Taliban announce start of spring offensive

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The Taliban have announced they will launch their spring offensive on Sunday, signaling plans to step up attacks as the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and fighting easier.

The statement comes toward the end of a month that already has been the deadliest of the year.

The militant group's leadership vowed on Saturday that "every possible tactic will be utilized in order to detain or inflict heavy casualties on the foreign transgressors," including suicide attacks on military bases and diplomatic areas.

The leadership also threated more so-called insider attacks by members of the Afghan security forces against their colleagues or foreign troops. Such attacks threaten the strength of the Afghan forces as they work to take over responsibility from international troops. The latest one occurred in March, when a member of Afghanistan's government-backed militia program shot and killed five of his colleagues in Badghis province in northwest Afghanistan.

In a sign of Taliban's determination to replace Afghanistan's government with one promoting a stricter interpretation of Islamic law, they named their new offensive after a legendary Muslim military commander, Khalid ibn al-Walid. Also known as "the Drawn Sword of God," he was a companion of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Afghanistan's defense ministry responded by saying its security forces are prepared for Taliban's new campaign. "The Afghan National Army is ready to neutralize the offensive," the ministry said, adding that the soldiers now have the support and trust of many Afghans.

In another development, a NATO aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, and coalition forces were securing the site, the International Security Assistance Force said. Its brief statement provided no information about where the crash occurred or if there were casualties, but did say there was no indication it was downed by insurgents.

Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, deputy governor of the southern Zabul province, said a helicopter belonging to foreign forces crashed on Saturday afternoon in the district of Shah Joy. He confirmed that the site was surrounded by foreign forces but had no information on the cause of the crash or whether anyone was hurt or killed.

The new Taliban offensive comes as U.S.-backed efforts to try to reconcile the Islamic militant movement with the Afghan government have so far failed. Insurgents already have intensified attacks this spring as they try to position themselves for power ahead of national elections and the planned withdrawal of most U.S. and other foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

April has already been the worst month for combat deaths so far this year. According to an Associated Press tally, 257 people ? including civilians, Afghan security forces and foreign troops ? have been killed in violence around the nation. During that time 217 insurgents have died.

Last year during the month of April, 179 civilians, foreign troops and Afghan security forces were killed and 268 insurgents.

Still, the top U.S. commander in Kabul, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, said Wednesday that the security situation has improved across the country, with Afghan forces now leading 80 percent of all conventional operations.

"As the traditional fighting season begins, the insurgency will confront a combined " Afghan force of 350,000 soldiers and police, he said.

"The insurgency can no longer use the justification that it is fighting foreign occupiers ? that message rings hollow," Dunford said in a statement.

Meanwhile, late on Friday, the Taliban freed nine civilian de-miners it had captured in the southern province of Kandahar after negotiations involving tribal elders, provincial spokesman Javeed Faisal said.

The Afghan men were being driven back from a minefield last Sunday when they were captured. Afghanistan has a legacy of land mines going back decades and remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

---

AP writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.

---

Follow Thomas Wagner on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/tjpwagner.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-announce-start-spring-offensive-073230771.html

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US says Osama bin Laden's name belongs in NY trial (Providence Journal)

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NKorea says it will indict American citizen

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea said Saturday it will soon put a detained American on trial for allegedly trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

The indictment of Kenneth Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. It has expressed rage over U.N. sanctions over a February nuclear test and ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, though analysts say Pyongyang's motive is to get its Korean War foes to negotiate on its own terms.

"For North Korea, Bae is a bargaining chip in dealing with the U.S. The North will use him in a way that helps bring the U.S. to talks when the mood slowly turns toward dialogue," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Seoul's Dongguk University.

Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia.

He is the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The other Americans were eventually deported or released after high-profile diplomatic interventions, including some involving former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

"The preliminary inquiry into crimes committed by American citizen Pae Jun Ho closed," the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief report. "In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it. His crimes were proved by evidence."

DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Under North Korea's criminal code, terrorist acts include murdering, kidnapping and injuring the country's citizens can lead to a death sentence or life in jail.

North Korea and the United States fought the 1950-53 Korean War and still don't have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents the United States.

KCNA didn't say when Bae's trial will take place or what the charges were.

North Korea's state media and the U.S. government have made little information about Bae public.

But his friends, colleagues and South Korean activists specializing in North Korea affairs said Bae is a Christian missionary based in a Chinese border town who frequently made trips to North Korea to feed orphans there. It is not known whether he tried to evangelize while in North Korea.

Officially, North Korea guarantees freedom of religion. In practice, authorities crack down on Christians, who are seen as Western-influenced threats to the government. The distribution of Bibles and secret prayer services can mean banishment to a labor camp or execution, defectors from the country have said.

In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts. They were freed later that year after former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang to negotiate their release.

Meanwhile, South Korea is pulling its citizens from a joint factory park in North Korea after Pyongyang rejected Seoul's demand for talks on the inter-Korean symbol of detente on Saturday. The park was shuttered earlier this month after the North pulled its workers out of it, objecting to views in South Korea that the complex is a source of badly needed hard currency for Pyongyang.

__

Associated Press reporter Sam Kim contributed from Seoul, South Korea.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-says-indict-american-citizen-031457146.html

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How Much Is a Facebook Friend Worth? $174.17

The next time you ?like? something on Facebook, you might imagine a little cash register ringing?ca-ching. That?s because new research suggests that every time you ?like? or ?friend? a brand or business, your actions are worth approximately $174.17 to that brand ? a 28 percent increase since 2010.

The research, conducted by social intelligence company Syncapse, studied more than 2,000 Facebook users who had liked a brand, taking into account such factors as product spending, loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value acquisition cost and brand affinity to determine the value of a Facebook fan.

Facebook fans spend more money not only on the brands they fan ($116 more per year than nonfans), but also within the brand's sector ? 43 percent more, despite not having a higher income than nonfans, the study found.

[7 Unexpected Ways Facebook Is Good For You]

Those fans are also 18 percent more satisfied with their brands than nonfriends, and 11 percent more likely to continue using the brand than nonfriends.

Following the old maxim that 20 percent of customers represent 80 percent of revenues (also known as the Pareto principle), the study suggests that the better you can isolate key customer segments, the more relevant your messaging can be to drive loyalty and grow revenues through targeted offers.

Brand managers should aim to interact with customers on Facebook to understand what they're passionate about, solicit their input and enable a feeling of ownership, the study advises.

There are two reasons brand managers should curry this crowd. Facebook users who like your brand are much more active in social media and are vocal about what they like and what they don't. They like to share good brand experiences, promotions and discounts, but are also likely to share a bad brand experience.

Your brand's Facebook users are your evangelists. The study recommends prioritizing your social media marketing investment to make sure they're happy: Ensure they feel appreciated and nurtured, and find ways to talk about your brand and share their opinion.

"The increase in average fan value is driven by fans' tendencies to be superconsumers," the report said. "Not only do they tend to be brand users first, they spend more, engage more, advocate more and are more loyal. The significant and increasing value of a Facebook brand fan affirms past social marketing investment and mandates deeper commitment and accountability in the future."

Reach BusinessNewsDaily senior writer Ned Smith at nsmith@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @nedbsmith.Follow us?@BNDarticles,?Facebook?or?Google +.

This story was originally published on BusinessNewsDaily.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/much-facebook-friend-worth-174-17-134305887.html

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Is separatist movement in Chechnya a threat to the U.S.?

DORTMUND, April 24 (Reuters) - Teams for Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid at BVB stadium. Teams: Borussia Dortmund: 1-Roman Weidenfeller; 26-Lukasz Piszczek, 4-Neven Subotic, 15-Mats Hummels, 29-Marcel Schmelzer; 8-Ilkay Guendogan, 6-Sven Bender, 16-Jakub Blaszczykowski, 10-Mario Goetze, 11-Marco Reus; 9-Robert Lewandowski Real Madrid: 41-Diego Lopez; 4-Sergio Ramos, 3-Pepe, 2-Raphael Varane, 5-Fabio Coentrao; 6-Sami Khedira, 14-Xabi Alonso; 19-Luka Modric, 10-Mesut Ozil, 7-Cristiano Ronaldo; 20-Gonzalo Higuain. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/boston-top-mind-house-panels-hold-hearing-islamist-211012297--politics.html

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What Technology in the Classroom Should Mean | HighTalk

Public schools are adding tablets and laptop computers into their educational programs in record numbers. ?One of the main reasons educators cite for this proliferation of technology is a variation of this thinking:

?The jobs of the future will be using technology and computers and students need to learn them to be prepared for the workplace.?

One educator had his sixth grade students create ad campaigns for cars they designed using apps on an iPad. ?He told the Guardian about how the process worked in his classroom:

?Allowing the children to work in this manner shifted the learning from teacher-centred to child-centred. Children could work at their own pace without having to wait for further instructions from the teacher.?

Sounds great for the teacher. ?But this is the wrong approach to integrating technology in the classroom.

As anyone with a three-year-old will tell you mastering an iPad, iPhone or iPod takes about three minutes ? tops. ?Apps ? for the most part ? are simple to use requiring an ability to peck, point and swipe your fingers. ?And while you can create amazing things with apps, most of the work is done by the technology ? not by the person.

This isn?t learning ? or creating.

Technology in the classroom should not mean mastering hardware or current software ? because by the time these students are ready for the job marketing the hardware and software they learned on is already obsolete.

What iPads and laptop computers add to the classroom is distraction. ?Say what you will about a hard-covered textbook, but when you open it to read that?s all you can do ? read it. ?When you try to read or focus on an iPad or a computer there are literally dozens, if not hundreds of distractions: email, Twitter, Facebook, Google Searches, Wikipedia, Instagram, YouTube, iTunes, games (thousands of games!) and the internet.

There are bells, beeps, whistles and flashing icons on your screen ? all demanding attention. ?iPads are perfectly manufactured interruption devices. ?Distractions everywhere that aren?t available with a piece of paper, a book or a chalkboard.

What technology in the classroom should mean is learning how to code. ?Learning how technology works ? both software and hardware. ?It should mean math, problem solving and creating things from scratch ? not learning how to use apps. ?Teach kids to write software. ?Teach them how technology works ? the concepts and ideas behind using it solve problems.

That?s what technology in the classroom should mean. ?We need to be teaching children to be thinkers. ?They need to learn reading, writing, mathematics and science. ?They need to learn how to solve problems and create things.

Learning how to use an iPad? ?Or an app?

Really?

Links:

iPads in the Classroom via The Guardian

More High Schools Implement iPad Programs via U.S. News & World Report?

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Source: http://hightalk.net/2013/04/24/what-technology-in-the-classroom-should-mean/

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P&G's product push to weigh on profit, shares fall

By Jessica Wohl

(Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co said on Wednesday that profit would fall more than Wall Street anticipated this quarter as it increases spending to promote several new products.

The news spooked investors who do not want to wait until 2014 for better sales increases. Shares of the world's largest household products maker fell as much as 6 percent after closing at an all-time high of $82.54 on Tuesday.

"There's a lot of frustration that they've been talking about a lot of actions they've been taking but we haven't really seen an acceleration in the sales growth," said David Blount, co-portfolio manager of the Growth & Income Fund at Eagle Asset Management, which includes P&G shares.

The company, maker of Pampers diapers, Gillette razors and many other products, has been under greater scrutiny to improve after cutting profit expectations in the past and learning that activist investor Bill Ackman invested in the stock.

Cincinnati-based P&G also posted a fiscal third-quarter profit on Wednesday that topped estimates despite sales that were weaker than both the company and analysts had anticipated.

Chief Executive Bob McDonald was roasted by analysts on a conference call a year ago when P&G gave a profit warning. While Wednesday's call was not as tense, analysts wanted to know why the company has not yet posted better sales growth more than a year into its turnaround.

P&G, which announced a $10 billion restructuring in February 2012, said that its push for more innovation means that several products such as new Iams pet foods and Olay skin creams will soon hit stores. After cutting billions of dollars in costs, along with eliminating hundreds of more jobs than anticipated, it will now spend more to promote those new goods and even to build the plants to produce them around the world.

FOURTH-QUARTER FORECAST

For the current fourth quarter ending in June, P&G said profit should fall to 69 cents to 77 cents per share, while analysts expected it to earn 81 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. P&G earned 82 cents per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.

The company cited factors including weak market growth, higher marketing and other costs and volatility in Venezuela, Argentina, Egypt, Syria and South Korea.

Wednesday's fiscal third-quarter results were a sharp departure from the fiscal second quarter, when P&G raised its annual profit forecast and its shares jumped. On Wednesday, on the heels of the better-than-expected third quarter profit, it raised only the bottom end of its annual forecast range by 2 cents per share.

"They're still making progress, they're still on the right track, it is just going to be a little more slowly than what people expected," said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo.

P&G insists that its forecast is "realistic, not conservative," especially given the headwinds it faces such as volatility in Venezuela and elsewhere, Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller told analysts.

Along with spending on marketing to promote its new products, P&G is dealing with what it calls a "choppy" economic recovery, and sees a 1 to 2 percent impact on its sales this year from foreign exchange rates.

Its shares slid as low as $77.48 on Wednesday and were last trading down 4.7 percent at $78.05, wiping out nearly all of this month's gains. Shares of rivals such as Colgate-Palmolive Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp were down less than 2 percent.

JOB CUTS EXCEED GOAL

While products such as single-dose Tide Pods laundry detergent have boosted U.S. sales, P&G said it still needs to figure out the formula for getting products such as Pantene shampoo and Olay skin creams to stand out among competitors. Net sales decreased in the hair care and skin care business in the latest quarter.

P&G is taking the right steps by cutting costs, bringing out new products and growing in developing markets, but it is important for it to show progress in the beauty unit in the next quarter or two, said Russo.

P&G said it earned 99 cents per share on a core basis in the quarter ended in March, topping analysts' target of 96 cents. Core earnings exclude items such as restructuring charges.

Overall sales rose 2 percent to $20.598 billion while analysts were looking for sales of $20.73 billion. The company had forecast 3 to 4 percent in sales growth.

P&G's organic sales, which strip out the impact of divestitures and foreign exchange changes, grew 3 percent - at the low end of its forecast of 3 to 4 percent.

On a net basis, the company earned $2.57 billion, or 88 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter. That was up from $2.41 billion, or 82 cents per share, a year earlier.

McDonald declined to comment on any discussions he may have been having with Ackman, who is known to push for change at companies in which he invests. Ackman's Pershing Square had a 1.02 percent stake in P&G, or 27.95 million shares, as of December, making it P&G's eighth-largest shareholder, according to Thomson Reuters data.

P&G said it now plans to repurchase $6 billion of its stock this year, at the high end of its prior forecast for $5 billion to $6 billion in buybacks. Last June, P&G decided to hold off on buybacks, but in August quickly reverted back to its usual plan.

P&G also said it had cut 6,250 jobs as of March 31, ahead of its goal to cut 5,700 jobs by the end of June.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl; in Chicago; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/procter-gamble-posts-higher-quarterly-profit-111022545--finance.html

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iPhone 4 antennagate comes to a close: your $15 settlement check's in the mail

Remember when you were holding it wrong? Remember when Apple was supposed to compensate you for holding it wrong? No? Well, if you didn't opt for the free rubber bumper back in the day, apparently that $15 "we're so sorry your iPhone 4's antenna sucked" settlement check alternative's finally being sent out via snail mail. So, case closed iFans. It's time to move on to greener, 5S pastures.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Apple

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/23/iphone-4-antennagate-settlement-check/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Suspect in Canada terror plot rambles in court appearance

TORONTO (AP) ? A man accused of plotting with al-Qaida members in Iran to derail a train in Canada gave a rambling statement in a Toronto court Wednesday and appeared to be saying he does not recognize its jurisdiction.

Law enforcement officials in the U.S. said the target was a train that runs between New York City and Canada. Canadian investigators say Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, received guidance from members of al-Qaida in Iran. Iranian government officials have said the government had nothing to do with the plot.

"My comment is the following because all of those conclusions were taken out based on criminal code and all of us know that this criminal code is not a holy book," Esseghaier said at the hearing Wednesday. "We cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments."

The judge told him to "save that for another court," and take the advice of his lawyers. He was given a May 23 court date.

Charges against the two men in Canada include conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group. Police ? tipped off by an imam worried by the behavior of one of the suspects ? said it was the first known attack planned by al-Qaida in Canada. The two could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

In a brief court appearance in Montreal on Tuesday, Esseghaier declined to be represented by a court-appointed lawyer. He made a brief statement in French in which he rejected the allegations against him.

Esseghaier, who was arrested Monday afternoon at a McDonald's restaurant in the train station, was later flown to Toronto for Wednesday's appearance in the city where his trial will take place.

Jaser also appeared in court Tuesday in Toronto and also did not enter a plea. He was given a new court date of May 23. The court granted a request by his lawyer, John Norris, for a publication ban on future evidence and testimony.

The case has raised questions about the extent of Shiite-led Iran's relationship with al-Qaida, a predominantly Sunni Arab terrorist network. It also renewed attention on Iran's complicated history with the terror group, which ranges from outright hostility to alliances of convenience and even overtures by Tehran to assist Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Law officials in New York with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press the attack was to take place on the Canadian side of the border. They are not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Jaser's lawyer said on Tuesday that his client questioned the timing of the arrests, pointing to ongoing debates in the Canadian Parliament over a new anti-terrorism law that would expand the powers of police and intelligence agencies.

Norris speaking outside the court said his client is "in a state of shock and disbelief."

He said his client would "defend himself vigorously" against the accusations, and noted Jaser was a permanent resident of Canada who has lived there for 20 years. Norris refused to say where Jaser was from, saying that revealing his nationality in the current climate amounted to demonizing him.

Canadian police have declined to release the men's nationalities, saying only they had been in Canada a "significant amount of time." But a London-based newspaper Al Arab reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources in the Gulf, that Jaser is a Jordanian passport holder with full name Raed Jaser Ibrahim Amouri, who had visited the UAE several times and most recently in September 2011. The newspaper reported that the suspect also visited other Gulf countries including Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It was not possible to independently confirm the report.

Esseghaier's, in a profile on a university department website ? which has since been removed ? says he was born in Tunis, Tunisia.

Muhammad Robert Heft, president of the P4E Support Group Inc., a non-profit organization that provides support to Muslims in Canada, said Jaser's father Mohammad Jaser came to him several times citing concerns about the radicalization of his son. The discussions took place between 2010 and 2011, while the father was living in a basement apartment in Heft's home in Markham, Ontario. The pair took up accommodation there while awaiting surgery for Jaser's younger brother, who had been in a serious car accident, because the apartment didn't have stairs.

"He came to me about his son saying he how concerned he was getting about the rigidness of his son and his interpretation of Islam. He was becoming self-righteous, becoming pushy, pushing his views on how much they (his family) should be practicing as a Muslim," said Heft.

"His son was becoming overzealous and intolerant in his understanding of the religion," he said. "Those are the telltale signs that can lead into the radicalization process."

The investigation surrounding the planned attack was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Canadian police said the men never got close to carrying out the attack.

The warning first came from an imam in Toronto, who in turn was tipped off by suspicious behavior on the part of one of the suspect.

___

Associated Press writers Benjamin Shingler in Montreal, Tom Hays and Jennifer Peltz in New York, Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Brian Murphy in the United Arab Emirates contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suspect-canada-terror-plot-denies-charges-220238197.html

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Hearing resumes Tuesday for Miss. ricin suspect

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) ? The third day of a hearing for the Mississippi man accused of mailing poisoned letters to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a local judge was expected to include testimony on his mental state.

Christi McCoy, defense attorney for Paul Kevin Curtis, has said there is no physical evidence connecting Curtis to the mailings and that he may have been framed.

For Tuesday's hearing, McCoy said she expects testimony from David Daniels, a Tupelo, Miss., attorney who says Curtis threatened him after a rehearsal for an Elvis impersonators' show Daniels helped organize in 2002. Also, a law enforcement official was expected to testify about Curtis' suicide attempt in Chicago in 1991.

On Monday, FBI Agent Brandon Grant testified that Friday searches of Curtis' vehicle and house in Corinth, Miss., found no ricin, ingredients for the poison, or devices used to make it. A search of Curtis' computers found no evidence he researched making ricin.

"There was no apparent ricin, castor beans or any material there that could be used for the manufacturing, like a blender or something," Grant testified. He speculated that Curtis could have thrown away the processor. Grant said technicians are now doing a "deep dive" on the suspect's computers after initially finding no "dirty words" indicating Curtis had searched for information on ricin.

Through his lawyer, Curtis has denied involvement in letters sent to Obama, Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, and a Lee County, Miss., judge. The first of the letters was found April 15.

"The searches are concluded, not one single shred of evidence was found to indicate Kevin could have done this," McCoy told reporters after the hearing.

U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Allan Alexander ended the hearing after lunch Monday, citing a personal schedule conflict. After the hearing concluded, McCoy questioned why Curtis would have signed the letters "I am KC and I approve this message," a phrase he had used on his Facebook page.

McCoy said in court that someone may have framed Curtis, suggesting that a former business associate of Curtis' brother, a man with whom Curtis had an extended exchange of angry emails, may have set him up.

Still, Grant testified that authorities believe they have the right suspect.

"Given the right mindset and the Internet and the acquisition of material, other people could be involved. However, given information right now, we believe we have the right individual," he said.

Grant said lab analysis shows the poison is a crude form that could have been created by grinding castor beans in a food processor or coffee grinder.

The detention and preliminary hearing began Friday in U.S. District Court in Oxford, Miss. More witnesses besides Grant were expected Tuesday.

Federal investigators believe the letters were mailed by Curtis, an Elvis impersonator who family members say suffers from bipolar disorder.

Grant testified Monday that processing codes printed on the letter indicated they had been mailed from Tupelo, Miss., and that investigators were still trying to figure out from the codes exactly where they had been mailed from.

Grant testified Friday that authorities tried to track down the sender of the letters by using a list of Wicker's constituents with the initials KC, the same initials in the letters. Grant said the list was whittled from thousands to about 100 when investigators isolated the ones who lived in an area that would have a Memphis, Tenn., postmark, which includes many places in north Mississippi. He said Wicker's staff recognized Curtis as someone who had written the senator before.

All the envelopes and stamps were self-adhesive, Grant said Monday, meaning they won't yield DNA evidence. He said thus far the envelopes and letters haven't yielded any fingerprints.

McCoy said the evidence linking the 45-year-old to the crime has hinged on his writings posted online, which were accessible to anyone.

___

Follow Jeff Amy at http://twitter.com/jeffamy .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hearing-resumes-tuesday-miss-ricin-suspect-082139686.html

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Japan PM Abe's war shrine offering likely to infuriate China

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a ritual offering of a pine tree to a shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's former militarism on Sunday, a gesture likely to upset Asian victims of Japan's war-time aggression, including China and South Korea.

Abe, an outspoken nationalist, offered the tree to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honored along with other war dead. Abe did not visit the shrine.

Abe, who became prime minister for a second time after his Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) election win in December, is unlikely to visit the shrine as he seeks to rebuild relationships with China and South Korea.

Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply in September after Japan bought islets in the East China Sea claimed by Beijing, sparking anti-Japanese protests across China.

Ties have been shadowed for years by what Beijing says has been Tokyo's refusal to admit to wartime atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in the country between 1931 and 1945. Memories of brutal Japanese occupation also run deep in North and South Korea.

Two Japanese ministers and deputy chief cabinet secretary visited the shrine this weekend, as did Abe as main opposition party leader in October.

"It is natural for a lawmaker to offer condolences for the spirits of those who gave their lives for the country," said Keiji Furuya, minister in charge of the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals, who visited on Sunday, as did Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato.

Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Yoshitaka Shindo visited on Saturday.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-pm-abes-war-shrine-offering-likely-infuriate-065500427.html

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Police Officer Replaces Girl's Stolen Bike, Becomes Facebook Hero

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/police-officer-replaces-girls-stolen-bike-becomes-facebook-hero/

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Prince Harry to join expedition to the South Pole

LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Harry, Britain's third in line to the throne, will take part in a race to the South Pole alongside wounded British servicemen and women, he announced on Friday.

The 208-mile (335-km) trek to the South Pole will see Britain's Royal compete against teams from the United States and Commonwealth countries.

"As a member of the British team, I will have a brew (tea) on ready for you when you join us at the Pole," he said in a speech, referring to participants from other countries.

Harry took part in a 2011 expedition to the North Pole organized by the same charity. Describing qualities he said he admired in his fellow participants, he said: "Physical strength, endurance, a sense of comradeship, absolutely.

"But there's something else, something deeper than that. Something that continues to draw me back to this charity and these people time and again - and always will."

(Reporting By Costas Pitas; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prince-harry-join-expedition-south-pole-165200942.html

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Justin Bieber and will.i.am Release Music Video for "#thatPOWER"

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/justin-bieber-and-william-release-music-video-for-number-thatpow/

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Suspicious letter mailed to Obama

The U.S. Secret Service has intercepted a letter addressed to President Barack Obama that contained a "suspicious substance."

A law enforcement official said the letter is very similar to one recently mailed to Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker. That letter tested positive Tuesday for poisonous ricin.

The official requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The letters were received at separate facilities that sort mail addressed to the White House and Capitol Hill. The mail facilities are not located on the main White House and Capitol Hill complexes.

Word of the suspicious letters comes amid already heightened tensions in Washington and across the country since the deadly bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170. Law enforcement officials haven't said whether they believe the letters are related in any way to the Boston bombings.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the letter to Obama was intercepted Tuesday, the same day congressional officials alerted the public to the letter sent to Wicker. Secret Service is working with the FBI, as well as U.S. Capitol Police, on the investigation, Donovan said.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/secret-suspicious-letter-mailed-obama-155033256.html

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Super voice gone: Pat Summerall dead at 82

DALLAS (AP) ? Pat Summerall, the NFL player-turned-broadcaster whose deep, resonant voice called games for more than 40 years, has died at the age of 82.

Fox Sports spokesman Dan Bell said Tuesday that Summerall had died. He could not immediately provide further details.

Summerall was part of network television broadcasts for 16 Super Bowls. His last championship game was for Fox on Feb. 3, 2002, also his last game with longtime partner John Madden. The popular duo worked together for 21 years, moving to Fox in 1994 after years as the lead team for CBS.

Summerall played 10 NFL seasons (1952-61) with the Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants. He started doing NFL games for CBS in 1964. He also covered the PGA Tour and tennis.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/super-voice-gone-pat-summerall-dead-82-212442124.html

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Google details Glass specifications - bone conduction audio, 12GB usable storage, full day of 'typical use' battery life

Full device specs round out an evening of Google Glass news

We've seen that Google is getting ready to ship out Google Glass Explorer units, the developer preview of the Mirror API, and the Android companion app already this evening, and now it's time for the device specs. Google has released the tech specs of Google Glass, and it should answer some of the questions folks have. 

• Fit: Adjustable nosepads and durable frame fits any face. Extra nosepads in two sizes.
• Display: High resolution display is the equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away.
• Camera: Photos - 5 MP; Videos - 720p
• Audio: Bone Conduction Transducer
• Connectivity: Wifi - 802.11b/g; Bluetooth
• Storage: 12 GB of usable memory, synced with Google cloud storage. 16 GB Flash total.
• Battery: One full day of typical use. Some features, like Hangouts and video recording, are more battery intensive.
• Charger: Included Micro USB cable and charger. While there are thousands of Micro USB chargers out there, Glass is designed and tested with the included charger in mind. Use it and preserve long and prosperous Glass use.
• Compatibility: Any Bluetooth-capable phone. The MyGlass companion app requires Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher. MyGlass enables GPS and SMS messaging.

We're not really worried about things like CPUs and GPUs, or on-board RAM, and it looks like they have covered what's going to be important. The all day battery life is almost a must have with any wearable computer, so we hope that rings true. Also worth noting that Any phone with Bluetooth is said to be compatible. We'll soon know more about both I imagine.

Source: Google

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/NH6en8re7Ok/story01.htm

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EU officials seek more private investment in jobs

DUBLIN (AP) ? With many of the European Union's economies mired in stagnation, EU officials are seeking to emulate part of the U.S. model for creating growth and jobs by fostering more private investment in businesses.

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Saturday that in the United States banks account for only 25 percent of external financing for businesses. In Europe, he said, the proportion is the opposite ? 70 to 75 percent of business financing comes from banks. He spoke at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of EU finance ministers in Dublin.

"There was a shared view that we must begin to take tangible action to assist in developing a more balanced financial system in which banks, institutional investors and public authorities all play a role in supporting long-term investment in growth and jobs," Noonan said.

This is important, he said, as many small and medium-sized businesses in the EU lack access to capital. Because Ireland currently holds the EU's rotating six-month presidency, Noonan chaired the meeting.

In January, unemployment across the 17 EU countries that use the euro hit a record 11.9 percent, with nearly 19 million people out of work. The unemployment rate for young people was 24.2 percent. And the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, predicts the unemployment rate will rise further this year.

The finance ministers also agreed to push for completion of a banking union that would create a single set of rules for banks in the union, a single supervisory mechanism and uniform procedures for winding down banks that fail. And they renewed their pledge to work together to fight tax evasion ? a practice they said many people found particularly galling at a time when government cutbacks and tax increases are wreaking havoc with their personal finances.

___

Don Melvin can be reached at https://twitter.com/Don_Melvin

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-officials-seek-more-private-investment-jobs-130013244--finance.html

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Analysts Downplay US Report on N. Korean Missiles (Voice Of America)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/298507055?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Teacher who assigned essay on why Jews were evil faces discipline

By Holly McKenna

ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - A New York state high school English teacher who asked students to imagine they were Nazis and give reasons why Jews were evil could be reprimanded or dismissed, a school district superintendent said on Friday.

City School District of Albany Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard apologized at a news conference and pledged officials would personally express regret to Albany High School students who were given the assignment and their families.

"This assignment for some of our students at Albany High School was completely unacceptable. It displayed a level of insensitivity that we will not tolerate in our school community," Vanden Wyngaard said.

"I'm deeply apologetic to all of our students, to all of our families and the entire community," she said, appearing with representatives of the Anti-Defamation League and the United Jewish Federation (UJF) of Northeastern New York at the UJF office in Albany.

The teacher, who Vanden Wyngaard declined to name, was removed from class for now and faced disciplinary action.

"It can go anywhere from a letter of counsel, to a letter of reprimand, all the way through to termination. There is a broad spectrum," Vanden Wyngaard said.

A letter would go out to all families in the school district, she said.

Vanden Wyngaard first issued an apology through the Times Union on Thursday night after the newspaper reported the assignment on its website. She responded with "absolute horror" when a parent presented her with the assignment on Thursday.

The teacher gave three classes of 10th grade students a persuasive writing assignment as part of a class project to demonstrate how Nazis thought and showed their loyalty to the Third Reich before World War Two.

"You need to pretend that I am a member of the government in Nazi Germany, and you are being challenged to consider that you are loyal to the Nazis by writing an essay convincing me that Jews are evil and the source of our problems," the assignment instructions said.

One-third of the students refused to complete the task, which was assigned following a class review of Nazi propaganda and directed them to imagine that their teacher was a Nazi official, said Ron Lesko, a spokesman for the district.

Students were asked for an introduction, conclusion and a list of arguments and were advised, "Please remember your life (here in Nazi Germany in the 30s) depends on it!"

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Alden Bentley)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/teacher-assigned-essay-why-jews-were-evil-faces-205106337.html

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BTG vein treatment on track for potential 2014 launch

BERLIN, April 11 (Reuters) - Bayern Munich have received more than 200,000 ticket requests for their Champions League semi-final game in Munich, thousands of which were made before they advanced against Juventus, the club said on Thursday. "We have been updating the figure constantly and at the moment it stands at 200,000 ticket requests for the semi-final home leg," a Bayern Munich official told Reuters. Bayern's stadium fits only 69,000 and that includes the 39,500 ticket holders and any fans travelling with their opponents. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/btg-vein-treatment-track-potential-2014-launch-073853485--finance.html

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Despite what you may think, your brain is a mathematical genius: How visual system automatically adapts to new environments

Apr. 10, 2013 ? The irony of getting away to a remote place is you usually have to fight traffic to get there. After hours of dodging dangerous drivers, you finally arrive at that quiet mountain retreat, stare at the gentle waters of a pristine lake, and congratulate your tired self on having "turned off your brain."

"Actually, you've just given your brain a whole new challenge," says Thomas D. Albright, director of the Vision Center Laboratory at of the Salk Institute and an expert on how the visual system works. "You may think you're resting, but your brain is automatically assessing the spatio-temporal properties of this novel environment-what objects are in it, are they moving, and if so, how fast are they moving?

The dilemma is that our brains can only dedicate so many neurons to this assessment, says Sergei Gepshtein, a staff scientist in Salk's Vision Center Laboratory. "It's a problem in economy of resources: If the visual system has limited resources, how can it use them most efficiently?"

Albright, Gepshtein and Luis A. Lesmes, a specialist in measuring human performance, a former Salk Institute post-doctoral researcher, now at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, proposed an answer to the question in a recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It may reconcile the puzzling contradictions in many previous studies.

Previously, scientists expected that extended exposure to a novel environment would make you better at detecting its subtle details, such as the slow motion of waves on that lake. Yet those who tried to confirm that idea were surprised when their experiments produced contradictory results. "Sometimes people got better at detecting a stimulus, sometimes they got worse, sometimes there was no effect at all, and sometimes people got better, but not for the expected stimulus," says Albright, holder of Salk's Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research.

The answer, according to Gepshtein, came from asking a new question: What happens when you look at the problem of resource allocation from a system's perspective?

It turns out something's got to give.

"It's as if the brain's on a budget; if it devotes 70 percent here, then it can only devote 30 percent there," says Gepshtein. "When the adaptation happens, if now you're attuned to high speeds, you'll be able to see faster moving things that you couldn't see before, but as a result of allocating resources to that stimulus, you lose sensitivity to other things, which may or may not be familiar."

Summing up, Albright says, "Simply put, it's a tradeoff: The price of getting better at one thing is getting worse at another."

Gepshtein, a computational neuroscientist, analyzes the brain from a theoretician's point of view, and the PNAS paper details the computations the visual system uses to accomplish the adaptation. The computations are similar to the method of signal processing known as Gabor transform, which is used to extract features in both the spatial and temporal domains.

Yes, while you may struggle to balance your checkbook, it turns out your brain is using operations it took a Nobel Laureate to describe. Dennis Gabor won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention and development of holography. But that wasn't his only accomplishment. Like his contemporary Claude Shannon, he worked on some of the most fundamental questions in communications theory, such as how a great deal of information can be compressed into narrow channels.

"Gabor proved that measurements of two fundamental properties of a signal-its location and frequency content-are not independent of one another," says Gepshtein.

The location of a signal is simply that: where is the signal at what point in time. The content-the "what" of a signal-is "written" in the language of frequencies and is a measurement of the amount of variation, such as the different shades of gray in a photograph.

The challenge comes when you're trying to measure both location and frequency, because location is more accurately determined in a short time window, while variation needs a longer time window (imagine how much more accurately you can guess a song the longer it plays).

The obvious answer is that you're stuck with a compromise: You can get a precise measurement of one or the other, but not both. But how can you be sure you've come up with the best possible compromise? Gabor's answer was what's become known as a "Gabor Filter" that helps obtain the most precise measurements possible for both qualities. Our brains employ a similar strategy, says Gepshtein.

"In human vision, stimuli are first encoded by neural cells whose response characteristics, called receptive fields, have different sizes," he explains. "The neural cells that have larger receptive fields are sensitive to lower spatial frequencies than the cells that have smaller receptive fields. For this reason, the operations performed by biological vision can be described by a Gabor wavelet transform."

In essence, the first stages of the visual process act like a filter. "It describes which stimuli get in, and which do not," Gepshtein says. "When you change the environment, the filter changes, so certain stimuli, which were invisible before, become visible, but because you moved the filter, other stimuli, which you may have detected before, no longer get in."

"When you see only small parts of this filter, you find that visual sensitivity sometimes gets better and sometimes worse, creating an apparently paradoxical picture," Gepshtein continues. "But when you see the entire filter, you discover that the pieces -- the gains and losses -- add up to a coherent pattern."

From a psychological point of view, according to Albright, what makes this especially intriguing is that the assessing and adapting is happening automatically-all of this processing happens whether or not you consciously 'pay attention' to the change in scene.

Yet, while the adaptation happens automatically, it does not appear to happen instantaneously. Their current experiments take approximately thirty minutes to conduct, but the scientists believe the adaption may take less time in nature.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

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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/~3/WHEgepJx_MY/130411075347.htm

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Paris exhibit asks: Was there an Italian Monet?

PARIS (AP) ? Years before Impressionism ? the influential Paris-based art movement ? began, a similar style of painting capturing colorful impressions of light may have existed in Italy, according to a new exhibit.

The show at Paris' Orangery museum displays works from 1860s Florence with vivid, dappled light ? in a strikingly similar way to famed painters like Claude Monet from the 1870s.

The movement was called "Macchiaioli," after the Italian for "stain," to evoke splashes of light in the painting.

"It's practically unknown around the world, but like the Impressionists they used the bright light of open air, contrasting shadows, and they wished to rebel against academic painting by going out and in the open air," said curator Beatrice Avanzi.

"The Macchiaioli: the Italian Impressionists?" show runs Wednesday through July 22.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paris-exhibit-asks-italian-monet-184504977.html

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Roche to use Isis's technology to develop brain disorder drug

(Reuters) - Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc said it will form an alliance with Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG to develop treatments for Huntington's disease, a genetic brain disorder, based on the U.S. company's technology.

Roche will pay Isis $30 million upfront and up to $362 million in licensing and milestone payments. Isis will also receive tiered royalties on sales of any commercial drugs that result from the partnership.

Development will initially focus on Isis's lead drug candidate that blocks the production of all forms of the Huntingtin protein, responsible for the disorder.

Huntington's disease results in the progressive loss of both mental and physical abilities, with symptoms usually appearing between the ages of 30 and 50.

Isis will be responsible for the discovery and development of any drug that uses the company's antisense technology, a mechanism that works by inhibiting a cell's production of the disease-causing protein.

About 1 in every 10,000 people in the United States suffer from the disorder, according to Huntington's Disease Society of America.

Roche has the option to license the drugs from Isis through the completion of the first early stage trial.

The companies will also collaborate on the development of a drug utilizing Roche's "brain shuttle" program, which seeks to improve penetration of antisense drugs.

"We believe our mature antisense drug discovery platform is a perfect fit for Roche's neuroscience franchise, and we anticipate a fruitful collaboration to advance our pre-clinical compounds," Frank Bennett, senior vice president of research at Isis, said in a statement.

Isis shares were up 1 percent at $17.58 in morning trade on the Nasdaq on Monday.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/roche-isiss-technology-develop-brain-disorder-drug-150512103--finance.html

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Scientists find possible hint of dark matter

This undated file image provided by the European Space Agency ESA on Wednesday April 3, 2013 shows the International Space Station in the sunlight. A $2 billion cosmic ray detector on the International Space Station has found the footprint of something that could be dark matter, the mysterious substance that is believed to hold the cosmos together but has never been directly observed, scientists say. But the first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, known by its acronym AMS, are almost as enigmatic as dark matter itself. They show evidence of new physics phenomena that could be the strange and unknown dark matter or could be energy that originates from pulsars, scientists at the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva announced Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/NASA/European Space Agency ESA. Keystone)

This undated file image provided by the European Space Agency ESA on Wednesday April 3, 2013 shows the International Space Station in the sunlight. A $2 billion cosmic ray detector on the International Space Station has found the footprint of something that could be dark matter, the mysterious substance that is believed to hold the cosmos together but has never been directly observed, scientists say. But the first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, known by its acronym AMS, are almost as enigmatic as dark matter itself. They show evidence of new physics phenomena that could be the strange and unknown dark matter or could be energy that originates from pulsars, scientists at the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva announced Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/NASA/European Space Agency ESA. Keystone)

FILE - In this July 25, 2012 file picture Director general of CERN Rolf-Dieter Heuer, left, Nobel laureate and AMS spokesperson Samuel C.C. Ting, right, and Mark Kelly, NASA astronaut and commander of mission STS-134, center, brief the media at the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) Payload Operations and Command Center (POCC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva, Switzerland. A US $2 billion experiment on the International Space Station is on the verge of explaining one of the more mysterious building blocks of the universe: The dark matter that helps hold the cosmos together. An international team of scientists says the cosmic ray detector has found the first hint of dark matter, which has never yet been directly observed. The team said Wednesday its first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, flown into space two years ago, show evidence of a new physics phenomena that could be the strange and unknown matter. Nobel-winning physicist Samuel Ting, who leads the team at the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, says he expects a more conclusive answer within months. The findings are based on an excess of positrons positively charged subatomic particles. (AP Photo/Keystone/Martial Trezzini,File)

FILE -In this undated picture made available by NASA, a technician examines the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.. The cosmic ray detector was mounted on the International Space Station, searched the universe and shall help to explain how everything came to be. CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research, released first results of the experiment Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/NASA, Glenn Benson)

FILE - This undated image shows an artist's concept of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, rounded module at left, installed on the International Space Station provided by NASA. The cosmic ray detector searched the universe and shall help to explain how everything came to be. CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research, released first results of the experiment Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/NASA)

GENEVA (AP) ? It is one of the cosmos' most mysterious unsolved cases: dark matter. It is supposedly what holds the universe together. We can't see it, but scientists are pretty sure it's out there.

Led by a dogged, Nobel Prize-winning gumshoe who has spent 18 years on the case, scientists put a $2 billion detector aboard the International Space Station to try to track down the stuff. And after two years, the first evidence came in Wednesday: tantalizing cosmic footprints that seem to have been left by dark matter.

But the evidence isn't enough to declare the case closed. The footprints could have come from another, more conventional suspect: a pulsar, or a rotating, radiation-emitting star.

The Sam Spade in the investigation, physicist and Nobel laureate Sam Ting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he expects a more definitive answer in a matter of months. He confidently promised: "There is no question we're going to solve this problem."

"It's a tantalizing hint," said California Institute of Technology physicist Sean Carroll, who was not part of the team. "It's a sign of something." But he can't quite say what that something is. It doesn't eliminate the other suspect, pulsars, he added.

The results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, are significant because dark matter is thought to make up about a quarter of all the matter in the universe.

"We live in a sea of dark matter," said Michael Salamon, who runs the AMS program for the U.S. Energy Department. Unraveling the mystery of dark matter could help scientists better understand the composition of our universe and, more particularly, what holds galaxies together.

Ting announced the findings in Geneva at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the particle physics laboratory known as CERN.

The 7-ton detector with a 3-foot magnet ring at its core was sent into space in 2011 in a shuttle mission commanded by astronaut Mark Kelly while his wife, then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. The device is transmitting its data to CERN, where it is being analyzed.

For 80 years scientists have theorized the existence of dark matter but have never actually observed it directly. They have looked for it in accelerators that smash particles together at high speed. No luck. They've looked deep underground with special detectors. Again no luck.

Then there's a third way: looking in space for the results of rare dark matter collisions. If particles of dark matter crash and annihilate each other, they should leave a footprint of positrons ? the anti-matter version of electrons ? at high energy levels. That's what Ting and AMS are looking for.

They found some. But they could also be signs of pulsars, Ting and others concede. What's key is the curve of the plot of those positrons. If the curve is one shape, it points to dark matter. If it's another, it points to pulsars. Ting said they should know the curve ? and the suspect ? soon.

The instrument will be measuring cosmic rays, where the footprints are found, until 2020 or so.

Other scientists praised the results and looked forward to more.

"This is an 80-year-old detective story and we are getting close to the end," said University of Chicago physicist Michael Turner, one of the giants in the field of dark matter. "This is a tantalizing clue and further results from AMS could finish the story."

___

Borenstein reported from Washington.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer: http://www.ams02.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-04-03-Switzerland-Cosmic%20Rays/id-e003bd4281dd4ec4bf59de404a5cddbb

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