Syria troops push back rebels as UN fight looms

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe pose for a picture before their meeting at United Nations Headquarters Jan. 31, 2012. Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus, fueling some of the bloodiest fighting of the 10-month-old uprising, as Western diplomats tried to overcome Russia's rejection of a draft U.N. resolution demanding President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power. The U.N. Security Council was meeting Tuesday to discuss the draft, backed by Western and Arab diplomats. But Russia, one of Assad's strongest backers, has signaled it would veto action against Damascus. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe pose for a picture before their meeting at United Nations Headquarters Jan. 31, 2012. Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus, fueling some of the bloodiest fighting of the 10-month-old uprising, as Western diplomats tried to overcome Russia's rejection of a draft U.N. resolution demanding President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power. The U.N. Security Council was meeting Tuesday to discuss the draft, backed by Western and Arab diplomats. But Russia, one of Assad's strongest backers, has signaled it would veto action against Damascus. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour for the media, Sister Verona, head of the Sednaya Covent, shows journalists a damaged room which was attacked by artillery fire Sunday in Sednaya, north of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. No casualties were reported in the attack, which the Syrian government blamed on "armed terrorists." A senior Russian diplomat warned Tuesday that a draft U.N. resolution demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside is a "path to civil war," as Syrian troops crushed pockets of resistance by rebel soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour for the media, a church dome is seen through a broken window of the Sednaya Convent, which was damaged by artillery fire Sunday in Sednaya, north of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. No casualties were reported in the attack, which the Syrian government blamed on "armed terrorists." A senior Russian diplomat warned Tuesday that a draft U.N. resolution demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside is a "path to civil war," as Syrian troops crushed pockets of resistance by rebel soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour for the media, Syrian security forces stand guard at Sednaya Convent, which was attacked by artillery fire Sunday in Sednaya, north of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday Jan. 31, 2012. No casualties were reported in the attack, which the Syrian government blamed on "armed terrorists." A senior Russian diplomat warned Tuesday that a draft U.N. resolution demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside is a "path to civil war," as Syrian troops crushed pockets of resistance by rebel soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour for the media, people climb the stairs to the Sednaya Convent, which was damaged by artillery fire Sunday in Sednaya, north of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. No casualties were reported in the attack, which the Syrian government blamed on "armed terrorists." A senior Russian diplomat warned Tuesday that a draft U.N. resolution demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside is a "path to civil war," as Syrian troops crushed pockets of resistance by rebel soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus and the U.N. Security Council took up a draft resolution demanding that President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Security Council that action to end the violence in Syria would be different from U.N. efforts to pacify Libya.

"I know that some members here may be concerned that the Security Council is headed toward another Libya," she said. "That is a false analogy."

"It is time for the international community to put aside our own differences and send a clear message of support to the people of Syria," Clinton said.

Russia, one of Assad's strongest backers, has signaled it would veto any U.N. action against Damascus, fearing it could open the door to eventual international military involvement, the way an Arab-backed U.N. resolution led to NATO airstrikes in Libya.

However, the Arab League emphasized that international military action was not being sought.

"We are attempting to avoid any foreign intervention, particularly military intervention" in Syria, Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said. "We have always stressed full respect of the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian people."

Russia has stood by Assad as he tries to crush an uprising that began nearly 11 months ago. In October, Moscow vetoed the first Security Council attempt to condemn Syria's crackdown and has shown little sign of budging in its opposition.

Moscow's stance is motivated in part by its strategic and defense ties, including weapons sales, with Syria. Russia also rejects what it sees as a a world order dominated by the U.S.

The diplomatic showdown came as Syrian government forces took back control of the eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, after rebel soldiers briefly captured the area in a startling advance last week.

The fact that rebels made it to the doorstep of Damascus, the seat of Assad's power, was a dangerous development for the regime. The military launched a swift offensive Monday and on Tuesday crushed the remaining resistance in Zamalka and Arbeen.

But the suburbs were not entirely quiet. On a government-sponsored media trip, Syrian journalists heard at least seven explosions Tuesday from the eastern suburb of Rankous. It was not clear what caused the blasts.

Violence also was reported in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs in central Syria, a hotbed of opposition to the regime. Activist Mohammed Saleh said he heard hours of shelling and machine-gun fire, and thick black smoke was rising in the distance.

The smoke was believed to be from a pipeline that was struck, but details were not clear. Activists said regime forces' fire hit the pipeline, but that could not be confirmed.

The U.N. estimated several weeks ago that more than 5,400 people have been killed in the Syrian government crackdown, but has not been able to update the figure. The death toll from Monday's offensive was around 100 people, making it among the bloodiest days since the uprising began in March, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group.

Activists said Tuesday's death toll was at least seven, although the LCC put the figure at up to 28. Syria prevents independent reporting, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground.

The bloodshed in Syria has increased in recent days as Western and Arab countries stepped up pressure on Russia over Security Council action.

The draft resolution demands that Assad halt the crackdown and implement an Arab peace plan that calls for him to hand over power to his vice president and allow creation of a unity government to clear the way for elections.

If Assad fails to comply within 15 days, the council would consider "further measures," a reference to a possible move to impose economic or other sanctions.

A French official said the draft U.N. resolution has a "comfortable majority" of support from 10 of the Security Council's 15 members, meaning Russia or China would have to use their veto power to stop it.

Russia had agreed to negotiate on the draft, said the official spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with department rules.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who was planning to attend the Security Council meeting, ruled out foreign military action.

"Things are very different from what happened in Libya," he told French radio Europe-1 shortly before flying to New York on Tuesday. "For example, in Syria you have communities that are divided and any exterior intervention could lead to a civil war."

The Syrian uprising, which began with mostly peaceful protests, has become increasingly violent in recent months as army defectors clash with government forces and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves.

The violence has inflamed the sectarian divide in the country, where members of Assad's Alawite sect dominate the regime despite a Sunni Muslim majority.

Assad's regime has warned that the turmoil will throw Syria into chaos, religious extremism and sectarian divisions, a message that resonates among Alawites and minority Christians who fear reprisals from the Sunni majority.

On Tuesday, Syrian reporters were taken north of Damascus to see the Sednaya Convent, believed to have been build in A.D. 547. The site was damaged by artillery fire Sunday, in an attack the government blamed on "armed terrorists." No casualties were reported.

"Providence has salvaged this holy site," said Sister Verona, the head of the Sednaya Convent.

Also Tuesday, army defectors gained full control of the central town of Rastan after days of intense clashes, according to a town activist who identified himself as Hassan. He refused to give his full name, fearing reprisal.

The town was taken by defectors twice in the past only to be retaken by Syrian troops. Rastan is the hometown of former Defense Minister Mustapha Tlass, who held the post for more than three decades, mostly under Assad's father and predecessor, the late Hafez Assad.

___

AP writers Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-31-ML-Syria/id-bc2b963657a84e4e985ceddda8c85dd0

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When Mom-to-Be's Overweight and Smokes, Risk for Birth Defects Rises (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Women who are both overweight and smoke during pregnancy could damage their baby's developing heart, a new study warns.

Researchers in the Netherlands looked at nearly 800 fetuses and babies with congenital heart defects, but no other birth defects, between 1997 and 2008. Congenital means present at birth. This group was compared with more than 300 fetuses and babies born with chromosomal abnormalities, but without any heart defects.

The results showed that women who were both overweight (body mass index of 25 or more) and smoked during pregnancy were 2.5 times more likely to have a baby with a congenital heart defect than women who either smoked or were overweight during pregnancy.

The researchers also found that babies born to overweight mothers who smoked during pregnancy had a threefold increased risk of outflow tract abnormalities, in which blood flow from the ventricles of the heart to the pulmonary artery or aorta is reduced or blocked.

The study was published online Jan. 31 in the journal Heart.

"These results indicate that maternal smoking and overweight may both be involved in the same pathway that causes congenital heart defects," wrote Dr. Marian Bakker of the department of medical genetics at the University Medical Centre, Groningen, and colleagues in a journal news release.

The findings add to the growing body of evidence that smoking and being overweight during pregnancy is associated with problems such as miscarriage and stillbirth, stunted growth and premature birth, the researchers said.

Heart abnormalities, one of the most common kinds of birth defects, affect about 8 in every 1,000 babies. A likely cause is identified in only 15 percent of cases.

More information

The March of Dimes has more about heart defects.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120201/hl_hsn/whenmomtobesoverweightandsmokesriskforbirthdefectsrises

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Obama plays up auto industry success story (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama wears his decision to rescue General Motors and Chrysler three years ago as a badge of honor, a move to save jobs in an industry that helped create the backbone of the middle class more than a half-century ago.

For Obama, the auto bailout is a case study for his efforts to revive the economy and a potential point of contrast with Republican Mitt Romney, who opposed Obama's decision to pour billions of dollars into the auto companies. If Romney wins the GOP nomination, expect to hear a lot about the car industry.

"The American auto industry was on the verge of collapse. And some politicians were willing to let it just die. We said no," Obama told college students last week in Ann Arbor, Mich. "We believe in the workers of this state."

Obama was expected to visit the Washington Auto Show on Tuesday, giving him another forum to talk about GM and Chrysler, along with the administration's attention to manufacturers and efforts to boost fuel efficiency standards. The White House has taken every opportunity to highlight its efforts to rebuild the auto industry, pointing to GM's reemergence as the world's largest automaker and job growth and profitability in the U.S. auto industry.

The president's campaign views the auto storyline as a potent argument against Romney ? who, even though he is the son of a Detroit auto executive, opposed the bailout. As the industry was collapsing in the fall of 2008, the former Massachusetts governor predicted in a New York Times op-ed that if the companies received a federal bailout, "you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye." Romney said the companies should have undergone a "managed bankruptcy" that would have avoided a government bailout.

"Whether it was by President Bush or by President Obama, it was the wrong way to go," Romney said at a GOP presidential debate in Michigan in November. Romney said the nation has "capital markets and bankruptcy ? it works in the U.S. The idea of billions of dollars being wasted initially, then finally they adopted the managed bankruptcy. I was among others that said we ought to do that."

Both the Bush and Obama administrations found themselves in uncharted territory in the fall of 2008 and early 2009. GM and Chrysler were on the verge of collapse when Congress failed to approve emergency loans in late 2008. Bush stepped in and signed off on $17.4 billion in loans, requiring the companies to develop restructuring plans under Obama's watch.

The following spring, Obama pumped billions more into GM and Chrysler but forced concessions from industry stakeholders, enabling the companies to go through swift bankruptcies. Obama aides said billions in aid ? about $85 billion for the industry in total ? was necessary because capital markets were essentially frozen at the time, meaning there was no way for GM and Chrysler to fund their bankruptcies privately.

Without any private financing or government support, they argued, the companies would have been forced to liquidate.

Three years later, Obama is trying to turn the tough decision into a political advantage in Ohio and Michigan, which Obama carried in 2008 and where unemployment has fallen of late. During last week's State of the Union address, Obama said the auto industry had hired tens of thousands of workers, and he predicted the Detroit turnaround could take root elsewhere.

Yet Obama's poll numbers in places like Ohio and Michigan remain in dangerous territory, under 50 percent, and the auto industry argument carries some inherent risks.

A Quinnipiac University poll in Ohio released Jan. 18 found Obama locked in a virtual tie with Romney in a hypothetical matchup, with about half the voters disapproving of Obama's performance as president. A poll in Michigan released last week by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA found 48 percent supporting Obama and 40 percent backing Romney in a potential matchup.

Republicans say the bailout still remains unpopular and the government intervention was hardly a cure-all. "The industry was bailed out but a lot of people lost their jobs," said David Doyle, a Michigan-based Republican strategist.

In a nation still soured on bailouts, the government owns more than a quarter of GM. The Treasury Department estimates the government will lose more than $23 billion on the auto bailout: GM is trading at $24 a share, well below the $53-per-share mark needed for the government to recoup its investment in the company.

Romney, facing attacks from Democrats on his work at private equity firm Bain Capital, has tried to use the GM and Chrysler cases to insulate himself against charges his firm gutted companies and fired workers. "How did you do when you were running General Motors as the president?" Romney said in a December debate. "Gee, you closed down factories. You closed down dealerships. And he'll say, well I did that to save the business. Same thing with us, Mr. President."

Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others say the decision, while unpopular, saved an estimated 1 million jobs throughout the Midwest and say the industry is coming back.

As a result of the restructuring, the companies can make money at far lower U.S. sales volumes than in the past. Industry analysts predict U.S. sales will grow by at least 1 million this year over last year's 12.8 million units as people replace aging cars and trucks. And North American operations at GM, Chrysler and Ford are thriving, boosting their companies' earnings ? all signs that Democrats say will make the difference in the Midwest.

"I don't know how any reasonable person can fail to acknowledge that this rescue plan worked and the country has benefited," said former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat.

___

AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_autos

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Incomes up strong 0.5 pct., consumer spending flat

In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, shoppers walk past a clearance sign at the New York & Company outlet store at the Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, shoppers walk past a clearance sign at the New York & Company outlet store at the Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, a shopper carries purchases while shopping at Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans' income rose in December by the most in nine months, a hopeful sign for the economy after a year of weak wage gains. But consumers didn't spend any more than they had in November.

Americans ended up saving all their additional income.

Economists noted that income rose last month largely because of strong hiring. The economy added 200,000 jobs in December. More jobs mean more income available to spend.

The best hope for the economy is further job gains. On Friday, the government is expected to report another solid month of hiring for January.

Income rose 0.5 percent from November to December, the Commerce Department said Monday. It was the sharpest increase since a similar gain in March.

The flat spending in December followed scant gains of 0.1 percent in both October and November.

For all of 2011, income barely rose. And consumers tapped their savings to spend more.

But in December, Americans boosted their savings. If they continue to save any additional income rather than spend it, the economy could slow. And that could force employers to pull back on hiring.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity.

Many economists are holding out hope, though, that continued job gains will mean more spending across the economy.

"The pace of job growth in recent months, while still not satisfactory compared to most past cycles, at least seems sufficient to generate enough income growth to keep consumer spending moving ahead at a modest pace," said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, Inc.

After-tax income adjusted for inflation rose 0.3 percent in December. For the year, inflation-adjusted income rose 0.9 percent. That was just half the rise in 2010.

Inflation-adjusted consumer spending rose just 2.2 percent last year. It was slightly better than the increase in 2010.

The government said Friday that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent last year ? roughly half the growth of 2010. It was the weakest showing since the economy contracted in 2009.

Unemployment stands at 8.5 percent ? its lowest level in nearly three years after a sixth straight month of solid hiring.

For the final three months of 2011, Americans spent more on vehicles, and companies restocked their supplies at a robust pace.

Still, overall growth last quarter ? and for all of last year ? was slowed by the sharpest cuts in annual government spending in four decades. And many people are reluctant to spend more or buy homes. Many employers remain hesitant to hire, even though job growth has strengthened.

The outlook for 2012 is slightly better. The Federal Reserve has estimated economic growth of roughly 2.5 percent for the year, despite abundant risk factors: federal spending cuts, weak pay increases, cautious consumers and the risk of a European recession.

In December, spending on both durable and nondurable goods fell. Spending on services, a category that accounts for two-thirds of consumer spending, rose 0.2 percent.

The savings rate increased to 4 percent of after-tax incomes in December, up from 3.5 percent in November.

For the year, the savings rate dipped to 4.4 percent from 5.3 percent in 2010. The savings rate had fallen to 1.5 percent in 2005, reflecting a housing boom that made people feel like spending more and saving less.

The December report showed that prices tied to consumer spending edged up 0.1 percent in December and were up 2.4 percent compared to a year ago. This is the preferred inflation measure for the Federal Reserve.

The Fed last week established an annual inflation target of 2 percent.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-30-Consumer%20Spending/id-55319a9857714fa5a726a0677e21405b

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Turning communications careers inside out: the generalist emerges ...

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Okay, you know who you are, Mr. or Ms. Internal or External Communications expert. You love what you do on one side of the internal vs. external communications fence. You view the ?other side? as boring, limited, and/or frightening.? You?re perfectly happy doing what you?re doing and want to keep doing just that for the foreseeable future. And that?s just fine by you.

What you may not see (yet) is that communication leaders increasingly want ? and need ? communications generalists. And that means they want professionals with increasingly deeper competencies on both sides of the house. ?It can really be frustrating,? a chief communications officer recently told me. ?In some cases, we have internal comms leaders who are afraid of PR. In others, we have media gurus who don?t think internal comms is ?sexy? enough to keep their interest.?

What both of those kinds of employees are missing is a clear and emerging trend toward the development of communications generalists. So, why the push on developing communications skills inside and out? CCOs pretty much across the board say three things:

?

It helps the function: having communications professionals with increasingly deeper skill sets helps the function plan and execute faster and more effectively. As generalists understand how to plan for the range of stakeholders inside and out, they think in more integrated ? and effective ? ways. As demands on the function increase, one of the best ways to leverage existing headcount is to have those headcounts work smarter through mastering a range of communication disciplines.

?

It helps identify better current and future leaders: as professionals develop skills for internal and external communications concurrently, it begins to sort out better current and future leaders, including future CCOs (their successors). Picking a senior leader for a global communications function who has tons of media and issues management experience ? but never touched internal communications ? is going to be a much harder sell. Conversely, an employee engagement specialist who has never done financial or media communications will be an equally tough argument to make.

?

It helps retain talent: not surprisingly, the best and brightest want to be challenged, and that includes switching gears from external to internal communications or vice versa. They tend to see longer runways for their own growth and development, which helps retention.

?

Perhaps most important in my recent conversations with CCOs is this: most say the train has left the station already and there?s no turning back.? New talent is evaluated, in part, with an eye toward their openness to learning across all communication disciplines. Advancement increasingly is reserved for those who demonstrate willingness to learn both internal and external communications disciplines, and who show how that knowledge drives results in their work. And when restructuring activities are afoot, the fewer roles available are going not to the specialists, but to the generalists.
So a parting word to the wise communication professional: If you?re already diving into both ends of the internal and external communications pool, you?re in good, deep waters that will give you many more options for growth in the years ahead. For the rest, open yourself to the world of the generalist. You?ll leave the relatively shallow waters you?re in, and have an infinitely greater vista ahead.

Posted in Destinations

Source: http://www.ournorthstar.com/2012/01/turning-communications-careers-inside-out-the-generalist-emerges/

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Oxygen molecule survives to enormously high pressures

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) ? Using computer simulations, a RUB researcher has shown that the oxygen molecule (O₂) is stable up to pressures of 1.9 terapascal, which is about nineteen million times higher than atmosphere pressure. Above that, it polymerizes, i.e. builds larger molecules or structures.

"This is very surprising" says Dr. Jian Sun from the Department of Theoretical Chemistry. "Other simple molecules like nitrogen or hydrogen do not survive such high pressures." In cooperation with colleagues from University College London, the University of Cambridge, and the National Research Council of Canada, the researcher also reports that the behaviour of oxygen with increasing pressure is very complicated. It's electrical conductivity first increases, then decreases, and finally increases again. The results are published in Physical Review Letters.

Weaker bonds, greater stability

The oxygen atoms in the O₂ molecule are held together by a double covalent bond. Nitrogen (N₂), on the other hand, possesses a triple bond. "You would think that the weaker double bond is easier to break than the triple bond and that oxygen would therefore polymerize at lower pressures than nitrogen" says Sun. "We found the opposite, which is astonishing at first sight."

Coming together when pressure increases

However, in the condensed phase when pressure increases, the molecules become closer to each other. The research team suggests that, under these conditions, the electron lone pairs on different molecules repel one another strongly, thus hindering the molecules from approaching each other. Since oxygen has more lone pairs than nitrogen, the repulsive force between these molecules is stronger, which makes polymerization more difficult. However, the number of lone pairs cannot be the only determinant of the polymerization pressure. "We believe that it is a combination of the number of lone pairs and the strength of the bonds between the atoms," says Sun.

The many structures of oxygen

At high pressures, gaseous molecules such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, or nitrogen polymerize into chains, layers, or framework structures. At the same time they usually change from insulators to metals, i.e. they become more conductive with increasing pressure. The research team, however, showed that things are more complicated with oxygen. Under standard conditions, the molecule has insulating properties. If the pressure increases, oxygen metallises and becomes a superconductor. With further pressure increase, its structure changes into a polymer and it becomes semi-conducting. If the pressure rises even more, oxygen once more assumes metallic properties, meaning that the conductivity goes up again. The metallic polymer structure finally changes into a metallic layered structure.

Inside planets

"The polymerization of small molecules under high pressure has attracted much attention because it helps to understand the fundamental physics and chemistry of geological and planetary processes" explains Sun. "For instance, the pressure at the centre of Jupiter is estimated to be about seven terapascal. It was also found that polymerized molecules, like N₂ and CO₂, have intriguing properties, such as high energy densities and super-hardness." Dr. Jian Sun joined the RUB-research group of Prof. Dr. Dominik Marx as a Humboldt Research Fellow in 2008 to work on vibrational spectroscopy of aqueous solutions. In parallel to this joint work in Solvation Science he developed independent research interests into high pressure chemical physics as an Early Career Researcher.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum, via AlphaGalileo.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Jian Sun, Miguel Martinez-Canales, Dennis Klug, Chris Pickard, Richard Needs. Persistence and Eventual Demise of Oxygen Molecules at Terapascal Pressures. Physical Review Letters, 2012; 108 (4) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.045503

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/UmpRdW3rov4/120130093911.htm

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Iran says oil could reach $120 to $150 per barrel (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? The head of Iran's state oil company said Sunday that the price of crude will reach $120 to $150 per barrel, as officials in Tehran prepare to discuss a ban on crude sales to European Union countries in retaliation for an EU embargo.

Head of the National Iranian Oil Company Ahmad Qalehbani also said that Tehran would expand its capacity to refine crude domestically, instead of selling it on international markets.

The EU announced an embargo on Iranian oil last week to pressure Tehran on its controversial nuclear program.

The embargo is set to go into effect in the summer, but Iran says that it may cut the flow of crude to Europe early.

Iran says the EU accounts for only 18 percent of its output and that it can find new customers. It says the embargo will hurt the West more than Iran, in part by causing a spike in prices.

"It seems we will witness prices from $120 to $150 in the future," Qalehbani was quoted as saying by IRNA. He did not give a time frame for the prediction, nor any other details.

The price of benchmark U.S. crude on Friday was around $99.56 per barrel.

Qalehbani also said that Iran could find other customers for its crude in the short term, while in the longer term expanding its refining capacity to turn the crude into other petroleum products.

"The sale of some 18 percent of Iranian oil, to a market other than the EU, is quite possible. But our long term idea is to increase refining capacities to produce valuable products," he said.

Qalehbani's statement came as Iranian oil officials prepare to debate a ban on crude sales to European Union countries.

Many Iranian lawmakers and officials have called for an immediate ban on oil exports to the European bloc before the EU's ban fully goes into effect in July. They say this will hurt Europe before it can find alternative suppliers.

It also coincided with a visit by a U.N. nuclear team expected to focus on Iran's alleged attempt to develop nuclear weapons.

The United States and its allies argue that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons technology, while Tehran says the program is for purely peaceful purposes.

With some 3.5 million barrels of crude production, Iran is the second largest OPEC producer.

Some 80 percent of the country's foreign revenue comes from exporting around 2.2 million barrels of oil per day.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_oil

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Feisty Gingrich stakes campaign on electability (AP)

SARASOTA, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich has staked his presidential bid on one idea: that he is best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama. Even some of his supporters seem to be struggling to buy the former House speaker's claim, an indication that chief rival Mitt Romney's efforts to undercut him may be working.

"Beating Obama is more important than everything else," Patrick Roehl, a 51-year-old computer software engineer, said in the midst of a packed Gingrich rally inside a Sarasota airport hangar this week. "Can Newt win? I'm not sure. He's got a lot of high negatives. The elections are won and lost in the middle. I'm not sure he appeals to the middle."

John Grainger, a 44-year-old assistant golf pro, doesn't like Romney. But he's having trouble shaking skepticism about Gingrich.

"I want to be a Newt supporter," he said. "This guy's going to have the guts to stand up and speak his piece ? no holds barred." But Grainger said he wasn't quite ready to back the former House speaker.

Interviews with more than a dozen Republican voters at Gingrich's overflowing rallies this week suggest that while many Florida voters love his brash style as they look for someone to take it to Obama, they also have lingering doubts about whether the Republican's intellectual bomb-throwing alone will make him the strongest Obama opponent.

Romney and his allies have spent a week working to stoke those doubts with Florida Republicans ahead of Tuesday's primary. And the GOP's establishment wing has started to help the former Massachusetts governor make that case by castigating Gingrich at every turn.

On television and on the campaign trail, Romney and his allies have steadily highlighted Gingrich's liabilities ? consulting contracts and ethics investigations among them. And they've suggested that more baggage could emerge in the fall, when the Republican nominee would be at the height of a general election battle against Obama.

"In the case of the speaker, he's got some records which could represent an October surprise," Romney said this week, referring to Gingrich's consulting work and ethics allegations when he was in the House. "We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich."

An outside group dedicated to helping Romney has spent almost $9 million on Florida television advertising, including a massive $4 million investment this week alone, to make the case even more explicitly.

"Newt Gingrich's tough talk sounds good, but Newt has tons of baggage. How will he ever beat Obama?" says the new ad from the so-called super PAC, Restore Our Future.

Gingrich, to be sure, is not letting such criticism go unanswered. He's telling everyone ? on the trail, in television interviews, on conference calls and in fundraising messages ? that he alone can defeat Obama. He points to his 12 percentage point victory in the South Carolina primary as proof.

Exit polling there showed that the majority of Republican voters, 51 percent, said that Gingrich was better suited to defeat the Democratic president.

"Their highest value was beating Obama," Gingrich told evangelical voters this week. "And if they thought Romney was the only person who could beat Obama, then they would swallow a lie. But the minute they thought there were two people who could beat Obama, they suddenly turned and said, Well, you know, maybe we should be for Newt."

Polls suggest that Gingrich could defeat Romney in Florida, a surge fueled partly by growing support from the tea party movement and continued anti-Romney sentiment. Gingrich drew massive crowds at venues across Florida this week.

But in those swelling crowds were conservatives who said they were drawn less by Gingrich's electability than his fiery rhetoric.

"He's a fighter. Mitt, I think, is too wishy-washy," said Dominique Boscia, a 43-year-old unemployed woman from Lakewood Ranch. "I like feisty people. I like people who have spunk."

That's certainly Gingrich. For months, he has used aggressive debate performances to fuel his underdog candidacy. He has consistently thrilled conservatives by promising to take the fight directly to Obama in a series of free-form debates modeled after the 1860 meetings between Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.

Should Obama refuse, Gingrich says he'll follow the president on the campaign trail until he agrees.

That gets good applause lines at rallies. But a closer look at polling suggests that a debate beat down doesn't necessarily mean Gingrich can beat the president in an election that will include independents and Democrats.

Gingrich struggled among independents in a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, in which 53 percent gave him unfavorable marks and just 22 percent had a favorable opinion of the former House speaker. While Romney has typically polled better among independents, the poll ? conducted between Jan. 18 and 22 ? found virtually no difference: 51 percent of independents viewed him unfavorably, compared with 23 with favorable views.

But when all Florida voters, including independents and Democrats, are asked to weigh in, Romney appears to have a strong advantage over Gingrich, according to a poll conducted by Suffolk University-WSVN-TV Miami. Romney would defeat Obama here 47 percent to 42 percent; Gingrich would lose, earning just 40 percent to Obama's 49 percent of likely Florida general election voters.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_electability

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Egyptians vote in Upper House elections on Sunday (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egyptians vote Sunday in the first stage of elections for the upper house of parliament, with Islamists seeking to repeat the success they enjoyed in elections for the lower house.

Voting for the Shura council will be held over two stages ending in the middle of February and follow a lower house election that was Egypt's most democratic since military officers overthrew the king in 1952.

The series of elections for both houses of parliament are the first since Hosni Mubarak was toppled from the presidency on February 11 last year by a popular uprising.

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group banned during his rule, won 47 percent of the seats in the lower house, more than any other party.

"The Shura council elections are as important as the People's Assembly (lower house) elections," said Hussein Ibrahim, a member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and head of its parliamentary bloc.

"Members of both chambers will choose the committee that will draft the constitution, the milestone of Egypt's democratic transition," he said.

Under an interim constitution, parliament is responsible for picking the 100-strong assembly that will write a new constitution to replace the one that helped keep Mubarak in power for three decades.

Elections for the Shura Council have traditionally been less intense than lower house due to the breadth of constituencies that makes it harder for voters to know their candidates.

The Shura chamber's powers are limited and it cannot block legislation in the lower house. However, its members must be consulted before lower house MPs pass any bill.

Ninety of the Shura council's 270 seats will be decided in the first round of voting to be held Sunday and Monday, with run-offs on February 7. Another 90 will be determined by voting on February 14 and 15, with run-offs on February 22.

The remaining 90 will be appointed by Egypt's next president, expected to be elected in June according a transition timetable drawn up by the military council to whom Mubarak handed power nearly a year ago.

"The elected part of the Shura council will convene without the appointed seats until presidential elections are held and the new president appoints the other 90 members," an official from the body overseeing the election told Reuters.

(Editing by Tom Perry and David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_egypt_parliament_vote

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Leadership scramble: GOP rivals vie for title

Evelyn Solomon of Boca Raton, Fla., a supporter of Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich waits during a Republican Jewish Coalition rally at the South County Civic Center, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Delray Beach, Fla. Romney and Gingrich square off over immigration and other issues as they look to woo Hispanics a day after a feisty, final debate before Tuesday?s Florida primary. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Evelyn Solomon of Boca Raton, Fla., a supporter of Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich waits during a Republican Jewish Coalition rally at the South County Civic Center, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Delray Beach, Fla. Romney and Gingrich square off over immigration and other issues as they look to woo Hispanics a day after a feisty, final debate before Tuesday?s Florida primary. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Audience members cheer as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Astrotech Space Operations in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Republican presidential contenders are making a pitch to voters that sounds a lot like a children's game: Follow the leader.

When Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich aren't puffing up their own leadership credentials, they're running down the leadership skills of one another and President Barack Obama.

If anyone missed Monday's conference call from the Romney campaign about Gingrich's record as a "failed leader," not to worry. They could have tuned in to Tuesday's conference call. Or Wednesday's. Or Thursday's. Or checked out the "unreliable leader" banner splashed across a Romney news release that labeled Gingrich "unhinged." Romney's political biography, meanwhile, is all about his leadership as a businessman, Massachusetts governor and savior of the 2002 Olympic Games.

It's hard to miss Gingrich's frequent broadsides at Romney, meanwhile, for failing to provide consistent, visionary leadership. Or the former House speaker's pronouncements that he, by contrast, offers "exactly the kind of bold, tough leader the American people want." Or Gingrich's muscular descriptions of all that was accomplished in his four years as speaker in the 1990s.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, lagging them in the polls, keeps trying to muscle his way into the leader palooza by offering himself as the steady bet who can be counted on to offer more reliable conservative leadership than "erratic" Gingrich or "moderate" Romney.

In a race where all the candidates are trying to out-conservative one another, stressing leadership credentials gives the GOP rivals a way to try to distinguish themselves. And in a year when Obama's own leadership skills are seen as one of his weakest qualities, it gives the Republicans another arrow in their quiver as they argue over who would be most electable in a matchup with Obama come November.

Leadership is always a part of the equation in presidential elections. In 2008, for example, the candidates all were abuzz with claims that they offered "transformational" leadership. Obama announced he was running by declaring, "I want to transform this country."

This year, leadership is getting an extra dose of attention, perhaps because of statistics such as this: The share of Americans who view Obama as a strong leader slipped from 77 percent at the start of his presidency to 52 percent in a Pew Research Center poll released this month. And among Republicans, only about a fourth of those surveyed in the most recent poll viewed Obama as a strong leader, compared with 80 percent of Democrats.

At a campaign debate last week in Tampa, Fla., Gingrich and Romney both turned a question about electability into an answer about the L-word.

"This is going to come down a question of leadership," Romney said. Then the former Massachusetts governor recited his track record as a leader in business and government and took a dig at Gingrich for having to "resign in disgrace" when he was speaker in the 1990s.

Gingrich, answering the same question, aligned himself with the leadership record of conservative hero Ronald Reagan and offered himself as someone "prepared to be controversial when necessary" to bring about great change.

The answers offer a window into how differently the two candidates define leadership ? Romney more as a manager with business school credentials, Gingrich more as a big-thinking visionary.

The leadership argument is a particularly potent campaign weapon for Romney because a number of Republicans who served in Congress with Gingrich have been happy to describe his shortcomings in running the House.

"If you were somebody trying to serve with him, you were always sort of left standing with your hands empty in terms of moving forward with an actual plan or putting a plan to paper," Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said of Gingrich on a Romney campaign conference call on Thursday. "So for me, it's an example that he's just not an effective leader. I think Mitt has the temperament and the ability to lead."

Gingrich, who resigned after a spate of ethics problems and a poor showing for House Republicans in the 1998 elections, managed to turn even his resignation as speaker into evidence that he's a strong leader.

"I took responsibility for the fact that our results weren't as good as they should be," he said in the Tampa debate. "I think that's what a leader should do."

As for the turbulence of his tenure as speaker, Gingrich casts that, too, as evidence of his bold leadership.

"Look, I wish everybody had loved me, but I'd rather be effective representing the American people than be popular inside Washington," he said earlier in the campaign.

Stephen Wayne, a presidential scholar at Georgetown University, said the harsh judgment of Obama's presidential leadership by Republicans and even some Democrats in part is due to the high hopes that he raised during the 2008 campaign. Obama the president has been measured against the words of Obama the candidate ever since.

Now that it's campaign season again, says Wayne, "he's not competing against his own image, he's competing against a real life person that has frailties. ... In a sense, that lowers the bar for Obama."

___

AP Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nancy Benac at http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-GOP-Follow%20the%20Leader/id-4296a33af707494cb8870640cc77c466

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Real Numbers (TIME)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192731882?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Where in the cosmos? All over the place!

By Alan Boyle

Scientists showed off the largest-scale color map of the universe in 3-D this month, as part of an effort to determine how matter has clumped together over the past few billion years. This visualization of the data was last week's "Where in the Cosmos" picture, offered for discussion on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.

It didn't take long for the Facebook folks to figure out what the picture showed. It's a sampling of luminous galaxies that helped astronomers involved in the Baryon Oscillation Spectrographic Survey, or BOSS, analyze the clustering of those galaxies on an incredibly vast scale. The BOSS researchers say their findings are consistent with the view that mysterious dark energy accounts for 73 percent of the density of the universe, with an uncertainty factor of less than 2 percent. The results were presented at the American Astronomical Society's winter meeting this month in Austin, Texas, and have been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal.

For figuring out so quickly what the "Where in the Cosmos" picture was all about, Cosmic Log Facebook friend Linz DeeGee is being sent a copy of John Gribbin's latest book, "Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique." She's also getting a pair of 3-D glasses.

Now there's a new "Where in the Cosmos" picture to chew over, from a nearby cosmic locale that's been in the news lately. Head on over to the Cosmic Log Facebook page to join the discussion, and please hit the "like" button if you haven't done so already. I'll fill you in on the picture and what it's all about next week.

Previously on 'Where in the Cosmos': Stephen Hawking's curios explained

---

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10255262-where-in-the-cosmos-all-over

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Column: Stop shrieking about women's tennis noise (AP)

On serve and when whipping his forehand, Novak Djokovic's grunt is that of a bullfrog, "WooooAH-UH." Rafael Nadal goes for a throatier, "AAArrgggHH." Occasionally, Andy Murray offers up a more hushed, constricted, "Eeeeeehhh." From Roger Federer, of course, we tend to get the sound of silence.

Yet here is a selection of headlines you'll never read about tennis' top men: "Earplugs ready, it's the scream queen final," "Shrieks of nature," or "It's squeally not on."

I didn't make those up. Oh-so-witty, that is all stuff written about Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova before their women's final at the Australian Open on Saturday.

Anyone else spot the sexist double-standards here?

The issue, if it really deserves to be called that, of women players disturbing fans and perhaps the odd opponent with their shrieks is not new but it's an easy story for reporters to reheat and serve up when a ready excuse presents itself. The Azarenka-Sharapova match was one such moment, because, yes, they both make a fair bit of noise.

The WTA also is partly to blame for this hoary old chestnut again becoming a topic of discussion. It played to the gallery with a statement this week saying it is "exploring how to reduce excessive grunting, especially for younger players just starting out" and is "aware that some fans find it bothersome."

Which is surprising and somewhat confusing given that just three months ago, the WTA's CEO, Stacey Allaster, said: "Grunting is part of our sport, full stop. Athletes hitting the ball as hard as they do, they expel, and there are sounds. Guys do it, women do it, been doing it for a long time."

Noise, of course, is a very personal issue. To some, Bob Dylan or Yoko Ono singing is music, to others it's torture. If we all agreed on such things then the drone of South Africa's vuvuzela trumpets at the soccer World Cup of 2010 would have been universally loved or universally recognized as the nuisance they were.

Azarenka and Sharapova's tennis is far more interesting and noteworthy than the noise they make when hitting a ball. Yes, some people find their hoots too loud and too shrill and that irritates them. But my ears seem to screen out the racket. Is that perhaps because I'm marveling at the athleticism, shot-making and mental strength it takes to win and didn't tune to the tennis to poke fun at the women? Or is that unfair to those genuine tennis fans who say the din really does spoil their enjoyment?

Possibly. In which case, I sympathize and suggest a simple answer: the volume button.

But there are others with minds like a railway through a rural backwater ? one track and dirty ? who seemingly can only think of the bedroom. Maybe the same sort of people for whom women tennis players are eye candy to be seen but not heard and who don't want their fantasies punctured by high-pitched yelps.

For such dinosaurs, there can be no sympathy at all. Unfair? Possibly. But, again, why isn't this an issue with the men? Because their grunts and groans are manly, and thus acceptable, even expected?

Please.

Being aware of what fans want is important for any sport that wants to keep revenues flowing. But so, too, is educating them and not pandering to their every whim or basest instincts. Allaster said in October that she does seem to be getting more comments now from fans about grunting. She wondered whether that might be because improved technology has cranked up the volume on TV broadcasts. She promised the WTA will share fans' concerns with players and, "if this is a real issue," speak to coaches about what might be done.

But more important than fans' enjoyment must be what the athletes think.

Some, when asked, do complain. Agnieszka Radwanska did so this week about Sharapova, calling her noise "pretty annoying and it's just too loud" ? which was somewhat uncalled for given that the Pole didn't actually play against the Russian in Melbourne. Radwanska did play Azarenka, losing in three sets, but said she's grown accustomed to her hoots having known her for years ? proof, again, of how tolerance to noise is a personal thing.

Sharapova returned Radwanska's swipe with interest ? "Isn't she back in Poland already?" she said ? and made clear she's not about to gag herself.

"No one important enough has told me to change or do something different," she said.

Nor should she.

As Allaster noted in October: "No one is doing this on purpose. It's the way they've trained. It's the way they hit the ball. The athletes are very ritual and habitual, and it might be such that this generation, this is the way it's going to be."

Even more to the point, she added: "I have not had one player come to me and complain, not one. It is not bothering the athletes."

Azarenka and Sharapova reached Saturday's final because of better tennis and stronger will, not the loudest shrieks.

___

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org or follow him at twitter.com/johnleicester

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_sp_te_ne/ten_john_leicester

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AP source: Tiebreaker game would decide divisions

NEW YORK (AP) ? A little more than two months before opening day, Major League Baseball still doesn't know whether there will be eight playoff teams this year or 10.

Add a bat or an arm to compete for that extra wild card? No telling whether that makes any sense.

"That's the last thing on my mind," Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta said. "I'm trying to win my division and I can't be concerned about that stuff. But the more the merrier.

"It gives us and everybody else a better chance to make the playoffs. But it's not on my mind because you don't build a system or build a team counting on the commissioner is going to change the playoff format," he said.

While MLB and the players' association still are discussing whether the expanded playoffs will start in 2012 or 2013, they've reached a consensus that ties for division titles will be broken on the field under the new playoff format, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because a deal hadn't been finalized.

Since 1995, head-to-head record has been used to determine first place if both teams are going to the postseason. But with the start of a one-game, winner-take-all wild-card round, the sides agreed that the difference between first place and a wild-card berth is too important to decide with a formula and a tiebreaker game would be played.

Negotiators plan to talk again next week and decide by March 1 on whether the extra round will begin this year.

"I think most clubs at this point no matter who you are are focused on trying to win a division," Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "If that doesn't work, then you make your adjustments."

Under the new format, whenever it begins, the non-division winners in each league with the two-best records will be the wild-cards, meaning a third-place team could for the first time win the World Series.

Being able to finish third and still go to the postseason could create more of an opportunity in the AL East for teams other than the rich New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, or in the AL West, where the two-time champion Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels have spent big bucks to improve.

In the AL Central, Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore watched Dombrowski add Prince Fielder to his already formidable batting order this week.

"We're focused on putting the best team on the field we can to compete to win the Central. That's the first goal," Moore said. "If that appears to be unattainable, we'll evaluate what we need to do to improve the team to continue to strive for that goal. If it becomes apparent that's not going to happen, you begin to focus on the wild card. You want to get in the playoffs any way you can and take your chances there."

___

AP Sports Writer Tom Withers contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-27-BBO-Expanded-Playoffs/id-6414b8c37bc74ebaaaeb10311d23f694

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Second Florida GOP Debate Covers Immigration, Health Care, and Lunar Colonies (ContributorNetwork)

The four Republican candidates for president met tonight in the second of two debates before Florida's primary on Tuesday. The debate was moderated by Wolf Blitzer, and topics ranged from immigration, to health care, to the idea of a colony on the moon.

What did the candidates have to say about their positions on immigration?

This topic was largely debated between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Romney demanded an apology from Gingrich for saying that he was the most "anti-immigrant" of the four GOP candidates.

Romney was asked to discuss claims from his campaign ads that Gingrich had insinuated in a speech from 2007 that Spanish was "the language of living in a ghetto." Romney claimed not to have seen the ads in question. The debate between the two then moved to encompass the topic of self-deportation and amnesty for illegal immigrants who had lived in the United States for 25 years or more.

How did the health care portion of the debate break down?

Rick Santorum challenged Romney on Massachusetts' health care program, drawing parallels between it and President Barack Obama's current health care program. Politico quoted Santorum's claim that Romney favored "government-run, top-down medicine," such as Obama's national health care plan. Romney denied Santorum's assertions, stating that repealing "Obamacare" would be one of his first priorities in office.

Why was the idea of building a colony on the moon part of the debate?

NASA and its future are big issues in Florida. As such, Blitzer asked Gingrich to explain his proposal to build a colony on the moon at the same time that he intended to balance the federal budget.

According to the Washington Post, both Romney and Ron Paul responded negatively to the concept, with Paul stating that he didn't think people should go to the moon, but that "we should send some politicians up there." Romney asserted that as a businessman he would have fired a person that presented the idea of spending billions of dollars to build a moon colony. Gingrich defended himself by saying that candidates should be "responsive to the needs of the states that they campaigned in."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120127/pl_ac/10891375_second_florida_gop_debate_covers_immigration_health_care_and_lunar_colonies

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Paterno's long goodbye ends with public memorial (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa (Reuters) ? The son of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno told 10,000 mourners on Thursday his father died "with a clear conscience," and former players shared why they worshipped the man in a final goodbye to the legendary "JoePa."

The memorial at the campus basketball arena concluded five days of public mourning for Paterno, 85, who died on Sunday of lung cancer two months after his towering reputation was shaken by a child sexual abuse scandal involving an assistant coach.

The hero's sendoff after Paterno's death contrasted sharply with the sudden and unceremonious end of his career in November, when the university's board of trustees fired him following revelations about defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, accused of molesting at least 10 boys over 15 years.

Paterno won a major college record 409 games and two national championships in his 46 years as head coach, creating a football powerhouse that generated $53 million in profit in 2010, according to Forbes magazine.

Son Jay Paterno shared deathbed moments the crowd, saying, "Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience."

Shortly before his father died, Jay Paterno said he bent over and whispered into his father's ear, "Dad you won. You did all you could do. We all love you. You can go home."

Interest in "A Memorial to Joe" built for days. The 10,000 free tickets were snapped up within seven minutes earlier this week. At least one ticket holder tried to profit by selling a ticket for $66,000 on Ebay, but the online site immediately banned the sale.

The week of mourning has drawn back to campus stars from past football teams, members of the 2011 squad, Penn State alumni who have no memory of any other football coach, undergraduates and townspeople to remember the winningest coach in major college football history.

"No one individual did more for a university than what Joe Paterno did for this school," said Todd Blackledge, a quarterback in the 1980s who played for seven years in the NFL.

"He was as fierce a competitor as anyone I have ever seen," Blackledge said. "Coach Paterno was at his best under pressure. He taught us how to compete."

Charlie Pittman, a runningback from the 1960s, praised Paterno for building a long-lasting institution that prided itself on the motto "Success with Honor."

"Though his body eventually failed, his spirit never did. Rest in peace, coach. We'll take it from here," he said to a standing ovation.

Paterno came under fire in November when it was revealed he was told by a purported witness that Sandusky molested a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State football showers in 2002. Paterno informed university officials but not police.

Sandusky, 67, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court has placed Sandusky, who maintains his innocence, under house arrest.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Daniel Trotta)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/us_nm/us_usa_paterno

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Did Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer disrespect President Obama? (+video)

Governor Jan Brewer was waiting at the bottom of the steps when President Obama alighted from Air Force One Wednesday. The two could be seen talking over each other at times.

Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and President Obama got into a little tiff at the airport in Phoenix yesterday, if you haven?t heard. Governor Brewer was waiting at the bottom of the steps when Obama alighted from Air Force One. She handed him a letter, they started talking, and things quickly got, well , out of hand. According to photos from the scene, at one point Brewer appears to be waving her finger in Obama?s face.

Skip to next paragraph

Was Brewer disrespecting the President of the United States?

Well, she says she wasn?t. At least she says she wasn?t deliberately waving her digit up around his eyeballs in a threatening manner.

?When I talk I am animated and I talk with my hands,? Brewer told Greta Van Susteren last night on Fox. ?The picture was probably shot when I was moving my hands around.?

However, Brewer went on to describe Obama as ?thin-skinned.? He was complaining about how she had depicted a White House meeting between them in her memoir, ?Scorpions for Breakfast,? she said.

The subject of that meeting was Arizona?s tough law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Brewer signed into law and the administration opposes.

?It was [as] though President Obama thought he could lecture me, and I would learn at his knee,? she wrote. ?He thinks he can humor me and then get rid of me.?

Well, we?ve got a couple of things to say about this.

First, if Brewer?s account of the incident is accurate, why did Obama bring the book up? ?

Somebody who wrote a book with that title like ?Scorpions for Breakfast??isn?t going to shy from a fight, rightly or wrongly. President Bill Clinton would have eased the moment with a joke ? handed her a scorpion paperweight, perhaps ? and then pulled Arizona?s Medicaid funds when she wasn?t looking.

Second, the subject is fraught right now, so maybe they?re both on edge. The fate of Arizona?s immigration bill is before the Supreme Court, which will make a decision prior to the 2012 election. The bill requires local police to check the immigration status of anyone they detain who they suspect is here illegally, among other things. The high court decision could shape US immigration policy for a generation ? so when that comes down, the finger-wagging thing will seem like a minor blip.

Third, politically-speaking, the incident may help both parties.

Look at how it?s already boosted Brewer?s profile: she was on Fox discussing it only hours after it was over. Twitter is full of people who want Newt Gingrich to name her his vice-presidential choice. That wasn?t happening a day ago. And right now, Obama isn?t doing great in Brewer?s state, so the finger-wagging shouldn?t hurt her at home.

A Public Policy Polling poll from last November put Obama?s approval rating in Arizona at only 41 percent. According to PPP, right now Obama trails Mitt Romney in a head-to-head match-up by around six points.

That said, Arizona is a state Obama could conceivably win in the fall. Its large Hispanic population might be energized by the president?s stance on immigration, and could rally around him due to their own governor?s hard-line position. The more threatened Hispanics feel, the more they might turn out in November.

?An Obama victory in Arizona next year isn?t completely outside the realm of possibility, but it looks like an uphill climb,? said PPP in November.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/5CXzzQhpKwk/Did-Arizona-Gov.-Jan-Brewer-disrespect-President-Obama-video

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Activists report 'terrifying massacre' in Syria

Syrian army defectors, celebrate shortly after they defected and join the anti-Syrian rgime protesters at Khalidiya area in Homs province, central Syria, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus on Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors, celebrate shortly after they defected and join the anti-Syrian rgime protesters at Khalidiya area in Homs province, central Syria, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus on Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital. (AP Photo)

A Syrian army defector, flashes victory sign as he carries on his shoulders a boy shortly after he defected and join the anti-Syrian regime protesters at Khalidiya area in Homs province, central Syria, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus on Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors, celebrate and wave the Syrian revolution flag shortly after they defected and join the anti-Syrian regime protesters at Khalidiya area in Homs province, central Syria, on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascus on Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital. (AP Photo)

BEIRUT (AP) ? A "terrifying massacre" in the restive Syrian city of Homs has killed more than 30 people, including small children, in a barrage of mortar fire and attacks by armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, activists said Friday.

Details were emerging from an array of residents and activists on Friday, a day after the bloodshed. Residents told The Associated Press they were still gathering information but that the city was rocked by sectarian killings, gunfire and explosions.

"There has been a terrifying massacre," Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AP on Friday, calling for an independent investigation of the killings.

Syria tightly controls access to trouble spots and generally allows journalists to report only on escorted trips, which slows the flow of information.

Videos posted online from activists showed the bodies of children wrapped in plastic bags lined up next to each other.

Another video shows women and children with bloodied faces and clothes and in a house, with the narrator saying an entire family with its children had been "slaughtered."

The videos could not be independently verified.

The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists, said the death toll in Homs was at least 35, but the reports could not be confirmed. Both groups cite a network of activists on the ground in Syria.

The Syrian uprising began last March with largely peaceful anti-government protests, but it has grown increasingly militarized in recent months as frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces.

The Observatory said 29 people were killed in the religiously mixed Karm el-Zaytoun neighborhood of Homs on Thursday, including eight children, most of them when a building came under heavy mortar and machine gun fire.

Residents spoke of another massacre that took place when shabiha ? armed regime loyalists ? stormed the district, slaughtering residents in an apartment, including children.

"It's racial cleansing," said one resident of Karm el-Zaytoun, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. "They are killing people because of their sect," he said.

Syria has a volatile sectarian divide, making civil unrest one of the most dire scenarios. The Assad regime is dominated by the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, but the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

Also Friday, Iran's official IRNA news agency said gunmen in Syria have kidnapped 11 Iranian pilgrims traveling by road from Turkey to Damascus.

Iranian pilgrims routinely visit Syria ? Iran's closest ally in the Arab world ? to pay homage to Shiite holy shrines.

The government crackdown has killed more than 5,400 people since March, according to estimates from the United Nations.

Assad's regime claims terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy are behind the uprising, not protesters seeking change, and that thousands of security forces have been killed.

International pressure on Damascus to end the bloodshed so far has produced few results.

In a Twitter message, France's U.N. mission said the Security Council will discuss Syria on Friday during closed consultations.

The Arab League has sent observers to the country as part of a plan to the end the crisis, but the mission has been widely criticized for failing to stop the violence. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the Security Council to intervene because the Syrian government has not halted its crackdown.

In Cairo, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told reporters that he and the prime minister of Qatar would leave for New York on Saturday to brief the U.N. Security Council on the latest Arab plan to end the crisis in Syria. He said their talks, to start Monday, are designed to enlist the support of the council for the Arab peace plan.

The plan is a two-month transition to a unity government and includes Assad handing over his powers. Syria has rejected it as intervention in its internal affairs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-27-ML-Syria/id-d6e98116c4284b51911901e69d6d6f31

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