Fla. highway patrol details 1st of 2 I-75 pileups

Debris and wreckage lie along the highway after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Debris and wreckage lie along the highway after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

In this Jan. 29, 2012 photo provided by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, shows fire fighters near a group of cars involved in a deadly crash on I-75 in Gainesville, Fla. The multiple vehicle crash killed 10 people and was caused by smoke and fog so thick that when the Florida Highway patrol arrive at the scene they located the victims by following the sound of their moans and screams. (AP Photo/Alachua County Sheriff's Office, HO)

Forest Ranger Chase Rowe, with the Florida Forest Service, operates a water hose atop a water tanker being pulled by a bulldozer as crews conduct a "mop up" of the Boardwalk Fire in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, south of Gainesville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. The Florida Highway Patrol said Monday that conditions were clear enough when they decided to reopen the interstate highway where 10 people later were killed in two deadly pileups amid thick smoke from a 62-acre brushfire and fog. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Doug Finger)

Forest Rangers with the Florida Forest Service conduct a "mop up" of the Boardwalk Fire in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park south of Gainesville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. The Florida Highway Patrol said Monday that conditions were clear enough when they decided to reopen the interstate highway where 10 people later were killed in two deadly pileups amid thick smoke from a 62-acre brushfire and fog. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Doug Finger)

Forest Rangers with the Florida Forest Service conduct a "mop up" of the Boardwalk Fire in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park south of Gainesville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. The Florida Highway Patrol said Monday that conditions were clear enough when they decided to reopen the interstate highway where 10 people later were killed in two deadly pileups amid thick smoke from a 62-acre brushfire and fog. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Doug Finger)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) ? The Florida Highway Patrol says six people died and at least 16 people were injured after 10 vehicles crashed in the first of two pileups along a fog- and smoke-shrouded section of Interstate 75 near Gainesville.

Authorities released late Monday night details of the early Sunday wreck along the northbound lanes of I-75 that killed a Virginia man and five members of a church group from suburban Atlanta.

The highway patrol says 26-year-old Jason Lee Raikes of Richmond, Va., was killed in the 4 a.m. crash. They say Edson Carmo, 38; Roselia DeSilva, 41; Jose Carmo Jr., 43; Adrianna Carmo, 39; and Leticia Carmo, 17, all of Kennesaw, Ga., were killed.

In all, 10 people were killed in two pileups after the authorities reopened the highway that had been closed after a serious wreck.

Associated Press

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Selig expects expanded playoffs to start this year (AP)

NEW YORK ? Commissioner Bud Selig expects baseball to expand its playoffs this season.

Players and owners have already agreed to add an additional wild-card team in each league, but are still deciding whether it would take effect this year or in 2013. Selig said there are scheduling issues to be worked out ? once they are, the new 10-team format would begin with a one-game playoff.

"I really believe we'll have the wild card for 2012, this year," Selig said Friday night in Chicago at a White Sox fan festival. "Clubs really want it. I don't think I've ever seen an issue that the clubs want more than to have the extra wild card this year."

"We're working on dates right now. That'll all take place. It looks to me like we'll have it because I've told everybody we have to have it. It'll be exciting. One-game playoff, it will start the playoffs in a very exciting manner," he said.

A little more than two months before opening day, Major League Baseball hoped to put an end to uncertainty.

Add a bat or an arm to compete for that extra wild card? No telling whether that makes any sense.

"That's the last thing on my mind," Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta said this week. "I'm trying to win my division and I can't be concerned about that stuff. But the more the merrier.

"It gives us and everybody else a better chance to make the playoffs. But it's not on my mind because you don't build a system or build a team counting on the commissioner is going to change the playoff format," he said.

MLB and the players' association have reached a consensus that ties for division titles will be broken on the field under the new playoff format, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because a deal hadn't been finalized.

Since 1995, head-to-head record has been used to determine first place if both teams are going to the postseason. But with the start of a one-game, winner-take-all wild-card round, the sides agreed that the difference between first place and a wild-card berth is too important to decide with a formula and a tiebreaker game would be played.

Negotiators plan to talk again next week and decide by March 1 on whether the extra round will begin this year.

"I think most clubs at this point no matter who you are are focused on trying to win a division," Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "If that doesn't work, then you make your adjustments."

Under the new format, whenever it begins, the non-division winners in each league with the two-best records will be the wild-cards, meaning a third-place team could for the first time win the World Series.

Being able to finish third and still go to the postseason could create more of an opportunity in the AL East for teams other than the rich New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, or in the AL West, where the two-time champion Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels have spent big bucks to improve.

In the AL Central, Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore watched Dombrowski add Prince Fielder to his already formidable batting order this week.

"We're focused on putting the best team on the field we can to compete to win the Central. That's the first goal," Moore said. "If that appears to be unattainable, we'll evaluate what we need to do to improve the team to continue to strive for that goal. If it becomes apparent that's not going to happen, you begin to focus on the wild card. You want to get in the playoffs any way you can and take your chances there."

___

AP Sports Writers Rick Gano and Tom Withers contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_expanded_playoffs

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Would Israel Really Attack Iran? Even Israelis Themselves Aren't Sure

Nir Elias / Reuters

An Israeli air force F-15I fighter flies over an air force pilots' graduation ceremony at Hatzerim air base in southern Israel Dec. 29, 2011.

In the effort to stir global action against the Iranian nuclear program, Israel has played its hand brilliantly. ?Having twice sent fighter-bombers to erase nuclear reactors in hostile states ? to Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007 ? its conspicuous preparations against Iran form a firm flank in the effort to corral world opinion. This week, as the European Union joined the United States in launching exceptionally potent sanctions on Iran?s petroleum industry and central bank, a senior French official explained the urgency as follows: ??We must do everything possible to avoid an Israeli attack on Iran.?

But could Israel go it alone?

The question is addressed in detail in the latest print edition of TIME. The full article is available to subscribers here. But as quoted by a senior security official, the assessment offered to the cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last autumn was not altogether encouraging:

?I informed the cabinet we have no ability to hit the Iranian nuclear program in a meaningful way,? the official quoted a senior commander as saying. ?If I get the order I will do it, but we don?t have the ability to hit in a meaningful way.?

The key word is?meaningful.? The working assumption behind Israel?s military preparations has been that, to be worth mounting, a strike must be likely to delay Tehran?s nuclear capabilities by at least two years. But given the wide geographic dispersion of Iran?s atomic facilities?combined with the limits of Israel?s air armada?the Jewish State can expect to push back the Iranian program only by a matter of months ? a year at most, according to the official, who attributed the estimate to the Atomic Energy Commission that Israel has charged with assessing the likely effect of a strike.

That assessment comes as no surprise to military experts both inside and outside Israel. ??That?s a perfectly logical calculation, for somebody who actually knows how Israel assesses this,? says?Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ?Perhaps the most respected military analyst working stateside, Cordesman went on for a while in our telephone interview about how weary he?d grown of reading back-of-the-envelope estimates of ?former Israeli officials.? ?The reality, he says, is that the decisive, actual capabilities are known only to the military professionals who have the details in front of them. ?Even then, the course of action ? in this case, whether Israel will launch the attack it has spent more than a decade equipping and training its military for ? will be determined by more than strictly military matters:

Israel is going to act strategically. It?s going to look at the political outcome of what it says and does, not simply measure this in terms of some computer game and what the immediate tactical impact is.

What everyone agrees, however, is that as formidable as the Israeli Air Force is, it simply lacks the capacity to mount the kind of sustained, weeks-long aerial bombardment required to knock down Iran?s nuclear program, with the requisite pauses for damage assessments followed by fresh waves of bombing. ?Without forward platforms like air craft carriers, Israel?s air armada must rely on mid-air refueling to reach targets more than 1,000 miles away, and anyone who reads Israel?s order of battle sees?it simply doesn?t have but a half dozen or so. ?Another drawback noted by analysts is Israel?s inventory of bunker-busting bombs, the sort that penetrate deep into concrete or rock that shield the centrifuge arrays at Natanz and now Fordow, near Qum.? Israel has loads of GBU-28s, which might penetrate Natanz. But only the U.S. Air Force has the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator that could take on Fordow, the mountainside redoubt where critics suspect Iran would enrich uranium to military levels.

Still, Israel could launch a surprise strike of a single wave and do significant damage. ?And sometime this year it probably will, according to the Israeli author of ??Will Israel Attack Iran?? the New York Times Magazine story that went online Wednesday. ?The piece begins in the high-rise apartment of Defense Minister Ehud Barak and more or less maintains that perspective throughout. ?The bottom line is attributed not to an individual or institution but to a state: ?Israel believes that these platforms have the capacity to cause enough damage to set the Iranian nuclear project back by three to five years.?

It?s also entirely possible, of course, that Israel?s credible threat to go it alone is both sincere and, at the same time, understood as a wonderfully effective motivator for sanctions and other coercive measures short of war. (Indeed, amid another round of Strait of Hormuz threats by Iranian politicians, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared today that his country was ready to talk about its nuclear program?though he insisted it was not going to give it up.) The world paid a lot more attention than it might have to the Nov. 8 report of the IAEA ? the one detailing Iran?s efforts to prepare a nuclear weapon ? because in the fortnight before its release, Israel fairly thrummed with debate over whether it should launch an attack. ?There?s surely a limit how many times the threat can be made and remain credible. Already, the dynamic between Jerusalem and Washington is being compared to Fred and Grady in ??Sanford and Son? ? ?Hold me back!? ?But as enriched uranium piles up inside the mountain outside Qum, the calendar may well provide the suspense.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/time/topstories/~3/W9_VqXIjNpo/

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"Barefoot Bandit" gets 6.5 years of federal time (Reuters)

SEATTLE (Reuters) ? A serial burglar nicknamed the "Barefoot Bandit" was sentenced on Friday in Seattle to 6-1/2 years in prison for his guilty plea to federal charges stemming from a sensational, two-year crime spree as a sometimes-shoeless teenage runaway.

The federal judge also ordered that Colton Harris-Moore, 20, serve his federal sentence simultaneously with a state term of more than seven years in a move his lawyers say could see him freed before his 26th birthday.

The proceedings marked the end of an extraordinary two-year saga for Harris-Moore, a high school dropout and self-taught pilot who escaped from a juvenile detention facility and stayed one step ahead of the law as he broke into homes and stole cars, boats and planes across nine states and British Columbia.

His exploits, which prosecutors said included at least 67 crimes, came to an end when he was captured in the Bahamas in July 2010 after crash-landing a stolen aircraft he had flown to the islands from Indiana.

The 78-month federal prison term he was given on Friday was the maximum he faced for seven federal charges he pleaded guilty to in June, including interstate transportation of two stolen airplanes and a yacht, a bank burglary, possessing a firearm as a fugitive and piloting an aircraft without a valid license.

Last month in state court in Coupeville, Washington, Harris-Moore, who grew up in the Puget Sound community of Camano Island, was sentenced to 87 months for 33 crimes ranging from residential burglary to attempting to elude police.

His lawyers said that with credit Harris-Moore is expected to receive for time served and good behavior, their client, who turns 21 in March, would likely spend 4-1/2 years in prison and could be released before his 26th birthday.

In a 5-minute statement read before District Judge Richard Jones pronounced the sentence, Harris Moore apologized for his crimes, "The lessons learned on the back of my victims are no way an excuse for my crimes."

Asked by the judge what message he would wish to send to young people, Harris-Moore said, "What I did could be called daring, but I'm lucky to be alive."

MOVIE DEAL

As part of his plea deal, Harris-Moore agreed to forfeit any profits from the rights to his life story. He has signed a movie deal with 20th Century Fox, setting aside about $1.3 million in proceeds as restitution to his victims.

During his December 16 state sentencing, Island County Superior Court Judge Vickie Churchill called Harris-Moore's case a tragedy but also a "triumph in the human spirit" because of his severely-troubled childhood.

Defense documents filed on Thursday argued that Harris-Moore was "at a low risk for re-offending and has the will and interest to make a life for himself as a member of the community."

A small commuter airline has communicated with Harris-Moore "about his future after incarceration," the documents said. They also cited e-mails from him expressing ambition to become a pilot.

A 39-page sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors, however, questioned whether Harris-Moore was truly remorseful.

Prosecutors referred to e-mails and calls by Harris-Moore while in federal detention in which he referred to police as "swine" and "asses," the media as "vermin," and a Washington county prosecutor as a "complete fool."

The defense responded that "quoting and parsing his e-mails is, frankly, nothing more than an inflammatory attempt to use a cognitively impaired adolescent's thoughts against him."

At his state sentencing hearing, Harris-Moore described his childhood, growing up with an alcoholic mother, as one "that I would not wish on my darkest enemies."

His mother, Pam Kohler, slipped into Friday's proceedings shortly after they began and sat in the back row of the packed courtroom, listening intently, taking her sunglasses on off and craning her neck to catch glimpses of her son.

She waved to him during a break, and Harris-Moore, who has said through his attorneys in the past that he would rather she not attend his court appearances, acknowledged her with a nod and a slight smile. She then called his name out loud, "Colt."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Darwin Roberts said Harris-Moore's behavior was not excused by his troubled upbringing.

"Having a bad childhood and dreaming of flying an airplane is not a reason to break into a bank," he said.

One of the burglary victims, Kelly Kneifl of Yankton, South Dakota, testified about how his family was terrorized when they returned home from a trip in the middle of the night to find that Harris-Moore, naked, had broken into their house.

"For the next year, literally ... Dad would have to go into the house first" and the children were to afraid to sleep in their own room.

(Editing by Steve Gorman, Daniel Trotta and Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/us_nm/us_barefoot_bandit_sentencing

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Greece locked in parallel talks over debt (AP)

ATHENS, Greece ? Greece was locked in a twin effort Friday to placate its creditors, seeking to secure a crucial debt relief deal with private investors while also tackling pressing demands from its European partners and the IMF for deeper reforms.

Failure on either front would force the recession-bound country to default on its debt in less than two months, pouring new fuel on the fires of Europe's debt crisis. In that case, Greece would also likely leave the 17-member eurozone, which would bring disaster on the country and destabilize the rest of the eurozone.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos have resumed talks with representatives of international banks and other private institutions that hold euro206 billion ($270 billion) in Greek government bonds, at the end of a second week of tortuous talks on halving the country's privately-held debt load.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said he hoped a deal would be reached "if not today maybe by the weekend."

Greek government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said it was "obvious" that progress has been made. "We hope to conclude as soon as possible," he said in an interview with Vima radio.

Despite several days of intensive talks, an agreement has not so far been reached, mainly due to disagreements on the interest rate cut private investors must accept on the new lower-value Greek bonds with longer maturities that will replace the ones they now own. The writedown, imposed on bondholders by Greece's international bailout creditors, is meant to reduce the country's debt-to-GDP ratio from 160 percent last year to 120 percent in 2020.

It is also a vital condition of a second bailout for Greece, which has been relying on euro110 billion ($145 billion) in international rescue loans since May 2010.

Debt inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission, known collectively as the "troika," are currently in Athens to negotiate details of the second bailout, worth euro130 billion ($171 billion).

On Monday, the troika presented a list of proposed reforms that were leaked in Greek media, calling for new spending cuts targeting the military, health and redundant state entities, public sector sackings, tax reforms, privatizations and deregulation of protected professions.

Greece has already imposed tough austerity measures, including deeply resented salary and pension cuts, repeated rounds of tax hikes and labor reforms. But it has also promised reforms it diluted or never implemented, while frequently missing its fiscal targets.

"We've had enough announcements, now the government in Athens must act," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the German daily Stuttgarter Zeitung. "Only then can we talk about a second program."

In a statement he released Friday, after negotiations with the "troika" and ahead of the talks with the private creditors, Venizelos claimed that "we are just a step before the conclusion of negotiations (on the debt writedown)," and added that both negotiation tracks must finish within the next few days. "There is going to be no renegotiation once the (second bailout) is agreed upon," he said.

"The negotiation is difficult," Kapsis told private Skai TV. "I don't want to create the illusion that everything is going well and that everything is easy. It is a very difficult negotiation."

Kapsis said decisions on the new measures would be taken in the next few days, and warned without further cutbacks the private debt writedown ? which will be partly funded by the second bailout ? is off the cards.

"The issue of spending cuts is immediate as the (2011) budget has a euro2 billion shortfall and there is a need for some additional cutbacks," he told Vima radio. "These actions must take place for the (bond swap) to materializes. ... They are two parallel procedures."

But Kapsis argued that troika demands for 150,000 job losses by 2015 in the public sector ? where workers have guaranteed jobs for life ? can be achieved through attrition and a hiring freeze.

The leaked troika proposals also called for Greece to sell "two or three large companies" by the end of June. Kapsis said the privatization process "is a real problem."

"It is a difficult period to find investors who will come and place money in Greece," he said. The program is severely behind schedule: Supposed to raise euro50 billion by 2015, it has so far drawn in a paltry euro1.56 billion.

____

Derek Gatopoulos and Demetris Nellas in Athens, Pan Pylas in Davos, Switzerland, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis

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Lawyer withdraws $7.5 million dollar lottery claim

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? A New York attorney's decision to withdraw his claim on a multimillion dollar Iowa Lottery prize doesn't put to rest officials' questions about how he obtained the ticket.

Crawford Shaw, of Bedford, N.Y., withdrew his claim Thursday on a multimillion dollar Iowa Lottery prize just as mysteriously as he has made it, saying through a Des Moines law firm that he couldn't satisfy lottery officials' request for basic information about how he obtained the winning ticket.

The lottery has asked the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Iowa attorney general to investigate.

Officials say Shaw submitted the ticket for redemption on behalf of a trust on Dec. 29, less than two hours before it expired, and has identified the recipient only as a corporation in the country of Belize. The lottery wants to know how Shaw obtained the ticket to make sure it wasn't stolen and that a valid player bought it.

It has been 13 months since the winning ticket was purchased at a Des Moines gas station in December 2010. The payout for the prize would have been $7.5 million cash, or $10.3 million spread over 25 years after taxes.

Iowa lottery officials had given Shaw until Friday to provide the identities and contact information of anyone who purchased or possessed the ticket.

Instead of claiming the prize in person, as is normally done, Shaw signed the ticket on behalf of the trust and shipped it by FedEx to a Des Moines law firm he had retained.

Shaw, 76, sent a fax to the law firm Thursday saying he doesn't know the identity of the purchaser. The firm relayed the information to lottery officials.

"In order that the claim be resolved without further controversy, Crawford Shaw, as Trustee for and on behalf of the Trust, does hereby withdraw the Claim and does hereby agree to take no further action to enforce the Claim," the fax signed by Shaw reads.

Shaw signed the ticket on behalf of Bedford, N.Y.-based Hexham Investments Trust, though lottery officials have said he misspelled the name of the trust by leaving off the second "h." Shaw claimed not to be a beneficiary of the trust.

Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said Thursday that it's the strangest situation officials can recall in the 26-year history of the lottery. He declined to speculate on the details of the claim, saying if he knew more than what's been released, lottery officials would probably be writing a check to a winner.

"I'm telling you, if I could take all of the suggestions, it would be a heck of a fun book," Rich said.

He previously had said the lottery had received several claims that the ticket was stolen.

Iowa law also prohibits employees and contractors of the lottery, their relatives and anyone younger than 21 from playing.

Shaw said Wednesday through the Des Moines-based Davis Brown Law Firm that if the jackpot were paid, the money would be donated to charity. He declined to comment further Thursday.

Records show Shaw played at least a minor role in the collapse of Industrial Enterprises of America, a chemical company that was looted and bankrupted in 2009 by a stock manipulation scheme. Shaw helped found the company after taking control of a Houston-based shell corporation, serving as its CEO from 2004 to 2005.

Shaw's history also includes lawsuits alleging fraud in Delaware and Texas.

The unclaimed money will go toward future prizes, Rich said.

___

Associated Press writer Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Md. man caught in sting pleads guilty in bomb plot (AP)

BALTIMORE ? A Maryland man pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to detonate what he thought was a car bomb outside a military recruiting center in suburban Baltimore, saying he was motivated by what he saw as an American war on Islam.

Antonio Martinez entered the plea to the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against federal property. The plot to bomb the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Catonsville in December 2010 was foiled by an FBI sting.

The 22-year-old had also faced a charge of trying to kill U.S. officers and employees, but prosecutors agreed to drop the second charge at sentencing. The deal calls for a 25-year prison term.

Martinez wore a burgundy jumpsuit and his hair in two braids in court, and he smiled and hugged his defense attorney. The U.S. citizen born who was born abroad preferred to be called Muhammad Hussain after his conversion to Islam and signed the plea using both names.

Public records are unclear about when Martinez, who was born to a Nicaraguan father and an African-American mother, moved to Maryland, but he attended Laurel High School in Prince George's County, a Washington suburb. The former part-time construction worker said in court Thursday that he finished 10th grade.

In the plea agreement, Martinez acknowledges that he wanted to pursue jihad to the United States "to send a message that all American soldiers would be killed so long as the country continued its `war' against Islam."

An FBI informant first communicated with Martinez on Facebook after seeing public posts "espousing his extremist views" and recognizing him from a mosque he attended, according to court documents. The documents say Martinez later told the informant of his ideas for attacking military-linked sites and said all he thought about was jihad.

Authorities say Martinez' ideas ranged from a bombing and armed attack to burning the building down. He told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to make jihadist activities his profession, dedicating his life to the cause, according to the plea.

Martinez decided on a car bomb after a discussion with the undercover agent because "using a bomb would allow him to commit further acts here and overseas," prosecutor Christine Manuelian said.

The informant and the undercover agent gave Martinez repeated opportunities to back out, but he insisted he was committed, even after expressing reservations after a Somali-born teenager was arrested in Oregon in a similar sting, according to court documents.

Just days before the planned attack, Martinez told the informant that he was "ready ... happy, anxious, just ready." Asked if he felt like someone was pushing him, Martinez replied, "I came to you about this, brother," according to the plea.

On the way to the recruiting center, Martinez had the informant record a video statement in which he said he and others would continue the fight until those who waged a war on Islam stopped, according to the plea. He then armed the fake bomb on his own, parked the SUV in front of building and went to vantage point and waited to press the button until the undercover agent told him there were several soldiers in the building, Manuelian said. He was arrested within seconds, she said.

After his arrest, Martinez confessed that the attack was his idea, he wanted to be a martyr and he had expected an explosion that would level the front of the building, according to the plea.

After the hearing, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard McFeely thanked members of the Muslim community for reaching out to law enforcement and identifying a threat.

The case illustrates the Department of Justice's approach since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, trying to stop catch suspects before they can carry out schemes while protecting liberties, according to U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_recruiting_center_bomb_plot

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Asia stocks gain slightly on Fed's low rate pledge (AP)

BANGKOK ? Asian stock markets posted muted gains Thursday after the U.S. central bank pledged to keep interest rates low for another three years to nurture the country's stubbornly slow economic recovery.

Benchmark oil hovered just below $100 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 1.2 percent to 20,342.71 on its first trading day since the Chinese New Year holiday. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.2 percent to 1,956.21. Benchmarks in Thailand and New Zealand also rose.

Japan's Nikkei was 0.4 percent lower at 8,853.02 as a weakening dollar pressured the country's exporters. Benchmarks in Singapore and Malaysia also fell.

Markets in Taiwan and mainland Chinese remained closed for the Chinese New Year. Markets in India and Australia were closed for public holidays.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee said it was unlikely to raise interest rates before late 2014. It had previously said it expected to keep rates low into the middle of 2013.

The Fed cut rates to near zero in December 2008, during the financial crisis, and has held them there ever since. The announcement was a sign that the Fed expects the economy, which is improving, to need significant help for three more years.

Analysts said some stock buyers rejoiced that the Fed was leaning toward promoting economic growth.

"With the FOMC sending out a strong signal that monetary policy is likely to remain accommodative for even longer than previously expected, risk assets are in a very good position," Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne said in an email.

Wall Street welcomed the news, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing up 0.6 percent at 12,756.96 ? the highest close since May 10. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.9 percent to 1,326.06. The Nasdaq composite index gained 1.1 percent to close at 2,818.31.

Energy shares got a boost after crude briefly topped $100 per barrel on Wednesday. South Korea's oil refiner S-Oil Corp. rose 2.5 percent, while China National Offshore Oil Corp., known as CNOOC, rose 2.1 percent in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group, China's largest gold miner, jumped 4.1 percent amid rising prices in the precious metal.

But Japanese export shares didn't fare so well. Low interest rates in the U.S. would likely weigh on the dollar, giving the tenaciously strong yen another unwelcome boost.

Yamaha Motor Corp. sank 2.4 percent, while Sony Corp. lost 1.2 percent. Toshiba Corp. was 1.2 percent down.

Lee Kok Joo, head of research at Phillip Securities in Singapore, said the Fed announcement would likely have only a short-term affect on equities.

"Beyond that, you still need to look at the macro picture," he said, referring in particular to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. "Things are still pretty uncertain in the European region."

Greece, which faces an important bond repayment deadline in March, is struggling to reach a deal with creditors to prevent a chaotic default on its massive debts. A default could trigger a financial crisis in Europe and beyond.

Private sector investors that hold a large part of Greece's debt are being asked to swap their existing bonds with new ones of a reduced value, longer maturity and lower interest rate. Greece needs the deal if it is to avoid default this spring.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 57 cents to $99.97 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose by 45 cents to finish at $99.40 per barrel in New York on Wednesday. At one point it was as high as $100.40.

The prospect of low interest rates dragged on the dollar, since it reduces the returns that investors get from holding assets denominated in that currency. The euro rose to $1.3109 from $1.3084 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.69 yen from 77.81 yen.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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Photo from NASA Mars orbiter shows wind's handiwork

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? Some images of stark Martian landscapes provide visual appeal beyond their science value, including a recent scene of wind-sculpted features from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The scene shows dunes and sand ripples of various shapes and sizes inside an impact crater in the Noachis Terra region of southern Mars. Patterns of dune erosion and deposition provide insight into the sedimentary history of the area.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been examining Mars with six science instruments since 2006. Now in an extended mission, the orbiter continues to provide insights about the planet's ancient environments and about how processes such as wind, meteorite impacts and seasonal frosts are continuing to affect the Martian surface today. This mission has returned more data about Mars than all other orbital and surface missions combined.

More than 20,600 images taken by HiRISE are available for viewing on the instrument team's website: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu. Each observation by this telescopic camera covers several square miles, or square kilometers, and can reveal features as small as a desk.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.

For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, see www.nasa.gov/mro.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120125160623.htm

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Tax Returns and Tithing: How Mitt Romney Gives Away 16% of His Income (Time.com)

When Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax returns on Tuesday, the one number that probably stood out to many Americans wasn't his 14% effective tax rate or his $20 million-plus annual income. It was the $7 million he gave to charity over the last two years, including some $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Where does that money go? In addition to donating to his family's Tyler Foundation, Romney does his duty as an active LDS member. The Mormon Church requires its members to tithe 10% of their income, and Romney's contributions match that responsibility. (PHOTOS: The Rich History of Mitt Romney)

Designed to follow the Biblical mandate to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the Mormon tithing system supports a giant welfare infrastructure. In addition to financing temple construction and missionary programs, tithing supports more than 300 employment resource centers and 80 family services offices around the world. The church employs some 8,500 missionaries who teach English, give agricultural aid, provide medical practices and distribute clothing. It even stores a 3-6 month food supply so its members won't go hungry in the event of a disaster, and most families forgo two consecutive meals a month to give money as a "fast offering" for the poor. Local bishops -- a position Romney once held -- work with members of their local church wards to overcome economic hardships, and are even empowered to pay a family's mortgage in the hardest of times.

Structured or not, these donations set Romney apart from his political colleagues. In 2010, Romney gave away 16% of his income while Newt Gingrich's returns show he gave only 2.6%. The portion Gingrich donated to his Washington D.C. home church, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, was even smaller -- 0.3%, or $9,540. Because the Gingrichs' also reported an earned income of $5,918 from the National Shrine -- Callista sings as an alto in the church's professional choir, which pays $80 per mass and rehearsal -- so the net balance of their contributions sinks below $4,000. The rest of Gingrich's charitable donations went to unspecified cash contributions through the Gingrichs' businesses, some $68,500, and to miscellaneous donations, near $3,100. The Obamas, meanwhile, gave 14% of their income to a total of 36 different charities in 2010. Much of that went to the Fisher House Foundation, a charity that works with veterans, and smaller amounts went to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and the Boys and Girls Club of America. A religious body was not listed on their returns, but the Obamas have not become members of a church while living in Washington. (VIDEO: Explaining Mitt Romney's 14% Federal Tax Rate)

In Monday's debate, Romney said he is "proud of the fact that I pay a lot of taxes." Though he's at times reluctant to speak publicly about his Mormon faith, his charitable giving, half of which goes to the socially-active LDS church, is something to be proud of as well.

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Senate GOP's next move awaited in nominations spat (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama's appointments to two key agencies during the Senate's year-end break ensures that GOP senators will return to work Monday in an angry and fighting mood.

Less clear is what those furious Republicans will do to retaliate against Obama's "bring it on" end run around the Senate's role in confirming nominees to major jobs.

While Republicans contemplate their next step, recess appointee Richard Cordray is running a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board, with three temporary members, is now at full strength with a Democratic majority.

Obama left more than70 other nominees in limbo, well aware that Republicans could use Senate rules to block some or all of them.

The White House justified the appointments on grounds that Republicans were holding up the nominations to paralyze the two agencies. The consumer protection agency was established under the 2010 Wall Street reform law, which requires the bureau to have a director in order to begin policing financial products such as mortgages, checking accounts, credit cards and payday loans.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the five-member NLRB must have a three-member quorum to issue regulations or decide major cases in union-employer disputes.

Several agencies contacted by The Associated Press, including banking regulators, said they were conducting their normal business despite vacancies at the top. In some cases, nominees are serving in acting capacities.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., at full strength, has five board members. The regulation of failed banks "is unaffected," said spokesman Andrew Gray. "The three-member board has been able to make decisions without a problem." Cordray's appointment gives it a fourth member.

The Comptroller of the Currency, run by an acting chief, has kept up its regular examinations of banks. The Federal Trade Commission, operating with four board members instead of five, has had no difficulties. "This agency is not a partisan combat agency," said spokesman Peter Kaplan. "Almost all the votes are unanimous and consensus driven."

Republicans have pledged retaliation for Obama's recess appointments, but haven't indicated what it might be.

"The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama's blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the Constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush Administration refused to make," said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is his party's top member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Grassley wouldn't go further, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky hasn't tipped his hand after charging that Obama had "arrogantly circumvented the American people." Before the Senate left for its break in December, McConnell blocked Senate approval of more than 60 pending nominees because Obama wouldn't commit to making no recess appointments.

Republicans have to consider whether their actions, especially any decision to block all nominees, might play into Obama's hands.

Obama has adopted an election-year theme of "we can't wait" for Republicans to act on nominations and major proposals like his latest jobs plan. Republicans have to consider how their argument that the president is violating Constitutional checks and balances plays against Obama's stump speeches characterizing them as obstructionists.

Senate historian Donald Ritchie said the minority party has retaliated in the past for recess appointments by holding up specific nominees. "I'm not aware of any situations where no nominations were accepted," he said. The normal practice is for the two party leaders to negotiate which nominations get votes.

During the break, Republicans forced the Senate to convene for usually less than a minute once every few days to argue that there was no recess and that Obama therefore couldn't bypass the Senate's authority to confirm top officials. The administration said this was a sham, and has released a Justice Department opinion backing up the legality of the appointments.

Obama considers the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a signature achievement of his first term. Republicans have been vehemently opposed to the bureau's setup. They argued the agency needed a bipartisan board instead of a director and should have to justify its budget to Congress instead of drawing its funding from the independent Federal Reserve.

Cordray is expected to get several sharp questions from Republicans when he testifies Tuesday before a House Oversight and Government Reform panel.

The NLRB has been a target of Republicans and business groups. Last year, the agency accused Boeing of illegally retaliating against union workers who had struck its plants in Washington state by opening a new production line at its non-union plant in South Carolina. Boeing denied the charge and the case has since been settled, but Republican anger over it and a string of union-friendly decisions from the board last year hasn't abated.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_go_co/us_nominations_spat

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Florida next stop in now-scrambled Republican race (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? A suddenly scrambled Republican presidential contest shifts to Florida after Newt Gingrich stopped Mitt Romney's sprint to the GOP nomination with a convincing victory in South Carolina.

The air of inevitability that surrounded Romney's candidacy is gone, at least for now. His rivals, led by Gingrich, have until Florida's Jan. 31 contest to prove South Carolina was no fluke.

Larger, more diverse and more expensive, Florida brings new challenges to Gingrich, who again must overcome financial and organizational disadvantages as he did in South Carolina, whose primary he won Saturday.

"We don't have the kind of money at least one of the candidates has. But we do have ideas. And we do have people," Gingrich, the former House speaker, told cheering supporters after his victory. "And we proved here in South Carolina that people power with the right ideas beats big money. And with your help, we're going to prove it again in Florida."

Romney struck a defiant tone before his own backers gathered at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds, saying: "I will compete in every single state." He wasted no time jabbing at Gingrich, saying: "Our party can't be led to victory by someone who also has never run a business and never led a state."

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, third in South Carolina, pledged to compete in Florida and beyond. His presence in the race ensures at least some division among Florida's tea party activists and evangelicals, a division that could ultimately help Romney help erase any questions about his candidacy.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul likely will not be a factor in Florida. He already had said he was bypassing the state in favor of smaller subsequent contests.

As the first Southern primary, South Carolina has been a proving ground for Republican presidential hopefuls in recent years. Since Ronald Reagan in 1980, every Republican contender who won the primary has gone on to capture the party's nomination.

Returns from 95 percent of the state's precincts showed Gingrich with 41 percent of the vote to 27 percent for Romney. Santorum was winning 17 percent, Paul 13 percent.

But political momentum was the real prize with the race to pick an opponent to President Barack Obama still in its early stages.

Already, Romney and a group that supports him were on the air in Florida with a significant television ad campaign, more than $7 million combined to date.

Gingrich readily conceded that he trails in money, and even before appearing for his victory speech he tweeted supporters thanking them and appealing for a flood of donations for the Jan 31 primary. "Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida. Join our Moneybomb and donate now," said his Internet message.

Aides to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had once dared hope that Florida would seal his nomination ? if South Carolina didn't first. But that strategy appeared to vanish along with the once-formidable lead he held in pre-primary polls.

Romney swept into South Carolina as the favorite after being pronounced the winner of the lead-off Iowa caucuses, then cruising to victory in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.

But in the sometimes-surreal week that followed, he was stripped of his Iowa triumph ? GOP officials there now say Santorum narrowly won ? while former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman dropped out and endorsed Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry quit and backed Gingrich.

Romney responded awkwardly to questions about releasing his income tax returns, and about his investments in the Cayman Islands. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, benefited from two well-received debate performances while grappling with allegations by an ex-wife that he had once asked her for an open marriage so he could keep his mistress.

By primary eve, Romney was speculating openly about a lengthy battle for the nomination rather than the quick knockout that had seemed within his grasp only days earlier.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Steelers QB settles lawsuit alleging '08 rape (AP)

RENO, Nev. ? Lawyers for Ben Roethlisberger and a woman who accused him of raping her at a Lake Tahoe hotel-casino in 2008 have reached a settlement that ends her civil lawsuit against the Steelers quarterback.

Cal Dunlap, the Reno lawyer representing the woman, confirmed the settlement on Friday but declined to discuss the terms of the agreement.

"The matter has been resolved and I have no further comment," he told The Associated Press.

The Reno Gazette-Journal first reported the settlement on its website. It also dismisses claims against Harrah's employees whom the woman had accused of covering up the alleged sexual assault in Roethlisberger's penthouse suite in July 2008.

Dunlap first told Washoe District Court Judge Brent Adams in papers filed last Nov. 30 that his client wanted to have a stay lifted so the case could be dismissed because a settlement was pending.

"All parties have reached a resolution of all claims and counterclaims," he wrote.

Adams formally dismissed the case Dec. 27 but neither side had publicized it until now.

David Cornwell, Roethlisberger's lawyer, and Ryan Tollner, his agent, did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment on Friday.

The Nevada Supreme Court had ruled against the two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback's request in August to have the case moved from Reno to Carson City because it was closer to where the alleged incident had occurred at Harrah's in Stateline.

The woman was a VIP casino hostess at Harrah's when she said Roethlisberger allegedly lured her to his room under the pretense of fixing his television. Roethlisberger was in town at the time to play in a celebrity golf tournament.

Roethlisberger denied the allegations.

The original lawsuit filed in 2009 sought a minimum of $440,000 in damages from the quarterback, at least $50,000 in damages from the Harrah's officials and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.

The woman said she never filed a criminal complaint because she feared Harrah's would side with Roethlisberger and she would be fired.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_roethlisberger_lawsuit_settled

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Asthma Meds Likely Safe During Pregnancy: Study (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- A new study found no statistically significant link between asthma medication use during pregnancy and common birth defects.

However, the study did find a positive association between some rare birth defects and mothers with asthma, and potentially with their medication use. But, the researchers couldn't tease out whether the problem was a loss of oxygen from less than well-controlled asthma or an effect of medications.

"Worsening asthma is a risk to the mom and the fetus. Hypoxia (a lack of oxygen) we know is a problem for a developing fetus. And, the potential risk they found here is very small. Even if it turns out to be a true increase, the risk is so small. This study raises more questions than it answers," said Dr. Natalie Meirowitz, chief of the division of maternal fetal medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

What's most important, she said, is that expectant mothers with asthma don't just stop their medications. "That's really a problem, and then they end up needing more medication," she said.

Findings from the study were published online Jan. 16, ahead of February print publication in Pediatrics.

Between 4 percent and 12 percent of expectant mothers have asthma, according to background information in the article. Current guidelines recommend that women keep taking their asthma medications during pregnancy.

There are two main types of asthma medications: bronchodilators (also known as rescue medication) and anti-inflammatories, which include inhaled and oral steroids, as well as several other medications. Anti-inflammatory medications are generally used long term to help control asthma symptoms.

For the study, the researchers compared nearly 2,900 infants born with birth defects to more than 6,700 babies born with no birth defects. Mothers of these infants were asked to recall their medication use one month before and during pregnancy.

For most birth defects, the researchers found no statistically significant associations between asthma medication use and the development of birth defects.

They did, however, find a positive association between asthma medication use and certain rare birth defects. The risk of isolated esophageal atresia -- an abnormality of the esophagus -- was more than doubled in women who used bronchodilators. The risk of isolated anorectal atresia -- a malformed anus -- was more than doubled with maternal anti-inflammatory use. And, the risk of omphalocele -- a defect in the abdominal wall -- was more than quadrupled for either type of asthma medication.

But, the authors wrote, the "observed associations may be chance findings or may be the result of maternal asthma severity and related hypoxia rather than the medication use."

They added that it's also important to keep these findings in context. The rate of these birth defects ranged from 1.2 to 4.6 per 10,000 births. So, even a four-fold increase in the risk of having one of these defects results in far less than a 1 percent chance for any individual woman and her child.

"As obstetricians, we need to pay attention to this, but it's really important to oxygenate mom. We really need to make sure that there's oxygen flowing freely between mom and baby," said Dr. Mary Rosser, an obstetrician with Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Also, Rosser pointed out that there was a lot that wasn't known about the expectant mothers. The authors weren't able to assess the severity of their asthma. They also didn't know anything about the medication doses.

Asthma expert Dr. Jennifer Appleyard agreed with Rosser and Meirowitz. "They really couldn't tease apart what was the medicine and what was the asthma," she said.

"You need to treat the asthma. There's more risk to uncontrolled asthma than a slight possible risk of a rare birth defect," said Appleyard, the chief of allergy and immunology at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit.

"No matter what type of patient you're treating -- expectant mom or not -- the goal is to treat patients with the minimum amount of medication necessary," she added.

Rosser and Meirowitz said that, ideally, women should visit their obstetrician/gynecologist before getting pregnant to review their medication use and to make sure that their asthma is well controlled.

More information

Learn more about asthma during pregnancy from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120121/hl_hsn/asthmamedslikelysafeduringpregnancystudy

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Head found in Hollywood park ID'd, killer unclear

A hiker walks his dog in Griffith Park near the Hollywood sign after a plastic bag containing a human head was discovered Tuesday by two women walking their dogs on a nearby trail off Canyon Drive in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Investigators have since discovered a human hand. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

A hiker walks his dog in Griffith Park near the Hollywood sign after a plastic bag containing a human head was discovered Tuesday by two women walking their dogs on a nearby trail off Canyon Drive in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Investigators have since discovered a human hand. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond)

Suzanna Dellenger walks her dog Bear near a Los Angeles Police Department roadblock as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days, first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Police investigators work as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days, first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles Police Cmdr Andrew Smith describes how fingerprints could be recovered - post mortem - as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days ? first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Area resident Gene Gelfan walks his dog Diva past the closed park gates as search operations for more human body parts near an end in Bronson Canyon Park in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles Thursday, Jan. 9, 2012. Police worked to identity a man whose body was found in parts over the past two days , first a head on Tuesday, then two hands and two feet on Wednesday. On Thursday, some 100 police officers and Police Academy recruits searched seven acres of brush in the Bronson Canyon wilderness park in Hollywood to see if they could find more body parts. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Authorities have determined that a dismembered head and other body parts found in a rugged hillside park near the famed "Hollywood" sign are the remains of a man who lived in an a nearby apartment.

The victim was Hervey Medellin, a 66-year-old from Los Angeles, coroner's Lt. David Smith said Friday night.

Investigators, who are searching for suspects, served a search warrant on a Hollywood apartment in the area a day earlier, but it wasn't immediately clear if it was Medellin's apartment.

"They did serve a search warrant last night. They are following clues, and the case is progressing. Guys are working around the clock to find out who did it and find the rest of the body," police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said Friday.

He did not elaborate on why the warrant was served or what, if anything, detectives found.

"We don't want to give out too much information because the investigation is ongoing," Andrew Smith said.

Medellin's head was found Tuesday at Bronson Canyon Park, and police searchers discovered the hands and feet during a two-day search that ended Thursday. The park, a brushy, wooded expanse of rolling hills just below the Hollywood sign, reopened Friday.

Although police have concluded no other body parts were dumped in the park, visitors who find anything they believe are related to the victim's death should contact authorities, Smith said.

More than 120 police officers, firefighters and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies searched 7 acres of the park after the head was discovered in a plastic grocery bag. The hands and feet were found nearby.

Police have said they believe the victim was killed elsewhere and his remains dumped just inside the park, which attracts hundreds of hikers and dog walkers on most days.

Although rustic, it is located just a short distance from film studios and other Hollywood attractions.

Police believe the body parts were left there no more than a day or two before the head was found because they had barely decomposed and had not been attacked by coyotes that roam through the park at night.

Authorities don't believe the Los Angeles case is connected to a case in Tucson, Ariz., where police found a torso on Jan. 6. They say if the two were related, the remains would have been more badly decomposed.

Medellin's head was found after the dog walker let one of the animals she was shepherding through the park off its leash and it began playing with a plastic bag. When it shook the bag, the head fell out.

Andrew Smith said whoever dumped the head had gone to some effort to conceal it.

"If it had not been for the dog walker, we might never have found it," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Bob Christie in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-21-Human%20Head%20Found/id-ae893dccb2f74fc0a9877d9d9efd8bcb

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David Lynch: Obsessed: Coffee

Inspired by one professor's infectious enthusiasm for Emily Dickinson, Obsessed is a new HuffPost Culture series exploring the idiosyncratic, all-consuming passions of public figures and unknowns alike. Through a mix of blogs and interviews, these pieces will highlight the elusiveness of whatever it is you just can't live without -- whether it's blue jays, Renaissance fairs or fan fiction -- or, as in the case of David Lynch, coffee. If you have an obsession to share, drop us a line at culture@huffingtonpost.com.

I am pretty much obsessed with coffee. I've been drinking coffee on a regular basis since I was in the ninth grade. In the ninth grade, I met my soon-to-be good friend, Toby, on the front yard lawn of my girlfriend's house. And during that first conversation with Toby, he happened to tell me that his father was a painter, a fine art painter. Hearing this news that an adult could be a painter -- an explosion went off in my head and from that moment on all I wanted to do was paint. And for me, the world of a painter held much coffee.

Coffee became tied to what I called "The Art Life." I loved to go to diners and drink coffee and try to catch ideas for the work. Coffee has always seemed to facilitate thinking and catching ideas. Not only that, but the flavor of coffee is beyond the beyond good.

Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.

For a long time, outside of diners, I drank a lot of instant coffee and I would drink it from styrofoam cups. For many years, I drank probably 20 cups of instant coffee per day. One of the things I discovered from drinking coffee in a styrofoam cup was a kind of fantastic visual trick. If you have a full styrofoam cup of coffee and you move the cup slowly on a certain type of surface, a vibration will come forth and ripples will appear on the surface of the coffee. And if you push the cup a little bit faster as it's vibrating, individual droplets will leap out of the ripples and dance all along the surface of the coffee. I always wanted to film this effect, but I never have. And nowadays, the environmentalists tell us that styrofoam cups aren't so good, so I haven't had an opportunity to see this trick filmed.

Coffee and coffee drinkers have appeared in a couple of my films, I guess most notably Twin Peaks and Mulholland Dr.

A couple of years ago, my friend Erik who worked with me asked me why I didn't get my own line of coffee. I I thought it would be a good idea and I began to test many different types of coffee. I finally found a coffee that I loved more than all the rest. And during blind tests I would always pick that one coffee.

I contacted the company that made it and together we worked on slight variations for a house roast, a decaf, and an espresso blend. This became the David Lynch Signature Cup Coffee. And I really like it very much. My friend who came over today had a decaf cup and said it tasted very good. I now drink about seven large cups per day, and I really look forward to each new cup.

Maybe there's not an idea in every bean, but for me there are many good ideas hiding in coffee.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-lynch/coffee_b_1216532.html

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Six foreign troops dead in U.S. helicopter crash in Afghanistan (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) ? Six foreign soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

"The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash," the spokesman said on Friday, declining to give any details of the crash until the families of those on board had been informed.

It is the worst crash since August last year when 30 soldiers, including 22 elite navy SEAL commandos, died when their helicopter came down in eastern Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/wl_nm/us_afghanistan_helicopter

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Justice Scalia On Unlimited Political Ads: Turn Off The TV

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia has a simple solution for people who don't like all the political advertisements unleashed by the court's decision two years ago that ended limits on corporate contributions in political campaigns ? change the channel or turn off the TV.

Scalia was asked about the decision during a presentation before the South Carolina Bar on Saturday, exactly two years after the court handed down the 5-4 decision in the case that led to the rise of Super PACs. They are outside groups affiliated with candidates that can take in unlimited contributions as long as they don't directly coordinate with the candidate.

"I don't care who is doing the speech ? the more the merrier," Scalia said. "People are not stupid. If they don't like it, they'll shut it off."

Scalia was joined on stage by Justice Stephen Breyer, who voted on the losing side in the decision which has become known as "Citizens United," for the group that successfully sued over federal campaign finance laws. Breyer didn't directly criticize the ruling, instead pointing out how it is critical in the American system that people respect the decisions the judiciary makes.

By nature, when a decision isn't unanimous, "somebody is making a mistake," Breyer said.

Breyer also briefly summarized both sides of the argument concentrating on his own.

"There are real problems when people want to spend lots of money on a candidate ... they'll drown out the people who don't have a lot of money," Breyer said.

Money flooding political races was a consequence predicted as soon as the decision was handed down in January 2010. And so far, it's true. Super PACs have raised more than $30 million just three races into the 2012 presidential race, according to the website opensecrets.org, run by The Center for Responsive Politics. TV advertising alone in South Carolina, which is voting Saturday, is estimated at $12 million, or nearly $27 per voter when calculated using the 2008 Republican primary turnout numbers.

Even U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham poked jabs at the amazing amount of campaign ads on television as he introduced the justices.

"I miss seeing car ads," said Graham, R-S.C.

Scalia said the blame for this type of system shouldn't fall on the Supreme Court, which he said decides merely whether the system is legal under the U.S. Constitution. Instead, he said the ones who have to change things are the politicians who created the system and the voters who often reward the candidates who spend the most money.

"If the system seems crazy to you, don't blame it on the court," Scalia said, during a discussion in front of South Carolina lawyers that lasted for more than an hour.

Both justices refused to talk in detail about the health care legislation case the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear later this year.

Scalia spent more than 10 minutes lamenting the way confirmation hearings for new justices are now held in the U.S. Senate. He said lawmakers are now more concerned with making sure a prospective member of the court will interpret the Constitution they want, instead of the way the founding fathers wrote it.

"It's like conducting a mini constitutional convention every time you pick a justice," Scalia said.

Breyer said it's important for judges to take a flexible view of the Constitution. He said that, depending on a judge's interpretation, the clause allowing everyone equal rights under the law in the 14th Amendment meant making sure someone had the right to a lawyer, or the right to not be forced to give incriminating statements, or even the right to abortion or the right to choose to die when one wants.

"They look at those words and they say they apply to their cases too," Breyer said.

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/justice-scalia-on-unlimit_n_1221080.html

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Twitter Acquires, Shuts Down Social News Startup Summify

Summify, a startup that uses social data to create a personalized news digest, just announced that it has been acquired by Twitter. This sounds like a talent acquisition on Twitter's part ? in other words, the main purpose of the acquisition was probably hiring the Summify team. Some of Summify's feature have been immediately disabled, it's no longer accepting new users, and in a few weeks, Summify says it will shut down the current product entirely. Meanwhile, the startup will be moving from Vancouver to San Francisco to work out of the Twitter office.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/jaofnuYFRHs/

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Ooyala Brings Free, Live Coverage Of The Australian Open To The Web (For The First Time)

Tennis anyone? You have to love this. Realtime event coverage startup Livestream recently brought commercial-free, streaming coverage of New Year's Eve in Times Square to the Web. If you caught more than a few minutes of network TV coverage of NYE, you would have been subjected to the ungodly number (and frequency) of ads. Livestream's commercial-free coverage was a welcome respite. This morning, Ooyala, one of the biggest web video and analytics providers, is volleying back with some live coverage of its own. The startup has partnered with Tennis Australia (the governing body of tennis within Australia) to bring free live coverage of the first major tennis tournament of the year to people around the globe.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/udYFVBxMl0E/

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Additional Funding to Automotive Companies Trade | News blog

Genesis just lately commits new funding to a platform made to assist the small to medium dimension company receive funding within the automotive support arena. This location has prolonged been a portfolio performer for Genesis and also the kick off will further more support these types of company and suppliers of machines mature. Even through the recent economic downturn Genesis has constantly elevated quantity in all segments within the marketplace such as:

-Engine Analyzers,
-Towing Lifts,
-Wheel Alignment Products
-Compressors
-Frame Straightening Products
-Paint Booths
-Grinders
-Hoists
-Car Wash/Conveyor Products
-Brake Lathes
-Pressure/Steam Washers
-Shotblasting Products
-Measurement Methods
-Radiator Boil Out Products
-Automotive Prep Stations

New advances within the technology around the earlier many ages and particularly the brand new state conditions regarding emissions have dictated the demand for various resources of funding for that marketplace. Banking institutions only have no idea this marketplace and the way to deal with the purchaser profile contained inside of. This lends to around scrutiny and a lot less money funding accessible to the corporations which are looking to increase during this location. Our recent shoppers encompass an expanding group of auto system stores, automotive /truck dealerships, gasoline/smog stations, standard restore stores, etc. Our principal focus on vendor/supplier and maker representation has contributed to the severe growth of our Automotive Division. Advancements in technology have requested corporations to constantly improve outdated machines and have also spurred accelerated company for our Automotive Division. We also just take pride in our specialty focus by being able to offer leasing to permit corporations to acquire made use of machines at more inexpensive rates. Some small to mid-size corporations find that the newest and biggest technology might be more than they?re able to pay for and we can easily assist in lining up money for machines that is made use of but might still be an improve for them.

Throughout the country, corporations within the Automotive marketplace ohcash.com/?p=35 and especially automotive machines re-sellers are choosing that a robust money partnership is definitely the crucial to survival in these economical situations. Genesis might help them compete within the market by upgrading and updating their amenities due to machines lease preparations and doing work money loans.

At GeNESIS Capital Leasing, we specialize in delivering an array of equipment-financing remedies to small and medium-sized enterprises all through the U.s.. Even while we are constantly streamlining our processes and increasing our software programs, our focus remains on our shoppers. Believe that of us as your trustworthy consultants, whose priority is delivering outstanding support when establishing the best option for ones particular company desires.

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