মঙ্গলবার, ৩০ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Fed likely to stick with low-rate stance this week

(AP) ? A combination of scant inflation and still-modest U.S. economic growth will likely lead the Federal Reserve this week to maintain its drive to keep borrowing costs at record lows indefinitely.

The Fed has said it plans to keep its key short-term interest rate near zero at least until the unemployment rate dips below 6.5 percent from its current 7.6 percent.

It's also been buying $85 billion a month in Treasurys and mortgage bonds to try to keep long-term borrowing rates down. The goal has been to energize the economy through more consumer and corporate borrowing.

In recent months, many economists had suggested that the Fed might scale back its bond purchases in the second half of 2013 if job growth accelerated.

But the jobs report for March was surprisingly weak. And inflation has been running below the Fed's target rate, allowing it to keep stimulating the economy without igniting price increases.

"I am not looking for any major action from this meeting," says David Jones, an economist at DMJ Advisors.

The Fed's interest rate-setting committee will begin a two-day meeting Tuesday and will issue a policy statement once its meeting ends Wednesday afternoon.

The minutes of the Fed's last meeting in March suggested that some policymakers favored slowing and eventually ending its bond buying ? as long as the economy and the job market kept improving. Some feared that keeping rates too low for too long could escalate inflation, fuel speculative asset bubbles or unsettle markets once the Fed has to start raising rates or unloading its record $3 trillion investment portfolio.

Early this month, though, the government said U.S. employers added only 88,000 jobs in March, far below the 220,000 average in the previous four months. Last week, it said the economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the January-March quarter ? a decent growth rate but one that's expected to weaken in coming months because of federal spending cuts and higher Social Security taxes.

At the same time, consumer inflation as measured by the gauge the Fed most closely monitors remains well below its 2 percent target. That gauge rose just 1 percent in the 12 months that ended in March.

Analysts now think the Fed will keep the Fed's easy-credit policies unchanged, possibly for the rest of the year.

"The government's fiscal austerity is kicking in and hitting the economy hard," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "I am not looking for any change in Fed policy at this meeting, not with this weak growth and low inflation."

After years of debate, the Fed in January 2012 followed the lead of many other central banks around the world in establishing an inflation target of 2 percent. The Fed's goal is to keep price changes from hurting the economy.

This could occur if inflation raged out of control or if the opposite problem ? deflation ? emerged. Deflation is a prolonged drop in wages, prices and the value of assets like stocks and houses.

The United States last suffered serious deflation during the Great Depression of the 1930s. But Fed policymakers think the risks of deflation can rise as inflation dips below 2 percent. They want to avoid following the path of Japan, which has struggled with weak growth and deflation for more than two decades.

Economists don't think the latest economic data will lead the Fed to step up the size of its bond purchases. But they say the figures should embolden the majority of officials who back Chairman Ben Bernanke's commitment to keep borrowing rates down until the economy shows sustained improvement ? as long as inflation stays low.

"The Fed can't wink, scratch its nose, wiggle its ears or do anything that would signal they are about to change policy from what they are doing now," says Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. "That would be totally premature."

Bethune says the Fed needs to be especially cautious in signaling any policy shift because the U.S. economy has been serving as a global engine of growth. Many European countries are still struggling to escape a recession that followed the region's debt crisis.

"Anything the Fed did that could disrupt things or create uncertainty could tip the whole global economy back into recession," Bethune says.

Few expect the central bank to start raising short-term rates before late 2015 or early 2016. And many economists think the Fed will keep buying $85 billion in bonds each month for the rest of this year, before starting to curtail its purchases in early 2014.

Still, some analysts say that if the economy emerges from a slowdown caused in part by the government cuts and starts accelerating, the Fed might taper its bond purchases by fall.

Whenever the Fed does decide to signal a potential pullback of its aggressive credit easing, after a long period of record-low rates, analysts say the shift could jolt investors.

"No one can predict how much financial market instability we are likely to get when the Fed finally begins pulling back," Jones says.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-30-US-Federal-Reserve/id-609d8554c14f483792255bcc3715d91d

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Researchers successfully treat autism in infants: Playing games that infants prefer can lessen severity of symptoms

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Most infants respond to a game of peek-a-boo with smiles at the very least, and, for those who find the activity particularly entertaining, gales of laughter. For infants with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), however, the game can be distressing rather than pleasant, and they'll do their best to tune out all aspects of it -- and that includes the people playing with them.

That disengagement is a hallmark of ASD, and one of the characteristics that amplifies the disorder as infants develop into children and then adults.

A study conducted by researchers at the Koegel Autism Center at UC Santa Barbara has found that replacing such games in favor of those the infant prefers can actually lessen the severity of the infants' ASD symptoms, and, perhaps, alleviate the condition altogether. Their work is highlighted the current issue of the Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions.

Lynn Koegel, clinical director of the center and the study's lead author, described the game-playing protocol as a modified Pivotal Response Treatment (PVT). Developed at UCSB, PRT is based on principles of positive motivation. The researchers identified the activities that seemed to be more enjoyable to the infants and taught the respective parents to focus on those rather than on the typical games they might otherwise choose. "We had them play with their infants for short periods, and then give them some kind of social reward," Koegel said. "Over time, we conditioned the infants to enjoy all the activities that were presented by pairing the less desired activities with the highly desired ones." The social reward is preferable to, say, a toy, Koegel noted, because it maintains the ever-crucial personal interaction.

"The idea is to get them more interested in people," she continued, "to focus on their socialization. If they're avoiding people and avoiding interacting, that creates a whole host of other issues. They don't form friendships, and then they don't get the social feedback that comes from interacting with friends."

According to Koegel, by the end of the relatively short one- to three-month intervention period, which included teaching the parents how to implement the procedures, all the infants in the study had normal reactions to stimuli. "Two of the three have no disabilities at all, and the third is very social," she said. "The third does have a language delay, but that's more manageable than some of the other issues."

On a large scale, Koegel hopes to establish some benchmark for identifying social deficits in infants so parents and health care providers can intervene sooner rather than later. "We have a grant from the Autism Science Foundation to look at lots of babies and try to really figure out which signs are red flags, and which aren't," she said. "A number of the infants who show signs of autism will turn out to be perfectly fine; but we're saying, let's not take the risk if we can put an intervention in play that really works. Then we don't have to worry about whether or not these kids would develop the full-blown symptoms of autism."

Historically, ASD is diagnosed in children 18 months or older, and treatment generally begins around 4 years. "You can pretty reliably diagnose kids at 18 months, especially the more severe cases," said Koegel. "The mild cases might be a little harder, especially if the child has some verbal communication. There are a few measures -- like the ones we used in our study -- that can diagnose kids pre-language, even as young as six months. But ours was the first that worked with children under 12 months and found an effective intervention."

Given the increasing number of children being diagnosed with ASD, Koegel's findings could be life altering -- literally. "When you consider that the recommended intervention for preschoolers with autism is 30 to 40 hours per week of one-on-one therapy, this is a fairly easy fix," she said. "We did a single one-hour session per week for four to 12 weeks until the symptoms improved, and some of these infants were only a few months old. We saw a lot of positive change."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Barbara.

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Journal Reference:

  1. L. K. Koegel, A. K. Singh, R. L. Koegel, J. R. Hollingsworth, J. Bradshaw. Assessing and Improving Early Social Engagement in Infants. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/1098300713482977

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Sre2VwSLjIQ/130430092511.htm

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Over-diagnosis and over-treatment of depression is common in the US

Over-diagnosis and over-treatment of depression is common in the US [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Americans are over-diagnosed and over-treated for depression, according to a new study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study examines adults with clinician-identified depression and individuals who experienced major depressive episodes within a 12-month period. It found that when assessed for major depressive episodes using a structured interview, only 38.4 percent of adults with clinician-identified depression met the 12-month criteria for depression, despite the majority of participants being prescribed and using psychiatric medications. The results are featured in the April 2013 issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

"Depression over-diagnosis and over-treatment is common in the U.S. and frankly the numbers are staggering," said Ramin J. Mojtabai, PhD, author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "Among study participants who were 65 years old or older with clinician-identified depression, 6 out of every 7 did not meet the 12-month major-depressive-episodes criteria. While participants who did not meet the criteria used significantly fewer services and treatment contacts, the majority of both groups used prescription psychiatric medication."

Using a sample of 5,639 participants from the 2009-2010 United States National Survey of Drug Use and Health, Mojtabai assessed clinician-identified depression based on questions about conditions that the participants were told they had by a doctor or other medical professional in the past 12 months. The study indicates that even among participants without a lifetime history of major or minor depression, a majority reported having taken prescription psychiatric medications.

"A number of factors likely contribute to the high false-positive rate of depression diagnosis in community settings, including the relatively low prevalence of depression in these settings, clinicians' uncertainty about the diagnostic criteria and the ambiguity regarding sub-threshold syndromes," said Mojtabai. "Previous evidence has highlighted the under-diagnosis and under-treatment of major depression in community settings. The new data suggest that the under-diagnosis and under-treatment of many who are in need of treatment occurs in conjunction with the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of others who do not need such treatment. There is a need for improved targeting of diagnosis and treatment of depression and other mental disorders in these settings."

###

"Clinician-Identified Depression in Community Settings: Concordance with Structured-Interview Diagnoses," was written by Ramin J. Mojtabai.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Over-diagnosis and over-treatment of depression is common in the US [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Natalie Wood-Wright
nwoodwri@jhsph.edu
410-614-6029
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Americans are over-diagnosed and over-treated for depression, according to a new study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study examines adults with clinician-identified depression and individuals who experienced major depressive episodes within a 12-month period. It found that when assessed for major depressive episodes using a structured interview, only 38.4 percent of adults with clinician-identified depression met the 12-month criteria for depression, despite the majority of participants being prescribed and using psychiatric medications. The results are featured in the April 2013 issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

"Depression over-diagnosis and over-treatment is common in the U.S. and frankly the numbers are staggering," said Ramin J. Mojtabai, PhD, author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "Among study participants who were 65 years old or older with clinician-identified depression, 6 out of every 7 did not meet the 12-month major-depressive-episodes criteria. While participants who did not meet the criteria used significantly fewer services and treatment contacts, the majority of both groups used prescription psychiatric medication."

Using a sample of 5,639 participants from the 2009-2010 United States National Survey of Drug Use and Health, Mojtabai assessed clinician-identified depression based on questions about conditions that the participants were told they had by a doctor or other medical professional in the past 12 months. The study indicates that even among participants without a lifetime history of major or minor depression, a majority reported having taken prescription psychiatric medications.

"A number of factors likely contribute to the high false-positive rate of depression diagnosis in community settings, including the relatively low prevalence of depression in these settings, clinicians' uncertainty about the diagnostic criteria and the ambiguity regarding sub-threshold syndromes," said Mojtabai. "Previous evidence has highlighted the under-diagnosis and under-treatment of major depression in community settings. The new data suggest that the under-diagnosis and under-treatment of many who are in need of treatment occurs in conjunction with the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of others who do not need such treatment. There is a need for improved targeting of diagnosis and treatment of depression and other mental disorders in these settings."

###

"Clinician-Identified Depression in Community Settings: Concordance with Structured-Interview Diagnoses," was written by Ramin J. Mojtabai.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/jhub-oao043013.php

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Is This Tiny Tank the Comfiest Wheelchair Ever?

It might look like a one-seat sofa capable of traversing almost any terrain on the planet, but this compact electric vehicle is actually designed to be a highly maneuverable and comfortable alternative to a traditional wheelchair. You won't ever see it cruising down sidewalks, but one day they might be crawling all over hospitals.

The treads allow the Unimo to easily tackle six-inch steps, and with a zero turning radius it can even spin itself around inside an elevator. The EV's seat automatically adjusts its angle when the tiny tank is rolling down an inclined slope so the passenger always feels secure. And in terms of speed it maxes out at just under four miles per hour, keeping hospital pileups to a minimum. [Nano-Optonics Energy via Tech-On!]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/is-this-tiny-tank-the-comfiest-wheelchair-ever-485804786

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'Iron Man 3' rules world, 'Pain & Gain' takes US

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "Iron Man 3" is the heavy-lifter at theaters with a colossal overseas debut that overshadows a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.

The superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets.

Sunday studio estimates show director Michael Bay's true-crime tale "Pain & Gain" muscled into first-place domestically with a $20 million debut.

The movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie knocked off Tom Cruise's sci-fi adventure "Oblivion" after a week in the No. 1 spot. "Oblivion" slipped to second-place with $17.4 million, raising its domestic total to $64.7 million.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iron-man-3-rules-world-pain-gain-takes-155428061.html

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Explosion shakes Prague

Rescue workers and firefighters search the area after an explosion in Prague April 29, 2013. The explosion in central Prague on Monday, probably caused by gas, injured as many as 40 people, officials ... more?Rescue workers and firefighters search the area after an explosion in Prague April 29, 2013. The explosion in central Prague on Monday, probably caused by gas, injured as many as 40 people, officials said, and neighbouring buildings - including the National Theatre - had to be evacuated. REUTERS/Petr Josek (CZECH REPUBLIC - Tags: DISASTER) less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/explosion-shakes-prague-slideshow/

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New devices said to debut at WWDC, but no iPhone 5S in sight

MacBook Air MacBook Pro WWDC

While software is expected to take center stage at Apple?s WWDC keynote this year, a new report claims that we?ll still see some new hardware debut on June 10th in San Francisco. WWDC 2013 tickets sold out in under 3 minutes as excitement among developers boiled over, and all eyes are on iOS 7, which is expected to feature the first major user interface design overhaul iOS has ever seen. We?re not expecting any new iPhones or iPads to debut on stage at WWDC, however. Instead, KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo reports that Apple will unveil several new MacBook computers at WWDC alongside a new version of OS X that should also be shown off during the show.

[More from BGR: Samsung Galaxy S4 review]

In a research note picked up by MacRumors, Ming-chi mirrors an earlier report from Digitimes suggesting that Apple has some new notebooks in store of Q2 debuts, but they will be modest upgrades without any big changes.

[More from BGR: Cheaper iPad mini reportedly on the way]

According to the analyst, Apple will unveil new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops that are powered by?Intel?s latest Haswell processors. The bad news, however, is that the new MacBook Air is not expected to feature an upgraded Retina display, as had previously been reported.

?Contrary to our previous projection, we now think Apple will continue to make the MacBook Pro alongside the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro because the 13? MacBook Pro remains the most popular product in the MacBook line,? Ming-chi wrote.??Also, there is still demand in emerging markets, where Internet penetration isn?t advanced, for optical disk drives.?

According to the report, the new laptops will begin shipping soon after they are unveiled at WWDC 2013.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/devices-said-debut-wwdc-no-iphone-5s-sight-132021353.html

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সোমবার, ২৯ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

OpenMobile ACL for webOS resurrected on Kickstarter, hopes to bring Android apps to HP Touchpad

OpenMobile ACL for webOS resurrected on Kickstarter, hopes to bring Android apps to HP Touchpad

The promise of OpenMobile's Application Compatibility Layer is enticing: seamlessly run Android apps on another operating system as if it was meant to be there. Unfortunately for fans of Palm's last hurrah, the project's webOS port died with the HP Touchpad. That won't stop dedicated fans, however -- Phoenix International Communications plans to resurrect webOS ACL. Taking the project to Kickstarter, the team is showing an early build on an HP Touchpad, seamlessly running Android apps in cards alongside native webOS applications. Phoenix hopes that a functional ACL will reduce Touchpad owner's reliance on dual-booting Android, giving them the freedom to enjoy webOS without sacrificing functionality. The team is promising a relatively short development time, thanks to OpenMobile's early work, and hopes to deliver a consumer ready build in July. But first the Kickstarter campaign will need to meet its $35,000 goal. Interested in pitching in? Check out the Kickstarter link at the source.

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Source: Kickstarter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/openmobile-acl-for-webos-resurrected-on-kickstarter/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Euro mayors try to keep youths from going to Syria

Mayor of Mechelen Bart Somers speaks to the Associated Press after early morning police raids took place in the city of Mechelen, Belgium on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Belgian police have conducted early morning searches at numerous locations regarding the recruitment of fighters to help rebels trying to overthrow Syrian leader Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Mayor of Mechelen Bart Somers speaks to the Associated Press after early morning police raids took place in the city of Mechelen, Belgium on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Belgian police have conducted early morning searches at numerous locations regarding the recruitment of fighters to help rebels trying to overthrow Syrian leader Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Mayor of Mechelen Bart Somers speaks to the Associated Press after early morning police raids took place in the city of Mechelen, Belgium on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Belgian police have conducted early morning searches at numerous locations regarding the recruitment of fighters to help rebels trying to overthrow Syrian leader Bashar Assad. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

(AP) ? From his city hall under Belgium's most imposing cathedral, Mayor Bart Somers is wracking his brains trying to figure out how to keep young Muslims from going to fight "holy war" in Syria against the Assad regime.

Through much of western Europe, scores of Islamic youths have heeded the call to take up arms for a cause that is only a few hours away by plane. The phenomenon has alarmed authorities amid signs that the insurgency is becoming increasingly radicalized, with strong infiltration by al-Qaida. European authorities see a double danger, one that's summed up by Somers who describes the youths as "cannon fodder" in Syria ? and potential "full-blown terrorists" if they make it back home alive.

But it all raises a conundrum: In a free society, how can you prevent these young people from packing up and leaving?

"The major challenge of each democrat is to see what we can do in the fight against fundamentalism without sacrificing our own democratic laws," said Somers. "Otherwise we play into the hands of the terrorists."

That dilemma was again put to the test two weeks ago when Belgian authorities organized a major anti-terror sweep seeking to weed out agitators inciting young Muslims to fight against the Assad regime. In a high-profile raid of four dozen homes, police put six people behind bars, raising criticism among some that they had overstepped their bounds by infringing on freedom of speech.

In the Brussels municipality of Schaarbeek, the mayor even banned a soup kitchen for the needy, among them young Muslims, fearful that the charity workers were inciting youths to fight in Syria. The action came after two Muslim schoolboys disappeared, apparently to Syria ? departures that Mayor Bernard Clerfayt linked to soup kitchen recruitment.

There have been mounting calls to confiscate passports from youths who seem on the verge of leaving, something that many civil libertarians criticize as an anti-democratic restriction on movement.

Those who do go to fight often leave behind distraught parents. At least one Belgian father went to look for his son, to no avail. Concerned families seek any help to prevent the outflow of young people to Syria.

"We do not want people to go, especially the young men," said Abu Yamen, a Syrian who runs the El Rass pharmacy in Schaarbeek.

But the daily suffering shown on television can push the young into extreme, foolhardy decisions, mayor Somers said. The fighting has exacted a huge toll on the country, killing more than 70,000 people, laying waste to cities, towns and villages, and forcing more than a million people to seek refuge abroad. It has all created an opportunity for al-Qaida to win new converts to its cause, as the hardcore Syrian regime has also tried to present itself as one of the Middle East's most secular.

Insurgencies in Iraq and Libya also attracted foreign fighters. What is different in Syria is the extent to which fears are rising of the rebellion being hijacked by radical Islamist elements under the thumb of al-Qaida.

At Friday prayers in Brussels, Sheikh Mohamed El Tamamy has sought to discourage youths from leaving. "Some of these youngsters think that is jihad, when youngsters go from Belgium or Holland to Syria," he said. "But in truth, jihad in Islam has conditions and rules. For jihad, you must get permission from the authorities."

Many Europeans, however, fear fighters coming back more than volunteers heading to Syria.

The EU's law enforcement agency, Europol, said in the EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report it published last Friday that returning fighters "have the potential to utilize their training, combat experience, knowledge and contacts for terrorist activities inside the EU."

The International Centre for the Study of Radicalization, an international group of five major academic institutions, estimates that up to 590 Europeans have left, accounting for about 10 percent of the foreign fighter total in Syria. Europol said Friday that in 2012, "Syria emerged as a destination of choice for foreign fighters."

This month's bombings at the Boston Marathon reinforced Europe's fears about youths leaving the West to be radicalized overseas, and coming back to carry out attacks. U.S. authorities are investigating whether one of the suspects, ethnic Chechen Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was influenced by religious extremists when he spent six months in Russia's Caucasus in 2012.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after a meeting with his Belgian counterpart, Didier Reynders, that "we just had a young person who went to Russia and Chechnya who blew people up in Boston. So he didn't stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a willingness to kill people."

It's a trajectory that some Europeans fear carries parallels to the youths traveling to Syria to fight in the insurgency.

"We have to follow them to protect our society," said Reynders. "We have a real terrorist risk because of such behavior."

In the neighboring Netherlands, anxiety has spread to the historic city of Delft, until recently known for its blue-and-white pottery, canals, and burial site of kings and queens. Now, you can add suspected jihadists as well.

In the Netherlands, as in Belgium, there has been alarm over some Muslim youths leaving for Syria, with estimated departures going as high as 100. "It was known that some Delft youngsters were radicalizing," Delft mayor Bas Verkerk wrote to his city council, after unconfirmed reports that two fighters from Delft had died.

And last month the nation raised its terror alert to "substantial," with the terrorism coordinator citing "signs of youngsters radicalizing in the Netherlands and the increased number of jihad travelers to Syria."

As a liberal, Somers is hesitant to choose between freedom and added security and intrusion into people's lives. But he is also sensitive to the need for strong surveillance ? and is seeking compromises.

Somers says he wants security personnel to be "the eyes and ears in our cities" to see who plans to leave ? "and then we try to influence him in a positive way."

"We try it with the police and the secret service. We try to find out who is behind those people," he said. Somers is now coordinating surveillance and outreach efforts with the mayors of Antwerp and Vilvoorde, which is close to Brussels.

But some human rights organizations argue that fundamental rights are being trampled in the process.

"We are talking about views that these youngsters hold, and you cannot change opinions with a repressive approach," said Jos Vander Velpen, the chairman of the Belgian League of Human Rights. "To the contrary, they will become even more convinced, and win more status because of it."

___

AP videojournalists Bishr Eltouni and Mark Carlson contributed to this article.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-29-Europe-Syria%20Fighters/id-a2879414802247a2bba979eb54b3bcae

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Fish win fights on strength of personality

Monday, April 29, 2013

When predicting the outcome of a fight, the big guy doesn't always win suggests new research on fish. Scientists at the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University found that when fish fight over food, it is personality, rather than size, that determines whether they will be victorious. The findings suggest that when resources are in short supply personality traits such as aggression could be more important than strength when it comes to survival.

The study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, found that small fish were able to do well in contests for food against larger fish provided they were aggressive. Regardless of their initial size, it was the fish that tended to have consistently aggressive behaviour - or personalities - that repeatedly won food and as a result put on weight.

Dr Alastair Wilson from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: "We wondered if we were witnessing a form of Napoleon, or small man, syndrome. Certainly our study indicates that small fish with an aggressive personality are capable of defeating their larger, more passive counterparts when it comes to fights over food. The research suggests that personality can have far reaching implications for life and survival."

The sheepshead swordtail fish (Xiphophorus birchmanni) fish were placed in pairs in a fish tank, food was added and their behaviour was captured on film. The feeding contest trials were carried out with both male and female fish. The researchers found that while males regularly attacked their opponent to win the food, females were much less aggressive and rarely attacked.

In animals, personality is considered to be behaviour that is repeatedly observed under certain conditions. Major aspects of personality such as shyness or aggressiveness have previously been characterised and are thought to have important ecological significance. There is also evidence to suggest that certain aspects of personality can be inherited. Further work on whether winning food through aggression could ultimately improve reproductive success will shed light on the heritability of personality traits.

###

University of Exeter: http://www.exeter.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Exeter for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127971/Fish_win_fights_on_strength_of_personality

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Mississippi man charged with attempted use of biological weapon

By Robbie Ward

TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - A Mississippi martial arts instructor was charged on Saturday with attempting to use a biological weapon after a ricin-laced letter was sent to President Barack Obama earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

James Everett Dutschke, age 41, was arrested early on Saturday, following searches of his home and a former business as part of the ricin letter investigation.

Dutschke was taken into custody by FBI agents at his Tupelo home shortly after midnight FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said in a statement.

He was later charged with "acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent ... ricin, and with attempting, threatening and conspiring" to use it as a weapon, according to a joint announcement by Felicia C. Adams, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, and Daniel McMullen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Mississippi.

If convicted, Dutschke faces maximum possible penalties of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

The announcement did not specify if Dutsche was being charged in relation to the ricin letters, but it said the investigation had been conducted jointly by several federal agencies including the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U. S. Capitol Police.

Dutschke is expected to appear in the United States District Court in Oxford, Mississippi, on Monday.

U.S. prosecutors dropped charges on Tuesday against another Mississippi man, Elvis impersonator Kevin Curtis, who was released from jail after a search of his home in nearby Corinth revealed no incriminating evidence.

Prosecutors said at the time that the investigation had "revealed new information" but provided no details.

Dutschke's attorney, Lori Basham, did not return calls seeking comment but she told Reuters earlier in the week that her client denied having anything to do with the ricin letters.

Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police, as well as members of an anti-terrorist response team from the Mississippi National Guard, some wearing hazardous material suits, had searched Dutschke's home on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the premises of a former martial arts studio Dutschke ran in the city.

Dutschke was cooperating with federal officials during the searches this week, the attorney said.

Agents in unmarked vehicles were stationed in streets surrounding Dutschke's home on Friday afternoon and all evening. He was arrested at 12:50 a.m. CDT (0150 EST), the FBI said.

Letters addressed to President Barack Obama and Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, were retrieved last week at off-site mail facilities before reaching their intended victims. A Mississippi state judge also received a ricin-laced letter.

The discovery added another layer of anxiety as authorities were already dealing with bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Ricin, which is made from castor beans, can be deadly to humans and is considered a potential terror weapon, particularly if refined into an aerosol form.

The case has brought extra scrutiny on the FBI almost 12 years after a 2001 letter-borne anthrax attack that killed five people and took seven years to solve. The anthrax investigation also came in the wake of the September 11, 2001, hijacked plane attack on the United States.

RUNNING FEUD

Dutschke's name first surfaced in a federal court hearing on Monday for Curtis where his attorney suggested her client had been framed by someone. She mentioned a running feud between Dutschke and Curtis, albeit over a number of seemingly petty issues.

Suspicion had originally fallen on Curtis because of wording contained in all three ricin letters.

"Maybe I have your attention now / Even if that means someone must die," the letters read in part, according to the affidavit. The letters ended: "I am KC and I approve this message."

The mention of "KC" led law enforcement officials to ask Wicker's staff if they were aware of any constituents with those initials, and the focus of the investigation then turned to Curtis, according to an affidavit from the FBI and the Secret Service.

In 2007, Dutschke ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate against Stephen Holland, an incumbent Democratic state representative from the Tupelo area. Holland's mother, Sadie, is the judge to whom one of the ricin-tainted letters was mailed this month.

Dutschke has told local media that he knew Curtis but had only had contact with him three times, and not since 2010.

Curtis, 45, told the Northeastern Mississippi Daily Journal that he believed Dutschke deliberately sabotaged his career as a performer by calling sponsors and telling them about Curtis' numerous prior arrests. "I lost 12 really big shows in 2011 and eight in 2012 directly linked to him," Curtis told the newspaper.

Dutschke is also musical and fronted a two-man blues band in Tupelo called RoboDrum.

"MISSING PIECES"

Curtis's brother and fellow Elvis impersonator, insurance agent Jack Curtis, worked for a time with Dutschke and says he believes the feud with Dutschke is related to his brother's efforts to publicize allegations about a black market for body parts at a local Mississippi hospital.

Kevin Curtis was fired as a janitor from North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after raising questions about body parts he said he observed there. The hospital strongly denied the allegations.

Dutschke faces other charges related to an April 1 indictment for fondling three different children between ages 7 and 16, from 2007 to 2013, according to court records. He was released on $25,000 bond in that case.

One of Dutschke's alleged child molestation victims was 7 years old at the time and was a female student in his tae kwon do class, court documents show.

(Additional reporting by Emily Lane in Jackson, Mississippi; Writing by David Adams; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-man-targeted-ricin-letters-investigation-arrested-145219248.html

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Employment data will cap off busy week on Wall Street

The Federal Reserve is expected to repeat its dovish message in the coming week, providing a potential safety net for markets facing a wave of earnings and the important April jobs report.

Dozens of S&P 500 companies report in a heavy week of earnings, which includes names like Facebook, General Motors, MasterCard and major drug companies, Merck and Pfizer.

There is also a sizable economic calendar,with ISM manufacturing data in the U.S. Wednesday, and PMI manufacturing reports for the euro zone and China on Thursday. The week ends with Friday's U.S. employment report, expected to show 150,000 new nonfarm payrolls in April, according to Thomson Reuters.

While no fresh news is expected when the Fed issues its post-meeting statement Wednesday, markets are on high alert for a possible quarter-point rate cut from the European Central Bank Thursday.

"It could be wild. It's the first week in a couple where we shift our focus to the macro," said Art Hogan of Lazard Capital Markets. "We've got PMI, the ECB, the Fed meeting and the job number. All of that could steal the show. On top of that, we have a huge parade of earnings."

The Fed is expected to reaffirm that it will continue with its quantitative easing policy, or asset purchases. It may tweak its comments to reflect a weaker economy. But there is unlikely to be any talk of "tapering" off of the Fed's $85 billion in monthly Treasury and mortgage securities purchases,which had been raised by some Fed members.

"They're in a watchful, waiting mode right now, waiting to see if the summer swoon is upon us, or whether there will be a break of the trend," said Tony Crescenzi, strategist with Pimco. "That will determine whether there's going to be talk of tapering."

(Read More: Jim Cramer: Mid-Week Selloff Ahead? )

"We're going to have to watch the payroll numbers in particular and the performance of labor-market indicators," he said, adding investors will also be watching for clues several weeks later when the meeting minutes are released. The Fed has made it clear it will base its decisions on policy moves on the economy and employment, in particular.

Stocks were higher in the past week, recovering much of the losses of the prior week. The Dow gained 1.1 percent, to finish at 14,712, and the S&P 500 gained 1.7 percent, ending at 1582 while the Nasdaq rose 2.3 percent to 3,279. The worse performing sectors were the defensive ones, which have been leading the market higher. Telecom was down a half percent. Consumer staples was off 0.4 percent and the healthcare sector was down 0.2 percent.

Analysts have been expecting a stock-market correction, but Hogan said the market may be experiencing sector corrections instead and is consolidating through sideways trading. "What we saw this week was a lot of safety plays corrected,"he said.

Commodities markets also gained in the past week, after a big sell off the week before. Gold was up 4.2 percent and West Texas Intermediate crude was up more than 5 percent.

Richard Bernstein of Richard Bernstein Capital Management said the commodities correction is a positive for stocks. "That is a reflection of what you saw in terms of rotation in large caps in the first quarter. The rest of the world is weakening more than people think," he said. But it is a positive for the U.S., as prices for things like gasoline fall, providing a break for consumers.

Bernstein said he remains bullish on the stock market. "We had a string of really good economic numbers for a while. Now we're getting a string of kind of 'eh' numbers. The big thing is that the economy continues to improve. I don' think there's been too much data that says the economy is deteriorating. It's a question of how rapidly or slowly it's decelerating," he said. The latest piece of data to disappoint, was the first-quarter GDP report,which at 2.5 percent was softer than the 3-percent growth expected.

(Read More:The Economy May Stink, but the Market Doesn't Care)

Crescenzi said the market is used to deteriorating economic data in the spring, as it has in the past three years, but this spring should be a bit better.

"Markets are expecting weakness," he said. "For markets to be affected by the seasonal swoon, the data would need to even worse than in the last few years. The weakness would have to intensify for the 'risk off' mentality to surface." But if no summer rebound materializes, as expected, that would be a big negative for markets.

Bernstein said he's fairly optimistic about the stock market. "The most important question is are corporate profits going to improve from here or not, and everything we look at says, they're going to improve. It looks to us like the trough in the growth rate in corporate earnings could be now," he said. He had previously expected earnings to trough in the second quarter.

So far, about half the S&P 500 companies have reported and 69 percent are beating earnings estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data. The revenue numbers in the first quarter have been surprisingly weak, with 58 percent of companies missing forecasts.

"As long as people worry about the economic numbers, and as long as people worry about volatility, that's what bull markets are all about. It's when people are confident the market is going up and people are confident the economy is ripping, that's when I worry about the market," he said.

What to Watch

Monday

8:30 am: Personal Income

10:00 am: Pending home sales

10:30 am: Dallas Fed survey

Tuesday

Fed meeting begins

9:00 am: S&P/Case-Shiller home price index

10:00 am: Consumer confidence

Wednesday

May Day

Monthly auto sales

8:15 am: ADP employment

10:00 am: ISM manufacturing

2:15 pm: Fed statement

Thursday

Chain store sales

7:30 am: Challenger layoff report

8:30 am: International trade

8:30 am: Productivity and costs

Friday

8:30 am: Employment report

10:00 am: Factory orders

10:00 am: ISM nonmanufacturing

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2b45605f/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cemployment0Edata0Ewill0Ecap0Ebusy0Eweek0Ewall0Estreet0E6C9640A0A0A2/story01.htm

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Kentucky woman ordained as priest by dissident Roman Catholics

John Sommers / Reuters

Ordaining Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan (C) presents Rosemarie Smead (R), a 70-year-old Kentucky woman, to the audience after she was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest during a Celebration of Ordination at St. Andrew's United Church of Christ in Louisville, Kentucky April 27, 2013.

By Sofia Perpetua, NBC News

A dissident Roman Catholic group ordained a 70-year-old woman a priest in Louisville, Kentucky, during a ceremony attended by hundreds on Saturday.

About 150 women from all over the world have been ordained in defiance of the Roman Catholic Church that bans them from becoming priests.

Rosemarie Smead will be starting her own congregation and she told Reuters she is not worried about being excommunicated.

"It is a medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent,? she said. ?I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."

Smead, a former Carmelite nun with a bachelor's in theology and a doctorate in counseling psychology, wept throughout the ceremony.

According to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, seventy percent of U.S. Catholics believe women should be allowed to be priests.

In a statement last week, Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz called the planned ceremony by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests a "simulated ordination" in opposition to Catholic teaching.

"The simulation of a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics should not support or participate in Saturday's event," Kurtz said.

Reuters contributed to this story

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b479a89/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C280C179592150Ekentucky0Ewoman0Eordained0Eas0Epriest0Eby0Edissident0Eroman0Ecatholics0Dlite/story01.htm

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Oil falls below $93 after US growth falls short

BANGKOK (AP) ? The price of oil extended losses Monday, falling below $93 a barrel after U.S. economic growth fell short of expectations.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 31 cents to $92.69 a barrel at midafternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 64 cents to close at $93 in New York on Friday.

U.S. economic growth accelerated to an annual rate of 2.5 percent from January through March from an anemic pace in the previous quarter. But the markets were expecting growth of 3 percent or better.

The U.S. figure followed a slowdown in China's economic growth in the first quarter, raising questions about demand in the world's biggest oil-consuming countries. Manufacturing growth in China is also slowing.

At the same time, oil supplies and production are ample, adding to pressure for the oil price to fall.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline was down 0.8 cent at $2.819 a gallon.

? Heating oil fell 0.3 cents to $2.863 a gallon.

? Natural gas added 3.9 cents to $4.262.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-falls-below-93-us-growth-falls-short-073341205.html

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Protesters march against first British drone base

LONDON (AP) ? Anti-war protesters are demonstrating outside a Royal Air Force base used to control drone flights over Afghanistan.

Until this week, British drones were operated only from a U.S. Air Force base in Nevada.

The Ministry of Defense announced Thursday that a new drone-operating squadron had begun operating from RAF Waddington in eastern England.

The ministry says the Reaper drones are used for "intelligence and surveillance missions," but also are equipped with missiles and bombs.

Opponents who are marching Saturday say drones make it too easy to launch deadly attacks from a distance and out of public sight.

The defense ministry says drone operators "adhere strictly to the same laws of armed conflict and are bound by the same clearly defined rules of engagement" as other RAF pilots.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/protesters-march-against-first-british-drone-133618292.html

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Grocery delivery service is greener than driving to the store

Grocery delivery service is greener than driving to the store [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Michelle Ma
mcma@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research shows it's also much more environmentally friendly to leave the car parked and opt for groceries delivered to your doorstep.

University of Washington engineers have found that using a grocery delivery service can cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least half when compared with individual household trips to the store. Trucks filled to capacity that deliver to customers clustered in neighborhoods produced the most savings in carbon dioxide emissions.

"A lot of times people think they have to inconvenience themselves to be greener, and that actually isn't the case here," said Anne Goodchild, UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "From an environmental perspective, grocery delivery services overwhelmingly can provide emissions reductions."

Consumers have increasingly more grocery delivery services to choose from. AmazonFresh operates in the Seattle area, while Safeway's service is offered in many U.S. cities. FreshDirect delivers to residences and offices in the New York City area. Last month, Google unveiled a shopping delivery service experiment in the San Francisco Bay Area, and UW alumni recently launched the grocery service Geniusdelivery in Seattle.

As companies continue to weigh the costs and benefits of offering a delivery service, Goodchild and Erica Wygonik, a UW doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, looked at whether using a grocery delivery service was better for the environment, with Seattle as a test case. In their analysis, they found delivery service trucks produced 20 to 75 percent less carbon dioxide than the corresponding personal vehicles driven to and from a grocery store.

They also discovered significant savings for companies 80 to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emitted if they delivered based on routes that clustered customers together, instead of catering to individual household requests for specific delivery times.

"What's good for the bottom line of the delivery service provider is generally going to be good for the environment, because fuel is such a big contributor to operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions," Wygonik said. "Saving fuel saves money, which also saves on emissions."

The research was funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation and published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.

The UW researchers compiled Seattle and King County data, assuming that every household was a possible delivery-service customer. Then, they randomly drew a portion of those households from that data to identify customers and assign them to their closest grocery store. This allowed them to reach across the entire city, without bias toward factors such as demographics and income level.

They used an Environmental Protection Agency modeling tool to calculate emissions at a much more detailed level than previous studies have done. Using factors such as vehicle type, speed and roadway type, they calculated the carbon dioxide produced for every mile for every vehicle.

Emissions reductions were seen across both the densest parts and more suburban areas of Seattle. This suggests that grocery delivery in rural areas could lower carbon dioxide production quite dramatically.

"We tend to think of grocery delivery services as benefiting urban areas, but they have really significant potential to offset the environmental impacts of personal shopping in rural areas as well," Wygonik said.

Work commuters are offered a number of incentives to reduce traffic on the roads through discounted transit fares, vanpools and carpooling options. Given the emissions reductions possible through grocery delivery services, the research raises the question of whether government or industry leaders should consider incentives for consumers to order their groceries online and save on trips to the store, Goodchild said.

In the future, Goodchild and Wygonik plan to look at the influence of customers combining their grocery shopping with a work commute trip and the impact of the delivery service's home-base location on emissions.

###

For more information, contact Goodchild at annegood@uw.edu or 206-543-3747.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Grocery delivery service is greener than driving to the store [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Michelle Ma
mcma@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research shows it's also much more environmentally friendly to leave the car parked and opt for groceries delivered to your doorstep.

University of Washington engineers have found that using a grocery delivery service can cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least half when compared with individual household trips to the store. Trucks filled to capacity that deliver to customers clustered in neighborhoods produced the most savings in carbon dioxide emissions.

"A lot of times people think they have to inconvenience themselves to be greener, and that actually isn't the case here," said Anne Goodchild, UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "From an environmental perspective, grocery delivery services overwhelmingly can provide emissions reductions."

Consumers have increasingly more grocery delivery services to choose from. AmazonFresh operates in the Seattle area, while Safeway's service is offered in many U.S. cities. FreshDirect delivers to residences and offices in the New York City area. Last month, Google unveiled a shopping delivery service experiment in the San Francisco Bay Area, and UW alumni recently launched the grocery service Geniusdelivery in Seattle.

As companies continue to weigh the costs and benefits of offering a delivery service, Goodchild and Erica Wygonik, a UW doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering, looked at whether using a grocery delivery service was better for the environment, with Seattle as a test case. In their analysis, they found delivery service trucks produced 20 to 75 percent less carbon dioxide than the corresponding personal vehicles driven to and from a grocery store.

They also discovered significant savings for companies 80 to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emitted if they delivered based on routes that clustered customers together, instead of catering to individual household requests for specific delivery times.

"What's good for the bottom line of the delivery service provider is generally going to be good for the environment, because fuel is such a big contributor to operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions," Wygonik said. "Saving fuel saves money, which also saves on emissions."

The research was funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation and published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.

The UW researchers compiled Seattle and King County data, assuming that every household was a possible delivery-service customer. Then, they randomly drew a portion of those households from that data to identify customers and assign them to their closest grocery store. This allowed them to reach across the entire city, without bias toward factors such as demographics and income level.

They used an Environmental Protection Agency modeling tool to calculate emissions at a much more detailed level than previous studies have done. Using factors such as vehicle type, speed and roadway type, they calculated the carbon dioxide produced for every mile for every vehicle.

Emissions reductions were seen across both the densest parts and more suburban areas of Seattle. This suggests that grocery delivery in rural areas could lower carbon dioxide production quite dramatically.

"We tend to think of grocery delivery services as benefiting urban areas, but they have really significant potential to offset the environmental impacts of personal shopping in rural areas as well," Wygonik said.

Work commuters are offered a number of incentives to reduce traffic on the roads through discounted transit fares, vanpools and carpooling options. Given the emissions reductions possible through grocery delivery services, the research raises the question of whether government or industry leaders should consider incentives for consumers to order their groceries online and save on trips to the store, Goodchild said.

In the future, Goodchild and Wygonik plan to look at the influence of customers combining their grocery shopping with a work commute trip and the impact of the delivery service's home-base location on emissions.

###

For more information, contact Goodchild at annegood@uw.edu or 206-543-3747.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uow-gd042613.php

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3 Taliban bombs target Pakistani politicians

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Taliban bombs targeting politicians in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday killed 11 people, the latest in a series of attacks meant to disrupt next month's parliamentary election, police said.

The wave of political violence has killed at least 60 people in recent weeks, and many of the attacks have been directed at candidates from secular parties opposed to the Taliban. That has raised concern the violence could benefit hard-line Islamic candidates and others who are more sympathetic to the Taliban because they are able to campaign more freely without fear of being of being attacked.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the three attacks, plus two others against secular parties in the southern port city of Karachi on Saturday that killed four people and wounded over 40.

"We are against all politicians who are going to become part of any secular, democratic government," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The first bomb on Sunday ripped through the campaign office of Syed Noor Akbar on the outskirts of Kohat city, killing six people and wounding 10, police officer Mujtaba Hussain said.

A second bomb targeted the office of another candidate, Nasir Khan Afridi, in the suburbs of Peshawar city. That attack killed three people and wounded 12, police officer Saifur Rehman said.

The politicians were not in their offices at the time of the blasts. They are both running as independent candidates for parliament to represent constituencies in Pakistan's rugged tribal region along the Afghan border, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country.

Many politicians running in the May 11 election from the tribal region have their offices located elsewhere and find it hard to campaign in their constituencies because of the danger. The two who were attacked Sunday are considered to hold relatively progressive views compared to the deeply conservative Islamic beliefs of many in the tribal region.

The third attack occurred in the town of Swabi, where a bomb went off during a small rally held by the Awami National Party, which has been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban. The blast killed two people and wounded five, said police officer Farooq Khan. The two candidates targeted in the attack, Ameer Rehman and Haji Rehman, were not hurt.

The Pakistani Taliban have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years that has killed thousands of civilians and security personnel. The group's goal is to oust Pakistan's democratic government and implement a system based on Islamic law.

In mid-March, the Taliban threatened attacks against three secular parties that have earned the militants' ire by supporting military operations against them in the northwest: the Awami National Party, the Muttahida Quami Movement and the Pakistan People's Party. The Taliban have carried out at least 20 attacks against politicians and campaign workers since then, mostly from these three parties.

The violence has forced the parties to close dozens of campaign offices and has prevented them from holding large political rallies that are normally the hallmark of Pakistani elections. Many of the candidates have had to find ways to campaign from a distance, relying more on social media, advertisements and even short documentaries to rally support.

That has put these candidates at a disadvantage, and many have complained the militant violence amounts to vote rigging.

Candidates from Islamic parties and others who have advocated negotiating peace with the militants rather than fighting them have been able to campaign with much less fear of being attacked.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, held a rally with several thousand people in the northern town of Murree on Sunday without incident. Many analysts predict Sharif's party will come out on top in the parliamentary election.

The Taliban issued a statement earlier this year requesting that Sharif and the heads of the country's two largest Islamic parties mediate peace negotiations. Sharif declined but said he was a supporter of the talks.

The parties that have been targeted by the Taliban also support peace negotiations with the militants, but only if they lay down their weapons and accept the constitution first ? conditions the militant group has rejected.

____

Associated Press Writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-taliban-bombs-target-pakistani-politicians-172732748.html

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