Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/305761871?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, May 16, 2013
Pakistan vote count shows big Sharif win
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? The vote count from last weekend's nationwide elections in Pakistan on Tuesday indicates a big win for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party.
Figures released by the country's election commission, based on 254 of the 269 races where the counting has been completed, show Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party will likely get a majority in the national assembly, setting him up to be prime minister for the third time.
As the new premier, the 63-year-old Sharif, a devout Muslim and a populist, is expected to supplant President Asif Ali Zardari as the international face of a nuclear power whose increasing instability and Islamic militant havens are a global concern, especially at a time when the West is looking to end the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Sharif's party so far has won 123 of the 254 directly elected national assembly seats, the commission spokesman Khursheed Alam said. The commission is still compiling results for 15 seats, and Alam said it hopes the remaining results will be released by Tuesday evening.
Earlier reports from the election commission on Tuesday wrongly indicated that the count was over.
The White House said President Barack Obama had spoken with Sharif by telephone to congratulate him on his party's success. White House spokesman Jay Carney called the election and peaceful transfer of power a "significant milestone" in Pakistan's progress toward a more democratic political system.
The vote marked the first time a civilian government completed its full five-year term and transferred power in democratic elections.
There are 272 directly-elected seats in the lower house of parliament, but races for three seats were not held because a candidate had died. A new vote will be scheduled for those seats after alternative names are proposed.
Independent candidates who normally join the party that forms the government won 25 seats. The combination would give Sharif's party more than the 137 directly elected seats they need to have a majority.
There are an additional 70 seats for women and minorities that are apportioned to the parties based on how well they do in the general election.
The outgoing ruling Pakistan People's Party won 31 seats. The party was battered by allegations of corruption and complaints that it did nothing to address power blackouts and inflation. Almost all of the seats that it did win were in the party's stronghold of Sindh province.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party led by former cricket star Imran Khan won 26 seats, which is a huge improvement for a party that boycotted the 2008 election and only claimed one seat in the 2002 vote.
Khan's supporters have protested the vote as unfair, and the cricket star has claimed vote-rigging in the port city of Karachi and in Punjab province. Many of the young people who have come out to vote for Khan have also taken to the streets in recent days in protests in Karachi and Islamabad calling for recounts and new elections in many areas.
But many election observers who monitored the vote have said it was relatively fair.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said they did not find any evidence of systematic rigging and called on all parties to accept the vote.
The Free and Fair Election Network, a Pakistani monitoring group with thousands of observers, has described the balloting in Punjab as "relatively fair."
"The elections were held in a free and fair manner," said the election commission spokesman, Alam, adding the commission was examining complaints it received.
Sharif visited Khan in the hospital Tuesday, where he is recovering from a serious fall last week in which he injured his back, and urged him to accept the election results.
____
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-vote-count-shows-big-sharif-win-101449454.html
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Wednesday, May 15, 2013
FBI opens criminal probe of tax agency, audit cites disarray
By David Ingram and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday he had ordered the FBI to open a criminal probe in a growing scandal over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups for extra tax scrutiny.
Holder's announcement came about four hours before an inspector general's report on the IRS portrayed the tax agency as plagued by disarray and "insufficient oversight" during its struggles to review the cases of hundreds of advocacy groups that claimed they should be tax exempt.
The audit, which drew some backlash from IRS officials, also underscored what the agency had acknowledged last Friday: that the IRS had used "inappropriate criteria" for evaluating tax-exempt groups, in part by singling out scores of conservative Tea Party and "Patriot" organizations for increased scrutiny.
The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration sharply criticized the way the IRS had screened the conservative groups, citing poor management and processing delays. The report suggested that such practices could damage public confidence in the agency.
The criteria used to target the conservative groups "gives the appearance that the IRS is not impartial in conducting its mission," the report said. However, the report stopped short of saying the IRS actions had been politically motivated.
For President Barack Obama - who late on Tuesday said the report showed that the IRS had failed to apply the law fairly in dealing with conservative groups - the revelations have added to a sense of a White House under siege.
Republicans continue to bash the Obama administration's handling of the attack last year on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. And on Monday, Obama's Justice Department came under bipartisan fire for seizing phone records of journalists from the Associated Press as part of a wide-ranging criminal probe into intelligence leaks.
In Washington on Tuesday, the IRS case appeared to have the most potency, as lawmakers and administration officials alike described the symbolic and legal importance of having a non-partisan tax agency that Americans can trust.
For the IRS and the U.S. government, the stakes are particularly high in the scandal because the tax agency is playing an increasingly significant role not only in vetting the tax status of non-profit groups that dabble in politics, but also in enforcing parts of Obama's ongoing overhaul of the nation's healthcare system.
Some of the IRS's conservative critics, including Republican Senator Ted Cruz, have said the current scandal is a sign that the agency shouldn't be trusted to enforce a vast array of tax regulations related to healthcare.
The IRS's embattled acting commissioner, Steven Miller, met privately with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, apparently seeking to calm the political uproar, even as some Republicans called for his resignation.
The IRS said on Monday that Miller, then the IRS deputy commissioner, was first informed in early May 2012 that some groups seeking tax-exempt status had been "improperly identified by name" and subjected to extra scrutiny.
Lawmakers say that neither Miller nor his predecessor, Douglas Shulman, ever made them aware of the targeting.
Senator Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the tax-writing Finance Committee, said that Miller - who spent more than two decades working his way up through the IRS bureaucracy and was named acting chief six months ago - should step down.
"He basically misled me," Hatch told reporters. "I really think it is time for him to leave."
'HEADS NEED TO ROLL'
Hatch was part of a growing Republican chorus on Capitol Hill calling for the resignations of Miller and Lois Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt organizations office. Lerner apologized on behalf of the agency when she revealed the targeting of conservative groups last week.
Conservative groups, particularly those that have sprung up in recent years to promote limited government and lower taxes, have long complained about mistreatment by the IRS.
On Tuesday, Miller met with Senator Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman of the Finance Committee who has promised that his panel will conduct its own investigation of the IRS case. Miller later declined to answer reporters' questions.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell urged Obama to make all of those who knew about IRS misconduct available for questioning, and said there should be "no more stonewalling."
"Heads need to roll today," said Republican Representative Vern Buchanan, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the IRS and is scheduled to hold a hearing on the scandal on Friday.
It's unclear precisely what charges a criminal probe of the IRS could yield.
Analysts said that a federal criminal prosecution of IRS employees for allegedly violating a taxpayer's speech rights - by delaying or rejecting a conservative group's legitimate claim to tax-exempt status, for example - could be unprecedented and that the offense would need to be egregious.
Holder said on Monday that the FBI "is coordinating with the Justice Department to see if any laws were broken."
He said that the actions disclosed so far "were, I think as everyone can agree, if not criminal, they were certainly outrageous and unacceptable. But we are examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations."
Despite efforts by some conservative commentators to cast the IRS troubles as something akin to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s - or to former President Richard Nixon's use of the IRS to target his political enemies - there was no sign of White House involvement.
Obama spokesman Jay Carney said the results of independent investigations must be known "before we can jump to conclusions about what happened, whether there was a deliberate targeting of groups inappropriately and, if that's the case, what action should be taken."
THREE YEARS OF TARGETING
The targeting of conservative groups began in 2010, shortly after the emergence of the conservative Tea Party movement. The movement helped Republicans gain control of the U.S. House in the 2010 elections.
Hundreds of Tea Party-inspired groups have formed in recent years, and the IRS has struggled to handle campaign finance issues dealing with such politically active organizations seeking tax-exempt status. Such groups generally can be tax-exempt as long as they do not directly support particular political candidates.
Higher-level IRS officials took part in discussions as far back as August 2011 about targeting by lower-level tax agents of Tea Party and other conservative groups, according to documents reviewed by Reuters on Monday.
The documents show the offices of the IRS's chief counsel and deputy commissioner for services and enforcement communicated about the targeting with lower-level officials on August 4, 2011, and March 8, 2012, respectively.
The communications occurred weeks and months before Shulman, then the commissioner of the IRS, told congressional panels in late March 2012 that no groups were being targeted for extra scrutiny by the tax agency.
The IRS has been dragged reluctantly into partisan politics at a time when it is also under increasing pressure to make rulings on campaign finance issues and matters related to implementation of Obama's 2010 healthcare overhaul.
The agency must impose an excise tax on large employers if they fail to meet certain minimum healthcare coverage requirements for employees. In addition, the IRS must provide tax credits to low- and middle-income taxpayers who seek healthcare coverage on one of the new state-based insurance exchanges.
Timothy Jost, a specialist on the healthcare overhaul who teaches law at Washington and Lee University, said the controversy has no real bearing on implementation of Obama's healthcare laws, aside from politics.
"I just don't see a connection, other than that I'm sure there will be efforts to make one," Jost said.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West, Thomas Ferraro, Richard Cown, Kim Dixon, Kevin Drawbaugh, Susan Heavey and Laura MacInnis; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by David Lindsey and Eric Beech)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-opens-criminal-probe-u-tax-agency-audit-013827835.html
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Become a marathon runner with the protein PGC-1alpha
May 14, 2013 ? Even with a greater muscle mass, a sprinter cannot win a marathon. His specially-trained and strengthened muscles will fatigue faster than the endurance-trained muscles of a long distance runner. The research group of Prof. Christoph Handschin of the Biozentrum, University of Basel, shows that during endurance exercise the protein PGC-1? shifts the metabolic profile in the muscle.
The results are published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Marathon runners complete a special training program to improve their endurance capacity. Accordingly, their muscles are able to sustain the provision of energy using aerobic, hence oxygen consuming processes. Untrained athletes and also bodybuilders reach however, in a much earlier stage, a condition where their muscles produce energy without oxygen. This results in the production of lactate in the muscles. At the same time, the muscles begin to fatigue and the legs become heavy.
Less Lactate with Endurance Training
The reason for this difference: the muscles switch their metabolism during endurance training. Importantly, amongst others, the production of the protein PGC-1? is stimulated. Mice with a permanently increased PGC-1? develop the same high endurance muscles as those in trained athletes. Handschin and his team were able to show in these mice that PGC-1? prevents the formation and accumulation of lactate in the muscles. For this, the researchers trained the mice for an hour on the treadmill. After a few minutes, the lactic acid rates increased in the untrained mice, followed by performance degradation and exhaustion. Mice with a high PGC-1?, however, maintained their performance levels until the end of the training. Their lactate levels remained low despite a high training load. "As it turned out," said Handschin, "PGC-1? changed the composition of an enzyme complex. This reduced the formation of lactate. Also, the remaining lactate in the muscle is converted and used immediately as energy substrate."
Sport Therapy for Diabetics
Also in human skeletal muscle, PGC-1? controls the balance between the formation and degradation of lactate. Disturbances in lactate metabolism are common in obese and diabetic patients. The stimulation of PGC-1? production by endurance exercise activity is therefore an important approach to improve the metabolism in these patients. This could help prevent the resulting damage and progressive physical limitations to the body caused by metabolic diseases.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/LfcDMoELUnw/130514112751.htm
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Video: IRS Scandal: Tip of the Iceberg?
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/51885012/
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Research helps paint finer picture of massive 1700 earthquake
May 14, 2013 ? In 1700, a massive earthquake struck the west coast of North America. Though it was powerful enough to cause a tsunami as far as Japan, a lack of local documentation has made studying this historic event challenging.
Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have helped unlock this geological mystery using a fossil-based technique. Their work provides a finer-grained portrait of this earthquake and the changes in coastal land level it produced, enabling modelers to better prepare for future events.
Penn's team includes Benjamin Horton, associate professor and director of the Sea Level Research Laboratory in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the School of Arts and Sciences, along with then lab members Simon Engelhart and Andrea Hawkes. They collaborated with researchers from Canada's University of Victoria, the National Taiwan University, the Geological Survey of Canada and the United States Geological Survey.
The research was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs along the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States to Vancouver Island in Canada. This major fault line is capable of producing megathrust earthquakes 9.0 or higher, though, due to a dearth of observations or historical records, this trait was only discovered within the last several decades from geology records. The Lewis and Clark expedition did not make the first extensive surveys of the region until more than 100 years later, and contemporaneous aboriginal accounts were scarce and incomplete.
The 1700 Cascadia event was better documented in Japan than in the Americas. Records of the "orphan tsunami" -- so named because its "parent" earthquake was too far away to be felt -- gave earth scientists hints that this subduction zone was capable of such massive seismic activity. Geological studies provided information about the earthquake, but many critical details remained lost to history.
"Previous research had determined the timing and the magnitude, but what we didn't know was how the rupture happened," Horton said. "Did it rupture in one big long segment, more than a thousand kilometers, or did it rupture in parcels?"
To provide a clearer picture of how the earthquake occurred, Horton and his colleagues applied a technique they have used in assessing historic sea-level rise. They traveled to various sites along the Cascadia subduction zone, taking core samples from up and down the coast and working with local researchers who donated pre-existing data sets. The researchers' targets were microscopic fossils known as foraminifera. Through radiocarbon dating and an analysis of different species' positions with the cores over time, the researchers were able to piece together a historical picture of the changes in land and sea level along the coastline. The research revealed how much the coast suddenly subsided during the earthquake. This subsidence was used to infer how much the tectonic plates moved during the earthquake.
"What we were able to show for the first time is that the rupture of Cascadia was heterogeneous, making it similar to what happened with the recent major earthquakes in Japan, Chile and Sumatra," Horton said.
This level of regional detail for land level changes is critical for modeling and disaster planning.
"It's only when you have that data that you can start to build accurate models of earthquake ruptures and tsunami inundation," Horton said. "There were areas of the west coast of the United States that were more susceptible to larger coastal subsidence than others."
The Cascadia subduction zone is of particular interest to geologists and coastal managers because geological evidence points to recurring seismic activity along the fault line, with intervals between 300 and 500 years. With the last major event occurring in 1700, another earthquake could be on the horizon. A better understanding of how such an event might unfold has the potential to save lives.
"The next Cascadia earthquake has the potential to be the biggest natural disaster that the Unites States will have to come to terms with -- far bigger than Sandy or even Katrina," Horton said. "It would happen with very little warning; some areas of Oregon will have less than 20 minutes to evacuate before a large tsunami will inundate the coastline like in Sumatra in 2004 and Japan in 2011."
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the United States Geological Survey and the University of Victoria. Simon Engelhart and Andrea Hawkes are now assistant professors at the University of Rhode Island and the University of North Carolina, respectively. Their co-authors were Pei-Ling Wang of the University of Victoria and National Taiwan University, Kelin Wang of the University of Victoria and the Geological Survey of Canada's Pacific Geoscience Centre, Alan Nelson of the United States Geological Survey's Geologic Hazards Science Center and Robert Witter of the United States Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center.
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Supreme Court rules for Monsanto in patent case
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court said Monday that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto Co.'s patents on soybean seeds that are resistant to its weed-killer by growing additional crops without buying new beans.
The justices unanimously rejected the farmer's argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company's Roundup herbicide.
While Monsanto won this case, the court refused to make a sweeping decision that would cover other self-replicating technologies like DNA molecules and nanotechnologies, leaving that for another day. Businesses and researchers had been closely watching this case in hopes of getting guidance on patents, but Justice Elena Kagan said the court's holding Monday only "addresses the situation before us."
In a statement, Monsanto officials said they were pleased with the court's ruling.
"The court's ruling today ensures that longstanding principles of patent law apply to breakthrough 21st century technologies that are central to meeting the growing demands of our planet and its people," said David F. Snively, Monsanto's top lawyer "The ruling also provides assurance to all inventors throughout the public and private sectors that they can and should continue to invest in innovation that feeds people, improves lives, creates jobs, and allows America to keep its competitive edge."
In the case decided by the court, farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman bought expensive, patented Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" seeds for his main crop of soybeans, but decided to look for something cheaper for a risky, late-season soybean planting. He went to a grain elevator that held soybeans it typically sells for feed, milling and other uses, but not as seed.
Bowman reasoned that most of those soybeans also would be resistant to weed killers, as they initially came from herbicide-resistant seeds too. He was right, and he bought soybeans from the grain elevator and planted them over eight years. In 2007, Monsanto sued and won an $84,456 judgment.
Monsanto has a policy to protect its investment in seed development that prohibits farmers from saving or reusing the seeds once the crop is grown. Farmers must buy new seeds every year. More than 90 percent of American soybean farms use Monsanto's seeds, which first came on the market in 1996.
Bowman's lawyers argued that Monsanto's patent rights stopped with the sale of the first crop of beans instead of extending to each new crop soybean farmers grow that has the gene modification that allows it to withstand the application of weed-killer.
But Kagan disagreed. "Bowman planted Monsanto's patented soybeans solely to make and market replicas of them, thus depriving the company of the reward patent law provides for the sale of each article," she said. "Patent exhaustion provides no haven for such conduct."
Bowman also said he should not be liable, in part, because soybeans naturally sprout when planted.
Kagan said the court also did not buy that argument. "We think the blame-the-bean defense tough to credit," she said.
Calls to Bowman by The Associated Press were unanswered.
In other decisions:
? Justices said unanimously that use of the bankruptcy term "defalcation" requires an intentional wrong. This came in a case where an Illinois man took improper loans from his father's trust, the first at his father's direction.
? They also unanimously said that federal law does not pre-empt a state law claim against a New Hampshire towing company that towed, stored and then disposed of a car owned by a man who was seriously ill in a hospital.
The soybean case is Bowman v. Monsanto Co., 11-796.
___
Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-rules-monsanto-patent-case-141231110.html
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Keep Potted Plants From Dropping Dirt with a Mesh Produce Bag
Potted plants need drainage holes at the bottom to release excess water, but you don't want soil to come out with it, especially if you keep your plant indoors or on a nice patio. Luckily, all you need to keep it clean is a mesh produce bag.
All you need to do is cut open a mesh plastic orange bag, fold it over once so it can trap more dirt, then set it across the drainage hole at the bottom of a new pot. Then, use some rocks to hold it in place, and add your soil and seeds. Water will run through the mesh as usual, but it will trap most loose soil and keep it off your floor If you have some excess mesh, be sure to make some DIY dish scrubbers when you're done.
A New Use for Mesh Citrus Bags | Real Simple
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World's largest events database could predict conflict
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Syrian rebel's gruesome act caught on video, according to report
May 13 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $5,849,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,388,064 3. Kevin Streelman $2,572,989 4. Billy Horschel $2,567,891 5. Matt Kuchar $2,493,387 6. Phil Mickelson $2,220,280 7. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,207,683 8. D.A. Points $2,019,702 9. Steve Stricker $1,977,140 10. Graeme McDowell $1,910,654 11. Jason Day $1,802,797 12. Webb Simpson $1,759,015 13. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 14. Hunter Mahan $1,682,939 15. Charles Howell III $1,561,988 16. Russell Henley $1,546,638 17. Martin Laird $1,531,950 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebel-bites-heart-dead-soldier-video-123803803.html
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Sunday, May 12, 2013
Women rescued in Cleveland happy to be home
This image provided by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office shows the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center booking photo of Ariel Castro, 52, after he was ordered to be held on $8 million bail Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a former school bus driver, is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a decade in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Cuyahoga County)
This image provided by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office shows the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center booking photo of Ariel Castro, 52, after he was ordered to be held on $8 million bail Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Cleveland. Castro, a former school bus driver, is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a decade in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Cuyahoga County)
A sign rests in front of a home Saturday, May 11, 2013, in Cleveland. Ariel Castro, who allegedly held three women captive for nearly a decade, is charged with rape and kidnapping. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
A missing poster still hangs on a tree at the home where Amanda Berry is staying in Cleveland on Saturday, May 11, 2013. Suspect Ariel Castro who allegedly held Berry and two other women captive for nearly a decade is charged with rape and kidnapping. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
CLEVELAND (AP) ? The three women allegedly imprisoned and sexually abused for years inside a padlocked Cleveland house asked for privacy Sunday, saying through an attorney that while they are grateful for overwhelming support, they also need time to heal.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight remain in seclusion, releasing their first statements since they were found May 6 when Berry escaped and told a 911 dispatcher, "I'm free now."
They thanked law enforcement and said they were grateful for the support of family and the community.
"I am so happy to be home, and I want to thank everybody for all your prayers," DeJesus said in a statement read by an attorney. "I just want time now to be with my family."
The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.
Investigators say they spent the last nine years or more inside the home of Ariel Castro where they were repeatedly raped and only allowed outside a handful of times. Castro, 52, is being held on $8 million bond. The former school bus driver was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
Prosecutors said last week they may seek aggravated murder charges ? punishable by death ? for allegedly impregnating one of his captives at least five times and forcing her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the belly.
The allegations were contained in a police report that also said Berry was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool inside the home. A DNA test confirmed that Castro fathered the 6-year-old girl, who escaped the house with Berry.
After nearly a decade of being away, the three women need time to reconnect with their families, said attorney Jim Wooley.
Knight, who was the first to disappear and the last of the three released from the hospital, thanked everyone for their support and good wishes in her statement.
"I am healthy, happy and safe and will reach out to family, friends and supporters in good time."
Berry added: "Thank you so much for everything you're doing and continue to do. I am so happy to be home with my family."
The attorney said none of the women will do any media interviews until the criminal case against Castro is over. He also asked that they be given privacy.
"Give them the time, the space, and the privacy so that they can continue to get stronger," Wooley said.
The Associated Press does not usually identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but the women's names were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearances and after they were found.
Donations are pouring into funds set up for the women. City Councilman Brian Cummins said $50,000 has been raised with the goal of creating a trust fund for each in hopes of making them financially independent.
Castro was represented at his first court appearance Thursday by public defender Kathleen Demetz, who said she can't speak to his guilt or innocence and advised him not to give any media interviews that might jeopardize his case.
Castro's two brothers, who were initially taken into custody but released Thursday after investigators said there was no evidence against them, told CNN that they fear people still believe they had something to do with the three missing women.
Onil and Pedro Castro said they've been getting death threats even after police decided to release them. Pedro Castro said he would have turned in his brother if he had known he was involved in the women's disappearance.
"Brother or no brother," he told CNN.
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After Last-Minute Spacewalk Fix, It's Wait-and-See on Space Station
A spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (May 11) appeared to fix a leak of liquid ammonia, though astronauts and Mission Control will be in wait-and-see mode until they know for sure if the repairs succeeded.
Two NASA astronauts ? Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn ? ventured outside the football field-size orbital complex to investigate a leak that had sprung in the station's cooling system, which uses liquid ammonia to transfer heat away from electronic power systems. Although they found no signs of damage that might explain the leak, the spacewalkers replaced a suspect coolant pump, which appeared to halt the flow of ammonia for now.
It will be weeks, or even months, though, before it's clear if the leak has fully stopped. [Emergency Spacewalk to Fix Space Station Leak in Photos]
"The crew looked and watched for any obvious signs of leaks and didn't see anything," Joel Montalbano, deputy space station program manager, said during a press conference after the spacewalk today at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We're very happy."
Engineers on the ground will continue to study the troubled area in hopes of understanding what caused the leak.
"We'll see if anything becomes obvious," said NASA flight director Ed Van Cise. "From what we saw during the EVA [extravehicular activity, or spacewalk] itself, nothing really stood out in terms of what may have been the culprit."
NASA officials said they don't yet know if the problem is related to a leak that was spotted in the same coolant channel in 2007. That leak was so slow it posed no immediate problem, and a November 2012 spacewalk that replaced a radiator for the system appeared to stop it.
On Thursday (May 9), the six-man crew of the space station's Expedition 35 mission noticed the leak had worsened, with visible white snowflakes of frozen ammonia floating out into space.
"It was just two days ago that the slight leak we were observing in the thermal control system took a change to where it was a pretty dramatic leak," Van Cise said.
The urgency of the problem caused NASA to "pretty much bring everyone to the table" to address the situation and plan the spacewalk at the last minute, he added. "Space station is a very large, complicated and complex vehicle built all across the world. There are going to be engineers and very smart people all over the place that need to help us address these situations. We draw upon that when we have to and when the vehicle throws something at us that we need all those resources."
For now, mission managers are breathing a sigh of relief, though only time will tell if the issue is truly resolved.
"It's going to take the teams a few weeks to go ahead and watch the system, understand the system ? before they're ready to tell us that we were 100-percent successful," Montalbano said.
In the meantime, the crew is preparing for a change of command ceremony tomorrow (May 12), where current Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency will pass the duty over to Expedition 36 commander Pavel Vinogradov of the Russian Federal Space Agency. Hadfield, Marshburn, and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko will depart the space station Monday evening at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and land about three hours later, at 10:31 p.m. EDT (0231 GMT Tuesday), in Kazakhstan.
A new crew of three spaceflyers is due to arrive at the space station later this month to round out the Expedition 36 team.
Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter and Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/last-minute-spacewalk-fix-wait-see-space-station-221540090.html
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Climate shifts birds' winter homes
10 May 2013
Last updated at 19:50 ET
"Stopping short": The WWT's Richard Hearn explains why fewer familiar ducks are returning to the UK for the winter
Three species of migratory duck have shifted their wintering grounds northward in response to increasing temperatures, say scientists.
The birds - the tufted duck, goosander and goldeneye - are common in Britain and Ireland during northern Europe's winter.
But their numbers in these countries have shrunk in the last 30 years.
According to the findings, published in the journal Global Change Biology, many now stop short on their annual journey.
Gathering and analysing data from the three-decade-long International Waterbird Census, the researchers found many birds were staying closer to their summer breeding grounds all year round.
At the northern end of their migratory flyway, in Sweden and Finland, there were approximately 130,000 more of the ducks in 2010 than in 1980.
On the southern end - in Britain, France, Ireland and Switzerland - numbers have dropped by about the same amount.
According to Richard Hearn from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), who was involved in the study, this represented a loss of between 45 and 60% of the population in Britain and Ireland.
"It makes more sense for the birds, because they don't have to embark on that very energy-intensive journey," he explained.
This "huge" shift he said was caused by increasingly warmer European winters. The researchers drew this conclusion by examining temperature data gathered from the same areas of Europe over the last three decades.
"Early winter temperature in south Finland," Dr Hearn said, "increased by about 3.8C between 1980 and 2010."
Stopping shortThis shift in migration is known as "short-stopping", whereby Arctic-breeding species that head to milder climates for the winter find they no longer need to travel so far for the unfrozen lakes that allow them to find food.
"This may have implications for their conservation, because birds are making less use of the areas that were designated to protect them," said Dr Hearn.
He added that the findings were a warning sign of the implications of a warming climate.
"These northern shifts can't go on forever, because the birds will simply run out of habitat," he said.
Andy Musgrove, head of monitoring at the British Trust for Ornithology, said this was "an important paper" adding to a growing body of evidence concerning the response of wildlife to a changing climate.
"All species are adapted to live in particular environments and when conditions change, then species will respond if they can," he said.
"What is interesting with migratory birds is how rapidly they are able to change their distributions, as a result of their ability to cover long distances to find suitable conditions.
"It is likely that the decline in UK wintering numbers of goldeneye, for example, is linked to the increase in Scandinavia.
"This is not always the case however, and for other species such as Bewick's swan and velvet scoter, it looks like declines in the UK are matched by those elsewhere across Europe.
"Such different cases really emphasise the importance of international cooperation in the monitoring of birds and other wildlife."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22484907#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Pakistan's Sharif headed for 3rd term after vote
Former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party Nawaz Sharif, fourth from left, waves to his supporters at a party office in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Sharif declared victory following a historic election marred by violence Saturday, as unofficial, partial vote counts showed his party with an overwhelming lead. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party Nawaz Sharif, fourth from left, waves to his supporters at a party office in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Sharif declared victory following a historic election marred by violence Saturday, as unofficial, partial vote counts showed his party with an overwhelming lead. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-N party celebrate the primary unofficial results of their country's parliamentary elections in Lahore, Pakistan Saturday, May 11, 2013. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared victory following a historic election marred by violence Saturday, a remarkable comeback for a leader once toppled in a military coup and sent into exile. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-N party celebrate the primary unofficial results of the country's parliamentary elections at a party office in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, May 11, 2013. The Pakistan Muslim League-N party, led by two-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has long been considered the front-runner in the race. The party appeared to be moving toward a significant victory Saturday based on partial vote counts announced by Pakistan state TV. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-N party celebrate the primary unofficial results for the country's parliamentary elections at the party's headquarter in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, May 11, 2013. The Pakistan Muslim League-N party, led by two-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has long been considered the front-runner in the race. The party appeared to be moving toward a significant victory Saturday based on partial vote counts announced by Pakistan state TV. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party Nawaz Sharif waves to his supporters at a party office in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Sharif declared victory following a historic election marred by violence Saturday, as unofficial, partial vote counts showed his party with an overwhelming lead. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif looked set Sunday to return to power for a third term, with an overwhelming election tally that just weeks ago seemed out of reach for a man who had been ousted by a coup and was exiled abroad before clawing his way back as an opposition leader.
As unofficial returns continued to roll in Sunday morning, state TV estimates did not show whether Sharif would attain the majority needed to govern outright or if he would need to form a coalition government.
But the margin of victory over the closest competitors ? a party headed by former cricket star Imran Khan and the outgoing Pakistan People's Party ? gave his party a clear mandate to guide the country of 180-million over the next five years.
Supporters danced in the streets overnight in his hometown of Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city and the provincial capital of Punjab province.
The election was marred by violence in the southern port city of Karachi, the northwest and in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. At least 29 people died in election-related attacks, but people still came out in droves. Election officials said the turnout was close to 60 percent, easily eclipsing the 44 percent of voters who came to the polls in 2008.
Sharif fended off a strong challenge from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Khan, who led the country to victory in the 1992 cricket World Cup, had tapped into the frustrations of many Pakistani youths fed up with the country's traditional politicians.
But in the end Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-N party managed a return to power. Even if he were to form a coalition government, the seat projections indicated that his party would have a much stronger grip on power than its predecessor.
Supporters in Lahore said they hoped that would bring progress after the previous Pakistan Peoples Party government, which much of the country saw as only focused on its survival.
"It will bring stability in our country," said Fayaz Ranjha. "We have voted for them, now it is their turn to take steps to end our miseries."
The 63-year-old Sharif served as prime minister twice during the nineties and oversaw Pakistan's first nuclear weapons test, but was ousted in a coup in 1999 by former chief of the army, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Sharif went into exile in Saudi Arabia and only returned to Pakistan in 2007. Even then, he was forced to sit on the sidelines as his party contested parliamentary elections after a court disqualified him from running. He had a prior criminal conviction for terrorism and hijacking stemming from Musharraf's coup ? Sharif was accused at the time of denying the general's plane permission to land.
The Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2009.
Over the last five years, Sharif put steady pressure on the PPP-led government, but wary of army interference, never enough to threaten its hold on power. This attitude helped enable parliament to complete its term and transfer power in democratic elections for the first time since the country was founded in 1947.
Sharif now faces the monumental task of governing a country with rising inflation, rolling blackouts, and a powerful Taliban insurgency.
The PML-N will also inherit a rocky relationship with neighboring Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday praised Pakistan for having carried out general elections despite relentless attacks and threats from Taliban insurgents.
While promising "full cooperation" with Pakistan's new government, Karzai alluded to the often hostile relationship between the two countries and his suspicions that Pakistan has in the past aided insurgents and contributed to Afghanistan's instability.
"We hope that the new elected government provides the ground for peace and brotherhood with Afghanistan, and to sincerely cooperate in rooting out terrorist sanctuaries so that our two brotherly nations could be saved from this menace," he said.
Analysts say Sharif is likely to want to assert a stronger influence over the Pakistani military than President Asif Ali Zardari or his PPP government have. Sharif's relationship with the military will be watched closely for any sign of a rift similar to the one in 1999.
He'll also be watched to see what moves ? if any ? he takes to reign in militants and deal with religious extremists that have plagued the country for years. Critics say the Pakistan Muslim League-N, which controls the provincial government in Punjab province, has tolerated extremist groups in the province.
"They think they cannot afford to stoke unnecessary trouble for them by cracking down on people or groups who are extremists or terrorists," said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies. "I don't think that these guys have enough understanding of the risk."
Sharif has also been tough to pin down on his relationship with the U.S. He defied U.S. opposition to Pakistan's nuclear test in 1998 and criticized the Afghan conflict as "America's War." The Punjab government, controlled by Sharif's party, turned down over $100 million in American aid in 2011 following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The raid outraged Pakistanis, and the government's move was seen as an attempt to cater to anti-American sentiment.
But whether he will continue that anti-American vein in office or take a more practical approach with the American government remains to be seen.
For starters, the U.S. will play a deciding role in any bailout package that Pakistan will almost certainly need from the International Monetary Fund to prop up its ailing economy.
Sharif will face a host of economic problems. Pakistanis suffer through power outages that can last 18 hours a day and extensive gas outages in the winter. Inflation has risen sharply, and foreign investment dropped.
The new government will need to address how to increase the country's tax revenue, reduce fuel subsidies and restructure ailing state-run industries, said Ashfaq Ahmed, dean of the business school of the Islamabad-based National University of Sciences and Technology.
__
Santana reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Kathy Gannon in Kabul contributed to this report.
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