Online game theft earns real-world conviction

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? The amulet and mask were a 13-year-old boy's virtual possessions in an online fantasy game. In the real world, he was beaten and threatened with a knife to give them up.

The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the theft conviction of a youth who stole another boy's possessions in the popular online fantasy game RuneScape. Judges ordered the offender to perform 144 hours of community service.

Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of "virtual goods" ? and whether stealing them is real-world theft.

The suspect's lawyer had argued the amulet and mask "were neither tangible nor material and, unlike for example electricity, had no economic value."

But the Netherlands' highest court said the virtual objects had an intrinsic value to the 13-year-old gamer because of "the time and energy he invested" in winning them while playing the game.

The court did not release the offender's name, only his year of birth ? 1992. It said he and another youth beat and kicked the boy and threatened him with a knife until he logged into RuneScape and dropped the objects in 2007.

One of the thieves, who was also playing the game, was then able to pick up the items, making them his virtual property. Both were convicted by a lower court in 2009, but only one of them had appealed to the Supreme Court.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-31-EU-Netherlands-Online-Theft/id-66f5587276cd4b0cad3f170cd6e7b692

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Yahoo Finance kills app for beleaguered RIM's BlackBerry ...

Jan 30, 2012 - 01:38 PM EST ? AAPL: 453.146 (+5.866, +1.31%) | NASDAQ: 2811.01 (-5.54, -0.2%)

Monday, January 30, 2012 ? 12:39 pm ? 5 Comments

?On Friday afternoon, Internet giant Yahoo announced that it was decommissioning 10 of its mobile apps, saying on a company blog that ??Our plan is to keep moving, to keep innovating, and to continuously measure and scrutinize what?s working and what isn?t ? so we can make room for great new products,?? Michael Comeau writes for Minyanville. ?Now I can understand Yahoo pulling back to reassess its app strategy on the ultra-competitive Apple iOS and Google Android platforms. However, I was truly surprised to see the company pull the Yahoo Finance app for Research In Motion?s Blackberry.?

?I remember a day when Blackberry was standard-issue equipment for all the soldiers in corporate America, a crowd that, as you can imagine, would be very likely to demand financial news and data on the go. Yahoo Finance is one of just a handful of Web properties that have stood the test of time. Think about it. Very few of the content sites that dominated in the late 1990s still have kingpin status today, and Yahoo Finance is one of them,? Comeau writes. ?Its position at the absolute top of the finance vertical hasn?t ever been even remotely threatened by competitors, including Google.?

?The fact that the dominant Web finance property is pulling away from the business-centric Blackberry platform is truly a sign of the times. Given that, maybe I shouldn?t have been surprised by Yahoo?s move,? Comeau writes. ?from an anecdotal perspective, I?ve been awfully surprised at the increasing number of ?suits? I see around New York City sporting iPhones and iPads. And when I say suits, I don?t mean young, dashing folks in fashion or media ? I?m talking about Fortune 500 types in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. Again, a crowd that would seem to want financial news and data on the go. And Yahoo [Finance] just decided that crowd isn?t big enough to support [on BlackBerry].?

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: In the early days of iPhone, we used to say to those still toting BlackBerry phones, ?Nice stylus.? Lately, we can?t find anybody with a BlackBerry to whom to be snide.

Source: http://macdailynews.com/2012/01/30/yahoo-finance-kills-app-for-beleaguered-rims-blackberry/

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Calif. man faces prison for foiled murder plot

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Eugene Temkin was intent on having a hitman kidnap, torture and kill a former business partner and his family because he felt he wasn't repaid for a deal that soured nearly a decade earlier.

Temkin not only tried once, he tried again four months after FBI agents learned about the plot and warned him to stay away from Michael Hershman. In both instances Temkin, 51, unwittingly tried to hire an undercover law enforcement officer to carry out the hit.

On Monday, Temkin is scheduled to be sentenced in a Los Angeles federal courtroom after being convicted last year of three murder-for-hire-related counts with prosecutors asking for a 20-year prison sentence.

Court documents portray the fear, helplessness and frustration of Temkin's victims, who said they were terrorized and traumatized while getting little help from authorities.

For Hershman and his family, the last several years have been painful and agonizing. His 20-year-old son died from an accidental drug overdose in late 2010 and he slept with a machete because Temkin hired people to stalk and harass him, Hershman said. His college-age daughter has been placed in a psychiatric clinic in Texas where she has hallucinations and believes she's been kidnapped by Temkin and put there by him, he said.

"Every day he is thinking and plotting revenge on us, his life revolves around it," Hershman wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson. "He will not stop. Please help us."

The men met one another when they were selling drugs in the 1980s, according to court documents. In 2001, Temkin lent Hershman $500,000 ? money from a second mortgage on an apartment building he owned ? to invest in a casino in Equatorial Guinea. When Hershman was unable to repay Temkin right away because the casino had not fared well, Temkin sued his then-business partner after losing the apartment complex in foreclosure.

The lawsuit was settled in 2006, but authorities said Temkin wanted about $5 million for unrealized profits he would have received had he sold the apartment building before the real estate market crashed.

Temkin repeatedly threatened and harassed Hershman and his family, investigators said. Pictures and other heirlooms were stolen from Hershman's storage unit. Their e-mails were hacked and his children said they were followed by strange men.

Temkin was never charged in connection with those incidents but Hershman obtained a restraining order against him in 2007, saying Temkin made gun signals to him with his hands, according to an affidavit.

Hershman said he pleaded with numerous law enforcement agencies to investigate Temkin but they did nothing.

The investigation took a turn in late 2009 when one of Temkin's friends approached Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives saying Temkin wanted to extort money from Hershman before killing him.

A series of meetings were arranged between an undercover detective posing as a hitman and Temkin, who gave varying scenarios how Hershman should be killed.

One plot involved a crew kidnapping Hershman and his family in the Dominican Republic and have the undercover officer kill them.

"Hang him from a door, throw him from a fishing boat, all works for me," Temkin said during one of the recorded conversations with the investigator.

In March 2010, FBI agents met with Temkin who told them about the dispute but denied making threats. The agents then told Temkin not to threaten, hurt or kill Hershman, according to court documents. Temkin agreed.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says it's not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to receive cases where death threats are made.

"The government has to prove a legal intent that someone planned to go through with it," Eimiller said.

Temkin apparently wasn't dissuaded because several months later authorities learned he was still interested in killing Hershman. Another undercover officer, acting as a hit man, began meeting with Temkin, who indicated he had another hired hand to kill Hershman but would call the officer if plans fell through.

In July 2010, Temkin gave the officer the green light to kill Hershman, his wife and a business partner, authorities said.

Temkin provided the undercover officer with Hershman's passport number, photographs of the would-be victims and 30 $100 bills for the job expected to cost $30,000.

Temkin was arrested six days later at his home outside of Santa Barbara.

In arguing for a sentence no greater than six years, defense attorney Richard Callahan said Temkin called off plans to kill Hershman after the meeting with FBI agents.

"While Mr. Temkin was angry and fixated on Hershman's debt, he never took action on it for almost 10 years despite clear opportunities to do so," Callahan wrote. It wasn't until the FBI intervened that Temkin "crossed the line."

"It is submitted that without the intervention of the FBI, that 'line' would never have been crossed," he added.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Thwarted%20Murder%20Plot/id-4efc01bc25784afc9d0172d088da2fac

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Ex UBS trader Adoboli denies fraud, faces trial

LONDON?? Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli will stand trial in September after pleading not guilty on Monday to charges related to the loss of more than $2 billion on trades the Swiss bank says were unauthorized.

The trial, which is likely to shine a searching light on the adequacy of the bank's management and risk controls, could land Adoboli with a maximum 10-year jail sentence if convicted of the two counts of fraud and two of false accounting.

His lawyer Paul Garlick said Adoboli, who worked for the bank as a director of exchange traded funds in London, where the trial is being held, would try to win bail before it starts on September 3, nearly a year after his arrest.

The losses led to the resignation of UBS's former chief executive Oswald Gruebel and a shake-up of its investment arm to cut its exposure to risk.

Judge Alistair McCreath said the case was "of such magnitude" that there would have to be a long gap between the plea hearing and the start of the trial.

"An earlier trial would simply not be possible," he said.

Dressed in a grey suit and blue tie, Adoboli sat in the glass and wood-paneled dock at Southwark Crown Court, taking notes on a piece of paper. He thanked the judge before being led from the dock and back into custody at the end of the hearing.

Adoboli, the British-educated son of a retired United Nations official from Ghana, was arrested on September 15 and charged a day later.

"This puts the focus back on UBS, which is negative," said one banking analyst, who asked not to be named. "They did not provide a lot of detail about what happened, but a trial does mean more details on their risk systems and on their internal investigation will have to come out."

The case rocked an industry struggling with the euro zone debt crisis and a global economic slowdown.

UBS itself came close to collapse during the 2008 financial crisis because of its exposure to bad loans in the mortgage market. It cut thousands of jobs and received a state bailout.

Its recovery was then threatened by a U.S. government clampdown on banks helping Americans to dodge taxes.

In a statement after Monday's hearing, UBS said in a statement: "With active criminal proceedings, English criminal law limits what we can say about this incident, therefore UBS will not be commenting."

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46187939/ns/business-world_business/

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Mexico cops nab suspect in 75 drug cartel killings (AP)

MONTERREY, Mexico ? Police in northern Mexico have captured an alleged member of the Zetas drug gang who confessed to killing at least 75 people, including many who were pulled off buses, authorities said Monday.

Enrique Elizondo Flores told investigators 36 of his victims were bus passengers traveling through the town of Cerralvo, near the border with Texas, said Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene.

Elizondo was detained Jan. 20 in the town of Salinas Victoria, but authorities delayed announcing his arrest so they could verify details of his confession, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said.

Domene said the 35-year-old suspect told investigators that he had been working in the area at least three years and that he was in charge of killing members of the rival Gulf drug cartel heading to the towns of Cerralvo and General Trevino.

Elizondo and other gunmen last January began pulling passengers off buses as they arrived at Cerralvo's bus station, Domene said. They are among at least 92 bus passengers the Zetas are accused of killing in three attacks in January and March 2011. Many the victims were originally from the central state of Guanajuato and had arrived in Cerralvo from the border city of Reynosa, Domene said.

Elizondo was known "for torturing, maiming and then killing his victims," Domene said.

Last year, authorities in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas unearthed 193 bodies from clandestine graves in the town of San Fernando. Security forces said they were led to the site by members of the Zetas who confessed to kidnapping and killing bus passengers traveling through the area.

The motive for the bus abductions remains unclear. Prosecutors have suggested the gang may be forcefully recruiting people to work for it or trying to kill rivals they suspected were aboard the buses.

Northeastern Mexico has been engulfed by a turf battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas since they split in 2010.

More than 47,000 people have been killed nationwide since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against drug traffickers in December 2006.

Global Financial Integrity, a program of the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based think tank, said Monday that its analysis found that $872 billion in proceeds from crime, corruption and money-laundering had flowed out of Mexico in the four decades from 1970 to 2010.

In the border city of Ciudad Juarez, police officers killed three men and detained a fourth Monday after being attacked at a gas station, authorities said.

The officers were refueling their patrol cars at a gas station a few blocks from the Zaragoza border crossing into El Paso, Texas, when they were attacked, a police statement said. The officers returned fire, killing three assailants, and they also seized two assault rifles, two handguns and a hand grenade, it said.

Last week, messages signed by the New Juarez drug cartel and left in several parts of the city claimed Police Chief Julian Leyzaola is favoring a rival cartel. It said that one officer would be killed daily if their members continue to be arrested. Five police officers have been killed since.

Leyzaola was not immediately available to comment on Monday's attack.

In a public appearance over the weekend, Mayor Hector Murguia said the recent string of attacks on law enforcement officers was a response from criminals affected by Leyzaola's work.

"Go downtown, there are no more brothels where drugs used to be sold," he said, referring to a police crackdown in downtown Juarez as part of the city's efforts to combat crime.

As a safety measure, police officers are now required to leave precincts wearing street clothes and are allowed to take their guns home. The city also is considering plans to rent hotels to quarter all the police force.

In 2009, then Police Chief Roberto Orduna quit after several police officers were killed and their bodies dumped along with messages saying more officers would be killed unless he resigned.

Leyzaola is no stranger to threats. Shortly after he was hired in 2011, the body of a tortured man was left in a street with a message to Leyzaola that read, "This is your first gift."

In April 2009, when he was police chief in western border city of Tijuana, drug traffickers took over police radio frequencies to say that if he didn't quit, many police officers would die.

A few days after, seven officers were killed in separate but coordinated attacks. Drug traffickers took over the police radio frequencies again to say their threat had been carried out.

___

Associated Press writer Juan Carlos Llorca in El Paso, Texas, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

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UN chief: Africa leaders should respect gay rights (AP)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ? U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says African nations should stop treating gays as "second-class citizens, or even criminals".

Ban told African leaders that gathered in Ethiopia's capital on Sunday for an African Union summit that discrimination based on sexual orientation "had been ignored or even sanctioned by many states for far too long".

Ban said it would be challenging for Africa to "confront this discrimination". There was no immediate response from African heads of states to Ban's speech. Many African countries outlaw homosexuality and many African churches preach against it.

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

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Exactly What Does A Marketing And Advertising Communications ...

It?s primarily Pr with tunnel vision glasses on that specifically focuses on marketing.Of course nowadays, when the matter of advertising interactions is pointed out, it?s usually described within the perspective of Internet marketing. Of course there?re omissions however for the greater degree, this is so. You will see, when it comes to the web as well as advertising, there?s a lot to debate.

An advertising and marketing agence de communication for example can really help a businessman learn the huge challenges of Internet interactions in a business way. For instance, everyone understands that the Web includes literally billions of potential clients however, just what about the untold numbers of opponents?

The majority of entrepreneurs often just discount their competitors or even minimize it. Alternatively, they often aim their efforts and resources on setting up a customer or client foundation and just assume that over time market forces will ultimately pull them ahead of their opponents.

A Marketing And Advertising agence communication on the contrary, could possibly bring about an extensive internet marketing plan which works not only to make a client or customer foundation but in addition at the same time operates to vanquish your web based competition. The truth is, like it or not your top challengers are actually doing the same to you.

Who hasn?t listened to the tales of companies that have been introduced on the web which shot to the top and help earn their owners millions in a fairly short time. Certainly everyone has. So then could it have been luck or perhaps a simple series of privileged accidents which forced these web based success stories? In addition, if so, then how can you get your hands one of the blessed rabbit?s feet they used?

The simple fact of the situation is that there was not luck included in anyway other than a really handful of select scenarios. Rather, it was effective marketing agence de communication visuelle that involved the mystique of a shooting star. You see the tale that you heard which had the organization being propelled by its very own spontaneous push was only the fact that, a story which was created as an element of a comprehensive marketing interaction strategy.

You notice it drew in clients or customers because it compelled their rivals aside. Of course, no one wants to stand up in the way of a speeding train. Rather, everyone wants to get on board. Even though this technique won?t work for every business online, for the ones that it has worked for, it performed beautifully. Still, the fact remains that there is a successful marketing and advertising communications approach for you, regardless of whether you have yet to implement it or not.

Looking to find the best advice on agence communication, then visit agence-france-communication.fr to find the best advice on agence de communication for you.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 12:07 pm by Sony Dhiman and is filed under Communications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Source: http://centired.com/2012/01/exactly-what-does-a-marketing-and-advertising-communications-agency-actually-do/

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Liverpool scores late to edge Man United in FA Cup

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updated 5:58 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2012

LONDON - Liverpool reached the fifth round of the FA Cup on Saturday at the expense of its fiercest rival, a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Manchester United leaving the famous competition without the English Premier League's top two teams.

While Chelsea progressed with a 1-0 win at Queens Park Rangers thanks to Juan Mata's second-half penalty, Netherlands forward Dirk Kuyt scored the winner for Liverpool in the 88th minute at Anfield.

United earlier dumped out neighbor Manchester City ? the Premier League leader and defending FA Cup champion ? in the fourth round, leaving the world's oldest club knockout competition wide open this year.

Second-tier Brighton beat Premier League Newcastle 1-0 at Amex Stadium in another Cup match that Magpies defender Mike Williamson will want to forget.

Williamson deflected in Will Buckley's close-range effort for the only goal 14 minutes from time. The defender also scored an own goal last season when Newcastle lost to then League Two side Stevenage in the third round of the competition.

Bolton beat Swansea 2-1 and Norwich won by the same scoreline at West Bromwich Albion in the other all-Premier League matchups, while Stoke ? which lost the 2011 final to Man City ? also progressed with a 2-0 win at Derby.

Arsenal hosts Aston Villa on Sunday.

Liverpool and United met for the first time since the unsavory race row between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra erupted in a Premier League match between them in October.

Evra, United's captain on Saturday, was booed throughout while Suarez watched from the stands as he served the seventh of his eight-game ban for repeatedly racially abusing the France defender.

The match passed without trouble, however, with United manager Alex Ferguson saying: "The players showed great respect to each other ? there wasn't a bad tackle in the game."

Denmark center back Daniel Agger's opener for Liverpool in the 21st minute was canceled out by United's Park Ji-sung six minutes before the break in a first half edged by the visitors, despite being without a raft of key players including the injured Wayne Rooney.

Kuyt settled the match when he ran to a flick-on by Andy Carroll and beat United goalkeeper David de Gea at the near post.

___

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Three days after Barcelona ended its Copa del Rey title defense, Real Madrid came from behind to beat last-place Zaragoza 3-1 on Saturday as its campaign rolled on to break its fierce rival's hold on the Spanish league title.

Three days after Barcelona ended Real Madrid's Copa del Rey title defense, the Spanish champions' own hopes of a fourth successive league dimmed after a 0-0 draw at Villarreal on Saturday.

Barcelona's slip let Madrid move seven points clear of its fierce rival just past the season's midway point through its earlier 3-1 comeback win over last-place Zaragoza.

Lionel Messi missed with a chip shot early, and Cesc Fabregas hit the crossbar late in Barcelona's best scoring chances.

Zaragoza, which upset Madrid at home late last season, started well with Angel Lafita scoring an 11th-minute opener.

But Kaka leveled for Madrid in the 32nd, and Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Oezil added two more shortly after halftime at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Ronaldo has scored in each of Madrid's last four games, and his 24 league goals are best in Spain, two ahead of Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who was playing later Saturday against Villarreal.

Madrid has won nine of 10 league home games this season, with its only home loss to Barcelona in December.

"Every game is tough. Zaragoza is a good team and they showed it with a quick goal," Madrid midfielder Esteban Granero said. "But we gave it our all and were able to turn it around."

After his team's strong performance in its closely fought elimination by Barcelona on Wednesday, Madrid coach Jose Mourinho opted again for an attack-minded starting 11 with rarely used Granero and Kaka in midfield behind Oezil and scoring pair Karim Benzema and Ronaldo.

Fernando Llorente scored a hat trick to give Athletic Bilbao a 3-2 win at Rayo Vallecano.

After Miguel "Michu" Perez's opener for Rayo, Llorente headed in a free kick to level in the 16th minute, and added a second when he controlled a pass with his chest, spun and fired from the edge of the area in the 23rd.

Alejandro Arribas drew Rayo even moments later, but Llorente headed home Gaizka Toquero's cross for the 68th-minute winner and his 11th league goal of the season.

Bilbao, which plays third-tier Mirandes in the Copa del Rey semifinals this week, moved into sixth place.

Also, Espanyol edged 10-man Mallorca 1-0 to climb level on points with fourth-place Levante.

___

BERLIN (AP) ? Bayern Munich beat Wolfsburg 2-0 to remain top of the Bundesliga on goal difference, just ahead of Borussia Dortmund and Schalke.

All three are tied at 40 points, but Bayern will be looking nervously over its shoulder after Dortmund brushed Hoffenheim aside 3-1 and then Schalke came from behind to win 4-1 in Cologne.

American Fabian Johnson scored his second goal of the season for Hoffenheim, and his first in the Bundesliga since Dec. 5, 2009. His other goal this season was in the German Cup last July 31.

Dortmund was already 3-0 up at home through two goals from Shinji Kagawa and another from Kevin Grosskreutz, before league scoring leader Mario Gomez's 60th-minute strike allowed Bayern a sigh of relief.

Dutch winger Arjen Robben sealed the points in an edgy win for Bayern with a goal in injury time.

"We had a lot of chances and for me this win is fully deserved," Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said. "The win gives us security so we can continue like this in the coming weeks."

Werder Bremen drew 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburger SV won 2-1 at Hertha Berlin, and Augsburg and Kaiserslautern played out a 2-2 draw in a relegation battle.

___

MILAN (AP) ? Juventus' charge towards the Serie A title gathered pace with a 2-1 win over third-place Udinese in falling snow on Saturday.

Alessandro Matri scored either side of Antonio Floro Flores' equalizer to help unbeaten leader Juventus move four points clear of second-placed AC Milan, which faces Cagliari on Sunday.

Udinese was two points further back and could be caught by Inter Milan, which visits Lecce on Sunday.

"I was worried a lot about this game because Udinese is a team which plays very interesting football and has a lot of talented players who make up a great team," Juve coach Antonio Conte said.

"Towards the end we were obviously tired after the Italian Cup, but we controlled the game well and got an important win. However, today we lost too many balls in midfield and so gave Udinese too much space to counterattack."

Catania was held to 1-1, a result which did neither team any favors in the standings.

Gonzalo Bergessio gave Catania a deserved lead shortly after the half-hour mark, but Francesco Modesto leveled 10 minutes later.

The tie left Parma nine points above the relegation zone before the rest of the weekend's fixtures. Catania, which has won only one of its past seven games, was tied with Cagliari a point further back.

___

PARIS (AP) ? Big-spending Paris Saint-Germain needed a scrappy 1-0 win over Brest to keep a three-point lead over Montpellier at the top of the French league.

PSG defender Milan Bisevac flicked home a corner from Christophe Jallet in the sixth minute.

Brest lost its first home match this season while PSG has now won all four games under coach Carlo Ancelotti, who replaced Antoine Kombouare last month.

Also Saturday, it was: Nice 0, Montpellier 1; Lyon 3, Dijon 1; Toulouse 1, Caen 0; Lorient 1, Sochaux 1; and Auxerre 1, Nancy 3.

Lille hosts Saint-Etienne later Saturday.

___

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Olympiakos closed within two points of Greek league leader Panathinaikos by defeating stubborn visitor Ergotelis 3-0.

Ergotelis ended the game with nine players, as Mario Hieblinger and Andreas Bouhalakis were shown second yellow cards for rough challenges in the 56th and 60th minutes, respectively.

Also, OFI beat Xanthi 1-0 and Panionios defeated Kerkyra 2-0.

Panathinaikos travels to last-place Drama on Sunday.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) ? Rangers kept the pressure on Scottish Premier League leader Celtic with a 4-0 thrashing of 10-man Hibernian.

Captain Steven Davis scored two goals.

Celtic, whose lead was trimmed to one point, was not in league action this weekend. Instead, Neil Lennon's team will face Falkirk in the semifinal of the Scottish League Cup on Sunday.

Motherwell tightened its grip on third place, six points ahead of Hearts, by beating St. Johnstone 3-2.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Arsenal advances in FA Cup

Roundup: Arsenal kept its bid to end a seven-year trophy drought on track Sunday, scoring three times in eight second-half minutes to beat Aston Villa 3-2 and reach the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Bragging rights

Abby Wambach and Christine Sinclair have spent the last two weeks chasing each other, chasing history and chasing a place in the London Olympics.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46175745/ns/sports-soccer/

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Milwaukee's Jackson suspended one game for abusing official (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Milwaukee Bucks forward Stephen Jackson has been suspended one game for verbally abusing an official and failing to leave the court in a timely manner, the National Basketball Association said on Saturday.

The incident occurred at the end of Milwaukee's 107-100 road loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday night.

Jackson will serve his suspension on Saturday evening when the Bucks host the Los Angeles Lakers at the Bradley Center.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in San Diego; Editing by Julian Linden)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/sp_nm/us_nba_bucks_jackson

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Next Up in Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors

Today, one-fifth of America?s electricity comes from nuclear power. The federal government wants to gradually expand that fraction in order to phase out greenhouse-gas-emitting coal-fired plants, which generate most of our energy. But nuclear power plants take a long time and a lot of money to build. That?s why the Department of Energy is pushing a new technology called the small modular reactor (SMR). Last week, the department announced that it would invest $452 million toward developing and licensing a smaller and sleeker nuclear reactor.

SMRs will be small enough to be pre-assembled in a factory and shipped to location. These easy-to-install reactors could potentially shave years and millions of dollars off the construction of nuclear power plants, and could make it economical to bring nuclear power to rural areas or developing countries that lack infrastructure. That?s why SMRs are being hailed as the next generation in nuclear technology.

How It Works

First, don?t let the name fool you. "These are not going to fit in your backyard," says Paul Genoa, a policy director with the Nuclear Energy Institute. "They?ll still be industrial facilities, but the footprint will probably be like that of a small shopping mall, but with more land around it." SMR plants could fit inside the footprint of the old coal-fired plants they?re expected to replace, Genoa says.

An SMR would generate one-tenth to one-third the energy of a conventional reactor. Rather than producing 1000 megawatts of electricity, for example, an SMR might produce 300Mw or less. For example, the company NuScale Power is developing a 45Mw SMR that would be able to supply electricity to 45,000 American homes for a year, making it well suited for smaller towns and cities where a conventional reactor would be overkill. And because SMRs are modular, they?re scalable. The power plant can install additional SMRs as electricity demand grows.

There are three main varieties of SMR in development.

Light-Water SMRs

These are basically a scaled-down version of the light-water reactors already working in the United States. Inside a light-water reactor, heat from the uranium core turns water into steam, which spins turbines that generate electricity. The same thing happens in a light-water SMR, with a few modifications.

Unlike traditional reactors, which position the generators outside the reactor, some SMRs, such as the Babcock & Wilcox 125Mw "mPower" reactor, locate the generators inside the reactor. John Kelly, the energy department?s deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactor technologies, says this makes manufacturing easier and eliminates the piping between reactors and generator, which is a safety liability. (If a pipe breaks, it becomes difficult to deliver coolant back to the hot core.)

Some light-water SMRs also incorporate what engineers call passive safety features?in an emergency, they could cool a reactor core even if the power goes out. At Fukushima Daiichi in Japan, the site of last year?s post-tsunami nuclear disaster, the plant relied on electrically driven pumps to deliver water to the hot core and cool it down. When the power went out and diesel backups failed, operators had to resort to desperate measures to prevent total catastrophe.

By contrast, small reactors such as the Westinghouse SMR would rely on gravity and thermodynamics to circulate coolants. As the radioactive core heats the water surrounding it, that hot water becomes less dense and flows upward toward the heat exchangers that turn the heat into electricity. As the water loses heat to the exchangers, it cools, becomes more dense, and falls back toward the core?no electricity required.

"The new plans are elegant in their simplicity," Genoa says. "Passive features allow reactors to go without operator interaction, and without pumps to move water around." To further improve on safety, several SMRs are meant to be installed and operated underground.

The light-water SMRs in development have been slightly less efficient than normal reactors, meaning less of the uranium?s potential energy is turned into electricity. But small light-water reactors may eventually deliver electricity that is less expensive than what larger reactors can produce simply because construction and installation costs would be lower. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to approve the first light-water SMR power plants in the early 2020s.

Gas-Cooled SMRs

The idea behind gas-cooled reactors, Genoa says, is to rule out even the possibility of a meltdown. "It is physically impossible for the reactor to get hot enough to damage the fuel," he says. That?s because rather than using water as a coolant, gas-cooled SMRs would use helium.

As water boils it can build up pressure inside a reactor. Under extreme heat it can also react with zirconium alloys in the core. At Fukushima Daiichi, water-zirconium reactions caused a hydrogen explosion that blew the roofs off several reactors.

But unlike water, helium doesn?t boil or react. This allows the gas-cooled reactor to operate safely at temperatures up to 1000 degrees C, which increases the reactor?s efficiency. While a light-water reactor typically extracts roughly 34 percent of its core?s potential energy, a gas-cooled reactor would operate at more than 40 percent efficiency. A gas-cooled reactor developed by the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute has achieved 45 percent efficiency, and General Atomics? Modular Helium Reactor achieves up to 47 percent.

To accommodate the high heat needed to achieve such high efficiencies, engineers must modify other elements of the gas-cooled reactor. The fuel requires a heat-tolerant carbon coating, for example, and metal parts of the reactor are replaced with ceramics, Genoa says. Because gas-cooled reactors require these new technologies, the Nuclear Regulatory Council estimates they won?t come on line until the mid-2020s.

Fast Reactors

Normal nuclear reactors use what are called moderators to slow down neutrons and control the chain reactions that happen during fission. That?s because the "fast neutrons" created when uranium splits are less likely to cause fission in the neighborhood?and keep the chain reaction going?than slightly slower neutrons are.

Fast reactors, though, are optimized for fast neutrons, which allows them to extract 60 times more energy from uranium than a typical light-water reactor can. That also means that fast reactors can digest the nuclear waste of other reactors, reducing the waste?s radiotoxicity while extracting energy in the process.

Fast reactors already in development include Argonne National Lab?s 175Mw reactor, Advanced Reactor Concept?s sodium-cooled ARC-100, and the 25Mw Hyperion Power Module. But because uranium is still in abundant supply, and because fast reactors can be used to breed weapons-grade plutonium, these SMRs are not economical (or legal) at this point.

Potential Snags

Before any SMR can be used in a power plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must create regulations for it. Any new reactor design raises a slew of new questions. Since SMRs are smaller and have lots of passive safety features, are fewer operators needed per reactor? Should the 10-mile evacuation radius mandated for traditional reactors be smaller for a smaller reactor? What are the proper safety protocols for an SMR? Once the NRC figures out how to adapt current regulations, it could go certify SMR designs and issue licenses to operate new power plants.

SMRs may be the reactors of the future, but Genoa says traditional reactors aren?t going away anytime soon. "Small reactors are not a substitute for big reactors, but we can?t build a big reactor everywhere," he says. "Just like when you go to the auto store and you can choose a sedan, a minivan or a truck, the nuclear market needs more options."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/nuclear/next-up-in-nuclear-small-modular-reactors?src=rss

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Etta James remembered as triumphant trailblazer (AP)

GARDENA, Calif. ? Etta James was remembered at a service Saturday attended by hundreds of friends, family and fans as a woman who triumphed against all odds to break down cultural and musical barriers in a style that was unfailingly honest.

The Rev. Al Sharpton eulogized James in a rousing speech, describing her remarkable rise from poverty and pain to become a woman whose music became an enduring anthem for weddings and commercials.

Perhaps most famously, President Barack Obama and the first lady shared their first inaugural ball dance to a version of the song sung by Beyonce. Sharpton on Saturday opened his remarks by reading a statement from the president.

"Etta will be remembered for her legendary voice and her contributions to our nation's musical heritage," Obama's statement read.

The Grammy-winning singer died Jan. 20 after battling leukemia and other ailments, including dementia. She had retreated from public life in recent years, but on Saturday her legacy was on display as mourners of all ages and races converged on the City of Refuge church in Gardena, south of downtown Los Angeles.

Among the stars performing tributes to James were Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera, who told the gathering that she has included "At Last" in every concert she's performed as a tribute to her musical inspiration.

Wonder performed three songs, including "Shelter In the Rain" and a harmonica solo. James' rose-draped casket was on display, surrounded by wreaths and floral arrangements and pictures of the singer.

Sharpton, who met James when he was an up-and-coming preacher, credited her with helping break down racial barriers through her music.

"She was able to get us on the same rhythms and humming the same ballads and understanding each other's melodies way before we could even use the same hotels," Sharpton said.

He said James' fame and influence would have been unthinkable to a woman with James' background ? growing up in a broken home during segregation and at times battling her own demons.

"The genius of Etta James is she flipped the script," Sharpton said, alluding to her struggles with addiction, which she eventually overcame.

"She waited until she turned her pain into power," he said, adding that it turned her story away from being a tragic one into one of triumph.

"You beat `em Etta," Sharpton said in concluding his eulogy. "At last. At last. At last!"

The assembly roared to their feet, and would again stand to applaud performances by Wonder and Aguilera, who filled the sanctuary with their voices.

"Out of all the singers that I've ever heard, she was the one that cut right to my soul and spoke to me," Aguilera said before her performance.

Throughout the service, a portrait of James as a woman who beat the odds in pursuit of her dreams repeatedly emerged.

"Etta is special to me and for me, because she represents the life, the triumphs, the tribulations of a lot of black women all over this world," said U.S. Rep Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

"It does not matter who sang `At Last' before or after Etta. It does not matter when it was sung, or where it was sung. `At Last' was branded by Etta, the raunchy diva ? that's her signature and we will always remember her."

James won four Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement honor and was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. In her decades-long career, she became revered for her passionate, soulful singing voice.

She scored her first hit when she was just a teenager with the suggestive "Roll With Me, Henry," which had to be changed to "The Wallflower" in order to get airplay. Her 1967 album, "Tell Mama," became one of the most highly regarded soul albums of all time, a mix of rock and gospel music.

She rebounded from a heroin addiction to see her career surge after performing the national anthem at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She won her first Grammy Award a decade later, and two more in 2003 and 2004.

James is survived by her husband of 42 years, Artis Mills and two sons, Donto and Sametto James.

"Mom, I love you," Donto James said during brief remarks. "When I get to the gates, can you please be there for me?"

___

Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_en_ce/us_etta_james_funeral

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Hazanavicius wins at Directors Guild for 'Artist' (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The Directors Guild of America Awards are the latest Hollywood film honors to go silent.

Hollywood's top filmmakers group presented its feature-film honor Saturday to Michel Hazanavicius for his silent film "The Artist," giving him the inside track for the best-director prize at the Academy Awards.

"I really love directors. I really have respect for directors. So this is really very moving and touching for me," said Hazanavicius, whose black-and-white silent charmer has cleaned up at earlier Hollywood honors and could emerge as the best-picture favorite at the Feb. 26 Oscars.

The Directors Guild honors are one of the most-accurate forecasts for who might go on to take home an Oscar. Only six times in the 63-year history of the guild awards has the winner failed to win the Oscar for best director. And more often than not, whichever film earns the directing Oscar also wins best picture.

French filmmaker Hazanavicius, whose credits include the spy spoofs "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "OSS 117: Lost in Rio," had been a virtual unknown in Hollywood until "The Artist." His throwback to early cinema centers on a silent-era star whose career crumbles when talking pictures take over in the late 1920s.

First-time nominee Hazanavicius won over a field of guild heavyweights that included past winners Martin Scorsese for "Hugo" and Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris." Past nominees David Fincher for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and Alexander Payne for "The Descendants" also were in the running.

Accepting his nomination plaque earlier in the ceremony from his stars in "The Artist," Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, Hazanavicius recalled his childhood education in great cinema, including Hollywood classics such as "Red River" and "Rio Bravo."

Hazanavicius said he felt he was being welcomed by the Directors Guild for a language they had in common: cinema.

"Maybe you noticed, but I'm French. I have an accent. I have a name that is very difficult to pronounce," Hazanavicius said. "I'm not American, and I'm not French, actually. I'm a filmmaker. ... I feel like I'm being accepted by you not as Americans but as filmmakers."

James Marsh won the film documentary prize for "Project Nim," his chronicle of the triumphs and trials of a chimpanzee that was raised like a human child. It was the latest major Hollywood prize for Marsh, who earned the documentary Academy Award for 2008's "Man on Wire."

Scorsese went zero-for-two at the guild awards. He also had been nominated for the documentary award for "George Harrison: Living in the Material World."

Robert B. Weide won the TV comedy directing award for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," while Patty Jenkins earned the TV drama prize for the pilot of "The Killing."

The award for TV movie or miniseries went to Jon Cassar for "The Kennedys."

Other television winners were:

? Reality programming: Neil P. DeGroot, "The Biggest Loser."

? Musical variety: Glenn Weiss, "The 65th Annual Tony Awards."

? Daytime serials: William Ludel, "General Hospital."

? Children's programs: Amy Schatz, "A Child's Garden of Poetry."

? Commercials: Noam Murro.

At the start of the ceremony, Guild President Taylor Hackford led the crowd in a toast to one of his predecessors, Gil Cates, the veteran producer of the Oscar broadcast who died last year.

The Directors Guild awards were the first of two major Hollywood honors this weekend. The Screen Actors Guild hands out its prizes Sunday.

___

Online:

http://www.dga.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_hazanavicius_wins_directors_guild_artist070314592/44343008/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/hazanavicius-wins-directors-guild-artist-070314592.html

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Feds drop fraud case against Adelphia founder, son (AP)

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. ? A six-year legal battle involving the jailed father-son duo who headed now-defunct Adelphia Communications Corp. has ended after prosecutors withdrew tax fraud charges related to their earlier conviction in a $1.9 billion fraud case.

Prosecutors said they withdrew the tax-related charges Wednesday against the Pennsylvania cable company's founder John Rigas and his son Timothy because they weren't likely to end in substantial additional jail time or restitution.

Proceeding with the case wouldn't be "a prudent expenditure" of prosecutorial resources, authorities said.

Authorities alleged in 2005 the Rigases had committed tax fraud when they failed to pay income tax on the proceeds of the fraud they were convicted of in New York a year earlier. The former executives fought the case on the grounds it amounted to double jeopardy.

Both men are already in jail stemming from the collapse of the company in 2002 after prosecutors said John Rigas, 87, and Timothy Rigas, 55, failed to report nearly $2 billion in liabilities. John Rigas has seven years left on his 12-year sentence while Timothy Rigas isn't expected to be released until 2022.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said the family spent lavishly on itself, ordering 100 pairs of slippers for Timothy Rigas and spending more than $3 million to produce a film by John Rigas' daughter.

Defense attorney Larry McMichael welcomed the end of the long court battle.

"This case never should have been brought," he told The Patriot-News of Harrisburg.

___

Information from: The Patriot-News, http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_adelphia_fraud

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Obama pushes energy plan on campaign-style tour (Reuters)

AURORA, Colorado (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama pitched a plan on Thursday to boost U.S. use of natural gas and open more land for drilling during a campaign-style tour aimed at bolstering confidence in his economic stewardship in an election year.

At a Colorado air force base hangar, Obama called the United States "the Saudi Arabia of natural gas" and said developing its reserves would create U.S. jobs and provide cleaner, cheaper energy to American consumers.

Obama also said investing in renewable energy like wind and solar power - instead of subsidizing the oil sector - would help reduce America's dependence on exports to fuel its cars, trucks and factories.

"Even if we tapped every drop of domestic oil, we've only got 2 percent of the world's oil reserves. We've got to have an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy, develop every available source of American energy," he told a military crowd in Aurora, where the Air Force is installing a 1-megawatt solar power system.

On the second day of his five-state, three-day tour, the Democratic president sought to counter Republican criticism of his energy policies and said his proposed tax incentives for natural gas trucks would bolster demand for the fuel.

Republicans were deeply upset by Obama's decision to block the Keystone XL Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, which they say would have created jobs and reduced U.S. dependence on oil from the Middle East.

NATURAL GAS BOOM

Obama's trip to Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan - all pivotal for the November 6 vote - follows his Tuesday night State of the Union address in which he took a combative tone toward congressional Republicans and spoke of the need to reduce income inequality.

He also used that speech to raise attention to the booming natural gas sector, which has grown dramatically in recent years as advances in technology have unlocked vast new reserves.

Earlier on Thursday, at a UPS facility in Las Vegas, Obama said natural gas could support more than 600,000 American jobs by the end of the decade - a key concern for the president who needs to convince voters he is making headway on employment.

Obama's overall approval ratings had been sagging amid voter concern over the lackluster economy, but his popularity has inched higher and in some recent surveys has climbed above the important 50 percent threshold.

Increasing domestic natural gas consumption would benefit drillers, as U.S. natural gas prices have fallen sharply because of the growing glut and the relatively warm winter.

Using domestic natural gas as a cleaner alternative to importing foreign oil has been heavily promoted by Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens and has attracted support from both sides of the aisle in Congress.

Obama's natural gas truck proposal, which would need congressional approval, still could face an uphill battle. Republicans campaigning on promises to cut government spending would likely resist costly new energy subsidies.

Similar measures aimed at expanding tax breaks for natural gas vehicles have failed to break through partisan gridlock, and conservative groups have opposed such legislation on the grounds that government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers in the energy sector.

Some oil and gas industry backers have also complained that the Obama administration has hindered drilling through slow permitting and a raft of new rules implemented since the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/pl_nm/us_obama_energy_natgas

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W.Va. DEP, Apco to promote energy efficiency (AP)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. ? The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Appalachian Power Co. are teaming up to raise awareness of energy efficiency programs' environmental benefits.

DEP said Thursday that it will coordinate efforts to educate the public with Appalachian Power.

As part of the initiative, information about Appalachian Power's energy efficiency programs will be included in Travel Green West Virginia and other presentations and initiatives sponsored by the DEP.

A memorandum of understanding for the collaboration will run through 2013.

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

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Making memories last

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? Memories in our brains are maintained by connections between neurons called "synapses." But how do these synapses stay strong and keep memories alive for decades? Neuroscientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a major clue from a study in fruit flies: Hardy, self-copying clusters or oligomers of a synapse protein are an essential ingredient for the formation of long-term memory.

The finding supports a surprising new theory about memory, and may have a profound impact on explaining other oligomer-linked functions and diseases in the brain, including Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases.

"Self-sustaining populations of oligomers located at synapses may be the key to the long-term synaptic changes that underlie memory; in fact, our finding hints that oligomers play a wider role in the brain than has been thought," says Kausik Si, Ph.D., an associate investigator at the Stowers Institute, and senior author of the new study, which is published in the January 27, 2012 online issue of the journal Cell.

Si's investigations in this area began nearly a decade ago during his doctoral research in the Columbia University laboratory of Nobel-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel. He found that in the sea slug Aplysia californica, which has long been favored by neuroscientists for memory experiments because of its large, easily-studied neurons, a synapse-maintenance protein known as CPEB (Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding protein) has an unexpected property.

A portion of the structure is self-complementary and -- much like empty egg cartons -- can easily stack up with other copies of itself. CPEB thus exists in neurons partly in the form of oligomers, which increase in number when neuronal synapses strengthen. These oligomers have a hardy resistance to ordinary solvents, and within neurons may be much more stable than single-copy "monomers" of CPEB. They also seem to actively sustain their population by serving as templates for the formation of new oligomers from free monomers in the vicinity.

CPEB-like proteins exist in all animals, and in brain cells they play a key role in maintaining the production of other synapse-strengthening proteins. Studies by Si and others in the past few years have hinted that CPEB's tendency to oligomerize is not merely incidental, but is indeed essential to its ability to stabilize longer-term memory. "What we've lacked till now are experiments showing this conclusively," Si says.

In the new study, Si and his colleagues examined a Drosophila fruit fly CPEB protein known as Orb2. Like its counterpart in Aplysia, it forms oligomers within neurons. "We found that these Orb2 oligomers become more numerous in neurons whose synapses are stimulated, and that this increase in oligomers happens near synapses," says lead author Amitabha Majumdar, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Si's lab.

The key was to show that the disruption of Orb2 oligomerization on its own impairs Orb2's function in stabilizing memory. Majumdar was able to do this by generating an Orb2 mutant that lacks the normal ability to oligomerize yet maintains a near-normal concentration in neurons. Fruit flies carrying this mutant form of Orb2 lost their ability to form long-term memories. "For the first 24 hours after a memory-forming stimulus, the memory was there, but by 48 hours it was gone, whereas in flies with normal Orb2 the memory persisted," Majumdar says.

Si and his team are now following up with experiments to determine for how long Orb2 oligomers are needed to keep a memory alive. "We suspect that they need to be continuously present, because they are self-sustaining in a way that Orb2 monomers are not," says Si.

The team's research also suggests some intriguing possibilities for other areas of neuroscience. This study revealed that Orb2 proteins in the Drosophila nervous system come in a rare, highly oligomerization-prone form (Orb2A) and a much more common, much less oligomerization-prone form (Orb2B). "The rare form seems to be the one that is regulated, and it seems to act like a seed for the initial oligomerization, which pulls in copies of the more abundant form," Si says. "This may turn out to be a basic pattern for functional oligomers."

The findings may help scientists understand disease-causing oligomers too. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, as well as prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, all involve the spread in the brain of apparently toxic oligomers of various proteins. One such protein, strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, is amyloid beta; like Orb2 it comes in two forms, the highly oligomerizing amyloid-beta-42 and the relatively inert amyloid-beta-40. Si's work hints at the possibility that oligomer-linked diseases are relatively common in the brain because the brain evolved to be relatively hospitable to CPEB proteins and other functional oligomers, and thus has fewer mechanisms for keeping rogue oligomers under control.

Other researchers who contributed to the work include Wanda Col?n Cesario, Erica White-Grindely, Huoqin Jian, Fangzhen Ren, Mohammed 'Repon' Khan, Liying Li, Edward Man-Lik Choi, Kasthuri Kannan, Feng Li, Jay Unruh and Brian Slaughter at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri.

The research was supported by the Searle Foundation, the March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Starter Award, the Klingenstein Foundation and the McKnight Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stowers Institute for Medical Research, via Newswise.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Amitabha Majumdar, Wanda Col?n Cesario, Erica White-Grindley, Huoqing Jiang, Fengzhen Ren, Mohammed ?Repon? Khan, Liying Li, Edward Man-Lik Choi, Kasthuri Kannan, Fengli Guo et al. Critical Role of Amyloid-like Oligomers of Drosophila Orb2 in the Persistence of Memory. Cell, 26 January 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.004

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/VZp3lMiJGDo/120127162409.htm

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Madonna Made 'Magic' With William Orbit On M.D.N.A.

Singer told MTV News she and her Ray of Light producer 'finish each other's sentences.'
By Jocelyn Vena

Madonna
Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Madonna is readying the release of her album M.D.N.A., and for it she headed back into the studio with a familiar face. She hooked up once again with producer William Orbit, who worked on a number of tracks on the album, including her Golden Globe Award-winning "Masterpiece."

The relationship between Madonna and Orbit has been a fruitful one. He produced most of the songs on 1998's Ray of Light, including "Ray of Light," "Nothing Really Matters," "Frozen" and "The Power of Good-bye." The album later won several Grammy Awards and VMAs.

Their work together didn't end there. One year later, they produced Madge's "Austin Powers" soundtrack song, "Beautiful Stranger," which nabbed a Grammy Award in 2000. In the years since, she worked with Orbit on several unreleased tracks.

So, when it came to their latest collaboration, words weren't needed. "With William, I didn't really have a discussion," she told MTV News at the New York premiere of "W.E." "We've worked on stuff for so many years that we kind of finish each other's sentences. He knows my taste and what I like."

With "Masterpiece" serving as a tease, the singer later added, "Magic happens when we get into a recording studio together."

As fans prep for the release of her studio album, they can look forward to her halftime Super Bowl performance and her video for the Martin Solveig-produced "Gimme All Your Luvin" (which also features Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.).

Are you excited for M.D.N.A.? Leave your comments below!

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677918/madonna-mdna-william-orbit.jhtml

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Gingrich: Romney self-deportation plan a fantasy (AP)

DORAL, Fla. ? Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday ridiculed rival Mitt Romney's call for self-deportation of illegal immigrants as an "Obama-level fantasy" that would be inhumane to long-established families living in America. Romney, for his part, accused Gingrich of pandering to a Hispanic audience and said Gingrich himself had supported self-deportation in the past.

Discussing immigration in state where 13 percent of registered voters are Hispanic, the former House speaker criticized Romney's immigration policy during a forum with the Spanish-language television network Univision, saying the idea of self-deportation would never work. Romney snapped back at him later in the day at the same forum.

During a debate earlier this week, Romney said he favors self-deportation over policies that would require the federal government to round up millions of illegal immigrants and send them back to their home countries. Advocates of Romney's approach argue that illegal immigration can be curbed by denying public benefits to them, prompting them to leave the United States on their own.

"You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality," Gingrich said, alluding to details in Romney's income tax returns made public Tuesday. "For Romney to believe that somebody's grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this is an Obama-level fantasy."

But Gingrich's campaign has spoken of the self-deportation policy he ridiculed Wednesday.

"I recognize that it's very tempting to come out to an audience like this and pander to the audience," Romney said, pointing out that Gingrich has previously made comments supporting the idea of self-deportation. "I think that was a mistake on his part."

In debates, Gingrich has defended a proposal to allow some illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. if they've lived here for more than 25 years and have a local sponsor.

Romney's campaign directed reporters to past comments by Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond, who said that only a small percent of illegal immigrants would likely be allowed to stay in the U.S. under Gingrich's plan. Hammond went on to say that the vast majority of them would likely "self-deport."

Gingrich also ran into trouble over a radio ad calling Romney "anti-immigrant." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called the ad "inaccurate" and "inflammatory." Romney's campaign also asked Gingrich in a letter to pull the ad. Gingrich's campaign had no immediate comment on whether it would comply with the request to pull the ad. The Miami Herald reported that the campaign planned to remove the ad based on Rubio's comments.

Romney called the anti-immigrant label an "epithet" and "inappropriate."

At the forum, Gingrich spoke instead about other elements of his immigration plan, including controlling the border and establishing a guest-worker program to better manage the influx of immigrants. Gingrich said he favors a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant children who serve in the military but not for simply completing college.

Romney defended his opposition to allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at American universities. He said there are inexpensive options that will allow them to go to college.

Gingrich told Univision he believes states should charge in-state tuition rates for students who were born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents, but that he favors charging out-of-state tuition for children who were brought to this country illegally.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's support of a Texas policy to allow children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition proved to be problematic with conservatives nationwide. Perry dropped out of the race last week.

Gingrich began the interview by speaking a few halting phrases of welcome in Spanish ? "Buenos Dias estudiantes" ? but begged off when moderator Jorge Ramos pressed him to go further. Romney did not speak any Spanish during his interview.

Romney was asked about family members he has living in Mexico. Romney's father, George Romney, was born in Mexico but moved back to the U.S. as a young child.

Ramos asked Romney if he had a claim to being Mexican American.

"I don't think people would think I was being honest with them if I said I was Mexican American but I'd appreciate it if you'd get that word out," Romney said, smiling.

Florida is home to many Hispanics of Puerto Rican or Cuban descent who don't view immigration as a priority but are more interested in the issue than the general public.

After the interview, Romney railed against Fidel Castro's Cuba in a speech before several hundred Cuban-American democracy activists. Romney has significant support from the Cuban-American political establishment in Miami.

"It is time for us to strive for freedom in Cuba, and I will do so as president," he said. "We must be prepared to support the voices for democracy in Cuba."

While the interview questions asked of both candidates were mostly about Hispanic concerns, Ramos asked Gingrich whether it was hypocritical for him to criticize then-President Bill Clinton and pursue his impeachment in the 1990s when Gingrich was being unfaithful to his second wife.

Gingrich snapped at the premise of the question and said it was Clinton's false testimony under oath that bothered him the most.

"The fact is I've been through two divorces. I've been deposed both times under oath. Both times I told the truth in the deposition," Gingrich said. "I have never lied under oath. I have never committed perjury."

Ramos asked Romney to declare his wealth, to which Romney replied that he's worth between $150 million and "200-and-some-odd million dollars."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_el_pr/us_campaign_hispanics

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SKorea staging artillery drills at border island (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? South Korea's Defense Ministry says its marines are conducting live-fire drills from a front-line island that was shelled by North Korea in 2010.

A ministry official says the drills are occurring Thursday at Yeonpyeong Island near the disputed sea border.

The official says the drills are routine firing exercises and there haven't been any suspicious activities by North Korea's military. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.

Similar drills in 2010 triggered a North Korean artillery bombardment that killed four South Koreans.

The official says the artillery drills are the first at Yeonpyeong since North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died last month.

He says marines are holding similar drills from nearby Baengnyeong Island.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_tension

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SAP sets sights on fresh profit record (Reuters)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, aims to set a fresh profit record this year as it banks on robust corporate spending on technology.

Investors have worried that they may have overestimated the resilience of corporate tech spending in a deteriorating global economy, especially after SAP's big rival Oracle Corp reported weak quarterly results last month.

But there have been increasing signs that the outlook may not be as dim as some feared. IBM Corp, the world's largest technology services company, brimmed with confidence for 2012 as it posted strong results last week.

"We have significant momentum going into 2012," SAP said on Wednesday as it published its full financial results for 2011.

The German company expects operating profit will rise to 5.05-5.25 billion euros ($6.6-$6.8 billion) at constant currencies from a 40-year record level of 4.71 billion in 2011. The outlook compared with a consensus of 4.91 billion euros, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

SAP had already reported a better-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter sales and profit on January 13.

It attributed the strong performance to demand for its biggest software products and growing demand for its HANA offering, which allows companies to analyze business data quickly, and said it had won market share overall.

SUCCESS FACTORS BOOSTS TOP LINE

SAP said it expects its 2012 revenue from software and software-related services to increase by 10-12 percent in the full year, of which up to 2 percentage points will be contributed by recently acquired SuccessFactors.

Most analysts had said they expected SAP to aim for 6-10 percent revenue growth from software and software-related services this year.

SAP agreed to buy SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion last month to keep up with rivals in the race for cloud-computing business. Its 2012 earnings will be diluted by the purchase, which will have a positive impact from 2013 on.

"We are well positioned to exceed our 20 billion euro revenue target and reach a 35 percent operating margin in 2015," Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt said.

The company, based in Walldorf near Heidelberg, built its business on large, integrated software systems sold to many of the world's biggest companies, such as Apple, GE, McDonald's and Pepsi.

SAP has about 176,000 customers and bills itself as the world's leading provider of software for managing supply chains and customer relations.

SAP, whose stock has gained about 10 percent over the past year, trades at about 14.5 times 12-month forward earnings, at a premium to Oracle's multiple of 11.4 and IBM at 12.7, according to ThomsonReuters StarMine data.

($1 = 0.7704 euro)

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_sap

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Navy SEAL raid in Somalia shows campaign ahead

This undated photo taken at an unknown location and released by the Danish Refugee Council on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 shows American Jessica Buchanan from the Danish Refugee Council's de-mining unit. U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, while killing nine pirates, officials and a pirate source said. (AP Photo/Danish Refugee Council)

This undated photo taken at an unknown location and released by the Danish Refugee Council on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 shows American Jessica Buchanan from the Danish Refugee Council's de-mining unit. U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, while killing nine pirates, officials and a pirate source said. (AP Photo/Danish Refugee Council)

This handout photo provided by the White House shows President Barack Obama, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, during a phone call from the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, immediately after his State of the Union Address, informing John Buchanan that his daughter Jessica was rescued by U.S. Special Operations Forces in Somalia. (AP Photo/Pete Souza, White House)

This undated photo taken at an unknown location and released by the Danish Refugee Council on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 shows Dane Poul Hagen Thisted from the Danish Refugee Council's de-mining unit. U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, while killing nine pirates, officials and a pirate source said. (AP Photo/Danish Refugee Council)

Map locates area around the town of Adado, Somalia, where two hostages were rescued during a helicopter raid.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Navy SEAL operation that freed two Western hostages in Somalia is representative of the Obama administration's pledge to build a smaller, more agile military force that can carry out surgical counterterrorist strikes to cripple an enemy.

That's a strategy much preferred to the land invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan that have cost so much American blood and treasure over the past decade. The contrast to a full-bore invasion is stark: A small, daring team storms a pirate encampment on a near-moonless night, kills nine kidnappers and whisks the hostages to safety.

Special operations forces, trained for such clandestine missions, have become a more prominent tool in the military's kit since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The administration is expected to announce Thursday that it will invest even more heavily in that capability in coming years.

The SEAL Team 6 raid in Somalia, which followed last May's operation that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has political dimensions in an election year.

It gave an added punch to the five-state tour President Barack Obama began the day after he delivered his State of the Union speech. Obama did not mention the raid that was unfolding during his Tuesday night address, but he dropped a hint upon arriving in the House chamber by telling Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, "Good job tonight."

The SEAL mission also helps soften the blow of defense cuts the White House is seeking in spite of a chorus of criticism by hawkish lawmakers. Not to be discounted is the feel-good moment such missions give the American public, a counterbalance to the continued casualties in Afghanistan.

After planning and rehearsal, the Somalia rescue was carried out by SEAL Team 6, officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret mission. It was not clear whether any team members participated in both the raid in Somalia and the bin Laden mission in Pakistan.

The SEALs parachuted from U.S. Air Force special operations aircraft before moving on foot, apparently undetected, to the outdoor encampment, two officials said. They found American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Dane, who had been kidnapped in Somalia last fall.

The SEALs encountered little resistance from the kidnappers during the operation, which lasted about an hour to an hour and a half, two U.S. officials said. Only one of the attackers fired back and was quickly subdued, one official said. The rest were believed killed, though officials did not rule out the possibility of an escape, as aerial surveillance of the scene was hampered on the cloudy, dark night.

Army special operations MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters then swooped in to the subdued encampment near the town of Adado to carry away the SEALs and hostages.

The captors were heavily armed and had explosives nearby when the rescuers arrived on the scene, Pentagon press secretary George Little said, but he was not more specific. Little declined to say whether there was an exchange of gunfire and would not provide further details about the rescue beyond saying that all of the captors were killed by the Americans.

The American raiders caught the kidnappers as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were. They told him that nine pirates had been killed in the raid and three were taken away, he said. However, two U.S. officials said no Somalis were captured.

Little said the decision to go ahead with the rescue was prompted in part by rising concern about the medical condition of Buchanan. He said he could not be specific without violating her privacy but did say U.S. officials had reason to believe her condition could be life-threatening.

Mary Ann Olsen, an official with the Danish Refugee Council, which employed Buchanan and Thisted in de-mining efforts in Somalia, said Buchanan was "not that ill" but needed medicine.

In the last week or so U.S. officials had collected enough information to "connect the dots" that led Obama to authorize the mission on Monday, Little said.

A Western official said the rescuers and the freed hostages flew by helicopter to Camp Lemonnier in the nearby Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been released publicly.

The hostages were expected to leave Djibouti fairly soon, one U.S. official said, and will travel to another location for medical screenings and other evaluations before heading home.

A key U.S. ally in the region, Djibouti hosts the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, a U.S.-led group organized under U.S. Africa Command.

The mission was directed by Army Gen. Carter Ham, head of Africa Command, from his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Panetta and other members of Obama's national security team monitored the mission from the White House before traveling to the Capitol to attend Obama's speech.

Minutes after Obama completed his State of the Union address he was on the phone with Buchanan's father to tell him that his daughter was safe.

Several hostages were still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighboring Kenya and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

___

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor and Julie Pace in Washington, Jason Straziuso and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Kimberly Dozier at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier , Katharine Houreld at http://twitter.com/khoureld and Robert Burns at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-26-Somalia%20Raid/id-1fc9ee2de0e2489887b358c370cae5ef

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