China December industrial profits up 17.3 percent on year

BEIJING (Reuters) - Profits earned by China's industrial companies rose 17.3 percent in December from a year earlier to 895.2 billion yuan ($143.91 billion), moderating from November's 22.8 percent increase, China's National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.

Industrial profits totaled 5.56 trillion yuan in 2012, up 5.3 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said in a statement published on its website, www.stats.gov.cn

(Reporting By Xiaoyi Shao and Lucy Hornby)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-december-industrial-profits-17-3-percent-014221558--business.html

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Syrian regime urges opposition, refugees to return

BEIRUT (AP) ? Twin car bombs in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights have killed eight people, activists said Friday as the government called on those who fled the country during the civil war to return, including regime opponents.

The persistent violence and the moribund peace plan offered by President Bashar Assad ? now enforced by his appeal to refugees and political opponents to come back ? underlines the intractable nature of the 22-month conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people and left the international community at a loss to find a way to end the bloodshed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two cars packed with explosives blew up near a military intelligence building in the town of Quneitra on Thursday, killing eight. Most of the dead were members of the Syrian military, the Observatory said. The Syrian government has not commented on the attacks.

There was no claim of responsibility for the blasts. Car bombs and suicide attacks targeting Syrian troops and government institutions have been the hallmark of Islamic militants fighting in Syria alongside rebels trying to topple Assad.

Quneitra is on the cease-fire line between Syria and Israel, which controls most of the Golan Heights after capturing the strategic territory from Syria in the 1967 war.

Since the conflict began, more than half million Syrians have fled to neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Those who left include opposition activists and defectors, both ordinary soldiers and army officers who switched to the rebel side, which is fighting to topple Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than four decades.

The state-run SANA news agency said the government will help hundreds of thousands of citizens return whether they left "legally or illegally." Syrian opposition figures abroad who want to take part in reconciliation talks will also be allowed back, according to an Interior Ministry statement carried by SANA late Thursday.

If they "have the desire to participate in the national dialogue, they would be allowed to enter Syria," the ministry said.

The proposed talks are part of Assad's initiative to end the conflict that started as peaceful protests in March 2011 but turned into a civil war. Tens of thousands of activists, their family members and opposition supporters remain jailed by the regime, according to international activist groups.

Opposition leaders, who have repeatedly rejected any talks that include Assad, could not immediately be reached to comment the Syrian regime's latest appeal. The opposition ? including the rebels fighting on the ground ? insists he must step down. Their demand is backed by the international community, but Assad clings to power, vowing to crush the armed opposition.

Both sides remain convinced they can win militarily, and while Assad's forces maintain control over the capital, the rebels have in recent weeks captured large swaths of territory in the country's north and east, including parts of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and its main commercial hub.

Also Friday, regime troops shelled Homs and soldiers battled rebels around the central province with the same name, which was a major frontline during the first year of the revolt. An amateur video posted online by activists showed rockets slamming into buildings in the rebel-held town of Rastan, just north of the provincial capital, Homs. The sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in the background.

Another video showed thick black and grey smoke rising from a building in the besieged city. "The city of Homs is burning... Day and night, the shelling of Homs doesn't stop," the narrator is heard saying.

Troops also battled rebels around Damascus in an effort to dislodge opposition fighters who have set up enclaves in towns and villages around the capital. The troops fired artillery shells at several districts, including on Zabadani and Daraya, according to the Observatory.

Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said regime warplanes carried out airstrikes on the suburb of Douma, the largest patch of rebel-held ground near Damascus.

Both groups depend on a network of activists on the ground around the country.

As violence in the past weeks continued unabated in the south and in central Syria, thousands have been fleeing their homes daily, according to aid agencies, seeking shelter in Jordan and Lebanon, where authorities have struggled to cope with the unprecedented refugee influx.

The Britain-based Save the Children said Friday that 10,000 Syrians, mostly women and children, fled to Jordan over the last 24 hours due to intense fighting between troops and rebels in southern parts of the country, including in Daraa, where the uprising against Assad first erupted.

More than 3,000 of those have reached Jordan's overcrowded Zaatari refugee camp, where five buses, crammed with "frightened and exhausted people who fled with what little they could carry," pull up every hour, according to Saba al-Mobasat, an aid worker of Save the Children in Zaatari.

Last month, the United Nations refugee agency said it needed $1 billion to aid Syrians in the region, while $500 million was required to help refugees in Jordan. The UNHCR says 597,240 refugees have registered or are awaiting registration with the agency in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Some countries have higher estimates, noting many have found accommodations without registering.

Jordan hosts more than 300,000 Syrians.

___

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-regime-urges-opposition-refugees-return-132926816.html

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Genealogy's Star: Editing entries in FamilySearch Family Tree

Most of the information contained in FamilySearch.org's Family Tree program can be edited or, in some cases, deleted by any registered user. This includes most of the personal information about individuals and the relationships between individuals. The ability to edit or delete information is not limited to the people who contributed the information. In Family Tree's predecessor program,?New.FamilySearch.org, everyone "owned" the information they personally contributed and no one else could edit the submitted information. If the information was inaccurate or inappropriate, the only response was to add more, hopefully, accurate information. But all the information, both accurate and inaccurate, was preserved at the same level and availability.? Family Tree changes this scenario dramatically. Any registered user can edit (or where allowed) delete any information. Not just the information they personally contributed.? Whenever I present this function of the program in any class, there are always the same two questions. These are:

• If anyone can change the information then why doesn't the whole database devolve into chaos or fill up with garbage? (Integrity of the database)
• Do you mean to say that anyone can change my family information? (Ownership of the data)

Usually, my explanations of these two issues does not satisfy those asking the question. The issue of the ownership of genealogical data is extremely ingrained in the psyche of the average genealogist. I find the attitude of ownership to be almost pervasive. Researchers have a tendency to think of the information they find to be "their" data. It is relatively easy to point out that all of the descendants "own" their own ancestry, so no one ancestor is owned by any one of the descendants. Although this simple explanation is true, an attitude of possession is hard to overcome. Well, whether or not you or anyone else believes they own their genealogical data, Family Tree still allows anyone to make changes. So this issue has more to do with participation in the program at all, rather than affecting the manner in which the information is edited.? The remaining question concerning the integrity of the data is a little more difficult to address. It is true that allowing anyone to edit data in a database would intuitively seem to move the data towards chaos. But in fact, as counter-intuitive as it may be, allowing everyone to edit the data raises the overall reliability of the data. The reason this occurs is dictated by basic human nature. There are two factors; some people are driven to correct the world around them and most people could care less. In other words, it a lot more likely that people possessing the correct information about the people in Family Tree will be motivated to edit and update the data than those who do not care about either genealogy or Family Tree. This is the premise that makes the wiki-based programs work where registered users can make changes. Family Tree is not strictly a wiki but it does have wiki-like characteristics.? In fact this is the case. Counter intuitively; the information in a wiki (or a wiki-like) program becomes more reliable rather than less reliable. But this brings up another common question: What happens if I change the information and then someone changes it back and then I change it again and so forth? Although this might happen, Family Tree has several layers of features that make this type of disagreement (commonly called a ?revert war?) highly unlikely. First of all, anyone can ?watch? any ancestor in Family Tree. Watching an ancestor initiates a process where the program notifies the user of any changes to the watched individual. Secondly, and more importantly, the program allows for communication between users through email. Obviously, if there is a difference in the data offered for any individual, the users can communicate and come to an understanding concerning the ?correct? data to be entered. Finally, abuses of the program can be reported to FamilySearch. If the users carefully rely on sources, then the possibility of any disagreements will be minimized. If in the end, there is a genuine disagreement about a certain item, then the family will have to ?agree to disagree? and get on with additional research to resolve the controversy. Unfortunately, many of the duplications and errors in New.FamilySearch.org have been inherited by Family Tree. It may take some time to work through these errors, but ultimately, through the editing mechanism of the Family Tree program all of those errors can be corrected and information mutually acceptable to the family can be maintained. Another comment I get at this point in teaching classes concerns the need to correct the duplications and errors in the program. The answer is yes, we are the ones who must start the work of correcting the information in Family Tree. We all hope we have more than one person per family to do the work.?

Source: http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2013/01/editing-entries-in-familysearch-family.html

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New Mexico Bill Would Make Abortion After Rape ... - Business Insider

A Republican state lawmaker in New Mexico has proposed a bill outlawing abortion in cases of rape, arguing that to conduct a termination would amount to "tampering with evidence" of a crime.

The draft legislation proposed by Cathrynn Brown would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term so that the baby could be used as evidence during a sexual assault trial.

And a woman who terminated her pregnancy following an alleged rape would face being charged with a third-degree felony.

"Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," said the bill.

The woman could be jailed for up to three years if found guilty, according to the draft law, proposed on Wednesday.

Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico, a non-profit group which opposes the bill, said it went against the aims of justice.

"In addition to being blatantly unconstitutional, the bill turns victims of rape and incest, who have just been through a horrible sexual assault, into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state.

"According to Republican philosophy, victims who are ?legitimately raped' will now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their case," he added.

Davis was referring to remarks by Missouri Republican Todd Akin, who sparked a furor last August when he said that "if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

That comment embarrassed Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney -- as did a remark by Richard Mourdock of Indiana, who said "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape it is something that God intended to happen."

Romney lost to President Barack Obama on November 6.

The New Mexico bill has little chance of becoming law because Democrats control both houses of the southwestern US state's legislature, but it will nevertheless have to be considered by elected representatives.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-mexico-bill-would-make-an-abortion-after-rape-a-felony-2013-1

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Maxing Out The Mini Season For Maine Shrimp

Trawlers in the Gulf of Maine are allowed to catch Maine shrimp during a limited season that started this week.

Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Trawlers in the Gulf of Maine are allowed to catch Maine shrimp during a limited season that started this week.

Gulf of Maine Research Institute

To Mainers, cold-water shrimp pulled from the Gulf of Maine in midwinter by a shrinking fleet of fisherman are many things: fresh, sweet, delicious, affordable, precious.

"The absolute best thing about them is that they are almost exclusively ours," boasts Portland-based architect and Maine shrimp lover Ric Quesada. He revels in the fact that Maine shrimp don't travel well out of state. "You don't run errands with these in your car. They want to go right home and be eaten," he says.

Upwards of 90 percent of the U.S. harvest of Pandalus borealis comes from the coast of Maine, with the remainder pulled in from waters off New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The small crustaceans with bulbous black eyes are colloquially dubbed "salad shrimp" because of their 2- to 4-inch physiques and the frequency with which they top Caesar salads in Maine. Mainers contend their shrimp have a sweeter, more delicate flavor than those reared in the Gulf of Mexico or shipped in from Asia, most likely because of the colder water, they say.

The season for Maine shrimp is always fairly short, driven by the life cycle of these migratory hermaphrodites. Maggie Hunter, a scientist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, says Maine shrimp sexually mature as males at about 2 1/2 years of age in the muddy bottoms of the deep, cold canyons of the Gulf of Maine. Roughly a year later, they transform into females and mating soon starts. When they are about four or five years old, they migrate to slightly warmer waters closer to shore and there they spawn.

It's at that point in their lives, when the ladies approach the shore between December and February, that they are caught for Mainers' consumption.

But this year Mainers are going to be consuming much less shrimp than they have in the past. The season is starting late to allow more shrimp to spawn before they are caught. And in December, regulators set the allowable catch for the species at just 72 percent of the 2012 level.

The overall allowable catch is divided between fishermen that drag nets behind their boats (a process called trawling) and fishermen that use traps. The season for trawlers began on Jan. 23, and they're only allowed to shrimp on Mondays and Wednesday mornings. Fisherman using traps ? which typically bring in more uniformly sized shrimp because holes in the trap let the little ones escape ? can't begin their shrimping until Feb. 5.

Maine shrimp are small and more red than pink. Mainers say the shrimp have a sweeter, more delicate flavor than shrimp from the American south or Asia.

courtesy Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Maine shrimp are small and more red than pink. Mainers say the shrimp have a sweeter, more delicate flavor than shrimp from the American south or Asia.

courtesy Gulf of Maine Research Institute

How long the season will last is anyone's guess as weather and the shrimpers' ability to locate the shrimp both play a role. Estimates range up to to six weeks, but many think it will be a lot shorter.

If early sales are any indication, the shrimp haul won't last long in the shops. Harbor Fish in Portland received 180 pounds of shrimp on Jan. 23 at 11:30 a.m., and sold out in less than three hours.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates the fishery, contends the limits are necessary because the little gals have been overfished for the past three years, all surveys of the Maine shrimp population are trending downward and there are alarmingly few shrimp mature enough to make the migration to the shore.

The hope is that cutting back on the allowable catch will allow the fishery to return to sustainable levels. But recent samples don't bode well for a quick turnaround, Hunter says.

Sammy Viola is a commercial fisherman who has shrimped out of Maine's Portland Harbor on and off since 1994. He says catch limits are unnecessary. "Maine shrimp are so sensitive to both water temperature and salinity that they are either going to be there or not be there," he says. "If they are not there from one year to the next, we can't catch them, can we?"

Viola says he'll cast his shrimp nets this season, lured by a wholesale price for whole shrimp that's about 50 cents higher per pound than last year. But he also fears that if he doesn't go shrimping this year, regulators will decide to ban him next year. Regulators have made no calls yet about the 2014 season, but the previous year's haul does sometimes factor into the determination of an individual fisherman's quotas for other species, like cod.

Quotas aside, Mainers offer plenty of advice on how they plan to prepare as much of the rare Maine shrimp as they can get their hands on.

Viola will eat some raw on his boat. "They crunch like popcorn," he says.

Quesada first brines them in a salt solution and then marinates them very quickly in olive oil, garlic, herbs and cayenne pepper. He arranges them whole on a very hot, cast iron plancha, turns them once and then calls his family over.

"They should be eaten at the stove. Bringing them to the table is almost wasted effort," he says.

Shrimp cookers all admit to freezing some of the meats for future use and some of the shells for stock. But they say that frozen Maine shrimp isn't quite the same as fresh.

When Quesada pulls a half-pound bag from the freezer, he only employs them as a garnish, for paella or on seafood pasta, for example.

"It's just a little hocus-pocus I do to conjure up the image of the real Maine shrimp season," he says.

Christine Burns Rudalevige is a food writer and recipe developer who recently relocated to Maine and is currently enjoying her first shrimp season there.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/01/24/170157716/maxing-out-the-mini-season-for-maine-shrimp?ft=1&f=1007

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Emergency Kit Preparation Part I: Your Emergency Food & Water ...

Those of us who reside in Atlanta can all remember the infamous Snowpacalypse of 2011 that left many Atlanta residents trapped in their homes for days as the snow was cleared and ice began to melt. As the temperatures continue to drop in the coming weeks and tornado season approaches, we are taking an opportunity to proactively help you prepare for an emergency situation. This post is dedicated to one of the most important steps to be taken in preparation for an emergency: ensuring you have planned for a sufficient and properly stored food and water supply.

Emergency Water Supply and Storage

In general, when planning for your emergency kit?s water supply, the CDC recommends setting aside at least one gallon of water per family member or pet per day and to plan for having at least a three day supply of water on hand. More water should be set aside for your kit if you live in an area with a warmer climate. The water in your emergency supply kit, if unused, should be replaced every six months.

If you are caught in an emergency situation and don?t have a sufficient bottled water supply, there are a few things you can do to disinfect water in an emergency.

Emergency Food Supply and Storage

When planning for your emergency kit?s food supply, plan to include foods that have a longer shelf life, require little or no water to prepare, and don?t require refrigeration or cooking. It?s also best to include foods that you can and do eat fairly regularly. Consider all family members and pets and their dietary and medical needs when creating your emergency kit. The CDC recommends storing enough food for two weeks. They also recommend avoiding foods with high sodium or spice content, as they can increase water consumption and diminish your supply more quickly.

Food should be kept sealed in plastic bags, glass jars, or plastic storage containers and kept in a cool, dry place. Make sure you plan for your emergency kit to include the necessary utensils and tools ?(i.e. a can opener, if your kit includes cans) and cleaning supplies.Other things to consider packing include aluminum foil and cooking equipment and fuel.

In part two of our emergency preparation series, we?ll cover considerations for family members when prepping for an emergency. In the meantime, we have some great printable resources on our Emergency Department website to check out, including our Know When to Go flier to keep posted and top of mind!

Related Resources:

Source: http://www.sjmediaroom.com/2013/01/24/emergency-kit-emergency-food-supply/

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Virginia Tech computer scientists develop new way to study molecular networks

Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
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Contact: Lynn Nystrom
tansy@vt.edu
540-231-4371
Virginia Tech

In biology, molecules can have multi-way interactions within cells, and until recently, computational analysis of these links has been "incomplete," according to T. M. Murali, associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.

His group authored an article on their new approach to address these shortcomings, titled "Reverse Engineering Molecular Hypergraphs," that received the Best Paper Award at the recent 2012 ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedicine.

Intricate networks of connections among molecules control the processes that occur within cells. The "analysis of these interaction networks has relied almost entirely on graphs for modeling the information. Since a link in a graph connects at most two molecules (e.g., genes or proteins), such edges cannot accurately represent interactions among multiple molecules. These interactions occur very often within cells," the computer scientists wrote in their paper.

To overcome the limitations in the use of the graphs, Murali and his students used hypergraphs, a generalization of a graph in which an hyperedge can connect multiple molecules.

"We used hypergraphs to capture the uncertainty that is inherent in reverse engineering gene to gene networks from systems biology datasets," explained Ahsanur Rahman, the lead author on the paper. "We believe hypergraphs are powerful representations for capturing the uncertainty in a network's structure."

They developed reliable algorithms that can discover hyperedges supported by sets of networks. In ongoing research, the scientists seek to use hyperedges to suggest new experiments. By capturing uncertainty in network structure, hyperedges can directly suggest groups of genes for which further experiments may be required in order to precisely discover interaction patterns. Incorporating the data from these experiments might help to refine hyperedges and resolve the interactions among molecules, resulting in fruitful interplay and feedback between computation and experiment.

Murali, and his students Ahsanur Rahman and Christopher L. Poirel, both doctoral candidates, and David L. Badger, a software engineer in Murali's group, all of Blacksburg, Va., and all in the computer science department, used funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to better understand this uncertainty in these various forms of interactions.

Murali is also the co-director of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science's Center for Systems Biology of Engineered Tissues and the associate program director for the computational tissue engineering interdisciplinary graduate education program at Virginia Tech.

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Lynn Nystrom
tansy@vt.edu
540-231-4371
Virginia Tech

In biology, molecules can have multi-way interactions within cells, and until recently, computational analysis of these links has been "incomplete," according to T. M. Murali, associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.

His group authored an article on their new approach to address these shortcomings, titled "Reverse Engineering Molecular Hypergraphs," that received the Best Paper Award at the recent 2012 ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Biomedicine.

Intricate networks of connections among molecules control the processes that occur within cells. The "analysis of these interaction networks has relied almost entirely on graphs for modeling the information. Since a link in a graph connects at most two molecules (e.g., genes or proteins), such edges cannot accurately represent interactions among multiple molecules. These interactions occur very often within cells," the computer scientists wrote in their paper.

To overcome the limitations in the use of the graphs, Murali and his students used hypergraphs, a generalization of a graph in which an hyperedge can connect multiple molecules.

"We used hypergraphs to capture the uncertainty that is inherent in reverse engineering gene to gene networks from systems biology datasets," explained Ahsanur Rahman, the lead author on the paper. "We believe hypergraphs are powerful representations for capturing the uncertainty in a network's structure."

They developed reliable algorithms that can discover hyperedges supported by sets of networks. In ongoing research, the scientists seek to use hyperedges to suggest new experiments. By capturing uncertainty in network structure, hyperedges can directly suggest groups of genes for which further experiments may be required in order to precisely discover interaction patterns. Incorporating the data from these experiments might help to refine hyperedges and resolve the interactions among molecules, resulting in fruitful interplay and feedback between computation and experiment.

Murali, and his students Ahsanur Rahman and Christopher L. Poirel, both doctoral candidates, and David L. Badger, a software engineer in Murali's group, all of Blacksburg, Va., and all in the computer science department, used funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to better understand this uncertainty in these various forms of interactions.

Murali is also the co-director of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science's Center for Systems Biology of Engineered Tissues and the associate program director for the computational tissue engineering interdisciplinary graduate education program at Virginia Tech.

###

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[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/vt-vtc012413.php

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Clinton forcefully defends handling of Benghazi attack

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday forcefully defended her handling of the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi and denied any effort to mislead the American people.

The attack by armed militants that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans threatens to stain Clinton's legacy as secretary of state and could cast a longer shadow should she decide to make a White House run in 2016.

By turns emotional and fierce, Clinton choked up at one point in six hours of congressional testimony as she spoke of comforting the Benghazi victims' families and grew angry when a Republican accused the Obama administration of misleading the country over whether the attack stemmed from a protest.

"With all due respect, the fact is that we had four dead Americans," Clinton said angrily as she testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, an appearance delayed more than a month because of her ill health.

"Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?" she said, making chopping motions with her hands for emphasis.

"It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again."

During the morning Senate hearing and a later session in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats pointed fingers at each other, with Republicans accusing Clinton's State Department of mismanagement and Democrats defending her.

But little new information about the Benghazi incident and the administration's response to it emerged from the lengthy hearings. Clinton did say that there were at least 20 other U.S. diplomatic posts under serious security threat, but declined to name them at the public session.

Clinton cast the Benghazi incident as part of a long history of such violence as well as the result of instability since the Arab Spring of popular revolutions began in 2011, toppling authoritarian rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

"Benghazi did not happen in a vacuum," Clinton said. "The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region."

'I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY'

On the same day as the Benghazi assault, a mob angered by a U.S.-made video depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a fool and philanderer attacked the U.S. embassy in Cairo. There were later attacks on U.S. embassies in Tunisia, Yemen and Sudan.

Republicans harshly criticized Clinton, and President Barack Obama's administration more generally, with Senator Bob Corker saying the Benghazi attack and the U.S. response displayed "woeful unpreparedness" for the events sweeping the region. Senator Rand Paul said Clinton should have been fired.

Clinton, echoing comments she first made on October 15, said: "I take responsibility." She stressed that she had accepted all the recommendations of an independent panel that investigated the incident and that held lower-level officials responsible.

"Nobody is more committed to getting this right. I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and more secure," Clinton said.

Militants attacked and overwhelmed the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 in a sustained assault.

The official U.S. inquiry released on December 18 concluded that "leadership and management failures" in two State Department bureaus led to a security posture "inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."

The unclassified version of the "Accountability Review Board" report also faulted poor coordination and unclear lines of authority in Washington. Four lower-level officials were placed on administrative leave following the release of the inquiry, which did not find Clinton personally at fault.

Clinton is expected to step down in the coming days once her designated successor, Senator John Kerry, is confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Originally due to testify on December 20, Clinton had to postpone after she suffered a concussion when she fainted due to dehydration. Doctors later found she had a blood clot in her head and hospitalized her for several days.

Several senators, noting the vehemence of Clinton's defense, said she appeared to have fully recovered.

While many senators warmly praised her four-year tenure as secretary of state, and several hinted at the possibility of her running for president in 2016, some Republicans were scathing.

They pressed Clinton about what they described as an August 16, 2012 cable from Stevens saying that the Benghazi mission could not withstand a coordinated attack.

"That cable did not come to my attention," Clinton replied, saying that the State Department receives 1.43 million cables a year.

"Had I been president at the time and I found that you did not read the cables ... from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post. I think it's inexcusable," Paul, a Kentucky Republican, told Clinton.

'AS COMBATIVE AS EVER'

Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, told Clinton it was "wonderful to see you in good health and as combative as ever," before going on to say that he categorically rejected one of her answers and found others unsatisfactory.

While clouding Clinton's tenure at the State Department, the controversy over the Benghazi attack also cost Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, her chance to succeed Clinton as secretary of state.

Republicans in Congress blasted Rice for her comments five days after the attack in which she said it appeared to be the result of a spontaneous protest rather than a planned assault.

Rice, who has said her comments were based on talking points from the U.S. intelligence community, eventually withdrew her name from consideration for the top U.S. diplomatic job.

"We were misled that there were supposedly protests and then something sprang out of that, an assault sprang out of that," Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told Clinton, referring to Rice's appearance on Sunday television talk shows.

Clinton rejected the charge.

"People have accused Ambassador Rice and the administration of, you know, misleading Americans," she said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Earlier in her testimony, Clinton appeared to try subtly to distance herself from Rice's comments.

"The very next morning, I told the American people that heavily armed militants assaulted our compound, and I vowed to bring them to justice. And I stood with President Obama in the (White House) Rose Garden as he spoke of an act of terror," she said.

Clinton's voice cracked as she spoke of comforting families who lost relatives in the incident, the first since 1988 in which a U.S. ambassador was killed.

"For me, this is not just a matter of policy - it's personal," Clinton told the Senate panel.

"I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews," she added, her voice breaking as she described the ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland when the men's remains were brought home.

"I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, the sisters and brothers, the sons and daughters and the wives left alone to raise their children," she said.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Will Dunham and David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-defends-her-handling-benghazi-attack-testimony-142554865.html

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Every Month of the Year We Buy Cars in Dallas

Every month of the year is a month we buy cars in Dallas, making it easy to plan for life instead of feeling pressured to sell. Fortunately, the city is booming with businesses and we buy cars in Dallas, Texas from executives within many sectors. The size of the city puts it in the top five metropolitan areas in the country, and when we boast that we buy cars in Dallas we can say we are doing business in the largest metropolitan area in the South. When you are in Dallas you have more options than listing a car in a local newspaper or an online classified ad. We are the original Cash For Cars company and we?re here to help you every step of the way.

February is a notable month in Dallas history because in that month the city was incorporated way back in 1856, but that doesn?t mean we buy cars in Dallas exclusively in February. By every month, we mean the second month as well as the rest of the months that lie between the first and the twelfth. When a person lists a car online or in a newspaper and waits for someone to show interest, they are sometimes forced to talk to people who are not interested in buying a car from anyone for a fair price. We buy cars in Dallas, TX on a constant basis to make sure you always have options. When we buy cars in Dallas, we build the reputation of our company to ensure the city?s over three million residents know they can expect consistent service.

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Oftentimes, the first step to purchasing a new car to help navigate the over 385 square miles that never touch an outlet to the sea is to sell your used one. We buy cars in Dallas, Texas from Dallasites daily. You may not know what a Dallasite is (a person who lives in Dallas) and we may not be able to say ?we buy cars in Dallas from Dallasites? ten times fast, but together more than tongue twisting can occur. Some companies who claim to buy cars are only interested in buying from other large dealers or from auctions and people who own small, private lots. We buy cars in Dallas from regular people looking for a fair price and an easy process.

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People from all corners of the area count on our company to buy their cars. No one wants to deal with the scams and drama that can come with blindly listing a vehicle for sale and dealing with anyone showing interest in a time-consuming effort to get the car sold. We buy cars in Dallas, TX from folks who stay in the downtown hot spots like Uptown, Oak Lawn and West Village ? they are too cool to be bothered with car listing problems. Artists call us from the South Dallas Cedars who can?t waste time dealing with financial annoyances when their next big idea is about to burst out of their head and onto the canvas. Students living in Midtown are happy we buy cars in Dallas because they are too busy studying to spend hours wondering if their car will ever sell. No matter where you are located, we buy cars in Dallas from you.

If you would like to find more information about our amazing nationwide car buying and selling network then visit us at http://www.cash4usedcars.com and get cash for your car quickly!

Source: http://blog.cash4usedcars.com/every-month-of-the-year-we-buy-cars-in-dallas/

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First meteorite linked to Martian crust

Public release date: 3-Jan-2013
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Contact: Andrew Steele
asteele@ciw.edu
202-478-8974
Carnegie Institution

Washington, D.C.After extensive analyses by a team of scientists led by Carl Agee at the University of New Mexico, researchers have identified a new class of Martian meteorite that likely originated from the Mars's crust. It is also the only meteoritic sample dated to 2.1 billion years ago, the early era of the most recent geologic epoch on Mars, an epoch called the Amazonian. The meteorite was found to contain an order of magnitude more water than any other Martian meteorite. Researchers from the Carnegie Institution (Andrew Steele, Marilyn Fogel, Roxane Bowden, and Mihaela Glamoclija) studied carbon in the meteorite and have shown that organic carbon (macromolecular) similar to that seen in other Martian meteorites is also found in this meteorite. The research is published in the January 3, 2013, issue of Science Express.

The unique meteorite, dubbed Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, has some similarities to, but is very different from other Martian meteorites known as SNC (for three members of the group: Shergotty, Nakhla, and Chassign). SNC meteorites currently number 110. And so far they are the only meteoritic samples from Mars that scientists have been able to study. However, their point of origin on the Red Planet is not known. In fact, recent data from lander and orbiter missions suggest that they are a mismatch for the Martian crust.

As co-author Andrew Steele, who led the carbon analysis at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory explained: "The texture of the NWA meteorite is not like any of the SNC meteorites. It is made of cemented fragments of basalt, rock that forms from rapidly cooled lava, dominated with feldspar and pyroxene, most likely from volcanic activity. This composition is common for lunar samples, but not from other Martian meteorites. This unusual meteorite's chemistry suggests it came from the Martian crust. It is first link thus far of any meteorite to the crust. Our carbon analysis also showed that the meteorite likely underwent secondary processing at the Martian surface, explaining the macromolecular organic carbon. "

Lead author Agee, of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, remarked: "The basaltic rock in this meteorite is consistent with the crust or upper mantle of Mars based on findings from recent Martian rovers and orbiters. Our analysis of the oxygen isotopes shows that NWA 7034 is not like any other meteorites or planetary samples. The chemistry is consistent with a surface origin and an interaction with the Martian atmosphere. The abundance of water, some 6000 parts per million, suggests that the meteorite interacted with the Martian surface some 2.1 billion years ago."

"Perhaps most exciting, is that the high water content could mean there was an interaction of the rocks with surface water either from volcanic magma, or from fluids from impacting comets during that time," said Steele. "It is the richest Martian meteorite geochemically and further analyses are bound to unleash more surprises."

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The research was supported by NASA's Cosmochemistry Program, a NASA ASTEP and NAI grant to Steele, the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, and NSF award ATM0960594.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 3-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Andrew Steele
asteele@ciw.edu
202-478-8974
Carnegie Institution

Washington, D.C.After extensive analyses by a team of scientists led by Carl Agee at the University of New Mexico, researchers have identified a new class of Martian meteorite that likely originated from the Mars's crust. It is also the only meteoritic sample dated to 2.1 billion years ago, the early era of the most recent geologic epoch on Mars, an epoch called the Amazonian. The meteorite was found to contain an order of magnitude more water than any other Martian meteorite. Researchers from the Carnegie Institution (Andrew Steele, Marilyn Fogel, Roxane Bowden, and Mihaela Glamoclija) studied carbon in the meteorite and have shown that organic carbon (macromolecular) similar to that seen in other Martian meteorites is also found in this meteorite. The research is published in the January 3, 2013, issue of Science Express.

The unique meteorite, dubbed Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, has some similarities to, but is very different from other Martian meteorites known as SNC (for three members of the group: Shergotty, Nakhla, and Chassign). SNC meteorites currently number 110. And so far they are the only meteoritic samples from Mars that scientists have been able to study. However, their point of origin on the Red Planet is not known. In fact, recent data from lander and orbiter missions suggest that they are a mismatch for the Martian crust.

As co-author Andrew Steele, who led the carbon analysis at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory explained: "The texture of the NWA meteorite is not like any of the SNC meteorites. It is made of cemented fragments of basalt, rock that forms from rapidly cooled lava, dominated with feldspar and pyroxene, most likely from volcanic activity. This composition is common for lunar samples, but not from other Martian meteorites. This unusual meteorite's chemistry suggests it came from the Martian crust. It is first link thus far of any meteorite to the crust. Our carbon analysis also showed that the meteorite likely underwent secondary processing at the Martian surface, explaining the macromolecular organic carbon. "

Lead author Agee, of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, remarked: "The basaltic rock in this meteorite is consistent with the crust or upper mantle of Mars based on findings from recent Martian rovers and orbiters. Our analysis of the oxygen isotopes shows that NWA 7034 is not like any other meteorites or planetary samples. The chemistry is consistent with a surface origin and an interaction with the Martian atmosphere. The abundance of water, some 6000 parts per million, suggests that the meteorite interacted with the Martian surface some 2.1 billion years ago."

"Perhaps most exciting, is that the high water content could mean there was an interaction of the rocks with surface water either from volcanic magma, or from fluids from impacting comets during that time," said Steele. "It is the richest Martian meteorite geochemically and further analyses are bound to unleash more surprises."

###

The research was supported by NASA's Cosmochemistry Program, a NASA ASTEP and NAI grant to Steele, the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, and NSF award ATM0960594.

The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/ci-fm123112.php

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Suicide car bomber kills 27 Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq

HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber driving a car killed at least 27 Shi'ite Muslims at a bus station in the Iraqi town of Mussayab on Thursday, police and medics said, as they were gathering to return home from a religious rite.

The attack, which also wounded at least 60, underlines sectarian tensions that threaten to further destabilize the country a year after U.S. troops left.

Police said the bomber drove into a busy bus station where pilgrims were catching buses back to Baghdad and the northern provinces after the Arbain rite in the holy city of Kerbala, where thousands make an annual pilgrimage.

Mussayab is 60 km (40 miles) south of the capital Baghdad.

"I was getting a sandwich when a very strong explosion rocked the place and the blast threw me away. When I regained my senses and stood up, I saw dozens of bodies," said Ali Sabbar, a pilgrim who witnessed the explosion.

"Many cars were set on fire. I just left the place and didn't even participate in the evacuation of the victims."

Arbain has been a frequent target for militants since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, who banned Shi'ite festivals.

A roadside bomb targeting a minibus transporting Shi'ite pilgrims back from Kerbala also wounded 8 people in New Baghdad.

The latest violence followed nearly two weeks of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by thousands of people from the minority Sunni community in the western province of Anbar, which shares a border with Syria.

The protesters accuse Maliki of being under the sway of non-Arab Shi'ite neighbor Iran and of marginalizing Sunnis, who dominated Iraq until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

They want Maliki to abolish anti-terrorism laws they say are used to persecute them.

The conflict in neighboring Syria, where a Sunni majority is fighting to topple government backed by Shi'ite Iran, is also whipping up sectarian sentiment in Iraq and the wider region.

Although violence is far lower than during the sectarian slaughter of 2006-2007, a total of 4,471 civilians died last year in what one rights group described as a "low-level war" with insurgents.

No group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks, but Iraq is home to several Sunni insurgent groups including a local branch of al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq, which often targets Shi'ites, seeking to re-ignite sectarian strife.

At least 23 people were killed and 87 wounded in attacks across Iraq on Monday.

(Reporting by Ali al-Rubaie; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-car-bomber-kills-least-20-shiite-pilgrims-151453124.html

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Bonobos will share with strangers before acquaintances

Jan. 2, 2013 ? You're standing in line somewhere and you decide to open a pack of gum. Do you share a piece with the coworker standing to one side of you, or with the stranger on the other?

Most humans would choose the person they know first, if they shared at all.

But bonobos, those notoriously frisky, ardently social great apes of the Congo, prefer to share with a stranger before sharing with an animal they know. In fact, a bonobo will invite a stranger to share a snack while leaving an acquaintance watching helplessly from behind a barrier.

"It seems kind of crazy to us, but bonobos prefer to share with strangers," said Brian Hare, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. "They're trying to extend their social network." And they apparently value that more than maintaining the friendships they already have.

To measure this willingness to share, Hare and graduate student Jingzhi Tan ran a series of experiments with bonobos living in the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The experiments involved piles of food and enclosures that the test subjects were able to unlock and open. Tan and Hare describe their work in a paper in the Jan. 2, 2013 edition of PLOS ONE.

In the first series of experiments, a pile of food was placed in a central enclosure flanked by two enclosures, each of them holding another animal. The test subject had the knowledge and ability to open a door to either of the other chambers, or both. On one side was a bonobo they knew from their group (not necessarily a friend or family member) and in the other was a bonobo they had never really met, but had only seen at a distance.

Upon entering the chamber with the food, the test subjects could easily just sit down and consume it all themselves, or they could let in one or both of the other animals to share.

Nine of the 14 animals who went through this test released the stranger first. Two preferred their groupmates. Three showed no particular preference in repeated trials. The third animal was often let in on the treat as well, but more often it was the stranger, not the test subject, who opened the door for them.

Tan said that by letting the third animal into the enclosure, the stranger voluntarily outnumbered himself or herself with two bonobos who knew each other, which a chimpanzee would never do. In 51 trials of the experiment, there was never any aggression shown, although there was quite a bit of typical bonobo genital rubbing between the strangers.

To isolate how much motivation the animals receive from social interaction, the researchers ran a second set of experiments in which the subject animal wouldn't receive any social contact with another animal. In the first of these experiments, the subjects couldn't get any food for themselves regardless of whether they chose to open the door to allow the other animal to get some food. Nine out of ten animals shared with the stranger at least once.

In the final experiment without social contact, the subject animal was given access to the food in such a way that opening the door to share with the other animal would cost them some food. But they still wouldn't have any social contact as a reward. In this instance, the animals chose not to share. "If they're not going to see a social benefit, they won't share," Hare said.

This second test is similar to something called the dictator game in which humans are given the chance to share cash with a stranger, Hare said. Most people will share anonymously, but they share even more when they aren't anonymous. Bonobos won't share at all in the anonymous condition if it costs them food.

"They care about others," Hare said, but only in a sort of selfish way. "They'll share when it's a low-cost/low-benefit kind of situation. But when it's a no-benefit situation, they won't share. That's different from a human playing the dictator game. You really have to care about others to give anonymously."

The findings, which Hare calls "one of the crazier things we've found" in more than a decade of bonobo research, form yet another distinction between bonobos and chimpanzees, our two closest relatives. "Chimps can't do these tests, they'd be all over each other."

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the European Research Council.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Tan J, Hare B. Bonobos Share with Strangers. PLOS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e51922 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051922

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/2bif2nwe0DY/130102173312.htm

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Obama Signs Cliff Bill Into Law (WSJ)

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