Senate’s pragmatic ranks depleted by one with Chambliss’s departure

The trio of Southern gentlemen came to the Senate together in 2003, the leading edge of a renegade Republican class set on shaking up the chamber’s staid ways and aggressively promoting the Bush White House’s conservative agenda.

Ten years later, Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) are now establishment dealmakers and elder statesmen — roles that earn them respect in Washington but could lead to tough challenges from fellow Republicans when they run for re-election next year.

On Friday, Chambliss announced that there would be no re-election for him, opting for retirement over another run that was certain to include a heated primary challenge, possibly from several candidates. Chambliss took pains to say that he would have won and instead cited Washington “gridlock” as his reason for retiring.

Regardless, Chambliss’s departure is another blow to the pragmatic wing of the Senate, with a lineup of potential successors all hailing from the staunchly conservative camp of the Georgia GOP.

Chambliss’s successor is likely to contribute to a rightward movement over the past four years that has made the ranks of Senate Republicans more conservative, but also led to repeated political disappointment. A handful of 2010 and 2012 Republican primaries produced nominees who bungled their way to general election defeat, when victory once appeared certain.

What happens with the other two Southerners could go a long way to determining the ideological makeup of the Senate Republican caucus.

Alexander and Graham are both running, raising money and appearing throughout their states. Alexander, a former two-term governor and U.S. education secretary, has the stronger footing for the moment, having locked up the endorsements of his state’s GOP congressional delegation and every prominent Republican state official. Graham has no prominent challenger yet, but Palmetto State Republicans are sizing up the race trying to decide if he’s ripe for a challenge.

That Alexander, Chambliss and Graham have found themselves in this situation, a decade after debuting as rabble rousers who helped return the chamber to GOP control, is the latest demonstration of how much the Republican Party has changed. Its voters more than ever demand a confrontational tone and in-your-face tactics, the sort of behavior that they have shied away from.

“The big change is in terms of strategy and tactics,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, noting that the three incumbents are all fairly conservative in their policy positions. “The war has changed. Republican voters want every fight to be hand-to-hand combat. They don’t want to give any ground.”

Alexander rejected the idea that the trio had “gone Washington” as they each became more powerful. “I know my way around here. We’re each finding our niche, and that’s pretty normal after 10 years,” he said in a recent interview.

Before his Friday announcement, Chambliss had been viewed as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent to a challenge from within. His apostasies to the new Republican posture were numerous in recent years, most prominently being his close partnership with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in an effort to craft a bipartisan package of tax hikes and entitlement cuts to rein in the federal government’s $16.4 trillion debt.

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Germany has 'everlasting responsibility' for Nazi crimes: Merkel

 

BERLIN: Germany has "an everlasting responsibility" for the crimes committed by the Nazis, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday, just days ahead of the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's takeover of power.

"Naturally, we have an everlasting responsibility for the crimes of national-socialism, for the victims of World War II, and above all, for the Holocaust," Merkel said in a podcast on her website.

Her remarks came as the world prepares to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, the date in 1945 when the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in then occupied Poland.

In another significant date, Wednesday will mark eight decades since Hitler was appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933 by then president Paul von Hindenburg.

"We must clearly say, generation after generation, and say it again: with courage, civil courage, each individual can help ensure that racism and anti-Semitism have no chance," Merkel added.

"We're facing our history, we're not hiding anything, we're not repressing anything. We must confront this to make sure we are a good and trustworthy partner in the future, as we already are today, thankfully," she said.

- AFP/jc

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Rs 8 lakh crore funds? Disabled welfare may get a leg-up

NEW DELHI: Rs 8 lakh crore for disabled welfare? The ministry of social justice and empowerment has asked government departments to earmark 3% of their budget on disabled-related interventions, raising the possibility of the huge sum over next five years that can bring the ignored social group to policy focus.

The initiative flows from the 12th Plan document that has asked all government arms to earmark "reasonable amount" in their plan outlay for the disabled.

The social ministry has extended the logic of Persons with Disabilities Act mandating 3% reservation for disabled in poverty alleviation schemes to argue the same quantum of a ministry's budget be set aside for the disabled.

According to the ministry, the outlay of Rs 26,64,941 crore across 26 ministries would yield Rs 79,94,82 crore.

Social Justice minister Selja has written to all ministries, urging them to make budgetary allocations for disabled benefit over five years. "Please issue instructions to all concerned in your ministry," she wrote to her cabinet colleagues.

If the advice is accepted, the budgetary allocation would mark a leg-up for the disabled who are beginning to organize themselves for government attention.

However, the hurdle in this direction is the indifference among government arms in making special outlays for social groups. A similar focus on dalits and tribals has failed to fructify despite starting in 1970s. The SC Sub-Plan and the Tribal Sub-Plan are still in their infancy despite the passage of long period.

SCSP and TSP mandate every government body to allocate funds exclusively for SCs and STs in proportion of their population. The social justice ministry has repeatedly protested at the failure of government bodies in implementing the two sub-plans.

Minister Selja recently wrote to the PM and the planning commission, criticising the decision to include under sub-plans the "estimated consumption" of SCs/STs under ministries exempted from allocating funds under them.

The exemption is given to these ministries because it is not possible to identify beneficiary groups of "public services" like roads. The "estimated consumption" method was devised to bridge the shortfall in the target of SCSP and TSP.

Sources said the attempt to get 3% budget for disabled was only a beginning and it would be an uphill task to get the ministries to implement it.

The 3% reservation for disabled, mandated by Persons with Disabilities Act, has still not taken off after over 15 years.

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Pictures: The Story Behind Sun Dogs, Penitent Ice, and More

Photograph by Art Wolfe, Getty Images

If you want the beauty of winter without having to brave the bone-chilling temperatures blasting much of the United States this week, snuggle into a soft blanket, grab a warm beverage, and curl up with some of these natural frozen wonders.

Nieve penitente, or penitent snow, are collections of spires that resemble robed monks—or penitents. They are flattened columns of snow wider at the base than at the tip and can range in height from 3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 meters). The picture above shows the phenomenon in central Chile. (See pictures of the patterns in snow and ice.)

Nieve penitente tend to form in shallow valleys where the snow is deep and the sun doesn't shine at too steep an angle, said Kenneth Libbrecht, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena who studies ice crystal formation.

As the snow melts, dirt gets mixed in with the runoff and collects in little pools here and there, he said. Since the dirt is darker in color than the surrounding snow, the dirty areas melt faster "and you end up digging these pits," explained Libbrecht.

"They tend to form at high altitude," he said. But other than that, no one really knows the exact conditions that are needed to form penitent snow.

"They're fairly strong," Libbrecht said. "People have found [the spires] difficult to hike through."

—Jane J. Lee

Published January 25, 2013

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Newtown Families March for Gun Control in DC

Jan 26, 2013 4:59pm

(YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Near-freezing temperatures didn’t stop several thousand gun-control activists from bearing their pickets today, carrying signs emblazoned with “Ban Assault Weapons Now” and the names of gun violence victims in a demonstration organized as a response to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. last month.

Walking in silence, the demonstrators trudged between Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument over a thin layer of melting snow. They were joined by politicians and some families of the Newtown victims.

March organizer Shannon Watts said the event was for the “families who lost the lights of their lives in Newtown, daughters and sons, wives and mothers, grandchildren, sisters and brothers gone in an unfathomable instant.”

“Let’s stand together and use our voices, use our votes to let legislators know that we won’t stand down until they enact common sense gun control laws that will keep our children out of the line of fire,” she told demonstrators.

Watts founded One Million Moms for Gun Control after the killing of 20 first graders and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in December. In a profile with the New York Times, Watts said her 12-year-old son had suffered panic attacks after learning of last summer’s Aurora, Colo., theater shooting, leaving her at an impasse over how to talk to him about the latest tragedy.

Also among the speakers was a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, Collin Goddard.

“We need to challenge any politician who thinks it’s easier to ask an elementary school teacher to stand up to a gunman with an AR-15 than it is to ask them to stand up to a gun lobbyist with a checkbook,” he said.

The demonstration comes amid a push by progressive lawmakers to enact stricter gun control measures as a response to the trend of recent mass killings, although any hypothetical bill would likely face strong opposition in Congress.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., was among the demonstrators today.

“The idea that people need high-capacity magazines that can fire 30, 50, 100 rounds has no place in a civilized society,” he said. “Between the time we’re gathered here right now and this time of day tomorrow, across America, 282 Americans will have been shot.”

The congressman was quoting statistics compiled by the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence.

INFOGRAPHIC: Guns by the Numbers

Last week President Obama proposed a sweeping overhaul of federal measures regulating gun ownership, including a universal background check system for sales, banning assault weapons,  and curbing the amount of ammunition available in weapon clips.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Thursday found 53 percent of Americans viewed Obama’s gun control plan favorably, 41 percent unfavorably. The division was visible today, as a handful of gun-rights advocates also turned out on the National Mall to protest what they believe would be infringements on their Second Amendment liberties.

ABC’s Joanne Fuchs contributed to this report.

SHOWS: Good Morning America World News

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Procter & Gamble raises outlook on soaring profit

NEW YORK: Procter & Gamble reported Friday profit more than doubled in the fiscal second quarter from a year ago, beating market expectations, and raised its forecasts for the year.

The US consumer goods giant said profit jumped 140 per cent due to strong productivity gains and the effects of cost-saving efforts.

Net income rose to US$4.1 billion, or US$1.39 per share, compared with the year-ago figure of US$1.7 billion, or 57 cents per share, the company said.

The results were well above analyst expectations.

Core earnings per share, which strips out special items and other items not related to sustainable earnings, were US$1.22, sharply more than the US$1.11 estimated.

Revenues came in at US$22.18 billion, above the US$21.91 billion forecast by analysts.

Shares in the Dow member were up 3.5 per cent at US$72.87 in late-afternoon trade in New York.

"Global market share trends improved as we continued to implement our growth strategy and made very good progress against our productivity and cost-savings goals," said chief executive Bob McDonald.

"Our strong first-half results have enabled us to raise our sales, earnings and share repurchase outlook for the fiscal year."

Procter & Gamble, which manufactures Pampers diapers, Head and Shoulders shampoo and other household products, said its growth was broad-based and that all five of its business segments grew organic sales by at least two per cent.

The biggest growth came in the company's baby care and family care segment with 5 per cent.

Procter & Gamble raised its full-year 2013 core earnings guidance to US$3.97-US$4.07 from the previous range of US$3.80-US$4.00.

In a conference call with analysts, P&G executives said the company had completed most of a previously announced downsizing to trim costs. In February, the company announced it was cutting 5,700 non-manufacturing posts. McDonald said that 5,500 of the job cuts had already been implemented.

At the end of October, the Cincinatti, Ohio-based company had a total of 126,000 employees. The group did not give figures for the end of December.

Procter & Gamble also raised its forecast of 2013 share repurchases to a range of US$5-6 billion, up from the previous range of US$4-6 billion.

- AFP/jc

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Sex addiction is on the rise in India

BANGALORE: Nirmal, 38, is a smooth-talking executive in a Delhi-based software firm. He is married, has two kids and leads a normal life. Except that by now he's had sex with 922 partners, both male and female.

"It started when I was in Class IX," he says. "I found myself suddenly hooked to porn. Then, one day, my friends arranged a girl for me. That was it. By the time I was 35, I had chatted with some 6,500 women. I would leave my number online and then hook up. But it was when I graduated to men that I started feeling mentally tortured. I wanted to stop."

Just that Nirmal, like the growing hordes of sex addicts in a country free, mobile and connected like never before, had nowhere to go for his de-addiction. Sex addiction, which can ruin families and lives, is on the rise in India with bureaucrats, politicians, film stars, doctors and students all falling prey to it. But there are very few clinics in the country that recognize this condition, treated as it is as the hush-hush disease.

Apart from the anxiety of the patients, in a country like India with little security for women (Delhi recorded a 24% rise in rape cases in 2012), it can also be downright dangerous. It's easy for these addicts to turn into sexual predators.

Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard, recently told TOI: "Ordinarily, men woo and seduce women. But in unregulated settings, and when men are desperate, it can lead to harassment and rape." Sex Addicts Anonymous, a book published in the US in 2005, has first-person accounts by sex addicts who committed rape.

Experts are unanimous in that the time has come to accept that the affliction - also called paraphilia, meaning 'beyond love' - exists in substantial numbers in India and deal with it. "Sex addiction cases I get have doubled in the last decade," says Dr Rajan Bhonsle, head of the department of sexual medicine at Seth G S Medical College, Mumbai. "I have 25-30 cases every month and they come from all parts of India." Sexologist Dr Prakash Kothari says he used to get 1-3 patients a month at KEM Hospital earlier. "Now it's 10-12."

That might be minuscule compared to the US where, according to The Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health, 3-5% of the sexually active population has this problem. "But in India, there is a cloak of hypocrisy," says Bhonsle. "The actual cases would be much more." Even conservative Iran has 1,572 members in Sexaholics Anonymous. India? Just 2. This may change, however, with Sex Addicts Anonymous deciding to start its first India meeting in Delhi on January 28.

Bangalore-based Rajiv, 55, who was hooked to pornography from the age of 11, would perhaps be in attendance. "I would collect 20kg of porno magazines and CDs over a mere six months, dispose them off and buy more," says the engineer. "I had no relations with my wife. For four years, I used escort services and spent Rs 10 lakh on them. I recovered in a rehab abroad. But not all of us can go to foreign countries for treatment. We need such places here. We also need to bring it out of the closet."

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Pictures: The Story Behind Sun Dogs, Penitent Ice, and More

Photograph by Art Wolfe, Getty Images

If you want the beauty of winter without having to brave the bone-chilling temperatures blasting much of the United States this week, snuggle into a soft blanket, grab a warm beverage, and curl up with some of these natural frozen wonders.

Nieve penitente, or penitent snow, are collections of spires that resemble robed monks—or penitents. They are flattened columns of snow wider at the base than at the tip and can range in height from 3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 meters). The picture above shows the phenomenon in central Chile. (See pictures of the patterns in snow and ice.)

Nieve penitente tend to form in shallow valleys where the snow is deep and the sun doesn't shine at too steep an angle, said Kenneth Libbrecht, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena who studies ice crystal formation.

As the snow melts, dirt gets mixed in with the runoff and collects in little pools here and there, he said. Since the dirt is darker in color than the surrounding snow, the dirty areas melt faster "and you end up digging these pits," explained Libbrecht.

"They tend to form at high altitude," he said. But other than that, no one really knows the exact conditions that are needed to form penitent snow.

"They're fairly strong," Libbrecht said. "People have found [the spires] difficult to hike through."

—Jane J. Lee

Published January 25, 2013

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Apple Drops Manufacturer Using Underage Workers

Apple has stopped doing business with a Chinese manufacturer after a report said it had employed 74 underage workers. According to Apple's Supplier Responsibility Report, which was released by the company Thursday, Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics was employing workers under the age of 16.

"Our auditors were dismayed to discover 74 cases of workers under age 16 — a core violation of our Code of Conduct. As a result, we terminated our business relationship with PZ," the company says in the report.

Apple has now lost its spot as the most valuable publicly traded company, one year after it first firmly overtook ExxonMobil. Even though it announced a record number of iPhone and iPad sales in its last quarter earnings, its stock price has fallen over 12 percent.

Apple says it is working hard to improve labor conditions at the factories of its Chinese contractors. It said it also discovered that one of the region's labor agencies had conspired with the manufacturer, providing children to them and helping forge age-verification documents. Apple said in its report that it alerted the provincial government, which fined the agency and suspended its business license.

Apple To Start Making Some Mac Computers in America in 2013

"The children were returned to their families, and PZ was required to pay expenses to facilitate their successful return," Apple says in the report.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Apple's Senior Vice President of Operations, Jeff Williams, said child labor was being used more than companies care to admit. "Most companies, they either don't report on it at all, or they say they look for it and found none, or they obscure the data in some way," Williams told Bloomberg. "If they're not finding it, they're not looking hard enough."

ABC News' Bill Weir visited the factory of Apple's Foxconn supplier last year and did not see any underage workers. "But while we looked hard for the kind of underage and maimed workers we've read so much about, we mostly found people who face their days through soul-crushing boredom and deep fatigue," Weir wrote about his visit.

PHOTOS: Inside Apple's Factories in China

In the 37-page Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, which can be viewed here, Apple said there had been a 72 percent increase in facility audits. According to the report, Apple achieved an average of 92 percent compliance with the goal, for now, of a maximum 60-hour work week.

Apple vowed last year to improve working conditions at its manufacturing facilities in China, vowing to work specifically on reducing working hours for Chinese workers. In March 2012, the Fair Labor Association released a report on the poor conditions at Apple's Foxconn supplier. The organization gave a long list of recommendations to Apple and Foxconn, and both Apple and Foxconn agreed to follow them.

In August, the FLA said that that Foxconn had completed 280 action items on time or ahead of schedule. By July 1, 2013, Foxconn has promised to reduce workers' hours to 49 hours per week and stabilize pay -- though the limit is rarely enforced because workers often want to work overtime and make ends meet.

Apple announced in December that it would begin to make some of its Mac computers in America in 2013.

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OPM plans to shake up charity program raise concerns about reduced donations

The Office of Personnel Management wants to shake up the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the charitable-giving system for federal employees, but in the process the agency could risk losing donors and reducing contributions.

One rule under review by the Obama administration would “eliminate the use of cash, check and money order contributions. Instead, all donations will be required to be made through electronic means.”

This could “streamline the operations,” as proposed rules from OPM suggest, but whether it also would “increase the effectiveness of the program to ensure its continued growth and success” is questionable.

The reason: In 2011, the last year for which OPM data are available, just 22 percent of the money pledged was donated electronically. Moreover, 88.4 percent of the donors did not make electronic contributions.

So, a move to electronic-only donations would seem to put CFC at risk of losing a majority of its donors. The proposal worries executives of some charitable organizations, even as they welcome other sections of the plan.

Federal employees contribute through the CFC to various charities. Donations exceeded $272 million in 2011. That’s a lot of money, but it represents a drop of almost $10 million from 2009, the high point.

An OPM spokeswoman said the agency does not comment on rules under review. In the 53-page document that contains the proposed regulations, however, OPM Director John Berry wrote:

“These proposed changes will introduce efficiencies and cost savings into the CFC by leveraging technology that was not widely available just a few years ago. They will make the CFC more efficient, more transparent, more accountable and more relevant to Federal, Postal and military service personnel who want to make the biggest impact with their donations.”

Scott Jackson, chief executive of Global Impact, said electronic giving can save $14 a pledge, by reducing processing costs.

“That’s very, very powerful,” he added. How the change to electronic-only contributions might effect donations presents “important issues to work through,” he said. Global Impact administers the overseas campaign of the CFC.

Those issues leave Stephen M. Delfin “highly concerned.” He is president and chief executive of America’s Charities, a group that works with CFC organizations. Delfin said he is worried that the rules, previously reported by the Federal Times, could result in lower donations.

“You have to be careful,” he said. “Technology is not a panacea.”

Marshall Strauss, chief executive of the Workplace Giving Alliance, a consortium of CFC federations, agreed. Although he thinks “electronic donations are an excellent addition to the campaign,” he said he worries that relying solely on that “may dramatically reduce the number of people giving and the overall receipts of the campaign. Many thousands of people prefer to give by check or even cash, and we would hope the government would preserve these options.”

In addition to electronic-only giving, Delfin and others have concerns about a proposal to eliminate 184 local CFC committees in favor of fewer and larger regional panels.

This would require “a reduced number of Federal personnel for oversight purposes,” according to the plan.

But it also would diminish the sense of community that charitable leaders say is crucial in motivating individuals to give.

Dumping the local committees will shrink the “person-to-person feeling of the campaign, which is very, very important,” said Kalman Stein, president and CEO of EarthShare, which was recently selected to administer the Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area.

Stein said that he doesn’t think OPM understands “how critical that local component is” and that he is “very concerned the campaign will decline precipitously” if the Local Federal Coordinating Committees are eliminated.

“Our history shows that more consolidation leads to less donations,” said Stein, who, along with Strauss, was a member of the CFC-50 Commission. The commission, formed in 2011 to mark CFC’s 50th anniversary, issued a report last year. A number of its recommendations were incorporated into OPM’s proposals.

But Stein said consolidating the local committees into regional ones would go “way beyond the commission’s recommendations.”

The commission said its 24 recommendations were designed to further encourage a “history of giving” by federal employees, who have “set the standard for workplace giving to charitable organizations.”

But the recent decrease in donations “is a cause for concern,” the report said.

Now there is concern that parts of the OPM plan could make the situation worse.

Previous columns by Joe Davidson are available at wapo.st/JoeDavidson.

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Israel talks of military option as Kissinger warns over Iran

DAVOS: Israeli officials said Thursday that military action against Iran needed to stay on the table, as former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned of a crisis over Tehran's nuclear ambitions in the "very foreseeable future".

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the threat of military action was vital to efforts against Iran's nuclear programme.

"There will be more attempts to try and negotiate, but there will always be in the horizon a military option, because if the Iranians think it's only economic and political, they won't pay attention," Peres told global political and business leaders at the annual gathering in the Swiss ski resort.

Israel and Western powers accuse Iran of seeking to acquire a weapons capability under the guise of its nuclear energy programme but Iran denies the charge, saying its work is for peaceful purposes only.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who emerged from an election Tuesday with a new term as Israel's leader, has frequently warned about the danger of Iran's nuclear programme.

Israel has refused to rule out a military strike to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms.

Barak, who has announced plans to retire after Netanyahu forms a new government, told the forum that stronger sanctions were needed against Iran.

"There is a need for much more drastic sanctions, a kind of quarantine of all imports and exports," Barak said, though he admitted that China and Russia were unlikely to agree.

He said he understood Washington's desire to have "all alternatives" exhausted before military action over Iran, but that there was also a need to be ready to carry out targeted attacks.

"If worst comes to worst, there should be a readiness and capability to launch a surgical operation that will delay them by a significant timeframe and probably convince them... the world is determined to block them," Barak said.

In a wide-ranging talk on foreign affairs, Kissinger said he expected the Iranian nuclear issue to soon come to a head.

"For 15 years, the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have declared that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, but it has been approaching," he said.

"People who have advanced their view will have to come to a determination about how to react or about the consequences of non-reaction," he said.

"I believe this point will be reached within a very foreseeable future."

Kissinger said negotiations with Iran needed to be given "a real chance" and that "unilateral action by Israel would be a desperate last resort."

He said he expected "Iran to be high on the agenda" of US President Barack Obama's new administration, and said failure to deal with the question could lead to a spread of nuclear weapons in the region.

"That would be a turning point in human history," Kissinger warned.

Israel has been pressing Obama to set a red line for Iran on the nuclear issue, after Netanyahu warned at the UN General Assembly in September that Tehran could have the necessary material for a first bomb by the summer of 2013.

The new US secretary of state nominee, Senator John Kerry, told a confirmation hearing on Thursday that "the clock is ticking", and that Washington will not be satisfied with just containing Iran.

- AFP/jc

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BJP outwits KJP to stay afloat, for now

BANGALORE: The BJP's counter strike seems to have outwitted the B S Yeddyurappa-led Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) and put them on the defensive, at least for now.

By delaying the resignation of 13 rebel BJP MLAs loyal to Yeddyurappa, chief minister Jagadish Shettar has all but outsmarted Yeddyurappa who has been gunning for him. The BJP has not only taken the steam out of the rebels' campaign for the removal of the Shettar government, but also left KJP leaders embarrassed at the tame end likely to their resignation drama.

Rebel ministers Shobha Karandlaje and C M Udasi, who quit the Shettar ministry on Wednesday, appeared anxious the day after as the chief minister hasn't yet accepted their resignations. It's a deliberate plan by the BJP not to accept the resignations as the two ministers are likely to face the threat of being disqualified in case they defy the party whip to attend the budget session which starts on February 4.

This is also true in the case of 11 other MLAs, who are still searching for the elusive Speaker to formally submit their resignations.

Yeddyurappa mellowed down on Thursday when he realized his loyalists were running scared. "I had no intention to pull down the government. Our contention is that Shettar should not conduct any constitutional activities, including presentation of the budget. The BJP government doesn't have the moral right to continue as it had lost the majority following the resignation of two ministers and 11 other MLAs. Shettar should step down immediately to save the assembly's honour," Yeddyurappa said, trying to make amends for his earlier stand.

But he said more BJP MLAs are likely to resign and join his party. "Another BJP MLA Sunil Vallyapure will soon resign his assembly membership and join us. There are many more but I can't say how many," he added. Experts say if Yeddyurappa wants to pull down the government, he can easily do so by asking the rebel BJP MLAs to petition the governor withdrawing their support. But he can't afford to do so as he knows it can backfire as it involves the sentiments of the influential Lingayat community to which he and Shettar belong.

Playing the emotional card, Shettar on warned of a backlash, particularly in North Karnataka, if his government was toppled. "If there's an attempt to bring down a government which is giving good administration, people will not pardon us," he said in his hometown Hubli.

Governor HR Bhardwaj wrote to the assembly secretariat seeking details of the Speaker's whereabouts following a representation from rebel MLAs on Wednesday. The governor also sought tour programme details of assembly secretariat officials.

After their frantic search for the Speaker failed, rebel legislators now plan to petition the high court to seek the Speaker's presence in Bangalore. "We'll wait for two more days. If the Speaker doesn't return to Bangalore, we plan to file a habeas corpus petition in the high court," MLA Nehru Olekar said.

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

The researchers observed the group in the ocean surrounding the Azores (map)—about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal—for eight days as the dolphin traveled, foraged, and played with both the adult whales and their calves. When the dolphin rubbed its body against the whales, they would sometimes return the gesture.

Among terrestrial animals, cross-species interactions are not uncommon. These mostly temporary alliances are forged for foraging benefits and protection against predators, said Wilson.

They could also be satisfying a desire for the company of other animals, added marine biologist John Francis, vice president for research, conservation, and exploration at the National Geographic Society (the Society owns National Geographic News).

Photographs of dogs nursing tiger cubs, stories of a signing gorilla adopting a pet cat, and videos of a leopard caring for a baby baboon have long circulated the Web and caught national attention.

A Rare Alliance

And although dolphins are known for being sociable animals, Wilson called the alliance between sperm whale and bottlenose dolphin rare, as it has never, to his knowledge, been witnessed before.

This association may have started with something called bow riding, a common behavior among dolphins during which they ride the pressure waves generated by the bow of a ship or, in this case, whales, suggested Francis.

"Hanging around slower creatures to catch a ride might have been the first advantage [of such behavior]," he said, adding that this may have also started out as simply a playful encounter.

Wilson suggested that the dolphin's peculiar spinal shape made it more likely to initiate an interaction with the large and slow-moving whales. "Perhaps it could not keep up with or was picked on by other members of its dolphin group," he said in an email.

Default

But the "million-dollar question," as Wilson puts it, is why the whales accepted the lone dolphin. Among several theories presented in an upcoming paper in Aquatic Mammals describing the scientists' observations, they propose that the dolphin may have been regarded as nonthreatening and that it was accepted by default because of the way adult sperm whales "babysit" their calves.

Sperm whales alternate their dives between group members, always leaving one adult near the surface to watch the juveniles. "What is likely is that the presence of the calves—which cannot dive very deep or for very long—allowed the dolphin to maintain contact with the group," Wilson said.

Wilson doesn't believe the dolphin approached the sperm whales for help in protecting itself from predators, since there aren't many dolphin predators in the waters surrounding the Azores.

But Francis was not so quick to discount the idea. "I don't buy that there is no predator in the lifelong experience of the whales and dolphins frequenting the Azores," he said.

He suggested that it could be just as possible that the sperm whales accepted the dolphin for added protection against their own predators, like the killer whale (Orcinus orca), while traveling. "They see killer whales off the Azores, and while they may not be around regularly, it does not take a lot of encounters to make [other] whales defensive," he said.

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Will Women Register for Selective Service?

Jan 24, 2013 5:53pm

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today lifted the ban on women serving in combat positions, opening the door to more than 200,000  new military posts and raising a number of important questions, including: Will women eventually be eligible for the draft?

By law, all male U.S. citizens and permanent residents must register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Registration puts those “male persons” on the list the government uses if ever the draft returns and conscription in the military is deemed necessary in a time of war.

As of a 1994 review, women were still exempt from registering because they did not serve in combat positions. Today’s change in Pentagon policy, however, could ultimately result in a change to the law.

But it will take more than just the stroke of the defense secretary’s pen for the Selective Service Act to include mention of women.

With any change to personnel policies, the Defense Department  is “required to provide an analysis of its impact on the Selective Service Act,” said a senior Pentagon official said on the condition of anonymity.  “So that will be part of the notification to Congress.”

But what comes next is  unclear.

“With regard to what will happen from there, I can’t say,” said the official.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta later admitted to reporters that he, too, did not know the potential impact of the change to the Selective Service Act.

“That’s not our operation,” said Panetta.

Known for his use of colorful language, Panetta then said, “I don’t know who the hell controls Selective Service, if you want to know the truth.”

“But, you know,” Panetta added. “Whoever does, they’re going to have to exercise some judgment based on what we just did.”

The Selective Service System is a federal agency independent of the Department of Defense.

SHOWS: World News

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'Avatar' director Cameron accused over screenplay

LOS ANGELES: A US judge ordered director James Cameron to hand over drafts of the screenplay for "Avatar" Wednesday, to lawyers for a man claiming he wrote the script on which the 3D blockbuster was based.

Eric Ryder is seeking compensation from Cameron and his production company Lightstorm Entertainment, claiming that the 2009 Oscar-nominated film is based on a story he wrote called "K.R.Z. 2068."

He filed a lawsuit in December 2011, saying he spent two years developing the story. On Wednesday Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alan Rosenfield ordered Cameron's lawyers to turn over screenplay drafts.

"We have to be careful and sensitive about ideas and information," said the judge.

But he denied a request by Ryder's lawyers to grant access to the personal calendars of Cameron and Jon Landau, the chief operating officer of Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment Inc.

Ryder's lawyer K. Andrew Kent said his legal team will also get access to backup tapes from computers used by Cameron.

"Avatar," about a paraplegic US marine with split loyalties after being sent to a distant world wanted for its mining potential, was seen as a breakthrough in the use of 3D technology, and has grossed more than US$2.7 billion worldwide.

- AFP/jc

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Tripura rebel leader held in Bangladesh, handed over to India

AGARTALA: All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) chief Ranjit Debbarma has been arrested in Bangladesh and "pushed back" to India through the Meghalaya border. The rebel leader was produced before a court in Agartala on Wednesday and was remanded in police custody.

Intelligence sources said Ranjit was arrested by Bangladesh officials in Dhaka on December 22. He was "pushed back" to India along the border with Meghalaya late on Tuesday night.

BSF officials took Ranjit into custody at the border and handed him over to Meghalaya police. Tripura police officers brought him to Agartala on Wednesday morning. Intelligence sources said Tripura police had learnt about Ranjit's arrest in the first week of January.

The sources said Biswamohan Debbarma, another top rebel leader who heads National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), has also been arrested near Dhaka, but it could not be officially confirmed. The ATTF and NLFT are two major militant outfits operating in Tripura.

The sources said Ranjit was staying in Dhaka since last 20 years and was arrested when the Rapid Action Battalion had raided his house based on specific information. His arrest comes months after BSF submitted a list of militant hideouts in Bangladesh to Border Guards, Bangladesh (BGB), in Dhaka.

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10 Ways Obama Could Fight Climate Change

One of the biggest surprises of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Monday was how much he focused on fighting climate change, spending more time on that issue than any other.

"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," Obama said.

The President pointed out that recent severe weather supplied an urgent impetus for energy innovation and staked the nation's economic future on responding to a changing climate.

"We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries—we must claim its promise," Obama said. "That's how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure—our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God."

So what could the President reasonably do to deliver on that vow? National Geographic asked experts in climate research, energy innovation, and oceanography. Here are ten of their suggestions:

1. Sunset coal with new incentives and regulations. "Provide incentives to phase out the oldest, most polluting power plants," said Robert Jackson, a climate scientist at Duke University. It's already happening, to some degree, as more of the nation transitions to natural gas. Earth scientist Bill Chameides, dean of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and a former chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, urges the administration to use its Clean Air Act authority to promulgate carbon regulations for existing power plants like it has for new ones: "Doing that will force fuel switching from coal to natural gas." (Related: "6 Ways Climate Change Will Affect You.")

2. Invest federal stimulus money in nuclear power. It's hardly a perfect fuel, as accidents like Japan's Fukushima fallout have shown, but with safety precautions new nuclear plants can meaningfully offset dirtier types of energy, supporters say. "Nuclear is the only short- to medium-term way to really get away from fossil fuels," said Peter Raven, president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden. He said the damage done by relentless global warming will far exceed the damage done by faults in the nuclear system.

3. Kill the Keystone pipeline. The controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline is up for review again by the White House this year. "The first thing he should do to set the tone to a lower carbon economy is to reject the Keystone pipeline," said Raymond Pierrehumbert, a geophysical scientist at the University of Chicago. The pipeline was never going to be a major driver of global emissions, but Pierrehumbert and some other environmentalists say that by killing it the President would send a clear message about America's intent to ramp down fossil fuels. (See pictures of the animals that helped kill the Keystone pipeline.)

4. Protect the oceans by executive order. Land use is complicated, but large swaths of oceans can be protected by executive fiat. Just as President George W. Bush designated the world's largest marine monument northwest of Hawaii in 2006, Obama could single-handedly protect other areas. National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle said the President should focus on parts of the Arctic that are under U.S. control, putting them off limits to energy production, commercial fishing, and mineral exploration. Marine sanctuaries won't stop climate change, but they can give marine species a better chance of adapting to it by reducing the other man-made threats the animals face. (Read about the many benefits of marine reserves.)

5. Experiment with capturing carbon. Huge untapped reserves of natural gas and oil make it unlikely that the U.S. will transition away from fossil fuels in the immediate future. Instead, said Wallace Broecker, geology professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, we should attack the atmosphere's carbon surplus directly. "[Obama] could make available funds to build and test prototype air capture units" to capture and store CO2, said Broecker. Removing some carbon from the atmosphere could buy valuable time as policy makers and scientists explore more permanent solutions.

6. Grow government research for new energy sources. The Department of Energy has a nimble program that's tasked with innovative energy research—the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The ARPA-E funds research in biofuels, transmission, and battery storage, with an annual budget of $275 million. Last year, DOE officials requested at least $75 million more. Increasing funding for ARPA-E, said Rafe Pomerance, former deputy assistant secretary of state for environment and development and currently an environmental consultant, "you get new technologies that undercut coal, oil, and gas." Plus, he said, you get a competitive advantage if American researchers uncover the next big idea in new energy.

7. Tax carbon. Congress would have to agree, but many climate experts say that the most meaningful way to tackle emissions is to set a price on carbon. "We should be asking people to pay the cost of putting carbon into the atmosphere as they buy the fuel," said Josh Willis, climate scientist and oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To gain political support for the idea, Obama would probably have to show that the tax would help accelerate technology, grow new industries, and pay down the deficit.

8. Dial back the federal government's energy use. With more than 1.8 million employees, $500 billion in annual purchasing power, and 500,000 buildings to operate, the federal government has been a leader in reducing energy use since Obama signed a 2009 executive order to cut waste. "I would urge him to keep using the power of government to promote energy conservation," said Syndonia Bret-Harte, an Arctic biologist who studies climate change at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

9. Build a scientific clearinghouse for climate information. "I advocate for building a better information system on what is happening and why," said Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. That involves compiling observations related to climate change from around the world and using the data to refine climate modeling. Think of it as a one-stop, user-friendly website that clearly demonstrates how weather data from around the globe are influenced by broader shifts in the planet's climate.

10. Keep talking. Despite a consensus among top scientists, the world still needs some convincing on climate change. A CNN poll last week found that just 49 percent of Americans agree that global warming is real and is due to human activities. "The most important thing the President can do is to build on his inaugural comments to heighten the sense of urgency about rapid climate destabilization and clarify its connection to virtually every other issue on the national agenda," said David Orr, environmental studies professor at Oberlin College. That means using the bully pulpit to show how a more volatile climate affects everything from agriculture to transportation to 21st-century warfare.

Christine Dell'Amore, Rob Kunzig, and Jane J. Lee contributed reporting.

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Pentagon to Allow Women in Combat

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift a longstanding ban on women serving in combat, according to senior defense officials.

The services have until this May to come up with a plan to implement the change, according to a Defense Department official.

That means the changes could come into effect as early as May. The services will have until January 2016 to complete the implementation of the changes.

The military services will also have until Janurary 2016 to seek waivers for certain jobs -- but those waivers will require a personal approval from the secretary of defense and will have to be based on rationales other than the direct combat exclusion rule.

The move to allow women in combat, first reported by the Associated Press, was not expected this week, although there has been a concerted effort by the Obama administration to further open up the armed forces to women.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously recommended in January to Secretary Panetta that the direct combat exclusion rule should be lifted.

"I can confirm media reports that the secretary and the chairman are expected to announce the lifting of the direct combat exclusion rule for women in the military," said a senior Defense Department official. "This policy change will initiate a process whereby the services will develop plans to implement this decision, which was made by the secretary of defense upon the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey sent Panetta a memo earlier this month entitled, "Women in Service Implementation Plan."

"The time has come to rescind the direct combat exclusion rule for women and to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service," the memo read.

Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images

"To implement these initiatives successfully and without sacrificing our warfighting capability or the trust of the American people, we will need time to get it right," he said in the memo, referring to the 2016 horizon.

Women have been officially prohibited from serving in combat since a 1994 rule that barred them from serving in ground combat units. That does not mean they have been immune from danger or from combat.

As Martha Raddatz reported in 2009, women have served in support positions on and off the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan, where war is waged on street corners and in markets, putting them at equal risk. Hundreds of thousands of women deployed with the military to those two war zones over the past decade. Hundreds have died.

READ MORE: Female Warriors Engage in Combat in Iraq, Afghanistan

Woman have been able to fly combat sorties since 1993. In 2010, the Navy allowed them on submarines. But lifting restrictions on service in frontline ground combat units will break a key barrier in the military.

READ MORE: Smooth Sailing for First Women to Serve on Navy Submarines

READ MORE: Female Fighter Pilot Breaks Gender Barriers

Panetta's decision will set a January 2016 deadline for the military service branches to argue that there are military roles that should remain closed to women.

In February 2012 the Defense Department opened up 14,500 positions to women that had previously been limited to men and lifted a rule that prohibited women from living with combat units.

Panetta also directed the services to examine ways to open more combat roles to women.

However, the ban on direct combat positions has remained in place.

Advocates for equality in the services will be pleased. On Capitol Hill today, retired Chief Master Sgt. Cindy McNally, a victim of sexual assault in the military, said placing women in combat roles would help equalize the services and actually cut down on sexual assaults, which have emerged as a major problem in the military.

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Marines beat a retreat in Beyonce lip-sync flap

WASHINGTON: The US Marine Corps beat a hasty retreat Tuesday from a furore over whether Beyonce lip-synched "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's public inauguration ceremony.

First, the New York Times quoted a US Marine Band spokeswoman as saying that, just before Beyonce took the stage Monday, the musicians learned a version of the national anthem it had pre-recorded with her would be used.

"We don't know why," said the spokeswoman, Master Sergeant Kristin duBois. "But that is what we were instructed to do... It's not because Beyonce can't sing. We all know Beyonce can sing. We all know the Marine Band can play."

But later, the Marine Corps said only that a pre-recorded version of the band's musical track was played to the crowd outside the Capitol after Obama was sworn into office for a second term.

Since the band did not have a chance to rehearse with Beyonce beforehand, "it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill-advised for such a high-profile event," it said.

But as for Beyonce's vocal performance, it added: "No one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded."

Beyonce's publicist did not respond to emails Tuesday, leaving it unclear as to whether or not the R&B diva had pulled off the biggest karaoke number in the history of US presidential inaugurations, or somehow just mimed the words.

Also unexplained was a black-and-white Instagram photo, supposedly taken Sunday, of Beyonce in a wool beret and cardigan in a recording studio with three soldiers behind her. She appeared to be listening intently to something.

Equally mysterious was why Beyonce removed the ear monitor mid-way through the song. Singers performing over an instrumental track might do so if the playback is clashing with what's coming out of the loudspeakers.

One way or another, fans of Beyonce -- who sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" live at last year's Super Bowl and returns to the American football classic in February as its half-time act -- rallied behind her on Twitter.

"Who cares that Beyonce Lip #Sync the National Anthem, it was recorded live an hour before. You try singing in that cold," tweeted one fan, referring to Monday's near-freezing temperatures in Washington.

"Beyonce certainly acted like a diva ... but I don't see how that can be compared to Lance Armstrong cheating for 7 straight years at the least," said another Twitter user, referring to the disgraced cyclist.

"Beyonce is the best lip-syncer I've seen," added a third fan. "Because she surely fooled me."

The US Marine Band is the premier musical ensemble of the US Marine Corps. It's also known as the President's Own for its longstanding connection with the White House and important national events.

It played live for most of Monday's inauguration on the Capitol steps, but prior to any major event, it routinely goes into the studio to record its repertoire as a precautionary measure.

"Each piece of music scheduled for performance in the Inauguration is pre-recorded for use in case of freezing temperatures, equipment failure or extenuating circumstances," the Marine Corps statement said.

Pop star Kelly Clarkson and folk singer James Taylor also performed at the inauguration.

- AFP/jc

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Alagiri breaks ice with Karunanidhi after succession drama

CHENNAI: Union fertilizer minister M K Alagiri on Tuesday called on his father, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, for the first time after the party patriarch publicly identified his younger son M K Stalin as his political heir. Sources said the meeting between Karunanidhi and Alagiri at the DMK leader's Gopalapuram residence in Chennai lasted more than an hour. Alagiri's son Durai Dhayanidhi was also present during the meeting, party sources said.

On January 6, Karunanidhi had said if there was an opportunity to propose a name for the post of party president, he would choose Stalin. "Our general secretary K Anbazhagan has already proposed his name. I will second it," Karunanidhi had told reporters after the party's district secretaries' meeting, bringing the curtains down on the simmering succession issue for now.

Since then, Alagiri, who is also the DMK's south organising secretary, has been sulking and keeping away from media glare. Though he came to Chennai once after Karunanidhi's dramatic announcement, he did not meet him, but called on his ailing mother Dayalu Ammal. Few family members like Kalaignar TV chief financial officer Amirtham and Karunanidhi's son-in-law 'Murasoli' Selvam met Alagiri to mediate between him and his father.

The meeting was seen as a move to soothe the ruffled feelings of Karunanidhi, who was upset over Alagiri's comments that DMK was not a religious mutt (where a senior seer names his successor). Both Karunanidhi and Alagiri discussed Dayalu Ammal's health, said family sources. "Both expressed their concern about her health and discussed treatment for her," a source said. Alagiri's wife Kanthi met Karunanidhi and Dayalu Ammal a couple of days back. Following her visit, Alagiri and his son Durai came on Tuesday, the sources said.

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Space Pictures This Week: Solar Tantrum, Petroglyphs at Night

Photograph by Tony Rowell, Your Shot

This image of Native American petroglyphs, or rock art, shot against the Milky Way, was taken in California's eastern Sierra Nevada on January 14.

Petroglyphs—one of many forms of rock art—are created by scraping, rubbing, or chiseling designs into the patina coating desert rocks. Depending on the conditions surrounding a piece of rock art, these designs can endure for hundreds to thousands of years. (Watch a video about Arizona's rock art.)

Erosion and natural processes, such as plant growth, can fade or destroy the designs. They can also fall victim to vandalism and theft.

According to news reports, one of the most recent incidences was discovered in late October 2012. Unknown perpetrators hacked six petroglyphs out of the cliff face at the Eastern Sierra Volcanic Tableland near Bishop, California (map). They damaged others using saws and hammers.

Published January 22, 2013

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Left Turn? Obama Speech Invigorates Progressives

A presidential campaign that was largely about jobs and the economy gave way during Monday's inaugural ceremonies to a sweeping affirmation of progressivism and call for "collective action."

Now, liberal allies of President Obama say they're closely watching to see whether the second-term president follows through on issues with which he has struggled before.

Obama's groundbreaking references to climate change and gay rights in his second inaugural address particularly surprised many progressive interest groups, which said their first-term frustrations have been replaced by a new sense of optimism.

"We are hopeful that the president's progressive speech signals a major strategy shift for the Obama administration," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Green's group and other liberal Democrats have openly expressed disappointment in Obama since 2009, saying his agenda has fallen short. Many have cited his failure to advance an assault-weapons ban, as promised, enact climate change legislation or overhaul the nation's immigration system.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

The Inaugural Fashion of Michelle, Sasha and Malia Obama Watch Video

Jason Wu Inaugural Ball Gown: Michelle Obama Stunning Watch Video

Inauguration 2013: Obama's Speech a Call to Action Watch Video

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics.

Other progressives have chafed at Obama's extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy in 2010 and move last month to make some of the cuts permanent, while putting changes to Social Security and Medicare on the table as part of a deficit-reduction deal.

During the election campaign, Obama ran no paid TV advertising that mentioned gays or gay rights, or the term "climate change," for example. Only four of his ads mentioned environmental issues, and two explicitly portrayed Obama as a defender of the coal industry, something anathema to many environmentalists.

"If the president's inaugural words and action on guns are the template for his governing strategy in a second term, that will allow the president to win big victories and secure a legacy of bold progressive change," Green said, responding to Obama's inaugural address.

In interviews with ABC News, advocates stressed that success on many liberal priorities remains a big "if," with a politically divided Congress and a record of failure by the White House to bridge the divide.

On the environment, activists say they are most closely watching the president's upcoming decision on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project, which would carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Obama delayed a decision on the project in January 2012, ordering a new environmental-impact study. But with that study nearing completion, he will be forced to weigh in on an issue that has pitted a need for jobs and cheaper energy with environmental and health concerns.

"The decision on the Keystone XL pipeline will be the first indicator about how seriously he's taking climate change over the next four years," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group opposed to the pipeline. "We'll know in the next month and a half to two months whether he does."

Bill McKibben, an author and leading environmentalist, said in a blog post that he is not holding his breath. "With words like that, it's easy to let ourselves dream that something major might be about to happen to fix the biggest problem the world has ever faced," he wrote.
"And given the record of the last four years, we know that too often rhetoric has yielded little in the way of results."

McKibben is organizing a major environmental rally in Washington on Feb. 17.

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Loyal cheerleader Biden becomes target of speculation on presidential bid

So close to that presidential microphone . . . yet so far away.

As President Obama delivered his 2,000-word inaugural address Monday outside the Capitol, his chief governing partner, Vice President Biden, looked on from his chair just to the left, always the loyal and supportive cheerleader.

But for Biden, who mounted two unsuccessful bids for the White House, Inauguration Day served as another reminder of all that he has achieved and what has eluded him after 40 years in public life. And his prominent role in so many of the administration’s recent high-profile initiatives has raised questions about whether Biden has plans to be in Obama’s place on the podium four years from now.

But Biden, 70, was not complaining. Speaking briefly at a post-inauguration lunch in the Capitol, Biden told the assembled power brokers, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, that he was thankful.

He said that as he and President Obama left the inaugural platform, he watched as the Obamas stopped to take in the moment and felt himself moved.

“I surprised myself by turning to him and saying, ‘Thank you. Thanks for the chance, the chance to continue to serve,’” Biden said at the luncheon.

Obama has lately returned the gratitude. Over the past several weeks, the vice president has been on something of a roll: playing a pivotal role in the financial deal with congressional Republicans to avoid the fiscal cliff; heading the administration’s gun violence task force that recommended many of the proposals Obama laid out last week; and even going viral on video while enthusiastically working the room during Congress’s swearing-in ceremony.

During the inaugural parade, Biden relished the chance to walk portions of the route with wife Jill, pointing at the crowd, pumping his fist and even shaking hands and hugging spectators in a way the Obamas did not (perhaps partly because of Secret Service concerns).

Biden’s run of successes has again raised questions among political pundits over whether he still has his eye on a White House run.

“What’s great about this last series of [Biden] stories is that people get to see what people in Delaware saw all those years — why he was re-elected seven times,” said former senator Ted Kaufman, a long-time Biden adviser who attended the vice president’s private swearing-in on Sunday at the Naval Observatory.

“When he was running for president in 2008 and I was helping, people asked me one reason that Joe Biden should be elected,” Kaufman said. “I said that I had never seen anyone in my 40 years in politics who could go into a room with people with disparate views and find the common ground to move forward.”

In an interview with CNN this week, Biden credited his long relationships on Capitol Hill and his close partnership with Obama for making it easy for him to make deals on behalf of the administration.

“Everybody talks about, ‘Well, it’s back-slapping, it’s old politics.’ It’s not. It’s trust,” Biden said. “It’s simple: Find a single person who will look you in eye and say, ‘I don’t trust Joe Biden.’”

Biden was sworn in on a five-inch-thick family Bible featuring a Celtic cross. While Obama had only a dozen people at his private swearing-in on Sunday, Biden invited about 120 friends and family, including people who had helped on many of his Senate and presidential campaigns. They joined the Bidens at the vive-presidential home at the Observatory and stayed for breakfast, reminiscing about their years serving Biden, Kaufman said.

At the post-inauguration lunch in the National Statuary Hall on Monday, Biden looked at the room full of his former congressional colleagues and did a little reflecting of his own about the years he attended the lunch as a senator.

“It’s always a new beginning any time we’re in this room. There’s a sense of possibility and opportunity and a sense, sometimes fleeting, that maybe we can really begin to work together,”Biden said.

Later, he offered a heartfelt toast to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who mistakenly thought the glass-raising was for Obama.

“I’m toasting you Chuck,” Biden said, drawing laughs. “Remember you can’t get rid of me. I’m always part of the Senate.”

“The best parts of these events are unscripted,” Schumer replied, speaking perhaps for everyone who appreciates Joe Biden, especially in front of a microphone.

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Football: Sundram to be interim Lions coach for Jordan game

SINGAPORE: V Sundramoorthy has been named the caretaker coach for the Lions for their opening Asian Cup group qualifying match against Jordan in Amman next month, while the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) continues its search for Radojko Avramovic's successor.

In a media statement, FAS president Zainudin Nordin said that the LionsXII head coach was appointed because of his experience.

"Having worked with Raddy (Avramovic) and the national age-group squads in recent years, Sundram has the relevant experience and I am confident that the Lions will be in good hands.

"The FAS will support Sundram and his team to the best of our abilities as they strive to put up a strong performance against a strong Jordan side."

This will be the second time that Sundram will be handling the national team as caretaker coach. He had filled in for a World Cup qualifier two years ago when Avramovic was serving a touchline ban.

TODAY understands that the 47-year-old former international was initially hesitant when approached earlier because he felt that the two Asian Cup qualifiers - against Jordan on Feb 6, and against Oman on March 22 - would clash with his coaching duties with the LionsXII.

However, the FAS have been notified since that the Oman has been postponed to Aug 14. The Oman FA had made the request to the Asian Football Confederation as they will be facing Australia in a World Cup fourth-round qualifier on March 26.

Sundram described his appointment as "a great honour" in the media statement and added: "I am now discussing with the backroom team and staff the composition of the squad for the Jordan game and I hope to finalise the names before the end of the week."

Meanwhile, Zainudin said that the FAS have received "an overwhelming response from interested parties" for the national coach position since announcing its availability in December.

"We will draw up an initial list of about 15 candidates... before trimming it to a final shortlist of between five and seven candidates," he said.

"While we hope to finalise the appointment soon, we will not rush into making any decision. We are determined to appoint the right person for the job."

- TODAY

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Train fares to go up from today

NEW DELHI: Rail travelers will have to pay more from Tuesday.

Railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had announced across the board hike in passenger fares to raise an additional fund to the tune of Rs 6,600 crore in a year.

The hike, which has come after a decade, will generate additional Rs 1,200 crore this fiscal.

Though the minister had ruled out any hike in passenger tariff in the Rail Budget 2013-14 to be presented next month, the transporter got a big financial shock with the increase in diesel price.

The additional burden with the diesel price hike is expected to be around Rs 2,500 crore.

Fares of ordinary second class (suburban) trains will go up by 2 paise per km, while for non-suburban travel it will be 3 paise.

Travel by second class mail and express trains will be costlier by 4 paise per km, while it will be 6 paise more in sleeper class.

Travellers by AC chair car and AC three tier will have to shell out 10 paise more per km, first class by 3 paise, AC two tier by 6 paise and AC first class by 10 paise.

The fares for first class, AC two tier and AC first/ executive class were already raised by 10 paise per km, 15 and 30 paise, respectively, in the last budget.

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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Obama's 2nd Term: Who's Time Is 'Our Time'?

Jan 21, 2013 12:50pm

Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

ANALYSIS By RICK KLEIN

President Obama used a brief pause in the partisan warfare that’s scarred his time in office to return to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, with his own declaration of urgency and a call to action that reflects shared sacrifice and responsibility.

This was no centrist conciliator. It was the speech of a committed, unapologetic progressive, an Obama doctrine for domestic policy that included concrete commitments in areas he made little progress on over his first four years. Above all, he was speaking to a changing America – the nation that propelled him to a second term, and whose voices he will need to channel to be effective over the next four years.

“My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together,” the president declared.

That word “together” appeared seven times in the president’s speech. He used the phrase, “we, the people” five times. Notably, the president said “our time” five times. It was a clear signal that Obama is not satisfied with the frustrations that marked his first term, and that he is cognizant of his opportunity at this moment.

And he sees those opportunities mainly to his left. Obama made a firm commitment to pursue climate-change legislation, in addition to immigration reform and gun control. In an era of budget-cutting, he delivered a rousing endorsement of the social safety net, including Medicare and Social Security.

Obama cited the civil-rights movement and listed Stonewall – the 1960s demonstrations over a police raid of a New York City gay bar that galvanized the gay-rights movement – alongside Seneca Falls and Selma. He also promised equality for “our gay brothers and sisters,” apparently becoming the first president to use the word “gay” in an inaugural address.

Obama’s defining challenge as president has been to deliver on the hope and promise he rode into office on in 2008. He may never hope to fulfill the expectations that surrounded his elevation. But speaking to the largest crowd he’s likely to ever appear before again, the president sounded both more optimistic and more committed to progress on his priorities than anything in our current political system would suggest is warranted.

“Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time,” the president said.

For a president whose very inauguration speaks to the promise of America, but whose first term ended with so much frustration, it was a return to his roots. President Obama is cognizant of his role in history, though clearly not content with leaving it at that.

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Obama developing second-term strategy

Amid his fiscal negotiations with Congress and the shootings in Newtown, Conn., President Obama has managed to hold several “think-big” meetings recently with senior advisers in the Roosevelt Room, and this month he dined with historians in the White House, searching for a rough road map for second-term leadership.

As one senior administration official described the brainstorming sessions, Obama has made a request that challenges the instinctive pragmatism he has shown in office.

“Let’s not focus on what’s possible or doable,” Obama has advised, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. “Tell me what our goal should be, and let me worry about the politics.”

At the center of Obama’s search for a second-term strategy and lasting legacy sits a question being asked now by supporters outside the administration and officials within it:

Can Obama, given his political personality and partisan circumstances, be the transformational president he aspired to be or, instead, just a moderately effective manager during difficult times?

His domestic agenda includes politically challenging issues such as immigration reform, measures to address climate change and gun control — the last two emerging in part from a personal sense of regret that he did not do more to advance them in his first term.

Abroad, Obama will be challenged to define an agenda rather than to have one defined for him by events, including the uprisings remaking the Middle East.

“He knows what he’s done, he knows what he can’t do, he knows what he must accomplish and he knows what he’d like to accomplish,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution. “But beyond that there is the guts question — and, for much of the first term, the question was, ‘Where are the guts?’ How he addresses that in the next term may define his legacy.”

Agenda

Obama will move to build on what he considers the essential remedial work he had to do on the still-fragile economy and the mixed U.S. image abroad. His senior advisers say he is aware that second-term power is an hourglass running out of sand and that he must move quickly. “Days in your second term are in many ways more important than in your first,” said Dan Pfeiffer, Obama’s communications director.

The theme of protecting the middle class, which Obama will probably address Monday in his inaugural speech and detail next month in his State of the Union remarks, carries into a new term some of the liberal populism of his last election.

Gun control measures, immigration reform, clean-energy initiatives and college affordability are priorities that, at the outer end, Obama will have until the 2014 midterms to achieve before slipping into lame-duck irrelevance. He will also face the unfinished business of his first term, including

How he will pursue his goals will more closely resemble the successful elements of his campaign, particularly the ways in which the former community organizer works to mobilize public opinion around his agenda. Each issue will have its own campaign.

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Football: Sneijder signs for Galatasaray for 7.5m euros

ROME: Inter Milan's Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder signed for Turkish side Galatasaray on Sunday for a fee believed to be in the region of 7.5 million euros, the Istanbul side announced.

Playmaker Sneijder penned a three and a half-year deal which will keep him at Galatasaray until 2016 as the drawn-out transfer saga was finally completed.

The Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the player would earn around five million euros a season.

Sneijder was a key figure in the treble winning season under Jose Mourinho in 2010 when they won the Italian title, the Italian Cup as well as their first Champions League trophy since 1965.

But he fell out with the club this season after Inter asked him to accept a reduction in salary and extend his contract by one year to 2016 without a change in total salary.

Sneijder's Romanian teammate Cristian Chivu said he wanted to see the Dutchman succeed in Turkey.

"He's my friend and team-mate, I wish him all the best in the world. I'll speak to him on the phone," he said.

-AFP/ac

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Tiff over liquour shop stake led to Hindu terror accused Joshi’s murder?

NEW DELHI: There could be more personal and local reasons to the murder of key Hindu terror accused Sunil Joshi than the larger motive of protecting the saffron module from being exposed.

Investigations into the December 2007 murder case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have found that a liquor shop on Indore-Dewas road in Madhya Pradesh had become a bone of contention among saffron terror accused with many of them, including Joshi, having stakes in it.

Until now, investigating agencies, including Madhya Pradesh Police, which has filed a chargesheet in the case against the 2008 Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur, have maintained that Joshi was killed because the group suspected he could spill the beans on saffron terror module. Another reason cited was that Joshi had misbehaved with Thakur in a manner that had angered the group.

It has now been revealed, however, that Joshi and his confidante Lokesh Sharma, accused in Samjhauta Express and 2006 Malegaon blasts, were partners in a liquor shop in Dakachya village on Indore-Dewas road. There were others in the group too who had stakes in the shop that was reportedly very profitable.

Sources say, during 2006-07, a dispute arose among the group on profit sharing and led to animosity between Joshi and others in the group. In fact, Joshi and others had even stopped talking months before he was shot dead in Dewas on December 29, 2007.

After NIA arrested Rajender Chaudhary last month in connection with the Samjhauta Express blast he revealed that it was him and Lokesh Sharma who had bumped off Joshi. Madhya Pradesh Police had chargesheeted an entirely different set of people for the murder.

Last Monday, NIA made the first arrest in connection with the case, when it picked up one Balbir Singh from Mandalwada village in Indore. Balbir, too, has been found to be linked to the liquor shop through one Jitendra Patel, a close aide of Joshi who died of cancer last year. Patel, who hails from Dakachya and had a partnership in the liquor shop, was associated with Singh.

NIA sources said, they had conducted raids on the residences of both Singh and Jitendra Patel and recovered a 9 mm pistol magazine from the former's house. "We suspect that this magazine may belong to the pistol that was used to kill Joshi. However, things will be clear only after forensic examination," said an NIA official.

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

Read More..