be worked out," Panetta said shortly after President Barack Obama announced that all U.S. troops would depart Iraq by the end of the year.

In addition to what U.S. officials have envisioned as a staff of about 160 U.S. service members as part of the Office of Security Cooperation in the Embassy, Washington had been talking to the Iraqis about keeping a larger U.S. force, perhaps numbering in the thousands, to provide more comprehensive, collective training of Iraqi security forces beyond 2011. But those talks broke down over Iraq's refusal to grant immunity from prosecution for U.S. troops.

There are now about 39,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Panetta referred to them as combat forces even though Obama ended the U.S. combat role in Iraq in August 2010, leaving troops in an "advise and assist" role to help Iraq forces.

"Once we've completed the reduction of the combat presence, then I think we begin a process of negotiating with them (the Iraqis) in order to determine what will be the nature of that relationship ? what kind of training do they need, what kind of security needs to they have," he said.

Panetta offered no estimate of the number of U.S. troops that the Pentagon might be willing to provide as trainers or for other functions in Iraq after this year, but he noted that the U.S. keeps thousands of troops in some other Persian Gulf nations as part of normal security cooperation and training partnerships.

He cited as examples Bahrain, where there are nearly 5,000 U.S. troops as part of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet headquarters; the United Arab Emirates with nearly 3,000; and about 7,500 in Qatar, where the U.S. maintains a major air operations center.

In his responses to questions about the future U.S.-Iraqi security relationship, Panetta appeared to indicate that he thinks the Iraqis would benefit from additional U.S. help in developing its forces beyond 2011. But he also suggested that he does not think Iraq will be vulnerable without it.

"Iraq has developed a very good capability to be able to defend itself," he said.

During a visit to Iraq in July, Panetta said he hoped the Iraqis would agree to extend the U.S. military presence beyond this year in order to bolster Iraqi training.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, has said repeatedly that Iraq is not yet fully capable of defending its own air space or land borders, and that it needs help in other areas such as intelligence and logistics.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-21-Panetta/id-17570619485a45bfa3ccced3bf9bf474

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Liverpool owner says no truth to relegation report

By JIMMY GOLEN

updated 1:50 a.m. ET Oct. 21, 2011

BOSTON - Liverpool owner John Henry, who also owns baseball's Boston Red Sox, denied on Thursday that foreign owners in the English Premier League want to end the relegation and promotion system.

Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers' Association, said this week that some of the American and Asian owners of Premier League teams have been talking about scrapping the system that sends the bottom three teams to the second-tier League Championship.

But Henry called that "complete nonsense," telling The Associated Press it "hasn't been discussed."

Half of the Premier League's 20 teams are foreign-owned. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester United and Sunderland are owned by Americans, while Blackburn is under Indian ownership and Queens Park Rangers has Malaysian backers.

American sports leagues don't follow the European model that relegates the bottom teams in the standings and promotes the top teams from the minor leagues. Bevan warned that, if more teams are sold to overseas investors, they could force a change in the longstanding rules.

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

A change would require support from 14 of the league's 20 clubs and approval by The Football Association; league rules state the FA's consent is needed for "the making and adoption of or any amendment to ... promotion to and relegation from the league." It would also meet opposition from Europe's soccer and political institutions.

Other American-owned teams have also dismissed Bevan's claims.

United manager Alex Ferguson, whose club is owned by American Malcom Glazer and his family, said eliminating relegation "would be absolute suicide for the rest of the teams in the country, particularly the Championship." The Villa board headed by American Randy Lerner, who also owns NFL's Cleveland Browns, was "confused and surprised" by Bevan's remarks.

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

___

Follow Jimmy Golen at http://www.twitter.com/jgolen.

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

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United vs. City a clash of equals

??For the first time in a generation or more, the United vs. City match this Sunday?? the "Manchester derby"?? will be a true contest of equals.

Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

Klinsmann ripped

Bayern Munich's president has dismissed Jurgen Klinsmann's time as coach of the German powerhouse as an expensive mistake.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44982411/ns/sports-soccer/

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Haiti closes orphanage for child neglect

CARREFOUR, Haiti?? An orphanage where the director was accused by U.S. missionaries of not feeding children and selling donated goods was closed Friday in a rare crackdown by Haitian authorities.

Police officers and child welfare officials sealed off the unpaved street in front of the Son of God orphanage and 46 children who lived there were loaded into a UNICEF bus and taken to new homes. Police also took the daughter of the orphanage's founder in for questioning.

Haitian orphanage closed due to ?horrific? conditions

Diem Pierre, general coordinator of the Institute of Welfare and Research, said the government closed the orphanage permanently because inspectors found children living in unsanitary conditions. He said the inspection was prompted by complaints from U.S. missionaries.

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"We found kids with health problems," Pierre told The Associated Press. "They looked as though they hadn't eaten. They looked malnourished."

Such enforcement actions are rare in Haiti. Officials complain that child welfare workers lack the resources and training to investigate the several hundred orphanages and group homes in a country in which many parents are forced to abandon their children because of poverty or as they seek work abroad.

Haiti has an estimated 50,000 children in orphanages, though many have at least one parent still alive. Tens of thousands of Haitian children are also forced to work as domestic servants or prostitutes, particularly over the border in the Dominican Republic.

The government shut down a group home in the Port-au-Prince area in May only after U.S. federal prosecutors indicted the director, Matthew Andrew Carter of Brighton, Michigan, on charges of child sexual abuse. He was extradited to Miami, Florida, to face charges.

Pierre said only one other orphanage had been closed by the Haitian government in recent years.

Accusations of trafficking, abuse
The Son of God orphanage is a three-story building in Carrefour, a densely packed and dusty city along the edge of the sea to the west of downtown Port-au-Prince. The director, Maccene Hypolitte, was arrested in July on suspicion of involvement in child trafficking based on allegations presented by U.S. missionaries. Under the Haitian legal system he has been jailed pending a judicial investigation and has not been charged.

The report compiled by a coalition of five U.S. Christian missions and the aid group Catholic Relief Services alleges that Hypolitte had offered to let a missionary take a child away to receive medical care in exchange for a payment of $1,250, a figure that was later raised to $2,000. The missionary, working with Haitian authorities, returned later with part of the payment and Hypolitte was arrested.

His wife, Marie Andree Hypolitte, has been running the orphanage with the couple's 30-year-old daughter, and she denied any wrongdoing. She said the American missionaries have accused them of trafficking and abuse because they want to take over the business.

The wife said that the poor conditions of the orphanage, including dirty mattresses on the floor, holes in the concrete walls and the smell of urine, were proof that the family was not involved in any criminal activity.

"If I were selling kids, would this institution look like this?" she said, her voice choked with tears.

As she spoke, half a dozen toddlers with sunken eyes and patchy hair, signs of apparent malnutrition, wandered around the home.

The U.S. missionaries who raised the original complaints welcomed the closure.

Seth Barnes, executive director of one of the groups, Adventures in Missions, based in Gainesville, Georgia, said he and workers at six other organizations learned of the problems after visiting Son of God last year to check on donations of clothes and other goods and to see if the children needed any help.

Barnes said they found that donated clothes had gone missing and donated food disappeared from storerooms even as the children appeared to be going hungry. He said some kids simply vanished without any records or adequate explanation from the staff of the orphanage.

Barnes described conditions as "horrific" and said they began complaining to local authorities.

"We knew as of a year ago that there was a serious problem," he said.

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/44994627/ns/world_news-haiti/

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Video: Clinton to Pakistan: Stop harboring terrorists

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44994939#44994939

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Senate rejects GOP effort on terrorist trials (AP)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_terror_suspects

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Pollutants linked to 450 percent increase in risk of birth defects in rural China

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2011) ? Pesticides and pollutants are related to a 450 percent increase in the risk of spina bifida and anencephaly in rural China, according to scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Peking University.

Two of the pesticides found in high concentrations in the placentas of affected newborns and stillborn fetuses were endosulfan and lindane. Endosulfan is only now being phased out in the United States for treatment of cotton, potatoes, tomatoes and apples. Lindane was only recently banned in the United States for treatment of barley, corn, oats, rye, sorghum and wheat seeds.

Strong associations were also found between spina bifida and anencephaly and high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are byproducts of burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Spina bifida is a defect in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth. Anencephaly is the absence of a large part of the brain and skull.

"Our advanced industrialized societies have unleashed upon us a lot of pollutants," says Richard Finnell, professor of nutritional sciences and director of genomic research at the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas. "We've suspected for a while that some of these pollutants are related to an increase in birth defects, but we haven't always had the evidence to show it. Here we quite clearly showed that the concentration of compounds from pesticides and coal-burning are much higher in the placentas of cases with neural tube defects than in controls."

The study, which was published in August in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the result of a more than decade-long collaboration between Finnell and a team of researchers in Shanxi, a province in northern China.

Finnell sought collaborators in China because the prevalence of neural tube defects is much greater there than it is in the United States. Also, because of its population policies, China is good at tracking births.

"It's an extraordinary natural experiment," says Finnell, who was recently recruited to the university to help anchor the Dell Pediatric Research Institute. "It would be much harder to do this study in the United States, where neural tube defects are more rare. It's also an opportunity to assist the Chinese government in their efforts to lower their birth defect rates."

Working with public health officials in four rural counties in Shanxi, researchers collected placentas from 80 newborn or stillborn fetuses that suffered from spina bifida or anencephaly. Once a fetus or a newborn with such defects was identified as a case, the placenta of a healthy newborn with no congenital malformations born in the same hospital was selected as a control.

Finnell and his colleagues screened these placentas for the presence of a class of substances known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Common POPs include agricultural pesticides, industrial solvents and the byproducts of burning fuels such as oil and coal.

They found strong associations between the birth defects and high levels of a number of compounds present in commonly used pesticides. They also found elevated placental concentrations of PAHs.

"This is a region where they mine and burn a lot of coal," says Finnell. "Many people cook with coal in their homes. The air is often black. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to say that maybe there's something in there that isn't good for babies."

Finnell says although the environmental conditions in Shanxi are dramatically worse than they are in most areas of the United States, they are comparable to what the United States was like a century ago, and the neural tube defects are not solely a Chinese problem.

Every year about 3,000 pregnancies in the United States are complicated by neural tube defects. Many other congenital conditions, including autism, may one day prove to be related to environmental pollutants.

"Ultimately you need enough cells to make a proper, healthy baby," says Finnell, "and these are the types of compounds that cause cell death. At the most basic level, we're learning that environmental things kill cells, and if that occurs in a critical progenitor population at a crucial time, you're going to have problems."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Texas at Austin.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. Ren, X. Qiu, L. Jin, J. Ma, Z. Li, L. Zhang, H. Zhu, R. H. Finnell, T. Zhu. Association of selected persistent organic pollutants in the placenta with the risk of neural tube defects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011; 108 (31): 12770 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1105209108

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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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/yLBZ2vulC-Y/111019185134.htm

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