Bama bashes Notre Dame 42-14 in BCS title game


MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The coach no longer wears houndstooth. The result is the same. Another Alabama dynasty.


Quieting the Irish by the first play of the second quarter, Eddie Lacy, AJ McCarron and the No. 2 Crimson Tide rolled top-ranked Notre Dame 42-14 for the BCS championship Monday night, locking up a second straight national title and third in four years with another laugher of a title game.


The Bear would've been especially proud of this one — Nick Saban and the Tide romping to the second-biggest rout of the BCS era that began in 1999.


"We're going for it next year again," said Alabama offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandijo, only a sophomore but already the owner of two rings. "And again. And again. And again. I love to win. That's why I came here."


Lacy, the game's offensive MVP, ran for one touchdown and caught a pass for another in the final minute of the opening half. He spun away from the vaunted Notre Dame defense not once, but twice, to cap a 28-0 blitz before the bands even got on the field.


"They just did what Alabama does," moaned Manti Te'o, Notre Dame's star linebacker and Heisman Trophy finalist.


Lacy finished with 140 yards on 20 carries, coming up with two of his best performances in the two biggest games of the year. He rushed for a career-high 181 yards in a thrilling victory over Georgia in the SEC title game, and was nearly as dominant against the Irish. McCarron wasn't too shabby, either, completing 20 of 28 passes for four touchdowns and 264 yards, adding another dazzling effort on top of his MVP in last year's title game.


You could almost hear television sets around the country flipping to other channels, a hugely anticipated matchup between two of the nation's most storied programs reduced to nothing more than the second straight BCS blowout for the Crimson Tide.


"We've had a lot of really great football players who've worked really hard," Saban said. "Because we've had a great team, we've been able to have a significant amount of success."


Alabama (13-1) scored 69 straight points against its title game opponents, going back to getting the final 13 against Texas in 2010, followed by a stifling 21-0 victory over LSU for last year's crown, then scoring the first 35 points on Notre Dame. Saban's team made the Irish (12-1) look like a squad that would be hard-pressed to finish in the middle of the pack in the mighty Southeastern Conference, which has now won seven straight national championships.


The Crimson Tide wrapped up its ninth Associated Press national title, breaking a tie with Notre Dame for the most by any school and gaining a measure of redemption for a bitter loss to the Irish almost four decades ago: the epic Sugar Bowl in which Ara Parseghian's team edged Bear Bryant's powerhouse 24-23.


Bryant won five AP titles during his brilliant career. The way things are going, Saban might just chase him down.


The diminutive man with the perpetual scowl has guided Alabama to the top spot in the rankings three times since arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2007, and if he's serious about finishing his career with the job he has, there seems no reason he can't win a few more before he's done with "The Process."


Already, Saban is the first coach in the BCS era to win national titles at different schools, capturing his first at LSU during the 2003 season. Now, he's the first coach with back-to-back BCS titles, and given the youthfulness of his team, Alabama figures to go into next season as a heavy favorite.


In an interesting twist, Saban's fourth college title came in the stadium where he had the only stumble of his coaching career, a two-year tenure with the NFL's Miami Dolphins that ended ugly, with the coach insisting he wasn't planning to leave — then bolting for Alabama just two weeks later. His tactics may have been underhanded, but it's hard to argue with the call he made.


Before a record Sun Life Stadium crowd of 80,120 that definitely included more green than crimson, Lacy ran right through Te'o and the Irish on a 20-yard touchdown run before the game was 3 minutes old, capping an 82-yard drive that was longest of the season given up by the Fighting Irish.


It would only get worse. Alabama marched right down the field on its second possession, this one a 10-play, 61-yard pounding that finished with McCarron completely faking out the defense and lofting a 3-yard touchdown pass to Michael Williams, standing all alone in the back of the end zone.


On the first play of the second quarter, T.J. Yeldon powered over from the 1 to make it 21-0, the finish to another impressive drive — this one covering 80 yards — that included two long completions by McCarron. First, he went to Kevin Norwood on a 25-yard gain. Then, he hooked up with freshman Amari Cooper for a 27-yard gain to the Notre Dame 6.


By that point, it was clear to everyone that Notre Dame's hopes of winning its first national championship since 1988 were all done. But Alabama just poured it on.


"We've got to get physically stronger, continue close the gap there," said Brian Kelly, the Irish's third-year coach. "Just overall, we need to see what it looks like. Our guys clearly know what it looks like now — a championship football team. That's back-to-back national champions. That's what it looks like. That's what you measure yourself against there. It's pretty clear across the board what we have to do."


Lacy's 11-yard touchdown reception with 31 seconds left in the half left the Irish fans shaking the heads in disbelief, while the Alabama faithful broke out that familiar "SEC! SEC! SEC!"


Alabama made it 35-0 on McCarron's second TD pass of the night, a 34-yarder to Cooper without a Notre Dame defender in sight.


The Irish finally scored late in the third quarter, a 2-yard run by Everett Golson that served no other purpose except to end Alabama's remarkable scoreless streak in the BCS title games, which stretched to 108 minute and 7 seconds — the equivalent of nearly two full games — before the Notre Dame quarterback fought his way into the end zone.


The only BCS title game that was more of a blowout was USC's 55-19 victory over Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl, a title that was later vacated because of NCAA violations.


About the only time Alabama stumbled was when McCarron had a miscommunication with his All-American center, Barrett Jones, in the closing seconds. The fiery McCarron shouted at Jones, who just shoved him away. But as the seconds ticked off, they were right on the same page, hugging Saban and celebrating another title.


Notre Dame went from unranked in the preseason to the top spot in the rankings by the end of the regular season. But that long-awaited championship will have to wait at least one more years. Golson completed his first season as the starter by going 21 of 36 for 270 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. But he got no help from the running game, which was held to 32 yards — 170 below their season average.


Kelly had vowed this was only beginning, insisting the bar has been raised in South Bend no matter what the outcome.


"We made incredible strides to get to this point," he said. "Now it's pretty clear what we've got to do to get over the top."


___


Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963


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Monster Black Hole Burp Surprises Scientists






LONG BEACH, Calif. – Astronomers have discovered what appears to be colossal belch from a massive black hole at the heart of a distant galaxy. The outburst was 10 times as bright as the biggest star explosion, scientists say.


The potential super-sized black hole burp find came as astronomers studied the galaxy NGC 660, which is located 44 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces.






“The discovery was entirely serendipitous. Our observations were spread over a few years, and when we looked at them, we found that one galaxy had changed over that time from being placid and quiescent to undergone a hugely energetic outburst at the end,” study researcher Robert Minchin of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico said in a statement.


To determine whether the outburst was from a supernova — the explosive end of a star —  or the galaxy’s core, the researchers used the High Sensitivity Array, a global network of telescopes that includes the Very Long Baseline Array, the Arecibo Telescope, the NSF’s 100-meter Green Bank Telescope, and the 100-meter Effelsberg Radio Telescope in Germany.


Instead of an expanding ring of material suggesting a supernova event, the researchers found five locations with bright radio emissions clustered around the galaxy’s core.


“The most likely explanation is that there are jets coming from the core, but they are precessing, or wobbling, and the hot spots we see are where the jets slammed into the material near the galaxy’s nucleus,” said Chris Salter, also of the Arecibo Observatory.


 Those jets, the researchers said, would mean the outburst likely came from a supermassive black hole at the heart of galaxy NGC 660. As the black hole devours dust and mass, it pulls a whirling disk of matter into its heart that spews jets of particles as it is consumed.


Supermassive black holes are colossal structures at the cores of galaxies that are between millions and billions of times as massive as the sun. They are much larger than stellar-mass black holes, which are created from the deaths of giant stars and can contain the mass of about 10 suns.


Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.


Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Space and Astronomy News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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In India, questions over decision to treat rape victim overseas


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The decision to fly the victim of a gang rape that outraged India for treatment in Singapore made little medical sense as the woman was so severely injured that her death was all but inevitable, doctors say.


The government, on the back foot after furious street protests and stinging criticism of authorities over the December 16 rape in the capital, New Delhi, has struggled to defend its decision to send the 23-year-old physiotherapy student overseas. She died 48 hours later.


With a deadly infection seeping into her blood from damage done to her intestines during the assault, complicated by a cardiac arrest and damage to the brain, she was just clinging to life when she was flown 2,500 miles from New Delhi to Singapore late on December 26, doctors said.


"It was ethically and morally wrong to have taken her out, given that she was sinking and her chances of survival were next to zero at that stage," said a doctor at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which was advising the team treating the woman at a sister hospital across the street.


"Such a thing raises false hopes in the minds of the family, the community. No doctor in his right mind would do this, unless you want to get the patient off your back," said the doctor, who declined to be identified, saying colleagues at the government-run hospital who had spoken out had been warned of consequences in what has become a politically explosive case.


The woman, who was assaulted by five men and a teenager on a moving bus after a male companion was beaten unconscious, cannot be named under an Indian law that prohibits identifying victims of rape.


Another doctor who was consulted during the woman's care at New Delhi's Safdarjang hospital, where she was taken following the assault, said she had been getting the best possible treatment in India and the question of why she was shifted should be answered by the government.


Many security officials have said they feared the protests would escalate if the woman had died in New Delhi, but the government has said the only consideration was her wellbeing.


"The idea was to give her the best possible treatment," said Harish Rawat, a government minister who attended a cabinet meeting on the woman's condition and the efforts to save her.


"I don't think the idea was to run away from the problem. Death here or death abroad would still have the same impact," he said. "We felt if there was a chance to save her, it should be tried. Take her to a transplant facility abroad."


At the time of the transfer, authorities at Safdarjang said her condition was critical which was why they decided to move her to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, which specialized in multi-organ transplant.


But a transplant for her damaged intestine, if at all possible, was months away, doctors said. At the time of her transfer, the woman, unconscious since a heart attack the previous night, was in no condition to go through such an operation.


"One cannot think about intestinal transplant at this moment," Samiran Nundy, the head of surgical gastroenterology and organ transplantation at the Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, was quoted as saying in newspapers.


"First, the infection spreading in her should be stopped, then one can think about transplant."


Within 40 hours of her arrival in Singapore, doctors called her family and told them the end was near, even as millions prayed at home in the hope that she would pull through.


"Sepsis followed by cardiac arrest is a terminal event in 99 percent of cases," said the doctor at AIIMS, referring to blood infection.


"Doctors will have anecdotal evidence about one or two cases in their whole career of somebody who survived. I had one case, a woman, but she too died within a month. Yes, miracles happen, but you were not looking at one in this case. It was clear to everyone, especially after the cardiac arrest."


PROTESTS AND PANIC


Piecing together the events leading up to her death tells a tale of authorities in Delhi trying to defuse public anger over the attack by initially insisting that she was getting the best possible treatment, and then, as things began to go wrong, getting increasingly worried that the protests that tapped a deep vein of frustration, could spin out of control.


The alarm bells for the government rang late on Christmas night when the woman suffered the cardiac arrest. That was nine days after she was brought in to Safdarjang hospital in a life-threatening condition after the brutal assault - she was assessed then as 5 on a scale in which 6 is rated as no chance of survival.


After the heart attack, her pulse rate became critically low. Doctors resuscitated her after three to four minutes but by then she had become unconscious, caused by lack of blood to the brain. She never regained consciousness from that point on.


Equally worrisome, the infection from her injured intestines had seeped into her blood and was spreading to her vital organs.


For the government, shaken by the scale and intensity of the protests that focused on the lack of safety in the capital for women, the deterioration in her health was cause for concern.


Even as the federal cabinet met the next morning, arrangements to fly the woman for treatment in Singapore were being put in place.


One official said the public mood was so fragile that the government felt that if she died in India, some people would have blamed the government for not sending her abroad for treatment.


"You can argue this the other way. They would have said 'if Sonia can go abroad, why not this girl'," the official said, referring to the head of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, who travels abroad for treatment of an undisclosed condition.


Outside the prime minister's office where the cabinet met, thousands of baton-wielding police including crack members of Rapid Action Force kept the area under a lockdown. Days earlier, pitched battles broke out between hundreds of protesters and police at the scene, in which a policeman was killed.


Protesters had climbed the walls of South and North Block, the high-security seat of government, while others swarmed towards the iron gates of the presidential palace. They carried placards such as "The only two women safe in Delhi are Sonia Gandhi and Sheila Dikshit". Dikshit is the chief minister, the top elected official of the local government of Delhi.


A government official privy to the handling of the protests said the administration had not anticipated that so many students would come out onto the streets and that the protests would last for so many days.


But when protesters showed up at the presidential palace, the line had been crossed in the security agencies' mind.


"It was a near-breach of security at the presidential palace. The officials tasked with security didn't know how to control the protesters, if they had jumped over its gates. Would you fire at the students, the housewives?" the official asked.


The Intelligence Bureau, which coordinates all domestic intelligence, had been warning that the public mood may turn uglier, the official said.


NO PASSPORTS


At Safdarjung on the morning of December 26, a team of doctors arrived from Medanta Medicity, a private medical centre which runs an air ambulance service. Their mandate was to assess whether she could survive the airlift, said Dr Yatin Mehta, head of critical care at Medicity.


"The decision was to take her out of the country. Our job was to determine whether she could take the airlift, not whether she should be going or not," said Mehta, who accompanied the woman on the flight.


He said the option of sending her to Cambridge in Britain to a hospital that specializes in transplants, was considered but dropped because it would have involved a refueling stop for the aircraft and a two-hour road trip upon landing in London.


Flying her to the Canadian city of Toronto, which also has a specialized organ transplant centre, was also vetoed. They zeroed in on Singapore, six hours flying time away.


It is highly unusual for someone to be flown out of India for critical care. If anything, the traffic is the reverse, with people travelling to the country for treatment.


In the event, the transfer to Singapore was successful, Mehta said, although the woman suffered a drop in blood pressure during the flight. "We were prepared for that. We handed her over to Mount E in the same condition she left the hospital in Delhi," he said, referring to the Singapore hospital.


The woman's family first got wind of the plan to transfer her at hospital in Delhi, when her brother noticed a flurry of activity and a staff member said that doctors were considering moving her.


"We accepted the decision. We were not interfering in the treatment. The doctors said it was in the best interest of our sister, we accepted it. Our only condition was to save her," the brother told Reuters.


Shortly afterwards, officials from the foreign ministry arrived and issued the family travel documents, since none of them had a passport. Their pictures were taken at the hospital.


Three ambulances arrived at the hospital. One of the ambulances headed into the interior of the city and another took the route to the Medanta centre, followed by a convoy of television crews.


A third, carrying the woman, sped away to a special section of Delhi airport, giving everyone the slip.


After she was taken to Singapore, authorities in the city-state's Mount Elizabeth Hospital were frank about her bleak chances for survival.


"The patient is currently struggling against the odds, and fighting for her life," Chief Executive Officer Kelvin Loh said in a statement a day after she was admitted.


"Our medical team's investigations upon her arrival at the hospital yesterday showed that in addition to her prior cardiac arrest, she also had infection of her lungs and abdomen as well as significant brain injury."


Later that day, Soh said her condition was deteriorating.


Her family was told the end was near.


"We didn't expect her to go so quickly," said her brother, who was with her when she died. "At 9:30 p.m., the doctors called us in and said they were sorry, they couldn't do anything more. Her vital organs were failing."


"We went inside and stayed with her the whole night. We saw her heart beat slowing down on the machine. It kept dropping and then dropped to zero. The time was 4:05 a.m."


(Additional reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh in New Delhi and Kevin Lim in Singapore; Editing by Robert Birsel and Raju Gopalakrishnan)



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Asian shares slip, Basel ruling supports banks

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks drifted down on Monday as investors booked profits from a New Year rally that had pushed markets to multi-month highs, although financial stocks gained after global regulators decided to relax draft plans for tough new bank liquidity rules.


Commodity prices mostly held steady, supported by data showing the U.S. economy continuing on a path of slow but steady recovery that propelled Wall Street stocks to a five-year high.


Financial bookmakers called Europe's main share indexes to open flat or slightly lower, while S&P 500 index futures traded in Asia eased 0.2 percent, pointing to a weaker start in New York.


"It just seems like markets are entering a consolidation phase after recent gains and with most markets trading at fresh 12-month highs," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at financial spreadbetting firm IG in Melbourne.


The dollar fell against the yen, coming off a two-and-a-half year peak it had logged against the Japanese currency as investors adjusted to the possibility of more monetary stimulus in 2013 from the Bank of Japan and less from the U.S. Federal Reserve.


MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus>, which had reached its highest level since August 2011 on Thursday, eased 0.1 percent, while Tokyo's Nikkei share average <.n225> retreated after touching a 23-month high in early trade to close down 0.8 percent. <.t/>


CASH BUFFERS


The MSCI benchmark's financial sector sub-index <.miapjfn00pus> firmed after the Basel Committee of banking supervisors agreed on Sunday to give banks four more years and greater flexibility to build up cash buffers so they can use some of their reserves to help struggling economies.


HSBC Holdings Hong Kong shares rose 1 percent, while Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd gained 0.6 percent. <.hk><.ax/>


Shares in Japanese exporters were supported by the trend of a weakening yen, which traded around 87.85 to the dollar, up 0.3 percent on the day, after the U.S. currency rose as far as 88.40 yen, its highest in nearly two-and-a-half years, on Friday.


The dollar posted a gain of around 2.7 percent against the yen last week, its biggest weekly rise in more than a year. Its gains had accelerated after minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting showed some policymakers had considered ending the Fed's bond-buying program as early as this year.


By contrast, many investors are now betting that Japan's new government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will push to weaken the yen and drive through aggressive fiscal stimulus, and pressure the Bank of Japan to do the same on the monetary side.


Although the dollar may pull back against the yen given the speed of its rise over the past month, its uptrend seems likely to remain intact, said Hiroshi Maeba, head of FX trading Japan for UBS in Tokyo.


"My sense is that the market could still head much higher," Maeba said. "I think 90 yen might be reached pretty soon."


The dollar firmed against the euro, which traded around $1.3035.


The U.S. stock benchmark S&P 500 index <.spx> closed at its highest level since December 2007 on Friday after data showed a steady pace of jobs growth and brisk expansion of the services sector in the world's biggest economy.


That offered support to growth-sensitive commodities, with copper little changed just below $8,100 a tonne, while Brent crude oil eased a little to around $111.20.


Spot gold firmed 0.3 percent to around $1,660 an ounce.


(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Eric Meijer)



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RG3 hurt, Seattle tops Redskins 24-14 in playoffs


LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Russell Wilson raced ahead to throw the final block on Marshawn Lynch's fourth-quarter, go-ahead touchdown run, doing just enough to get in the way of the Washington Redskins safety near the goal line.


Less than a minute later, Robert Griffin III's knee buckled as he tried to field a bad shotgun snap, the pain so bad that he didn't even try to recover the ball.


The last rookie quarterback standing in the NFL playoffs is Wilson — the third-round pick who teamed with Lynch on Sunday to lead the Seattle Seahawks to a 24-14 victory over Griffin and the Redskins.


"Marshawn always tells me, 'Russ, I got your back, no matter what,'" Wilson said. "So I just try to help him out every once in a while."


And the latest debate over the wisdom of keeping an injured franchise player on the field — when he's obviously nowhere near his best — starts with coach Mike Shanahan, who let Griffin keep going until the QB could absolutely go no more.


"I think I did put myself at more risk," Griffin said. "But every time you get on the field, you're putting yourself on the line."


Lynch ran for 132 yards, and Wilson completed 15 of 26 passes for 187 yards and ran eight times for 67 yards as Seahawks overcame a 14-0 first-quarter hole — their biggest deficit of the season — and will visit the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons next Sunday.


Meanwhile, Griffin was headed for an MRI exam to determine the extent of the damage on his re-injured right knee. He was already playing with a big black brace, having sprained the lateral collateral ligament about a month ago against the Baltimore Ravens. He hadn't looked his usual self in the two games he had played since, and he was obviously hobbled after falling awkwardly while throwing an incomplete pass in the first quarter Sunday.


In the fourth quarter, Griffin labored on a 9-yard run that made him look 32 years old instead of 22.


"He said, 'Hey, trust me. I want to be in there, and I deserve to be in there,'" Shanahan said. "I couldn't disagree with him."


Shanahan said he'll probably second-guess himself over his decision. He has the entire offseason to do so. And, whatever the injury, Griffin at least has time to recover.


Wilson, on the other hand, will carry on. The day began with three rookie quarterbacks in the playoffs, but No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck was eliminated when Indianapolis lost to Baltimore.


Seattle is riding a six-game winning streak, having left behind any doubts that the team can hold its own outside the Pacific Northwest. The Seahawks were 3-5 on the road in the regular season and had lost eight straight road playoff games, the last win coming in 1983 against the Miami Dolphins.


"It was only two touchdowns, but it's still a big comeback and, in this setting and the crowd, it's a marvelous statement about the guys' resolve and what is going on," Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. "It's not about how you start but how you finish."


Seattle's defense shut down the Redskins after a rough start. Washington had 129 yards in the first quarter and 74 for the rest of the game. Griffin was 6 for 9 for 68 yards and two touchdowns after 15 minutes; he was 4 for 10 for 16 yards with one interception the rest of the way.


"It was hard to watch RG3 tonight," Carroll said. "It was hard on him. He was freaking gallant."


The numbers were reversed for the Seahawks, who rediscovered Lynch in the second quarter and put together three consecutive scoring drives to pull within a point, 14-13, at halftime.


Steven Hauschka, who injured his left calf during the first half and had to relinquish kickoff duties, nevertheless sandwiched field goals of 32 and 29 yards around a 4-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Michael Robinson. Wilson fumbled on the TD drive, but the ball was fortuitously scooped up by Lynch, who ran for a 19-yard gain.


The Seahawks controlled the second half, but then it was Lynch's turn to fumble — at Washington's 1-yard line. The Redskins recovered this one, and the Seahawks had another drive get to Washington's 28 before a sack forced a punt — rather than a long field goal attempt by an injured kicker.


But the Seahawks kept coming. Wilson led the way for two big change-of-direction runs by Lynch in the game, the second one a 27-yard scoring run with 7:08 remaining.


A 2-point conversion gave the Seahawks a 21-14 lead, and then came the moment that essentially put the outcome to rest.


On the second play of the Redskins' next possession, Griffin's knee bent the wrong way on a second-and-22 at the Washington 12. He lay on the ground as the Seahawks pounced on the ball.


Griffin walked off the field under his own power, but he was done for the night. By the end of the game, he was sitting alone on the white sideline bench, his brace discarded on a bench next to him.


With good field position, the Seahawks kicked a short field goal to give them the insurance they needed. Fellow rookie Kirk Cousins, subbing for Griffin, was unable to rally the Redskins in the final minutes.


"Despite the fact that we have a 'nobody' team," Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman said, "a team not full of first-rounders and things like that, we have a lot of guys that play at a high level."


NOTES: DE Chris Clemons, Seattle's best pass rusher, hurt his left knee in the third quarter and did not return. He will undergo an MRI. "We're concerned about it," Carroll said. ... Redskins LG Kory Lichtensteiger re-injured his sprained left ankle in the first quarter. ... The playoff meeting between the two teams was the third, but first outside Seattle. The Seahawks won 20-10 in January 2006, and 35-14 in January 2008. Those were the last two postseason games played by the Redskins. ... Redskins LT Trent Williams shoved Sherman in the face as the teams met on the field after the final whistle. "It was a dirty move by Trent Williams," Sherman said. "I can understand why he's frustrated; it's the end of their season." Williams took responsibility and said he acted in an "immature manner." Later, Sherman tweeted that he received "a very classy text" message from Williams and there's "no ill will either way."


___


Follow Joseph White on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP


___


Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL


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Biofuels cause pollution, not as green as thought – study






OSLO (Reuters) – Green schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen a little-known type of air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020, a study showed on Sunday.


The report said trees grown to produce wood fuel – seen as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal – released a chemical into the air that, when mixed with other pollutants, could also reduce farmers’ crop yields.






“Growing biofuels is thought to be a good thing because it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said Nick Hewitt, who worked on the study with colleagues from England’s Lancaster University.


“What we’re saying is ‘yes, that’s great, but biofuels could also have a detrimental effect on air quality’,” he added.


The report, in the journal Nature Climate Change, looked into the impact of a European Union scheme to slow climate change by producing more biofuels.


Hewitt told Reuters there would be a similar impact wherever biofuels were produced in large quantities in areas suffering air pollution, including the United States and China.


Poplar, willow or eucalyptus trees, all used as fast-growing sources of renewable wood fuel, emit high levels of the chemical isoprene as they grow, the study said. Isoprene forms toxic ozone when mixed with other air pollutants in sunlight.


“Large-scale production of biofuels in Europe would have small but significant effects on human mortality and crop yields,” said Hewitt.


“As far as we know, no one has looked at the air quality of growing biofuel crops before,” he added.


The report estimated that ozone from wood-based energy to meet the European Union’s 2020 goal would cause nearly 1,400 premature deaths a year, costing society $ 7.1 billion.


The European plan would also would reduce the annual value of wheat and maize production by $ 1.5 billion since ozone impairs crop growth, the study added.


LUNG PROBLEMS


Siting new biofuel plantations far away from polluted population centres would help limit ozone formation, the study suggested. Genetic engineering might be used to reduce isoprene emissions, it said.


Ozone can cause lung problems and is blamed for killing about 22,000 people a year in Europe. Overall air pollution, mainly from fossil fuels, causes about 500,000 premature deaths in Europe a year, according to the European Environment Agency.


Sunday’s study did not compare the potential damage caused by biofuels to the impact on human health from producing coal, oil or natural gas as part of policies to slow global warming. “We’re not in a position to make that comparison,” Hewitt said.


He noted that the main reason to shift to biofuels was to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, mainly from fossil fuels, that U.N. studies project will become ever more damaging this century.


The United Nations’ World Health Organization estimates global warming has caused more than 140,000 deaths annually worldwide since the 1970s.


The biggest impact was recorded in developing nations where the floods, droughts and other disasters blamed on climate change left millions suffering from diarrhea, malnutrition, malaria and dengue fever.


Burning biofuels is viewed as neutral for climate change because plants soak up carbon when they grow and release it when they burn or rot. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, add carbon to the atmosphere from underground stores millions of years old.


Biofuels are often blamed for causing food price spikes by competing for cropland. Responding to such criticisms, the European Commission said last year it aimed to limit crop-based biofuels – such as from maize or sugar – to five percent of transport fuels.


(Editing by Andrew Heavens)


Green News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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U.S. isn't ready for superstorms












































Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


Long, slow recovery from Superstorm Sandy


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Police: Good Samaritans foil North Side robbery













Jose Rodriguez, 30.


Jose Rodriguez, 30.
(Chicago Police Department / January 6, 2013)


























































A screwdriver-wielding parolee was tackled by two good Samaritans after he stole a woman's purse in the Lincoln Park neighborhood Saturday night, police said.


About 11:45 p.m., Jose Rodriguez, 30, approached a woman from behind in the 800 block of West Diversey Parkway, the Chicago Police Department said in a news release. 


Rodriguez held an arm around the 29-year-old woman's neck, placed a screwdriver against her torso, and demanded money, police said.





Rodgriguez ran off with the woman's purse shortly after, police said.


A 20-year-old witness took off in pursuit, and when Rodriguez approached a 24-year-old man walking in the opposite direction, the 20-year-old yelled for him to stop the robber, police said.


Together, the men tackled Rodriguez and restrained him until police showed up, police said.


Rodriguez was arrested and charged with armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and a parole violation.


asege@tribune.com


Twitter: @AdamSege






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Activists wary as India rushes to justice after gang rape


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It's no surprise the Indian street wants faster, harsher justice for sexual crimes after a horrific gang rape that rocked the nation, but some activists worry the government will trample fundamental rights in its rush to be in tune with popular rage.


Last month's rape of a physiotherapy student on a moving bus and her death on December 28 in hospital triggered a national debate about how to better protect women in India, where official data shows one rape is reported on average every 20 minutes.


Many women's rights groups are cautiously hopeful the protests and outrage that followed the crime can be channeled into real change - fast-track courts for sexual offences and a plan to hire 2,500 new women police in Delhi are measures already in the works.


But legal experts and some feminists are worried that calls to make rape punishable with death and other draconian penalties will cramp civil liberties and are unconstitutional. They say India needs better policing and prosecutions, not new laws.


"If there are not enough convictions, it is not because of an insufficiency of law, but it is the insufficiency of material to base the conviction on," said retired Delhi High Court judge R.S. Sodhi.


Five men have been charged with the student's rape and murder and will appear before a New Delhi court later on Monday. They are due to be tried in a newly formed fast-track court in the next few weeks. A teenager also accused will likely be tried in a juvenile court.


Ahead of Monday's court appearance the five still had no defense lawyers - despite extensive interrogations by the police, who have said they have recorded confessions - after members of the bar association in the South Delhi district where the case is being heard vowed not to represent them.


GROUNDS FOR APPEAL


The men will be assigned lawyers by the court before the trial begins, but their lack of representation so far could give grounds for appeal later should they be found guilty - similar cases have resulted in acquittals years after convictions.


"The accused has a right to a lawyer from point of arrest - the investigations are going on, statements being taken, it is totally illegal," said Colin Gonsalves, a senior Supreme Court advocate and director of Delhi's Human Rights Law Network.


Senior leaders of most states on Friday came out in support of a plan to lower to 16 the age that minors can be tried as adults - in response to fury that the maximum penalty the accused youth could face is three years detention.


A government panel is considering suggestions to make the death penalty mandatory for rape and introducing forms of chemical castration for the guilty. It is due to make its recommendations by January 23.


"The more you strengthen the powers of the state against the people, the more the possibility you create a draconian regime," said Sehjo Singh, Programme and Policy Director with ActionAid in India and an expert on Indian women's social movements.


"We want to raise the bar of human rights in India, we want to raise the standards, not lower them."


The Indian Express newspaper warned against "knee-jerk" reaction and said any change to the juvenile law "must come after rigorous and considered debate. It cannot be a reaction to a fraught moment".


Courts are swamped with a backlog of cases in the country of 1.2 billion people and trials often take more than five years to complete, so the launch by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir of six fast-track courts in the capital to deal with sexual offences was widely greeted as a welcome move.


Several other states including Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are now looking at following Delhi's example.


But Gonsalves says while the courts are a good idea on paper, similar tribunals in the past delivered dubious verdicts and put financial pressure on the rest of the justice system.


FAST TRACK COURTS


India set up 1,700 fast-track courts in 2004, but stopped funding them last year because they turned out to be costly. The courts typically work six days a week and try to reduce adjournments that lead to long delays in cases.


"The record of the fast-track courts is mixed," Gonsalves said. Conviction rates rose, he said, but due process was sometimes rushed, leading to convictions being overturned.


"Fast-track courts were in many ways were fast-track injustice," he said.


The real problem lie with bad policing and a shortage of judges, Gonsalves said. India has about a fifth of the number of judges per capita that the United States has.


Indian police are often poorly trained and underpaid, and have sometimes been implicated in organized crime. Rights groups complain the mostly male officers are insensitive to victims of sexual crimes.


Resources for, and expertise in, forensic science is limited in most of the country's police forces and confessions are often extracted under duress. The judiciary complains it is hard to convict offenders because of faulty evidence.


Human Rights Watch said reforms to laws and procedures covering rape and other sexual crimes should focus on protection of witnesses and modernizing support for victims at police stations and hospitals.


The rights organization has documented the continued use of archaic practices such as the "finger test" used by some doctors on rape victims to allegedly determine if they had regular sex.


"Reforms in the rape laws - these are needed. But not in terms of enhancing punishment," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch.


"Why they are not investigated, why there are not enough convictions, those are the things that need to be addressed."


(Additional reporting by Satarupa Bhattacharjya, Shashank Chouhan and Annie Banerji; Editing by Alex Richardson)



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"Cliff" concerns give way to earnings focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors' "fiscal cliff" worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns, like earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way next week.


Financial results, which begin after the market closes on Tuesday with aluminum company Alcoa , are expected to be only slightly better than the third-quarter's lackluster results. As a warning sign, analyst current estimates are down sharply from what they were in October.


That could set stocks up for more volatility following a week of sharp gains that put the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> on Friday at the highest close since December 31, 2007. The index also registered its biggest weekly percentage gain in more than a year.


Based on a Reuters analysis, Europe ranks among the chief concerns cited by companies that warned on fourth-quarter results. Uncertainty about the region and its weak economic outlook were cited by more than half of the 25 largest S&P 500 companies that issued warnings.


In the most recent earnings conference calls, macroeconomic worries were cited by 10 companies while the U.S. "fiscal cliff" was cited by at least nine as reasons for their earnings warnings.


"The number of things that could go wrong isn't so high, but the magnitude of how wrong they could go is what's worrisome," said Kurt Winters, senior portfolio manager for Whitebox Mutual Funds in Minneapolis.


Negative-to-positive guidance by S&P 500 companies for the fourth quarter was 3.6 to 1, the second worst since the third quarter of 2001, according to Thomson Reuters data.


U.S. lawmakers narrowly averted the "fiscal cliff" by coming to a last-minute agreement on a bill to avoid steep tax hikes this weeks -- driving the rally in stocks -- but the battle over further spending cuts is expected to resume in two months.


Investors also have seen a revival of worries about Europe's sovereign debt problems, with Moody's in November downgrading France's credit rating and debt crises looming for Spain and other countries.


"You have a recession in Europe as a base case. Europe is still the biggest trading partner with a lot of U.S. companies, and it's still a big chunk of global capital spending," said Adam Parker, chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York.


Among companies citing worries about Europe was eBay , whose chief financial officer, Bob Swan, spoke of "macro pressures from Europe" in the company's October earnings conference call.


REVENUE WORRIES


One of the biggest worries voiced about earnings has been whether companies will be able to continue to boost profit growth despite relatively weak revenue growth.


S&P 500 revenue fell 0.8 percent in the third quarter for the first decline since the third quarter of 2009, Thomson Reuters data showed. Earnings growth for the quarter was a paltry 0.1 percent after briefly dipping into negative territory.


On top of that, just 40 percent of S&P 500 companies beat revenue expectations in the third quarter, while 64.2 percent beat earnings estimates, the Thomson Reuters data showed.


For the fourth quarter, estimates are slightly better but are well off estimates for the quarter from just a few months earlier. S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen 2.8 percent while revenue is expected to have gone up 1.9 percent.


Back in October, earnings growth for the fourth quarter was forecast up 9.9 percent.


In spite of the cautious outlooks, some analysts still see a good chance for earnings beats this reporting period.


"The thinking is you need top line growth for earnings to continue to expand, and we've seen the market defy that," said Mike Jackson, founder of Denver-based investment firm T3 Equity Labs.


Based on his analysis, energy, industrials and consumer discretionary are the S&P sectors most likely to beat earnings expectations in the upcoming season, while consumer staples, materials and utilities are the least likely to beat, Jackson said.


Sounding a positive note on Friday, drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co said it expects profit in 2013 to increase by more than Wall Street had been forecasting, primarily due to cost controls and improved productivity.


(Reporting By Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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