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MADRID (AP) ? Spain's new conservative government is set to unveil its first austerity measures later Friday as it tries to reassure markets that it has a plan to get a grip on its public finances at the same time as kickstarting an economy saddled with sky-high unemployment.
With much of the country on holiday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party was presiding over a Cabinet meeting that will approve the first in what is expected to be a painful series of spending freezes or cuts and other reforms over the next few months.
Rajoy's Popular Party won a sweeping victory in Nov. 20 elections over the Socialists and his government took power only last week. All the ministers have been named but many other senior positions have not even been filled yet.
Like other troubled governments in Europe, Rajoy faces the delicate task of a deficit reduction measures in a country whose economy is expected to sink back into recession. The jobless rate is a staggering 21.5 percent, the highest rate of all 17 countries that use the euro.
Rajoy has said time and time again he is determined to meet Spain's commitment to cut its budget deficit to 4.4 percent of GDP in 2012.
Last week, he said that if the outgoing government's deficit forecast of 6 percent for 2011 was correct ? and he stressed it might be off ? the new government would have to achieve euro16.5 billion ($22 billion) in deficit reduction in 2012.
Fears over Spain's public finances and a banking sector heavily exposed to a real estate bubble that burst in 2008 have caused Spain's borrowing costs to soar amid fears it could end up suffering the same fate as bailed out Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Spanish media say that just about the only good news expected to come out of Friday's Cabinet meeting is a small cost of living increase for pensioners. In May 2010, then Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero slapped the freeze on under growing international pressure, just as the Greek debt crisis was heating up. The pressure on Spain included a call from President Barack Obama.
The rest of the measures expected Friday will apparently be an early taste of the bitter medicine to come ? a freeze on civil servant wages hiring in most areas, except security forces.
And ministries will be told to tighten their belts, again.
As no budget for 2012 has yet been passed, Rajoy's Cabinet is expected to extend the 2011 spending blueprint into the first quarter of next year as it waits to get final figures on the economy. A full-blown 2012 budget is expected in late March.
On Friday, ministries will reportedly be told how much of the money they originally had earmarked for 2011 they must now refrain from spending.
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An earlier USD 3 billion arrangement, that came into force in 2008, had expired in June.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda "decided to enhance the earlier bilateral currency swap arrangement from USD 3 billion to USD 15 billion," a joint statement said.
The dollar swap arrangement would help India in supporting the rupee, which has depreciated by about 15-16 per cent against the US currency since April due to various global and domestic factors.
The arrangement would provide a supply of the US dollar in an unforeseen economic situation. New Delhi will have access to funds from Bank of Japan, which it can return at a later date.
The two leaders expressed hope that the enhancement will further strengthen financial cooperation, contribute to ensuring financial market stability and further develop growing economic and trade ties between the countries, the statement said.
The two Prime Ministers also decided to accelerate efforts by the relevant authorities for an early realisation of the some projects including seawater desalination at Dahej, a micro-grid system using large-scale photo-voltaic power generation at Neemrana and gas-fired independent power producer in Maharashtra, it said.
The leaders also decided to strengthen efforts to improve infrastructure such as ports, industrial parks and their surrounding facilities in Ennore, Chennai and the adjoining areas, it added.
? Copyright PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of any PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.
Source: http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?745851
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LONDON (AP) ? A statement on Sinead O'Connor's website says her brief marriage to therapist Barry Herridge has ended amicably.
The statement on sineadoconnor.com says "the marriage was 16 days. We lived together for 7 days only.. Until Xmas eve."
The statement says "from the moment myself and my husband got together ... there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life, not to be involved with me."
She adds: "As my good friend said 'well, at least you got married in Vegas in a pink Cadillac! Can't get more Rock n Roll than that.'"
Roman Szendrey, who maintains the site, told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday the report is accurate and was personally posted by O'Connor.
______
Online: http://www.sineadoconnor.com/
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PALM HARBOR, Fla. ? A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah, the chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s, has died at 80. But other accounts call that claim into question.
Debbie Cobb, outreach director at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, said Wednesday that her grandparents acquired Cheetah around 1960 from "Tarzan" star Johnny Weissmuller and that the chimp appeared in Tarzan films between 1932 and 1934. During that period, Weissmuller made "Tarzan the Ape Man" and "Tarzan and His Mate."
But Cobb offered no documentation, saying it was destroyed in a 1995 fire.
Also, some Hollywood accounts indicate a chimpanzee by the name of Jiggs or Mr. Jiggs played Cheetah alongside Weissmuller early on and died in 1938.
In addition, an 80-year-old chimpanzee would be extraordinarily old, perhaps the oldest ever known. According to many experts and Save the Chimps, another Florida sanctuary, chimpanzees in captivity generally live to between 40 and 60, though Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Fla., says it has one that is around 73.
A similar claim about another chimpanzee that supposedly played second banana to Weissmuller was debunked in 2008 in a Washington Post story.
Writer R.D. Rosen discovered that the primate, which lived in Palm Springs, Calif., was born around 1960, meaning it wasn't oldest enough to have been in the Tarzan movies of Hollywood's Golden Age that starred Olympic swimming star Weissmuller as the vine-swinging, loincloth-wearing Ape Man and Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane.
While a number of chimpanzees played the sidekick role in the Tarzan movies of the 1930s and `40s, Rosen said in an email Wednesday that this latest purported Cheetah looks like a "business-boosting impostor as well."
"I'm afraid any chimp who actually shared a soundstage with Weissmuller and O'Sullivan is long gone," Rosen said.
Cobb said Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure and was cremated.
"Unfortunately, there was a fire in `95 in which a lot of that documentation burned up," Cobb said. "I'm 51 and I've known him for 51 years. My first remembrance of him coming here was when I was actually 5, and I've known him since then, and he was a full-grown chimp then."
Film historian and Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osbourne said the Cheetah character "was one of the things people loved about the Tarzan movies because he made people laugh. He was always a regular fun part of the movies."
In his time, the Cheetah character was as popular as Rin Tin Tin or Asta, the dog from the "Thin Man" movies, Osbourne said.
"He was a major star," he said.
At the animal sanctuary, Cheetah was outgoing, loved finger painting and liked to see people laugh, Cobb said. But he could also be ill-tempered. Cobb said that when the chimp didn't like what was going on, he would fling feces and other objects.
___
Associated Press writers Ben Nuckols in Washington and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.
___
Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush
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SAN ANTONIO ? Ron Paul wants to legalize pot and shut down the Federal Reserve. He thinks the federal government has no authority to outlaw abortion, no business bombing Iran to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and no justification to print money unless it's backed up by gold bars.
And he might win the Iowa caucuses.
The closer the first votes of the 2012 presidential campaign get, the more competitive the Texas congressman has become. It's a moment his famously fervent supporters have longed for. Plenty of others are asking: What's Ron Paul about, again?
As in his two prior quixotic campaigns for president, Paul has toiled for months as a fringe candidate best known for staking out libertarian positions. As every other Republican candidate lined up to attack President Barack Obama's health care law and to promise tax cuts, Paul again demanded audits of the Federal Reserve and a return to the gold standard.
Leading in some state polls, Paul is getting a look from mainstream voters in Iowa, where the 76-year-old obstetrician has emerged as a serious contender in the Jan. 3 caucuses ? and in other early voting states, should he pull off a victory.
The sudden rush of attention to Paul's resume hasn't been kind. He's spent the past week disowning racist and homophobic screeds in newsletters he published decades ago, including one following the 1992 riots in Los Angeles that read, "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to collect their welfare checks three days after rioting began."
"Everybody knows I didn't write them and they're not my sentiments, so it's sort of politics as usual," Paul said during a recent Iowa campaign stop.
Looking to cut into Paul's support, rivals laid into him on Tuesday.
In an interview on CNN, Newt Gingrich said Paul holds "views totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent American." And Rick Santorum chided, "The things most Iowans like about Ron Paul are the things he's least likely to accomplish and the things most Iowans are worried about about Ron Paul are the things he can accomplish."
Paul returns to Iowa on Wednesday, giving his impressive grass-roots organization in the state a last chance to present, and perhaps defend, positions he's staked out over a long political career and reiterated during the 13 Republican debates held this year.
Paul has served a dozen terms in Congress as a Republican, but he espouses views that have made him the face of libertarianism in the U.S. He blames both Republicans and Democrats for running up the federal debt and opposes any U.S. military involvement overseas. He wants to bring home all troops from all U.S. bases abroad.
He vows to do away with five Cabinet-level departments ? Commerce, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior ? and repeal the amendment to the Constitution that created the federal income tax. He opposes federal flood insurance and farm subsidies and wants to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances while allowing states to decide how to regulate it.
He says he'll cut $1 trillion out of the first budget he offers as president. He doesn't believe in a border fence but says illegal immigrants shouldn't get a free education in public schools.
He's reliably described by political pundits as non-establishment, quirky, unorthodox. During a Republican debate in Sioux City, Iowa, earlier this month, Paul defended his views and rejected the idea that they make him unelectable.
"The important thing is, the philosophy I'm talking about is the Constitution and freedom, and that brings people together," Paul said. "It brings independents in the fold and it brings Democrats over on some of these issues."
Paul doesn't always side with the most extreme conservative proposals. When it comes to Gingrich's suggestion that judges could be hauled before Congress to explain their rulings, Paul joined other Republicans in dismissing the idea.
Paul's recent surge in Iowa isn't the first time the GOP establishment has been forced to pay attention to him. A fundraising blitz that netted $5 million in one day in 2008 led Republican operatives to weigh whether he was a bigger threat to siphon votes than previously thought.
Now he may be in his best position yet to do more than just steal votes.
"I see this philosophy as being very electable, because it's an American philosophy, it's the rule of law," Paul said.
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We?ll be providing updates all week from the 2011 Junior Bowl, which features 90 of the top college football prospects that are high school juniors from across the state of Georgia.? Friday?s game will be played at 7 p.m. at Grady High School and televised on ESPN3.com
Milton DE Carl Lawson, who is still waiting on his first scholarship offer, was the star of the East all-star practice on Tuesday (AJC photo by Bob Andres)
Every year at the Junior Bowl, there are unknown players who ?come out of nowhere? to register on the recruiting radar after outstanding performances in practice against blue-chip prospects who already boast early scholarship offers.
Last year, it was Raphael Kirby who was ?discovered? at the Junior Bowl. Kirby didn?t have any scholarship offers at the time but turned heads with his stellar play at linebacker. Word quickly spread about Kirby, the Stephenson High School standout who later committed to Miami out of his eventual 38 scholarship offers.
A leading candidate for this year?s biggest discovery is Milton High School?s Carl Lawson, who dominated Tuesday?s practices at defensive end. He has no early offers, and was not an automatic selection for the game but won over RisingSeniors.com co-founder Joe Burns when he attended a Milton game this past season. The 6-foot-3, 250-pounder proved worthy of the selection during Tuesday?s practices.
We?d have to name Lawson the overall MVP from Tuesday?s sessions. ?He had a great day; he?s explosive and has great hands ? he showed everything in his arsenal that he needed to show,? said Rusty Mansell, National Recruiting Analyst for 247Sports. ?I think he can play defensive end in a 4-3 defense. He?s strong and he?s got every move ? I?ve heard a lot of people talk about him. After seeing him today, I think he?s going to be getting some offers soon.?
We broke down Tuesday?s practice of the East squad:
East Defensive, MVP ? Carl Lawson, DE, Milton High School
Little-known OL JP Vonashek is a "definitely a high-level D1 prospect," said one analyst (AJC Photo by Bob Andres)
East Defense, Biggest surprise ? Nigel Bowden, the 6-foot-2, 226-pound linebacker from Central Macon. ?It was amazing how fast he runs at 225 pounds,? Mansell said. ?He covered the field from sideline-to-sideline with a lot of speed. That?s what you want out of a linebacker. He plays with good instincts.? Bowden, who has a 4.0 GPA, has an early offer from Vanderbilt.
East Offense, MVP ? Alvin Kamara, RB, Norcross High School: ?He can fly. He?s so fast, and can catch the ball. He?s fluid, and everything looks easy to him. He?s got the tools you want to see at running back.? The 5-foot-9, 165-pounder has an early offer from Syracuse.
East Offense, Biggest surprise ? JP Vonashek, the 6-6, 265-pounder who recently transferred from Glynn Academy to Camden County. He has no early offers. ?I didn?t really know much about him but he?s definitely a high-level D1 prospect,? Mansell said. ?He?s tall with a great frame. He has a great punch when he?s blocking and moves well with his feet. He can pass block, run block, and has a great knee bend for being that tall.?
To read Mansell?s scouting report, please go here
Check back on Wednesday for a report on the West.
? By Michael Carvell, AJC Recruiting Blog
Got an item? mcarvell@ajc.com
Note: Inappropriate BLOG comments and personal attacks will NOT be tolerated. We love the lively discussions but hate-filled, harassing and irresponsible comments are unacceptable.
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Apple has created a new section on their website to give a better breakdown into how the new iTunes Match service works.
With iTunes in the Cloud, the music you buy from the iTunes Store automatically appears on all your devices.1 And for music you haven?t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution. iTunes Match is built right into iTunes on your computer and the Music app on your iOS devices.2 It lets you store your entire collection in iCloud, even music you?ve imported from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. When it?s in iCloud, it?s available on all your devices. So you can enjoy all your music anywhere, anytime ? on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, or Apple TV.
Ally has already put together a great How To on getting started with iTunes Match, but in case we missed anything, it?s good to know that Apple has something setup that TiPb readers can fall back on. Check it out via the link below.
Source: Apple
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UPDATE: A family who lost all their Christmas presents to a thief will still be able to celebrate.
The Longview Police Department's "Blue Santa" program delivered bags of presents Thursday to single mom Crystal Lee and her son Avery.
Tuesday, Lee reported to police that all her Christmas presents for her and her son had been stolen from under her tree.
The sight of Blue Santa was overwhelming.
"I said, 'Oh my, what do I do,' then I went to the door, and she had a huge gift, I mean bags of gifts , I'm sorry I was so excited for my son," Crystal expressed.
And, two-year-old Avery even got to open up a couple of his gifts.
LONGVIEW,TX (KLTV)- In a matter of moments, the Christmas for two East Texas single mothers was stolen right out from under them, leaving their children with nothing under the tree. Thieves struck Tuesday afternoon at their apartments in the 4-hundred block of Tammy Lynn drive in Longview. Crystal Lee says she was playing with her son Avery in her back yard, with her front door unlocked. She came back in to see her Christmas presents gone.
"You should have seen him crying last night , where's my toys momma. He knew," Lee says. "The gifts are gone , the gifts are gone, the things I got him from my heart is gone, I'm taking the tree down its over, I'm taking the tree down," she says.
Neighbor Markethia Winston had her presents under the tree as well, they were planning on having Christmas together with their children.
"My first thought was oh my gosh my baby's presents are gone, she's not going to have Christmas, that hurt me because this is her first Christmas," Winston says.
Nothing else was taken, but every present under the tree and even what was in the stockings was gone. Lee filed a police report for the missing items. Clothes and toys, but it was what she had worked hard to provide for her son.
"They have to be heartless people who just don't care, why would you do that," Winston says.
"Oh my god its four days , what am I going to do? what am I supposed to tell my son Christmas morning," Lee says.
But all is not lost. The Longview Police Department Blue Santa program will be providing Christmas gifts to the kids.
Copyright 2011 KLTV. All rights reserved.
Source: http://longview.kltv.com/news/news/75848-update-blue-santa-comes-rescue-e-texas-family
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More than two dozen Christmas toys on sale this year have too much lead, contain dangerous plastic additives, or pose choking or hearing hazards, according to a recent report from consumer group U.S. Public Interest Research Group (see my blog post on it). But often, the dangers aren?t discovered until after the presents are bought and opened. So how can parents ensure that their children?s new Christmas toys are safe? Here are five ways to stay informed.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the regulatory body charged with protecting the public from risks of injuries associated with consumer products, including toys and other children?s items. Parents can find out about product safety recalls through a variety of resources, including the commission?s website for recalls. By filling in their e-mail addresses on the website, parents can receive an alert whenever a product recall or a safety advisory is announced. You can even tailor the e-mail alert to notify you only when certain types of products are recalled.
Recalls can be announced months after a product is purchased. So it is always a good idea for parents to check recall lists well before and after the holiday season. Before you give your child a gift, cross check it with the CPSC?s recall alerts to make sure it has not been recalled. Consumers should also review the CPSC?s recall database regularly and long after the holiday season has passed to make sure that their children?s Christmas toys and games are safe. If you find that a gift has been recalled, immediately follow the remedy instructions provided in the recall announcement.
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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo stands on the sideline after leaving the game with an injury to his hand during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo stands on the sideline after leaving the game with an injury to his hand during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo stands on the sideline after leaving the game with an injury to his hand during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Stephen McGee (7) prepares to take the snap from Cowboys center Phil Costa (67) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. Cowboys starting quarterback Tony Romo left the game after injuring his throwing hand on the first series. The Eagles won 20-7. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Jose Yau)
Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Curtis Marsh (31) tackles Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dwayne Harris (17) after a kick return during the second half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/The Waco Tribune-Herald, Jose Yau)
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Stephen McGee (7) throws against the Philadelphia Eagles during the first half of an NFL football game Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. Cowboys starting quarterback Tony Romo left the game after injuring his throwing hand on the first series. The Eagles won 20-7. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Jose Yau)
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Tony Romo was in the locker room dealing with a passing hand that wasn't broken, but was swelling.
At the same time, the New York Giants were polishing off a victory that rendered the result of this game just about meaningless, and turned their game against the Cowboys in New York next weekend into a battle for the NFC East title.
So Jerry Jones left his midfield viewing booth and marched right to coach Jason Garrett on the sideline. Neither would give a clear explanation of their conversation, but it's obvious how the chat went considering Romo didn't return and oft-injured running back Felix Jones soon joined him on the sideline.
Missing those crucial players, and lacking intensity, the Cowboys came within 7 seconds of being shut out at home for the first time in 20 years, losing 20-7 to the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday.
"You have to step back and understand what the situation is," Garrett said. "We need to be as healthy as we can be next week."
New York's victory eliminated the Eagles from the playoffs and meant the Cowboys couldn't clinch the division title with a win. Dallas could've still been playing for a wild-card backup plan, but was clearly more concerned about getting ready for the "win and you're in" route to the playoffs, especially after Romo banged his hand on the helmet of a defender.
Garrett said the club had decided earlier in the week who would and wouldn't play if the Giants won. Garrett said Romo's injury added a new wrinkle.
The question of why Jones decided to personally go over the plan with Garrett again, and in light of the Romo injury, wasn't really answered.
"I did want to go and communicate real good and we did communicate real good," Jones said. "These are decisions made by Jason, ultimately."
Michael Vick threw touchdown passes on his first drive and just before halftime, which was all the scoring the Eagles would need. They added a pair of field goals in the second half, while their defense prevented an offense powered by Stephen McGee, Sammy Morris and Chauncey Washington from sustaining any drives.
Dallas' only points came after a blocked punt set up McGee on the Philadelphia 16-yard line with 19 seconds left. He ran for 12 yards, then hit Miles Austin for a 4-yard touchdown pass to avoid the first shutout since November 2003, and the first at home since September 1991, also against Philadelphia.
"I just feel like we dodged a bullet ? Romo is healthy, that's critical to us," Jones said. "I certainly agree with how we played the game tonight, and who played what, when and how they played ? complete agreement with it."
Dallas (8-7) lost for the third time in four games, guaranteeing another losing record after Thanksgiving. If the Cowboys end up missing the playoffs, this flop at the finish will loom large all offseason. Of course, if they win the division, it'll only be a footnote.
The upcoming week will be filled with all sorts of similar high-stakes ramifications that will be riding on the finale for both Dallas and New York. Anticipating huge interest ? and high ratings ? that game has been moved to NBC's prime-time Sunday night showcase.
"If at the beginning of the year you told us we would have a chance to win the division in Week 17, we would have jumped at it," tight end Jason Witten said. "We will have to play our best football. It's on the road. It's going to be tough. But that's the environment you have to take. The Giants have been in these situations, too. It's going to be a huge challenge."
When this game kicked off, the Giants were up by only six points midway through the fourth quarter, so the Cowboys and Eagles still had a lot to play for.
Philadelphia got the ball first and Vick picked up where he left off the last time these teams met, cruising 80 yards in eight plays for a 7-0 lead. Then the Eagles snuffed Romo, forcing a punt from around midfield.
On the final play of that series, Romo rushed a third-down pass to avoid a sack. On his follow-through, he smacked his passing hand on Jason Babin's helmet. That's when things got about as interesting as they'd be the rest of the afternoon.
The drama began with Jones leaving his midfield viewing booth to chat with Garrett. He returned to his booth about the same time Romo returned to the sideline.
Romo couldn't grip the ball or take a snap, so he got his hand and wrist wrapped. While he was trading his helmet for a baseball cap, team vice president Stephen Jones arrived on the sideline and spoke with trainers. Felix Jones then joined Romo as being done for the day.
McGee ? who moved up from third-stringer to backup when Jon Kitna went on injured reserve ? took over for Romo and went 24 of 38 for 182 yards, with four runs for 28 yards.
McGee beat the Eagles in last season's finale, but he struggled to even sustain drives this time. It didn't help that his running backs were Morris (pulled from retirement before last week's game) and Washington (signed off the street this week).
"It took me a little while to get comfortable," McGee said. "I don't get very many reps, basically never in a real game. I felt like I made progress through the game."
Philadelphia (7-8) won its third straight, giving the preseason "Dream Team" and midseason nightmare the chance to break even if it can beat the Redskins at home in its finale next weekend. The Eagles also swept the season series against the Cowboys for the first time since 2006, having clobbered Dallas 34-7 in October.
"If we had gotten into the playoffs we would have definitely done some damage," Vick said. "It's unfortunate we didn't. That's the game of football. We made some mistakes early (this season) and got behind in the win-loss column. But we're just happy we're finishing strong."
The defense sure is. Philadelphia has allowed just 36 points and 683 yards over the last three games, with 16 sacks.
"I think it took a little time to gel," said defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins, one of the offseason additions whose arrival raised expectations. "I guess it took longer than we anticipated. We just didn't get the job done. You can make all the excuses in the world, but they really don't mean anything. At the end of the season when you look at our final record, there's not going to be asterisk by it. You just have to own up to it. We let a lot of opportunities get away from us early. All we can do now is control what we do in the future."
Vick was 18 of 32 for 293 yards, with the touchdowns going to Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek. Jason Avant nearly had another TD, but fumbled inches before touching the pylon, resulting in a touchback for the Cowboys.
DeSean Jackson caught five passes for 90 yards, and ran for 27 yards on two end arounds, both on consecutive plays.
Alex Henery kicked field goals of 43 and 51 yards for the Eagles' only points in the second half.
"They're disappointed we don't have a shot at the playoffs," coach Andy Reid said. "At the same time I was pleased with the energy they brought to the football field. They wanted to dominate and play aggressive football. Nobody was hanging their heads."
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Two Earth-sized planets have been discovered circling a dying star that has passed the red giant stage. Because of their close orbits, the planets must have been engulfed by their star while it swelled up to many times its original size.
This discovery, published in the science journal Nature, may shed new light on the destiny of stellar and planetary systems, including our solar system.
When our sun nears the end of its life in about 5 billion years, it will swell up to what astronomers call a red giant, an inflated star that has used up most of its fuel. So large will the dying star grow that its fiery outer reaches will swallow the innermost planets of our solar system ? Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Researchers believed that this unimaginable inferno would make short work of any planet caught in it ? until now.
This report describes the first discovery of two planets ? or remnants thereof ? that evidently not only survived being engulfed by their parent star, but also may have helped to strip the star of most of its fiery envelope in the process. The team was led by Stephane Charpinet, an astronomer at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Plan?tologie, Universit? de Toulouse-CNRS, in France.
"When our sun swells up to become a red giant, it will engulf the Earth," said Elizabeth 'Betsy' Green, an associate astronomer at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, who participated in the research. "If a tiny planet like the Earth spends 1 billion years in an environment like that, it will just evaporate. Only planets with masses very much larger than the Earth, like Jupiter or Saturn, could possibly survive."
The two planets, named KOI 55.01 and KOI 55.02, circle their host star in extremely tight orbits. Having migrated so close, they probably plunged deep into the star's envelope during the red giant phase, but survived. In the most plausible configuration, the two bodies would respectively have radii of 0.76 and 0.87 times the Earth radius, making them the smallest planets so far detected around an active star other than our sun.
The host star, KOI 55, is what astronomers call a subdwarf B star: It consists of the exposed core of a red giant that has lost nearly its entire envelope. In fact, the authors write, the planets may have contributed to the increased mass loss necessary for the formation of this type of star.
The authors concluded that planetary systems may therefore influence the evolution of their parent stars. They pointed out that the planetary system they observed offers a glimpse into the possible future of our own.
The discovery of the two planets came as a surprise because the research team had not set out to find new planets far away from our solar system, but to study pulsating stars. Caused by rhythmic expansions and contractions brought about by pressure and gravitational forces that go along with the thermonuclear fusion process inside the star, such pulsations are a defining feature of many stars.
By studying the pulsations of a star, astronomers can deduce the object's mass, temperature, size and sometimes even its interior structure. This is called asteroseismology.
"Those pulsation frequency patterns are almost like a finger print of a star," Green said. "It's very much like seismology, where one uses earthquake data to learn about the inner composition of the Earth."
To detect the frequencies with which a star pulsates, researchers have to observe it for very long periods of time, sometimes years, in order to measure tiny variations in brightness.
"The brightness variations of a star tell us about its pulsational modes if we can observe enough of them very precisely," Green said. "Let's say there is one pulsational mode every 5859.8 seconds, and there is another one every 9126.39 seconds. There could be lots of stars with rather different properties that could all manage to pulsate at those two frequencies. However, if we can measure 10, or better yet, 50 pulsational modes in one star, then it's possible to use theoretical models to say exactly what the star must be like in order to produce those particular pulsations."
"The only way to do that is to have a telescope sitting in space," she added. "On Earth, we can only observe a star at night. But unless we follow it 24/7, the mathematics give us artifacts. Observing through the atmosphere means that even in the very best of cases we can only detect brightness variations to a ten-thousandth of a percent. But if you've got 50 or a 100 modes going in a star, you need to measure better than that."
For that reason, the team used data obtained from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope for this study.
Unobstructed by the Earth's atmosphere and staring at the same patch of sky throughout its five-year mission, the Kepler Space Telescope sits in a prime spot to detect tiny variations in brightness of stars.
Green had been pursuing a survey to look for hot subdwarf stars in the galactic plane of the Milky Way.
"I had already obtained excellent high-signal to noise spectra of the hot subdwarf B star KOI 55 with our telescopes on Kitt Peak, before Kepler was even launched," she said. "Once Kepler was in orbit and began finding all these pulsational modes, my co-authors at the University of Toulouse and the University of Montreal were able to analyze this star immediately using their state-of-the art computer models."
This was the first time that researchers were able to use gravity pulsation modes, which penetrate into the core of the star, to match subdwarf B star models to learn about their interior structure.
While analyzing KOI 55's pulsations, the team noticed the intriguing presence of two tiny periodic modulations occurring every 5.76 and 8.23 hours that caused the star to flicker ever so slightly, at one five thousandth percent of its overall brightness. They showed that these two frequencies could not have been produced by the star's own internal pulsations.
The only explanation came from the existence two small planets passing in front of the star every 5.76 and 8.23 hours. To complete their orbits so rapidly, KOI 55.01 and KOI 55.02 have to be extremely close to the star, much closer than Mercury is to our sun. On top of that, the sun is a cool star compared to KOI 55, which burns at about 28,000 Kelvin, or 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Planets this close to their star are tidally locked," Green said, "meaning the same side always faces the star, just like the same face of the moon always faces the Earth. The day side of Mercury is hot enough to melt lead, so you can imagine the harsh conditions on those two small planets racing around a host star that is five times hotter than our sun at such a close distance."
The extremely tight orbits are important because they tell the researchers that the planets must have been engulfed when their host stars swelled up into a red giant.
"Having migrated so close, they probably plunged deep into the star's envelope during the red giant phase, but survived," lead author Charpinet said.
"As the star puffs up and engulfs the planet, the planet has to plow through the star's hot atmosphere and that causes friction, sending it spiraling toward the star," Green added. "As it's doing that, it helps strip atmosphere off the star. At the same time, the friction with the star's envelope also strips the gaseous and liquid layers off the planet, leaving behind only some part of the solid core, scorched but still there."
"We think this is the first documented case of planets influencing a star's evolution," Charpinet said. "We know of a brown dwarf that possibly did that, but that's not a planet, and of giants planets around subdwarf B stars, but those are too far away to have had any impact on the evolution of the star itself."
"I find it incredibly fascinating that after hundreds of years of being able to only look at the outsides of stars, now we can finally investigate the interiors of a few stars ? even if only in these special types of pulsators ? and compare that with how we thought stars evolved," Green said. "We thought we had a pretty good understanding of what solar systems were like as long as we only knew one ? ours. Now we are discovering a huge variety of solar systems that are nothing like ours, including, for the first time, remnant planets around a stellar core like this one."
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University of Arizona: http://uanews.org
Thanks to University of Arizona for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116232/Astronomers_discover_deep_fried_planets
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NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Yahoo Inc is considering a plan to unload most of its prized Asian assets in a complex deal valued at roughly $17 billion, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, winning nods of approval from Wall Street and driving its shares higher.
The offer - the latest among proposals put forth in recent months to resuscitate the once high-flying Internet company - is expected to be considered by Yahoo's board on Thursday, sources said.
The board was uninterested in entertaining offers for the entire company at this point, said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Yahoo's increasing difficulty in competing with Internet heavyweights such as Google Inc and Facebook have forced it to explore proposals to revamp its business.
The former Internet powerhouse, which fired its Chief Executive Carol Bartz in September, has a market value of around $18.5 billion.
The Asian split-off plan to be considered by the board follows previous proposals by private equity firms to buy a minority stake in Yahoo. Those proposals were fiercely opposed by some of Yahoo's largest shareholders, including activist hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, of Third Point LLC.
"It's clear that Dan Loeb at Third Point is exerting some influence," said Adam Seessel, director of research at Martin Capital Management, which added to its position in Yahoo a few weeks ago. He "is doing all Yahoo shareholders a favor by looking over the board and making sure they do the right thing."
Yahoo shares, which languished in the red along with much of the technology sector on Wednesday, reversed course and ended the session almost 6 percent higher at $15.99. It inched further upward in after-hours trading to $16.09.
At a $17 billion valuation, which includes the value of the Alibaba stake that Yahoo would retain under the latest proposal, a deal would mean the Asian assets are worth $14 per Yahoo share, one of the sources said.
The deal would essentially mean that Yahoo's core U.S.-based Internet business is valued at only $2 a share, according to Lawrence Haverty, a fund manager with GAMCO investors, which owns Yahoo shares.
Given that Yahoo has roughly $2 a share in cash on its balance sheet, Haverty said the deal left plenty of room for upside in the core business.
"This is the right thing to do. This is how you maximize shareholder value," he said, noting that he believed the tax-free structure of the plan seemed feasible.
TAX-FREE DEAL
Alibaba chief Jack Ma has said several times he would like to buy back Yahoo's stake in his company, one of Asia's largest Internet corporations. Investors have long said Yahoo's investment in Alibaba, along with its 35 percent slice of Yahoo Japan, are far and away the U.S. company's most prized assets.
In the deal under contemplation, Yahoo would effectively transfer most of its 40 percent slice of Alibaba back to the Chinese company and all of its stake in Yahoo Japan to Softbank Corp, sources said.
Alibaba and Yahoo Japan would each create separate legal entities where they would put cash and operating assets, and then trade those with Yahoo, making the deal tax-free, the sources said.
At the end of the contemplated transaction Yahoo would retain a 15 percent stake in Alibaba, the sources said.
The final deal size will depend on how the assets are valued, another source said.
"It's definitely a step in the right direction. It shows that the board is thinking about shareholders as opposed to their own interests," Martin Capital's Seessel said.
Yahoo declined to comment. The possible deals were first reported in The New York Times.
Last week, sources told Reuters a consortium consisting of private equity group Silver Lake, Microsoft Corp and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz were reworking a bid for a minority stake in Yahoo.
(Reporting by Paritosh Bansal and Peter Lauria in New York, Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; editing by Matthew Lewis, Andre Grenon and Richard Chang)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/wr_nm/us_yahoo
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AUSTIN (KXAN) - Overcrowding at the Austin Animal Center may mean euthanasia of nearly a dozen canines if new owners aren?t found.
Officials say since the animal shelter moved to its new East Austin facility in November they have seen fewer adoptions. The problem has been compounded, they say, by a dramatic increase in the number of adult dogs being surrendered by their owners.
The new facility has fewer large dog kennels than the old facility, now being run by Austin Pets Alive, creating a deadly mix for medium to large dogs over the age of six months.
Officials with Austin Pets Alive say they are housing the maximum contracted number of 60 dogs from ACC to help relieve the overcrowding, taking in 53 dogs this week alone.
Both shelters say they are hope to see dogs over 35 pounds to be adopted in the next week leading up to the holiday to avoid euthanizing the animals.
"There is a huge variety of amazing medium to large dogs available at both of our shelters that don't deserve to die just because they aren't puppies anymore. It is hard for them to compete with little puppies and small breed dogs," said Dr. Ellen Jefferson, veterinarian and executive director of Austin Pets Alive! ?We are asking people to come to APA! or the City shelter and do a trial adoption, foster or permanently adopt one of these dogs that is in extreme danger of euthanasia. The gift of life to a dog that had no hope will be remembered as the best holiday present you ever gave."
Austin pets Alive said they will offer ?name-your-own-price? adoptions for all cats and dogs over 35 pounds, requiring a $25.00 minimum, all weekend long. The Austin Animal Center is offering their dogs over 35 pounds for free, including the ones being housed at the Town Lake Animal Center.
For more information about Austin Animal Center and Austin Pets Alive visit http://www.cityofaustin.org/health/pets/default.htm and www.austinpetsalive.org .
Source: http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/pets-risk-death-at-crowded-shelters
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By GRAHAM DUNBAR
updated 7:53 a.m. ET Dec. 16, 2011
NYON, Switzerland - Former European champions Manchester United and Ajax will meet in the last 32 of the Europa League.
The two were drawn to face each other Friday.
Defending champion FC Porto will take on Manchester City, while 2010 Europa League champion Atletico Madrid will face Lazio.
In other matches, it's: Stoke vs. Valencia; Udinese vs. PAOK; and Locomotiv Moscow vs. Athletic Bilbao.
The first legs will be played Feb. 16, with the return matches scheduled for Feb. 23.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsDavid Villa broke his left leg, marring Barcelona's 4-0 victory over Qatar's Al-Sadd on Thursday night that advanced the European champions to the Club World Cup final against Brazil's Santos.
Getty ImagesSource: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45695539/ns/sports-soccer/
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BEIRUT ? The Arab League has given Syria until Wednesday to allow observers into the country or else it will likely turn to the U.N. Security Council for action to try to end the deadly violence against regime opponents, Qatar's prime minister said Saturday.
Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani said in Qatar that Arab foreign ministers will hold a "decisive and important" meeting in Cairo on Wednesday to decide on next steps.
He said there is near unanimity among Arab states on taking the issue to the U.N. after Syria demanded changes to the Arab League's proposal for ending the violence.
The Arab plan called for Syria to halt its crackdown and to allow in Arab observers to ensure compliance with the deal. Syria had asked for some amendments regarding the work of the observers.
The 22-member League has also suspended Syria's membership and imposed sanctions, but it has been divided over whether to seek the help of the wider international community beyond the Arab world.
Hamad's remarks after an Arab ministerial committee meeting in Qatar on Saturday indicated that the camp objecting to outside intervention may be getting smaller.
Syria has seen a sharp escalation in armed clashes recently, raising concerns the country of 22 million is headed toward civil war. The U.N. raised its death toll for the Syrian uprising substantially this week, saying more 5,000 people have been killed since the revolt began nine months ago.
Russia began circulating a draft U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday that it said was designed to resolve the conflict in Syria. The draft calls for an end to all violence but does not contain sanctions.
That prompted the Arab League to consider putting forward an initiative of its own for the Security Council to consider, Hamad said at a news conference. He did not provide details.
Hamad said the Arab League wanted to see "that Arab resolutions are adopted rather than those of other nations."
The announcement in Qatar came as an Iraqi delegation arrived in Syria to meet with President Bashar Assad to discuss ways of ending the crisis.
Ali al-Moussawi, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the delegation is seeking to find a peaceful solution "that preserves Syria's unity."
Many Iraqis fear that if civil war breaks out in Syria it could spread to Iraq, its eastern neighbor. Iraqi officials have not given details on the initiative they will discuss with Assad and other officials.
Iraq was one of few countries that abstained from voting in favor of Arab sanctions against Syria.
___
Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report from Baghdad.
___
Bassem Mroue can be reached on http://twitter.com/bmroue
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Yesterday, Salesforce announced the acquisition of social performance platform Rypple, and revealed that it will be entering the human capital management (a.k.a. employee and talent management software) market with the launch of a new product Successforce. For Salesforce, the announcement of a new product vertical and the entry into a new market is a big deal. And when you consider SAP's recent $3.4 billion acquisition of talent management software giant SuccessFactors, things start to get interesting. We sat down with Salesforce EVP John Wookey, who will be leading Successforce and is a former SAP and Oracle alum; as well as Daniel Debow, co-CEO and co-founder of Rypple; to discuss what the acquisition means for Salesforce.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Wy-pCh5Tm4U/
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Scientists have uncovered a critical genetic mutation in some patients with myelodysplastic syndromes ? a group of blood cancers that can progress to a fatal form of leukemia.
The research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis also found evidence that patients with the mutation are more likely to develop acute leukemia. While this finding needs to be confirmed in additional patients, the study raises the prospect that a genetic test could one day more accurately diagnose the disorder and predict the course of the disease.
The research is available online in Nature Genetics.
The scientists discovered the mutation in a gene known as U2AF1 when they sequenced the entire genome of a 65-year old man with myelodysplastic syndrome that had progressed to leukemia and compared it with the genome of his tumor cells. They also found the genetic error in other patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, an indication of the mutation's significance.
"The mutation in this gene was not on anyone's radar screen," says senior author and hematologist/oncologist Matthew Walter, MD, assistant professor of medicine. "In many cases, the diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndromes is unclear because there isn't a straightforward diagnostic test. By understanding at the genetic level what is contributing to this disease, we hope to eventually improve the diagnosis and treatment of this disorder."
Myelodysplastic syndromes are a difficult-to-treat family of blood cancers that occur when blood cells in the bone marrow don't mature properly. About 28,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disorder each year, most of them over age 60. Drugs are available to treat the disease, but none can cure it.
In about 30 percent of cases, the disorder progresses to a form of acute myeloid leukemia that usually is fatal because chemotherapy drugs are not effective in these patients. Doctors currently assess the likelihood that a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome will develop leukemia by looking at the chromosomes in the tumor cells to determine the extent to which they have broken apart and rearranged themselves, an indicator of the severity of the disease.
"There are chromosomal patterns that indicate high risk and low risk, but the current methods to determine prognosis aren't perfect," says first author Timothy Graubert, MD, associate professor of medicine, who specializes in treating patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.
After identifying the U2AF1 mutation in three patients through whole-genome sequencing, the researchers scoured the gene for the mutation in another 150 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. They identified the mutation in 13, or nearly 9 percent. The mutations were acquired during development of myelodysplastic syndromes because they were not present in normal cells obtained from each patient.
Patients were almost three times as likely to develop leukemia if they had a mutation in the U2AF1 gene. The disorder progressed to leukemia in 15.2 percent of patients with the mutation, compared with 5.8 percent of those without the genetic error.
The most common mutation results in a single letter change in the DNA at a precise location in the U2AF1 gene. Patients with the genetic error were most likely to have the amino acids phenylalanine or tyrosine substituted for a serine. The researchers say that the mutation by itself does not cause myelodysplastic syndromes but appears to be an early event in the course of the disease.
Normally, the U2AF1 gene makes a protein involved in splicing RNA, a sister molecule of DNA that carries the instructions for building proteins. Splicing brings together different sections of RNA necessary to make a protein and discards those sections that are not needed. The mutated version of the gene still produces a protein, but its splicing activity is altered, which may be important for the development of some cancers.
The new research, funded in part by a federal stimulus grant, adds to a flurry of new findings about the genetic basis of myelodysplastic syndromes. Recent studies in Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine, along with the current study, have identified mutations in a total of eight genes involved in RNA splicing in patients with the disorder.
"Together, these findings are a real game-changer," Graubert says. "A mutation in any one of these eight genes occurs in up to 50 percent of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. Because these changes are so common, we think there are likely to be implications for improving the diagnosis of the disorder and finding new therapeutic options."
Whole-genome sequencing for cancer was pioneered by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine and the university's Genome Institute, including Richard Wilson, PhD; Elaine Mardis, PhD; Timothy Ley, MD; and Li Ding, PhD, all of whom are co-authors of the study. The new research builds on their work to find novel mutations in cancer by looking across a patient's entire genome.
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Washington University School of Medicine: http://www.medicine.wustl.edu
Thanks to Washington University School of Medicine for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 50 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116060/Key_genetic_error_found_in_family_of_blood_cancers
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