NY Times to rebrand Herald Tribune in its own image

NEW YORK: For a decade the International Herald Tribune has been the global edition of the New York Times in all but name. On Monday, the parent company made it official.

In a statement, the New York Times Company said the 125-year-old offshoot of the defunct New York Herald Tribune will be rechristened sometime this fall as the International New York Times.

"The digital revolution has turned the New York Times from being a great American newspaper to becoming one of the world's best-known news providers," said New York Times Company chief executive Mark Thompson.

"We want to exploit that opportunity," said the former BBC boss, adding that a new website for international readers is also in the pipeline.

The International Herald Tribune (IHT) was co-owned by the New York Times and the Washington Post from 1967 until 2003, when the Times became its sole proprietor and restyled it as "the global edition of the New York Times."

It almost exclusively showcased New York Times content in a bid to appeal to high-earning anglophone globe-trotters in competition with global editions of the Wall Street Journal and Britain's Financial Times.

Sold in more than 160 countries and territories, it has a daily circulation of more than 226,000, an IHT spokeswoman told AFP by email.

Prior to 1967 the IHT was known as the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune -- immortalized in Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave classic "Breathless" by Jean Seberg in a tight yellow T-shirt hawking copies on the Champs-Elysees.

The New York Times published an international edition under its own name from 1946 until it bought into "the Trib" and helped oversee its development as a global media brand through the use of satellite printing plants.

"I have to say I'm sorry to see the Herald Tribune go," said Charles Robertson, author of "The International Herald Tribune: The First 100 Years" and an IHT reader since his childhood in Switzerland.

"I suppose, once the Times pushed out the Washington Post, it was probably inevitable," Robertson, a professor emeritus at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, told AFP.

News of the rebranding came less than three weeks after the New York Times Company posted a 2012 group profit of $133 million, compared with a loss of $39.7 million in 2011.

It gave no breakdown of profit or loss figures for its newspapers, but earlier this month it said it was putting the Boston Globe and other New England assets up for sale to focus on its eponymous core product.

"The New York Times is a very strong brand in the United States (and) there are enough people globally who still read it," said Joscelyn MacKay, senior securities analyst at Morningstar in Chicago.

"The content itself will have to become a bit more global ... but I think it is a definite feasible target for them," she told AFP.

"Whether or not it's going to move the needle over the long run remains to be seen, given the challenges that print media faces."

The International New York Times "will be edited from Hong Kong, Paris, London and New York," according to Monday's statement, and new investments will be made "in print, web and mobile platforms."

IHT spokeswoman Vicky Taylor, in an email from London, said there are "currently no plans to cut staff numbers or offer buyouts."

Half of those on the IHT payroll are in France, where labor costs are higher than the United States or Britain.

"In many ways it will be business as usual at the IHT because as an organization we've already taken significant steps to align with the New York Times to the benefit of readers and advertisers," Taylor said.

"Making the full transition to a multi-platform International New York Times is the next logical step."

-AFP/ac

Read More..

94% women feel unsafe travelling alone in India, survey finds

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gang-rape incident has not just bruised the image of the national Capital, but the country as well. A travel survey has found that 94% women feel unsafe traveling alone, while 84% voted for Delhi as the most unsafe metro. The findings come at a time when an increasing number of women admitted that they preferred to travel alone both for work and leisure.

TripAdvisor, a leading travel site, surveyed 500 women to find that 84% women claimed to have travelled alone for leisure, business or both. The respondents were a mix of working women, including a number of self employed, as well as homemakers.

The survey also brings to light the disturbing fact that 94% women worry about their safety — always or at least sometimes — when they travel alone within India. Among women who said they travel alone on work, 37% agreed that they don't mind travelling alone but worry about their safety.

Even more dismal is the fact that more women travelers have a better sense of safety overseas than in India. Around 24% respondents said they worry when they travel within India but not when they travel to international destinations, while only 6% suggested otherwise.

Despite the fear and worry, only 33% women said they carry any item for self defense when travelling to a new or unfamiliar city.

Due to the recent spate of crime against women, Delhi has gained notoriety with 84% women claiming it to be the most unsafe metro in the country. Mumbai came out on top as the city considered safest by 34% women. Ahmedabad and Bangalore were tied at a distant second with 12% each.

Among the states, Delhi NCR again topped the hall of shame with 60% women voting it as the most unsafe. At a distant second is Bihar (18%), followed by Uttar Pradesh (8%). A majority of 27% respondents said they considered Maharashtra to be the safest state, followed by Gujarat (15%) and Karnataka (10%).

According to TripAdvisor country manager Nikhil Ganju, "The rise in women travelling alone on business is understandable fallout of the increase in the number of working women. The real surprise is the significant number of Indian women who are choosing to travel solo on vacation. Another interesting insight that highlights a latent opportunity for the hospitality sector is that 78% respondents said they would prefer to stay in an all women's hotel or on a women exclusive floor in a hotel, when travelling alone."

In a break from tradition, Indian women enjoy traveling alone for leisure. Among women who travel alone, 41% respondents said they actually enjoyed travelling alone for work. In addition, 76% said they enjoy going solo on holidays.

And lack of company is definitely not a complaint. In fact, majority (58%) said their biggest incentive for solo vacations was that they could do all the things they want without having to worry about what someone else wants. Around 34% women indicated they loved travelling alone as it was adventurous and exciting. Another 32% claimed the thrill of managing everything by themselves was a motivator as well.

Read More..

Sharks Warn Off Predators By Wielding Light Sabers

Diminutive deep-sea sharks illuminate spines on their backs like light sabers to warn potential predators that they could get a sharp mouthful, a new study suggests.

Paradoxically, the sharks seem to produce light both to hide and to be conspicuous—a first in the world of glowing sharks. (See photos of other sea creatures that glow.)

"Three years ago we showed that velvet belly lanternsharks [(Etmopterus spinax)] are using counter-illumination," said lead study author Julien Claes, a biologist from Belgium's Catholic University of Louvain, by email.

In counter-illumination, the lanternsharks, like many deep-sea animals, light up their undersides in order to disguise their silhouette when seen from below. Brighter bellies blend in with the light filtering down from the surface. (Related: "Glowing Pygmy Shark Lights Up to Fade Away.")

Fishing the 2-foot-long (60-centimeter-long) lanternsharks up from Norwegian fjords and placing them in darkened aquarium tanks, the researchers noticed that not only do the sharks' bellies glow, but they also had glowing regions on their backs.

The sharks have two rows of light-emitting cells, called photophores, on either side of a fearsome spine on the front edges of their two dorsal fins.

Study co-author Jérôme Mallefet explained how handling the sharks and encountering their aggressive behavior hinted at the role these radiant spines play.

"Sometimes they flip around and try to hit you with their spines," said Mallefet, also from Belgium's Catholic University of Louvain. "So we thought maybe they are showing their weapon in the dark depths."

To investigate this idea, the authors analyzed the structure of the lanternshark spines and found that they were more translucent than other shark spines.

This allowed the spines to transmit around 10 percent of the light from the glowing photophores, the study said.

For Predators' Eyes Only

Based on the eyesight of various deep-sea animals, the researchers estimated that the sharks' glowing spines were visible from several meters away to predators that include harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), and blackmouth catsharks (Galeus melastomus).

"The spine-associated bioluminescence has all the characteristics to play the right role as a warning sign," said Mallefet.

"It's a magnificent way to say 'hello, here I am, but beware I have spines,'" he added.

But these luminous warning signals wouldn't impede the sharks' pursuit of their favorite prey, Mueller's bristle-mouth fish (Maurolicus muelleri), the study suggested. These fish have poorer vision than the sharks' predators and may only spot the sharks' dorsal illuminations at much closer range.

For now, it remains a mystery how the sharks create and control the lights on their backs. The glowing dorsal fins could respond to the same hormones that control the belly lights, suggested Mallefet, but other factors may also be involved.

"MacGyver" of Bioluminescence

Several other species use bioluminescence as a warning signal, including marine snails (Hinea brasiliana), glowworms (Lampyris noctiluca) and millipedes (Motyxia spp.).

Edith Widder, a marinebiologist from the Ocean Research and Conservation Association who was not involved in the current study, previously discovered a jellyfish whose bioluminescence rubs off on attackers that get too close.

"It's like paint packages in money bags at banks," she explained.

"Any animal that was foolish enough to go after it," she added "gets smeared all over with glowing particles that make it easy prey for its predators."

Widder also points out that glowing deep-sea animals often put their abilities to diverse uses. (Watch: "Why Deep-Sea Creatures Glow.")

"There are many examples of animals using bioluminescence for a whole range of different functions," she said.

Mallefet agrees, joking that these sharks are the "MacGyver of bioluminescence."

"Just give light to this shark species and it will use it in any possible way."

And while Widder doesn't discount the warning signal theory, "another possibility would be that it could be to attract a mate."

Lead author Julien Claes added by email, "I also discovered during my PhD thesis that velvet belly lanternsharks have glowing organs on their sexual parts."

And that, he admits, "makes it very easy, even for a human, to distinguish male and female of this species in the dark!"

The glowing shark study appeared online in the February 21 edition of Scientific Reports.

Read More..

Arias Had No Remorse: Prosecutor

Prosecutor Juan Martinez hammered alleged murderer Jodi Arias today with accusations that she felt no remorse when she lied over and over again about killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

"Ma'am you have a problem with telling the truth don't you?" Martinez asked as his first question today, the 11th day Arias has been on the stand explaining her role in Alexander's death.

"Not typically," Arias responded.

Martinez then took Arias through a series of lies she admittedly told in the days after she stabbed and shot Alexander to death on June 4, 2008, lying to friends, investigators and even Alexander's grandmother, going so far as to send a dozen irises to his grandmother expressing her sympathy.

See the Evidence in the Jodi Arias Murder Trial

Arias, 32, has testified that she killed Alexander in self-defense during a violent argument and lied about it out of "shame."

But prosecutors say that the 27 stab wounds, a slashed throat, and two bullets she fired at Alexander's head prove that she murdered him. She could face the death penalty if convicted.

Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage

Today Martinez tried to raise doubts about Arias' earlier testimony in which she depicted Alexander as an increasingly menacing and sexually demanding lover by grilling her about the lies she told after she killed Alexander.

Martinez pointed out that Arias lied to Detective Esteban Flores of the Mesa, Ariz., police department as he investigated Alexander's death. She initially denied to the detective that she was at Alexander's Mesa, Ariz., home when he was killed, and later said he was murdered by a pair of masked intruders.

Jodi Arias Testimony: Prosecution's Cross-Examination Watch Video

Jodi Arias Remains Calm Under Cross-Examination Watch Video

Jodi Arias Doesn't Remember Stabbing Ex-Boyfriend Watch Video

"You told (Flores) you would help him, but that was a lie right? You weren't there to tell the truth. You were there for another purpose: to make sure he didn't get the truth.... You were hoping, ma'am, that (Flores) would believe what you were saying so you could walk out of jail," Martinez said.

Arias argued with Martinez, claiming that she lied to investigators out of shame, and lied to friends immediately after the death out of confusion.

"My mind wasn't right during all that period," Arias said referring to the hours immediately following the killing when she drove through the Arizona desert and made phone calls to ex-boyfriend Matthew McCartney and new love interest Ryan Burns.

"It's like I wasn't accepting it in my mind... because I never killed anyone before," she said.

Martinez also suggested that Arias tried to find out the status of the investigation into Alexander's death so that she could know if she were about to be arrested. When a friend of Alexander's called her to report the news about Alexander's death, Arias asked about details into the investigation, the prosecutor said. She also called Alexander's Mormon bishop and asked him what he knew about the case, and then asked friends and family members what they knew, according to Martinez.

"You needed to see what you needed to know to make sure you weren't charged. What purpose would there be for that information other than to benefit you?" Martinez asked. "You called [the bishop] at 3 a.m. You call him and spoke to him because you wanted to get the information about what he knew about the investigation. That was going to help you."

Timeline of the Jodi Arias Trial

Martinez also went over lies that Arias told to her friend, Leslie Udy, and Ryan Burns, both of whom she saw in Utah the day after killing Alexander. She talked to both about Alexander as if he were still alive. Martinez pointed out that Arias even made out with Burns in his bedroom during their visit.

But Arias claimed that it was Burns who lied about their encounter.

"And with Mr. Burns, didn't you get on top of him and grind on him?" Martinez asked.

Arias said she was on top of Burns at one point, but they did not "grind."

"Well, when you were romantic kissing, he did put his hand between your legs, didn't he?" Martinez said, referring to Burns' own testimony in court weeks earlier.

"No," Arias said. "It could be that he's full of crap...when he says he got near my vaginal area."

"This is the person who lied to him, to (friends), to Detective Flores, and yet you're telling us someone else is full of crap," Martinez asked incredulously.

"When it comes to that, yes," she said.

Read More..

Brazil cardinal suggests church look to Latin America

APARECIDA: Catholicism in Latin America is "lively and dynamic," Brazilian Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis said Sunday, suggesting that the church look to Latin America for leadership.

Damasceno is one of the 117 "cardinal electors" that will participate in the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope. No favourite has to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who announced that he is stepping down at the end of the month.

The 76 year-old Damasceno, who is also head of Brazil's Conference of Catholic Bishops, told AFP in a phone interview that, unlike in Europe, the faith is strong in Latin America.

"The church in Latin America is enjoying a very special moment, with strong missionary enthusiasm," Damasceno told AFP.

That enthusiasm serves to bolster flagging interest for Catholicism in Europe, a region "undergoing a very intense process of secularisation and that suffers from a crisis of religious vocations."

Openly campaigning for the papacy is taboo, but cardinals discreetly drop hints about their preferences.

Brazilian bishops believe that it is "fundamental" for the next pope to be a person who is a pastoral figure, Damasceno said, "open to dialog with the contemporary world and sensitive to social problems."

Damasceno, himself a candidate, is one of five Brazilians who will be at the conclave. They include Odilo Scherer, 63, who was ordained by Benedict in 2007 and heads the five million strong archdiocese of Sao Paulo, and Salvador archbishop Geraldo Majella Agnelo, 79.

Brazil has the most Catholics in the world, but in recent years evangelical and Protestant churches have made considerable inroads, especially among the poor.

- AFP/jc

Read More..

Riyaz Bhatkal: Shy student to terror mastermind

MUMBAI: Seventeen-year-old Riyaz Shahbandri from Kurla was a shy civil engineering student at Nagpada's Saboo Siddik polytechnic in 1993. He would maintain a low profile and hardly participated in any college events. However, girls found his chocolate-boy looks appealing. Two decades later, he began making headlines as Riyaz Bhatkal, a suspected terrorist who has killed more people than the feared Dawood Ibrahim or the hanged Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab—more than 344 killed from 15 bomb blasts. Still elusive, today he is the most dreaded face of the banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen.

Born in 1976 as Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri in Bhatkal village of Karnataka, he came to be known as Roshan Jamal, while staying at the 60-year-old, two-storey building Qadir Mansion in Kurla here. Today his family owns two rooms in the building, which have been rented out as they wanted to stay away from the police who would often land up at their place inquiring about his whereabouts. His father, Ismail, had shifted from Karnataka to Mumbai for setting up a purse-making business much before Riyaz was born. Despite obtaining a degree in civil engineering, Riyaz couldn't find a job and began helping his father in his business. By then, his elder brother Iqbal had joined a local developer's firm as a civil engineer.

In 2001, Riyaz fell in love with a girl from Kurla but his family disapproved of the relationship and he was finally married to Nashua, the daughter of a Bhatkal-based businessman. A few months before his wedding, he came in touch with the Kurla unit of Students' Islamic Moment of India (SIMI). When he became a member of the outfit, it was already divided into two factions, extremists and the moderates. Riyaz preferred to stay with the first group. While the outfit was banned and its members arrested, he managed to evade the police. Soon he started preaching the SIMI ideology and was considered as a key figure among his associates. At the same time, Riyaz came in touch with local goons and started extorting money from traders in order to fund the activities of SIMI. "In 2002, he allegedly gave supari to kill the owner of Deepak Farsan in Kurla. The shooters killed the owner's bodyguard and Riyaz was never arrested," said an investigator of the case.

A city crime branch official said, "A year later, he entered Pakistan illegally and got training in operating fire arms and assembling explosives at a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) camp. In 2004, along with Atif Ameen (who was later killed in the Batla House encounter in 2008), Sadiq Asrar Shaikh (who is behind bars in Mumbai), Subhan Qureishi alias Tauqeer and Yasin Bhatkal (both absconding), he conducted his first training for Indian men at Jolly Beach, a farm house in Bhatkal. Yasin, though hailing from Bhatkal, is not related to Riyaz. In 2005, the quintet executed their first terror blast at Sankat Mochan temple in Uttar Pradesh. While Riyaz provided the explosives, Tauqeer and Shaikh recruited the men. This was the time the group decided to name itself Indian Mujahideen (IM). Cops were unaware of its existence. Iqbal too had got influenced by the extremist ideology. He was one of the founder members of the IM.

"Soon after executing the bombings at the court premises in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad on November 23, 2007, IM sent its first email to a news channel, claiming responsibility," the charge sheet on these blasts reads. In 2008, IM carried out bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad and for the first time Riyaz's name cropped up during the probe. He had conducted a seven-day training session for new recruits at Bhatkal prior to the blasts." After police started visiting Bhatkal frequently in search of him, Riyaz escaped to Pakistan in 2008 via Bangladesh. That was the last time his family saw him," a senior ATS officer added. Meanwhile, his father was last spotted in Mumbai on April 16, 2008, when he had gone to collect rent for his two rooms in Qadir Mansion.

In March 2010, Riyaz travelled to Colombo and met Yasin Bhatkal, Mohsin Chaudhry and Mirza Himayat Bain to plan Pune's German Bakery bomb blast. In July 2011, a red corner notice was issued against Riyaz in connection with the 2008 Bangalore blast. The chargesheet in Mumbai's July 13, 2011, triple blast cases said that "the entire criminal conspiracy was hatched by Riyaz and Yasin Bhatkal", who are "the chief cogs of the notorious" IM. The banned terrorist group, it adds, was created by Pakistani spy agency ISI "to spread terror in India". Riyaz and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal "operate from Pakistan" and impart instructions via electronic means to their associates based here through Yasin. According to forensic reports, Trinitrotoluene (TNT), ammonium nitrate and petroleum oil were used in the Mumbai bomb blasts.

This is the story as narrated by Riyaz's proteges, neighbors, friends and police. However, no one knows Riyaz's side of the story.

Riyaz Bhatkal's bloody trail:

Oct 29, 2005: Paharganj, Sarojini Nagar and Gopal Nagar in Delhi, killed 62

March 7, 2006: Sankat Mochan temple, Kashi Viswanath temple in Varanasi, killed 28

Nov 24, 2006: Faizabad, Lucknow and Varanasi courts

May 25, 2007: Gorakhpur market

Aug 25, 2007: Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat in Hyderabad, killed 42

May 23, 2008: Jaipur, killed 80

July 24, 2008: Bangalore, killed 02

July 25, 2008: Ahmedabad serial explosions, killed 56

July 26, 2008: Surat (bombs defused)

Sept 13, 2008: Delhi, killed 30

Feb 13, 2010: Pune German Bakery blast, killed 17

July 13, 2011: Mumbai triple blasts, killed 27

August 1, 2012: Pune serial bomb blasts

Total killed: 344

Read More..

Picture Archive: Dorothy Lamour and Jiggs, Circa 1938

Dorothy Lamour, most famous for her Road to ... series of movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, never won an Oscar. In her 50-plus-year career as an actress, she never even got nominated.

Neither did Jiggs the chimpanzee, pictured here with Lamour on the set of Her Jungle Love in a photo published in the 1938 National Geographic story "Monkey Folk."

No animal has ever been nominated for an Oscar. According to Academy Award rules, only actors and actresses are eligible.

Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier from last year's best picture winner, The Artist, didn't rate a nod. The equines that portrayed Seabiscuit and War Horse, movies that were best picture contenders in their respective years, were also snubbed.

Even the seven piglets that played Babe, the eponymous star of the best picture nominee in 1998, didn't rate. And the outlook seems to be worsening for the animal kingdom's odds of ever getting its paws on that golden statuette.

This year, two movies nominated in the best picture category had creatures that were storyline drivers with significant on-screen time. Neither Beasts of the Southern Wild (which featured extinct aurochs) or Life of Pi (which featured a CGI Bengal tiger named Richard Parker) used real animals.

An Oscar's not the only way for animals to get ahead, though. Two years after this photo was published, the American Humane Association's Los Angeles Film & TV Unit was established to monitor and protect animals working on show business sets. The group's creation was spurred by the death of a horse during the filming of 1939's Jessie James.

Today, it's still the only organization that stamps "No Animals Were Harmed" onto a movie's closing credits.

Editor's note: This is part of a series of pieces that looks at the news through the lens of the National Geographic photo archives.

Read More..

Pistorius' Brother Facing Own Homicide Trial

The attorney for Oscar Pistorius' family said today that the Olympian's brother is facing a culpable homicide charge relating to a 2008 road accident in which a motorcyclist was killed.

Carl Pistorius, who sat behind his younger brother, Oscar, every day at his bail hearing, will now face his own homicide trial for the accident five years ago, which his attorney, Kenny Oldwage, said he "deeply regrets."

Carl Pistorius is charged with culpable homicide, which refers to the unlawful negligent killing of another person. The charges were initially dropped, but were later reinstated, Oldwage said in a statement.

Full Coverage: Oscar Pistorius Case

Pistorius quietly appeared in court on Thursday, one day before his Paralympic gold-medalist brother was released on bail, Oldwage said. His next appearance is scheduled for the end of March.

Liza van Deventer/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images

'Blade Runner' Murder Charges: Oscar Pistorius Out on Bail Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius Granted Bail in Murder Case Watch Video

It was the latest twist in a case that has drawn international attention, after 26-year-old Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who ran in both the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, was charged with the premeditated murder of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

On Saturday, Carl Pistorius' Twitter handle was hacked, according to a family spokeswoman, prompting the Pistorius family to cancel their social media accounts.

Steenkamp's parents speak about the Valentine's Day shooting that ended their daughter's life in a sit-down interview on South African television tonight.

On Saturday, the model's father, Barry Steenkamp, told the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper that Pistorius will have to "live with his conscience" and will "suffer" if his story that he shot Steenkamp because he believed she was an intruder is false.

RELATED: Oscar Pistorius Case: Key Elements to the Murder Investigation

After a four-day long bail hearing, Pistorius was granted bail Friday by a South African magistrate.

The court set bail at about $113,000 (1 million rand) and June 4 as the date for Pistorius' next court appearance.

Pistoriuis is believed to be staying at his uncle's house as he awaits trial. As part of his bail conditions, Pistorius must give up all his guns, he cannot drink alcohol or return to the home where the shooting occurred, and he must check in with a police department twice a week.

Read More..

Senators near a deal on background checks for most private gun sales

A bipartisan group of senators is on the verge of a deal that would expand background checks to all private firearms sales with limited exemptions, but significant disagreements remain on the issue of keeping records of private gun sales, according to aides familiar with the talks.

An agreement would be a bold first step toward consideration of legislation to limit gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school in December and comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected this week to begin considering new proposals to limit gun violence.

The talks, led by two Democrats and two Republicans, are expected to earn more GOP support in the coming days and likely enough to move the bill through the Senate, according to senior aides of both parties who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

“These negotiations are challenging, as you’d expect on an issue as complicated as guns,” the chief negotiator, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), said in a statement Saturday. “But all of the senators involved are approaching this in good faith. We are all serious about wanting to get something done, and we are going to keep trying.”

Resolution of whether to keep records of private sales is key to earning the support of one of the Republicans involved in the talks, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who has a solid A-rating from the influential National Rifle Association and could provide political cover for lawmakers of both parties who are wary of supporting the plan.

Coburn has declined to comment on the talks, saying recently that “I don’t negotiate through the press.”

Democrats say that keeping records of private sales is necessary to enforce any new law and because current federal law requires licensed firearm dealers to keep records. Records of private sales also would help law enforcement trace back the history of a gun used in a crime, according to Democratic aides. Republicans, however, believe that records of private sales could put an undue burden on gun owners or could be perceived by gun rights advocates as a precursor to a national gun registry.

Coburn and Schumer are joined in their talks by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), while aides in both parties anticipate that Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Susan Collins (Maine) could also endorse the plan soon. McCain and Collins have said they generally support legislation expanding background checks, while a Flake spokeswoman said Saturday that he is still reviewing the proposal.

More Republican support is anticipated in part because the four senators involved in the talks have agreed that any new background check program would exempt private transactions between family members or people who completed a background check in order to obtain a concealed-carry permit, according to aides.

But the four senators are grappling with how to make the process of obtaining a background check as seamless as possible for private dealers while also ensuring that someone keeps a record of the transaction.

Read More..

Auto racing: Late crash mars Daytona Nationwide finish

DAYTONA BEACH: A fiery car crash sent Kyle Larson's car airborne and flying debris injured a number of fans Saturday in the waning moments of the NASCAR Nationwide Series season-opener.

The wreck, which occurred almost as Tony Stewart was taking the chequered flag for victory, appeared to begin when Regan Smith was turned sideways and took several competitors behind him in a pack.

Larson, making his first start in the NASCAR stock car second-tier series, then sailed into the catch-fencing.

Larson's car tore a hole in the fence, and his engine sheared off with at least one tire and other debris flying into the stands.

ESPN quoted Daytona Beach police as saying 15 fans were injured, one critically.

"Our prayers and thoughts are with everybody they are working on," NASCAR President Mike Helton said.

Emergency medical personnel immediately went into the stands to treat those hurt, but NASCAR officials could not immediately confirm the number and nature of the injuries. None of the drivers was injured.

"There was obviously some intrusion into the fence, and fortunately with the way the events are equipped, there was plenty of emergency workers ready to go," Helton told ESPN. "They all jumped on it pretty quickly.

"Right now, it's just a function of trying to determine what all damage is done," added Helton, who said some injured fans were being taken to local hospitals.

Another big crash, involving 11 cars, took place with five laps remaining, with driver Michael Annett taken to hospital after hitting a barrier.

"We've always known since racing started this is a dangerous sport," Stewart said. "As much as we want to celebrate, I'm more concerned about the fans and the drivers right now."

- AFP/jc

Read More..