US couple in jail after fleeing to Cuba with kids

This framegrabbed image provided by Baynews9 shows Joshua Michael Hakken being processed for booking into the Hillsbourgh County Jail early Wednesday morning April 10, 2013. The Florida couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and fleeing by boat to Havana were handed over to the United States, and were booked into a Florida jail, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Baynews9, Pool)

This framegrabbed image provided by Baynews9 shows Joshua Michael Hakken being processed for booking into the Hillsbourgh County Jail early Wednesday morning April 10, 2013. The Florida couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and fleeing by boat to Havana were handed over to the United States, and were booked into a Florida jail, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Baynews9, Pool)

This framegrabbed image provided by Baynews9 shows Sharyn Hakken being processed for booking into the Hillsbourgh County Jail early Wednesday morning April 10, 2013. The Florida couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and fleeing by boat to Havana were handed over to the United States, and were booked into a Florida jail, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Baynews9, Pool)

This photo combination made from undated images provided by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office shows 35-year-old Joshua Michael Hakken, left, and his wife, 34-year-old Sharyn Patricia Hakken. Cuba says it will turn over to the United States the Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped their own children from the mother?s parents and fled by boat to Havana. (AP Photo/Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office)

This undated image provided by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office shows two-year-old Chase Hakken. Authorities are searching for two young boys they believe were kidnapped by their father from their maternal grandparents' Florida home after their grandmother was tied up. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday night April 3, 2013 asked for the public's help in locating the boys, 4-year-old Cole Hakken and 2-year-old Chase Hakken. (AP Photo/Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office)

This undated image provided by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office shows four-year-old Cole Hakken. Authorities are searching for two young boys they believe were kidnapped by their father from their maternal grandparents' Florida home after their grandmother was tied up. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday night April 3, 2013 asked for the public's help in locating the boys, 4-year-old Cole Hakken and 2-year-old Chase Hakken. (AP Photo/Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office)

MIAMI (AP) ? A Florida couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and fleeing by boat to Cuba were handed over to the United States and imprisoned and their children were returned to their maternal grandparents, who have official custody, authorities said Wednesday.

Joshua Michael Hakken and his wife, Sharyn, were being held at the Hillsborough County Jail on a number of charges including kidnapping, child neglect and interference with custody, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said on its website.

The couple are expected to make their first appearance Thursday in Hillsborough County Court, the sheriff's office said in a statement. It was not immediately known if either of the Hakkens has an attorney. The couple will not face federal charges, said David Couvertier, a spokesman for the FBI in Tampa.

U.S. authorities say Hakken kidnapped his sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, from his mother-in-law's house north of Tampa, Florida. The boys' grandparents were granted permanent custody of the boys last week.

"Our grandchildren are safe," the grandfather, Bob Hauser, told a news conference with the sheriff's office late Tuesday. "We had an opportunity to talk with them before they left Cuba."

Bob and his wife, Patricia Hauser, asked the news media to give them at least 24 hours alone with the boys, the sheriff's department said in a statement. They planned to make a public statement possibly by Thursday.

Cuba tipped the State Department off to the Hakkens' presence Sunday, and from that moment "diplomatic contact has been exchanged and a professional and constant communication has been maintained," Cuban Foreign Ministry official Johana Tablada said in a statement.

An AP reporter spotted the couple and the children beside their boat at the Hemingway Marina in Havana on Tuesday. A man who resembled photographs of Joshua Michael Hakken yelled out "Stop! Stay back!" as the reporter approached, but there was no outward sign of tension or distress between the family members.

The family showed no sign they knew a decision about their fate had been made. The four strolled by an outdoor restaurant as security officials kept reporters at a distance. The youngest child was seated in a stroller and the elder boy sat down on a curb.

The U.S. and Cuba share no extradition agreement and the island nation is also not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international treaty for governmental cooperation on such cases.

Cuba has harbored U.S. fugitives in the past, though most of those cases date back to the 1960s and '70s, when the island became a refuge for members of the Black Panthers and other militant groups. More recently, dozens of Cuban Medicare fraud fugitives in the U.S. have tried to escape prosecution by returning to the island.

But Cuba has also cooperated with U.S. authorities in returning several criminal fugitives in recent years, including Leonard B. Auerbach in 2008. Auerbach was wanted in California on federal charges of sexually abusing a Costa Rican girl and possessing child pornography. He was deported.

In 2011, U.S. marshals flew to Cuba and took custody of two U.S. suspects wanted in a New Jersey slaying.

Hakken lost custody of his sons last year after a drug possession arrest in Louisiana and later tried to take the children from a foster home at gunpoint, authorities said. A warrant had been issued for his arrest on two counts of kidnapping; interference with child custody; child neglect; false imprisonment and other charges.

Hakken entered his mother-in-law's Florida house last Wednesday, tied her up and fled with his sons, the sheriff's department has said. Federal, state and local authorities searched by air and sea for a boat Hakken had recently bought. The truck that Hakken, his wife and the boys had been traveling in was found Thursday, abandoned in Madeira Beach, Florida.

The family's flight to Cuba harkened back to the 1999 child custody case involving Elian Gonzalez, though unlike Gonzalez, the Hakkens had no apparent ties to the island.

In 1999, 5-year-old Gonzalez was found clinging to an inner tube off Florida after his mother and others drowned while fleeing Cuba toward American soil. The boy was taken to Miami to live with relatives, but his father in Cuba demanded the boy be sent back.

U.S. courts ultimately ruled Gonzalez should be sent back, though his Miami relatives refused to return him. In April 2000, U.S. federal agents raided the family's home and he was returned to Cuba soon after. He has since grown into a young man and joined a military academy.

_____

Associated Press writers Christine Armario, Curt Anderson and Kelli Kennedy in Miami; Kevin McGill in New Orleans; Paul Haven and Peter Orsi in Havana; and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

_____

Suzette Laboy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SuzetteLaboy

Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-10-Children%20Kidnapped-Cuba/id-fca39b2dcca04d5fa5d9b5c8e7b04bd6

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Rivera thanks Indians employees for memories

New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera throws during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Detroit, Sunday, April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera throws during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Detroit, Sunday, April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

The tarp rests on the field before a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

CLEVELAND (AP) ? Before Mariano Rivera answered questions from Indians employees he wanted to personally thank on his last visit to Progressive Field, the greatest closer in history had a request of his own.

"Where's the drummer?" Rivera asked.

He wanted to finally meet the man who has kept a steady sports beat in Cleveland for 40 years, the guy sitting at the top of the bleachers year after year pounding away to spark a rally.

"Right here," John Adams said, raising one of his drum sticks so the New York legend could see him in the back of the room.

"Hey, you the man," Rivera said. "Being loyal, being there day in and day out. I really respect that."

"Thank you," Rivera said.

During his final trip around the majors, Rivera, who is retiring at the end of this, his 19th season with the Yankees, is taking time to visit with team employees who work behind the scenes. On Wednesday, Rivera met with 25 Indians employees ? ushers, ticket salespersons, custodians and others ? for 30 minutes before the Yankees played the Indians.

They came to say goodbye to Rivera, who answered questions, posed for pictures and handed out autographed baseballs to Clevelanders who seemed in awe of the classy gesture.

"I appreciate what you guys do," Rivera said. "We see mostly what goes on when we're on the field and not what's going on behind the scenes. I wanted to say thank you for everything that you guys do, for the love and passion you have for your team. It doesn't matter if you are a Yankee fan or not. You are a baseball fan.

"Thank you for being here. I know you are busy, but thank you for taking a little bit of time. I appreciate that."

With that, Rivera said he was ready for questions and braced himself to be peppered by some Indians die-hards who have watched No. 42 come in and close out comebacks and dash more than a few special seasons in Cleveland.

"You can say whatever you want now," Rivera said with a laugh.

It didn't take long for one of the employees to ask Rivera for his favorite memories in Cleveland. In 1997, Rivera famously gave up a game-tying homer to Sandy Alomar Jr. in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the AL division series. The Indians went on to win and take the series in five games, denying the Yankees a chance to defend their World Series title.

For Rivera, it was a rare moment of failure.

But looking back, the 43-year-old said it provided motivation.

"Let me tell you something, if you think '97 was bad," he said. "For me, it was the stone where I stepped to push forward because it helped me to become better. If that wouldn't have happened, God only knows where I would have ended up. But because that happened, it pushed me to be better in moments like that and in situations like that."

Rivera recalled facing dominant Cleveland teams of the 1990s, when the Indians had one of baseball's most feared lineups with Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel and Albert Belle.

"All those years it was a battle here," said Rivera, who announced on March 9 that this would be his final season. "It was never easy."

Rivera, though, often made it look so. He has 609 career saves, and has converted his last 17 save opportunities against the Indians since 2003.

Rivera recoiled playfully when Adams told him he's been drumming at Indians games since 1973.

"This is stress relief for me," he told Rivera. "And you've given me a lot of stress."

Rivera plans special goodbyes during the remainder of his final season. Last week in Detroit, he met with a longtime member of the grounds crew who worked at Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park. He also visited with other members of the Tigers' extended family, faces not as recognizable as his own but people he feels indebted to.

He told them Edgar Martinez was the toughest hitter he ever faced, and he grew up worshipping Pele, the Brazilian soccer legend.

At the end of the visit inside the Indians' press conference room, Rivera met with each of the employees, taking a moment to talk about their jobs, families, whatever they wanted to say.

Mary Forkapy has worked for the Indians since 1996, handling the team's payroll. She shook hands with Rivera, posed for a picture with his valuable right arm around her shoulder and accepted a baseball with the signature of the future Hall of Famer.

"It was very genuine, very heartfelt, very nice," she said of her one-on-one time with Rivera. "He told me I was a very important person."

So did this soften her hatred toward the Yankees?

"A little," she said.

As the group dwindled to just a few, Rivera shook hands with Adams, who tried to get the reliever to take a whack at his large drum.

"No, I can't," Rivera said. "That's your thing."

NOTES: With Wednesday night's game postponed by rain, the Indians will also delay a ceremony to honor Rivera. The Yankees were only scheduled to play four games in Cleveland, but will have to come back at a future date for the makeup. .... RHP Ivan Nova's turn will be skipped and Phil Hughes will start Thursday for New York. ... The rainout cooled off Robinson Cano, who went 7 for 10 with three doubles, three homers and seven RBIs in the first two games of the series. He has twice had consecutive three extra-base hit games. The only other Yankee to do that was Lou Gehrig in 1936.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-10-BBA-Yankees-Rivera's-Thank-You/id-b911e62ce3cc46d5a7f472a480d0523e

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Bumpies! See Kim Kardashian, Jessica Simpson and Amber Rose?s Belly Photos

The moms-to-be take selfies to another level by posting photos of their baby bellies via Instagram and Twitter.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/_f8Y9Isidek/

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Breast Cancer Survival Rates Much Lower For Black Women, Regardless Of Type: Study

African-American women are more likely than all other women to die from breast cancer, and according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, doctors have gained more insight as to why that disparity exists.

For more than six years, researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. followed nearly 1,700 breast cancer patients who had been treated for four different subtypes of breast cancer, including luminal A, luminal B, basal-like or HER2-enriched cancer. During that period, about 500 of the patients had died, nearly 300 of them from breast cancer, researchers say.

Among them, black patients were nearly twice as likely as white patients to have died from breast cancer, regardless of the cancer subtype, findings that turn traditional thinking about black women and breast cancer on its head.

"The results seem to indicate that although African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed with less treatable subtypes of breast cancer compared with white women, it is not the only reason they have worse breast cancer mortality," said Candyce Kroenke, M.P.H., Sc.D., research scientist at Kaiser.

The Black-White difference in breast cancer survival rates has been traditionally attributed to the fact that black women are more commonly diagnosed with less treatable tumor subtypes, such as the hard-to-treat triple-negative strain. But even though triple-negative diagnoses prevailed in her study and the likelihood of black women developing the most-treatable luminal A subtype did not, Kroenke says that poor prognosis among blacks appeared consistent across the board.

"African-Americans with breast cancer appeared to have a poorer prognosis regardless of subtype," Kroenke said. "It seems from our data that the black?white breast cancer survival difference cannot be explained entirely by variable breast cancer subtype diagnosis," she went on to say.

Recent genetic profiling has suggested that not all cancer subtypes are created equal and both the tumor makeup and methods for treating them may vary by race.

Yet others maintain that factors such as poverty, silence and racial inequities -- not genetics -- are responsible for high mortality rates. Their efforts have focused less on treatment than on awareness and eliminating cultural barriers to seeking care.

Earlier on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/breast-cancer-survival-rates-black-women-study_n_3038802.html

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Austin next city for ultra-fast Google Fiber

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, the Google logo is displayed outside Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google executives and Texas Gov. Rick Perry are expected Tuesday, April 9, 2013 to name tech-savvy Austin as the second city where the search giant will offer its ultra-fast home Internet service. Last summer, Kansas City became the first metro area in the U.S. to receive Google Fiber. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, the Google logo is displayed outside Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google executives and Texas Gov. Rick Perry are expected Tuesday, April 9, 2013 to name tech-savvy Austin as the second city where the search giant will offer its ultra-fast home Internet service. Last summer, Kansas City became the first metro area in the U.S. to receive Google Fiber. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Google Inc. picked tech-savvy Austin on Tuesday as the next city where the search giant will wire homes with ultra-fast Internet connections, but did not say how much customers will pay or when the fiber-optic experiment might expand elsewhere in the U.S.

Austin and Kansas City are the only places to get Google Fiber ? a broadband service 100 times faster than the competition and an alternative to cable or satellite TV providers.

The rollout is an expensive undertaking and gamble for Google, which must first build costly new broadband pipelines that can handle "gigabit" speeds. Google hopes the rollout will drive innovation and pressure phone and cable companies to improve its networks, since Google benefits when people spend more time online.

Google expects Austin homes to begin receiving Google Fiber in mid-2014.

"Equipping them with a gigabit network will allow them to build new kinds of applications and services that will help write the next chapter in the story of the Internet," said Milo Medin, Google's vice president of Access Services who heads up Google Fiber.

What Austin residents will pay is not yet known. Medlin said the prices will likely be "roughly" similar to what Google charges in Kansas City, where customers pay $70 a month for a gigabit connection. For another $50, customers there can also receive a cable TV-like service that offers a channel line-up featuring mainstays such as ESPN, Nickelodeon, FOX News and MTV.

Some popular channels remain unavailable on Google Fiber, including HBO and AMC.

Medin would not say when Google might announce another city to receive its sought-after network. Google says more than 1,100 cities applied starting in 2010, and some used gimmicks or elaborate videos in hopes of outshining the competition. Topeka even informally renamed itself to "Google, Kansas."

Kansas City wound up prevailing, and Google began signing up residents there last year. By the end of 2013, Google expects that 180 neighborhoods that were selected for service based on demand will be completed.

The $70 fee in Kansas City is more than what cable or phone companies charge for basic Internet service, but the service is also much faster. "Gigabit" speeds, or 1,000 megabits per second, are generally unavailable from other companies. One exception is the city-owned electric utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., which has pulled its own fiber and sells gigabit service for $350 per month.

However, it's expensive to pull optical fiber compared with using existing phone and cable lines to provide Internet service. Verizon Communications Inc. is the only major U.S. telecommunications company to have connected homes directly to fiber. Wall Street analysts have estimated that project, which has cost $23 billion, is not paying off.

Google has not revealed how much the company is spending to build gigabit networks. A report this week from analysts at Bernstein Research put the cost at $84 million for Google to pass through 149,000 homes in Kansas City.

The authors of that report were skeptical that Google Fiber made financial sense to be expanded to a large portion of the U.S.

"In the end the effort would have limited impact on the global trajectory of the business," the Bernstein report concluded.

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-09-US-TEC-Google-Fiber-Texas/id-03920629353c4079877b8a217cf129c5

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Pope launched sainthood case for Argentine priests

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? It was time for Mass, but no one opened the church door.

When a teenager climbed through a window to investigate, he found five bloodied bodies, face-down on the floor in their living quarters. Police officers had stormed into the San Patricio church after midnight on July 4, 1976 and shot to death three priests and two seminarians ? the bloodiest single act of violence against the Roman Catholic Church during Argentina's brutal dictatorship.

Now Catholic officials in Argentina are working to have them declared saints. And the man who promoted their cause as archbishop will have the last word, as Pope Francis.

"This parish has been blessed by the presence of those who chose to live not for themselves, but to die so that others may live," then-Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio said in 2001 during a service marking the 25th anniversary of the killings of the Pallottine churchmen.

What became to be known as the San Patricio Massacre is a searing example of the strains within the Argentine church where Bergoglio spent his entire career. In all, 18 priests, 11 seminarians and about 50 Catholic lay workers would be killed or made to disappear as death squads sought to eliminate left-leaning activists during Argentina's "dirty war."

Bergoglio himself was accused of not doing enough to protect two of his priests as a young Jesuit leader during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. But he also saved others inside church properties before ushering them into exile using false identities, at a time when top church officials were publicly aligning themselves with the junta leaders.

"The killings were a milestone ... The message that everyone got from the church's higher levels was: 'Be afraid because if anyone from any community criticizes this government, all might be targeted.'" said Francisco Chirichella, a layman who is gathering documentation to justify their martyrdom, a key step toward sainthood.

The slayings occurred in the capital's upscale Belgrano neighborhood just three months after military officers seized control of the government and intensified a crackdown on people they suspected of being "subversives."

The army announced that "subversives" killed the priests, despite evidence they were shot in revenge for the bombing of a police station that killed 20 federal police officers two days earlier.

Privately, the Vatican's top diplomat in Argentina, Pio Laghi, told U.S. Ambassador Robert Hill that he and the country's top cardinal had learned that police officers killed the priests, and that that a top junta official had warned him that the government intended to "clean up the Catholic church."

Laghi feared that the murders "may presage a wave of right-wing terror worse than anything we have seen before," Hill wrote in a secret cable to Washington that July 8. "Embassy is inclined to agree."

But in public, top church officials seemed to bow down before the junta leaders, saying they had full faith in their false claim that violent leftists were responsible.

"The government and the armed forces share our grief and, we dare say, our astonishment," the church statement said. "We pray to the Lord to guide Your Excellencies so you may achieve the honorable and noble responsibilities of your work."

Years later, witnesses emerged naming various suspects as the gunmen, and a military document surfaced describing the killings as unauthorized but justified. But the case stalled until amnesty laws applied, and no one has ever been prosecuted.

At first glance, San Patricio seemed an unlikely target. None of the three priests were members of the far-left Movement of Priests for the Third World.

Alfredo Leaden, 57, was regional delegate of the Ireland-based Pallottine order and focused on liturgical issues. Alfredo Dufau, 67, built and directed the San Vicente Pallotti school for children of housekeepers in the Belgrano neighborhood. The most outspoken was probably Alfredo Kelly, 43, who led the parish and had admonished members of his congregation for buying property stolen from political prisoners, calling the thieves "cockroaches."

But the ambassador's cable, declassified in 2006 and posted by Wikileaks on the Internet this week, says police believed the two seminarians were involved in the Third World priests' movement, and "hence, they were considered fair game in a wave of vigilante-type executions police have carried out in retaliation" for the bombing.

They were philosophy teacher Salvador Barbeito, 29, rector of the San Maron school; and 23-year-old Emilio Barletti, who allowed young members of the Montoneros guerrilla organization to meet inside the parish house and use the mimeograph machine to print anti-dictatorship pamphlets, historian Roberto Baschetti said.

All five were Argentine, although Barbeito was born in Spain.

"Kelly told me and other colleagues, at a dinner on that July 3 at the parish, that he feared for his life because there was a letter floating around calling him a communist," said Rodolfo Capalozza, who was then a 20-year-old seminary student, and escaped death because he happened to stay at his parents' home that night.

"We talked a lot about the situation in the country and they all had different opinions; they weren't killed because of their ideology or politics but because they preached the gospel of life in a time when life was being threatened," added Capalozza, who now leads the Santa Isabel de Hungria church in Buenos Aires.

The slain churchmen were hardly radicals, but "their message of social commitment was amplified," making them targets, because they preached and worked in Belgrano, home to many Argentine elites, he said.

Sainthood would be "a just response" to the massacre, Capalozza said.

The bodies were found face-down on the living room carpet. Two messages were scribbled at the scene. One said: "These lefties died for brainwashing innocent minds and being MSTM," initials for the Third World priests' group.

Another referred to the July 2 attack on the police: "For our comrades blown up at Federal Security. We will prevail. Long live the Fatherland."

The police response Capalozza said: Nobody in the church would be immune if they spoke out against the country's rulers or got too involved in social work.

In 2001, the Pallottine order asked the Argentine Church to formally consider them to be martyrs. "As time went by the cause changed, and today we are asking for sainthood," said Pablo Bocca, the current priest at the church.

Bergoglio, who had been close to Kelly and heard his confessions, formally approved the sainthood investigation in 2005.

"I am a witness, because I was with Alfie in his spiritual guidance, in his confession, until his death. He only thought of God. And I name him because I am a witness to his heart, and when I mention him I mention all of them," Bergoglio said in his memorial homily.

Normally, proof of two miracles are required for sainthood. But martyrdom ? dying for one's faith ? counts as the first miracle. A Vatican tribunal must eventually rule, and the pope makes the final decision.

"I have a lot of hope in this process," Bocca said, "because now the pope is someone who knows the cause, who lived in this country and who shared the commitment of the church."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-launched-sainthood-case-argentine-priests-184857577.html

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Byrd came oh-so-close, but probably didn't reach North Pole

Apr. 8, 2013 ? When renowned explorer Richard E. Byrd returned from the first-ever flight to the North Pole in 1926, he sparked a controversy that remains today: Did he actually reach the pole?

Studying supercomputer simulations of atmospheric conditions on the day of the flight and double-checking Byrd's navigation techniques, a researcher at The Ohio State University has determined that Byrd indeed neared the Pole, but likely only flew within 80 miles of it before turning back to the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen.

Gerald Newsom, professor emeritus of astronomy at Ohio State, based his results in part on atmospheric simulations from the 20th Century Reanalysis project at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The study appears in a recent issue of the journal Polar Record.

"I worked out that if Byrd did make it, he must have had very unusual wind conditions. But it's clear that he really gave it a valiant try, and he deserves a lot of respect," Newsom said.

At issue is whether Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett could have made the 1,500-mile round trip from Spitsbergen in only 15 hours and 44 minutes, when some experts were expecting a flight time of around 18 hours.

Byrd claimed that they encountered strong tail winds that sped the plane's progress. Not everyone believed him.

"The flight was incredibly controversial," Newsom explained. "The people defending Byrd were vehement that he was a hero, and the people attacking him said he was one of the world's greatest frauds. The emotion! It was incredibly vitriolic."

Newsom was unaware of the debate, however, until Raimund Goerler, now-retired archivist at Ohio State, discovered a flight journal within a large collection of items given to Ohio State by the Byrd family at the naming of the university's Byrd Polar Research Center. In 1995, Goerler opened a previously overlooked cardboard box labeled "misc." In it, he found a smudged and water-stained book containing hand-written notes from Byrd's 1926 North Pole flight and his historic 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, as well as an earlier expedition to Greenland in 1925.

Goerler looked to Newsom for help interpreting the navigational notes. "Given the strong opinions on both sides from people in the polar research community, we thought an astronomer who had no prior opinion about the flight would have the skills to do an assessment, and the neutrality to do it in an unbiased way," he said.

In fact, Newsom had helped teach celestial navigation during his early days as a graduate student, and still had an interest in the subject. With the help of current Byrd Polar archivist Laura Kissel, he pored over copies of the notebook and other related writings, including the post-flight report by Byrd's sponsors at the National Geographic Society.

Newsom was particularly curious about the solar compass that Byrd used to find his way to and from the pole. The compass was state-of-the-art for its time, with a clockwork mechanism that turned a glass cover to match the movement of the sun around the sky. By peering at a shadow in the sun compass, Byrd gauged whether the plane was heading north.

Among the artifacts in the Byrd Polar Research Center is a copy of the barograph recording made during the flight, showing atmospheric pressure. A small calibration graph was labeled with altitudes for different pressures, allowing Byrd to determine how high the plane flew throughout the flight. Byrd used the altitude to set a device mounted over an opening in the bottom of the plane, and with a stopwatch he timed how long it took for features on the ice below to move in and out of view. The stopwatch reading then gave the plane's ground speed.

Byrd could then calculate the distance traveled, and know when he and Bennett had traveled far enough to reach the pole. He would also be able to tell if a crosswind was nudging the plane off course. And he would have had to repeat the calculations every few minutes for the entire trip north.

The partially open cockpit would have been very loud, Newsom explained, so Byrd wrote messages in the book so Bennett could read his suggested course corrections. For example, there was a note from Byrd to Bennett asking for a three-degree correction to the west, to counter a crosswind.

The problem, Newsom quickly found, is that the notebook didn't contain any calculations of ground speed, only the results of the calculations. "I would have thought he'd have pages and pages of calculations," Newsom said. "Without that, there's no way of knowing for sure, but deep down there's a worry I have -- that he did it all in his head."

Newsom found that the barograph recording and calibration graph were remarkably small. A change of atmospheric pressure of one inch of mercury would equal only one quarter of an inch on the barograph record. "That's tiny," he said. "If Byrd was off by even a tenth of an inch on the barograph recording, then his altitude would be off 18 percent, and that means his ground speed would be off by 18 percent. And he had the same chance for error every time he took a reading throughout the flight."

Changes in the atmosphere at different latitudes meant that Byrd's calibration graph lost accuracy during the duration of the flight. Newsom calculated that this could have led Byrd to believe that he had reached the pole when he was still as much as 78 statute miles away, or caused him to overshoot the pole by as much as 21 statute miles.

As he wrote in the Polar Record paper: "This type of analysis by itself will not resolve any controversy over whether Byrd reached the pole. But it does indicate that he was considerably more likely to have ended up short of his goal than to have exceeded it."

Next, Newsom decided to test whether Byrd could have experienced strong tailwinds as he claimed, and to do that, the astronomer turned to an unbiased resource of his own: NOAA's 20th Century Reanalysis dataset.

Using U.S. Department of Energy supercomputers, NOAA calculated likely atmospheric conditions all over Earth for every six hours between 1870 and 2010. The data used a computer model that calculated 56 plausible scenarios for every six-hour interval, and the results of the 56 model atmospheres were averaged together to arrive at the most likely conditions.

The model winds did not appear consistent with what Byrd said, so Newsom examined each of the 56 scenarios individually, to see if even one of them allowed for strong tailwinds during the trip. They didn't.

"For the most part, he probably had a headwind going north, and a tailwind going south. But there's no evidence of the winds shifting as much as he described. Of course, the models are NOAA's best guesses for what the conditions were that day, not an actual measurement, so Byrd could have had strong tailwinds just like he said. But the simulations suggest that if he did have strong tailwinds that day, he was very lucky."

It's easy to forget, he continued, how difficult and dangerous navigation was before modern altimeters and GPS. Byrd was under a tremendous amount of pressure: he'd overloaded the plane with fuel to make sure he and Bennett wouldn't run out over the Arctic (they would likely have died in that circumstance), but the extra load made the plane hard to control; he had to calculate the plane's location constantly for nearly sixteen hours, in a screaming-loud cockpit while worried about frostbite; and partway through the trip, one of the plane's engines sprang an oil leak and seemed likely to stop working.

"That they returned at all is a major accomplishment, and the fact that they arrived back where they were supposed to -- that shows that Byrd knew how to navigate with his solar compass correctly," Newsom said.

And, since the plane was theoretically high enough to see nearly 90 miles to the horizon, Byrd may not have reached the pole, but even in the worst-case scenario, he almost certainly saw it through his cockpit window.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Pam Frost Gorder.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. G.H. Newsom. Byrd's Arctic flight in the context of model atmospheres. Polar Record, 2012; 49 (01): 62 DOI: 10.1017/S0032247412000058

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/LD-EWzV1Qaw/130408142642.htm

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S. Korea: North Korea may be preparing to test missile

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? A top South Korean national security official said Sunday that North Korea may be setting the stage for a missile test or another provocative act with its warning that it soon will be unable to guarantee diplomats' safety in Pyongyang. But he added that the North's clearest objective is to extract concessions from Washington and Seoul.

North Korea's warning last week followed weeks of war threats and other efforts to punish South Korea and the U.S. for ongoing joint military drills, and for their support of U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. Many nations are deciding what to do about the notice, which said their diplomats' safety in Pyongyang cannot be guaranteed beginning this Wednesday.

Tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang led South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff to announce Sunday that its chairman had put off a visit to Washington. The U.S. military said its top commander in South Korea had also canceled a trip to Washington. The South Korean defense minister said Thursday that North Korea had moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, possibly to conduct a test launch.

His description suggests that the missile could be the Musudan missile, capable of striking American bases in Guam with its estimated range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,490 miles).

Citing North Korea's suggestion that diplomats leave the country, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security director said Pyongyang may be planning a missile launch or another provocation around Wednesday, according to presidential spokeswoman Kim Haing.

During a meeting with other South Korean officials, the official, Kim Jang-Soo, also said the notice to diplomats and other recent North Korean actions are an attempt to stoke security concerns and to force South Korea and the U.S. to offer a dialogue. Washington and Seoul want North Korea to resume the six-party nuclear talks ? which also include China, Russia and Japan ? that it abandoned in 2009.

The roughly two dozen countries with embassies in North Korea had not yet announced whether they would evacuate their staffs.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague suggested that North Korea's comments about foreign diplomats are "consistent" with a regime that is using the prospect of an external threat to justify its militarization to its people.

"I haven't seen any immediate need to respond to that by moving our diplomats out of there," he told the BBC on Saturday. "We will keep this under close review with our allies, but we shouldn't respond and play to that rhetoric and that presentation of an external threat every time they come out with it."

Germany said its embassy in Pyongyang would stay open for at least the time being.

"The situation there is tense but calm," a German Foreign Office official, who declined to be named in line with department policy, said in an email. "The security and danger of the situation is constantly being evaluated. The different international embassies there are in close touch with each other."

Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry said it was considering a plan to evacuate its diplomats. A statement released by the ministry on Saturday said that its embassy in Pyongyang has been preparing a contingency plan to anticipate the worst-case scenario, and that the Indonesian foreign minister is communicating with the staff there to monitor the situation.

India also said it was monitoring events. "We have been informed about it," said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry. "We are in constant touch with our embassy and are monitoring the situation. We will carefully consider all aspects and decide well in time."

Seoul and Washington, which lack diplomatic relations with the North, are taking the threats seriously, though they say they have seen no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a large-scale attack.

Kim Jang-soo said the North would face "severalfold damages" for any hostilities. Since 2010, when attacks Seoul blames on North Korea killed 50 people, South Korea has vowed to aggressively respond to any future attack.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Jung Seung-jo had planned to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Martin Dempsey, in Washington on April 16 for regular talks. But tensions on the Korean Peninsula are so high that Jung cannot take a long trip away from South Korea, so the meeting will be rescheduled, a South Korean Joint Chiefs officer said Sunday. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

The top U.S. military commander in South Korea, Gen. James Thurman, will not make a planned trip to Washington this week to testify before Congress because of tensions with North Korea. In an email Sunday to The Associated Press, Army Col. Amy Hannah said Thurman would remain in Seoul as "a prudent measure." He was scheduled to testify on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The U.S. Defense Department has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that had been planned for this week because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis, a senior defense official told The Associated Press.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to delay the test at an Air Force base in California until sometime next month, the official said Saturday. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the test delay and requested anonymity.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has followed provocations from North Korea with shows of force connected to the joint exercises with South Korea. It has sent nuclear capable B-2 and B-52 bombers and stealth F-22 fighters to participate in the drills.

In addition, the U.S. said last week that two of the Navy's missile-defense ships were moved closer to the Korean Peninsula, and a land-based missile-defense system is being deployed to the Pacific territory of Guam later this month. The Pentagon last month announced longer-term plans to strengthen its U.S.-based missile defenses.

The U.S. military also is considering deploying an intelligence drone at the Misawa Air Base in northern Japan to step up surveillance of North Korea, a Japanese Defense Ministry official said Sunday.

Three Global Hawk surveillance planes are deployed on Guam and one of them is being considered for deployment in Japan, the official said on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the issue.

North Korea successfully shot a satellite into space in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February. It has threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, though many analysts say the North hasn't achieved the technology to manufacture a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S.

North Korea also raised tensions Wednesday when it barred South Koreans and supply trucks from entering the Kaesong industrial complex, where South Korean companies have employed thousands of North Korean workers for the past decade.

North Korea is not forcing South Korean managers to leave the factory complex, and nearly 520 of them remained at Kaesong on Sunday. But the entry ban at the park, the last remaining inter-Korean rapprochement project, is posing a serious challenge to many of the more than 120 South Korean firms there because they are running out of raw materials and are short on replacement workers.

Nine more firms, including food and textile companies, have stopped operations at Kaesong, bringing to 13 the total number of companies that have done so, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

North Korea briefly restricted the heavily fortified border crossing at Kaesong in 2009 ? also during South Korea-U.S. drills ? but manufacturers fear the current border shutdown could last longer.

___

AP writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Robert Burns in Bagram, Afghanistan, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Louise Watt in Beijing, Cassandra Vinograd in London, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-nkorea-may-preparing-test-missile-095436309.html

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Economy adds fewest jobs in 9 months

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, the fewest in nine months and a sharp retreat after a period of strong hiring. The slowdown in job growth may signal that the economy is heading into a weak spring.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dipped to 7.6 percent, the lowest in four years, from 7.7 percent. But the rate fell last month only because more people stopped looking for work. People who are out of work are no longer counted as unemployed once they stop looking for a job.

The percentage of Americans working or looking for jobs fell to 63.3 percent in March, the lowest such figure in nearly 34 years.

Stock futures sank after the jobs report was released at 8.

March's job gains were half the pace of the previous six months, when the economy added an average of 196,000 jobs a month. The government said hiring was even stronger in the previous two months than previously estimated. February's job gains were revised to 268,000, up from 236,000. January job growth was raised to 148,000, up from 119,000.

Several industries cut back sharply on hiring in March. Retailers cut 24,000 jobs after averaging 32,000 in the previous three months. Manufacturers cut 3,000 jobs after adding 19,000 the previous month. Financial services shed 2,000.

The number of people either working or looking for work fell by nearly 500,000 last month. It was sharpest such drop since December 2010. And the number of Americans who said they were employed dropped nearly 210,000.

Average hourly pay rose a penny, the smallest gain in five months. Average pay is just 1.8 percent higher than a year earlier, trailing the pace of inflation, which rose 2 percent in the past 12 months.

"This is not a good report through and through," Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at brokerage firm BTIG, said in a note to clients.

Economists had hoped that the bigger pay increases in recent months would continue and boost Americans' ability to spend.

Some economists said they expect a slowdown this spring, though not as severe as in the past three years.

"We don't anticipate the slowdown becoming too severe, not when the housing recovery is firing on all cylinders, but it is a reminder that the U.S. is still unable to sustain what used to be just average rates of growth," said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics.

The decline in the work force reflects several trends, economists say: Many of those out of work become discouraged and give up on their job hunts. And as the population ages, more people are retiring.

Most analysts think the economy strengthened from January through March, helped by the pickup in hiring, a sustained recovery in housing and steady consumer spending. Consumers stepped up purchases in February and January, even after Social Security taxes increased this year.

Still the higher taxes have reduced paychecks. And many economists say steep government spending cuts that began taking effect March 1 will slow growth in the spring and summer.

Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities, thinks the economy expanded at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter. But he forecasts that growth will slow to a 2 percent annual pace in the current second quarter, and then rebound after the impact of the government spending cuts fades.

Economists expect the spending reductions will shave half a percentage point off economic growth this year. Many federal workers will experience pay cuts. And government contractors will likely cut jobs. That could also drag down overall monthly hiring.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-economy-adds-88k-jobs-123241385.html

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Sierra Writers ? Let Them Speak! Using Dialogue to Power Your ...

Let Them Speak!? Using Dialogue to Power Your Writing

Sierra Writers hosts a free workshop for writers with Director Sandra Rockman on Wednesday, April 10, 6:30 pm in the Madelyn Helling Library Community Room.? In this hands-on class, Sandra will show how to strengthen your writing through dialogue, using examples from novels and plays. Participants are encouraged to bring a short one-page narrative section of their work for an exercise in adding dialogue to narration for a more powerful ?show? rather than ?tell.?

Sandra moved to Nevada County in 1978 and joined the nascent Foothill Theatre Company, first as an actress, then director, and finally Artistic Director until 1992.? She has acted in or directed more than 30 productions, including the 2012 Sierra Stages? ?A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,? for which she received an Elly nomination for Best Director of a Musical. She currently teaches workshops in acting, improvisation and playwriting. Sandra?s articles, stories and essays have also been published in newspapers, journals and anthologies including Chicken Soup for the Mother?s Soul II.

Sierra Writers offers free monthly meetings for writers of all genres, experience and expertise to meet, share and learn. Meetings are the second Wednesday of every month at 980 Helling Way, Nevada City. ?For more information, log on to www.sierrawriters.org or call 205-5068.

Source: http://sierrawriters.org/2013/04/let-them-speak-using-dialogue-to-power-your-writing-april-10/

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The Truth Behind Today's Pathetic Jobs Numbers

Friday, April 5th, 2013
By Michael Lombardi, MBA for Profit Confidential

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported there were only 88,000 jobs added to the U.S. jobs market last month. This will certainly give the politicians more bragging rights: the unemployment rate in the U.S. economy decreased to 7.6% in March, down from 7.7% in February. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 5, 2013.)

As I always say, the devil resides in the details. The anemic jobs numbers report today showed, once again, how tormented the U.S. economy really is. In the month of March, the civilian labor force declined by almost 500,000 people!

Problems in the U.S. jobs market still persist. The number of Americans unemployed for more than six months hasn?t improved. They still make up almost 40% of the unemployed in the U.S. economy. Keep in mind; the longer they stay out of work, the harder it will be for them to get back into the jobs market, as they lose their skills.

The underemployment rate, a measure I consider to be a good indicator of the jobs market, still hasn?t shown any major improvements. In March, it stood just under 14%, compared to 14.3% in February.

March?s jobs market report is worrisome to say the least. Over the past 12-month period, on average, the U.S. economy has seen 169,000 jobs added each month. With only 88,000 jobs added last month, March?s jobs created were 48% below the 12-month average!

If you take out stock buyback programs, companies in key stock indices are struggling with profit growth. And I believe they have no other option than to cut their labor forces to maintain profits.

We had dismal growth in the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter of 2012. With the jobs market staying anemic and consumers losing confidence, I doubt the first quarter of 2013 will be as great as the stock market seems to indicate. At this point, out-of-control government spending and rigorous money printing really isn?t helping the economy?both events will only give us long-term pain, as inflation and currency devaluation are next in this economic cycle.

Michael?s Personal Notes:

Just like gold bullion, silver prices have come under severe scrutiny lately. Many in the mainstream say silver prices are in a bear market.

According to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the amount of bearish bets is inching closer to bullish bets on silver for the first time since 2007. (Source: Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2013.) This means that the number of investors turning bearish on silver prices is increasing. From trading just above $30.00 at the beginning of 2013, silver prices have declined below $27.00, or by 10%.

But what holds true is that just like gold bullion, the fundamentals behind silver prices are strong as well.

In a report issued by GFMS Thomson Reuters and commissioned by the Silver Institute in November of 2012, average industrial demand for silver in 2000 was 383.3 million ounces (Moz). By 2008, this number increased to 492.7 Moz. In spite of the deep downturn in the U.S. economy and global uncertainty, silver industrial demand reached new heights by 2010?499.6 Moz. For the years 2012 to 2014, GFMS Thomson Reuters estimates the average silver industrial demand to be around 483.3 Moz per year. (Source: ?The Outlook for Silver Industrial Demand,? GFMS Thomson Reuters, November 2012.)

From the supply side, silver production hasn?t increased as much as the demand. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that, in 2011, worldwide silver mine production was 23,300 tons, or 821.8 Moz. By 2012, silver mine production only increased by little more than three percent. (Source: ?Mineral Commodity Summaries,? U.S. Geological Survey, January 2013.)

Now bring in the investment demand (which I believe will drive the silver prices higher), and we see the real picture for silver.

The Istanbul Gold Exchange reported that imports of silver into Turkey increased 31% in March from a month earlier. The country imported 6.19 tons of the grey metal in March alone. (Source: Bloomberg, April 2, 2013.) Similar to gold bullion, silver has been known as the savior of wealth when the fiat currency takes an ugly turn.

The demand for silver is still present (if not increasing), and the long-term rise in silver prices is still intact. As I have stated in these pages before, paper money printing by central banks will eventually result in higher inflation as compared to now. The correction in silver prices that we are currently seeing is very normal and healthy for the long-term bull market in silver.

What He Said:

?The U.S. lowered interest rates in 2004 to their lowest level in 46 years. And what did Americans do with their access to easy money? They borrowed and borrowed some more, investing the borrowed money into real estate. Looking ahead, perhaps the Fed?s actions (of lowering interest rates so low as to entice consumers to borrow more than they can afford) will one day be regarded as one of the most costly errors committed by it or any other banking system in the last 75 years.? Michael Lombardi in Profit Confidential, July 21, 2005. Long before anyone was thinking of a banking crisis, Michael was warning that the coming real estate bust would cause havoc in the banking system.

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Source: http://www.profitconfidential.com/economic-analysis/the-truth-behind-todays-pathetic-jobs-numbers/

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Weapons by which bacteria fight each other revealed: Could lead to new antibacterial drugs

Apr. 4, 2013 ? A new study which was performed jointly at Ume? university and the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, discovered that bacteria can degrade the cell membrane of bacterial competitors with enzymes that do not harm their own membrane. This exciting finding opens the way for the development of new antibacterial drugs to fight bacteria using their own weapons.

During the infection of a host organism, pathogenic bacteria can excrete toxins that cause damage to host cells and tissue. Interestingly, bacteria also use similar mechanisms in competition with one another. Notably, they can use secretion systems with syringe-like structures to inject the toxins into other cells. Among the different secretion systems that are known in bacteria, the type VI secretion system is of particular importance to interbacterial competition, and is found in many different species of bacteria. The collaborating Swedish-American research teams now found that certain enzymes, phospholipases, are secreted by the type VI system and that they are only effective against the competitor but not the producer's own cell membrane.

Sun Nyunt Wai, professor at the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) and the department of Molecular Biology in Ume?, Sweden, and Joseph D. Mougous, professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, studied together with their students and post-docs the genes and proteins that are behind this selective defence mechanism. They studied the type VI secretion systems in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, soil bacteria causing severe infections of intestines, blood and lungs, and in Vibrio cholerae, a pathogen causing the life-threatening cholera diarrhea.

"Bacteria have evolved many strategies for defence against predators and competitors in the environment. In this study we found that the bacteria possess phospholipases, that degrade a major phospholipid component in the cell membranes," Sun Nyunt Wai, said. And we found that the bacteria producing the antibacterial effector at the same time produced an immunity protein that protects them against their own toxin. Her student Krisztina Hathazi and postdoctoral fellow Takahiko Ishikawa participated in the studies and are co-authors of the report in Nature.

When the team tested their hypothesis with mutants lacking the genes for immunity, they found that membrane integrity was greatly impaired, as the bacterial cells were now harmed by self-intoxication.

"The finding that bacterial phospholipases, classically considered potent mediators of virulence, can also serve as offensive weapons against competing bacteria was really quite surprising and challenges basic assumptions made concerning these enzymes," commented PhD student Alistair B. Russell, the first author of the report. Both Alistair and the second author, Michele LeRoux, are graduate students in the laboratory of Joseph D. Mougous, the corresponding author of this study. Joseph and his students are members of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular and Cellular Biology Program at the University of Washington in Seattle, and an additional author of the study, professor Paul A. Wiggins, is a member of the Departments of Physics and Bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Umea University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Alistair B. Russell, Michele LeRoux, Krisztina Hathazi, Danielle M. Agnello, Takahiko Ishikawa, Paul A. Wiggins, Sun Nyunt Wai, Joseph D. Mougous. Diverse type VI secretion phospholipases are functionally plastic antibacterial effectors. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12074

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/top_news/top_health/~3/ZqXDNwzqNOU/130404122420.htm

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Exclusive: UBS was mystery lender for Thai group's Ping An buy from HSBC - sources

By Michael Flaherty, Elzio Barreto and Denny Thomas

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The mystery lender behind a Thai billionaire's $9.4 billion purchase of a stake in China's No.2 insurer was UBS, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, revealing how the bank stepped in at the last minute to offer a complex financing package known only to a few involved.

The Swiss bank's financial backing for China's largest ever foreign stock purchase explains how a Thai conglomerate scraped together $7.4 billion in cash for the deal's final payment, after its main lender backed out at the 11th hour.

The white knight role played by UBS AG in the deal - CP Group's purchase from HSBC Holdings Plc of a 15.6 percent stake in Ping An Insurance Group Co of China - has gone unreported until now.

People with direct knowledge say that UBS backed the deal with two financing facilities. The major piece of that package is a five year, roughly $5.5 billion loan, one of the largest loans of its kind ever extended in Asia, according to Thomson Reuters data.

For the help it provided, UBS is set to earn another milestone. People familiar with the matter say the bank is expected to reap, over time, about $100 million for its effort, which would make it one of the largest fees ever earned by one bank for a single transaction in Asia, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Such an extraordinary arrangement with a prized client, Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, is both a rare move for UBS and signals a key shift in strategy - both for the bank and the industry.

The Dhanin deal shows that the investment bank is focusing more on high margin transactions rather than standard deal flow. The aim is to cater more to faithful, fee-paying clients and constructing deals for them that may be higher in risk, but also higher in reward.

That strategy, taken on by rivals as well, comes at a time when investment banking revenues are under pressure, in part from a drop in the high-fee business of equity capital markets banking across Asia and other parts of the world.

THE QUESTION

A jumbo loan for UBS, backed by the borrower's assets, is new turf for the bank, known more for its M&A skills and equity capital markets prowess in the region.

UBS's secret role in the saga is just one of several plot twists that emerged in HSBC's sale of its stake in Ping An, the world's second-largest insurer by market value.

UBS declined to comment for this story. Dhanin and the company he controls, CP Group, also declined to comment.

On December 5, HSBC announced that affiliates of Dhanin's conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) agreed to buy the Ping An stake for $9.4 billion, and to pay nearly $2 billion up front. The remainder was to come early in 2013, pending approval from China's insurance regulator and the deadline for approval was set for February 1.

According to the December 5 statement, the second installment was backed in part by a branch of state lender China Development Bank Corp.

Three weeks later, Chinese magazine Caixin published a story based on anonymous sources saying that the up-front payment came from entities not directly affiliated with CP Group. Beijing was under pressure to clean up corruption, and China Development Bank did not want to take any chances. People familiar with the situation say the bank backed out of its loan in early January.

HSBC announced on February 1 that China's insurance regulator had granted approval, with final payment coming in five days. The deal was nearly complete. The HSBC release made no mention of China Development Bank.

The question quickly surfaced: Without China Development Bank, how did Dhanin secure the $7.4 billion? The official line was that CP Group managed to fund the last installment itself. But doubts about that explanation lingered.

THE ANSWER

Although Dhanin is Thailand's richest man with a net worth of $14.3 billion according to Forbes, coming up with $7.4 billion on his own was out of the question, people familiar with the matter said. He and UBS began discussions on financing in early January, they said.

Dhanin is a private banking client of UBS and the bank has worked with him and his various corporations for at least a decade on stock offerings, restructurings and acquisitions. UBS was already the sole M&A adviser to CP on the Ping An deal, a role that would earn the bank around $25 million in advisory fees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Dhanin's last-minute snag quickly turned UBS into a lender as well.

According to people familiar with the matter, UBS arranged a short-term facility, crafted in order to show the seller and the regulators that Dhanin had the cash on hand to pay the final amount.

A long-term financing facility then replaced the first one, once the deal was approved and the two parties knew it would go through without issue.

That second facility is a five-year, roughly $5.5 billion loan, with a few other financing products attached, including a hedging mechanism, according to the people familiar with the matter.

A financing package of that size, huge in any market, was so large that Zurich-based UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti signed off on the deal personally, the people said.

Part of the roughly $5.5 billion loan was syndicated to UBS private banking clients, the people said, so that UBS is not exposed to the entire amount. Dhanin and CP Group came up with the remaining cash needed for the final $7.4 billion payment.

For UBS, backing the loan is Dhanin's personal wealth and the various corporate entities he controls, including several publicly traded companies.

The hedging part of UBS's financing package, the people say, was put in place to protect Dhanin's financial interests if Ping An's shares fall below a certain level.

The details of the package were privately negotiated and only a few senior bankers and executives are aware of the precise, complex details.

"The client had an issue, and UBS provided a solution. And UBS will be paid a fee for that solution," said one of the people familiar with the deal.

(Additional reporting by Clare Baldwin, Stephen Aldred and Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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Obama proposes $100M for brain mapping project

President Barack Obama speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama listens as National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama leaves the stage in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, after he spoke about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama announces the BRIAN, Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies proposal, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, East Room of the White House in Washington. The president is asking Congress to spend $100 million next year to start a new project to map the human brain in hopes of eventually finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer's. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed an effort to map the brain's activity in unprecedented detail, as a step toward finding better ways to treat such conditions as Alzheimer's, autism, stroke and traumatic brain injuries.

He asked Congress to spend $100 million next year to start a project that will explore details of the brain, which contains 100 billion cells and trillions of connections.

That's a relatively small investment for the federal government ? less than a fifth of what NASA spends every year just to study the sun ? but it's too early to determine how Congress will react.

Obama said the so-called BRAIN Initiative could create jobs, and told scientists gathered in the White House's East Room that the research has the potential to improve the lives of billions of people worldwide.

"As humans we can identify galaxies light-years away," Obama said. "We can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven't unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears."

Scientists unconnected to the project praised the idea.

BRAIN stands for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. The idea, which Obama first proposed in his State of the Union address, would require the development of new technology that can record the electrical activity of individual cells and complex neural circuits in the brain "at the speed of thought," the White House said.

Obama wants the initial $100 million investment to support research at the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation. He also wants private companies, universities and philanthropists to partner with the federal agencies in support of the research. And he wants a study of the ethical, legal and societal implications of the research.

The goals of the work are unclear at this point. A working group at NIH, co-chaired by Cornelia "Cori" Bargmann of The Rockefeller University and William Newsome of Stanford University, would work on defining the goals and develop a multi-year plan to achieve them that included cost estimates.

The $100 million request is "a pretty good start for getting this project off the ground," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told reporters in a conference call. While the ultimate goal applies to the human brain, some work will be done in simpler systems of the brains of animals like worms, flies and mice, he said.

Collins said new understandings about how the brain works may also provide leads for developing better computers.

Brain scientists unconnected with the project were enthusiastic.

"This is spectacular," said David Fitzpatrick, scientific director and CEO of the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience in Jupiter, Fla., which focuses on studying neural circuits and structures.

While current brain-scanning technologies can reveal the average activity of large populations of brain cells, the new project is aimed at tracking activity down to the individual cell and the tiny details of cell connections, he said. It's "an entirely different scale," he said, and one that can pay off someday in treatments for a long list of neurological and psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, Parkinson's, depression, epilepsy and autism.

"Ultimately, you can't fix it if you don't know how it works," he said. "We need this fundamental understanding of neuronal circuits, their structure, their function and their development in order to make progress on these disorders."

"This investment in fundamental brain science is going to pay off immensely in the future," Fitzpatrick said.

Richard Frackowiak, a co-director of Europe's Human Brain Project, which is funded by the European Commission, said he was delighted by the announcement.

"From our point of view as scientists we can only applaud and say we will collaborate as much as possible," he said. "The opportunities for a massive worldwide collaborative effort to solve the problem of neurodegeneration and psychiatric disease will ... really become absolutely feasible," he said. "We need that."

___

Ritter reported from New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-04-02-Obama-Human%20Brain/id-3860d8bc458141b8b94545337485107c

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