PARIS (Reuters) - Ten months into his mandate, President Francois Hollande scored the worst of any French president since 1981 in the TNS Sofres poll for Le Figaro magazine released on Thursday as he struggles to spur economic growth and create jobs.
Socialist voters who propelled Hollande to the presidency in May 2012 are now questioning his government's handling of an economy teetering near recession, a series of industrial layoffs and joblessness at a 15-year high.
Hollande's rating fell by 5 points in February in the monthly poll to 30 percent when respondents were asked whether they had confidence in their president to resolve the country's problems, pulled down by a 8 point drop from Socialist voters.
"Until now, the Elysee (presidential) palace could congratulate itself by saying that those who voted for the president remained loyal. That's now over," the survey said.
Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's rating also fell 5 points to 28 percent.
From November to January, Hollande's confidence rating was relatively stable, although still low, at about 35 percent in the poll, commissioned by the conservative-leaning publication.
The survey suggested Hollande has only enjoyed a short-lived boost from his military intervention in Mali, widely praised at home and by allies such the United States.
Data on Tuesday showed jobless claims rose to 3.17 million last month, the highest since July 1997, and Hollande admitted this week that sickly growth would make it harder to fulfill his pledge to stem the rise in unemployment by the end of 2013.
The survey of 1,000 people was conducted between February 21 and February 25.
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Gut microbiota research: Pinpointing a moving targetPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Aimee Frank afrank@gastro.org 301-941-2620 American Gastroenterological Association
(27 February 2013) Although considerable progress has been made in determining the impact of the gut microbiota on the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, the detailed study and understanding of the composition and effects of this intestinal community still faces numerous methodological and empirical challenges.
"Improvement of study design and sample collection, as well as a more precise understanding of the various genetic and environmental influences, are asked for," says Professor Dirk Haller (Technical University Munich, Germany), who addressed some of the central issues that make up the agenda of future research. Further information on this issue one of many topics presented at the 2nd World Summit "Gut Microbiota For Health" in Madrid, Spain, from 24 to 26 February 2013 can be found at http://bit.ly/WED27PR.
To keep themselves up to date on the rapidly increasing advances in the field of gut microbiota research, scientists and health-care professionals came together at the 2nd Gut Microbiota For Health World Summit. This year, the event was hosted by the Gut Microbiota & Health Section of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM) a member of United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), with the support of Danone Dairy.
A recent overview of gut microbiota research titled "Gut microbiota and gastrointestinal health: current concepts and future directions" has been published in Neurogastroenterology and Motility (Volume 25, Issue 1, pages 415, January 2013), the official journal of the ESNM and the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society (ANMS). The article is the first publication of ESNM's Gut Microbiota & Health Section and can be downloaded at
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nmo.12046/full.
###
About the Gut Microbiota For Health Experts Exchange website
The www.gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com Experts Exchange, provided by the Gut Microbiota & Health Section of ESNM, is an online platform for health-care professionals, scientists, and other people interested in the field. Thanks to being an open, independent and participatory medium, this digital service enables a scientific debate in the field of gut microbiota.
Connected to www.gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com, the Twitter account @GMFHx, animated by experts, for experts from the medical and scientific community, actively contributes to the online exchanges about the gut microbiota. Follow @GMFHx on Twitter. You can follow the Twitter coverage of the event using #GMFH2013.
About the Gut Microbiota & Health Section of ESNM
ESNM stands for the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, a member of United European Gastroenterology (UEG). The mission of the ESNM is to defend the interests of all professionals in Europe involved in the study of neurobiology and pathophysiology of gastrointestinal function. The Gut Microbiota & Health Section was set up to increase recognition of the links between the gut microbiota and human health, to spread knowledge and to raise interest in the subject. The Gut Microbiota & Health Section is open to professionals, researchers, and practitioners from all fields related to gut microbiota and health. www.esnm.eu/gut_health/gut_micro_health.php?navId=68
About the AGA
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programmes of the organisation. www.gastro.org
About Danone Dairy and Gut Microbiota For Health
Danone's conviction is that food plays an essential role in human health namely through the impact that gut microbiota may have on health. That is why Danone Dairy supports the Gut Microbiota For Health World Summit and Experts Exchange web platform with the aim to encourage research and increase knowledge in this promising area, in line with its mission to "bring health through food to as many people as possible."
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Gut microbiota research: Pinpointing a moving targetPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Aimee Frank afrank@gastro.org 301-941-2620 American Gastroenterological Association
(27 February 2013) Although considerable progress has been made in determining the impact of the gut microbiota on the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, the detailed study and understanding of the composition and effects of this intestinal community still faces numerous methodological and empirical challenges.
"Improvement of study design and sample collection, as well as a more precise understanding of the various genetic and environmental influences, are asked for," says Professor Dirk Haller (Technical University Munich, Germany), who addressed some of the central issues that make up the agenda of future research. Further information on this issue one of many topics presented at the 2nd World Summit "Gut Microbiota For Health" in Madrid, Spain, from 24 to 26 February 2013 can be found at http://bit.ly/WED27PR.
To keep themselves up to date on the rapidly increasing advances in the field of gut microbiota research, scientists and health-care professionals came together at the 2nd Gut Microbiota For Health World Summit. This year, the event was hosted by the Gut Microbiota & Health Section of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM) a member of United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), with the support of Danone Dairy.
A recent overview of gut microbiota research titled "Gut microbiota and gastrointestinal health: current concepts and future directions" has been published in Neurogastroenterology and Motility (Volume 25, Issue 1, pages 415, January 2013), the official journal of the ESNM and the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society (ANMS). The article is the first publication of ESNM's Gut Microbiota & Health Section and can be downloaded at
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nmo.12046/full.
###
About the Gut Microbiota For Health Experts Exchange website
The www.gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com Experts Exchange, provided by the Gut Microbiota & Health Section of ESNM, is an online platform for health-care professionals, scientists, and other people interested in the field. Thanks to being an open, independent and participatory medium, this digital service enables a scientific debate in the field of gut microbiota.
Connected to www.gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com, the Twitter account @GMFHx, animated by experts, for experts from the medical and scientific community, actively contributes to the online exchanges about the gut microbiota. Follow @GMFHx on Twitter. You can follow the Twitter coverage of the event using #GMFH2013.
About the Gut Microbiota & Health Section of ESNM
ESNM stands for the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, a member of United European Gastroenterology (UEG). The mission of the ESNM is to defend the interests of all professionals in Europe involved in the study of neurobiology and pathophysiology of gastrointestinal function. The Gut Microbiota & Health Section was set up to increase recognition of the links between the gut microbiota and human health, to spread knowledge and to raise interest in the subject. The Gut Microbiota & Health Section is open to professionals, researchers, and practitioners from all fields related to gut microbiota and health. www.esnm.eu/gut_health/gut_micro_health.php?navId=68
About the AGA
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programmes of the organisation. www.gastro.org
About Danone Dairy and Gut Microbiota For Health
Danone's conviction is that food plays an essential role in human health namely through the impact that gut microbiota may have on health. That is why Danone Dairy supports the Gut Microbiota For Health World Summit and Experts Exchange web platform with the aim to encourage research and increase knowledge in this promising area, in line with its mission to "bring health through food to as many people as possible."
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, Dragon spacecraft with solar array fairings attached, stands inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Sequestration could put SpaceX launches at risk.
By Dan Leone Space.com
WASHINGTON ? To deal with the nearly $900 million budget hit NASA will absorb if automatic spending cuts known as sequestration are allowed to take effect March 1, the U.S. space agency would slow development work on commercially operated astronaut taxis, delay or cancel space technology programs and postpone the launch of some small science missions.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden outlined the space agency?s sequestration plans?in a Feb. 5 letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who released it following a Feb. 14 hearing.
NASA?s overall budget would drop to $16.9 billion, down from the $17.8 billion Congress approved last year.
Spending on the commercial crew program NASA is using to subsidize development by Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada of competing human spaceflight systems would be reduced to $388 million ? $18 million less than it is currently spending and $441.6 million less than the agency had been planning to spend in 2013. [What NASA's 2013 Budget Pays For (Video)]
NASA, like all federal agencies, has had its funding frozen at 2012 levels under a stopgap spending measure known as a continuing resolution that expires March 28. NASA?s sequestration plan assumes that the continuing resolution will be extended through Sept. 30, the end of the U.S. government?s 2013 fiscal year.
Bolden said NASA?s commercial crew partners would feel a funding pinch as soon as July.
Among the commercial crew activities planned for later this year that NASA would not be able to fund after sequestration are:
A July test of Boeing?s CST-100 orbital maneuvering and attitude control engine.
A September review of an in-flight abort test SpaceX plans to conduct in April 2014.
An October integrated system and safety analysis review of Sierra Nevada?s DreamChaser space plane.
"Overall availability of commercial crew transportation services would be significantly delayed, thereby extending our reliance on foreign providers for crew transportation to the International Space Station," Bolden wrote.
Meanwhile, a sequester would also put the screws to NASA?s Space Technology Program, a White House priority under?President Barack Obama. Instead of getting the $699 million sought for the program, NASA would cut its budget back to $550 million, or about $24 million less than it has now.
To absorb the cut, NASA would consider canceling programs now in the development stage, including a highly publicized demonstration of a deep-space atomic clock, which was set to fly as a hosted payload on an Iridium Next satellite scheduled for launch in 2015. Four other space technology programs could also wind up on the chopping block, Bolden warned, and nine others might be delayed.
Small astrophysics and Earth science missions would also suffer under NASA?s plan to reduce the Science Mission Directorate?s budget to $4.86 billion. While that is only $51.1 million less than Science would have received under the agency's 2013 budget request, it is $200 million less than the mission directorate has today.
To absorb the cut, NASA intends to award 5 percent fewer research grants this year and reduce funding for new Explorer- and Earth Venture-class missions by 10 to 15 percent. Bolden said this would result ?in lower funding levels for new activities and causing minor launch delays.?
The next missions scheduled for launch in NASA?s Explorer line of small astrophysics missions are the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, an ultraviolet observatory slated for an April launch, and Astro-H, an X-ray observatory scheduled to launch in February 2014.
The next Earth Venture launch on NASA?s calendar is the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, which is supposed to lift off in July 2014.
This story was provided by?Space News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Germany?s ruling centre-right coalition is set to water down proposed legislation that would force internet search engines and news aggregators like Google to pay publishers for displaying snippets of their content.
The law regulating so-called ancillary copyright (Leistungsschutzrecht), which is scheduled to pass parliament on Friday, would no longer apply to extremely short passages.
?Single words or the smallest text excerpts? would be exempt from the law, Manuel H?ferlin, internet expert for the Free Democratic Party, told the DPA news agency late on Tuesday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition of Christian and Free Democrats proposed the Leistungsschutzrecht law to ensure press publishers were fairly compensated for their content, for example when a short summary of a news article appears on search engines or news aggregators.
But critics of the bill have dubbed it the ?Lex Google? because they say Germany?s beleaguered publishers are hoping to milk the successful US internet giant.
The company has mounted vigorous opposition to the legislation, saying content providers benefitted from traffic directed from snippets on its search engine and Google News.
?It was important to me to find a solution that allows the display of search results without making a visit to the original site superfluous,? H?ferlin said.
The VDZ and BDZV publisher associations reacted coolly to the proposed changes to the bill.
?We assume the ancillary copyright law first and foremost creates the legal foundation for press publishers to protect the work of publishers and journalists in the digital age,? they said in a joint statement.
Bed Bath & Beyond is famous for its immaculate towel displays that reach the ceiling.?
But the website Neatorama revealed what's really under the towel facade.?
Foam.?
"We've been sold a bill of goods!" Neatorama exclaimed on its Facebook page.?
Here's the photo:?
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(Reuters) - The prime suspect in the slaying of an aspiring rapper who was shot and killed while driving a Maserati on the Las Vegas Strip has a long criminal history, with prior arrests on charges that include robbery, sexual assault and kidnapping, police said on Monday.
Four days after the shooting touched off a fiery pre-dawn crash at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip that also killed a taxi driver and his passenger, police said they were now seeking help from the public in finding 26-year-old Ammar Harris.
Authorities believe Harris is the man who opened fire from behind the wheel of a black Range Rover on Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr., 27, early on Thursday at an intersection near several casino resort hotels.
Cherry, who performed under the name "Kenny Clutch," was mortally wounded and his sports car veered out of control, colliding with a taxicab in the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road.
Killed in the cab when it exploded into flames were driver Michael Bolden, 62, and a passenger identified in local media reports as Sandi Sutton of Washington state.
At a news conference on Monday afternoon, police officials, who over the weekend identified Harris as their prime suspect, asked members of the public with knowledge of his whereabouts to come forward.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Ray Steiber said anyone "harboring" Harris or helping him elude a multi-state manhunt could face charges as well.
"We are utilizing every available resource at our disposal to locate and take into custody Mr. Harris. He's wanted for three murders," Steiber said.
Police have said there were several men in the Range Rover at the time of the shooting, but officials declined on Monday to discuss the other occupants of the luxury vehicle.
HARRIS CALLED ONLY GUNMAN
"We are confident that Ammar Harris was and is the only shooter on that night," Steiber said. "At this point Ammar Harris is the one responsible for the shooting and the murder of three individuals."
Steiber said no weapons were found in Cherry's silver Maserati and he did not return fire on the Range Rover.
"Right now, as far as we're concerned, Mr. Cherry, he's the victim of a murder and that's what we're focused on," he said.
Police officials said Harris has a lengthy criminal record that includes arrests for weapons and pandering charges. It was not immediately clear if any had resulted in convictions.
He is described as having several distinctive tattoos, including a large black-eyed owl on his neck and small heart on his upper right cheek.
The apparently brand new Range Rover, which sported paper dealer plates, has been impounded, but police have declined to say where it was found. Steiber said no guns were found inside.
Authorities say the shooting may have stemmed from a verbal altercation in the valet area of the Aria Resort and Casino a few blocks away on the Strip.
The incident took place less than a mile from where rapper Tupac Shakur was shot in September 1996 while riding in a BMW with Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight after the two men had attended a Mike Tyson boxing match.
Shakur, 25, was hit by gunfire from at least one assailant in a Cadillac while sitting in Knight's car at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane and died six days later at a hospital. His murder remains unsolved.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Richard Chang and Andre Grenon)
Barnes & Noble and its Nook may be the subject of many a rumor of late, but that's not stopping the tablet-maker from its business -- which now includes Bluetooth speakers, apparently. We just spotted this previously unseen bad boy lurking in the FCC's antechambers packing the 2.4GHz Bluetooth bands and a rechargeable battery. That'd give some portable audio accompaniment to your Nook HD or other Bluetooth device (like the iPhone and iPod it was also tested with), though we're not sure how B&N's planning to market it. There's now a listing sans photos or other info parked on its site (see MC link), so you might soon be able to read yourself to sleep with that free book.
We recently did a post on the most petite/short celebrities in Hollywood and are now following up with the tallest. It’s really difficult to judge an actress/actor’s height by watching them on television or in movies so we thought it’d be interesting to see which stars stand above the rest in Hollywood…literally! Charlize Theron South ...
MOSCOW (AP) ? Syria is ready to hold talks with the armed opposition trying to topple President Bashar Assad, the country's foreign minister said Monday, in the government's most advanced offer yet to try to resolve the 2-year-old civil war through negotiations.
Walid al-Moallem did not say whether rebel fighters would first have to lay down their arms before negotiations could begin, a key sticking point in the past. Still, the proposal marked the first time that a high-ranking Syrian official has stated publicly that the government would meet with opposition fighters.
"We're ready for a dialogue with anyone who's willing for it," al-Moallem said in Moscow ahead of talks with his Russian counterpart, "even with those who carry arms. We are confident that reforms will come about not with the help of bloodshed but through dialogue."
One rebel commander welcomed the idea of talks, but only on the condition that Assad and those who are responsible for the bloodshed are put on trial.
Syria's 23-month-old conflict, which has killed more than 70,000 people and destroyed many of the country's cities, has repeatedly confounded international efforts to bring the parties together to end the bloodshed. Russia, a close ally of Assad and his regime's chief international advocate, offered last Wednesday, in concert with the Arab League, to broker talks between the rebels and the government.
The proposal ? which the Kremlin would be unlikely to float publicly without first securing word from Damascus that it would indeed take part ? suggested the regime could be warming to the idea of a settlement as it struggles to hold territory and win back ground it has lost to the rebels.
Syria's rebels have scored several tactical victories in recent weeks, capturing the nation's largest hydroelectric dam and overtaking airbases in the northeast. In Damascus, they have advanced from their strongholds in the suburbs into neighborhoods in the northeast and southern rim of the capital, while peppering the center of the city with mortar rounds for days.
On Thursday, a huge bomb blast near the ruling Baath party headquarters in Damascus killed at least 53 people, according to state media.
While the momentum may be subtly shifting in the rebels' direction, the regime's grip on Damascus remains firm, and Assad's fall is far from imminent ? or certain.
Ahead of the meeting with al-Moallem, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeated his call for Syria to negotiate with the opposition, saying that "the situation in Syria is at a crossroads now." He also warned that further fighting could lead to "the breakup of the Syrian state."
Past government offers for talks with the opposition have included a host of conditions, such as demanding that the rebels first lay down their arms. Those proposals have been swiftly rejected by both activists outside the country and rebels on the ground.
The prospect of negotiating with the armed opposition is made all the more difficult by the fractured status of those fighting to topple the regime. There are dozens of armed brigades and groups across the country and no unified command.
The head of one group, Free Syrian Army chief Gen. Salim Idriss, said he is "ready to take part in dialogue within specific frameworks," but then rattled off conditions that the regime has rejected in the past.
"There needs to be a clear decision on the resignation of the head of the criminal gang, Bashar Assad, and for those who participated in the killing of the Syrian people to be put on trial," Idriss told pan-Arab Al-Arabiya TV.
He said the government must agree to stop all kinds of violence and to hand over power, saying that "as rebels, this is our bottom line."
Both sides in the conflict in recent weeks have floated offers and counter-offers to hold talks to resolve the crisis.
In a speech in January, Assad offered to lead a national dialogue to end the bloodshed, but said he would not talk with the armed opposition and vowed to keep on fighting. The opposition rejected the proposal.
This month, the leader of the Syrian National Coalition, the umbrella group for opposition parties, said he would be open to discussions with the regime that could pave the way for Assad's departure, but that the government must first release tens of thousands of detainees. The government refused, and even members within the Coalition balked at the idea of talks.
Speaking to reporters Monday in Cairo, SNC chief Mouaz al-Khatib accused the regime of procrastinating and said it had derailed his dialogue offer by not responding to the Coalition's conditions.
"We are always open to initiatives that stop the killing and destruction but the regime rejected the simplest of humanitarian conditions. We have asked that the regime start by releasing women prisoners and there was no response," he said. "This regime must understand that the Syrian people do not want it anymore."
Countries in the region have watched the Syrian conflict with trepidation, fearful that the bloodshed could drag in neighboring states.
Turkey, which has taken in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and has exchanged fire across the border with government troops, is among those most concerned about the fallout.
Speaking to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Damascus of using "every instrument to turn the legitimate struggle of the Syrian people into a sectarian war which would engulf the entire region in flames."
"The longer this regime is allowed to wage its campaign of violence, the harder it will be to prevent such a dreadful eventuality," he added.
Meanwhile, the fighting inside Syria rages on.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group reported heavy clashes Monday outside a police academy in Khan al-Asal just outside Aleppo.
Rebels backed by captured tanks launched a fresh offensive on the facility on Sunday. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said at least 13 rebels and five regime troops were killed in the fighting.
In another part of Aleppo, rebels downed a military helicopter near the Mennegh airport, where there have been fierce clashes for months.
A video posted online by activists shows a missile being fired, a trail of white smoke and then the aircraft going up in flames. Voices in the background shout "God is great" as a man raises both hands in the air in celebration.
The video appeared to be authentic and corresponds to other AP reporting.
___
Lucas reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Reg Lansdowne wanted to celebrate his life, so he brought his friends and family together and held his own wake and one last epic celebration before he dies.
Lansdowne, a Wallaceburg resident, held a celebration in his honour at the CBD club in January. Like most wakes or funerals it featured a coffin, eulogies and a few tears and laughs. The only thing different from most wakes and funerals was that Lansdowne was there in person to see it.
?Why should everyone cry at a funeral?? Lansdowne asked. ?Let's party.?
Lansdowne has a larger-than-life persona. Outgoing and with a large laugh, he dominates any room he walks into. He likes a good time, and due to his large number of friends and an outgoing personality, he has the nickname The Mayor.
?I can make any day a holiday,? jokes Lansdowne.
But Mayor Reg is dying. He has COPD, damaged nerves in his back and a host of other health problems.
?I can go at any time,? he acknowledges.
Originally from Windsor, Lansdowne has called Wallaceburg his home for 12 years.
Part of the reason why he wanted to hold one last celebration is because when his mom was sick she wanted to hold one last party this summer, but she was too sick to attend and died in August.
When Lansdowne received his inheritance he knew he wanted to take part of it and spend it on one last party before he died.
He said everybody was laughing at his celebration. About 150 people attended.
?Everybody enjoyed it.?
The celebration was a good way for Lansdowne to hear good things about himself, things he wouldn't have heard after he died. Three people gave eulogies, including his sister and a couple of friends.
The celebration included a pig roast and a band. A hearse brought Lansdowne to his party. It also included a coffin, which Lansdowne built himself.
?I couldn't stop laughing. I never had such a great party. Everyone said it was one of the best parties I've ever thrown and I've thrown a lot of parties.
When he dies, Lansdowne said it will be a simple affair.
CANBERRA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - This year's second grounding of Lockheed Martin Corp's vaunted F-35 warplane, plus looming U.S. defense cuts, are likely to complicate a push this week by Lockheed and U.S. officials to convince wary Australian lawmakers and generals to stick to a plan to buy 100 of the jets.
Australia, a close American ally, is considering doubling its fleet of 24 Boeing Co F/A-18 Super Hornets amid delays and setbacks in Lockheed's $396 billion F-35 project.
That means Canberra could buy far fewer F-35s than initially planned, at a critical time when Canada is also rethinking its plans to make the F-35 - also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - its future frontline warplane.
Budget cuts have already forced Italy to scale back its orders, and Turkey has delayed its purchases by two years, though orders from Japan and Israel have buoyed the firm, and additional Israeli orders are expected in 2013.
Singapore has also taken a more active interest in the radar-evading jet, and South Korea is expected to announce a winner in its fighter contest late this year.
Australia and others are watching orders and problems with the jet with growing concern, since every reduction drives up the price of the remaining fighters to be built.
Given that, Friday's news that the plane was being grounded for the second time in two months, this time after a routine inspection revealed a crack on a turbine blade, was especially inopportune for Lockheed.
"It is a nuisance," said a spokesman for the Dutch defense ministry, which has already paid for two test planes but will determine the size of its total F-35 order later this year. "We wait for results of the inquiry."
Australian officials know the stakes are high.
"We're only a small player, but other countries are watching. Of course Lockheed don't want to see orders vanishing," said a source at Australia's Defense Materiel Organisation, part of the defense department, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
U.S. Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan, the Pentagon's F-35 program chief, approved the fleetwide grounding just before leaving Washington for a major air show in Melbourne, Australia which starts this week, when it will draw attention from potential customers in Asia.
Lockheed executives have been trying to reassure Canberra that the JSF is on course. They insist that problems with software and design, including imaging and night vision functions of the pilot's helmet, are being resolved, and testing is ahead of schedule.
BUDGET CUTS
One U.S. defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the technical problems bedeviling the new fighter were less troubling than Washington's budget woes.
Sweeping budget cuts due to take effect in the United States on March 1 could cut funding for the Pentagon's biggest weapons program and delay work on seven jets this year alone.
"What the foreign partners worry about is the stability of the program writ large," said the official. "We're solving the technical challenges. There are no showstoppers there, although they're not cheap."
In the U.S., military budgets are already slated to be cut by nearly $500 billion over the next decade, an amount which could double unless Congress acts in the next week to avert spending reductions known as "sequestration".
Australia's yearly defense budget of A$26.3 billion ($27.10 billion) was cut by 10.5 percent to A$24.2 billion this fiscal year, while the military's estimated budget to 2015-16 was slashed by A$5.5 billion.
Australia will decide at the end of this year on the timing of an order for an initial 12 F-35s while it considers options to replace 71 early model F/A-18 fighter jets and a recently retired fleet of 24 Vietnam-era F-111 supersonic bombers.
After the latest grounding, a former Australian defense minister in the Labor government, Joel Fitzgibbon, criticized the country's military commanders for their "obsession" with the troubled F-35.
"I think there is an almost obsession with the JSF within the uniformed ranks. This is their brand new toy," Fitzgibbon, who still holds a senior government role, told local media.
Many defense insiders expect plans for a fleet of F-35s to be revised to feature 48 Super Hornets - 12 equipped as EA-18G Growlers with radar-jamming electronic weapons - and as few as 50 Joint Strike Fighters.
A source familiar with the matter said Canberra's decision could come within the next three to six weeks.
"The Super Hornets will eat into F-35 orders," said Sam Roggeveen, a former Australian government intelligence and arms analyst, now with the Lowy Institute security think tank.
"It's not too crude to say it will be a one for one replacement, because so far that's the kind of basis that defense has so far been working on anyway," Roggeveen said.
MASSIVE U.S. ORDER
F-35 program vice-president Steve O'Bryan and executive vice-president Tom Burbage, who is retiring at the end of next month, have travelled to visit all the program's international partners in recent weeks.
"We will continue to drop the price of the airplane out to approximately 2020 where the U.S. government estimate is for an airplane, with the engine and all mission equipment, to be approximately $67 million," O'Bryan said in Australia last week.
Lockheed is building three different models of the F-35 fighter jet for the U.S. military and eight countries that helped pay for its development: Britain, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and Norway.
The Pentagon plans to buy 2,443 of the warplanes in the coming decades, although many analysts believe U.S. budget constraints and deficits will reduce that number.
The Lowy Institute's Roggeveen said the F-35 and Lockheed would survive even a serious drop in foreign orders.
"The scale of the order from the U.S. is so much bigger than international customers that Lockheed are not anywhere near the point of desperation."
($1 = 0.9704 Australian dollars)
(Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee says the committee will vote on Tuesday on the nomination of former White House chief of staff Jack Lew to be treasury secretary.
Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana says Lew has answered the committee's questions "in a thorough and fully transparent manner" and the committee has conducted a "thorough review" of the nominee.
Lew would succeed Timothy Geithner in President Barack Obama's second-term Cabinet.
Some of the toughest questions he faced during his confirmation hearing dealt with his short time at Citibank. Lew was a top executive during the height of the financial crisis.
On policy matters, he addressed Europe's debt crisis, U.S.-China relations and the 2010 financial regulatory overhaul.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Danica Patrick made more history at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.
She became the first woman to lead a lap and was the highest female finisher in the famed Daytona 500. She led five laps and finished eighth. Janet Guthrie had the previous best finish for a woman in the Daytona 500 ? 11th in 1980.
"You spend a lot of time thinking about what to do when the time comes," Patrick said. "I kept asking up above what was working. You needed a hole, you needed people to help you out. I had a little bit of help today here and there, but I felt like if I was going to dive low, I had a feeling I was going to get freight-trained. ... At the end of the day, it was a solid day."
Patrick, the former IndyCar star and current Sprint Cup rookie, was in position to make a run at winner Jimmie Johnson in the final laps. But Patrick faded, dropping from third to eighth as more experienced drivers passed her.
"We stayed basically in the top 10 all day long," she said. "You can't really complain about that. It was nice."
Patrick stayed out of trouble in a 200-lap race that saw several top contenders knocked out early.
Patrick started the "Great American Race" on the pole after becoming the first woman to qualify in the top spot. She failed to lead the first lap, though, falling behind three-time race winner Jeff Gordon.
Nonetheless, it was a big moment for NASCAR and Patrick.
But Patrick got her chance to be out front near the midway point. Fans were on their feet as Patrick beat Michael Waltrip to the front of the field on a restart. She led laps 90 and 91 and three more later before making a pit stop.
Patrick also made history as an IndyCar driver. She led 19 laps as a rookie in the 2005 Indianapolis 500, becoming the first woman to lead open-wheel racing's premier event. She finished fourth.
Getting older comes with some great perks, wisdom and self-assuredness being top among them. But it can also have unwanted effects on your body and health, which starts in your 40s for many.
Dr. Mike Moreno, author of "The 17 Day Plan to Stop Aging," has four anti-aging tips to help you combat the health decline that can come with getting older. His first piece of advice? Lose weight.
"Every extra pound you carry puts extra stress on each of your bodies' systems and can accelerate aging," Dr. Moreno said.
To see what else you should start doing in your 40s to stop aging, watch the video above.
Graph Search is Facebook's bold new way of browsing the social network, letting you call up photos of your family in California, restaurants your friends like in New York, or any public updates from Gizmodo employees who also like hot air ballooning. It's currently only available to a limited number of users, but it's coming to your timeline soon. And in the wrong hands, it can be the ultimate stalker search engine. More »
ADEN (Reuters) - Two people were killed and nine others were wounded in clashes between Yemeni security forces and separatists in the south of the country on Saturday, medical and security sources said.
The clashes followed separatist demonstrations in Mukalla, Ghayl ba Wazir and Aden, capital of the former state of south Yemen which merged with the north in 1990. Six people were shot dead during protests on Thursday.
One of those who died on Saturday was a 50-year-old civilian in Aden who was hit by a bullet, the sources said. The other was killed in Ghayl ba Wazir, a small town near Mukalla. The protests and clashes ended around noon.
The Islah party, one of the most powerful in Yemen, also said on Saturday that separatists had set fire to its headquarters in Mukalla, the capital of a former south Yemeni province.
The resurgent movement for a revived south Yemen state has aggravated political instability in the Arabian Peninsula country, where Washington fears political chaos is giving al Qaeda space to operate.
Yemen also faces an insurgency from Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda in some southern areas and a rebellion by the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement in the north.
North and south Yemen were unified in 1990 after the Communist-led southern government collapsed. Northern forces won a brief civil war four years later after the south tried to secede from the union.
The secessionist movement gained strength during mass, nationwide street protests against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011, which forced the veteran strongman from office a year ago.
On Thursday, security forces shot at dozens of secessionists in Aden as they staged a rally against Saleh's successor, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a southerner who heads Saleh's party. There were also armed clashes in another southern town, al-Dalea.
Medical sources and witnesses said at least six people had been killed during the two clashes.
Southern Yemenis complain of discrimination by the government in the north. Tackling lawlessness in the country, which lies near oil shipment routes and flanks the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, is a priority for both Western and Gulf countries.
(Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
As New York City thieves steal smartphones and tablets in ever greater numbers, the NYPD has assigned a group of officers to hunt down the devices.
The NYPD launched the team about a year ago "when we saw a spike in (thefts of) Apple products specifically," Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
An Apple-picking problem on New York City's streets and subways has worsened in recent years. The overall crime rate in the city increased 3% last year -- but "if you subtracted just the increase in Apple product thefts, we would have had an overall decrease in crime in New York," Browne said.
Generally, the NYPD team's first step in tracing pilfered gadgets is obtaining the stolen device's serial number. Then "we supply it to Apple, and we say, when that product is activated, we want to know who it is," according to Browne.
The tech giant has largely cooperated with the NYPD's subpoenas. "I would say we're working with them. They're not fighting this," Browne said.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
The NYPD's detectives have found that stolen smartphones and tablets don't tend to travel far.
About 75% of them stay in the city of New York, Browne said. And those that cross city limits are still likely to be in the state.
Browne did not quantify how successful the department has been at tracing stolen smartphones and tablets, but he did cite a few cases that had happy endings.
In one, an employee stole three iPads from his workplace, then gave them to two relatives in New York and one in the Dominican Republic. The NYPD was able to return all three to their rightful owners.
Sometimes the trail leads back to the person who swiped the iPhone; other times it leads to an unwitting owner of stolen property.
While the officers on the NYPD's smartphone squad don't focus exclusively on Apple products, they do spend most of their time chasing stolen iPhones or iPads, "simply because the number of Apple thefts is a reflection of their general popularity," Browne said.
Law-enforcement agencies like the NYPD aren't alone in targeting smartphone and tablet theft. The industry is taking steps to address it, too.
In a letter to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the wireless industry's trade association last year released details of a voluntary effort to "help law enforcement deter smartphone theft."
A major plank of that effort is the creation of a database for smartphones that are reported stolen. Phones on the database, which is scheduled to be up and running at the end of November, would be barred being activated or provided service on an LTE network in the United States.
Two days ago, sources reported AU Optronics, which alongside LG Display?supplies Apple with 1,024-by-768 display panels for the iPad mini, recently began work on new screens for the next-generation iPad mini. And with yields allegedly now meeting Apple?s exacting standards, Taiwan media Friday claimed AU Optronics started mass producing 2,048-by-1,536 324ppi Retina screens for the device, which is said to use the dual-core?A5X chip and quad-core graphics to drive the display?
According to a report by My Drivers, a Chinese website that covers IT industry news (translated to English by?BrightWire), AU Optronics has now started mass production of second-generation iPad mini panels.?Yesterday?s images of the purported iPad mini 2 rear shell, seen?below,?also indicate?manufacturing may have recently commenced.
DigiTimes reported this morning that panel shipments for the iPad mini reached over five million units during January 2013, with AU Optronics responsible for 1.5 million and LG Display for 3.6 million units.
The My Drives report also cites inside sources who claim?production cost for iPad mini 2 has topped $200 per unit versus an IHS-estimated $188 per iPad mini unit.
The 1,204-by-768 iPad mini panel costs an estimated $32 per unit and the same research firm now estimates a Retina upgrade with more LEDs for the backlight module could add up to 30 percent?to?iPad mini 2 bill of material.
iPad mini teardown via iFixit.
Apple typically updates its gadgets with new technology while keeping prices intact. Rarely does the company increase the price of a product just because it added a new technology. True, Retina MacBook Pros do cost more, but non-Retina ones are still available. Moreover,?Apple recently cut prices of Retina notebooks by as much as $300.
Because seven-inch tablets are quite popular, I doubt Apple will simply replace the current iPad mini with a pricier Retina model. Provided Apple gives up some of its margins, a Retina iPad mini 2 should start at the same $329 entry-level price as the current model. Moreover, Apple should recover from the short-term margin hit when Retina panel costs come down, and come down they will as soon as Apple works out?kinks in the manufacturing process.
I?m also curious as to what happens to the original iPad mini once iPad mini 2 is out.
Will Apple phase out the iPad mini entirely or discount it as the company typically does with older iPhones when a new model gets introduced?
DETROIT (AP) ? It's been called one of medicine's "open secrets" ? allowing patients to refuse treatment by a doctor or nurse of another race.
In the latest example, a white man with a swastika tattoo insisted that black nurses not be allowed to touch his newborn. Now two black nurses are suing the hospital, claiming it bowed to his illegal demands.
The Michigan cases are among several lawsuits filed in recent years that highlight this seldom-discussed issue, which quietly persists almost 60 years after the start of the civil rights movement.
The American Medical Association's ethics code bars doctors from refusing to treat people based on race, gender and other criteria, but there are no specific policies for handling race-based requests from patients.
"In general, I don't think honoring prejudicial preferences ... is morally justifiable" for a health care organization, said Dr. Susan Goold, a University of Michigan professor of internal medicine and public health. "That said, you can't cure bigotry ... There may be times when grudgingly acceding to a patient's strongly held preferences is morally OK."
Those times could include patients who have been so traumatized ? by rape or combat, for instance ? that accommodating their request would be preferable to forcing on them a caregiver whose mere presence might aggravate the situation, she said.
Tonya Battle, a veteran nurse at Flint's Hurley Medical Center, filed the first complaint against the hospital and a nursing manager, claiming a note posted on an assignment clipboard read, "No African-American nurse to take care of baby." She says the note was later removed but black nurses weren't assigned to care for the baby for about a month because of their race.
That case is now a federal lawsuit. In a statement earlier this week, Hurley President Melany Gavulic denied Battle's claim, saying the father was told that his request could not be granted. Gavulic said the swastika tattoo "created anger and outrage in our staff," and supervisors raised safety concerns.
Hospital officials said they planned to make a statement about the matter Friday evening but offered no details.
Multiple email and phone messages left for Battle through her attorney were unreturned, and a listed number for her had been disconnected. She told the Detroit Free Press she "didn't even know how to react" when she learned of her employer's actions following her interaction with the father.
She said she introduced herself to the man and he said, "I need to see your supervisor." That supervisor, Battle said, told her that the father, who was white, didn't want African-Americans to care for his child and had rolled up his sleeve to expose the swastika.
"I just was really dumbfounded," Battle said. "I couldn't believe that's why he was so angry (and) that's why he was requesting my (supervisory) nurse."
Attorney Tom Pabst, who is representing nurse Carlotta Armstrong in a second lawsuit, said the hospital's actions left nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit "in a ball of confusion."
"She said, 'You know what really bothered me? I didn't know what to do if the baby was choking or dying. Am I going to get fired if I go over there?'" Pabst said.
The Michigan cases follow a 2010 decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the federal Civil Rights Act prohibits nursing homes from making staffing decisions for nursing assistants based on residents' racial preferences. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a black nursing assistant who sued her employer for racial discrimination.
In another federal lawsuit filed in 2005, three black employees of Abington Memorial Hospital near Philadelphia claimed they were prevented from treating a pregnant white woman by her male partner, who was a member of a white supremacist group. The man used a racial slur when forbidding any care by any African-Americans.
The complaint alleged that supervisors honored the man's request. The case was settled confidentially before going to trial, and the hospital admitted no liability. Frank Finch III, the attorney for the employees, said hospital officials also cited employee safety in their defense.
"That defense doesn't fly under the anti-discrimination law," Finch said. "Hospitals cannot use that as a defense in nonemergency situations."
He said every hospital has a policy against discrimination and "undoubtedly acquiescing to such a demand is a violation of a written, internal policy in addition to being a violation of the law."
Fordham University law professor Kimani Paul-Emile said she suspects nurses file more discrimination suits than doctors.
"With nurses and other sorts of staff, the hospital is telling them they can or cannot do something," she said. "That might go to why you might see more lawsuits brought by nurses."
She wrote an article last year in the UCLA Law Review titled "Patients' Racial Preferences and the Medical Culture of Accommodation." It was the source of the "open secrets" phrase.
Paul-Emile's research cited a 2007 study at the University of Michigan Health System and others on how physicians respond to patients' requests to be assigned providers of the same gender, race or religion.
The survey of emergency physicians found patients often make such requests, and they are routinely accommodated. A third of doctors who responded said they felt patients perceive better care from providers of shared demographics, with racial matches considered more important than gender or religion.
"The notion of white patients rejecting minority physicians for bigoted reasons in emergency departments and other hospital settings is deeply troubling and uncomfortably reminiscent of the type of discrimination that the civil rights statutes were designed to eliminate," Paul-Emile wrote in her article.
Another study she cited found that patient requests for care by a physician are most often accommodated when made by racial minority patients.
Lance Gable, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said he believes such requests "are made more often than we'd like to think about" even if they aren't frequently agreed to by hospital management. He suspects a supervisor might honor them but not say anything explicit to employees and only in rare instances would signs be posted as alleged in the Flint case.
"Maybe their explanation is an accurate description of what happened ? the supervisor was scared of the father of this patient and made a decision that was ill-advised," Gable said. "It might have been the right thing to do for the safety of the staff, and it still might be a violation of anti-discrimination laws."
Located some 210 light years from Earth, Kepler-37b is only slightly larger than our moon, making it the smallest planet ever discovered.
By Irene Klotz,?Reuters / February 21, 2013
This artist's illustration compares the planets in the Kepler-37 system to the moon and planets in our solar system. NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star like our sun.
NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech/Handout/Reuters
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Astronomers have found a mini planet beyond our solar system that is the smallest of more than 800 extra-solar planets discovered, scientists said on Wednesday.
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The planet, known as Kepler-37b, is one of three circling a yellow star similar to the sun that is located in the constellation Lyra, about 210 light years away. One light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).
"We see very large planets and they're uncommon. Earth-sized planets seen to be pNASAretty common, so our guess is that small planets must be even more common," said Thomas Barclay, with NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
The smaller the planet, the more difficult it is to find.
Kepler-37b, as well as two sibling planets, were discovered with a NASA space telescope of the same name, which studies light from about 150,000 sun-like stars.
The Kepler telescope works by detecting slight dips in the amount of light coming from target stars caused by orbiting planets passing by, or transiting, relative to the observatory's line of sight. The smaller the planet, the less pronounced the dip.
Of the 833 confirmed planets found beyond the solar system, 114 were discovered by the Kepler science team, according to the project's website. Nearly 3,000 more Kepler candidate planets are being analyzed.
Planets located in "habitable zones" around their host stars, where water can exist on their surfaces, are of particular interest. Water is believed to be necessary for life.
A planet positioned about where Earth orbits the sun would take a year to fly around its parent star. At least two, and preferably three or more, orbits are needed to confirm that a transit spotted by the Kepler telescope is indeed a planet and not a star flare or some other phenomenon.
Kepler-37b flies about 10 times closer to its star than Earth circles the sun, which gives it a surface temperature of about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius).
"This particular one is nowhere near habitable," University of Florida astronomer Eric Ford said.
Mercury is the closet planet to the sun in our solar system, so scientists compared Kepler-37b to a mini Mercury.
The little planet, which is slightly larger than Earth's moon, has two somewhat larger siblings. Kepler-37c, which is slightly smaller than Venus, circles the trio's parent star in 21 days and Kepler-37d, about twice the size of Earth, orbits in 40 days.
The whole system would fit within the orbit of Mercury, which circles the sun in 88 days.
"When we first found exo-planets, they were all much larger than anything we have in the inner solar system. We didn't know of anything that was smaller. This is the first time we've been able to probe the smallest range, smaller than anything we have in our solar system," Barclay said.
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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We recently did a post on the most petite/short celebrities in Hollywood and are now following up with the tallest. It’s really difficult to judge an actress/actor’s height by watching them on television or in movies so we thought it’d be interesting to see which stars stand above the rest in Hollywood…literally! Charlize Theron South ...
