Taliban vow suicide and 'insider' attacks in new spring offensive

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban in Afghanistan vowed on Saturday to start a new campaign of mass suicide attacks on foreign military bases and diplomatic areas, as well as damaging "insider attacks", as part of a new spring offensive this year.

The offensive was announced via emails from Taliban spokesmen. The Islamist group has made similar announcements in recent years, which have sometimes been followed by spikes in violence after Afghanistan's harsh winter months.

The announcement of more mass suicide and insider attacks will likely be greeted with concern by the NATO-led military coalition, which is in the final stages of a fight against the Taliban-led insurgency that began in late 2001.

However, there was no immediate reaction to the Taliban's statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

After announcing their spring offensive last year, the Taliban launched a large attack in Kabul involving suicide bombers and an 18-hour firefight targeting Western embassies, ISAF headquarters and the Afghan parliament.

The start of the traditional "fighting season" is particularly important this year, with ISAF increasing the rate at which it hands security responsibility to Afghan forces before the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of 2014.

The Taliban statement said this year's offensive, named after Khalid bin Waleed, one of the companions of the Islamic prophet Mohammad, will involve "special military tactics" similar to those carried out previously.

"Collective martyrdom operations on bases of foreign invaders, their diplomatic centers and military airbases will be even further structured while every possible tactic will be utilized in order to detain or inflict heavy casualties on the foreign transgressors," the statement said.

Insider attacks, also known as "green on blue" attacks, involve Afghan police or soldiers turning their guns on their ISAF trainers and counterparts. They have grown considerably since last year and have strained relations between Kabul and foreign forces.

However, there is considerable debate over how many can be attributed to infiltration by insurgents and how many are by disgruntled members of the Afghan security forces.

Last August, then ISAF commander, U.S. General John Allen, said about a quarter of such attacks involved the Taliban.

The spring offensive was coordinated to begin on May 28 - or the 8th of the Islamic month of Thaur - to coincide with a national holiday to mark the overthrow of the Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, the statement said.

(Reporting by Dylan Welch and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-vow-suicide-insider-attacks-spring-offensive-071938216.html

Kaepernick Eddie Vanderdoes puppy bowl national pancake day bar refaeli Paul Harvey ihop

Goodyear swings to 1Q profit, beats estimate

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. reported a profit for the first quarter on Friday as lower raw material costs helped offset the effect of a decline in global tire sales.

Its adjusted earnings beat Wall Street estimates, and its shares rose more than 2 percent in morning trading.

"Our first quarter earnings demonstrate that our strategic focus on improving productivity and selling innovative products in targeted market segments where our brands add value is working, especially in North America, where our business continues to outperform expectations," said Richard J. Kramer, chairman and CEO.

The Akron, Ohio-based tire maker said its net income was $26 million, or 10 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31. It lost $11 million, or 5 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

After charges, Goodyear earned 45 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected 30 cents per share.

Revenue fell to $4.8 billion from $5.5 billion a year ago. Analysts expected $5.09 billion.

Sales dropped 13 percent in Goodyear's core North America market, but also saw a $163 million reduction in raw material costs. Sales dropped 17 percent in Europe, 1.5 percent in Latin America and 1.7 percent in Asia.

Asia and Latin America had increased numbers of tires sold and higher operating income.

Despite an 8 percent decline in the number of tires sold globally, a push to sell high-end products helped Goodyear post record first-quarter operating income in North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

In its outlook, Goodyear said it expects the number of tires sold this year to be unchanged from 2012, reflecting weakness in Europe amid an uncertain economy.

To revive its European business, Goodyear has announced plans to leave the farm tire business and close a manufacturing plant in France, a move that has sparked a legal fight on two continents and street protests by French workers.

Kramer said the company remains confident in its full-year outlook. The company expects global segment operating income of $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion in 2013. Kramer noted that would be up more than 12 percent from 2012 and a record.

Goodyear shares fell 43 cents, or 3.3 percent, to close at $12.51 Friday. They are down 14.6 percent from $14.65 in January. They traded as low as $9.24 last June.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/goodyear-swings-1q-profit-beats-125238308.html

supreme court justices 19 kids and counting danny o brien alicia silverstone park slope food coop anchorman sequel safety not guaranteed

China's economic growth slows in first quarter

Workers construct new city highway in Beijing Monday, April 15, 2013. China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery. The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Workers construct new city highway in Beijing Monday, April 15, 2013. China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery. The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A worker prepares to construct a city highway which is under construction in Beijing Monday, April 15, 2013. China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery. The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Workers construct new city highway in Beijing Monday, April 15, 2013. China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery. The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Workers walk across a road near a city highway which is under construction in Beijing Monday, April 15, 2013. China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery. The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Workers construct a city highway in Beijing Monday, April 15, 2013. China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery. The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

BEIJING (AP) ? China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery.

The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. That fell short of many private sector forecasts that growth would accelerate slightly to 8 percent.

A recovery still is under way but is "really very soft ? very slow and gradual," said Societe Generale economist Wei Yao.

Analysts have warned that China's recovery from its deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis is weak and is being supported by bank lending and government-led investment, while growth in consumer spending is subdued. A slowdown in Chinese growth and demand for goods ranging from iron ore to factory technology and consumer goods could send out ripples in the global economy.

The unexpected growth setback could add to challenges for Communist Party leaders who took power over the past six months. They are trying to avoid job losses while they pursue more self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption instead of exports and investment.

Last year's slowdown was largely due to Beijing's efforts to cool inflation and steer double-digit growth to a more sustainable level following a quick, stimulus-fueled rebound from the global crisis. Beijing responded with further stimulus efforts including looser credit but analysts say Chinese leaders are unlikely to repeat that strategy, which led to a sharp rise in debt.

The latest quarterly growth was above Beijing's official target of 7.5 percent for the year. That is well above forecasts in the low single digits for Western economies and Japan but far from China's blistering growth of the past decade.

Recent economic data in China has given mixed signals, raising questions about whether a full-fledged recovery was gaining traction.

Inflation fell in March, indicating consumer demand might not be as strong as Beijing hoped. Import growth accelerated, suggesting companies and consumers were buying more, but some analysts said those figures might be distorted and unreliable.

Also in March, growth in factory output weakened to 8.9 percent, down 1 percentage point from the first two months of the year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

That was the lowest growth since August 2012, when fears of an abrupt "hard landing" of plunging growth were strong. Beijing responded by boosting lending and government spending.

Chinese leaders are unlikely to repeat that strategy after a 60 percent surge in credit in the first quarter produced a lackluster response, said IHS Global Insight analysts Xianfang Ren and Alistair Thornton in a report.

"We have lost confidence in a robust recovery," they said.

The rise in credit prompted ratings agency Fitch to cut its rating on China's long-term local currency sovereign debt last week, warning of potential financial risks.

Fitch said China's total credit, including informal lending among private entrepreneurs, may have risen to the equivalent of 198 percent of gross domestic product in 2012 from 125 percent in 2008.

Forecasters who expected growth to accelerate might have been misled by inaccurate trade data due to companies falsely reporting higher exports as a way to evade capital controls and bring money into China, said Moody's Analytics economist Alaistair Chan.

Despite the surge in lending, Monday's data showed a slowdown in investment growth that is driving the latest recovery.

First-quarter growth in spending on factories, real estate and other fixed assets declined to 20.9 percent from the 21.1 percent rate for the first two months of the year.

That shows the economy suffers from structural problems including excess production capacity in some industries that makes more investment unprofitable, said Yao.

"Given all this credit injected into the system, the future should look better," said Yao. "Nevertheless, the level of efficiency in the economy has declined. The same amount of money will no longer produce the same amount of growth."

In a positive sign, growth in retail sales edged up to 12.6 percent in March from 12.3 percent for the first two months of the year.

Recent increases in required minimum wages and an improved housing market should help to boost household spending, said Moody's Analytics economist Fred Gibson in a report.

Still, he cautioned, consumer confidence could be hurt if China's export weakness persists.

Also Monday, the World Bank trimmed its growth forecast for China this year by 0.1 percentage point to a still-robust 8.3 percent.

___

National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): www.stats.gov.cn

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-15-China-Economy/id-55b9b02910b3415692a87f2b1f4e41fe

Stephen Covey klimt bastille day breaking bad breaking bad food network star British Open 2012

Scientists learn what makes nerve cells so strong

Apr. 15, 2013 ? How do nerve cells -- which can each be up to three feet long in humans -- keep from rupturing or falling apart?

Axons, the long, cable-like projections on neurons, are made stronger by a unique modification of the common molecular building block of the cell skeleton. The finding, which may help guide the search for treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, was reported in the April 10 issue of Neuron by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.

Microtubules are long, hollow cylinders that are a component of the cytoskeleton in all cells of the body. They also support transport of molecules within the cell and facilitate growth. They are made up of polymers of a building-block substance called tubulin.

"Except for neurons, cells' microtubules are in constant dynamic flux -- being taking apart and rebuilt," says Scott Brady, professor and head of anatomy and cell biology at UIC and principal investigator on the study. But only neurons grow so long, he said, and once created they must endure throughout a person's life, as much as 80 to 100 years. The microtubules of neurons are able to withstand laboratory conditions that cause other cells' microtubules to break apart.

Brady had been able to show some time ago that the neuron's stability depended on a modification of tubulin.

"But when we tried to figure out what the modification was, we didn't have the tools," he said.

Yuyu Song, a former graduate student in Brady's lab and the first author of the study, took up the question. "It was like a detective story with many possibilities that had to be ruled out one by one," she said. Song, who is now a post-doctoral fellow at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Yale School of Medicine, used a variety of methods to determine the nature of the modification and where it occurs.

She found that tubulin is modified by the chemical bonding of polyamines, positively charged molecules, at sites that might otherwise be chinks where tubulin could be broken down, causing the microtubules to fall apart. She was also able to show that the enzyme transglutaminase was responsible for adding the protective polyamines.

The blocking of a vulnerable site on tubulin would explain the extraordinary stability of neuron microtubules, said Brady. However, convincing others required the "thorough and elegant work" that Song brought to it, he said. "It's such a radical finding that we needed to show all the key steps along the way."

The authors also note that increased microtubule stability correlates with decreased neuronal plasticity -- and both occur in the process of aging and in some neurodegenerative diseases. Continued research, they say, may help identify novel therapeutic approaches to prevent neurodegeneration or allow regeneration.

Laura Kirkpatrick of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Alexander Schilling and Donald Helseth of UIC, Jeffery W. Keillor of the University of Ottawa, and Gail Johnson of the University of Rochester Medical Center also contributed to the study.

The study was supported by grants (NS23868 and NS23320) from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Chicago. The original article was written by Jeanne Galatzer-Levy.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Yuyu Song, Laura L. Kirkpatrick, Alexander B. Schilling, Donald L. Helseth, Nicolas Chabot, Jeffrey W. Keillor, Gail V.w. Johnson, Scott T. Brady. Transglutaminase and Polyamination of Tubulin: Posttranslational Modification for Stabilizing Axonal Microtubules. Neuron, 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.01.036

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_science/~3/EUZoswNppmU/130415172021.htm

meniscus robyn the colony ncaa final four 2012 uk vs louisville university of kansas buckeye

Plant protein shape puzzle solved by molecular 3-D model

Apr. 15, 2013 ? Researchers from North Carolina State University believe they have solved a puzzle that has vexed science since plants first appeared on Earth.

In a groundbreaking paper published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers provide the first three-dimensional model of an enzyme that links a simple sugar, glucose, into long-chain cellulose, the basic building block within plant cell walls that gives plants structure. Cellulose is nature's most abundant renewable biomaterial and an important resource for production of biofuels that represent alternatives to fossil fuels.

New understanding of the structure of the modeled plant enzyme, a cellulose synthase, may allow researchers to genetically engineer plants and trees for better cotton fibers or stronger wood, for example. From a materials engineering perspective, the findings can also be used to create beneficial nanocrystals with desired properties and functions.

"This structural model gives us insight into how cellulose synthesis works," said Dr. Yaroslava Yingling, an NC State materials science and engineering professor who is the corresponding author on the study. "In the long term, it could result in new genetically modified plants that can be tweaked to induce specific engineered properties of cellulose."

The study examined the structure of one cellulose synthase found in cotton fibers. The researchers compared their model with the structure of a similar enzyme in bacteria and found that the proteins were similarly folded in key regions required for cellulose synthesis. In the lab rat of the plant family -- Arabidopsis thaliana, or mustard weed -- the researchers identified potential causes for defective cellulose synthesis in mutant plants by making analogies to the modeled cotton cellulose synthase.

"Without the enzyme structure, you can't make strategically designed, rational projections about how to make beneficial changes to the proteins -- but now you can," said Dr. Candace Haigler, an NC State crop scientist and plant biologist who co-authored the study. "In the future we could make cellulose easier to break down into biofuels while ensuring that the plants themselves are able to grow well."

Latsavongsakda Sethaphong, an NC State doctoral student, co-authored the study, as did researchers from Penn State University, the University of Virginia, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and the University of Kentucky. The computational research was supported as part of The Center for LignoCellulose Structure and Formation, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by North Carolina State University.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Latsavongsakda Sethaphong, Candace H. Haigler, Yaroslava G. Yingling, James D. Kubicki, Jochen Zimmer, Dario Bonetta, Seth DeBolt. Tertiary Model of a Plant Cellulose Synthase. PNAS, April 15, 2013

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/top_news/~3/Fc_XC8YLF0A/130415182505.htm

Fathers Day Quotes Stevie J mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy brooklyn nets

Today in History

Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! homepage or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services.

Please try Yahoo Help Central if you need more assistance.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/today-history-050206767.html

south by southwest i want to know what love is courtney mercury retrograde bath salts heart shaped box lucid

Analysis: Beijing to US on North Korea _ talk

BEIJING (AP) ? Embedded within Chinese leaders' convoluted, yet vague statements to Washington about North Korea is a simple message: Talk with Pyongyang.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's weekend discussions with officials in Beijing offered up the usual encouraging but familiarly noncommittal language on North Korea, emphasizing Beijing's desire to strike a balance between easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula while not appearing to side against its prickly communist ally Pyongyang.

But while neither side offered details of their exchanges, Beijing is communicating its strong desire for some form of direct contact between the U.S. and North Korea as a means of defusing the ongoing crisis over North Korea's nuclear threats that have prompted a massive show of force by the U.S. and South Korea.

"North Korea wants to talk, so why not talk?" said Shen Dingli, a regional security expert and director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University. The question for China, Shen said, is how to make such discussions come about, adding that China is unlikely to make such calls too explicit for fear of putting either side in an embarrassing quandary.

Highlighting the difficulties of getting North Korea to talk with the U.S., the North rebuffed last week's proposal by Seoul to resolve the tensions through dialogue. North Korea dismissed the proposal as a "crafty trick" to disguise what Pyongyang calls the South's hostility, and said it won't talk unless Seoul abandons its confrontational posture.

Chinese media reports on Kerry's Saturday talks largely downplayed North Korea, and the Foreign Ministry's official statements were predictably blurry. In its account of his meeting with Kerry, the ministry quoted Premier Li Keqiang as referring only to "those who stir up trouble on the peninsula only harm their own interests, like moving a stone only to drop it on one's own foot."

That was a near echo of President Xi Jinping's own comment in a speech earlier this month that "no one should be allowed to throw the region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains" ? seen as much as a rebuke to the U.S. and its allies as to North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un. The ministry's account of Kerry's meeting with Xi didn't mention the Korean Peninsula even obliquely.

While China has grown more critical of North Korea since the latter's third nuclear test in February, Beijing remains highly wary of pushing the hardline communist regime too far. China says it wants a Korean Peninsula free from nuclear weapons, but that all sides must play a role in that.

The stakes are high for China, with a potential conflict threatening its economic development and stability in the northeast along its long, meandering border with North Korea. Beijing abhors the prospect of a pro-U.S. unified Korean state on its border as well as internal North Korean conflict that could spark an outflow of refugees.

China was already displeased by Kim's lack of outreach and lack of concern for Beijing's interests, and signed on to tighter U.N. sanctions following the North's latest nuclear test in February. It's also stepped up customs checks along their border, slowed some deliveries of equipment to the North and cracked down on suspect financial transactions by North Korean banks.

That's had little apparent effect on Kim's behavior, and he seems emboldened by China's lack of a forceful response to past crises and Pyongyang's perceptions of China's fear of a collapse of the regime. While North Korea's population is starving and impoverished, the leadership gets by on Chinese food and fuel, along with growing investment, and imports of North Korean iron ore and other raw materials.

Despite that, it's not clear what, if any, further pressure China is willing to exert, and if Xi, Li or others offered any further commitments, neither side was saying.

"Theoretically, there is more that China can do, but we're very worried that doing so could stimulate Kim to do even more dangerous things," said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in Beijing.

"Be prudent, don't go too far" is China's message to Washington and South Korea, Shi said.

While direct Washington-Pyongyang communication may offer a start, the ultimate key to easing tensions long-term lies in involving the other regional players, said Zhang Liangui, a researcher with the ruling Communist Party's main research and training institute in Beijing.

That would mark a return to Beijing's preferred format of six-nation talks involving the two Koreas, China, the U.S., Japan and Russia, a process stalemated since 2009 over how to ensure North Korean compliance with denuclearization measures. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi again communicated Beijing's preference for the Chinese-hosted talks in his Saturday meeting with Kerry.

"This is not an issue for the two sides only," said Zhang, who is close to the Chinese leadership but said he had no direct knowledge of Kerry's meetings. "It concerns the entire region, so all the countries involved should take part."

China is not the only one suggesting a phone conversation between the sides. Flamboyant former NBA player Dennis Rodman made the same point following a bizarre trip to Pyongyang and meetings with Kim in March.

Both Kim and President Barack Obama love basketball "and there is even more they could talk about if Obama would just pick up the phone and call him," Rodman said following the trip.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-beijing-us-north-korea-talk-090502853.html

Pacquiao vs Marquez 4 pacquiao Jim DeMint Dave Brubeck frankie muniz today show katt williams

The Male Underwear of the Future Leaves So, So Many Questions Unanswered (NSFW)

Let's start with what we know. This is called a Flash Blue Side String (NSFW). It's made by a French undergarment company called Alter out of a "high elastic" content fabric. Here's what we don't know: Literally anything else that is going on here. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/bQgc31t_tPs/the-male-underwear-of-the-future-leaves-so-so-many-questions-unanswered-nsfw

dishonored april 18 delonte west vanessa williams nicklas backstrom discovery shuttle allure

Russian court annuls one reprimand against Bolshoi ballet dancer

By Maria Tsvetkova

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Moscow court on Friday annulled one of two reprimands given to a top ballet dancer by the Bolshoi Theatre after he accused it of using an acid attack on its artistic director as a pretext for a "witch hunt" against him.

The late-night attack that almost blinded Sergei Filin on January 17 has exposed a seething ferment of rivalries at the ballet, perhaps Russia's best-known cultural symbol.

Bolshoi dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko and two alleged accomplices are in jail awaiting trial, and the investigation is continuing.

But immediately after the attack, the spotlight fell on 39-year-old Georgian-born Nikolai Tsiskaridze, a principal dancer and teacher who has been at the Bolshoi since 1992 and had clashed with the theatre's leadership.

Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov was quoted as saying in February that he saw the attack on Filing as "a logical result of the excesses created above all by ... Tsiskaridze" and accusing the dancer of "mudslinging". He and many performers said they suspected a wider conspiracy.

"How could I be linked to a criminal case in which I have taken no part," Tsiskaridze said in court on Friday.

"I have an iron-clad alibi since at that time I was (acting) in front of a thousand people."

The theatre filed two reprimands against Tsiskaridze for giving unauthorized interviews in the wake of the attack. In one interview he said he had nothing to do with the attack, and the court annulled the reprimand in that case. In the other interview, he accused management of conducting a public campaign to discredit him, and the court left that reprimand in force.

Multiple reprimands can be grounds for dismissal under Russian labor law. Tsiskaridze said he would appeal the decision.

The Georgian-born dancer told the BBC in an interview that he felt he had been the main target of the attack. He said the management was using it as a pretext for a "witch hunt" against him, and compared the atmosphere at the theatre to 1937 - the height of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's deadly purges.

The attack on Filin stunned Russians, who are used to violence in the world of commerce, but less so in culture, and exposed bitter rivalries inside the Bolshoi over roles, power and pay.

Filin is being treated for severe burns to his face and eyes in Germany.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-court-annuls-one-reprimand-against-bolshoi-ballet-152908121.html

joseph kony joseph kony ipad 3 release date apple store down apple live blog ohio primary cell phone jammer

Sony announces $699 FMP-X1 4K media player and distribution service

Along with its new smaller (and cheaper) 4K TVs, Sony has announced its FMP-X1 4K media player and 4K video distribution service. Plans for both were first revealed at CES, however the official press release (included after the break) provides the full details, that it will be $699 and arrive preloaded with 10 4K films and shorts when it ships this summer. Starting in the fall, the video service will launch, with "fee-based" access to Sony's library of movies. Sony also revealed that it has started adding to the 4K movie collections for the buyers of its $25k 84-inch Ultra HDTV, delivering Lawrence of Arabia. Those buyers will be able to swap their current player for the FMP-X1 when the 4K distribution network launches in the fall. The "mastered in 4K" (but delivered in 1080p) Blu-ray discs are still part of the plan as well, and buyers of the new TVs can expect Spiderman, Ghostbusters and Angels & Demons as pack-ins.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Sony

Comments

Source: Sony, Sony Store

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2hCTzJszUFM/

Sarah Jones chicago marathon Johnny Depp Dead college football rankings Steel Magnolias Niels Bohr the Rumble 2012

Lindsay Lohan in Dark Place, May Die at Coachella, Friend Says

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/lindsay-lohan-in-dark-place-may-die-at-coachella-friend-says/

nfl playoff schedule Rex Ryan tattoo Alaska earthquake green bay packers nfl schedule houston texans houston texans

Education Schools Innovate to Supply STEM Teachers

Biologist Kaleigh LaRiche spent most of her first two years after college working in wildlife education at the Akron, Ohio, zoo. Today, she's a first-year science teacher in a Cleveland middle school.

LaRiche, who earns her master's in education from the University of Akron this spring, thanks the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship for her confidence in the classroom. The two-year master's program recruits accomplished science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) college graduates, as well as career changers like LaRiche, and puts them through their paces in preparation to work in high-need schools.

[Explore the Best Education Schools rankings.]

It is one of several model programs leading the charge to fulfill President Barack Obama's call for 100,000 highly qualified STEM teachers over the next decade, and to get them ready for the much-anticipated new K-12 math and science standards. With only 26 percent of U.S. 12th graders now deemed proficient in math, most states have adopted more rigorous new Common Core Standards for what kids should master at each level.

These guidelines stress depth over breadth; a separate effort, the Next Generation Science Standards, emphasizes questioning and discovery rather than rote memorization.

The Wilson Fellowship partners with several graduate schools of education in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and New Jersey, including the University of Indianapolis, Ball State University, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Montclair State University.

Almost from the start, fellows are immersed for the school year in local K-12 classrooms. LaRiche's four-day-a-week internship at a Canton, Ohio, middle school provided a $30,000 stipend and two mentors to show her the ropes. Course work included classes in the biology department and on problem- and project-based learning.

LaRiche is now a licensed teacher at Cleveland's Harvard Avenue Community School. When covering renewable and non-renewable energy in her sixth grade science class, she breaks students into groups and has them examine which renewable energy alterative would work best for a fictitious town and why.

"They are not used to learning this way," she says. "They are used to a teacher lecturing, taking notes, doing worksheets and labs." The goal is to make clear that science is a process.

Such innovations reflect the latest thinking about what is needed to put better science and math teachers - all kinds of teachers, in fact - into classrooms: an emphasis on subject content knowledge, abundant field experience and high-caliber candidates, as outlined in a 2010 National Research Council report.

Additionally, teacher-prep programs are creating subject-specific methods courses - so a biology candidate can study how best to teach biology, say - that provide training in problem-solving and project-based instruction.

"Woodrow Wilson really opened us to innovation and thinking creatively," says Jennifer Drake, dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of Indianapolis. The university therefore has embedded intensive hands-on practice in all of its teacher-prep programs, is moving to require elementary-ed candidates to take more math and science courses and has deepened cross-pollination between the arts and sciences and education schools.

"In math, there is always a right answer, but there are always different ways to get there," says Christopher Lewine, a third-year teacher in Redwood City, Calif. So instead of moving to the next problem when a correct answer is given to an algebraic problem, Lewine's class at Everest Public High School is just getting started.

Rather than lecturing, he prompts students to discuss and defend how they solved the problem, discovering different approaches from one another. He learned this technique while getting his master's in the yearlong practice-heavy Teacher Education Program at Stanford University.

[Stay up to date with the High School Notes blog.]

Though the pace of innovation has picked up, teacher-prep programs vary widely in quality, and far too many still prepare teachers in a bubble, disconnected from the realities of the classroom, says Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and author of "Educating School Teachers," a milestone 2006 report.

You want "strong support in a total immersion program," preferably one that partners with K-12 schools and provides teacher-mentors, says Charles Coble, co-director of an Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities initiative to overhaul teacher training. That effort, the Science & Math Teacher Imperative, has sparked a move toward these sorts of best practices at 132 public and flagship universities and 13 university systems, which together produce more than 40 percent of the nation's math and science teachers.

Some of the new master's options aimed at scientists and mathematicians are modeled on the clinical training medical residents get. Kevin Perry was headed for a career in surgery when he decided he'd rather teach middle-school biology in New York City instead. He gets his teaching certification in middle- and high-school science this summer after a year in New York University's Clinically Rich Integrated Science Program (CRISP).

"On the second day of the program, we were put in the classroom," Perry says. After several weeks observing during a summer session last July, he was paired with a biology teacher in September to observe and then begin co-teaching at East Side Community School in Manhattan.

Each week, Perry and fellow teaching residents are led by NYU and K-12 school faculty in instructional "rounds" in which they discuss what works and what doesn't. He also takes courses in science, teaching methods, literacy and language acquisition and data and assessment.

Perry receives $30,000 in scholarships from NYU's Steinhart school and New York State, along with a $20,000 living stipend. Similar residencies are offered by the University of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware and Georgia State University, among many others.

[Discover ways to pay for graduate school.]

How can current teachers beef up their STEM bona fides and get set for the coming standards? Part-time and online options are springing up to meet their needs.

The University of Maryland, for example, has created a teacher-oriented master's of education in middle-school mathematics.

"This truly has made me a better teacher," says Germantown, Md., algebra teacher Adam Ritchie, who finished the Maryland evening and summer program in December. "I was able to apply [course work] right off the bat in the classroom."

Besides studies that encouraged exploratory and inquiry-based learning and gave him the know-how to better challenge all kids regardless of ability, Ritchie took algebra, geometry and statistics, and now feels much more ready for the Common Core in math, which gets rolled out in county middle schools next year.

The other welcome payoff: a 20 percent bump in salary.

This story is excerpted from the U.S. News Best Graduate Schools 2014 guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings, and data.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/education-schools-innovate-supply-stem-teachers-144757267.html

space shuttle discovery spacex tupac hologram tupac back tax deadline death race buffet rule

Michigan downs Syracuse 61-56 in NCAA semifinal

Michigan players react after the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game against Syracuse, Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Atlanta. Michigan won 61-56. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Michigan players react after the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game against Syracuse, Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Atlanta. Michigan won 61-56. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Michigan's Trey Burke, right, and Michigan's Tim Hardaway Jr. walk down the court during the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game against Syracuse, Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Michigan's Trey Burke (3) and Glenn Robinson III, center, defend against Syracuse's Michael Carter-Williams during first-half NCAA college basketball game action in the NCAA Final Four, Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Detroit Free Press, Julian H. Gonzalez ) DETROIT NEWS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT

Syracuse's C.J. Fair (5) heads to the hoop against Michigan's Mitch McGary (4) during the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/NCAA Photos, Chris Steppig, Pool)

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim watches play against Michigan during the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game Saturday, April 6, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

ATLANTA (AP) ? Michigan is more than just five fabulous players.

No, this is quite a team ? all the way down the roster.

Fearlessly attacking Syracuse's suffocating zone in the first half, getting big contributions off the bench, and hanging on for dear life at the end, the Wolverines advanced to the national championship game with a 61-56 victory over the Orange in the Final Four on Saturday night.

So put away those comparisons to the Fab Five.

This group of young stars is determined to leave its own legacy.

"We've been a team all year," said coach John Beilein, whose Wolverines were playing in the Final Four for the first time since 1993, when the Fab Five lost for the second straight time in the national title game. "It was great."

Michigan (31-7) will be going for its first national title since 1989 when it faces Louisville on Monday at the Georgia Dome. Syracuse (30-10) failed to complete an all-Big East final in the fabled league's last season before a major overhaul.

Louisville was established as a 4?-point title game favorite.

Don't expect that to bother the brash young Wolverines a bit. They showed they could win even when their best weapon, Associated Press player of the year Trey Burke, was having a really ugly night.

He scored just seven points on 1-of-8 shooting.

"We know Trey is our leader, and sometimes he's not going to have a game like he's had all season," said Tim Hardaway Jr., who led Michigan with 13 points. "That's when our team stepped up."

Trailing 58-56, the Orange had a chance to force overtime. But Brandon Triche was called for a foul when Jordan Morgan stepped in to take the charge with 19.2 seconds left.

"Jordan is our best charge-taker," Beilein said. "He stood in there and took a good one."

After Jon Horford made only one of two free throws, Syracuse called timeout and set up a play. Curiously, the Orange didn't attempt a tying 3-pointer. Instead, Trevor Cooney drove the lane looking to put up an easier shot. But the ball was swatted away, Michigan saved it from going out of bounds and Morgan wound up taking a long pass the other way.

He threw down a thunderous slam with just over a second remaining to cap the triumph.

Triche blamed himself for driving the ball recklessly into the lane when Syracuse had a chance to tie it.

"I was just trying to make a play for the team," he said. "I probably should have made a better decision, probably should have pulled up for the jump shot. ... I did see him, but I figured, I was already in the air jumping."

With Burke struggling to get open looks and misfiring even when he did, Michigan got an unexpected contribution off the bench from freshmen Caris LeVert and Spike Albrecht.

LeVert scored eight points and Albrecht chipped in with six ? all of them crucial after the Wolverines went cold in the second half and struggled to put away the Orange.

"We had a lot of guys in there," Beilein said. "You never know who the outlier is, you never know who's going to come in and get that done."

Of course, there's nothing unusual about Michigan getting big performances from first-year players. This team starts three freshmen ? Glenn Robinson III, Mitch McGary and Nik Stauskas ? which, of course, rekindles memories of the great Fab Five teams.

These kids want nothing to do with the comparisons, saying they haven't done nearly enough to be mentioned in the same breath with a team that changed the face of college basketball.

Well, if the Wolverines can win their next game, they'll accomplish something that eluded the Fab Five: a national title.

Syracuse was looking to give 68-year-old Jim Boeheim another title, a decade after the Orange won it all in their last trip to the Final Four. Boeheim has no plans to retire, but his quest for a championship is on hold for another year.

"I told you I'm not going to answer that question unless you ask that of every coach," Boeheim snapped at a reporter when asked about his future. "I never indicated at any time that I'm not coming back."

Michigan won this game in the opening 20 minutes, doing exactly what it needed to do against Syracuse's suffocating 2-3 zone: knock down open 3s, crash the boards, and work the ball inside and out with crisp, rapid-fire passes.

"I thought we got off to a really bad start defensively in the first half," Boeheim said. "We just didn't have the movement that we've had, and Michigan took advantage of it. Our offense was not good in the first half or the second half. Second half, we got our defense going a lot better, and got back in the game in spite of our offense."

When Syracuse started extending its perimeter defense, looking to cut off the long-range shots, Michigan created an open look late in the half with a nifty bit of ball movement. Robinson ? like Hardaway, the son of a former NBA star ? took a pass, whipped it ball to LeVert, who dribbled a couple of times and fed the ball back to Robinson for an open 15-footer.

Nothing but net.

The Wolverines began to pull away from Syracuse even without much of a contribution from Burke. He finally scored his first points with just under a minute remaining in the first half, swishing a 3 from nearly the same spot on the court where he made the long shot that stunned top-seeded Kansas.

It would be Burke's only basket of the night.

"At the end of the day, it wasn't offense," he said. "A lot of us didn't have good shooting nights, but it was defense that allowed us to advance."

Burke came up huge in the South Regional, leading Michigan back from 14 points down with less than 7 minutes remaining against Kansas. He forced overtime with a long 3-pointer at the end of regulation, and Wolverines finished off the 87-85 upset in overtime.

Syracuse, meanwhile, had taken its trademark defense to new levels of stinginess in the NCAA tournament.

The Orange arrived in Atlanta having surrendered a paltry 45.75 points over four games, holding Montana (34), top-seeded Indiana (50) and Marquette (39) to their lowest scoring totals of the season. Overall, Syracuse's tournament opponents had combined to shoot just 28.9 percent from field (61 of 211) and 15.4 percent from 3-point range (14 of 91).

Syracuse was brimming with confidence heading into the Final Four, believing its zone could shut down the Wolverines and its more experienced lineup would take advantage of Michigan's youth.

But the Wolverines had more points by halftime than Montana, and nearly as many as Marquette managed in the regional final. Even though Hardaway missed a trey just before the buzzer sounded, Michigan sprinted off the court with a commanding 36-25 lead.

Syracuse didn't have enough offensive firepower to come all the way back, shooting just 42 percent (23 of 55).

C.J. Fair scored 22 points, doing his best to rally the Orange all by himself. But Triche, with 11 points, was the only other Syracuse player in double figures.

With Michigan's starters also struggling, the guys off the bench picked up the slack.

LeVert, who seemed headed for a redshirt early in the season and was known more for defense than offense, made a couple of 3-pointers in the opening half. He had connected just 11 times from that range coming into the Final Four.

Albrecht was another surprise. He, too, buried a couple of shots beyond the arc ? one of them going through from the corner while he was sliding on his backside toward the Syracuse bench. Coming into Atlanta, he had made only a dozen 3-pointers the entire season.

There's still another game to go.

"It's going to be a great matchup," said McGary, one of those Michigan freshmen. "They're a team like Syracuse that also plays in Big East and they remind me of VCU the way they trap and can turn over the ball, so it should be a great matchup."

The Wolverines routed VCU 78-53 in the second round of the tournament.

If they can win one more time, they'll have bragging rights on the Fab Five.

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-07-Final%20Four-Syracuse-Michigan/id-89113b302aa949afaa10eeda75aa16dd

ufc on fox 2 supercross christina aguilera etta james funeral sundance film festival the flintstones etta james ufc on fox

North Korea turns up volume by silencing final military hot line

What happens now?

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / March 27, 2013

South Korean Army soldiers patrol along a barbed-wire fence near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday. North Korea said Wednesday that it had cut off a key military hot line with South Korea that allows cross-border travel to a jointly run industrial complex in the North.

Ahn Young-joon/AP

Enlarge

North Korea's edgy game of war talk continued?at ever higher volumes today with the announcement that it will cut off the last military hot line with South Korea.

Skip to next paragraph Robert Marquand

Staff writer

Over the past three decades, Robert Marquand has reported on a wide variety of subjects for?The Christian Science Monitor, including American education reform,?the wars in the Balkans, the Supreme Court, South Asian politics, and the oft-cited "rise of China." In the past 15 years he has served as the Monitor's bureau chief in Paris, Beijing, and New Delhi.?

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

?Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep North-South military communications,? said the regime, according to the Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.

The severed line of communication comes as the North, under young and new President Kim Jong-un, has said it is moving into its highest military alert status and has threatened to target Hawaii and Guam with rockets, after last month conducting its third nuclear test.?

The escalating rhetoric has brought a new agreement between US and South Korean officials that would dictate military action should the North cross the border, shell islands, or harm shipping in the kind of low-level actions Pyongyang has attempted in recent years.?

US military officials called the North Korean statement ?bellicose.??Many have expressed doubt that North Korea?s rockets have the range to reach US bases in Guam and Hawaii, but a few, including the?editor of Jane?s Defense Weekly, estimated they could reach US military bases in Japan, according to USA Today.?

Yesterday the small, poor state that is anchored by devotion to the Kim family dynasty, and is now nearly entirely dependent on China for basic sustenance but has also devoted considerable resources to its military, repeated a longstanding threat to turn Seoul into a ?sea of fire,? among other similarly colorful threats.

Earlier this year, the North said it would no longer answer?a hot line at the Demilitarized Zone. The hot line that the country is now threatening to shut down linked the two Koreas at the?Kaesong industrial park, created in the North during the warming winds of unification in the 2000s. The economic complex has long been a symbol of the potential for North-South cooperation.?

The New York Times today notes the North?s threat on the hot line follows comments from?Park Geun-hye,?the newly elected president of South Korea, that North Korea needed to end its nuclear threats in order to gain better traction with the South:

?If North Korea provokes or does things that harm peace, we must make sure that it gets nothing but will pay the price, while if it keeps its promises, the South should do the same,? she said during a briefing from her government?s top diplomats and North Korea policy-makers. ?Without rushing and in the same way we would lay one brick after another, we must develop South-North relations step by step, based on trust, and create sustainable peace.?

Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, a veteran Korea-watcher once based in Seoul, tells The Christian Science Monitor that Pyongyang's main grievance appears to be recent United Nations sanctions targeted at the North.

Mr. Snyder argues that the meaning of the North?s sudden blustery behavior will only become clearer ?once the question of the consolidation of [Kim Jong-un?s] power becomes clearer.?

Agence France-Presse today said that a significant meeting among party elites and power brokers in the closed world of Pyongyang is about to take place.

"They will discuss how to handle the nuclear issue, inter-Korean relations and North Korea's longstanding demand for a peace treaty with the United States," Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told AFP.

Comparisons between the new Kim and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the patriarch of North Korea, are flowing freely, since there is a resemblance between the two. But Snyder notes that too little is yet known of the young Kim, who took over from his father Kim Jong-il last year, and that his youth is not necessarily a plus in such a high-stakes game.

?Right now the song is the same, but the volume is a lot louder. We don?t know his risk tolerance yet ? does he understand the game he is playing??

The US-South Korea military agreement follows a recent scrapping by the North of the historic legal armistice that effectively ended the Korean war in the 1950s. It came on the anniversary of the infamous sinking of the Choenan Navy vessel in 2010, which resulted in the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors, something that has had powerful emotional resonance in the South. (The Choenan was raised from the ocean floor, and forensics by the South claim the vessel was torpedoed by the North, something the North denies.)?

USA Today quotes an Asia-watcher who feels the key to dealing with Pyongyang runs through Beijing:

US diplomats should talk to their Chinese counterparts and say, "Your ally North Korea is acting in a very belligerent and destabilizing way," said [Richard] Bush, who heads the Brookings Institution Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. "They're acting in ways that are contrary to the principles you [China] have laid out. The situation is somewhat dangerous. You need to restrain your ally."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/P8CCMVqq_nQ/North-Korea-turns-up-volume-by-silencing-final-military-hot-line

hunger games movie review bats hunger games review jeff saturday jason smith jon corzine austin rivers

Lawmaker: Iran will never halt nuclear program

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? A top Iranian lawmaker declared Sunday that Iran will never halt its nuclear development program, a day after the latest round of international talks failed to reach agreement on the issue.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the talks were "considered effective and a step forward," but he added, "the Islamic Republic of Iran will never stop uranium enrichment activities."

Boroujerdi, who heads a parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, said the talks should continue. He was quoted by the ISNA news agency.

Western powers are concerned that Iran may move toward production of nuclear weapons. Iran denies that, insisting that its program is peaceful.

World powers have repeatedly demanded that Iran close down its Fordo underground uranium enrichment plant that is enriching uranium up to 20 percent. Uranium that is enriched to 90 percent can be used in weapons.

The U.N. has enacted four rounds of economic sanctions against Iran to try to force it to curtail its program, but Iran has remained defiant.

"If one day the (Iranian) administration decides to close down Fordo, the parliament will oppose the decision, definitely," Boroujerdi was quoted as saying. He said Iran will continue reinforcing the plant because of foreign threats. Both the U.S. and Israel have hinted at military action against Iran's nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed the West for failure at the weekend talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan. "The talks showed that the West is not honest in its remarks," he told reporters.

He said Western powers cannot achieve progress "if they do not acknowledge Iran's natural rights" to enrich uranium.

Velayati is seen a leading candidate for June elections to pick a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The comments were the first by top Iranian officials after the talks Friday and Saturday between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-07-Iran-Nuclear/id-84cb5a92400243cfbc58cb9f9aadd70c

the Grammys 2013 State of the Union 2013 katy perry Rihanna Katy Perry Grammys 2013 taylor swift taylor swift

China reports 2 more cases of new bird flu virus

BEIJING (AP) ? Shanghai has reported two more cases of human infection of a new bird flu virus strain that has killed six people in eastern China. The virus has so far sickened 12 other people in the country.

Health officials believe people are contracting the H7N9 virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.

Shanghai's government said Saturday that the latest victims are a 74-year-old peasant and a 66-year-old retiree. The city has been ordered by the agriculture ministry to halt its live poultry trade and slaughter all fowl in markets where the virus has been found.

The capital cities of the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu also have suspended sales of live poultry. Both provinces have reported H7N9 cases.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-04-06-China-Bird%20Flu/id-cd8ecc69cef844eb8cc19020c4ba6127

doctor who Phil Ramone louisville Kevin Ware Injury Video Richard Griffiths FGCU Reid Flair

Radioactive leak feared at Japan n-plant

TOKYO (AP) ? The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant said Saturday that it was moving tons of highly radioactive water from a temporary storage tank to another after detecting signs of leakage, in a blow to the plant's struggles with tight storage space.

Tokyo Electric power Co. said about 120 tons of the water are believed to have breached the tank's inner linings, some of it possibly leaking into the soil. TEPCO is moving the water to a nearby tank at the Fukushima Dai-chi plant ? a process that could take several days.

TEPCO detected the leak earlier in the week, when radiation levels spiked in water samples collected in between the inner linings of the tank. Radiation levels in water samples taken outside the tank also have increased, an indication of the water leak, TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono said.

Contaminated water at the plant, which went into multiple meltdowns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, has escaped into the sea several times during the crisis. Experts suspect there has been a continuous leak into the ocean through an underground water system, citing high levels of contamination among fish caught in waters just off the plant.

The leak is not only an immediate environmental concern, but threatens TEPCO's tight water management situation, Ono said.

The tank contains 13,000 tons of water, which is part of the water that was used to cool melted fuel at the plant's reactors damaged in the twin disasters. So much water has been used that TEPCO is struggling to find storage space.

"The impact (from the leak) is not small, as the space is already tight," Ono said. "We need to revise our water management plans."

More than 270,000 tons of highly radioactive water is already stored in hundreds of gigantic tanks and another underground tank. They are visible even at the plant's entrance and built around the compound, taking up more than 80 percent of its storage capacity.

TEPCO expects the amount to double over three years and plans to build hundreds of more tanks by mid-2015 to meet the demand.

Because of that, TEPCO is anxious to launch a new water treatment system that can purify the contaminated water. The machine, called ALPS, recently started a final test run after six months of delays due to safety requirements by government regulators.

The delay caused TEPCO to use some of seven underground tanks, originally meant for ALPS-treated water, to accommodate the contaminated water backlog as a stopgap measure.

TEPCO officials have indicated they hope to release the water into the ocean, but Ono said the company has no immediate plans to do so without public acceptance.

The plant is being decommissioned but continues to experience glitches. A fuel storage pool temporarily lost its cooling system Friday, less than a month after the plant suffered a more extensive outage.

The underground tank, several times the size of an Olympic-size swimming pool and similar to an industrial waste dump, is dug directly into the ground and protected by two layers of polyethylene linings inside the outermost clay-based lining, with a felt padding in between each layer.

The meltdowns have caused the plant to release radiation into the surroundings and displaced about 160,000 people from around the plant. They do not know when or if they will be able to return home.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Radioactive-water-leak-feared-at-Japan-nuke-plant-4414385.php

S B H c mitt romney mark zuckerberg mark zuckerberg

Hoda Kotb to Leave Today?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/hoda-kotb-to-leave-today/

undercover boss barbara walters tupelo honey limp bizkit stations of the cross nike foamposite galaxy bill maher