Five US urban counties lead 'Terror Hot Spots' list, but rural areas not exempt

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2012) ? Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but events continue to occur in rural areas, spurred on by domestic actors, according to a report recently published by researchers in the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence based at the University of Maryland.

The research was conducted at Maryland and the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

The largest number of events clustered around major cities:

• Manhattan, New York (343 attacks)
• Los Angeles County, Calif. (156 attacks)
• Miami-Dade County, Fla. (103 attacks)
• San Francisco County, Calif. (99 attacks)
• Washington, D.C. (79 attacks).

While large, urban counties such as Manhattan and Los Angeles have remained hot spots of terrorist activities across decades, the START researchers discovered that smaller, more rural counties such as Maricopa County, Ariz. -- which includes Phoenix -- have emerged as hot spots in recent years as domestic terrorism there has increased.

The START researchers found that 65 of the nation's 3,143 counties were "hot spots" of terrorism.

They defined a "hot spot" as a county experiencing a greater than the average number of terrorist attacks, that is, more than six attacks across the entire time period (1970 to 2008).

"Mainly, terror attacks have been a problem in the bigger cities, but rural areas are not exempt," said Gary LaFree, director of START and lead author of the new report.

"The main attacks driving Maricopa into recent hot spot status are the actions of radical environmental groups, especially the Coalition to Save the Preserves. So, despite the clustering of attacks in certain regions, it is also clear that hot spots are dispersed throughout the country and include places as geographically diverse as counties in Arizona, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Texas," LaFree added.

Concentration of Fatal Terrorist Attacks in U.S., 1970 -- 2008 Click for hi-res image

TYPES OF ATTACKS: LaFree, a professor of criminology at the University of Maryland, and his co-author Bianca Bersani, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, also assessed whether certain counties were more prone to a particular type of terrorist attack.

They found that while a few counties experienced multiple types of terrorist attacks, for most eattacks were motivated by a single ideological type. For example, Lubbock County, Texas, only experienced extreme right-wing terrorism while the Bronx, New York, only experienced extreme left-wing terrorism.

Time Trends:

LaFree and Bersani also found time trends in terrorist attacks.

"The 1970s were dominated by extreme left-wing terrorist attacks," Bersani said. "Far left-wing terrorism in the U.S. is almost entirely limited to the 1970s with few events in the 1980s and virtually no events after that."

Ethno-national/separatist terrorism was concentrated in the 1970s and 1980s, religiously motivated attacks occurred predominantly in the 1980s, extreme right-wing terrorism was concentrated in the 1990s and single issue attacks were dispersed across the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, according to the new report.

To define the ideological motivations, LaFree and Bersani used START's Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism -- United States (Miller, Smarick and Simone, 2011), which briefly describes ideological motivations as:

• Extreme Right-Wing: groups that believe that one's personal and/or national "way of life" is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent (for some the threat is from a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group), and believe in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism. Groups may also be fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation), anti-global, suspicious of centralized federal authority, reverent of individual liberty, and believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.
• Extreme Left-Wing: groups that want to bring about change through violent revolution rather than through established political processes. This category also includes secular left-wing groups that rely heavily on terrorism to overthrow the capitalist system and either establish "a dictatorship of the proletariat" (Marxist-Leninists) or, much more rarely, a decentralized, non-hierarchical political system (anarchists).
• Religious: groups that seek to smite the purported enemies of God and other evildoers, impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists), forcibly insert religion into the political sphere (e.g., those who seek to politicize religion, such as Christian Reconstructionists and Islamists), and/or bring about Armageddon (apocalyptic millenarian cults; 2010: 17). For example, Jewish Direct Action, Mormon extremist, Jamaat-al-Fuqra, and Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) are included in this category.
• Ethno-Nationalist/Separatist: regionally concentrated groups with a history of organized political autonomy with their own state, traditional ruler, or regional government, who are committed to gaining or regaining political independence through any means and who have supported political movements for autonomy at some time since 1945.
• Single Issue: groups or individuals that obsessively focus on very specific or narrowly-defined causes (e.g., anti-abortion, anti-Catholic, anti-nuclear, anti-Castro). This category includes groups from all sides of the political spectrum.

The complete report Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United State, 1970 to 2008.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120131122458.htm

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Ex-Pakistani envoy to US wins court victory (AP)

ISLAMABAD ? Pakistan's top court Monday lifted a travel ban imposed on the country's former ambassador to the U.S. during an investigation into a memo sent to Washington that had enraged the army, in a sign that a scandal that once looked capable of bringing down the government may be losing steam.

Husain Haqqani resigned in November and returned to Islamabad to answer allegations that he masterminded the note, which asked for Washington's help in curbing the powers of the Pakistani army in exchange for security policies favorable to the U.S.

The unsigned memo, sent to Washington following the May 2011 American operation that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistan army town, appeared to confirm the army's worst fears that the country's elected politicians were conspiring with Washington ? a potent charge in a country where anti-Americanism runs deep.

The outrage, whipped up by right-wing, pro-army sections of the media, exposed the apparent fragility of the government in the face of generals who have ruled the country for much of its more than 60-year existence and still run defense and foreign policy.

Haqqani, who denies any link to the memo, said he now intends to travel to United States to join family there.

"Anywhere else, this matter would have been laid to rest long ago," Haqqani said. "The memo had no impact on U.S. policy and was consigned to the dustbin by its recipient."

The Supreme Court set up a commission to investigate the affair, dubbed "memogate" in the Pakistani media, after opposition politicians petitioned for an inquest. Despite the fact he had not been charged with a crime, the commission had banned Haqqani from traveling.

On Monday, it ruled that Haqqani ? who has been living in the prime minister's residence, reportedly worried about threats to his life ? could travel. The court said Haqqani had to return to Pakistan if the commission required it. Haqqani said he would comply with the orders.

Up until a few weeks ago, there was speculation that the "memogate" scandal could lead to the demise of President Asif Ali Zardari. But last week, the main accuser ? a Pakistani-American businessman who claimed to have delivered the note to Adm. Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer at the time ? said he couldn't come to Pakistan to testify, citing security fears.

That appears to have dealt a sharp blow to the case, even assuming the accuser, Mansoor Ijaz, had a "smoking gun" linking Haqqani and President Zardari to the memo. Many observers have since predicted that the probe is heading nowhere. Some media reports have speculated about a possible agreement between the army and the government to shelve the case.

Haqqani has won support from some U.S. lawmakers and pro-democracy activists in Pakistan, who painted him as a victim of army meddling in the democratic process. While he worked hard in Washington defending Pakistan ? a challenging task over the past few years ? prior to taking the job he was known as having an anti-army line.

The scandal has transfixed Pakistan's media and political class even as the country grapples with more existential threats like Islamist militancy and potential economic collapse.

On Monday, a suicide bomber killed a leader of a militant group that has been fighting a rival outfit in northwest Pakistan close to the Afghan border, said police officer Imtiaz Khan.

Haji Akhunzada was a senior figure in Ansarul Islam, which operates in the Khyber tribal region close to the Afghan border.

Akhunzada was killed along with his son-in-law while visiting his house close to the city of Peshawar, said Khan.

Ansarul Islam is fighting with another militant group, Lashkar Islam, for control of Kyhber, and dozens of people have been killed in the violence.

___

Associated Press writer Riaz Khan contributed to this report from Peshawar.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

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How a British Florist Solved the Mystery of the Coming Apocalypse [Wtf]

Last week, in the south west of England, the world started to fall in on itself. As little blue balls of sticky gel fell from the sky, Steve Hornsby feared the worst: the end was surely nigh. But, phew, it's all OK. A florist from a nearby town has sorted it out. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/s1E4UGovwcA/how-a-british-florist-solved-the-mystery-of-the-coming-apocalypse

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Santorum's Hypocrisy Highlighted by Daughter's Illness (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum suspended his bid for the GOP nod to run against Barack Obama when his daughter, Bella Santorum, was hospitalized, according to the Associated Press. Bella suffers from Trisomy 18, a rare genetic disorder in which a baby has some or all of an extra chromosome. While it is always tragic for a parent to face losing a child, the situation highlights a political issue: Santorum's hypocrisy on health care, abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

Santorum's campaign website discusses his views on these matters. He is emphatically against a woman's right to control her own body in reproductive matters and is adamantly opposed to embryonic stem cell research. He is against a single-payer national health care system provided to all citizens. He opposes the first two on religious grounds on the third for reasons of political dogma.

As to abortion, Santorum flip-flops on his opposition, according to a Care2.com report. It's easy for him to rail against abortion when such ranting might win him votes.

It's also easier for him to oppose it because he has the best health care in America available to him and his family -- provided at taxpayer expense, no less. He never had to consider whether care for a terminally ill child would destroy his family financially.

Unless the U.S. enacts a national health care plan most families will never be able to afford the care needed for a child with Trisomy 18. Santorum's family will never lack for health care or face crippling medical debt -- but as far as he's concerned it's fine for your family to have those problems.

Santorum's opposition to embryonic stem cell research is ludicrous for two reasons. First, such research involves the collection of cells from a blastocyst, a blob of about 150 cells so small the human eye cannot detect it, according to the National Institute for Health. Second, such research could save the lives of his daughter and countless others suffering from her condition. It's despicable for him to fight against the best possible hope for a cure to the very condition killing his child.

It makes me wonder how Santorum's opinion might change if he was an average American with a household income of less than $50,000 per year and no health insurance. I bet he'd sing a different tune.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/biotech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120129/pl_ac/10899655_santorums_hypocrisy_highlighted_by_daughters_illness

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UN chief: Sudan oil crisis a 'threat to peace' (AP)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ? An oil dispute between Sudan and South Sudan has become "a serious threat to peace and security in the region," U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Sunday as African heads of state converged on Ethiopia's capital for an African Union summit.

Ban called on African leaders to "play a more important role solving regional issues."

The Sudan crisis and war and hunger in Somalia are expected to dominate this year's summit, though the gathering's official theme is trade.

South Sudan recently shut down oil production after it accused Sudan of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil. Related negotiations have reached an impasse. In a separate incident, China said Sunday that militants loyal to South Sudan captured 29 Chinese workers in a volatile border region of Sudan.

South Sudan fought a decades-long civil war with northern neighbor Sudan, a war that culminated in a 2005 peace deal that saw the partitioning of Sudan and the birth of South Sudan last July. The new border between the two countries remains tense, with sporadic cross-border attacks taking place.

Oil negotiations between the two neighbors have been in a deadlock for two years. They have never agreed on the transit fees South Sudan should pay to Sudan for using its infrastructure of port and pipelines.

Ban said he discussed the issue with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. He urged Kiir to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to resolve their problems.

"I am urging two leaders to demonstrate political will," he said.

Ban also expressed concerns about a humanitarian crisis along Sudan's volatile border with the south, and said the Khartoum government was not cooperating with U.N. missions.

"I am deeply concerned about South Kordofan and Blue Nile State," he said. "Very worrisome because of the accessibility. There is no access for humanitarian workers."

The U.N. has also raised humanitarian concerns in South Sudan, where more than 120,000 people need aid because of a wave of ethnic clashes in a remote and volatile region.

The two nations have been meeting in Ethiopia for oil talks. Haile Menkerios, a special U.N. representative to Sudan, said Sunday there has been no recent progress.

Also on Sunday, South Sudan's minister of petroleum and mining said the nation will not restart oil production unless Sudan accepts a list of demands.

Stephen Dhieu Dau said South Sudan was "committed to negotiations" but that Khartoum would have to accept their offer of paying $1 per barrel for using Sudan's pipelines for export and $2.4 billion dollar financial assistance package before South Sudan turns on production again.

He also said Sudan must withdraw troops from the disputed border region of Abyei and stop funding rebel groups in South Sudan. He said South Sudan wants an international treaty guaranteed by "international superpowers."

___

Associated Press writer Michael Onyiego contributed to this report from Juba, South Sudan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_af/af_african_union

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The working class rises up across Latin America

Maids, parking valets, and other domestic workers push back against ill treatment in 'the world's most unequal region.'

Mexico city; and Santiago, chile

When parking attendant Hugo Enrique Vera was beaten by a wealthy client in Mexico, allegedly for refusing to show the man where to find the jack in his car, the surveillance camera captured a stereotype dating to colonial times: The wealthy resident asserts authoritarian control over the worker, who takes the beating without question.

Skip to next paragraph

But there was a twist: Mr. Vera filed a criminal complaint and condemned his perpetrator on national news, unleashing a charged debate about callousness toward the working class.

For two decades, social movements in Latin America have centered on indigenous rights. Today the indigenous have earned new political representation, and open mistreatment will draw complaints.

Yet daily life across Latin America is replete with symbols of stubborn class inequality that go unchallenged, such as condominium buildings that have separate elevators for domestic workers.

Such constant reinforcement of status differences helps to cement class privileges in what the United Nations has said is the world's most unequal region.

While maids in crisp uniforms and parking valets at every urban venue aren't about to disappear, they and other la-borers are increasingly better-educated and aspire to move into the middle class.

Less tolerant of abuse and discrimination, these maids and nannies, doormen and gardeners are demanding more pay and benefits and a baseline of respect.

"There's democratization in the political arena, participation, and citizenship rights ... [and] moderate economic development. So in this context, citizens start feeling they have the right to be seen as what they are ? citizens," says Florencia Torche, a sociology professor at New York University and Catholic University in Santiago, Chile.

An apology is offered

The parking attendant controversy, which went viral on YouTube and drew a public apology by perpetrator Miguel Sacal, wasn't an isolated event. Last summer, Mexicans were outraged after two upper-middle-class women in a rich district of Mexico City were caught on video calling a police officer a "crappy wage slave." The daughter of the leading presidential candidate caused an uproar in December after retweeting a message calling her father's opponents "a bunch of idiots who are part of the prole," a reference to the proletariat, or poor people.

"There is less tolerance for discrimination by society," says Ra?l Villamil Uriarte, an anthropologist at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City. In the case of the parking attendant who brought attention to his own case, he adds, the classic "victim" devictimized himself.

Changes in the maid's quarters

Nowhere is more change taking place than in the domestic sphere. While in the United States only the wealthy can afford live-in nannies and daily housecleaning, in Latin America, maid's quarters are ubiquitous, even in the homes of the middle class.

But newer apartments increasingly are built without such spaces ? reflecting upheaval in the structure of the home.

In Chile, maids and nannies are demanding bigger salaries and more benefits and insisting on living with their own families, says Monica Escandon, who runs the nanny and maid service Nana.cl in Santiago. "[Domestic workers] know that their work has a high value and that they are necessary, especially for young couples who both work," she says.

Salaries have risen to at least $500 a month for a nanny who works five days a week and as much as $800 a month for a live-in maid, she says. Employers are also responsible for taxes, food, and transportation. As in the US, wealthier Latin Americans now hire immigrants from poorer countries like Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay to get the same amount of work for lower prices.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/wuS-rXJ3gvI/The-working-class-rises-up-across-Latin-America

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Jury finds Afghan family guilty in honor killings

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, center, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Tooba Yahya is led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, front,Tooba Yahya, center and Hamed Shafia arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder of Mohammad Shafia's three daughters and childless first wife. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia reacts as he his led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder of his three daughters and childless first wife. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) ? A jury on Sunday found three members of an Afghan family guilty of killing three teenage sisters and another woman in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor," ending a case that shocked and riveted Canadians.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and using the Internet.

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said the evidence clearly supported the conviction.

"It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime," Maranger said. "The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

In a statement following the verdict, Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings a practice that is "barbaric and unacceptable in Canada."

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

Hamed's lawyer, Patrick McCann, said he was disappointed with the verdict, but said his client will appeal and he believes the other two defendants will as well.

But prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis welcomed the verdict.

"This jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family in the most troubling of circumstances," Laarhuis said outside court.

"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," he said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wire taps and mobile phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing allegation. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Shafia's lawyer, Peter Kemp, said after the verdicts that he believes the comments his client made on the wiretaps may have weighed more heavily on the jury's minds than the physical evidence in the case.

"He wasn't convicted for what he did," Kemp said. "He was convicted for what he said."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-29-CN-Canada-Honor-Killing/id-68aad2c2f7dc45ea84364cfc8cbba084

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Democrats spend big in Ore. special election (AP)

PORTLAND, Ore. ? Determined not to lose another friendly district because of a sex scandal, Democrats and their allies have pumped more than $1 million into an Oregon special election race that has turned into a vicious exchange of attacks over the airwaves.

Voters are deciding who should replace former Rep. David Wu, a seven-term Democrat who resigned last year following a string of bizarre news stories that began with photos of the congressman wearing a tiger costume and ended with a young woman's accusation that he made an unwanted sexual advance.

Voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return their ballots in the all-mail election.

Republican Rob Cornilles, a sports business consultant, has tried hard to extend the scandal that brought down Wu to the Democrat who wants to take his place, former state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici. She says the race is about the future, not about Wu.

Bonamici and independent groups that support her have gone after Cornilles for missing tax payments for his business and for inconsistent statements about the number of jobs his company has created.

Oregon's 1st Congressional District is the state's economic engine, encompassing downtown Portland and the fast-growing western suburbs that are home to the Silicon Forest high-tech hub and the global headquarters for athletic-wear giants Nike Inc. and Columbia Sportswear Company. It stretches across agricultural communities to the Pacific coast. Democrats have represented the district since 1975, and its voters overwhelmingly supported President Barack Obama.

But Democrats do not want to see a repeat of what happened last year in a heavily Democratic New York district, when a Republican won a special election after Rep. Anthony Weiner acknowledged sending provocative text messages and resigned.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent $1.3 million to boost Bonamici. Political committees for a union, abortion-rights groups and a super PAC allied with Democrats have also chipped in with their own mail or television ads.

Democrats insist they're not scared. They've likened their investment to an insurance policy to avoid any doubts about the party's strength that would inevitably follow a loss in a liberal state like Oregon. The National Republican Congressional Committee has spent just $85,000 on the race.

Cornilles, 47, is making his second bid for the seat after losing to Wu in 2010. He's centered his pitch on his experience running a sports-marketing firm, hoping to swing an upset with a relentless focus on jobs and a run toward the center. Unemployment in the Portland area dropped to 7.8 percent in November 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Bonamici, 57, is mixing traditional Democratic themes of protecting Social Security and Medicare with a pledge to tackle the national debt by getting Washington's priorities in order.

Without reliable public polling it's anyone's guess how close the race will be.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_ho/us_oregon_congressional_election

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Obama, Occupy DC Attend Alfalfa Dinner (ABC News)

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Hands on with Polk Audio UltraFit sports headphones ? and a trampoline [Macworld 2012]

With their new UltraFit line of sports headphones for iPhone, iPad, iPod and other devices, Polk Audio is really putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to their SecureFit, "stays in place" promise. Rather, they're putting Olympic-calibur athletes on a trampoline smack-dab in the middle of Macworld 2012.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/VC8aK3ASVtk/story01.htm

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Silk from tasar silkworm used as scaffold for heart tissue

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? Max Planck scientists have used silk from the tasar silkworm as a scaffold for heart tissue.

Damaged human heart muscle cannot be regenerated. Scar tissue grows in place of the damaged muscle cells. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim are seeking to restore complete cardiac function with the help of artificial cardiac tissue. They have succeeded in loading cardiac muscle cells onto a three-dimensional scaffold, created using the silk produced by a tropical silkworm.

Of all the body?s organs, the human heart is probably the one most primed for performance and efficiency. Decade after decade, it continues to pump blood around our bodies. However, this performance optimisation comes at a high price: over the course of evolution, almost all of the body?s own regeneration mechanisms in the heart have become deactivated. As a result, a heart attack is a very serious event for patients; dead cardiac cells are irretrievably lost. The consequence of this is a permanent deterioration in the heart?s pumping power and in the patient?s quality of life.

In their attempt to develop a treatment for the repair of cardiac tissue, scientists are pursuing the aim of growing replacement tissue in the laboratory, which could then be used to produce replacement patches for the repair of damaged cardiac muscle. The reconstruction of a three-dimensional structure poses a challenge here. Experiments have already been carried out with many different materials that could provide a scaffold substance for the loading of cardiac muscle cells.

?Whether natural or artificial in origin, all of the tested fibres had serious disadvantages,? says Felix Engel, Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim. ?They were either too brittle, were attacked by the immune system or did not enable the heart muscle cells to adhere correctly to the fibres.? However, the scientists have now found a possible solution in Kharagpur, India.

At the university there, coin-sized disks are being produced from the cocoon of the tasar silkworm (Antheraea mylitta). According to Chinmoy Patra, an Indian scientist who now works in Engel?s laboratory, the fibre produced by the tasar silkworm displays several advantages over the other substances tested. ?The surface has protein structures that facilitate the adhesion of heart muscle cells. It?s also coarser than other silk fibres.? This is the reason why the muscle cells grow well on it and can form a three-dimensional tissue structure. ?The communication between the cells was intact and they beat synchronously over a period of 20 days, just like real heart muscle,? says Engel.

Despite these promising results, clinical application of the fibre is not currently on the agenda. ?Unlike in our study, which we carried out using rat cells, the problem of obtaining sufficient human cardiac cells as starting material has not yet been solved,? says Engel. It is thought that the patient?s own stem cells could be used as starting material to avoid triggering an immune reaction. However, exactly how the conversion of the stem cells into cardiac muscle cells works remains a mystery.

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Journal Reference:

1. Chinmoy Patra, Sarmistha Talukdar, Tatyana Novoyatleva, Siva R. Velagala, Christian M?hlfeld, Banani Kundu, Subhas C. Kundu, Felix B. Engel. Silk protein fibroin from Antheraea mylitta for cardiac tissue engineering. Biomaterials, 2012; 33 (9): 2673 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.12.036

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127135943.htm

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Syria: Are Captured Iranians Military Men or Engineers? (Time.com)

Claims that Iranians and Lebanese Hizballah members are aiding President Bashar Assad's troops in their ferocious crack down against dissent are almost as old as the 10-month Syrian uprising. Yet despite the thousands of amateur videos that have captured so much of the gruesome, bloody repression, precious little evidence has emerged to back the allegations of foreign assistance, beyond the assertions of antigovernment activists and the testimony of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence.

On Thursday, al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite channel, broadcast amateur footage purportedly showing five of seven Iranians captured by Syrian military defectors belonging to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the besieged central city of Homs. A Syrian rebel who gave his name as Abu Bassem told the channel that the seven were nabbed by the FSA's Farouk Brigade on two separate occasions. Five of the men were allegedly Iranian soldiers, operating as snipers under the direct supervision of Syria's much feared Air Force Intelligence branch in Homs, Abu Bassem told al-Jazeera in a phone call from the city, while the other two were civilians working at a local power plant in Jandar, near Homs. (See photos of protests in Syria.)

Five of the men are shown in a six-minute, 20-second snippet. Bearded and cloaked in black, they sit against a white wall, with a lone rifle propped up between the second and third man. A scrolling red ticker on the screen says that they are Iranian Revolutionary Guards and calls on "all Iranian Revolutionary Guards to immediately withdraw from Syrian territory." One of the five men holds up a laminated photo identification card. The Enduring America website posted a Farsi-to-English translation of his comments: "My name is Sajjad (Haider Ali) Aminan and I am a member of the revolutionary armed forces of Iran. I am leader of a five-member special team. I entered Syria on Oct. 16, 2011. The others entered Syria on different dates."

The men then all state their names: Ahmad Aziz Askari, Hasan Hasani, Majid Qanbari, Kyumars Qobadi. One says that they have killed "many civilians in the city of Homs, including many women and children."

The footage then cuts to two laminated photo ID cards, showing their back and front, as well as three passports. The pages are flipped, one by one, including all of the blank pages. (Read "The Arab League to Syria's President: It's Time for You to Go.")

Is this proof of Iran sending military reinforcement to prop up its main Arab ally? Or could something else be happening there? On Dec. 21, Syrian state media reported that eight foreign engineers, including five Iranians, were abducted "by terrorists" as they traveled on a company bus to their place of work, the Jandar power plant on the outskirts of Homs. The nationalities of the other three engineers were not stated. Shortly afterward, Iran's Press TV reported that "two more Iranian experts, who were trying to clarify the situation of the five abducted engineers," were kidnapped. Their whereabouts are unknown. On Jan. 2, an unknown group called the Movement Against the Expansion of Shiism in Syria sent a claim of responsibility for the abductions to the Agence France-Presse office in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The men in the video bear a resemblance to the five engineers abducted in December, as portrayed in a photo circulated in the Syrian and Iranian press. Their names also appear to match. The men, who are all dressed casually in jeans, jackets and track pants pose alongside a man identified as their Syrian cook. They are not the only Iranians nabbed in Syria. "Eleven Iranian pilgrims traveling by road to Damascus were kidnapped by an unknown group," Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying on Thursday by the state news agency IRNA. "We call on the Syrian government to use all means ... to release the Iranian nationals," he said. (Read "The Crisis in Syria: No Immunity for Bystanders.")

Sectarian tensions have been rising in the multiethnic, multisectarian patchwork of the Syrian state as the death toll spirals beyond 5,000. Resentment toward Assad and some of his Alawite co-religionists is strong among certain quarters of the majority Sunni population. Although Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, comprise some 12% of Syria's 22 million people, they are disproportionately represented in the upper echelons of Syria's political, business and military communities. There is also rising anger toward Assad's staunchest regional backers, Shi'ite Iran and the Shi'ite Lebanese militant group Hizballah (Party of God), which is now frequently referred to by Syrian activists, refugees and defectors alike as the "party of the devil." It's not inconceivable that a busload of Iranian pilgrims were nabbed by antigovernment elements, perhaps as bargaining chips.

Abu Bassem of the FSA's Farouk Brigade stressed during his interview with al-Jazeera that he and his group were not against Shi'ites. "We are not sectarian," he said. "We ask Iran to admit they sent members of Revolutionary Guards to Syria. He said that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had until Jan. 28 to withdraw all Revolutionary Guards from Syria.

Pressed by the anchor about what would happen should the deadline lapse, Abu Bassem said: "We are not terrorists, criminals or killers. We are against anyone who threatens innocent Syrians. We caught these people, they were armed. They are snipers. They were killing our Syrian brethren. We will try, God willing, to return them to their families safely, but given the difficult circumstances Homs is experiencing, we cannot guarantee their safety."

Watch TIME's video "Why They Protest: Egypt, Libya and Syria."

Read "Syria: Who Is the Real President Assad?"

View this article on Time.com

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20120127/wl_time/08599210551000

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Justice unit to probe mortgage-backed securities

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Federal and state law enforcement officials announced Friday that they have launched a fraud-fighting initiative to root out wrongdoing in the market for residential mortgage-backed securities.

Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference that bringing full enforcement resources to bear will help expose abuses and hold violators accountable.

Residential mortgage-backed securities are the huge investment packages of what turned out to be near-worthless mortgages that bankrupted many investors and contributed to the nation's financial crisis.

Appearing with Holder, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a co-chair of the initiative, said the effort will link state and federal probes of the mortgage-backed securities bubble.

The collapse in value of mortgage-backed securities resulted in unprecedented losses and "all of us" in law enforcement are dedicated to holding accountable financial institutions that lied and cheated and misled investors, said Robert Khuzami, director of the enforcement division at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

President Barack Obama disclosed the effort in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-27-Financial%20Probers/id-c91278fd8d9e4953b8eea330c39bdaaf

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Utah teens arrested in alleged school bombing plot (AP)

SALT LAKE CITY ? Two Utah high school students plotted to set off explosives during a school assembly and steal a plane to make their getaway, police said Thursday.

The students prepared by logging hundreds of hours on flight simulator software on their home computers, and they planned to take a plane at Ogden Hinckley Airport, said Roy police spokeswoman Anna Bond said.

Dallin Morgan, 18, and a 16-year-old boy were pulled out of school Wednesday after authorities learned of the plot, held for hours of questioning and arrested, she said. An after-school bomb sweep found no explosives at Roy High School, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Morgan was held on $10,000 bail at Weber County jail on suspicion of conspiracy to commit mass destruction. The juvenile was in custody at Weber Valley Detention Center on the same charge. Prosecutors are weighing possible additional charges.

Both students had "absolute knowledge of the security systems and the layout of the school," Bond said. "They knew where the security cameras were. Their original plan was to set off explosives during an assembly. We don't know what date they were planning to do this, but they had been planning it for months."

School officials said there were no imminent plans to hold a school assembly.

Local and federal agents searched Roy High School, two vehicles belonging to the suspects and their homes, but found no explosives. The FBI is examining the suspects' computers, police said.

The parents of both students "woke up in the middle of a nightmare," Bond said. "They've been very cooperative."

Another Roy High School student who received a text message from one of the suspects tipped authorities to the plot Wednesday, the school's safety specialist Nate Taggart said Thursday.

The girl "came forward and had some suspicions but not a lot of information ? enough that it gave administration the ability to make some connections and identify the students involved," he said.

The school has about 1,500 students.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_school_bomb_plot

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Video: Ford Misses Earnings Estimates

A breakdown of why Ford missed estimates. with CNBC's Phil LeBeau and Mike Ward, Sterne Agee auto analyst.

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46163629/

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Justin Bieber Fans Prepping Charity Single In His Honor

President/CEO of Together We Rise talks to MTV News about song, slated for March release.
By Jocelyn Vena

Justin Bieber
Photo: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

<P><a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/bieber_justin/artist.jhtml">Justin Bieber</a>'s fans are working to give back the same way the pop star readily does. Several of Bieber's biggest fan groups, as well as the nonprofit Together We Rise and Brush Buddies (the makers behind the singing Bieber toothbrush), have all teamed up to work on a charity single. "They're all working on pieces of the video and the lyrics. Right now, they're putting together videos and thank-you's.' We're working on the back end," Danny Mendoza, President/CEO of Together We Rise, which focuses on helping foster children in the U.S, told MTV News about the project. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:712657" width="240" height="211"></div><p> "It started with a young lady named Vivian, she runs the Justin Crew fan club and she approached it on Twitter. She approached it and she had a lot of fan support," he continued. "She took it upon herself to take a leadership role, and then she contacted me because she needed some guidance. We just decided we'll help you do it. Justin Bieber had tweeted about us in the past and helped us get some recognition, so it was a thank-you to him as well. Proceeds from the song will go toward <a href="/news/articles/1673555/justin-bieber-believe-charity-drive.jhtml">Bieber's <i>Believe</i> charity drive</a>. It will drop in March, just in time for his 18th birthday on March 1. "I'm almost 100 percent positive that they know," Mendoza said of Bieber's camp's knowledge of the project. "Justin Bieber inspired a lot of young people to give back. It's a thank-you for helping us and we want to give back in your honor." Bieber is certainly not a newbie to the world of charity. Mendoza said that having a pop star like Bieber being so socially conscious has been incredible for the charities he helps bring attention to. "He definitely has the right people around him ... They made it a priority that giving back is more. I think his relationship with [his manager Scooter Braun's brother] Adam Braun and his charity [<a href="/news/articles/1674628/justin-bieber-new-york-city.jhtml">Pencils of Promise</a>], he was able to see hands on a lot of it." After Bieber tweeted this week about the Trillium Gift of Life Network, the <a href="/news/articles/1677905/justin-bieber-organ-donor.jhtml">Ontario-based organ donation</a> network has seen registrations skyrocket to more than 1,200 people, four times the amount the network usually receives. <i>What charity do you want Bieber to promote? Leave your comment below.</i></p>

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677983/justin-bieber-together-we-rise-charity-charity-single.jhtml

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mikeyott: Former Apple Exec: We Knew About Worker Abuse In China And Ignored it: http://t.co/FOVs46wY #apple #ipad #iphone

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Bristol-Myers reports rise in 4th-quarter profit (AP)

Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. reported a 76 percent increase in the fourth-quarter profit Thursday, due to higher sales of eight drugs, lower taxes and a big charge a year ago, but it still fell short of Wall Street's expectations.

The company focused attention on rapid sales growth for aits three-year-old Type 2 diabetes pill Onglyza, which until now have been tepid compared to Merck & Co.'s blockbuster rival drug, Januvia. Onglyza sales jumped 110 percent to $153 million, almost as much as sales for all of 2010. But sales continued to fall for blood thinner Plavix, the world's second-best-selling drug, and blood pressure drug Avapro.

Net income rose to $852 million, or 50 cents per share, up from $483 million, or 28 cents per share, in the 2010 quarter.

The New York company said fees and discounts under the U.S. health care overhaul reduced earnings per share by 4 cents in the latest quarter, but drug prices rose 3 percent on average.

The year-earlier results were weighed down by $324 million in charges, for streamlining global operations, depreciation and shutdown costs, licensing payments and a tax charge.

Adjusted income rose 12 percent to $906 million, or 53 cents per share, from $807 million, or 47 cents per share, for 2010's fourth quarter. Total sales increased 7 percent to $5.45 billion from $5.11 billion.

Those results missed analyst expectations of 55 cents per share on sales of $5.51 billion, according to FactSet.

"Investors weren't expecting much and they didn't get much," said Erik Gordon, an analyst and professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. "A couple of products beat their sales estimates by a hair and a couple missed by a hair."

Bristol-Myers said it expects 2012 earnings per share between $1.90 and $2.00, and sales of $17.2 billion to $18.2 billion. Analysts are looking for $1.98 per share and sales of $18.27 billion, on average.

Company shares fell 15 cents to $32.55 in afternoon trading Thursday.

"We delivered solid results while setting the stage for a strong future," CEO Lamberto Andreotti told analysts during a conference call, adding the company has the products, pipeline and management team to grow beyond its upcoming patent expirations.

Bristol-Myers and French partner Sanofi SA jointly market Plavix, which posted a 3 percent drop in sales to $1.67 billion. It loses U.S. patent protection in May.

That happens to Avapro and foreign counterpart Avalide in March. Their combined sales fell 23 percent, to $195 million, because they have generic competition elsewhere and one of the three dosage forms still isn't available due to a recall.

Bristol's No. 2 drug, Abilify for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, loses patent protection in the U.S. in 2015. Its sales rose 4 percent to $737 million.

Abilify, Plavix and Avapro together produce half of Bristol-Myers' revenue.

Given the looming generic competition, Bristol for some time has given profit forecasts for 2013, and as of July forecast $1.95 per share, excluding special items. But on Thursday, executives said they are still aiming for that but won't update it until next January.

"The markets have seemed to shrug off this," BernsteinResearch analyst Dr. Timothy Anderson wrote to investors, crediting Bristol's success recently in getting new drugs approved, such as Yervoy for metastatic melanoma and Nulojix for organ transplant patients. But he wrote that Bristol's stock price is high given that the company is "likely to have growth that is flattish from 2011-2020," and that could limit share price appreciation.

Last year, Bristol initiated a dozen or more partnerships and deals aimed at developing new drugs.

Executives said they are preparing for a U.S. launch of heavily touted anti-clotting pill Eliquis, which is approved in the European Union for preventing clots in patients getting hip or knee replacements. Bristol and partner Pfizer Inc. are seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to sell Eliquis for stroke prevention, a market with millions more patients, and expect a ruling by March 28.

Last week, the FDA said it wouldn't approve another much-anticipated drug, dapagliflozin for Type 2 diabetes, without more data to evaluate its risks and benefits. Andreotti said the company was disappointed but is confident in the drug's value and is working on the issues with the FDA.

For full-year 2011, the company earned $3.71 billion, or $2.16 per share, on sales of $21.24 billion. Excluding one-time items income was $2.28 per share.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_bristol_myers

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Official: More ship survivors would be miracle

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, is seen at night. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS handout)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, is seen at night. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS handout)

The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. A barge carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but teams from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were working on the bow of the Concordia on Tuesday and divers were to make underwater inspections to identify the precise locations of the fuel tanks. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, a support team hold the line that allow scuba divers to find their way back from their search in the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, ropes float from a flooded corridor of the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, a scuba diver makes his way into a flooded cabin of the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS)

ROME (AP) ? Search efforts aboard the capsized Costa Concordia resumed Wednesday, even as the official overseeing the operation acknowledged for the first time it would take a miracle to find any more survivors from the ship's Jan. 13 grounding.

Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy's national civil protection agency, told reporters that rescuers would keep searching the ship, which is half-submerged off the Tuscan island of Giglio, until every reachable area is inspected.

"Finding someone alive today belongs in the realm of miracles," Gabrielli said. "But since none of us, at least inside, wants to give up on that possibility, we will continue."

And operations did continue Wednesday as crews set off more explosions on the submerged third floor deck to allow easier access for divers. On Tuesday, the body of a woman was found on the deck.

Rescuers have found 16 bodies, with 17 people still unaccounted for. The last time anyone was found alive was on Jan. 15, when a senior crew member was discovered less than 36 hours after the grounding.

The Concordia ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain, Francesco Schettino, veered from his approved course and gashed the ship's hull on a reef, forcing the panicked evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew.

On Wednesday, the chief executive of Costa Crociere SpA, Pier Luigi Foschi, insisted that Schettino didn't have approval to change the ship's routing and was going far too fast ? 16 knots ? to be so close to shore.

But he defended the practice of so-called "tourist navigation," whereby enormous cruise ships steer close to shore to give passengers a look at the sites. He said it was part of the "cruise product" that passengers demand and that cruise lines are forced to offer to stay competitive.

"It's something that enriches the cruise product," Foschi told a parliamentary committee. "There are many components of the cruise product, and we have to do them like everyone else because we are in a global competition."

Costa is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise company.

Foschi stressed that such deviations from charted routes are supposed to follow strict protocols that ensure safety: ports are informed, the company is informed, and certainly no ship of the Concordia's size would be charging 200-300 yards (meters) off shore at 16 knots.

"For anyone who knows that zone, that ship with those characteristics shouldn't have been there," he said.

Schettino is under house arrest, facing accusations of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all passengers were evacuated.

On Wednesday, his lawyer filed a motion challenging the house arrest, saying Schettino wasn't a flight risk and asserting that there was no risk that he would repeat the crime since no cruise line would hire him, the ANSA news agency reported.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-25-Italy-Cruise%20Aground/id-43eaf8c40e5e41f8b2f66d01f93100ab

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