Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/155239316?client_source=feed&format=rss
Monday, October 31, 2011
Trial of Egypt's Mubarak postponed until Dec. 28
FILE - This Aug. 3, 2011 file image taken from Egyptian State Television shows Hosni Mubarak, 83, lying on a hospital bed inside a cage of mesh and iron bars in a Cairo courtroom as his historic trial begins on charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters during the uprising that ousted him. The trial of Egypt's ousted leader Hosni Mubarak on charges of complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters this year has been adjourned until Dec. 28.(AP Photo/Egyptian State TV, File) EGYPT OUT
FILE - This Aug. 3, 2011 file image taken from Egyptian State Television shows Hosni Mubarak, 83, lying on a hospital bed inside a cage of mesh and iron bars in a Cairo courtroom as his historic trial begins on charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters during the uprising that ousted him. The trial of Egypt's ousted leader Hosni Mubarak on charges of complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters this year has been adjourned until Dec. 28.(AP Photo/Egyptian State TV, File) EGYPT OUT
CAIRO (AP) ? The trial of Egypt's ousted leader Hosni Mubarak on charges of complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters this year was adjourned on Sunday until Dec. 28.
Mubarak's trial began nearly three months ago, and Sunday's lengthy adjournment was certain to frustrate leaders of the anti-Mubarak protest movement who want to see the former leader and his co-defendants ? his two sons, security chief and six top police officers ? brought swiftly to justice.
Mubarak stepped down in February after a popular uprising. Reformers are frustrated by what they see as the slow progress by Egypt's military rulers to liberalize the system.
The adjournment was meant to allow time for another court to rule on a request by lawyers for the victims to remove the three-judge panel in Mubarak's trial. That ruling is expected on Nov. 3.
Mubarak, his two sons, former security chief and the six police officers sat in the defendants' cage for Sunday's 10-minute hearing. If convicted, Mubarak could face the death penalty. Mubarak and his sons also face corruption charges.
An 18-day uprising forced Mubarak to step down Feb. 11.
Also Sunday, two prominent activists were summoned for questioning by military prosecutors for their alleged role in the incitement of clashes this month in which 27 people, most of them Christians, were killed and hundreds were wounded.
The two refused to answer the prosecutors' questions on grounds that the military was involved in the violence and therefore could not be impartial, according to rights lawyer Gamal Eid.
Alaa Abdel-Fattah was ordered held in custody for 15 days, while Bahaa Saber was released.
The two are suspected of inciting the violence and of damaging military property.
The questioning of the two set social networks abuzz with comments by activists denouncing the move and calling for the ouster of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the body of top military officers that took over from Mubarak.
The Oct. 9 violence was the deadliest since the military took over and was a stark contrast to the idealistic sense of Muslim-Christian unity that flourished during the anti-Mubarak uprising.
It began when thousands of Christians demonstrated outside the state television building in Cairo, protesting an attack on a church in southern Egypt. Army troops waded in, and armored personnel carriers barreled through the crowds. Some of the dead were crushed by army vehicles or shot to death, according to video from the scene. State media said three soldiers were among the dead.
The military tried to exonerate itself, blaming the Christians and "hidden hands" for starting the violence, denying its troops shot protesters or intentionally ran them over. Witnesses said soldiers started the melee. Videos showing soldiers beating and shooting into crowds and armored vehicles seeming to chase protesters cast doubt on the military's account.
Abdel-Fattah and Saber were the latest in a long list of bloggers, journalists and activists who have been questioned by the military or faced military tribunals. The referral of civilians to military trials ? at least 12,000 since February ? is at the heart of tension between the military and the youth groups behind Mubarak's ouster.
The military is also accused by the groups of mishandling the transition period and acting too slowly in dismantling the elements of Mubarak's 29-year regime. The military insists that it plans to hand over power to an elected civilian government and that its concern for the country's security is the reason for its use of military courts to try civilians.
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Suu Kyi holds talks with Myanmar gov't minister (AP)
YANGON, Myanmar ? Myanmar democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Sunday with a Cabinet minister to discuss issues whose resolution could lead to a breakthrough in the country's long-running political deadlock.
Labor Minister Aung Kyi read a joint statement after their meeting that said the two had discussed an amnesty, peace talks with ethnic armed groups and economic and financial matters.
Some 200 of an estimated 2,000 political prisoners were released on Oct. 11 under an amnesty for 6,300 convicts.
An elected but military-backed government took power in March after decades of repressive army rule and its new president, Thein Sein, has moved to liberalize the political atmosphere.
In the past week, Parliament has amended a law to try to woo Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy into reregistering as a political party.
The government would like to see the United States and other Western nations lift political and economic sanctions imposed against the repressive former ruling junta. Without Suu Kyi's blessings they are unlikely to do much.
A recent visit by Washington's special envoy to Myanmar has raised expectations that major developments may come soon.
It was the fourth meeting between Aung Kyi ? the government's designated liaison officer ? and Suu Kyi since July after the nominally civilian government took over power from the military's junta regime in March.
Parliament's recent amendment of the 2010 political party registration law appeared to meet some objections from Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy that it discriminated against them. Her organization was delisted as a political party last year after it refused to register for the November 2010 election, claiming it was being held under undemocratic conditions.
A party set up as a proxy for the military won a resounding victory, giving credence to criticism that the military's roadmap to democracy is just a smoke screen for continued domination by the army.
The amendments, not yet signed into law by Thein Sein, are meant to encourage the NLD to reregister as a political party, which in turn would amount to giving at least tacit recognition to the legitimacy of Thein Sein's government.
Suu Kyi has not committed herself or her party to such a move
Asked if the NLD would register, she said, "Once we see the law, then we will hold a party meeting and decide whether or not we will register."
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
An Insurance Hedge Fund | iStockAnalyst.com
Some friends of mine asked me if I could create an insurance-centric hedge fund.? I said that it was unlikely because I'm not good at shorting.? They pressed me on it, because they knew if I had good longs, with my quantitative skills, I could create a credible short position that might hedge the longs.
Ugh.? I don't want to do it, but maybe I could make this work.? I certainly could use the revenue.? So what would I focus on in such a fund?
- Relative valuations
- Management quality
- Reserve releases/strengthening from prior year claims
- Momentum ? yeh, momentum.
- Long-term underwriting profitability
My goal is to make money for average people, not the wealthy, but if that is the only way that my firm can survive, I will set up a hedge fund in the insurance space.? I love insurance; I know it intuitively, but I know that once I? begin to take big bets, I may fail badly.
If you know me well, you know that I only take prudent risks.? I'm not risk-averse, I like taking risks when the odds are in my favor.
So I am puzzled at this point.? I have done better in evaluating the broad markets than the narrow insurance markets, but if I have to be a narrow investor in order to survive, I can do that.
If you have advice for me here, I will receive it with thanks.
Source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/finance/story/5507067/an-insurance-hedge-fund
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Cain and Romney statistically tied in new Des Moines Register Iowa poll (The Ticket)
(Chris Carlson/AP)
Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are statistically tied for the lead in Iowa's Republican presidential primary race, according to a new Des Moines Register poll of likely caucus-goers in the state.The Register survey, long considered the most reliable of Iowa polls, finds the former Godfather's Pizza executive with 1-point advantage in the state, leading the former Massachusetts governor 23 percent to 22 percent.
Ron Paul trailed in third place, with 12 percent support. The remaining 2012 hopefuls were in single digits, including Michele Bachmann (8 percent); Rick Perry (7 percent); Newt Gingrich (7 percent); Rick Santorum (5 percent) and Jon Huntsman (1 percent).
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.
Cain's popularity has soured in the state, in spite of the fact he's done little actual campaigning there. But Romney's numbers are equally surprising, given the ex-governor has visited the state just three times since launching his second White House bid this spring.
More popular Yahoo! News stories:
? Jon Huntsman on the tea party, the polls and his hair
? Will Mitch McConnell's stiff-arm keep West Virginia out of the Big 12?
? Mike Tyson as Herman Cain?
Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Total, Chevron profits lifted by firm oil price (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Chevron Corp and Total posted higher quarterly profits on Friday, the latest two major oil companies to reap the benefit of firm oil prices and rosier refinery conditions.
The third-quarter profits from Total and Chevron capped a week of earnings figures that saw gains at Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP Plc as benchmark Brent oil prices hover near $112 per barrel, nearly 50 percent higher than the year-earlier quarter.
Still, oil prices were slightly down from the second quarter of the year, which helped the companies' refineries to post higher margins and profits.
Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon, said its profits more than doubled, helped by a gain of about $500 million from the sale of its Pembroke refinery to Valero Energy Corp.
Total's profits climbed a more modest 24 percent, but met market expectations, as its output fell by 1 percent because of disruptions in Libya.
Chevron also posted a decline in output to 2.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (bpd), down from 2.74 million a year ago.
It July, Chevron had said a slower Gulf of Mexico project ramp-up and a Thai pipeline problem would trim its 2011 production by about 30,000 bpd.
Like their peers, Chevron and Total have struggled to increase oil production in recent years.
Disappointment about the trend has hit oil stocks, and Total has been punished by investors more harshly than its rival -- until a rally that has lifted its stock 27 percent since September 26 when it raised its 2010-15 average output goal to 3 percent per year from 2 percent.
Total has made over $10 billion of acquisitions in the past 18 months, expanding its geographical footprint beyond its historical heartland of Africa to Australia, Canada and Russia.
Shares in Total fell about 2 percent in Friday trading, while Chevron shares climbed less than 1 percent.
(Reporting by Marie Maitre in Paris, Braden Reddall in San Francisco and Matt Daily in New York, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Marc Benioff Wants To #OccupyTheEnterprise
Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff has a knack for taking what is happening on the consumer web and applying it to business. He even spins #OccupyWallStreet as a something businesses should learn from and emulate. He makes his case in the video above, which I shot yesterday in New York with my iPhone (sorry for the bad lighting). His point is that if protesters can use Twitter and Facebook to #OccupyOakland, why can't companies use the same social tools to organize themselves and motivate their customers? "Facebook is really eating the Web," he says, echoing Marc Andreessen's notion of software eating the world. Benioff points to the fact that people are spending 4 hours a day on the social network.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/FZG56FkcQuA/
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Savage Joplin tornado exposed lead contamination (Reuters)
KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) ? The city of Joplin is asking the federal government to help clean up lead contamination on about 1,500 properties damaged in the savage May 22 tornado.
The twister tore apart structures that contained lead and disrupted soil on property built atop of old lead mines, Joplin city officials said in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Cleanup will cost an estimated $5,000 per property or roughly $7.5 million, said Mayor Mike Woolston and City Manager Mark Rohr in a letter early this month to EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks in Kansas City.
EPA spokesman David Bryan said Thursday that the agency is preparing a response and will work with the city to identify lead-contaminated sites and develop a cleanup plan.
"The agreement will include some type of funding mechanism," Bryan said.
The EF-5 tornado destroyed some 9,000 homes and other buildings in Joplin and took 162 lives. Some of the destroyed structures had basements, crawl spaces or slabs made of materials that included lead chat, used before its health risks were known, city officials said.
Much of Joplin is built on old mine sites. The EPA waged a cleanup effort in the early 1990s because of soils contaminated by lead and cadmium. Lead testing has for years been required prior to building projects, but the cost in the wake of the tornado exceeds the means of most residents, the city officials said.
"High lead levels in the disrupted soil potentially represent a significant liability issue for Joplin and a safety hazard for our community as well as a possible impediment to our rebuilding efforts...." Woolston and Rohr wrote.
The Jasper County Health Department recently tested a sampling of 43 properties for lead and cadmium in the affected area and found that 19 of them were in need of some level of remediation, documents show.
(Editing by Greg McCune)
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Flyers' Pronger out after taking stick in the face (AP)
PHILADELHPIA ? Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger will miss two to three weeks and spend the next few days on bed rest after taking a stick to the right eye against Toronto.
Pronger and Toronto's Mikhail Grabovski sprinted for a loose puck in the circle after a rebound off Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on Monday night. Grabovski slapped at the puck, but his stick connected with Pronger's stick and the blade shot straight up into the defenseman's face.
Pronger screamed in agony and instantly clutched his face. Hunched over, he skated straight to the bench, his hands over his eyes, and went to the dressing room with 8:02 left in the first period.
Pronger does not wear a visor. General manager Paul Holmgren said Pronger would not be cleared to play unless he wears one. Holmgren said Pronger complained of blurred vision.
"I think he was very scared and rightly so," Holmgren said. "When something like that happens to your eye, you're worried about what's going on. I think he settled down over a period of time and was fine when he left."
The Flyers beat the Maple Leafs 4-2.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
NYPD checking up on Muslims who change their names
FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2011, file photo, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly listens during his testimony about NYPD intelligence operations to the New York City Council public safety committee in New York. Three months ago, one of the CIA?s most experienced clandestine operatives started work inside the New York Police Department. His title is special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence. Since The Associated Press revealed the assignment in August, federal and city officials have offered differing explanations for why this CIA officer, a seasoned operative who handled foreign agents and ran complex operations in Jordan and Pakistan, was assigned to a municipal police department. Kelly said the CIA operative provides his officers "with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas." He said the CIA operative provides "technical information" to the NYPD but "doesn?t have access to any of our investigative files." (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2011, file photo, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly listens during his testimony about NYPD intelligence operations to the New York City Council public safety committee in New York. Three months ago, one of the CIA?s most experienced clandestine operatives started work inside the New York Police Department. His title is special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence. Since The Associated Press revealed the assignment in August, federal and city officials have offered differing explanations for why this CIA officer, a seasoned operative who handled foreign agents and ran complex operations in Jordan and Pakistan, was assigned to a municipal police department. Kelly said the CIA operative provides his officers "with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas." He said the CIA operative provides "technical information" to the NYPD but "doesn?t have access to any of our investigative files." (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? For generations, immigrants have shed their ancestral identities and taken new, Americanized names as they found their place in the melting pot. For Muslims in New York, that rite of assimilation is now seen by police as a possible red flag in the hunt for terrorists.
The New York Police Department monitors everyone in the city who changes his or her name, according to interviews and internal police documents obtained by The Associated Press. For those whose names sound Arabic or might be from Muslim countries, police run comprehensive background checks that include reviewing travel records, criminal histories, business licenses and immigration documents.
All this is recorded in police databases for supervisors, who review the names and select a handful of people for police to visit.
The program was conceived as a tripwire for police in the difficult hunt for homegrown terrorists, where there are no widely agreed upon warning signs. Like other NYPD intelligence programs created in the past decade, this one involved monitoring behavior protected by the First Amendment.
Since August, an Associated Press investigation has revealed a vast NYPD intelligence-collecting effort targeting Muslims following the terror attacks of September 2001. Police have conducted surveillance of entire Muslim neighborhoods, chronicling daily life including where people eat, pray and get their hair cut. Police infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds more.
Monitoring name changes illustrates how the threat of terrorism now casts suspicion over what historically has been part of America's story. For centuries, foreigners have changed their names in New York, often to lose any stigma attached with their surname.
The Roosevelts were once the van Rosenvelts. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz. Donald Trump's grandfather changed the family name from Drumpf.
David Cohen, the NYPD's intelligence chief, worried that would-be terrorists could use their new names to lie low in New York, current and former officials recalled. Reviewing name changes was intended to identify people who either Americanized their names or took Arabic names for the first time, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not respond to messages left over two days asking about the legal justification for the program and whether it had identified any terrorists.
The goal was to find a way to spot terrorists like Daood Gilani and Carlos Bledsoe before they attacked.
Gilani, a Chicago man, changed his name to the unremarkable David Coleman Headley to avoid suspicion as he helped plan the 2008 terrorist shooting spree in Mumbai, India. Bledsoe, of Tennessee, changed his name to Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad in 2007 and, two years later, killed one soldier and wounded another in a shooting at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark.
Sometime around 2008, state court officials began sending the NYPD information about new name changes, said Ron Younkins, the court's chief of operations. The court regularly sends updates to police, he said. The information is all public, and he said the court was not aware of how police used it.
The NYPD program began as a purely analytical exercise, according to documents and interviews. Police reviewed the names received from the court and selected some for background checks that included city, state and federal criminal databases as well as federal immigration and Treasury Department databases that identified foreign travel.
Early on, police added people with American names to the list so that if details of the program ever leaked out, the department would not be accused of profiling, according to one person briefed on the program.
On one police document from that period, two of every three people who were investigated had changed their names to or from something that could be read as Arabic-sounding.
All the names that were investigated, even those whose background checks came up empty, were cataloged so police could refer to them in the future.
The legal justification for the program is unclear from the documents obtained by the AP. Because of its history of spying on anti-war protesters and political activists, the NYPD has long been required to follow a federal court order when gathering intelligence. That order allows the department to conduct background checks only when police have information about possible criminal activity, and only as part of "prompt and extremely limited" checking of leads.
The NYPD's rules also prohibit opening investigations based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment. Federal courts have held that people have a right to change their names and, in the case of religious conversion, that right is protected by the First Amendment.
After the AP's investigation into the NYPD's activities, some U.S. lawmakers, including Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Rush Holt, D-N.J., have said the NYPD programs are blatant racial profiling and have asked the Justice Department to investigate. Two Democrats on congressional intelligence committees said they were troubled by the CIA's involvement in these programs. Additionally, seven New York Democratic state senators called for the state attorney general to investigate the NYPD's spying on Muslim neighborhoods. And last month, the CIA announced an inspector general investigation into the agency's partnership with the NYPD.
The NYPD is not alone in its monitoring of Muslim neighborhoods. The FBI has its own ethnic mapping program that singled out Muslim communities, and agents have been criticized for targeting mosques.
The name change program is an example of how, while the NYPD says it operates under the same rules as the FBI, police have at times gone beyond what is allowed by the federal government. The FBI would not be allowed to run a similar program because of First Amendment and privacy concerns and because the goal is too vague and the program too broad, according to FBI rules and interviews with federal officials.
Police expanded their efforts in late 2009, according to documents and interviews. After analysts ran background checks, police began selecting a handful of people to visit and interview.
Internally, some police groused about the program. Many people who were approached didn't want to talk and police couldn't force them to.
A Pakistani cab driver, for instance, told police he did not want to talk to them about why he took Sheikh as a new last name, documents show.
Police also knew that a would-be terrorist who Americanized his name in hopes of lying low was unlikely to confess as much to detectives. In fact, of those who agreed to talk at all, many said they Americanized their names because they were being harassed or were having problems getting a job and thought a new name would help.
But as with other intelligence programs at the NYPD, Cohen hoped it would send a message to would-be bombers that police were watching, current and former officials said.
As it expanded, the program began to target Muslims even more directly, drawing criticism from Stuart Parker, an in-house NYPD lawyer, who said there had to be standards for who was being interviewed, a person involved in the discussions recalled. In response, police interviewed people with Arabic-sounding names but only if their background checks matched specific criteria.
The names of those who were interviewed, even those who chose not to speak with police, were recorded in police reports stored in the department's database, according to documents and interviews, while names of those who received only background checks were kept in a separate file in the Intelligence Division.
Donna Gabaccia, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, said that for many families, name changes are important aspects of the American story. Despite the stories that officials at Ellis Island Americanized the names of people arriving in the U.S., most immigrants changed their names themselves to avoid ridicule and discrimination or just to fit in, she said.
The NYPD program, she said, turned that story on its head.
"In the past, you changed your name in response to stigmatization," she said. "And now, you change your name and you are stigmatized. There's just something very sad about this."
As for converts to Islam, the religion does not require them to take Arabic names but many do as a way to publicly identify their faith, said Jonathan Brown, a Georgetown University professor of Islamic studies.
Taking an Arabic name might be a sign that someone is more religious, Brown said, but it doesn't necessarily suggest someone is more radical. He said law enforcement nationwide has often confused the two points in the fight against terrorism.
"It's just an example of the silly, conveyor-belt approach they have, where anyone who gets more religious is by definition more dangerous," Brown said.
Sarah Feinstein-Borenstein, a 75-year-old Jewish woman who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was surprised to learn that she was among the Americans drawn into the NYPD program in its infancy. She hyphenated her last name in 2009. Police investigated and recorded her information in a police intelligence file because of it.
"It's rather shocking to me," she said. "I think they would have better things to do. It's is a waste of my tax money."
Feinstein-Borenstein was born in Egypt and lived there until the Suez Crisis in 1956. With a French mother and a Jewish religion, she and her family were labeled "undesirable" and were kicked out. She came to the U.S. in 1963.
"If you live long enough," she said, "you see everything."
___
Contact the Washington investigative team at DCInvestigations(at)ap.org
Read AP's previous stories and documents about the NYPD at: http://www.ap.org/nypd
Follow Apuzzo and Goldman at http://twitter.org/mattapuzzo and http://twitter.org/goldmandc
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IBM Names Sales Chief Virginia Rometty As CEO, Samuel Palmisano Will Remain As Chairman
IBM's board of directors has just named Virginia M. Rometty as the company's new CEO and president, replacing Samuel J. Palmisano, who currently is IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. Palmisano will remain chairman of the board. Rometty will become CEO effective January 1, 2012. Rometty was previously senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy. Rometty joined IBM in 1981 as a systems engineer. She was previously senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, and then was promoted to global sales leader. In her most recent role with Big Blue, She is accountable for revenue, profit, and client satisfaction in the 170 global markets and for the company's worldwide sales results, which exceeded $99 billion in 2010.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lCQ3Ebn1JDU/
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
BPA in pregnant women might affect kids' behavior (AP)
CHICAGO ? Exposure to the chemical bisphenol-A before birth could affect girls' behavior at age 3, according to the latest study on potential health effects of the compound used in the manufacturing of some plastic drink bottles and food can linings.
Preschool-aged girls whose mothers had relatively high urine levels of BPA during pregnancy scored worse but still within a normal range on behavior measures including anxiety and hyperactivity than other young girls.
The results are not conclusive and experts not involved in the study said factors other than BPA might explain the results. The researchers acknowledge that "considerable debate" remains about whether BPA is harmful, but say their findings should prompt additional research.
The researchers measured BPA in 244 Cincinnati-area mothers' urine twice during pregnancy and at childbirth. The women evaluated their children at age 3 using standard behavior questionnaires.
Nearly all women had measurable BPA levels, like most Americans. But increasingly high urine levels during pregnancy were linked with increasingly worse behavior in their daughters. Boys' behavior did not seem to be affected.
The researchers said if BPA can cause behavior changes that could pose academic and social problems for girls already at risk for those difficulties.
"These subtle shifts can actually have very dramatic implications at the population level," said Joe Braun, the lead author and a research fellow at Harvard's School of Public Health.
For every 10-fold increase in mothers' BPA levels, girls scored at least six points worse on the questionnaires.
The study was released online Monday in Pediatrics.
Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, said the study contributes important new evidence to "a growing database which suggests that BPA exposure can be associated with effects on human health."
Grants from that federal agency helped pay for the study.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that low-level BPA exposure appears to be safe. But the agency also says that because of recent scientific evidence, it has some concern about potential effects of BPA on the brain and behavior in fetuses, infants and small children. The FDA is continuing to study BPA exposure and supports efforts to minimize use in food containers.
BPA has many uses, and is found in some plastic bottles and coatings in metal food cans. It was widely used in plastic baby bottles and sippy cups but industry phased out that use.
Braun said it's possible that exposure to BPA during pregnancy interferes with fetal brain development, a theory suggested in other studies, and that could explain the behavior differences in his study. Why boys' behavior wasn't affected isn't clear. But BPA is thought to mimic the effects of estrogen, a female hormone.
The researchers evaluated other possible influences on children's behavior, including family income, education level and whether mothers were married, and still found an apparent link to BPA.
But Dr. Charles McKay, a BPA researcher and toxicologist with the Connecticut Poison Control Center, said the researchers failed to adequately measure factors other than BPA that could explain the results.
For example, there's no information on mothers' eating habits. That matters because mothers' higher BPA levels could have come from eating lots of canned foods instead of healthier less processed foods, which might have affected fetal brain development.
The American Chemistry Council, a trade group whose members include companies that use BPA, said the research "has significant shortcomings ... and the conclusions are of unknown relevance to public health."
___
Online:
FDA: http://tinyurl.com/ya4d4ku
Info for parents: http://www.hhs.gov/safety/bpa/
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
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Caterpillar quarterly earnings soar 44 percent (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Caterpillar Inc far exceeded analyst expectations on Monday, reporting a 44 percent quarterly earnings increase and record revenue, and signaling tempered optimism in its 2012 sales outlook.
The Peoria, Illinois, company said it expects full-year 2011 profit and revenue to be at the top end of its previous outlook range due to strong demand. In 2012, the company expects revenue to increase 10 percent to 20 percent above the $58 billion in sales it expects this year.
Caterpillar is one of a slate of industrial companies outpacing analyst expectations during the current earnings reporting season. Like some of its peers, the company is encouraged by the strong results but remaining cautious about the wider economy.
"Although there is a good deal of economic and political uncertainty in the world, we are not seeing it much in our business at this point," Caterpillar Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman said in a press release. "We believe continued economic recovery, albeit a slow recovery, is the most likely scenario as we move forward."
The world's largest heavy machinery manufacturer reported third-quarter net income attributable to common shareholders of $1.14 billion, or $1.71 per share, compared with $792 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected Caterpillar to earn $1.54 per share in the third quarter.
Sales rose 41 percent to $15.7 billion, which is a record, according to the company.
Caterpillar said full-year 2011 results would come in at the highest end of its previous outlook.
The company now expects annual revenue of $58 billion, including its recent acquisition of Bucyrus. Its previous forecast had been a range of $56 billion and $58 billion.
Profit is now expected to be $6.75 per share for the year, compared with a prior forecast of $6.25 to $6.75. Including the impact of Bucyrus, Caterpillar expects 2011 profit to reach $7.25 per share.
Caterpillar said 2011 will be a record year if the company hits its earnings and revenue expectations.
Caterpillar said it added 4,800 jobs during the quarter, including 2,000 in the United States.
Its shares were up about 5 percent in premarket trading.
(Reporting by John D. Stoll in Detroit; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Maureen Bavdek)
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Monday, October 24, 2011
Holland tops Pujols, Cards; Texas ties Series at 2
Fans cheer as Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland leaves the game during the ninth inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Fans cheer as Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland leaves the game during the ninth inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Derek Holland is congratulated in the dugout after being taken out of the game during the ninth inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington talks to starting pitcher Derek Holland before taking him out of the game during the ninth inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols reacts as he walks back to the dugout after flying out during the ninth inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the Texas Rangers Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers won 4-0 to tie the series at 2-2. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Derek Holland throws during the first inning of Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? So close to a World Series shutout, Derek Holland did everything he could, trying to convince Texas manager Ron Washington to let him finish.
There they stood on the mound, two outs to go in the ninth inning, the pitcher pleading his case as the crowd chanted his name.
"He was begging," Washington said. Or, as Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler described it: "A lot of profanity, we sounded like sailors out there."
Washington listened, then signaled for closer Neftali Feliz. Holland had done his job in Game 4, and then some. He had kept Albert Pujols in the ballpark and the Rangers in this Series.
In a title matchup that's getting more interesting with every game, Holland put the emphasis back on pitching. Given a pep talk by Washington minutes before the game, Holland threw two-hit ball for 8 1-3 innings to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 on Sunday night and even things at 2-all.
Holland struck out seven, walked two and never was in trouble against a team that erupted for 16 runs the previous night. He came within two outs of pitching the first complete-game shutout in the World Series since Josh Beckett's gem for Florida to clinch the 2003 title at Yankee Stadium.
"I was very focused. I knew this was a big game for us," said Holland, who was 16-5 with 3.95 ERA and four shutouts in the regular season. "I had to step up and make sure I was prepared."
Hobbled Josh Hamilton put Texas ahead with an RBI double in the first inning. Then Mike Napoli broke it open with a three-run homer in the sixth that set off a hearty high-five in the front row between team president Nolan Ryan and former President George W. Bush.
And just like that, for the first time since 2003, the World Series stood at two games apiece. Now the whole season is down to a best of three, with the outcome to be decided back at Busch Stadium.
Game 5 is Monday night at Rangers Ballpark. It's a rematch of the opener, when Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter topped C.J. Wilson.
A day after Pujols produced arguably the greatest hitting show in postseason history, tying Series records with three home runs, six RBIs and five hits during the Cardinals' romp, Holland emerged as the unlikely star.
Holland got a big cheer when he took the mound in the ninth and was still throwing 96 mph. After he walked Rafael Furcal with one out, Washington strolled to the mound.
"I was begging to stay out there," Holland said. "I said, 'I'll give it everything I've got. I can get the double play.'
"When I came off the field my arm hair was sticking up ? not like I have much."
Holland tipped his cap and waved to the fans as he walked off. His outing was the longest scoreless appearance by an AL starter in the Series since Andy Pettitte also went 8 1-3 at Atlanta in 1996.
Feliz took over and closed. He walked Allen Craig, then retired Pujols on a fly ball and struck out Matt Holliday to end it.
Pujols finished 0 for 4 and hit the ball out of the infield only once.
"I wanted him to see my 'A' game," Holland said.
Said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa: "Well, I would just say he worked us over. Give him credit."
"Good pitching is always going to stop good hitting," he said.
Holland was in tune all evening with Napoli, his pal and catcher. Much better than the battery for the pregame ceremony ? Bush tossed a wild pitch that glanced off the catcher's mitt Ryan wore.
"I should've gone with the regular glove," Ryan said with a chuckle.
The bounce-back Rangers managed to avoid consecutive losses for the first time since Aug. 23-25, a streak that's kept them out of trouble in the postseason.
The Rangers also completed a Sunday sweep in the matchup of teams from St. Louis and the Dallas area. Earlier in the afternoon, the Cowboys beat the Rams 34-7 right across the parking lots. Hamilton and Lance Berkman served as honorary captains for the pregame coin toss, wearing their baseball uniforms.
Many fans might remember Holland from last year's World Series. He's the reliever who came in against San Francisco, walked his first three batters and promptly got pulled.
Maybe that guy was an impostor. Because this 25-year-old lefty with the sorry little mustache was completely poised, with pinpoint control. Perhaps it was the talk he got from Washington near the dugout shortly before taking the mound.
Washington put both hands on Holland's shoulders and talked to him tenderly, like a dad about to send his teenage son off to college. Holland kept nodding, and Washington finished up with a playful pat to Holland's cheek.
"It was just a general message that he's capable of going out there and keeping us in the ballgame. That's all it was," Washington said. "I talk with Derek like that all the time, it just happened to catch me on TV."
Added Holland: "He shows that he cares about all his players, and he definitely showed that when he talked to me."
After that, Holland was in total command in his first Series start, and improved to 3-0 lifetime in the postseason. The only hits he allowed were by Berkman: a double in the second and a single in the fifth. Holland got even later, getting Berkman to look at a strike three that left the St. Louis star discussing the call with plate umpire Ron Kulpa.
Cardinals starter Edwin Jackson kept his team close despite a wild night. He walked seven, and eventually they caught up with him.
It was 1-0 when La Russa yanked Jackson after two one-out walks in the sixth and signaled for reliever Mitchell Boggs. Napoli was up, and the sellout crowd chanted his name as he stepped into the batter's box.
Boggs stayed in the stretch for an extra beat while Furcal ducked behind Nelson Cruz from shortstop. When Boggs finally threw a 95 mph fastball with his first pitch, Napoli whacked it.
Napoli stood at the plate for a moment as the ball sailed deep, just inside the left field line. Boggs could only contort his body, seeing the game get out of hand.
Hamilton forced the Cardinals to play catch-up for the first time in a while. St. Louis had scored first in 10 straight postseason games, one shy of the record set by Detroit during a span from 1972-84.
Elvis Andrus singled with one out in the Texas first and sped home when Hamilton doubled into the right field corner. The reigning AL MVP has been slowed by a strained groin, part of the reason he hasn't homered in 57 at-bats this postseason.
NOTES: Napoli became the first catcher to hit two homers in a Series since Mike Piazza of the Mets in 2000. ... Kinsler and St. Louis C Yadier Molina played a little game of back-and-forth in the second. Kinsler robbed Molina of an RBI single with a nice stop up the middle to end the top half. In the bottom half, Molina made a snap throw that trapped Kinsler off first base for the last out. ... Mitch Moreland batted last for Texas. It's the sixth time a starting first baseman in the World Series had hit ninth in order, four by Moreland.
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Sunday, October 23, 2011
Pentagon chief on first trip to Asia (AP)
WASHINGTON ? On his first trip to Asia as defense secretary, Leon Panetta intends to stress a U.S. commitment to strengthening ties with key allies and partner countries while keeping a wary eye on China's military buildup.
Panetta was embarking Friday on a weeklong tour, with stops in Indonesia, Japan and Korea. In addition to meetings with government officials, he planned to hold town hall-style sessions with U.S. troops in Japan and Korea, where land, air and naval bases form the core of the U.S. military presence in Asia.
Panetta's trip comes amid a broad effort by the Obama administration to shift more of its national security focus toward Asia. Now that the Iraq war is ending and the administration has set 2014 as the target date for completing its combat mission in Afghanistan, the White House wants to attend more closely to relationships and rivalries in the Asia-Pacific region, where fears of China are on the rise.
President Barack Obama himself plans to visit Bali in November to attend an East Asia summit meeting, following a visit to Australia. He also will host a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Hawaii in November.
In Indonesia, the first stop of his Asia tour, Panetta planned to attend a meeting of defense ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The talks will be held on Bali, the resort island where a terrorist bombing in 2002 killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks since then.
Last year, the United States resumed cooperation with Indonesia's special forces more than a decade after ties were severed over alleged human rights abuses by members of the special forces, known as Kopassus. Panetta on his visit is expected to discuss prospects for further increasing cooperation.
Washington severed all ties with the Indonesian military in 1999 after troops rampaged through East Timor when it voted to secede from Indonesia. The U.S. lifted that overall ban in 2005 but kept its restrictions against the Kopassus.
International rights groups have said members of Kopassus were linked to the disappearance of student activists in 1997 and 1998 and were never held accountable.
In Tokyo, Panetta planned to meet with senior Japanese government officials to discuss a range of defense issues, including a long-stalled plan to move Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to a less-crowded area of the island. Okinawan opposition to even a more dispersed Marine presence has prevented the U.S. from proceeding with plans to move about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
Panetta also is expected to discuss arms sales with Japan. The Japanese had wanted to buy the new U.S. stealth fighter, the F-22, but Congress has banned export sales of that aircraft. Japan remains interested in either the Lockheed F-35 fighter or Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet, and a decision is expected soon.
Washington is Tokyo's main ally. Roughly 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan. Japan's main concerns are China and Russia ? with whom it has longstanding territorial disputes ? along with the threat of North Korean ballistic missiles.
China, whose military has been growing more capable and assertive in the region, recently rolled out its next-generation stealth fighter, the much-touted Chengdu J-20. Though that fighter may be years away from actual operations, it is seen as a rival to the F-22 and far superior to what Japan now has.
Robert Gates, who preceded Panetta as Pentagon chief, used his final Asia trip, in January, to appeal to Japan for help in heading off a military crisis with North Korea. Gates also sought to ease U.S. pressure on Japan over the Futenma issue, which has been a thorn in U.S.-Japan relations for more than a decade.
Panetta is not expected to veer from the Asia course set by Gates, although he has not spoken extensively about his thinking on that region. In a speech Oct. 12, Panetta said, without mentioning China by name, of his concern that "rising powers" are rapidly modernizing their militaries and investing in capabilities to "deny our forces freedom of movement in vital regions such as the Asia-Pacific area."
Japan and South Korea are both treaty allies of the U.S. and are at the center of U.S. security policy in the region.
This is Panetta's third overseas trip since taking office July 1. He visited Iraq and Afghanistan that month, and earlier this month he traveled to Egypt, Israel and Italy and attended a NATO meeting in Brussels.
___
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
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Georges St. Pierre is hoping for a Super Bowl weekend return
When Georges St. Pierre realized that his knee was too injured for him to fight at UFC 137, he was shaken up. He admitted that he let some emotion show when he had to pull out of the bout with Carlos Condit.
"I'm not going to lie, I cried yesterday," St-Pierre told SportsNets. "I had a ton of pressure falling off my shoulders, because for the last few days I was in the mindset that I was nervous for the fight. I was excited for the fight but I was also nervous to know if I was going to be able to fight."
He sprained his MCL while training on Tuesday afternoon. Though it was an injury serious enough to pull him from the fight, it won't keep him out for too long. He is hoping to be able to fight on the UFC's Super Bowl weekend card, normally one of the bigger events on their calendar.
"I would say maybe end of January, possibly the beginning of February [for my return]?Super Bowl, around this time," St-Pierre said.
Condit told Cagewriter that he was hoping to fight GSP for the belt by the end of the year, but with GSP's timetable, Condit will have to wait a bit longer.
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
Electrochemistry controlled with a plasma electrode
ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) ? Engineers at Case Western Reserve University have made an electrochemical cell that uses a plasma for an electrode, instead of solid pieces of metal. The technology may open new pathways for battery and fuel cell design and manufacturing, making hydrogen fuel and synthesizing nanomaterials and polymers.
A description of the research is now published in the online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
"Plasmas formed at ambient conditions are normally sparks which are uncontrolled, unstable and destructive," said Mohan Sankaran, a chemical engineering professor and senior author of the paper. "We've developed a plasma source that is stable at atmospheric pressure and room temperature which allows us to study and control the transfer of electrons across the interface of a plasma and an electrolyte solution."
Sankaran worked with former students Carolyn Richmonds and Brandon Bartling, current students Megan Witzke and Seung Whan Lee and fellow chemical engineering professors Jesse Wainright and Chung-Chiun Liu.
The group used a traditional set up with their nontraditional electrode.
They filled an electrochemical cell, essentially two glass jars joined with a glass tube, with an electrolyte solution of potassium ferricyanide and potassium chloride.
For the cathode, argon gas was pumped through a stainless steel tube that was placed a short distance above the solution. A microplasma formed between the tube and the surface.
The anode was a piece of silver/silver chloride.
When a current was passed through the plasma, electrons reduced ferricyanide to ferrocyanide.
Monitoring with ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry showed the solution was reduced at a relatively constant rate and that each ferrycyanide molecule was reduced to one ferrocyanide molecule.
As the current was raised, the rate of reduction increased. And testing at both electrodes showed no current was lost.
The researchers, however, found two drawbacks.
Only about one in 20 electrons transferred from the plasma was involved in the reduction reaction. They speculate the lost electrons were converting hydrogen in the water to hydrogen molecules, or that other reactions they were unable to monitor were taking place. They are setting up new tests to find out.
Additionally, the power needed to form the plasma and induce the electrochemical reactions was substantially higher than that required to induce the reaction with metal cathodes.
The researchers know their first model may not be as efficient as what most industries need, but the technology has potential to be used in a number of ways.
Working with Sankaran, Seung has scanned a plasma over a thin film to reduce metal cations to crystalline metal nanoparticles in a pattern.
"The goal is to produce nanostructures at the same small scale as can be done now with lithography in a vacuum, but in an open room," Seung said.
They are investigating whether the plasma electrode can replace traditional electrodes where they've come up short, from converting hydrogen in water to hydrogen gas on a large scale to reducing carbon dioxide to useful fuels and commodity chemicals such as ethanol.
The researchers are fine-tuning the process and testing for optimal combinations of electrode design and chemical reactions for different uses.
"This is a basic idea," Sankaran said. "We don't know where it will go."
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Case Western Reserve University.
Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Carolyn Richmonds, Megan Witzke, Brandon Bartling, Seung Whan Lee, Jesse Wainright, Chung-Chiun Liu, R. Mohan Sankaran. Electron-Transfer Reactions at the Plasma?Liquid Interface. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011; : 111017135037002 DOI: 10.1021/ja207547b
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020105920.htm
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Friday, October 21, 2011
Cain tweaks tax 9-9-9 tax plan to allow exemptions
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain delivers a keynote address during the Western Republican Leadership Conference Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain delivers a keynote address during the Western Republican Leadership Conference Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)
DETROIT (AP) ? Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain is redefining his tax plan to allow some deductions, abandoning the zero-exemption feature of his "9-9-9" plan, which has helped win headlines but would have meant a tax increase for more than four-fifths of Americans.
After sharp criticism over his one-size-fits-all plan from Republicans and Democrats alike, Cain was set Friday to propose exemptions for businesses investing in "opportunity zones" as a way to give an economic jolt to rundown neighborhoods. He's also proposing new tax brackets to reflect different income levels.
Up to now, Cain has touted a plan to scrap the current taxes on income, payroll, capital gains and corporate profits and replace them with a 9 percent tax on income, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. But the plan seems to be unraveling.
"We carved out a substantial amount from the aggregate 9-9-9 plan tax base ? enough to exempt those in poverty ? and we will work with Congress to best apply these in a way to break the poverty trap and replace it with positive incentives that encourage people to work and take risks in this economy," Cain said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday outside the once grand ? and now unused ? Detroit train hub.
Cain's shift on zero exemptions comes after an independent analysis showed his tax plan would raise taxes on 84 percent of U.S. households. The Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, said low- and middle-income families would be hit hardest, with households making between $10,000 and $20,000 seeing their taxes increase by nearly 950 percent.
Households with the highest incomes, however, would get big tax cuts. Those making more than $1 million a year would see their taxes cut almost in half, on average, according to the analysis.
Cain's rivals seized on the disparity and were relentless during Tuesday's debate; President Barack Obama also decried it.
"We anticipated that attack, but I didn't tell them how I was going to fix it yet," Cain, a former pizza executive from Georgia, told Republicans on Wednesday in Las Vegas. "I wanted to wait until I get attacked on that for a while. We already have a plan for that. ... We're not going to throw the people at the poverty level under the bus."
On Friday, Cain was set to detail those tax incentives for businesses to develop areas in need of economic development, such as those facing high unemployment. But he was careful to differentiate them from other efforts, such as community development grants; Cain's plan relies on businesses to work together to create those environments in the neighborhoods, instead of relying on government spending and mandates.
"Opportunity zones, in conjunction with the 9-9-9 plan, will turn the whole country into one giant opportunity zone," Cain said in remarks prepared for a train depot that last saw Amtrak service in 1988.
"Some of the most attractive features will be zero capital gains tax, immediate expensing of business equipment and no payroll taxes are factory-installed in the 9-9-9 plan for the whole country to benefit."
His plan, however, was a significant adjustment from how it was initially proposed. In an interview last week, he suggested some leeway to boost economic development. For instance, taxes in struggling areas could be set at 3-3-3 rates, 3 percent in each category.
"Because you have a lot of African-Americans located in cities like Detroit ? disproportionately ? it would encourage businesses to stay in business there or to move there," Cain told CNN. "It would encourage people to work there, because if you live in the empowerment zone, you're going to pay a smaller percentage in taxes."
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