Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images)
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul plans to endorse Republican nominee Mark Sanford ahead of a special election to fill the first district House seat in South Carolina, Yahoo News has confirmed.
Paul's decision to endorse Sanford comes after national Republicans all but abandoned the former South Carolina governor after his ex-wife accused him of "trespassing" on her property following a nasty divorce. The National Republican Congressional Committee, an official party group tasked with electing Republicans to the House, announced earlier this month they would stop devoting new resources to Sanford's campaign.
Sanford and Democrat Elizabeth Colbert-Busch will face of in a special election scheduled for Tuesday, May 7th.
According to a source close to the Sanford campaign, Paul will make the endorsement sometime this week. The news was first reported by Peter Hamby of CNN.
Paul, the son of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and a respected figure among libertarian and tea party activists in his own right, has signaled he is considering a bid for the 2016 GOP nomination. By endorsing Sanford, who remains popular among many conservatives in South Carolina, Paul is demonstrating his independence from the national party and ingratiating himself among grassroots activists in a key primary state.
Paul is planning a trip to South Carolina this summer. South Carolina holds the first presidential primary in the South and is traditionally viewed as a bellwether for how a candidate will fare in the region.
It's perhaps not a surprise to parents looking ahead to the cost of college, but economic factors seem to be the main drivers in reducing birth rates and shrinking family size ? at least in developing countries.
The study, based on detailed interviews with nearly 800 women from rural Bangladesh, suggests that when it comes to family size, economic factors trump culture and mortality risks, though the precipitous drop was probably the result of a confluence of factors.
"To get these really, really rapid declines in fertility like you're seeing in this area of Bangladesh or that you've seen at different times in European history or American history, you probably need all three of these types of factors to be happening," said study co-author Mary Shenk, an anthropological demographer at the University of Missouri.
The findings were described today (April 29) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Growing population
With a crowded planet of 7 billion and counting, policy makers in various regions have tried everything to curb population growth from free contraceptives and women's education to sinister sterilization programs. [Crowded Planet: 7 (Billion) Population Milestones]
But despite decades of work, researchers don't fully understand what drives family size changes. Some demographers proposed that people downsized their families when they transitioned from agriculture, because farming families can put their children to work on the farm earlier, essentially subsidizing the costs of rearing them.
Others have proposed that cultural factors ? such as educating women or exposure to media ? reduce family size. And still others have argued that women have more children when they face high risks of infant mortality or other health risks.
Economics, economics
To see which factors were most important, Shenk and her colleagues conducted detailed interviews with 799 women ages 20 to 64 who had been married at least five years in rural Matlab, Bangladesh. In the interviews, the women described their education levels, their family size, their husband's occupation, as well as how many children they saw die in their immediate neighborhoods. Between 1966 and 2010, the average number of children born to a woman in the region fell from 6.7 to 2.6.
The researchers then used mathematical models to identify the most important individual factors tied to the precipitous drop. From there, the researchers compared models to see whether economic, cultural or risk-related factors were most important.
Economic factors ? in particular, increased education of women and mass migration from agricultural villages to bigger cities ? drove much of the fertility drop. Health-care access and infant mortality rates only modestly affected birth rates.
And though culture (for instance, through its effects on contraceptive access) played a small role, exposure to modern media had little effect on fertility rates.
The findings highlight the incredible importance of economic factors in family size, said Bobbi Low, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan, who was not involved in the study.
For instance, fertility rates in Thailand dropped dramatically from more than six children per woman in 1970 to fewer than three in the 1980s when shopkeepers decided they needed more educated workers.
"Parents sat down and consciously tried to decide, 'How many children can we afford to put through middle school,'" Low told LiveScience.
As for policy prescriptions, "the inference is, do everything you can to get more women educated," Low said.
By contrast, media campaigns to reduce family size may not be the most effective approach, Shenk said.
Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose.?Follow?LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A lawyer for a Philadelphia abortion doctor on trial for murder says the description of his former clinic as a "house of horrors" is a "political press fabrication."
Defense attorney Jack McMahon said during closing arguments Monday that pictures don't lie and showed photographs of a relatively neat waiting room and other areas in Dr. Kermit Gosnell's clinic.
Gosnell is charged with killing four babies allegedly born alive and in the overdose death of a 41-year-old patient.
McMahon says he's not backing down from his opening remarks that the case is an elitist and racist prosecution against Gosnell, who is black.
McMahon says the clinic wasn't perfect but it wasn't the criminal enterprise that prosecutors claim. The district attorney called it a "house of horrors."
NEW YORK (AP) ? Technology companies led the stock market higher Monday, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 index back up to the record high it reached earlier this month.
A pair of strong economic reports also encouraged investors. Wages and spending rose in the U.S. last month, and pending home sales hit their highest level in three years.
Shortly after 12 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 85 points at 14,798, a gain of 0.6 percent. Microsoft and IBM were among the Dow's best performers, rising 2 percent each.
Big tech firms have slumped this month. Concerns about weak business spending and slower overseas sales have weighed on the industry, said Marty Leclerc, the managing partner of Barrack Yard Advisors, an investment firm in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Revenue misses from IBM and other big tech companies have highlighted the industry's vulnerability to the world economy.
"The areas of the stock market that haven't done as well rely on exports," Leclerc said. "Those stocks more dependent on the domestic economy have done the best."
Tech played catch-up on Monday. Information technology stocks rose the most of the 10 industry groups in the S&P, 1.5 percent. It's the only group that remains lower over the past year.
The S&P 500 index was up 11 points to 1,593, a gain of 0.7 percent. That matches its all-time closing high reached on April 11.
The Nasdaq composite rose 32 points at 3,311, a rise of 1 percent. Apple, the biggest stock in the index, rose 3.5 percent to $431.95.
The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes reached the highest level since April 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors. Back then, a tax credit for buying houses had lifted sales. Separately, the government reported that Americans' spending and income both edged up last month.
Moody's and Standard & Poor's parent company McGraw-Hill surged following news that the ratings agencies settled lawsuits dating back to the financial crisis that accused them of concealing risky investments. McGraw-Hill gained 6 percent to $54.80, while Moody's jumped 10 percent to $61.02, the biggest gain in the S&P 500.
Eaton Corp. gained 5 percent to $61.31 after reporting that its quarterly net income jumped, beating Wall Street's estimates. The results were helped by its acquisition of Cooper Industries, an electrical equipment supplier.
In the market for government bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 1.65 percent. That's down from 1.67 percent late Friday.
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? Bangladesh rescuers on Sunday located nine people alive inside the rubble of a multi-story building that collapsed five days ago, as authorities announced they will now use heavy equipment to drill a central hole from the top to look for survivors and dead bodies.
At least 362 people are confirmed dead in the collapse of the 8-story building that housed five garment factories. The death toll is expected to rise further, but it is already the deadliest tragedy to hit Bangladesh's garment industry, which is worth $20 billion annually and a mainstay of the economy.
Wednesday's collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
Army Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said they will try to save the nine people first by manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pick axes and shovels.
"But if we fail we will start our next phase within hours," which would involve manual efforts as well as heavy equipment, including hydraulic cranes and cutters to bore a hole from the top of the collapsed building, he told reporters.
The purpose is to "continue the operation to recover both survivors and dead bodies. In this stage, we have no other choice but to use some heavy equipment. We will start it within a few hours. Manual operation and use of small equipment is not enough," he said.
The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. All the equipment is in place, "from a small blade to everything. We have engaged many private sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones."
In rare good news, a female worker was pulled out alive on Sunday. Hasan Akbari, a rescuer, said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, "he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon."
On Saturday, police took six people into custody, including three owners of two factories who were placed under arrest. Also under detention are the wife of the building owner who is on the run and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. The owner had the approval to construct five floors but he added three more illegally.
A huge crack appeared in the building, Rana Plaza, on Tuesday, but the owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, assured tenants it was safe to go inside. A bank and some shops on the first floor shut their premises on Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, and most victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them. A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Working round-the-clock, rescuers have used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure. On the ground, mixed in the debris were several pairs of pink cotton pants, a mud-covered navy blue sock and a pile of green uncut fabric.
The badly decomposed bodies pulled out of the rubble were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.
Among those arrested are Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman, and Aminul Islam, chairman of Phantom Apparels Ltd.
Rana, the building owner, was a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
The disaster is the worst ever for the country's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.
Bangladesh's garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country's minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.
__
AP writers Farid Hossain and Gillian Wong in Dhaka contributed to this report.
Breast-pump mom 'humiliated': Know your travel rights, parents. A flight attendant refused to allow Dawnella Brahos to use her breast-pump, a violation of American Airlines policy. Similarly, a TSA agent hassled a mom with a breast pump in Hawaii.
By David Clark Scott,?Staff writer / April 27, 2013
A TSA officer signals an airline passenger forward at a security check-point at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash. A mother in Hawaii with a breast-pump found getting her equipment through the check point was a challenge.
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
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Two recent cases of traveling breast-pumping moms resulted in their unnecessary humiliation. These cases also help illustrate the rights of breast-pumping moms in the face of ignorance or poor training.
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David Clark Scott leads a small team at CSMonitor.com that?s part Skunkworks, part tech-training, part journalism.
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On April 18, a flight attendant loudly and repeatedly refused to let Dawnella Brahos use her breast-pump on a flight from Minneapolis to Chicago.
The harassment came even though Mrs. Brahos had checked on breast-pumping when she made her flight reservations, and had been told her Medela pump was pre-approved. And the incident occurred after Brahos had flown on three other American flights and used the breast-pump with the full support of the flight attendants.
But on April 18, she told Fox Channel 32 in Chicago that she had been 'humiliated' and 'embarrassed' as the flight attendant told her upon boarding that breast-pumping - however discretely done - was not allowed. The flight attendant repeatedly checked on Brahos to make sure she wasn't using her breast pump.
The mother of three wasn't traveling with her 1-year-old son. She told The New York Daily News that she normally pumps every three and a half hours and began feeling painfully engorged during the normally short flight because it took off late and she'd spent the previous few hours checking out of a hotel, traveling to the airport, checking in with American and going through security.
American Airlines has issued a statement of apology: "We apologize for the experience Ms. Brahos had on a recent flight. Our in-flight personnel are trained to handle these situations with professionalism and discretion. American does not have a policy prohibiting the use of breast pumps in-flight. As with other devices that have an on/off switch, customers will be asked not to use them during takeoff and landing. Our procedures advise our crews to ensure that mothers who are breast feeding or using breast pumps have the privacy they need."
An American spokesman said Brahos needed no prior approval for using her Medela pump. A different brand of pump would have required prior approval, she said.
Another breast-pumping mom was embarrassed by a TSA agent at a security check point. On March 27, Amy Strand was stopped at Lihue Airport in Kauai as she carried her pump, a cooler pack, and empty milk bottles. She was told by the TSA agent that she couldn't bring the cooler pack unless there was milk in the bottles.
Ms. Strand, a mother of four and school principal, tried to explain that the ice pack was specially made for the cooler and wouldn't be easy to replace.? And, that she'd emptied the milk out before going through security to avoid carrying more than 3 ounces of liquid.
Strand said she only had two options: Leave part of the cooler behind or pump. There was no private place to pump so she went to the women's restroom. "I'm in a dress, in heels and I find myself in front of a sink and mirrors with travelers coming in and out of the bathroom," Amy Strand told ABCNews.com. "I'm standing at the sink with my breast hanging out, pumping. I wanted to cry. I was humiliated."
Like American Airlines, the TSA issued a statement apologizing for the ignorance of its agent. "The passenger has contacted us with her concerns and we accept responsibility for the apparent misunderstanding and any inconvenience or embarrassment this incident may have caused her," the statement said. "The officer in question is receiving remedial training."
In fact, the TSA website specifically addresses this situation and the current screening procedures."Parents flying with, and without, their child(ren) are permitted to bring breast milk in quantities greater than three ounces as long as it is presented for inspection at the security checkpoint. Additionally, empty bottles and ice packs are permitted under these conditions."
Moms and Dads, bookmark the TSA page, and carry it with you on your phone. Just in case.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - With a son on the way and a new album with more original songs than ever, Michael Buble is venturing into uncharted territory without letting go of his personal or artistic roots.
"To Be Loved," the 37-year-old Canadian singer's follow-up to his 2011 "Christmas" album, mixes standards inspired by jazz, Motown and even the Bee Gees, with tracks written by Buble as well as collaborations with Bryan Adams and Reese Witherspoon.
"I wanted everything to be soulful," Buble told Reuters.
The album grabbed the top spot on the U.K. Billboard chart the week of its April 15 release there, and is poised to take the top U.S. spot after debuting stateside this week.
Buble said that he was inspired to write more of his own songs such as the single "It's a Beautiful Day" after receiving a positive response to previous originals like "Haven't Met You Yet" and "Home."
Still, he remains committed to the classics that first made him famous.
"I love writing songs, but the truth is I love doing thoughtful, great covers too," he said. "It'll never get to a point where I have a record that comes out of all originals."
"To Be Loved" has received mostly positive reviews especially for the classic tracks, though a few critics found the album uneven. Buble said that his most important reviews come from his fans.
"The truth is that the greatest review I can get is somebody putting their hard-earned money into the hand of a cashier and investing in me to buy the CD," he said.
By that measure, he is doing quite well: Buble has sold 45 million albums over the course of his career, and is set to play 10 sold-out shows at London's 02 Arena beginning on June 30.
He will be back from touring in time for the birth of his first child, a son due on August 21. Buble said that he and wife, Argentine actress and singer Luisana Lopilato, agree that family will always come before career.
He has already cut back on his time away from home in anticipation of his son's arrival.
"My wife is a really successful actress, and I don't think it's fair for me to be the one who's always working," he said. "She loves working, it feeds her soul, and when she's working she's happy."
Buble, who comes from a family of fishermen in British Columbia, Canada, says he wants his son to grow up with the same values that marked his early years.
"I think we take great comfort in knowing that we have families that are so down to earth and real, great blue-collar families, that just being around that will be enough to keep that kid centered," he said.
On his new album, Buble sings a song called "I Got It Easy," which he wrote about his current life.
"I want him to grow up knowing that it doesn't come easy, that you have to work for things you really want," he said.
(Additional reporting by Alicia Powell, editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)
Ello. I'm sorry I haven't been on in a while, just a bunch of drama and shit going on, but I'm ready to get started. Please reply to this so I know who's still active. :)
I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.
The U.S. Navy is planning to expand training exercises off California and Hawaii, citing the need for military readiness. That's raising concerns about threatened whales and marine mammals, because sonar is known harm and, in some cases, kill them. The state of California is fighting the Navy's plan.
Featuring: Nigel Agnew, Charlie Lawton, Alex Woodside
Running time: 99 minutes
Parental guidance: Coarse language
Three years ago, three film nerds from Toronto named Nigel Agnew, Charlie Lawton, and Alex Woodside decided to open their own repertory cinema. It would be called the Toronto Underground Cinema and be housed in a modern theatre that someone had built below a condominium on downtown Spadina Avenue. It wasn?t easy to find ? you had to go under a sign that said Office Furniture ? but Nigel, Charlie and Alex were sure they could make a go of it.
Owning a movie theatre is a common dream for movie nerds, even though, as the documentary The Rep points out, it?s fraught with dangers.
For one thing, it?s a psychologically delicate operation: programmers throw movies up on screen and when people don?t come to see them, they feel rejected. Keith Altomare of the Bijou Theatre in New York, one of several experts interviewed in The Rep, says it?s like a daily election, ?and if you don?t show up, you?re not re-voting for us.?
Then there?s the money factor. It?s a tough business, and Noah Cowan, the artistic director of the Toronto film festival, calls it a road to a life of semi-poverty.
Alex agrees. ?It?s not good business sense to open it,? he says. ?But f? that.?
The Rep is a record of a year in the life of the Toronto Underground Cinema: the sparse crowds, the bickering among the partners, the sad look on the face of Nigel?s girlfriend when she realizes this will be another night when he has to be at the theatre.
The cinema seats almost 700, but attracts only handfuls: at one stage, desperate for new ideas, Alex institutes a Canadian cinema week, despite the misgivings of Nigel, the resident cynic.
?It?s a waste of time,? he says. ?No one will come,? and indeed, just eight paying customers come to see Atom Egoyan?s The Sweet Hereafter. When a screening of the sci-fi film Cube is beset by technical problems ? and with the director present ? Alex goes into a back room to recover in unhappy privacy.
The Rep
First-time director Morgan White, who was allowed access to every private moment, intercuts the story with a broader look at rep cinema. It?s almost a genre unto itself, typically held in older movie houses that show second-run and art films to audiences who love film.
?People collectively dream in the dark with each other,? in the words of Sam Sharkey of San Francisco?s Red Vic theatre, which has now, alas, closed.
The Red Vic is one of many rep houses that are gone. Film buffs love them ?director Bruce McDonald contrasts them to the ?shit mall-box crap theatres? ? but video and wide-screen TV?s have cut the audiences. Horror director George Romero says his rep house is his room upstairs.
The Rep never gets under the skin of its three heroes, although we do get quick portraits of three personalities who, in the words of Charlie, ?make one fully functional person.? As a matter of interest, Charlie owns six Batman T-shirts.
There is also a bit of suspense ? the idea to get Adam West of the old Batman TV show to attend the screening of his campy Batman movie is a lesson in the tensions of celebrity capitalism ? and even some psychological drama in the clash of personalities when Alex and Nigel decide that Charlie isn?t pulling his weight as a partner.
Most of all, though, it?s a love letter to the theatres that exhibit classic movies on 35mm film to audiences that are enthralled by them. They are a dying breed, and The Rep presents a catalogue of grand old cinemas that have been closed, converted to gyms or, in one particularly poignant show, a video store.
The Rep closes with a plea to support your local theatre. The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles stays open because Quentin Tarantino bought the building. The least the average movie buff can do is buy a ticket.
As you may recall, Wolfram Research signed a deal with Microsoft a few years back that saw some Wolfram Alpha functionality integrated into Bing. As it turns out, it very nearly found its way into a certain other search engine as well. In an interview at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam today, Stephen Wolfram revealed that his company had tried to work with Google and "almost had a deal," but it "blew up." Unfortunately, he didn't provide any further details about when those talks took place or exactly what the potential deal entailed, and it doesn't sound like we can expect that deal to revived anytime soon -- especially considering Google's own efforts that are increasingly overlapping with Wolfram Alpha. As Wolfram himself notes, though, the two companies do have something of a longstanding connection: Google co-founder Sergey Brin was actually an intern at Wolfram way back in 1993.
The U.S. Olympic Committee is talking to 10 cities about a possible bid for the 2024 Summer Games, including a joint proposal from San Diego and Mexican neighbor Tijuana.
Following failed bids for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, the USOC sent out letters to 35 American cities in February to gauge interest in a potential run for 2024.
"We're in discussion with about 10 cities actively now," USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said in an interview after speaking to the Associated Press Sports Editors in New York. "The process is really working the way it was supposed to."
Los Angeles and Philadelphia have publicly announced their interest, and Blackmun said San Diego and Tijuana have approached the USOC about a joint bid.
Blackmun declined to identify the other cities being considered as potential candidates, saying they preferred to keep it confidential for now. He said three cities have formally said they are not interested in bidding.
Blackmun said he would be surprised if any other cities came forward at this point.
"We don't want to submit a bid we don't think we can win," Blackmun told the APSE gathering.
The United States hasn't hosted a Summer Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games. New York mounted a failed bid for the 2012 Games, which went to London, and Chicago suffered a stinging first-round defeat in the IOC vote for the 2016 Olympics, which were awarded to Rio de Janeiro.
The USOC has since reached a revenue-sharing agreement with the IOC, ending a long-running dispute that contributed to the failed bids. With relations back on track and the USOC working to increase its international presence, the chances for a successful U.S. bid in 2024 are considered vastly improved.
"We've got plenty of time," Blackmun told the AP. "There are no specific deadlines on this process."
The USOC has said it plans to decide by the end of 2014 whether to bid. The International Olympic Committee will select the 2024 host city in 2017.
Blackmun said a joint bid can work in some geographical areas, citing the Bay Area and the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose as a "natural" possibility.
As for San Diego and Tijuana, he said, "That would have its challenges. We haven't looked at it carefully. We just learned about it."
"Glee" starlet Naya Rivera is flipping her home in Beverly Hills, asking $2.1 million for a home she paid $1.475 million for a little more than a year ago. If she gets her full asking price, Naya is set to make $625,000, minus what she paid to remodel and market this stunner. This kind of return isn't common in every market, but in this celebrity-infested Beverly Hills neighborhood, buyers will pay big bucks for the 90210 ZIP Code.
Rivera is making her house flip a family affair: She's employed her mother, Yolanda Rivera, as the listing agent on the home, which hit the market in mid-March and already has a "sale pending" sign hanging out front. Nice work, mom!
Rivera's almost-sold home is on a cul de sac and has been remodeled. It features four bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and is a spacious 3,300 square feet. The home includes a formal living area and dining room overlooking the courtyard and pool. The library includes a wet bar with its own "kegerator"! The master suite includes dual walk-in closets and a built-in sauna and steam room. The backyard includes a completely remodeled saltwater pool, Jacuzzi and fire pit. Rivera is decamping to a five-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,186-square-foot East Coast traditional estate in Los Feliz, Calif., that property records show she purchased last week for $2.6 million.
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Kurdish rebels will start withdrawing thousands of guerrilla fighters from Turkey on May 8 and retreat across the border to northern Iraq, a rebel commander said Thursday, in an important milestone toward ending a nearly three-decade old insurgency that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
In a news conference held in northern Iraq's Qandil mountains, rebel commander Murat Karayilan said the extraction would be gradual, but warned it would come to an immediate stop should the rebels be attacked as they leave Turkey.
He also outlined for the first time "obligations" the Turkish government needs to fulfill for peace, including enacting a new constitution, dismantling special security units established to fight the rebels and declaring an amnesty for all imprisoned guerrillas. A video of the news conference was aired by Turkey's private Dogan news agency.
The decision to leave Turkey and retreat to bases in northern Iraq comes a month after the rebels declared a cease-fire, heeding a call by jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is engaged in talks with Turkish officials to end the fighting. Ocalan also had asked his group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to leave Turkey as part of the peace efforts.
"The withdrawal will be gradual, in groups," Karayilan, who took over the PKK's leadership after Ocalan's capture and imprisonment in 1999, said. "It will be completed in the shortest time possible."
"Withdrawal will stop immediately if there is any attack, operation or bombing of our guerrilla forces and our forces will use their right to reciprocate," Karayilan warned.
He said the rebels would pull out of Turkey through usual routes they use to slip into the country from Iraq.
There was no immediate statement from Turkish officials on the announcement. A vague statement released at the end of a national security meeting said Turkey's leaders had "assessed" steps needed to ensure that "efforts being taken for the peace and security of the people yield lasting results."
The rebels' retreat is seen as a major step toward a political settlement of a conflict with roots dating to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the redrawing of boundaries in the Middle East, which left Kurds scattered in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran.
Kurds in Turkey were long denied a separate identity and basic cultural and linguistic rights. In 1984, Ocalan's PKK launched a campaign, first for independence, and then for autonomy and greater rights for Kurds ? who make up around 20 percent of Turkey's 75 million people.
"The withdrawal is a very positive step," said Mesut Yegen, an expert on the conflict at Istanbul's Sehir University. "It is vital for the continuation of the political dialogue."
The PKK, which frequently launched attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. The Turkish government estimates that between 1,500 to 2,000 of the rebels operate from inside Turkey, mostly from caves and other hideouts in the country's rugged southeast.
Speaking in front of a flag emblazoned with Ocalan's portrait, Karayilan made clear his fighters wouldn't withdraw unarmed despite a Turkish government demand that the rebels lay down their weapons before retreating. The PKK commander said the group would disarm only after Ocalan and other Kurdish militants are released from prison.
The rebels were hesitant about an unarmed withdrawal without legal assurances from Turkey that the guerrillas wouldn't be attacked as they leave. Turkish forces reportedly attacked PKK guerrillas as they retreated in 1999 while obeying orders from Ocalan, who had appealed for peace soon after his capture.
"We understand that disarmament will take place at quite a late phase of the process," Yegen, the Kurdish expert, said. "The group wants to be on the safe side."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has said that the ultimate goal of the talks between Ocalan and Turkey's intelligence agency, launched late last year, is the PKK's disarmament. Government officials, however, have not given details of the talks and insist Turkey is not engaged in any horse-trading with the PKK.
Karayilan said it would be Turkey's turn to take steps expected by Kurds once the rebels leave the Turkish territory.
Kurds are demanding that a new constitution currently being drafted by parties represented in Turkey's parliament safeguards the rights of the minority group and increases the powers of local authorities, giving them more leverage in governing Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast regions. Kurds also are seeking the release of hundreds of Kurdish activists jailed for alleged links to the PKK as well as improved jail conditions for Ocalan, who is serving a life term on a prison island near Istanbul.
Karayilan, however, went a step further, saying Ocalan ? once Turkey's most-wanted man ? should also be freed as part of the peace deal. Despite his 14-year incarceration, Ocalan still wields great power over his rebel group and is adored by Kurds.
"The total dismantling of weapons and the disarmament of the guerrillas will come to the agenda when everyone, including our leader Apo, reaches their freedom," Karayilan said. Apo, short for Abdullah, is Ocalan's nickname.
"Apo has fulfilled all of his responsibilities," Karayilan said. "Now it is the Turkish government and our turn."
While a majority of Turks support the end of hostilities, the peace efforts remain a highly emotional issue and some are concerned about too many concessions to the PKK, which is blamed for thousands of deaths, including civilians.
A nationalist party is strongly opposed to the peace efforts and objects to freedom for Ocalan, whom it calls the "monster of Imrali," in reference to the prison island where he is held.
"The only thing the PKK must do is to lay down its arms and give itself up to justice," Oktay Vural, a legislator from the Nationalist Action Party, told reporters. "There isn't a single concession the Turkish people can give the PKK terrorist organization."
Turkey's peace efforts with Ocalan follow a surge in violence last summer that killed hundreds of people. It also comes as a Syrian Kurdish group linked to the PKK has gained control in several areas of northern Syria amid the civil war in the country, adding to Turkey's worries. Many believe Turkey's conflict with the PKK hurts its ambitions to become a more powerful regional leader.
The PKK has declared cease-fires before and the government has acknowledged holding failed secret peace talks with the rebels in 2011. But many believe that the latest effort has a chance of success because of Ocalan's direct involvement.
__
Associated Press writer Ezgi Akin contributed to the report.
MUMBAI, India (AP) ? Low cost efficiency put India's outsourcing companies at the heart of global business and created a multibillion dollar industry that for years has skated over criticism it was eliminating white collar jobs in rich nations. Now, the industry's long-held fears of a backlash are being realized in its crucial U.S. market.
Provisions in an overhaul of U.S. immigration law will close loopholes that allow outsourcing companies, Indian and American, to pay guest workers in the U.S. at rates often below wages for equivalently skilled Americans. The proposed changes are in line with President Barack Obama's vows to make it tougher for U.S. companies to replace American workers with cheaper labor abroad, either by opening factories overseas or subcontracting their work to outsourcing companies.
The cost to the Indian companies, which do everything from running call centers to managing the massive amounts of transactional data generated by banks, could run to several hundred million dollars in lost profits.
India's $108 billion outsourcing industry has shrugged off bad publicity in the U.S. and other countries since it began blossoming more than a decade ago. It has plenty of supporters among global corporations who prized outsourcing's ability to lower their costs and boost profits. But with the world economy stagnating, and U.S. unemployment at stubbornly high levels since the recession, a day of reckoning appears to be looming.
At issue in the U.S. are high-skill worker visas called H-1B that have been dubbed the "outsourcing visa" by critics who say the system allows companies to bring in cheaper tech workers from abroad instead of hiring Americans.
The immigration bill, the larger point of which is to boost border security and provide a path to citizenship for 11 million people living illegally in the U.S., would impose steep fees for companies such as Indian outsourcers that have more than half their U.S. staff on the permits and also require them to pay higher salaries.
The Indian government and the country's outsourcing industry are gearing up for a fight during debate on the bill, which could take weeks or months due to its other contentious issues. The draft law is now in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
India's ambassador to the United States, Nirupama Rao, argued in USA Today that everyone benefits from a generous guest worker policy, with Indian tech firms also creating 50,000 jobs for American workers and consumers benefiting from cheaper technology.
Yet criticism in India that the proposed changes are protectionist and discriminatory is not eliciting sympathy in the U.S.
"This has to do with a business model that exploits U.S. immigration loopholes for competitive advantage," said Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology who studies outsourcing. "It has nothing to do with the location of the headquarters of the company."
The rapid rise of India's information technology outsourcing industry has been a success story in a country better known for its stifling bureaucracy and biting poverty. In under a decade, outsourcing companies had created more than 2 million jobs and in 2012 contributed 6.4 percent of India's GDP, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies, based in New Delhi.
That success has reflected the ability of India's companies to develop cheap software using Indian designers at home, where wages are far lower than in the U.S. But that makes it necessary, the industry says, to bring the Indian designers and experts "on site" to the U.S. where they are putting the systems into place.
Indian outsourcing companies now use more than one-third of the 65,000 high skill visas allowed under U.S. regulations. The U.S. branches of Indian outsourcers rely on bringing in their own tech experts from home, saying they are most familiar with the software and other technology developed in India to streamline American companies' payrolls, record-keeping and other outsourced functions.
While American companies also compete to obtain the foreign guest worker visas, most are not as dependent on the visas as Indian companies, industry representatives said. Still, it was an American company, New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions, which was the No. 1 user of the guest worker visas, with nearly 9,300 in 2012. Cognizant also has a significant workforce in India.
"Lack of talent in the United States and the abundance of talent in countries such as India" is the reason for high demand for foreign tech worker visas, said Ameet Nisarkar, senior vice president of NASSCOM.
He said unemployment in the U.S. tech industry has been at 4 percent or below, even during the worst days of the global recession, and so high tech companies need to bring in foreign talent.
The proposed new visa regulations ? hammered out in negotiations among the eight U.S. senators who drafted the bill ? would raise the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 110,000 initially to satisfy technology companies who argue they need the foreign workers.
However, seeking to prevent undercutting American salaries, the bill would require those foreign workers to be paid more than under current law, impose steep fees of $10,000 per visa on big companies with more than half of their staff under such visas and starting in 2014 completely ban new H-1B visas for large firms with more than 75 percent of staff as guest workers.
Sandeep Muthangi of Indian brokerage IIFL Capital says the draft provisions could increase wage costs for Indian companies by 12-15 percent and bring profit margins down by a full percentage point. Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services, India's top outsourcer, earned $2.6 billion in the fiscal year ended March and had a profit margin of 22 percent.
For U.S. labor advocates, those profits are proof that Indian outsourcing companies can afford to pay for what they say is damage done to the U.S. labor market.
"Indian companies can advertise and recruit in the U.S. just the way foreign auto companies do. There is plenty of homegrown talent who would be happy to work at a good salary for a company with a future in the United States," said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington.
FreedomPop, the famously "free" data-only internet provider, promised an upgrade from WiMAX to Sprint's LTE by the end of 2013, and while the company may have missed that mark, it is now offering access to the carrier's 3G network. A new $40 Overdrive Pro MiFi hotspot, available today, will connect to Sprint's 3G in addition to 4G courtesy of Clearwire's WiMAX network. Users will get 500MB of 3G/4G coverage for free each month, and can choose a monthly 2GB plan for $20.
FreedomPop says it will release several devices running on Sprint's LTE spectrum later this year, in line with the carrier's build-out. Even the addition of Sprint's 3G is a big step up, though, as FreedomPop's own network doesn't exactly blanket the US. If you already own one of the company's hotspots but want to upgrade to this one, you'll be able to swap yours via customer service. Check out the full press info past the break.
FreedomPop, the famously "free" data-only internet provider, promised an upgrade from WiMAX to Sprint's LTE by the end of 2013, and while the company may have missed that mark, it is now offering access to the carrier's 3G network. A new $40 Overdrive Pro hotspot, available today, will connect to Sprint's 3G in addition to 4G courtesy of Clearwire's WiMAX network. Users will get 500MB of 3G/4G coverage for free each month, and can choose a monthly 2GB plan for $20.
FreedomPop says it will release several devices running on Sprint's LTE spectrum later this year, in line with the carrier's build-out. Even the addition of Sprint's 3G is a big step up, though, as FreedomPop's own network doesn't exactly blanket the US. If you already own one of the company's hotspots but want to upgrade to this one, you'll be able to swap yours via customer service. Check out the full press info past the break.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Recent developments in health and science news. This week: a wet washcloth experiment in space, a resolution on drugs to ward off breast cancer, and seismic activity.
Insights into deadly coral bleaching could help preserve reefsPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University
Surprising result from study of 1893 World's Fair corals using modern technology
Coral reefs are stressed the world over and could be in mortal danger because of climate change. But why do some corals die and others not, even when exposed to the same environmental conditions?
An interdisciplinary research team from Northwestern University and The Field Museum of Natural History has a surprising answer: The corals themselves play a role in their susceptibility to deadly coral bleaching due to the light-scattering properties of their skeletons. No one else has shown this before.
Using optical technology designed for early cancer detection, the researchers discovered that reef-building corals scatter light in different ways to the symbiotic algae that feed the corals. Corals that are less efficient at light scattering retain algae better under stressful conditions and are more likely to survive. Corals whose skeletons scatter light most efficiently have an advantage under normal conditions, but they suffer the most damage when stressed.
The findings could help predict the response of coral reefs to the stress of increasing seawater temperatures and acidity, helping conservation scientists preserve coral reef health and high biodiversity.
The study of nearly a hundred different species of reef-building corals, including many from the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, was published this week in PLOS ONE. The open-access, online journal is published by The Public Library of Science.
"We have solved a little piece of the puzzle of why coral reefs are bleaching and dying," said Luisa A. Marcelino, who led the study. "Our research is the first to show light-scattering properties of the corals are a risk factor."
Marcelino is a molecular biologist and research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern.
The unusual research involved marine biology, the physics of light transport, the biophysics of how corals handle light and unique technology originally developed for medical applications. The team included Vadim Backman, a physicist and professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern, and Mark W. Westneat, a coral reef fish biologist and curator of zoology at the Field Museum.
"Coral reefs are like the rain forests of the oceans -- the consequences will be catastrophic if coral reefs are lost in great numbers," said Backman, who invented the optical technique used by the team. "Corals are also optical machines. By identifying how much light the skeletons of individual coral species reflect, we have learned which species are more resilient under stress."
Algae provide nutrients to the corals and receive shelter and light for photosynthesis in return. When stressed, the corals can lose their algae. The corals often die of starvation shortly afterward, exposing their white skeletons.
The team used LEBS to measure light transport and light amplification inside the skeletons of 96 different coral species. How fast the light amplification increases with the loss of algae depends on the light transport at the microscale. This was impossible to measure until Backman's low-coherence enhanced backscattering (LEBS) technique became available, which is one of the reasons why this phenomenon has never been studied before.
The specimens were from long-held collections of corals from the Field Museum, including dozens retained from the original Chicago Columbian Exposition and World's Fair of 1893, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The researchers created a family tree of corals that showed bleaching is associated with the physics of light scattering across the entire evolutionary history of corals. Living reef corals are thought to have originated about 220 million years ago, and corals living today are descendants of various branches of these older lineages.
"We found that bleaching and light scattering are associated across the history of reef corals," Westneat said. "This important mechanism occurs repeatedly in all major coral groups, regardless of relationship or evolutionary age."
Corals have evolved to scatter light efficiently. Corals whose skeletons scatter light the most efficiently have an advantage under normal conditions. They also tend to grow faster as this leads to a skeletal structure that is more conducive to scattering.
However, when some of the algae are lost due to stress, the limestone skeletons amplify the light so much that remaining algae have to deal with even more light, thus being at an even greater risk of damage. This creates a vicious cycle forcing more and more algae to leave the coral. Less scattering-efficient corals, on the other hand, do not create the vicious cycle.
###
The paper is titled "Modulation of Light-Enhancement to Symbiotic Algae by Light-Scattering in Corals and Evolutionary Trends in Bleaching." This PLOS ONE paper is available at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061492.
In addition to Marcelino, Backman and Westneat, other authors of the paper are Valentina Stoyneva, Jeremy D. Rogers, Andrew Radosevich, Vladimir Turzhitsky, Margaret Siple, Andrew Fang, Timothy D. Swain and Jennifer Fung, all of Northwestern, and Jillian Henss, of the Field Museum.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Insights into deadly coral bleaching could help preserve reefsPublic release date: 23-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University
Surprising result from study of 1893 World's Fair corals using modern technology
Coral reefs are stressed the world over and could be in mortal danger because of climate change. But why do some corals die and others not, even when exposed to the same environmental conditions?
An interdisciplinary research team from Northwestern University and The Field Museum of Natural History has a surprising answer: The corals themselves play a role in their susceptibility to deadly coral bleaching due to the light-scattering properties of their skeletons. No one else has shown this before.
Using optical technology designed for early cancer detection, the researchers discovered that reef-building corals scatter light in different ways to the symbiotic algae that feed the corals. Corals that are less efficient at light scattering retain algae better under stressful conditions and are more likely to survive. Corals whose skeletons scatter light most efficiently have an advantage under normal conditions, but they suffer the most damage when stressed.
The findings could help predict the response of coral reefs to the stress of increasing seawater temperatures and acidity, helping conservation scientists preserve coral reef health and high biodiversity.
The study of nearly a hundred different species of reef-building corals, including many from the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, was published this week in PLOS ONE. The open-access, online journal is published by The Public Library of Science.
"We have solved a little piece of the puzzle of why coral reefs are bleaching and dying," said Luisa A. Marcelino, who led the study. "Our research is the first to show light-scattering properties of the corals are a risk factor."
Marcelino is a molecular biologist and research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern.
The unusual research involved marine biology, the physics of light transport, the biophysics of how corals handle light and unique technology originally developed for medical applications. The team included Vadim Backman, a physicist and professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern, and Mark W. Westneat, a coral reef fish biologist and curator of zoology at the Field Museum.
"Coral reefs are like the rain forests of the oceans -- the consequences will be catastrophic if coral reefs are lost in great numbers," said Backman, who invented the optical technique used by the team. "Corals are also optical machines. By identifying how much light the skeletons of individual coral species reflect, we have learned which species are more resilient under stress."
Algae provide nutrients to the corals and receive shelter and light for photosynthesis in return. When stressed, the corals can lose their algae. The corals often die of starvation shortly afterward, exposing their white skeletons.
The team used LEBS to measure light transport and light amplification inside the skeletons of 96 different coral species. How fast the light amplification increases with the loss of algae depends on the light transport at the microscale. This was impossible to measure until Backman's low-coherence enhanced backscattering (LEBS) technique became available, which is one of the reasons why this phenomenon has never been studied before.
The specimens were from long-held collections of corals from the Field Museum, including dozens retained from the original Chicago Columbian Exposition and World's Fair of 1893, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The researchers created a family tree of corals that showed bleaching is associated with the physics of light scattering across the entire evolutionary history of corals. Living reef corals are thought to have originated about 220 million years ago, and corals living today are descendants of various branches of these older lineages.
"We found that bleaching and light scattering are associated across the history of reef corals," Westneat said. "This important mechanism occurs repeatedly in all major coral groups, regardless of relationship or evolutionary age."
Corals have evolved to scatter light efficiently. Corals whose skeletons scatter light the most efficiently have an advantage under normal conditions. They also tend to grow faster as this leads to a skeletal structure that is more conducive to scattering.
However, when some of the algae are lost due to stress, the limestone skeletons amplify the light so much that remaining algae have to deal with even more light, thus being at an even greater risk of damage. This creates a vicious cycle forcing more and more algae to leave the coral. Less scattering-efficient corals, on the other hand, do not create the vicious cycle.
###
The paper is titled "Modulation of Light-Enhancement to Symbiotic Algae by Light-Scattering in Corals and Evolutionary Trends in Bleaching." This PLOS ONE paper is available at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061492.
In addition to Marcelino, Backman and Westneat, other authors of the paper are Valentina Stoyneva, Jeremy D. Rogers, Andrew Radosevich, Vladimir Turzhitsky, Margaret Siple, Andrew Fang, Timothy D. Swain and Jennifer Fung, all of Northwestern, and Jillian Henss, of the Field Museum.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images)
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