Friday, May 31, 2013

Legendary, China Film teaming on big-money flicks

FILE - In this undated file image released by Warner Bros., Christian Bale is shown as Batman in a scene from "The Dark Knight" from 2008. Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment which produced "The Dark Knight" signed an agreement with the state-owned China Film Group on Thursday, May 30, 2013 in Beijing. (AP Photo/Warner Bros., File)

FILE - In this undated file image released by Warner Bros., Christian Bale is shown as Batman in a scene from "The Dark Knight" from 2008. Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment which produced "The Dark Knight" signed an agreement with the state-owned China Film Group on Thursday, May 30, 2013 in Beijing. (AP Photo/Warner Bros., File)

FILE - In this March 26, 2006 file photo, an actor clad in a Batman costume greets local spectators after the grand opening ceremony of the Warner Bros. Studio Store in Shanghai, China. Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment which produced "The Dark Knight" from 2008 signed an agreement with the state-owned China Film Group on Thursday, May 30, 2013 in Beijing. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

HONG KONG (AP) ? Legendary Entertainment, maker of the "The Hangover" franchise, is teaming with state-owned China Film Group to produce more global blockbusters as the Hollywood studio expands into the rapidly growing but tightly controlled Chinese movie market.

Their deal is the latest example of growing collaboration between entertainment companies in the world's two biggest movie markets.

Legendary, which also made "Inception" and "The Dark Knight," said its Chinese venture, Legendary East, signed an agreement with the Chinese company's unit, China Film Co., on Thursday in Beijing. The deal calls for the companies to fund development and production of multiple films over three years.

Their first collaborations will be announced in the coming months. Legendary said each is planned as a U.S.-China co-production. That means they can bypass China's import restrictions that limit the number of foreign movies shown on the country's 12,000 screens to 34 each year.

Producers that can avoid the import quota can earn millions more at the Chinese box office because they are allowed to keep about 40 percent of profits, compared with 25 percent for films classified as foreign.

The companies said they plan to produce movies for global audiences that will be "tentpole-scale" ? in other words, the big-budget, highly promoted productions that earn enough box-office revenue to support the whole studio, in the same way that a tentpole holds up a tent.

No specific details were released.

In a statement, China Film Co. Chairman Han Sanping said it was the company's first ever long-term, multi-picture deal with a local or foreign partner.

"There can be no doubt that this is one of the most important collaborations for China Film Group in the coming years," Han said. The partnership will allow the companies to "make films that are more appealing to filmgoers, creating new genres that, through the magic of film, bring greater variety to audiences around the world," he said.

China Film Group is an important player because it essentially controls film imports and co-productions, making it an important gatekeeper for foreign studios. Through its China Film Co., which has plans to go public, it owns stakes in eight movie theater circuits that account for half of the country's box office receipts.

Faced with stagnant box-office growth at home, Hollywood studios are keen to enter China, now the world's second-biggest film market. Box-office receipts in China totaled $2.7 billion last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. That pushed the Chinese market past Japan's, now the third biggest.

For their part, China's leaders are hoping to use expertise gleaned from joint ventures to rapidly develop their country's cultural industries to expand their influence abroad. Chinese audiences adore Hollywood fare such as "Avatar" and the "Kung Fu Panda" series. Meanwhile, locally produced hits, such as last year's No. 1, road trip movie "Lost in Thailand," have flopped overseas.

"The natural step in a growing Chinese film industry is to make films that successfully take Chinese-based stories to international audiences," said Rance Pow, Shanghai-based founder of film consultancy Artisan Gateway. "Legendary brings Hollywood credentials, and global distribution and marketing relationships to the collaboration."

Other examples of recent Hollywood-China collaborations include DreamWorks Animation working with local partners to make "Kung Fu Panda 3" and Disney teaming up with Beijing-based DMG on the recently released "Iron Man 3."

Legendary East was set up in 2011 with the aim of making one or two "major, event-style films" starting in 2013. But the company had remained quiet since then and a plan to raise $220.5 million through a deal with a Hong Kong construction company was scuppered by rocky financial markets.

____

Follow Kelvin Chan at twitter.com/chanman

Online:

Legendary Entertainment: http://www.legendary.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-31-Film-China-Legendary/id-8e2ae9f87c1649e8907874ee2105567a

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Jackson Laboratory wins AAAS award for computational biology educational module

Jackson Laboratory wins AAAS award for computational biology educational module [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2013
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Contact: Joyce Peterson
joyce.peterson@jax.org
207-288-6058
Jackson Laboratory

Bar Harbor, Maine A Jackson Laboratory Internet-based educational program in computational biology has won the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Each month the AAAS, the world's largest scientific organization, recognizes an innovative educational program with the Inquiry-Based Instruction prize in its flagship journal, Science. The May 2013 winner, Quantitative Trait Mapping, grew from an educational outreach program at The Jackson Laboratory's Center for Genome Dynamics, which gives students an immersion experience as systems biology researchers.

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences requires the systems biology centers it funds, including the Center for Genome Dynamics, to have an educational component. Center director Gary Churchill, Ph.D., and outreach coordinator Susan McClatchy work directly with select students at three magnet schools: the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone, Maine; the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, N.C., and the Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology in Conyers, Ga.

Churchill says that the Quantitative Trait Mapping online module, which is freely available online, "is one of four modules that encapsulate the basic knowledge that I felt the students needed in order to do these systems biology projects. You need a certain set of skills to be able to explore these large data sets we have, and one of those skills is the ability to do genetic mapping."

During the academic year, Churchill and McClatchy "meet" remotely with the students once a week in a 90-minute online session. "We realized early on," Churchill says, "that we wanted to use that time for interaction with the kids, rather than lectures. These modules let the students work on the basic skills they need offline, with their teachers, Deborah McGann, Robert Gotwals and Amanda Baskett."

McClatchy notes that because the Center for Genome Dynamics high school program requires such intensive interaction with the students and their teachers, "it's not really scalable. However, what is scalable is the Quantitative Trait Mapping module. We would like to see it placed in undergraduate biology courses, where the faculty will already have the requisite scientific background to incorporate the module in their courses."

Free access to the online module, McClatchy adds, "means that colleges and universities lacking wet lab facilities can provide their students with a real research experience. We have high hopes that it will scale up and scale up big. Really big."

Churchill, McClatchy and their teacher-collaborators have published an essay describing the Quantitative Mapping Module in this week's edition of Science, "Students as Collaborators in Systems Biology Research."

###

The Jackson Laboratory, founded in 1929, is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a new genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. It employs a total staff of more than 1,450. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.


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Jackson Laboratory wins AAAS award for computational biology educational module [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Joyce Peterson
joyce.peterson@jax.org
207-288-6058
Jackson Laboratory

Bar Harbor, Maine A Jackson Laboratory Internet-based educational program in computational biology has won the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Each month the AAAS, the world's largest scientific organization, recognizes an innovative educational program with the Inquiry-Based Instruction prize in its flagship journal, Science. The May 2013 winner, Quantitative Trait Mapping, grew from an educational outreach program at The Jackson Laboratory's Center for Genome Dynamics, which gives students an immersion experience as systems biology researchers.

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences requires the systems biology centers it funds, including the Center for Genome Dynamics, to have an educational component. Center director Gary Churchill, Ph.D., and outreach coordinator Susan McClatchy work directly with select students at three magnet schools: the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone, Maine; the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, N.C., and the Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology in Conyers, Ga.

Churchill says that the Quantitative Trait Mapping online module, which is freely available online, "is one of four modules that encapsulate the basic knowledge that I felt the students needed in order to do these systems biology projects. You need a certain set of skills to be able to explore these large data sets we have, and one of those skills is the ability to do genetic mapping."

During the academic year, Churchill and McClatchy "meet" remotely with the students once a week in a 90-minute online session. "We realized early on," Churchill says, "that we wanted to use that time for interaction with the kids, rather than lectures. These modules let the students work on the basic skills they need offline, with their teachers, Deborah McGann, Robert Gotwals and Amanda Baskett."

McClatchy notes that because the Center for Genome Dynamics high school program requires such intensive interaction with the students and their teachers, "it's not really scalable. However, what is scalable is the Quantitative Trait Mapping module. We would like to see it placed in undergraduate biology courses, where the faculty will already have the requisite scientific background to incorporate the module in their courses."

Free access to the online module, McClatchy adds, "means that colleges and universities lacking wet lab facilities can provide their students with a real research experience. We have high hopes that it will scale up and scale up big. Really big."

Churchill, McClatchy and their teacher-collaborators have published an essay describing the Quantitative Mapping Module in this week's edition of Science, "Students as Collaborators in Systems Biology Research."

###

The Jackson Laboratory, founded in 1929, is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a new genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. It employs a total staff of more than 1,450. Its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/jl-jlw052813.php

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Media outlets refuse off-the-record meeting with Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Several news organizations invited to meet this week with Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss the Justice Department's guidelines governing security leak investigations that involve reporters are refusing the invitation citing the meeting's off-the-record status.

A Justice Department official said on Wednesday that the meeting with select bureau chiefs will be off the record to "best facilitate the candid, free-flowing discussions we hope to have in order to bring about meaningful engagement."

But by Thursday afternoon, representatives from Reuters, CNN and Huffington Post had joined the Associated Press and The New York Times in deciding to boycott the meeting due to its off-the-record status.

Holder called the meetings this week as part of a department review directed by President Barack Obama after controversy over the secret seizure of Associated Press reporters' and editors' phone records and secret monitoring of Fox News reporter James Rosen.

"We would welcome the opportunity to hear the attorney general's explanation for the Department of Justice's handling of subpoenas to journalists, and his thoughts about improving the protections afforded to media organizations in responding to government investigations, but believe firmly that his comments should be for publication," Reuters spokesperson Barb Burg said on Thursday.

"CNN will decline the invitation for an off-the-record meeting," the cable news outlet noted in its coverage of the meeting on Thursday. "A CNN spokesperson says if the meeting with the attorney general is on the record, CNN would plan to participate."

Erin Madigan White, the AP's media relations manager, said in a widely circulated statement on Wednesday that "if it is not on the record, AP will not attend and instead will offer our views on how the regulations should be updated in an open letter."

"It isn't appropriate for us to attend an off-the-record meeting with the attorney general," New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson said in a statement.

So, who's going?

ABC News, a partner of Yahoo News, has confirmed its decision to send a representative but said it will "press for that conversation to be put on the record." Yahoo News was not invited to participate.

Representatives for the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have told news outlets they will attend.

And Politico is also rejecting the boycott. "As editor in chief, I routinely have off-the-record conversations with people who have questions or grievances about our coverage or our news gathering practices," John Harris wrote in an email. "I feel anyone?whether an official or ordinary reader?should be able to have an unguarded conversation with someone in a position of accountability for a news organization when there is good reason."

The Justice Department did not respond to Yahoo News' request for comment on Thursday on the boycott.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/select-media-outlets-turn-down-eric-holder-meeting-162920717.html

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Nostalgia, Activate! Earthworm Jim's Creator Turns To Kickstarter For His Gaming Comeback

ewjBetween Disney axing LucasArts and Monkey Island's creator waxing on about the sequel he thinks he'll never make, the last few months have been a pretty big kick to the gaming crowd's feels. Here's some feel-good medicine: the creator of 90's nostalgia-factory Earthworm Jim is getting back into gaming, and he's turning to Kickstarter to make his new game happen.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/c-mMBdg7L8k/

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Weightlessness of space used to design better materials for Earth

May 29, 2013 ? Researchers from Northeastern University are among the many scientists helping NASA use the weightlessness of space to design stronger materials here on Earth.

Structural alloys might not sound familiar, but they are an integral part of everyday materials, such as aircraft wings, car bodies, engine blocks, or gas pipelines. These materials are produced through solidification? -- a process similar to the making of ice cubes. "Solidification happens all around us, either naturally, as during the crystallization of familiar snow-flakes in the atmosphere, or in technological processes used to fabricate a host of materials, from the large silicon crystals used for solar panels to the making of almost any human-made object or structure that needs to withstand large forces, like a turbine blade," said Northeastern University Prof. Alain Karma, who was a collaborator in this study.

The transition of a structural alloy from liquid to solid is morphologically unstable, meaning that the interface between solid and liquid evolves from a planar morphology to a non-planar cellular structure during solidification -- essentially, the same instability is responsible for the branched star shape of snow flakes.

But what if you could take gravity out of the mix? Researchers say by observing the solidification process in a microgravity environment -- in this case, the International Space Station -- they were able to study how this morphological instability develops in three dimensions to shape the structure of materials on a micron scale. "Without gravity, there is no buoyancy force to mix the atomic constituents in the melt by fluid flow," said Prof. Karma. "As a result, solidification creates unique, more organized, structures that cannot be observed on earth. Understanding how those structures form in space gives insight for designing lighter and stronger materials that can be made on earth."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/PbmEoHNZO8E/130529133505.htm

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Key hydrogen report now available on OpenEnergyInfo wiki site

Key hydrogen report now available on OpenEnergyInfo wiki site [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-May-2013
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Contact: Mike Janes
mejanes@sandia.gov
925-294-2447
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

LIVERMORE, Calif. As part of the Open Government initiative launched by the Obama Administration, Sandia National Laboratories' Technical Reference on Hydrogen Compatibility of Materials has made its debut on the Energy Dataset of OpenEnergyInfo, or OpenEI.

Many in the industry working to increase the competitiveness of clean hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) already consult the reference guide, which has been available on Sandia's web page for several years. But, now, the information found in the publication is more widely available and easier to access.

"The Technical Reference is a valuable tool for the hydrogen delivery and storage industries," said Sunita Satyapal, director of the Fuel Cell Technologies Office, the Department of Energy (DOE) office that has sponsored Sandia's work on the Technical Reference. "It can help eliminate R&D redundancies by providing extensive compatibility data to the broader industry. By sharing these crucial findings on OpenEI, the Technical Reference can increase the rate of progress towards overcoming the barriers of hydrogen delivery and storage and allow us to reach full commercialization of FCEVs sooner."

The Technical Reference focuses on compatibility issues between hydrogen and other materials. Due to their small size, hydrogen molecules can seep into materials at room temperature. This high rate of diffusion can promote embrittlement in some of those materials and some materials can be downselected depending on the application and conditions.

To help overcome this challenge, the Technical Reference provides detailed information of the effects of hydrogen on the materials that might be used in equipment for storing hydrogen and delivering it to fuel cell electric vehicles. Developed and updated by researchers at Sandia, the Technical Reference consolidates results of extensive review of reports and journal publications, as well as new research conducted by Sandia, on a range of compatibility issues that must be addressed to increase the cost-effectiveness and ease-of-use of hydrogen vehicles and their infrastructure.

Browsing the reference reveals the extent and depth of detail available. Concentrating on relatively low-cost and high-strength materialsincluding a variety of steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel alloys, as well as non-metal polymersthe report provides data on potential high priority impacts of hydrogen on such material properties as yield and tensile strengths, fracture toughness, and fatigue crack growth rates.

"The reviewed and tested data in the Technical Reference can help industry target and develop components and systems with fewer hydrogen compatibility issues," said Sandia researcher Brian Somerday, who, along with Sandia colleague Chris San Marchi was a principal developer of the report. "This could potentially accelerate the timetable for the hydrogen-fueled transportation system."

###

Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Sandia media relations contact: Mike Janes, mejanes@sandia.gov, (925) 294-2447


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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.


Key hydrogen report now available on OpenEnergyInfo wiki site [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 28-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Mike Janes
mejanes@sandia.gov
925-294-2447
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories

LIVERMORE, Calif. As part of the Open Government initiative launched by the Obama Administration, Sandia National Laboratories' Technical Reference on Hydrogen Compatibility of Materials has made its debut on the Energy Dataset of OpenEnergyInfo, or OpenEI.

Many in the industry working to increase the competitiveness of clean hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) already consult the reference guide, which has been available on Sandia's web page for several years. But, now, the information found in the publication is more widely available and easier to access.

"The Technical Reference is a valuable tool for the hydrogen delivery and storage industries," said Sunita Satyapal, director of the Fuel Cell Technologies Office, the Department of Energy (DOE) office that has sponsored Sandia's work on the Technical Reference. "It can help eliminate R&D redundancies by providing extensive compatibility data to the broader industry. By sharing these crucial findings on OpenEI, the Technical Reference can increase the rate of progress towards overcoming the barriers of hydrogen delivery and storage and allow us to reach full commercialization of FCEVs sooner."

The Technical Reference focuses on compatibility issues between hydrogen and other materials. Due to their small size, hydrogen molecules can seep into materials at room temperature. This high rate of diffusion can promote embrittlement in some of those materials and some materials can be downselected depending on the application and conditions.

To help overcome this challenge, the Technical Reference provides detailed information of the effects of hydrogen on the materials that might be used in equipment for storing hydrogen and delivering it to fuel cell electric vehicles. Developed and updated by researchers at Sandia, the Technical Reference consolidates results of extensive review of reports and journal publications, as well as new research conducted by Sandia, on a range of compatibility issues that must be addressed to increase the cost-effectiveness and ease-of-use of hydrogen vehicles and their infrastructure.

Browsing the reference reveals the extent and depth of detail available. Concentrating on relatively low-cost and high-strength materialsincluding a variety of steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel alloys, as well as non-metal polymersthe report provides data on potential high priority impacts of hydrogen on such material properties as yield and tensile strengths, fracture toughness, and fatigue crack growth rates.

"The reviewed and tested data in the Technical Reference can help industry target and develop components and systems with fewer hydrogen compatibility issues," said Sandia researcher Brian Somerday, who, along with Sandia colleague Chris San Marchi was a principal developer of the report. "This could potentially accelerate the timetable for the hydrogen-fueled transportation system."

###

Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Sandia media relations contact: Mike Janes, mejanes@sandia.gov, (925) 294-2447


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/dnl-khr052813.php

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Jennifer Lawrence?s Crazed Stalker Arrested

Jennifer Lawrence’s Crazed Stalker Arrested

Jennifer Lawrence photos The Metropolitan Museum of ArtA Canadian man named Han Cong Zhao has been arrested after harassing Jennifer Lawrence’s brother, Blaine Lawrence, to get him in touch with the Oscar-winning actress. The 23-year-old stalker began contacting Lawrence’s brother through phone calls, texts, and emails, where he claimed he needed to protect Jennifer and that he was her “husband for life”. ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/jennifer-lawrences-crazed-stalker-arrested/

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Statement from Governor Pat Quinn on House Passage of SB 26 - Legislation to Advance President Obama?s Affordable Care Act

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=11218

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College enrollment falls as more return to work

College enrollments declined 2.3 percent this spring compared with a year earlier, a sign that more students are returning to the workforce as the economy recovers, a new report says.

The biggest drops occurred among adult learners attending for-profit colleges and public community colleges, which are most likely to enroll students in vocation-oriented classes tied to the local job market. Enrollments at those institutions fell 8.7 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.

For colleges, which saw enrollments peak in 2011 during the recession, the declining numbers represent ?a bit of a return to normal,? says Doug Shapiro, executive director of the nonprofit National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which released the report. ?It?s reflective of good news for the economy and labor market.?

Numbers are based on data provided by about 95 percent of the nation?s colleges and universities to the National Student Clearinghouse, which offers verification and research services to participating colleges.

Enrollments this spring reached 19,105,651, down from 19,550,391 last spring. A similar decline has occurred during fall semesters, when enrollment figures have historically been higher. Enrollments last fall were down 1.8 percent, to 20,195,924, compared with a high of 20,556,272 in fall 2011.

Among details between this spring and last spring:

Four-year public institutions saw a 1.1 percent drop in enrollments while four-year private colleges saw a slight increase.

Across regions, the Midwest saw the greatest decrease in overall enrollment, 2.6 percent, while the Northeast saw the smallest decrease, less than 1 percent. The drops were 1.7 percent in the West and 2.2 percent in the South.

The decrease was steeper for women than men (2.7 percent vs. 1.7 percent), but women still accounted for more than 57 percent of this spring?s enrollments.

Enrollments among students older than 24 fell 3.6 percent, while rates for traditional-age students fell 1.4 percent.

Michael Reilly, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, says the numbers are consistent with trends showing declines in the size of high school graduating classes and may reflect recent scrutiny of for-profit colleges.

Last summer, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, wrapped up a two-year investigation of the sector that found that students at for-profit colleges on average had lower graduation rates and higher average loan default rates than those enrolled in nonprofit institutions.

Steve Gunderson, CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, which represents for-profit institutions, attributed some of the enrollment declines to what he called ?right-sizing.? But he also said his schools also have grown more selective as federal and state policymakers focus on issues such as graduation rates.

?We as a sector used to practice what we would call open access (admissions). Everyone had a chance,? he says. Increasingly, he says, ?enrollments are reflecting a better-prepared, less risky student body.?

? 2013 USA TODAY. All rights reserved.

Source: http://durangoherald.com/article/20130528/NEWS05/130529491&source=RSS

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Monday, May 27, 2013

Arab spring nations face delayed economic recovery -IMF

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) - Arab spring countries face rising social tensions that could thwart an early economic recovery from over two years of political turmoil that has worsened fiscal pressures and threatens macroeconomic stability, a senior IMF official said on Saturday.

Masood Ahmed, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said oil importers Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan faced the double shocks of high energy and food import bills and the impact of a global economic downturn along with growing popular disaffection since the wave of Arab revolts over two years ago.

"The big challenge this year is to manage the expectation of an increasingly impatient population to undertake the measures that will stabilise the economy and would begin to lay the foundations of an economic transformation that would generate more job creating and inclusive growth," Ahmed said.

"Those political transitions are turning to be more prolonged and in some cases more contentious and unemployment is higher and social unrest is rising," Ahmed told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum (WEF) conference on the Middle East and North Africa.

Ahmed said the plight of these countries hit by protests was worsened by extra spending on food and energy subsidies that forced governments to draw on foreign reserves and expand domestic borrowing at high interest rates that raised public debt.

Political turmoil was hurting much needed private investments in the meantime, the IMF official said.

"In a number of these countries, private confidence has not yet taken hold so the recovery such as it was in 2012 was driven by continued government spending rather than a recovery in private activity," Ahmed added.

Two years of higher spending on wages and food and fuel subsidies will push budget deficit deficits even higher to an average eight percent in 2013. In Egypt, for example the budget deficit was expected to rise to between 10 to 12 percent of GDP this year, the IMF official said.

"The cost of that is that budget deficits have begun to rise and in some cases have risen to levels that are progressively unsustainable," Ahmed said.

SLUMPING RESERVES

Egypt's foreign exchange reserves have slumped since the revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 due to falling revenues from tourism and foreign investment. Jordan's foreign reserves had also fallen sharply but have since recovered this year with an infusion of Gulf Arab capital.

Growth levels that are forecast to average around three percent this year for oil importing countries were insufficient to absorb more job entrants in a region with traditionally high unemployment that has increased since the wave of unrest that swept the region since 2011.

"Already young people are suffering unemployment levels of close to 30 percent and in last two years there have been further increase in some countries," the IMF official added.

Governments had to grapple sooner than later with the politically sensitive subsidies that topped $240 billion in 2011 for the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region and accounted for about one half of global energy subsidies.

This was equivalent to about 8.5 percent of regional GDP, IMF figures show.

Universal energy subsidies were benefiting the top 30 percent income bracket among consumers and although Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia had begun to move towards targeted subsidies, more was needed to help reduce hefty subsidies that diverted much needed funds to spur growth.

"In the middle of political and social transition, it is even more difficult to undertake necessary reforms to reduce budget imbalances or try to take action to protect your reserves but the option of postponing these actions much longer really is not there for many countries," the IMF official said.

"The margin for maneuver is much more limited and today their cushions have been used up a lot and today they find they have the ability to borrow more from domestic markets constrained and their reserves positions are such they really cannot afford to let reserves run down much further," Ahmed said.

Lifting fuel subsidies had triggered civil unrest in Jordan last November and some analysts say the government's move to raise prices of heavily subsidised electricity in June under an IMF standby deal was fraught with risks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arab-spring-nations-face-delayed-economic-recovery-imf-072423610.html

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Brazil foodies go off beaten path in Rio's slums

In this May 22, 2013 photo, a customer eats lunch at Bar Lacubaco in the Vidigal slum, reflected in the window in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With its view of the Atlantic?s azure waters and its low prices, the Bar Lacubaco could give many conventional Rio restaurants a run for their money. In the land of the $35 martini, where a dinner for two routinely adds up to more than $200, Lacubaco's main courses are just $5-$7 apiece. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

In this May 22, 2013 photo, a customer eats lunch at Bar Lacubaco in the Vidigal slum, reflected in the window in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With its view of the Atlantic?s azure waters and its low prices, the Bar Lacubaco could give many conventional Rio restaurants a run for their money. In the land of the $35 martini, where a dinner for two routinely adds up to more than $200, Lacubaco's main courses are just $5-$7 apiece. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

In this May 22, 2013 photo, customers eat lunch at Restaurante 48 in the Tabajaras slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pacified favelas are the newest hotspots for both locals and foreign visitors, including a number of bars and restaurants. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

In this May 22, 2013 photo, plates sit on a table at the Bar Lacubaco in the Vidigal slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Twenty-two establishments covering the gamut of food and drink options in Rio's slums made it into a new Portuguese-language guidebook called "The Gastronomical Guide to the Favelas of Rio." They include sit-down restaurants serving Brazilian favorites such as prime cuts of steak and feijoada bean-and-meat stews, as well as foreign specialties-turned-local-staples like pizza and sushi. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

In this May 22, 2013 photo, police stand outside Restaurante 48 in Tabajaras slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pacified favelas are the newest hotspots for both locals and foreign visitors, who are spending more time at the former no-go zones. Now, there?s another reason to visit: the growing buzz about the best food and drink the pacified favelas have to offer. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

In this May 25, 2013 photo, a woman walks with her children as they leave the Bela Vista Bar in the Pavao-Pavaozinho slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Whole sections of some favelas are accessible only via steep staircases, and restaurant owners in the slums say the tricky logistics of keeping ingredients in stock is among their biggest challenges. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

(AP) ? Adriana Peixoto would fit right in at the trendiest Rio de Janeiro bar with her hipster glasses and the big black tattoos on her calves.

But for a weekend gossip session over beers and seafood paella, the 35-year-old audiovisual producer and her friends settled on a venue that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: a bar in a "favela," one of the hillside slums that were long ruled by ruthless and heavily armed drug gangs and off-limits to outsiders.

The vast majority of Rio's murders still occur in the favelas, some of which are plagued by sporadic shootouts. But under a five-year-old "pacification" program aimed at making Rio safer ahead of next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, police once kept out now have bases in nearly three dozen of the 1,071 slums dotting the city.

The pacified favelas are the newest hotspots for both locals and foreign visitors, who are spending more time at the former no-go zones than traditional tourist magnets like the Christ the Redeemer statue. Now, there's another reason to visit: the growing buzz about the best food and drink the pacified favelas have to offer.

A new Portuguese-language guidebook called "The Gastronomical Guide to the Favelas of Rio" refutes the idea that slum food consists solely of deep-fried snacks by showcasing the people and places behind the shantytowns' tastiest tapioca omelets, greatest grilled chicken, and most scrumptious seafood stews and sushi.

"Food is an excellent tool for breaking down prejudice," said the guide's editor, Sergio Bloch. "For people with lingering worries about danger or prejudice against these places that were impossible to visit for so long, food is a wonderful reason to actually visit a favela."

Bloch and his three researchers visited some 97 establishments in 11 favelas. Like reviewers from the Zagat or hallowed Michelin restaurant guides, venues were judged on food, decor, service and cost.

But Bloch's team often ran into situations no Zagat or Michelin reviewer has likely had to grapple with.

"We went to places where the food was great, but where the smell from a nearby Dumpster made it untenable," said Bloch over rice and beans at Restaurante 48 in the Tabajaras slum, tucked into Rio's Copacabana neighborhood. "Or sometimes we had problems with the smell coming from the gutters, which in some favelas are often open-air sewers."

While many favelas lack in basic sanitation, they often make up for with breathtaking views of the ocean and exclusive neighborhoods below the steep rocky outcroppings.

Twenty-two establishments covering the gamut of food and drink options in Rio's slums made it into the guidebook. They include sit-down restaurants serving Brazilian favorites such as prime cuts of steak and feijoada bean-and-meat stews, as well as foreign specialties-turned-local-staples like pizza and sushi. The guide also showcases hole-in-the-wall juice bars, a hot dog stand and an ambulatory singing and dancing empanada vendor named Adriana. In lieu of an address, her entry reads "circulating throughout the community," and provides her cell phone number.

With its view of the Atlantic's azure waters and its low prices, the Bar Lacubaco in the Vidigal slum could give many conventional Rio restaurants a run for their money. In the land of the $35 martini, where a dinner for two routinely adds up to more than $200, Lacubaco's main courses are just $5-$7 apiece.

Owner Fabio Freire said Vidigal's off-the-grid status helps him keep costs down in what has become Rio's hippest favela, thanks to a prime oceanside location between two of the city's highest-rent neighborhoods.

"I buy my meat from the same suppliers at restaurants down there on the 'asphalt,'" said 38-year-old Freire, using slang for non-slum neighborhoods. "But I don't pay for electricity, I don't pay for gas and I don't pay property taxes, so all that slashes my overhead and I can pass the savings on to my customers." People in the slums typically illegally tap into the electrical grid to obtain power.

Lacubaco is located on the main street that slaloms up to the top of Vidigal, but some of eateries listed in the new guide are harder to reach via narrow, zig-zagging, traffic-clogged streets. Whole sections of some favelas are accessible only via steep staircases, and restaurant owners in the slums say the tricky logistics of keeping ingredients in stock is among their biggest challenges. To get to D&C Lanches in the Complexo do Alemao shantytown, you have to take a commuter train to a French-made ski lift that glides over a sea of concrete block houses and has become a tourist attraction in its own right. Rio's O Globo newspaper recently reported that the Alemao lift now has more weekend users than the lift that whisks tourists up Sugarloaf Mountain or the little train to Christ the Redeemer.

D&C Lanches is a modest juice stand where the seating is two plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk. Dimas de Lemos and his wife, their three children and assorted nephews and cousins serve acai, the Amazon berry slush that's a vitamin- and calorie-packed breakfast staple in Brazil.

Since soldiers surged through Complexo do Alemao's narrow alleyways in 2010, pushing out the drug gangs, de Lemos' clientele has changed dramatically.

"It used to be we'd only get people from the community here," the 37-year-old said. "Now I'd guess it's about 60 percent locals and 40 percent people from outside, including lots of foreigners."

Americans, Germans, Japanese and Britons are among the tourists who have arrived at D&C in their quest to see a favela like the ones featured in the hit 2002 movie, "City of God." De Lemos' most important foreign visitor so far has been Britain's Prince Harry, who toured the favela during his South American trip last year.

"Foreigners tend to be more open, more curious and harbor fewer prejudices about favelas than Cariocas from the asphalt," said editor Bloch, using the Portuguese term for a Rio resident. "Maybe it's because foreigners weren't exposed to the decades-worth of frightening news about violence in the favelas, they go there with a more open heart."

He said he sometimes hears from Cariocas who are eager to try the traditional shrimp stew known as vatapa at the Barraca das Baianas stand in the Rocinha favela, but "want me to guarantee that nothing will happen to them there.

"Of course I don't think it will, but who can make that sort of guarantee anywhere in the world?" asked Bloch.

Security remains an issue in some pacified slums. Several public schools in Complexo do Alemao were closed in recent days under pressure from a gang upset over the killing of one of their members.

But security seemed to be the last thing on Adriana Peixoto's mind as she and four friends soaked up the beer and sun at a bar in the Chapeu Mangueira favela, near the tony beachfront Leme neighborhood. Motorbikes loaded with teenagers whizzed by, and stray dogs sniffed for crumbs as the group whiled away their Sunday at the Bar do David.

"This is my first time here, and it's great," Peixoto gushed from behind her thick, plastic-framed glasses. "It's as if the favelas, which were always a different world despite being so close to the rest of the city geographically, are finally a part of Rio."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-27-Brazil-Favela%20Foodies/id-3836233552744da8984e3ff87ad9da90

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Alien planets could shed light on Earth's climate future

NASA

Comparing the climates of the terrestrial planets Mars, Earth and Venus is a complex task.

By Leslie Mullen, Astrobiology Magazine, SPACE.com

A Comparative Climatology Symposium held at NASA Headquarters on May 7 focused on new approaches to climate research by highlighting the similarities and contrasts between the environments of the rocky worlds Venus, Earth, Mars and Saturn?s smoggy moon Titan.?

The symposium also included discussions about exoplanets, the sun and past, present and future space missions.

John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for NASA?s Science Mission Directorate, said that the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will be able to make important observations of the atmospheres of exoplanets. [Photos: The James Webb Space Telescope]

He said JWST won?t be able to locate the exoplanets, only study them, but the recently selected TESS mission could act as a? planet scout for JWST targets. It is estimated that TESS will discover around 300 "super-Earth" alien planets, many of them in the habitable zone.

But the number one challenge, Grunsfeld noted, is figuring out the climate of our own planet.

Understanding climate change
Jim Green, NASA?s Planetary Science Division Director, said that one goal is to examine a variety of planetary bodies as a system, to see if there are trends or similarities. He also pointed out that from a planetary scientist?s perspective, climate change on our planet is not a new thing.

"Earth?s climate has done nothing but change," Green said.?

Green said that three Earth-observing satellites will be launched this year, and they will help us better understand how the climate is currently changing and the implications that has for our planet?s environment.

David Grinspoon, holder of the first Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress chair in Astrobiology, talked about Mars? "ferocious and interesting" meteorology, and how Martian global dust storms may help unravel what happened on our planet during the K-T extinction 65 million years ago, when an asteroid hitting the Yucatan Peninsula is thought to have eradicated 75 percent of animals and plants on Earth, including the dinosaurs. [Wipeout: History's Most Mysterious Extinctions]

The 'Venus mafia'
As for Venus, Grinspoon said scientists believe current-day volcanism on Venus is thought to be necessary to sustain the planet?s thick clouds. He added that the active surface has eradicated most ancient rocks, preventing us from easily understanding Venus? early history.

Grinspoon also discussed the unique climate of Titan, noting that the methane cycle on this moon of Saturn is "like Earth's hydrological cycle on steroids."

Studying the climates of Mars, Venus, Titan and even exoplanets could help us refine our climate models of the Earth. However, Grinspoon said that "clouds are the biggest uncertainty in understanding the past of Venus and predicting the future of Earth."

Tying climatology to astrobiology, Grinspoon said that our expectations of the other planets, in the absence of data, were that they'd be much more Earth-like than they actually are. We still haven?t found a planet quite like our own, although astronomers are zeroing in on exoplanets that should have habitable conditions.

But, Grinspoon said, "it may be that conditions for life's origin aren't rare, but the hard part is the persistence of habitable conditions."

Venus was a popular topic during the symposium. Roald Sagdeev, University of Maryland professor and former director of the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, said during an overview of the Russian missions to Venus that "from the point of view of habitability, Venus is like having a dead body to study, which is of course very useful for learning anatomy."

David Crisp, Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, said that sending weather balloons to Venus taught us a lot about atmospheric physics. And Roger Bonnet, Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute, said there was no chance for a big "flagship" mission to Venus, since the viewpoint among many amounts to "Who cares about clouds and wind on Venus, when we have so much of that on Earth? We want to see little green men!"

One participant noted the presence of "the Venus mafia" at the symposium, inferring that the focus on Earth?s "twin planet" had muscled out discussion of other places of interest.?

Habitable exoplanets
But in addition to studies of Venus and other terrestrial worlds, there was a talk about our sun and its influence on space weather, and general discussions about refining climate models, defining habitable zones, and the importance of basic research.

The participants seemed to agree that, most importantly, planetary climate studies needed to be interdisciplinary, with scientists from different fields communicating and collaborating.

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters, also pointed out that we should never become complacent in our scientific understanding. For instance, he said that while climate models have not been able to make early Mars warm enough to sustain liquid water on its surface, the same can be true for models of the young Earth.?

And when it comes to understanding where a planet needs to reside in its solar system to be habitable ? the so-called Goldilocks Zone where the temperature is just right for water to be liquid rather than ice or gas ? he commented that "the approach [to the habitable zone] is very Goldilocks in that it's almost a fairy tale."???

Finally, Meyer noted, just when we thought we understood how planets are made, we discovered hot Jupiters and other unusual exoplanets that "turned all of our planet formation models on their head."?

"And that?s a good thing," he added.

The featured speakers at NASA's Comparative Climatology Symposium, titled "New Approaches to Climate Research," were John Grunsfeld, Jim Green, David Grinspoon, Lori Glaze, Mark Bullock, Roald Sagdeev, Jack Kaye, Lennart Bengtsson, David Crisp, Roger Bonnet, Mark Marley, and Madhulika Guhathakurta.

This story was provided by?Astrobiology Magazine, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Arizona Sheriff Ruled to Unfairly Target Latinos (Voice Of America)

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Motor racing-Fernley says costs threaten some F1 teams

By Alan Baldwin

MONACO, May 25 (Reuters) - Some Formula One teams face a fight for survival next season when engine costs more than double, Force India deputy principal Bob Fernley said on Saturday.

"You shouldn't underestimate the resolve of Formula One teams, they are incredibly resilient and probably will come through," the Briton told Reuters in an interview at the Monaco Grand Prix.

"But to add to the level of costs to the teams at this time in an economic cycle, one has to question whether they can all survive."

Formula One is introducing a new 1.6 litre V6 turbocharged unit with energy recovery systems in 2014 to replace the existing 2.4 litre V8.

Under a now-lapsed Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) between teams, the V8 was priced at around 9 million euros ($11.64 million) a season. The new engine will cost more than 20 million.

In-season testing could also be reintroduced next year and teams also face a hike in entry fees.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said the teams must also shoulder some of the blame: "F1 badly mismanaged the cost of the development and supply of those new power plants," the Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying.

"We allowed the engineers to be unfettered in dreaming up the regulations, which means teams are now facing big bills."

Fernley said champions Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren would get a bigger share of revenues under a deal with Bernie Ecclestone, who represents commercial rights holder CVC, but that was of no help to those further down the pecking order.

"How much money is being put into the sport and how much money is being taken out of the sport?," asked Fernley, whose team is owned by Indian liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya and the Sahara Group.

Both Mallya and Sahara have been regularly in the financial headlines with the former's Kingfisher airline grounded by debts of $2.5 billion.

Unlisted Sahara has been ordered by the Indian supreme court to repay billions of dollars it raised from millions of small investors.

Mallya insists the team is separate from his business empire as a privately-owned entity.

CUSTOMER TEAMS

"CVC have got an agenda as bankers to make as much money out of their investment as they possibly can and that involves minimal investment. And that is not in the sport's interests. It's the worst combination that you can have," Fernley added.

"I only question the logic of it. Are we actually trying to stack it in a way that is to get rid of teams so they can bring customer teams in maybe?"

CVC could not be contacted immediately for comment.

Ecclestone recently revived talk of top teams being able to provide others with cars, something that Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has long been pushing for and others such as Frank Williams are firmly opposed to.

Fernley said Force India were in the Williams camp.

"It's not just Frank. Once you bring in 'customer teams' you've lost the identity of Formula One. And you as a team have lost your identity. So you're now just an appendage," he declared.

"There are four teams that have been given special privilege and those four teams would be the ones that are likely to supply the customer teams. So everything is now moving in the way of the four teams."

The confidential Concorde Agreement that has governed the sport expired at the end of last year and a new one is still being pored over by lawyers with no indication that any signing is imminent.

Ten of the 11 teams - tailenders Marussia being the exception - have signed individual agreements with Ecclestone which will lapse once a new Concorde Agreement is signed.

However, the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) have yet to agree to anything.

"There isn't a governance process in place at this time. The sport isn't being governed in the way that it has historically been," Fernley said.

"The teams still have to comply with the Concorde Agreement under the agreements they have with the commercial rights holder, CVC. But for the FIA there is no Concorde Agreement. So you're working in a vacuum."

($1 = 0.7734 euros) (Editing by John O'Brien)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/motor-racing-fernley-says-costs-threaten-f1-teams-104336948.html

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Saturday, May 25, 2013

Obama's drone rules leave unanswered questions

FILE - In this May 23, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama talks about national security, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. The president left plenty of ambiguity in new policy guidelines that he says will restrict how and when the U.S. can launch targeted drone strikes, leaving himself vast power over how and when the weapons can be deployed. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - In this May 23, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama talks about national security, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. The president left plenty of ambiguity in new policy guidelines that he says will restrict how and when the U.S. can launch targeted drone strikes, leaving himself vast power over how and when the weapons can be deployed. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama left plenty of ambiguity in new policy guidelines that he says will restrict how and when the U.S. can launch targeted drone strikes, leaving himself significant power over how and when the weapons can be deployed.

National security experts say it's imperative to leave some room in the guidelines, given the evolving fight against terrorism. But civil rights advocates argue too little has been revealed about the program to ensure its legality, even as the president takes steps to remove some of the secrecy.

"Obama said that there would be more limits on targeted killings, a step in the right direction," said Kenneth Roth, executive director at Human Rights Watch. "But a mere promise that the US will work within established guidelines that remain secret provides little confidence that the US is complying with international law."

An unclassified version of the newly established drone guidelines was made public Thursday in conjunction with Obama's wide-ranging address on U.S. counterterrorism policies. Congress' Intelligence committees and the Capitol Hill leadership have been briefed on the more detailed, classified policies, but because those documents are secret, there's no way of knowing how much more clarity they provide.

The president has already been using some of the guidelines to determine when to launch drone strikes, administration officials said. Codifying the strictest standards, they argue, will ultimately reduce the number of approved attacks.

Among the newly public rules is a preference for capturing suspects instead of killing them, which gives the U.S. an opportunity to gather intelligence and disrupt terrorist plots. The guidelines also state that a target must pose a continuing and imminent threat to the U.S.

However, the public guidelines don't spell out how the U.S. determines whether capture is feasible, nor does it define what constitutes an imminent threat.

Former State Department official James Andrew Lewis said Obama must retain some flexibility, given the fluid threats facing the U.S.

"The use of force and engagement of force always require a degree of discretion," said Lewis, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We don't want to change that."

The guidelines also mandate that the U.S. have "near certainty" that no civilians will be killed in a strike. Civilian deaths, particularly in Pakistan, have angered local populations and contributed to a rise in anti-American sentiments in the volatile region.

Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyer who has filed many court cases on behalf of drone victims' families, said that while he appreciated Obama's concern about civilian casualties, he wasn't confident the new guidelines would change U.S. actions.

"The problem remains the same because there is no transparency and accountability for the CIA because it will remain inside the system and not be visible to outsiders," he said.

Obama, in his most expansive discussion of the drone program, said in his speech Thursday to the National Defense University that he is haunted by the unintentional deaths. But he argued that targeted strikes result in fewer civilian deaths than indiscriminate bombing campaigns.

"By narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us, and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life," Obama said.

Administration officials said the new guidelines are applicable regardless of whether the target is a foreigner or U.S. citizen.

Polling suggests the American people broadly support the use of drones to target suspected terrorists in foreign countries, though support drops somewhat if the suspect is a U.S. citizen. A Gallup poll in March found 65 percent of Americans favor using drone strikes in other countries against suspected terrorists, while only 41 percent favored the use of drone strikes overseas against U.S. citizens who are suspected terrorists.

Despite the public support, Obama has come under increased pressure from an unusual coalition of members of Congress of both parties who have pressed for greater transparency and oversight of the drone program.

Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said he would review the guidelines to ensure they keep "with our values as a nation," but indicated lawmakers may ask for additional overtures.

"I commend the president for his effort to define the boundaries of U.S. counterterrorism operations and for stating a commitment to increased accountability," Udall said. "While this is helpful and important, more needs to be done."

Relevant congressional committees are already notified when drone strikes occur. But it's unclear how the administration, under Obama's new transparency pledge, will handle public notifications, particularly when Americans are killed.

The public only knew about the deaths of three Americans by drone strikes through media reports and the fourth when Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed it in a letter to Congress on the eve of the speech.

Under current policy, the official U.S. figures of number of strikes and estimated deaths remain classified.

According to the New America Foundation which maintains a database of the strikes, the CIA and the military have carried out an estimated 416 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, resulting in 3,364 estimated deaths, including militants and civilians. The Associated Press also has reported a drone strike in Somalia in 2012 that killed one.

The think tank compiles its numbers by combining reports in major news media that rely on local officials and eyewitness accounts.

Strikes in Pakistan spiked in 2010 under Obama to 122, but the number has dropped to 12 so far this year. Strikes were originally carried out with permission of the Pakistani government of Pervez Musharraf, though subsequent Pakistani governments have demanded strikes cease.

The CIA and the military have carried out some 69 strikes in Yemen, with the Yemeni government's permission.

___

Associated Press writer Sebastian Abbot in Islamabad contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-25-US-Obama-Drone-Policy/id-3d4901857a644324bc728449d3cfcce9

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