Agencies Tags : Hazare-RSS link, truth come, Cong, RSS Posted: Thu Nov 10 2011, 20:55 hrs New Delhi:
Anna
Anna Hazare. (AP)
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With RSS claiming support to Anna Hazare's movement and the Gandhian denying links with it, Congress today called it a "cat and mouse game" and demanded that the truth behind the claims and counter claims about relationship between the two must come out.
"RSS is repeatedly saying that it supports Hazare. If Anna Hazare finds any contradiction in what RSS is saying or if he thinks RSS is not speaking the truth, why does not he say it in clear terms?
"There is this cat and mouse game that is going. One organisation says, we are supporting, the other says are not taking support. The truth behind it must come out in public," party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here.
The Congress spokesperson's remarks came after the RSS today said Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement had its support and its activists were not barred from joining the campaign but the outfit noted it had no 'official' link with the Gandhian.
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Reacting to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks in this regard, Hazare denied that RSS was supporting his movement.
"I have no relations with the RSS," he told reporters at his native Ralegan Sidhi village in Maharashtra while denying that RSS was supporting him.
"Let them say whatever they want. Yesterday Sonia Gandhi said something....They are just targeting me. The world knows who Anna is. What need is for me to be with them," he said.
Bhagwat's comments had come against the backdrop of Congress leader Digvijay Singh's allegation that Hazare has a nexus with BJP-RSS in the anti-corruption agitation.
... contd.
2011年11月10日星期四
Economist Named to Lead Greek Unity Government
ATHENS — Lucas Papademos, a respected economist and former vice president of the European Central Bank, was named Thursday to lead a new Greek unity government that has pledged to abide by the tough terms of a European aid package in the hopes of saving the country from bankruptcy.
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The announcement came after four days of often chaotic negotiations that put the feuding among Greece’s political parties on full display.
Mr. Papademos, who has a low-key, avuncular manner, emerged from the presidential office building shortly after the statement about his new post was released at midday and spoke briefly with reporters, striking an optimistic note.
“The course will not be easy,” he said. “But the problems, I’m convinced, will be solved. They will be solved faster, with a smaller cost and in an efficient way, if there is unity, agreement and prudence.”
Mr. Papademos has only a few weeks to persuade Greece’s creditors in the so-called troika — the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — to release its next block of aid, $11 billion, before the country runs out of money. Then he must begin fulfilling the painful terms of an even larger loan.
He will have to move swiftly to reassure the European leaders there will be no repeat of the shock they suffered in October, when the former prime minister, George A. Papandreou, after negotiating a new $177 billion loan, decided without warning to submit the bailout package to a referendum. The move infuriated the Europeans, who had concocted the Greek bailout as part of a painstakingly negotiated broader effort to stabilize the euro. It also started the clock on the end of Mr. Papandreou’s tenure.
Mr. Papademos will have to deal with 2011 budget shortfalls and the passage of a 2012 budget that is expected to call for another round of austerity measures in a climate of growing social unrest. He will also have to start what are expected to be difficult negotiations with private sector banks that have agreed, in principle, to write off 50 percent of the face value of their Greek bond holdings as part of the rescue plan.
As if to underscore the problems, the national statistics authority reported on Thursday that unemployment had jumped to a record high 18.4 percent in August, a month when the tourist season normally lowers the rate, from 16.5 percent in July.
Mr. Papademos almost did not get the job. After Mr. Papandreou agreed on Sunday to step aside once a new coalition government had been formed, the parties could not seem to stop fighting long enough to settle on a candidate. With new elections expected early next year, all sides were maneuvering for strategic advantages. On Wednesday evening, Mr. Papandreou went on television to give his farewell speech as prime minister and was expected to announce a different successor.
But some 50 members of his party, and members of the opposition as well, pressed for Mr. Papademos, seen as an outsider to the old-boy political networks — a technocrat, perhaps able to take Greece on a new path. But it was not an easy sell. Some analysts here have said that the political parties were reluctant to embrace him because he would be an unknown, and perhaps a rival, at election time.
Only after another five hours of negotiations on Thursday morning did the president’s office issue a written statement confirming that Mr. Papademos would take on the task of trying to bring Greece’s economy back from the brink. It was unclear on Thursday night what his cabinet might look like.
News reports earlier this week said that Mr. Papademos had also set certain conditions before he was willing to take the post that had added to some of the reluctance to embrace him. The reports said he wanted a term of at least six months; earlier, the major political parties had agreed to new elections in just 100 days.
Other reports said that Mr. Papademos was insisting that members of the main opposition New Democracy party play a significant role in the unity government. It was widely reported that the opposition, headed by Antonis Samaras, had resisted participating, not wanting to be linked to deeply unpopular reforms with an election around the corner.
But standing outside the presidential palace, Mr. Papademos said he had not made any demands before accepting the job. He also said the new unity government would be “transitional,” and its priority would be to make sure that Greece stayed in the euro zone. “I am convinced that Greece’s continued participation in the euro zone is a guarantee for the country’s stability and future prosperity,” he said.
Whether he will succeed remains an open question. But some analysts said they considered his appointment to be Greece’s best shot.
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The announcement came after four days of often chaotic negotiations that put the feuding among Greece’s political parties on full display.
Mr. Papademos, who has a low-key, avuncular manner, emerged from the presidential office building shortly after the statement about his new post was released at midday and spoke briefly with reporters, striking an optimistic note.
“The course will not be easy,” he said. “But the problems, I’m convinced, will be solved. They will be solved faster, with a smaller cost and in an efficient way, if there is unity, agreement and prudence.”
Mr. Papademos has only a few weeks to persuade Greece’s creditors in the so-called troika — the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — to release its next block of aid, $11 billion, before the country runs out of money. Then he must begin fulfilling the painful terms of an even larger loan.
He will have to move swiftly to reassure the European leaders there will be no repeat of the shock they suffered in October, when the former prime minister, George A. Papandreou, after negotiating a new $177 billion loan, decided without warning to submit the bailout package to a referendum. The move infuriated the Europeans, who had concocted the Greek bailout as part of a painstakingly negotiated broader effort to stabilize the euro. It also started the clock on the end of Mr. Papandreou’s tenure.
Mr. Papademos will have to deal with 2011 budget shortfalls and the passage of a 2012 budget that is expected to call for another round of austerity measures in a climate of growing social unrest. He will also have to start what are expected to be difficult negotiations with private sector banks that have agreed, in principle, to write off 50 percent of the face value of their Greek bond holdings as part of the rescue plan.
As if to underscore the problems, the national statistics authority reported on Thursday that unemployment had jumped to a record high 18.4 percent in August, a month when the tourist season normally lowers the rate, from 16.5 percent in July.
Mr. Papademos almost did not get the job. After Mr. Papandreou agreed on Sunday to step aside once a new coalition government had been formed, the parties could not seem to stop fighting long enough to settle on a candidate. With new elections expected early next year, all sides were maneuvering for strategic advantages. On Wednesday evening, Mr. Papandreou went on television to give his farewell speech as prime minister and was expected to announce a different successor.
But some 50 members of his party, and members of the opposition as well, pressed for Mr. Papademos, seen as an outsider to the old-boy political networks — a technocrat, perhaps able to take Greece on a new path. But it was not an easy sell. Some analysts here have said that the political parties were reluctant to embrace him because he would be an unknown, and perhaps a rival, at election time.
Only after another five hours of negotiations on Thursday morning did the president’s office issue a written statement confirming that Mr. Papademos would take on the task of trying to bring Greece’s economy back from the brink. It was unclear on Thursday night what his cabinet might look like.
News reports earlier this week said that Mr. Papademos had also set certain conditions before he was willing to take the post that had added to some of the reluctance to embrace him. The reports said he wanted a term of at least six months; earlier, the major political parties had agreed to new elections in just 100 days.
Other reports said that Mr. Papademos was insisting that members of the main opposition New Democracy party play a significant role in the unity government. It was widely reported that the opposition, headed by Antonis Samaras, had resisted participating, not wanting to be linked to deeply unpopular reforms with an election around the corner.
But standing outside the presidential palace, Mr. Papademos said he had not made any demands before accepting the job. He also said the new unity government would be “transitional,” and its priority would be to make sure that Greece stayed in the euro zone. “I am convinced that Greece’s continued participation in the euro zone is a guarantee for the country’s stability and future prosperity,” he said.
Whether he will succeed remains an open question. But some analysts said they considered his appointment to be Greece’s best shot.
Billy Crystal will host the Oscars: Finally!
The news that Billy Crystal has returned to host the Academy Awards for the ninth time — and the first time since 2004 — brings back a flood of memories for many Oscar junkies: His trademark opening musical medleys and movie spoofs. His easy, joking rapport with A-list movie stars. His nimble ability to play both to the room of Hollywood industry insiders and to the worldwide television audience of movie fans.
And for anyone following the PR fustercluck that’s befallen the Oscars this week, another thought springs to mind, at least for me: Billy is pretty much the only person for the job. For practically anyone else — Hollywood icons like Tom Hanks; quick-witted comedians like Tina Fey; awards show hosting all-stars like Neil Patrick Harris; cutesy stunt suggestions like the Muppets — the question of “What would have Eddie done?” would be hanging over their heads like a fast-talking donkey in a fat suit. But when I say the words “host of the Oscars,” who immediately springs to mind? Of course: Billy Crystal. I mean, when he showed up for a quick bit at this year’s walking disaster of an Academy Awards, the audience was so grateful to see someone who actually knew what the frak he was doing, they gave the man a standing ovation.
Granted, I am a deep dish Oscar junkie. In college, I hosted my own Oscar party in my dorm’s common room, with decorations, copious buckets of popcorn, an Oscar pool (that I won, natch), and me in my dad’s old sparkly tux from 1979. So maybe I’m simply too fond of Hollywood’s annual black-tie party of self-congratulation and copious excess to realize that hiring the man most synonymous with the Oscars of old is maybe not the best person to help bring the youthful edge that Murphy and producer Brett Ratner were obviously hired for in the first place.
Still, check out these clips of Crystal’s Oscar gigs of yore — and a bonus clip of Crystal from our Princess Bride reunion shoot — and then tell me, are you happy with Crystal returning to host the Oscars?
And for anyone following the PR fustercluck that’s befallen the Oscars this week, another thought springs to mind, at least for me: Billy is pretty much the only person for the job. For practically anyone else — Hollywood icons like Tom Hanks; quick-witted comedians like Tina Fey; awards show hosting all-stars like Neil Patrick Harris; cutesy stunt suggestions like the Muppets — the question of “What would have Eddie done?” would be hanging over their heads like a fast-talking donkey in a fat suit. But when I say the words “host of the Oscars,” who immediately springs to mind? Of course: Billy Crystal. I mean, when he showed up for a quick bit at this year’s walking disaster of an Academy Awards, the audience was so grateful to see someone who actually knew what the frak he was doing, they gave the man a standing ovation.
Granted, I am a deep dish Oscar junkie. In college, I hosted my own Oscar party in my dorm’s common room, with decorations, copious buckets of popcorn, an Oscar pool (that I won, natch), and me in my dad’s old sparkly tux from 1979. So maybe I’m simply too fond of Hollywood’s annual black-tie party of self-congratulation and copious excess to realize that hiring the man most synonymous with the Oscars of old is maybe not the best person to help bring the youthful edge that Murphy and producer Brett Ratner were obviously hired for in the first place.
Still, check out these clips of Crystal’s Oscar gigs of yore — and a bonus clip of Crystal from our Princess Bride reunion shoot — and then tell me, are you happy with Crystal returning to host the Oscars?
Yen Gains Versus Most Peers as Europe Crisis Dents Global Growth OutlookThe yen rose against the majority of its most-traded peers as concern that Europe’s spreading sovereign-debt crisis will dent global growth spurred investors to buy haven assets. The Japanese currency was poised to gain against all its 16 major counterparts this week before Italy sells as much as 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) of five-year bonds on Nov. 14, testing investor appetite for the nation’s debt. The dollar strengthened against most peers after U.S Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Europe remains the “central challenge” to growth. “There’s still a lot to muddle through,” said Chris Weston, an institutional dealer at IG Markets in Melbourne. “The dollar and the yen will still be attracting those safe haven flows.” The yen rose 0.3 percent to 105.40 per euro as of 10:17 a.m. in Tokyo from 105.66 in New York yesterday, set for a 2.4 percent advance this week. The currency was at 77.60 per dollar from 77.65 having gained 0.8 percent since Nov. 4. The euro fetched $1.3584 from $1.3606 yesterday and $1.3792 last week. Italy’s 10-year government bond yield soared to as high as 7.48 percent on Nov. 9. Bond investors charged the nation an interest rate of 6.087 percent yesterday to buy 5 billion euros of one-year bills, the highest in 14 years. Italy’s Senate will vote on debt- reduction measures today in an attempt to shore up investor confidence and pave the way for a new government that may be led by former European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti. Asia Impact Europe’s debt woes may have an impact beyond its borders, with concern mounting about the outlook for the global economy. India’s annual industrial production growth rate probably slowed in September and Hong Kong’s economic expansion likely weakened in the third quarter from the year before, reports due today are expected to say, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. “In this sort of an environment the yen is a genuine safe haven because it’s a current account-surplus currency,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. in Sydney, Australia’s second-largest lender. “We’ve had this intense focus on Europe in recent weeks, but today is a day to take the pulse of Asia.” Rate Decisions The Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.25 percent today in a decision predicted by all 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Bank Negara Malaysia will probably also keep its benchmark overnight policy rate at 3 percent today, according to economists in a separate survey, to protect growth as Europe’s debt crisis imperils demand for Asian exports. Indonesia’s central bank unexpectedly cut rates by half a percentage point to a record low of 6 percent yesterday to shield the economy from a faltering global recovery. The world’s fourth-most populous nation joined countries from Brazil to Australia in lowering borrowing costs to boost spending at home. Geithner, who is in Honolulu attending the 21-nation Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, said in prepared remarks that the APEC countries are all directly affected by the euro-zone crisis and he encouraged them “to take steps to strengthen growth in the face of these pressures from Europe.” The dollar tends to gain during periods of financial stress because of its status as the world’s reserve currency. The yen strengthens because Japan’s export-reliant economy doesn’t need foreign capital to balance current accounts -- the broadest measure of trade. Stalling Growth The 17-nation euro headed for its second weekly loss versus the dollar before reports next week that may show the region’s economy is struggling to recover amid the debt crisis. Euro-zone industrial production probably declined 1.5 percent in September, according to the median estimate of six economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the figures are released on Nov. 14. A report the following day may show the region’s gross domestic product grew 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the same pace as the previous period, according to a separate survey. That’s the slowest expansion since June 2009. “The macro backdrop in Europe is still very weak and could get worse,” said IG Markets’ Weston. “I wouldn’t rule out a move in the medium term in the euro to around $1.30 or below.” The European Commission yesterday cut the region’s growth forecast for next year to 0.5 percent from 1.8 percent. It predicts the economy may expand 1.5 percent this year, down from a previous projection of 1.6 percent.
The yen rose against the majority of its most-traded peers as concern that Europe’s spreading sovereign-debt crisis will dent global growth spurred investors to buy haven assets.
The Japanese currency was poised to gain against all its 16 major counterparts this week before Italy sells as much as 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) of five-year bonds on Nov. 14, testing investor appetite for the nation’s debt. The dollar strengthened against most peers after U.S Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Europe remains the “central challenge” to growth.
“There’s still a lot to muddle through,” said Chris Weston, an institutional dealer at IG Markets in Melbourne. “The dollar and the yen will still be attracting those safe haven flows.”
The yen rose 0.3 percent to 105.40 per euro as of 10:17 a.m. in Tokyo from 105.66 in New York yesterday, set for a 2.4 percent advance this week. The currency was at 77.60 per dollar from 77.65 having gained 0.8 percent since Nov. 4. The euro fetched $1.3584 from $1.3606 yesterday and $1.3792 last week.
Italy’s 10-year government bond yield soared to as high as 7.48 percent on Nov. 9. Bond investors charged the nation an interest rate of 6.087 percent yesterday to buy 5 billion euros of one-year bills, the highest in 14 years.
Italy’s Senate will vote on debt- reduction measures today in an attempt to shore up investor confidence and pave the way for a new government that may be led by former European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti.
Asia Impact
Europe’s debt woes may have an impact beyond its borders, with concern mounting about the outlook for the global economy. India’s annual industrial production growth rate probably slowed in September and Hong Kong’s economic expansion likely weakened in the third quarter from the year before, reports due today are expected to say, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
“In this sort of an environment the yen is a genuine safe haven because it’s a current account-surplus currency,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. in Sydney, Australia’s second-largest lender. “We’ve had this intense focus on Europe in recent weeks, but today is a day to take the pulse of Asia.”
Rate Decisions
The Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.25 percent today in a decision predicted by all 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Bank Negara Malaysia will probably also keep its benchmark overnight policy rate at 3 percent today, according to economists in a separate survey, to protect growth as Europe’s debt crisis imperils demand for Asian exports.
Indonesia’s central bank unexpectedly cut rates by half a percentage point to a record low of 6 percent yesterday to shield the economy from a faltering global recovery. The world’s fourth-most populous nation joined countries from Brazil to Australia in lowering borrowing costs to boost spending at home.
Geithner, who is in Honolulu attending the 21-nation Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, said in prepared remarks that the APEC countries are all directly affected by the euro-zone crisis and he encouraged them “to take steps to strengthen growth in the face of these pressures from Europe.”
The dollar tends to gain during periods of financial stress because of its status as the world’s reserve currency. The yen strengthens because Japan’s export-reliant economy doesn’t need foreign capital to balance current accounts -- the broadest measure of trade.
Stalling Growth
The 17-nation euro headed for its second weekly loss versus the dollar before reports next week that may show the region’s economy is struggling to recover amid the debt crisis.
Euro-zone industrial production probably declined 1.5 percent in September, according to the median estimate of six economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the figures are released on Nov. 14. A report the following day may show the region’s gross domestic product grew 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the same pace as the previous period, according to a separate survey. That’s the slowest expansion since June 2009.
“The macro backdrop in Europe is still very weak and could get worse,” said IG Markets’ Weston. “I wouldn’t rule out a move in the medium term in the euro to around $1.30 or below.”
The European Commission yesterday cut the region’s growth forecast for next year to 0.5 percent from 1.8 percent. It predicts the economy may expand 1.5 percent this year, down from a previous projection of 1.6 percent.
The Japanese currency was poised to gain against all its 16 major counterparts this week before Italy sells as much as 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) of five-year bonds on Nov. 14, testing investor appetite for the nation’s debt. The dollar strengthened against most peers after U.S Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Europe remains the “central challenge” to growth.
“There’s still a lot to muddle through,” said Chris Weston, an institutional dealer at IG Markets in Melbourne. “The dollar and the yen will still be attracting those safe haven flows.”
The yen rose 0.3 percent to 105.40 per euro as of 10:17 a.m. in Tokyo from 105.66 in New York yesterday, set for a 2.4 percent advance this week. The currency was at 77.60 per dollar from 77.65 having gained 0.8 percent since Nov. 4. The euro fetched $1.3584 from $1.3606 yesterday and $1.3792 last week.
Italy’s 10-year government bond yield soared to as high as 7.48 percent on Nov. 9. Bond investors charged the nation an interest rate of 6.087 percent yesterday to buy 5 billion euros of one-year bills, the highest in 14 years.
Italy’s Senate will vote on debt- reduction measures today in an attempt to shore up investor confidence and pave the way for a new government that may be led by former European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti.
Asia Impact
Europe’s debt woes may have an impact beyond its borders, with concern mounting about the outlook for the global economy. India’s annual industrial production growth rate probably slowed in September and Hong Kong’s economic expansion likely weakened in the third quarter from the year before, reports due today are expected to say, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
“In this sort of an environment the yen is a genuine safe haven because it’s a current account-surplus currency,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. in Sydney, Australia’s second-largest lender. “We’ve had this intense focus on Europe in recent weeks, but today is a day to take the pulse of Asia.”
Rate Decisions
The Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.25 percent today in a decision predicted by all 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Bank Negara Malaysia will probably also keep its benchmark overnight policy rate at 3 percent today, according to economists in a separate survey, to protect growth as Europe’s debt crisis imperils demand for Asian exports.
Indonesia’s central bank unexpectedly cut rates by half a percentage point to a record low of 6 percent yesterday to shield the economy from a faltering global recovery. The world’s fourth-most populous nation joined countries from Brazil to Australia in lowering borrowing costs to boost spending at home.
Geithner, who is in Honolulu attending the 21-nation Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, said in prepared remarks that the APEC countries are all directly affected by the euro-zone crisis and he encouraged them “to take steps to strengthen growth in the face of these pressures from Europe.”
The dollar tends to gain during periods of financial stress because of its status as the world’s reserve currency. The yen strengthens because Japan’s export-reliant economy doesn’t need foreign capital to balance current accounts -- the broadest measure of trade.
Stalling Growth
The 17-nation euro headed for its second weekly loss versus the dollar before reports next week that may show the region’s economy is struggling to recover amid the debt crisis.
Euro-zone industrial production probably declined 1.5 percent in September, according to the median estimate of six economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the figures are released on Nov. 14. A report the following day may show the region’s gross domestic product grew 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the same pace as the previous period, according to a separate survey. That’s the slowest expansion since June 2009.
“The macro backdrop in Europe is still very weak and could get worse,” said IG Markets’ Weston. “I wouldn’t rule out a move in the medium term in the euro to around $1.30 or below.”
The European Commission yesterday cut the region’s growth forecast for next year to 0.5 percent from 1.8 percent. It predicts the economy may expand 1.5 percent this year, down from a previous projection of 1.6 percent.
Panetta orders review of discipline in Dover mortuary probe
Panetta also said he had faith in Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, despite harsh criticism from lawmakers and an independent federal agency about the credibility of the Air Force’s 18-month investigation into missing body parts and mishandled remains at the Dover mortuary, which handles the remains of American troops killed overseas.
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Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta addresses the mishandling of the remains of war dead at the mortuary in Dover. Panetta said that he considers the air base a 'sacred place with a sacred responsibility.'
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Panetta’s instructions came two days after he commended the Air Force for conducting a “thorough” investigation and said he agreed with the disciplinary actions it imposed. Asked what had changed, he cited a report issued by an independent federal watchdog, the Office of Special Counsel, which criticized the Air Force for being too lenient and not taking full responsibility.
Donley promised that his disciplinary review would be “exceedingly thorough and rigorous, as our fallen and the families they leave behind deserve nothing less.”
For the first time since the mortuary scandal erupted on Tuesday, Donley publicly expressed remorse for the problems.
“The lapses in our standards at Dover, which we sincerely regret, are our responsibility to fix,” he said in a statement. “I want to reassure our military family that our fallen are being treated, and will continue to be treated, with the utmost reverence, dignity and respect.”
Members of Congress, however, said they were appalled to learn that, in addition to losing body parts, the Dover mortuary had disposed of cremated portions in a Virginia landfill for several years.
“We must have an in-depth and detailed accounting of what happened,” said Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), chairman of the investigative arm of the House Armed Services Committee. “Most importantly, we must ensure that this never happens again.”
Panetta said he was unaware of the landfill-dumping practice and hoped an independent panel of medical experts he has appointed to review the Dover mortuary operations would examine the issue.
Seated next to Panetta at a news conference, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the mortuary stopped disposing of ashes in the landfill in 2008 and asserted that the practice was “not uncommon” outside the military.
“If you look into how it’s handled routinely in civilian life, there are procedures exactly that way,” he said.
Asked if it was morally objectionable or wrong to dispose of portions of troops’ remains in that manner, Dempsey replied: “I don’t know what right looks like in that regard now that this has manifested itself.”
An association of funeral directors, however, called the Dover mortuary’s landfill-dumping “horrific.”
Report: Paterno sought criminal defense lawyer
November 10, 2011 8:46 PM
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The Penn State Scandal
* Report: Paterno sought criminal defense lawyer
* Mike McQueary: Sex-abuse witness under scrutiny
* Penn State's legal woes may not end with Paterno
* Kutcher "quits" Twitter over Paterno tweet
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(CBS/AP)
Embattled former Penn State coach Joe Paterno has contacted a criminal defense attorney in the child sex abuse case that has rocked the university, NBC News has reported.
A source told NBC that Paterno's advisers Thursday reached out to J. Sedgwick Sollers, who had previously represented President George H.W. Bush. NBC said that the attorney has not met with the ex-coach and no retainer agreement has been formalized.
Paterno is not charged with any crimes in connection with the case, but was fired late Wednesday for his role, and said that he regretted not doing more after learning about allegations against ex-defensive coordinator Jerry Sandunsky.
Sollars offered no comment on Thursday and Paterno's spokesman said via email that "no lawyer has been retained." Paterno's son, Scott, also wrote on Twitter Thursday evening: "To be clear, no lawyer has been retained. Not sure where that report originated."
Complete coverage: The Penn State Scandal
Paterno's supporters run amok over firing
Source: Penn State told Paterno of firing by letter
Paterno has not been criminally charged in the child sex abuse case surrounding his former coach, Jerry Sandusky, and is reportedly viewed as a cooperating witness in the matter. He was fired as Penn State's coach late Wednesday evening by the university's trustees.
Along with his job as head football coach at Penn State, Paterno may also lose a shot at the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Pennsylvania's U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, a Republican, and Bob Casey, a Democrat, said Thursday they are rescinding their support for Paterno's nomination for the nation's highest civilian honor, citing recent events at the school.
Republican Rep. Glenn Thompson also nominated Paterno earlier this year, but wouldn't say Thursday whether he would also withdraw Paterno's name.
The trio submitted Paterno's name in September, citing his contributions to athletics and higher education.
Meanwhile, Penn State's trip to the Alamo Bowl in 1999 has attracted the interest of Texas.
San Antonio police Sgt. Chris Benavides said Thursday his department is "looking into the possibility that an offense may have happened" while the football team was in town.
Sandusky faces child sex abuse charges in Pennsylvania. A grand jury report says Sandusky took one boy he allegedly molested to the game and threatened to send him home when the victim resisted his advances.
The Alamo Bowl was Sandusky's last game at Penn State, where he coached for more than 30 years and was once the heir apparent to Joe Paterno.
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Report: Paterno sought criminal defense lawyer
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The Penn State Scandal
* Report: Paterno sought criminal defense lawyer
* Mike McQueary: Sex-abuse witness under scrutiny
* Penn State's legal woes may not end with Paterno
* Kutcher "quits" Twitter over Paterno tweet
* Franco Harris defends former coach Joe Paterno
* Complete Coverage »
(CBS/AP)
Embattled former Penn State coach Joe Paterno has contacted a criminal defense attorney in the child sex abuse case that has rocked the university, NBC News has reported.
A source told NBC that Paterno's advisers Thursday reached out to J. Sedgwick Sollers, who had previously represented President George H.W. Bush. NBC said that the attorney has not met with the ex-coach and no retainer agreement has been formalized.
Paterno is not charged with any crimes in connection with the case, but was fired late Wednesday for his role, and said that he regretted not doing more after learning about allegations against ex-defensive coordinator Jerry Sandunsky.
Sollars offered no comment on Thursday and Paterno's spokesman said via email that "no lawyer has been retained." Paterno's son, Scott, also wrote on Twitter Thursday evening: "To be clear, no lawyer has been retained. Not sure where that report originated."
Complete coverage: The Penn State Scandal
Paterno's supporters run amok over firing
Source: Penn State told Paterno of firing by letter
Paterno has not been criminally charged in the child sex abuse case surrounding his former coach, Jerry Sandusky, and is reportedly viewed as a cooperating witness in the matter. He was fired as Penn State's coach late Wednesday evening by the university's trustees.
Along with his job as head football coach at Penn State, Paterno may also lose a shot at the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Penn State riots after Paterno's ousting
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Pennsylvania's U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, a Republican, and Bob Casey, a Democrat, said Thursday they are rescinding their support for Paterno's nomination for the nation's highest civilian honor, citing recent events at the school.
Republican Rep. Glenn Thompson also nominated Paterno earlier this year, but wouldn't say Thursday whether he would also withdraw Paterno's name.
The trio submitted Paterno's name in September, citing his contributions to athletics and higher education.
Meanwhile, Penn State's trip to the Alamo Bowl in 1999 has attracted the interest of Texas.
San Antonio police Sgt. Chris Benavides said Thursday his department is "looking into the possibility that an offense may have happened" while the football team was in town.
Sandusky faces child sex abuse charges in Pennsylvania. A grand jury report says Sandusky took one boy he allegedly molested to the game and threatened to send him home when the victim resisted his advances.
The Alamo Bowl was Sandusky's last game at Penn State, where he coached for more than 30 years and was once the heir apparent to Joe Paterno.
Rhino subspecies vanishing from the wild
GENEVA (AP) — The Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct, and two other subspecies of rhinoceros are close to meeting the same fate, a leading conservation group said Thursday.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a recent reassessment of the Western Black Rhino had led it to declare the species extinct, adding that the Northern White Rhino of central Africa is now "possibly extinct" in the wild and the Javan Rhino is "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010.
A small but declining population of the Javan Rhino survives on the Indonesian island of Java, it added.
"A lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organized crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for rhino horns and commercial poaching are the main threats faced by rhinos," the group said in a statement accompanying the latest update of its so-called Red List of endangered species.
About a quarter of all mammals are at risk of extinction, IUCN said, adding that some species have been brought back from the brink with successful conservation programs.
The Southern White Rhino numbered just 100 animals at the end of the 19th century, but has since flourished and now has a population of over 20,000.
The Przewalski's Horse, a type of wild horse from Central Asia, has come back from extinction after a successful breeding program in captivity.
The Red List now contains almost 62,000 species of plants and animals, whose status is constantly monitored by conservationists.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a recent reassessment of the Western Black Rhino had led it to declare the species extinct, adding that the Northern White Rhino of central Africa is now "possibly extinct" in the wild and the Javan Rhino is "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010.
A small but declining population of the Javan Rhino survives on the Indonesian island of Java, it added.
"A lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organized crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for rhino horns and commercial poaching are the main threats faced by rhinos," the group said in a statement accompanying the latest update of its so-called Red List of endangered species.
About a quarter of all mammals are at risk of extinction, IUCN said, adding that some species have been brought back from the brink with successful conservation programs.
The Southern White Rhino numbered just 100 animals at the end of the 19th century, but has since flourished and now has a population of over 20,000.
The Przewalski's Horse, a type of wild horse from Central Asia, has come back from extinction after a successful breeding program in captivity.
The Red List now contains almost 62,000 species of plants and animals, whose status is constantly monitored by conservationists.
2011年11月9日星期三
Inwood neighbors want popular jazz cafe to turn down the volume Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/inwood-neighbors-popular-jazz-cafe-turn-volume-article-1.975304#ixzz1dGbuZBEV
Inwood’s Bridget and Greg Mills just want to raise their 16-month-old son Connor without having to to scream over loud music.
But that’s been it’s been tough to do because of blaring outdoor jazz music from a local restaurant behind their Cooper St. building.
“We’re right in the back [of the building\],” said Bridget Mills. “His crib was right by the window; we had to move it into our bedroom.”
The Garden Cafe, located on Broadway near W. 207th St., offers everything from slow roasted ribs to live outdoor jazz music.
The Mills said they like the food, but they’re not fans of the amplified music that makes it hard for them to have their windows open.
Their one-bedroom apartment faces the rear of the cafe, which has an outdoor space that is now used twice a week for live music. And it doesn’t stop as the temperature falls, there’s a heated enclosement that keeps the outdoor music going.
“It doesn’t need to be that loud. You can’t have a conversation across the living room,” said Bridget Mills, looking out of her window at the cafe.
Her husband, Greg, an actor, said they’re not against live music, pointing out they have a piano in their home.
“It’s not an issue of music. It’s the volume,” he said.
His wife said they’re not looking for the restaurant - which they frequent - to close.
“We just want them to be respectful neighbors,” she said.
The cozy restaurant offers live outdoor jazz music twice a week on Fridays and Saturdays. The music is scheduled to run until 10:30 p.m.
Owner Gus Anton says he’s tried to compromise with the annoyed neighbors, like the Mills family.
He said they’ve reduced the nights of live music from four to two and set strict hours on when the music can be played.
“We’ve worked with them,” Anton said. “They just don’t want us back there. We've taken their concerns into their consideration.”
He said they’ve even cut the size of the band down from a 5-piece band to two and three.
Karla Fisk, another Cooper St. resident, has been leading the charge to put an end to the outdoor music that she called “intrusive.”
More than 140 neighbors signed a petition to end the outdoor jazz jam session, which frequently plays “Take the ‘A’ Train.”
Supporters of the restaurant have also started an online petition to “Save Live Music in Inwood.” Nearly 300 people have shown their support in the petition.
“I am very pleased with live music in our neighborhood, as well as good cuisine at reasonable prices. Please don't shut them down or limit the live music they provide,” wrote neighbor Kate Shackford on the petition.
Fisk hopes she and her neighbors can work things out with Anton.
“We’re still strongly affected by it. We would like to build a trusting relationship with him and that depends on communication,” she said. “I hope that we can work togeThjether.”
But that’s been it’s been tough to do because of blaring outdoor jazz music from a local restaurant behind their Cooper St. building.
“We’re right in the back [of the building\],” said Bridget Mills. “His crib was right by the window; we had to move it into our bedroom.”
The Garden Cafe, located on Broadway near W. 207th St., offers everything from slow roasted ribs to live outdoor jazz music.
The Mills said they like the food, but they’re not fans of the amplified music that makes it hard for them to have their windows open.
Their one-bedroom apartment faces the rear of the cafe, which has an outdoor space that is now used twice a week for live music. And it doesn’t stop as the temperature falls, there’s a heated enclosement that keeps the outdoor music going.
“It doesn’t need to be that loud. You can’t have a conversation across the living room,” said Bridget Mills, looking out of her window at the cafe.
Her husband, Greg, an actor, said they’re not against live music, pointing out they have a piano in their home.
“It’s not an issue of music. It’s the volume,” he said.
His wife said they’re not looking for the restaurant - which they frequent - to close.
“We just want them to be respectful neighbors,” she said.
The cozy restaurant offers live outdoor jazz music twice a week on Fridays and Saturdays. The music is scheduled to run until 10:30 p.m.
Owner Gus Anton says he’s tried to compromise with the annoyed neighbors, like the Mills family.
He said they’ve reduced the nights of live music from four to two and set strict hours on when the music can be played.
“We’ve worked with them,” Anton said. “They just don’t want us back there. We've taken their concerns into their consideration.”
He said they’ve even cut the size of the band down from a 5-piece band to two and three.
Karla Fisk, another Cooper St. resident, has been leading the charge to put an end to the outdoor music that she called “intrusive.”
More than 140 neighbors signed a petition to end the outdoor jazz jam session, which frequently plays “Take the ‘A’ Train.”
Supporters of the restaurant have also started an online petition to “Save Live Music in Inwood.” Nearly 300 people have shown their support in the petition.
“I am very pleased with live music in our neighborhood, as well as good cuisine at reasonable prices. Please don't shut them down or limit the live music they provide,” wrote neighbor Kate Shackford on the petition.
Fisk hopes she and her neighbors can work things out with Anton.
“We’re still strongly affected by it. We would like to build a trusting relationship with him and that depends on communication,” she said. “I hope that we can work togeThjether.”
Snow, hurricane-force winds batter Alaska coast
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — One of the strongest storms to hit western Alaska in nearly 40 years battered coastal communities Wednesday with snow and hurricane-force winds, knocking out power, ripping up roofs and forcing some residents to board up their windows and seek higher ground.
Emergency managers said Wednesday afternoon that the winds were tapering off, with 85-mph gusts winding down to 55-mph gusts. The storm passed through more southern points of its path. But managers warned that many points farther north on Alaska's western coast between Norton Sound and Point Hope remained vulnerable to a possible surge of sea water that could bring varying degrees of flooding to villages already soaked, depending on how much shoreline protection they have or don't have.
"This is a storm of epic proportions," said meteorologist Jeff Osiensky with the National Weather Service. "We're not out of the woods with this."
Some villages, such as Kivalina, could be even more vulnerable with winds shifting as they head to Russia, officials said.
Water reportedly reached some reached homes in at least four Native villages, including Tununak and Kipnuk, state emergency managers said earlier Wednesday.
Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the state's emergency management agency, noted there have been no reports of injuries, and that damage so far has been largely limited to blown-out windows and battered roofs. Nome, Hooper Bay and Tununak reported scattered power outages. During outages, officials were able to maintain contact with communities by satellite phone and VHS radios.
Wednesday's planned test of the National Emergency Alert System was cancelled in Alaska due largely to the weather, KSRM-radio reported.
The highest wind gusts recorded — 89 mph — were at Wales at the western tip of the Seward Peninsula, which forms the U.S. side of the Bering Strait, said Bob Fischer, lead forecaster for the weather service in Fairbanks.
Winton Weyapuk, president of the Wales Village Corp., said the community suffered more lost sleep than damage.
"People said they were worried," Weyapuk said. "When the wind gusted here, it was pretty loud inside their homes."
Some families moved to the school overnight as a precaution. Water came high into dunes in front of the village and approached the school steps, he said. But a drive through the community of 136 before the sun came up revealed little damage.
The southeast direction of the wind helped, Weyapuk said.
"The wind was blowing parallel to the beach instead of from the south or southwest, which would have brought the waves straight in," he said.
In Nome — the biggest of the coastal communities with about 3,600 residents — wind gusted to 61 mph. City officials said Wednesday afternoon that they closed and barricaded streets in low-lying areas where flooding was reported and urged residents to keep clear of those areas.
"Water was at the bases at a number of buildings but not in the homes yet," Fischer said. He added tides could reach 7 feet above normal.
The height of snow and hurricane-force winds hit the historic gold mining town at about 2 a.m., police spokesman Zane Brown said.
"We do have some reports of buildings losing roofs in the Nome area," said meteorologist Scott Berg at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
Residents along Front Street, which runs less than 100 feet from the seawall that protects Nome from the Bering Sea, were asked to voluntarily evacuate Tuesday night. They stayed with friends on higher ground or at one of two shelters opened by the city at a recreation center and at a church, Brown said.
Before sunrise, a piece of sheet metal blew onto wires and temporarily knocked out the town's power and cellphone service, Nome emergency services administrator Mimi Farley said by email.
About 180 miles to the northeast, in Kotzebue, the regional hub for northwest Alaska villages, the storm had quieted down by 10:30 a.m.
Wind gusting to 74 mph had damaged a few sheds and roofs. But power, phones and other utilities were not interrupted, said Dennis Tiepelman, public administrator for the Northwest Arctic Borough.
"Just debris and loose stuff flying around. No power outage, no utilities were off," Tiepelman said.
As the storm moved north to the Chukchi Sea at midday, a 14-foot rock seawall was holding up in Kivalina, one of the villages hardest hit by coastal erosion in recent decades, said community spokeswoman Colleen Swan.
But winds were expected to shift later Wednesday, and that could mean flooding on top of ice in the village lagoon and nearby homes, she said. Damage so far was limited to tin roofing on homes.
Swan's sister, Marilyn Swan, made the five-minute walk to her job as the city clerk. By the time she arrived, she was covered with clumps of snow.
"I've never seen it that bad before," she said. "We've had storms, but this is pretty strong."
The storm also pounded Tununak, 519 miles northwest of Anchorage. Water rising in a river had reached boardwalks in the Yupik Eskimo village, resident Elizabeth Flynn said.
Officials feared a lack of shore-fast sea ice would leave Nome and Native villages sprinkled along the coast vulnerable to sea surges.
The last time the communities saw something similar was in November 1974, when a storm created a sea surge that measured more than 13 feet. The surge pushed beach driftwood above the level of the previous storm of its type in 1913.
The state is closely monitoring the storm and is ready to send help wherever needed, said Zidek, with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
"Our number one priority is the safety of life in those communities," Zidek said. He noted there have been no reports of toppled fuel tanks or toxic spills.
The state and emergency managers in the villages have long prepared for the powerful storms that batter Alaska's western coast, holding twice-yearly meetings on dealing with emergencies. In the past few years, the state has held evacuation workshops as well, Zidek said.
The Coast Guard had received no calls Wednesday morning from vessels seeking help from the storm, Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis said.
Francis said the storm hit after most crab fishing had concluded.
"We're kind of in a lull with a lot of the fisheries," she said.
_____
Associated Press writer Rachel D'Oro contributed to this report.
Emergency managers said Wednesday afternoon that the winds were tapering off, with 85-mph gusts winding down to 55-mph gusts. The storm passed through more southern points of its path. But managers warned that many points farther north on Alaska's western coast between Norton Sound and Point Hope remained vulnerable to a possible surge of sea water that could bring varying degrees of flooding to villages already soaked, depending on how much shoreline protection they have or don't have.
"This is a storm of epic proportions," said meteorologist Jeff Osiensky with the National Weather Service. "We're not out of the woods with this."
Some villages, such as Kivalina, could be even more vulnerable with winds shifting as they head to Russia, officials said.
Water reportedly reached some reached homes in at least four Native villages, including Tununak and Kipnuk, state emergency managers said earlier Wednesday.
Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the state's emergency management agency, noted there have been no reports of injuries, and that damage so far has been largely limited to blown-out windows and battered roofs. Nome, Hooper Bay and Tununak reported scattered power outages. During outages, officials were able to maintain contact with communities by satellite phone and VHS radios.
Wednesday's planned test of the National Emergency Alert System was cancelled in Alaska due largely to the weather, KSRM-radio reported.
The highest wind gusts recorded — 89 mph — were at Wales at the western tip of the Seward Peninsula, which forms the U.S. side of the Bering Strait, said Bob Fischer, lead forecaster for the weather service in Fairbanks.
Winton Weyapuk, president of the Wales Village Corp., said the community suffered more lost sleep than damage.
"People said they were worried," Weyapuk said. "When the wind gusted here, it was pretty loud inside their homes."
Some families moved to the school overnight as a precaution. Water came high into dunes in front of the village and approached the school steps, he said. But a drive through the community of 136 before the sun came up revealed little damage.
The southeast direction of the wind helped, Weyapuk said.
"The wind was blowing parallel to the beach instead of from the south or southwest, which would have brought the waves straight in," he said.
In Nome — the biggest of the coastal communities with about 3,600 residents — wind gusted to 61 mph. City officials said Wednesday afternoon that they closed and barricaded streets in low-lying areas where flooding was reported and urged residents to keep clear of those areas.
"Water was at the bases at a number of buildings but not in the homes yet," Fischer said. He added tides could reach 7 feet above normal.
The height of snow and hurricane-force winds hit the historic gold mining town at about 2 a.m., police spokesman Zane Brown said.
"We do have some reports of buildings losing roofs in the Nome area," said meteorologist Scott Berg at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
Residents along Front Street, which runs less than 100 feet from the seawall that protects Nome from the Bering Sea, were asked to voluntarily evacuate Tuesday night. They stayed with friends on higher ground or at one of two shelters opened by the city at a recreation center and at a church, Brown said.
Before sunrise, a piece of sheet metal blew onto wires and temporarily knocked out the town's power and cellphone service, Nome emergency services administrator Mimi Farley said by email.
About 180 miles to the northeast, in Kotzebue, the regional hub for northwest Alaska villages, the storm had quieted down by 10:30 a.m.
Wind gusting to 74 mph had damaged a few sheds and roofs. But power, phones and other utilities were not interrupted, said Dennis Tiepelman, public administrator for the Northwest Arctic Borough.
"Just debris and loose stuff flying around. No power outage, no utilities were off," Tiepelman said.
As the storm moved north to the Chukchi Sea at midday, a 14-foot rock seawall was holding up in Kivalina, one of the villages hardest hit by coastal erosion in recent decades, said community spokeswoman Colleen Swan.
But winds were expected to shift later Wednesday, and that could mean flooding on top of ice in the village lagoon and nearby homes, she said. Damage so far was limited to tin roofing on homes.
Swan's sister, Marilyn Swan, made the five-minute walk to her job as the city clerk. By the time she arrived, she was covered with clumps of snow.
"I've never seen it that bad before," she said. "We've had storms, but this is pretty strong."
The storm also pounded Tununak, 519 miles northwest of Anchorage. Water rising in a river had reached boardwalks in the Yupik Eskimo village, resident Elizabeth Flynn said.
Officials feared a lack of shore-fast sea ice would leave Nome and Native villages sprinkled along the coast vulnerable to sea surges.
The last time the communities saw something similar was in November 1974, when a storm created a sea surge that measured more than 13 feet. The surge pushed beach driftwood above the level of the previous storm of its type in 1913.
The state is closely monitoring the storm and is ready to send help wherever needed, said Zidek, with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
"Our number one priority is the safety of life in those communities," Zidek said. He noted there have been no reports of toppled fuel tanks or toxic spills.
The state and emergency managers in the villages have long prepared for the powerful storms that batter Alaska's western coast, holding twice-yearly meetings on dealing with emergencies. In the past few years, the state has held evacuation workshops as well, Zidek said.
The Coast Guard had received no calls Wednesday morning from vessels seeking help from the storm, Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis said.
Francis said the storm hit after most crab fishing had concluded.
"We're kind of in a lull with a lot of the fisheries," she said.
_____
Associated Press writer Rachel D'Oro contributed to this report.
Abracadabra! Dutch court fines magician over act
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian spacecraft on its way to Mars with 12 tons of toxic fuel is stuck circling the wrong planet: ours. And it could come crashing back to Earth in a couple of weeks if engineers can't coax it back on track.
Space experts were hopeful Wednesday that the space probe's silent engines can be fired to send it off to Mars. If not, it will plummet to Earth. But most U.S. space debris experts think the fuel on board would explode harmlessly in the upper atmosphere and never reach the ground.
The launch mishap was the latest in a series of recent Russian failures that have raised concerns about the condition of the country's space industries.
The unmanned $170 million Phobos-Ground craft successfully got into orbit, propelled off the ground by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday (2016 GMT Tuesday) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After separating from its booster, 11 minutes later, it was supposed to fire its engines twice and head to Mars.
Neither engine fired. So the spacecraft couldn't leave Earth's orbit, flying between 129 and 212 miles above Earth. And that orbit is already deteriorating, according to American satellite tracking.
The Federal Space Agency said the probe's orbit and its power sources could allow it to circle the Earth for about two weeks. That jibes with calculations made by NASA.
"From the orbits we're seeing from the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, it's going to be a couple weeks before it comes in," NASA chief debris scientist Nicholas Johnson said Wednesday afternoon. "It's not going to be that immediate."
The craft was aiming to get ground samples from Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, and return them in a daring expedition hailed by eager scientists, who said it may include bits of Mars that may have been trapped on its moon.
Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said the system that keeps the spacecraft pointed in the right direction may have failed. The Russian rescue effort was being hampered by a limited earth-to-space communications network. Even before the problem, flight controllers were forced to ask people in South America to scan the sky to see if the engines on the spacecraft fired.
Amateur astronomers were the first to spot the trouble when they detected the craft was stuck in an Earth orbit.
As time went on Wednesday, experts in the United States became more confident that the Russians could still get the probe going, just a day or two later than planned. There were no sightings of an explosion or partial rocket firings, which are good signs, said James Oberg, a NASA veteran who has written books on the Russian space program and who now works as a space consultant.
"I am growing more confident as we realize that the vehicle is healthy; it didn't blow up," Oberg said late Wednesday afternoon. "They have a chance of doing a Hubble repair, an Apollo 13, snatching victory out of jaws of defeat kind of thing."
The hope is that this is just a software problem that can be fixed and uploaded to the probe, said Bruce Betts, program director of the Planetary Society in the United States, a group that has a $500,000 experiment on board.
"There's a major problem, but it might be recoverable," Betts said. "The game's not over yet."
The spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons). Russian data shows that most of that weight — about 11 metric tons (12 tons) — is fuel, NASA's Johnson said.
The key is whether that fuel remains in liquid form or freezes. If it's liquid, it would harmlessly blow up about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above ground, he said.
If the fuel freezes, it poses more of a hazard to Earth because it could survive the fiery reentry and spill on impact. But most U.S. experts, including Johnson, believe it will likely stay liquid.
Yet Oberg said he worries that the fuel — nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine — would freeze in the cold over a couple weeks. If that happens it "will make it the most toxic falling satellite ever," he emailed. "What was billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control."
In 2008, the U.S. government, worried about the hazards of a half-ton of frozen hydrazine in a titanium tank in a dead spy satellite. It shot down the satellite with a Navy missile.
Oberg said if this latest spacecraft falls, it could cause significantly more damage than the Russian Mars-96 spacecraft that crashed in the Andes Mountains and sprinkled some nuclear material.
Far heavier objects — including NASA's Skylab and Russia's Mir space station — have fallen.
If the stuck spacecraft's fuel exploded, only 3 tons of dry material would be left, Johnson said. That's smaller than recent defunct American and German satellites that fell to Earth, causing a brief stir, but no damage as they hit the ocean.
"We've had much larger objects than this come down and not have a problem," said William Ailor of the Aerospace Corp.'s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies. "Most likely it'll be like the ones we've seen recently. It'll come down in the ocean and we'll never hear about it."
No one has ever been hurt by crashing space objects.
The Phobos-Ground was Russia's first interplanetary mission since the botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars. That probe crashed shortly after the launch due to an engine failure. Moscow-based NPO Lavochkin designed both, as well as two Phobos probes in 1988, which also failed.
The Russian space agency responded to the failures by promising to establish its own quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over production quality.
In contrast with the failures that dogged Soviet and Russian efforts to explore Mars, a succession of NASA's landers and rovers, including Spirit and Opportunity, have successfully studied the Red Planet.
If Phobos-Ground is fixed, it should reach Mars orbit next September and land on Phobos in February 2013. The return vehicle is expected to carry up to 200 grams (7 ounces) of ground samples from Phobos back to Earth in August 2014.
It is arguably the most challenging unmanned interplanetary mission ever. It requires a long series of precise maneuvers for the probe to reach the potato-shaped moon just 20 kilometers (over 12 miles) in diameter, land on its cratered surface, scrape it for samples and fly back.
"If this had worked it would be a fantastic mission," said Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres, who has worked on several successful and failed U.S. Mars probes. "It is a reminder, if we needed one, that space exploration is hard and Mars missions are tricky."
NASA has its own Mars mission, a mega-rover called Curiosity set to launch Nov. 25 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and arrive on the surface next summer.
___
Borenstein reported from Washington. Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
___
Online:
Russian space agency:: http://bit.ly/tVk8TL
Space experts were hopeful Wednesday that the space probe's silent engines can be fired to send it off to Mars. If not, it will plummet to Earth. But most U.S. space debris experts think the fuel on board would explode harmlessly in the upper atmosphere and never reach the ground.
The launch mishap was the latest in a series of recent Russian failures that have raised concerns about the condition of the country's space industries.
The unmanned $170 million Phobos-Ground craft successfully got into orbit, propelled off the ground by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday (2016 GMT Tuesday) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After separating from its booster, 11 minutes later, it was supposed to fire its engines twice and head to Mars.
Neither engine fired. So the spacecraft couldn't leave Earth's orbit, flying between 129 and 212 miles above Earth. And that orbit is already deteriorating, according to American satellite tracking.
The Federal Space Agency said the probe's orbit and its power sources could allow it to circle the Earth for about two weeks. That jibes with calculations made by NASA.
"From the orbits we're seeing from the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, it's going to be a couple weeks before it comes in," NASA chief debris scientist Nicholas Johnson said Wednesday afternoon. "It's not going to be that immediate."
The craft was aiming to get ground samples from Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, and return them in a daring expedition hailed by eager scientists, who said it may include bits of Mars that may have been trapped on its moon.
Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said the system that keeps the spacecraft pointed in the right direction may have failed. The Russian rescue effort was being hampered by a limited earth-to-space communications network. Even before the problem, flight controllers were forced to ask people in South America to scan the sky to see if the engines on the spacecraft fired.
Amateur astronomers were the first to spot the trouble when they detected the craft was stuck in an Earth orbit.
As time went on Wednesday, experts in the United States became more confident that the Russians could still get the probe going, just a day or two later than planned. There were no sightings of an explosion or partial rocket firings, which are good signs, said James Oberg, a NASA veteran who has written books on the Russian space program and who now works as a space consultant.
"I am growing more confident as we realize that the vehicle is healthy; it didn't blow up," Oberg said late Wednesday afternoon. "They have a chance of doing a Hubble repair, an Apollo 13, snatching victory out of jaws of defeat kind of thing."
The hope is that this is just a software problem that can be fixed and uploaded to the probe, said Bruce Betts, program director of the Planetary Society in the United States, a group that has a $500,000 experiment on board.
"There's a major problem, but it might be recoverable," Betts said. "The game's not over yet."
The spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons). Russian data shows that most of that weight — about 11 metric tons (12 tons) — is fuel, NASA's Johnson said.
The key is whether that fuel remains in liquid form or freezes. If it's liquid, it would harmlessly blow up about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above ground, he said.
If the fuel freezes, it poses more of a hazard to Earth because it could survive the fiery reentry and spill on impact. But most U.S. experts, including Johnson, believe it will likely stay liquid.
Yet Oberg said he worries that the fuel — nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine — would freeze in the cold over a couple weeks. If that happens it "will make it the most toxic falling satellite ever," he emailed. "What was billed as the heaviest interplanetary probe ever may become one of the heaviest space derelicts to ever fall back to Earth out of control."
In 2008, the U.S. government, worried about the hazards of a half-ton of frozen hydrazine in a titanium tank in a dead spy satellite. It shot down the satellite with a Navy missile.
Oberg said if this latest spacecraft falls, it could cause significantly more damage than the Russian Mars-96 spacecraft that crashed in the Andes Mountains and sprinkled some nuclear material.
Far heavier objects — including NASA's Skylab and Russia's Mir space station — have fallen.
If the stuck spacecraft's fuel exploded, only 3 tons of dry material would be left, Johnson said. That's smaller than recent defunct American and German satellites that fell to Earth, causing a brief stir, but no damage as they hit the ocean.
"We've had much larger objects than this come down and not have a problem," said William Ailor of the Aerospace Corp.'s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies. "Most likely it'll be like the ones we've seen recently. It'll come down in the ocean and we'll never hear about it."
No one has ever been hurt by crashing space objects.
The Phobos-Ground was Russia's first interplanetary mission since the botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars. That probe crashed shortly after the launch due to an engine failure. Moscow-based NPO Lavochkin designed both, as well as two Phobos probes in 1988, which also failed.
The Russian space agency responded to the failures by promising to establish its own quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over production quality.
In contrast with the failures that dogged Soviet and Russian efforts to explore Mars, a succession of NASA's landers and rovers, including Spirit and Opportunity, have successfully studied the Red Planet.
If Phobos-Ground is fixed, it should reach Mars orbit next September and land on Phobos in February 2013. The return vehicle is expected to carry up to 200 grams (7 ounces) of ground samples from Phobos back to Earth in August 2014.
It is arguably the most challenging unmanned interplanetary mission ever. It requires a long series of precise maneuvers for the probe to reach the potato-shaped moon just 20 kilometers (over 12 miles) in diameter, land on its cratered surface, scrape it for samples and fly back.
"If this had worked it would be a fantastic mission," said Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres, who has worked on several successful and failed U.S. Mars probes. "It is a reminder, if we needed one, that space exploration is hard and Mars missions are tricky."
NASA has its own Mars mission, a mega-rover called Curiosity set to launch Nov. 25 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and arrive on the surface next summer.
___
Borenstein reported from Washington. Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
___
Online:
Russian space agency:: http://bit.ly/tVk8TL
2 tankers collide, burn in Phoenix; trucker killed
PHOENIX (AP) — Two tanker trucks collided and burst into flames on a busy freeway near Phoenix during the height of the rush hour Wednesday morning, killing one driver and closing both directions of Interstate 10.
Police in the city of Chandler and state police ordered the evacuations of at least two hotels and businesses alongside I-10, Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said.
Chandler police moved people from hotels, homes and businesses within a 1-mile radius east of the freeway. The Phoenix Fire Department asked residents on the west side of the freeway to stay in their homes.
Horizon Community Learning Center, a K-12 charter school on the west side of the freeway, was closed for the day and students were sent home.
The evacuation orders were lifted about two hours after the crash after firefighters finally were able to move in and douse the flames.
The crash happened when a milk tanker rear-ended another tanker truck carrying 7,700 gallons of diesel gas byproduct and caught fire, Graves said. The driver of the milk truck was killed in the intense fire that sent flames skyward and black smoke hundreds of feet into the air.
The driver of the petroleum tanker was shaken up but uninjured and got out on his own, Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Capt. Scott McDonald said.
The crash happened at about 7:45 a.m. on westbound I-10 and snarled freeway traffic across the suburbs south of Phoenix. The freeway was closed in both directions from U.S. 60 south to the Loop 202 freeway. Both are major routes into and out of Phoenix from the southeast.
Firefighters were hampered by a lack of water along the freeway and had to bring in water trucks and firefighting foam to attack the flames, McDonald said.
It took fire crews about 10 minutes to douse the flames when they attacked it. Although the tanker carrying diesel fuel had burned furiously for nearly two hours when fire crews moved in, the flames were still fierce and showed no sign of letting up.
"It would have burned all day," McDonald said. "There was plenty of fuel to burn in that truck."
The eastbound lanes of I-10 and some of the westbound lanes reopened Wednesday afternoon, but the Arizona Department of Transportation was still making emergency repairs to charred pavement Wednesday night. Officials planned to reopen all the westbound lanes and on-ramps by 5 a.m. Thursday.
Police in the city of Chandler and state police ordered the evacuations of at least two hotels and businesses alongside I-10, Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said.
Chandler police moved people from hotels, homes and businesses within a 1-mile radius east of the freeway. The Phoenix Fire Department asked residents on the west side of the freeway to stay in their homes.
Horizon Community Learning Center, a K-12 charter school on the west side of the freeway, was closed for the day and students were sent home.
The evacuation orders were lifted about two hours after the crash after firefighters finally were able to move in and douse the flames.
The crash happened when a milk tanker rear-ended another tanker truck carrying 7,700 gallons of diesel gas byproduct and caught fire, Graves said. The driver of the milk truck was killed in the intense fire that sent flames skyward and black smoke hundreds of feet into the air.
The driver of the petroleum tanker was shaken up but uninjured and got out on his own, Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Capt. Scott McDonald said.
The crash happened at about 7:45 a.m. on westbound I-10 and snarled freeway traffic across the suburbs south of Phoenix. The freeway was closed in both directions from U.S. 60 south to the Loop 202 freeway. Both are major routes into and out of Phoenix from the southeast.
Firefighters were hampered by a lack of water along the freeway and had to bring in water trucks and firefighting foam to attack the flames, McDonald said.
It took fire crews about 10 minutes to douse the flames when they attacked it. Although the tanker carrying diesel fuel had burned furiously for nearly two hours when fire crews moved in, the flames were still fierce and showed no sign of letting up.
"It would have burned all day," McDonald said. "There was plenty of fuel to burn in that truck."
The eastbound lanes of I-10 and some of the westbound lanes reopened Wednesday afternoon, but the Arizona Department of Transportation was still making emergency repairs to charred pavement Wednesday night. Officials planned to reopen all the westbound lanes and on-ramps by 5 a.m. Thursday.
2011年11月8日星期二
Transsexual makes debut in new Polish parliament
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A transsexual woman and an openly gay man took seats in Poland's newly elected parliament Tuesday, historic firsts that reflect profound social change in this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
Anna Grodzka, who was born a man but underwent a sex change, entered the assembly hall to warm greetings. Several men and women shook her hand, while one male lawmaker kissed her on the cheek. She was later introduced to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who also shook her hand.
Grodzka sat next to Robert Biedron, an activist who is the first openly gay person elected to Poland's parliament. Both belong to Palikot's Movement, a new progressive party that became the third-largest party in parliament in the Oct. 9 election.
Grodzka said she felt overwhelmed by emotion as the session opened with the national anthem and when she later took her oath of office.
"It is a symbolic moment, but we owe this symbolism not to me but to the people of Poland because they made their choice," Grodzka told The Associated Press. "They wanted a modern Poland, a Poland open to variety, a Poland where all people would feel good regardless of their differences. I cannot fail them in their expectations."
Palikot's Movement, led by outspoken entrepreneur-turned-politician Janusz Palikot, has vowed to push for liberal causes. It opposes the influence of the church in political life, promotes gay rights, and wants to challenge the country's near-total ban on abortion.
Ewa Kopacz, the outgoing health minister, was then elected the new parliament speaker — the first time a woman was chosen for a post that the constitution defines as the second most powerful political position, after the prime minister.
The seventh parliament since communism fell was opened by a former speaker, Jozef Zych, who invoked words spoken by the late Polish pope, John Paul II, and acknowledged the presence of archbishops and other church leaders who observed from a balcony.
Zych also remembered the late President Lech Kaczynski and the lawmakers who died with him in a plane crash last year — words spoken as Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late leader's twin brother, sat solemnly with other conservative lawmakers.
Kaczynski heads the country's largest opposition party, the nationalist Law and Justice party, which is riven by deep divisions and internal turmoil after expelling three key leaders on Friday who had called for a more democratic leadership style from Kaczynski.
Last month's election gave Tusk, of the center-right Civic Platform party, a mandate for a second term. It was the first time since the end of communism 22 years ago that a government won a second consecutive term.
Tusk has remained popular thanks to an image he has cultivated of moderation and because the economy has grown impressively since Poland joined the European Union in 2004. It was the only EU country to avoid recession during the global crisis of 2008-09.
President Bronislaw Komorowski addressed the newly elected lawmakers, urging them to work together to maintain Poland's strong economic performance as Europe faces a new financial crisis. He tasked the team with making Poland ready to adopt the EU currency, the euro, saying it was the "right path for the future development of Poland.
He called on lawmakers to trim bureaucracy, reform the judiciary and the health system and tackle state debt.
"We know that the state exists for the citizens, and not the other way around," Komorowski said.
Lech Walesa, the hero of Poland's anti-communist revolution and a former president, watched the proceedings from a balcony in the assembly hall.
Tusk, whose government formally resigned on Tuesday, plans to keep governing with his junior partner of the past four years, the conservative Polish People's Party. He also plans to keep many of his key ministers in their jobs, including Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski and Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski.
Later in the day the president charged Tusk with forming a new government. His outgoing team will act as a caretaker government until the new one is formed and faces a confidence vote in parliament.
Tusk said he will build a new government soon, but gave no exact timeline. In any case, it should have no trouble winning a confidence vote because the new coalition enjoys a majority in the parliament.
Anna Grodzka, who was born a man but underwent a sex change, entered the assembly hall to warm greetings. Several men and women shook her hand, while one male lawmaker kissed her on the cheek. She was later introduced to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who also shook her hand.
Grodzka sat next to Robert Biedron, an activist who is the first openly gay person elected to Poland's parliament. Both belong to Palikot's Movement, a new progressive party that became the third-largest party in parliament in the Oct. 9 election.
Grodzka said she felt overwhelmed by emotion as the session opened with the national anthem and when she later took her oath of office.
"It is a symbolic moment, but we owe this symbolism not to me but to the people of Poland because they made their choice," Grodzka told The Associated Press. "They wanted a modern Poland, a Poland open to variety, a Poland where all people would feel good regardless of their differences. I cannot fail them in their expectations."
Palikot's Movement, led by outspoken entrepreneur-turned-politician Janusz Palikot, has vowed to push for liberal causes. It opposes the influence of the church in political life, promotes gay rights, and wants to challenge the country's near-total ban on abortion.
Ewa Kopacz, the outgoing health minister, was then elected the new parliament speaker — the first time a woman was chosen for a post that the constitution defines as the second most powerful political position, after the prime minister.
The seventh parliament since communism fell was opened by a former speaker, Jozef Zych, who invoked words spoken by the late Polish pope, John Paul II, and acknowledged the presence of archbishops and other church leaders who observed from a balcony.
Zych also remembered the late President Lech Kaczynski and the lawmakers who died with him in a plane crash last year — words spoken as Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late leader's twin brother, sat solemnly with other conservative lawmakers.
Kaczynski heads the country's largest opposition party, the nationalist Law and Justice party, which is riven by deep divisions and internal turmoil after expelling three key leaders on Friday who had called for a more democratic leadership style from Kaczynski.
Last month's election gave Tusk, of the center-right Civic Platform party, a mandate for a second term. It was the first time since the end of communism 22 years ago that a government won a second consecutive term.
Tusk has remained popular thanks to an image he has cultivated of moderation and because the economy has grown impressively since Poland joined the European Union in 2004. It was the only EU country to avoid recession during the global crisis of 2008-09.
President Bronislaw Komorowski addressed the newly elected lawmakers, urging them to work together to maintain Poland's strong economic performance as Europe faces a new financial crisis. He tasked the team with making Poland ready to adopt the EU currency, the euro, saying it was the "right path for the future development of Poland.
He called on lawmakers to trim bureaucracy, reform the judiciary and the health system and tackle state debt.
"We know that the state exists for the citizens, and not the other way around," Komorowski said.
Lech Walesa, the hero of Poland's anti-communist revolution and a former president, watched the proceedings from a balcony in the assembly hall.
Tusk, whose government formally resigned on Tuesday, plans to keep governing with his junior partner of the past four years, the conservative Polish People's Party. He also plans to keep many of his key ministers in their jobs, including Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski and Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski.
Later in the day the president charged Tusk with forming a new government. His outgoing team will act as a caretaker government until the new one is formed and faces a confidence vote in parliament.
Tusk said he will build a new government soon, but gave no exact timeline. In any case, it should have no trouble winning a confidence vote because the new coalition enjoys a majority in the parliament.
Huge oil discovery boosts Argentina's potential
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A huge oil discovery by the Spanish company Repsol has sharply boosted Argentina's potential to cash in on energy and could eventually attract an infusion of investment to exploit the shale oil.
Experts said Tuesday that the find is very promising, but it is unclear how much time and investment may be needed to capitalize on the oil beneath the rocky, barren plains of Patagonia. The company said the discovery includes 927 million barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas, of which 741 million barrels is shale oil.
Shares in Repsol YPF SA soared a day after the find was announced, rising 6.3 percent in Madrid and 7.4 percent in New York at the close of trading on Tuesday.
Former Argentine Energy Minister Jorge Lapena said it's a "spectacular announcement" but that the reserves have yet to be proven and that studies on economic feasibility and environmental impact still need to be carried out.
Some environmentalists also are concerned that such oil development in Argentina would put pressure on freshwater supplies and could pollute water sources.
"There's still a long path to go from resources to reserves, and then to put them into production," Lapena told reporters. He said the find, if proven, appears to represent about 40 percent of Argentina's reserves.
Though potentially a game-changer for Argentina, the find is small compared to Brazil's recent deep-sea oil discoveries, which experts have estimated could represent as much as 55 billion barrels. Venezuela, South America's largest oil exporter, says it has a whopping 296.5 billion barrels in proven crude reserves.
Still, for Argentina the find could lead to an eventual increase in oil output, and other areas remain to be explored.
"It must be proven first of all that they're commercially exploitable reserves," said Daniel Bosque, editor of the Argentina-based website Enernews. He said a key question is how competitive the government-regulated prices end up being for such oil shale, or unconventional oil, which is costlier to extract that normal crude.
He said heavy government regulation in the past decade has been a disincentive to investment as oil production has declined and as imports of oil products and natural gas have risen. The latest find could help reverse that trend if it's economically feasible, Bosque said.
Jason Schenker, an energy analyst and president of Austin, Texas-based Prestige Economics LLC, said such oil discoveries "will be critical to meet rising global oil demand."
"Now, the questions will be: How quickly can this oil be brought into production ... and at what price?," Schenker said.
Those are questions that Repsol isn't immediately ready to answer with specifics.
But Kristian Rix, a Repsol spokesman in Madrid, said that because 15 vertical wells have already been drilled and are producing 5,000 barrels a day of shale oil, developing the area "is uncomplicated from our point of view."
"It's a producing region, so all the infrastructure is there already, so putting new wells on line is very fast," Rix said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
He said that while it's typical in the industry to have a lag time of five to seven years between exploration and production, "this is clearly not the case here, because we're already producing from wells."
He said it's too soon to comment on projected investment or how long it could take.
"We are still at a very intense exploration stage," Rix said.
The shale oil was discovered in the arid "Vaca Muerta," or "Dead Cow," basin of Neuquen province in northern Patagonia, a region of treeless plains dotted with dry brush where there are two nearby lakes.
Rix said the oil would be extracted by hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the technique that involves injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to force out the fuel. It's not yet clear which water sources would be used in that process.
The environmental group Greenpeace opposes such oil developments unless "it's shown that there's no impact," said Ernesto Boerio, an energy and climate campaign coordinator for the organization in Argentina.
"More needs to be known about this project," Boerio said.
Greenpeace said in a recent report that fracking puts serious pressure on water supplies, particularly in arid regions, and also warned that chemicals used in the process can contaminate underground aquifers and that little is known about the possible effects.
As for Repsol, "we operate to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection," Rix said.
Repsol YPF owns oil rights to 12,000 square kilometers (4,600 square miles) of the Vaca Muerta basin, but like other oil companies, it has just begun exploration. The discovery came while exploring an area of just 428 square kilometers (165 square miles) known as "Loma La Lata Norte."
The company now plans to expand its drilling in a nearby area of about the same size that shows similar potential, Rix said.
Repsol YPF SA is based in Spain but operates in more than 30 countries. Argentina is now home to two-thirds of the 3 billion barrels of oil deposits that the company considers recoverable, up from half.
____
Associated Press writers Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela, Bradley Brooks in Sao Paulo and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.
Experts said Tuesday that the find is very promising, but it is unclear how much time and investment may be needed to capitalize on the oil beneath the rocky, barren plains of Patagonia. The company said the discovery includes 927 million barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas, of which 741 million barrels is shale oil.
Shares in Repsol YPF SA soared a day after the find was announced, rising 6.3 percent in Madrid and 7.4 percent in New York at the close of trading on Tuesday.
Former Argentine Energy Minister Jorge Lapena said it's a "spectacular announcement" but that the reserves have yet to be proven and that studies on economic feasibility and environmental impact still need to be carried out.
Some environmentalists also are concerned that such oil development in Argentina would put pressure on freshwater supplies and could pollute water sources.
"There's still a long path to go from resources to reserves, and then to put them into production," Lapena told reporters. He said the find, if proven, appears to represent about 40 percent of Argentina's reserves.
Though potentially a game-changer for Argentina, the find is small compared to Brazil's recent deep-sea oil discoveries, which experts have estimated could represent as much as 55 billion barrels. Venezuela, South America's largest oil exporter, says it has a whopping 296.5 billion barrels in proven crude reserves.
Still, for Argentina the find could lead to an eventual increase in oil output, and other areas remain to be explored.
"It must be proven first of all that they're commercially exploitable reserves," said Daniel Bosque, editor of the Argentina-based website Enernews. He said a key question is how competitive the government-regulated prices end up being for such oil shale, or unconventional oil, which is costlier to extract that normal crude.
He said heavy government regulation in the past decade has been a disincentive to investment as oil production has declined and as imports of oil products and natural gas have risen. The latest find could help reverse that trend if it's economically feasible, Bosque said.
Jason Schenker, an energy analyst and president of Austin, Texas-based Prestige Economics LLC, said such oil discoveries "will be critical to meet rising global oil demand."
"Now, the questions will be: How quickly can this oil be brought into production ... and at what price?," Schenker said.
Those are questions that Repsol isn't immediately ready to answer with specifics.
But Kristian Rix, a Repsol spokesman in Madrid, said that because 15 vertical wells have already been drilled and are producing 5,000 barrels a day of shale oil, developing the area "is uncomplicated from our point of view."
"It's a producing region, so all the infrastructure is there already, so putting new wells on line is very fast," Rix said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
He said that while it's typical in the industry to have a lag time of five to seven years between exploration and production, "this is clearly not the case here, because we're already producing from wells."
He said it's too soon to comment on projected investment or how long it could take.
"We are still at a very intense exploration stage," Rix said.
The shale oil was discovered in the arid "Vaca Muerta," or "Dead Cow," basin of Neuquen province in northern Patagonia, a region of treeless plains dotted with dry brush where there are two nearby lakes.
Rix said the oil would be extracted by hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the technique that involves injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to force out the fuel. It's not yet clear which water sources would be used in that process.
The environmental group Greenpeace opposes such oil developments unless "it's shown that there's no impact," said Ernesto Boerio, an energy and climate campaign coordinator for the organization in Argentina.
"More needs to be known about this project," Boerio said.
Greenpeace said in a recent report that fracking puts serious pressure on water supplies, particularly in arid regions, and also warned that chemicals used in the process can contaminate underground aquifers and that little is known about the possible effects.
As for Repsol, "we operate to the highest standards of safety and environmental protection," Rix said.
Repsol YPF owns oil rights to 12,000 square kilometers (4,600 square miles) of the Vaca Muerta basin, but like other oil companies, it has just begun exploration. The discovery came while exploring an area of just 428 square kilometers (165 square miles) known as "Loma La Lata Norte."
The company now plans to expand its drilling in a nearby area of about the same size that shows similar potential, Rix said.
Repsol YPF SA is based in Spain but operates in more than 30 countries. Argentina is now home to two-thirds of the 3 billion barrels of oil deposits that the company considers recoverable, up from half.
____
Associated Press writers Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela, Bradley Brooks in Sao Paulo and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.
The 10 college majors with the lowest unemployment rates
College students, take note: There are at least six fields of study whose graduates are virtually 100 percent employed right now. That's right--certain majors, such as pharmacology, produce graduates who face a zero percent unemployment rate.
That's not bad considering last month's joblessness rate for people with a college degree or higher was 4.4 percent.
The Wall Street Journal created an interactive tool where users can search for the average employment rate and median income of people who studied each major. The data comes from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, which released a similar ranking of majors in May that we wrote about here.
The Center's previous study found that graduates with engineering and science majors tend to earn significantly more many than graduates with other college majors. (A petroleum engineering major will make 300 percent more over his or her lifetime than a peer who majored in counseling psychology, for example.)
But narrowing the results down to only the employment rate yields a wider range of fields that provide excellent job security. People who majored in some lower paying fields, such as school counseling, face an almost nonexistent chance of being unempl0yed.
Check out the rest of the most employable majors, below.
Majors and their unemployment rate:
1. Actuarial Science—0 percent
2. Astronomy and Astrophysics—0 percent
3. Educational Administration and Supervision—0 percent
4. Geological and Geophysical Engineering—0 percent
5. Pharmacology—0 percent
6. School Student Counseling—0 percent
7. Agricultural Economics—1.3 percent
8. Medical Technologies Technicians—1.4 percent
9.Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology—1.6 percent
10. Environmental Engineering, Nursing, and Nuclear Industrial Radiology and Biological Technologies—2.2 percent
That's not bad considering last month's joblessness rate for people with a college degree or higher was 4.4 percent.
The Wall Street Journal created an interactive tool where users can search for the average employment rate and median income of people who studied each major. The data comes from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, which released a similar ranking of majors in May that we wrote about here.
The Center's previous study found that graduates with engineering and science majors tend to earn significantly more many than graduates with other college majors. (A petroleum engineering major will make 300 percent more over his or her lifetime than a peer who majored in counseling psychology, for example.)
But narrowing the results down to only the employment rate yields a wider range of fields that provide excellent job security. People who majored in some lower paying fields, such as school counseling, face an almost nonexistent chance of being unempl0yed.
Check out the rest of the most employable majors, below.
Majors and their unemployment rate:
1. Actuarial Science—0 percent
2. Astronomy and Astrophysics—0 percent
3. Educational Administration and Supervision—0 percent
4. Geological and Geophysical Engineering—0 percent
5. Pharmacology—0 percent
6. School Student Counseling—0 percent
7. Agricultural Economics—1.3 percent
8. Medical Technologies Technicians—1.4 percent
9.Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology—1.6 percent
10. Environmental Engineering, Nursing, and Nuclear Industrial Radiology and Biological Technologies—2.2 percent
Fannie Mae loss widens, asks taxpayers for $7.8B
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is asking the federal government for $7.8 billion in aid to covers its losses in the July-September quarter.
The government-controlled company said Tuesday that it lost $7.6 billion in the third quarter. Low mortgage rates reduced profits and declining home prices caused more defaults on loans it had guaranteed.
The government rescued Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, a federal regulator has controlled their financial decisions.
Taxpayers have spent about $169 billion to rescue Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates that figure could reach up $220 billion to support the companies through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments.
Fannie has received $112.6 billion so far from the Treasury Department, the most expensive bailout of a single company.
Michael Williams, Fannie's president and CEO, said Fannie's losses are increasing for two reasons: Some homeowners are paying less interest after refinancing at historically low mortgage rates; others are defaulting on their mortgages.
"Despite these challenges, we are making solid progress," he said. For example, Fannie's rate of homeowners who are late on their monthly mortgage payments by 90 days or more has decreased each quarter since the beginning of 2010, he said.
When property values drop, homeowners default, either because they are unable to afford the payments or because they owe more than the property is worth. Because of the guarantees, Fannie and Freddie must pay for the losses.
Fannie said lower mortgage rates contributed to $4.5 billion in quarterly losses. While those losses are large, they are temporary and should ease in future earnings reports, said Mahesh Swaminathan, mortgage strategist at Credit Suisse.
"They are accounting losses on their books rather than economic losses," he said.
Fannie's July-September loss attributable to common shareholders works out to $1.32 per share. It takes into account $2.5 billion in dividend payments to the government. That compares with a loss of $3.5 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2010.
Last week, Freddie requested $6 billion in extra aid — the largest request since April 2010 — after it reported losing $6 billion in the third quarter.
Washington-based Fannie and McLean, Va.-based Freddie own or guarantee about half of all mortgages in the U.S., or nearly 31 million home loans. Along with other federal agencies, they backed nearly 90 percent of new mortgages over the past year.
Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them with bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors around the world. The companies nearly folded three years ago because of big losses on risky mortgages they purchased.
The Obama administration unveiled a plan earlier this year to slowly dissolve the two mortgage giants. The aim is to shrink the government's role in the mortgage system, remaking decades of federal policy aimed at getting Americans to buy homes. It would also probably make home loans more expensive.
Exactly how far the government's role in mortgage lending would be reduced was left to Congress to decide. But all three options the administration presented would create a housing finance system that relies far more on private money.
The government-controlled company said Tuesday that it lost $7.6 billion in the third quarter. Low mortgage rates reduced profits and declining home prices caused more defaults on loans it had guaranteed.
The government rescued Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, a federal regulator has controlled their financial decisions.
Taxpayers have spent about $169 billion to rescue Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates that figure could reach up $220 billion to support the companies through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments.
Fannie has received $112.6 billion so far from the Treasury Department, the most expensive bailout of a single company.
Michael Williams, Fannie's president and CEO, said Fannie's losses are increasing for two reasons: Some homeowners are paying less interest after refinancing at historically low mortgage rates; others are defaulting on their mortgages.
"Despite these challenges, we are making solid progress," he said. For example, Fannie's rate of homeowners who are late on their monthly mortgage payments by 90 days or more has decreased each quarter since the beginning of 2010, he said.
When property values drop, homeowners default, either because they are unable to afford the payments or because they owe more than the property is worth. Because of the guarantees, Fannie and Freddie must pay for the losses.
Fannie said lower mortgage rates contributed to $4.5 billion in quarterly losses. While those losses are large, they are temporary and should ease in future earnings reports, said Mahesh Swaminathan, mortgage strategist at Credit Suisse.
"They are accounting losses on their books rather than economic losses," he said.
Fannie's July-September loss attributable to common shareholders works out to $1.32 per share. It takes into account $2.5 billion in dividend payments to the government. That compares with a loss of $3.5 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2010.
Last week, Freddie requested $6 billion in extra aid — the largest request since April 2010 — after it reported losing $6 billion in the third quarter.
Washington-based Fannie and McLean, Va.-based Freddie own or guarantee about half of all mortgages in the U.S., or nearly 31 million home loans. Along with other federal agencies, they backed nearly 90 percent of new mortgages over the past year.
Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them with bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors around the world. The companies nearly folded three years ago because of big losses on risky mortgages they purchased.
The Obama administration unveiled a plan earlier this year to slowly dissolve the two mortgage giants. The aim is to shrink the government's role in the mortgage system, remaking decades of federal policy aimed at getting Americans to buy homes. It would also probably make home loans more expensive.
Exactly how far the government's role in mortgage lending would be reduced was left to Congress to decide. But all three options the administration presented would create a housing finance system that relies far more on private money.
Honda shows smarter robot, helps in nuclear crisis
WAKO, Japan (AP) — Honda's human-shaped robot can now run faster, balance itself on uneven surfaces, hop on one foot and pour a drink. Some of its technology may even be used to help out with clean-up operations at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.
Honda's demonstration of the revamped "Asimo" on Tuesday at its Tokyo suburban research facility was not only to prove that the bubble-headed childlike machine was more limber and a bit smarter.
It was a way to try to answer some critics that Asimo, first shown in 2000, had been of little practical use so far, proving to be nothing more than a glorified toy and cute showcase for the Honda Motor Co. brand.
Honda President Takanobu Ito told reporters some of Asimo's technology was used to develop a robotic arm in just six months with the intention of helping with the nuclear crisis in northeastern Japan.
The mechanical arm can open and close valves at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which went into meltdown after the March tsunami, according to Honda. The automaker is working with the utility behind the problem plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., to try to meet demands to bring the plant under control.
Ito acknowledged that the first idea was to send in Asimo to help out, but that was not possible because the robot cannot maneuver in rubble, and its delicate computer parts would malfunction in radiation.
But in Tuesday's demonstration, Asimo was able to walk without falling over 2 centimeter (0.8 inch) padded bumps on the floor.
It can also now jog faster than it did in 2005, at 9 kilometers per hour (5.6 mph), instead of the earlier 6 kph (3.7 mph), pushing better with its toes so its run was smoother and not as jerky.
Asimo was also able to distinguish the voices of three people spoken at once, using face recognition and analyzing sound, to figure out that one woman wanted hot coffee, another orange juice, and still another milk tea.
The new Asimo got improved hands as well, allowing individual movement of each finger, so it could do sign language.
"My name is Asimo," it said, making the signs of its words with stubby fingers.
It also opened a thermos bottle and gracefully poured juice into a paper cup.
Ito said Asimo had developed autonomous artificial intelligence so that it could potentially maneuver itself through crowds of people, without remote control or stopping each time to check on its programming.
But he acknowledged that making robotics into a practical business will take more time, meaning Asimo wasn't about to show up in any home soon.
"Maybe at the start this was a dream of engineers to make a machine that was close to a human being, like Astro Boy," he said. "We think Asimo is good."
Other manufacturers are also developing robots, eager to cash in on the expected needs of Japan's rapidly aging population.
Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's top automaker which makes the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models, is among those to have jumped on the robotics bandwagon.
In the past, it has shown robots that can play the violin and talk like receptionists. Last week, it showed a computerized device that latches on to the body to help old or sick people walk and keep balance.
Honda, which makes the Odyssey minivan and Accord sedan, has developed similar brace-like gadgets to help people get about.
Neither the Toyota nor Honda product is on sale yet.
Still, experts say such research is important to keep up.
"Maybe it can't be put to use right away, but it is definitely a technology that we should keep working on to advance," Hiroshi Kobayashi, a mechanical engineering professor at Tokyo University of Science, said of the new Asimo.
"It is common for what we achieve in research to turn out later to lead to many products," said Kobayashi, who has developed experimental robots.
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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Honda's demonstration of the revamped "Asimo" on Tuesday at its Tokyo suburban research facility was not only to prove that the bubble-headed childlike machine was more limber and a bit smarter.
It was a way to try to answer some critics that Asimo, first shown in 2000, had been of little practical use so far, proving to be nothing more than a glorified toy and cute showcase for the Honda Motor Co. brand.
Honda President Takanobu Ito told reporters some of Asimo's technology was used to develop a robotic arm in just six months with the intention of helping with the nuclear crisis in northeastern Japan.
The mechanical arm can open and close valves at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which went into meltdown after the March tsunami, according to Honda. The automaker is working with the utility behind the problem plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., to try to meet demands to bring the plant under control.
Ito acknowledged that the first idea was to send in Asimo to help out, but that was not possible because the robot cannot maneuver in rubble, and its delicate computer parts would malfunction in radiation.
But in Tuesday's demonstration, Asimo was able to walk without falling over 2 centimeter (0.8 inch) padded bumps on the floor.
It can also now jog faster than it did in 2005, at 9 kilometers per hour (5.6 mph), instead of the earlier 6 kph (3.7 mph), pushing better with its toes so its run was smoother and not as jerky.
Asimo was also able to distinguish the voices of three people spoken at once, using face recognition and analyzing sound, to figure out that one woman wanted hot coffee, another orange juice, and still another milk tea.
The new Asimo got improved hands as well, allowing individual movement of each finger, so it could do sign language.
"My name is Asimo," it said, making the signs of its words with stubby fingers.
It also opened a thermos bottle and gracefully poured juice into a paper cup.
Ito said Asimo had developed autonomous artificial intelligence so that it could potentially maneuver itself through crowds of people, without remote control or stopping each time to check on its programming.
But he acknowledged that making robotics into a practical business will take more time, meaning Asimo wasn't about to show up in any home soon.
"Maybe at the start this was a dream of engineers to make a machine that was close to a human being, like Astro Boy," he said. "We think Asimo is good."
Other manufacturers are also developing robots, eager to cash in on the expected needs of Japan's rapidly aging population.
Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's top automaker which makes the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models, is among those to have jumped on the robotics bandwagon.
In the past, it has shown robots that can play the violin and talk like receptionists. Last week, it showed a computerized device that latches on to the body to help old or sick people walk and keep balance.
Honda, which makes the Odyssey minivan and Accord sedan, has developed similar brace-like gadgets to help people get about.
Neither the Toyota nor Honda product is on sale yet.
Still, experts say such research is important to keep up.
"Maybe it can't be put to use right away, but it is definitely a technology that we should keep working on to advance," Hiroshi Kobayashi, a mechanical engineering professor at Tokyo University of Science, said of the new Asimo.
"It is common for what we achieve in research to turn out later to lead to many products," said Kobayashi, who has developed experimental robots.
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Twin sisters face murder charges in burning deaths of 3 toddlers
MOBILE, Ala (Reuters) - Twin sisters face three counts each of reckless murder in connection with the burning deaths of three of their children in Atmore, Alabama.
Akeevia Lajoseia Abner and Tekeevia Lajoseialan Abner, 18, were taken into custody on Monday by the state fire marshal. A bond hearing has not yet been set.
Escambia County District Attorney Steve Billy said the women left 3-year-old Aniyia Abner, 3-year-old Takia Abner and 22-month-old Michael Coleman alone on Wednesday night last week.
The fire marshal's preliminary investigation indicated an oven left open -- possibly as a heat source -- could be the source of the blaze that killed the unattended children.
In a prepared statement, Billy said the women showed "an extreme indifference" to the children's lives and "created a grave risk of death to the children" by leaving them alone.
Scott Pilgreen, an assistant state fire marshal, said one child was found in a bedroom and the other two in a hallway. When fire personnel arrived just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, they found the home engulfed in flames and all three children unconscious, he said.
The children were transported to Atmore Community Hospital, where each died a short time later. The preliminary cause of death has been listed as smoke inhalation, but all the children suffered burns as well. Their bodies have been transported to Mobile for autopsies, Billy told Reuters on Tuesday.
It was not immediately known which children belong to which mother or if either woman has any other children not present in the home at the time of the blaze.
(Reporting by Kelli Dugan; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Akeevia Lajoseia Abner and Tekeevia Lajoseialan Abner, 18, were taken into custody on Monday by the state fire marshal. A bond hearing has not yet been set.
Escambia County District Attorney Steve Billy said the women left 3-year-old Aniyia Abner, 3-year-old Takia Abner and 22-month-old Michael Coleman alone on Wednesday night last week.
The fire marshal's preliminary investigation indicated an oven left open -- possibly as a heat source -- could be the source of the blaze that killed the unattended children.
In a prepared statement, Billy said the women showed "an extreme indifference" to the children's lives and "created a grave risk of death to the children" by leaving them alone.
Scott Pilgreen, an assistant state fire marshal, said one child was found in a bedroom and the other two in a hallway. When fire personnel arrived just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, they found the home engulfed in flames and all three children unconscious, he said.
The children were transported to Atmore Community Hospital, where each died a short time later. The preliminary cause of death has been listed as smoke inhalation, but all the children suffered burns as well. Their bodies have been transported to Mobile for autopsies, Billy told Reuters on Tuesday.
It was not immediately known which children belong to which mother or if either woman has any other children not present in the home at the time of the blaze.
(Reporting by Kelli Dugan; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Sarkozy tells Obama Netanyahu is a "liar"
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a private conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes.
"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation.
"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter.
The technical gaffe is likely to cause great embarrassment to all three leaders as they look to work together to intensify international pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
The conversation was not initially reported by the small group of journalists who overheard it because it was considered private and off-the-record. But the comments have since emerged on French websites and can be confirmed by Reuters.
White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on the conversation when asked by reporters traveling with Obama to an event in Philadelphia.
Obama's apparent failure to defend Netanyahu is likely to be leapt on by his Republican foes, who are looking to unseat him in next year's presidential election and have portrayed him as hostile to Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region.
Pushing Netanyahu risks alienating Israel's strong base of support among the U.S. public and in Congress.
Netanyahu's office declined to comment, but one of his deputies, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, played down the episode.
"Everyone talks about everyone. Sometimes even good friends say things about each other, certainly in such competitive professions," Shalom, a former foreign minister and rival of Netanyahu in the rightist Likud party, told Israel's Army Radio.
"So you have to consider the main things. Is Obama a friend of Israel? Is Sarkozy a friend of Israel? Is their policy a consistent policy of support for Israel? The answer to all of these questions is affirmative and, as far as I'm concerned, that is what's important."
PALESTINIAN WORRIES
Obama and Netanyahu have had a rocky relationship as U.S. efforts to broker a Middle East peace deal have foundered, with the U.S. president openly criticizing Jewish settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It was unclear why exactly Sarkozy had criticized Netanyahu. However, European diplomats have largely blamed Israel for the breakdown in peace talks and have expressed anger over Netanyahu's approval of large-scale settlement building.
During their bilateral meeting on November 3, on the sidelines of the Cannes summit, Obama criticized Sarkozy's surprise decision to vote in favor of a Palestinian request for membership of the U.N. cultural heritage agency UNESCO.
"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation.
"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter.
The technical gaffe is likely to cause great embarrassment to all three leaders as they look to work together to intensify international pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
The conversation was not initially reported by the small group of journalists who overheard it because it was considered private and off-the-record. But the comments have since emerged on French websites and can be confirmed by Reuters.
White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on the conversation when asked by reporters traveling with Obama to an event in Philadelphia.
Obama's apparent failure to defend Netanyahu is likely to be leapt on by his Republican foes, who are looking to unseat him in next year's presidential election and have portrayed him as hostile to Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region.
Pushing Netanyahu risks alienating Israel's strong base of support among the U.S. public and in Congress.
Netanyahu's office declined to comment, but one of his deputies, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, played down the episode.
"Everyone talks about everyone. Sometimes even good friends say things about each other, certainly in such competitive professions," Shalom, a former foreign minister and rival of Netanyahu in the rightist Likud party, told Israel's Army Radio.
"So you have to consider the main things. Is Obama a friend of Israel? Is Sarkozy a friend of Israel? Is their policy a consistent policy of support for Israel? The answer to all of these questions is affirmative and, as far as I'm concerned, that is what's important."
PALESTINIAN WORRIES
Obama and Netanyahu have had a rocky relationship as U.S. efforts to broker a Middle East peace deal have foundered, with the U.S. president openly criticizing Jewish settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It was unclear why exactly Sarkozy had criticized Netanyahu. However, European diplomats have largely blamed Israel for the breakdown in peace talks and have expressed anger over Netanyahu's approval of large-scale settlement building.
During their bilateral meeting on November 3, on the sidelines of the Cannes summit, Obama criticized Sarkozy's surprise decision to vote in favor of a Palestinian request for membership of the U.N. cultural heritage agency UNESCO.
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