Bangkok flood defenses hold off peak coastal tides

Residents stand as water from the swollen Chao Phraya River flows through a shopping center, located on its bank, in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Residents stand as water from the swollen Chao Phraya River flows through a shopping center, located on its bank, in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Thai soldiers and residents carry sandbags to fortify a wall breached by swollen Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The complex network of flood defenses erected to shield Thailand's capital from the country's worst floods in nearly 60 years was put to the test Saturday as coastal high tides hit their peak. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Thai soldiers pass sandbags to fortify a wall breached by swollen Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The complex network of flood defenses erected to shield Thailand's capital from the country's worst floods in nearly 60 years was put to the test Saturday as coastal high tides hit their peak. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

A Thai navy man pulls a boat carrying evacuees at an flooded area in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday Oct. 29, 2011. The complex network of flood defenses erected to shield Thailand's capital from the country's worst floods in nearly 60 years was put to the test Saturday as coastal high tides hit their peak. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai soldiers and volunteers pass sandbags as they fortify an alley after swollen Chao Phraya river overflows in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The complex network of flood defenses erected to shield Thailand's capital from the country's worst floods in nearly 60 years was put to the test Saturday as coastal high tides hit their peak. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

BANGKOK (AP) ? Defenses shielding the center of Thailand's capital from the nation's worst floods in nearly 60 years mostly held at critical peak tides Saturday, as the waters began to recede after killing almost 400 people. But the threat to central Bangkok was not over, the prime minister said, and the city's northern districts remained submerged along with much of the countryside.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra urged citizens to let the crisis run its course as the floodwaters slowly drain to the sea, with Bangkok lying in their path. The floods that have besieged central Thailand for weeks submerged entire towns across the country's heartland and shuttered hundreds of factories over the last two months.

"We have the good news that the situation in the central region has improved as runoff water gradually decreased," she said. "I thank people and urge them to be more patient in case this weekend is significant because of the high tide."

Bangkok residents watched the city's dikes and sandbag barriers warily as the high tide pushing up the Chao Phraya River from the Gulf of Thailand peaked Saturday morning. It had been described as the greatest test of the capital's flood defenses since the northern deluge first approached Bangkok more than three weeks ago.

While some water doused streets and shops along the river, the tides fell short of forecast highs and there was no major breach. Higher than usual tides will continue through Monday, but are predicted to be lower than Saturday's.

City official Adisak Kantee said the city's concrete barriers "are efficiently protecting Bangkok from deluge," though he said smaller, private dikes might yet fail.

"The situation is so far under control," he said.

Yingluck said in her weekly radio address the government was trying to speed the drainage rate and water in the greater Bangkok area should recede within days.

While downtown Bangkok were bone-dry and bustling, areas along the city's outskirts saw flooding spread. Seven of Bangkok's 50 districts ? all in the northern and western outskirts ? are heavily inundated. Eight other districts have seen less serious flooding.

In the city's west, not far from the flooded district of Bang Phlat, workers filled sandbags and stacked them in pickup trucks for delivery to the front lines, while vendors did booming trade in life vests, plastic boats, styrofoam and anything else that floated. With many roads in the area submerged, traffic was heavy both heading in and out of the city.

Thousands of Bangkok residents used a special five-day holiday to leave town, wary at confusing warnings about the flood threat and others concerned about sparse supplies in stores due to weeks of panic buying and flood-related distribution problems.

Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra highlighted another threat: sanitation. He ordered boats to collect uncollected garbage in a flooded district where most places were inaccessible by truck.

On Saturday, the Flood Relief Operations Center moved from its base at Don Muang airport after a power transformer malfunctioned. The airport, mainly used for domestic flights, closed Tuesday because of flooding on the runways and surrounding streets.

While many in Bangkok will be breathing somewhat easier now that the highest of tides has passed, there was no complacency in the Sam Sen area, where a floodwall burst Saturday morning under the pressure from the surging water. Residents and soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in the churning torrents trying to plug the gap and get the flow under control.

At the nearby Boonchuay boxing camp, a handful of Muay Thai fighters went through their afternoon workout, sparring in a ring surrounded by the overflow of the Chao Phraya river. The camp's well-worn heavy bags dangled inches above the murky floodwaters, while the weight machines sat submerged up to their seats, rendering them unusable.

Don Krasaein, a junior lightweight fighter from the northeastern province of Nakorn Ratchasima, is one of 10-20 boxers who for the past month have had to cut out exercises that can't be done in the ring but come for three-hour workouts every morning and afternoon.

Don, 31, said the flooding was a distraction, but he wouldn't allow it to affect his fighting, despite the water swelling and peeling the skin on his feet. But he admitted to some worry.

"I'm scared the water is going to rise even more," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Vee Intarakratug and Chris Blake contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-29-AS-Thailand-Floods/id-440224fe7b3a4dbc9bf7e1ab37e4f448

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Video: Europe News Boosts Banks

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45066316#45066316

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Looking for a job? North Dakota needs you

By Catherine Kim
and Jessica Hopper
Rock Center

Those hurt hard by the ailing economy are flocking to Williston, N.D., where an oil boom has?turned a sleepy prairie town into a place producing thousands of jobs.

"There's opportunity here and that's what we all need is opportunity," said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser.?"It's kind of been an oasis for the country.? You know, there's a lot of jobs here, good paying jobs in the oil industry."

Williston is situated on the Bakken formation, an oil field that some say will produce the biggest boom in North America since the 1960s. Koeser said that his town currently has 2,000 to 3000 jobs and they haven't been able to fill the openings fast enough.

"A lot of jobs get filled every day, but it's like for every job you fill, another job and a half opens up," Koeser said.

A job on an oil rig can pay as much as six figures.? The starting salary for truck drivers is around $80,000. While the nation's unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, Williston's unemployment rate is less than 1 percent.?

Locals say job seekers from all 50 states are heading to the North Dakota town, becoming modern-day pioneers. The town's population has nearly doubled from 12,600 people to 23,000 people.

Patrick Parker hitchhiked from Yuba City, Calif., to Williston. When NBC News spoke to him, he had just $12 in his pocket. Parker, a paving stone layer by trade, has been out of work for two years.?

---

"One of my goals is to make my daughters proud of me," said an emotional Parker.? "I want to make them proud because I worked a good job for 10 years and then for it to go away it's just, it just gets to me a little bit."

Parker is one of a dozen people NBC News saw setting up camp or living in their cars in the?parking lot of the local Wal-Mart.? Williston's housing construction hasn't caught up with its rapid growth.

Parker said the town feels "like the old gold rush town."

Oil was discovered in the this part of North Dakota 60 years ago, but it was only recently that oil producers have found a way to get at it more effectively.? After drilling about two miles down, they drill horizontally for another two miles through the bed of rock where the oil is trapped.? Using a technique called fracking - water, sand and chemicals are shot into the rock formation from that horizontal pipe to create cracks and fractures. From those openings, comes the oil.? Those in the oil industry say the tight rock that traps the oil, also prevents it from escaping into the water table during the fracking process.

North Dakota is currently the fourth largest producer of oil in the United States, but that is projected to change soon.? A spokesperson for North Dakota?s Mineral Resources Department said that oil production in the state is expected to surpass Alaska and California by 2015 which means North Dakota?will be the second largest oil producer in the country soon.

Along with the bounty from the oil boom, come some stresses and strains. A sewage system that's running at full tilt, truck traffic congestion, an influx in 911 calls-those are just a few of the headaches that keep Mayor Koeser up at night.

There is such a large influx of people that thousands are staying in 'man camps'- shipping containers converted into housing units for the workers new to town.? When more teachers were hired to deal with the rising number of students, an apartment building had to be built to house the new teachers, Koeser said.

"When we have as many people come here everyday looking for work, where are they going to live," Koeser asked.? "How are we going to get water to them and sewer to them and a road to them and power to them and all those sorts of issues.?? Yeah, it's putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the infrastructure."

Of all the stresses, the biggest strain on the community is truck traffic, the mayor said.

"That's really stressing us, the traffic, a lot of accidents," said Koeser.? "In a small community, you're used to getting from one side of town to the other in just a few minutes, that's no longer the case."

The number of accidents in September were double the amount the same time a year ago, the Williston Herald reported.

The surplus of people living in the town coupled with the traffic accidents has led to a drastic rise in calls to 911. Koeser said that the police receive at least 10,000 more calls a year than in pre oil boom times.

"Now keep in mind, you've got, you know, probably 9,000 men living in man camps around the city, not in the city limits, but living around the city and what do they do at night when they're done with work?? They come to town and find a bar and want to have a good time, and sometimes get in trouble," Koeser said.

But that means more jobs: the town is adding six new policeman and three dispatchers this year, the mayor said.

Even with the headaches, Koeser said he and Williston's other residents are lucky that the town has become an oasis for job seekers.

"I've lived here most all of my life and I love it. And although we're really being challenged right now, with those challenges come some great opportunities," he said.

Source: http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/27/8495501-now-hiring-north-dakota-oil-boom-creates-thousands-of-jobs

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Hugo Chavez: 'There is no government in Libya'

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, speaks with Colombia's Maria Emma Mejia, secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), after their meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas,Venezuela, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, speaks with Colombia's Maria Emma Mejia, secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), after their meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas,Venezuela, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, flashes a thumbs up to Colombia's Maria Emma Mejia, secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), not pictured, after their meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas,Venezuela, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks to the media after meeting with Colombia's Maria Emma Mejia, secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), not pictured, at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas,Venezuela, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks to the media after meeting with Colombia's Maria Emma Mejia, secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), not pictured, at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas,Venezuela, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks to the media after meeting with Colombia's Maria Emma Mejia, secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), not pictured, at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas,Venezuela, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he won't recognize Libya's new government and predicted more war in the country.

The Venezuelan leader condemned the killing of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, whom he had considered a friend. He defended Gadhafi throughout the conflict and strongly criticized NATO's military involvement in the country.

"For us, there is no government in Libya," Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace.

"We don't recognize the government that NATO has installed. It's installed a government through bombs in Libya and through a genocide ... and an assassination," Chavez said.

"Independently of who the president was, whether you or others didn't like him ... he was the president of Libya," Chavez said.

He said the conflict has left behind a shattered country, and he predicted that it isn't over.

"Libya isn't under anyone's control. A war will start there now," Chavez said. "Well, it already started, imposed by NATO and the United Nations Security Council."

"They destroyed that country, and now there's chaos there, violence everywhere," he added.

The Venezuelan president demanded peace negotiations during the conflict in Libya and denounced the rebels as "terrorists." Gadhafi at one point sent Chavez a letter thanking him for his support.

Chavez said after Gadhafi's death that he would be remembered as a martyr.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-26-LT-Venezuela-Libya/id-9220a9c66066406fa319800f220ac1b1

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Carsharing Service RelayRides Raises Another $3 Million, Led By GM Ventures

RelayRides, a car-sharing service that lets you rent (or rent out) cars a few hours at a time, has raised an additional $3 million in funding, adding on to the company's Series A round that now totals $13M. More important than the money is who took part in the round: it was led by General Motors Ventures, with participation from the company's existing investors. The funding is connected to a recent deal that?RelayRides forged with GM, which will allow RelayRides users to tap into the OnStar system that has come equipped on all GM cars since 2005 (that's around 15 million cars). After connecting their OnStar accounts to RelayRides, renters will be able to remotely unlock the cars they've signed up for using their mobile phones, without having to deal with swapping physical keys.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gwmU0o-svyo/

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Turkey quake death toll rises to 523 (AP)

ERCIS, Turkey ? Rain and snow on Thursday compounded difficulties for thousands rendered homeless in the powerful earthquake that hit eastern Turkey, and the government said the death toll has gone up to 523.

The prime minister's center for crisis and emergency management said 1,650 people were injured and 185 were rescued from the rubble.

Turkish authorities delivered more tents after acknowledging initial problems in the distribution of aid for survivors of the 7.2-magnitude quake that shattered at least 2,200 buildings on Sunday.

Foreign assistance also began arriving after Turkey said it would accept help to house survivors through the winter. Israel, which has a troubled political relationship with Turkey, sent emergency housing units, blankets and clothing. Germany also dispatched supplies, including tent heating units. Russia and Ukraine also contributed.

Some media reports had said rescuers pulled out a 19-year-old alive from the rubble on Thursday, but Mustafa Ozden, the head of the team that brought out the young man, told The Associated Press that he was rescued on Tuesday, not Thursday.

Rain gave way to intermittent snow, deepening the hardship of thousands of people either rendered homeless in the powerful earthquake or too afraid to return indoors amid aftershocks that continued to rattle the area.

In the worst-hit city of Ercis, families who managed to obtain tents shared them with others. Some people spent a fourth night outdoors huddled under blankets in front of campfires, either waiting for news of the missing or keeping watch over damaged homes.

Sermin Yildiz, who was eight months pregnant, was with her twins and husband. They shared a tent with a family of four who were distant relatives. Her apartment in a three-story building was not damaged but the family was reluctant to return.

"It's getting colder, my kids are coughing. I don't know how long we will have to stay here," Yildiz said. "We were not able to get a tent. We are waiting to get our own."

Turkey's weather agency predicted intermittent snowfall for the next three days.

More than a dozen television stations organized a joint aid telethon, amassing just under 62 million Turkish Lira ($37 million) in aid for the region.

Searchers sifting through piles of debris recovered more bodies. They included two dead teenage sisters and their parents who were holding hands, and a mother clutching her baby boy, according to media reports.

Two teachers and a university student were rescued from ruined buildings on Wednesday, but there were no signs of survivors elsewhere and excavators were clearing debris from some collapsed buildings.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_quake

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China says to launch unmanned space-docking craft

BEIJING | Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:14am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it will launch within weeks its first spacecraft capable of docking with a module it put into orbit last month, in what will mark a crucial test of its growing space program.

The unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, carried by the Long March-2F rocket, will blast off in early November, state media reported, and will later try to dock with the Tiantong-1, or "Heavenly Palace-1" space laboratory module China launched in September.

Officials with China's space program have said the docking tests will provide experience for the building of a permanent manned space station around 2020.

It is also the latest in a long string of Chinese space launches that have burnished national pride, as budget restraints and shifting priorities have held back U.S. manned space launches.

The official Xinhua news agency did not give a specific date for the launch, but said the craft was being transported to the remote Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.

Beijing is still far from catching up with space superpowers. Russia, the United States and other countries jointly operate the International Space Station, a group to which China does not belong.

The United States will not test a new rocket to take people into space until 2017. Russia has said manned missions are no longer a priority for its space program, which has struggled with delays and glitches.

China launched its second moon orbiter last year after it became only the third country to send its astronauts walking in space outside their orbiting craft in 2008.

It plans an unmanned moon landing and deployment of a moon rover in 2012, and the retrieval of lunar soil and stone samples around 2017. Scientists have talked about the possibility of sending a man to the moon after 2020.

China is also jostling with neighbors Japan and India for a bigger presence in space, but its plans have faced international wariness. Beijing says its aims are peaceful, and that the involvement of its military is natural given the magnitude of the undertaking.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/t0GUgtQww_A/us-china-space-idUSTRE79P14Y20111026

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Beginning Real Estate Investing In Sacramento County

Real Estate Investing In Sacramento County Is Easy!

I know a lot of Real Estate Investors in Sacramento. Not all of them are always making money. Many get hammered in the construction and several others simply overbuy. Many Beginning Investors make the huge mistake of holding out for the perfect offer. So why are some of my Investor friends more successful than others?

I know many Beginning Investors have initial problems acquiring funding for projects. Often times it?s this very struggle that prevents many would be investors from being involved. However once the funding is solved up comes the next issue. There is a fine line that needs to be walked. It?s important to turn the inventory and not actually hold properties. This is of course assuming you?re flipping.

We are a successful team of Real Estate Investors. We have been investing in Sacramento for the last 3 years with great success. Our track record is impressive and our purchasing investors are loyal. We have found that our products sell quickly. Here are a few tips that have helped carve our success.

1. Don?t fight construction.
2. Don?t be greedy.
3. Don?t under estimate how much work this is.

DON?T FIGHT CONSTRUCTION
Most Real Estate Investors are not contractors. Most of the people I know who invest are certainly knowledgeable but far from experts in construction. This means that at the onset we are going to be relying on someones expertise. For most starting out this is where the dangerous stuff happens.

Construction costs are always on the rise. It seems no matter what the budget is initially, it changes. So how is a new investor to keep hold of this animal? Find people who are already running crews and hire them.

Yes believe it or not there are entire teams of people out there who do nothing but construction for property flippers. Eventually you will create your own team but in the beginning it?s important to get your costs in line. Working with an experienced team is a great way to quickly establish what your construction costs will be.

DON?T BE GREEDY. Sounds simple right? Simple isn?t always easy. Once the numbers start adding up it?s easy to get greedy?DON?T DO IT.

If everyone in the deal makes a fair profit then everyone returns for another. However if you screw your construction crews they will screw you back. If you start giving slimmer deals so you can make more up front then the investors will stop purchasing. If you don?t pay your people properly then someone else will.

Last year we did well north of 120 houses. It is impossible to do that type of volume and screw people. It?s vital that your system is built on honesty and is done so brick by brick. Please make sure all your partners are also honest and understand the value of opportunity cost.

This is a particularly sensitive one for me since I have seen other investors break this rule. I know a ton of greedy investors. However it?s important I know them since they are the ones who want my deals! An investor who isn?t somewhat greedy is an animal I have yet to find.

If you are a greedy investor that?s ok! Just don?t let that spill into the operations side of things IE.. not paying construction etc.. Whenever I bring this up everyone always goes ?yeah ,yeah, not me?. Yet I have seen it time and time again. I hear about it in the grapevine constantly. So and so didn?t pay on time, didn?t pay right, didn?t pay at all.

Last but not least. THIS IS A LOT OF WORK. The due diligence is where a lot of time is spent. Since this is early in the process it is the most frustrating part. It is always funner to work closer to the money!

However spending a lot of time making sure the investment is sound is the cornerstone of success. If you spend your time focused on making sure your investments are solid you will be successful. Remember it?s important we do everything we can to reduce risk. The time spent reducing risk will be rewarded with profit when the deals sell.

As usual there will be the naysayers and the critics. Make it a SmartFlip from the start.

Tagged as: beginning investing, house flipping, investing in sacramento, investment opportunity, real estate system

Source: http://sacramentoflips.com/flipping-rants/real-estate-investing-in-sacramento-county-is-easy.htm

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Woman sentenced to prison for celebrity break-in

FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2010 file photo, Rachel Lee leaves the Los Angeles Superior Court downtown Los Angeles. Lee was sentenced to four years in state prison Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011, after pleading no contest last month to burglarizing Patridge's Hollywood Hills home. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)

FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2010 file photo, Rachel Lee leaves the Los Angeles Superior Court downtown Los Angeles. Lee was sentenced to four years in state prison Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011, after pleading no contest last month to burglarizing Patridge's Hollywood Hills home. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A woman who pleaded no contest to breaking into reality television starlet Audrina Patridge's home was sentenced to four years in state prison Tuesday.

Rachel Lee is the second member of the so-called "Bling Ring" to be sentenced for their roles in a rash of break-ins at celebrities' homes that netted more than $3 million in high-end goods.

The group targeted the homes of stars such as Orlando Bloom, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and others before members of the ring were arrested in late 2009.

Lee, 21, was arrested in January 2010 and later pleaded no contest to the February 2009 burglary at the Hollywood Hills home of Patridge, who starred in MTV's "The Hills."

More than $25,000 in designer luggage, jewelry, clothing and shoes were taken from Patridge's home, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. A hearing will be held at a later date to determine how much Lee has to re-pay.

Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler dismissed a conspiracy to commit burglary charge and two counts of receiving stolen property that had been filed against Lee. The judge had previously dismissed a charge against Lee related to the Lohan burglary.

Four other alleged members of the crew, including accused ringleader Nicholas Prugo, are awaiting trial.

Alexis Neiers, an aspiring model and star of the E! Entertainment Television show "Pretty Wild," pleaded no contest in May 2010 to burglarizing Orlando Bloom's home and was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation.

Patridge testified before a grand jury about returning to her home on Oscar night 2009 and finding it had been looted.

"So I locked myself in the closet," Patridge told the grand jury, according to transcripts. "And I was still on the phone with my sister and I was afraid to hang up, because I didn't know if someone was still in my house, or, you know. I just wanted to be safe."

The starlet never appeared in court on Lee's case.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-25-Celebrities%20Burglarized/id-38822c8ae5194a58a677cba920442a36

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Obama offers mortgage relief on Western trip (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? President Barack Obama offered mortgage relief on Monday to hundreds of thousands of Americans, his latest attempt to ease the economic and political fallout of a housing crisis that has bedeviled him as he seeks a second term.

"I'm here to say that we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job," the president declared outside a family home in Las Vegas, the epicenter of foreclosures and joblessness. "Where they won't act, I will."

Making a case for his policies and a new effort to circumvent roadblocks put up by Republican lawmakers, Obama also laid out a theme for his re-election, saying that there's "no excuse for all the games and the gridlock that we've been seeing in Washington."

"People out here don't have a lot of time or a lot of patience for some of that nonsense that's been going on in Washington," he said.

The new rules for federally guaranteed loans represent a recognition that measures the administration has taken so far on housing have not worked as well as expected.

His jobs bill struggling in Congress, Obama tried a new catchphrase ? "We can't wait" ? to highlight his administrative initiatives and to shift blame to congressional Republicans for lack of action to boost employment and stimulate an economic recovery.

Later in the week, Obama plans to announce measures to make it easier for college graduates to pay back federal loans. Such executive action allows Obama to address economic ills and other domestic challenges in spite of Republican opposition to most of his proposals.

While Obama has proposed prodding the economy with payroll tax cuts and increased spending on public works and aid to states, he has yet to offer a wholesale overhaul of the nation's housing programs. Economists point to the burst housing bubble as the main culprit behind the 2008 financial crisis. Meanwhile, the combination of unemployment, depressed wages and mortgages that exceed house values has continued to put a strain on the economy.

While the White House tried to avoid predicting how many homeowners would benefit from the revamped refinancing program, the Federal Housing Finance Agency estimated an additional 1 million people would qualify. Moody's Analytics say the figure could be as high as 1.6 million.

Under Obama's proposal, homeowners who are still current on their mortgages would be able to refinance no matter how much their home value has dropped below what they still owe.

"Now, over the past two years, we've already taken some steps to help folks refinance their mortgages," Obama said, listing a series of measures. "But we can do more."

At the same time, Obama acknowledged that his latest proposal will not do all that's not needed to get the housing market back on its feet. "Given the magnitude of the housing bubble, and the huge inventory of unsold homes in places like Nevada, it will take time to solve these challenges," he said.

In spelling out the plan to homeowners in a diverse, working-class Las Vegas neighborhood, Obama chose a state that provides the starkest example of the toll the housing crisis has exacted from Americans. One in every 118 homes in the state of Nevada received a foreclosure notice in September, the highest ratio in the country, according to the foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac.

Obama visited the home of Jose and Lissette Bonilla, two grocery store workers whose house was refurbished under a program paid for by the original 2009 economic stimulus plan. The program was designed to stabilize communities hit by foreclosures or abandonment. Lissette Bonilla said she told the president that without his stimulus plan, the five members of her family would still be living in a one-bedroom apartment.

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for proposing last week while in Las Vegas that the government not interfere with foreclosures. "Don't try to stop the foreclosure process," Romney told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Let it run its course and hit the bottom."

"That is not a solution," Carney told reporters on Air Force One. He said Romney would tell homeowners, "`You're on your own, tough luck.'"

The president also was using his visit to Las Vegas to promote a $15 billion neighborhood revitalization plan contained in his current jobs proposal that would help redevelop abandoned and foreclosed properties and stabilize affected neighborhoods.

The Nevada stop was the first leg of a three-day tour of Western states, blending his pitch for boosting the economy with an aggressive hunt for campaign cash.

From Nevada, Obama will head for the glamor of Hollywood and the homes of movie stars Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas and producer James Lassiter for some high-dollar fundraising. On Tuesday, he will tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. He will also raise money in San Francisco and in Denver.

Before the president addressed his mortgage refinancing plan, he attended a fundraiser at the luxurious Bellagio hotel, offering a sharp contrast between well-to-do who are fueling his campaign and the struggling homeowners hoping to benefit from his policies.

The mortgage assistance plan by the Federal Housing Finance Agency will help borrowers with little or no equity in their homes, many of whom are stuck with 6 or 7 percent mortgage rates, to seek refinancing and take advantage of lower rates. The FHFA plans to remove caps that had allowed homeowners to refinance only if they owed up to 25 percent more than their homes are worth.

The refinancing program is being extended until the end of 2013. It was originally scheduled to end in June 2012.

The administration's incremental steps to help homeowners have prompted even the president's allies to demand more aggressive action.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a moderate Democrat from California, gave voice to Democratic frustration on the housing front last week when he announced his decision not to seek re-election, blaming the Obama administration directly for not addressing the crisis.

"I am dismayed by the administration's failure to understand and effectively address the current housing foreclosure crisis," Cardoza said in a statement that drew widespread attention. "Home foreclosures are destroying communities and crushing our economy, and the administration's inaction is infuriating."

Obama's new "We can't wait" slogan is his latest in a string of stump-speech refrains he hopes will pressure Republicans who oppose his $447 billion jobs package. He initially exhorted Congress to "Pass this bill!" then demanded "I want it back," all in the face of unanimous Republican opposition in the Senate, though even some Democrats were unhappy with the plan.

Obama has now agreed to break the proposal into its component parts and seek congressional approval one measure at a time. The overall proposal would increase taxes on millionaires, lower payroll taxes on workers and businesses for a year, pay for bridge, road and school construction projects, and help states and local governments retain teachers and emergency workers.

The proposals with the best chance of passage are the payroll tax cuts and extensions in jobless insurance to the long-term unemployed.

Countering Obama's criticism, GOP leaders say the sluggish economy and stubbornly high unemployment rate are the result of failed Obama administration policies.

"It's another day in the campaign life of President Obama, and he's bringing his re-election tour to Nevada, ground zero for the damaging effects of his failed economic policies," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_en_mo/us_obama

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Schools brace for more budget cuts (AP)

LANCASTER, Pa. ? Educators are bracing for a tough reality: As difficult as budget cuts have been on schools, more tough times are likely ahead.

Even in a best-case scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year, it won't be until 2013 or later when districts see budget levels return to pre-recession levels, said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va. That means more cuts and layoffs are likely ahead.

"The worst part is that it's not over," Domenech said.

Already, an estimated 294,000 jobs in the education sector have been lost since 2008, including those in higher education.

The cuts are felt from Keller, Texas, where the district moved to a pay-for-ride transportation system rather than cut busing altogether, to Georgia, where 20 days were shaved off the calendar for pre-kindergarten classes. In California, a survey found that nearly half of all districts last year cut or reduced art, drama and music programs. Nationally, 120 districts ? primarily in rural areas ? have gone to a four-day school week to save on transportation and utility costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Others are implementing fees to play sports, cutting field trips and ending after-school programs.

Districts have little choice but to put off buying textbooks and technology and training teachers, said Rob Monson, a principal in Parkston, S.D., who is president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

On a recent day at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Lancaster, teenage girls in ponytails and boys in long athletic shorts dashed across the gym, pausing their game of indoor tennis to motion "Y-M-C-A" with their arms as the Village People's song blares from the loudspeaker. It's a scene happening less frequently these days. Budget cuts and teacher layoffs have forced the school to cut some P.E. classes, reduce library hours and eliminate small literacy classes for struggling readers and Spanish for sixth- and seventh-graders.

Principal Josh Keene says he's worried ? not just about offering electives next year, but whether class sizes in core subjects will jump from around 25 to 35 or 40. His district received $6 million less from the state this year, which meant six staff positions in his school were cut. Even if state funding remains the same next year, the district expects to have from $5 million to $7 million less because of increased pension obligations and other expenses.

"I'm scared to death. As we continue to look at fewer and fewer non-classroom positions that are there, at some point it's going to impact core classroom positions and that's a very, very scary thing," said Keene.

Recognizing the reality districts face, President Barack Obama included $30 billion in his $447 billion jobs creation package to save teachers' jobs. The Senate rejected the jobs package as well as a separate measure focused on saving the jobs of teachers and emergency responders. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said the plan resembles "bailouts" that haven't proven to work and only perpetuate economic problems.

Not everyone sees all doom and gloom in schools' budget woes. Some say many districts haven't wisely spent tax dollars or didn't adequately prepare for the end of the $100 billion in federal stimulus dollars for schools. And that while the number of students per teacher in America dropped from 22.3 in 1970 to 15.3 in 2008, according to the National Center For Education Statistics, they say the reduction hasn't made a noticeable difference.

Karen Hawley Miles, executive director of Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit based in Watertown, Mass., that helps urban districts develop ways to more effectively use resources, encourages districts to use this time to make changes they have been reluctant to do. They include strategically raising class sizes to refocus on teacher quality and changing teacher compensation to be more tied to performance, she said.

"In tough days when it's incredibly urgent, sometimes these conversations can take place in a different frame. We see districts really thinking about how they can really do things differently and really focus in on their priorities," she said.

In Pennsylvania, at the urging of Gov. Tom Corbett, the legislature slashed public-education spending by roughly $900 million, or more than 10 percent, to avoid a state budget deficit for the year that began July 1 without raising taxes.

Seemingly overnight, thousands of education jobs in the state were lost. A survey of school districts by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials found that leading into this school year, 44 percent reduced elective course offerings and 70 percent increased class sizes. More than 30 districts said they either reduced or eliminated full-day kindergarten or pre-K programs.

The cuts hit many of the poorer districts harder because they are more reliant on state dollars.

In York, Pa., about a 30-minute drive from Lancaster, full-day kindergarten was saved when administrators and teachers agreed to a pay freeze. But art, music, and physical education teachers in elementary schools were eliminated, forcing classroom teachers to incorporate the electives in their classroom teaching, said Kim Schwarz, 45, a teacher and president of the York City Education Association. High school class sizes now are in the upper 30s, she said.

Schwarz said the changes are tough for kids who really shine in art or physical education and it's been hard on the morale of teachers.

"The district has scrimped and pulled and did everything they could to find additional funds ... and I think the teachers are doing an absolutely phenomenal job of educating the students and giving them the attention that they need given the circumstances, which just adds more to the stress and the level of exhaustion that we're all feeling," Schwarz said.

At Keene's school in Lancaster, about 60 percent of the students are Latino and 80 percent are considered low income. Many are sent home on Friday nights with donated groceries and recipes for cooking them. Among the staff members cut was someone who did home visits to follow up on children who weren't attending class. The school was able to continue an after-school program only after a non-profit agreed to run it.

Keene said he wants his children to have a full life, and he thinks music, art and physical education are part of that. He just hopes those classes will be offered in the future.

"You know the old adage sometimes you need to work smarter, not harder? We're frankly at a point where we just need to work harder and more hours, and with the reductions in staff, that's what needs to happen because otherwise, kids are going to suffer, and that's unacceptable," Keene said.

_____

Online:

American Association of School Administrators: http://www.aasa.org

Compass Mark: http://www.compassmark.org/

Education Resource Strategies: http://erstrategies.org/

National Association of Elementary School Principals: http://www.naesp.org/

Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators: http://www.pasa-net.org/

York City Education Association: http://ycea.psealocals.org/

School District of Lancaster: http://www.lancaster.k12.pa.us/

_____

Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_education_budget_cuts

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Lern2Play

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Oil hovers above $86 ahead of Europe debt talks (AP)

SINGAPORE ? Oil prices hovered above $86 a barrel Friday in Asia ahead of a summit this weekend where European leaders will try to agree on a plan to contain their region's debt crisis.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 17 cents at $86.24 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 22 cents to settle at $86.07 in New York on Thursday.

Brent crude was up 14 cents at $109.90 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Europe's leaders plan to meet Sunday and have scheduled another meeting for next week as differences emerged this week between Germany and France over how to protect European banks from the consequences of a possible default by the Greek government.

Crude has traded between $85 and $89 most of this week as traders await details of Europe's debt plan.

Analysts were also mulling the impact of the death of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on the OPEC nation's oil production and exports. Before fighting started in February, Libya produced about 1.6 million barrels a day, but violence quickly reduced output to a trickle.

The drop in supply helped push prices to near $115 a barrel in early May.

"Virtually all of the news emerging from Libya over the past six weeks has been positive on the production side," J.P. Morgan said in a report. "The oil market is discounting a relatively rapid return of at least the first 700,000 barrels per day of production."

Some analysts expect Libya's damaged infrastructure and infighting among factions to delay a return to pre-war production levels.

"Serious security challenges persist in Libya that could hinder efforts to restore Libyan production fully," Barclays Capital said in a report.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell 0.5 cents to $3.02 per gallon and gasoline futures dropped 0.5 cents to $2.65 per gallon. Natural gas slid 0.3 cents to $3.63 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_re_as/oil_prices

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AU: Somali militants 'dressed up' bodies for stunt

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) ? Al-Qaida-linked militants claimed to have killed 70 foreign African Union peacekeepers but an eyewitness said many of the bodies put on display were likely Somali government soldiers. An AU spokesman said Friday that the insurgents had stolen uniforms and dressed up scores of their own dead.

The militants said the bodies were proof they are still capable of putting up a fight despite coming under attack on two fronts.

African Union troops and government soldiers pushed the al-Shabab militia from their last bases in the capital on Thursday, AU spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said. And Kenyan troops supporting a pro-government militia have pushed at least 60 miles (100 kilometers) inside Somalia in the past week.

Al-Shabab has retreated before the Kenyan forces so far, but the militants have struck back in the capital with a series of bombings ? including a truck bomb that killed over 100 people. On Thursday, they put up a bloody fight when AU forces arrived in Deynile, al-Shabab's last base in Mogadishu.

The militants showed around 60 bodies after the fierce fighting, according to several eyewitnesses. Photos show that some of those displayed wore flak jackets and helmets ? equipment that is issued to AU soldiers but not common among government troops or insurgents. But many other bodies were only dressed in green camouflage uniforms.

One eyewitness, a photographer at the scene, said he counted 58 bodies. There were about 30 men in the line who were clearly Somali and some wore tattered government-issued uniforms, he said. The origin of nine bodies was unclear because their faces were down in the sand or for other reasons, he said.

But 19 others wore the type of uniform given to Burundian troops and looked like foreigners, he said. The militants also displayed a Bible and some crucifixes, items unlikely to be carried by Muslim Somalis. He did not see any identity documents, he said.

The eyewitness spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals because his observations contradicted the militants' account.

Ankunda said that 10 soldiers had been killed and two were missing after Thursday's battle. The bodies of the 10 dead soldiers were safely in AU hands, he said. An internal AU document seen by The Associated Press said that 38 soldiers also had been wounded.

"It's a manipulated picture," Ankunda said. "They dressed up their own casualties ... I think they've been keeping some uniforms."

Later, he said that the uniforms were so new that the Burundians had not even been issued them yet.

The AU has previously underreported casualties and al-Shabab routinely exaggerates the number of people it has killed.

"The extremists have also been using the suburbs of Deynile as a base to assemble improvised explosive devices, including car and truck bombs such as those recently employed to target civilians in the capital," said AU force commander Maj. Gen. Fred Mugisha in a press release.

He confirmed Ankunda's casualty figures, but said they were not final since operations were ongoing. Mugisha said that journalists should be cautious about using the pictures purporting to show dead AU soldiers.

"While it is true that some of our soldiers remain unaccounted for, regardless of whom the deceased may be, the desecration of remains for propaganda purposes is against all civilized norms and international conventions."

An al-Shabab spokesman insisted that all the bodies displayed were Burundian soldiers. The 9,000-strong AU force is made up of Burundians and Ugandans.

"You see their dead bodies here, our mujahedeen killed 70 of them today," spokesman Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage said on Thursday. "Allah punished them in the hands of the mujahedeen when they tried to attack us."

AU soldiers have steadily pushed al-Shabab back over the past year and the insurgents withdrew from most of the city overnight in August.

On Monday, Rage said al-Shabab would send suicide bombers to Kenya in retaliation for their excursion into Somalia. Kenya originally said it was pursuing gunmen who kidnapped four foreigners from Kenyan soil in the past six weeks. But later a military spokesman said they planned to push onto Kismayo, an insurgent stronghold and a complex, long-term operation that would have required far more advance planning.

Currently, the Kenyan forces are not far from the town of Afmadow, a strategically important cross roads where al-Shabab executed two men for spying on Friday.

The two men were brought into an open ground, tied to a pole and shot by masked men, said eyewitness Ahmed Mohamed.

"Some of the spectators vomited, and women cried when they saw the men being shot. They were well known to us," said Halima Abdi. "They told us to come out for a religious sermon then they brought the two boys and executed them. Those who wanted to flee were ordered to stay. It was awful," she said.

Al-Shabab has been weakened by internal divisions and a famine in its strongholds in the south that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Many Somalis also have expressed disgust with the suicide bombings and harsh punishments that are key tactics of the insurgency.

___

Houreld reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-21-AF-Somalia/id-2ecf2e293b9b4b0eb0ffb28a26c93744

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Romney speech touts ability, as video rips Perry's (AP)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is telling a business group that the nation's economic challenges require a tested leader, as his campaign releases an Internet video that questions his top rival's readiness to be president.

The former Massachusetts governor says America will overcome its problems "if we have leaders that...know how to lead."

The 20-minute talk was upbeat and patriotic, a far cry from the GOP debate in Las Vegas Tuesday, where Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry tangled over policy and questioned each others' integrity.

The Romney video knits together clips from recent debates where Perry jumbled his words and had trouble making his point.

Romney was also raising money at an event hosted by a South Dakota meatpacking company owner. He'll campaign in Iowa Thursday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111020/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney_south_dakota

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Preliminary Human Experiments to Test Safety of Nerve Cell Transplants for Spinal Cord Paralysis

News | Mind & Brain

The new approach, currently being studied by the FDA for phase I trials, avoids the problems of immunological rejection and the controversy around the use of embryonic stem cells

By R. Douglas Fields ?| October 19, 2011?|

Human Schwann cells in the final product generated from the sural nerve of an organ donor. The cells were purified and grown in strict accordance with a manufacturing protocol developed in the laboratories at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. The final product is of high purity and similar cells from a subject with spinal cord injury would be suitable for clinical transplantation. Image: Courtesy of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis/University of Miami

ROCKVILLE, Md.?A new experiment aimed at achieving actor Christopher Reeve's dream of finding an effective treatment for spinal paralysis was announced this week at an international meeting of scientists and people with spinal cord injury sponsored by the United 2 Fight Paralysis Foundation. The approach, which already is shown to be promising in animals and avoids the need for patients to take immunosuppressive drugs, has not yet been proved effective in humans. Nonetheless, patients are excited to see this advance as they have been frustrated waiting for the first human trials of the new approach.

W. Dalton Dietrich, scientific director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, announced here that his research team has submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to begin new "phase I" experiments on humans to treat paralysis using the new cell transplantation technique. (Phase I trials have nothing to do with efficacy. They are only to test safety and typically a nontherapeutic dose is used at the outset of the safety studies.) With the new technique, rather than using cells derived from embryonic stem cells, the patient's own mature cells are harvested from a nerve in the leg and grown in large numbers in the laboratory, then transplanted back into the injured spinal cord to repair damage. This approach avoids the problems of immunological rejection and the controversy that can arise from using cells derived from embryonic stem cells for treating neurological injury and disease. Typically, patients receiving an organ or tissue transplant from a donor must be given immunosupressant drugs to prevent their immune systems from attacking the foreign tissue.?

The cells being used for transplantation are Schwann cells, a type of non-neuronal cell (glia) that protects and insulates nerve fibers running through the body's limbs and trunk. Schwann cells also support the repair of damaged neurons; they provide vital proteins that protect nerve cells after injury, coax new nerve sprouts (axons) to grow and reconnect with the proper structures, and wrap electrical insulation, myelin, around the fibers, which is essential for axons to conduct electrical impulses. Unlike damage to the spinal cord, an injured nerve in the body can repair itself.?

Schwann cells are not present in the brain and spinal cord. Instead, a different cell called an oligodendrocyte forms the myelin insulation. This century-old observation was an important clue in answering the question of why a damaged nerve in the body's peripheral nervous system heals over time, but a damaged axon in the brain or spinal cord (central nervous system, or CNS) does not. Research transplanting Schwann cells into the damaged brain and spinal cord of experimental animals in the 1980s showed that neurons in the CNS could grow and repair damaged connections if Schwann cells were transplanted to support and guide them. This finding has been replicated in numerous studies in a wide range of animals. The cellular environment in the central nervous system is the reason that spinal cord injury results in permanent paralysis, not a weakness of the neurons themselves in recovering from damage.?

"This is great news?very exciting," says Martin Codyre, of Greystones, Ireland, "but I am frustrated because this [experiments in humans] should have happened 15 years ago." Codyre, who suffered a broken neck in a fall three years ago, has educated himself on the neuroscience of spinal cord injury and become an advocate for research to find a cure. "People in wheelchairs are going all over the world to get things [transplants] done in places like China, without knowing what they are getting?it's risky," he says, criticizing the slow pace of bringing research on experimental animals to experiments in humans. "People are desperate. They are dying in their chairs."? There are no cell transplantation therapies approved for treating patients for spinal cord injuries, but phase I trials were approved recently by the FDA to permit a biotech company, Geron Corp., to begin testing the safety of transplanting cells derived from embryonic stem cells (oligodendrocyte progenitor cells) into spinal cord injury patients last October. Transplantation of a different type of cell into the spinal cord that is derived from embryonic stem cells is being tested by Neuralstem, Inc. for safety in treating patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Safety concerns are greater with stem cell-based therapy, because unlike a drug, foreign cells transplanted into a patient's body cannot be removed, and some fear the possibility that they could form tumors.?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=06937ab3556395f6f028d4f39b65cc3f

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Starburst captured: Students photograph exploding star in pinwheel galaxy

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2011) ? In the Pinwheel Galaxy some 21 million light years from Earth, a supernova beams brightly, out-shining its cosmic neighbors and causing a stir among starwatchers.

Students in University of Delaware Prof. Judi Provencal's Observational Astronomy class (PHYS 469) photographed the exploding star last week using the telescope at Mt. Cuba Astronomical Observatory in Greenville, Del., which has a lens spanning 24 inches in diameter.

"The supernova, a star that is blowing itself to bits, is the brightest object in the lower center of the image," Provencal notes. "It is the brightest supernova in the last 20 years and might be visible with binoculars."

The bursting star, known as PTF 11kly, will eventually fade over the next year or so and then turn into a neutron star or a black hole. The material ejected when it exploded may form new stars.

According to Provencal, PTF 11kly is a "Type 1a" supernova, which means it's half of a "stellar team" known as a binary star. One of the stars is an "ordinary" star, and the other is a white dwarf, a super-dense star that is the size of Earth, but has the mass of the sun. Because it doesn't have nuclear reactions firing away in its core, the white dwarf does not generate any internal energy. Instead, it's supported against gravity by "electron degeneracy pressure" which occurs when a huge number of electrons are compacted tightly together in a small volume.

The two stars of the binary team orbit very closely together, so close that the "ordinary" star transfers material to the white dwarf. When the white dwarf gains enough material that it reaches a critical mass (about 1.4 times the mass of the sun), electron degeneracy pressure fails and the star will collapse in on itself. This produces a lot of energy, which we see as the supernova, Provencal explains.

"These are the types of supernova that were used to determine that the universe is actually accelerating in its expansion, which has led to the whole field of dark energy," Provencal says.

The Pinwheel Galaxy inhabited by the PTF 11kly supernova was discovered in 1781 by French astronomer Pierre Mechain, who thought it was a nebula, a gas cloud from which new stars are born. Erwin Hubble later would show that it is indeed a full-fledged galaxy.

Mechain's fellow astronomer Charles Messier would include it as an item, today still referred to as "Messier 101," or M101, in his 1781 astronomical catalog.

"Messier's list was supposed to help with comet hunting since it was a list of fuzzy objects that didn't move in the sky. Comet hunting was a big deal back then," notes Provencal.

The Pinwheel Galaxy is a spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way. It's called a spiral galaxy for the spiral arms or "spokes" that curve away from a center disk of highly concentrated stars. The stars in these spokes are younger and thus hotter and brighter than the stars at the center.

Although the Pinwheel Galaxy is playing host to the brightest, nearest supernova seen from Earth in years, starwatchers should know that our own Milky Way also sports supernovae from time to time -- the most recent one was recorded in 1572, Provencal says.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Delaware. The original article was written by Tracey Bryant.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111018214618.htm

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Analysis: Louisiana Governor Jindal looks poised to win reelection (reuters)

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Susan Sarandon calls Pope Benedict a Nazi: report (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Actress and social activist Susan Sarandon was reported to have called Pope Benedict a Nazi during a public discussion at a U.S. film festival in New York, provoking criticism from both Catholic and Jewish groups.

The movie star, who won an Oscar for her role in the 1995 anti-death penalty film "Dead man Walking" actress, said she had sent a copy of the book on which the movie is based to the pope.

"The last one. Not this Nazi one we have now," she was reported as saying by New York newspaper Newsday.

The remark was made on Saturday in an interview conducted by fellow actor Bob Balaban about Sarandon's career that was part of the Hamptons Film Festival.

Newsday said Balaban gently chided Sarandon for the remark but she repeated it.

Sarandon's Hollywood agent did not respond to calls for comment on Monday.

German born Pope Benedict, formerly Joseph Ratzinger, was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth in the early 1940s when membership was compulsory, the Vatican has said. He deserted the military during World War Two and has said that as devout Catholics, his parents rejected Nazi ideology.

Sarandon, 65, who was raised in New York as a Roman Catholic, is known for her support of causes ranging from hunger and AIDS to opposing the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The "Thelma and Louise" star was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999.

The New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called Sarandon's remark "obscene" and said in a Monday statement that her "ignorance is willful."

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which fights anti-Semitism, called on Sarandon to apologize to the Catholic Community.

"Ms. Sarandon may have her differences with the Catholic Church, but that is no excuse for throwing around Nazi analogies. Such words are hateful, vindictive and only serve to diminish the true history and meaning of the Holocaust," the ADL said in a statement.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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